Windows Vista Forum / Vista Technical / Performance & Tweaks

Vista Annoyances Resolved Tweak Guide

WAW8 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:35:05 GMT

A refreshing change of pace -- a new Tweak Guide that takes a rationale view of Vista, it's weaknesses and its strengths. Well worth reading.

Link to original site:

[b][url] http://www.tweakguides.com/VA_1.html [/url][/b]

Vista tweaks that work

quasar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:36:32 GMT

Tweaking Vista is necessary, but you've got to do it right. Doing it wrong is risky and wastes time. This list does not include foolish registry hacks, randomly messing around with Services, or other poorly conceived "tweaks." It only includes tweaks that actually give some benefit.

Each tweak on this list has a rationale attached. The tweaks assume you are starting with a vanilla Vista installation.

[b]Apply SP1[/b] - download and put it on, unless it is already. Rationale: improved performance, stability, security, and compatibility.

[b]Turn on 16-bit color[/b] - Graphics cards and monitors have different standards for how many bits of colors translate to how many colors displayed. To optimize efficiency, match the number of colors displayed by your video card to the number of colors that your monitor can display.

A graphics adapter displaying 16 bits of color can display 65,536 colors at a time. A graphics adapter at 24 bits can display 16,777,216 colors. A graphics adapter at 32 bits can display the same 24 bits of color plus 8 alpha, transparent bits. Settings the graphics adapter at 24 bits or 32 bits has a performance cost for your entire computer over setting it at 16 bits. Thus, if you want to keep using 24 bits or 32 bits of color, make sure you have a good reason such as that your monitor can actually display 16,777,216 colors at once. In Control Panel (classic view) | Personalize | Display Settings | colors, you can see what your graphics adapter is set at and what your options are, and make changes.

To experiment, pull up a good photograph with lots of colors, taken at a high resolution. View the picture in 32-bit or 24-bit mode, then switch your graphics adapter to 16-bit mode and see if you notice a difference. If you have a normal LCD monitor, chances are that you won't see much of a difference.

If you have an LCD monitor, such as on a laptop or a desktop, your 6-bit monitor can probably only display 262,144 colors at a time, which is comparable to the 65,536 colors displayed by a graphics card set for 16-bit color. Using 24-bits of graphics card color to display on a standard 6-bit LCD monitor is quite wasteful of computing power and gives you little benefit. On the other hand, if you are using an HD television or a CRT (with a tube) as your monitor, that is an 8-bit color monitor which can display 16,777,216 or more colors at a time. With such a monitor, setting the graphics adapter to 24-bit or 32-bit mode actually gives you the lion's share of the benefit, making the performance cost worth it.

If you are willing to sacrifice the alpha mode and transparent effects and Flip 3D, but are not willing to significantly reduce the number of colors displayed on your normal LCD monitor, you can shift your graphics card from 32-bit to 16-bit. The result is a significant performance enhancement with a loss of alpha effects and a few colors that aren't making much of a difference anyway.

Rationale: shifting your graphics card to 16-bit color will noticeably boost performance. It will not significantly reduce the quality of your display, unless you have a CRT, an HD television, a very high end LCD monitor sold to graphics professionals, or other display with 8-bit color. It will also turn off the transparent effects of Aero and Flip 3D. Otherwise, shifting to 16-bit color results in a noticeable performance boost.

[b]Remove visual effects[/b] - In Control Panel (classic view) | Performance Items | Adjust visual effects there is a range of effects that can be dropped if you have a poor graphics card, like most ones from Intel. In a pinch you can try "Adjust for best performance" which removes all the effects. The result is a very fast Vista system that looks more like Windows 2000 than the default Vista look. If you still need more performance, [url=http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-aero-on-windows-vista/]disable Aero[/url]. Rationale: increased performance in underpowered machines.

[b]Readyboost[/b] - [url=http://itsvista.com/2007/03/itsvista-tip-46-let-vista-use-your-flash-drive-for-readyboost/]Set up ReadyBoost[/url]. Use the fastest flash memory available. Flash memory speed is measured differently for reading and writing; both are in megabytes per second. An excellent target would be 10 MB/s writing and 18 MB/s reading. Rationale: increased performance. Try to get at least 2 GB and preferably 4 GB or more of flash memory dedicated to Readyboost. Rationale: increased performance.

[b]Enable write-caching and advanced performance[/b] - For systems with a backup power source (like laptops), enable write caching in Control Panel (classic view) | Device Manager | Policies. Rationale: increased performance.

[b]Enable DEP[/b] - First, enable it in BIOS. Use [url=http://www.grc.com/securable.htm]SecurAble[/url] to make sure it is enabled. Then, in Control Panel (classic view) | System | Advanced System Settings | Advanced: Performance: Settings | Data Execution Prevention, turn DEP on for all programs. Rationale: increased security. Citation: [url=http://www.twit.tv/sn78]Security Now podcast on DEP[/url].

[b]Disable Windows Media Player sharing[/b] - Go to WMP 11 | Library | Media Sharing and uncheck all/both options. Rationale: increased performance.

[b]Increase WMP buffer[/b] - go to WMP 11 | press Alt once | Tools | Options | Performance | Network Buffering. Set to 60 seconds. Rationale: much greater chance for steady playback of streaming content.

[b]Disable UPnP[/b] - Universal Plug n Play is being phased out. It should not be running. Go to Control Panel (classic view) | Administrative Tools | Services. Disable UPnP. If Internet Connection Sharing is not disabled yet, disable it as well, unless you are relying on this service, which you shouldn't be relying on. Rationale: increased performance, and possibly better security.

[b]Download and install driver updates[/b] - from the manufacturer (like HP or Dell or whoever). Rationale: increased performance, reliability, and security.

[b]Eliminate startup junk[/b] - stop everything from starting up automatically, unless it's necessary, using [url=http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx]Autoruns[/url]. Rationale: increased performance.

[b]Boost RAM to 2GB or 3GB[/b] - Less might not be enough. More is overkill as Vista 32-bit cannot make use of a full 4 GB as video memory must be mapped within the 4GB memory limit. If you need more than 2GB or 3GB of RAM, install Vista 64-bit. Make sure that the RAM you install is high in quality, such as that from [url=http://www.crucial.com/]American manufacturer Crucial Technologies[/url], and is the maximum speed for the computer as listed in the manual. Rationale for boosting RAM: increased performance.

[b]Upgrade to 64-bit Vista[/b] - Once you need more than 3GB of RAM, or you have multiple graphics cards, upgrading to [url=http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx]Vista x64[/url] lets you get to all the RAM and devices you need. If you bought Vista in a Microsoft box, you can get a free x64 DVD from Microsoft. Rationale: increased performance and efficiency.

[b]Increase hard drive space[/b] - Delete files, move files to other media, compress files, or upgrade to a bigger hard drive. More hard drive space translates into faster hard drive access. Rationale: increased performance.

[b]Run vsp1cln.exe [/b]- After applying SP1, open a command prompt as administrator and run vsp1cln.exe. Rationale: deletes unnecessary files, freeing up hard drive space, improving performance.

[b]Run as administrative user and leave UAC on[/b] - In Control Panel (classic view) | User Accounts, you can set your user security level to that of an administrative user. This configuration of running not as "Administrator" but as an administrative user coupled with leaving UAC on allows you to make administrative changes like installing a program by only clicking on a confirm button. No password-typing required. On the other hand, if you see a UAC prompt without knowing why, you can deny permission and investigate to see what's going on. Rationale: increased security and more control over your applications.

[b]Have running only one security program of each type[/b] - Have only one firewall, one anti-virus, and one anti-malware program running in the background. If you have installed a third-party firewall, disable Windows Firewall. You should go to Control Panel (classic) | Administrative Tools | Services and make sure Windows Firewall is disabled. If you have a third-party anti-malware scanner installed, such as might come with a security suite, go to the same place and make sure Windows Defender is disabled. Rationale: Two or more programs of the same type interfere with one another. Have only one to help optimize performance and stability.

[b]Leave basic Vista features alone[/b] - SuperFetch and the page file are autoconfigured by Vista. The prefetch folder doesn't need "cleaning". Don't use memory optimization software not from Microsoft. Let Vista figure out the best settings. Rationale: security and performance.

Windows Classic Start Button Text

jackie — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:10:02 GMT

Where would I find the resource for the Start button text in the [u]classic style[/u] start menu in windows vista. (It is not located in the explorer.exe as it was in windows XP)... and since that fancy start up orb came along, nobody seems to care about the classic menu lol... thus, there is not info on the subject anywhere! :(

Any help would be appreciated!

Is there a way to turn off the blur in the transparent parts?

lvlln — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:15:26 GMT

Sorry if this is the wrong place to put this in, but this seemed like the most appropriate forum. I was wondering if there existed any tweaks that would turn off the blur on all the translucent effects in Vista. It always seemed pointless to me to have translucent parts of the windows if you couldn't actually read what was behind them. I did use VistaGlazz to turn on translucency all the time, but I'd really like it if I could actually make the translucency useful. I own the Home Premium version.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Super Pi 1.5 MOD XS 32M Test Fails in Vista !!! [Solution Inside]

QuadFusion — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:31:39 GMT

[b]Problem:[/b]
Overclock stable in Prime95 v25.5 for 12+ hours, but fails Super Pi v1.5 32M Test (even at stock settings) in Windows Vista !!!

[b]Solution:[/b]

The windows vista services that affect Super Pi are,

1) Windows Audio Service (this for sure)
2) Themes
3) Aeroglass Interface

By turning these off, I was able to run and complete Super Pi v1.5 32M test.

1) To [b]turn off Windows Audio Service[/b] ( start> run> services.msc, find Windows Audio on the list , double click and stop it ) Turning off "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder" is not necessary unless you encounter problem.

2) To [b]turn off Themes[/b] ( start> run> services.msc, find Themes on the list , double click and stop it ) this will also make you turn off tune up theme extension.

3) [b]Aeroglass automatically turns off [/b]by turning of themes. (you can check it by right clicking on desktop>Personalize>Window Color and Appearance>Color Scheme )

[b]Another way to disable/enable Audio service:[/b]

Create two .bat files on the desktop

SoundOff.bat:
net stop "AudioSrv"

and

SoundOn.bat:
net start "AudioSrv"

I found that it is [b]not necessary to run the program as an administrator or Windows XP SP2 Compatibility mode[/b].

I also found a [b]Super PI front-end[/b] called [b]Hyper PI[/b]
The author claims it is pure Super PI 1.5 MOD XS and it is customized for multi-core CPU's: " Run multiple instances of SPI (one for each processor) and configure the priority of the process easily (without Task Manager). Take a snapshot of all instances at anytime with only one click!"

Download Location http://home.pages.at/virgilioborges/
I personally wasn't able to download it becasue of some server problem.

Here's a Screenshot for the program
Hyper Pi 0.9b http://home.pages.at/virgilioborges/imgs/hyper_pi.png]

[b]Note:
"If you can't get the Hyper Pi program, and want to run multiple instances of Super Pi for your Dual or Quad Core, then run the exe from different folders. For example, if you want four instances of Super Pi to load Quad Core, then make four separate folders, copy the exe into each, and run from each folder. Because if you run the same SuperPI exe to load twice (from the same icon) the initial data is overwritten by the "second running instance." Therefore, what was correct for the first core, or HT in your case, is now being overwritten with the second core's info and it throws out an error "Not convergent in SQR05". There's a little .dat file that's keeping all of the data"[/b]

:smooooth:
QuadFusion

Whats everything a vista owner needs to keep system like you just bought it?

xsubxwooferx — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:35:11 GMT

I am talking about from registry cleaners - defrags? I want my computer like new but I dunno what all to have without putting junk on my labtop?

Overclocking

lolsonjr — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:27:24 GMT

I guess I have made some progress in the past couple of weeks in the overclocking department. Though I suspect there are more things to go yet. Anyway here are my numbers and if you have any comments or suggestions by all means feel free to jump in. First of all I do not have any way of doing overclocking that involves the system bios, at least not that I can tell. I added a PNY 8500GT which at least for now appears to have given me a considerable boost in video capabilities over the Diamond HD2400 Pro.

Using Nvidia System Utilities just out this June, the front side bus is boosted up to 238 mhz. which which translates into 2.380 ghz. The gpu core clock is set at 501 mhz., video memory clock is set to 451 mhz., the shader clock is set to 1022 mhz., and the gpu cooling is set to 44%.

Using Vista's performance update my score now looks like this

Processor 5.3

Memory Ram 5.0

Graphics 5.3

Gaming graphics 5.3

Primary hard disk 5.8

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using Hmonitor 4.4.2.2 the temperatures look like as follows.

Mainboard 22%c

CPU1 21%c

CPU1 Core 28%c

CPU0 Core 27%c

cooling fans

Chasis 4245 rpm

CPU1 2518 rpm

GPU 57%c

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lastly using Speedfan 4.3.5 Beta I increased the speed of both shown fans by going to configure and then advanced and selecting the proper chip and setting all fans to software control and then automatic operations.

If I have missed anything please let me know as obviously I would like to do this right in the first place. Thanks.

Show More Details by Default

tomk — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:52:11 GMT

Some dialog windows have a "More Details" expander that you can click to show more details. Is there a way to show details by default so you don't need to click the arrow every time?

windows explorer slow start

docross — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:31:02 GMT

hi i have such a problem: when i unplug the lan cable windows explorer applications take 40-45 sec to start!!!
i have to wait that time to open any kind of file or folder however other external programs are not affect!!
it's very strange but when it's already opened a folder or file and is not closed any other folder or file can be opened without taking these 45 sec, i mean they start normally! and that happens every time the lan cable is unplugged.
i have no idea what to do

Where is my ram! Fixed in SP1

Jason — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:40:13 GMT

All those people who installed 4GB or whatever amount of RAM and come to see that Vista is only reporting 3300 or some random number can finally relax as SP1 now reports the total installed on the system not just what the OS has available...I guess MS took the "instead of educating just hide it" from the user approach to lessen the complaints from customers about their memory.

It is important to understand that not all the physical RAM is available to the operating system. Before SP1, Vista only took into account the system memory that it could use, and ignored the rest, even if it was installed. Because of BIOS and driver reservations of RAM, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Vista RTM failed to report the full amount of memory on a system. Vista SP1 comes to resolve this problem, and will provide correct information of the hardware configuration even if the operating system has to share the RAM and can use only a portion of it.

"On computers that have a 32-bit operating system, more than 3 GB of system memory, and with a version of Windows that is earlier than Windows Vista SP1, users will see a larger difference in how much memory is reported as available to the operating system compared to how much physical memory is installed. This is because some physical address space must be reserved as I/O regions for memory mapped peripherals. These I/O regions are allocated between the 3 GB physical address and the 4 GB upper physical address limit," Microsoft added.

Problem with Page File Designation

imabuckeye — Sat, 31 May 2008 09:55:52 GMT

A month ago I purchased a new HP Pavilion running Windows Vista Home Premium edition. I created an additional drive and successfully switch paging from C:\ to new logical drive. Now, 4 weeks later, the page file is back to c:\. I have tried to change the page file back to my page file logical drive (using the performance options - virtual memory box. I have unchecked the automatic manage at top of box, click on my page file logical drive, check custom size, and set initial size to 2000 and maximum size to 4400 (which is within size of the drive). Page file for all other drives is "none". I then click set, ok and restart pc. This is the process which I had success with 4 weeks ago. When PC is restarted, the virtual memory box shows no drive is set for page file. Any ideas as to what may be happening would be appreciated!

Vista getting really slow

Xylith — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:23:52 GMT

Hey, i run Vista 64 bit and ive noticed over the past weke or two its started getting even slower then it was with start ups.

Ive also noticed the explorer is crashing more often, ive tried defragging but i literally left my comp all day and it didnt say how far through the defrag it was, if the defrag was indeed even working so i just quit it. Anyone got any suggestions for speeding my beast up? I did try installing some anti spyware software but vista 64bit didnt like it.

Thanks

Couple of tips for those who use desktop search

kuhne — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:38:21 GMT

Hello guys, I don't doubt most of you here know much more about vista and computers than I do, it's just that I've been doing some research around the net comparing desktop searching software. mainly Google desktop and Windows vista search.

I used to use google desktop on XP but like many, I presume, once I switched to vista, found myself not needing google desktop anymore as vista comes with a pretty competent search. along with a sidebar for gadgets, just like google desktop. However, there's one feature google desktop, MAC OS's and I imagine more programs like these have, that vista doesn't and that is the "hide gadgets" shortcut. see in MAC or in Google desktop. if you have your gadgets all over your screen and you want them to dissapear, you just click a button and they dissapear. in Vista this feature is not included... the only way your gadgets dissapear is if you have them on the sidebar and you have to right click with your mouse and point to "close sidebar" and only those gadgets in the sidebar will dissapear, the ones undocked on the screen will keep there and it is kind of annoying. so as far as the gadgets go, Vista still has a long ways to go to compete with google desktop. Still, I use the sidebar in vista instead of google's... because the XM Radio gadget is way, way, WAY better... and it's part of the OS already so I dont need any extra stuff slowing me down.

Anyways, on to the tips. I am sure all of you knows this already but just in the OFF chance someone here might not know this, I hope I can be of any help.

Just two things I've come to see while doing research on those two programs, there's two things people complain about the most when it comes to vista desktop search.

They say Google desktop is better because the search bar comes up with a shortcut key from the keyboard, making it faster than vista (who put it's searchbar on the start menu, which weirded many people out, I guess they feel they have to point and click and then type, where in google they just hit CTRL twice then start typing)

The other thing they complain about is that google desktop searches for your gmail as well (obviously) while vista's search doesnt...

I just wanted to tell anyone here who might have any of these issues that there's an easy workaround for any of these two. first of all, Windows desktop search is superior to google in every way possible. its integrated into the system and you CAN just click a shortcut and start typing. that shortcut is no other than the good old windows key nobody ever uses in their keyboard. once you click that key the start menu comes up and you can start typing instantly. if its a file in your computer it will display it in your start menu and then you can just highlight it with the arrow keys.. if what you are typing is a web adress then it will open explorer and go to the website. If what you are typing is a web search. you just type it and press enter on "search the internet" and will search on whatever search engine you have as default in your browser.

I find it funny many people seem to complain where the searchbox is. the fact that it is right in the start menu makes it even easier to access than google desktop search. if you havent tried this, try it and you will love it.

on to the second tip.

If you guys use gmail, there IS a way to search for gmail with windows desktop search. remember google has IMAP, so you can enter your google account into outlook express. Once you do this, outlook will show every folder and email you have in your gmail account just as if you were accessing trough the web. Windows search naturaly searchs for outlook email, therefore, all your gmail will show up. the only difference is that when you try to open it, instead of being in a webpage it will be in outlook.

So, sorry to be MR Obvious here but if there's at least one guy out there I could help with this and makes him uninstall extra software that's been cloging up his computer and slowing it down. I guess I did some good :)

Speed Up Network File Copying While Playing Audio in Windows Vista SP1

Jason — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:37:14 GMT

Windows Vista restricts network traffic to 10 packets per millisecond while playing multimedia to prevent skipping. Unfortunately this causes network speed to be pitiful on a gigabit network, especially during file copies over the network.

Service Pack 1 includes a new registry tweak that can be used to change the throttling percentage so you can at least partially fix this problem, but you should be careful to test it out, because you don't want your audio to skip either.

Note: This setting is only really useful if you are on a gigabit network - the default values should be fine for a Wireless network.

Manual Registry Hack

Open regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

You will see a value on the right-hand side named NetworkThrottlingIndex, which can be changed to anything from 1 to 70 (decimal). I would recommend testing out different values to see what works for you. Note that you'll need to reboot after making this change.

The Anandtech website has more information and test notes for this hack…

HowToGeek.com

TweakUAC - Free application to control UAC prompts

Jason — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:47:19 GMT

TweakUAC(TM) is a free software tool that you can use to quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or to make UAC operate in the quiet mode:

[img]http://www.tweak-uac.com/TweakUAC-main-screen.png[/img]

[b] Turn UAC off[/b]

This option turns UAC off completely. If this is what you want, select this option, press OK, restart the computer, and you won’t see the elevation prompts anymore. Windows Vista will operate pretty much like Windows XP does when you login to its administrator’s account.

[b] Switch UAC to the quiet mode[/b]

This option does not turn off UAC; instead, it only makes UAC to operate in the quiet mode. In the quiet mode, UAC does not display the elevation prompts for the administrators. That is, when you attempt to do an administrative task, you will be allowed to proceed automatically, without prompting you to confirm the operation. All other features of UAC would still be enabled: the programs will run with the standard user permissions by default, and the standard users will still see the elevation prompts (the quiet mode applies to the administrator accounts only).

[b] Leave UAC on[/b]

If you have previously turned UAC off or switched it to operate in the quiet mode, you can use this option to restore the original behavior of UAC.

Download here: [url=http://www.tweak-uac.com/TweakUAC.exe]http://www.tweak-uac.com/TweakUAC.exe[/url]

Instant Search on SP1

Alejandrosv — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:17:46 GMT

Hello, i heard the rumor that instant search is gone from the menu bar in the new service pack 1. (well more than a rumor, i read it at Paul Thurrott's: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_sp1.asp look under "Other Functional Changes"). Can anybody verify this?

And if this is true... can it be re-enabled? without instaling 3rd party software that is.

Thanks.

high ping in games

fasteddie70 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:52:06 GMT

i am using vista ultimate 64 bit. i play america's army quite alot. my fps are very high but my ping is high. i have a friend that uses the same isp and lives very close. they average in the 20s where i am averaging around 150 to 200. they have a 3 gig celeron with 1 gig of ram. i have so much more of a computer and still have a high ping. they are using xp and have told me that is the reason. if it is, is there any kind of tweaking i can do? i was running it though a router and went direct and saw a slight gain for a short time then it went up again.

Stop User Account Control (UAC) screen flicker / flash

Jason — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:43:06 GMT

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 towhathappens 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 desktopprovides an extra level of security to UAC by making it immuneto any application that may try to automate the click on the allow buttonbypassingthe 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.

[Update] It has been revealed that this does more than just stop the desktop from turning dark; instead, it turns off the Secure Desktop feature. Doing that exposes the PC to security risks as indicated below:

Normally, all processes running on Windows can talk to one another and interact with each other's interface. That's the basis of a lot of security exploits, which convince you to approve one action that in turn interacts with another process at your current level of privilege.

When you use UAC, the dimmed screen indicates that the consent prompt is running in an isolated process. No other software on the machine can interact with it. The only way you can give consent is to physically click the OK box, at which point control of the machine is returned to you.

When you turn off Secure Desktop, you enable scenarios where a program on your PC can in turn programmatically interact with UAC prompts without your knowledge. At that point, you're pwned.

So, be advised that you're exposing your machine to increased likelyhood of "shatter attacks" when you do this.

Adding a Shutdown button onto my desktop

Quiksilver — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:08:39 GMT

Right, im a Lazy git. Clicking the start button is simply too much work for me.

So, I want a button on my desktop to shut down the laptop.

Any ideas? I tried making a .bat file to do it, gets in a loop. Im crappy at this sorta thing :)

Any help appriciated!

Cheers

Kev

And yes, as i said. Im lazy. Im the kinda guy with shortcuts to all of his drives on the desktop because im too lazy to open my computer.

Desktop Short Cut Dial up or high speed connectios

MiltonX — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:48:39 GMT

Thanks for letting me goin the forum. New to Vista anybody have any idea how to create a short cut to my dial up connection or high speed connections.

Thanks In advance Milton

Boost Laptop Hard Drive Speed in Vista!

Jason — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:30:10 GMT

By default, Windows Vista uses write-behind caching for internal hard disks. However, if you use a notebook computer or a desktop system connected to a battery backup, consider "kicking it up a notch" by enabling Advanced Performance:

Open Device Manager.
Expand the Disk Drives category.
Select your internal disk drive.
Click the Policies tab (Figure 7).

Figure 7 Enabling Advanced Performance improves internal hard disk performance.
Click the Enable Advanced Performance checkbox.
Click OK.
Repeat Steps 3-6 for additional internal hard disk drives.

Vista tweaks from the How-to-Geek

WAW8 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:38:27 GMT

Here's a link to a compilation of 16 Vista tweaks, courtesy of the How-to-Geek:

[b][url] http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/16-tweaks-for-vista-look-feel/ [/url][/b]

If you want the full set of tips-and-tweaks, use the following link:

[b][url] http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/windows-vista/#tips [/url][/b]

Vista tips and tweaks site link

WAW8 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:22:07 GMT

[Courtesy pf Peter K]

I had some Vista problems too, but most of them I solved.
During my search for solutions and also other Vista help I found this website:

[b][url] http://www.windows-vista-tips-and-tricks.com[/url][/b]

On this site I found a lot of useful information about Vista.

Here you can find for example information about:
- Vista problems and solutions.
- how to rip a dvd in Vista
- how to make xp look like Vista
- how to speed up Vista

and more tips and tricks

How to Delete a System File in Windows Vista - Access Denied when in System32

Jason — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:30:07 GMT

If you need to delete or overwrite a system file in Windows Vista, you'll quickly notice that you cannot delete system files, even as administrator. This is because Windows Vista's system files are owned by the TrustedInstaller service by default, and Windows File Protection will keep them from being overwritten.

Thankfully, there's a way that you can get around this. You need to take ownership of the files, and then assign yourself rights to delete or modify the file. For this, we'll use the command line.

Open an administrator command prompt by typing cmd into the start menu search box, and hit the Ctrl+Shift+Enter key combination.

To take ownership of the file, you'll need to use the takeown command. Here's an example:

takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui

That will give you ownership of the file, but you still have no rights to delete it. Now you can run the cacls command to give yourself full control rights to the file:

cacls C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui /G geek:F

Note that my username is geek, so you will substitute your username there.

At this point, you should be able to delete the file. If you still can't do so, you may need to reboot into Safe Mode and try it again. For the filename in the example, I was able to overwrite it without safe mode, but your mileage may vary.

howtogeek.com

Improving Hard Disk Performance

Jason — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:28:49 GMT

Both internal and external hard disk performance in Windows Vista can be boosted by tweaking settings in Device Manager. By using the Policies tab on both types of hard disks, you can enable or improve write-behind caching.

Write-behind caching returns control of the system to you while the hard disk is still writing data, enabling you to perform other tasks without waiting for the last data-write process to complete. By default, Windows disables write-behind caching on external hard disks connected to hot-swap ports such as USB or FireWire. The reason? You can disconnect the hard disk from these ports at any time, and Mama Microsoft doesn’t want you to lose any data. However, if you’re already accustomed to using the Safely Remove Hardware control in the taskbar to disconnect your USB or FireWire hard disk, you should enable write-behind caching.

To enable write-behind caching on an external hot-swap hard disk:

Open Device Manager (it’s available from the Tasks pane of the System properties sheet).
Expand the Disk Drives category.
Select your external disk drive (a USB drive will have "USB" as part of the device name).
Click the Policies tab (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Select Optimize for Performance to improve the performance of an external USB or FireWire (IEEE-1394) hard disk.
Click Optimize for Performance (Figure 5).
Click OK.
You must restart your computer after selecting this option before it becomes active. Click Yes to restart your computer now, or No if you will restart your computer later.

How to disable the User Account Control Prompt for certain application

Jason — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:49:05 GMT

Just released 12/27/2007 KB article my MS.

[url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946932]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946932[/url]

Easy Take Ownership of files in Vista

Jason — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:03:12 GMT

Taking ownership of system files or folders in Windows Vista is not a simple task. Whether you use the GUI or the command line, it takes far too many steps.

Thankfully somebody created a registry hack that will give you a menu item for "Take Ownership" that will handle all the steps for you. (If you are the person that originally made this script, let me know and I'll give you credit)

Here's what the new right-click menu will look like after installing this registry hack.

Install

Download and unzip the files contained in the zipfile. Double-click the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file and click through the prompts. No reboot necessary.

Uninstall

Double-click the RemoveTakeOwnership.reg file and click through the prompts. No reboot necessary.

Ultimate gaming tweak

Lewa Nua — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:39:01 GMT

Ca anyone tell me detailed instruction on how to turn vista buissness x64 into xp sp2 (you know without the ram eatage and the bloatware) but with aero and dx10:D I know it can be done but I dont know how myself. ( I dont care about services and stuff I use linux but i have windows for the games)

Aero ON/OFF shortcuts

blackhat — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:04:06 GMT

create a shortcut and use the following path

[u]turn Aero ON[/u]
Rundll32 dwmApi #102
[u]
turn Aero OFF[/u]
Rundll32 dwmApi #104

source
[url]http://www.askvg.com/how-to-add-aero-on-off-shortcuts-in-desktop-and-my-computer-context-menu/[/url]

Super Fast Shutdown - Vista

Jason — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:22:40 GMT

Here's a neat one I fell over somewhere on the web:
Open Regedit (WINDOWS KEY + R on your keyboard, or by clicking Start and typing on the search bar "regedit" without quotes. Hit Enter

Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l] On the right panel look for the "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" string and change it value to 1000 by right clicking the string and selecting Modify...

Default Value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=20000

Modified value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=5000
Modified value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=1000 (extreme, use it at your own risk)

I found 3000 worked nicely but try the 5000 first. 3000 does sometimes leave some programs lagging which then need a further key click.

Vista Tweak Compilation - Updated!

Synapse — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:56:03 GMT

Vista Tweaks (All Versions)

--------------------------------------

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.

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

Tweak Indexing Options for more Performance

The indexing service in Windows Vista is responsible for making those search boxes all over the operating system lightening fast. By default Windows automatically indexes all files in your user profile folders, start menu and any files you have setup for offline access. If you have a lot of files in these locations and the files change often you can be putting a heavy load on the indexing service. For maximum performance when using Windows Vista I recommend disabling indexing for all other locations other than the Start Menu. This will lessen the background work that Windows Vista has to do. It will also slow down your searches of other locations but that is the price you must pay for this performance benefit.

Follow these steps to tweak the indexing locations:

Click on the Start Button and key in Indexing Options and hit Enter. Indexing Options will now load.
Hit the Modify button.
Next, click on Show all locations.
Scroll through the tree-view and uncheck any folders you do not want to be indexed. When you are finished, click OK.
If you want to change advanced indexing settings such as what file types are indexed click on the Advanced button. Otherwise hit Close.

Make XP computers show up in Vista's Network Map

The new Network Map in Windows Vista allows you to easily create a map of all computers on your network and see how they are connected. This works by using the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol that is only part of Windows Vista.

To help users of mixed environments of both Windows Vista and Windows XP, Microsoft has released the Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder for Windows XP. This will make your Windows XP computers show up in the Network Map in Windows Vista.

This package contains the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) responder. The network map on a computer running Windows Vista shows a graphical view of the computers and devices on your network and how they are connected by using the LLTD protocol. The LLTD responder must be installed on a computer running Windows XP before it can be detected and appear on the network map. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Click here to download the update for Windows XP SP2

Vista Beta Tweaks

--------------------------------------

System Related

Logging on as Local Administrator

If you are having trouble logging on as the built-in Administrator account under 5308, you will need to make some registry modifications to display the Administrator account.

Log in using the account you created during the Windows Vista setup process.
From the Start menu, click All Programs and then expand Accessories.
Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”.
Click on “Allow” from the Windows Security dialog.
In the Command Prompt window, type “regedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
In the Registry Editor, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Add a new key called “SpecialAccounts” (without the quotes).
In the “SpecialAccounts” key you just made, create a sub-key called “UserList” (without the quotes)
Make sure you are navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
In the “UserList” key, create a new DWORD (32-bit) item and name it Administrator.
Double click on the new DWORD item and set its value to 1.
Close Registry Editor and the Command Prompt.

Increase Performance

TheFebruary CTP is quick right from installation, however there is one bug that causes a slow down with the user interface. This bug involves the sliding buttons on the taskbar; by disabling this, performance increases a bit. It’s really up to you, but the bug can be very annoying at times. To disable it, just carry out the following actions:

Press WinKey+R and type in “sysdm.cpl” (without the quotes).
Click the Advanced tab, and then under “Performance” click “Settings”.
In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck “Slide taskbar buttons”.
Press OK and close the Performance Options dialog.

I have also compiled a registry file that changes a few key settings involving the timings for menus, hover events, etc, which makes the Windows interface more responsive. You can download that here. This was tested andis fully working without any issues, and have also been scanned for viruses.

Also, if you are running this build with an NVIDIA WDDM supported graphics card, you may want to install the latest drivers, this should fix some of the weird issues and lag with the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) and the Aero user interface enabled.

Disable DEP / NoExecute Protection to fix Random Windows Explorer crashes

Due to the way Windows Vista’s boot editor has been created, it is now harder to disable DEP / No Execute Protection. However, after some amount of research, it would seem that some of the random Windows Explorer crashes that users are experiencing is caused by this technology. You will need to disable it and reboot, which should cure some of the crashes:

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, right click on “Command Prompt”, and click “Run as administrator”.
If asked for permission to run Windows Command Processor, click on Allow.
At the command prompt, type in “bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff” (without the quotes).
You should receive a message saying “Operation Completed Successfully”.
Restart the computer, DEP / No Execute should now be disabled.

Prevent network flooding and connection drops

The new networking stack contained in Windows Vista February CTP, and as with anything new (and still in beta), it has some issues. This build seems to like dropping connections and in rare cases, blocking all traffic on wireless routers, requiring a restart of the router itself. To fix these problems, complete the following instructions:

WARNING: Please note that this will disable IPv6 connectivity as well as the Windows Firewall security, and is not recommended unless you are experiencing these issues. This will also invalidate any network related bug reports you file against Windows Vista.

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
LUnder “Network and Internet”, click on “View network status and tasks”.
In the left hand pane, click on “Open connections”.
Right click on your network connection (for example: Local Area Connection 3), and then click “Configure”.
If asked for permission to open Network Connections, click on Allow.
Highlight the following items and press the “Uninstall” button:

Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver

Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Uncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”
Next, click on the “Configure” button under the name of your network adapter.
Click on the Power Management tab.
Disable all power management items listed on the Power Management tab.
Press OK.

To stop Windows Vista from flooding your network with traffic:

Press WinKey+R.
Type “services.msc” (without the quotes)
If asked for permission to open “Microsoft Management Console”, click Allow.
Double click on each one of the following services and change its startup type to “Disabled”.

Base Filtering Engine

IKE and AuthIP Keying Modules

IP Helper Service

IPSec

Windows Firewall

Close the Services window and restart Windows.

Disable System Restore

In Build 5308, the System Restore service is one cause of performance issues. For some people, it doesn’t even work. So to remedy this, we will need to shut down System Restore and stop it from running:

Click on the “Start” button.
Hover over “Computer”, right click on it and then click “Properties”.
On the left hand side, click “Advanced Settings”.
If asked to permit the action, click on “Allow”.
Click on the “System Protection” tab.
Uncheck any checkboxes listed for your hard drives.
Press OK.

Forcing Glass on Non-WDDM Compatible Cards

WARNING: This tweak may cause a blue screen loop or constant flickerdepending on your video card. Use with extreme caution, this tweak is really only here for documentary purposes only.

From the Start menu, click All Programs and then expand Accessories.
Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”.
Click on “Allow” from the Windows Security dialog.
In the Command Prompt window, type “regedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM (if this key doesn’t exist, create it)
Create a new DWORD (32-bit value) of UseMachineCheck, and set its value to 0.

Disable User Account Protection (UAP)

Once you have installed theFebruary CTP and set up an every day user account, one of the first things you will notice is that you have almost no rights to do anything administrator related on your system. Disabling this is purely up to you but if you find UAP is getting in your way, or some applications refuse to run because of it, you may want to take a look at this. Here are the instructions:
NOTE: You should be logged in as Administrator to do this, or you could run the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) elevated.

Press WinKey (the flag key on your keyboard) + R and type “secpol.msc”. (Without the quotes). If asked to permit Microsoft Management Console to run, allow it.
In the Local Security Settings window, in the left hand pane, navigate to “Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options”.
In the pane to the right, scroll all the way to the bottom.
Set the first two User Account Protection items to “No Prompt”, and “Disabled” on the remaining three items.
Close the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and if you are asked to save the settings for “Console1”, press “No”.
Reboot or log off and log back in to enforce the new settings; or alternatively open an elevated Command Prompt and type “gpupdate /force” (without the quotes), and then press Enter.

Alternatively, you can also do this to disable UAP:

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Paste the following into the Run box, including the quotation marks: “C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f”
Press Enter. If asked for permission to perform this action, click “Allow”.
Reboot the system.

To renable UAP after applying this method:

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Paste the following into the Run box, including the quotation marks: “C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f”
Press Enter.
Reboot the system.

Shell Related

Turn on the sidebar

The long awaited Windows Sidebar, which first debuted back in the Longhorn alpha builds but was removed and remade into a seperate project has finally made its way back into Windows Vista. However, it is tucked away in 5308. To start it:

Click Start, and hover over All Programs.
Navigate to the Accessories folder.
Click “Sidebar”.

Bring back “Run” on the Start menu

One of the most favorite functions in Windows, the “Run” function, has been moved off of the Start menu by default in Windows Vista. To access it, you could press WinKey+R on your keyboard to bring it up. Or you can use the Search functionality built into the Start menu, it also works as the run command. Or, last but not least, you could just put the Run command back on the Start menu where it has lived for years:

Right click on the Start button, and click “Properties”.
In the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” dialog, click “Customize”.
Scroll down and in the list you shall find “Run command”. Check the box next to it.
Close any open dialogs by pressing OK.

Toggle DWM

If you find the Aero Glass user interface annoying, orif it is slow on your computer configuration, simply press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to turn it off. Press this key combination again to re-enable it.

Use the Search box in Windows Explorer to filter a file view

Did you know you can easily filter the list of documents and folders in a folder using the Search field in Windows Explorer? For instance if you have a folder containing a lot of folders and documents and you are specifically looking for “Vista”, all you need to do is type “Vista”, or even just part of the word, such as “Vis” to limit the list of files shown.

Use Flip3D
In build 5270, Microsoft had added a quick launch button to run “Flip3D”, the cool new task switching mode in Windows Vista. In the February CTP however, this quick launch item has been removed. If you’ve forgotten the key combination to run Flip3D, it is currently WinKey+Tab. If you want to run Flip3D without it closing when you let go of the key combination, press Ctrl+WinKey+Tab.

Limit the number of windows shown in Flip3D

If Flip3D is too slow for you or if you have too many windows open, you can easily limit the number of windows displayed in Flip3D. As you tab or scroll through them, other windows will appear.

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If asked for permission to launch the Registry Editor, click Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
Right click on the right hand side of the registry editor, and under New, click on “DWORD (32-bit)”.
Name the new DWORD value “Max3DWindows” (without the quotes)
Double click on the DWORD value and set it to the maximum number of windows you want displayed in Flip3D. A good number is 5 for low-end cards and 10 for other cards.
Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.
Press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to shut down DWM, and then press the key combination again to restart it.
Press WinKey+Tab to display Flip3D.

Workaround for the dissapearing start button after using Flip3D

If you use the Flip3D function in Windows Vista February CTP, you may notice that when you return from the Flip3D display screen that the blue start button in the left hand corner is missing. To fix this, simply restart DWM by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 twice.

Add another time zone to your clock

Onenice addition to Windows Vista is the ability to display the time in other time zones.

Click on the clock.
Click “Date and Time Settings”.
Click on the “Additional Clocks” tab.
Check the box labelled “Additional Clock #1″, and from the drop down menu choose a time zone.
Give the clock a name, such as “Microsoft” or “Texas”.
Press OK.

You can repeat this for the second additional clock as well.

Click here to see this in action.

Windows Explorer

To prevent the Search box from searching sub-folders:

In the February CTP, the Search functionality has changed yet again. This time, when you type something into the search box, it will also search all sub-folders of the current folder. To disable this:

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Type “control folders”, and press OK.
When asked for permission to run “Run a DLL as an App”, press Allow.
Click the “View” tab.
Uncheck “Search subfolders when typing in the Search box”.
Press OK.

To add a location to the Places bar (left hand pane in Windows Explorer)

In Windows Vista, there is a new pane on the left hand side of Windows Explorer which contains links to items you wish to access quickly. It works a bit like the left hand pane in the Mac OS X 10.3+ Finder. In previous builds, you could not really customize the Places bar but now you can! Simply drag and drop a folder onto the plane, and voila!

Display Windows Explorer Classic Menus

If you are a frequent user of the menu in Windows Explorer, you may have a bit of a hard time adjusting to Windows Vista’s new Windows Explorer window style, which doesn’t include the menu.

There are two ways to bring it back, one is temporary and the other is more permenant:
If you want to view the menu but not have it always displayed, simply press the Alt key. The menu will fade into view.

If you want the menu to always be turned on, click the first button on Layout configuration button (first button on the top most bar in Windows Explorer). From the drop down list, check “Classic Menus”.

Folders List Returns!
If you want to view a tree-view of your hard drive and navigational path, simply click on the arrow next to the “Folders” bar in Windows Explorer, located on the Places bar.

Windows Mail

Disable the Windows Mail Splash Screen

Using Windows Mail? If the splash screen isdisplayed too long for your liking or if you just want to get rid of it, this is the trick for you.

Press WinKey+R.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If you are asked for permission to run the Registry Editor, click on Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value called “NoSplash”.
Double click on the “NoSplash” DWORD you just created and set its value to 1.
Press OK and close the registry editor.

Bring back the Outlook Bar in Windows Mail

If you are an avid fan of the Outlook Bar in Microsoft Outlook and the previous Outlook Express, then this tweak is definately for you!

Press WinKey+R.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If you are asked for permission to run the Registry Editor, click on Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Look for the DWORD (32-bit) item with the name of “Show Legacy Outlook Bar”, if it doesn’t exist, create it.
Double click on this value and set the value to 1.
Press OK and close the registry editor.

Start Windows Mail. You should now see the Outlook Bar on the left-hand side.

Internet Explorer 7

User Agent String

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.
Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.
Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=”MSIE 6.0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=-

You can easily undo this change by copying and pasting the following code into Notepad, and then saving it as IE7Undo.reg and merge it into the Windows Registry. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=””

You can test these changes using a simple page that checks the User Agent. We recommend: http://www.fiddlertool.com/useragent.aspx.

The Favorites Center

In Internet Explorer 7, the older style Explorer bars have been replaced and the menus have been hidden by default. “What happened to my favorites, then?” you may wonder. Simple. You will notice a round orange circle with a white star in the center of it. Click on it, and all of your favorites will appear. You will also find your subscribed feeds and history are available from the Favorites Center as well. To close the Favorites Center quickly just press Esc on your keyboard.

Zoom

In previous versions of Internet Explorer, you could use Ctrl+-, Ctrl++, or Ctrl+Scroll Wheel to change the zoom and text size of a page. In Internet Explorer 7, there is a new zoom function which not only allows you to zoom text, it also zooms everything else on the page; making pages, images, and items larger for those with sight problems. To use this feature, locate the little magnifying glass in the bottom right hand corner of the Internet Explorer status bar. Click on it, and select a zoom percentage.

Quick Tabs

Internet Explorer comes with a new feature known as Tabs. Other browsers have had this for a while, such as Mozilla Firefox, and now it is time for Internet Explorer to catch up. When you have multiple tabs open, instead of clicking through each tab to see what it contains, you can use Quick Tabs. To do this, you can either press the Quick Tabs button next to the Favorites Center & Add Favorite buttons, or you can press Ctrl+Q.

Printing from a USB Printer

In this build, there is a known issue that causes printing with Internet Explorer to fail when attempting to use a USB Printer. To resolve this, click Start, All Programs, right click on Internet Explorer, and then click “Run as administrator”. When asked for permission to run Internet Explorer, click on Allow. Then print as you normally would.
Source: http://digitalfive.org

Slow Networking File Transfer - Fixes

Jason — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:50:30 GMT

Found a good knowledge base article by Microsoft concerning the issue of transfer speeds from XP - Vista or Vice versa. Many of these tweaks may work w/ Vista - Vista problems as well.

[url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932170/en-us]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932170/en-us[/url]

Desktop shortcuts

rob4 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:57:51 GMT

Is it possible to remove the ticks (arrows) from desktop shortcuts ?

View Hidden 3D Benchmarks in Windows Vista

sonic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:39:54 GMT

There's really nothing useful about this tip, but it's still pretty cool. There's a utility built into Windows Vista used for benchmarking your system called the System Assessment Tool. What most people don't know is that you can call this utility from the command line and view some cool 3D benchmarks.

You should be able to use a regular command prompt, but you'd have best luck using an administrator mode command prompt. (right-click and choose Run as Administrator). You should also note that it will temporarily disable Aero before running the test, but don't worry, it will re-enable it after.

Try the command right above each one to see it on your own computer.

Commands:

winsat aurora

winsat d3d -texshader -totalobj 15

winsat d3d -objs C(20) -texshader -totalobj 50

winsat d3d -totalobj 20 -objs C(20) -totaltex 10 -texpobj C(1) -alushader -noalpha -v -time 10

winsat d3d -totalobj 20 -objs C(20) -totaltex 10 -texpobj C(10) -alushader -v -time 10

You can adjust the commands on the prompt if you want to try to get different combinations.

Disable Writing to USB Drives

sonic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:36:04 GMT

A common security concern at organizations is allowing users to plug in a usb flash drive, because they could so easily copy corporate data.

Since Windows XP SP2, you can disable writing to USB devices altogether using a simple registry hack. Here it is:

Go to this address in the registry and make the changes. Remeber that if keys not found in the registry maybe you need to modify it yoursself.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
"WriteProtect"=dword:00000001

Once you use the registry hack, you will have to reboot for the changes to take effect. One should also note that if you are using this trick, you should make sure that the users are not administrators on the computer, because they could easily change this setting back.

Easily & Completely Clean Windows Vista Temp Files Directory!

sonic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:16:50 GMT

Windows Vista Disk Cleanup wizard is really not all that bad, but I did find a small problem with it… It doesn't fully empty your temp folder. It only allows you to delete temporary files that haven't been modified in a week.

If you've recently done a lot of editing or something that generates large temporary files, you may want to manually clean up. Just type in %TEMP% into the start menu search box, and hit enter. You'll immediate be taken to the temporary files folder, where you can delete whatever you feel like.:cool:

Enable Hidden BootScreen in Windows Vista!

sonic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:13:30 GMT

The Windows Vista BootScreen is pointless, but Microsoft decided to hide a more visually appealing boot screen that can easily be enabled with very little trouble. I'm not sure why they didn't make the boot screen better.

All you have to do is type msconfig into the start menu search box, and hit enter.

Click the Boot tab, and then check the "No GUI boot" checkbox.

Hit OK and reboot the computer. You should see the new boot screen immediately.

Note: You may get a Windows Defender error on the next startup. You can enable the system config utility using the tray icon and this error will go away.;)

Easily Install Fonts in Vista!

sonic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:01:17 GMT

Remember the process of installation of new fonts in XP! you must copy the fonts in the clipboard and then go to the XP installtion drive and open then FONTS folder and finally right click & paste the items from clipboard!

It's really time-consuming job. In Vista you don't need to do this silly jobs, just go to your fonts folder, select desired fonts & right click on them & select Install!

A process dialog will appear and in a second fonts will be installed!:P

Locking the Full Screen Mode in Windows Media Player 11!

sonic — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:48:36 GMT

As you know Microsoft releases Media Player 11 both for XP & Vista. but t has some great features that only works in vista. one of this great features that is you can easily lock your screen when watching a movie in full screen mode. when you go to the full screen mode in WPM 11 look at right hand & bottom of the screen. you see a shape of a lock. click on it. a blank filed will be shown. you must enter your a 4 digital pin to lock the screen. when you enter it click on the lock again & then your Screen will be Lock until you enter the 4 digital pin to unlock it.:cool:

Screen Saver timing to 30mins to 6Hrs

GoTotallyNuts — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:18:18 GMT

Gidday gidday,

I am turning my computer into a Digital Photo Frame but I don't like the "My Picture SlideShow" doing its transitions every few seconds. I want to get the transitions out to 30min to 6 hrs.

Cheers:)