I’m currently waiting for Windows Update to finish downloading and installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1. While it has been around for a few days, it was only today that Windows Update prompted me to download it.

I have to admit that ever since getting this rig June of last year, Windows Vista has severely crashed on me just a couple of times. And both times, slapping on the installer DVD during the startup and restoring a restore point did the job. There are a few quirks that I could really bitch about with Vista but so far, it’s getting the job done. Not that this means something. Since by my experience, Windows XP has done a much better job and I’m confident that even Linux would serve my computing needs well.

Anyway, this thing is supposed to contain a chock-full of goodies and improvements. I am holding my breath even if I know I shouldn’t be waiting for any pleasant surprises but I half-expect installing this thing would fuck things up for me. So before I hit OK on Windows Update, I made sure that everything has been backed up.

Check out the overview here.

Download Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Labels: Vista

This new Vista Media Center Edition will be including in the versions Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Premium; in Windows Vista Home BASIC we will not have multimedia center. The basic functionalities are those that already have come observing during these last year’s within Media Center, TV, DVD, Photos and in general all the related one to the digital entertainment, which if it has improved remarkably is the experience of user and the menus of navigation which now they are from top to bottom and left to right.


Seeing tale and the DVD: The televising experience has improved slightly, the controls are such of always and the functionalities also, now the use of software is more intuitive, the improvements are practically imperceptible. Music, videos, photos… multimedia! Now he is much more intuitive to add folders from the system to the bookstore and is centralized in a single point. The system detects automatically that type of multimedia we are adding so that later he is available in each one of the menus. The interface does not have great improvements in functionalities, but the usabilidad and the interface have given an important qualitative jump. We can see discs of a much more familiar way, being able to order by author, sort, album… The photography’s have a spectacular system of “slideshow” the quality with which we see the material is excellent.

Media Center Extenders: Perhaps we have proven to connect XboX 360 to our Media Center; this is to extend commonest in all the houses, in previous versions Now it is easier that to never connect extenders to the PC, simply with an assistant, introducing the code that indicates Extender to us, the system will be connected automatically.

In summary: The next version of Windows Media Center bring us many surprises, and of course for many Media Center goes has to be one of them, since it continues being one of the great strangers in the world Windows. With the arrival of the digital home integration between TV and PC increases day to day and MC will help us to have all our bookstore perfectly organized multimedia.

Labels: Microsoft, Vista

What to do when your Windows XP or Windows Vista system refuses to boot.

How do I prepare an emergency boot disc so I'm ready in case Windows becomes unbootable?

Alas, the days when Windows came with a program for creating a useful emergency boot floppy are long gone. And those old boot floppies wouldn't help with XP or Vista--even if you PC had a floppy drive.

Boot from one of the discs that came with your PC, and examine the menus (don't select anything that might wipe your drive). You're looking for emergency utilities.

You're in real luck if you have a full Windows XP CD or Vista DVD. These come with great tools for diagnosing and repairing an unbootable PC. In fact, if you don't have a real Windows disc, find one you can borrow in an emergency. Don't install Windows from a borrowed disc, but if it has the same version of Windows as your PC, use its repair tools.

Boot from an XP CD, and press R at the 'Welcome to Setup' screen to see the Recovery Console, a DOS-like command-line environment with a number of useful utilities.

If you boot from a Vista DVD, click Repair your computer to open the System Recover program. There you'll find options to automatically fix boot problems, restore your hard drive from an image backup, diagnose memory, or perform a system restore.

If you're ready for a Windows alternative, try Puppy Linux, which you can download as a ready-to-burn .iso file from the Puppy Linux Web site. Boot from the CD, and you'll have a nongeek's version of Linux running on your PC. Puppy Linux is the best tool I've found for one extremely important job: copying important files off an unbootable hard drive. Unlike UBCD4Win, Puppy recognizes USB drives, making it extremely easy to put these files where you can readily access them.

The XP CD's Boot Tool Kit

Enter these commands in Windows XP's Recovery Console to perform CPR on your disks and files.

Command	Action
Attrib	Changes the attributes of a file or directory.
Batch	Executes the commands specified in the text file.
Bootcfg	Boot file (boot.ini) configuration and recovery.
ChDir (Cd)	Displays the name of the current directory or changes the current directory.
Chkdsk	Checks a disk and displays a status report.
Cls	Clears the screen.
Copy	Copies a single file to another location.
Delete (Del)	Deletes one or more files.
Dir	Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.
Disable	Disables a system service or a device driver.
Diskpart	Manages partitions on your hard drives.
Enable	Starts or enables a system service or a device driver.
Exit	Exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer.
Expand	Extracts a file from a compressed file.
Extract	Extracts files from compressed .cab archives.
Fixboot	Writes a new partition boot sector onto the specified partition.
Fixmbr	Repairs the master boot record of the specified disk.
Format	Formats a disk.
Help	Displays a list of commands you can use in the Recovery Console.
Listsvc	Lists the services and drivers available on the computer.
Logon	Logs on to a Windows installation.
Map	Displays the drive letter mappings.
Mkdir (Md)	Creates a directory.
More	Displays a text file.
Net Use	Connects a network share to a drive letter.
Rename (Ren)	Renames a single file.
Rmdir (Rd)	Deletes a directory.
Set	Displays and sets environment variables.
Systemroot	Sets the current directory to the systemroot directory of the system you are currently logged on to.
Type	Displays a text file.

I hope these will help you :)

Labels: Vista, Windows XP

Do the balloon tips keep annoying you? Then don’t worry, here’s how you can disable notification area balloon tips in Windows Vista:

1. First Go to Start > Run and type Regedit.exe

2. Navigate to the following subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

3. Create a new REG_DWORD (32 bit) value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips

4. Double-click EnableBalloonTips, and then give it a value of 0

5. Close Regedit.exe

6. Log off Windows, and then log back on.

If you dont want to do the above method you can download the below file and just run it.
Download From Here - Disableballoontips.reg

Source - BizznTech

Labels: Vista

If you are bored of the old XP and Win2000 fonts, then here comes Windows Vista to the rescue. It has some cool and sexy fonts like Candara, Consolas, Calibri, Cambria, Constantia and Corbel, etc. Now you can install these in Windows XP and Windows 2000 as well.
Just follow the instructions given below:

1. First go here and download the Microsoft Compatibility pack (MCP). The MCP is a free utility that allows you open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

2. Save to desired location and install it.

3. That’s it now you’ll have these vista fonts in all office applications including the previous fonts.

Please comment if you like this post :)

Labels: Vista, Windows XP

Window Vista has built in support for SATA and external drives, but they seem to be slow because the advanced write cache features aren’t automatically activated. With just few steps you can enable them and get a much faster response.

First you need to go to the Device Manager which you can go directly by just typing device in the start menu search box or just type in devmgmt.msc in command line.

Now open the Disk drives section and right click on your hard drive. Now click on the Policies tab and you’ll find this dialog box:



Now click the checkbox for Enable advanced performance, and you are done.



Write caching isn’t enabled by default as removing devices directly without using the “Safely remove removable device”may lose your data, so be cautious when enabling this options. But enabling this option also when speeding up performance significantly when writing to the disk.



Now select the external drive and double click it to open up the properties screen. Then
just change the setting to “Optimize for performance” and hit OK to continue. You’ll have to reboot for all the settings to take effect. Next time you boot into Windows Vista you’ll see faster bootup times and better disk writing performance.

[Source - Thinktechno.com]

Labels: Performance Tweaks, Vista

If you just installed and tried out the new MS Windows Vista on your machine, you just might be planning to get the old MS Windows XP out of your computer because of the new features being offered by Windows Vista satisfies your daily computing needs. The boot loader process bundled with Vista has changed, yes, but the changes are so minor the steps to configure other OS versions installed on your computer are basically similar to that of MS Windows XP.

First, just boot up and choose MS Windows Vista. Afterwards, format the Windows XP partition. The bootloader process of Vista allows you to make necessary changes on the boot operations of your machine without configuring the boot.ini file of the Windows XP OS version installed on your computer.

Next, insert the Vista CD 1 or the Vista DVD in your drive. Reboot your computer afterwards. Finally, choose the repair console option after the setup process has commenced, choose to have access to a DOS prompt, and key in the following:

• bootrec.exe /fixmbr
• bootrec.exe /fixboot

Key in the first command and execute it by pressing the Enter key. This will remove XP from the Vista bootloader. Then, key in the second command in order to ensure that XP has been unloaded from the boot.ini file of Vista. At this point, Windows XP is history!

Labels: Vista, Windows XP

Everyone knows what the recycle bin icon is, isn’t it ? Then what’s the point in naming it Recycle Bin. Well if you want to remove the name "Recycle Bin", download this small file and run the registry tweaks.

Download From Here: Nameless Recycle Bin

Hope you will like this little but useful trick.

Labels: Vista

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.

Labels: Vista

As soon as you install Windows Vista you are bombarded by the Welcome Center that is designed to help beginner Windows users easily configure their new computer. This new welcome screen is a nice feature the first time you start using Windows vista but quickly becomes annoying.

Disabling the Welcome Center is very easy to do and can speed up your boot as well.

1. Start Regedit.

2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Run.

3. Right click on the WindowsWelcomeCenter key and select Delete.

The next time you restart the Welcome Center will be gone.

Labels: Vista

Work Vista like a pro with these shortcuts and secrets.

Dual-boot the right way. Installing Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP is a great way to test the new operating system while still retaining the comfort and compatibility of the old one. But if you install Vista from within XP, the new OS is installed on a new partition with a new drive letter, typically D:. A better idea is to create a dual-boot setup by booting the PC with the Vista DVD and installing at that point. This way, both Vista and XP—whichever one you're running at the time—will appear to be on C:, not D:. Applications that automatically default to C: will run without confusion, and any you install while using Vista will show up on your primary partition.

Get network drivers that work. Micro­soft tested more than 100 XP-era hardware drivers that work fine in Vista but that are not included with the operating system for various reasons. Most affected are Ethernet cards and Wi-Fi adapters. If one of these devices doesn't work after you've installed Vista, it more than likely will if you download the XP driver from the manufacturer's site. Microsoft engineers prepared a list of drivers they found to be compatible with Vista, but the document was never posted. We've posted the list ourselves at ­WindowsSecrets.com/vista.

Edit TV shows and skip commercials. Only the Vista edition of Windows Movie Maker lets you edit Media ­Cen­ter-recorded TV shows. That means you can edit out the commercials (although you're limited to ­standard-definition television content). You can also archive your favorite shows in WMV (Windows Media Video) format, which creates much smaller files than Media Center's MS-DVR format.

Use Virtual Folders. Vista's new Virtual Folders feature has been downplayed to the point that it's almost invisible in the user interface. But it's still there and highly usable. Look for prebuilt examples in C:\Users\username\Searches. In a search window (Windows-F) click Save Search to create a search folder, such as "documents by Jack that mention the Nexus project." Your folder dynami­cally updates its view to include any such file that's added, changed, or removed.

Keep malware at bay. To get better ­security defenses than are possible in XP, leave Vista's User Account Protection enabled and select a Standard User account. You must enter an admin password occasionally, but it's worth the trouble in the interest of keeping Trojan horses and other malware from silently infecting your system. For even better security, apply Parental Controls to your Standard User account, even though you're an adult. Power users do this to get a pop-up reminder when they're about to visit a suspect Web site or run a rogue application.

Get the best 3D rendering. The new OS includes striking 3D effects. But you won't get the best rendering in, say, Vista's new chess game unless you know the trick. Click Game, then Options, and push the Graphic Quality slider all the way to the right. When you click OK, you'll notice the game instantly becomes smoother and less jagged-looking. To get the opposite effect, push the slider all the way to the left. The game then downshifts to a 2D mode that's just right for older PCs.

Labels: Vista

Microsoft have created a very handy site for the upcoming Windows Vista (see link at bottom). It has lots of tips for getting the best out of Vista.

1. If you’re annoyed by Internet Explorer’s incessant barking that you’ve lowered your security settings (like, if you’re a non-paranoid expert), launch “gpedit.msc” from either the Run command or Start Search field, navigate through Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer. In the rightmost pane, double-click “Turn off the Security Settings Check feature” and set it to Enabled.

2. If Internet Explorer’s Information Bar also annoys you, you can turn it off (again) in the Group Policy Object Editor (gpedit.msc) through Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Internet Explorer / Security Features. In the rightmost pane, double-click “Internet Explorer Processes” and set it to Disabled. Hallelujah!

3. I’ve just mentioned two tweaks that are buried inside the Group Policy Editor. Jim Allchin pointed out that there’s a Group Policy Settings Reference spreadsheet available. Makes for great weekend reading.

4. Read the Background on Backgrounds if you’re a performance junkie. Don’t set your wallpaper through Internet Explorer ever again! Now that Windows supports JPG wallpapers, there’s absolutely no need (or excuse) for using BMPs anymore.

5. If you insist on keeping UAC (User Account Control) turned on for yourself, you might care to make the elevation prompts a bit less visually jarring. Brandon told me about this one, even though I have UAC turned off. Launch the Local Security Policy manager (secpol.msc), and navigate through Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options. In the rightmost pane, scroll to the bottom and double-click “User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation.” Disable it, and you can keep UAC turned on without getting turned off by the embarrassingly craptacular Aero Basic theme.

6. Vista can send you emails! The Computer Management tool can still be accessed by right-clicking “Computer” and selecting “Manage” from the menu. However, now you can attach a task to any event. Try navigating through System Tools / Event Viewer / Windows Logs / Application. Now, go ahead and select an event - then look to the rightmost pane and click “Attach Task to This Event.” Name it whatever, describe it however, click through the next step, then in the Action step, you’ll see the “Send an e-mail” option.

7. The Windows Task Manager gives you a lot more troubleshooting information in Vista. Flip to the Processes tab, and in the View menu, click “Select Columns” and add Description, Command Line, and Image Path Name. Moreover, when you right-click a process, you can select either “Go to Service(s)” or “Open File Location.” These are all long overdue options.

8. This one’s interesting. Open up the Date and Time Control Panel applet. Flip to the “Additional Clocks” tab. There, you can configure two more clocks from different time zones. They’ll appear in the tooltip when you hover over the Taskbar clock. No additional software (or silly sidebar widgets) necessary.

9. Applicable in other versions of Windows, I’m going to throw it in here for good measure. Create a shortcut to RegSvr32.exe in your SendTo folder. To get there quickly, enter “shell:sendto” in the Run command dialog or Start Search field. Now, when you wanna register a DLL or OCX file with the system, you can select it/them and “Send To” the RegSvr32 shortcut.

10. I figured I’d round out my first set of Windows Vista tips and tricks with a tiny bit of eye candy. It doesn’t beat Picasa, but the Windows Photo Gallery is better than nothing. Once it’s indexed all your photos, click the icon next to the Search field and turn on the “Table of Contents.” That’s kinda nifty.

Labels: Vista

Windows Vista has built-in support for Serial ATA(SATA) hard drives, but it doesn’t automatically enable advanced write caching features. You can speed up your computer by enabling this mode in Device Manager.

You can quickly get to Device Manager by just typing device into the start menu search box. (Or from the command line, devmgmt.msc)

Open the Disk drives section of the tree, and right-click on your hard drive. Select the Policies tab, and you should see this dialog:Click the checkbox for Enable advanced performance, and you are done.

Labels: Vista

The first time many of us opened up the Windows Experience Index (WEI) and saw the pitiful score, we were ticked off .

As you learn more about how the rating works, however, the score probably won't sting as much. To calculate the WEI, Vista takes the lowest of five scores that relate to your processor, RAM and so on. Maybe that's the goal of the WEI -- to embarrass or anger us into spending more money on better hardware.

There are a couple of ways to increase your rating . First off, run the test again. Sometimes just running it again will boost you over the three mark. Another tip is to turn off your Aero glass interface, which will boost performance. Or, you could go right into the .XML file that stores the results and give yourself a higher score.

The Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT), which is the tool that calculates the WEI, stores its output in the
%systemroot%\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore. Each time you run WinSAT, it creates a new XML file and stores it in this folder with the assessment date at the beginning of the file name.

To change your ratings , you will have to do a little hack .
Open the file using WordPad and change the top five scores to whatever number you like and close the file. When you go to look at your WEI settings again, it should show you the new number.

To revert this back to the original , just run the Performance test again.

Frm-
@shish {Cool Wizard}

Labels: Vista

Here are few techniques that can help speed up your Vista system in minutes ..

1. Disable the Indexing Service ..
Indexing services in Windows Vista indexes all the files and folders for faster access. It basically makes search function faster. By default all files are indexed, but you probably won’t need that. It is recommended that you should disable the indexing service on all the items other than the start menu. To speed up Vista, follow these steps:

* Select Start and type "index options", without quotations
* After the Indexing Options are loaded, click the Modify button.
* Then click Show all Locations
* A list of locations will be displayed in the form of a tree. Uncheck those folders which you do not want to be indexed. You can also use the Advanced button to specify file types to be indexed, but this part is optional.
* Click OK button to finalize.


2. Enable advanced write caching ..
Vista comes with built-in support for SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives. By default Vista does not enable write caching. To improve your data retrieval speed you must enable the write caching. Just follow these steps:

* Go to the hard drive properties
* Select the Policies tab
* Select the radio button labeled Optimize for performance.
* Check the boxes titled “Enable write caching on the disk” and “Enable Advance Performance”
* Click OK button to finish.


3. Speed up Start Menu Search ..
The good old MSCONFIG option is available in Vista as well. Lots of crappy programs load at boot time which consume large amount of memory and processor. To tweak follow these steps:

* Go to Start>Run or press Windows + R
* Type “msconfig” and click OK
* The System Configuration dialogue box will be displayed, select the Startup
* You will see list of checkboxes, most of them will be checked. Uncheck those ones which are not needed. More unchecked boxes will lead to better performance.
* Click OK button to finish this tweaking step.


4. Stop extra services ..
There are lots of services that are automatically started by default in Vista. Many such services are of no use for the user. There are services that get automatically added to the list when you install different third party software. They consume lots of RAM and processor. To speed up just follow these steps:

* Go to Start>Run and type “msconfig” without quotations.
* System Configuration window will be displayed.
* Go to the Services tab (middle one)
* To be on the safe side check the box “Hide all Microsoft Services”
* Now you will have a reduced version of the list, select ones that you feel are unnecessary.
* Press OK to finish.

There are some Windows Vista’s services that you can disable without any glitch:

* Windows Error Reporting
* Tablet PC Input Service ( don’t disable if you are using a tablet PC)
* Remote Registry
* Offline Files
* IKE and AuthIP IP Keying Modules
* Distributed Link Tracking Client
* Computer Browser


5. Disable Network Printer Search ..
Disabling network printer search may greatly improve Vista’s performance. When you browse through folders Vista is always looking for network printers. This search ends up in consuming lots of resources. To speed up performance just follow these steps:

* While you are in the explorer (My Computer), go to the Tools menu
* Select Folder options
* Go to the View tab
* Uncheck the box named “Automatically search for network printers”

After completing this step you would certainly feel the difference.

6. Use ReadyBoost ..

Frm-
@shish {Cool Wizard}

Labels: Performance Tweaks, Vista