Perceived or real, performance was one of the speed bumps hit by Windows Vista RTM following general availability on January 30, 2007. Microsoft is indeed tackling this issue on the consumer-side in terms of perceptions with initiatives such as the Mojave Experiment, but has actually addressed it heads on with the release of Service Pack 1. However, end users can take additional steps to tune Windows Vista, even with SP1, in order to squeeze the last drop of performance that the operating system has to offer.
In this context, Microsoft has made available a resource designed to help consumers improve performance of the latest Windows client plus SP1 "quickly and easily". Overview Series: Windows Vista Performance and Tuning is a guide set up to enable equilibrium between the speed of the platform and the product's responsiveness. The document will provide Microsoft's perspective over the tweaks and optimizations required to be applied in order to make Windows Vista SP1 fly.
"Windows Vista and SP1 focus on delivering greater performance and overall system responsiveness. By striking a balance between speed and responsiveness, Windows Vista and SP1 deliver a level of performance that has the greatest positive impact on the system’s usability. Improving the performance of a computer follows the principle of diminishing returns. There are a few actions you can take with any computer that should improve performance dramatically. Additional actions provide smaller performance improvements," Microsoft informed.
What the Redmond company is essentially offering is a series of steps from choosing the optimal hardware configuration to making use of the technologies included in the operating system by default such as ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive, to altering the configuration of the platform. All for the sake of added performance.
Overview Series: Windows Vista Performance and Tuning is available for download
here (PDF) and
here (XPS).
Source:
Softpedia
Vista SP1 Performance and Tuning, Courtesy of Microsoft 
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