painfully slow vista 64

Don't suppose you use the "Immunise" feature of Spybot do you? Adding 3,000+ lines of crap in the host files caused annoying pauses in start up of IE & FireFox on mine. After removing it all they started up instantly again. Regarding TeaTimer, i've never allowed that to install & run.

BTW I prefer Vista over XP & I've been 64bit all the way since XP 64bit was released with no problems.
 
As the others have said, you have too many anti-virus type programs on your system. If you're concerned about security which you seem to be, then make sure you are using multiple layers of protection.

The first and most important thing you can do is to make sure you run as a standard user. When something requests administrator privileges, you will be shown the Over The Shoulder elevation dialogue which would require you to enter the credentials of the administrator account to continue. Though, malware has the opportunity of gaining administrator rights by compromising an elevated process. All though, this is pretty difficult to do.

If you want to be sure that malware is unable to gain administrator rights by compromising an elevated process, you would have to use a dedicated administrator account for anything that requires elevation. This is the most secure configuration. It's entirely up to you how you configure your system though. More information about this can be found here and here.

With UAC enabled, you also get the advantage of Internet Explorer running in Protected Mode. Internet Explorer by default runs as a low integrity process with only write access to a few specific locations which will significantly reduce the threat of malware. You can read more about this here. Once again, if you're elevating as well as carrying out your every day tasks like for example, browsing the internet, running games, writing word documents etc there is a potential avenue of attack which you can read more about here. If you prefer to use Mozilla Firefox though, similar functionality can be achieved but it takes an extra 5 minutes or so. Take a look through this thread here or jump straight to this post here - It's just all the information compiled. Though, I obviously take no credit for it, it was eXor that kindly took the time out to go through it with me.

Regarding an anti-virus program. You can choose an anti-virus program from the *** The Official OcUK Anti-Virus Program Thread***. I would recommend Eset NOD32 if you're willing to pay for one. The detection rates are pretty good and it is also very light on resources. If you would like a free one though, then either Avast or Avira will be absolutely fine. You could also download a program called Malwarebytes to check any malware that is on the machine.

Moving onto a firewall. The Windows firewall is perfectly fine. It can monitor inbound as well as outbound traffic. Inbound is enabled by default as well as outbound for services which will restrict any unnecessary traffic. If you wish to further that for applications, you will need to manually make some adjustments. Simply type "wf.msc" (without the quotes) into the start menu search bar which will launch the Windows Firewall advanced properties. After you have enabled the monitoring of outbound traffic, you will need to setup exceptions for any programs that require internet access. Though, this isn't really necessary.

The above along with password protecting your accounts, keeping all your software up to date which Secunia can help you with and along with education, leaves your system in a pretty secure state.
 
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So many AV/anti spyware CRAP on your pc :eek:.

It's well known these slow your system down a lot, even 1 AV is terrible to have imo but I somehow deal with it. But 3?
 
The OP has Vista and wants to fix it. There's no evidence the OS is at fault, so you recommend buying an 8-year-old OS with woeful driver support. Awesome. Thanks.


To call XP64 Driver support woeful is completely wrong.

While I have moved to Vista64 now, I still have XP64 on 2 of my PCs.

I have used XP64 since it was released and I found that driver support in the first few weeks was, as expected, poor, however I simply made sure that everythign I bought for my PCs was useable in XP64 and I have in the past several years of using XP64 never found a single device that wont work in XP64.

XP64 I also find is sleeker than any other O/S and faster too.

It gives a very good compromise of having both XP and the power of a 64Bit O/S rolled into one.

Also, of all the programs I have, I dont have a single one that Vista64 will run, but XP64 wont. If Vista64 can run it, so can XP64.


XP 64bit all the way. Hate Vista with a passion.

While I admire your love of XP64 as I do, isnt it about time you moved on?
What possible reason other than irrational choices, have you for hating Vista with a passion?
 
not wanting to drag this off topic too far, i too found XP64 drivers to be a tad unreliable (intel ones at that).

vista64 however is spot on driver and stability wise.
 
XP 64bit all the way. Hate Vista with a passion.

What possible reason other than irrational choices, have you for hating Vista with a passion?

Whilst some people may not particularly like Windows Vista, I can't really understand why some people "hate it with a passion". If you have used Windows Vista Service Pack 2 on a properly configured, working machine, there is very little reason to not like it, certainly not to the extent that you hate it with a passion. The only reason why some people may truly hate Windows Vista is because they are using it on a machine that has hardware and / or software problems that is resulting in the system crashing or they're completely misinformed regarding some of the changes and features that had happened within the operating system. Which both of these points have nothing to do with Windows Vista being a bad operating system.
 
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not wanting to drag this off topic too far, i too found XP64 drivers to be a tad unreliable (intel ones at that).

vista64 however is spot on driver and stability wise.

I dont agree at all.

I am in a lucky position to own 13 PCs and on my main PC, I was running XP64 and I was so impressed with its speed, compatibility and reliability, that I ended up changing all my other PCs to XP64 ( I have of course deliberately left a couple on XP32 and even one on 2000, but thats only for testing ) and I never once had a single issue at all with any software ( Other than expected issues ) and same with hardware. But since 64Bit has been out so long, if you buy hardware that does not have 64Bit support by now, then you cannot blame the O/S. Its either the Manufacturers of the hardware, or your own fault for buying unsupported hardware, but its not the O/S


Whilst some people may not particularly like Windows Vista, I can't really understand why some people "hate it with a passion". If you have used Windows Vista Service Pack 2 on a properly configured, working machine, there is very little reason to not like it, certainly not to the extent that you hate it with a passion. The only reason why some people may truly hate Windows Vista is because they are using it on a machine that has hardware and / or software problems that is resulting in the system crashing or they're completely misinformed regarding some of the changes and features that had happened within the operating system. Which both of these points have nothing to do with Windows Vista being a bad operating system.

To be fair, I spent pretty much an entire year installing Vista, getting some issue or other and then having to go back to XP ( This is Vista64 and XP64 by the way... I have not used a 32Bit O/S for some years ).
It was only really about october last year that I finally managed to get Vista64 to run well.

Nowadays however, Vista installs just fine and I have no issues at all.

This could be a combination of SP1 and almost certainly a BIOS update on the Mobo.

Now, had I not kept at it, I too would hate Vista as I have done.

Now though, now that I have used it properly and its now sorted through its issues, its brilliant.

Its now on my main PC and I am slowly upgrading all my LAN PCs to Vista now too, again, leaving some on different Versions of Windows for testing purposes.
 
I dont agree at all.

I am in a lucky position to own 13 PCs and on my main PC, I was running XP64 and I was so impressed with its speed, compatibility and reliability, that I ended up changing all my other PCs to XP64 ( I have of course deliberately left a couple on XP32 and even one on 2000, but thats only for testing ) and I never once had a single issue at all with any software ( Other than expected issues ) and same with hardware. But since 64Bit has been out so long, if you buy hardware that does not have 64Bit support by now, then you cannot blame the O/S. Its either the Manufacturers of the hardware, or your own fault for buying unsupported hardware, but its not the O/S

fair enough youre entitled to your opinion.

however at no point did i blame the OS. but its funny how the 64 bit drivers for vista work fine on exactly the same hardware.
 
Im not going to waste my time in any kind of XP v Vista arguement here, its been done to death and proves absolutely sod all, but...

but its funny how the 64 bit drivers for vista work fine on exactly the same hardware.

I dont understand what this means?

What it looks like you are saying is that there is hardware out there that works in Vista64 but not in XP64?

Ok, this is true, but then there is also hardware that works with XP64 but not Vista64, there is plenty of hardware that wont work with Vista 32 or 64, this is the nature of it.

As I said, in the many years that I have used XP64 I have simply made sure, that Im not dumb enough to hardware that isnt supported and as such, I have had a perfect use out of all my hardware and software in XP64.

Its also not only my option, but its a plain and simple fact. The only people to slate XP64, ar the ones that had issues with it, just the same with Vista. And the oens who were not dumb enough to fail to use XP64 found that it was superior to XP32 in many ways and stuck with it,and thats why they defend it like they do.

These days however, as I have said many times already, that Vista has matured and is better than XP, much the same as Windows 7 is better than vista
 
yeah and im still not slating XP64, we use it at work on the IT dept machines. other than mine which would not accept the intel XP64 chipset drivers so i had to go for vista64.
 
however I simply made sure that everythign I bought for my PCs was useable in XP64

That's the same argument that Linux users use. People don't want to cherry-pick their hardware like that. If you're using 32-bit XP then you don't have to do so because everything works. And if you're using Vista 64 then you might have issues with some hardware, but there are many more drivers out there for it than for XP64.
 
Oh come on, linux works right out of the box with almost everything, and XP64 works with almost everythign too... The only stuff that it does not work with is cheap and nasty junk hardware that Id proabably not care about anyway.

You are arguing for the sake of argueing.

Ok, maybe not arguing, but you are nit-picking.

I have used XP64 since its release and from about a year after its release I have not found any hardware that it wont work with and sure for my main PC I have made sure its good, but for all of my LAN PCs I have not and they are run their software better in XP64 than they did in XP32.

Nit-pick all you like, but the facts remain that XP64 is better in every way to XP32 and it even still has advantages over Vista32 also... Not Vista64 however.
 
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