I bet majority of people are facing the same issue – slowness when they migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista. You may ask, what are the solutions?
The simplest solution is to
turn OFF all the windows visual effect. However you will lose all the Vista nice looking interfaces (GUI). No one is aware of you’re actually using Vista. So, how do you keep the Vista interface without scarify performance?
Instead of choosing “Adjust for best performance”, you can select the “custom” in the performance options windows.
Let’s look at the cool 3D feature in Vista (i.e. Windows Button +Tab), when do you actually use it other than just to show off? It is a completely a useless feature. To disable that, you basically just uncheck the “Enable desktop composition”.
To keep the vista GUI without scarify any performance, I disable all the windows visual effect except for the following:
- Show preview and filters in folders
- Show thumbnails instead of icon
- Smooth edges of screen fonts
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Well, I like the preview and showing thumbnails. Without that, it doesn’t seem like I’m using Vista. Smooth edges of screen fonts makes the fonts easy to read I suppose. The last visual styles on window and buttons are the most important thing which enables the whole Vista GUI.
At last, why I want to use Vista GUI?
Is it because I want to show off? Is it cool? Nope, it is because it makes my fonts easy to be read in my laptop with 14 inch screen. I have tried many options including changing the font size, turning on Vista GUI is still the best solution. It really makes everything easy to read. I don't feel any performance drop as compared to disable all visual effects.
Hope this can help boost your windows performance but still enjoying the Vista experience at the same time.
P/S: You can also
run defragment to improve your system performance.
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Written by ChampDog on March 31st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on GUI and Tips and Tricks (Windows) and operating system.
I used to copy a lot of folders from one machine to another machine. However, I misunderstood the overwrite feature in windows. This is to share my stupidity.
Consider the following scenario:
Folder A (Machine X)
File 1
File 2
Folder A (Machine Y)
File 3
File 4
Assuming machine X and Y are connected in the network, I want to copy File 1 and File 2 from Machine X to Machine Y and the end-result will be something like:
Folder A (Machine Y)
File 1
File 2
File 3
File 4
So I right click and “Copy†Folder A in Machine X and “Paste†it to Machine Y. A message box appears as below asking whether I want to overwrite (my assumption) the existing Folder A.
What I really need to do is just click “Yesâ€, it will MERGE the Folder A in Machine Y without removing the existing File 3 and File 4. Before that, I used to click "No" because I thought File 3 and File 4 will be gone. So what I did is manually copy File 1 and File 2 to the Folder A in Machine Y. If I have 10 folders, I actually manually do it 10 times! You see how stupid I am!
Look back to the message carefully (which I ignore all the while), it actually explains it very clear - "Do you want to MERGE this folder". Ya, Windows XP doesn't explain that and probably this is the reason I thought all the while is the overwriting feature if we replace the folder. No, it is the merge feature.
Written by ChampDog on December 18th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Tips and Tricks (Windows).
Yesterday, Nov 4 2007 was the last day of daylight saving in US. However, the
Qlock kicks out last week on 29 Oct 2007. I check the Qlock setting and it shows the daylight saving ends at the last Sunday of October (29 Oct) which is wrong. The daylight saving should end yesterday. It looks the Qlock is not that accurate in daylight saving.
Accidentally, I found out a new feature in Vista allow you to add additional clocks. It adjusts the daylight saving correctly. This is what I do:
- Click the Time at lower right
- Click "Change Time & Settings"
- Click "Additional Clock" tab
Here you go, just set the additional clocks that you want based on the time zone. Once you done, move our your mouse and you see the following tooltip:
Then, click the time and see the following:
Is it cool? The only problem is it only able to show 2 additional clocks. I think it still okay with me since I use the third clock (UK) once in a blue moon. This is only available in Vista but not in XP. Now, I start wondering should I uninstall my
Qlock? It looks like now I have no reasons to use Qlock anymore in my Vista laptop.
Written by ChampDog on November 5th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Tips and Tricks (Windows) and World Clock.
For some reasons, my laptop (Microsoft Vista) unable to share files in my office network. I can connect my laptop to my office PC (Microsoft XP) but not the other way round. Ping is okay but is the file sharing doesn't work from Vista to XP. I have tried couples of steps but no lucks. However, this doesn't happen in my home network where I can share files in 2 ways with my PC (XP).
At last, I figure out the firewall which blocks the file sharing in Vista. I do enable the file sharing in the firewall (that's why I can use it in my home network) and somehow it doesn't allow in my office network. So what I did is to disable the firewall and everything works fine. I just disable the firewall in local LAN network but not the wireless LAN network. It should be quite safe since most of the time I use the wireless LAN network.
I don't know if this is a bug but I believe so since I"m working fine in my home network. So if you encounter file sharing in Vista, for a quick fix you may want to try disable the firewall. It may works. Perhaps you have a better idea even with firewall enabled? I will try your tips then.
Written by ChampDog on November 4th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Tips and Tricks (Windows).
One of the thing that I dislike Windows as compared to Linux is the stability issues. Windows loves to crash especially if you do not restart your PC for a long period of time. It happens to me many times already. Most of the cases, what I do is to re-install my windows. I have been doing this once a year in average.
What the heck yesterday, it happened to me again. 2 of my main applications (i.e. MS office, Citrix Client) cannot run at all after I restarted my PC. It has some kind of "dynamic dll link error". I try the system restore point, it didn't help at all. Ok, never mind, I re-installed one by one to fix the problems.
However, I'm happy too fast. I got the following RUNDLL error message when I run the system properties from control panel:
"An exception occurred while trying to run "C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sysdm.cpl", System"
It seems like the sysdm.cpl is corrupted and I have no choice to reinstall the OS. I hate windows! I almost give up until I find a utility called "SFC" - System File Checker I guess. It is the utility that comes together with Windows. It able to rescue all the protected system files. What you need to do is to run the following command in your command prompt:
You need to put your original Windows OS CD into the drive and the SFC will do the rest. After running the SFC utility, the problem above doesn't occur anymore. Oh, thanks I learn one new thing today that I no need to reinstall the whole OS for system files corruption (which I used to do) to save my little baby. It saves me a lot of time too (i.e. time to install the OS and all the applications). Hope this is something helpful to you, perhaps not now but in future.
Few tips and trick:
- Restart your PC at least once a week
- Run "chkdsk" at least once a week
- If windows system files corrupted, try use system restore point.
- If it doesn't work, try the SFC utility.
This is assuming your PC is not attacked by virus or hackers. This is assuming your PC is attacked by himself (Windows OS) - self destructive mode. I'm just kidding. Good luck!
Written by ChampDog on October 20th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Tips and Tricks (Windows) and operating system.
