In Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer shows Windows Media Player in black. In Windows Vista, Internet Explorer shows Windows Media Player in white. There is no change in functionality or productivity - they are just different colours for different operating systems.

Natural language when searching is when you type in “how you would talk” into Windows Search. If you have taken pictures on a camera from last week and you want to find them, sure you can select the criteria from certain dates of the week, but with natural language enabled, you can search for “photos taken last week” and they’ll come up. See below:

This extra feature enables you to search normally as you would with search items and file/folder names, but can seriously improve your searches with standard English language. To enable this:

1. Go to Computer, and in the menu bar select Tools then Folder Options.
2. Select the Search tab at the top.
3. In the “How to search” part, make sure the “Use natural language search” box is ticked.
4. Apply then OK.

Other things you can search for include types like:

• Email to Jabez Gan about hosting
• Music rated *****
• Movies downloaded last week
• Card games

Source: Torres Talking

The simple answer is no. Screen savers will actually increase the energy used by your PC compared to idle or screen blanking modes. If you want to personalize your PC, a good alternative is to use photographs or other images as wallpaper, not as a screen saver.

With early generation personal computers and displays, screensavers were introduced to avoid permanent imprinting of images on displays during long periods of non usage.  Over time screensavers have taken on more of a personalization role and the need for them has become obsolete due to improvements in display technology.  Screensavers run when a PC is not in use thus they are also energy inefficient as opposed to putting the PC to Sleep or simply using display blanking.  Keep in mind the PC is not in use thus there is no one there to see the screensaver.

Source: Views on Vista

Sleep will not disconnect you from the Internet if you have a broadband connection. Broadband internet connections are always connected; thus when you resume from sleep mode, your internet connection will reconnect automatically. However, if you have a dial-up connection your connection will be disconnected.

If you are actively downloading something, your machine will continue to stay awake until the download completes. However, your screen may blank, but this will not impact your download.

Source: Views on Vista

If you are using the sleep feature, you do not need to turn off the PC each night. The majority of computers will use less than four watts of energy in overnight sleep mode and a little less than 2 watts if it is shutdown all the way. However, if you are taking an extended vacation, you may want to turn your computer off and also unplug the AC power adaptor. Even in off mode, most power adaptors will continue to draw around a half a watt of power.

Source: Views on Vista

When in Windows Explorer, a few shortcuts like holding down a key on the keyboard whilst clicking can save time.

Shift + Double click = opens the folder in an Explore view in a new window
Ctrl + Double click   = opens the folder in a new window
Alt + Double click     = opens the properties for that file or folder

When Internet Explorer 7 runs in Protected Mode whilst UAC is on, anything to do with IE7 is essentially cut-off from the computer, so if a virus gets picked up then it can’t infest the rest of the machine or the user’s files. Microsoft created “integrity” which defines the permission levels of certain folders from the standard security layout. UAC runs on this premiss, by having to tell Internet Explorer that it’s allowed to write to a file or folder which has higher permissions.

Basically, sometimes because of this architectural structuring, the Favourites folder can’t be seen by IE7 which is why you can’t save, or sometimes see your Favourites. This article only relates to Windows Vista, as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 isn’t affected by this.

1. Go to Start, Run then enter cmd, then hold down Ctrl+Shift and hit Enter.
2. Navigate to where your Favourites are. Do this in Windows Explorer first, once you have found it then click in the address bar and copy the address.
3. In the Command Prompt, type cd then right click at the prompt and press Paste, then press Enter. You should now be in the Favourites folder, except in a command prompt window.
4. Copy the bold statement here: icacls favorites /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low then using the same pasting method as above, paste into the command prompt and press Enter.
5. You should now close the command prompt and restart your machine, and your Favourites should have returned.

Source: Windows-Now

The simple answer is that there is no Windows Messenger in Windows Vista. Instead you’ll have to download another instant messaging program, but recommended (as it works with your existing Hotmail/MSN accounts) is Windows Live Messenger.

With Windows Live Messenger, you can:

• Get up close and personal with free full-screen video and voice calling to 240 million Messenger users worldwide.
• You can also make cheap phone calls to landlines and mobiles.
• Share all your stuff easily and safely by just dragging files onto a Sharing Folder.
• Use Photo Swap to share photos and more during a conversation or even when you’re offline.
• Even listen to music together with Music Mix.
• Send messages to friends and family even when they’re offline.
• Also text to a mobile phone.

Download Windows Live Messenger now

No is the simple answer. Windows Ultimate Extras are only available on the finished final version of Windows Vista Ultimate, build 6000. Any pre-release versions such as Beta 1, Beta 2, RC1 and RC2 will not allow Ultimate Extras including DreamScene to work.

Windows Ultimate Extras come through Windows Update, so you never need to worry about going to a website and downloading then installing a program. Windows will check for updates every once in a while when they’re released, then provided you accept them then they’ll install straight away.

1. Go to  Start, All Programs then Windows Update.
2. In the left hand tab, select Check for Updates.
3. Accept any license agreements that may appear during the install process.

Large networks are likely to have WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) on the server which enables administrators to essentially run Windows Update on every computer they have at the same time from one screen, and also block updates which they don’t want.

At the moment (so any time around March) WSUS doesn’t see Windows Ultimate Extras and won’t automatically download and install them. This means that if your Vista machine’s updates are managed by the administrator, you’ll have to fetch them so they can logon and install them manually. But this is set to change - in the near future (estimated around April/May time), WSUS will be able to roll out Ultimate Extras to every Windows Vista Ultimate machine they have, but also have the ability to block certain updates (like the games perhaps!).

All the Wave Zero (the first set of Ultimate Extras) will be up on WSUS later this year for download.

Microsoft has built into Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the operating system’s activation deadline not just three times, but many times. The same one-line command that postpones Vista’s activation deadline to 120 days can be used an indefinite number of times by first changing a Registry key.

This isn’t a hacker exploit; it doesn’t require any tools or utilities whatsoever. Microsoft even documented the Registry key, although obtusely, on its Technet site.

The following describes the Registry key that’s involved.

1. While running a copy of Windows Vista that hasn’t yet been activated, click the Start button then go to Run (or press the Windows key + R), type regedit then OK.
2. Explore down to the following Registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL
3. Right-click the DWORD named SkipRearm and click Edit. Change this value to 00000001, save the change, and close the Registry Editor.
4. Start a command prompt with administrative rights - click Start, enter cmd in the Search box, then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. You may be asked to approve a User Account Control prompt and to provide an administrator password.
5. Type  slmgr -rearm then press Enter.
6. Reboot the PC to make the postponement take effect.
7. To extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely, repeat steps 1 through 6 as necessary

Read full story and other tricks at source.

If you have a folder view open and you wish to change the size of the icons easily - simply hold down the Ctrl key and scroll up or scroll down on your mouse to respectively increase the icon size or reduce the icon size.

You can alternatively click the Views button in the toolbar and select a predefined setting of Tiles, Details, List and a number of different icon sizes including normal icons and extra large icons.