Constant Network Traffic (Vista and Folder Redirection)

I have had constant network traffic and svchost using high amounts of CPU time ever since I installed SP1 on my Vista machines.  I ignored it for a while (hoping that it would go away ;-)) - unfortunately it didn't.

I used Microsoft Network Monitor v3.1 to view the network traffic - so I knew that it wasn't malware because all of the traffic was going to and from my server (Small Business Server 2003) and the files were all within My Documents (which is redirected to the server).

A full sync would not stop the traffic and reported no errors.

Yesterday I decided that enough was enough and I had to get the problem fixed.

As I believed that it was not constantly synchronising, I decided to reduce the amount of file access that Vista causes.

1. Turn off search indexing (I normally remember where my files are, so I don't need Vista constantly examining my disks).
   1. Click Start then Computer.
   2. Right click on C: (or your windows drive if different) then Properties.
   3. On the General tab, untick "Index this drive for faster searching".
   4. Choose all subfolders in the dialogue box.
2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression. To disable this service:
   1. Open Control Panel.
   2. Switch to Classic View.
   3. Select Program Features.
   4. Choose Turn Windows features on and off.
   5. Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression.

These steps solved the problem for me.  For more tips to speed up your vista machine, click here.  This is an OS/Software issue, not a hardware issue - you can read my development machine's specs.