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.

Control And Monitor Your Child's Activities With Parental Controls

The Parental Controls in Windows Vista lets you easily control what your child can or cannot do, and monitor his/her activites using the built-in reports.

Step 1: Create A User Account For Your Child
Parental controls work by placing restrictions on a user account. Creating an account for your child so you can apply controls to his/her account without restricting yours:
1. Click on the Start Button and select Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove User Accounts under the User Accounts and Family Safety area.
3. Select Create a New Account.
4. Create an account for your child and ensure that Standard user button is selected.
5. The new account will now appear in the User Accounts window.

Step 2: Setting Up Parental Controls
Next, enable parental controls for the account you just created:
1. Click on the Start Button and select Control Panel.
2. Under the User Accounts and Family Safety option, click Set Up Parental Controls.
3. Select your child's user account to set up the controls.
4. Clicking the On radio button to enable parental controls.


Step 3: Configuring The Options
Configure the options to control what your child can and cannot do:

a) Windows Web Filter
1. Click the Windows Vista Web Filter option.
2. Check that blocking is enabled (turned on by default).
3. Edit the Allow or block list and enter the websites that are accessible to your child.
4. Click the "Only allow Web sites which are on the allow list" check box.

Block Web Content Automatically
You can apply automatic restrictions for your child here - a High or Medium level works best. Click on the radio buttons for a summary of what is blocked. If you'd opted to allow only websites that are on the Allow list above, this entire section is unavailable because site access is completely controlled by the Allow list.

Block File Downloads
This control restricts your child from downloading files from the Internet. For younger children, this is a good setting to enable because it prevents the possible download of information you may not want to them to have.

b) Time Limits
Selecting this option brings up a calendar where you can control when your child is allowed to use the computer. Simply click and drag to turn the desired hours and days blue in order to block these times.

c) Games Your Child Play
Select the Games option in the Parental Controls window to allow or disallow game playing by setting game ratings and allowing/blocking specific games on the computer.

d) Programs
You can allow or block specific programs on your computer, i.e. you have programs installed that you do not want your child to use. Choose this option in parental controls, and then click the radio button that appears to allow your child to only access programs that you have selected. You'll see a listing of all the programs installed on your computer - check the boxes of the programs that are accessible by your child.

Step 3: View Your Child's Activities
If you open parental controls for your child's account, you'll find an option to view his/her activities. This feature lets you review what your child's activites on the Internet, system changes that have been made, applications used, games played, e-mails that have been sent/received, instant messaging activities and many more. Click the report option, then use the categories on the left side of the window to see your child's activity.

Detailed events for the start and end of sessions

Experienced users of a system like sometimes have additional details on the events taking place in their system. By default, Vista record starts and extinctions in a simplified way to oblivion as "Login" or "Extinction of the computer." The message clearly depends on the action taken in the Start menu, for example.

It is possible to apply the system of much more information about what is happening at startup or termination of a computer, and at the opening and closing sessions. Start by simultaneously pressing the Windows key and pressing R. The panel execution opens in which you state "gpedit.msc" and then confirm.

Go to "Setting up the computer", "Administrative Templates" and then finally "System". Get into the part of the right to get on "Messages detailed statements or normal." Theoretically, the function must be positioned on "Not configured". Simply double-click on it and choose "Enabled."

The diary of the events will be much more information, including start-ups and stops services.

Your children refuse to go to bed… blocking the PC

Windows Vista has a function called "Parental Control". So your children refuses to go in bed when you tell them, and it is all because they spend a lot of time on MSN or playing video games you can leave Vista to deal with that problem.

So how to use and setup Windows Vista Parental Control:

1. Type "parental control" in the search bar, Start menu and click on the associated module

2. Choose the computer user (your children) who refuses to go in bad.

3. Then click on "Time Limits":

4. Finally select the time slots where Vista will be unavailable by clicking on the boxes.

So if your child tries to open its session outside the permitted hours, Windows Vista reminds him politely that he would do better to go to bed. Similarly, if the session is open, the Vista will close without other forms of trial at a time defined.

In the parental control module you can also block certain games or programs, but also monitor user activity on the internet (downloaded files, last visited websites, etc…) thanks to the display of activity reports.

Best Vista AntiVirus

All of the major AntiVirus companies (such as Norton, McAffee, Kaspersky, NOD, AVG etc...) all have Vista compatible versions of their software out at the moment. At launch, some older product versions were incompatible with some elements of Windows Vista.

It is important to note that there is no "best" anti-virus for Vista, but a selection of choices which will all suit different people better. Some people will only use Free Antivirus solutions, and other won't mind paying to protect their PC. For this reason, this article will highlight our current recommendations for different situations.

There is a great resource called AV-Comparatives that tests all of the major Antivirus packages every few months. The results change fairly often, but it is possible to spot providers with good antivirus software from this list.

Free Anti-Virus Software

The major free anti-virus packages are:

AVG Free
AntiVir
Avast

All of these choices offer reasonably good antivirus protection, but don't offer an all round security package in the free versions. Our current pick of the bunch would be AntiVir, due to it's performance in recent tests. It is worth reading the features of each application if you are restricted to free software, as each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Paid Anti-Virus Software

There are a great number of paid antivirus software packages, the most popular ones being:

Norton
McAffee
Kaspersky
F-Prot
NOD32
Plus, paid versions of the "free" listings above

Our experience with both Norton and McAffee is bloated anti-virus software, both of which seemed to slow the system down. However, the recent Norton 360 package (offering all-in-one protection) has drawn some more positive comments. These packages may suit either a new computer user or a corporate environment, however computing enthusiasts and power users may want to look at other alternatives.

F-Prot and NOD32 are popular high-end anti virus solutions, with NOD32 in particular being highly recommended by computer experts.

Our own preference for an Anti-Virus package would be Kaspersky Internet Security (a stand along AV solution is also available). This provides all round security with excellent virus definitions and is reasonably priced. For a knowledgeable computer user, this package allows considerable customisation and is light on power usage.

How to zip and unzip files and folders in Windows Vista

In Windows vista you can simply double click on a zipped file or folder to see the contents and if you wish to extract the contents you can. All you have to do is press on extract from the top menu.

With Window vista you do not need to install an extra program to unzip a file.

We've got 15 tips and tricks for enhancing your Vista experience.

1. If you hate the look of Aero, click Start/Control Panel/Themes and you can choose a non-Aero theme, such as Windows Classic.

2. Windows Vista's installer can detect serial-ATA (SATA) drives without the need to provide a driver diskette. Don't bother creating a diskette for your SATA drives before you install Vista.

3. If, for some reason, the Vista installation gets interrupted due to an unintentional shutdown or reboot, start the computer without booting the Vista DVD. Windows Vista's installer should pick up where it left off. If it does-n't, then restart the installation over from scratch.

4. When you perform a search with Vista's new, instant search feature, you can save the search in a special folder. This powerful feature allows you to create a virtual folder which, by default, is saved in your \\Searches\ folder. Every time you open such a folder, the search results are updated.

5. In Windows Vista, you can add additional clocks to the system tray. Click the clock, and then click Date and Time Settings. Click the Additional Clocks tab. You can add one or two additional clocks to the tray and select their time zones.

6. You can save your progress in most of the games included with Windows Vista—even the carry-overs from earlier versions of Windows.

7. You can create XML documents, which are more secure than regular text files or even word processor docs. Just create a document in a word processor, print it via the options menu, and select the XPS printer.

8. If you upgrade your graphics card in preparation for Windows Vista, be sure to get a new card with as much local memory as possible. Since Windows Vista renders everything—even the desktop and windows them-selves—as 3D surfaces, local 3D memory greatly improves performance...sometimes even more than a more powerful GPU.

9. Windows Vista games deposit their saves into a special directory, called Saved Games, in your personal folder. In theory, that will make upgrading to a new system much easier for gamers, who like to migrate their game saves.

10. When using the Help system, it's usually advantageous to include Microsoft's online database in your search. The online/offline status of your search is located on the bottom right of the Help window. You can click it to toggle.

11. The Games folder is a powerful repository of all things gaming. From within, you launch games, update games with the latest patches, enable parental controls to protect younger users from harmful content, and more. Invoke it by clicking Start/Games.

12. Several applications are available to help you tweak Windows Vista for maximum performance. They in-clude TweakVI (www.totalidea.com), TweakVista (www.tweakvista.com/tweakvistautility), and VistaBootPRO (www.vistabootpro.org). And don't forget about Windows ReadyBoost, which lets you use a removable flash memory drive to boost system memory.

13. Do you use the icon in the upper left corner of system and application windows? A quick double-click closes the window (instead of a single click on the X at the upper right). Though Microsoft left the icon out in Vista, the function remains.—Sarah Pike

14. In Microsoft Windows Explorer, you can use column headers (Name, Size, and so on) to sort files. Savvy users may right-click on a column head to remove items or add some—say, Dimensions for images. There are around 45 such columns available in Windows XP. Windows Vista has well over 250, covering a multitude of metadata.—Sarah Pike

15. If you've become used to surfing your Program Menu to get to applications, you'll be in for a shock when you first use Microsoft Windows Vista. The new Program Menu shows you only recently used applications and requires extra clicks to navigate to submenus. This can be very frustrating but, thankfully, the Search box Microsoft has added to the Start menu is a great replacement—as long as you're an accurate typist. As quickly as you can type, it returns intelligent results in apps, files, even e-mail messages.—Dave Cardinal, freelance writer

Adding the Web Address Bar

I hit the web several dozen times a day. But it is usually just to check a fact or grab a quick link. So I'm continually jumping to a handful of regularly used web sites, over and over, all day long. Rather than having to open my browser all the time and then entering the web URL into the address bar, I can save time by just adding the address bar to my screen. This way, when I need to quickly jump to a web site, I can just type the URL into the address bar at the bottom of my screen and hit enter. That'll cause my browser to open right to the page I need.To add the address bar to your taskbar, right click any empty spot on your taskbar and choose Toolbars, as shown below. There you'll see a list of various toolbars you can make visible. Or even create a new toolbar to access some commonly used folder on your system. Note that this can also be done in Windows XP.

However, I don't know if you can double up the bars in Win XP as you now can in Vista. I tried it in XP and couldn't make it work.

But in Vista, it allows you to pile th

em up versus having to have every toolbar next to each other.

Granted, you may have to expand your taskbar to make enough room to pile things up. You can do this by grabbing the top of the taskbar and dragging it upwards. To return it to a single bar, just drag it back down. This move can also be done in Win XP. See the image below to understand how this is done.

Beautify Your Boot

The boot screen built into Windows is functionally useless. Why not make it look prettier? Microsoft designed a built-in boot screen that replaces the animated start-up bar (you'll see it if you awaken your PC from hibernation); it provides just as little information, but it looks a whole lot better. To enable it, run MSConfig from the Start menu, and under the Boot tab, select No GUI Boot.

Boost your performance with ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost helps your computer by giving it more high-speed memory. If your computer is running low on RAM then it has to kick a lot of applications out of high-speed physical memory to the paging file on your hard drive. This usually results in a big hit in performance and increased activity on your hard drive. ReadyBoost helps this situation by giving Windows an alternative to having to stick data into the slow paging file on your hard drive. Instead, ReadyBoost uses a USB storage device that is faster than a hard disk. This results in a performance boost because Windows will have a high speed alternative than using the slow paging file on your hard drive.

In order for ReadyBoost to work, it requires a USB storage device that meets minimum performance and space requirements:

• The device must be at least 64 MB
• The device must be USB 2.0
• It has to be able to read at 3.5 MB/s
• It has to be able to write at 2.5 MB/s

If you are unsure if your USB storage device meets these requirements, just give it a try anyways. To get started using ReadyBoost, follow these steps:

1. Plug in USB storage device.
2. Go to Computer and right click on the removable storage device and select Properties.
3. If your device is compatible, you will see a ReadyBoost tab. Click on that.
4. Select Use this device and select the amount of space on it you want to dedicate for the ReadyBoost system file.
5. Click OK and you are finished.

Enhance SATA disk performance

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 loose power you have a increased risk for data loss or corruption. If you have a laptop your chances are data loss or corruption are dramatically less since your laptop battery will kick on if your power source is lost. Let's get started:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter.
2. Expand Disk Drives.
3. Right click on your hard drive and select Properties.
4. On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance.
5. Hit OK and close Device Manager.

Create a 360 degree Virtual Desktop

A new product called 360 Desktop introduces a new way of thinking about virtual desktops. Instead of having different desktops or desktops on a cube why not have a desktop that you can scroll horizontally forever. 360 Desktop converts your desktop into a very wide never ending desktop in the shape of a cylinder. Instead of changing desktops to view different applications just scroll horizontally.

360 Desktop is even better when using one of the 360 degree panoramic wallpapers that it comes with. This will make you desktop look amazing. Best of all, 360 Desktop is free!

Download 360 Desktop Now

Speed up web browsing with OpenDNS

When you type in a domain name such as wingeek.com in your browser the computer must resolve the friendly name into an IP address of the server to download the web page and supporting files. Windows uses a DNS (domain name system) server to lookup this information. By default, Windows uses your ISP’s DNS server. Depending on your provider, the performance of their DNS resolving server varies. Some large national providers are known to provide unreliable and slow DNS servers.

The performance of the DNS server you are using is one component that affects the speed of your internet browsing. Since each domain name you type in must be resolved into an IP address, the amount of time that takes will delay the loading of any web page. Some users with overloaded ISP DNS servers can see delays in multiple seconds before web pages start to load.

OpenDNS provides free alternative DNS servers that anyone can use with any internet provider. Unlike many national internet providers, OpenDNS’s DNS servers are very fast and reliable. Using OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP servers will help you speed up your internet browsing by cutting down on the delay between resolving a domain name and getting the IP address so your browser can start loading the web page.

Configuring your computer to use OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP’s is a simple change that works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in ncpa.cpl and hit Enter. In Windows XP Click on the Start Button, click Run and then type in ncpa.cpl
2. Right click on your active network connection that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
3. On the Networking / General tab, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (version 4 on Windows Vista & 7) and hit Properties.
4. On the properties screen, select Use the following DNS server addresses and then type in 208.67.222.222 in the preferred and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate boxes.
   
5. Hit OK twice and you are finished.

Visit OpenDNS.com to learn more about some of the advanced features of OpenDNS on top of the speed benefits.

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Resize Partitions with Vista Disk Management

In Windows Vista it is now possible to resize partitions without any data loss in the new Disk Management console.

Resizing Partitions with Windows Vista:

1. Click on the Start Button and right click on Computer and select Manage.
2. Expand the Storage section and select Disk Management.
3. Then just right click on any partition and select either Expand or Shrink to change the size of the partition.

This will allow you to safely resize your partitions without any data loss.

Change Vista's Visual Style with hacked system files

Changing the visual style of Windows is something that has become very popular over the years with Windows XP. In Windows Vista, this is just starting to gain momentum with the release of a few cool hacked visual styles. These alternative visual styles are replacements for the default Aero glass style and offer slight tweaks on the design. Over time there will be more and more higher quality visual styles released for Windows Vista.

If you want to get started, you will need to download the hacked visual style skinning engine files from Rafael Rivera’s site. Rafael has both x86 and x64 versions available. These modified system files remove the requirement for visual style files to be digitally signed by Microsoft. If you need help replacing the system files with the modified files, check out my article on working with system files in Windows Vista.

UPDATE: There is now an automated utility that allows you to patch your visual style skinning engine files with just one click. Click here to check it out.

Make sure you replace all three hacked system files:

• uxtheme.dll
• themeui.dll
• shsvcs.dll

After the skinning engine’s files have been replaced and you have rebooted, you are ready to get started installing third-party visual styles.

Check out these sites for Windows Vista Visual Styles:

• JoeJoe.org
• Neowin
• AeroXP
• deviantArt

Make sure that you download visual styles that are for Windows Vista. XP visual styles will not work in Vista!

Quick aero speed tip

The transparent glass in Windows Vista computer can look very nice. However, on some computers that have underpowered video adapters will see a performance hit when running the transparent glass effect. One way to speed up Windows Vista and still get the benefits of aero, such as flip 3D and taskbar thumbnails, is to disable glass transparency.

1. Click on the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Select Windows Color and Appearance.
3. Uncheck Enable Transparency.

Changing Your Windows Vista Product Key

All of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system products are on the same disc. It is the product key information that activates the Vista product that you have purchased.

If you would like to upgrade to a different Vista operating system, Vista makes changing the product key easy.

• Go to Start > Control Panel > System
• At the bottom of the System applet, click on the link: Change product key
• Click Next
• Enter your new Vista product key ID information
• Click OK

Changing Your Windows Vista Theme

Changing your Windows Vista theme doesn't have to be difficult. Just follow these simple steps to set up a new Windows Vista theme, or select the "Classic" Windows theme.

• RIGHT Click the Desktop
• Click Personalize
• Click Themes
• Click the Theme Choices pull down menu and choose "Classic"
• Click Apply and OK

To make the Start menu work in Classic mode:

• RIGHT Click the Start button
• Click Properties
• Choose Classic Start menu
• Click Apply and OK

Changing The Name Of The Windows Vista Registered Owner

To view the registered owner of your Windows Vista operating system, click Start, type "winver", and hit Enter.

To change the registered owner information: (make sure you backup the registry before making changes)

• Click the Start Button, type "regedit" (Registry Editor) in the search box, and press Enter
• Click Continue to get past the User Account Control hurdle
• On the left panel, double-click to navigate to the key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion
• On the right panel, double-click on RegisteredOwner
• In the Value Data box, type the new name that you want to appear as the registered owner, then click OK
• Double-click RegisteredOrganization, and type inthe new organization in the Value Data box
• Click OK
• Exit the Registry Editor, run winver again to view the change

Sharing The Root Of A Drive Under Vista

Sharing folders in Vista can be difficult. Vista will allow the permissions to be set, even though you have to do it manually by Right Clicking, then hitting "share", and manually setting the permissions to everyone, but then when you try to access the folders from a remote computer, it will say "access is denied".

Here's how to share the root of a drive under Vista: (ie: Drive D: or E: Not Drive c: or the Vista OS drive)
(Note that Vista will not let you change permissions on certain folders.)

This may take time to apply the changes toall the files permissions.

• In the Start menu click Computer
• Right click on the drive and click on properties
• Click the security tab
• Click Edit
• Click Add
• Click Advanced
• Click Find Now
• Scroll down and Select "Everyone"
• Click OK and OK
• Select the permissions you want
• Click Apply ; Click OK