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Tips for Vista users

post #1 of 9
2/6/07 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hey all,

I've had a few request by PM recently asking for help with issues in Vista with regards to the Dell Inspiron series...

I thought it might be a good idea to create a thread where everyone can share their little Vista "tricks".

One thing I found after I installed Vista was that the subwoofer volume was only half way up by default. It can be a difficult setting to find to, so heres where:

control panel > sound > click speakers > then click properties > then on the levels tab, you can crank up the subwoofer volume!


Also, hard drive activity seems to be causing some people grief. One possible cause is the Windows Search/Indexing service...all this does is keeps tabs on all the files on the hard drive so that if you come to search for a file, it will search very quickly. I ALWAYS disable this on Vista installs...unless you do a LOT of searching on your hard drive, I recommend you disable this one:

contro panel > administrative tools > services > scroll down and find "Windows Search" > double click it > press the stop button > then in the drop down menu, choose disabled.



Overclocking the video card in Vista can be done (once the BIOS is flashed with the unlocked BIOS found on this forum) using nVidia nTune. This program adds extra options to the nVidia Control Panel applet. It can be found here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html


If you hate that annoying prompt asking for permission to do anything, you can disable it completely in control panel > user accounts > and click the link for "turn user accounts control on or off".
Microsoft recommend you dont do this, but it gets far too annoying, and does not make your computer any less secure.

Thats the main ones I can think of for now. Please feel free to comment or add other "tips" or "tweaks"!
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post #2 of 9
2/6/07 at 10:41pm
Good Idea...

Also great tips.

I will try to give you some

For any of you that accidentally delete your recycling bin and cannot find out how to get it back, many people will tell you that you need to edit the registry but all you have to do is right click the desktop, click personalize, and then you can click on change the desktop icons. Once in there just select recycling bin and then your good.

If you have troubles with programs and you cant install them correctly or when you run them every time you have to accept a EULA agreement or say don’t register, you can try to install or run the program as an administer by just right clicking the install file or program and select run as administrator.

If you have a flash drive or SD card that says its to slow you can try the following to speed it up so you can use ReadyBoost.
Right Click My Computer>Properties>Device Manager>Disk Drives> Right Click your Flash Drive or SD Card>Properties>Policies>Optimize for Performance


Thats all I can think of for now.
Chad
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post #3 of 9
2/6/07 at 11:19pm
The search feature built into the start menu can also be used as the Run dialog.

For instance, you can type in "msconfig" and just hit enter and it will run msconfig.
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post #4 of 9
2/7/07 at 12:30am
does anyone have any tips on what processes can be disabled? vista uses way more processes than xp and i dunno which ones i can safely disable without compromising the os.
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post #5 of 9
2/7/07 at 5:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaCHooKa Man
does anyone have any tips on what processes can be disabled? vista uses way more processes than xp and i dunno which ones i can safely disable without compromising the os.

Try here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=87443

Just be careful, a lot are required, and are running for a reason!
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post #6 of 9
2/14/07 at 5:55pm
Thread Starter 
Another good tip:

You can gain an extra few GB of disk space regularly as System Restore eats up a lot of space...run Disk Cleanup weekly...remove all the temp files, and on the "More Options" tab, choose the System Restore function...

I gain a few GB back every few weeks by running this.
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post #7 of 9
2/15/07 at 1:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_scotsman
Hey all,

I've had a few request by PM recently asking for help with issues in Vista with regards to the Dell Inspiron series...

I thought it might be a good idea to create a thread where everyone can share their little Vista "tricks".

One thing I found after I installed Vista was that the subwoofer volume was only half way up by default. It can be a difficult setting to find to, so heres where:

control panel > sound > click speakers > then click properties > then on the levels tab, you can crank up the subwoofer volume!


Also, hard drive activity seems to be causing some people grief. One possible cause is the Windows Search/Indexing service...all this does is keeps tabs on all the files on the hard drive so that if you come to search for a file, it will search very quickly. I ALWAYS disable this on Vista installs...unless you do a LOT of searching on your hard drive, I recommend you disable this one:

contro panel > administrative tools > services > scroll down and find "Windows Search" > double click it > press the stop button > then in the drop down menu, choose disabled.



Overclocking the video card in Vista can be done (once the BIOS is flashed with the unlocked BIOS found on this forum) using nVidia nTune. This program adds extra options to the nVidia Control Panel applet. It can be found here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html


If you hate that annoying prompt asking for permission to do anything, you can disable it completely in control panel > user accounts > and click the link for "turn user accounts control on or off".
Microsoft recommend you dont do this, but it gets far too annoying, and does not make your computer any less secure.

Thats the main ones I can think of for now. Please feel free to comment or add other "tips" or "tweaks"!


Scottie, so you can use the sliders to overclock? Did you use Juan's unlocked bios? We can't get this on the 7800gtx on the 9300. Any suggestions?
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post #8 of 9
2/15/07 at 4:36am
Thread Starter 
Yea, you can use the sliders with nVidia nTune.

You are correct, I am using Juan's unlocked BIOS.
Im not sure about the 7800GTX, I dont know much about them...if its not unlocked, then you're screwed...
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post #9 of 9
3/5/07 at 10:45pm
Nice I dea totally bookmarking this page
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