Speeding up Vista
My Windows Vista PC has been chugging a lot lately, the hard disk light flashing incessantly during idle periods. Worse, when I actually need the system resources to myself, I often get a considerable lag while Windows goes off and does its own thing against my wishes.
Off come the gloves!
Since I can never find anything with the new Control Panel layout, I have to click the Classic View. Once there, I start by opening up Administrative Tools, then choosing Services. (Or just run “services.msc” at a shell prompt, something else I can never remember!)
Since I’m using other, better, third-party tools, Windows Defender is the first thing to go. Right-click it, and select Properties. Stop the service (if started) and set its startup type to Disabled. Do the same to the DFS Replication, Distributed Link Tracking Client, Function Discovery Provider Host, Function Discovery Resource Publication, IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules, IP Helper, IPsec Policy Agent, Offline Files, Remote Registry, Security Center, Windows CardSpace, Windows Error Reporting Service, and Windows Search services. If you want to know what they are before you disable them, left-click each one to view the description of the functionality it provides.
A quiet hard drive, and therefore less lag!
