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!

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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.