Windows Vista has many services running after initial install that you simply will never need.  You can improve Vista’s performance by turing some of these off.  A great site for finding out what each service does and if it is safe to turn it off is Black Viper’s Windows Service Pack 1 Service Configurations.  All the services are listed for each version of Vista and three versions of what you can turn off depending on how far you mught want to go.  Safe turns off 13 unneeded services that will be great for most users, tweaked turns off 52 services that really frees up Vista resource while keeping is secure, and finally bare bones to turn off 76 services not needed to run Vista.   I’m using the safe recommendations right now and not seeing any negative effects.  I will try the tweaked later to see what happens, but safe seems sufficient for now. To turn services off or on type services.msc in the run box after pressing the start button.

If you want to try the safe setting I have them in a reg file here: services.reg Download the file and double click on it merge it into your registry.  After a reboot there will be 13 less services running as suggested by Black Viper.  To return you system to normal Black Viper has the default services in a reg file for you already: Windows Vista SP1 Default Service Registry Patches.

More tweaks to come later!

UAC is the User Account Control.  This is that really annoying thing that keep asking for permission to do system software tasks and also run programs. Here is how to turn it off:

1. Head to Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select System and Maintenance
4. Select Administrative Tools
5. Select the System Configuration button
6. Select the Continue button (if UAC is active)
7. Select the Tools Tab
8. Select “Disable UAC”
9. Select the Launch button
10. Select the Ok button to close the panel

You will have to reboot for the setting to take effect.

Last week I went ahead and took the Vista plunge. I’ve had a legal copy sitting here since it was released but never installed it after hearing some nightmare stories. I’ve been watching for drivers and fixes to problems I could see happening to me and I felt it was time to try it. My biggest worry was my Creative X-Fi sound card that many users reported as not working well at all. Creative has released updated drivers for Vista fixing most problems that were reported. Service pack one was also released so some of the operating level bugs were corrected as well.

The initial install went a bit slow. I actually thought the computer crashed at one point as nothing was happening. I assume it was gathering information about my system. After initial install I have to say it looks prettier than XP did. The constant request for my permission to run things is a pain and certain programs have to be run as administrator to work. Printer installation was somewhat of a pain as my printer is on a network and Vista could see the printer, yet told me I didn’t have permission to use it.

I’ll start posting tweaks as I find them and use them on my own system to make Vista more usable. The same thing had to be done to XP when it came out. By default Microsoft tries to create a set of services that will work for everyone. You don’t need many of these. Keep any eye open for more to come.

Wow!  I want one!

Straight out of Watchmen, Nite-Owl’s Owlship In Lego!

The new single called The Day That Never Comes is availible on Metallica.com.  I’ve been reading about the new Metallical album for a while now and I keep hearing about the old sound.  If this new single is the old sound, they missed it.  Sorry guys, still not the Metallica I love to listen to.  Give it a listen and decide for yourself.

The Day That Never Comes

Seems DC has learned from it’s mistakes and it’s successes.  Superman Returns was a flop, most fans hated it.  Batman The Dark Knight has had huge success.  The Batman franchise is a total reboot whereas Superman tried to pick up where the older movies had left off.  DC is prepared to reboot superman just as they did with Batman.  I’m really hoping this works for them.  Brian Singer is still currently attached to Superman, perhaps he will stay on board and do as DC ask and reboot Superman.

[VIA] io9

More Watchmen from behind the scenes:

This movie still looks great.  I can’t wait for it to come out.

Thought this we very cool:

The Lego video games are a big hit in our house. We play both the Star Wars Lego games and the Indiana Jones Lego game on the PS2. After beating each game we’ve been left wanting more. Come September our wait is over when Batman Lego The video game comes out. In a new twist you can pick to be good or bad in this version. Sounds fun :)