1. Keep Aero on!
Many people think that Vista’s new look with the translucent windows and animated effects will degrade performance, and as a result switch back to classic or Basic. This is a common misconception, so let me clear things up a bit. Prior to Vista, Windows actually used the CPU to calculate what to draw on the screen and where to do it, etc. Only after everything was rendered through the CPU, would Windows send the data to the video card. This was very inefficient, and meant that the CPU wasted valuable resources drawing the screen, while the video processor went largely unused. Aero, on the other hand, actually uses your video card for, what it was meant to be used for: rendering your screen. This takes the burden off the CPU and makes the video processor on your video do the work of figuring out what to put on your screen. And since video cards are designed to do stuff like this, it does a much better job than the CPU used to do, allowing Microsoft to use all their nice eye candy while still providing much superior performance than in the past. In a nutshell, Aero frees up your CPU and actually uses your video card, resulting in a performance gain. Switching to classic or Basic forces Windows to use the old method, and it will degrade your performance. Of course, you’ll need a DirectX 9 or higher video card to take advantage of Aero.
2. Hands Free “Flip 3d”
The new 3d task switching feature (flip 3d) not only looks cool, but it helped increase my productivity. To help even further, if you hold CTRL+Windows key and then hit TAB, you can release those buttons and still have Flip 3d open. Hit either the tab key or the arrow keys to switch between windows or click on the specific window you want to open it.
3. Fully Disable the Search Indexer
I’ve got to admit, the new search on Vista runs great. My only problem: I never use it. Back in January 2007, before Vista had launched, I attend a Microsoft developer’s conference. The spokesman made the claim that people would stop using the start menu, the run dialog, and even explorer, in favor of simply searching. Honestly I was skeptical then, and am even more skeptical now. I know what I want, and I know where it is, and so very rarely do I search. For others like me, having search indexing on is a waste of resources, so here’s how to disable it.
A. Double click on “Computer” on your desktop or start menu and right click on your hard drive, click “Properties” and uncheck the “Index this drive for faster searching”. Repeat for all hard drives.
B. Goto the Start menu and from the search bar (or Run menu) type in services.msc
C. Scroll down until you reach Windows Search. Right click on it and goto Properties.
D. From the drop down, select “Disabled” hit and apply and OK.
Screenshot: Vista search properties
The only issue is that now Vista will have an out of date search index, and by default, Vista will still use that out of date index, so our final step will be to make Windows search the old fashioned way. To do that, once again open “Computer” and click on the “Organize” bar. Select “Folder and Search Options” and click on the “Search” tab. If you want to continue utilizing the index you already have (note, that it will get out of date pretty bad over time, and Vista will always default to these results, forcing you to confirm after the initial search that you want to search outside of the index. For these reasons I recommend abandoning the index altogether.) I’ve personally set it to “Always search file names only” and checked the “Don’t use the Index when searching the file system” which seems to work very well for me.
Screenshot: Vista search filter
4. Filter file types as you browse
Now, right after talking a bit of smack about Vista’s search feature, I want to give it some love. Since there’s a search bar on every explorer window, it’s now very easy to find a file, even in a folder with tens of thousand of files. For example, if we’re looking only for GIF files in a folder, if we simply type *.gif in the search box, Vista will automatically filter the window to only include GIF files. Just don’t try this at the root of your drive or else Vista will start searching the entire drive.
Screenshot: Vista search
5. Open Command Window Here
Here’s a quick trick that I use quite often. Hold down shift and right click on a folder. In the menu you’ll have the option to “Open Command Window Here” which does just that. Very handy.
