As an operating system developed by Microsoft for five years and spending a lot of manpower and financial resources, Windows Vista (hereinafter referred to as Vista) has brought us an unprecedented experience, but it also puts "demanding" requirements on computer hardware. This is undoubtedly very annoying for users who are using old computers but are not willing to upgrade immediately. Is the door of Vista completely closed to the "old machine"? The answer is no, the old computer can still swim the new system. The first trick: using flash acceleration According to the author's actual test, in order to run Vista smoothly, the computer is best equipped with 2GB of memory, and at the minimum must meet the 1GB requirement. However, if your "old machine" has only 512MB of memory or less, and you don't want to add new memory for a while, then Vista's ReadyBoost technology can come in handy, it can expand the flash memory into system "memory", help System acceleration. Tip: What is ReadyBoost? ReadyBoost is one of the innovative technologies of Vista system. It uses flash memory with faster random read and write speed or memory cards such as SD and CF to act as buffer space for data (the data is equivalent to the file in virtual memory). ), through this "memory external" approach to speed up the system cache access speed, thereby improving system performance. Microsoft has the following provisions for flash memory supporting ReadyBoost: (1) flash memory is USB2.0 specification product; (2) random read speed of 4KB file is not less than 2.5MB/s, and random write speed of 512KB file is not less than 1.75 MB/s; (3) The flash memory capacity is not less than 256MB. First, the prepared flash memory (the remaining space should be no less than 256MB, otherwise the acceleration effect is not obvious) is inserted into the computer USB interface, Vista will pop up the "AutoPlay" window, select "Accelerate my system", the system will pop up after testing the flash performance. A disk properties dialog box, click the "ReadyBoost" tab in the dialog box, select the "Use this device" item, and then drag the "Save space for speeding up the system" slider, set the flash memory The size of the space in ReadyBoost (see Figure 1, if you have more free space in the flash, it is best to set the reserved space for acceleration according to the size recommended by the system in the dialog box). After clicking "OK", the system will automatically generate a cache file called ReadyBoost.sfcache in the flash (Figure 2). At this point, the ReadyBoost feature is officially enabled.
Description: After (1) ReadyBoost is enabled, the flash memory can not be formatted, and the remaining space can not be discretionary; (2) if the system prompts "ReadyBoost" window "for the device to speed up system speed When the required performance characteristics are not available, it means that the hardware specifications of the product do not meet the requirements; (3) In order to fully utilize the speed-up effect of ReadyBoost, the size ratio of the flash memory and the memory should be guaranteed to be 1:1 to 2:1. (4) ReadyBoost is not supported on both mobile hard drives and MP3 players. After careful testing by the author, when the system memory capacity is only 512MB or less, after the ReadyBoost function is enabled, the system acceleration effect is obvious (especially in large application environments). Obviously, ReadyBoost is still very useful for laptop users with low memory configuration. This technology not only saves the memory overhead, but also greatly extends the battery life.
Second trick: Activate the graphics card In addition to the memory, Vista also puts higher requirements on the graphics card, such as video memory not less than 128MB, support for DirectX 9 and so on. If your graphics card (such as GeForce 6200A, Radeon 9550, etc.) meets these requirements, then the "old machine" can run Vista smoothly under the Aero 3D interface. However, if your computer uses an integrated graphics card such as the GMA 950 and the physical memory capacity does not reach 1GB, then Vista may not be able to automatically enable the Aero 3D effect. In this case, you can manually activate the graphics card as follows. Of course, the premise is that your graphics card must physically support DirectX 9, otherwise you should not try it. First enter the registry editor, modify the following two key values. (1) HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsDWMComposition: The key value is set to "1"; (2) HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsDWMCompositionPolicy: The key value is set to "2"; then the uxsms service is manually loaded. Open the "Run" dialog box, enter "net stop uxsms", enter the run dialog again after the completion of the operation, enter "net start uxsms", restart the system after the completion of the implementation.
It is important to note that the version of the graphics driver has an impact on the normal operation of Vista. In the window shown in Figure 3, you can see that the control panel of the GeForce Go 7300 graphics driver is incomplete. There are only 3D settings and multi-monitor settings. Even the "Advanced View" does not appear. Adjust the zoom mode and overclocking. If this is the case, it is recommended that you upgrade the latest version of the graphics card driver. The third trick: take off Vista's gorgeous "outerwear" We know that one of Vista's features is to provide a very dazzling visual effect, but for computers with low configuration (especially low-end graphics cards and smaller memory), This gorgeous coat is a serious test of system performance. If you want to speed up the speed of running old computers on Vista, then it is necessary to cancel a lot of flashy window effects. To do this, open Toolbox → Settings → System Properties → Performance Options, and then click Adjust to Best Performance in the Visual Effects window to quickly unselect all items. Then select "Smooth Screen Font Edge" in the visual effects list, "Use visual effects on windows and buttons" and "Use shadows for icon labels on the desktop" (Figure 4), and finally click "OK".
After the above settings, Aero 3D effects will significantly reduce the consumption of graphics systems and system resources, and the response speed of window operations is greatly improved. Of course, there are many ways to optimize the "soft" optimization of Vista. Most of the optimization techniques for Windows XP can be used under Vista. If you feel that the settings in the system are more complicated, then you can optimize the Vista system with tools such as TweakVista or Tweak VI, and it is very easy to operate. Conclusion Every time Microsoft's innovation in the operating system will push the development of computer hardware, this time Vista is no exception, it will definitely lead to a new wave of hardware upgrades. However, Vista's requirements for computer hardware are not very demanding. As long as the configuration is slightly upgraded or properly optimized, the "old machine" can still run Vista smoothly (if your computer is an "antique machine" such as the Celeron 300A. It is recommended that you still have a new machine as well. Of course, the adaptation of different computer configurations to the new system is not the same. I hope that through this article, I will let you play Vista, and hope that more friends will contribute their experience of using Vista, let us share .