[green_sleeves]

I don't know why, but my friends Vista is really slow (compared to my desktop XP)...not that the new computer is slow, but the reactions to, eg, clicking a link, is really slow and there is no apparent action going on til the site finally opens. This is driving my friend nuts- and doesn't know if there are any tweaks she can do.
Would installing Mozilla/Firefox be a better option? I know it makes my xp pc seem faster for opening sites and links.

[fairnooks]

In this case its probably something more to do with the Internet connection, maybe a setting or two, upstream speed, wireless interrupts, network congestion, something like that.

By all means try another browser though. Its a good idea regardless to have at least two on a system for troubleshooting some of these possible problem points by cross-referencing each other's function.

[confuser]

I tend to agree that vista is much slower then xp. I use xp at work and it is just perfect. My vista at home is having problems with loading some pages, images and video clips. It tends to slow down after you go back and forth between a couple of the pages within the same site. Let me know if you ever find any tweaks or if there is anything else i can do the help with that problem too.

[allheart55]

Originally Posted by green_sleeves

I don't know why, but my friends Vista is really slow (compared to my desktop XP)...not that the new computer is slow, but the reactions to, eg, clicking a link, is really slow and there is no apparent action going on til the site finally opens. This is driving my friend nuts- and doesn't know if there are any tweaks she can do.
Would installing Mozilla/Firefox be a better option? I know it makes my xp pc seem faster for opening sites and links.

Hi green_sleeves, This could be caused by a multitude of issues. You don't state her machine stats but it takes 2GB's of ram for Vista to run properly. What is your friend using for security? Does she have and run a good spyware program? How often does she defrag? Providing she has a good Security System in place, she can turn off the UAC. It's a great tweak for Vista to disable the annoying UAC. To do that open the "Control Panel" and click on "User Accounts", Select "Turn User Account Off". Open the "Security Center" in the Control Panel and select "Change the Way Security Center Alerts Me" to "Don't Ever Alert Me". Go to "Administrative Tools", select "Services", find "Windows Defender", click it open and disable it. Reboot the machine and it won't pop up every time you decide to do something.

[jmwills]

You can see a list of services and what they relate to at:

www.blackviper.com

Adjusting these is not for the faint of heart. Alos, you will see a noticable increase in speed wtih SP1. I run Vista Ultimate as a VM machine from a MAC and it just runs and runs. No problems. with only 1 gig of RAM allocated to it.

[IC8]

It's hard to give a suggestion when we don't know what kind of hardware he's using.

[skinnywhiteboy]

Yeah I'm running Vista on a Pavillion laptop with 2GB RAM and it runs very well. The manufacturers sell a lot of desktops/laptops with only 1 GB RAM, but as a general rule, you don't want to run Vista with any less that 2 GB. Limiting the amount of programs running in the system tray may help.

[DaveA]

Also note that the Home Basic version which is on SOME machines, tends to run slower yet and comes with only one gig or less of RAM.

[green_sleeves]

jeez....don't know what happened, typed a 'thank you alls' for the suggestions that I am going to link to my friend and it didn't show up. Anyway, I know it is hard to guess on a 'ghost machine'! I am glad to be using XP at the moment and not trying to fight with this new OS. I am waiting until the bugs are out for the average home user. I know my friends computer is the premium version and would imagine she has cable internet. Wonder if she bumped her cable high speed to super high speed ultra (shaw.ca) if that would help. She told me she's been to many tech forum sites but gets nowhere, I hope she'll give Firefox/Mozilla a try and also check for spyware/defrag/memory/security/.............

[Rich-M]

Not only are the speeds about equal if your setup is under control and you have at least 2 gb ram as Allheart suggested, but Sp1 really gives it a boost for internet and networking and that will be out for everyone shortly but I would also go through startup as:
"run, msconfig,ok,startup" and tell us what is checked on her unit as I wold bet there are at least 3 times what is necessary!

[green_sleeves]

Originally Posted by Rich-M

Not only are the speeds about equal if your setup is under control and you have at least 2 gb ram as Allheart suggested, but Sp1 really gives it a boost for internet and networking and that will be out for everyone shortly but I would also go through startup as:
"run, msconfig,ok,startup" and tell us what is checked on her unit as I wold bet there are at least 3 times what is necessary!

Unfortunately we are doing this troubleshooting by email right now! I just sent her an invite for a computer play-date so I can see what is in her startup.
Also suggested downloading Advanced WindowsCare V2 so she can see what the startup manager says about what is in there because the way it is seen by the normal eye, it might as well be written in techno geek for a lot of people! I know there are sites that explain what each one is.....this is just hard when I am home as is she in hers'. I'll see if she can send me a print screen of her msconfig...maybe that would shed some light.

[Cinderwolf]

Originally Posted by green_sleeves

I don't know why, but my friends Vista is really slow (compared to my desktop XP)...not that the new computer is slow, but the reactions to, eg, clicking a link, is really slow and there is no apparent action going on til the site finally opens. This is driving my friend nuts- and doesn't know if there are any tweaks she can do.
Would installing Mozilla/Firefox be a better option? I know it makes my xp pc seem faster for opening sites and links.

You mentioned that the system itself seems to be unresponsive until the site itself finally opens (i.e. you click on a link and don't hear the *CLICK* noise for a few moments)? If this is so, it's definitely a CPU issue - perhaps your friend could open the Task Manager and leave it set to the 'Performance' tab and watch the CPU usage - there's a definite chance it could be off the charts - while the RAM and Hard Disk access could be next to nothing.
But certainly try other browsers (I find Firefox needs more memory to run than IE, but tends to have less issues) and see if anything else works.

[green_sleeves]

Originally Posted by confuser

I tend to agree that vista is much slower then xp. I use xp at work and it is just perfect. My vista at home is having problems with loading some pages, images and video clips. It tends to slow down after you go back and forth between a couple of the pages within the same site. Let me know if you ever find any tweaks or if there is anything else i can do the help with that problem too.

Well....I went over, she has a really nice machine, Home Premium with 2GB of memory. Was hard to see much as it was parked behind the monitor. Anyway, I downloaded and scanned with Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal and it found over 2,000 spywares and lots of redundant registry and other files.! The Mozilla browser was the next thing I added and it is running much better. I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the computer- wanted to post a hijack log, maybe next time if things go back to slug city.
Something was weird, before we started downloading anything, she typed out a word in the address bar and when she finished typing, the computer was just finishing the word! Would this be spyware? The security is an Norton's Internet Security program- is there something else beside this and the advanced windows care that might or should be downloaded for added protection? I did all the troubleshooting suggested here- my friend had already disabled the User account and WD, CPU was at 4%, msconfig had 4 programs to load...so I hope just running the new program and adding Mozilla fixed or speeded up the machine so it wasn't frustrating to use!