I have a Dell Vostro 200 desktop running Vista Business. My server runs Windows XP. 
I can print from XP workstations to the XP server and have no problems. Vista is 
horrendously slow printing to the server.

Also, there are complaints that both the server and XP workstation slow down terribly 
when the Vista box is on the local network.

Has anybody any suggestions. Thus far it looks to be that Vista is slower than a 
ZX80 with a ball and chain around its keyboard!

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Dire printing slowness Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:59 am Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) For printing, try installing the print driver locally on the vista macine. For general slowness, try Control panel --> System --> advanced --> performance and then choose "best performance". After applied, you may want to go in and re-check a few boxes under the "custom" button. For example, I like "smooth fonts". Use Start --> run --> type "msconfig" and go to the start-up tab. Uncheck anything you do not use. Search using "speed up vista" for other tweaks that may apply to you -- turning off indexing comes to mind. Unfortunately though, my experience is that vista is terrible at basic file management (tying up your network drives), even within a stand alone pc. Luck. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dire printing slowness Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:27 am Posted by George Cowley (172 messages posted) Sadly I think even Microsoft has acknowledged that Vista is one great big stinking pile of dung. I tried installing the drivers locally but unless the printing is done locally, printing is well nigh impossible. I'm wondering whether I should just uncheck all the crap in the connection settings save for TCP/IP. Certainly Netbui can go. Possibly more too. On Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:59 am, Jacob6601 wrote: >For printing, try installing the print driver locally on the vista macine. > >For general slowness, try Control panel --> System --> advanced --> performance and >then choose "best performance". After applied, you may want to go in and re-check >a few boxes under the "custom" button. For example, I like "smooth fonts". > >Use Start --> run --> type "msconfig" and go to the start-up tab. Uncheck anything >you do not use. > >Search using "speed up vista" for other tweaks that may apply to you -- turning off >indexing comes to mind. Unfortunately though, my experience is that vista is terrible >at basic file management (tying up your network drives), even within a stand alone >pc. > >Luck. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dire printing slowness Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 2:47 pm Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) Well that can't hurt. A fairly cheap alternative (For printing) would be a wireless print server, assuming the vista machine has wireless and is close enough. The print server could be wired to your xp server, requiring no other changes to your other pc's (maybe a printer re-install on the xp server). [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dire printing slowness Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 5:12 am Posted by George Cowley (172 messages posted) Well, seeing as the machine will work with the server to share files, I think I'll just recommend a different printer for each machine. Not ideal but Vista is so screwy that it'd just take too long to resolve the issues. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dire printing slowness Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 5:41 am Posted by NigelHH (1324 messages posted) Googled this: "Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer. Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click Next. A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \\computer name\printer name where computer name is the server's name and printer name is the name as shared on the server. My computer's name is epc and the printer name is 8250 so I typed in \\epc\8250 " [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Dire printing slowness Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 11:28 am Posted by Jacob6601 (2174 messages posted) I think I have used NigelHH's solution with success, tricking it into "thinking" it is using a local printer. However, I also seem to remember having to do this when installing the drivers locally. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Vista Discussion Forum