Tips & tricks for Windows Vista
Information and instruction on the newest Microsoft Operating system Windows Vista. Collection of the best tips & tricks from around the web that will help you customize your Vista experience.
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Seize Command of Windows Vista
Source: www.pcmag.com
Like a scene straight out of Kramer vs. Kramer or Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy, Vista has two types of administrators. What gives? First, understand that there are two kinds of user accounts, Administrator and Standard. This refers to the level of privileges-the things you're allowed to do. In addition, and separately, there is an account named Administrator. It's typically used to sort out problems that keep you from logging on to your normal account. As in Windows XP, you should rename the Administrator account for security purposes (just don't forget what you've changed it to). Right-click Computer and click Manage. Under Local Users and Groups, open Users, right-click the one named Administrator, and choose Rename. Then right-click it and choose Properties to delete its telltale description as well.
Improve Your Network Under Vista
Source: www.pcmag.com
There are two types of wireless networks known to Vista: public and private. Public networks are less secure, so the OS disables discovery of other devices when connected to one. But by default, Vista makes your network public. Go private instead, enabling a much more comprehensive view of the network behind your router using a new protocol called Link Layer Topology Discovery. In the Network and Sharing Center, click Customize under the picture of your network at top. Switch to Private and click Next. While you're optimizing things, note the various sharing options listed; it's easy to give all of your PCs access to your printer here.
Truly Secure Your Files
Source: www.pcmag.com
Password-protecting your laptop is good overall security, but for added protection, start encrypting. Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions come with BitLocker Drive Encryption, a tool that relies on a Trusted Platform Module to secure access-check your manual to see if your notebook has one and update your BIOS if needed. To make the magic happen, you'll need an extra partition on your hard drive that you can create with the Vista partitioning tool on your installation disc or with the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, a Vista Ultimate Extra. You'll create one small partition for essential OS files, and the rest of the drive will hold encrypted files. Format the partition as NTFS, not FAT32.
Run Two Operating Systems
Source: www.pcmag.com
Apple's Boot Camp software lets you run the Microsoft Windows XP operating system on an Intel-based Macintosh, but it doesn't support Vista-and it's still in beta, almost a year after its release. To run Microsoft's newest OS on your Apple, get Parallels Desktop for Mac. This virtualization software lets you run two operating systems simultaneously by taking advantage of the Intel Core Duo's built-in virtualization technology. To get Vista running smoothly in a window on your OS X desktop, be sure to boost the program's memory requirements to 2GB; Vista won't run well with only 1GB of memory for the subsystem.
Beautify Your Boot
Source:www.pcmag.com
The boot screen built into Windows is functionally useless. Why not make it look prettier? Microsoft designed a built-in boot screen that replaces the animated start-up bar (you'll see it if you awaken your PC from hibernation); it provides just as little information, but it looks a whole lot better. To enable it, run MSConfig from the Start menu, and under the Boot tab, select No GUI Boot.
Save Your Music!
Source:www.pcmag.com
We've all been buying audio and video files wrapped in DRMs from Microsoft, Apple, and others. What happens to that content when you upgrade to Vista? If you've bought digital media from stores running Windows Media Player 10, you'll be asked to reauthorize the content. With stuff from Apple's iTunes, deauthorize your PC before upgrading to Vista. Simply sign in to the iTunes store, and, from the Store menu, select Deauthorize Computer. After upgrading, reverse the process to re-enable access to your files. If you've authorized the maximum five PCs, select View My Account from that same menu, where you can "Clear all authorizations" once a year.
Extend Vista Activation
Source:www.pcmag.com
Are you testing out Vista's features and compatibility but not sure if you want to go ahead and activate it? Microsoft understands. It has built a software licensing manager into the new OS that lets you extend the activation period. At the Start menu's search bar, simply type slmgr -rearm to get another 30 days. You can do this a maximum of three times before Microsoft blocks further extension periods. And once you're locked out, that's it.
Prevent Vertigo on Vista
Source:www.pcmag.com
The new 3D desktop is a tremendous improvement, but not all of the features are handy, and some of the settings are downright disconcerting. Control your own 3D experience! First, right-click Computer and choose Properties to get the System Properties page. Click Advanced system settings. On the Advanced tab, click Settings in the Performance section. The Visual Effects field is where you can choose to Adjust for best appearance, Adjust for best performance, Let Windows choose, or go wild with your own choices.
Snip at Will
Source:www.pcmag.com
Power users are comfortable using the PrintScr key to capture screen shots, but there's a better way in Vista. You can use the integrated Snipping Tool to capture any object on your screen and then annotate, save, or share the image. Simply use the mouse to capture free-form shapes, rectangles, whole windows, or full screens. After you capture a snip, it's automatically copied to the markup window, where you can annotate, save, or share it. Bonus: If you've clipped from an Internet Explorer window (not Firefox or Opera) and save the snip as an HTML file, the URL is automatically appended to your image. Neat!
Play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Source:www.pcmag.com
Love him or hate him, Kevin Bacon is a name you'll never forget. Now you can play "find the actor" anytime (not officially, that is, but bear with us) using Windows Vista. First, launch Windows Media Center from the Start menu. Navigate to TV + Movies and select Recorded TV. Select the movie you are interested in (Vista comes with snippets from Apollo 13 and Vertigo, just to get you started). Select Cast + More, pick a cast member, and repeat until you find Mr. Bacon.
Pick Your Feeds
Source:www.pcmag.com
The Sidebar's RSS Feed Reader is handy, but by default it picks up feeds only directly from Microsoft. Making it work for you is a two-stage process. First, find a Web page with an RSS feed on it using Internet Explorer-the orange feed icon at the right of the status bar lights up to indicate the feed's presence. Click it, and select Subscribe to this feed. Then right-click on the module and select Options; you'll be able to choose which feeds and how many items are displayed. Want to find feeds using Firefox instead?
Work With The SideShow
Source:www.pcmag.com
Vista supports a secondary display (ideally on your laptop's lid, as on the cool Asus W5FE) for you to get quick access to e-mail, photos, calendar info, and music files. And that's just scratching the surface. SideShow info can be stored and accessed in two ways: either from the hard drive, which takes longer and involves caching, or directly from a flash component in your system-quicker, but space is limited. The flash component shows up as a separate drive in Windows Vista that you can drag and drop MP3s and photos to. Some gadgets require use of the hard drive; you won't be able to access them if the system is off. Instead, put it to sleep, and set Vista to wake every 5 minutes, updating e-mail, calendar, and other gadgets that rely on an Internet connection.
Be a Better Parent
Source:www.pcmag.com
Kids need structure, otherwise they'll spend hours browsing the Web for dirty limericks. Turn to Vista's parental controls for a quick and easy way to monitor how long they're online-and who goes where. First, create an account for each child in the User Accounts control panel. Then click Set Up Parental Controls to create and set limits. Don't forget to enable activity monitoring as well. It's okay-you're Dad, not Big Brother. You can view them later by visiting the same section of the control panel. But be forewarned: Parental controls are available only to PCs on a workgroup, not those on a domain.
Reduce Power Consumption
Source:www.pcmag.com
As laptops became more popular, consumers became aware of Win XP's power settings. Standby left your computer running at low power; hibernate saved all memory to disk and then shut down your system-but often balked at problem programs. With Vista, Microsoft redrew the rules, adding an "away mode" and defaulting to "sleep" rather than off. Sleep mode starts off like standby but saves memory like hibernate. Then after 15 minutes it just shuts off, with no back talk from programs. Nicely done, Microsoft! To shut down completely, skip the Start menu's orange power button in favor of the right arrow next to it.
Get help
Source:www.pcmag.com
The Help and Support Center built into Windows XP was a good start but far from ideal. Though it appears similar to Win XP's, Vista's Support Center is much improved. Besides the usual documentation on core OS functionality, Vista's integrated system can get the latest help info from the Web, allow a friend to help by remote assistance, or search in "Windows communities." Type a word or phrase into the main search field and hit enter. At the bottom of your returned results is a useful link to these other sources of assistance.
Boost Your System Speed
Source:www.pcmag.com
Hybrid hard drives, which embed a cache of flash memory inside a hard drive's 3.5-inch shell to improve its performance, aren't on the market yet. But they're just one way Vista uses flash memory; ordinary thumb drives can, cheaply and easily, let your PC read small, random bits of frequently accessed data, a Vista feature called ReadyBoost. Here's the thing: To maximize its efficiency, a ReadyBoost thumb drive should have the same amount of memory as is built into your system. In other words, match your 2GB of RAM with a 2GB flash drive for best performance.
Uncover Send To
Source:www.pcmag.com
The Send To menu is a handy way to quickly move files into frequently accessed locations. The default locations are Microsoft's favorites, however, and they might not be yours. In Windows XP it was possible to add to the Send To menu by putting a shortcut in the SendTo folder. But try that trick with the SendTo folder in your Personal folder and you'll be hit with an "access denied" message. That's because it's just a pointer to the real one, which you will find at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo. You can add shortcuts to that one.
