Volume, Network and Power Icons and Booting up with Vista

[Guest]

I have a new Toshiba Satellite notebook with 1 GB of RAM - about 3 months
old. It came loaded with Vista Home Premium.

I have read several questions and responses regarding the problem of graying
out and disappearing of the taskbar icons for volume, network and power.
There doesn't seem to be an answer to this problem.

I find that the volume, etc. icons appear randomly and then disappear with
various booting ups. It is most annoying particularly when the power icon
disappears. Is there really no patch or other solution from Microsoft to
solve this rather small problem?

I find that when booting up, I can almost go for coffee waiting for it to
complete. The Windows Experience Index shows 3.1. Are there parts of Vista
that I can completely disable such as Tablet PC and some other parts which I
could disable to try and speed it up.

I am almost inclined to uninstall Vista and go back to XP Pro. which
certainly was faster.

Any thoughts and help will be most appreciated.

Norm.

 

[David Dickinson]

I have read several questions and responses regarding the problem of
graying
out and disappearing of the taskbar icons for volume, network and power.
There doesn't seem to be an answer to this problem.

Sadly, my research shows that you're correct. Another poster had a similar
problem -- as does my machine. I spent two hours trying to find a solution.
I think we'll have to wait for a hotfix.

I find that when booting up, I can almost go for coffee waiting for it to
complete. The Windows Experience Index shows 3.1. Are there parts of Vista
that I can completely disable such as Tablet PC and some other parts which
I
could disable to try and speed it up.

There are a lot of tweaking tips available for Vista on the Web. Search
Google for "speed up vista". A particularly good article IMHO is at

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2110595,00.asp

But they don't mention disabling autotuning (which I would always do) using

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable

The undo for that is

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=enable

Also, I don't think you can go wrong by disabling IPv6 in network settings.

In addition, I've seen many comments from people who say that they're having
performance problems caused by McAfee and Norton (I abandoned McAfee in
disappointment after almost 20 years a few months ago). I use ESET's NOD32,
which rates higher in some tests and puts a much lighter load on a computer.

I am almost inclined to uninstall Vista and go back to XP Pro. which
certainly was faster.

Your new machine would certainly zoom with XP! I'm almost at the point of
recommending to my clients that they avoid Vista until the first service
pack comes out.

Actually, I guess that I /am/ at that point.

 

[Guest]

Many thanks David for your very helpful post. I shall get on to tweeking for
a start. I am glad to see that I may not be the only one who considers going
back to XP.

Norm.

 

[Guest]

David - I disabled many things generally following the website you mentioned.
I think I overdid it, or got carried away, as all I have now is a black
screen with the taskbar at the bottom. It tells me that it can't find the
display. The control panel is also blank.

Any thoughts? This time I may have to take it in as it is beyond my tech.
capabilities.

Cheers, Norm.

 

[David Dickinson]

David - I disabled many things generally following the website you
mentioned.
I think I overdid it, or got carried away, as all I have now is a black
screen with the taskbar at the bottom. It tells me that it can't find the
display. The control panel is also blank.

Any thoughts? This time I may have to take it in as it is beyond my tech.
capabilities.

Ho boy... Yep, "tweaking" a system can sometimes get you in trouble. I'll
bet you learned a lot, though!

Hopefully, you didn't turn off System Protection and you can use it to
restore your system to a configuration that worked. It's available on the
Start menu via Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Restore.

If it's been disabled and there are no restore points, then try this: While
your system is restarting, right after the BIOS starts up and just before
the Windows logo appears, press the F8 key to get the start up menu. You'll
see several things listed there, beginning with Safe Mode. Choose "Last
Known Good Configuration" (or Last Known Good <something>). If you see a
different menu that lists the drives connected to your system, then you
pressed F8 half a second too early.

Finally, SpeedyVista.com has registry files that you can load in order to
restore the default Services configuration at

http://www.speedyvista.com/registry.html

Tweaking a system requires caution (if not outright fear). It's best to do
one tweak at a time to see if it works or not. Also, a good rule of thumb
is to remember that all advice that you get from me is suspect and possibly
dangerously wrong. I do apologize for leading you down a dangerous path.

 

[Guest]

David - thanks so very much. I followed your outline and got it all back.
Beautiful. Yes, I have learned quite a bit in the process! Now rather than
try to do the whole thing in one fell swoop, I have disabled a couple - games
and tablet. Works fine. Now I'll take a couple more.

Thanks again. Norm.

 

[Guest]

Hi David,

I neglected to say absolutely no need to apologize - the path was very
helpful. I just got a bit greedy by trying to do it all at once.

Norm.

 

[David Dickinson]

Hi David,

I neglected to say absolutely no need to apologize - the path was very
helpful. I just got a bit greedy by trying to do it all at once.

Thanks, Norm. I eat chocolate ice cream the same way.