VISTA + ALACRITYPC + NICK'S O&O

[Guest DALTech_Ops]

Hello All,I know some folks have been peddling with the Vista idea lately so I thought I would share with you my findings.Prior to Wednesday (yesterday), I have not been able to run FSX with Vista Home 32 at any acceptable levels whatsoever.I had all but given up on it and was preparing to install a second hard drive and load XP. Throughout this endeavor, I have been following various comments in the FSX and Hardware forums.So I decided to apply Nick's XP O&O tweak and try the new AlacrityPC program.I first installed AlacrityPC and gave FSX a go. I did notice some improvement but not to the level where it would warrant purchasing addons like we all have with FS9. The small improvement would quickly be lost with detailed airports and any degree of weather enhancement. I then downloaded the trial version of O&O (Ver. 10), which have since purchased by the way, and followed Nick's suggestions to the "T". If you do every step as outlined in Nick's tweak, it does take some time. It actually took me the better half of a day to complete all the defrag steps.I then gave FSX another go. Initially the FPS meter was pegged at 30 which is what I have the limit set at. This is good. I then began throwing scenery sliders up. With each slider change I kept saying to myself "this will be the one that brings it to its knees". But no, the meter continues to maintain 26-30 FPS. Unbelieveable. I do not know scientifically what Nick's recommendations actually do physically but I can attest they work magic. Even in Vista.Currently I have a very well performing setup in Vista 32. No, I do not have every slider maxed. In fact just turning on Bloom alone will cut the frames in half. Having said that, I do have most of the sliders maxed with the others set to medium or medium high such as Autogen.So if anyone is currently in the Vista delemna, please give the two a try as it really did make all the difference in the world for me.A note on O&O. I know Nick recommended Ver. 8.5 to everyone but I am currently using Ver.10 as I initially used the trial version as earlier noted. MitchMY SPECS ARE:FSX + GEX + UTXHP E6600 Quad 3GB RamNvidia 8400GSLG 42" HiDef TV

[Guest Nick_N]

Yes MitchWhat i posted will work in Vista to a certain extent but it will not have the same impact as it does in XP and I hesitate to give the go on that to everyoneI assume you did not change the regisry in Vista and only use the defrag, correct?In Vista, please also do the following:1. Completely shut down the Defender Program/Service2. Completely disable UAC3. Completely disable Aero4. I assume you already did but completely shut down the Indexing Service5. Completely shut down System Restore6. Completely shut down Automatic updates but only the GUI automatic update setting, not the service.As with XP you need to go through the start registry and make sure nothing is booting not needed... like Real player, MS messenger, etc.. those do not need to start with Windows and can be launched from a shortcut on the desktop if desired. Many software packages install unneeded startup keys. Adobe Acrobat is one, useless startup that does not need to be there.. and many software packages have "automatic monthly updating' features that are also not necessary and clog up the works. You should always enter the settings for newly installed software and check to see if it has 'auto update' and 'start with windows' enabled.. if so, kill those features.I really hesitate to post anything else. There are a few other things that can be done in the services list and registry however there are services I see people shut down that should never be touched, and, there is no need to clear the memory before MSFS boot.. that

[Guest DALTech_Ops]

>>I assume you did not change the regisry in Vista and only use the defrag, correct?<

[Guest Nick_N]

OK thats fine but also check and see if this key is present and if so, set it as well:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgBootOptimizeFunction Make sure "Enable" is set to: "N" I can not remember right off hand if that is in the Vista registry. If it is, change it.I am only going to post this warning once.. shutting down services that you have no idea what they do is not recommended. Some services have driver and other dependencies and when you shut things down blindly you can place background activity on the system because the system is sitting there looking for connections to services that are unavailable.Black Viper is one of the most dangerous sites on the internet. Not only does the service list shutdown provided contain services that should NEVER be shut down, the WAY that site (in the past) posts to shut them down is WRONG. You can not shut down a service and completely release the memory and other subs by clicking DISABLED. It must be DISABLED at LOGON and the system rebooted or shutting down many of those services nets next to NOTHING. It requires knowing which ones are the hogs and can be shut down -without issue- to the system to get that right.There are services in Vista that can be shut down past my XP list, safely but unless you know exactly what you are doing, I would not introduce unknown variables to any system and leave things like that alone.You can shut services down if you know what you are doing, but -be very carefull- about that. Many of the services in the list (XP and Vista) have no detrimental effect on system performance, at all, and shutting a few of those down can -actually- create a performance problem by invoking background activity around shutting them down. It's important to locate and target the exact list that will have the best effect in recovery of resources, shut them down right and permanently and then leave it alone from that point on.Nhancer setup along with how to calibrate FSX is here:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=437662&page=7NOTE: The FSX slider and box settings I provided to SteveLewis were considered for his P4 and 256MB system. Those settings are the BASELINE to start and increase to find the sweet spot AND the TRAFFIC settings I posted for him are based on his AI being REPLACED and not default models. Default should run no more than 30% unless you are on a fast system with a Quad, then that can go to 45-59% MAX.While you are on O&O v10, do not ever run a SPACE defrag after the first service, even for maintenance. All defrag passes must be COMPLETENAME