The final version of Windows Vista SP1 has been released. This is an RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version so you probably won’t be getting an “official” update until some time in March. Anyway, the good news is if you can’t wait until then, you can download them here! Just remember that you need a minimum of 7GB of space on your HD. Always try Mirror 1 first since the other mirrors seem to be temporarily down.
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For many, the sidebar is just a useless space hog. If you want to get rid of the sidebar in Windows Vista, it’s really easy.
As you install more and more programs, your system tray will begin to expand itself like there’s no tomorrow. Luckily there’s a feature in Windows Vista that allows you to manually choose which icons to hide.
So in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to turn
into
This is an interesting feature I found while trying to compare Windows Vista Experience Index scores with my friends. Other than boasting purposes, this is also a good way to find out what parts your computer is made of, as well as the speed of your computer parts. It displays the model of your CPU, basic motherboard info, hard drive info, video card info, and network card info. I’ll also go into how to analyze the information for computer upgrades after explaining how to access this hardware summary feature. Although if you are using this feature for the purpose of upgrading and you are ready to download software, skip this tutorial immediately and go download PC Wizard. The reason why I wrote this was because many wanted a feature like this without having to download an extra piece of software.
Microsoft originally planned to make SP1 RC Refresh only available to a private group of beta testers but luckily for you, they have made the pack available to the public.
We’ve all had a time where we’ve downloaded a new program, only to find that a bunch of other files now automatically open in that new program you’ve just downloaded. While some may want this, others don’t because some programs automatically become the default loader for many other file associations.
An Internet connection going down can be one of the most frustrating things that happen to you while you’re on the computer. I know a couple of people with unsolvable router problems or problems with their Internet connection where they get disconnected more than once per week. Even if it is just occurs once in a while, I find that many users resort to the long way to solving this problem such as:
- Restarting the computer
- Unplugging the router
- Unplugging the modem
The easiest way to repair a network connection, would only involve a few simple mouse movements and clicks.
We all know how annoying UAC can get, especially when you’ve just installed Windows Vista and you have a dozen of programs and security apps ready to install. A small program called TweakUAC gets rid of this annoyance by putting UAC into “quiet mode.” What it actually does is without turning off UAC,
System Restore is a feature in Windows Vista that allows you to take periodic backups of your system files, registry files, and system configuration. So if your computer ever runs into trouble, it can rollback its settings to a time when your computer was operating properly. Although System Restore can be very convenient since it’s very quick, it cannot compare as an alternative to formatting your hard-drive. System Restore will only restore your system files and configurations to a previous state, and will not affect any of your other files (documents, videos, music, etc) in any way.
One nice addition to the Task Manager in Windows Vista is being able to find out what those mysterious svchost.exe processes refer to. Windows XP users know exactly what I’m talking about. Finding out why svchost.exe used up a lot of memory was a mystery. Well for starters, svchost.exe is in charge of your services.
