12 Great Do-It-Yourself PC Projects

Tweak Vista for Peak Computing Performance

Does Windows Vista annoy you with its slow performance? Sorry, that was a stupid question. Let's jump right in with a few simple and practical ways to improve Vista's overall speed.

Slim Down the User Interface

Regardless of the task at hand, Vista puts up a beautiful screen; but you wouldn't run a marathon while wearing a tuxedo. So get Vista out of its white tie and tails and into some jogging shorts.

Start by junking the Sidebar. Sure, its analog clock and RSS feed are nice, but perhaps they're not worth the CPU cycles they use. Right-click the Sidebar and select Properties. Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts, and then click OK. The Sidebar will be gone with your next boot.

Next, turn off some or all of Vista's cool-looking but cycle-eating visual effects. Click Start, type sysdm.cpl, press <Enter>, and tell the User Account Control dialog box to Continue. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab, and then click the Settings button in the Performance box. In the resulting dialog box's Visual Effects tab, uncheck whichever options you can live without, such as Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing (available with the Aero environment). Or if you prefer, you can leave the decision up to Windows; to establish this arrangement, simply select Adjust for best performance.

Access Your Files and Folders Fast

Shaving a few seconds off the time necessary to load a file won't help much if you spend 3 minutes looking for it. Here are some ways to quickly reach the programs, files, and folders you need.

Look at the top-left corner of Windows Explorer or a File Open dialog box. The box located there, called Favorite Links, contains--you guessed it--Microsoft's favorite links. If you want to add a link to one of your favorite folders there, just drag the folder from the Folders box underneath into Favorite Links.

You can arrange the links however you like by dragging them up and down. You also have the option of removing one or more of them from the box by right-clicking the item and selecting Remove Link.

You can save some time in your file and folder search if you put everything in one cascading menu. By adding your desktop to the taskbar, you can make every folder on your computer and network easily accessible--along with all the shortcuts on your desktop that usually hide behind open program windows. Simply right-click a blank spot on the taskbar and then select Toolbars, Desktop.

On top of that, there's no need to go through any menus to load a program if you know that program's name. Just click Start or press your keyboard's <Windows> key, and start typing the application name. You don't even have to start at the beginning of the name; typing Elements, for example, will bring up Adobe Photoshop Elements. When the program name appears, press <Enter>.

Below the program name you will see a list of documents and (if you use Vista's Windows Mail program) e-mail messages containing that word. Those additional search results can be handy, but they slow down the search.

You can boost the speed of the Start Searches function by restricting where it looks for the string of characters you type. Right-click the Start button and select Properties. On the Start Menu tab, click Customize, then scroll down until you find the various Search options. The more options you leave checked there, the slower but more thorough your Start Searches will be.

Improve Your Hardware on the Cheap

Hardware tweaks help, too. Increasing the amount of RAM in your system will speed up your PC for a very reasonable price. Vista needs at least 1GB of RAM to perform adequately, but 2GB gives it real speed. See our video "How to Upgrade Your RAM" for details and instructions specific to desktop systems.

If you have a notebook, where such upgrades aren't as standardized, check your vendor's Web site for configuration info.