Advice for Vista

[Stability]

Hey all. Just ordered a new lap top from newegg and it's got Vista on it. Won't be here for a few days, but want to get a jump on learning Vista. Anybody have any tips for how to make it run smoothly? I've heard a lot of people say it's a memory hog, but that you can "tweak" it to cut down on that. Also, haven't bought a pre-build computer in forever, so is there anything that can help me get rid of the crap load of software I know it's gonna have or just go through manually like on XP?

Thanks in advance,
Stab

[[Jett]-Willow]

Get 4GB of ram,and that is all.

[[Jett]-Seraph]

Turn off UAC....

[[Jett]-rush2049]

Turn off UAC in the user prefferences under control panel.

Have at least 2 GB of ram, 4 GB preffered.

Use 64-bit if your using a 64-bit processor....

Do not turn off super-fetch like a lot of guides tell you to.

If you have an adequate flash drive set it up to use Ready Boost.

If you have a flavor of vista less than home premium, consider upgrading.

Make sure to do the usual things, anti-virus (AVG), spyware protection (Ad-Aware and Spybot).

Edit your folder view options. While viewing a folder (my computer works) press alt (theres the familiar menu bar), then go to tools>folder options>view, then check show hidden files and folders, uncheck hide extensions and uncheck hide system files.


When you get your laptop, it might come with a bunch of crap, if they gave you a plain vista disk (not one loaded with what you got already), then use it to re-install immediately (it might be branded by whoever your laptop manufacturer is, but still be just vista). If not, then go to control panel>programs and features, and remove everything that isn't microsoft or a driver, if there are multiple components to something uninstall everything but the driver part.

And the biggest trick to getting vista to run fast, is to switch windows update to notify you upon new updates and to notify you when they are ready to install, and then manually do every update there is (not including language packs). This will require restarting and checking after every new update is installed for more updates.

If the above recomendations are followed, then you will get annoyed by windows yelling at you about your settings, go to control panel>security center, then go to "change the way Security Center alerts me" and do the not recomended option.... LOL



There ya go, tips from Ben for a happy vista user.

[Stability]

Thanks for the advice all :)

It has 4GB of RAM and is a 64 bit version, so those two things are nailed down already.

Will try the stuff that Rush suggested and see if I can't get it to blow up ;)

@ Ganksterr - Thanks for the tip, but instead of browsing the forums, why don't you go level your stupid toon! Still level 70 according to your post :P

[[Jett]-Dru_Man]

DL win7rc1! lol