However, all features--even if you paid for them--are dependent on specific hardware configurations being present; if you don't have the proper graphics hardware, for example, you'll simply never see the Aero graphic effects on that old Dell computer in your basement.
Hardware requirements for Windows Vista should not be taken lightly. In a controversial move to garner positive reviews, Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers not including CNET free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled.
So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so. This will keep all your current data and applications, importing them directly into the new operating system.
While Windows Vista does make a backup of your previous operating system before installing, it is always recommended that you backup your current Windows XP system yourself, just in case. Rather than upgrade, we recommend you perform a clean installation. With a clean installation, you keep all your current on the Windows XP drive and install only the data and applications you want to run on Windows Vista.
A clean install can be accomplished by buying a new PC with Windows Vista already installed, partitioning an existing Windows XP machine to dual-boot into Windows Vista, or adding a new hard drive to an existing Windows XP machine. Our clean installations took anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the hardware in the system.
It's pretty much an automated process, with the installer first copying the WIM image onto the new hard drive or partition then expanding that image. Once again, we experienced an uncomfortably long plateau at "Expanding: 27 percent"; as with previous builds, we waited between two and five minutes before the expansion continued.
About halfway through, the installer reboots and continues the installation in Windows Vista. During the installation, Windows Vista will load the drivers included within the installation image, but it will also download additional drivers from a much larger database at Microsoft.
This assumes, however, that one has an always-on Internet connection; dial-up users may find that upon completion of the installation process some drivers are missing. Once fully installed, Windows Vista first asks for your country or region, then time and currency, and, finally, the desired keyboard layout. Next, you'll choose a username, a user icon, and a password. After reviewing the computer's time and date settings, there's one more message: "Please wait while Windows checks your computer's performance.
Windows Vista includes new musical tones written by veteran musician Robert Fripp. New on the Windows Vista desktop is a Welcome Center which contains links to frequently asked questions such as, "How do you configure your printer? Frankly, we think it is better for you to look beyond the Windows ecosystem for e-mail, Internet browsers, and security applications.
After closing the Welcome Center, you'll notice to the far right there is a shaded sidebar populated with three example Gadgets "widgets" to everyone else , tiny desktop applets that display content, such as RSS feeds. In one Gadget, a slide show of images from the sample photo library display; in the next, the current time; finally, there's a Gadget for subscribed RSS feeds.
We downloaded and installed Firefox 2, made Firefox our default browser, and quickly set up a few RSS feed subscriptions. Guess what? The familiar Start menu features some cosmetic changes for Windows Vista. Aside from the distinctive rounded icon, the Start menu now includes a built-in Search function. We would have preferred to have access to Search directly from the desktop rather than digging down a level or two.
The new Start menu is divided in half, with access to documents, pictures, music, games, recent items, My Computer, network, Control Panel, default programs, and Help along the right-hand side. Also new within Start is an Instant Off button. This button caches all your open files and processes, allowing you to turn off your laptop or desktop quickly without all the "cleaning up files" messages you see in previous versions.
We like the feature, but on our Acer Travelmate , Instant Off and closing the lid to hibernate sometimes produced limbo states where the laptop simply wouldn't wake up again, forcing us to reboot. In Windows Vista, files become unmoored from the traditional directory tree structure--kind of. The more ambitious plan of including a whole new file system was scrapped early on; instead, Windows Vista relies on metatags, which are keywords linked to files to make them searchable.
With metatags, you can create virtual file folders based on a variety of search terms. Say you're doing a report on mountains, any file that is keyword-enabled to include "mountains" will be grouped into a virtual folder without physically dragging that file to a new location. Click Start , right-click Computer and then click Properties. In the Advanced Tools window, click the performance-related links to examine detailed information about the computer. After you click the links in the Advanced Tools window, follow the recommendations that appear.
When you have resolved all the issues that appear in this list, restart the computer to see whether the startup performance issue is resolved.
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next troubleshooting step. When you troubleshoot a performance issue, it is important to determine whether the problem always occurred after you installed Windows Vista or if the problem began sometime after you installed Windows Vista. You must clarify this before you continue. If the problem has always occurred, go to Step 5.
If Windows Vista was performing acceptably after it was installed, and the startup performance problem only began to occur sometime after Windows Vista was performing acceptably, you can use the Reliability Monitor tool that is included with Windows Vista. This tool lets you examine the events that occurred around the time that the problem began so that you can determine any relationship between the event and the issue.
To do this, you must determine approximately when the issue began to occur. When you determine the approximate time, you can examine the events that occurred around that time.
Click Start , type reliability in the Start Search box, and then press Enter. Click Reliability and Performance Monitor in the Programs list.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation. In the line graph that appears, you will see a representation of the reliability of the computer.
Each vertical bar represents a day, and the height of the line for that day is determined by the events that occurred on that day.
If any errors or warnings occur, the line will go down, and if no events or only informational events occur then the line will start to go up. To use this tool to troubleshoot a performance issue that began sometime after Windows Vista was installed, follow these steps:.
After finding out the approximate day that the problem began, select that day in the Reliability Monitor tool. Read the Information, Warning, and Error events that occurred on the day that the problem began, and on the two days before the problem began.
At this point, you must use the data that you have collected to start to troubleshoot why the problem might have occurred.
Some possible examples of how to troubleshoot this problem are listed here. In the following examples, the most likely result is that you have to contact either the software or hardware vendor for more troubleshooting advice:. If you see that the problem started the day that a driver update was installed, you have to determine whether there is a newer driver than the currently installed driver.
Then, you have to install the newer driver to see whether that driver resolves the problem. If no driver update is available, use Device Manager to roll back the driver that was installed.
If you see that the problem started after the installation of a new piece of hardware, disable or unplug that hardware, and then test to see whether the problem still occurs. If no updates are available, uninstall the program to test whether the problem continues to occur.
If the problem still occurs after you address any of the changes that you identified in the Reliability Monitor, you must contact the computer manufacturer or the hardware vendor to determine whether the computer or hardware that is installed supports Windows Vista, or whether there are any updates that must be installed to make the computer compatible.
A common cause of poor system performance is that there is an application or a service that constantly stresses the hard disk. This can cause other components that are running to be deprived of the resources that they require in order to function correctly and at an acceptable speed. One potential example of this kind of application is the indexer for Windows Search. This is because the indexer service only accesses the hard disk when the indexer service determines that another component of the system is not already accessing the hard disk, and the hard disk is idle.
In an older computer that has a slower hard disk, the hard disk may be unable to react quickly enough to new requests for disk access from other system components.
This will cause system performance to decrease. To test To test whether the indexer service is causing performance problems, disable the Windows Search service so that indexing no longer occurs. Before you do this, you have to determine whether the indexer has completed indexing the system. To check the status of the indexer service, follow these steps:.
Click Start , and then type index in the Start Search box. In the Programs list, click Indexing Options. At the top of the window that appears, you see either Indexing complete or Indexing Speed is reduced due to user activity. If you see Indexing Speed is reduced due to user activity , the indexer has not yet completed indexing the user documents and the e-mail messages on the system.
If you see Indexing complete , the system has completed indexing the user documents and the e-mail messages on the system. However, the indexer remains active so that it can index any new documents or e-mail messages that appear on the system. In either case, you can test to see whether the indexer is the cause of the performance issue by disabling the Windows Search service.
To disable the Windows Search Service, follow these steps:. In the Programs list, click Services. Click Stop to stop the service, and then click OK.
Now you can individually select and deselect the locations to be indexed, as shown in Figure K. Generally, using more power results in better performance. You can select the balance you prefer between saving energy and getting the highest performance by adjusting power plan settings.
You can also create a custom power plan, by selecting Create A Power Plan in the left pane. You start with one of the three plan templates, adjust individual components using a wizard, and then save the plan.
You can use Vista's disk cleanup and defragmentation tools to remove unwanted files and to rearrange data on the disk so that files are not fragmented. Both of these actions will help increase disk access performance.
The Disk Cleanup tool allows you to select whether to clean up files from your own user profile only or the files of all users. When you select a specific drive to clean up, the tool will calculate how much space you will be able to free by running the cleanup, as shown in Figure M. You can and should set the Disk Defragmenter to run on a regular basis, such as once per week. To avoid a performance hit, schedule the defragmenter to run at a time when you aren't normally using your computer.
You can also do a manual defragmentation if you think it's necessary for example, if you've spent the day uninstalling and installing programs, and the computer seems to be running slower.
Just click the Defragment Now button, shown in Figure N. The Advanced Tools section of the Performance Information And Tools utility gives you quick links to the following tools for gathering performance-related info:.
Microsoft has made it easy by consolidating many of these actions in the Performance Information And Tools console. Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MCSE, MVP is a technology consultant, trainer, and writer who has authored a number of books on computer operating systems, networking, and security. Deb is a tech editor, developmental editor, and contributor to over 20 add Identify your bottlenecks The first step in fixing a problem is to find out exactly what's broken.
Performance Monitor Vista, like its business-oriented predecessors XP Professional, Windows , and NT Workstation , includes a performance monitoring tool that allows you to do detailed monitoring of various counters relating to both software and hardware components. Figure A You can use the Performance Monitor to assess performance of almost any component in the computer. Figure C A score under 3. Figure G You can view a list of startup programs in the System Information tool.
Figure H You can adjust settings via the Performance Options dialog box. Figure J You can change virtual memory settings for better performance. Figure K These options let you specify which locations to index. Figure L You can select a power plan to balance performance against energy conservation. Figure M Disk Cleanup can free up space on your disk, giving better performance. Figure N Defragmenting the disk regularly improves disk access performance.
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