7. Gadgets

Sidebar gadgets on the right-hand side of your desktop provides some useful information for people who need to keep up to date with current news. It also takes processing power from your CPU and space on the screen.

By disabling it while you are using DJ software you will free-up some screen space and CPU cycles.

If gadgets are enabled, right click on its icon at the bottom of the screen -> properties and uncheck 'start sidebar when windows starts' as shown below.

8. Individualize

Vista offers you the chance to really customize your PC by changing the color options, animations, screen saver and event sounds. Some of these options can interfere with a smooth running of your system by interrupting you and taking up processing power.

To personalize your PC right click on the desktop -> personalize window

1. Screensavers are necessary to stop burned-in images but any period of in-activity will turn your screen saver on and you will lose sense of whats happening on the screen. Tweak your screen saver settings to a reasonable amount of time or select (None) before playing out for non-stop screen action.

2. Sounds – imagine being plugged into the clubs sound system and a Vista event triggers a related sound effect. Set your sound schemes to 'No Sounds' to avoid this embarrassment.

9. Aero

The new visual design for windows is certainly attractive with its new transparencies and live icons. However Aero effects will be intensive on your CPU cycles when actually these should be dedicated to processing audio.

To disable all Aero effects – Windows start -> right click computer -> properties -> advanced system settings -> advanced tab -> performance -> settings -> visual effects tab -> adjust for best performance as shown below.

10. Power settings

The power settings on your machine allow you to change when your PC will automatically power down and hibernate if not in use. This could be a problem if your out DJing, you need to leave the PC alone for a while and it powers down!

By changing the option to 'never' power down you can have a no-sleep DJ performance. To access this tweak:

Windows start -> control panel -> power options -> high performance -> change plan settings -> select 'never' for all options as shown below.