Speeding Vista

Note: Only tweak your Windows registry if you know what you are doing. A simple mistake while tweaking it can render your OS useless. So backup your registry and be careful.
1.Restrict number of start up programs Ones you can start manually ,click internet defense manually before going on internet a pick ones you decide to start up like yahoo messenger add on ones etc. Run strong utilities like win Patrol, tune up Utilities as a rule of thumb..

2. Disable services which one may not require. For example, if your pc is a stand-alone one, there may be several services which you can disable or switch over to manual mode. Auto-starting and closing down of services takes time & resources. These can be saved. Black Viper's Vista Service Configurations is an excellent guide to follow.

3. Reducing visual effects (eye candy). Right-click on "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced > Performance-Settings > Visual Effects > Adjust for best performance > Apply > OK.
To allow the themes and the glass effects, you may have to check on the boxes: enable transparent glass and use visual styles; this way at least the spirit of Vista will be preserved- else be prepared for a really bland Vista! Use your discretion as disabling all can actually negate the purpose of 'eye-friendly' Vista.

4. Ensure that boot defragmentation is enabled, so that files used during start-up are clubbed together.
Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction . Select Enable from the list on the right.
Right Click on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. Reboot.

5. Disable: "clear page file on shutdown" option. Cleaning the page-file on every shutdown means overwriting the data by zeros, and it takes time.
To clear/not clear page file you can apply this reg tweak. Back up registry before trying this.
Start->run->regedit [enter]
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
Modify (if not present, rt click in open space and create) the Value Data Type/s and Value Name/s :
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value]
Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Clear Page File Disabled / 1 = Clear Page File Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot.

6. Defragment your System Disk & Fine Tune your Registry. If you find the Vista's in-built defragger slow, you can try SysInternals Power Defragmenter which works on Vista too! Use the freeware CCleaner to clear up your PC Junk and clean up the Registry. Compacting the Registry occasionally is a good idea too!

7. Prefetch. Generally people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory once in a while. But Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. Using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster.
8. Bios. Go to BIOS settings, by pressing del or F10 key during boot-up, and disable 'seek floppy drive' option. This saves time for those who do not use floppy drives. There are also some BIOS hacks like Enabling Quick Post, Disabling Boot Daly, etc but best to refrain from these.

9. Change Boot-Order Sequence: Normally, the bios is set to boot from floppy first, then CD and then Hard Disk. Changing the Boot-Order to be: Hard Disk first, then maybe CD/Floppy, could possibly "save" a second.

10. Disable windows startup/shutdown/logon/logoff sounds. Go to control panel, sounds & audio devices, sound tab, in program events select 'no sound' for these events.

11. Disable the ScreenSaver if you dont need it. Right-Click desktop>ScreenSaver>None>OK.

12. Fonts take time to load. Removing some can save on resources. But one must be careful in deciding which fonts to remove. If you delete some system fonts, you may be in for trouble. Tweak VI Pro is a good shareware to manage fonts. It uninstalls fonts without physically removing them. Open its help file. It lists down the system fonts which must not be deleted ! use the list; and then decide what to delete and what to keep.

13. Shutdown. To REALLY reduce your shutdown time.
Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify. The default value is 12000.
Setting it to a lower 4 digit value,( say 1000) will make your PC shutdown faster, but you could end up losing data, so use this tweak judiciously.

14. Get rid of all the extra programs Windows Vista installs. You may not be using some like WLM, Calculator, Games, Meeting Space, Fax, etc. Go To Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features > Turn windows On or Off and do the needful.

15. Control.Go To Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Performance Information and Tools. On the LHS you will see options to Adjust Indexing options, visual effects, power Settings, etc. These all help directly and indirectly.

Do remember that your Vista-based machine will tend to run a little faster, after the first few weeks after it's installed, thanks to its new feature called "SuperFetch" ; which basically studies the programs that use a lot and remembers them and puts the data into memory. Always run strong anti virus ,anti spyware and anti spam .Delete those temp files daily and go 100 miles faster.......

Xp Over Vista

Not comfortable with Windows Vista? Long for XP again? Here are a few simple steps to bring back the glory of XP.

You've bought a new PC with Windows Vista installed. Or you've upgraded to a version of Vista from your XP installation. After a few days of getting used to the new and improved operating system in all its glory, you find you hate it. You long to return to the good, old and reliable Windows XP.
Here's how to do it in a few simple steps.
What you're about to do is a one-way solution. You can also consider creating a dual-boot configuration, which allows users to pick a bootable choice of both operating systems (XP and Vista) to be installed on the same machine at the same time. That option is somewhat too complicated.
So, let's start expunging Vista and bringing XP back, with as little screaming as possible. Bear in mind that the FIRST thing to do is to back up all your important data to a safe (and separate) location, such as an external USB drive or multiple DVDs. In any case, backup should be a monthly routine, anyway.
Once you're sure you've backed up everything you wanted to keep, start reversing your PC to XP.
Removing Vista can be tricky, given the secure nature of the operating system and how it interacts with the computer's hardware. Thankfully, the basic task of removing Vista is fairly easy, if you perform each step in the proper order.
Step 1: Have your original bootable CD copy of Windows XP on hand, along with the ever-important Windows product key. Along with these two items, have a CD with all the latest hardware drivers (sound, video card, etc.) on it, to ensure a smooth install of XP once Vista is gone. For those that are missing, go find them in the tech support section of the their maker's website and download them to a safe place off the machine you are about to work with. Ensure you download and burn to CD all the drivers you will need, just in case the new XP installation calls for it during the operation.
Step 2: Have a bootable CD or floppy disk handy, to allow you to clean off your PC's hard drive and install a fresh copy of Windows XP. If you do not have such a disk, you can create one fairly easily by following the very concise instructions at Allbootdisks.com.
You can also find the ISO data (an exact image of a CD) needed to create such a bootable CD at sites like The Ultimate Boot CD. Their UBCD is available for download completely free of charge and is packed with utilities for diagnostics and repair of stubborn PC boot issues. It is an excellent tool to have handy when things go wrong.
Step 3: Create a bootable CD from the ISO. Programs like Nero Burning ROM can also create a bootable CD from ISO images from sites similar to the UBCD. Once it is burned, you can boot your PC with the CD (see Step 5 to come) and so bypass the Vista OS before it starts up. Note that you should test out your newly-minted bootable CD beforehand, just to make sure there were no burn errors. You can do this anytime before Step 7. Also, you can add additional programs to the bootable CD; see Step 11 for some examples.
Step 4: Ensure you absolutely, positively have all of your important data backed up. Search your hard drive for anything you want saved, as the disk will be totally erased during the install procedure. All the data stored on it will be lost, irrecoverable.
Step 5: Reboot your computer and get into the BIOS settings, which are the basic setup settings for the PC. They exist separately from the operating system. Here; you will be able to instruct your PC to boot from the Windows XP CD first, before looking at the already-installed Vista operating system on the hard drive.
Most computers will display a BIOS option at every startup — look for messages like "Press F1 to enter setup" or "Hit DEL for BIOS" when you reboot your computer, before Vista starts up. Not every PC manufacturer does it the same way, so be quick when you look, as the boot messages do not wait around for long on-screen.
Step 6: Once you have accessed your computer's BIOS, look for "Boot Options" among the various settings. BE CAREFUL — messing up your BIOS can render your PC unbootable, so if you are not sure if you set something correctly, use the "Exit without saving" option and try it again. Once you have carefully found the Boot Order, have a look at the order of the devices listed. Boot Order will allow you to choose which device the PC will boot from first: floppy drive, CD/DVD-ROM, hard drive or other devices (such as USB keys). Make sure to select the CD/DVD-ROM drive to boot BEFORE the hard drive, so that your bootable CD will load before Vista gets a chance.
Save the BIOS settings, ensure the Windows XP CD is in the drive, and reboot. Your PC should now boot from the Windows XP CD, and allow you to run the disk management utility.
Step 7: If the Boot Order in the BIOS was set properly, Windows XP will now boot to its basic blue Setup menu, with several options. Choose the "Repair An Existing Installation" option — this will allow you to modify the way the current installation of Vista boots, which is important.
Step 8: Now, a command prompt will appear. Type in "fixboot c:\" (without the quotes) and hit Enter. This command will write a new startup sector on the system partition of the disk. This command creates a space on the drive where XP can write its own files, as opposed to the type of sector that Vista has installed so it could read its own files. This is important, as XP needs to be able to "see" the hard drive properly on startup to install itself, taking control away from Vista.
Step 9: Next, type "fixmbr c:\" and hit Enter. This command repairs the startup partition's master boot code. This code is on the very first sector of the hard drive, which is where XP looks first to help it find things like partitions. The MBR is like an index for the drive, and changing it this way lets XP see the index properly right away on boot-up.
Step 10: Now, type "EXIT" to leave the Recovery Console. Remove the Windows XP CD and replace it with the bootable CD or floppy created in Step 2, then reboot the PC again.
Step 11: Wait for the bootable CD to take you to a command prompt. Once there, type "format c:\," confirming that all the data on the drive is to be erased. This will take a while.
You can use other disk-formatting utilities such as Super F-disk, a free program that has many more features than the basic "format" command included with XP. Just make sure to extract and copy it to a bootable CD of your own creation, as it does not boot on its own. For those of you with large hard drives, it may benefit you to partition those drives into smaller chunks with programs like Super Fdisk, to speed up data access, among other things.
Step 12: Once the drive is formatted, replace the bootable CD with the Windows XP CD and reboot your system. You will be able to install XP from the CD normally now, choosing to install it on the blank partition you have created in Step11. Go through the normal installation of XP, and then enjoy your PC's newfound speed boost from a fresh OS install.
Your PC is back to the rusty but (mostly) reliable Windows XP.