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[felix8406]

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[felix8406]

Originally Posted by jayaustin

I do not know if it will retrieve the Vista keys or not yet. I have yet to run it on a vista box.

I just checked and it does provide the software license number for Vista, Office 2007, IE7 and other software. With this tool you can create and keep a nice record of your computer for future reference.

[felix8406]

Adding additional clocks in Windows Vista

Click the clock > click Date and Time Settings > click Additional Clocks tab.

You can add two additional clocks to the tray and select the time zones for both.

[felix8406]

Another good tip: When using the Help and Support feature, make sure to include Microsoft's online database to get the latest help and support.

Open Help and Support > click Online Help (lower right hand corner) > click Setting Get online Help > select Include Windows Online Help and Support when you search for help

[felix8406]

I know almost everyone has been knocking down Vista's defrag utility (me included), mainly because of the lack of a GUI. But I decided to take a second look at Vista's defrag and actually think that a lack of GUI make sense. Although the GUI gives a user confidence that something is actually taking place, it really doesn't add to the effectiveness of the application. Plus some users just simple want to continue with their computing while the defrag is going on.

Why defrag the hard drive? When your disk is fragmented it leads to pieces of files all over the hard disk, which overtime can can slow PC performance.

Windows Vista defragmenter runs in the background and can automatically defragments the hard disk. Another thing is that the defrag in Vista no longer needs to be completed in a single session, so it can defrag when the PCis idle.

Do the following: click Start > type Defrag in search box > press Enter. Can you see the last time defrag was run in your PC? Will you aware that it was running on that particular date and time? By the way, click Modify schedule to select when you want the defrag to take place.

[cando]

Vista defrag is just a great tool. Many people I talk to have negative opinions about it because, as Felix stated, it doesn't provide a view of what's going on. But it does what it supposed to do quietly on the background. You can always schedule the defrag at a time when you are not normally using your PC, but there's really no need for that. When ask by a client if they should buy a separate defrag program, I recommend they spend that money on some more useful item, like more RAM for example. Vista defrag is a good quality application.

[felix8406]

To upgrade your copy of Vista, Use Anytime Upgrade. Start > type Anytime Upgrade in search box > Follow the on-screen instructions

[felix8406]

One of the features of Vista that we take for granted is the Sleep mode. In Win XP for example the standby stores data in random-access memory, while in hibernation, computers store that information on the hard drive. Vista combines both, the information is saved in both the RAM and on the hard drive on desktop PCs. Is there’s power failure, you will not loose your data, and the information saved in RAM provides faster resume from Sleep.

This could be an issue with laptops due to battery drain, but MS engineers solved the issue. When you use the Sleep mode on a laptop, Vista saves the information to RAM, and then it’s send to hard drive before the laptop goes to hibernation. Cool!

[airman]

Try Defrag from the command prompt just type in defrag.exe or defrag/? to get a list of commands check it out.

[felix8406]

Cool, thanks Airman. Must run the command prompt as administrator. I took a snip, check it out.

[felix8406]

Again, thanks Airman for your tip. I did a defrag using your method, and it's now completed. See pic for some of the results:

[airman]

Your welcome I have some more tips but have to remember were to go to use them will post later oh here is a spot to look at go into Event Viewer then scroll down to Windows Logs expand that, then scroll to Microsoft expand that, to Diagnostic-Performance expanded to Operational Log and there could be some interesting reading there most of mine are about boot time and the such etc. Look around you will find lots of neat logs to view .

[felix8406]

Tip from Microsoft Exploring Windows newsletter

Explore the new Windows Vista Start menu
Looking for specific applications, websites, and e-mail messages is faster with the streamlined Windows Vista Start menu. To find a specific application or file:

1. Click the Windows key on the keyboard (or open the Start menu).
2. Enter the file name in the Instant Search field.

As you type, Windows Vista dynamically searches file names, metadata, and the full text of all files and displays the choices by file type. For example, type "out" to find Microsoft Outlook files.

[felix8406]

Tip from Exploring Windows Newsletter

Browse multiple websites

Tabbed browsing in Windows Internet Explorer 7 enables a single Internet Explorer window to run with the convenience of multiple pages. You can:

1. Open a new page by clicking the empty tab on the toolbar or by right-clicking any hyperlink and choosing New Tab.
2. Refresh individual pages or refresh pages as a group by right-clicking tabs.
3. Close either individual tabs or an entire group, and save tabs as one favorite group.
4. Manage multiple open tabs by viewing thumbnail images of all open tabs in a single view using the Quick Tabs feature.

[atomicfuel`]

i dont know if this is posted anywhere but if you want an icon to appear for all dll files and cpl files that have icons embedded in them there is an easy trick to do that. just go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\DefaultIcon and change the value to %1 .go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cplfile\defaulticon and change the value to %1 . now the first embedded icon will display in he dll and cpl files. it can be quite handy when trying to mod your icons. it helps you to remember where each file is and it looks cool too.