http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb Windows Vista Knowledge Base Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:56:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/graphics/change-logon-screen-background 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/windowsserver2008/show-super-hidden-files 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/networking/save-your-network-passwords-even-if-theres-no-option-to 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/performance/verify-you-have-signed-drivers 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/ie7/shortcuts-to-a-number-of-available-internet-explorer-features 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/ie7/make-popup-windows-appear-in-new-tabs 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/performance/safely-remove-hardware-doesnt-release-the-usb-device-properly-or-at-all 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/graphics/windows-live-writer 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/graphics/windows-aero-basic-activates-but-cant-get-windows-aero-back 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/applications/constant-registration-details-on-startup "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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/settings/disable-startup-sound-when-booting-into-vista 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/system/how-to-deletereplace-a-system-file 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/security/create-an-account-lockout-policy 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/ie7/increase-internet-explorer-downloads-to-more-than-2-at-a-time 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/performance/enhance-sata-disk-performance 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! Go to your desktop, and double click Computer. Navigate ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/performance/fake-your-windows-experience-index 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/graphics/get-3d-previews-on-your-start-menu 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/miscellaneous/windows-anytime-upgrade-dvds-available 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 ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/advertisements/vistabase-update-please-read 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) ... http://www.vistabase.co.uk/kb/performance/pinned-highly-recommended-performance-enhancing-updates-for-windows-vista