Performing Windows Vista

Overview Series: Windows Vista® Performance and Tuning
Improve Performance Quickly and Easily
The Windows Vista® operating system and the recent Service Pack 1 (SP1) provide major advancements in usability, reliability, connectivity, and security. These improvements are helping businesses and consumers become more productive than ever. While performance is often thought of simply in terms ofspeed, it is better to think of performance as a combination of speed and responsiveness. For example, one approach to optimizing performance when copying large numbers of files would be to copy those files as fast as physically possible. Unfortunately, this approach would leave the system unresponsive during the operation. Windows Vista and SP1 focus on delivering greater performance and overallsystem responsiveness. By striking a balance between speed and responsiveness, Windows Vista and SP1 deliver a level of performance that has the greatest positive impact on the system’s usability. Improving the performance of a computer follows the principle of diminishing returns. There are a few actions you can take with any computer that should improve performance dramatically. Additional actionsprovide smaller performance improvements. This guide looks at the following areas of performance improvement:      Making configuration changes that help a computer feel more responsive when you use it. Using hardware to boost the actual physical speed of a computer. Making configuration changes that help a computer to start faster. Making the computer more reliable may help increaseperformance. Monitoring performance occasionally so that you can stop problems before they get too big. improvements on a single computer, this guide also takes a look at some of the tools used in enterprise environments to help make performance tuning manageable on a much larger scale.

Optimizing Hardware Organizational Needs

Specifications

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Your

Although the minimum requirements forthe Windows Vista operating system are highlighted in the Windows Vista TechCenter, you should validate hardware performance with your intended applications and user expectations before determining your organization’s standard hardware specifications. For example, when deploying Windows Vista many organizations have found that the following configuration yields good results, especially for higherknowledge worker scenarios:    At least 2 GB of RAM. At least a 2 GHz processor. A compatible graphics adapter that provides improved performance.

If you are deploying Windows Vista with the Windows® Basic theme settings, you can reduce these recommendations considerably. Customize the hardware specifications and operating system configurations based on the user roles and operational needs inyour organization. For more information about customizing the hardware specifications and operating system configuration, see:  Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/windowsvista/aa905075.aspx

Make Your Computer Feel More Responsive
Another way to improve perceived performance on a

While the bulk of this guide focuses on performancecomputer is to make it feel faster. Or more accurately, you can remove things that make the computer feel slower. You do this by making sure that various configuration settings are optimized. Check Power Settings on Mobile Computers When a computer is operating on a battery, you must strike a balance between battery life and performance. Better performance almost always drains battery life morequickly. Windows Vista provides three built-in power plans, as shown in Table 1. You can modify the settings for the three built-in plans to suit your needs, or even create your own power plans. You can change a built-in plan's settings or create your own plan by using the Power Options settings in Control Panel. Power Plan Description Balances energy consumption and performance by adapting the...