One of the major complaints I hear about Vista from some users is how slow Vista performs. In all fairness though, these are usually from people who have purchsed inexpensive systems with weak cpu’s and with only a Gigabyte of RAM or less. I have previously mentioned that it should be a crime to allow OEM’s to palm off these weak systems to the public, but it is still going on. Yesterday I saw a laptop system  on sale at Wal-Mart for $499. It had 512 MB of memory with Vista Basic. I am sure the poor souls who end buying these types of systems will be regretting it down the road.

None of what I am going to be saying is going to be earth shattering for most of you. Those who read LG are usually very computer savy. But this is instead geared for those who maybe new to computers or who just recently bought a new el cheapo at X-mas time.

1. RAM – Vista loves memory. Many consider the sweet spot for Vista to be 2G of RAM. So you may wish to consider adding more RAM to your system. Vista also comes with what is called Ready Boost which can use a USB thumb drive as additional RAM. But your best bet is adding physical RAM to the system.

2. Crapware. Unless you specifically order a new computer online, you will most likely get programs installed on your system that you do not want or need. These trial programs are commonly referred to as crapware.  You can use a free program to remove most of the junk called PC Decrapifier which can be found here.

If your system came with a trail package from Norton or McAfee I’d remove those as well and try one of the free programs from either AVG here or Avast here.

3. Get the latest Vista updates and patches. These are known to improve performance and may just help. SP1 for Vista should be available soon. Make sure you get this important fix.

4. Drivers. Getting the latest drivers for your hardware may also improve performance. Check with your OEM and see what is available for your system.

5. Defraging. Use the built in defragmentor program built into Windows are an optional 3rd party defragger like Auslogic found here.

Hopefully your system will run better for you.

Comments welcome.

[tags]vista, windows, defrag, crapware, ram, memory, performance, better, driver, updates, patches, fixes,  [/tags]