Currently Browsing: Performance
ReadyBoost (a feature new to Windows Vista) uses a USB flash drive or a secure digital (SD) memory card to cache data that would otherwise need to be read from the much slower hard disk. Windows Vista uses SuperFetch technology to automatically determine which data to cache. Instructions after the jump, or read my ReadyBoost performance test results.
User Account Control (UAC) prompts you before an application makes an important change to your computer that requires administrative privileges. By default, the UAC prompt appears on the “secure desktop”, which freezes and darkens your screen. By freezing your screen, secure desktop makes it more difficult for another application to impersonate Windows and trick you into typing your administrator password into a fake UAC prompt.
The flashing screen is distracting, and slows things down a bit. To turn off the flashing without completely disabling UAC, follow these steps (after the jump):
Update: For Windows 7, read this article instead.
It seems like every program I install wants to start automatically with Windows. For example, Apple Quicktime puts an icon in the system tray. Adobe Acrobat starts automatically, just so it can more quickly open a PDF file. Each of these startup applications wastes memory and slows down how long it takes Windows Vista to start (though Windows Vista is smart about this, and lets you access the desktop before it starts all these applications).
To configure or disable startup applications in Windows Vista, follow these steps (after the jump):
When you buy software, there’s always a list of computer requirements on the side. It looks something like this (taken from World of Warcraft):
- 800 MHz or higher CPU.
- 256 MB or more of RAM.
- 32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware Transform and Lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better.
- 4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
- DirectX® 9.0c or above.
- A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.
That’s pretty hard to understand if you’re not a computer guy. Windows Experience Index (WEI) gives you a single number, and a set of numbers, that summarize your computer’s capabilities. So, if I want to buy a game for my Dell Latitude D820 with a WEI of 3.1, I just have to make sure that the game’s minimum WEI is 3.1 or lower. Software can also be more specific, and list a Graphics or Gaming Graphics requirement. As you can see from my score, my graphics are the weak link in my computer. (info on interpreting and improving WEI after the jump)
