Yozuki Drive

Out of the box, Vista has a few annoying quirks and a ton of bloat that makes it slow as molasses. If you are determined to make Vista your operating system of choice like I have, or if you are forced into using it with no choice, fear not! Vista can be made into a speedster and a user friendly OS by beating it into submission with a series of tweaks. These are what I employ and may be useful to you. I warn you not to do these unless you know absolutely sure what you are doing.

Disable administrator and user account control.
In power options, choose maximum performance.
Turn off security center and security center warning.
Add an extra page file to a secondary harddrive, 1.5 times the amount of RAM
Disable Windows Defrag to run on schedule
Go to add remove programs, under turn Windows features off, disable Remote Differential Compression
Launch msconfig and check noguiboot, enable OS Boot Information. Under startup in msconfig, uncheck: iTunes, QuickTime, Skype, Xfire, Google Update, Java Platform SE, Windows Defender
Use the program TweakVI, set the settings to your likeing, but make sure to disable Prefetch and Superfetch
Go into the Start Menu customize menu and disable Search Communications, Search Favorites and History, and disable searching for files
In your router set the DNS servers to the OpenDNS servers, 208.67.222.222 as the primary, and 208.67.220.220 as the secondary.
In the registry disable low disk space checks by going to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
Make a new key, name it Explorer
Make a new DWORD, name it NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set to 1

In the registry, turn on error messages at startup and shutdown by going to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
Look for a 32-bit DWORD named VerboseStatus, and change it from 0 to 1.

In the registry, quicken shutdown times by going to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Set WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 1000

In Local Area Connection Properties, remve QoS, File and print Sharing, Internet Protocal V6, Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper and Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder.

Disable the following services:
Application Experience
Application Information
Application Layer Gateway Service
Ati External Event Utility
Background Intelligence Transfer
Base Filtering Engine
Certificate Propagation
CNG Key Isolation
Com+ Event System
Com+ System Application
Computer Browser
Cryptographic Services
DFS Replication
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Hose
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
DNS Client
Extensible Authentication Protocol
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
Health Key and Certificate Management
IKE and AuthIP Keying Modules
Indexing Service
Interactive Services Detection
Internet Connection Sharing
IP Helper
IP Security Policy Agent
KtmRM for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Link-Layer for Topology Discovery Mapper
Logitech Bluetooth Service
Microsoft .NET Framework NGEN v2.0.50727
Microsoft iSCSI initiator Service
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Netlogon
Network Access Protection
Network Connections
Network List Service
Network Location Awareness
Offline Files
Parental Controls
Peer Name Resolution Protocol
peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
performance Logs & Alerts
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Print Spooler
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Protected Storage
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
ReadyBoost
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Remote Access Connections Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
SSDP Discovery
Security Center
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service
Shell Hardware Detection
Secondary Logon
Server
SL UI notification Service
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
SNMP Trap
Superfetch
System Event Notification Service
Tablet PC Input Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telephony
Terminal Services
Terminal Services Configuration
Thread ordering Server
UPnP Device host
User Privilege Service
Virtual Disk
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Windows Backup
Windows Card Space
Windows Color System
Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar
Windows Defender
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Event Collector
Windows Firewall
Windows Live Setup Service
Windows Media Center Extender Service
Windows Media Center Receiver Service
Windows Media Center Scheduler Service
Windows Media Center Service Launcher
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Modules Installer
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0
Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Windows Search
Windows Time
Windows Update
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
Wired AutoConfig
WLAN AutoConfig
WMI Performance Adapter

Set the following services to manual and start them as needed:
VMware Authorization Service
VMware DHCP Service
VMware NAT Service
VMware REgistration Service
VMware Virtual Mount Management
Windows Installer
Workstation

Leave the following services to automatic:
Ad-Aware 2007 Service
AVG E-mail Scanner
AVG7 Alert Manager Server
AVG7 Resident Shield Service
AVG7 Update Service
Base Filtering Engine
Bonjour Service
COMODO Firewall Pro Helper Service
DCOM Server Process Launcher
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
DHCP Client
Group Policy Client
Human Interface Device Access
Multimedia Class Scheduler
Network Store INterface Service
plug and Play
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manage
Software Licensing
Task Schedulre
Themes
User Profile Service
Windows Audio
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework
Windows Event Log
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Management Intstrumentation

Set these services to Automatic (Delayed Start):
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
TPM Base Services

For maximum effect, it is best to do these on a clean install.  It is also a good idea to install any service packs, updates and all software you need before employing these.  Many disabled services will render installations and some weirder, offbrand programs from working correctly.  Your computer will also be locked down from the rest of the network.  To access another computer, you’ll need to input the full network path.