I’m personally not a huge fan of the standard login screen (view screenshot), and Windows is locked down to a point where you can’t manually change the login screen background. However there are tools and programs which patch the system files for you and let you use whichever wallpaper you want from your own image collection.

1. Go here to the Stardock LogonStudio download page on Download.com.
   This is a free download and you can use it for as long as you like. VistaBase recommends this download for this article’s purposes.
2. After downloading, install the product (really easy).
3. Once it’s installed, go to Start, All Programs, Stardock, LogonStudio, then click on LogonStudio Vista.
4. You’ll see the main screen (view screenshot), click on the left hand side Create.
5. A new dialog will appear - enter a name for your new logon screen (this can be anything you want).
6. Click Browse, and search your computer for a background or wallpaper that you’d like to have as your logon screen wallpaper.
7. Click Save.
8. On the main screen, select your new logon screen then click Save.
9. Save the logon screen anywhere you like.
10. Press Apply on the main screen. This should load your new wallpaper, and also lock your computer to demonstrate.
11. Once you’ve logged back in, simply close LogonStudio by clicking the red cross in the top right hand corner.

Here you can see what a changed logon screen looks like - unfortunately I couldn’t screenshot the logon screen as it won’t let you, but I took a photo from my camera phone anyway (view screenshot).

Some files in Windows are hidden because if edited could cause harm or damage to the system. Some files however are "super hidden" to make sure that nobody touches them, as if you do touch them, they will harm the operating system.

However if you’re crazy enough or an extremely advanced user, you can change this in the Registry to see these files.

1. Go to Start then Run (or press the Windows key + R), type in regedit and hit Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
3. Change the value of the SuperHidden key to 1.
4. Close Registry Editor.

You may need to restart your computer to see the effects.

Have you ever had a password box for a network resource and you can’t click the option to save your username and password? Well there is a way to get around this, and it’s fairly simple as well.

1. Go to Start and in the Search box, type in User Accounts and hit Enter.
2. On the left hand side, click Manage your network passwords.
3. This is where you can add/change passwords for different network resources and folders. To add one, select Add.
4. Fill out the dialog with the appropriate information; server name, username and password.
5. Click OK and close your dialogs open on screen.

Give it a go - see if you can access your network path without entering a single username or password!

.

Most of the problems you might get using any version of Windows is unsigned drivers. Drivers are basically bits of software which enable your operating system to see your hardware in your computer, and get the most out of it, such as brilliant graphics, high network speeds or really crisp sound. Badly written drivers don’t get signed by Microsoft because they won’t pass certain quality control measures, and unsigned drivers can cause the Blue Screen of Death, crashes or really bad performance.

Using a tool in Windows Vista, lets you check your drivers to see whether they are signed or not, and for advanced users lets them see much more detail.

1. Click Start and type in the Search box, verifier then click the Verifier application in the list.
2. For standard users, click the first option then click Next (see screenshot).
3. Again, for standard users, click the first option and click Next (see screenshot).
4. It may take a few minutes for Windows to detect all of your drivers, so be patient.
5. The next screen will give you a list of all the unsigned drivers needing to be verified. This gives you an idea of which drivers you need to get from manufacturers websites in order to get fully working drivers (see screenshot). Click Finish.
6. You may need to restart your computer - but this dialog (see screenshot) won’t mean that your computer will restart just this moment, so no mad panic to save your work.

Source: TweakVista

When Tweak-XP Pro, it gave you options to lock, restart, shutdown and tell your computer to sleep, all from desktop shortcuts. Using the new underlying open-ness of the code in Internet Explorer (techy’s, the function of API’s and things like that), you can have shortcuts on your desktop which do similar things like clearing your history and Temporary Internet Files.

1. Right click your desktop (or other folder where you want these shortcuts), and select New, then Shortcut.
2. For each shortcut that you want, copy and paste one of the following into the Location box you see.
• Clear Temporary Internet Files:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8
  
• Clear Cookies:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2
  
• Clear History:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1
  
• Clear Form Data:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16
  
• Clear Saved Passwords:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32
  
• Delete All:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255
  
• Delete All and Clear Add-ons Settings:
  RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351
  
3. Click Next, then enter the name of the shortcut accordingly (so you don’t forget what it does).
4. Click Finish.

You could drag and drop these onto your Quick Launch bar (just right of the Start menu), or even have them in your Startup folder, thus clearing all selected data when you first logon; after all, there’s nothing like starting fresh first time you login in the morning

Source: TweakVista

The one great thing about Windows Internet Explorer 7 is that it has tabs - which means that you no longer have loads of windows cluttering up your taskbar, leaving one single window open with all your different pages on. However, some people still think that pop-ups are a great thing, which their not. There’s a way to configure it so any popup you might get, can be opened into a new tab.

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Press Alt to see the menu bar if you can’t already see it, then hit Tools then Internet Options.
3. On the General tab, look for the Tabs section. Click Settings.
4. The second part of the new dialog, click the button that says "Always open pop-ups in a new tab".
5. Click OK, (if the Apply button is clickable, click this, don’t worry if it’s not) then OK again.

After this, popups will now open in new tabs, thus saving your taskbar from an IE-overload.

Microsoft have updated the Knowledge Base article (KB931619) and offers some hotfixes which aren’t actually available. This is because the hotfixes haven’t been tested properly and need to go through more thorough testing, and those seriously affected by this can still ask for the patch.

Some people find that when you click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area, and try and safely remove a device, the device doesn’t get released as you might think it would, and also doesn’t tell you that it hasn’t been released.

The reason the knowledge base article has given, is that there’s a timing issue in which your USB device’s memory may be released from the system whilst the system is trying to remove the device, thus causing the computer to not actually find the device information (as it’s just removed it) and doesn’t realise that the device isn’t connected and just ends up freaking out and getting confused. Bless!

You could waste your time waiting for the Microsoft Support people to get back to you, but I saved you the hassle and offered up downloads for you.

Please note: these are saved on my SkyDrive because they password-protected and timebombed the files they sent me. I extracted them and saved them so that they’d always be available. They are the same patches from Microsoft and are still digitally signed.

               Vista 32-bit version                                   Vista 64-bit version

If you’ve found that your using Vista and over a long period of time (more than 4 hours), the desktop might not seem to update properly. For example, you may notice that parts of the screen go black, parts of the screen become completely transparent, toolbars might not appear and the taskbar might have shifted from the bottom of the screen to another part of the screen.

Well the Microsoft Knowledge Base seems to have some workarounds which might help. Basically, there are two things you can do (some may notice that the knowledge base article has another method, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it sometimes doesn’t work).

Method 1
Download the hotfix which should repair your desktop and stop this happening again.

Update for Windows Vista for x86-based Systems (KB932406)
Install this update to resolve an issue where the Windows desktop may not refresh correctly.

Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB932406)
Install this update to resolve an issue where the Windows desktop may not refresh correctly.

Method 2
Don’t download the hotfix, and just logoff and log back onto your computer - but you may find that this issue continues over long periods of time.

In some cases, Windows Aero cannot run properly because it doesn’t have enough memory to run (maybe you have loads of memory intensive applications running?) or perhaps an application is running which is incompatible with Windows Aero. Those who watch videos online and use DivX may experience this. Surely once you close DivX, Windows Aero in all it’s transparent goodness should reappear… but it doesn’t. Here’s the quick fix:

1. Click on  Start then Run (or press the Windows key + R), type in services.msc then press OK.
2. Under the Name column in the right hand pane, scroll down until you find “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager“. This service basically controls Windows Aero, your theme, and all the other windows open on screen.
3. Right click this service, then select Restart.

   The screen may flicker for a few seconds, but this is perfectly normal. If the screen remains off, wait a minute and ensure that the hard drive isn’t spinning (if there’s no clicking from the unit, you’re OK) then restart the computer by simply pulling the plug.

4. Windows Aero should now be working. Simply close the window by clicking the red cross in the top right hand corner.

Once you’ve installed a new program or application, you might find that every time you run that application, it’ll ask you for registration details, even though you’ve already registered. This is because of UAC, and I’ll explain why.

The registry key that contains your registration details isn’t being applied to the actual registry because UAC (User Account Controls) is running the virtual registry, to stop any kind of damage being done. This means that the actual registry doesn’t contain the registration details that the application requires.

The way to resolve this is either disable UAC, or run the application that has the registration problem as an administrator. Most users are “standard users” (to make Windows more secure, and virtualising things which might cause problems, like system files and the registry), but running a program as an administrator removes this protection.

You can usually do this by:

1. Find the application you wish to run as the administrator (thus enabling registry entries for program registration) in the Start menu.
2. Right click the icon, and select Run as administrator.
3. You will most likely be given a username and password field. Type “administrator” as the username (if it’s not already there), and then type in the administrators password.

After this, it’ll run as if the administrator user is running the application, even though a standard user might be logged on.

“There was a lot of controversy of the new Windows Start sound in Windows Vista. Originally, Microsoft was planning on making this a mandatory sound that users would not be able to disable.  This sounds like a great idea from a Marketing perspective since all Windows users world-wide would hear the same notes when their computer starts up.  However from a user perspective this could be a nightmare.  Thankfully Microsoft responded to the vocal Microsoft community and gave users the option to disable this sound.” - Source: TweakVista

To disable the startup sound:

1. Click on  Start and go to Control Panel.
2. Click on Sound.
3. In the Sound dialog box, click on the Sounds tab.
4. Untick the box where it says Play Windows Startup sound.
5. Apply and OK.

You’ll notice this next when you first start up your computer next.

In many of the tweaks around and about VistaBase, you sometimes need to delete or replace a system file. In Windows Vista this is not always as easy as it sounds since the system files are protected better by the file system than in XP. There are two steps that you need to do in order to be able to replace or delete a system file:

1. First you need to take ownership of the file. At the Run command (press Windows key + R), type in:
         takeown /f  “path and file name”     to take ownership from a command prompt.
2. Next, you need to give your account full control permissions on the file. Run from the same command prompt:
         cacls “path and file name” /G <your username>:F     to get full control from a command prompt.

Source: TweakVista

If you live in a house or work in a place where your friends or co-workers are constantly trying to access your files or pictures, or trying to hack into your account - don’t let them! Other than that, it’s a security method to deter people from guessing your password. Using an Account Lockout Policy (as a lot of network administrators do), it locks out people from trying to attempt your password by locking the screen out so they can’t type anything in for a set period of time. Besides all - “brute force attacks” where a hacking tool tries to guess your password through a number of different ways, renders this entirely useless.

To set this up:

1. Click on  Start then Run (or press the Windows key + R) and type in secpol.msc then press OK.
2. In the left hand pane, click the small arrow next to Account Policies, then click on the link to Account Lockout Policy.
3. In the right hand pane, you’ll have the following options - editing these are really easy, just follow my lead.

   

   1.   Account lockout threshold: Double click on this, and change it to how many times an incorrect password
         can be entered before the logon screen locks.
   2.   Account lockout duration: How long the logon screen will lock for (so nobody can enter passwords).
   3.   Reset account lockout counter after: If an account lockout threshold is defined, this reset time must be less
         than or equal to the Account lockout duration.

4. Reboot your machine, and these new settings will come into effect next time you logon.

Internet Explorer 7 only allows you to download two files from the same server at a time.  This is not a software limit but rather a limit imposed based on the web standard. Since this is simply a software setting, it can be modified and you can increase the limit to something much high such as 10.  Follow the steps below to increase your maximum downloads from the same server:

1. Click on  Start and click Run (or press the Windows key + R) and type in regedit then press OK.
2. When Registry Editor loads navigate through
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion and Internet Settings.
3. Right click on MaxConnectionsPerServer and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
4. Right click on MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
5. Reboot the machine and next time you want to download more than 1 item, you can download more than the number you set in the Registry entry.

Source: TweakVista

Do you have a SATA disk drive in your computer? If so, you can squeeze a little more performance out of your hard disk.  This speeds up the performance of your hard disk by enhancing write caching. However, if your computer is not connected to a battery backup and you loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or corruption. If you have a laptop, your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. Let’s get started:

1. Click on  Start and type in in “Device Manager” in the Search bar and hit Enter.
2. Expand Disk Drives.
3. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
4. On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance.
5. Hit OK and close Device Manager.

Source: TweakVista

Sick of having a computer which is 2.0 or 2.5? Well I’ve got a high-spec computer and it only runs at 2.2 which is to my dismay. However, you can easily change that… either get better hardware, or just hack the Windows Experience Index!

1. Go to your desktop, and double click Computer.
2. Navigate to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore.
3. Open up the most recent file in that folder. Make sure that your account has write access to that file. If not change the file permissions (right click - Properties - Security tab - Edit)
4. Search through the file looking for the WinSPR entry. These are the items you want to edit.  The maximum value you can use is 9.9.

   

5. Save the file and you just turned your 2.1 system into a supercomputer.  

There is a brilliant, innovative new program out there, completely free of charge, which animates the preview picture in the Start menu. Whether you hover over Search, the Control Panel, or nothing and you’re looking at your display picture, you can see it turn 3D and sway inwards and outwards.

It uses a small file to hook itself onto explorer.exe (which is what makes files and folders and actual windows pop up to browse through), so no actual program sits in the system tray.

All you need is Windows Aero to work, and you should be well on your way.
Download from Ave’s Vista Stuff.

Once upon a time, Windows didn’t come in different versions or flavors. You bought Windows and it was Windows from A to Z, or technically W to S. Some might call it better times, but times change and so have market demands. Since now we have 5 versions of Windows for the consumer market - although some insist to round-up to a bazillion, it only seems fair to be able to upgrade between versions when it is required, thus Windows Anytime Upgrade was born.

Up until May, Anytime Upgrade was only accessible through a proprietary online ordering system provided by Microsoft, limiting the availability and accessibility of those who either don’t have a credit card or simply aren’t comfortable with purchasing online. From May till now, Microsoft has been quietly offering these Upgrade Packs, an off-the-shelve product for Anytime Upgrade. Not much has been said about these packs, and it’s not even mention on Microsoft’s own website which made me wonder what Microsoft intends to do with these.

A Microsoft spokesperson had this to say,

When did Windows Anytime Upgrade become available through these Upgrade Packs?

The initial version of Windows Anytime Upgrade was available at consumer launch in North America and EMEA on January 30th in the form of a card with a product key. Since then, we’ve redesigned the SKU to also offer a pack with a DVD and a product key inside. The English version of this pack was made available in the North America, EMEA and APAC markets in May, with localized SKUs made available in June. In the US market, the Windows Anytime Upgrade Pack is available as a service upgrade at retailers and can be purchased on Amazon or at Circuit City and Best Buy. In EMEA and APAC customers can purchase the pack through several different software distributors and retailers.

How does that work – is a reseller still involved in some way? Or are the bits available directly from MS on CD/DVD (with a new product key)?

Upgrade Packs are available through direct retail in response to requests from our retail partners. Direct retail offers customers the choice of another way to acquire WAU, coexisting with the online WAU model. When customers purchase the upgrade at windowsanytimeupgrade.com, they receive a digital certificate download and product key. With the upgrade pack, customers insert the DVD, enter the product key and proceed with the upgrade. The bits are also available on a WAU DVD that they can purchase at the same time.

To me this sounds like the ideal alternative for Anytime Upgrades. From a user’s point-of-view, purchasing software online is a scary thing. The question everyone asks is, what happens if you lose the electronic key or digital license? Even with all the fanciness and wrapping of “Digital Locker“, it is still a tough choice over something you can hold on to and gather dust on your bookshelf.

If anyone’s interested in upgrading their version of Windows Vista to Ultimate for any other reason than to enjoy the luxuries of Windows Ultimate Extras - because they don’t exist, then check out these Upgrade Packs.

Source: Long Zheng

Hello,

Sorry there haven’t been many updates recently - I’ve been bombing back and forth from London over the last 2 weeks or so and I’ve been really busy - thankfully had a quick holiday to celebrate one of my best friends’ birthday.

Having said that, VistaBase has partnered with the Windows Vista Magazine so there will be loads more articles coming very soon. Please don’t lose faith - this is one of the best sites out there for Vista news with almost absolutely no adverts (except occasionally for RSS readers).

Thanks for sticking around

Zack
zackwhittaker@live.com

Some of you might have heard about a “wonderpill” equivalent in form of a few updates from Microsoft for Vista which were leaked last week from the beta testing community. Microsoft has now made these updates public and are available for all versions of Windows Vista, and for x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) machines.

 We at VistaBase recommend highly that you update your system with these hotfixes. Although they may not make your computer more secure, you should notice a great deal in performance after the patches are installed - even if you have a super fast computer.

 Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB938979)
This is a performance update. Install this update to improve the performance of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

 Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB938194)
This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

 Update for Windows Vista (KB938194) 
This is a reliability update. Install this update to improve the reliability of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.
  
 Update for Windows Vista (KB938979)
This is a performance update. Install this update to improve the performance of Windows Vista in certain scenarios.

This update resolves the following issues:

• The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base 932539. The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver on a Windows Vista-based computer 
• The computer stops responding, and you receive a “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer’s power button.
• The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
• The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
• The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
• A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
• Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
• You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
• Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
• Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
• Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
• The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
• You receive a “Stop 0×0000009F” error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 931671 - Error message when you put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep while a PPP connection is active: “STOP 0×0000009F”.

For more information regarding these hotfixes, please visit the Knowledge Base article relating to these downloads.

Thanks to Bink for the posting.