There should be a Sysvol folder on every DC. When a user logs on to a computer that's a member of a domain, their Group Policy settings, profiles and scripts are downloaded locally from a DC's Sysvol folder. It makes sense that all DCs need to have the exact same Sysvol content. If something changes on one DC (usually the PDC Emulator), you need to copy, or "replicate," those changes to all other DCs.

In the past, we had no choice. The engine that replicated Sysvol was the File Replication Service (FRS). Any network admin who has had the pleasure of troubleshooting morphed files and folders or journal wraps can attest to the fact that FRS's replication of Sysvol leaves a lot to be desired. Server 2008 finally offers a new replication engine option: Distributed File System Replication (DFSR). DFSR was first introduced in Windows Server 2003 R2 but could only replicate Distributed File System Namespaces (DFSNs). Sysvol was still a slave to FRS. Here, I'll explain the process to migrate from FRS to DFSR for your Sysvol replication step-by-step.

Before the Migration

To begin with, my environment is a Windows Server 2003 SP1/R2 domain named Bigfirm.com (migration from FRS to DFSR is performed at the domain level). Bigfirm.com contains two DCs named FRSRIP (PDC Emulator) and DC2. I like to run the migration process from the FSMO role holder of the PDC Emulator.

So, from the PDC Emulator put in the Server 2008 DVD, go to a command prompt, change the drive letter to your Server 2008 DVD, change directories to the \Sources\Adprep folder and run Adprep /forestprep. Next you'll need to raise the domain functional level to Server 2003 if it's not already there. To raise the domain functional level to Server 2003, open Active Directory Domains and Trusts, right-click your domain name and choose Raise Domain Functional Level. You should see an appropriate dialog box after that.

Starting from the top: my domain name is Bigfirm.com. The current domain functional level is Windows 2000 Mixed (yours might be Windows 2000 Native). In the "select an available domain functional level" drop-down list, choose Windows Server 2003 and click the Raise button. Next, from the Server 2008 DVD's Sources\Adprep folder run Adprep /domainprep from a command prompt as I did earlier with the forestprep switch. Then upgrade the PDC and all DCs to Server 2008. Last, you can raise the Domain Functional level to Server 2008 (just like you raised it to Server 2003).

Before you begin your migration, I highly recommend that you test Sysvol replication to ensure it's working properly. FRSDiag is a free tool you can download from Microsoft's download site. This tool lets you perform a propagation test, which will create a brand-new file in Sysvol and track its replication progress so you can see if any DCs are currently having replication issues. To perform a propagation test using FRSDiag, click on the Tools menu and choose "Propagation File Tracer."

If your Sysvol is healthy and replicating throughout your domain, make a backup of Sysvol. However, I prefer the idea of taking a DC that's current with AD and doing Sysvol replication completely offline, physically unplugging it from the network. I like this approach just in case I need to quickly get it back up and running. This doesn't have to be a physical machine; it can be a virtual machine (VM). VMware Inc. makes it a snap to put a VM on a custom subnet so it can't talk to any other machines that are not also on the same subnet. At this point you should place Sysvol in a lockdown state. There should be no changes that occur in Sysvol until the migration is complete. I'll explain why a little later.

Migration

Before we get into the actual migration process, I'd like to give you a 10,000-foot view of what's supposed to happen at each step along the way. I like to call these steps stages, while Microsoft calls them states. First, you should know there are two different types of stages/states: Stable states and Transitional states. The stable states mark the big milestones of the migration process, where the Transitional stages can be viewed as the "working processes" that take you from one stable state to the next. Again, I can explain the states and what happens in each. The tool used for migration is a command-line utility called DFSRMig.exe and can be found on a Server 2008's Windows\System32 folder.

All DCs begin at state 0. State 0 means that all DCs are currently replicating the SYSVOL folder using the FRS. Microsoft recommends running the DFSRMig.exe utility on the PDC Emulator. To kick off the migration process on the PDC Emulator, open a command prompt and type the following:

  Dfsrmig /SetGlobalState 1

You should see the following output:

  Current DFSR global state: 'Start'
  New DFSR global state: 'Prepared'

Migration will proceed to 'Prepared' state. DFSR service will copy the contents of Sysvol to SYSVOL_DFSR folder.

If any DC is unable to start migration, try manual polling, or Run with option /CreateGlobalObjects. Migration can take anywhere from 15 minutes to one hour to start.

Succeeded

The DFSRMig commands are not case-sensitive, so dfsrmig /setglobalstate 1 would have worked as well. State 1 is called the Prepared state, but to get to state 1, Transitional states 4 (T4) and 5 (T5) must be performed. What do they do? T4 creates a new object in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) that will be used for DFSR replication of Sysvol (very similar to the File Replication Service object that exists for FRS). The new object is named DFSR-GlobalSettings and can be found in the System container; you'll need to click the View menu and choose Advanced features to see the System Container and it's contents. T5 creates a new folder in the Windows folder named SYSVOL_DFSR; you can see this in Windows Explorer. Then, robocopy runs the following command:

  ROBOCOPY c:\Windows\Sysvol\Domain
  c:\WindowsSysvol_DFSR\Domain /Copyall /MIR /B /R:0
  /XD "Do_Not_Remove_NtFrs_PreInstall_Directory" 
  "DfsrPrivate" "NtFrs_Prexisting__See_Eventlog" 
  "NTFRS_CMD_FILE_MOVE_ROOT" /XF 
  "DO_NOT_REMOVE_NtFrs_PreInstall_Directory" 
  "DfsrPrivate" "NtFrs_PreExisting__See_Eventlog" 
  "NTFRS_CMD_FILE_MOVE_ROOT"

This copies the Sysvol and domain folders from the Sysvol folder to the new SYSVOL_DFSR folder.

The object created in ADUC called DFSR-GlobalSettings contains an attribute named msflags. The object DFSR-GlobalSettings will replicate from one DC to another until all DCs have the object. Then, the msflags attribute is set based on what state the migration process is in at the time. To begin with, the msflags attribute will be set to 16. So if you brought up a new DC in the middle of migration -- though this is not recommended -- the fact that this msflags attribute is set to 16 would tell DFSRMig to begin the migration process. Sometimes you may have one DC that's taking to long to get to state 1, like my DC named DC2. I'll need to move it along a bit by forcing AD replication (to get the DFSR-GlobalSettings object) and then force dfsrdiag to read the AD object. To force replication, you'll use the repadmin command-line utility, which looks like this:

  Repadmin /replicate destinationDC 
  sourceDC domain components

So, my sourceDC that I know contains the DFSR-GlobalSettings is FRSRIP and the DC that's taking too long to begin the migration process is DC2, which will be the destinationDC for the DFSR-GlobalSettings object. Here's an example:

  Repadmin /Replicate DC2 
  FRSRIP dc=bigfirm,dc=com

To tell dfsrdiag to read the AD object, I would type the following from a command prompt:

  C:\ dfsrdiag pollad

If this doesn't work, then you'll have to manually create the SYSVOL_DFSR folder in the Windows folder -- the same folder as the existing Sysvol -- and run the robocopy command to populate the SYSVOL_DFSR folder.

The log file that tracks the migration process can be found in the Windows\Debug folder. It's named DfsrMig_###.Log through however many log files there are. On my system at this point I had three: DfsrMig_001.Log.gz, DfsrMig_002.Log.gz and DfsrMig_003.Log.

The extension of .gz shows that once a file is full it's compressed using Gzip. You can check to see if all your DCs have reached the prepared state by typing the following command at the command prompt; I always do it on the PDC Emulator:

  Dfsrmig /GetMigrationState

You should get a listing of all DCs and the state they're currently in. In the following output I have two DCs, FRSRIP (PDC Emulator) and DC2:

  The following Domain Controllers are not in 
  sync with Global state ('Prepared'):
  Domain Controller (Local Migration State) - DC Type
  ===========================================
  DC2 ('Start') - Writable DC
  FRSRIP ('Waiting For Initial Sync') - Primary DC
  Migration has not yet reached a consistent state 
  on all Domain Controllers.
  State information might be stale due to AD latency.

If you're tracking things through event viewer you should see the following events in the DFS Replication event log:

  Event ID 8000: The DFSR global settings have
  been created. 
  Event ID 8008: SYSVOL migration global state is set 
  to 'Prepared' the current local state is 'Start'.  
  Event ID 8010: DFSR will now create the 
  SYSVOL_DFSR folder, and objects in the local AD.
  Event ID 8012: DFSR has successfully created the 
  SYSVOL_DFSR folder. 
  Event ID 8008: DFSR has started the transition 
  to global state 'Prepared'.
  Event ID 1210: DFSR successfully set up an RPC listener 
  for incoming replication requests. 
  Event ID 6804: DFSR has detected no connections 
  configured for replication group Domain System
  Volume. No data is being replicated for this replication group. 
  And the Replication Group and 
  Member ID GUIDs 
  Event ID 4112: DFSR initialized the replicated folder
   at local path C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL_DFSR\domain. 
  This member is the designated primary member for 
  this replicated folder.
  -	SYSVOL Share 
  -	Replicated Folder ID: GUID 
  -	Domain System Volume 
  -	Replication Group ID: GUID 
  -	Member ID: GUID

The Re-Directed State

When you type DFSRMig /getmigrationstate at a command prompt and receive the following message, migration has reached a consistent state on all DCs:

  All Domain Controllers have migrated successfully 
  to Global state ('Prepared').

You're ready to move onto the Re-Directed state. The purpose of this state is to direct the old Sysvol share to the new SYSVOL_DFSR folder. To do that, Transitional state 6 (T6) runs. T6 edits the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters and sets the SysvolReady key to False, then the Sysvol path is changed to \WINDOWS\SYSVOL_DFSR\sysvol.

Then the SysvolReady key is set to True and you're back in business, but now your Netlogon and Sysvol shares point to the new directory. If you go to a command prompt after this completes and type C:\ Net share, then you should see the following paths for your Netlogon and SYSVOL shares:

  Netlogon = Windows\SYSVOL_DFSR\sysvol\DomainName\SCRIPTS
  SYSVOL = Windows\SYSVOL_DFSR\sysvol

If you're following the progress in the event logs you should see the following events in the DFS Replication event log:

  Event ID 8008: The SYSVOL migration global state is 
  set to 'Redirected' and the current local 
  state is 'Prepared'. 
  Event ID 8015: Starting the process of redirecting 
  replication of the Sysvol share on DC FRSRIP. NTFRS 
  will continue to replicate the Sysvol share located at 
  C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL until the local state
   transitions to 'REDIRECTED'. 
  Event ID 8017:  DC FRSRIP has successfully migrated
  to the 'REDIRECTED' state. DFSR is replicating 
  SYSVOL_DFSR folder located at 
  C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL_DFSR. 
  TO CONTINUE MIGRATION: If you choose to continue
  the migration process and proceed to the 
  'ELIMINATED' state, it will not be possible to revert
  the migration process. The Sysvol folder located at 
  C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL will be deleted.

At this point the old Sysvol folder is being replicated using FRS -- it isn't shared anymore, but that's no problem for FRS -- and the new SYSVOL_DFSR folder is being replicated with DFSR. Remember that long and ugly robocopy command that ran in T5? Well, if someone were to edit a log-in script, or anything else, that lives in the old Sysvol folder, those changes would never get copied to the new SYSVOL_DFSR folder. This is the reason you want Sysvol to be in lockdown. Of course, when you have many admins, there's always the chance that someone will edit something in the old Sysvol folder and then be very surprised when they can't get the changes to work.

At this stage, if you were to edit a Group Policy by launching GPMC.msc, you'd now be connected to the new SYSVOL_DFSR share. To prevent people from making changes in the wrong folder you can move to the last state -- called the Eliminated state -- but beware, there's no rolling back from this state.

In the Eliminated state Transitional state 7 (T7) runs. T7 actually deletes the old Windows\SYSVOL folder. FRS continues to run, just in case you have some distributed file systems that are being replicated with FRS.

Oops, I Changed My Mind

Microsoft has built in rollback capabilities to the migration process in case you change your mind. For example, if you had migrated to state 1 you could go back to state 0 by typing:

  dfsrmig /setglobalstate 0

If you had completed migration to state 2 you could rollback to state 1 by typing:

  dfsrmig /setglobalstate 1

But if you migrated to the Eliminated state, the old SYSVOL is gone and there's no rollback procedure for this. You should be fully committed to DFSR replicating SYSVOL before you go to state 3. Once state 3 is complete you'll see the following four events in the DFS Replication event log:

  Event ID 8008: The SYSVOL migration global state is 
  set to 'Eliminated' and the current local state is 
  'Redirected'. 
  Event ID 8018: DFSR will now migrate the DC 
  FRSRIP to the 'ELIMINATED' state. Please note that 
  there is no going back. DFSR will now proceed to 
  delete the SYSVOL share located 
  at C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL. DFSR will also delete 
  the local Active Directory objects corresponding to 
  NTFRS and the NTFRS member object for the 
  Domain Controller FRSRIP. The NTFRS service will 
  also no longer depend on the NTDS service. 
  Additional Information: 
  Sysvol NTFRS folder: C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL 
  Domain Controller: FRSRIP
  Event ID 8004: The NTFRS member object for the 
  Read-only Domain Controller FRSRIP was deleted 
  successfully.

I'm not exactly sure why I got the 8004 event. This DC was a read/write DC, not a read-only DC, so if you get one as well, know that it's probably OK.

  Event ID 8019: DFSR has successfully migrated the DC
  FRSRIP to the 'ELIMINATED' state. DFSR migration for 
  the Domain Controller FRSRIP is now complete. 

There are certainly many more questions that need to be answered about SYSVOL and DFSR. These questions include: Now that DFSR is replicating Sysvol, how often does it happen? What kind of control do you have over Sysvol's replication? Can you change the schedule of how often replication occurs? What sort of control do you have over how much network bandwidth Sysvol's replication uses? What monitoring tools are currently available that can give you the entire picture of Sysvol's health in your domain?

These are questions to be answered in future articles. But if you're one of the admins who has been waiting for FRS to be replaced, it's time to rejoice. DFSR is a much more scalable and robust replication engine than FRS ever dreamed of being.

"It felt like it took forever," says the frustrated account manager from New Jersey. Duggan's frustration is shared by many others, most of whom would have welcomed the experience of having the installation taking forever. Many got an endless parade of blue screens, system restart loops and missing drivers.

The first install screen might just break your spirit right off the bat. It says, "The installation might take an hour or more. Your computer will restart several times during installation." That raised an eyebrow, and brought up several questions. I can install Vista in less than an hour. Why will this update take me so long? Why is it so large?

This is what many Vista users who have already installed SP1 have also pondered. Clearly, there are concerns that SP1 is not worth the trouble. Is that the case, or do the enhancement ends justify the frustrating installation means?

When I first downloaded Vista SP1, it seemed as if all the rumors were true. I could hear the voices of angry beta testers echoing in my mind, saying: "Don't do it." While not a panacea for all the complaints about Vista, SP1 certainly addresses most of the major concerns the user community has raised. Performance and reliability are two of the biggest issues SP1 addresses, and it does so fairly well. Overall, I believe it delivers on stabilizing Vista, and makes it more "enterprise-worthy" and ready to deploy for those organizations that invariably wait for that first Service Pack, despite the wait you may experience when you install SP1.

Take Your Pick
As is usually the case, there's more than one way to deploy SP1 to Vista desktops. The "easiest" way -- according to Microsoft -- is to let Windows Update automatically download and install SP1. In this case, Windows Update will only download and apply the files your system needs. This lightens the bandwidth load, especially when compared to the full download.

Oddly enough, if you go with Windows Update, you'll come across a strange situation. Although Microsoft has released SP1-and it is widely available-the update Web site says, "It could take a month before SP1 shows up on your PC, so please be patient." Upon checking Windows Update on my personal system, it informed me it had one important update to install. It must have been important. It said it would be anywhere from 65MB to 427MB.

To give the deployment process a thorough test-drive, I decided to go both "new school" and "old school." I took one system and went with Windows Update. For the other system, I pulled the file down the old-fashioned way through the Microsoft Download Center. That definitely gave my broadband connection a workout.

This is a valid way to deploy SP1 on a network that's running Systems Management Server, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server, System Center Essentials or System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Both deployment methods took about the same amount of time and both worked just fine. I didn't encounter any blue screens or anything else that stalled the process.

That's not to say that others aren't having their share of issues with SP1. You know it must have caused quite a stir because Microsoft is offering free support to SP1 users. Brandon LeBlanc, a manager at Microsoft, announced "free support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1." The SP1 support site provides e-mail, online chat and telephone support. You can get "unlimited installation and compatibility support [at] no charge until March 18, 2009," according to the Microsoft Web site.

There's yet another method called "integrated installation." This puts SP1 right onto the newest Vista installation DVDs. The deployment guide called this a "slipstream installation" that will install the operating system and SP1 simultaneously. It's impossible to uninstall the Service Pack if you use this method.

There's another caveat to those with existing deployable WIM images they plan to use for deployments. You can't slipstream SP1 directly into your deployment image. The reason for this is that the servicing layer in Vista, which also allows updates to occur smoothly, is being updated as well. So you'll have to install the new ISO or DVD to a system, perform your customization and re-capture the image.

Another thing worth noting is that if you've been working with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), you're going to want to pick up the latest version that supports SP1 and Server 2008.

SP1 Under the Hood
Many have said-or blogged or twittered, to use the current vernacular -- that SP1 is nothing more than hot-fix rollups and function updates. That is indeed true. SP1 includes all the fixes Microsoft has come up with since Vista was released to manufacturing (RTM). It's actually quite helpful to have one-stop-shopping for fixes. Many administrators wait for a Service Pack so they can update en masse, rather than work with Windows Update, WSUS or a third-party update tool.

Microsoft also made it quite clear that SP1 isn't intended to deliver substantial new features, but rather to improve existing features that have a negative impact on customers. For a list of all the hotfixes and security updates included in Vista SP1, click here.

The feature improvements are essentially grouped into three sections: Quality Improvements, Emerging Hardware, and Standards and Infrastructure Optimization. You'll find the documentation that comes with SP1 may seem cryptic at first, and it uses the word "ecosystem" a few too many times, but there are changes to the code that:

• Prevent data loss when ejecting NTFS file system-formatted removable media
•  Provide better reliability and performance when entering and resuming from Sleep mode
•  Now include Encrypting File System (EFS) files in backup solutions

Most of the enhancements won't even be visible to users. They should, however, notice improved performance. But that's not always something you can put your finger on and say, "See that? That happened a few seconds faster with SP1."

Microsoft listened to its customers' complaints and responded by tweaking performance in these areas:

• Local file copying on the same disk is improved by 25 percent, copying files from a remote non-SP1 system to your SP1 system is improved by 45 percent, and from an SP1 system to your SP1 system is improved by 50 percent.
•  The progress estimation window will appear faster-within two seconds.
• The time to start the Event Viewer is now reduced by 75 percent.
•  Battery life is improved by reducing CPU load and screen redrawing.

Vista's speed, or more accurately its lack thereof, has been a common complaint since its release. Therefore, any performance improvements will be welcomed. Of course, one of the biggest performance problems we've seen these days comes from insufficient memory in systems running Vista. While the minimum requirement doesn't call for 2GB or higher, Vista is a memory hog and memory is cheap these days. The cost is slight when compared to the benefits.

For those of you struggling to handle Vista on your machines, SP1 won't be a panacea. Benchmark tests have varied -- depending on the personal agenda and relative skill level of those conducting the benchmark -- but Vista clearly won't perform as well as XP on comparable hardware. On the other hand, why should it be noticeably faster? You're running a new, more powerful OS that naturally requires more powerful hardware.

But Wait, There's More
There are a handful of significant network and security enhancements included within SP1:

• BitLocker can now encrypt more than just the C: drive. You can add a PIN to a USB key if you use this method of storing your encryption key. If you use a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, you can add an additional key and store it on a USB drive with a PIN.
•  There are some IPv6 changes that correct a problem with IPSec and Network Discovery.
• There's additional support for stronger cryptographic algorithms used in IPSec, such as Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-256, Advanced Encryption Standard-Galois/ Counter Mode (AES-GCM) and AES-Galois Message Authentication Code (AES-GMAC) for Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP). It also supports Authentication Header (AH), Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), SHA-384 for Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and Authenticated Internet Protocol (AuthIP).
• The Network Access Protection (NAP) is updated to work better with Windows Server 2008 so it can find Health Registration Authority (HRA) servers through DNS SRV records.
• You can now run the Key Management Service (KMS) within a virtual machine.
• There are some changes to the way Vista works with Terminal Services. SP1 addresses the problem with printing to local printers from a 2008 Terminal Services session. Security is also improved, as .RDP files can now be signed.

Stealth Improvements
There are some less obvious, but still useful changes with SP1 that you may or may not even notice without having them pointed out. For example, you can now easily control the volumes on which you want to run Disk Defragmenter -- though, in truth, you could perform this from the command line prior to SP1.

Donna Tardugno, a wedding videographer in New York, recently purchased a laptop with 4GB of RAM. She was shocked to see only 3GB showing up in the System properties. She wasn't the only one frustrated by "missing" RAM. Apparently, this is a limitation in the way the 32-bit version of Vista handles memory (the 64-bit version doesn't have this issue). It's no longer an issue, as SP1 fixes the problem and shows you the full amount of memory in your system.

To better work with emerging hardware standards, there's a new file system called the Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT). This is similar to FAT32, but it supports file sizes larger than 4GB and can partition and format volumes larger than 32GB. There are also unique icons for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives, though that doesn't seem to be much of an issue as Blu-Ray is now taking over the DVD market.

If you're a Group Policy admin, you'll be surprised -- if not shocked -- to find that Microsoft has removed the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) from SP1. That may seem odd, but it's actually a good thing. You'll need to download Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools, which is an updated version of the GPMC. Microsoft changed tools because they needed Group Policy to work better with the recently released Windows Server 2008.

This may not matter as much to you, but there are updates on the entertainment side of Vista, as well. There are changes to the Windows Media Center, like new extender support for digital television and networked DVD players. There's also an enhancement for the MPEG-2 decoder that permits greater content protection and lets Vista broadcast that content out over networks. Direct 3D gets an update to 10.1 to enhance video game support for new hardware. There's also support for network projectors to support "custom projector" or non-standard resolutions.

There's actually a lot more to SP1. We presented the larger, more interesting changes here, but you can drill down to the smallest detail by checking out the Vista TechCenter here.

Is SP1 Worth It?
If you install SP1 and all goes smoothly and you have no issues, no blue screens and no infinite loops -- as many are reporting -- consider yourself lucky. The features described here and the myriad of changes that come with SP1 are certainly worthwhile. That being said, there have been many complaints along the way. Blue screens, missing drivers, installation hassles and the like are causing many to question their decision to go for SP1. Who's to say if it's worth it or not? You are -- let us know what you think of SP1.

I bought another 512 MB of RAM for it, maxing out its memory capacity, and got a 4GB USB drive optimized for ReadyBoost. All that helped some, but it was still significantly slower than its XP counterpart.

That's when I went looking for more ways to improve the performance of my laptop. Here's a look at some of the things that worked -- and some that didn't.

Turn off the bling

One obvious way to make Vista run more like XP is to, well, make Vista more like XP. Turning off the fancy Aero interface, turning off the sidebar, and otherwise disabling the features that make Vista look and feel unique will help speed up performance. But for most of us, that's not exactly the solution we were looking for.

Identify your bottlenecks

The first step in fixing a problem is to find out exactly what's broken. Vista includes a number of tools that help you pinpoint the cause of performance problems.

Performance Monitor

Vista, like its business-oriented predecessors (XP Professional, Windows 2000, and NT Workstation), includes a performance monitoring tool that allows you to do detailed monitoring of various counters relating to both software and hardware components.You'll find the tool under a new name, Reliability And Performance Monitor, on the Administrative Tools menu in Control Panel. The screen above shows the Performance Monitor, monitoring percentage Processor Time and Memory Pages/Second.

The Performance Monitor is a great tool for IT pros, but it may be a bit daunting for the average user. Luckily, Vista has a simpler way for you to know, at a glance, which of your hardware components may be bottlenecks when it comes to running Aero.

Performance Information And Tools

A new feature in Vista is the Performance Information And Tools control panel, which analyzes your computer's hardware components and assigns a rating known as the Windows Experience Index (WEI) score. Your processor, RAM, graphics capabilities (separately rated for Aero and for gaming/3D), and primary hard disk are each rated individually. The lowest score determines your overall WEI score.

Possible scores range from 1.0 to 5.9. Generally, a computer needs a base WEI of 3.0 or better to satisfactorily run Aero and other advanced features. To find out your WEI, click Start | Control Panel | Performance Information And Tools.

Running this tool showed me why using Vista on my laptop was such a different experience from using it on my desktop. As shown in the screenshots, the desktop machine's hardware rated a 5.1.

Whereas the laptop scored a measly 2.0.

As you can see, the RAM scores fine now, with 1.5 GB of memory, and the hard disk isn't the problem, either. Even the processor is close to the 3.0 threshold. But the graphics adapter in the laptop is not up to the task of running Aero.

That leads me to this question: Why is Sony selling these systems with Vista Business installed if they won't run the interface properly? But that doesn't help with the immediate problem: How can I make this computer work acceptably and benefit from at least some of Vista's new features?

The Performance Information And Tools interface makes it easy for you to tweak several components that can affect Vista performance. These options are shown in the Tasks pane on the left side of the window. Some performance tweaks you can do from this interface include:

• Managing startup programs to help Vista load more quickly
• Adjusting visual effects to help Vista perform better if you have an inadequate video card
• Adjusting other advanced settings that affect performance, such as processor allocation and paging file location and size
• Adjusting indexing options to prevent indexing from using up too many resources and thus slowing other applications
• Adjusting power settings to balance performance needs with energy conservation needs
• Cleaning up the hard disk so Vista can access data stored there more quickly
• Using advanced tools, such as the disk defragmenter, task manager, system information tool, event logs, and Reliability And Performance Monitor to diagnose performance problems and fix them

The more programs you have loading when the computer boots up, the longer it will take for the operating system to be ready to use. You can cut down on startup time by eliminating from startup those programs you don't really need to run every time you start the computer.

Clicking the Manage Startup Programs selection in Performance Information And Tools will open the Windows Defender Software Explorer, as shown.

You can scroll through the list to see all the programs that run at startup. The right pane displays a great deal of information about the selected program, including its filename, display name, description, publisher, digital signature information, startup value, path, file size, version number, the date it was installed, startup type (where it is designated to start up on boot -- for example, in the Current User settings in the registry), location, and whether the program shipped with the operating system.

Some programs can be removed or disabled by selecting the program in the left pane and clicking the Remove or Disable button in the bottom-right area of the window. Others will have these buttons grayed out. If the Remove and Disable buttons are unavailable, you'll need to remove the program from startup manually. This may involve removing it from the Startup folder, which you'll find on the Start | All Programs menu, as shown.

You can also navigate to the Startup folder in the file system via Windows Explorer, as shown here.

To find the Startup folder in the file system, just right-click on it on the All Programs menu and click Open or go to the disk on which Vista is installed and navigate to Users\ or All Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs\Startup.

You can remove programs from the folder by right-clicking and deleting. The programs here are shortcuts, so you will not affect the program itself. You can also find a list of startup programs in the System Information tool, as shown.

To access the System Information tool, type msinfo32 in the Start Menu's Search/Run box or on the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu. This tool is for viewing the information only; you can't make changes to the startup programs here.

In some cases, you may have to edit the registry to prevent a program from loading at startup. The System Information tool will show you the location in the registry that needs to be edited.

Adjust visual effects settings

You may be able to speed up performance by adjusting the settings of Vista's visual effects, thus sacrificing some of the bling for increased performance. When you click this option in the Performance Tools And Information interface, the User Account Control dialog box will display, requiring you to enter administrative credentials. If you're already logged on as an administrator, you'll be prompted to approve continuing. This opens the Performance Options dialog box, shown here.

You can also access the Performance Options dialog box from the Control Panel | System | Advanced System Settings | Settings button in the Performance section.

Either way, on the Visual Effects tab, you have four choices:

• Let Windows choose the best settings for your computer
• Adjust for best appearance
• Adjust for best performance
• Create custom settings, choosing to turn on or off whichever visual effects you want

Adjusting other advanced settings

In the Performance Options dialog box, you can click the Advanced tab to adjust other settings that affect performance. In the top section, you can control processor scheduling, as shown here.

Here, you can adjust for best performance of applications or background services. For the most responsiveness, you'll want to adjust for best performance of applications.

In the second section, you can make changes to the paging file location and size that can improve performance. Click the Change button to display the Virtual Memory settings dialog box, as shown below.

By default, Windows automatically manages the paging file. If you deselect this check box, you can change the location of the paging file, spreading it out among multiple physical disks if you have them. This can speed access to paged data.

You can also increase the size of the paging file and/or make it static, so that instead of using the resources to increase and decrease the size, it always stays the same size. This can also slightly increase overall performance but will tie up more of your disk space. To set a static paging file, click the Custom Size button and enter the same number (file size in MB) in the Initial Size and Maximum Size fields.

Adjust indexing options

You can control what locations should be indexed by Vista's search engine. Indexing can take a lot of resources and put a drag on other running applications if you have a low-powered computer.

In the Performance Information And Tools dialog box, select the Indexing Options in the left pane. Then, click the Modify button in the Indexing Options dialog box and click the Show All Locations button at the bottom of the Indexed Locations dialog box. Now you can individually select and deselect the locations to be indexed, as shown here.

Adjust power settings

Generally, using more power results in better performance. You can select the balance you prefer between saving energy and getting the highest performance by adjusting power plan settings.

Vista has three pre-configured power plans you can choose from, as shown here :

• Balanced (gives equal weight to energy savings and performance)
• Power Saver (sacrifices performance to save energy)
• High Performance (sacrifices energy conservation for better performance)

You can also create a custom power plan, by selecting Create A Power Plan in the left pane. You start with one of the three plan templates, adjust individual components using a wizard, and then save the plan.

Disk cleanup and defragmentation

You can use Vista's disk cleanup and defragmentation tools to remove unwanted files and to rearrange data on the disk so that files are not fragmented. Both of these actions will help increase disk access performance.

You can open the Disk Cleanup tool from the Performance Information And Tools left tasks pane or from the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu.

The Disk Cleanup tool allows you to select whether to clean up files from your own user profile only or the files of all users. When you select a specific drive to clean up, the tool will calculate how much space you will be able to free by running the cleanup, as shown here.

More ways to gather performance information

The Advanced Tools section of the Performance Information And Tools utility gives you quick links to the following tools for gathering performance-related info:

• Event log
• Reliability And Performance Monitor
• Task Manager
• System Information
• Performance Options
• Disk Defragmenter
• System Health Report

Summary

Vista can be a performance hog, but there are many ways you can tweak the OS components to speed it up. Microsoft has made it easy by consolidating many of these actions in the Performance Information And Tools console.

With such a long development time (it's the first new Windows Server OS since 2003,) the showstopping new features have been well publicized: Most IT pros are familiar with at least some of the details of Server Core, PowerShell and Windows Server Virtualization (codenamed Viridian). But Windows 2008 includes a lot more than those headliners.