A lot of people complain about long Vista startup and how annoying it is. But having to wait for ages for Vista to shut down can be equally frustrating. Most likely you will experience this if you’ve been using Vista for a while and run a lot of software. A lot of programs you have installed run different services in the background and the more there are, the more Vista has to close when you turn off your computer. As a result it takes longer to shut down.

There is a feature that lets you view which programs are slowing down your system. To access it go to Control Panel – Performance Information and Tools. Then click on Advanced Tools in the navigation bar. You will get a screen showing you various performance tools. If there are any shutdown issues, a message will be displayed near the top of that screen. Click on it to view which programs are causing problems along with recommendations on how to fix them.

There is a certain Registry tweak that can considerably reduce Vista shutdown time by closing down the services faster. Please be careful to not make any mistakes and remember that if you mess it up and damage your computer, you are the only one responsible for it. And back up the Registry before you begin.

After you’ve backed up the Registry, go to Start and type regedit in the search bar. This will open the Registry editor.  Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. You should see WaitToKillServiceTimeout on the right hand side. Change the value from 20000 milliseconds (20 seconds) to 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds). Don’t choose a lower value, because services need time to shut down properly. This tweak should make your system shutdown faster. Enjoy.

Sydney, Australia – February 13, 2009 - Auslogics releases a new free Windows Registry maintenance tool – Auslogics Registry Cleaner – an essential utility to keep the Registry clean to ensure maximum PC performance. It will meticulously scan the Registry, find and remove invalid and obsolete entries, and fix various registry errors.

The Windows Registry is one of the most vital and the most vulnerable to errors part of a computer. Programs access the Registry thousands of times per second and new registry entries are created whenever new software or hardware is installed. Most programs delete their entries when they are uninstalled, but some applications leave a lot of their registry keys behind. That’s how invalid entries mount up and the Registry becomes cluttered with unused and corrupted keys and references. As a result the system needs more time to access the Registry and find the entries it needs, which causes dramatic computer slow-downs.

Among other things that can lead to Registry problems are poorly written applications, incorrect program uninstalls, and bloated browser cache. All this can cause system errors, crashes, and failures. That’s why it’s extremely important to keep the Registry in top form by regularly cleaning all the junk and fixing all the errors that accumulate over time.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner is designed for fast and safe Registry clean-up and optimization. First the program offers to choose categories to scan, then scans for registry errors, and then provides the list of errors to fix. Each problem comes with a detailed description.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner is very easy to use and has an intuitive user interface, which makes it ideal for novice users. Experienced users will be able to get the most out of the program by choosing the Advanced scan option.

Some registry cleaners can be dangerous and harm the computer because they often treat entries required by the system as invalid and delete them. This can lead to unpredictable results, make the system unstable or even unbootable. Auslogics Registry Cleaner is made in such a way that it finds only safe-to-delete items by default. In a highly unlikely event of any problems occurring, all changes can be undone by selecting the Restore changes radio button. This makes using Auslogics Registry Cleaner absolutely risk-free.

Registry Cleaner is available as a separate free tool or as part of our award-winning computer optimization suite -  Auslogics BoostSpeed.

About Auslogics

Auslogics Software Pty Ltd is a developer and publisher of premium computer optimization software. The company is storming the market with its flagship product, Auslogics BoostSpeed, which enhances computer productivity by keeping PCs running smooth and error-free. This lengthens the lifetime of computers and eliminates the need for constant hardware upgrades.

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More information:
http://auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner

Five hassle-free ways to crank up your computer’s performance with Auslogics BoostSpeed.

While scientists may enjoy playing with their super fast quantum computers, common punters like us squirm and fidget with sluggish PCs. If patience wears thin when opening a Microsoft Word document or browsing the web, your computer may be due to some tune-up. Just like cars, computers need regular check ups and servicing, and we at Auslogics will show you how.

Upgrade Memory

Think of your computer as a box with both short term and long term memory. Short term memory, or RAM, is very fast. Long term memory is your Hard Disk Drive which is many times slower. If the short term memory of your computer  is not enough, it starts using the slower long term memory.

Therefore one of the most effective ways to improve your computer speed is to increase RAM. A typical computer would benefit from RAM of up to 2 GB. If your computer has been slow from the start, it’s likely that adding more memory will give it a kick.

Get a Solid State Drive

Most computers today come with hard drives based on spinning disks, a design that hasn’t changed since computers were invented. These disks are slow and may sometimes fail.

But there’s a new kid in town called Solid State Drive which works just like a good old USB memory stick. Solid State Drives are usually much faster and more reliable because they don’t have moving parts. The only downside is that SSD will cost you a kidney. But if price is not a question, a Solid State Drive can give your PC an additional boost.

Clean Up Your PC

A much cheaper, and yet powerful speeding up technique is removing junk files and registry errors. Junk files take up disk space and sap the disk performance. Worse than that, registry errors can make your computer behave erratically or even hang.

It is almost impossible to manually remove junk files and registry errors, but there are some handy tools out there that can do it for you. One of them is Auslogics BoostSpeed. You can download it from www.auslogics.com. With this program, you can maintain your PC at top speed with just a click of a button once a week.

Defragment Regularly

Imagine having to drive out just to buy coffee beans from Starbucks, then fresh milk from the local dairy farm, and finally sugar from a downtown supermarket, all just to make a simple pot of coffee. This is what happens when files are fragmented. A fragmented file consists of many small pieces scattered around the disk. In the end, opening even a single Microsoft Word document becomes painfully slow.

To prevent this from happening, regular defragmentation of your disk and registry is recommended. You can defragment your disk with the built-in tool from Microsoft, however we recommend using the faster and more advanced version in Auslogics BoostSpeed.

Watch For Rogue Software

Some viruses, spyware or even legitimate software can slow your computer down to a crawl. Unless you are a techie, it can be difficult to find out which software is the culprit.

This is why Auslogics has added a handy tray icon which immediately shows “greedy” programs that consume too much CPU, take up too much memory, or use up all your Internet traffic bandwidth.