What to do with a new Vista PC

[I Am Herenow]

Hello everyone!

Thanks!

[sapi]

You don't have to, and shouldn't, touch anything

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you must mess around with the security settings, and you have one of the 'better' versions, launch secpol.msc from the start menu (I think it's only there in Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise), go to local policies > security options and you can tweak UAC there.

It's not a good idea to do what I did and turn it off

[Bijo]

What to do with a new Vista PC

You deinstall Vista and get XP

[I Am Herenow]

^ Lol, thanks(!)

[Lemur]

I agree with Sapi that you should be very cautious about messing with security policies. I also agree with Bijo that an upgrade to Windows XP would be advisable for any gamer. Even in DX9 mode, Vista has been shown to impose a 10%-15% drop in framerates. Not really justifiable, in my opinion.

If you're determined to stick with Vista, AnandTech has a good FAQ on tweaking it here. Softpedia has a 12-step program to de-hog Vista here.

Here's a guide to tweaking Vista for games.

[I Am Herenow]

Cheers!

[sapi]

I agree with Sapi that you should be very cautious about messing with security policies. I also agree with Bijo that an upgrade to Windows XP would be advisable for any gamer. Even in DX9 mode, Vista has been shown to impose a 10%-15% drop in framerates. Not really justifiable, in my opinion.

Really? That's news to me, and I've been using said resource-hog for months

I'll concede that Vista does constitute a performance hit in synthetic benchmarks, but I haven't seen any real-world difference in games (outside the world of the source engine, which, as I've said before, has taken a huge hit for some reason).

You have to resist the evil temptation and get XP, using Vista is supporting dictators and terrorists.
That said, I turned the UAC off but then Whacker says my PC is as open as a barn door(a pretty well-running barn door though, I like to think the hackers keep it running because it's important to them somehow ).
What it does is when you copy files into your program files folder, it copies them elsewhere but shows them in the program files folder but your game or other program won't find them there as they aren't really there.

It doesn't actually show them there to the user; they're stored in users/[user]/appdata/local/virtualstore/ and can be edited as per usual. UAC simply redirects read/write requests for the game to there, and from the program's perspective, there's no real difference.

You may also not be allowed to edit any files there etc. It should work fine until you start modding games, changing .ini files etc. and I'm obviously too much of a noob to tell you how to do that without turning the whole thing off. *runs into corner in unimaginable shame*

That can be changed under secpol.msc > local policies > security options > User Account Control: Virtualiz file and registry write failures to per-user locations

Ooh, ooh, I can help with this one!

You need to get the Ultimate Tools for Vista.

You asked for a nice, easy-to-follow set of instructions that will let you work normally ?
Look no further! Ask and ye shall receive!
Here is the nice, easy-to-follow set of instructions that will allow you to get the most out of your Vista experience.

1. Go to the Ultimate Tools for Vista site here.
(Ooops, that site seems to be down for now, you can use an alternate one: here).
2. Choose your favourite flavour of the Ultimate Tools for Vista.
3. Download, burn on a CD.
4. Install.
5. Enjoy!

I personally guarantee that after this nice, easy-to-follow set of instructions, you will never have any problems with your Vista PC again!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

That program disabled all my games