Get maximum performance from Windows Vista

Windows Vista includes a number of tools that you can use to pinpoint performance bottlenecks. Some of these, such as the System Health Report, the Windows Experience Index, and the Reliability Monitor, provide static snapshots showing the resources available to your system and where those resources might not be adequate to your needs. Others, such as the venerable Windows Task Manager, the new Resource Overview, and Performance Monitor (an improved version of the tool known in Windows XP as System Monitor), let you track a variety of performance metrics in real time.

In addition to these snapshot and monitoring utilities, Windows Vista incorporates the following forms of performance-enhancing technology: SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive

All three of these are designed to reduce the amount of time your system spends engaged in performance degrading disk IO. SuperFetch is a memory management technology that observes your computer usage patterns over extended stretches of time (noting the programs you run and the days and times you typically run them) and adjusts caching behavior to accommodate your own particularities. ReadyBoost uses external memory devices (such as USB 2.0 flash disks) to cache disk content of all kinds, reducing the need for time consuming hard disk access. And ReadyDrive is technology that supports the use of hybrid hard disk drives drives that incorporate nonvolatile flash memory (NVRAM) as well as conventional rotating disk media. Hybrid drives are particularly useful for extending battery life on portable computers, because they reduce the need for drive spin.

SuperFetch is useful to anyone running Windows Vista. You don’t need to do anything except be glad that it’s there. ReadyDrive should be of interest if you’re in the market for a new computer and hybrid drives are a purchase option. ReadyBoost, in contrast, is of no value unless you implement it by attaching a suitable external memory device to your system. For details, see “Using ReadyBoost” later in this article.

This tips will review these basic performance enhancing strategies:

Ensuring that you have adequate RAM
Ensuring that you have an adequate virtual memory configuration
Using ReadyBoost
Managing startup programs
Keeping your disks defragmented
Maintaining adequate free space on your disks
Avoiding tweaks of dubious value

Ensuring that you have adequate RAM

Random access memory (RAM) is the vital stuff that keeps Windows running smoothly. Having enough physical (main) memory helps reduce the operating system’s dependence on virtual memory, thereby minimizing the number of number of times Windows has to swap information between fast memory chips and your (relatively slow) hard disk. How much memory do you need?

The “Windows Vista Capable” and “Windows Vista Premium Ready” stickers that appear on some new hardware are based on standards expressed at the Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance site. According to these standards, a system needs 512 MB to be “Windows Vista Capable” and at least 1 GB to be “Windows Vista Premium Ready.” You should consider “Windows Vista Capable” to mean adequate (if barely) for Windows Vista Home Basic. For the more feature rich editions of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate treat the “Windows Vista Premium Ready” standards as a minimum. In any case, doubling these minimums will provide a better ride for most users.

You can gauge the adequacy of your computer’s physical memory by watching the Memory graph in the Resource Overview section of the Reliability and Performance Monitor (to open this tool, click the Start buttonPicture of the Start button , type perfmon, and then press ENTER). The blue line on the graph indicates the percentage of your physical memory that’s currently in use. If this line hovers in the sub arctic zone (say, north of 60 percent) most of the time under your typical working conditions, you might want to consider adding memory to your computer, particularly if you are also seeing the green line on the same graph, the line that indicates the number of hard faults per second your system is generating, spike off the top of the graph for extended periods of time. (A hard fault, which despite its name is not an error condition, is an instance where a block of memory needed by the operating system has to be fetched from the page file on the hard disk. A high number of hard faults per second indicates a large perhaps excessive reliance on virtual memory, with consequent adverse performance effects.)

Ensuring that you have an adequate virtual-memory configuration

Physical memory might be the vital lubricant of a happily humming Windows machine, but Windows is not designed to run on RAM chips alone, no matter how many of them you have. In addition to using physical RAM to store programs and data, Windows creates a hidden file on your primary hard disk and uses that file to swap pages of data out of physical memory when necessary. The “swap file” (these days more commonly called a page file) acts as an extension of main memory or, in other words, as virtual memory.

In a default installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system. By default, the minimum size is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM, and the maximum size is three times the amount of RAM (twice the minimum). You can see the page file in a Windows Explorer window if you configure Windows to show hidden and system files; look for Pagefile.sys in the root of your system drive.

To see the current configuration of your system’s virtual memory, click the Start button, click Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, click Performance Information and Tools, click Advanced Tools (in the Tasks pane at the left side of the dialog box), and then click Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows. After answering the User Account Control prompt, you’ll arrive at the Performance Options dialog box. You’re nearly there; click the Advanced tab, and then click Change. The image below shows the Virtual Memory dialog box, with default settings for a machine with 2 GB of RAM (default, that is, except that we cleared the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box to make the rest of the dialog box easier to read).

By default, Windows creates a single page file in the root folder on the same volume that holds the Windows system files and manages its size for you. The Currently allocated number near the bottom of the dialog box shows you how large the file is now. If conditions on your system change (you run an unusually large assortment of memory-intensive applications, for example), Windows might expand the page file. It might then return the file to its original size (or a smaller size) if the demand subsides. All this happens without intervention or notification if you leave the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box selected.

If you don’t want Windows to do this for you, you have the following options:

You can move the page file to a different volume, if you have more than one.
If you have more than one volume, you can establish more than one page file.
For any page file, you can choose between System managed size and Custom size.
If you choose Custom size, you can specify an initial size and a maximum size.

You can remove a paging file from a volume by selecting the volume and choosing No paging file. (You can even get rid of all paging files this way, although doing so is not recommended, even on systems with a lot of RAM.)

Should you get involved in page-file management, and, if so, how?

If you have more than one physical disk, moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. Using multiple page files split over two or more physical disks is an even better idea, because your disk controller can process multiple requests to read or write data concurrently. Don’t make the mistake of creating two or more page files using multiple volumes on a single physical disk, however. If you have a single hard disk that contains C, D, and E volumes, for example, and you split the page file over two or more of these, you might actually make your computer run more slowly than before. In that configuration, the heads on the physical disk have to do more work, loading pages from different portions of the same disk sequentially, rather than loading data from a single contiguous region of the hard disk.

If you are short of hard disk space, you might consider setting a smaller initial page file size. You can use a handy script from Windows MVP Bill James to monitor current page file usage and session peak usage. This tool, a free download at BillsWay.com, was written for Windows XP but works fine in Windows Vista. If this script nearly always shows current and peak usage levels well below the current page file size, you might want to consider reducing the initial size to save disk space. On the other hand, if you’re not short of disk space, there’s nothing to be gained from doing this and you might occasionally overload your custom settings, thereby degrading the performance of your system.

Should you enlarge your page file? Most users won’t need to do this. But you might want to keep an eye on the green line in the Memory graph of Resource Overview, as described above in “Ensuring that you have adequate RAM.” If that line is spiking off the top of the graph a great deal of the time during your normal work, you might consider increasing the maximum size of your page file. (Disregard page file spikes and disk activity in general that takes place while you’re not actually working. This is likely to be the result of search indexing, defragmentation, or other background processes and does not indicate a problem with your actual work performance.)

NoteFor more information about page file management in Windows, we recommend the article “Virtual Memory in Windows XP” on the Windows Support Center website. Although the file magnitudes discussed in this article are pertinent to the Windows XP environment rather than to Windows Vista, the basic information about how Windows manages and uses page files is still useful and valid.

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Tags:configuration, flash memory, hard disk, Management, memory, pagefile, Performance, performance monitor, physical ram, Prompt, readyboost, ReadyDrive, ROOT, SuperFetch, system, System Health Report, Tip, Virtual, virtual memory, Windows, windows system, windows task manager, windows vista

Vista does not recognise my USB flash drive

Some users are experiencing problems with their USB flash drive even when they have been guaranteed that they are compatible with Windows Vista. This is usually due to the wrong software drivers being installed. When you plug in your USB flash drive for the first time you may be required to install the drivers for it, however most USB flash drives do not come with a CD containing their drivers. The majority of drivers for USB flash drives will already have been installed with Windows Vista, so when you are asked to install the driver software for your USB flash drive select Locate and install driver software and then on the next screen choose I don’t have the disc. Show me other options, unless you do have a disc with the driver software on it, in which case allow Windows Vista to search the CD for the correct driver. Assuming that you do not have a CD with the software on it, choose Browse my computer for driver software and then instruct Windows Vista to look for the driver software on the hard drive where you installed Windows Vista. Make sure that the Include subfolders checkbox has been checked and then press Next to search your hard drive for the driver software. Once the software has been found a window may appear telling you that Windows cannot verify the publisher of the software, and as long as you are confident that the drivers are correct, select Install this driver software anyway. You may need to repeat these steps two or three times as new USB devices are found and it is important that you complete these steps for every device, otherwise your USB flash drive will continue to not be recognised.

If you plug in your USB flash drive and you are not prompted to install a driver for the new hardware then drivers may already be installed, however they may be the wrong drivers or out of date. To delete the drivers so that you can install the most recent and correct version open the Start menu and right-click on Computer and select Properties. Click on Device Manager and then expand Universal Serial Buscontrollers to display all the USB devices connected to your computer. Right-click on your USB flash drive (it must be plugged into your computer to show up here) and then select Uninstall. You may need to uninstall and reinstall Genetic USB Hub and other USB controllers as well to fix the problem. Once the device has been uninstalled right-click on Universal Serial Bus controllers and then select Scan for hardware changes and this will begin the new driver installation process described at the beginning of this article. It is worth checking the web site of your USB flash drive manufacturer, as the latest software driver may be available there for download.

If your USB flash drive is still not working correctly make sure that the file usbstor.inf is in the C:\Windows\inf folder. If it is not then open the Start menu and type cmd in Start Search to bring up the command prompt. Type in cd\ to get to the C:\ drive and then type in dir usbstor.inf /s and make a note of where usbstor.inf is located. Open up a window and navigate to the location of the file and then copy and paste it into the C:\Windows\inf folder and then restart your computer. Your USB flash drive should now work correctly.

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Tags:command, command prompt, Computer, display, driver software, Drivers, Hard drive, Hardware, installation, manager, problem, Prompt, restart, Uninstall, usb, usb devices, usb flash drive, usbstor, Windows, windows vista

Top 10 Windows Built-In Command Line Tools

For many Windows users, the thought of using the Command Prompt is either a scary experience or something that they will never need. But for some, the command prompt is a powerful tool that can be far more useful than many graphical tools available in Windows.

Being a System Administrator, I constantly use the command prompt, mostly because I access systems remotely and many tasks can be performed quickly with out the graphics over head (even though connecting via Terminal Server is very convenient).

So if you are an avid user of the command line, here are my top 10 built-in (non third party) command line tools for XP, Vista and WIndows server versions (remember these commands are not your typical tools, such as find, copy, move, dir, etc..).

1 - systeminfo - Have a need to display operating system configuration information for a local or remote machine, including service pack levels? Then systeminfo is the tool to use. When I need to connect to a system that I am not familiar with, this is the first tool I run. The output of this command gives me all the info I need including: host name, OS type, version, product ID, install date, boot time and hardware info (processor and memory). Also knowing what hot fixes are installed can be a big help when troubleshooting problems. This tool can be used to connect to a machine remotely using the following syntax: SYSTEMINFO /S system /U user

2 - ipconfig - This tool may be most useful tool for viewing and troubleshooting TCP/IP problems. It’s capability includes release or renew an adapter IP Address, display and flush DNS cache, re-register the system name in DNS. WIth Vista and some server versions, ipconfig includes support for IPv6.

Some examples when usinging ipconfig.

To view all TCP/IP information, use: ipconfig /all
To view the local DNS cache, use: ipconfig /displaydns
To delete the contents in the local DNS cache, use: ipconfig /flushdns

3 - tasklist and taskkill - If you are used to Windows Task Manager, then you’ll find tasklist very easy to use. This tool displays a list of currently running processes, including image name, PID (Process ID) and memory usage on local or remote machines. Using the /V switch displays more information in verbose mode that includes, CPU Time, user name, and modules. Tasklist includes a filter option to display a set of task based on the criteria specified.

A single or multiple processes can be killed using the PID (/PID ) or image name (/IM ). Here are two examples for doing just that:

TASKKILL /IM notepad.exe
TASKKILL /PID 1230 /PID 1241 /PID 1253 /T

Both tasklist and taskkill can connect to remote systems using the /S (system name) /U (user name) switches.

4 - netstat - Need to know who (or what) is making a connection to your computer? Then netstat is the tool you want to run. The output provides valuable information of all connections and listening ports, including the executable used in the connections. In additon to the above info, you can view Ethernet statistics, and resolve connecting host IP Addresses to a fully qualified domain name. I usually run the netstat command using the -a (displays all connection info), -n (sorts in numerical form) and -b (displays executable name) switches.

5 - type - A lesser known tool to those who don’t work with the command prompt. For Administrators, the type command is the perfect tool for viewing text files. But what many people don’t know about the type tool, is it’s capability to read multiple files at once. For example to view multiple text files, just separate each file with a space:

type firstfile.txt secondfile.txt thirdfile.txt

6 - net command - Although this tool is more known as a command, the net command is really like a power drill with different bits and is used to update, fix, or view the network or network settings.

It is mostly used for viewing (only services that are started), stopping and starting services:

net stop server
net start server
net start (display running services)

and for connecting (mapping) and disconnecting with shared network drives:

net use m: \\myserver\sharename
net use m: \\myserver\sharename /delete

Other commands used with net command are, accounts (manage user accounts), net print (manage print jobs), and net share (manage shares).

Below are all the options that can be used with the net command.

To display the complete syntax for each command, just type net help followed by the command - net help use .

7 - nslookup - With the Internet, DNS (Domain Name Service) is the key for allowing us to use friendly names when surfing the web instead of needing to remember IP Addresses. But when there are problems, nslookup can be a valuable tool for testing and troubleshooting DNS servers.

Nslookup can be run in two modes: interactive and noninteractive. Noninteractive mode is useful when only a single piece of data needs to be returned.

Don’t let the help results intimidate you. Nslookup is easy to use. Some of the options I use when troubleshooting are:

set ds (displays detailed debugging information of behind the scenes communication when resolving an host or IP Address).

set domain (sets the default domain to use when resolving, so you don’t need to type the fully qualified name each time).

set type (sets the query record type that will be returned, such as A, MX, NS)

server NAME (allows you to point nslookup to use other DNS servers than what is configured on your computer)

To exit out of interactive mode, type exit .

8 - ping and tracert - These tools can be helpful with connectivity to other systems. Ping will test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network, while tracert (traceroute) is used to determine the route taken by packets across an IP network.

To ping a system just type at the prompt: ping www.google.com. By default, ping will send three ICMP request to the host and listen for ICMP “echo response” replies. Ping also includes switches to control the number of echo requests to send (-n ), and to resolve IP addresses to hostname (-a ).

To use tracert, type at the prompt: tracert www.google.com. You can force tracert to not resolve address to hostnames by using the -d switch, or set the desired timeout (milliseconds) for each reply using -w switch.

9 - gpresult - Used mostly in environments that implement group poicies, gpresults (Group Policy Results) verifies all policy settings in effect for a specific user or computer. The command is simple to use, just enter gpresults at the prompt. It can also be used to connect to computers remotely using the /S and /U switches.

10 - netsh - Without a doubt the most powerful command line tool available in Windows. Netsh is like the swiss army knife for configuring and monitoring Windows computers from the command prompt. It capabilities include:

Configure interfaces
Configure routing protocols
Configure filters
Configure routes
Configure remote access behavior for Windows-based remote access routers that are running the Routing and Remote Access Server (RRAS) Service
Display the configuration of a currently running router on any computer

Some examples of what you can do with netsh:

Enable or disable Windows firewall:

netsh firewall set opmode disable

Enable or disable ICMP Echo Request (for pinging) in Windows firewall:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 enable

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 disable

Configure your NIC to automatically obtain an IP address from a DHCP server:

netsh interface ip set address “Local Area Connection” dhcp

(For the above command, if your NIC is named something else, use netsh interface ip show config and replace the name at Local Area Connection).

As you can see netsh can do alot. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, check out the following Microsoft article for more info on netsh.

The use of Windows command line tools can be a powerful alternative when only a command prompt is available. I’m sure there are plenty more commands that I have not mention.

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Tags:administrator, command, command line tools, command prompt, Commands, Computer, hardware info, ipconfig, netstat, Network, nslookup, operating system configuration, Prompt, system, systeminfo, tasklist, Troubleshoot, Troubleshooting, troubleshooting problems, Windows, windows users

Bypass the Windows Vista log-on screen on multiaccount PCs

When you have more than one user account on a Windows Vista PC, every time you restart your PC you’ll see a welcome screen listing all the accounts on the machine. You’ll have to click one and then type in your log-on information in order to start using Windows Vista.

But what if, like many people, you use one primary account nearly all the time and use others only on occasion? You’d like to bypass the welcome screen listing all the user accounts and automatically log in whenever you start Windows Vista but Vista can’t seem to accomplish this simple task.

Actually, you can do it, as you’ll see in this hack. Follow it, and you’ll automatically log in on your primary account and then be able to switch to any other account when you wish:

1. At the Search box or a command prompt, type control userpasswords2 and press Enter. The User Accounts screen appears.

2. Highlight the account that you want to automatically log on with, then uncheck the box next to Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. Click OK.

3. The Automatically Log On dialog box appears. Type in the password for the account that you want to log on automatically. (If the account shown isn’t the one that you want to log on automatically, type in the username and password for the correct account. Click OK.)

4. From now on, you’ll automatically log in using that account. When you’re logged in, if you want to switch to another account, use Fast User Switching: Click the Start button, click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the Start menu, and select Switch User. You’ll come to a screen listing all users on your PC, where you can log in as any other user.

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Prompt

Get maximum performance from Windows Vista

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