Basic Strategies for Improving Performance

Now that we’ve established a baseline performance level for the hardware and software components that make up a Windows Vista PC and introduced the major diagnostic tools, it’s time to look more closely at techniques and settings that can improve performance. In this section, we cover the following basic performance-enhancing strategies:

  • Ensuring that you have adequate RAM

  • Ensuring that you have an adequate virtual-memory configuration

  • Tuning and troubleshooting Superfetch

  • 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 ...

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