Start Applications Faster In Windows Vista
One of the things we spend most of our time doing at a PC is waiting for applications to start. Larger applications, particularly, can take what seems like an eternity - OK, 10 to 15 seconds on a fast PC - before they're ready to use. And small programs, even though they load quickly, don't always"pop" on screen as quickly as one would like.
Windows has a lot to do when it loads a program. It has to suck the program file data off your hard disk, something that a clean, optimized drive will handle more quickly. It also has to make room in your PC's system memory (RAM) for the program, which means your virtual memory settings play a significant part, and, of course, more RAM definitely helps.
And then there's the program itself, which must read through all your fonts (the fewer the better), load its own add-on components (DLLs, plug-ins, etc.), and allocate its own section of your hard disk to store temporary files.
But there's also something else at work here, something that isn't strictly necessary. Windows Vista includes an "Application Compatibility" system that checks each program you run against a database of known issues, and warns you if there's a potential problem. This takes time and resources, and is really only useful when you’re installing or running older programs not specifically designed for Vista.
Once you've set up your PC and tested it with most of the software you'll be using on a daily basis, you really don't need the Application Compatibility system any more. Turn it off, and that's one less thing Windows needs to do each and every time you start a program.
Open the Start menu, type gpedit.msc into the Search box, and press Enter to open the Group Policy Object Editor. Expand the branches to Local Computer Policy → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Application Compatibility. In the Application Compatibility section, double-click the following settings to configure them:
Turn Off Program Compatibility Engine
Set this to Enabled to turn off the system that checks each program you run, and allow programs to start more quickly. The downside is that some of the User Account Control (UAC) features may stop working with pre-Vista applications, which may cause those older programs to stop working.
* The Group Policy Object Editor (gpedit.msc) is only available in the Business and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista; it's not available in Home Basic and Home Premium.
Turn Off Program Compatibility Assistant.
The Assistant is the window that pops up after you install a program or use it for the first time to
inform you that it may not have run correctly. Obviously, this is something you're probably able to determine for yourself, so set this option to Enabled to get rid of these prompts.
Remove Program Compatibility Property Page.
This gets rid of the Compatibility tab in a program's Properties window. If you're setting the other options here to Enabled, you might as well set this to Enabled, too.
When you're done, close the Group Policy Object Editor and restart Windows for the change to take effect. If one of your programs stops working, you'll need to come back here to re-enable the Application Compatibility engine.
Tags: dll,memory,virtual,hard disk
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