Archive for the 'Tips' Category
10 tips and tweaks for Windows Vista experts
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006Last month, I published 10 tweaks for Windows Vista RC1. It got a good response, but it also drew some complaints. "Too basic," said some critics. "And hey, those aren’t all tweaks."
OK, fair enough. To satisfy the critics (you know who you are), I present 10 expert tweaks for Windows Vista RC2. No beginner-level stuff [...]
Windows Vista Build 5270 Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006The long awaited 3rd CTP of Windows Vista™ has finally arrived. We got around to installing it Monday evening and began testing out the build, putting it through its paces. Everything seems to be coming together now, the user interface looks more polished, there are a lot of new features included, and driver issues with [...]
10 things you should do before installing Windows Vista on a computer
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006Windows Vista’s enhanced functionality and snazzy Aero Glass visual effects will demand steeper hardware requirements for the machines you support. Check this list to make sure you cover all the bases before deciding what Vista versions those machines will be able to run.
Early indications are that Windows Vista will be the most comprehensive operating system [...]
HOW TO: Coax retro DOS games to play on Vista
Saturday, October 14th, 2006Remember all those awesome games back in the pre Windows days? Space Quest, Commander Keen, Doom…no one had heard of Blizzard, and Sierra ruled supreme.
Of course, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. Those games could be quite finicky about the machines they played on, so many hours were devoted to tweaking those AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS [...]
Making Vista run legacy applications is easy
Saturday, October 14th, 2006Well looks like I need to bust another myth about Vista not being able to run legacy applications. Mary Jo Foley writes that Virtual PC might theoretically give Vista a way to run all those legacy applications that will break in Windows Vista. Mary Jo opened her blog by saying:
"Microsoft has made available [...]
USB Blocking in Windows Vista Release Candidate 1
Thursday, October 5th, 2006One of the favorite enterprise features of Microsoft Windows Vista, USB device installations, gets even better in RC1. You may have heard stories of some IT departments going so far as to pour glue into USB ports in an attempt comply with data protection regulations, by preventing users from copying sensitive information onto external storage [...]
Tuning Windows Vista firewall
Friday, September 22nd, 2006At first glance, the Windows Vista firewall is disappointing to say the least. On the surface, it looks like a Windows XP leftover. In fact, the firewall’s user interface in Windows Vista is nearly identical to the interface found in Windows XP. There aren’t even any new configuration options available.
-Open Command Window Here- Built Into Vista
Friday, September 22nd, 2006How cool is this? You can now open a Command Prompt for any directory in Vista without having to download a Powertoy (like the one available for Windows XP). However, they do keep it hidden to protect users from, well, themselves. All you have to do though is hold down the Shift key and right-click [...]
10 First Tweaks to Windows Vista After Installation
Thursday, September 14th, 2006I’ve been through a few reinstalls of Windows Vista. Here are the first 10 things I do to tweak things to my liking. Hopefully someone else out there can use a few of these.
1. Get your display resolution set up the way you like
Start orb -> Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Personalization -> [...]
Virtualizing Vista
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006One of the best ways to test a new (or old) operating system is to install it in a virtual environment. Instead of messing with physical hardware, you create virtual disks, run processes on a virtual CPU, test what happens when you add some virtual memory, and save the whole thing as a file that [...]
