Vista 32/64 SSD Windows Registry tweaks

[Tony]

We need to open regedit.exe...

> start
> type regedit in the start search box
> regedit.exe will pop up in the search box hit it to open it.
> here we go.


1 Superfetch...we need to disable this, navigate to:

Hkey_local_machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters...rightclick EnableSuperfetch...hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK

2 Prefetch...we need to disable this, navigate to:

Hkey_local_machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters...right click Enableprefetcher...hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK



Moving on some tweaks that generally speed things up...and they are real close to where you are already in regedit

Go back 1 folder to memory management

We want to enable clearPageFilesAtShutdown.

We want to enable LargeSystemCache

We want to set SecondLevelDataCache to the size of the Level2 cache on your CPU. You edit this in decimal mode...if you have 4096KB level 2 cache on the CPU just set 4096 in decimal and hit OK.



Next some tweaks to speed up vista and its write cache:

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem.

Check the pic for the edits:

[Tony]

Now we move to services.

1 search indexing....disabled

Start...control panel...classic view...administrative tools...services...scroll down to windows search and right click...properties...change startup type to disabled

2 scroll down to superfetch and make sure its "disabled" on startup

Here as an example I have highlighted superfetch and what to set....right click on the service, go to properties and then set how you want the service to act.

[Tony]

1st.

We need to stop Vista indexing the SSD. SSD drives seek so fast Indexing is not needed, infact while Vista is indexing the SSD it is slowing down your system.

Once you uncheck indexing follow the onscreen instructions, you may have to skip some files you do not have access to.



While you have the drive properties open, hit the tools tab, then defragment...un check schedule defragment this drive.

2nd we need to enable write caching advanced performance on the SSD.

Right click my computer, properties, device manager and follow what you see on the pic.



While around Device manager etc lets disable system restore.

advanced system settings tab...system protection tab...un check C drive and follow on screen instructions.

Now most people have 4GB of system memory when running Vista, disabling the page file stops Vista writing to the drive and uses system memory more.

Right click my computer...properties...advanced system settings..advanced tab...performance..settings...advanced tab...Virtual memory...hit change...un check "Automatically manage paging file for all drives" and then check "no paging file" and hit set




The next tweak is more general, it involves setting vista to run in performance mode. If you like the glossy feel to Vista, then you could really leave this option alone..however if you are on a laptop or slower PC this can help speed the system up.

While you are around system properties...set what you see in the pic.



Last but not least we can now turn off Hibernation. An easy and fast way of doing this is from cmd.exe

>Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.

> In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt or Cmd.exe, and then click Run as Administrator on the pop up contextual menu.

>If you are prompted by User Account Control (UAC) for permission, click Continue.

>At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

powercfg.exe -h off

>Type exit, and then press ENTER.

Job Done..this should free up a huge amount of room also on the SSD.

[Tony]

Installing a ramdrive allows us to help with 2 items. A ramdrive can be used as a readyboost drive...Physical ram is the fastest IO capable drive on a standard system and if you have enough installed you can take a small amount for free to help speed up your system.

What we need is a ramdrive that creates an image of everything on the drive as you shut down and reloads this image at boot onto a freshly formatted ramdisk. Now there are a few products that will do this, for this guide I will use ramdisk from Cenatek:
https://www.cenatek.com/product_page...nload_list.php

Now for Vista there are 2 versions you can use, I use Ramdisk VE but there is a free beta version that you can use also. I do suggest if you like the product you support the company that supplies it.

Download the ramdisk and install it to your system. Once installed you can copy my system here which uses a 750MB ramdrive. if your system has 6 or 8GB of ram you may set a larger drive to use...this is up to you.

Set what you see in the pic...Notice the drive is set to not format...you will see why in a moment.



Once you have set what you see in the above pic go back to the Settings tab and hit Start RAMDisk

Wait while it loads the driver...then you need to mount the drive and format it. Start>control panel>classic view>admin tools>computer management>disk manager

Here you should now be greeted with a prompt that you have a new drive, mount the drive and quick format it NTFS or FAT32, give the name RamDrive.

Once the drive is formatted navigate to my computer you should now see the RamDrive...right click on it and go to properties. just like the SSD drive uncheck Indexing...not needed then click on the Readyboost tab.



close down properties and click to open the RamDrive. Create 2 folders if you use Internet Explore and Firefox...one called IE_cache and the other named FF_Cache.

Once you have done this close down my computer


Its now time to reboot the PC to make sure the RamDisk is working correctly, you can manually close the RamDisk APP now it has saved your settings and all other apps you may have open and proceed to reboot.

Now shutdown should take a little longer than normal, this is due to the image of data on the RamDisk being written to the SSD drive. On boot the machine should also take a few seconds longer than normal, this is due to the Ramdisk being formatted then the image that was written to the SSD is mounted on the RamDisk...so where you left off is where you restart

Navigate back to my computer, you should see the RamDisk looking like a standard hard drive..if its not there you need to go back to the Ramdisk App settings and check its configured correctly.

If all is good we need to tweak Internet Explorer and Firefox to use the drive for the cache files.

For IE go to Internet options...on the General tab look for "Temporary Internet files" and hit settings. Set the box size to 75MB then hit Move folder and point IE to the Cache folder you made on the RamDisk.

For Firefox3:

1. Open a new tab and type "about:config" in the address bar and hit Enter.
2. Right click anywhere on page and from context menu select "New" and "String".
3. For string name, type in "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory" (without the quotes).
4. For string value, type in the path to where you want to move your cache directory. IE D:\FF_cache if D is the RamDisk and you created a folder called FF_cache.
5. Restart Firefox.

Job done...quick and painless

Further tweaks you may want to use with the RamDisk

If you have a system running 8GB or more memory you can allocate 4GB to the RamDisk. OutLook has a habit of random writing many files to the hard drive continually so for the brave you can move the OST and PST folders also to the RamDisk. Be aware though you will have to watch the size of these folders on the drive to make sure you leave room for ReadyBoost and the browser caches...



Also make sure to check the box i highlighted here in the pic and set a time of 900seconds (15mins) for each backup. This means you can have OutLook Randomly writing files to the RamDisk and safeguard that data every 15 mins, I however have not tested this as I use Exchange via IE for email...

This would be a high maintenance mod and is not really needed in most cases.

With the RamDisk configured to save an image on shutdown and reload this image at boot the RamDisk settings are initiallised each time the computer is restarted. On each boot you should see the RamDisk in My Computer with Readyboost cache and your browser folders.

Its worth checking a few times to make sure this is happening correctly to start, I have not had an issue here and rebooted over 200 times since it was installed but I do check on each boot just to be sure.

Use this thread to discuss any of these tweaks
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=43525