Windows Vista Running extremely slow & audio/video out of sync

Hi Nuts4Mutts.

Follow these steps to help make the computer run faster and more efficiently:

1. Click Start< Control Panel< Uninstall a Program and uninstall any programs that you don't use.

2. In Control Panel under Programs and Features click the link that says Turn Windows Features On or Off and uncheck all the checkboxes except for Games, Internet Explorer 8/9/10, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1, Windows Media Features, Windows Search, XPS Services and XPS Viewer. Then Expand the Windows Media Features category and uncheck Windows Media Center unless you use it but leave Windows Media Player and Windows DVD Maker checked. Click Ok when you are done and then click on the Restart Later button when prompted. (If you use a Windows Feature that is listed then don't uncheck its checkbox)

3. Download and run ATF Cleaner. Save the program to your desktop. After the download completes, right click on the ATF Cleaner program and select Run as Administrator. When it opens select all the checkboxes in the program then hit the empty selected button.

4. Run Disk Cleanup. Click Start< All Programs< Accessories< System Tools< Right click Disk Cleanup and select Run as Administrator. Once Disk Cleanup finishes calculating how much space it can free up make sure that all the checkboxes are selected. Once all of those checkboxes are selected click the More Options tab and under System Restore and Shadow Copies click the Cleanup button. Click Clean up to delete all of the old System Restore points. Once that's done click the Ok button to perform the requested actions and click Yes when prompted to allow Disk Cleanup to remove unnecessary files on the computer.

5. Disable any Windows Services that you don't use by following Black Vipers Services Guide. After you have disabled the services that you don't need running, make sure to reboot the computer for the changes to take effect.

6. Download and run Auslogics Disk Defrag. Make sure to uncheck any toolbars in the installation wizard as they are not needed. After the installation finishes open the program by right clicking on the Auslogics Disk Defrag shortcut and selecting Run As Administrator. When you open the program click on Settings< Defrag Priority and select High Priority. Then click on Settings< Program Settings< Algorithms Tab. Select the Delete temporary files before defragmenting checkbox and select the Move system files to the beginning on the disk checkbox. When done click Ok to close the Settings window. When you are ready to start the defragmentation process select the small down arrow next to the word Defrag and select the Defrag button. The process could take a long time so please be patient.

7. Download and run Auslogics Registry Defrag. Make sure to uncheck any toolbars in the installation wizard as they are not needed. After the installation finishes, open the program by right clicking on the Auslogics Registry Defrag shortcut and selecting Run As Administrator. When the program opens click the Analyze button. When the process finishes analyzing click the Defrag Registry button followed by clicking the Restart button to finish the registry defrag process.

8. Click Start< Right Click Computer and click Properties. In the System window click the Advanced System Settings button< In the System Properties window on the advanced tab under where it says Performance hit the settings button. In the Performance Options window click the Advanced tab and under Virtual Memory click the Change button. In the Virtual Memory window make sure your hard drive is selected and select the option that says System Managed Size and click the Set button. Now click Ok on the Virtual Memory window to close it. Now in the Performance Options window click the Data Execution Prevention tab and select the option that says Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select. After that's done click Ok on all the windows to close them out and then reboot the computer.

9. You can disable the Windows Aero Interface if you don't care about all of the glass effects and clear borders for a speed improvement, Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista.

10. Take a look at these simple tweaks to decrease the delay time when opening menus and to improve the shutdown time, How to Speed up the Menu Show Delay Time in Windows 7, How to Change the Mouse Hover Time before Pop-up Displays in Windows 7, Speed up Windows 7 Shutdown.

11. If you find the secure desktop functionality in User Account Control annoying then you can disable it for a speed improvement, Make User Account Control (UAC) Stop Blacking Out the Screen in Windows 7 or Vista.

12. Run Check Disk on the hard drive to repair any errors in the file system. To do this click Start< My Computer. Right click on your hard drive and click on Properties. Then once the hard drive properties dialog box opens, click on the Tools Tab. Under where it says Error-checking click on the Check Now button. Ensure that both the Automatically fix file system errors and the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors checkboxes are both checked. After that is done click on the Start button. Check Disk will ask you to schedule the disk check when you restart your computer. Click on yes to do this and then restart your computer to allow check disk to run.

13. Click Start< All Programs< Accessories< Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator. The Command Prompt window will open. Paste the following command in the Command Prompt window and press enter, Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks. The process idle tasks process can take a few minutes to complete. Once it finishes you can close the Command Prompt window.

14. Please download AdwCleaner and save it to your desktop. Run the program by right clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator. When the program opens click on the Scan button. Then when the program has finished scanning, click on the Clean button. The program will reboot the computer. Post the AdwCleaner log in your next reply.

15. Next, download the Junkware Removal Tool and save it to your desktop. Run the program by right clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator and post the JRT log in your next reply.

16. Then, download HijackThis to your desktop. Run the program by right clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator and on the Main Menu click the button that says Do a system scan and save a logfile. Post the HijackThis log in your next reply.

17. Download MiniToolBox and save it to your desktop. Run the program and when the program opens check the following boxes:

Flush DNS
Reset FF proxy Settings
Reset IE Proxy Settings
Report IE Proxy Settings
Report FF Proxy Settings
List content of Hosts
List IP configuration
List Winsock Entries
List last 10 Event Viewer log
List Installed Programs
List Users, Partitions and Memory size
List Devices (problems only)

Click the Go button and also post the MiniToolBox log in your next reply.

18. Download and run TCP Optimizer. Save the program to your desktop and then run the program by right clicking on it and selecting Run as administrator. When the program opens, on the General Settings tab under Network Adapter selection click the option that says Modify all Network Adapters. Then at the bottom of the window where it says Choose settings, select the Optimal setting and click on Apply Changes. Click on Ok to confirm the changes and when prompted reboot the computer for the changes to take effect.

19. Could you let me know what security programs you have installed?

20. How many processes are running in the Windows Task Manager?

Let me know how the computer is running after performing the above steps.

 

Ah my apologies. The Windows Features window in Windows Vista is slightly different from the one in Windows 7.

Yes that's fine.

Windows Vista doesn't allow you to remove Windows Media Center from the system but that's ok. Uncheck everything except for Games and .NET Framework 3.0. For .NET Framework 3.0 you just leave it as a filled box. You don't need to check the extra .NET Framework features. Just leave that one on the default setting. Then click on Ok to apply the changes.

I would just follow the order of my instructions since it will make it easier for you to follow them.

 

You can use both programs since neither one is perfect.

Go ahead and follow the Safe configuration for the Services. Disable all of the services under the Safe Category except for the Windows Search service.

If you are still nervous about what services you can disable and you don't want to mess anything up then let me know and I can go down the list and advise you on what services you can disable without worry.

 

Boy that certainly did take quite a long time. Lets hope the rest of the steps won't take as long to complete. To answer your question, you can open the Services window by clicking Start< in the Start search box type services.msc and hit enter.

 

You can also click Start< Run and type services.msc and hit ok to run it that way.

 

You are simply stopping the service temporarily and not disabling it.

You need to set the startup type to disabled to prevent the service from starting up when you reboot the computer.

Just ignore the message and see if the program still runs.

We will get to that point once you have completed all of my instructions.