--------------------------------------

Enable New Boot screen in Vista

1. Click on the start orb and type in "MSCONFIG" in the textbox.
2. Once the System Configuration tool loads, click on the Boot tab.
3. Under Boot Options check 'NO GUI Boot'
4. Reboot and enjoy!


Show Run Command on Start Menu

1. Right click on your taskbar and select Properties.
2. Click on the Start Menu Tab and then select Customize.
3. Scroll through the list and check the Run Command check box.
4. Hit OK a few times and it is back.


Resize Partitions with Vista Disk Management

1. Click on the Start Button and right click on Computer and select Manage.
2. Expand the Storage section and select Disk Management.
3. Then just right click on any partition and select either Expand or Shrink to change the size of the partition.


Enable Vista Glass on Intel GMA 950 Graphics Cards

1. First, I had to open up device manager. Click on the start menu and type in devmgmt.msc and Enter to load it up.
2. Once there, expand the Display Adapters section and right click on each device and select Uninstall.
3. Reboot the computer.
4. When it restarts, it should install a generic video driver so your screen will still work.
5. Go back into Device Manager, expand the Display Adapters section again and then right click on the device and select Update Driver.
6. This time select Browse My Computer for Driver and then Let me pick it from a list.
7. Go the the Intel section and select the Intel® Lakeport Graphics Controller.
8. Hit OK and install the new driver. Restart your computer.
9. Once you have rebooted, right click on your desktop and select Personalize again.
10. Click on Windows Colors and Appearance.
11. Click on Open classic appearance properties for more color options.
12. In the Color Scheme box, select Windows Vista Aero.
13. Hit OK and glass will now load.


Enable Add-ins in Windows Live Messenger

Copy and Paste the following into a .reg file and import it.
____________________________________________________
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger]

"AddInFeatureEnabled"=dword:00000001
______________________________________________________
Once you import it, restart Windows Live Messenger and under Options you will have a new list item for Add-ins.


Create a Shortcut for Flip 3D

1. Right click on your desktop and select New and then Shortcut.
2. Copy and paste RunDll32 DwmApi #105 into the location box and hit Next.
3. Enter in a name for your shortcut and hit Finish.
4. Copy/Cut and Paste your new shortcut where ever you want.


Add Additional Clocks to Taskbar

1. Right click on the clock in the taskbar and select Adjust Date/Time.
2. Click on the Additional Clocks tab.
3. Check the box for either additional clock 1 or 2 and select the time zone.
4. Type in a display name for your click and hit OK.
Now when you hover your mouse over or click on the clock you will see the additional time zone.


Disable Network Printer Search

1. Hit Alt to bring up the menubar if it is not already on the screen.
2. Click on Tools and select Folder Options.
3. On the View Tab, uncheck Automatically search for network printers.

Speed up Start Menu Search

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer and finally Advanced.
3. Find and right click on Start_SearchFiles and select Modify.
4. Set the Value to 0.
5. Restart the Explorer.exe process or just reboot your computer.

Vista Un-needed Services: Part 1

Part 1: http://www.tweakvista.com/article38662.aspx
Part 2: http://www.tweakvista.com/article38664.aspx

Super Quick - Quick Launch Bar

If you have the quick launch bar you can press the WINDOWS + a number and it will launch that application.

For example: If you have a shortcut for a folder in the first slot you would press WINDOWS + 1 to open that folder.
A second quick launch application would be WINDOWS + 2.


Stop those annoying registration boxes that won't go away

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article39107.aspx

Have you recently installed a system utility or a productivity application such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Dreamweaver and have been bombarded with registration messages that pop-up every time your start the application? Even when you check the box and tell the application never to remind you ever again? 

This happens to me all the time and is very annoying.  The culprit of this problem is... you guessed it, UAC!

Your application keeps asking you to register because the registry key that it checks to see if you should still be harassed into registration is never getting set thanks to UAC. When I check the box or hit the Never remind me again button the registry write gets virtualized because the app tried to write to a part of the registry a standard user does not have access to.  This is a feature of UAC and it does a great job of redirecting the registry write so the application does not crash out. However, since the application is not aware of this virtualized write location it keeps checking the registry value of the key in the normal location.  Since the application has read only access to that location the key will keep getting virtualized every time you check the box and is why the registration boxes keep popping up.

How do you get out of this mess?  Real simple, just run the application as an Administrator.  This time UAC will not be in the way and the app will be able to write the never annoy me ever again with this stupid registration box key setting.

This simple trick will also work for some applications that pop up other information and do not respect the stop annoying me again option.

Stop User Account Control (UAC) screen flicker / flash

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article39105.aspx

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.

Use Vista for 120 Days Free! Longer Trial Period

Windows Vista can be installed, and run without any license, product key or activation for 30 days, This is solely for the purpose of trial/evaluation. Microsoft stress's that users should purchase a license with a valid product key before the trial period expires, or else Windows Vista will lock into Reduced Functionality Mode.

Although, A method has been discovered which will allow you to extend the evaluation period for a fresh 30 days, 3 seperate times. Microsoft has confirmed that extending the evaluation period is not a violation of the EULA and is aware of this tweak but does not seem to mind one bit, as no fixes or updates have been released to fix it.

All versions of Vista include Windows Vista Ultimate allow a 30-day free period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, in which case it supports only a three-day trial.

To reset or restart the initial grace period of Windows Vista to another 30 days, use the following steps:

1. Click on Vista Start button and type in "Cmd" in Start Search box (without quotes).
2. Press on Ctrl-Shift-Enter to open Command Prompt with administrative credentials (equivalent to “Run as Administrator”).
3. In the Command Prompt window which you opened, type the following command and press Enter when done: "slmgr -rearm" or "sysprep /generalize" (without quotes)
4. Reboot the computer.
5. Run the script again when the remaining activation grace period timer counts down to 0 days, you can run the code sooner but it is a waste. As if you have 20 days left and you run the script it will bump you back up to 30 again not 50.
   
   

Boot Order Editing

If you are dual booting XP Prof and Vista, you most likely have the annoying "Earlier Version of Windows" in the boot list and have Vista booting as the default. Lets change that!

In Vista, you do not have the Boot.ini like in XP where these type of settings were changed. We will need to use command line and the bcdedit command.

1. Open up the command line as an administrator or user w/admin rights (right click on the Shorcut > Run As and lets you run as an admin if your on a non-admin account)

2. type this command to see the current state of affairs.
bcdedit

you prob will see something like this (my original boot option)

__________________________________________
D:\Users\seamonkey> bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {ntldr}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path tldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {1ecfd635-a8ea-11db-bb9b-ddf07c6aaff1}
nx OptIn


3. to change a value, you need to use this type of command:
bcdedit /set {identifiers name} nameofparamater "value to replace with"
for example, to change my XP os name from "Earlier Version...." to "XP Pro", i would use this command:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "XP Pro"

to change the default boot os to xp, i would use this command:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} default "{ntldr}"

then type:
bcdedit

and you should see the changes you made.

The main thing is to remember to run the command line with an admin account or as the administrator.

Also, you can type: bcdedit /help to get a list of all of the parameters/flags you can use

Tweak Indexing Options for more Performance

The indexing service in Windows Vista is responsible for making those search boxes all over the operating system lightening fast. By default Windows automatically indexes all files in your user profile folders, start menu and any files you have setup for offline access. If you have a lot of files in these locations and the files change often you can be putting a heavy load on the indexing service.  For maximum performance when using Windows Vista I recommend disabling indexing for all other locations other than the Start Menu.  This will lessen the background work that Windows Vista has to do.  It will also slow down your searches of other locations but that is the price you must pay for this performance benefit.

Follow these steps to tweak the indexing locations:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in Indexing Options and hit Enter. Indexing Options will now load. 
   
   
2. Hit the Modify button.
3. Next, click on Show all locations.
4. Scroll through the tree-view and uncheck any folders you do not want to be indexed.  When you are finished, click OK.
5. If you want to change advanced indexing settings such as what file types are indexed click on the Advanced button. Otherwise hit Close.

Make XP computers show up in Vista's Network Map

The new Network Map in Windows Vista allows you to easily create a map of all computers on your network and see how they are connected.  This works by using the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol that is only part of Windows Vista. 

To help users of mixed environments of both Windows Vista and Windows XP, Microsoft has released the Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder for Windows XP.  This will make your Windows XP computers show up in the Network Map in Windows Vista.

This package contains the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) responder. The network map on a computer running Windows Vista shows a graphical view of the computers and devices on your network and how they are connected by using the LLTD protocol. The LLTD responder must be installed on a computer running Windows XP before it can be detected and appear on the network map. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Click here to download the update for Windows XP SP2

Vista Beta Tweaks

--------------------------------------

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.

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

1. Press WinKey+R and type in “sysdm.cpl” (without the quotes).
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then under “Performance” click “Settings”.
3. In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck “Slide taskbar buttons”.
4. Press OK and close the Performance Options dialog.

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

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. LUnder “Network and Internet”, click on “View network status and tasks”.
3. In the left hand pane, click on “Open connections”.
4. Right click on your network connection (for example: Local Area Connection 3), and then click “Configure”.
5. If asked for permission to open Network Connections, click on Allow.
6. Highlight the following items and press the “Uninstall” button:
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder
7. Uncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”
8. Next, click on the “Configure” button under the name of your network adapter.
9. Click on the Power Management tab.
10. Disable all power management items listed on the Power Management tab.
11. Press OK.

1. Press WinKey+R.
2. Type “services.msc” (without the quotes)
3. If asked for permission to open “Microsoft Management Console”, click Allow.
4. 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

1. Click on the “Start” button.
2. Hover over “Computer”, right click on it and then click “Properties”.
3. On the left hand side, click “Advanced Settings”.
4. If asked to permit the action, click on “Allow”.
5. Click on the “System Protection” tab.
6. Uncheck any checkboxes listed for your hard drives.
7. Press OK.

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

1. 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.
2. In the Local Security Settings window, in the left hand pane, navigate to “Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options”.
3. In the pane to the right, scroll all the way to the bottom.
4. Set the first two User Account Protection items to “No Prompt”, and “Disabled” on the remaining three items.
5. Close the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and if you are asked to save the settings for “Console1”, press “No”.
6. 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.

1. Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
2. 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”
3. Press Enter. If asked for permission to perform this action, click “Allow”.
4. Reboot the system.

1. Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
2. 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”
3. Press Enter.
4. 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:

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

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

1. Press WinKey+R on your keyboard.
2. Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
3. If asked for permission to launch the Registry Editor, click Allow.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
5. Right click on the right hand side of the registry editor, and under New, click on “DWORD (32-bit)”.
6. Name the new DWORD value “Max3DWindows” (without the quotes)
7. 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.
8. Click OK and exit the Registry Editor.
9. Press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to shut down DWM, and then press the key combination again to restart it.
10. Press WinKey+Tab to display Flip3D.

1. Click on the clock.
2. Click “Date and Time Settings”.
3. Click on the “Additional Clocks” tab.
4. Check the box labelled “Additional Clock #1″, and from the drop down menu choose a time zone.
5. Give the clock a name, such as “Microsoft” or “Texas”.
6. Press OK.

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:

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

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.

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

1. Press WinKey+R.
2. Type “regedit.exe” without the quotes.
3. If you are asked for permission to run the Registry Editor, click on Allow.
4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail
5. Look for the DWORD (32-bit) item with the name of “Show Legacy Outlook Bar”, if it doesn’t exist, create it.
6. Double click on this value and set the value to 1.
7. Press OK and close the registry editor.

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″=-

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″=””

Any ideas before I start reversing the tweaks one by one to find out what happened?

btw--my laptop is MUCH faster now that I've done the tweaks.  The only one I could not do was the speed-tweak.zip download (the file wasn't there anymore).

thanks,

Chris

just purchased Compaq V6000T, learning about Vista!
1.6ghz dual core, 2GB ram, 60gb hd

-Christian

just purchased Compaq V6000T, learning about Vista!
1.6ghz dual core, 2GB ram, 60gb hd