While the discussion pertains to Vista particularly, the same applies to Windows in general too ! For a general user 1, 2, 3, 17 are usually more than sufficient to make your Vista faster. The remaining are some more which a tweak enthusiast may wish to consider. Utilities like WinPatrol or Tune-Up Utilities can help you in most of the cases.

1. Restrict the no. of start-ups. Why have programs starting up when you don't really use them. Even those you use can always be started manually by clicking on the. I personally prefer not to have ANY startups. So decide for yourself which one's you really need as start-ups. Do also remove any pre-installed crapware which may have come pre-installed on your new Vista machine, as many a time its these craplets that cause a machine to crawl !

2. Disable services which one may not require. For example, if your pc is a stand-alone one, there may be several services which you can disable or switch over to manual mode. Auto-starting and closing down of services takes time & resources. These can be saved. BlackViper's Vista Service Configurations is an excellent guide to follow.

3. Reducing visual effects (eye candy). Right-click on “My Computer” > Properties > Advanced > Performance-Settings > Visual Effects > Adjust for best performance > Apply > OK.
To allow the themes and the glass effects, you may have to check on the boxes : enable transparent glass and use visual styles; this way atleast the spirit of Vista will be preserved- else be prepared for a really bland Vista ! Use your discretion. I know disabling all can actually negate the purpose of 'eye-friendly' Vista.

4. Ensure that boot defragmentation is enabled, so that files used during start-up are clubbed together. Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Dfrg\ BootOptimizeFunction . Select Enable from the list on the right. Right Click on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. Reboot.

5. Disable : "clear page file on shutdown" option, if enabled. Cleaning the page-file on every shutdown means overwriting the data by zeros, and it takes time.To clear/not clear page file you can apply this reg tweak. Back up registry before trying this. Start > Run > Regedit
GotoHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Session Manager\ Memory Management
Modify (if not present, rt click in open space and create) the Value Data Type/s and Value Name/s :
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value]
Value Name: ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Clear Page File Disabled / 1 = Clear Page File Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot.

6. Defragment your System Disk & Fine Tune your Registry. If you find the Vista's in-built defragger slow, you can try freeware Auslogics Disk Defrag which works on Vista too ! Use the freeware CCleaner to clear up your PC Junk and clean up the Registry. Compacting the Registry occasionally is a good idea too !

7. Generally people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory once in a while. But Windows uses this directory to speed up launching applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. Using this index, Windows can launch files and applications faster. Utilities like CCleaner too have an option to clear the prefetcher. Should you choose to use this option of 'clearing prefetcher', be ready to run an 'un-optimized' windows for a little while. The Prefetcher is best left alone ! In any case, Windows cleans it at 128 entries down to the 32 most used application's prefetch files.

8. Go to BIOS settings, by pressing Del key during boot-up, and disable 'seek floppy drive' option. This saves time for those who do not use floppy drives. There are also some BIOS hacks like Enabling Quick Post, Disabling Boot Delay, etc but best to refrain from these.

9. Change Boot-Order Sequence : Normally, the Bios is set to boot from floppy first, then CD and then Hard Disk. Changing the Boot-Order to be: Hard Disk first, then maybe CD/Floppy, could possibly "shave" a second, I guess !

10. Disable windows startup/shutdown/logon/logoff sounds. Go to control panel, sounds & audio devices, sound tab, in program events select 'no sound' for these events.

11. Disable the ScreenSaver if you don't need it. Rt-Click desktop > ScreenSaver > None > OK. Useful esp if have any tasks running in the background.

12. Fonts take time to load. Removing some can save on resources. But one must be careful in deciding which fonts to remove. If you delete some system fonts, you may b in for trouble. Tweak VI Pro is a good shareware to manage fonts. It uninstall's fonts without physically removing them. Open its help file. It lists down the system fonts which must not be deleted ! use the list; and then decide what to delete and what to keep.

13. To REALLY reduce your shutdown time. Start Regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ SYSTEM/ CurrentControlSet/ Control. Click on the "Control" Folder. Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" Right click on it and select Modify. the default value is 20000. Setting it to a lower 4 digit value,( say 5000) will make your PC shutdown faster, but you could end up losing data, so use this tweak judiciously. Remember, Windows does not in any case, recognise a 3-digit numeral here.

14. Get rid of all the extra programs Windows Vista installs. You may not be using some like WLM, Calculator, Games, Meeting Space, Fax, etc. Go To Control Panel\ Programs\ Programs and Features > Turn windows On or Off and do the needful. But wait, before you rush, exercise a little caution here ! For instance you may want to turn off "Tablet PC Components etc"; but then get set to miss the Clipping Tool too !

15. Disable Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) : The Transient Multimon Manager (TMM) is a Microsoft Windows Vista operating system feature targeted at improving the user experience of connecting and disconnecting displays, particularly for the mobile user. When you start Vista, you see a 2-3 sec delay followed by a blank black screen. This is the time Vista searches for external monitors. So if you dont use an external monitor, you could always safely turn this off! To do so, Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Schedular.

On LHS, expand "Task Scheduler Library" then expand "Microsoft", then expand "Windows" and finally click "MobilePC". You will see a task called "TMM". Rt-Click on it, and select "Disable".

16. Go To Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Performance Information and Tools. On the LHS you will see options to Adjust Indexing options, visual effects, power Settings, etc. These all help directly and indirectly.

17. One of my favorite programs for XP was freeware DriverHeavens TuneXP 1.5, which had several uncommon tweaks. One rather useful one was "Ultra Fast Booting-Rearrange Files". I tried it on my 32 bit Vista Ultimate and was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked smoothly ! Download it from the link give and install it. It will ask you to confirm on which disk your Windows is installed. Please do so. Then from the 'Memory & File Systems' tab, at the bottom you will see 'Ultra Fast Booting-Rearrange Files'. Click on it. You will get a windows, where you can see the progress. On its completion, a black windows will pop up. This process could well take upto 5 mins, so please be patient. Beneath this window, you will see a new small window asking you to, not re-start till the process is over'. Click OK and Wait ! Rather than twiddling your thumb, open your Task Manager. You will see 2 of its processes: defrag.exe and dfrgntfs.exe. On completion of the job, a summary will appear in the black window; now you may close the black windows, and the 2 processes will disappear too. Re-start. I personally found a marked change in my boot time. By the way, I have not tried the other tweaks of TuneXP on Vista.

18. The default power setting in the "Power Saver" plan limits the CPU to 50 percent. Open the Power Options control panel and change it to "High Performance" to give your CPU full throttle.
Do remember that your Vista-based machine will tend to run a little faster, after the first few weeks after it's installed, thanks to its new feature called "SuperFetch" ; which basically studies the programs that the user frequently runs and loads them into memory automatically.
Happy Tweaking !

SOURCE : WinVistaClub.