Checkbox Select Alternative

Windows Vista includes a new method to select files when using explorer. Instead of holding down CTRL and then clicking on all the files you want to select, Vista includes the option to check boxes to select items instead. This new feature can be a little hard to get used to at first, but after you use it for a little while, it will be helpful if you were a big user of the CTRL method.

This feature has helped me in situations where I had to select dozens of files or folders and would accidentally click in the wrong area and then I would loose all of my selections, forcing me to start over selecting folders. With the check box feature enabled, accidental clicks that lead to mass de-selection are no longer possible.

Enabling the new feature is very easy, just about anyone could do it. To get started, follow the steps below:

1. In order to begin, you will need to use the Tools menu. In Windows Vista the menu-bar is hidden by default in most windows. Just hit ALT on your keyboard to bring it back. Now that you can see it again, click on Tools and then select Folder Options.
2. Once the Folder Options dialog is displayed, click on the View tab.
3. Under Advanced Settings, scroll down to the bottom of the list and check Use check boxes to select items.
4. Next, click OK and you are finished.

In order to see the new changes you may have to close and reopen all open windows.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Check Windows Vista Activation Status

Are you a user of Windows Vista Enterprise or Business edition and would like to know the status of activation of a specific computer? Want to make sure that the computer connected properly to the Key Management Server (KMS) or used your Multiple Activation Key (MAK) properly? Or are you a home user and just want to make sure your computer is fully activated?

Included in Windows Vista is very useful utility that will help you check the status of activation of your computer:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in CMD and hit Enter to start up Command Prompt.
2. At the prompt, type in “slmgr.vbs -dli”
3. After a few seconds you will be presented with a pop-up message with your activation status.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Change taskbar time to military/international format

Would you like to change the time format in the taskbar to military or international time format?

1. Click on the Start Button, type in intl.cpl and hit Enter.
2. Click the Customize this format button.
3. Click on the Time tab.
4. Change the time format to H:mm:ss and hit OK.
5. Hit OK once more to close Regional and Language Options.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Use Small Icons in Start Menu

The icon size of the recently run programs list on the Start Menu is set to large by default. This is great if you like the large icons but it also cuts down on the number of recently run programs that can be displayed. Follow the steps below to give your Start Menu a cleaner look and disable large icons:

1. Right click on the Start Button and select Properties.
2. Click on the Customize button.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the list and remove the check from Use large icons.
4. You can now also increase the number of recently run programs that are displayed to something larger than 9.
5. Hit OK when you are finished.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Tweak your Glass Window Borders

Is the glass border in Windows Vista too fat your you? How would you like to put your Windows on a diet? Loose up to 80% of your window weight immediately,

Before Window Diet


After Window Diet


How to Adjust Vista Glass Window Border:

1. Right click on your desktop and select Personalize.
2. Click onWindows Color and Appearance.
3. Click on Open Classic Appearance Properties
4. Click Advanced.
5. Select Border Padding in the Items drop down box.
6. Increase or decrease border size.
7. Hit OK, OK and OK.

Warning: If you choose to quit the Window Diet you may experience excessive window weight gain as shown below.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

The Ultimate Vista Screensaver Tweaking Guide

Microsoft released many new screensavers for Windows Vista that look great. However, for some reason they never made option screens for them. All of the new screensavers have settings that you can tweak to completely change the look and behavior. Without an options screen, the only way to do this is with editing the registry directly. This guide will help you use registry hacks to customize the Windows Vista screensavers including:

* Aurora
* Mystify
* Bubbles
* Ribbons

Using Sysinternals Strings utility, I was able to detect the registry settings listed below. Some of these settings have been known for a while since Long’s article . Others are a TweakVista.com exclusive. I have tried my best to figure out what the working values of the new registry settings I discovered with the Strings utility. If you happen to figure out a value I don’t have please let me know and I will update the list.

To use these hacks you will need to open up Registry Editor (Start Button -> key in Regedit -> hit Enter), navigate through the paths listed below and create the required DWORD or String entries. Then just set the value and test your changes.

Aurora Screensaver (aurora.scr)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Screensavers\Aurora
Amplitude
Brightness
NumLayers
Speed
SpanMultiMon

Amplitude (dword) - This value seems to take decimal values between 500000000 and 2000000000. I recommend a value of 1000000000 for a cool slow motion effect.

Brightness (dword) - I’m not completely sure about this value but anything between 1000000000 and 1050000000 seems to work. I like to use 1020000000.

NumLayers (dword) - This value can take decimal values between 1 and roughly 15. Anything higher looks way to bright. I like to set this at 2.

Speed (dword) - This value takes decimal values between 1000000000 and 2100000000. I like to set this value to something toward the low end of the scale for a cool slow effect.

SpanMultiMon (dword) - This value only affects users with multiple monitors. Set this value to 0 for no spanning, the screensaver will appear on both screens seperatly. Set this to 1 to enable spanning so the screensaver will move between both monitors. Thank John LoBasso for clearning this one up.

Bubbles Screensaver (bubbles.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Screensavers\Bubbles
BMP
ShowShadows
MaterialGlass
ShowBubbles
TurbulenceForce
TurbulenceSpeed
TurbulenceNumOctaves
Radius
SphereDensity
SpanMultiMon

BMP (String?) - Unknown. This value does not seem to do anything when I provide it with a path to a bitmap.

ShowShadows (dword) - Set this value to 1 to enable, 0 to disable.

MaterialGlass (dword) - Set this value to 0 for solid, 1 for transparent.

ShowBubbles (dword) - Set this value to 0 for black background, 1 for transparent background.

TurbulenceForce (dword) - I assume this has to do with the force the bubbles hit each other but I can not notice a difference between values other than if you set it to 0 all of your bubbles are gray. If you want to experiment, start at decimal 1000000000 and go from there.

TurbulenceSpeed (dword) - Unknown.

TurbulenceNumOctaves (dword) - Set this value between 1 and 255. The higher the faster the color of the bubble will change. I like to set this to 50 for a cool effect. Set it at 255 if you want to give yourself seizers.

Radius (dword) - Set this value between decimal 1130000000 for large bubbles, 1090000000 for small bubbles.

SphereDensity (dword) - Set this value between decimal 2100000000 for a lot of bubbles on screen, 1000000000 for few.

SpanMultiMon (dword) - This value only affects users with multiple monitors. Set this to 0 for no spanning, 1 for spanning across all monitors.

For a cool effect that will make you sick to your stomach, set the radius to 1090000000, MaterialGlass to 0, and TurbulenceNumOctaves to 255. After about 5 minutes when you screen is entirely covered in these psychedelic bubbles you will experience something I like to call seizer maker.

Mystify Screensaver (mystify.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Screensavers\Mystify
BMP
CameraFOV
LineWidth
NumLines
SpanMultiMon

BMP - Unknown.

CameraFOV - Unknown but sounds cool.

LineWidth (dword) - Set this between decimal 1000000000 for thin and 1080000000 for thick. I like to set it to 1050000000.

NumLines (dword) - Set this between 1 and 100. I like to set mine at 10 for a cool saver.

SpanMultiMon (dword) - This value only affects users with multiple monitors. Set this to 0 for no spanning, 1 for spanning across all monitors.

Ribbons Screensaver (ribbons.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Screensavers\Ribbons
CameraFOV
RibbonWidth
NumRibbons
Blur
SpanMultiMon

CameraFOV - Unknown.

RibbonWidth (dword) - Set this between decimal 1000000000 for thin and 1080000000 for thick. I like to use 1000000000 for this setting.

Numribbons (dword) - Set this between 1 and 100. I like to set it at 50 for an entertaining effect.

Blur (dword) - Set this to 0 to disable the ribbon fade away. They will just keep drawing on each other. Set to 1 to fade.

SpanMultiMon (dword) - This value only affects users with multiple monitors. Set this to 0 for no spanning, 1 for spanning across all monitors.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Stop User Account Control (UAC) screen flicker / flash

Every time I get one of those UAC prompts asking me to authorize an administrative action my LCD screen flashes when the box pops up. This is caused by the switch to the secure desktop, similar to what happens when you hit CTRL + ALT + DELETE. The only difference is that the background is a snapshot of your desktop that gives it the effect that it is just a pop up window. Although if you look carefully you will notice it is static since the clock does not change and anything else that was animated is now static. The secure desktop provides an extra level of security to UAC by making it immune to any application that may try to automate the click on the allow button bypassing the purpose of UAC.

This sounds like a great thing but it is really annoying to me. I hate that screen flicker. Rather than disable UAC, there is a better alternative. Instead, I can just disable the secure desktop switch that causes the flicker. I know this is not as secure but it is better than disabling UAC completely.

Follow the steps below to disable UAC secure desktop:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in secpol.msc and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through Local Policies and Security Options.
3. Scroll to the bottom and right click on “User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation” and select Properties.
4. Set the option to Disabled and hit OK.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Start Menu Add-on: Start++

Every Windows power user knows the command line is “the place” to get serious work done. The new Start Menu search box in Windows Vista opens the door to a whole new level of command line possibilities. One utility called Start++ extends the Start Menu search box to add even more features allowing you to use shortcuts to launch web sites and processes.

Would you like to search Google from your start menu search box? Just type g followed by your query such as “g tweak vista”. How about doing a quick search on Wikipedia? Type w and your query in the search box. The possibilities are endless because you can create custom shortcuts just like the examples above.

On top of web shortcuts, you can also create application links that will launch an app and open a file. Almost anything is possible with a little customization of the Start++ utility shown below.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Speed up Flip 3D

Every single Windows Vista presentation and demo I have seen has always included the new Flip 3D, alt+tab replacement. This is a cool feature that really helps you switch between windows when you have a lot open but for some, it can be a choppy experience. If you have a low end graphics card you may experience dropped frames resulting in a choppy animation experience while flipping through your windows. One easy way to make Flip 3D perform much better is to limit the number of windows it draws on your screen.

Follow the steps below to speed up Flip 3D on your computer:

1. Click on the Start Button, key in regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows and DWM.
3. Create a new DWORD and call it Max3DWindows .
4. Set the value of this to something between 4 and 9 depending on the performance of your card. Experiment with the values to find the best value for your hardware.
5. Restart the DWM interface by running net stop uxsms and net start uxsms at a administrative level command prompt. Alternatively, you can just reboot your computer.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Slow Motion Aero Glass Animations

For those of you have have the aero glass interface on your computer, it is possible to hold down the shift key while closing, opening, and minimizing a windows to see the animation in slow motion. If you would like to test this out, just follow the steps below:

1. Open up Regedit.
2. Navigate thru HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft and Windows.
3. Create a new KEY called DWM if it is not aleady there.
4. Create a new DWORD called AnimationsShiftKey inside the DWM folder.
5. Set the new DWORD that you just created to a value of 1.
6. Run net stop uxsms at administrative rights command prompt followed by net start uxsms to restart the DWM engine.

Once you have restarted the DWM engine, just hold down the shift key to see any of the window animations in slow motion.

Tip: Hold down shift and start Flip 3D. Very Cool!

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Restore Desktop Icons

If you are a big fan of using the My Computer, My Documents and My Network desktop icons on your desktop in the past, this tweak will show you how to display the Windows Vista equivalent icons on your desktop. In only a few steps you will have the Computer, User’s Files and Network and even a Control Panel icon on your desktop if you desire.

1. Right click on your desktop and select Personalize.
2. Click Change Desktop Icons under tasks on the top left.
3. Check the icons you want to display.
4. Hit OK.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Remove Text from Desktop Icons

Removing the text below an icon on your desktop has been a classic Windows tweak for years. In Windows Vista, the same old tweak works.

1. Right click on the icon and select Rename.
2. Then hold down the ALT key and type in 255 on your right keypad. If you are on a laptop turn on numlock and use the K and I keys to enter in 255. This is the code for a space.
3. Hit Enter when you are done.

If you want to remove the text from multiple icons then make sure that you do ALT + 255 a different number of times for each icon.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Remove file delete confirmation

If you have User Account Protection enabled and are tired of all of the prompts that you get when you try to delete a protected file then this tweak is for you!

One way to cut down on the number of prompts that you get is to disable the delete file confirmation box. If you are trying to delete a system file you are presented with first the delete confirmation box and then the UAC authorization pop-up boxes. By disabling the delete confirmation box you can get rid of one of the pop-up boxes that you are forced to click through each time.

Follow these steps to disable the Delete confirmation box:

1. Right click on your Recycle Bin on the desktop and select Properties.
2. On the bottom of the Recycle Bin Properties window, uncheck Display delete confirmation dialog.
3. Hit OK and you are finished.

Keep in mind that you will also no longer get a delete confirmation when you delete files that are not protected by UAC. That will allow you to delete a file without any confirmation at all. If you make a mistake and delete a file by accident, just restore it from the Recycle bin. After all, that is what it is for!

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

My Exposé, add OS X Expose to Vista

How would you like to add Expose, one of the great features of OS X to Windows Vista? With the help of a cool app called My Expose written by Simon Ferquel it is now very easy.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Make Maximized Windows & Taskbar Transparent + Automated UXtheme Patcher

Throughout the beta process Microsoft received a lot of feedback on how the taskbar and the window border changes to black when you maximize a window. Before the final release they altered the behavior slightly so the window and taskbar would still turn opaque and black, but with a very slight tint of color that matches the color of your glass. This change satisfied some users but left others still in the dark. Many users wanted a maximized window to remain transparent as well as the taskbar. Once the final build of Windows Vista shipped, all hope was gone that we would have transparent maximized windows, until today.

Using a very cool and free utility called VistaGlazz by CodeGazer.com you can easily make your maximized windows and taskbar transparent. Additionally, this utility allows you to easily patch your uxtheme system files so that you can use hacked visual styles with just the click of a button, instead of the multiple step manual procedure .


Let’s get started:

1. Visit CodeGazer.com ( CodeGazer - VistaGlazz ) and download the latest version of VistaGlazz.
2. Start up your copy of VistaGlazz.
3. Click I agree on the first screen.
4. Click the icon on the left and then hit Patch files.
5. Reboot.
6. Start up VistaGlazz again, this time click on the middle icon and hit Patch Style. The DWM will restart and everything will finally be transparent.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Kill Security Center Notifications

The new Windows Security Center in Windows Vista can be just as annoying as the security centers in previous versions of Windows. I am an advanced of a computer user to know that I do not have anti-virus software installed. I don’t need the Windows Security Center to remind me that all the time.

Thankfully there is a new easy way to disable the security center messages.

1. Click on the Security Center/Windows Security Alerts logo in the system tray.
2. Click Change the way Security Center alerts me.
3. Select I do not want notification messages from Security Center.

It is now that easy.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Fix Windows Vista Fonts

Chris Pirillo has written a useful little reg hack that allows you to remap all of the fonts used in the Explorer interface to the new Segoe UI font. Make sure you make a backup of your registry before trying this one!

Chris Pirillo’s blog

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Fine-Tune Desktop Icon Size

Windows Vista has many new icon sizes. Using a simple mousescroll wheel trick that was primarily used in Internet Explorer to change the text size for years, it is now possible to change the icon sizes of almost any window you are in, including the desktop.

While on your desktop, hold down the CTRL key and scroll your mouse up for larger and down for smaller icons. You can make your icons very small or extremely large as shown in the two examples below.

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer

Fine tune ClearType Settings

Here are two quick reg hacks for customizing the appearance of ClearType screen font smoothing:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
FontSmoothingOrientation = 1, 2 or 3
FontSmoothingGamma = Between 1000 to 2000

FontSmoothingGamma

This setting basically adjusts the brightness. The higher you go the brighter.

FontSmoothingOrientation

This setting determines the way your monitor pixels are constructed.

None = 0 (e.g. CRT Monitor)

RBG = 1 (Default and used by most LCD monitors)

BGR = 2

__________________
Prasanna Vignesh
MCPD | Web Developer