Getting the stick out of Vista's Crawl

[elroyjetsn]

Here's some things you can do to make Vista work more like XP...

Disable UAC :x
Since User Access Control will get in our way when transforming Vista to VXP, let’s begin by getting rid of UAC. It’s a real pain anyway, right? Windows XP doesn’t have anything to automatically protect you from inadvertent mistakes or tricky malware; you can do that yourself, so you don’t really need UAC. Here’s how to disable it:

Access the Control Panel and select Classic View. (That fancy Control Panel Home look is for pansies anyway, right?)
Locate and click User Accounts.
Select the Turn User Account Control on or off and respond appropriately to the UAC.
Clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer.
Click OK.
Restart Windows.
With UAC out of the way, we’re free to disable all sorts of Vista features without any stupid warning messages. Yea!

Disable notification balloons :x
After you disable UAC, you’ll be nagged to death by a notification balloon whose message will constantly remind you that you have disabled UAC. To get rid of that, and all notification balloons for that matter, you’ll need to perform a little registry edit. Here’s how:

Access the Run dialog box, type Regedit in the Open text box and click OK.
Locate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Click on the right-hand pane.
Pull down the Edit menu and select the New | DWORD (32-bit) Value command.
Name the new key EnableBalloonTips.
Make sure the value is set to 0.
Click OK.
Log off and then back on.
Caution!!!: The Windows Registry is vital to the operating system. Before editing the Windows Registry you should take a few moments to back up the Registry for safekeeping.

Disable Windows Defender :?
Because Windows Defender is built in to the operating system, it more than likely should be considered part of the overall bloatware problem. Besides, Windows XP doesn’t come with a built-in spyware tool, does it? No, so let’s get rid of Windows Defender too. Here’s how:

Access Windows Defender on the Start | All Programs menu.
Click the Tools button.
Click Options in the Settings section.
Clear the following check boxes:
Automatically scan my computer
Use real-time protection
Scan the contents of archived files and folders for potential threats
Use heuristics to detect potentially harmful or unwanted behavior by software that hasn’t been analyzed for risks
Create a restore point before applying actions to detected items
Use Windows Defender
Click Save.
Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.
Locate and click the Windows Defender service.
Select Disabled in the Startup type drop-down list, click the Stop button, and then click OK.
You can install your favorite third-party antispyware tool later.

Disable TCP/IPv6 & the Topology Discovery Mapper :x
By default Vista comes with TCP/IP v6 installed even though almost no one is using it yet. Windows XP doesn’t have IP v6 installed, so you really don’t need it in VXP. Vista also comes with a fancy network mapping and troubleshooting feature that we can remove. Since XP works fine without this stuff, then VXP won’t need them either. Here’s how to disable it:

Access the Control Panel.
Click Network and Sharing Center.
Select Manage Network Connections in the Tasks pane.
Right-click on Local Area Connection/Wireless Network Connection and select Properties.
Clear the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) check box.
Clear the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver check box.
Clear the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper Responder check box.
Click OK.
Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.
Locate and click the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper service.
Select Disabled in the Startup type drop-down list, and if it is started, click the Stop button.
Click OK

Turn off special Vista features :roll:
Vista comes with a bunch of special features and games that XP doesn’t have. Having all this extra stuff in Vista is just bloatware anyway, right? Here’s how to get rid of it:

Access the Control Panel.
Click Programs and Features.
Select Turn Windows Features on or off in the Tasks pane.
Clear the check boxes adjacent to any Vista options in your version that are turned on. For example:
Expand the Games branch and clear the check boxes next to all of the Vista games such as Chess Titans, Ink Ball, Mahjong Titans, or Purble Place.
Expand the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 branch and clear the check box next to XPS Viewer.
Expand the Print Services branch and clear Internet Printing Client check box.
Clear the Remote Differential Compression check box.
Clear the Tablet PC Optional Components check box.
Clear the Windows DFS Replication Service check box.
Clear the Windows Meeting Space check box.
Clear the Windows Ultimate Extras check box.
Click OK and wait for the features to be turned off.
Restart Windows
Disable Automatic DefraggingIn Windows XP, you had control over how and when your hard disk needed to be defragged, so take back that control in VXP. Here’s how:

Access Disk Defragmenter (Start|All Programs|Accessories|System Tools).
Clear the Run on a Schedule check box.
Click OK.

Enable the Explorer menu bar :wink:
By default, Vista hides the standard menu bar (File, Edit, View, Tools, and Help). However, it has always been a part of Windows Explorer, so you probably want to put it back in VXP. Here’s how:

Access the Control Panel.
Click Folder Options.
Select the View tab.
Select the Always Show Menus check box.
Click OK.

Disable the new Start menu :roll:
As you know, the Start menu was completely revamped in Vista. However, in XP the Start menu was basically the same as its predecessors, and it has always worked just fine. Fortunately, you can turn back time and revert the new fangled Start menu to the good old-fashioned one. Here’s how:

Right-click the Start button and choose Properties.
Select the Classic Start menu option.
Click OK.

Disable the Taskbar thumbnails :x
Chances are that those pesky thumbnails that pop up whenever you hover over the Taskbar really annoy you. Here’s how to disable them:

Right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties.
Clear the Show Window Previews check box.
Click OK.

Disable the Sidebar :roll:
Gadgets, who needs them. They just waste resources and screen real estate. Here’s how you can disable the Sidebar and get rid of those inane gadgets:

Right-click in the Sidebar and choose Properties.
Clear the Start Sidebar when Windows Starts check box.
Click OK.
Right-click in the Sidebar again and choose Close Sidebar.
Disable Visual EffectsVista is really packed with useless eye candy. Here’s how you can get rid of all of it:

Access the Control Panel.
Locate and click System.
Select Advanced System Settings in the Tasks pane.
Click the Settings button in the Performance panel.
On the Visual Effects tab, select the Custom option, and clear every check box in the list.
Click OK.

Disable Aero :?
Once you disable all the visual effects, the goofy transparent, smooth-looking windows generated by the Aero user interface are gone, and the good old solid boxy windows are back. Here’s how to make sure Aero won’t reappear:

Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.

Locate and click the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service.
Select Disabled in the Startup Type drop-down list, click the Stop button, and then click OK.

Delete unnecessary shortcuts :roll:
While there doesn’t appear to be a way to uninstall some of the other native Vista applications that aren’t a part of XP, you can delete the shortcuts from the Start menu. That way you won’t be tempted to run them. For example, you can delete the following shortcuts:

Windows Calendar
Windows Contacts
Windows Defender
Windows DVD Maker
Windows Media Center
Windows Photo Gallery



Oh Mojave, Oh Mojave!!

[katoranger]

Thanks for the tips. I like the XP on the desktop, but the new laptop has vista.

Allen

[elroyjetsn]

Katoranger,

I just applied these to my Laptop and i can, now, actually do some work on it!

I bumped my memory from 1GIG to 1.5GIG and that made a big difference, too.

[katoranger]

I bought a model with 3 gigs of memory after I found out that Vista was a memory hog.

Allen

[elroyjetsn]

Originally Posted by katoranger

...memory hog.

Allen

Without a doubt!!

[Alaskan-Dad]

I deleted a lot more than that to get my laptop running great
Linux Mint KDE :wink:

Linux Mint

[maf119l]

my pest tip for fixing Winblows is to re-format the hard drive and install your favorite Linux distro.

[knothead]

Man, I'm WAY too slooowww!
Good to see so many other Linux users on here!

I'm actually sitting here debating on upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10 or swapping back to Debian or Slackware. If I can find a way to do a proper install (not frugal or a poor man's install) I might just become a Muppy user.

[tigertamer]

Thanks for the hacks :idea:

This is just what I have been looking for...not for me though 8) ...I got rid of Vista last year for those very reasons.

Montani Semper Liberi,
Tigertamer

[Qingdao]

I can fix Vista...

DON'T BUY IT.

[JWarren]

I refuse to pay the microsoft upgrade tax ever again!

OpenSUSE is where you need to be, then you will never have to take time to create threads like this one on how to fix something that should have worked right when it was sold!

I can do everything that microsoft related products can do, 10 fold! Even open every microsoft file there is and do it for free and can do it without crashing my computer!

Imagine that!

Microsoft is junk! Never again!

[Jim]

What about games?

Not a Linux fan here. Unless it is serving me webpages.

[Cal25]

I'm wondering about games as well. Flight sim in particular.

[knothead]

I ran Suse for a while, but when they jumped in bed with MS I switched to Ubuntu. It's a really nice distro, probably one of my favorites, but they came too close to opening the door for MS to damage the Open Source community.

Originally Posted by JWarren

I refuse to pay the microsoft upgrade tax ever again!

OpenSUSE is where you need to be, then you will never have to take time to create threads like this one on how to fix something that should have worked right when it was sold!

I can do everything that microsoft related products can do, 10 fold! Even open every microsoft file there is and do it for free and can do it without crashing my computer!

Imagine that!

Microsoft is junk! Never again!

[knothead]

Games?

There are several good games on Linux. I like FPS games like Tremulous, Enemy Territory, America's Army and Alien Arena. But there are plenty of turn based strategy games , card games, etc...

Here's a site that has the top 25 games for Linux:

http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/

I'm actually downloading a couple of racing games right now.

A lot of older Windows games like the Need For Speed series will run under the WINE emulator.

Flight Gear is a really good flight simulator too... it's almost too detailed for me as I don't really care about how to fly a real plane... plus I crash too often.. eh, I'd rather kill aliens than myself...