How to Speed Up Vista Tips: Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar (Tip #007)

The Windows Vista Sidebar one of the nifty features that come with Vista's new Aero interface. It is designed to serve as a widget engine that comes with a number of in-built mini applications that are called gadgets. However, it is also a drain on your valuable system resources, and tends to slow down most computers. You can significantly increase performance by disabling this feature temporarily or permanently, if you do not have much use for them.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Right click on a blank area of your Vista Sidebar.

2. Select "Properties" from the context menu that opens up.

3. Clear the check-box that's next to the: "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" option.

4. Click on the OK button. And you are done!

5. If you use your sidebar and want to keep it, you can instead get rid of some of the gadgets rather than disable the side bar. See our related tip on "How to Remove Un-used Gadgets From your Vista Side Bar."

Tips & Warnings

• See the rest of our "101 Ways to Speed up Vista" tips for more ways to speed up your Vista system.

Resources

• Tip #004: Disable Aero Glass Transparency
• Tip #005: Disable the Aero Theme
• Tip #006: Disable the Desktop Window Manager
• Tip #001: Get your PC Vista Ready
• Tip #007: Disable Vista's Side Bar