Love it, hate it but you can’t live without it. I accept that Vista has been a biggest disaster for Microsoft but very few actually know that the OS itself was not at all responsible for it. Yes, certain things do changed and people felt something alien when they installed Windows Vista on their computer. As a result, they blamed the OS. I completely disagree with them. Just because you don’t know how to operate the new operating system, you can’t argue that the whole OS is bad. Vista is going to be 2 years old in Jan 09 and I am happy that many users have adapted themselves to the new operating system. Here is a simple tweak guide that I myself implement it and suggest others to do the same. This is because I am not a freak who formats the whole computer every week. Any operating system is not perfect out of the box. They need to be tweaked according to your taste. After following this guide, you will have a complete package in your hand and I promise you, you won’t have to spend more than 1 hour to completely follow this guide.

It is assumed that you have already installed Windows Vista and have an internet connection (preferably broadband).

Antivirus & Security:

• Connect to the internet and open up Windows Update. Download every update available and make sure to install Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

• Windows Vista is much secure than the previous Windows versions but it is wise to install an antivirus software. I recommend you to install ESET NOD32 Antivirus. It is best out there. A very close competitor is Kaspersky Antivirus 2009. However, these are negligibly paid software. If you want a freeware then Avast 8.0 is the best choice.

• Now when you surf the internet, you don’t want to see those useless advertisements that hog up your bandwidth. In severe cases, some ads are harmful too. You need AdMuncher. This is an ad-blocker program which supports many browsers and will not let advertisements to display while you surf.

• If you are too much worried about your security then you may want to install an anti-spyware. aSquared Free is the one I would recommend. However, Windows Defender is sufficient enough.

Internet Surfing:

• Before you start surfing the internet, it is necessary that you have all the plug-ins for viewing the latest multimedia content online. Download latest versions of Java, Shockwave Player, Adobe Flash and Silverlight.

• Now comes the most important part – Browser Selection. Most of the world uses Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. But we are not going to use any of them. I recommend using Flock and Google Chrome. More information about Flock can be found here.

• For peer-to-peer downloading, you can definitely rely on Limewire. It is available as Limewire Free and Limewire Pro (which is a paid version). You can very well do with the free version. For torrents, there is nothing better than μTorrent. Very light weight and low on resources, yet does a wonderful job.

• For Instant Messaging and Chatting, I recommend all-in-one Miranda IM Client. You can chat with your Yahoo!, MSN, IRC and AOL friends from just one IM Client.

• When it comes to downloading, there are many download managers available. But I recommend using Orbit Downloader or FlashGet. Both are well efficient with all required features like pausing a download and schedule a download at a specified time.

• If you want to download videos from sites like Youtube, Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, DailyMotion, you can do that easily by using VDownloader.

Audio, Video & Imaging:

• Image viewing and editing is made much simpler in Windows Vista. You don’t need to install any software. Windows Photo Gallery will suffice. However if you want to have an option then IrfanView is a good software. Considering the excellent job it does, you will be surprised by its small foot-print on your computer.

• Listening to your favorite music and MP3s is a piece of cake with AIMP2. It is very sad that such a great software is like a violet by a mossy stone. You will be surprised by its compactness and skilled ergonomics. With lots of customization options, a sound recorder, a tag editor and built-in plug-ins, you will get addicted to it in no time.

• Install K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and forget all worries about different AV codecs out there. Use Media Player Classic which is bundled with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack for viewing video files and video CD/DVDs. No need to install any other video player or codec.

• For video conversion, there is an excellent freeware utility SUPER. It supports all the video formats out there.

Maintenance & Cleaning:

• For cleaning and maintenance, you need CCleaner and TuneUp Utilities. You may also prefer EnhanceMyVistaFree for similar purposes. It is necessary to perform cleaning and maintenance activity every 14 days to avoid cluttering in your computer. [Tune-Up Utilities 2008 Licensed Version is available free of cost with the purchase of December 2008 issue of Chip Magazine (Indian Edition)]

• It is highly recommended that you perform defragmentation of disks using Tune-Up’s inbuilt defragmentor every 2 months.

CD / DVD:

• For mounting virtual image files you need a stable and efficient CD/DVD drive emulator. VirtualCloneDrive by Elaborate Bytes is the best CD/DVD emulator around. It is light weight and supports numerous CD/DVD image formats.

• For CD/DVD writing, the necessary and sufficient choice would be InfraRecorder. It is efficient, low on resources, can create neat Audio and Video discs and also creates CD/DVD Images.

Office Tools:

• Microsoft Office 2007 is the best out there. But there are few free options available. I would recommend using OpenOffice. It has the best value for money. It even supports Microsoft Office formats so you will not remain the odd one out when the whole world uses Microsoft Office.

• Next comes the PDF viewer. I would recommend Foxit Reader for its immensely small size of just 2mb. After all, if you just want to use a PDF reader once in a month, then resource hogging Adobe Reader is not a wise choice.

UI Enhancing:

• Everybody loves eye candy. So why not flaunt your new OS with some goodies that is pleasing to the eye. Download some cool icons from DeviantArt, FreeIconsWeb, IconsArchive, VistaIcons and similar sites.

• Once you have downloaded the icons, use them to change the look of your folders. Download IcoFX for converting image files to icons.

• Properly categorize your data and software and use proper icons for their folders. Also add your most used folders as links in the Navigation Pane.

• Download high quality wallpapers from DeviantArt and InterfaceLift.

Advanced Tweaking:

• Now its time to get your hands dirty. We are about to tweak the innards of Windows Vista for enhanced performance and speed.

• As we are using the Tune-Up Disk Defragmentor every two months, it is safe to turn off automatic defragmentation in Windows Vista. Click Start –> Computer. Right click appropriate drive, click ‘Properties’. In ‘Tools’ tab, click ‘Defragment Now’ button. Uncheck ‘Run on a schedule’ and click OK.

• Now we will disable some windows features which are not required. Click Start –> Control Panel. Double click ‘Programs and Features’. In the left side pane, click ‘Turn Windows features on or off’. Uncheck ‘Indexing Services’, ‘Remote Differential Compression’, ‘Tablet PC Optional Components’ (if you are not using a TabletPC), ‘Telnet Server’, ‘Windows DFS Replication Service’, ‘Windows Meeting Place’ and ‘Windows Process Activation Service’.

Well, the above tweaking guide is exclusive and not exhaustive and once followed thoroughly will make your Vista run efficiently without any glitches.

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