Reducing Vista's performance footprint to a minimum: how?

Hi there!!! :)

So I'd like to run Vista, I got a comp with good specs (2gb ballistic tracer, Q6600, and now 8800GT card fresh from this AM).

BUT... I'm really bothered by the TERRIBLE resource waste I see in Vista, in particular when it comes to RAM (430M at boot with Aero disabled on a fresh install, oooouuuch!!).

In XP I became quite the expert at really removing all the unnecessary rubbish by disabling services, removing features using some third party software, etc. I was wondering, are there such guides for Vista? What I googled only recommended disabling aero etc, which I've already done. How about a service guide or a third party tool that really makes a difference. Does that even exist?

Cheers!!! :)

Oh dear, another of the uninformed on memory management. Using memory is good. It's supposed to. It'd be pretty poor if it didn't use memory. Leave it as it is and it'll work out how you go about things and you'll notice things work much faster than in XP. It's a massive improvement.

Well, try to load say a VM taking 1.5 gig on a fresh copy of Vista ultimate, then the exact same VM with the exact same settings on a fresh copy of XP, both right after boot and with no TSR running. Vista's 'performance' should make you rethink this 'improvement'.

You're giving a VM 1.5GB RAM and leaving yourself with 512mb? :\

When Vista realises what you're doing it will deal with it. Give it time. It can't learn habits in a couple of days.

Ok so what you're saying is that there is no way for advanced users to control how vista manages resources, and that we should let it 'do its own thing'. Is that correct?

EDIT: ok answering my own question here:
SuperFetch Not So Super For Gaming… « Ramblings of the Sleepy…

Further edit: here's how to cleanse your system of all the 'wonder' vista features:
Vista Light : vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool
(fantastic program)

Is there a reason why you're using Vista if XP runs better for you then?

As far as I can remember, no mainstream operating system has ever used less resources than the previous version. Vista is designed to use as much memory as possible to avoid hitting the disk cache, which absolutely does result in a performance hit.

TBH if you're building a machine to run VMs then Windows Server 2003 Standard as the host OS would be a better option.

Bah! I booted into Vista last night, it was taking 900MB+ of RAM...and it ran very smoothly because of this...I dont have a problem with the OS utilising my resources to provide me with a better experience.

If you really want to run 1.5gig VM's, only having 2gig of RAM is your main problem, not vista itself. You can pick up name brand 2GB kits for £40 easily now.

Ram is supposed to be used, it's not really worth the money if you leave it empty.