If your computer is configured with a SATA disk drive you have the ability to tweak the performance of the hard drive.  This can easily be done by enhancing write caching. Of course for stability and to prevent the loss of critical information please note your computer should be connected to a battery backup in case you have a power loss. Of course this is ideal for a laptop configuration since your laptop battery is a form of battery backup.

This option makes Windows Vista bypass the cache which in turn changes the functionality to where the operating system reads and writes directly to your hard drive. This is a buffer to protect your hard drive from sudden losses of power that might corrupt or lose data. This is why it is best to only enable this option for systems with a battery backup.
To perform the following performance enhancement please follow the instructions below:

1. Browse to the Device Manager

2. Select and expand the “Disk Drives”

3. Right click on SATA hard drive and select Properties

4. Choose the “Policies” tab and check “Enable advanced performance”
 
5. Select OK and close Device Manager

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Does anyone else find it hard to pick up work after vacationing? Having completed a weeks worth of vacation I am back to the grind….well….sort of.

I am using this day to read up on new stories and technologies for new content on the site. Please bare with me while I compose myself and get my head out of the vacation cloud. Of course this is not easily done…

As you can see from the last post we are now taking posted questions to better serve our users. As well I would like to add if there is a new technology or concern you would like for me to address please post a comment to this blog. I would be happy to research and address topics for our users.

After all….It is you the end user for which we create the content.

The page file is used by the Windows operating system to store random information. This file is used by Windows when there is not enough room in RAM to store this information.

If you use more than one hard drive there is an option you can use to tweak the performance of the page file. This option does not really improve performance in a two partition scenario but must be used with a secondary drive as you can move the paging file to the secondary drive leaving you c: drive free to perform other actions.

First check to make sure you have a secondary drive. You must first log in with an administrator account.

1. Click Start, Run (just Start in Vista)

2. type diskmgmt.msc, and press <Enter> to open the Disk Management utility (click Continue in the User Account Control, if prompted).

The bottom pane shows each disk installed on your system and the corresponding drive letter. When considering which drive to use choose the fastest drive to store the page file on.

Note: Internal drives are faster than an external drive in most cases.

3. Right click “My Computer” and choose properties

4. ON the system properties page choose the “Advanced” tab

5. Under performance choose the settings option and then the advanced tab on the subsequent window

6. Under Virtual Memory click Change. In Vista, deselect Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.

7. In the drive list select a partition on a different drive where you want to add another paging file

8. Select Custom size if you would like to set the size yourself and type in the initial and maximum size (Microsoft says making them the same amount is most efficient configuration)

Note: If the partition you select contains another installation of Windows you will receive an error message warning that the file pagefile.sys already exists. If the two operating systems are not running at the same time through virtualization then it is safe to overwrite pagefile.sys.

You should receive a notification upon completion that the settings will not take effect until you perform a restart.

Now that Vista has been released many people have implemented it’s use. Many users have found out that their PC does not run as crisp with this operating system. If you have implemented Vista on your PC with only the minimum system requirements you have seen how sluggish it can be. I thought I would put together a list of perfomance enhancing tweaks for users in this particular situation.
 

Disable User Access Control (UAC)

This feature protects your PC from malware infection by prompting you with a manual confirmation prompt anytime a program or even you attempt to alter or use features which can alter system critical information. This feature can be very annoying.

To disable User Access Control:

-Click Start then Control Panel
-Select User Accounts
-Select Turn User Account Control on or off
-Un-check User Account Control Box
-Restart as recommended

 Turn off Windows Search Indexing

Vista search indexing constantly reviews files on your PC to make their contents available for quick searching. This is a nice feature, but it can impact system performance.

To disable this constant indexing:

-Click Start then Computer
-Right Click the C: Drive
-On General Tab, Un-check Index this drive for faster searching
-On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include sub-folders and files

 Turn off ScheduledDisk Defragmentation

Vista and comes configured with hard drive defragmentation automatically scheduled. You must remember to run defrag manually.

To disable scheduled defragmentation:

-Click Start then all programs
-Select accessories and then system tools
-Select defragmentation
-Uncheck “Run on a schedule”

 Turn off Windows Hibernation

Windows hibernation background services use a large amount of system resources and hard drive space. This feature as well in previous versions has caused many blue screens and protection errors.

To disable Hibernation:

-Select the Control Panel then Power Options
-Click Change Plan Settings
-Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
-Expand the Sleep selection
-Expand the Hibernate After selection
-Move the selector down to zero
-Click Apply

 Turn off System Restore

Disabling this service will prevent the system restore option from working. In the event of a system crash You will be unable to use system restore.

Disabling System Restore: 

-Control Panel>System
-Click System Protection on the left panel
-Un-check the main system drive
-Agree to the confirmation

 Turn off Remote Differential Compression

Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth.

To disable these services:

-Open Control Panel
-Switch to Classic View
-Select Program Features
-Choose Turn Windows features on and off
-Scroll down and un-check Remote Differential Compression

 Disable Windows Services that Auto-Launch

Vista is configured with many services enabled that load at startup and may never be used.
(these can be re-started manually by reversing the process; please document any changes you make)

Disabling Services:

-Click Start then Control Panel
-Select Administrative Tools
-Choose System Configuration
-Click the Services Tab
-You can safely disable:
      Offline Files (unless you’re using Offline File Sync)
      Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
      Terminal Services
      Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
      Fax (unless you’re using a fax modem)

 Disable Extra Windows Features

Vista ships with many other features that are listed separately from the startup services.
You can review and disable these features by following the instructions below:

-Clicking Start then Control Panel
-Select Program Features
-On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
-You can safely un-check the following:

Note: Please document any changes made in case you need to reverse the changes made.

      Indexing Service
      Remote Differential Compression
      Tablet PC Optional Components
      Windows DFS Replication Service
      Windows Fax & Scan (Do not disable if you use a modem for faxing)
      Windows Meeting Space (Do not disable if you use the Live Meeting Service)

Implementing Ready Boost

 Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to implement Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache). There are many requirements for the devices which want to use this feature. Microsoft is working with manufacturers to label devices which are compatible with this feature. When purchasing such devices you will need to look for the Windows Ready Boost label.

To configure a USB device:

-Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
-Click Start then Computer
-Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
-Select the Ready Boost Tab
-Choose Use this device