Workers' Edge

Last week, I described five ways to squeeze a little more juice out of Vista by using features built into the operating system. A simpler approach that achieves the same system-tuning effects is to use a utility that lets you make the same type of Registry edits and configuration changes without having to navigate 10 rows deep into some obscure hierarchy of "keys" with undecipherable names.

I looked at a free program from Microsoft MVP Anand Khanse called Ultimate Windows Tweaker and the $29.99 Vista Smoker Pro from WareSoft Software (as close to a palindrome as company names get). The freebie acted up a bit on my 64-bit Vista machine, but it's suitable for casual system tweakers. Those who are even a little serious about fine-tuning their PCs will find Vista Smoker Pro worth the investment. A full-function, seven-day trial version is available, so you can take the program out for a spin before you buy.

(As always before making any Registry changes, make a backup of your Registry by creating a restore point. Better yet, get a copy of the free Emergency Recover Utility NT (ERUNT), which works on all versions of Windows, despite the name.)

Ultimate Windows Tweaker tries to be Tweak UI for Vista
There's a lot to like about this Vista enhancer, though the program falls short of its goal of being Tweak UI for Vista. Also, every time I used the utility to change a Vista setting, an error message popped up stating that the change couldn't be made when in fact it was in effect. To top it off, the option to Send Error Report was grayed out.

The free Ultimate Windows Tweaker generates a bogus error message whenever you change a system setting.

(Credit: Anand Khanse)

You're not likely to need all 130-plus tweaks the program packs into its 380KB executable file. Still, with just a half-dozen clicks on two or three screens you can make changes that in Vista require navigating through dozens of arcane, out-of-the-way windows and dialog boxes.

Shorten your wait for hanging apps and processes and change menu speed via slider controls in Ultimate Windows Tweaker.

(Credit: Anand Khanse)

Ultimate Windows Tweaker's System Performance options let you shorten the wait for hanging apps and processes and quicken your menus via slider controls. You can also make changes to user accounts and User Account Control, change your security settings, and alter the Vista interface.

Maximize your system-tweak options with Vista Smoker Pro
You could spend the better part of an afternoon twiddling with the many settings in Vista Smoker Pro. Of course, you'll gain a good portion of that time back via Vista's enhanced speed. The program gives you more than 20 categories of tweaks that cover start-ups, disk cleaning, services, passwords, and--of course--performance.

Vista Smoker Pro makes performance-enhancing Registry tweaks easier to reach.

(Credit: WareSoft Software)

My favorite Vista Smoker Pro feature is the Control Center, which puts just about every Vista research two or three clicks away. The Startup Manager lets you view and delete start-up items in more than a dozen far-flung Registry keys. But one of the nicest touches of the program is its main screen, which shows your system's total RAM and page-file size, as well as the amount of each in use and free.

Get a graphical view of your system's RAM and page file on Vista Smoker Pro's main window.

(Credit: WareSoft Software)

Anyone who frequently accesses Vista configuration settings will save plenty of time reaching into the OS' various nooks and crannies by using Vista Smoker Pro.

I split my work time about evenly between Windows XP and Vista. Let me tell you, I'll take Vista 99 days out of 100. Vista's safer than XP, it looks better than its predecessor, and it runs at least as fast as XP.

Performance has been a knock on Vista since the operating system was released, but there are some relatively simple ways to give Vista a little goose so it performs some common operations a tad faster. These five tips should shorten your workday:

Put an encrypt/decrypt option on your context menu
If you frequently encrypt files or folders to protect your privacy, you can access this function via the right-click menu by changing a Registry key. Editing the Registry is always risky, so back it up first by creating a restore point. To do so, press the Windows key, type systempropertiesprotection.exe, and press Enter. Click Create, give the restore point a name, and choose Create again.

With your Registry backup in place, press the Windows key, type regedit, and press enter. Navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Right-click in the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it EncryptionContextMenu. Double-click the new entry, give it a value of 1, and click OK. After you restart your system, you'll see an Encrypt/Decrypt option when you right-click a file or folder.

Disable DOS-era 8.3 file-name compatibility
Most hard drives on Vista systems are partitioned using NTFS rather than the older FAT32 format. But Vista still supports the old 8.3 file-name convention of DOS and early versions of Windows. This is handy if you still run DOS-era 16-bit programs, but most of us have no need to retain this backward-compatibility. You can speed up your file accesses a bit by disabling this feature.

To do so, open the Registry Editor as described in the previous tip and navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Double-click the key named NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation, change its value from 0 to 1, and click OK.

Do without last-access file updating
Whenever you open a file on an NTFS partition, it gets a date stamp that's separate from its "last modified on" date and time. If you can do without this information, you can disable it and open your files a skosh faster.

Start by opening the Registry Editor as described above. Navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate, change the DWORD value from 0 to 1, and click OK.

Change this Registry key to disable the last-file-access feature to open files faster.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Access Vista's report on your start-up and shutdown speeds
Among the interesting performance-measuring tools in Vista is the Event Viewer's log of your system's start-up and shutdown performance. To view these reports, press the Windows key, type event, and press Enter. Navigate in the left pane to this entry:

Applications and Service Log\Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostics-Performance

Double-click Operational in the middle pane to view the most recent events. Look for entries numbered from 100 to 199 to indicate start-up items, and ones numbered from 200 to 299 for shutdown items. Click the Details tab below the event log and make sure Friendly View is selected.

Vista's Event Viewer records your boot times and other performance information about your start-ups and shutdowns.

(Credit: Microsoft)

You'll see the boot and shutdown times in milliseconds and other information about your start-ups and shutdowns. Compare the numbers for each system start and shutdown to determine whether your machine's slowing down. If it is, try paring your list of start-up applications using the tips in this post from last October. And use the tips in this post from March 2008 to put Windows to bed in a jiffy.

Let Vista tell you how it's doing
A little-known addition to Vista is the System Health Report Generator, which gives you an inside look at how well your PC is running. To access the tool, press the Windows key, type perform info, and press Enter. Click Advanced tools in the left pane and choose Generate a system health report.

About a minute later, you'll see the test results in various categories. For help deciphering the information and on using other components of the Performance and Reliability Monitor, check out this guide on Microsoft's TechNet site.

Sometimes I wonder how Microsoft gets away with it. I mean, you start your PC and every program that loads with Windows tries to be first in line for your precious processing cycles.

So that little specialty utility you use about once a month is wresting resources away from the programs that really need to start right away, such as your antivirus app. You'd think the company that makes the OS would let you set the order of your auto-start programs.

Last April, I wrote about Vista's Software Explorer, which provides more information than the System Configuration utility (Msconfig) about your PC's autostart apps. Software Explorer lets you disable or remove programs from your startup list, but it doesn't let you decide which to open first.

That's where R2 Studios' free Startup Delayer comes in. The utility gives you the ability to determine the order of your startup programs. You can even set the number of seconds each app waits before starting or let Startup Delayer do the timing for you.

Set the order of and delay between your startup apps with Startup Delayer.

(Credit: R2 Studios)

I've been using Startup Delayer's Safe Mode, which prevents you from deleting any of your startup apps or making other system changes. Safe Mode also hides the system files on the list. To see your complete startup list and be able to delete some, choose Startup Delayer's Advanced Mode in its Settings window.

Choose between Startup Delayer's Safe Mode or Advanced Mode.

(Credit: R2 Studios)

I didn't spend more than a couple of minutes rearranging the order of the programs on my startup list and setting what I considered appropriate delays between each. The next time I booted my PC, I was surprised how quickly Windows' hour glass disappeared. In the icon's place was a small horizontal bar at the top of the screen showing the startup program currently opening.

View a progress bar as each of your startup apps loads on Startup Delayer's toolbar.

(Credit: R2 Studios)

There are plenty of nice touches in the program, including the ability to change the delay between each app's startup by dragging a bar on the timeline at the bottom of the main Startup Delay window. You can also start over or deactivate Startup Delayer with a single click.

Startup Delayer isn't the most elegant Windows utility you'll come across, but it sure will jumpstart your day.

I get impatient waiting for my Vista PC to boot up. I could just leave the machine in sleep mode, but going long stretches without rebooting can cause problems of its own.

Instead of relying on sleep mode to get my workday started faster, I make it a habit to open Windows' list of start-up apps on a regular basis to determine whether any rogue programs have slipped in, slowing my start-ups unnecessarily. It seems that every time I check the list, some entry catches me by surprise.

To view your start-up apps in XP, click Start > Run, type msconfig.exe, press Enter, and click the Startup tab. You can follow these steps to open the System Configuration utilities' Startup tab in Vista as well, but I recommend you use Windows Defender's Software Explorer instead. To open Software Explorer, press the Windows key, type windows defender, and press Enter. Then click Tools > Software Explorer, and choose Startup Programs on the Category drop-down menu.

On my Vista laptop, Microsoft dominates the list with nine entries. HP, the machine's vendor, is next with six start-up programs, though they're listed in five different entries, one of which isn't labeled as belonging to HP but rather as "Publisher Not Identified." The file name is "HPHCScheduler.exe" and it's stored in an HP folder, so it's not hard to guess who's responsible for it.

Select entries in Vista's Software Explorer to get more information about your start-up apps.

(Credit: Microsoft)

As I worked my way through the Microsoft section of the start-up list on my Vista laptop, two entries caught my eye: Microsoft Media Center Tray Applet and Microsoft Userinit Logon Application. (The other Microsoft start-up apps were OneNote, Windows Explorer, Windows Defender, and four Rundll32 host processes--all either required by Windows or chosen explicitly by me to start automatically.)

I searched the name of the Media Center Tray Applet--ehtray.exe--and learned that it is used for viewing TV and other video. I also found out that it isn't essential and will start automatically when Media Center requires it, so the program doesn't really belong in my start-up list.

A similar search of the file name userinit.exe for the Userinit Logon Application made it clear that this is an essential Windows file that needs to start automatically. The program manages the boot sequence.

Figuring out what to do with the HP programs was tougher. The first two entries were for CyberLink's QuickPlay, a media player with functions similar to Windows' own Media Player, and Quick Launch Buttons, which activate the keyboard's multimedia controls.

HPHC_Scheduler.exe wasn't identified as an HP program in Software Explorer's start-up list, but it's associated with the HP Health Check Scheduler, the company's own built-in diagnostic utility. Likewise, the "hpwuSched Application" (which checks for updates from the company) and two HP Wireless Assistant utilities are worth retaining as auto-start apps.

After you've worked through your list of start-up apps, check your currently running processes. In Software Explorer, select Currently Running Programs on the Category drop-down menu. In XP, you can view the programs running on your PC by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc or Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open Task Manager and then clicking the Processes tab (not the Applications tab).

The entry that caught my eye on this list was "HpqToaster.exe." Like HPHC_Scheduler.exe, the program was not identified as an HP app but was stored in an HP folder. I searched the Internet for an explanation of this file but found out only that it may be a "gateway" utility used by other HP programs.

There's a good chance that "HpqToaster.exe" serves a valuable purpose and poses no risk to the security of my system, but I'll never know for sure. I don't understand why hardware and software vendors make it so difficult for their customers to figure out exactly what programs are running on their systems, and why they sometimes--or always--run without you starting them.

In researching these mystery executable files, I saw repeated references to problems related to them, such as security vulnerabilities with HP's Quick Launch Buttons. On the long list of Windows enhancements I'd like to see is a file-name library that describes what each executable file does and why you do--or don't--need it.

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.

The last time Windows' System Restore failed on me, I didn't blink an eye. I gave up trusting Microsoft's own Registry safety net a long time ago. And considering the quality Registry freeware available, there's no reason you should rely on Windows to repair and recover from Registry-related problems. These four freebies will keep the Windows engine purring like a kitten.

Clear out the clutter with CCleaner
Piriform's popular Windows-optimization utility includes a Registry-scrubbing component that clears out old application paths, ActiveX controls, shared DLLs, fonts, icons, and other Registry detritus. The program gives you the option to fix some or all of the problems it discovers, and before it starts the cleanup you can create a Registry backup so your system can be rolled back if something goes wrong. Two nice extras are CCleaner's options for uninstalling programs on your system, and for clearing the temporary files and recent-file lists from Firefox, Office, Windows Media Player, and other popular apps.

The free CCleaner utility improves your PC's performance by removing unused and duplicate entries from the Windows Registry.

(Credit: Piriform)

ERUNT out-restores System Restore
Windows' built-in Registry backup utility is better than having no Registry backup at all, but just barely. It seems the times I need it most are the times System Restore is most likely to crap out. Lars Hederer's Emergency Recovery Utility NT program has been saving Windows users' bacon for many years. Despite the program's name, it works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista as well. You can set the program to back up the Registry every time Windows starts, or create backups manually to the folder of your choice. The accompanying Registry optimizer is just as quick and simple to use as the backup program. ERUNT lets you back up the Registry for all users on the system, or selected users, and it even provides command-line switches for automating backups and restores. It works when Windows fails to load, though doing so may require a boot disc (which you can create with the great BartPE freeware).

The free ERUNT utility lets you back up the Registry for all users or only the current user.

(Credit: Lars Hederer)

Keep an eye on the Registry with Process Monitor
Sysinternals combined its FileMon and RegMon system-monitoring utilities into this program, which gives you a snapshot of your PC's activity in real time. In fact, Process Monitor provides so much information that it's difficult to keep up with the file and program activity it tracks. You can view your system activity in a simple graph, and display a summary of file and Registry accesses. There's even an option to log activity during the next Windows boot to help diagnose startup problems. A geek could easily kill the better part of an afternoon just rambling around the many monitoring options provided, though the program is most valuable when it's used to track down a system problem.

Get a real-time view of your system's file and process activity with Sysinternals' free Process Monitor utility.

(Credit: Sysinternals)

Find your keys faster with RegScanner
NiriSoft's Registry-scanning utility makes it easy to navigate to a specific Registry key, and then open it in Windows' Registry Editor by double-clicking the entry, or by clicking File > Open In RegEdit (the keyboard shortcut is Alt-F, R). Other time-saving features let you copy a Registry key to the Clipboard and then open the Registry Editor to that key automatically, and to scan for all keys containing a specific value. You can also search by data length, value type, or date modified.

Search your Registry keys in a jiffy with NiriSoft's free RegScanner utility

(Credit: NiriSoft)

Tomorrow: maximize your Office workspace.

The other evening I turned off my Windows XP system and busied myself with other matters, only to find the machine churning away several minutes later as it worked through its shutdown process. I could've understood the delay if it were installing updates, or even if some program or service had hung the system. But this was a typical PC shutdown, and it was taking forever.

"There's gotta be a better way," I thought, and after doing a little research, I found a bunch of Registry tweaks that reset Windows to close shop like it's late for the bus ride home. Keep in mind, any changes to the Registry can be troublesome, so you may want to make these alterations one or two at a time just to make sure they don't futz up the works (it'll also be easier to diagnose any problems that may arise). And for sure back up the Registry by creating a restore point before you begin.

Kill your apps
Some programs just don't know how to say goodbye. To speed up force-closing them at shutdown, open the Registry Editor (in Vista, press the Windows key, type regedit, and press Enter; in XP, click Start > Run, type regedit, and press Enter), and navigate in the left pane to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/desktop (or Desktop). Double-click WaitToKillAppTimeout in the right pane, and change the value data (measured in milliseconds) to 1000-if you're in a real hurry--or something larger, if you want to give your recalcitrant apps a little more time to call it quits. Click OK when you're done.

Use this Registry key to reduce the number of milliseconds you want Windows to wait before killing apps at shutdown.

(Credit: Microsoft)

To reduce the wait before forcing hung applications to close, double-click HungAppTimeout in the right pane of the same key, and change the value data to 2000, or however many milliseconds you want to give the apps to unhang on their own. Of course, a better approach is to figure out why the app is hanging in the first place; I'll cover diagnosing hung applications in a future post: Stay tuned!

You may also want to change the value data of WaitToKillAppTimeout and HungAppTimeout in HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop key to apply the changes to all users on the system.

Clip your running tasks and services
There's another Registry key that automatically ends running tasks at shutdown. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop, double-click AutoEndTasks in the right pane, and change the value data to 1. Now to whack your slow-ending services, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control, double-click WaitToKillServiceTimeout in the right pane, change the value to 1000, and click OK.

Some people will tell you that you can speed up shutdowns by telling Windows not to clear the pagefile when it closes. Unfortunately, this could compromise your system security because sensitive data may be stored in the file unencrypted. There's even some question about whether disabling this setting will save you any time at shutdown. For me, the possibility of saving a couple of seconds on shutdown isn't worth the risk. That's why I recommend that you leave the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/SessionManager/Memory Management at 1.

Some Vista systems (including mine) don't have all the Registry key entries described above. To add a missing entry, right-click in the right pane of its key, choose New > String Value, type the name, such as AutoEndTasks, double-click the new entry, add its value data (1 in the case of AutoEndTasks), and click OK.

Tomorrow: create multiple workspaces in Ubuntu.

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.