1. Restrict the number of start-ups. Why have programs starting up when you don’t really use them. Even those you use can always be started manually by clicking on the. I personally prefer not to have ANY startups. So decide for yourself which one’s you really need as start-ups. Do also remove any pre-installed crapware which may have come pre-installed on your new Vista machine, as many a time its these craplets that cause a machine to crawl !

One small and simple tip ! Restart your PC at least once a week, especially if you use it a lot. Restarting a PC is a good way to clear out its memory and ensuring that any errant processes and services that started running get shut down.

2. Windows Vista has around 130 services installed ! Disable services which one may not require. For example, if your pc is a stand-alone one, there may be several services which you can disable or switch over to manual mode. Auto-starting and closing down of services takes time & resources. These can be saved. BlackViper’s Vista Service Configurations is an excellent guide to follow.

3. Reducing visual effects (eye candy). Right-click on “My Computer” > Properties > Advanced > Performance-Settings > Visual Effects > Adjust for best performance > Apply > OK.

To allow the themes and the glass effects, you may have to check on the boxes : enable transparent glass and use visual styles; this way atleast the spirit of Vista will be preserved- else be prepared for a really bland Vista ! Use your discretion. I know disabling all can actually negate the purpose of ‘eye-friendly’ Vista.

4. Ensure that boot defragmentation is enabled, so that files used during start-up are clubbed together. Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Dfrg\ BootOptimizeFunction . Select Enable from the list on the right. Right Click on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. Reboot.

5. Disable : “clear page file on shutdown” option, if enabled. Cleaning the page-file on every shutdown means overwriting the data by zeros, and it takes time.
To clear/not clear page file you can apply this reg tweak. Back up registry before trying this. Start > Run > Regedit
GotoHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Session Manager\ Memory Management
Modify (if not present, rt click in open space and create) the Value Data Type/s and Value Name/s :
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value]
Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Clear Page File Disabled / 1 = Clear Page File Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot.
6. Defragment your System Disk & Fine Tune your Registry. If you find the Vista’s in-built defragger slow, you can try freeware Auslogics Disk Defrag which works on Vista too ! Use the freeware CCleaner to clear up your PC Junk and clean up the Registry. This is good house-keeping. Compacting the Registry occasionally is a good idea too !
7. Generally people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory once in a while. But Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. Using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster. Utilities like CCleaner too have an option to clear the prefetcher. Should you choose to use this option of ‘clearing prefetcher’, be ready to run an ‘un-optimized’ windows for a little while. The Prefetcher is best left alone ! In any case, Windows cleans it at 128 entries down to the 32 most used application’s prefetch files.

8. Go to BIOS settings, by pressing Del key during boot-up, and disable ‘seek floppy drive’ option. This saves time for those who do not use floppy drives. There are also some BIOS hacks like Enabling Quick Post, Disabling Boot Delay, etc but best to refrain from these.

9. Change Boot-Order Sequence : Normally, the Bios is set to boot from floppy first, then CD and then Hard Disk. Changing the Boot-Order to be: Hard Disk first, then maybe CD/Floppy, could possibly “shave” a second, I guess !

10. Disable windows startup/shutdown/logon/logoff sounds. Go to control panel, sounds & audio devices, sound tab, in program events select ‘no sound’ for these events.

11. Disable the ScreenSaver if you don’t need it. Rt-Click desktop > ScreenSaver > None > OK. Useful esp if have any tasks running in the background.
12. Fonts take time to load. Removing some can save on resources. But one must be careful in deciding which fonts to remove. If you delete some system fonts, you may b in for trouble. Tweak VI Pro is a good shareware to manage fonts. It uninstall’s fonts without physically removing them. Open its help file. It lists down the system fonts which must not be deleted ! use the list; and then decide what to delete and what to keep.

13. To REALLY reduce your shutdown time. Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control. Click on the “Control” Folder. Select “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” Right click on it and select Modify. The default value is 20000. Setting it to a lower 4 digit value, (say 5000) will make your PC shutdown faster, but you could end up losing data, so use this tweak judiciously. Remember, Windows does not in any case, recognise a 3-digit numeral here.

14. Get rid of all the extra programs Windows Vista installs. You may not be using some like WLM, Calculator, Games, Meeting Space, Fax, etc. Go To Control Panel\ Programs\ Programs and Features > Turn windows On or Off and do the needful. But wait, before you rush, exercise a little caution here ! For instance you may want to turn off “Tablet PC Components etc”; but then get set to miss the Clipping Tool too !

15. Disable Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) : The Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) is a Microsoft Windows Vista operating system feature targeted at improving the user experience of connecting and disconnecting displays, particularly for the mobile user.
When you start Vista, you see a 2-3 sec delay followed by a blank black screen. This is the time Vista searches for external monitors. So if you dont use an external monitor, you could always safely turn this off!
To do so, Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Schedular.
On LHS, expand “Task Scheduler Library” then expand “Microsoft”, then expand “Windows” and finally click “MobilePC”. You will see a task called “TMM”. Rt-Click on it, and select “Disable”.

16. Go To Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Performance Information and Tools. On the LHS you will see options to Adjust Indexing options, visual effects, power Settings, etc. These all help directly and indirectly.

17. One of my favorite programs for XP was freeware DriverHeavens TuneXP 1.5, which had several uncommon tweaks. One rather useful one was “Ultra Fast Booting-Rearrange Files”. I tried it on my 32 bit Vista Ultimate and was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked smoothly !
Download it from the link given and install it. It will ask you to confirm on which disk your Windows is installed. Please do so. Then from the ‘Memory & File Systems’ tab, at the bottom you will see ‘Ultra Fast Booting-Rearrange Files’. Click on it. You will get a windows, where you can see the progress. On its completion, a black windows will pop up. This process could well take upto 5 mins, so please be patient. Beneath this window, you will see a new small window asking you to, not re-start till the process is over’. Click OK and Wait !

18. The default power setting in the “Power Saver” plan limits the CPU to 50 percent. Open the Power Options control panel and change it to “High Performance” to give your CPU full throttle.

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I’ve had a word with their software engineers. An entire devision had sprung up to create protection technologies light years beyond what’s already available.  The tech team now has prototype  anti-hacking technologies that are being cooked right into Windows code.

Here’s what they have to say:

“Our group is on a mission to build a rich, powerful platform to help protect Microsoft products against piracy. Here is your chance to join a team of exceptional developers as we build an extensible cross-company platform to support this vision. This is a fast-paced group that rewards smart and motivated individuals. We are looking for an experienced software developer to help us design and build new anti-hacking mechanisms, hack detection, and work on the security processor driver,” the job post notes.

You may not be aware of it, but subsets of the new anti-copy tech is already leaching into the market. Microsoft released the Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 earlier this year, providing a refresh designed to identify and render useless over 70 cracks used to illegally bypass the Windows 7 activation mechanism.  Many of my pals saw their lappies go blue screen with the unwitting integration of these updates. Tsk tsk.

The update wastouted as a standalone download, and subsequently delivered via Automatic Updates to all Windows 7 users. The company stressed that the Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 was a voluntary update, designed to be deployed only by users that wanted to make sure their copy of Windows 7 was real deal.

He continues: “The work touches many layers of the operating system and includes opportunities for partnership with MS Research and other security teams at Microsoft to productize exciting innovations and ideas that help shake hackers and crackers off Microsoft products. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the diversity of the problem space in this area is rich in growth opportunities just waiting for the right candidate. You will have ample opportunity to diversify your skill set and grow. In this position, you’ll get a chance to work on many aspects of the platform, starting with an assignment to drive the design of our application and Operating System (OS) virtualization support.”

Know something? Microsoft wouldn’t have such a big problem with crackers n hackers if they priced their products more intelligently. $300 for Windows Ultimate? Come on! Who’d pay $300 for something that’s buggy all the way until final version??

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Intuition fell flat.

You see, myAcer  Windows 7 notebook comes standard with 4GB of RAM. It’s a 64Bit system, so all memory is used. Prices for RAM keep falling these days, so I got an extra stick for $80. It was cheap. I spend more on starbucks for a week. I plugged in the memory and expected a few things:

-Faster boot

-Quicker load times

-Rapid shutdowns.

Guess what? None of that happened. The PC took longer to boot, to load software and to shut down. That was puzzling. The only thing that improved was reloading apps or multitasking amongst myriad windows.

My first guess was that the ram was bad, but that theory went out the window after thorough testing. Hmmm… what do you think could account for this? IS more memory actually detrimental?

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Windows 7 Professional Test Drive website provides a simple way to try and test Windows 7 Professional. You just need to have Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 with JavaScript and ActiveX enabled. Once you engage the site, it’s like you have Win7 installed. Bottomline, Windows 7 Test Drive website lets you to enjoy Desktop Aero interface, Taskbar and various other features like Windows XP Mode, Remote Desktop, Location aware Printing etc.

It’s a great service by Microsoft… sort of like Win7 in pseudo shareware mode. http://win7pro.vlabcenter.com/

As for me, all my PCs are already on win7. Even the netbooks!

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KB971033 is already live on Microsoft Support, namely the patch for the Update for Windows Activation Technologies. The resource also contains two download links, one for Windows 7 for x86-based systems, and one for Windows 7 for x64-based systems.

According to their spokesman:

“Windows Activation Technologies helps you confirm that the copy of Windows 7 that is running on your computer is genuine. Additionally, Windows Activation Technologies helps protect against the risks of counterfeit software. Windows Activation Technologies in Windows 7 consists of activation and validation components that contain anti-piracy features,” an excerpt of the update’s description reads. ”

I’ve tried the update on some machines. Guess what? It fails on test machines that run the bios level crack. Bill won’t be able to beat the cheapskate hackers who use such bypass.

I think there’s only one way for Bill to beat the Pirates. It won’t cost him thousands of manhours developing antipiracy code. Know what it is? Simply drop the price from $150 to $39. He’d have millions of happy buyers in no time.

Think VOLUME BILL. Not Margin.

I’d rather be a Toyota than a Benz anyday.

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Unleashing the 110MB installer takes no hitches, with minimal user input required to complete the process. The package offers everything including the AVG Security Toolbar (useful for tracking down dangerous websites), as well as firewalls and the usual antivirus and antispyware complements.

I installed the whole package and must admit that the system didn’t slow down. Even when running process intensive programs like Photoshop CS4 or Bioshock, the system remained stable.

What I didn’t like though, is that several spyware did bypass the package as well as two bits of malware. I have a portable disc filled with about 20,000+ strains of malware and that horde really gave the suite a run for the money.

Oh well. Looks like I’m still sticking with Eset. Eset provided me with far stronger antivirus and antimalware protection.

AVG Internet Security [DISCOUNT] 9.0 Build 730a1834

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Be aware, however, that under the hood, Ylmf OS is still Linux and will not run Windows based applications natively. The Wine fix won’t work for all software- just a few. If you want to know more, check out their website.

Some people muse at this point whether Microsoft will flex legal muscle over the alleged tresspass. I doubt it. If someone mimicked the look and feel of Windows 3.1, would they? XP is almost like Win 3.1 now. Support is being phased out, with a lot of marketing being diverted to Windows 7. And besides, there are next to no copyright laws in China!

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It’s quite odd that what doesn’t stop Vista or XP users, staggers Windows 7 users. Shouldn’t this have been addressed intrinsically during product development? After all, the era of Gigabyte sized applications and games is nearly at an end.

What do you think of this Windows faux pas?

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What it comes with:
- Multi-Touch support in Windows 7
- Gestures to quickly change case or insert spaces
- Programmable buttons for performing routine operations such as copying and pasting text
- Keys to launch applications, open Web pages or run macros with a single tap
- Word auto-complete to make typing faster and more accurate than ever
- Fully customizable look and behavior
- Support of multiple languages and keyboard layouts

With Hot Virtual Keyboard, you have more than 50 different keyboards to choose from (UMPC and ergonomic styleare available). Not only that, but you can even create your own, fully customized keyboard, based on personal preference. You can specify sounds, colors, shape, and more. You can create buttons that launch a web browser, change the volume, close out of a window, and pretty much any other basic function you can think of.

Okay now you’re wondering: the cost? Not much really. The price of a burger. Hot Virtual Keyboard won’t give you cholesterol, but it sure will give you hours of fun!
Download: Hot Virtual Keyboard 5.0

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But I doubt Bill will get all that’s due him. As you well know, Windows7 had been cracked with Bios level activators even before release. It’s a fool proof scheme that fools the OS into thinking the system is activated because the machine it runs on is OEM. That was bad enough for Microsoft. Now there’s even worse news. Hackers have created another mode of defeating Windows- this time attacking the Windows Activation Technology (WAT) itself.

RemoveWat is ingenious. With but a few lines of code, this application successfully castrates and removes all software routines within Windows to make it activate. That means that even if you update Windows later on, the OS remains “genuine”. No need to worry about WGA or whatnot.

Proof of concept:
RemoveWAT download (link 1)
RemoveWAT download (link 2)

Microsoft, you better  shape up your team. Maybe hire these hackers?But then again… if it makes the software free… who can complain?

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