Description
This article tries to improve the performance of your existing
Windows Vista codename Longhorn installation. The increase in performance is brought about by changing a few properties of the various services that come with the operating system.
Longhorn Services
The latest release of Longhorn (build 4074) was done at the WINHEC conference in Seattle. As this version of the operating system is still in its beta stages, this release is not tuned to perform optimally. Also this version of the operating system would need much more memory than the final release.
Also this operating system would need to go thru various iterations before a stable version of the operating system is out (RTM).
One way to make the present release work with minimum memory and better performance would be choose proper settings. This article would highlight some of these things. (am sure this is not an exhaustive list).
In longhorn a new system of restoring has been introduced called system restore. This feature will help a user to checkpoint the settings on him machine. Also the operating system will continuously monitor for changes that occur to the system. While the operating system is monitoring the changes it also holds a log of these changes. This would enable Longhorn to restore the operating system to a previous date/time. As this monitoring can be very resource intensive this service can be shut off when not required gaining some performance.
One such service is the Automatic updates service which looks for updates form the Microsoft update sites. In the case of longhorn we can conveniently shut this off.
To turn of system restore and automatic updates use the my computer property page. In the performance options use "Adjust to best performance". doing so will change the look and feel of the operating system but it increases performance.
The properties of the below mentioned services can be changed to give you a better performance. But if you are working on a specific service then you will have to enable them. Hence it is importance that one should understand the workings of these services so that one can put them on when required.
|
Sl. No. |
Service name |
Remarks |
Default Setting |
Recommended Setting |
| 1 |
Audio / Video Real Time Service |
Used for throttle the CPU bandwidth reservation for multimedia applications. |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 2 |
Automatic Updates |
Downloading critical updates. (Currently not full fledged.) |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 3 |
Background Intelligent Transfer Service |
Helps in windows update |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 4 |
Base Firewall Engine |
Default fire wall that monitors the network traffic in and out of the machine |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 5 |
Biometric Resource Manager |
Manages biometric devices and algorithms. |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 6 |
Castle Discovery |
Advertises the computer |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 7 |
Certificate Propagation |
Propagates certificates for smart devices |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 8 |
Computer Browser |
Maintains an updated list of computers |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 9 |
Cryptographic Services |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 10 |
Error Reporting Service |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 11 |
Font Cache Service |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 12 |
FontCacheService |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 13 |
Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) / Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) |
Name resolution, Network address translation |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 14 |
IPSEC Services |
for https |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 15 |
Layer 2 Service |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 16 |
Logon Hours |
Enforces restrictions on times users can log onto the computer. |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 17 |
Offline Files Service |
Allows network files to be used while the local computer is offline. |
Automatic |
Disabled |
| 18 |
Parental Control Auditing |
Provides parental auditing of users on the system. |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 19 |
Protected Storage |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 20 |
Secondary Logon |
Enables the processes to start under alternate account |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 21 |
Shell Hardware Detection |
Provides notifications for AutoPlay hardware events. |
Automatic |
Manual |
| 22 |
SSDP Discovery Service |
|
Automatic |
Disabled |
| 23 |
System Maintenance Service |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 24 |
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 25 |
Theme and Desktop Manager |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 26 |
WindowsEventForwardingService |
|
Automatic |
Manual |
| 27 |
Wireless Configuration |
|
Automatic |
Manual |