Samba 3 and Windows Vista Clients
- Overview of Windows Vista's Changes
- Working with User Profiles & Folder Redirection
- Working Around the Lack of System Policies
- Making Vista not Suck (as a Workstation)
- Windows Vista's Annoyances
- Improving Vista's Performance
- Dealing with Windows Vista Components
- Windows Vista as a (somewhat) Decent Workstation
- Various Windows Vista User Restrictions
- An Example Samba-Vista Deployment
Improving Windows Vista's Performance
The following sections will show you how you can bypass or change various features within Windows Vista by applying policies or writing certain registry keys. These settings are listed as:
Group Policy - Location within the Local Group Policy Editor where you will find the appropriate Setting. I include both the User and Computer Policies when available.
Computer Registry Key - This is the HKLM registry value that will set the specified policy/preference. This will apply the policy/preference to all the Users logging into the workstation.
User Registry Key - This is the HKCU registry value that will set the specified Policy/Preference. This will only be set for the current User, making this key pretty much worthless. These are only listed if I could not find an appropriate HKLM key.
Non-Admin User Editable Registry Key - This registry key can be written by any user regardless if they are an Administrator or not. These preferences are best used within a Logon Script of some kind.
Disabling Unneeded Services
There are quite a few services withing Windows Vista that are drags on the system. Many of these services are not needed on a networked workstation and can be safely disabled. Note that this is not a complete list of services that you can disable, these are only the services that seem to drag the system down the most.
ReadyBoost
Local Machine RegKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EMDMgmt - DisplayName - ReadyBoost (REG_SZ) Also Set HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EMDMgmt - Start - 3 (REG_DWORD)
SuperFetch
Local Machine RegKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SysMain - DisplayName - Superfetch (REG_SZ) Also Set HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SysMain - Start - 3 (REG_DWORD)
Windows Error Reporting Service
Local Machine RegKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WerSvc - DisplayName - Windows Error Reporting Service (REG_SZ) Also Set HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WerSvc - Start - 3 (REG_DWORD)
Windows Search
Local Machine RegKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WSearch - DisplayName - Windows Search (REG_SZ) Also Set HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WSearch - Start - 3 (REG_DWORD)
Other Ways to Improve Performance
There are other ways that you can improve performance on your network workstations, such as forcing the User to use the Windows Classic Theme, along with setting the user's performance settings to "Maximum Performance".
Desktop Themes - Must Use Group Policies
To Force the User to utilize a certain Desktop Theme (ex. Windows Classic)
Local Group Policy User Conf - Admin Templates - Control Panel - Display - Desktop Themes - Load a specific visual style or force Windows Classic User Registry Key SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System - SetVisualStyle - %WINDIR%\Resources\Themes\Windows Classic.theme
Hide Desktop Themes Option
Local Group Policy User Conf - Admin Templates - Control Panel - Display - Desktop Themes - Remove Theme Option Local Machine RegKey HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - NoThemesTab - 1 (REG_SZ)
Set Visual Effects Setting to Best Performance - Note that this will disable certain features of various themes, it is best to set this when using the Windows Classic Theme.
Non-Admin User Editable Key Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects - VisualFXSetting - 2 (DWORD)
Another item to look at is number of applications within the User's startup settings, these values are mainly located within the following registry key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Once I find more time, I may come up with an ingenious way to remove un-approved apps from the startup list (cuz that is how I roll :-)
