Windows Vista Tips & Tricks
This is a discussion on Windows Vista Tips & Tricks within the Operating Systems forums, part of the Computer Hardware/Software and Networking category; Why is Task Manager Disabled? There is a registry key that will disable Task Manager, although it's not always ...
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10-11-2007, 01:23 AM
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 Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Why is Task Manager Disabled? There is a registry key that will disable Task Manager, although it's not always clear how or why it was set to disable. In many cases the problem is related to spyware, so you should also scan your computer. Why is task manager grayed out?  Manual Registry Hack Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System  On the right-hand side is a 32-bit REG_DWORD value named DisableTaskMgr with one of two values: 1 - Disable task manager 0 - Enable task manager Just double-click and change the value, or even delete the key. The change should take place immediately.     |
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10-11-2007, 01:33 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks How to Debug a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget With Visual Studio For this exercise you'll need a copy of Visual Studio 2005 and a broken Vista Gadget, but you can probably adapt it to work with a different tool if you try. Critical Step: Enable Script Debugging Open up Internet Explorer's Options panel, find the Advanced tab and uncheck the boxes for "Disable script debugging".  After you are done debugging you'll probably want to turn this off, as it can get quite annoying while browsing. Open Your Gadget Code After installing your gadget, Windows will unpack and copy the files to a folder in your user profile. We'll need to find this folder and open the javascript file that makes up the logic for your gadget. Just paste the following into the Explorer address bar: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets  You'll see a list of directories for all the gadgets installed into your profile. Open up the main javascript file in Visual Studio. Attach to Sidebar Process Next we'll need to attach to the specific sidebar process for your gadget. (Make sure your gadget is running before you do this step) Go to Tools \ Attach to Process or hit Ctrl+Alt+P to bring up the dialog.  Now you should look for a process named "sidebar.exe" with the title set to the name of your gadget, and then click the Attach button. For a close-up view, you can see that the gadget is running under a separate process from the main sidebar. If all goes well, you will immediately be taken to a new file named something like x-gadget:///main.js and your debugging tools will become active as soon as the breakpoint is hit. ote that you can't modify this file, but you can use the Immediate Window to test out any code in real-time. Important Notes When debugging a gadget that polls every so often, it would be wise to set the interval really low so that you don't have to wait very long for it to trigger. You can make changes in the original source file, but you will have to close/reopen the gadget and then re-attach to it. If you get an error about no symbols being loaded, you didn't follow the first step to enable script debugging. You'll have to manually enter the names of variables to watch in the Watch box, but you can step through the gadget just like a real debugger should. Happy debugging! |
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10-11-2007, 02:02 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Scroll the Window Under the Mouse in Windows Vista Have you ever noticed that you have to switch to a window before you can use the wheel button to scroll it? This is especially annoying if you are trying to multi-task or follow along with a lengthy tutorial in your browser window. Reader Kevin wrote in with a great utility called KatMouse that solves this problem. There's only one little irritation with this utility: It changes your middle mouse button click to minimize the current window, which breaks middle-click in Firefox. No problem, we can turn that functionality off in the settings.  To reconfigure this just choose the Wheel Button tab and then change the drop-down to None of the buttons, or at least anything other than the Wheel button.  Once you make this minor adjustment, it's perfect. Note that you can also remove the icon from the tray by using the General tab. Download KatMouse from Code-Scout |
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10-12-2007, 04:07 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Restore "Show Hidden Files and Folders" Option in Vista Note that if you don't have this option there's a very good chance of spyware infection somewhere, so you should scan your computer thoroughly. The scanner applications won't restore this setting, however. To understand what I'm talking about, open Folder and Search Options from the Organize menu, and then choose the View tab, and you'll see that the entire "Hidden Files and Folders" radio button is completely gone!  Manual Registry Tweak Open regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer \Advanced\Folder\Hidden  Look for a key named Type on the right-hand side and change the value to group as shown above. If the key does not exist, create a new String value. You should be able to immediately re-open the folder properties, and the option should have returned, as you can see here:  I hope it can help somebody. |
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10-12-2007, 07:47 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Adjust your power settings If you don’t mind using more power, you can boost performance by setting your power settings to the High Performance option. Click the Power Options applet in Control Panel and select that choice. By default, this configuration is set to Balanced, which limits the CPU to 50 percent power during normal operation. |
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10-12-2007, 07:49 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Clean up and defrag the disk Fragmented files or a lot of unneeded extra files on the disk can slow down performance. Vista provides a disk cleanup tool, which you can access from Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools. Specify a drive you want to clean up, and the tool will estimate the amount of space you can recover by running the cleanup process.  Vista’s bundled Disk Defragmenter should be run regularly to help optimise your system’s performance. Defragmenting the disk rearranges data on it so that all the parts of a file are together; this allows Vista to access those files quicker. The built-in disk defragmenter is also accessed from the System Tools menu. The defragmentation process itself can slow down your computer, so you may want to schedule it to run at a time when you aren’t using the computer. Third-party defrag utilities are also available. |
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10-12-2007, 07:50 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Adjust indexing options Vista has a much-improved search function, but it’s dependent on indexing the files and programs on your hard disk so they can be found quickly. When the indexing process is running, however, it can slightly slow down other programs you’re try ing to run at the same time. You can select the locations you want to index; fewer locations will result in less indexing and thus better overall performance. On the other hand, you’ll get better search performance by indexing all locations. You can’t turn the indexing feature off completely, but you can adjust locations indexed by selecting Adjust Indexing Options in the left pane of the Performance Information And Tools applet. |
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10-12-2007, 07:51 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Turn off visual enhancements here are a lot of visual enhancements that make Vista look like Vista, such as the animations when minimising and maximising windows, fading or sliding menus, shadows under the menus and mouse pointer, and thumbnails of graphics files instead of dull icons. However, all this bling consumes resources, and if performance is your priority, the operating system will run faster without them.  Cutting down on Vista’s graphical goodies will boost its performance. The Performance Options dialogue box can be accessed through the Adjust Visual Effects link in the left pane of the Performance Information And Tools applet. On the Visual Effects tab, you can customise these settings individually, turning off the ones you don’t want, to help speed performance. Or you can disable all of the visual effects by clicking the Adjust For Best Performance option. |
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10-12-2007, 07:52 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Eliminate extra startup programs You may find that you have a lot of programs loading automatically when you boot Windows, especially if you bought your Vista system from a hardware vendor who added lots of software. Some of these you may want, such as antivirus or anti-spyware programs, but many of them you probably don’t even use or use only occasionally and don’t want to run all the time. Yet they’re all loading into memory and consuming your system resources — and thus slowing down your computer as they run in the background.  Quote:
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10-12-2007, 07:53 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Get a good video card If you have enough RAM, the most likely hardware culprit on a slow-moving Vista machine is the video card. You need a fairly high-end card to run Aero at all, but some vendors are selling computers with graphics cards that run it badly. You can find out whether your video card is the bottleneck by checking your Windows Experience Index (WEI) score from the Performance Information and Tools applet in Control Panel. Quote:
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10-12-2007, 07:54 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Use ReadyBoost in VISTA Can’t add physical RAM? Maybe you have a notebook that already has the maximum amount of memory installed. In that case, Vista provides you with a way to fool your computer into thinking it has more RAM than it does. You can use a flash memory card or USB key as a cache, which Vista can access quicker than data stored on the hard disk. Quote:
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10-12-2007, 07:55 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Add more RAM There’s no denying it: Vista is a RAM-hungry operating system. Whereas XP usually runs great on 512MB, you really need a minimum of 1GB to run Vista acceptably — 2GB is even better. And if you turn on all the graphical features and keep a lot of programs open (especially those that use a lot of memory), then 4GB isn’t overkill. Luckily, RAM is still relatively inexpensive — but it’s rumored to be on the rise, so get as much of it as you can, while you can. You won’t regret it. |
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10-12-2007, 08:16 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Windows Vista Upgrade Install Fix With the release of Windows Vista comes a surprising change to the way the upgrade version works. Unlike previous version of Windows, you can no longer wipe out your existing Windows installation and install a fresh install of Vista with the upgrade DVD. Instead, your upgrade version on top of the previous version of Windows you have. This change will help cut down on the number of people buying the wrong version of Windows Vista but creates a huge annoyance for any power user that wants to start fresh with a new Windows operating system. Users that already wiped their previous Windows installation with the Windows Vista install disk while installing the upgrade version are in for a surprise when they try to active Windows. It won’t activate! Why? Windows is looking for a full version product key because the user did not install the upgrade version of Windows Vista from within a previous version of Windows. Users that want to perform a fresh Windows Vista install the traditional method are not going to be able to active their upgrade copy. If you still want to do a clean install with Windows Vista so that your XP settings and junk does not get ported over, there is a new method that will allow you to do a clean install and activate your upgrade version. Fresh Windows install with the upgrade version of Windows Vista
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10-12-2007, 08:17 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Use Path Wildcards to save time in Explorer and Command Prompt When you are in explorer and are manually typing in a long folder path or at a command prompt navigating through many directories, below are two cool tips that will help you save time. The first is one that I have been using for years. When working at a command prompt, instead to typing in the full text of an item, just hit the tab key to bring up full items. For example, say I want to change the directory to the Windows folder. At a command prompt I would type in CD wind and then hit the tab key and “Windows” will automatically show up. Think of the tab key as a kind of auto complete for DOS. This same technique also works in Windows Explorer. Another tip was sent in by Robert Warriner also has a similar effect. Instead of hitting the tab key to bring up alternatives, you can use the * wildcard. For example, the command CD wind*\*32\dri* will change your directory to c:\windows\system32\drivers. The * wildcard will also work in Windows Explorer. |
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10-12-2007, 08:17 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Use Mobility Center If you are running Windows Vista on a laptop then check out the new Windows Mobility Center by holding the Windows Logo Key and pressing X. |
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10-12-2007, 08:19 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Uninstall / Turn off Unneeded Features There are many new features in Windows Vista that are installed by default that you may not need. These extra and unneeded features can slow down your computer and take up more storage space. If you would like to uninstall, or turn off, these extra features, this tip is for you. Windows Features can be uninstalled using the Windows Features utility. Follow these steps to uninstall applications such as the Windows Fax and Scan and many more:
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10-12-2007, 08:20 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Tweak your Mouse Scroll Wheel Every time you use the scroll wheel on your mouse you scroll 4 lines at a time in Windows Vista. This is adequate for most users but did you know that it is possible to tweak this setting to make your scroll wheel more or less sensitive? It is possible with a quick little reg hack.
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10-12-2007, 08:21 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Stop Autostart Applications Check out the new System Configuration Utility in Windows Vista that now includes new troubleshooting tools. Just click on the start button and key in msconfig and hit Enter. Click on the Startup tab and uncheck any application you do not want to automatically start. |
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10-12-2007, 08:21 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & Tricks Show Super Hidden Files Even if you turn on show hidden files in Windows Explorer some files will remain hidden. These files are super hidden. Set the registry value below to 1. Quote:
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10-12-2007, 08:22 AM
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| Windows Vista Tips & T |