How to resize a partition in Windows Vista

Because programs such as Partition Magic don’t work on Windows Vista, some of you may be wondering how to resize partitions without losing any data. The good news is that you probably won’t be needing those programs because Windows Vista can manage your partition resizing.

To resize a partition with Windows Vista, follow these steps:

Be sure to back up any valuable information, because there is a slight chance that data can be lost when dealing with partitions.

1) Click on the Start menu

2) Right click on Computer and click on Manage

3) You may get a User Account Control dialog here; just click Continue

4) In the left pane, open up the Storage category and click on Disk Management

5) Here, you will find your partitions for your disks. Right click on the partition you’d like to modify.

6) Click on Extend Volume or Shrink Volume to extend or shrink the selected partition.

If this doesn’t work for you because some options were greyed out, you can check out this post for an alternate method.

Add Internet Explorer Icon to Windows Vista Desktop

I know what you are thinking. Can't I just make a shortcut? Of course you can. But using this tweak you can recreate the native Internet Explorer icon the way it used to be in prior versions of Windows.

The native icon gives you two benefits: First, you can right-click and get directly to the Internet Options panel, and secondly it doesn't have the shortcut icon arrow.

Manual Registry Tweak

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]

Find the key named "{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}" on the right-hand side, and then set the value to 0. If the key does not exist, then create a new 32-bit DWORD value with the same name. To remove the icon, you could set the value to 1 instead.

Note that if you are using the classic start menu, you should create this value under the ClassicStartMenu key instead of the NewStartPanel key.

Download Registry Hack

Even easier, you can just use one of the registry files I've prepared. Just unzip and double-click to enter into the registry.

Add IE Icon to Desktop

Remove IE Icon from Desktop

Show Your Name In Vista Taskbar

go 3D

Windows Vista Repair Options

Windows Vista does not contain a Recovery Console, therefore doing a repair install like that we are familiar with in Windows XP is not possible. Instead, if you need to replace the operating system, you either have to re-install Vista from scratch, or else re-image the drive from a backup source created using the Windows Vista Backup Status and Configuration application. this then effectively replaces the current copy of Windows Vista with a shadow copy you backed up previously.

This backup option is the only one provided by Windows Vista. of course there are other ways of imaging your hard drive, but these require the user to purchase a third party application.

Of course, re-imaging is one option. If, however, you are simply experiencing startup problems or perhaps you cannot readily access your system and need to do a system restore, then you need to look at Windows Vista's Repair Your Computer options.

How you access the repair options will depend upon whether you have a Windows Vista installation disk or whether your operating system came pre-installed by your PC manufacturer.

Windows Installation Disk

NOTE

With the Complete PC Restore Option you must have made a backup of your system, either on your hard drive or on a set of DVDs, in order to use this option. If you don't have a backup then don't use this option

1/ make sure your PC can boot directly from the Vista DVD. Obviously, most modern PCs can. With older machines you may need to check the PC's BIOS

2/ Start the PC

3/ Immediately insert the Windows Vista DVD into the DVD drive

4/ A Black screen will appear with the words 'Press any key to boot from CD or DVD'

5/ Press Any key to start the booting process

6/ A new screen will now appear with a progress bar. The legend say's 'Windows is loading files'

7/ After a few minutes the Microsoft copyright window ill appear and another small progress bar will be visible

8/ You will next see a Blue curtained screen

9/ After a short while the Language option screen will appear

10/ Select your language and keyboard language and the Click the Next button

11/ At the bottom left of the next screen - the Install screen, Click on the Repair Your Computer option

12/ The System recovery options will now search for your Windows Vista installation

13/ Once the Vista installation has been located, Highlight it and then Click the Next button

14/ You are now presented with the following set of recovery options

• Startup repair - This automatically fixes problems that are preventing Windows from starting
• System Restore - This will Restore Windows to an earlier point in time
• Windows Complete PC Restore - This will completely restore your entire PC - programs, system settings and files - from a back up that you have previously created (Available in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions only)
• Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - This checks your computer's memory hardware for errors
• Command Prompt - This opens a Command Window

15/ Click on the Option you require and follow the onscreen prompts

Pre-Installed Options

NOTE

If no repair options are available your PC manufacturer may have replaced the tools or customised them. Check your Computer Manual before proceeding.

1/ Start your PC

2/ If your PC has one operating system Press and Hold the F8 key as your PC starts. If the Windows Logo appear you will need to start again

3/ If you have a dual boot system a Boot option menu will appear. Highlight the Vista operating system and Press the F8 key

4/ In both cases, if all has gone well, an Advanced options screen will now appear

5/ Highlight the repair Your Computer option and Press Enter

6/ Select a keyboard layout, and then Click the Next button

7/ Next select your user Name and Enter your Password, then Click OK

8/ The recovery options should now appear

Make menu load faster

A simple registry tweak will allow you to speed up the menu. First load the registry editor by launching regedit from the Run menu (Press WINDOWS KEY + R to access the run menu).

Then, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop in the side panel, then right click on MenuShowDelay and select Modify.

Now, enter the menu delay time in milliseconds (1 is near instant, do not enter 0!) and press OK

Once you have restarted your menus will slide at near instant speeds. The default setting is 400 should you wish to restore the default menu setting.

Vista Task Manager

Loading the task manager in Windows Vista is a little different to Windows XP(where pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL would load it). Pressing this key combination now brings you to a task screen where you can perform a few system commands, including loading the task manager.

Simply press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to load it instantly, much easier than right clicking on the taskbar to load it.

Disable Hibernation & delete the Hibernation file

Windows places a file on your hard drive that it uses when your computer goes into hibernation mode. If you do not use hibernation mode, or your computer does not properly support it, you may want to disable hibernation and clear the file off your hard drive to free up some space (the file will use as much space as you have in physical memory, so if you have 1GB of RAM, it’s going to use 1GB of your hard drive space).

Disable Hibernation:

1. Click Start, All Programs, and then right click on "Command Prompt".

2. From the context menu click on "Run as administrator".

3. If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

4. In the command prompt window, type "powercfg –h off" (without the quotes).

5. Close the Command Prompt window.

Delete the Hibernation File:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then click "Disk Cleanup".

2. If prompted to choose a drive, select the drive in which Windows Vista is installed on to and press OK.

3. Disk Cleanup will scan the hard drive and present you with a list of options.

4. Check "Hibernation File Cleaner", and then click OK.

5. When asked "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?" click on the Delete Files button .

This and more articles can be found at: http://blog.symbiancentral.com

Verify the Integrity of Windows Vista System Files

Windows Vista includes a utility that will scan your system for corrupt, changed or missing system files. Running this from the command prompt is much easier than booting off the dvd into repair mode. To run this utility, you will need to open a command prompt in administrator mode. You can do that by right clicking the Command Prompt in the list and choose "Run as Administrator" Once you have an administrator command prompt open, you can run the utility by using the following syntax: SFC [/SCANNOW] [/VERIFYONLY] [/SCANFILE=] [/VERIFYFILE=] [/OFFWINDIR= /OFFBOOTDIR=] The most useful command is just to scan immediately, which will scan and attempt to repair any files that are changed or corrupted. You can run that command with this command: sfc /scannow

Using System Restore in Windows Vista

There are two places that you can use the system restore feature from. From within Windows, you can just type restore into the Start menu search box, and you’ll immediately see System Restore at the top of the start menu, or you can type rstrui into the search box and hit enter. Your choice. You will immediate see a screen where you can choose to roll back the system to the last restore point. You can select “Recommended restore”, and just click next, or you can choose a different restore point. If you do choose a different restore point, you will see a list of restore points that you can choose from. Click one of them, and you will have to confirm and then restart your computer to roll the system back. If your system won’t boot If you can’t even get into windows, you can boot off the installation dvd, and choose the “Repair your computer” option on the lower left hand side. Click next on the next screen. Now choose System Restore from the System Recovery dialog. It will take a few seconds to come up, and you will see the same screen that you would see in Windows. Click next, and on the next screen select the drive that your copy of Windows Vista is installed on. Click Finish, and Vista will roll back to the previous restore point. Really pretty simple stuff. I absolutely recommend keeping the system restore feature on in Vista !