Windows Vista

[golfa]

Recently purchased a new machine and the only option was Vista.

It takes an age to start up, does anybody know how to speed up the process? XP took about 40 seconds this is taking 5+ minutes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[nilrem]

Vista runs better the more RAM you have so I would start there .....

Cheers

[ukHooligan]

Upgrade it to xp

[BuX]

"upgrade it to xp"

nice 1 i do agree 150%
was trying to sort my mate's pc, he got vista, thats not even looks like windows anymore
god save the XP

BuX

[biffo1]

vista needs @ least a gig of ram i have 4 gig and run vista 64 ultimate edition , very smooth n fast boot , if ur pc has come with vista on it then what ever model u have look on there own web site as not in all the cases but u might find it hard to get drivers for ur audio , grafix etc if u downgrade to xp .
i would do anything until u looked 1st ,

[krazylegz]

i wouldnt downgrade either..........mine needed a reformatt the other day so i put on xp pro SP3 since i still have my legit key and i thought it was shit. lasted 2 days then put vista ultimate back on, mine has 2gig of ram and runs very fast, plus drivers were already installed for graphix,sound,bluetooth,wireless,lan,memory card etc where i had to install all manually on xp

[sharkpicasso]

vista

vista if you have good configuration like min 2gb ram

[ricky9999]

I agree did not like Vista at first but has grown on me, I agree you will need at least 2 gig of Ram.

[mrtell]

Vista runs well with the right amount of ram, the problem with a new machine is often what is refared to as bloatware, This 'bloatware' will, not only serve to slow your system a great deal, but also take up needed and valuable space.
"Software bloat, also known as bloatware or elephantware, is a term used in both a neutral and disparaging sense, to describe the tendency of newer computer programs to be larger, or to use larger amounts of system resources (mass storage space, processing power or memory) than necessary for the same or similar benefits from older versions to its users."
So a format and re install is recomended
also Vista needs to be tweaked to get the most out of the system.
Google vista tweaks

[trueno]

I agree with mrtell, sometimes is bloatware that comes with the machine preinstalled. Problem with reinstall is that most people only get some backup DVDs - which will erm, restore to the same state. I recommend uninstalling things you don't use or ones that are known to take up quite a bit of resources.

I have Asus lappy that comes with all these additional webcam software which also goes in the tray!! After uninstalling them Vista loaded alot faster. Also uninstall that Norton AV resource hungary shite that comes prebundled in most systems - I recommend use another less resource hungary like nod32.

[biffo1]

have a look here mate some vista tweaks

[mjjr]

Backup

Make sure you have a full backup of your current vista installation before you tweak anything. It something goes wrong, you'll be back up and running in no time. I use Acronis TrueImage, but there are lots of other options around though.

My preferred option though would be
1) buy a new hard disk (50 quid gets a big disk these days)
2) back up my main hard disk using acronis (or whatever)
3) restore the backup to the new disk
4) swap in the new hard disk as my primary hard disk
5) boot up and enjoy tweaking
6) it something goes wrong (as has happened me), I have the original disk to swap back in.