After finding my post from last March about tweaking Vista's index locations, a reader sent me five questions. I don't have the person's name or e-mail address, so I'm going to respond in this post and hope they're still reading.
"Please advise step-by-step how to delete all the locations in the Indexed Locations screen at one time."
Press the Windows key, type indexing options, and press Enter. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify > "Show all locations" (you may need to click through the User Account Control warning). Uncheck all the items listed under "Change selected locations," and click OK.
Uncheck all the options under "Change selected locations" to stop Vista from indexing any locations.
(Credit: Microsoft)"Will deleting the locations in Indexed Locations have any effect on the files and folders, and whatever those locations are referring to?"
No. Your files and folders will not be affected by these settings.
"Is it 100 percent safe to delete the locations in the Indexed Locations screen?"
Yes. To undo any changes, simply reopen the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify > "Show all locations," recheck the locations you want Vista to index for its search function, and click OK. Or select the Advanced button, choose the Restore Defaults option under the Index Settings tab, and click OK.
Restore Vista's default index settings by clicking Restore Defaults under Advanced Index Settings.
(Credit: Microsoft)"How do I simply prevent the Indexed Locations screen from accepting any more locations without actually deleting the Indexed Locations program?"
You can undo any change made to these settings, as described above.
"Do you happen to know of a Web site that has many items...found in Vista's Msconfig > Startup, showing their abbreviations and descriptions, and possibly also which items should not be unchecked?"
You can use Windows' System Configuration utility (aka Msconfig) to remove unwanted programs from your list of apps that start automatically with Vista, but there's a better way.
You can remove programs from Windows autostart list via System Configuration, but Vista's got a better way.
(Credit: Microsoft)To clear Startup apps the Msconfig way, press the Windows key, type msconfig, press Enter, click the Startup tab, and uncheck the items you don't want.
I prefer to use the Software Explorer component of Windows Defender to prune my autostart list. This program provides more information about the programs on the list and gives you more options. To open it, press the Windows key, type windows defender, press Enter, and click Tools > Software Explorer.
Choose Startup Programs in the Categories drop-down list, and click "Show for all users" at the bottom of the window. Select an item in the left pane to see information about it in the right window. Clear the program from your startup list by selecting it, and clicking either Remove or Disable.
Vista's Software Explorer applet provides more information about your autostart programs.
(Credit: Microsoft)You'll find more details on Vista's Software Explorer in a Worker's Edge post from last April.
Vista won't win any popularity contests, but even with its faults, I'll take the most recent version of Windows over any of the predecessors. My biggest beef with Vista is that it's slow. At least the OS makes it easy to optimize your system for peak performance. Here's a quick recap of my three favorite Vista speedup tips.
Put indexing on permanent hold
I've been using Vista for a good 18 months now, and you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've used Windows' built-in search feature. I described how to tweak Vista's indexing settings in a previous post, but there's a simpler way to disable all indexing.
Press the Windows key, type Performance Information, and press Enter to open the Performance Information and Tools applet. Click "Adjust indexing settings" in the left pane, choose the Modify button, select Show All Locations, uncheck everything, and click OK > Done.
You'll still be able to use Windows' search feature, though it will take longer to find the files you're looking for. For me, it's fastest to remember where I put the files I need myself rather than counting on Windows to find them for me.
Send Aero packing
One of the biggest knocks against Vista is that if you do away with the transparencies, sliding menus, and other features of the Aero interface, the operating system looks just like earlier versions of Windows. I like the Aero effects as much as the next guy--if the next guy's blind.
No, I don't really mean that. Aero's definitely has more eye-appeal than anything XP's interface has to offer, but ultimately I had to ask myself: Do I want to spend my time admiring the shiny surfaces and faux-3D buttons as Vista spins it wheels, or would I rather get my work done?
It took all of about two minutes for me to get used to working in Vista without Aero. To make the change, return to the Performance Information and Tools applet as described above and click "Adjust visual effects" in the left pane. Under the Visual Effects tab, select "Adjust for best performance" and click OK.
Winnow your roster of autostart apps
In a post last spring, I described how to use Vista's Software Explorer to disable the autostart programs that you don't need to open automatically when Windows loads. Dang if I didn't revisit Software Explorer the other day only to find new entries for more programs I don't need running all the time. I don't know how exactly they got there, but I know they're off the list now, and my boot time is the better for it.
It just goes to show you that the job of squeezing every available CPU cycle out of your PC is never done.
After I compared three popular desktop-search programs a couple of weeks ago, the folks at Google contacted me about a couple of inaccuracies in that post. I had thought that because local files are listed above Web sites when you use Google to search in your browser, the ads that appear on the results page are related to the content of the local files. In fact, Google keeps an index of your local files on its servers only when you enable the Search Across Computers feature, which is off by default. And even then, the index disappears once the search results are delivered. Otherwise the index of your local files resides only on your machine.
The post also stated that Google Desktop Search slows down your PC as it creates and maintains its index of local files. That may be true on Windows XP systems, though the impact is greatest when you install the program and it creates its initial index, but on Vista the search tool uses the OS's own Indexing Service. I use Google Desktop Search on my four-year-old XP machine, and when I uninstalled the program as part of my testing, it appeared to me that the system ran faster, though I didn't perform any precise measurements.
The upshot is that after the initial index, Google Desktop Search affects system performance about the same as any other always-on application (most of which are represented by icons in your system tray). Nor does it pose more or less of a security risk than the other desktop programs you use. (I still prefer Copernic Desktop Search for its easy customization options and clear interface.)
Boost performance by tweaking Vista's indexing options
Just because the Vista version Google's desktop-search tool uses the same indexer as the OS doesn't mean you can't improve its performance by deciding for yourself what file locations it should include in its index. Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Indexing Options. Choose Modify > Show All Locations, and uncheck the folders and storage devices you want to exclude. When you're done, click OK to return to the Indexing Options dialog box.
Uncheck the locations you want to exclude from Vista's index of local files.
(Credit: Microsoft)You can also exclude specific file types from the index by clicking Advanced > File Types, and unchecking the entries you want the index to skip.
Tell Vista's indexer to exclude file types by unchecking their entry in the Advanced Indexing Options dialog.
(Credit: Microsoft)Entries under the Index Settings tab let you index encrypted files, move your index to another location, rebuild it, or restore its default settings. After you click OK, you may be warned that "Indexing speed is reduced due to user activity."
Change the location of your index file and make other index tweaks via Vista's Advanced Indexing Options dialog box.
(Credit: Microsoft)Another way to disable indexing of a particular drive is to right-click it in Windows Explorer or other folder window, choose Properties, and uncheck "Index this drive for faster searching." The fastest way to disable Vista's built-in search entirely is to press the Windows key, type services, arrow down to Services, and press Enter. Double-click Windows Search, choose Disabled in the Startup type drop-down menu, click OK, and close the Services window.
Disable Vista's automatic search service by choosing Disabled under Startup type in its Properties dialog box.
(Credit: Microsoft)Monday: use Google Docs to create and manage your NCAA basketball tournament pool.
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