A Few Vista Tips and Observations.

[aghastpumpkin]

I'm thinking of going for it soon. What with moving into a house, I probably won't be able to afford it after then. Which would mean no Vista for a long time.
I'm thinking, get it while I can....

[mookydooky]

It's pretty easy to change desktop icons from the default ones if you're so inclined.

1. Type "personalization" in Start Search. Alternatively, right click on the desktop and select Personalize.

2. On the left side of the Personalization window, select "Change desktop icons."

3. From there, you can change any of the default desktop icons to any of the standard library icons or to any icons you may have on hand.

[mookydooky]

I'm sure most of you have heard of TweakUI for WinXP. Well, for Vista, there's TweakVI.

TweakVI lets you tweak and optimize a bunch of Vista features. According to the creators of the software, it does the following:

Activate hundreds of hidden Windows Vista settings
clean your registry
activate system and software restrictions
display detailed system information
create a 256 MB RAM drive
protect your privacy
clean your hard drive
manage TrueType fonts
improve your internet connection
optimize your CPU
optimize your RAM
manage system updates, and much more ...
you can even transfer your tweaks and settings to other machines!

You can download it here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/TweakVI_Ba...ion_d5262.html

[mookydooky]

One of the major pitfalls of overclocking is the inability to shutdown properly when your machine freezes. Normally that's not too bad, but every once in a while, you'll screw up the bootmgr, and that can be a real pain the azz cuz you can't start the PC up again.

Vista has a lot more options when it comes to repairing your Vista install. If you can't boot because of a bootmgr error, try the following:

1. Boot from DVD.
2. You'll get prompts for language and keyboard layouts, once you get past that, it will ask if you want to re-install or repair Vista. Select Repair.
3. That will open up the Repair Window which looks like the screenshot on the bottom.
4. Select "Startup Repair"
5. Let it do its thing and hopefully, you're back on track.

[chrisbard]

Did you know that when installing nvidia XG driver it'll automatically start the uninstall procedure (after asking for your accept) and after the uninstall all icons will be gathered in the left side of desktop (the same was happening in XP) ? After the restart you'll be happy to see them where they were before uninstalling !

[aghastpumpkin]

If you dual booted like me, and your music is on your XP HDD, then follow these steps so you can play it without any problems.

1. Remove any passwords from your XP account. A password will stop you accessing the music through Vista.
2. In Vista, find your XP HDD. Right click and click Properties.
3. Click Security Tab.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click Edit.
6. Click Add.
7. Click Advanced.
8. Click Find Now.
9. Find your Vista User.
10. Click OK.
11. Click OK.
12. Highlight your user in the table, or the User "Everyone". Click Edit, and check the Full Control box. Click OK.
13. Check the box which says "Replace all existing inheritable permissions...."
14. Click OK.
15. Click OK, and Click OK in the Properties box as well.

You should now be able to access all your files and music on your XP HDD.


Edit. It looks a more laborious proces than it is. Possibly just the way I've written it. But Vista has this purely for Security reasons. So although it's a fiddle, I think it's a welcome feature. And once you've sorted it, you never have to worry about it again.

[mookydooky]

Glad you got it figured out Pumpkin. That's a good tip for the dual booters out there.

[aghastpumpkin]

Thanks. If you think that process needs a little tweaking, or editing, give me a shout!

[chrisbard]

When you manage to messup the boot manager like I did today the repair will come in handy and it's so easy to use that a 5 years old can do it but it will only solve the section that handles Vista ! The other OS's you could access thru VBM will not work. I will disconnect Vista HDD and see if I can repair my XP installation.

[mookydooky]

Hey Chris,

Glad to know the Startup Repair feature works as advertised. I tried it when there was nothing wrong with the bootmgr, but you can't tell if it worked or not that way... lol. WinXP has a repair feature too, but it's not as simple as in Vista. The only way might be to do an entire "repair install" which will basically require you to reinstall any non-default drivers you have in your system.

M

Originally Posted by chrisbard

When you manage to messup the boot manager like I did today the repair will come in handy and it's so easy to use that a 5 years old can do it but it will only solve the section that handles Vista ! The other OS's you could access thru VBM will not work. I will disconnect Vista HDD and see if I can repair my XP installation.

[chrisbard]

XP has a hidden feature nobody talks about. Say you mess the MBR a certain way but the rest is intact. When you boot from the XP cd and you reach the install question (press L to delete the existing Windows folder) at this point the MBR somehow is rewriten and if you restart your compy it'll boot straight into windows. I did this more than a dozen times and it worked. It even worked when fixboot command didn't fix things! However there are cases when it doesn't fix things, but then it means that more corupted info is beside MBR.

One interesting thing to notice is that in Vista it didn't worked from the first time. Only on the second attemp things got fixed!

[mookydooky]

There's a new feature I forgot to point out earlier. Vista lets you control the sound volume individually for individual applications. For example, on my system, MediaMonkey is extremely loud compared to some of my other applications, like GomPlayer. So I lowered the volume on MediaMonkey. You can access the separate volume controls by clicking on the sound icon in the notification area and clicking on "Mixer." Below is a pic of how it looks.

BTW, I used the "Snipping Tool" to take the screen shot below. The Snipping Tool lets you take screen shots of pieces of the screen. You can find it at:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Snipping Tool

Of course you can also type in "snipping tool" into Start Search.

[Necorum]

Extended disk cleanup::

%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

make a copy of your diskcleanup shortcut and change the target to that on the new shortcut.

Add's more options

[Necorum]

Change Ownership of old folders (ones you can not delete from old windows installs)


Right click the folder > goto security tab > click advanced > click owner > click edit > check replace owner on subcontainers and objects > chose new owner ( current profile in vista) > click ok and voila.

[Necorum]

I think that trick also works for XP

[Necorum]

Vista Defrag Sucks Try : http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

[Necorum]

Enable New Boot screen in Vista

1. Click on the start orb and type in "MSCONFIG" in the textbox.
2. Once the System Configuration tool loads, click on the Boot tab.
3. Under Boot Options check 'NO GUI Boot'
4. Reboot and enjoy!


Show Run Command on Start Menu

1. Right click on your taskbar and select Properties.
2. Click on the Start Menu Tab and then select Customize.
3. Scroll through the list and check the Run Command check box.
4. Hit OK a few times and it is back.


Resize Partitions with Vista Disk Management

1. Click on the Start Button and right click on Computer and select Manage.
2. Expand the Storage section and select Disk Management.
3. Then just right click on any partition and select either Expand or Shrink to change the size of the partition.


Enable Vista Glass on Intel GMA 950 Graphics Cards

1. First, I had to open up device manager. Click on the start menu and type in devmgmt.msc and Enter to load it up.
2. Once there, expand the Display Adapters section and right click on each device and select Uninstall.
3. Reboot the computer.
4. When it restarts, it should install a generic video driver so your screen will still work.
5. Go back into Device Manager, expand the Display Adapters section again and then right click on the device and select Update Driver.
6. This time select Browse My Computer for Driver and then Let me pick it from a list.
7. Go the the Intel section and select the Intel® Lakeport Graphics Controller.
8. Hit OK and install the new driver. Restart your computer.
9. Once you have rebooted, right click on your desktop and select Personalize again.
10. Click on Windows Colors and Appearance.
11. Click on Open classic appearance properties for more color options.
12. In the Color Scheme box, select Windows Vista Aero.
13. Hit OK and glass will now load.


Enable Add-ins in Windows Live Messenger

Copy and Paste the following into a .reg file and import it.
__________________________________________________ __
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger]

"AddInFeatureEnabled"=dword:00000001
__________________________________________________ ____
Once you import it, restart Windows Live Messenger and under Options you will have a new list item for Add-ins.


Create a Shortcut for Flip 3D


1. Right click on your desktop and select New and then Shortcut.
2. Copy and paste RunDll32 DwmApi #105 into the location box and hit Next.
3. Enter in a name for your shortcut and hit Finish.
4. Copy/Cut and Paste your new shortcut where ever you want.


Add Additional Clocks to Taskbar

1. Right click on the clock in the taskbar and select Adjust Date/Time.
2. Click on the Additional Clocks tab.
3. Check the box for either additional clock 1 or 2 and select the time zone.
4. Type in a display name for your click and hit OK.
Now when you hover your mouse over or click on the clock you will see the additional time zone.


Disable Network Printer Search

1. Hit Alt to bring up the menubar if it is not already on the screen.
2. Click on Tools and select Folder Options.
3. On the View Tab, uncheck Automatically search for network printers.

Speed up Start Menu Search

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer and finally Advanced.
3. Find and right click on Start_SearchFiles and select Modify.
4. Set the Value to 0.
5. Restart the Explorer.exe process or just reboot your computer.

Vista Un-needed Services: Part 1

Part 1: http://www.tweakvista.com/article38662.aspx
Part 2: http://www.tweakvista.com/article38664.aspx



Super Quick - Quick Launch Bar

If you have the quick launch bar you can press the WINDOWS + a number and it will launch that application.

For example: If you have a shortcut for a folder in the first slot you would press WINDOWS + 1 to open that folder.
A second quick launch application would be WINDOWS + 2.


Stop those annoying registration boxes that won't go away

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article39107.aspx

Have you recently installed a system utility or a productivity application such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Dreamweaver and have been bombarded with registration messages that pop-up every time your start the application? Even when you check the box and tell the application never to remind you ever again?

This happens to me all the time and is very annoying. The culprit of this problem is... you guessed it, UAC!

Your application keeps asking you to register because the registry key that it checks to see if you should still be harassed into registration is never getting set thanks to UAC. When I check the box or hit the Never remind me again button the registry write gets virtualized because the app tried to write to a part of the registry a standard user does not have access to. This is a feature of UAC and it does a great job of redirecting the registry write so the application does not crash out. However, since the application is not aware of this virtualized write location it keeps checking the registry value of the key in the normal location. Since the application has read only access to that location the key will keep getting virtualized every time you check the box and is why the registration boxes keep popping up.

How do you get out of this mess? Real simple, just run the application as an Administrator. This time UAC will not be in the way and the app will be able to write the never annoy me ever again with this stupid registration box key setting.

This simple trick will also work for some applications that pop up other information and do not respect the stop annoying me again option.

Stop User Account Control (UAC) screen flicker / flash

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article39105.aspx

Every time I get one of those UAC prompts asking me to authorize an administrative action my LCD screen flashes when the box pops up. This is caused by the switch to the secure desktop, similar to what happens when you hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE. The only difference is that the background is a snapshot of your desktop that gives it the effect that it is just a pop up window. Although if you look carefully you will notice it is static since the clock does not change and anything else that was animated is now static. The secure desktop provides an extra level of security to UAC by making it immune to any application that may try to automate the click on the allow button bypassing the purpose of UAC.

This sounds like a great thing but it is really annoying to me. I hate that screen flicker. Rather than disable UAC, there is a better alternative. Instead, I can just disable the secure desktop switch that causes the flicker. I know this is not as secure but it is better than disabling UAC completely.

Follow the steps below to disable UAC secure desktop:

Click on the Start Button and key in secpol.msc and hit Enter.
Navigate through Local Policies and Security Options.
Scroll to the bottom and right click on "User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation" and select Properties.
Set the option to Disabled and hit OK.
Use Vista for 120 Days Free! Longer Trial Period

Windows Vista can be installed, and run without any license, product key or activation for 30 days, This is solely for the purpose of trial/evaluation. Microsoft stress's that users should purchase a license with a valid product key before the trial period expires, or else Windows Vista will lock into Reduced Functionality Mode.

Although, A method has been discovered which will allow you to extend the evaluation period for a fresh 30 days, 3 seperate times. Microsoft has confirmed that extending the evaluation period is not a violation of the EULA and is aware of this tweak but does not seem to mind one bit, as no fixes or updates have been released to fix it.

All versions of Vista include Windows Vista Ultimate allow a 30-day free period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, in which case it supports only a three-day trial.

To reset or restart the initial grace period of Windows Vista to another 30 days, use the following steps:


Click on Vista Start button and type in "Cmd" in Start Search box (without quotes).
Press on Ctrl-Shift-Enter to open Command Prompt with administrative credentials (equivalent to “Run as Administrator”).
In the Command Prompt window which you opened, type the following command and press Enter when done: "slmgr -rearm" or "sysprep /generalize" (without quotes)
Reboot the computer.
Run the script again when the remaining activation grace period timer counts down to 0 days, you can run the code sooner but it is a waste. As if you have 20 days left and you run the script it will bump you back up to 30 again not 50.


Boot Order Editing

If you are dual booting XP Prof and Vista, you most likely have the annoying "Earlier Version of Windows" in the boot list and have Vista booting as the default. Lets change that!

In Vista, you do not have the Boot.ini like in XP where these type of settings were changed. We will need to use command line and the bcdedit command.

1. Open up the command line as an administrator or user w/admin rights (right click on the Shorcut > Run As and lets you run as an admin if your on a non-admin account)

2. type this command to see the current state of affairs.
bcdedit

you prob will see something like this (my original boot option)

__________________________________________
D:\Users\seamonkey> bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {ntldr}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path tldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {1ecfd635-a8ea-11db-bb9b-ddf07c6aaff1}
nx OptIn


3. to change a value, you need to use this type of command:
bcdedit /set {identifiers name} nameofparamater "value to replace with"
for example, to change my XP os name from "Earlier Version...." to "XP Pro", i would use this command:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "XP Pro"

to change the default boot os to xp, i would use this command:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} default "{ntldr}"

then type:
bcdedit

and you should see the changes you made.

The main thing is to remember to run the command line with an admin account or as the administrator.

Also, you can type: bcdedit /help to get a list of all of the parameters/flags you can use

[chrisbard]

Wanna see what Vista has to offer?

See Windows Vista

[Áedán]

Um, I'm completely underwhelmed. Based on that, I'd avoid Vista, as it doesn't appear to offer me anything I don't already have?

Apparently 3D chess is exciting?

[chrisbard]

Have you had the chance to play with Vista yet?