The link you were looking concerning turning (almost) everything off is
Creating a Video Editing Profile
This works with an XP System.
To do the same thing with Vista you would have to create a dual boot Vista System so that you have two copies of Vista on your computer.
One for normal use with all the services working as per their default settings.
The other copy of Vista would have all the unnecessary services and background programs turned off.
I have in the last week just completed setting up my notebook computer so that it is purpose built for Video Editing. It came pre-installed with Vista Home Premium but I was fortunate enough to be able to find all of the XP drivers for it. After making a
back up of my Vista Activation I completely wiped my hard drive and created 4 partitions.
To create partitions you can do so either with a third party program such as Partition magic, or simply use your XP or Vista installation discs.
If you are going to create a multi boot system start with the oldest operating system first and work your way up to the newest.
I created the following in the same order as listed
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (For Video Editing Only)
Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (For general day to day use)
Vista Home Premium - (For occasional use)
Common partition to hold swap files, web cache and the like - to help avoid disc fragmentation.
The Method of creating a VideoEditing Profile where you create a separate HARDWARE profile is very similar to having two copies of XP installed but without all the aggravation of having to install all your software twice - one for each profile - a sort of lazy mans version of what I just did with my notebook computer.
With Vista you don't have an option to create a new HARDWARE profile and so your only option of creating a system specially tweaked for video editing is to have two physical copies of Vista installed (on separate partitions of course).
DVDDoug makes a good point that you should check your source files first in case they are corrupted. If you are using XP then it is a worthwhile exercise creating a VideoEditing Profile anyway because it does help prevent problems and speeds up the computer. If you are doing a fresh install of Windows, then it is worth considering a multi boot system such as that I have created.
