Monday, June 09, 2008

zhng your vista

ZH'NG YOUR VISTA! : A Beginner's Guide.
(Pros, please don't read this because I feel paiseh to have just found out how.)

A solution for:

- sluggish startups
- high RAM consumption
- computers which take forever to boot or sleep
- frequently hanged computers
- stingy people like me who are unwilling to spend on extra RAM.
- innocents like me who have no choice because new laptops come with Windows Vista only.

Introduction:

Personally, I'm no computer geek, or a student in Computer Science & Information Technology(CSIT). But it doesn't mean I won't appreciate a speedier computer for less moolah! However, I have had trouble tweaking my brand new Windows Vista on my HP Notebook. You see, everyone knows Vista is RAM consuming. Among them, are the brilliant CSIT friends of mine, who have cleverly avoided, and WILL continue to avoid using Vista. They sure can tell me how to save RAM : switch off the visuals, reduce startup programmes. But, that's about as useful as a cow mooing at me. Sadly they can't guide me in detail, because they don't have a Vista for reference. Hence, I'm producing a layman's guide to Zh'ng Your Vista! Dedicated to all the noobies like me out there.

Experimental Data:

All data are true to my own observations, RAM readings taken at the end of startup on a HP Pavilion tx2032 Entertainment Notebook PC with the following specifications.
  • AMD Athlon 64 TK-57 (1.9GHz, 512KB L2 Cache)
  • 2GB DDR2 RAM
  • Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics
  • Hard drive of 160GB
  • Windows Vista Home
  • 802.11a/b/g with Bluetooth
BEFORE: 55%
Un-Zh'ng-ed RAM consumption

Step by step Zh'ng-ing:

Reduce startup programs
  • Go to Start >> Start Search at the bottom, Type in: msconfig, click OK.
  • User Account Control (UAC) pops up, click Continue.
  • Select Startup tab, uncheck unwanted programs at startup, i.e: Messenger, LimeWire... Click OK.
  • Restart later.
  • Allow any registry changes if prompted (occurs if Spybot is installed)
Disable visual bling-blings.
  • Go to Start >> Help and Support
  • Search: Performance Tools
  • Select Performance and Maintenance Tools
  • Select Improve Computer Performance
  • Select Adjust Visual Effects from the sidebar
  • User Account Control (UAC) pops up, click Continue.
  • Under the Visual Effects tab, select Custom
  • Uncheck unwanted features. Remember: less ticks, means less memory to run.
  • If you're unsure of what to uncheck, refer below for my options.
  • Click Apply to test the current settings. Click OK when you're satisfied.
Other tips:

My visual configurations aims to retain the Vista appearance, minus some special effects, without looking like Windows 95. I checked the following:
  • Show thumbnails instead of icons
  • Show window contents while dragging
  • Smooth edges of screen fonts
  • Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
  • Use visual styles on windows and buttons
  • Yes that's all I checked. Only 5. And it still looks nice =)
Do not make the same mistake I did, which was having 2 antivirus softwares: Avast and AVG. (You can't blame a girl for being too careful =P) It slowed my computer considerably. In this case, less is more!

Turn off User Account Control (UAC) because it pops up after everything thing I do. Especially recommended if you are the sole user of your computer =)
Start >> Control Panel >> User Accounts and Family y Safety >> Turn UAC on or off

Turn off the gorgeous sidebar on the right side of your desktop, I heard it's RAM consuming. Frankly, I'd rather leave it be, because it's gorgeous and I like it, hehe. I may be stingy with RAM, but have to use some also lah. Since I paid for it already.

And now my laptop takes a grand total of 10 seconds to startup! It's not an Olympics record, but it's significantly faster, good enough for me. Take a look at my new RAM consumption.

AFTER: 35%

That's a whopping 20% decrease in RAM consumption.
Now I'm a happy Vista Noobie =D


**********End of Zh'ng-ing with The Ling**********

Now I wanna promote the FIREFOX DOWNLOAD DAY 2008!!!
My favourite web browser is setting a new WORLD RECORD, and I want to be part of it.
Download Day - English
The Guinness World Record will be "The most software downloaded in 24 hours"!!!
Download the Faster, Safer and Smarter Firefox 3 within 24 hours of release to be part of this wonderful feat! Wouldn't it be cool to be one of the first to have the latest browser? However, the launching date has yet to be released itself -.-"

For more information, and Date Release: click HERE...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I randomly found another ling blogger. Yay!


lol

Yip Seng87 said...

I think you must close the gorgeous sidebar as it really RAM consuming!!!
If you dont want, just choose 1 or 2 of the gadgets to put on the sidebars. Dnt put all...