How to speed up Microsoft Windows Vista

Microsoft Windows Vista has not been as successful as its predecessor - Windows XP, and probably its successor, Windows 7. Generally, because it is not very memory efficient and it is slow even when the user performs simple Windows tasks. However, there is a way to speed it up by disabling some of the Windows services that work in the background. Below, you can find a description how to deactivate three of them. 

ReadyBoost service is useful when you have a fast USB drive or pendrive memory. It will be used as an extension of your RAM memory to speed up your system. However, the service runs in the background even if you don't use it so you can simply disable it to make the Windows Vista run faster.

1. Go to: Start, Control Panel, Administrative tools, Services.
2. On the list of services, find ReadyBoost and double click it.
3. On the properties window, select Disabled from the Startup type option (Fig.1.).

Fig.1. The properties window of the ReadyBoost service.

4. Confirm the changes with the OK button. 

Superfetch service is designed to speed up your Vista by monitoring what programs are used the most. However, due to the constant monitoring of the programs and writing specific information on the hard disk it can slow down the system or extend the time the Windows starts.  

1. Go to: Start, Control Panel, Administrative tools, Services.
2. On the list of services find Superfetch and double click it.
3. On the properties window select Disabled from the Startup type option (Fig.2.).

Fig.2. The properties window of the Superfetch service.

4. Confirm the changes with the OK button. 

File indexing is a service working in the background that is designed to index and list all the files on the hard disk. This way when you search for any file or folder the results are displayed faster. However, the service does not improve the searching much and it does slow down your computer because when you leave your machine inactive, it starts searching through your files.  

1. Go to:  Computer and then right click on your main drive (by default it is C) and select Properties. 
2. Uncheck the option called: "Index the drive for fast searching" (Fig.3.).

Fig.3. Properties window of the local drive with indexing options.

3. A new window will give you two options to choose from:  
   • Apply the changes only to the drive.
   • Apply changes to the drive and all the subfolders.
4. In order to achieve the speed up result select the second option.
5. Confirm changes with the OK button. 

The process of disabling the indexing option may take some time depending on how many files and folders have you got on your drive. During the process you may be asked what to do if the files/folders are currently in use. The best solution is to click Ignore All when you see the Access is denied error message (Fig.4.).

Fig.4. A window with the Access is denied error message.