vista tweaks

David · Feb 01, 2009, 18:29:17

Who could blame them........hope nothing untoward went on

Rik · Feb 01, 2009, 18:32:13

They knew when they were well off.

David · Feb 01, 2009, 18:37:47

Quotehttp://www.smokie.co.uk/

I do not beleeeeve it

Baz · Feb 04, 2009, 12:37:05

Quote from: Sebby on Feb 01, 2009, 17:49:34
I couldn't tell you how regular they are, but it's daily. If you go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler (I think, as it's from memory!) you'll be able to disable some of the tasks. I only found out that it was System Restore causing the constant HD acitivity by using the Reliability and Performance Monitor. I really don't think it's necessary for it to create restore points constantly when Windows will still create a point before installing software or drivers anyway.

havent had a look at this yet but can you disable the Sys restore point task. Does that mean it will not make any and you need to do manual ones.

Steve · Feb 04, 2009, 12:42:52

Quote from: Baz on Feb 04, 2009, 12:37:05
havent had a look at this yet but can you disable the Sys restore point task. Does that mean it will not make any and you need to do manual ones.

Correct on all points. To be honest as a Vista users apart from when it does a manual restore point prior to a software change I wouldn't know it was there.

Sebby · Feb 04, 2009, 13:33:28

I don't believe that is correct. Vista will still create a restore point when it installs a driver or software; it just won't do it every single minute of the day like it tends to by default, which is unnecessary, imho.

Noreen · Feb 04, 2009, 18:32:36

I may be wrong about this now but I believe that Windows Defender used to make a restore point whenever it installed new definitions which could be daily. That was the reason that I stopped using it. I mostly only have manual and program installation restore points now.

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 12:10:09

just had a look at this and Sys restore was set to Daily at 00.00 every day and At Startup. Now Ive disabled these so will any points still be made or do I need to make a new task.

defrag was set to every wed at 01.00

Lance · Feb 08, 2009, 12:21:21

You'll still get the restore points made when you install some software, Baz. It just won't be doing them when there is no real need for it to be doing so.

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 12:22:15

thanks Lance so its ok to leave those tasks disabled

Lance · Feb 08, 2009, 12:24:34

Yep. They are both disabled on mine but I still get system restore points automatically when I install windows updates (including defender).

Sebby · Feb 08, 2009, 13:12:42

This is why I can't understand Microsoft's reasoning for setting Vista to make continuous restore points by default. It just slows things down terribly. Turning that off, as well as tweaking indexing, actually makes it quite a usable OS. Now there's something I never thought I'd say...

greenfedora · Feb 08, 2009, 13:45:33

I turned UAC off. I soon got fed up with confirming everything about 3 times. I've no idea why it would do that in the first place when I had administrator rights. I figured that would be equivalent to root on a Linux system. Alas no.

I hate Vista with a passion. I had a really stable XP set up on my machines and I've had nothing but problems since going to Vista.

I would love to go Linux. Something like Ubuntu. But it's still not there for the desktop as far as I'm concerned, particularly on laptops (I do keep trying the various Linux desktop distros from time to time).

My next computers will be Apple Mac's. I'm done with Microsoft since Vista (although that's not entirely true - I'll have to run parallels or somesuch and have some sort of Windows partition for the apps I need that won't run in native Mac).

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 13:49:21

Quote from: Sebby on Feb 08, 2009, 13:12:42
This is why I can't understand Microsoft's reasoning for setting Vista to make continuous restore points by default. It just slows things down terribly. Turning that off, as well as tweaking indexing, actually makes it quite a usable OS. Now there's something I never thought I'd say...

tweaking indexing eh?, tell me more. whats all that about.

Sebby · Feb 08, 2009, 16:10:44

Well, I noticed that Vista is set by default to index a whole load of places on your computer. Thinking about it, I only want it to index my mail and documents. Have a look at the Indexing options in Control Panel and you'll see what I mean.

Lance · Feb 08, 2009, 17:03:52

I agree Sebby. I found it was indexing all my music and pictures as well which, at over 10,000 files, was slowing the indexing down a bit.

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 19:53:56

what exactly is indexing supposed to do.

Rik · Feb 08, 2009, 19:54:28

Speed up finding things on the HD, Baz.

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 20:02:06

right, so does it speed it up or slow it down

good old windoze. is it just a vista thing

Rik · Feb 08, 2009, 20:07:17

In XP, I found it made no difference, Baz, but then I guess it depends on how you use the system.

Sebby · Feb 08, 2009, 20:12:50

Quote from: Baz on Feb 08, 2009, 20:02:06
right, so does it speed it up or slow it down

good old windoze. is it just a vista thing

It makes searches quicker, but the indexing process slows down the general performance!

Rik · Feb 08, 2009, 20:13:27

So, if you rarely search...

Baz · Feb 08, 2009, 20:15:11

wheres the option in XP

Sebby · Feb 08, 2009, 20:17:14

Windows XP doesn't have an indexing feature, afaik. You have to install Windows Search to add it.

Rik · Feb 08, 2009, 20:19:03

Right-click a drive in Explorer, Properties, there's a checkbox at the bottom, Baz.