The performance of your DNS server is one of the main factors that affects the speed of your web browsing. Each domain name you type has to be resolved so it can be accessed, so the amount of time it takes will delay the loading of your web pages. Many users who’s ISP’s have overloaded DNS must wait several seconds before the web page they’ve chosen to access starts to work.

This is where OpenDNS comes in. Open DNS provides free alternative DNS servers which anyone with an Internet provider can use. OpenDNS’s servers are fast and reliable, and will likely help you speed up your web browsing by cutting your load times in half. This works by cutting down the time needed to actually resolve the web page so your browser can download it. Here’s how to configure OpenDNS instead of your ISP’s in Windows Vista:

This should significantly speed up your web browsing. If you’re curious about more features, visit the OpenDNS site to learn more.

ReadyBoost is designed to help this situation by giving Windows an alternative to sticking your applications into the slow paging file on your hard drive. What ReadyBoost does is utilizes USB storage devices, which are faster than a hard disk. This results in a performance boost because Windows is using a high speed alternative instead of the slower paging file on your hard drive.

You’ll need a USB Storage Device which meets the minimum performance and space requirements for using ReadyBoost. These requirements are as follows:

If you’re unsure that your USB storage device meets these requirements, you should try it just in case. Many USB storage devices produced within the last year or so meet and exceed these requirements. To get started using your device with ReadyBoost, you should follow these simple steps:

1. Plug in your USB storage device.
2. Go to ‘Computer’ and right click on Removable Storage Device. Then click Properties.
3. If your device is a compatiable device, you’ll see a ReadyBoost tab. If it is not, you’ll need to find another device in order to use ReadyBoost. If your device is ReadyBoost compatiable, click on the ReadyBoost tab and select ‘Use this device’.
4. Select the amount of space you want to allocate to your system to be used by ReadyBoost.
5. Click ‘Okay’ and you’re finished.

You should now have a bit more memory available to your processes and your machine should seem a bit faster, depending on the amount of space you allocated to memory usage.

Now that those options are unchecked, any application which you launch, or any documents and photos that you look at are no longer recorded for others to see.

Aero Glass – There has been much speculation as to whether or not turning this theme off before starting a game will cause you to get better frame rates while you play. This is absolutely false. There’s no performance hit with Aero Glass enabled, because Glass is disabled automatically prior to the game running in DirectX exclusive mode. This even pertains to dual monitors. If your system is powerful enough to run Crysis, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using Aero Glass.

Sidebar & Animations – The side bar is a neat functional tool, but many gamers find it takes up too much of their valuable memory while gaming. If you want to disable is, simply click the properties tab from the tray icon and select disable. You can turn off the actual bar by right clicking it and then clicking ‘Close Bar’. If you still want to use the sidebar and don’t want to disable it completely, you can set it to have low priority in your task manager. The process is titled ‘sidebar.exe’. You should also never use any CPU meter while you game, as they use WMI which is a very heavy hit on your CPU usage. Animations are also a good thing to get rid of. The Windows animations and thumbnails can be disabled in your advanced system options, under system CP applet. Uncheck the ‘animate windows will min/maxing.’

Networking – If you’re not actively sharing files with other computers on your network, turn off media sharing and public sharing. If your PC is the only one on the network, you should also disable network discovery and offline files. There’s no need for these services to run if you’re not actively using them.

1. Click the Start Orb and enter the words ‘Command Prompt’, then hit Enter.
2. Once your command prompt has started, right click the top left icon in the menu bar and select the option ‘Defaults’. You can also select Properties if you need to have different settings for different shortcuts.
3. You’ll see four tabs of options to customize. The most customizable are Font, Layout, and Colors. Click on the font tab. You’ll be able to change the font size used, either larger or smaller to suit your tastes.
4. The Layout tab lets you specify the size and the location of the window when it opens, as well as the buffer. This allows you to re-size the window to suit your needs, especially if you look at large amounts of files while accessing the command line, you may want your command prompt window to be much larger.
5. The color tab is where you can have the most fun changing the look of your command prompt. Instead of having the standard black and white configuration, you can have just about any color imaginable. Customize your colors to look perfect with your desktop.
6. If you want an easy way to highlight text without having to click Edit – Mark each time you need to highlight something, turn on Quick Edit Mode in the options tab. This allows you to right click text to copy, and paste it again by right clicking one more time.
7. Be sure and save your changes once you’re finished.

If you’re not the only computer on your network and use a router to connect to the Internet, chances are your router has a built in firewall. This helps protect you, in addition to the firewall already included on Vista. It’s been upgraded and tweaked over the firewall which was offered in XP and has been proven to be more than adequate at protecting its users, when it is turned on. If you’re not behind a router and you’re looking for some extra protection while browsing the web, there are a few programs you can download which are Vista compatible and offer decent protection.

1. PC Tools Firewall Plus – This program is a free firewall which has no included support, but has been reported to work with Vista quite well. If you’re looking for additional protection for a good price (who can beat free?), then PC Tools might have the product for you. Since it’s not bundled with anything else, you won’t have to uninstall any features you don’t want. Just remember, if you run into problems, you’ll have to troubleshoot them yourself.

2. AVG Firewall Plus – This product is bundled with a purchase of AVG Anti-Virus plus. You can’t get it alone, so it isn’t free, but in addition to AVGs excellent Antivirus protection, you can’t go wrong. Since this is a paid product, you’ll receive all the support you need for a period of one year from the purchase date. If you’re unsure about the features and want to try before you buy, AVG also offers a demo of its services.

As you can see, there’s not much extra protection currently available for Vista users, but hang in there and you should be fine with the above options.

The first and most popular of these options is Stardock’s WindowBlinds 6.This software isn’t free, but it allows you to convert .msstyles which are XP themes, to be able to be used on Vista. This is a great option for those who have just upgraded from XP to Vista and don’t care for the new Aero theme, or want to retain the look of their old desktop while having new features offered by Vista.

Another way to enable your system to run custom themes is to download the VistaGlazz program. The program is free and extremely simple to use. The program basically patches several DLL files which take out the necessary authentication required by Microsoft to run these free themes. However, if you have Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, you should not download this program, as it will not work for you.

Once you’ve installed your method of choice, you can find new themes for Vista in several places around the web. The most popular place to download these themes is Deviant Art. There is a wide array of themes available to suit all tastes. Another popular place to obtain themes is the forums at Neowin.net. Themes are usually released here on a regular basis, so check back often. Once you’ve found the theme you want, you simply download the theme, place it in your Windows/Resources/Themes folder and then activate it. You’ll have a custom desktop appearance in no time, with little to no effort.