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Searching a Folder - Added 3/28/08
Turning Off Vista's Built-In CD Burning - Added
3/28/08
Quick Access to the TEMP Directory - Added 3/28/08
Turning On/Off Thumbnail Preview - Added
3/28/08
Changing the Windows Border Padding - Added
3/28/08
Another Way to Open Command Window Here -
Added 3/28/08
Disabling Unneeded Windows Features
- Added 1/13/08
Access My Computer (or any Folder) from the
Toolbar - Added 1/13/08
Organizing File Display into Stacks - Added
1/13/08
Organizing File Display into Groups - Added
1/13/08
Reliability and Performance Monitor - Added
1/13/08
Changing the Size of the Details Pane
- Added 1/13/08
Shutdown Icon is Missing - Added 1/12/08
Changing the Location of the Documents Folder
- Added 1/12/08
Quick Access to Programs in the Quick Launch Bar
- Added 9/15/07
Easy Access to Clock / Calendar - Added 9/15/07
Displaying a Checkbox For Selecting Files and Directories
- Added 9/15/07
Flip3D Task Switching - Added 3/24/07
Changing the Desktop Icon Size - Updated 3/24/07
Installing Vista With No Product Key -
Added 3/10/07
Changing the Windows Explorer Columns - Added
3/3/07
Initial Configuration Changes - Added 3/1/07
Changing the Folders Vista Includes to Index and
Search - Added 2/28/07
Turning Hibernate On or Off - Added 2/21/07
Changing the Action for the Start Menu Power
Button - Added 2/21/07
Opening to a Command Prompt from the
Explorer - Added 2/17/07
RoboCopy - Added 2/17/07
Showing the Explorer Menu - Added 2/17/07
Viewing Hidden and System Files - Added 2/17/07
Turning on Single Click for Icons- Added 2/17/07
Displaying the Volume Control on the System Tray -
Added 2/17/07
Removing the Shortcut Arrows - Added
2/17/07
Vista Opening Links to Another Web
Browser Than IE - Added 2/12/07
Allowing Network Access with Blank Passwords -
Added 2/8/07
Adding the IE 7 Icon to the desktop - Added 2/8/07
Resizing Partitions - Added 2/7/07
Access Denied to Folders - Added 2/7/07
Using the Snip Tool - Added 2/6/07
Sending a Picture as an E-Mail - Added 2/6/07
Pinning Programs to the Start Menu - Added 2/6/07
GUI Performance - Added 2/6/07
Displaying Run on the Desktop - Added 2/6/07
Displaying Run on the Start Menu - Added 2/6/07
Changing the Sidebar - Added 2/6/07
Services You Can Disable - Added 2/6/07
With Vista, when viewing a directory, you can configure it to automatically start searching when you type in text,
Go to the Control Panel
Select Folder Options
Click on the View tab
Scroll to the bottom
Check Automatically type into the Search Box
Now when you are in a folder and simply start typing in text, Vista will start a search
Since most computers come with 3rd party programs that are
easier to use than Vista's CD/DVD burning,
you can turn this off with a simple registry edit.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Create a new DWORD key NoCDBurning
Give it a value of 1
Log off and back on again
If you want to quickly access a user's TEMP directory:
Click on the Start (Search) button
Enter %temp%
This will bring up the currently logged on user's TEMP directory
This can be useful when you want to clean out unneededitems in that directory which can often accumulate.
If you want to show a thumbnail preview of graphic files
Go to the Control Panel
Select Folder Options
Select View
Uncheck Always show icons, never thumbnails
To turn this off, check the box
By default, Vista has a somewhat thick border around the windows. If you want to reduce this:
Right click on an open area of the desktop
Select Personalize
Click on Window Color and Appearance
If you have Aero then Open classic appearance properties for more color options
Click on the Advanced button
In the Item section, select Border Padding
Change the size
Apply / Ok
When using the Windows Explorer, and you want to open a CMD
prompt to a particular directory,
another way to accomplish this is to hold down the Shift key while you right
click on a directory in the right hand panel
Then select Open Command Window Here
Disabling Unneeded Windows Features
Added 1/13/08
There are likely Windows Features running on the computer you don't need.
To see what these may be and make any changes you want:
Start / Control Panel
Programs and Features
Click on Turn Windows features on or off
It typically takes a little while for this window to populate
Hovering the mouse over an entry gives a short description of it
From here you can check or uncheck any entries you want.
For example, you may not need Windows Fax and Scan
Click the OK button when you are done
Access My Computer (or any Folder) from the Toolbar
Added 1/13/08
Often I want to access files on My Computer but the desktop is
full of Windows.
Rather than having to close them down, it is easy to add My Computer to the
toolbar
Right click on an open area of the toolbar
Select Toolbars / New Toolbar...
Click on Computer in the left panel
Click on Select Folder
Now when you click on the >> on the new toolbar, you will see a listing of all your hard drives.
Of course you can add any folder you want in the same manner.
Organizing File Display into Stacks
Added 1/13/08
Normally when you look at files in the Explorer, they are commonly shown alphabetically or by type
There is another way you can view them which is in Stacks. This is different than organizing into Groups
Start the Windows Explorer
Go to a directory that has different types of files
Hover over Type in the bar at the top
Click on the down arrow
At the bottom, click on Stack by Type
Now you will see icons representing the different file types. You won't see the actual files at this point
Clicking on one of the icons will show the files that are in that type
If you Stack by Name, files will be grouped into 0-9, A-H, I-P, and Q-Z
Organizing File Display into Groups
Added 1/13/08
Normally when you look at files in the Explorer, they are commonly shown alphabetically or by type
There is another way you can view them which is in Groups
Start the Windows Explorer
Go to a directory that has different types of files
Hover over Type in the bar at the top
Click on the down arrow
Click on Group
Now you will see your files sorted by Group with the heading for each group type clearly shown. This heading makes it easier to see what type of files it is.
Reliability and Performance Monitor
Added 1/13/08
If you want to get a reasonably detailed view of the compter's CPU, Disk, Network and Memory access,
Start / reliability
From here there is quite a lot of information you can see about your computer.
Changing the Size of the Details Pane
Added 1/13/08
When you use the Windows Explorer to view the files on the computer, a details pane opens along the bottom.
Added 1/12/08
If the left button is missing so you can't assign it to shutdown your
computer,
you may need to make a change to your Group Policy
---
Another method is using the Group Policy Editor
Changing the Location of the Documents Folder
Added 1/12/08
If you would like to change the location of the Documents folder to a new location:
For example, I prefer to keep all my data on a second partition for easier backup. My Documents folder is moved to D:\Data\Documents
Quick Access to Programs in the Quick Launch Bar
Added 9/15/07
If you want to quickly access any of the programs in the Quick Launch bar,
Press the Windows key with the number corresponding to the location of the
program.
For example, if Outlook is your fourth item, you would press Windows+4
Easy Access to Clock / Calendar
Added 9/15/07
By left clicking on the clock in the system tray, you have a quick view of the clock and the current month's calendar.
You can then scroll for preceding and upcoming months as well
Displaying a Checkbox For Selecting Files and Directories
Added 9/15/07
Normally when you want to select a file or folder, it is somewhat difficult to determine exactly what is check and what isn't.
To change this:
Start the Windows Explorer
Go to Tools / Folder Options
Click on the View tab
Check the box for Use check boxes to select items (it's towards the bottom)
Updated 3/24/07
By default, the icons on the desktop are quite large.
To change the size
Added 3/24/07
Added more information on how to use Flip3D Task Switching
Added 3/10/07
You can install Vista with no product key and have 30 days to evaluate it
Added 3/3/07
By default, the Windows Explorer displays file's Name, Date Modified, Size
and Type
If you want to Add or Change these,
To Move columns
Added 3/1/07
Although some of these are covered in other sections of the tips area,
I compiled a page with the more common Vista
Initial Configuration Changes I have been making on
all new computers with Vista.
Added 2/28/07
When you search for files, the default setting for Vista is to search only in
the User's Documents folder
To add to the locations that are included in Vista's Indexing
For more details with screenshots see Vista Indexing and Search
Added 2/21/07
If you don't need your computer to Hibernate or want to turn it back on again
Added 2/21/07
At the bottom right of the Start Menu are three icons.
The left one (circle with a vertical line) is the Power Button
To change the action (Sleep, Hibernate or Power Off)
2/17/07
If you are using the Windows Explorer, and want to open a folder to a command prompt:
Added 2/17/07
RoboCopy or Robust File Copy for Windows is an enhanced file copy that far
surpasses what you can do from either the Explorer or XCOPY.
It is a very robust command line driven program with a huge amount of
switches and options. In addition to standard switches like /S for
subdirectories,
Just a short list is:
Added 217/07
By default, the Windows Explorer does not show the menu bar.
Added 2/17/07
To configure the Explorer to view hidden and system files.
- Check Show hidden files and folders
- Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
- Uncheck Hide protected operating system files - You will get a warning when you do this last one.
Added 2/17/07
To make it so you can single click on your icons
Added 2/1707
Added 2/17/07
Added 2/12/07
By default, when you click on a link to a web page, Vista will automatically
use the Internet Explorer.
If you want it to use some other program like Firefox:
Now when you click on links in an e-mail for example, your other web browser will start.
----
If your other browser does not show here, then you can make a change to the registry
Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice
Change it from IE.HTTP to Firefox.Url (if you are using Firefox for example)
No reboot is necessary
Added 2/10/07
Although you can log in locally without a password, by default, Vista does not allow network users to access the computer without a password.
To change this setting:
Added 2/8/07
By default, the icon for the Internet Explorer 7 does not show up on the Vista desktop
Added 2/7/07
Vista now has the ability to resize partitions.
Note: As with all changes to partition sizes, have a good set of backups beforehand is a good idea
Added 2/7/07
If you are getting Access Denied errors when trying to open folders like Documents and Settings, Application Data, Local settings:
Added 2/6/07
There is a program called Snip that will let you capture screenshots to put
in documents or send as e-mail.
To access it, simply open the Startup Menu and type SNIP
Next to the New button, click on the down-arrow and select what type of capture you want to do, Free Form, Rectangular, Window or Full-Screen.
Once you capture the screen, you can save it as a HTML, PNG, GIF or JPG
Added 2/6/07
In previous versions of Windows, you could always right click on a graphic
and have the option to send it to a mail recipient.
But you could only send an small or full size image.
With Vista you also have several size options to choose from, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 and Original Size
Added 2/6/07
You can add programs that appear on the top of the Start Menu.
These are always there and are above recently opened programs
Added 2/6/7
You can turn off some of the eyecandy to help speed of graphics performance
Added 2/6/07
You can create a shortcut for the Run command on your desktop
Added 2/6/07
By default, Run is not shown when you open the Start Menu.
To enable this:
Added 2/6/07
By default, the sidebar can take up a unwanted room on the desktop. You also
can't put icons on the space it uses.
If you want to retain the ability to display the sidebar gadgets but also want
full use of the desktop,
you can detach individual gadgets.
You can also get more gadgets on-line
Added 2/6/07
There are several services you can disable to help improve performance.
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager - Provides Desktop Window
Manager startup and maintenance services.
If you don't plan on using Aero Glass, you can disable this service.
Diagnostic Policy Service - Enables problem detection, troubleshooting
and resolution for Windows components
Set to Disabled
Diagnostic Service Host - Same as above
Diagnostic System Host - Same as above
Offline Files - The Offline Files service performs maintenance activities on the Offline Files cache, responds to user logon and logoff events, implements the internals of the public API, and dispatches interesting events to those interested in Offline Files activities and changes in cache state.
Terminal Services - Allows users to connect interactively to a remote computer. Remote Desktop and Terminal Server depend on this service. If you don't use either of these, then you can disable the service.
Windows Error Reporting Service - Allows errors to be reported when programs stop working or responding and allows existing solutions to be delivered.
Windows Search - Formerly this was the Indexing Service. Provides content indexing.
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