Windows Vista performance is lousy... ?

Question

Hey- are there an programs that I can download that will give my computer a performance boost?

I have ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware 08, Spyware Doctor, AVG Free 8.0- I run all of those programs (other than the firewall which is always on) every other week or so to see if I have spyware slowing me down. I also run CCleaner, and Disk Defragmentor.

Yet my computer (2gb ram AMD turion 64x2 1.8ghz, 200gb harddrive Vista home premium) really gets quite slow... It's annoying.

Are there any other programs, or tips for that?

Also customizing and making my computer have a cool look, are there any programs that I can do that with? Any nifty gadgets to imporve my work that I do on the computer? Like is there a Windows Version of the Mac Dock?

Thanks for any ideas / help. Thanks

Answer 1

If your virus/spyware free, there are  a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.

http://www.delete-computer-history.com/w...

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser

2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".

3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.

4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.

5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.

2. Click Run

3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"

4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab

5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.

6. Click "OK"

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

AMD 64 X2 is quite slow for Windows Vista, especially for a laptop machine. You need to add another 2gb of ram and it will run better. I recommend 4gb minimum at least to run Vista it's really a hog when it comes to memory, I will not run Vista with 2gb unless it's DDR3 and runs on a 45nm processor. There is something similar to Mac Dock, it's called ObjectDock made by www.stardock.com, they also have a lot of other stuff to tweak icons, looks etc. like WindowsBlinds. The whole reason why your laptop is slow is because you have too many programs running and not enough memory to run them all, so your data keeps getting swapped in and out from your hard drive into memory. Windows Vista itself will take about 1gb to 1.2gb of memory alone, leaving you only about 800mb of memory left for the rest of your programs which isn't really enough.

You should be okay with 4gb of memory, if you have Vista 32-bit you will only be able to use 3.2gb of memory out of the 4gb of memory but it will still be better than 2gb. You need to install Vista 64-bit if you want to fully use the 4gb of memory, 64-bit Vista is a lot faster in my opinion, especially with 4gb of memory.

Answer 3

well, having all of those virus programs running at once, that will definetly slow your computer down! im not sure if thats what your doing, but if you dont run them all together at once, then its ok, but just run one or 2  of those at a time.  and making your own theme/look to your own computer, will slow it down as well.  

yes there is a windows version of the mac dock, you have to download it and do a buncha stuff to it get it to work.  and again, that will make your performance slower as well.  =[

make sure your windows defender isnt running, those can do it as well

Answer 4

Uninstall all of those programs you mentioned, as well as any other programs that load at start up the are not absolutely necessary, most laptops come with trial this, and demo that installed.  Keep ccleaner (it is a good program to have), and get pctools anti-virus it uses few resources and is free (www.pctools.com), do a hard disk defrag after you do all that and run ccleaner and do a cleanup and registry clean, you should notice a big speed difference.

Answer 5

Within AVG 8, disable LinkScanner.

Don't worry, a website owner who wanted to do bad things could do so anyway, and AVG's LinkScanner would still give it a green light.

LinkScanner is essentially useless and only adds unnecessary Internet traffic.

Are you aware that most benchmarks score Vista's performance speed at about 1/2 that of XP? . . . and it requires twice as mucjh memory. If it were me, I'd downgrade to XP.

I'd also try to turn off Vista's fancy graphics -- that stuff chews up CPU cycles.