Windows XP didn’t give you a way to conveniently log in if you had forgotten your password and required you to go search for third-party tools. Fortunately, Vista allows you to easily create a “Password Reset” disk should you forget your login password. You can even use your iPod or USB memory disk as a computer key!
The sidebar gave quick and easy access to “gadgets” that users could have to display the weather, computer stats, or to increase productivity. But what good is the sidebar without a vast library of “gadgets?” Luckily, the folks over at Mesa Dynamics came out with Amnesty Generator, a tool that allows you to “easily convert millions of web widgets, games and videos – designed to live on home pages, blogs or MySpace – into gadgets for your Sidebar.”
This is one thing about Vista that has confused the heck out of me and many others. Why would Microsoft’s drop-down menu in Windows Explorer show a history of visited websites and directories instead of your folder directories? Do they want you to use the navigation menu on the left? Yes they do but I find it easier to just use the drop-down list at the top. Microsoft has actually changed the way you use that menu in Vista. You can still have a list of directories drop down from that menu.
This may have been a piece of cake for IE users but as a Firefox user, it took me a while until I could find out how I was able to subscribe to a certain feed and have it displayed on my Windows Sidebar. Strangely enough, if you right click on the Gadget’s options, the only thing you are allowed to do is to select which feed you want to view. After some searching, I realized that you must subscribe to the feed from Internet Explorer 7 first.
Microsoft allows you to use any version of Windows Vista for 30 days before actually activating the product. Although for many, 30 days might not be enough to convince you to go out and purchase a copy of Vista. Thankfully, there is a way to extend your activate period up to 120 days.
In Windows XP, a shortcut was simply a button that allowed you to access a program without having to go all the way to its original directory. However, Windows Vista provides the option of using your keyboard as shortcuts to opening your programs. You can now use 1, 2, or 3 simple keystrokes to open one of your programs.
This article is also available in Spanish and Russian
The never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82 minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000 and XP.
By default, Windows Vista is the OS you will boot up in if you decide not to push anything at the boot-selection screen. However, this setting is changeable for those who would much rather have their earlier version of Windows become the default OS. You might be wondering why someone would want to do that? For instance, my brother is a very hardcore gamer but unfortunately, there is no driver support for my video card on Vista. Because he uses this computer more often than I do, the default OS on this particular PC is set to XP.
Now, let’s modify the default OS to start at bootup. First, go to Start Menu, right click on my computer, and choose properties.
Remember the convenient run feature in the Start Menu that let you do everything on XP without having to look for it? It even saved the history of what you typed in. So is the run feature gone for good on Vista? Not quite. Read the rest of this entry »
Update: A better fix has been found! Click here to be directed to that post.
This post contains the temporary fix to the SoundMAX sound problems.
Lately there has been a case of sound cutting off spontaneously on Vista. This problem concerns users who are using the SoundMAX Integrated Audio Driver.
Symptoms include:
- Progress bars freezing in music and movies
- Sound being disabled after a song
- Sound not working again after pausing a song
- Random occurances of sound disabling
