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In the second section, you can make changes to the paging file location and size that can improve performance. Click the Change button to display the Virtual Memory settings dialog box, shown in Figure J.

By default, Windows automatically manages the paging file. If you deselect this check box, you can change the location of the paging file, spreading it out among multiple physical disks if you have them. This can speed access to paged data.

You can also increase the size of the paging file and/or make it static, so that instead of using the resources to increase and decrease the size, it always stays the same size. This can also slightly increase overall performance but will tie up more of your disk space. To set a static paging file, click the Custom Size button and enter the same number (file size in MB) in the Initial Size and Maximum Size fields.

Adjust indexing options
You can control what locations should be indexed by Vista's search engine. Indexing can take a lot of resources and put a drag on other running applications if you have a low-powered computer.

In the Performance Information And Tools dialog box, select Indexing Options in the left pane. Then, click the Modify button in the Indexing Options dialog box and click the Show All Locations button at the bottom of the Indexed Locations dialog box. Now you can individually select and deselect the locations to be indexed, as shown in Figure K.

Adjust power settings
Generally, using more power results in better performance. You can select the balance you prefer between saving energy and getting the highest performance by adjusting power plan settings.

Vista has three preconfigured power plans you can choose from, as shown in Figure L:

• Balanced (gives equal weight to energy savings and performance)
• Power Saver (sacrifices performance to save energy)
• High Performance (sacrifices energy conservation for better performance)
  Figure L
  

  You can select a power plan to balance performance against energy conservation.

  You can also create a custom power plan, by selecting Create A Power Plan in the left pane. You start with one of the three plan templates, adjust individual components using a wizard, and then save the plan.

  Disk cleanup and defragmentation
  You can use Vista's disk cleanup and defragmentation tools to remove unwanted files and to rearrange data on the disk so that files are not fragmented. Both of these actions will help increase disk access performance.

  You can open the Disk Cleanup tool from the Performance Information And Tools left tasks pane or from the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu.

  The Disk Cleanup tool allows you to select whether to clean up files from your own user profile only or the files of all users. When you select a specific drive to clean up, the tool will calculate how much space you will be able to free by running the cleanup, as shown in Figure M.

  Figure M
  

  Disk Cleanup can free up space on your disk, giving better performance.

  You can access the Disk Defragmentation tool from the Advanced Tools option in the left pane of the System Information And Tools console or from the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu.

  You can (and should) set the Disk Defragmenter to run on a regular basis, such as once per week. To avoid a performance hit, schedule the defragmenter to run at a time when you aren't normally using your computer. You can also do a manual defragmentation if you think it's necessary (for example, if you've spent the day uninstalling and installing programs, and the computer seems to be running slower). Just click the Defragment Now button, shown in Figure N.

  Figure N
  

  Defragmenting the disk regularly improves disk access performance.

  More ways to gather performance information
  The Advanced Tools section of the Performance Information And Tools utility gives you quick links to the following tools for gathering performance-related info:

  • Event log
  • Reliability And Performance Monitor
  • Task Manager
  • System Information
  • Performance Options
  • Disk Defragmenter
  • System Health Report

  Summary
  Vista can be a performance hog, but there are many ways you can tweak the OS components to speed it up. Microsoft has made it easy by consolidating many of these actions in the Performance Information And Tools console.