Performance
This feature is included in the following editions of Windows Vista:
The Performance Information and Tools Control Panel helps you understand your PC's performance characteristics so you can manage and troubleshoot performance-related problems.
Self-tuning and diagnostics
Self-tuning and diagnostics provide instrumentation and services that support user-driven and tool-driven diagnoses of performance problems, such as media glitching, slow application startup, slow system startup, and network-related delays.
Startup, sleep, and shutdown performance
In Windows Vista you can put your PC in Sleep mode using the power button on the Windows Start menu or, if configured, using the computer's external power button.
Windows SuperFetch
Windows SuperFetch prioritizes the programs you're currently using over background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and preloading these into memory. With SuperFetch, background tasks still run when the computer is idle. However, when the background task is finished, SuperFetch repopulates system memory with the data you were working with before the background task ran.
Low-priority I/O
Low-priority I/O, enables background processes to run with lower-priority access to the hard disk drive than other programs. If an application is written to use low-priority I/O it can run at the same time as one of your high-priority programs, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, without slowing down the high-priority program.
Disk defragmentation on a schedule
Disk defragmentation on a schedule.
Windows Vista includes a disk defragmenter that runs in the background and automatically defragments the hard disk as need arises. The disk defragmenter can defragment incrementally, whenever the computer is idle.
Access to DVDs and music
HotStart allows mobile PC manufacturers to include a separate button for media playback that starts up right to Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Center.
Diagnosing performance issues
Built-in performance diagnostics provide instrumentation and services for both user-driven and tool-driven diagnoses of common problems, including glitchy media playback, slow system or program starts, and network-related delays. Built-in performance diagnostic tools track how long it takes to execute common activities, analyze performance declines, and display results in the Performance Center, where users can then take action to remedy the problem.
Windows ReadyBoost
Impromptu memory expansion.
Windows ReadyBoost allows you to use nonvolatile flash memory devices, such as universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, to improve performance without having to add memory "under the hood." The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard disk drive.
Windows ReadyDrive
Windows ReadyDrive enables PCs equipped with a hybrid hard disk—a hard disk that adds flash memory to a standard mobile PC hard disk drive—to enjoy better performance, greater reliability, and longer battery life.