Yummy VISTA Home Premium

[Lobo]

I Love it.

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This is with system restore- ON

TCP options string = 020405b40103030201010402

MTU = 1500
MTU is fully optimized for broadband.

This is right out of box, no tweaking, TCP Window Size is auto set, so no speed up programs work, can't change TCP Opts to 1, but im sure it's done auto.
You talk about different, man this is different in every way, I've had it 3 days and all I have changed is auto logon with admin account.

MSS = 1460
Maximum useful data in each packet = 1460, which equals MSS.

Default TCP Receive Window (RWIN) = 65700
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 2 bits (scale factor of 4)
Unscaled TCP Receive Window = 16425

RWIN is not fully optimized (even though it is a comparatively large number). The unscaled RWIN value is lower than it should be. Also, RWIN being close to and above 65535 does not justify the header overhead of enabling TCP 1323 Options. You might want to use one of the recommended RWIN values below.

RWIN is a multiple of MSS
Other RWIN values that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
513920 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 8)
256960 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 4)
128480 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
64240 (MSS x 44)

bandwidth * delay product (Note this is not a speed test):

Your TCP Window limits you to: 2628 kbps (329 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your TCP Window limits you to: 1051 kbps (131 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON

Time to live left = 112 hops
TTL value is ok.

Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF
Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON

IP type of service field (RFC1349) = 00100000 (32)
Precedence (priority) = 001 (priority)
Delay = 0 (normal delay)
Throughput = 0 (normal throughput)
Reliability = 0 (normal reliability)
Cost = 0 (normal cost)
Check bit = 0 (correct, 8th checking bit must be zero)

DiffServ (RFC 2474) =





Found this on another Forum, so im a thief, love bank robbers, hehe
Open command prompt here

I don't know about your workflow as a developer, but I often find myself switching back and forward between an Explorer window and the command shell. For example, sometimes I'm looking around the filesystem for a project that I created a while back and then I want to build it from the command line or rename some of the files or something.

Here's a trick that I don't think many people are aware of. Right-click on any folder on your Windows Vista machine while holding down the shift key. You'll see an extra context-sensitive menu item there: Open Command Prompt here. Just click on this menu and a command window will open with the current working directory set to the folder's actual location.




Figure: folder context-sensitive menu, with and without the shift key modifier.

In the past there was a Windows XP powertoy that did this; now it's built into the operating system (albeit hidden away to protect the unwary from themselves). What's really cool about this is that if the target folder is a network location, Windows Vista silently maps a network drive to that location before opening the folder (so that your command prompt has a valid path containing a drive letter) and then deletes the network drive once the command prompt is closed.


Copy as Path

Ever wanted to copy a link from a network file share into an email, and wound up having to traverse the path, click on the address bar, copy the details out, paste it in and then type the filename itself (with the appropriate quotation marks?

With Windows Vista, there's an easier way. In the same hidden context-sensitive menu I mentioned in the above hint, there's another helpful shortcut: Copy as Path. Unlike the command prompt trick, this menu item appears both for files and folders, so you can use this anywhere you want to quickly grab a shortcut to send someone else.


Bringing Back Start / Run

The Start menu got a big overhaul in Windows Vista, with a number of significant changes made as a result of usability testing and research. One of the nicest innovations to my mind is the search bar at the bottom, which searches through your programs, document files, emails and anything else for which a search provider is registered; this saves a lot of time hunting around. Want to run Powerpoint without having to browse around the "All Programs" menu? Just type "Powerpoint" in the searchbar. Can't remember which of the myriad dialog boxes and settings you have to go through to find the Device Manager? Just type "device" in the search bar.

Of course, there are times when you may still just want the fast but dumb Run dialog that Windows XP provided:



It seems that some people think we got rid of this altogether, when in fact we just removed it from the default settings since most people won't need it any longer. The quick way to get at it is to use the Win+R shortcut key combination at any time - this is what I tend to use most of the time.

If you want to restore it permanently to your Start menu, here's what you do:

Right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties;
Select the Start Menu tab and click on the Customize... button;
Ensure the "Run command" option is checked.
Now the Start / Run command will be restored to its full glory. Of course, you can swap in and out a bunch of other choices (I like the Administrative Tools to be right there, but I don't much care for Pictures, Games and Music to be top-level items on my work machine.) Here's how I have my default menu configured - you'll see it's also docked to the left-hand side of the screen:




Disabling UAC

If you're a reader of this blog, I'm going to take a low-risk gamble and assert that you probably consider yourself a power user. You pride yourself in the responsibility of having full and absolute control over your machine environment and anything that comes between that perfect human-machine symbiosis is to be spurned. If only there were a way to turn User Account Control off on a Windows Vista machine, you'd upgrade immediately. Well, dear reader, I'm here to help.

Firstly, it's worth a brief digression into the benefits of this feature. Running as admin is a bad thing, as most of us know. Aaron Margosis has blogged extensively on this issue, and I won't rehash it here. But for reasons of compatibility, running as a standard user can still be a somewhat painful proposition. Windows Vista attempts to give you the benefits of both worlds by allowing administrators to execute most processes in the context of a standard user and only elevating the privileges on their user token by consent, in addition to allowing standard user accounts to perform administrative tasks by selectively elevating a process to use administrator-level credentials.

In general, UAC has turned out pretty well. It was pretty intrusive in early builds, prompting often and sometimes capturing focus at the wrong time. For the vast majority of users, UAC will offer a valuable level of security protection that will protect against malware: it simply won't have the rights to perform invasive actions like installing device drivers or services. Once a system is configured, you'll rarely see UAC prompts unless you're an inveterate settings tweaker. Incidentally, you can find out a great deal more about how UAC works, what you need to do to your own applications so that they co-operate well with UAC, and the rationale for its design at the official UAC blog.

It is possible to switch UAC off. I really don't recommend it - if you like full control over your machine, surely you want to know when something is attempting to perform an administrative-level action? Nevertheless, I'd prefer to have you run Windows Vista without UAC than having you run a different operating system.

There are two ways to disable UAC. The easy solution is through Control Panel. Type "UAC" into the search bar at the top of the screen and you'll see this task presented:



This approach is pretty brute-force, though. It just switches the whole thing off. There's a more subtle configuration choice that gives you some of the benefits of UAC without any of the prompting. You'll need to edit the local security policy to control this, as follows:
From the Start search bar, type "Local Security Policy"
Accept the elevation prompt
From the snap-in, select Security Settings -> Local Policy -> Security Options
Scroll down to the bottom, where you'll find nine different group policy settings for granular configuration of UAC.


Perhaps the best choice to select is to change the setting:
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode
from Prompt for consent to Elevate without prompting.

What does this do? Despite the warning from the Windows Security Center, UAC isn't actually switched off. It's still there, and all your processes will still run as a standard user. To prove this, open a command prompt and try to save a file to the c:\ directory. You'll get an access denied error message. However, when a process is marked for elevation, instead of getting the secure desktop elevation prompt, the request will be silently approved. To show this in action, right click on a command prompt shortcut and choose "Run as Administrator". You'll see the command prompt open without elevation, but the window title will show that you're running with full administrative privileges.

Using this approach is better than nothing, but it's a bit like relying on everyone else having a vaccination against measles to protect yourself from infection. Read the explanations on the second page of the property sheet for each policy setting before tinkering, and be careful!


Running Quick Launch Items

Do you have a few applications that you're always firing up? Would you like a system-wide keyboard shortcut to run them? Here's what you do. Simply add shortcuts to the Quick Launch toolbar, as shown in the screenshot below.



Now you can simply use Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 and so on to launch each application. For example, on my machine, Win+3 launches Notepad and Win+6 launches the VS command prompt. This works no matter what application has the focus.


Running a Command Prompt During Setup

If you're doing a fresh install of Windows Vista, you'll probably use a bootable DVD so that you're able to reformat the system partition. But sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where you could really use a command prompt as you go through those initial configuration stages (for example, when I installed Windows Vista on my home media center machine I needed to run the diskpart command line utility to convert a dynamic disk back to a basic disk structure).

Here's the magic key sequence: simply press Shift+F10, and you'll be presented with a command prompt. This also works after Windows Vista has rebooted for the first time on an upgrade, although be very careful what you do here - there's almost no good reasons to be interacting with the system at this point in time, and you shouldn't expect us to get you out of any holes you dig yourself into if you start making invasive changes at this point in time.


The Oldest Component in Windows?

We go to fairly extreme lengths to try to maintain compatibility with older applications, as Raymond Chen's blog often demonstrates in vivid fashion. As an example of this, some of you may remember seeing Jim Allchin's demonstration of Visicalc (the earliest spreadsheet) at PDC 2003 running on Windows Vista (then known as "Longhorn", of course).

So I wondered - what is the oldest component still present in Windows Vista? After a bit of digging around, I think I've finally discovered the answer.



Dear old edlin, the very first line editor in MS-DOS, is still available for your batch editing pleasure over a quarter of a century after its introduction. According to wikipedia, edlin even pre-dates MS-DOS, having been written for an even earlier operating system that was one of the company's first acquisitions. My first exposure to MS-DOS was version 3.2 on my father's office computer, and I used to remember most of the mnemonic commands by heart. It's not a user-friendly tool, but it was fast to load and more forgiving of mistakes than the alternative of copy con filename.txt.

This is one secret that has mere curiosity value, but I still have a warm spot for this venerable editor and I salute its indefatigability!


Zoom in Explorer

The awesome guys from the Windows Vista Magazine revealed a great Windows Vista secret recently that I wanted to bring to a broader audience.

When you're browsing around the file system in Explorer, it's often useful to be able to quickly switch between different folder views. If you're looking at a folder with lots of long filenames, maybe the Details view works best. If you're looking at a folder with lots of photos, maybe a small thumbnail view works well; for a folder with lots of documents, maybe a larger thumbnail view works better. Now you can use the Views button on the toolbar to modify this - click the button to toggle between views or use the down arrow to get access to the slider - but it's quicker to use a shortcut. Simply hold down the Ctrl key and use your mouse scrollwheel to resize the icons from small to extra large.

What's really cool about this, as Jon points out, is that it also works on the desktop itself. If the desktop has focus, simply do Ctrl+mousewheel and you can go from the regular 48x48 icons to full 256x256 photographic-quality renditions. For those of you who have a desktop filled with documents and shortcuts, you can of course also use this feature to cram even more on your screen so that you never have to create a folder again!


Kill the Startup Monsters

If there's one thing that puts me off an application, it's when it unnecessarily inserts itself into the Windows startup process so that it can have its very own system tray icon from whence it can spam me with annoying messages. Obviously it makes sense for some applications to run on startup (for example, I want Windows Live Messenger to be running without me needing to manually start it each time). The problem is that there are multiple places where an application can register itself for execution on startup, and this makes it hard to retain control over which programs are granted such esteemed status.

Of course, I wouldn't be writing this entry unless Windows Vista had a solution! From the start menu search bar, type System Configuration, and click on the link that comes up. You'll be required to provide privilege elevation unless you've disabled UAC, and then you'll see the following utility:



As you can see from the above screenshot, the Startup tab enumerates all the applications that are set to run as startup, regardless of whether they are set in the registry (either per-machine or per-user), the user profile, or simply the startup folder in the Programs entry of the start menu. You can disable any or all of them; they'll still be listed there so that you can switch them on again if you need to.

I should note in passing that this tool also allows you to do some other pretty useful things, like editing your boot configuration database (no need to master arcane bcdedit commands any longer) or accessing a variety of other system tools and utilities. It's the power user's configuration tool of choice - go check it out!


Open an Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes

User Account Control is, as I mentioned in secret #4, an important part of the security protection that Windows Vista offers. For any user with administrative credentials, you can always execute a process with full admin rights by right-clicking on the executable or shortcut and choosing "Run as Administrator".

For myself, I regularly want to open an admin-level command prompt, and it's a distraction to have to move my hands off the keyboard to go through the elevation contortions. So I was delighted to find a little keyboard shortcut for launching an elevated process. Simply press Ctrl+Shift+Enter from the search bar on the start menu with a selected application, and that triggers elevation.

For example, to launch an elevated command prompt, simply press the Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt. Six keystrokes to an elevated command prompt!

(Once I've got an elevated command prompt, I always like to execute color 4f as my first input so that this console window is visually differentiated from other non-elevated windows.)


Deleting the Undeletable

As many of us move forward from Windows XP or prior beta versions of Windows Vista to the final RTM version, I thought this little tip / secret might be in order. You may be aware that Windows Vista includes a number of different ways to upgrade a computer, from a straight in-place upgrade (insert CD, run setup and choose upgrade) to Windows Easy Transfer, which allows you to copy settings, programs and data from an old setup a fresh shiny new OS environment. But I'm the purist type who hates even the thought of leaving any detritus around and insists upon a clean install to a pure, unsullied partition.

In doing this, it's not unusual to find some folders that can't be accessed, even by an administrator, because their ACLs were set for accounts with SIDs that applied to an old partition. For example, on my home machine, I switched the C: and D: drive cables around and installed Windows Vista RTM on the new drive. Having tested everything worked, I wanted to delete some old redundant directories (like the old \Program Files directory). If even an administrator can't access the file, how do you take it back?

The secret lies in two command-line utilities, one ancient, the other completely revised for this release. Respectively, these are takeown (which takes ownership of a file or directory) and icacls (which sets new ACLs on that directory). I created a small batch command on my system called itsmine.cmd, as follows:

takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t

From an elevated command prompt, you can run a command such as itsmine d:\hard_to_delete and this will reset ownership and ACLs on the hard_to_delete directory such that a command like rd /s d:\hard_to_delete should work.

Managing Windows

Win+Tab Flip 3D [more info]
Ctrl+Win+Tab Persistent Flip 3D
Win+T Cycle through applications on taskbar (showing its live preview)
Win+M Minimize all open windows
Win+Shift+M Undo all window minimization
Win+D Toggle showing the desktop


Starting Programs

Win+1 Open the first program on your Quick Launch bar
Win+2 Open the second program on your Quick Launch bar
Win+n Open the nth program on your Quick Launch bar
Win+U Open the ease of access center
Win+F Open the search window
Win+E Open Explorer
Win+R Open the Run window
Ctrl+Shift+Esc Open Windows Task Manager


Logging In And Out

While the below shortcuts seem unwieldy because of their length, they're quite easy to remember once you try them out a few times.

Win, ->, ->, ->, Enter Shutdown
Win, ->, ->, ->, U Shutdown
Win, ->, ->, ->, R Restart
Win, RightArrow Sleep
Win, ->, ->, ->, W Switch Users
Win+L Locks computer



Viewing Folders With Explorer

Alt+LeftArrow Go back
Alt+RightArrow Go forward
Alt+UpArrow Go up a directory
Alt+D Move focus to address bar
Alt+D, Tab Move focus to search bar
Ctrl+Mousewheel Change the view type (extra large, small, list view, detail, etc.)


Windows Sidebar And Gadgets

Windows Sidebar provides instant access to gadgets that display a huge variety personalizable information. The below shortcuts allow you to navigate between these gadgets. I suggest just using this table as a reference, since people don't need to navigate gadgets too often.

Move focus to Sidebar Win+Space
Cycle through visible gadgets Win+G

[Lobo]

Yo Philip, moe

Vista Interface

Flip3d

WinKey+Tab opens the Flip3d task switcher, then use your mousewheel to scroll through the open programs while continuing to hold down WinKey+Tab.

WinKey+CTRL+Tab leaves the the Flip3d task switcher open after you release the keys, handy for showing off Vista or just keeping an eye on things.

RUN command

WinKey+R opens the RUN command box, which is now nested inside the All Programs menu. If you really miss it though, you can add it back to the Start Menu:

Right click on the Start button, and click “Properties”.
In the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” dialog, click “Customize”.
Scroll down and in the list you shall find “Run command”. Check the box next to it.
Close any open dialogs by pressing OK.

Also, typing in a program name in the Start Search box in the Start Menu and hitting ENTER will execute the program, just like the RUN command line, and even accepts switches. Try it, you might like it.

Display Windows Explorer Classic Menus

You may have a bit of a hard time adjusting to Windows Vista’s new Windows Explorer window style, which doesn’t include the menu.

There are two ways to bring it back, one is temporary and the other is more permanent:
If you want to view the menu but not have it always displayed, simply press the Alt key. The menu will fade into view.

If you want the menu to always be turned on, click the first button on Layout configuration button (first button on the top most bar in Windows Explorer). From the drop down list, check “Classic Menus”.

Desktop Icons
You can resize the large Vista desktop icons by right clicking on the Desktop, View, and selecting one of three sizes, Large, Medium, and Classic.

But wait, there's more! You can variably adjust the size of the icons by left-clicking on the desktop, then holding down the CTRL key while spinning your mouse wheel up and down. Little tip here, if you're going for small icons, you may want to bump the mousewheel up one more notch after you've hit the smallest setting. That leaves the icons at the same size, but retains things like shadows and perspective, at the absolute smallest setting the icons are "flat".

Turning off Aero
You can toggle Aero on and off by using the Ctrl+Shift+F9 keyboard shortcut.

Add another time zone to your clock

One nice addition to Windows Vista is the ability to display the time in other time zones.

Click on the clock.
Click “Date and Time Settings”.
Click on the “Additional Clocks” tab.
Check the box labelled “Additional Clock #1″, and from the drop down menu choose a time zone.
Give the clock a name, such as “Microsoft” or “Texas”.
Press OK.
You can repeat this for the second additional clock as well.

To add a location to the Places bar (left hand pane in Windows Explorer)

In Windows Vista, there is a new pane on the left hand side of Windows Explorer which contains links to items you wish to access quickly. It works a bit like the left hand pane in the Mac OS X 10.3+ Finder. In previous builds, you could not really customize the Places bar but now you can! Simply drag and drop a folder onto the plane, and voila!

Use the Search box in Windows Explorer to filter a file view

Did you know you can easily filter the list of documents and folders in a folder using the Search field in Windows Explorer? For instance if you have a folder containing a lot of folders and documents and you are specifically looking for “Vista”, all you need to do is type “Vista”, or even just part of the word, such as “Vis” to limit the list of files shown.


Performance Tweaks

Disable DEP / NoExecute Protection to fix Random Windows Explorer crashes

Due to the way Windows Vista’s boot editor has been created, it is now harder to disable DEP / No Execute Protection. However, after some amount of research, it would seem that some of the random Windows Explorer crashes that users are experiencing is caused by this technology. You will need to disable it and reboot, which should cure some of the crashes:

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, right click on “Command Prompt”, and click “Run as administrator”.
If asked for permission to run Windows Command Processor, click on Allow.
At the command prompt, type in “bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff” (without the quotes).
You should receive a message saying “Operation Completed Successfully”.
Restart the computer, DEP / No Execute should now be disabled.

Prevent network flooding and connection drops

The new networking stack contained in Windows Vista has some issues. This build seems to like dropping connections and in rare cases, blocking all traffic on wireless routers, requiring a restart of the router itself. To fix these problems, complete the following instructions:

WARNING: Please note that this will disable IPv6 connectivity as well as the Windows Firewall security, and is not recommended unless you are experiencing these issues. This will also invalidate any network related bug reports you file against Windows Vista.

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Under “Network and Internet”, click on “View network status and tasks”.
In the left hand pane, click on “Open connections”.
Right click on your network connection (for example: Local Area Connection 3), and then click “Configure”.
If asked for permission to open Network Connections, click on Allow.
Highlight the following items and press the “Uninstall” button:

Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Uncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”

Next, click on the “Configure” button under the name of your network adapter.
Click on the Power Management tab.
Disable all power management items listed on the Power Management tab.
Press OK.

To stop Windows Vista from flooding your network with traffic:

Press WinKey+R.
Type “services.msc” (without the quotes)
If asked for permission to open “Microsoft Management Console”, click Allow.
Double click on each one of the following services and change its startup type to “Disabled”.

Base Filtering Engine
IKE and AuthIP Keying Modules
IP Helper Service
IPSec
Windows Firewall
Close the Services window and restart Windows.

Enable System Restore

The System Restore service is one cause of performance issues, and for some people, it doesn’t even work and is disabled by default in this build. You may wish to enable it, as it is a very useful feature if it works for you.

Click on the “Start” button.
Hover over “Computer”, right click on it and then click “Properties”.
On the left hand side, click “Advanced Settings”.
If asked to permit the action, click on “Allow”.
Click on the “System Protection” tab.
Check any checkboxes listed for your hard drives that you wish to include
Press Apply. You can now create your first restore point.

Disable UAP

This one is controversial. UAP is undoubtedly annoying in this build, seeming to pop up even when you scratch your family jewels. But it does provide a very robust security solution, something XP and earlier versions were lacking. The good news is, MSFT will be making this MUCH less annoying in later builds.

But for the here and now, you can totally disable it (and loose almost ALL of the extra security strength offered by Vista) pretty quickly.

There are multiple ways to do this, but one of the most simple is to hit WinKey+R, type MSCONFIG, ENTER, and once MSCONFIG is open, go to the TOOLS tab, scroll down to "Disable UAP", click it and then click the Launch button. A little command prompt box will open, and that's it, it's disabled, but you'll need to restart for the change to take effect. You should also notice that the "Enable UAP" command is there also, in case you decide to turn it back on.

Disable un-needed Services

There are some services in this build that can be disabled without impacting any features (except the Security Center service, some people may find this annoying).

Disable the following:
• IIS Admin Service - if you don’t plan on using IIS, you don’t need this enabled.
• Offline Files – Disabling this helps to speed up Windows Explorer when performing network tasks.
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol
• PRNP Auto Registration
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) – if your computer isn’t going to be running as a mail server, you don’t need this.
• Tablet PC Input Service – If you do not use a Tablet PC or you’re on a desktop computer, you don’t need this.


Interface Performance

One of the biggest issues you may encounter with this build after is the user interface performance.

If you're experiencing performance issues with the interface, the first thing you will want to do is disable a few options. Click on the Start button, right click “Computer”, and click “Properties”. Then, click on the “Advanced” tab, and under “Performance”, click the “Settings” button.

You will need to uncheck the following items for baseline improvements:

• Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
• Fade or slide menus into view
• Fade or slide ToolTips into view
• Fade out menu items after clicking
• Show translucent selection rectangle
• Show window contents while dragging (this is up to you)
• Slide open combo boxes
• Slide taskbar buttons
• Smooth-scroll list boxes
• Use a background image for each folder type

Once you have modified these settings to your liking, press OK until you have dismissed all of the dialogs.

If you are looking to speed up Windows Explorer and are not concerned with some of Windows Vista’s new features, then you may wish to disable the new previewing capabilities. To do this, click the Start button, and then click on “Run” (alternatively, you could press the Windows Flag key + R on your keyboard). Type “control folders”, and press Enter on the keyboard or “OK” in the Run dialog.

In the “General” tab, under “Tasks”, choose “Use Windows classic folders”. Now, switch to the “View” tab, and make the following modifications:

Check
• Always show icons, never thumbnails
• Always show menu bar in Windows Explorer

Uncheck
• Automatically search for network folders and printers
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items
• Show rich previewers in preview pane
• Use domain folder sharing wizard

Press the OK button to dismiss the dialog.

Gaming and DWM
If you are trying to play any DirectX games under Vista with an LDDM compatible video card with Aero Glass enabled, you may notice that the game performance is slow or laggy, but you can disable DWM temporarily when the game executable has run. To do this, follow these instructions:

1. Locate the shortcut for the game you are wishing to play, or the executable file (which can usually be found somewhere within X:\Program Files, where X is the drive letter you have installed Windows Vista to. You can find the target executable file from right clicking on its shortcut and clicking “Find Target”.
2. Right click on the shortcut or the executable, and from the context menu, click on “Properties”.
3. Click on the “Compatibility” tab.
4. Under “Settings”, check “Disable the Desktop Window Manager”, and then press OK to dismiss the properties dialog.

This will temporarily disable DWM while running you game, and it should give you a performance boost with the application. Once the application or game has quit, DWM will be re-enabled.

Disable Hibernate

Due to the new Power Options control panel applet not having an option to disable the Hibernation feature, used in previous versions of Windows to store the data from RAM when the machine was put into hibernation mode, we end up with an oversized hiberfil.sys file on the root of the hard disk or partition that Windows Vista is installed on. To remove this and disable hibernation, simply click the Start button, and then click on “Run”. Type in “CMD.EXE” (without the quotes), and then click OK or press Enter.

In the command prompt window, type in the following command:

powercfg -h off

After this command has been run, you can close the command prompt window.


Reg tweaks, use at your own risk


Forcing Aero on Non-WDDM Compatible Cards.

Have an older video card but want to play around with Aero?

WARNING: This tweak may cause a blue screen loop or constant flicker depending on your video card. Use with extreme caution, this tweak is really only here for documentary purposes only.

From the Start menu, click All Programs and then expand Accessories.
Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”.
Click on “Allow” from the Windows Security dialog.
In the Command Prompt window, type “regedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mic rosoft\Windows\DWM (if this key doesn’t exist, create it)
Create a new DWORD (32-bit value) of UseMachineCheck, and set its value to 0.


Limit the number of windows shown in Flip3D

If Flip3D is too slow for you or if you have too many windows open, you can easily limit the number of windows displayed in Flip3D. As you tab or scroll through them, other windows will appear.

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If asked for permission to launch the Registry Editor, click Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mic rosoft\Windows\DWM
Right click on the right hand side of the registry editor, and under New, click on “DWORD (32-bit)”.
Name the new DWORD value “Max3DWindows” (without the quotes)
Double click on the DWORD value and set it to the maximum number of windows you want displayed in Flip3D. A good number is 5 for low-end cards and 10 for other cards.
Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.
Press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to shut down DWM, and then press the key combination again to restart it.
Press WinKey+Tab to display Flip3D.


Internet Explorer 7


User Agent String

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.
Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.
Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=”MSIE 6.0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=-

You can easily undo this change by copying and pasting the following code into Notepad, and then saving it as IE7Undo.reg and merge it into the Windows Registry. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=””

You can test these changes using a simple page that checks the User Agent. We recommend: http://www.fiddlertool.com/useragent.aspx.


The Favorites Center

In Internet Explorer 7, the older style Explorer bars have been replaced and the menus have been hidden by default. “What happened to my favorites, then?” you may wonder. Simple. You will notice a round orange circle with a white star in the center of it. Click on it, and all of your favorites will appear. You will also find your subscribed feeds and history are available from the Favorites Center as well. To close the Favorites Center quickly just press Esc on your keyboard.



Zoom

In previous versions of Internet Explorer, you could use Ctrl+-, Ctrl++, or Ctrl+Scroll Wheel to change the zoom and text size of a page. In Internet Explorer 7, there is a new zoom function which not only allows you to zoom text, it also zooms everything else on the page; making pages, images, and items larger for those with sight problems. To use this feature, locate the little magnifying glass in the bottom right hand corner of the Internet Explorer status bar. Click on it, and select a zoom percentage.

Quick Tabs

Internet Explorer comes with a new feature known as Tabs. Other browsers have had this for a while and now it is time for Internet Explorer to catch up. When you have multiple tabs open, instead of clicking through each tab to see what it contains, you can use Quick Tabs. To do this, you can either press the Quick Tabs button next to the Favorites Center & Add Favorite buttons, or you can press Ctrl+Q.



Installing Vista


I'll let other folks add most of this section.

Dual booting

This only applies if you're ALREADY dual-booting with XP, and then install Vista as another OS, getting you down to just 1 boot screen.

I copied the F:\Windows\System32\winload.ex e (Vista Installation) file to
C:\Windows\System32 (XP Installation)

Then I edited the boot.ini file as follows:

Original boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0 )partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti on(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFF
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti on(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows Longhorn"
/NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFF /FASTDETECT /USENEWLOADER

New Boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0 )partition(1)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti on(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFF /USENEWLOADER
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partiti on(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows Longhorn"
/NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFF /FASTDETECT /USENEWLOADER

As you can see I just added the /USENEWLOADER switch to the XP Installation.
----------------------------------
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#2 06-12-2006, 05:46 PM
Croak Limp Gawd

How to make a DVD

Spawned from this thread, there seems to be some confusion about how to burn the Vista .ISO file.

The .ISO image already contains all of needed files to be bootable, so using the burning program of your choice, simply make a data DVD using the .ISO. There are too many different types of burning software out there, and too many versions of each to get into details, but the above mentioned thread does a pretty good job covering Nero.


Installing Vista

Vista installation is fairly straightforward, but there are a few options that are getting people into trouble.

If you attempt to install Vista from within XP, please, do not do this. Burn a disk, set it to boot, and go that route. If you can't do that, at least have a real burned disk, and don't use something like Daemon Tools to mount the Vista image. This is just asking for trouble.

In addition, I STRONGLY suggest you do not select the Upgrade option, at least for a machine you NEED to be functional.

Instead, install Vista on its own partition or drive.

Install on a Partition

To install Vista on a partition, you first need an empty partition, or one you don't mind sharing with Vista. Keep in mind that Vista's idea of "sharing" is to REPLACE any previous Windows version on the partition you select.

And Vista won't load on a FAT32 drive without forcing a change to NTFS, which wipes all data...be CAREFUL.

Vista will not run on a Dynamic drive, it needs to be on a logical partition.

Tools like Partition Magic can take any free space on your hard drive and convert it to another partition, up to the limit of the free space, while keeping the data on the original partition intact.

For those wondering, there is no internal tool in XP to do this. If you attempt to create or resize a partition using XP, it will make the partitions just fine, but it will WIPE all the data on that drive in the process. So, don't use XP's disk management tools for this purpose unless you want to wipe a drive in the first place.


Installing Vista on another drive

This is probably the easiest method, if you have a spare drive.

But even with a spare drive, if you have another drive first in the physical chain, Vista WILL install a new boot loader and update the boot.ini file on that drive. This is not dangerous, but it can complicate things for people who are already dual-booting XP and another OS. See the first post in this thread on how to clean this up some.

Once Vista starts loading, it considers the drive it is installed on the C: drive, and remaps the drive letter of the original C: drive to something else (this applies if Vista is installed on a partition too).

I suggest you make good use of Volume Labels so you can easily identify which drive is which after this shuffling.

RAID and SCSI drivers

Unlike XP/Win2k/NT, Vista does not prompt for additional drivers when it's loading. But, it can still load them...you have to keep banging on F6 once Vista starts to load from the DVD, and then you'll get a chance to load RAID drivers from a floppy.

Vista RAID internal RAID support is pretty dated, a good rule of thumb is that if you needed to use a disk for XP, you'll need it for Vista too. The good news is that most XP and XP64 RAID drivers will work with Vista.

Vista Install Times

Vista takes forever to install. An hour or more, depending on your system. The good news is that unlike XP, you don't need to babysit it during the install...once you've got it started (after entering the CD-Key), you can walk away until its done, there are no more user prompts until it's complete. It's still a good idea to peek in on the install from time to time, in case there's a stop error of some sort.


Windows Easy Transfer


This is a good alternative to running an Upgrade installation, in that it will transfer all of your user settings, accounts, browser shortcuts, and a whole lot more. Using this will get you up and running under Vista pretty quick.

Easy Transfer is primarily meant to be used over a network or via a serial cable, but it works just fine writing to disk as well.

First, you'll need to copy the Easy Transfer files somewhere your old installation can find them. To do this, open Vista's Welcome Center (its in Accessories), Show all 12 items, and start Windows Easy Transfer. It will guide you through the basic steps, and allow you to install the Easy Transfer files so that the old OS can see them

After that is done, start up your old OS, find the Easy Transfer files you copied from Vista, and start the Easy Transfer process. The first stages can take awhile, depending on how much data you have in the old install.

You can opt just to copy Settings, which will do for most people, or you can opt for Files and Settings, which will be a HUGE transfer, basically copying EVERY data file type (.doc, mpg, etc).

You also have the option of doing a custom transfer, which will let you select/deselect what file types and directories get copied, along with what settings and accounts. I recommend you use this method. However, it WILL find some junk to transfer that you might not need in the new install, but you can clean that up later.

Easy Transfer will prompt you on how you want to transfer this data, select networked drive, and then select a drive that can be seen by your Vista install. Easy Transfer will then start copying and compressing files to add to this directory. Make sure you have enough disk space, and you may need to go back a few steps and de-select some things you were going to transfer to reduce the file size.

Once its done, fire up Vista, go to Welcome Center, Easy Transfer, and reverse the process, telling Vista where to look for the transfer files. Once this process is done (and it will take awhile), you can delete the directory where the data was stored.

Now you should have all your old shortcuts, task bar settings, etc, and Vista just got a lot more warm and fuzzy, and a lot more immediately useful for you.

One thing of note, this does not copy over your Outlook .PST, you'll need to do that manually.


Drivers


Vista Beta 2 has a fairly good selection of device drivers, but doesn't include everything.

One thing to keep in mind is that MOST Windows XP 32bit drivers for everything but Video Cards will work under Vista. That includes most types of sound cards, keyboard and mouse drivers, printers, etc. The same MAY apply to XP-64 drivers when using Vista 64bit, but I can't verify this.

Your best bet is to try installing the latest XP version of a particular driver if Vista doesn't support it out of the box. Be prepared for multiple UAP warnings if UAP is still enabled, and be prepared for blue screens and crashes. I suggest you turn on System Restore (see first post in this thread) and setting a restore point before experimenting with XP drivers.


Multiple GPU support

There is NO Crossfire or SLI support in Vista yet, the hardware vendors and MSFT are still hammering out the details on multi-GPU support at this time. Maybe we'll see SLI/Crossfire support in a driver update, but I expect it won't come until a later Vista build.

In addition, some SLI users are experiencing strange graphical problems when trying to run Vista.

The work-around for this is to boot Vista in Safe Mode (hit F8 when Vista first starts to load, select Safe Mode), and then go into Device Manager and disable the second card. Be sure to disable both the second card and its secondary if it's a dual-display capable card.

Crossfire doesn't seem to suffer from this problem, but Vista will prompt you about new hardware on every boot (wanting you enable multi-monitor support) if both cards are enabled. Same process as for SLI users, disable the extra card if you don't want to use it for driving extra displays.

Creative Drivers
If you're running Vista 32bit, Creative says this driver works with Vista. Can't verify, don't have a Creative card myself.

[Lobo]

He's on a roll, almost time fer de Colts to kick ___, hehe

VISTA ONLY

System Related

Logging on as Local Administrator

If you are having trouble logging on as the built-in Administrator account under 5308, you will need to make some registry modifications to display the Administrator account.

Log in using the account you created during the Windows Vista setup process.
From the Start menu, click All Programs and then expand Accessories.
Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”.
Click on “Allow” from the Windows Security dialog.
In the Command Prompt window, type “regedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
In the Registry Editor, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Add a new key called “SpecialAccounts” (without the quotes).
In the “SpecialAccounts” key you just made, create a sub-key called “UserList” (without the quotes)
Make sure you are navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
In the “UserList” key, create a new DWORD (32-bit) item and name it Administrator.
Double click on the new DWORD item and set its value to 1.
Close Registry Editor and the Command Prompt.


Increase Performance

TheFebruary CTP is quick right from installation, however there is one bug that causes a slow down with the user interface. This bug involves the sliding buttons on the taskbar; by disabling this, performance increases a bit. It’s really up to you, but the bug can be very annoying at times. To disable it, just carry out the following actions:
Press WinKey+R and type in “sysdm.cpl” (without the quotes).
Click the Advanced tab, and then under “Performance” click “Settings”.
In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck “Slide taskbar buttons”.
Press OK and close the Performance Options dialog.


I have also compiled a registry file that changes a few key settings involving the timings for menus, hover events, etc, which makes the Windows interface more responsive. You can download that here. This was tested andis fully working without any issues, and have also been scanned for viruses.

Also, if you are running this build with an NVIDIA WDDM supported graphics card, you may want to install the latest drivers, this should fix some of the weird issues and lag with the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) and the Aero user interface enabled.

Disable DEP / NoExecute Protection to fix Random Windows Explorer crashes

Due to the way Windows Vista’s boot editor has been created, it is now harder to disable DEP / No Execute Protection. However, after some amount of research, it would seem that some of the random Windows Explorer crashes that users are experiencing is caused by this technology. You will need to disable it and reboot, which should cure some of the crashes:
Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, right click on “Command Prompt”, and click “Run as administrator”.
If asked for permission to run Windows Command Processor, click on Allow.
At the command prompt, type in “bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff” (without the quotes).
You should receive a message saying “Operation Completed Successfully”.
Restart the computer, DEP / No Execute should now be disabled.


Prevent network flooding and connection drops

The new networking stack contained in Windows Vista February CTP, and as with anything new (and still in beta), it has some issues. This build seems to like dropping connections and in rare cases, blocking all traffic on wireless routers, requiring a restart of the router itself. To fix these problems, complete the following instructions:

WARNING: Please note that this will disable IPv6 connectivity as well as the Windows Firewall security, and is not recommended unless you are experiencing these issues. This will also invalidate any network related bug reports you file against Windows Vista.
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
LUnder “Network and Internet”, click on “View network status and tasks”.
In the left hand pane, click on “Open connections”.
Right click on your network connection (for example: Local Area Connection 3), and then click “Configure”.
If asked for permission to open Network Connections, click on Allow.
Highlight the following items and press the “Uninstall” button:
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder
Uncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”
Next, click on the “Configure” button under the name of your network adapter.
Click on the Power Management tab.
Disable all power management items listed on the Power Management tab.
Press OK.


To stop Windows Vista from flooding your network with traffic:
Press WinKey+R.
Type “services.msc” (without the quotes)
If asked for permission to open “Microsoft Management Console”, click Allow.
Double click on each one of the following services and change its startup type to “Disabled”.
Base Filtering Engine
IKE and AuthIP Keying Modules
IP Helper Service
IPSec
Windows Firewall


Close the Services window and restart Windows.

Disable System Restore

In Build 5308, the System Restore service is one cause of performance issues. For some people, it doesn’t even work. So to remedy this, we will need to shut down System Restore and stop it from running:
Click on the “Start” button.
Hover over “Computer”, right click on it and then click “Properties”.
On the left hand side, click “Advanced Settings”.
If asked to permit the action, click on “Allow”.
Click on the “System Protection” tab.
Uncheck any checkboxes listed for your hard drives.
Press OK.


Forcing Glass on Non-WDDM Compatible Cards

WARNING: This tweak may cause a blue screen loop or constant flickerdepending on your video card. Use with extreme caution, this tweak is really only here for documentary purposes only.
From the Start menu, click All Programs and then expand Accessories.
Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as Administrator”.
Click on “Allow” from the Windows Security dialog.
In the Command Prompt window, type “regedit” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM (if this key doesn’t exist, create it)
Create a new DWORD (32-bit value) of UseMachineCheck, and set its value to 0.


Disable User Account Protection (UAP)

Once you have installed theFebruary CTP and set up an every day user account, one of the first things you will notice is that you have almost no rights to do anything administrator related on your system. Disabling this is purely up to you but if you find UAP is getting in your way, or some applications refuse to run because of it, you may want to take a look at this. Here are the instructions:
NOTE: You should be logged in as Administrator to do this, or you could run the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) elevated.
Press WinKey (the flag key on your keyboard) + R and type “secpol.msc”. (Without the quotes). If asked to permit Microsoft Management Console to run, allow it.
In the Local Security Settings window, in the left hand pane, navigate to “Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options”.
In the pane to the right, scroll all the way to the bottom.
Set the first two User Account Protection items to “No Prompt”, and “Disabled” on the remaining three items.
Close the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and if you are asked to save the settings for “Console1”, press “No”.
Reboot or log off and log back in to enforce the new settings; or alternatively open an elevated Command Prompt and type “gpupdate /force” (without the quotes), and then press Enter.


Alternatively, you can also do this to disable UAP:
Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Paste the following into the Run box, including the quotation marks: “C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f”
Press Enter. If asked for permission to perform this action, click “Allow”.
Reboot the system.


To renable UAP after applying this method:
Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Paste the following into the Run box, including the quotation marks: “C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f”
Press Enter.
Reboot the system.
Shell Related

Turn on the sidebar

The long awaited Windows Sidebar, which first debuted back in the Longhorn alpha builds but was removed and remade into a seperate project has finally made its way back into Windows Vista. However, it is tucked away in 5308. To start it:

Click Start, and hover over All Programs.
Navigate to the Accessories folder.
Click “Sidebar”.


Bring back “Run” on the Start menu

One of the most favorite functions in Windows, the “Run” function, has been moved off of the Start menu by default in Windows Vista. To access it, you could press WinKey+R on your keyboard to bring it up. Or you can use the Search functionality built into the Start menu, it also works as the run command. Or, last but not least, you could just put the Run command back on the Start menu where it has lived for years:
Right click on the Start button, and click “Properties”.
In the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” dialog, click “Customize”.
Scroll down and in the list you shall find “Run command”. Check the box next to it.
Close any open dialogs by pressing OK.


Toggle DWM

If you find the Aero Glass user interface annoying, orif it is slow on your computer configuration, simply press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to turn it off. Press this key combination again to re-enable it.

Use the Search box in Windows Explorer to filter a file view

Did you know you can easily filter the list of documents and folders in a folder using the Search field in Windows Explorer? For instance if you have a folder containing a lot of folders and documents and you are specifically looking for “Vista”, all you need to do is type “Vista”, or even just part of the word, such as “Vis” to limit the list of files shown.

Use Flip3D
In build 5270, Microsoft had added a quick launch button to run “Flip3D”, the cool new task switching mode in Windows Vista. In the February CTP however, this quick launch item has been removed. If you’ve forgotten the key combination to run Flip3D, it is currently WinKey+Tab. If you want to run Flip3D without it closing when you let go of the key combination, press Ctrl+WinKey+Tab.

Limit the number of windows shown in Flip3D

If Flip3D is too slow for you or if you have too many windows open, you can easily limit the number of windows displayed in Flip3D. As you tab or scroll through them, other windows will appear.
Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If asked for permission to launch the Registry Editor, click Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
Right click on the right hand side of the registry editor, and under New, click on “DWORD (32-bit)”.
Name the new DWORD value “Max3DWindows” (without the quotes)
Double click on the DWORD value and set it to the maximum number of windows you want displayed in Flip3D. A good number is 5 for low-end cards and 10 for other cards.
Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.
Press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to shut down DWM, and then press the key combination again to restart it.
Press WinKey+Tab to display Flip3D.


Workaround for the dissapearing start button after using Flip3D

If you use the Flip3D function in Windows Vista February CTP, you may notice that when you return from the Flip3D display screen that the blue start button in the left hand corner is missing. To fix this, simply restart DWM by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 twice.

Add another time zone to your clock

Onenice addition to Windows Vista is the ability to display the time in other time zones.
Click on the clock.
Click “Date and Time Settings”.
Click on the “Additional Clocks” tab.
Check the box labelled “Additional Clock #1″, and from the drop down menu choose a time zone.
Give the clock a name, such as “Microsoft” or “Texas”.
Press OK.


You can repeat this for the second additional clock as well.

Click here to see this in action.

Windows Explorer

To prevent the Search box from searching sub-folders:

In the February CTP, the Search functionality has changed yet again. This time, when you type something into the search box, it will also search all sub-folders of the current folder. To disable this:

Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
Type “control folders”, and press OK.
When asked for permission to run “Run a DLL as an App”, press Allow.
Click the “View” tab.
Uncheck “Search subfolders when typing in the Search box”.
Press OK.


To add a location to the Places bar (left hand pane in Windows Explorer)

In Windows Vista, there is a new pane on the left hand side of Windows Explorer which contains links to items you wish to access quickly. It works a bit like the left hand pane in the Mac OS X 10.3+ Finder. In previous builds, you could not really customize the Places bar but now you can! Simply drag and drop a folder onto the plane, and voila!

Display Windows Explorer Classic Menus

If you are a frequent user of the menu in Windows Explorer, you may have a bit of a hard time adjusting to Windows Vista’s new Windows Explorer window style, which doesn’t include the menu.

There are two ways to bring it back, one is temporary and the other is more permenant:
If you want to view the menu but not have it always displayed, simply press the Alt key. The menu will fade into view.

If you want the menu to always be turned on, click the first button on Layout configuration button (first button on the top most bar in Windows Explorer). From the drop down list, check “Classic Menus”.

Folders List Returns!
If you want to view a tree-view of your hard drive and navigational path, simply click on the arrow next to the “Folders” bar in Windows Explorer, located on the Places bar.

Windows Mail

Disable the Windows Mail Splash Screen

Using Windows Mail? If the splash screen isdisplayed too long for your liking or if you just want to get rid of it, this is the trick for you.

Press WinKey+R.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If you are asked for permission to run the Registry Editor, click on Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value called “NoSplash”.
Double click on the “NoSplash” DWORD you just created and set its value to 1.
Press OK and close the registry editor.


Bring back the Outlook Bar in Windows Mail

If you are an avid fan of the Outlook Bar in Microsoft Outlook and the previous Outlook Express, then this tweak is definately for you!
Press WinKey+R.
Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
If you are asked for permission to run the Registry Editor, click on Allow.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
Look for the DWORD (32-bit) item with the name of “Show Legacy Outlook Bar”, if it doesn’t exist, create it.
Double click on this value and set the value to 1.
Press OK and close the registry editor.


Start Windows Mail. You should now see the Outlook Bar on the left-hand side.
Internet Explorer 7

User Agent String

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.
Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.
Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.

If you are having issues with certain websites (especially banking and other secure websites), you might want to try this out. It fools the websites into thinking you are running Internet Explorer 6.0.Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and save it to your desktop as IE7UserAgent.REG.Double-click the file to merge it into the Windows Registry, and then restart Internet Explorer for the change to take effect. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=”MSIE 6.0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=-


You can easily undo this change by copying and pasting the following code into Notepad, and then saving it as IE7Undo.reg and merge it into the Windows Registry. If UAP is turned on, permit the operation to take place.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
“Version”=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]
“SV1″=””


You can test these changes using a simple page that checks the User Agent. We recommend: http://www.fiddlertool.com/useragent.aspx.


The Favorites Center

In Internet Explorer 7, the older style Explorer bars have been replaced and the menus have been hidden by default. “What happened to my favorites, then?” you may wonder. Simple. You will notice a round orange circle with a white star in the center of it. Click on it, and all of your favorites will appear. You will also find your subscribed feeds and history are available from the Favorites Center as well. To close the Favorites Center quickly just press Esc on your keyboard.

Zoom

In previous versions of Internet Explorer, you could use Ctrl+-, Ctrl++, or Ctrl+Scroll Wheel to change the zoom and text size of a page. In Internet Explorer 7, there is a new zoom function which not only allows you to zoom text, it also zooms everything else on the page; making pages, images, and items larger for those with sight problems. To use this feature, locate the little magnifying glass in the bottom right hand corner of the Internet Explorer status bar. Click on it, and select a zoom percentage.

Quick Tabs

Internet Explorer comes with a new feature known as Tabs. Other browsers have had this for a while, such as Mozilla Firefox, and now it is time for Internet Explorer to catch up. When you have multiple tabs open, instead of clicking through each tab to see what it contains, you can use Quick Tabs. To do this, you can either press the Quick Tabs button next to the Favorites Center & Add Favorite buttons, or you can press Ctrl+Q.

Printing from a USB Printer

In this build, there is a known issue that causes printing with Internet Explorer to fail when attempting to use a USB Printer. To resolve this, click Start, All Programs, right click on Internet Explorer, and then click “Run as administrator”. When asked for permission to run Internet Explorer, click on Allow. Then print as you normally would.
Source: http://digitalfive.org