Windows Vista Tips and Tricks
Windows 7 is on the horizon, but don't count Vista out just yet; follow these simple steps to make your experience smoother than ever.
by Jennifer L. DeLeo
by Jennifer L. DeLeo
It may have taken you months to be persuaded, but switching to Microsoft Windows Vista is certainly not a PC death sentence. With the release of Vista Service Pack 1, you can now enjoy a higher degree of program compatibility, an increased speed when copying large files and connecting to networked PCs, improvements in BitLocker encryption, and a configurable search option.
We know that Vista takes some getting used to—new translucent interfaces, constant security prompts, and Sidebar gadgets, oh my!—but you can't live in the shadow of Windows XP for much longer. With a little hand holding, we can make your Vista experience smoother (and more beguiling) than ever. Here are 198 tips and tricks to get the most out of Windows Vista.
1. Remove Unwanted Dual Boot in Vista
One Vista user keeps getting a dual-boot message at start-up, even though he removed the other drive. Find out how to clean up an unwanted dual boot.
One Vista user keeps getting a dual-boot message at start-up, even though he removed the other drive. Find out how to clean up an unwanted dual boot.
by Neil J. Rubenking
Q: I purchased two copies of Vista, Home Premium 32 bit and Ultimate 64 bit. I was not sure which one I wanted, so I took two 500GB hard drives and put one OS on each. After a few days of switching back and forth from one boot drive to the other in the BIOS, I decided which one I wanted. But now the system comes up with a dual-boot message at start-up. I've removed the other drive, but I'm still getting the dual-boot screen. How can I remove this without starting from scratch and losing everything? Can I do this without a large headache?—William Watson
A: Cleaning up an unwanted dual boot is a lot easier in Windows XP than in Vista. XP's System Configuration Utility (Start | Run | msconfig) has the ability to delete dual-boot information for any operating systems that are no longer present automatically. See "Remove Windows 98 from Dual-Boot" for the skinny on this technique. In Vista it's rather more of an effort, but you can still do it.
Q: I purchased two copies of Vista, Home Premium 32 bit and Ultimate 64 bit. I was not sure which one I wanted, so I took two 500GB hard drives and put one OS on each. After a few days of switching back and forth from one boot drive to the other in the BIOS, I decided which one I wanted. But now the system comes up with a dual-boot message at start-up. I've removed the other drive, but I'm still getting the dual-boot screen. How can I remove this without starting from scratch and losing everything? Can I do this without a large headache?—William Watson
A: Cleaning up an unwanted dual boot is a lot easier in Windows XP than in Vista. XP's System Configuration Utility (Start | Run | msconfig) has the ability to delete dual-boot information for any operating systems that are no longer present automatically. See "Remove Windows 98 from Dual-Boot" for the skinny on this technique. In Vista it's rather more of an effort, but you can still do it.
Click Start and type cmd, but don't press Enter. You'll see cmd.exe up above; right-click it and choose Run as Administrator. When the Command Prompt opens enter the command BCDEDIT /enum. You should see several entries, including one labeled Windows Boot Manager and two labeled Windows Boot Loader. The latter two represent the two operating systems. There may be other items listed.
Each item will have a number of lines under it including an identifier line, like identifier {current}. Probably the identifier for the Dear Departed OS will take the form of a GUID (globally unique identifier) like cbd971bf-b7b8-4885-951a-fa03044f5d71. The command BCDEDIT /delete {identifier} /cleanup should do the job—here you will replace {identifier} with the actual identifier of the unwanted OS.
This is not something I have done myself; I've just read the instructions you get when you enter BCDEDIT /? and perused Microsoft's documentation on the Web. BCDEDIT will not remove the active operating system, so you should be safe from mistakes. But I'd be remiss if I said there was no chance of screwing up. Why couldn't it be simple, the way it is in XP?
2. Some cool features take effect before the OS even boots.
by David A. Karp
Helen Keller said, "Security is mostly a superstition," which might explain why computer security is such a profitable business. Indeed, security has been a major selling point for Windows Vista, despite the fact that some of its best security features are turned off by default.
For example, a password—that teensy group of characters that none of us seems capable of committing to memory—is optional in Vista, yet you can't share files on a network without one. Of course, once you create a password, you're doomed to retype it each time you power on your PC. And thus begin the daily visits to the Welcome/log-in screen. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to tweak this seemingly invariable interface, for convenience and greater system security.
Note that all these hacks require administrator-level privileges.
Log In Automatically
To keep your password intact yet skip the Welcome screen and have Vista log you in automatically each time you start up Windows, enter the User Accounts window—but not the one in the Control Panel. To get to the first of two advanced User Accounts tools in Vista, open the Start menu and in the search box type control userpasswords2 and hit Enter. Select your username from the list, turn off the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer option, and then click OK. When prompted, enter your password (twice) and click OK.
Next, open the Power Options window in Control Panel. Click Change plan settings under the currently selected plan, and then click Change advanced power settings on the next page. Now, under the Additional settings branch, set the Require a password on wakeup option to No and click OK.
The last step is to jump to the Personalization page in the Control Panel and then click Screen Saver. Here, turn off the On resume, display logon screen option, and click OK. With all these options disabled, you'll get to your desktop more quickly and with less typing.
To keep your password intact yet skip the Welcome screen and have Vista log you in automatically each time you start up Windows, enter the User Accounts window—but not the one in the Control Panel. To get to the first of two advanced User Accounts tools in Vista, open the Start menu and in the search box type control userpasswords2 and hit Enter. Select your username from the list, turn off the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer option, and then click OK. When prompted, enter your password (twice) and click OK.
Next, open the Power Options window in Control Panel. Click Change plan settings under the currently selected plan, and then click Change advanced power settings on the next page. Now, under the Additional settings branch, set the Require a password on wakeup option to No and click OK.
The last step is to jump to the Personalization page in the Control Panel and then click Screen Saver. Here, turn off the On resume, display logon screen option, and click OK. With all these options disabled, you'll get to your desktop more quickly and with less typing.
Hide the List of Users
Of course, if you want to use your password to actually protect your PC and its data, take a step to make the Welcome screen more secure. By default, Vista shows a list of all the user accounts on your PC to anyone sitting at your keyboard, but you can hide this list with a quick hack.
Open the Start menu and in the search box type secpol.msc; press Enter to open the Local Security Policy editor. On the left, expand the branches to Local Policies\Security Options. Then, on the right, double-click the Interactive logon: Do not display last user name option, select Enabled, and click OK.
If you're using the Home Basic/Premium edition of Vista and don't have the secpol.msc file, don't fret. Just open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\System. Double-click the DontDisplayLastUsername value in the right-hand pane and type 1 into the value data field. If the value is not there, right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value, and then type DontDisplayLastUsername for the name of the new value. (It should, but doesn't, go without saying that you should back up your Registry before making any changes to it: see go.pcmag.com/saferegedit for instructions on safely editing the Windows Registry.)
Of course, if you want to use your password to actually protect your PC and its data, take a step to make the Welcome screen more secure. By default, Vista shows a list of all the user accounts on your PC to anyone sitting at your keyboard, but you can hide this list with a quick hack.
Open the Start menu and in the search box type secpol.msc; press Enter to open the Local Security Policy editor. On the left, expand the branches to Local Policies\Security Options. Then, on the right, double-click the Interactive logon: Do not display last user name option, select Enabled, and click OK.
If you're using the Home Basic/Premium edition of Vista and don't have the secpol.msc file, don't fret. Just open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\System. Double-click the DontDisplayLastUsername value in the right-hand pane and type 1 into the value data field. If the value is not there, right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value, and then type DontDisplayLastUsername for the name of the new value. (It should, but doesn't, go without saying that you should back up your Registry before making any changes to it: see go.pcmag.com/saferegedit for instructions on safely editing the Windows Registry.)
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The change takes effect right away; the next time you log out or boot your PC, you'll need to type both your username and password to log in. Note that while this hack does indeed hide the user list from would-be intruders, anyone with an administrator-level account on the PC can still see a list of users by logging in and opening the User Accounts page in Control Panel.
Rotate Your Password
Want to make your PC even more secure? Think of your password as a target and keep it moving. If you're using Vista Ultimate or Business, you can set up Windows to insist that you routinely change your password. (If you have Home Basic/Premium, you'll need to rely on a somewhat less-sophisticated solution, such as an annoying reminder in your calendar.) Open the Start menu and in the search box type lusrmgr.msc; press Enter to open the Local Users and Groups window (the second of the advanced User Accounts tools). Open the Users folder and double-click your username. Turn off the Password never expires option, click OK, and then do the same for all the other accounts on your PC (if applicable). Close the Local Users and Groups window when you're done.
Next, go back to the Local Security Policy editor (secpol.msc) and expand the branches to Account Policies\Password Policy. On the right, double-click the Maximum password age entry, and choose a length of time before each of the passwords on your PC expires; 90 days seems reasonable.
Want to make your PC even more secure? Think of your password as a target and keep it moving. If you're using Vista Ultimate or Business, you can set up Windows to insist that you routinely change your password. (If you have Home Basic/Premium, you'll need to rely on a somewhat less-sophisticated solution, such as an annoying reminder in your calendar.) Open the Start menu and in the search box type lusrmgr.msc; press Enter to open the Local Users and Groups window (the second of the advanced User Accounts tools). Open the Users folder and double-click your username. Turn off the Password never expires option, click OK, and then do the same for all the other accounts on your PC (if applicable). Close the Local Users and Groups window when you're done.
Next, go back to the Local Security Policy editor (secpol.msc) and expand the branches to Account Policies\Password Policy. On the right, double-click the Maximum password age entry, and choose a length of time before each of the passwords on your PC expires; 90 days seems reasonable.
Change the Welcome Screen Wallpaper
Unless you've decided to log on automatically, you'll undoubtedly be spending time with your PC's Welcome screen, in which case you might as well gussy it up. In earlier versions of Windows, you could change the background wallpaper with a quick Registry change, but in Vista, a little more hacking is required.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your \Windows\system32 folder. Right-click the imageres.dll file, select Properties, and choose the Security tab. Click the Advanced button, choose the Owner tab, and then click Edit. Now select Administrators in the list, and click OK in each of the four open windows. Then right-click imageres.dll again, select Properties, choose the Security tab, and click the Edit button. Choose Administrators in the list, place a check in the Allow column next to Full control, and then click OK, Yes, OK.
Now that you've taken ownership of the file, make two copies of it right in the \Windows\system32 folder and name them imageres-new.dll and imageres-old.dll.
Next, you'll need to install XN Resource Editor, a free utility available at www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/d10resourceeditor .htm. Open XN, select View | Options, and from the Choose which parser to use list, select XN Resource Editor internal resource parser. Click OK and then, from the File menu, select Open, find the imageres-new .dll file, and open it.
On the left, you'll see a tree you can use to navigate the various graphical and user-interface resources in the file; -expand the IMAGE branch and then open one of the numbered folders therein. Inside each numbered folder is a single entry representing a different resolution of the stock Welcome screen background image. Choose the one corresponding to your PC's current display resolution (the dimensions are shown in the gray box once you select the entry); if you don't know your current resolution, open the Personalization page in Control Panel and click Display Settings.
Unless you've decided to log on automatically, you'll undoubtedly be spending time with your PC's Welcome screen, in which case you might as well gussy it up. In earlier versions of Windows, you could change the background wallpaper with a quick Registry change, but in Vista, a little more hacking is required.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your \Windows\system32 folder. Right-click the imageres.dll file, select Properties, and choose the Security tab. Click the Advanced button, choose the Owner tab, and then click Edit. Now select Administrators in the list, and click OK in each of the four open windows. Then right-click imageres.dll again, select Properties, choose the Security tab, and click the Edit button. Choose Administrators in the list, place a check in the Allow column next to Full control, and then click OK, Yes, OK.
Now that you've taken ownership of the file, make two copies of it right in the \Windows\system32 folder and name them imageres-new.dll and imageres-old.dll.
Next, you'll need to install XN Resource Editor, a free utility available at www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/d10resourceeditor .htm. Open XN, select View | Options, and from the Choose which parser to use list, select XN Resource Editor internal resource parser. Click OK and then, from the File menu, select Open, find the imageres-new .dll file, and open it.
On the left, you'll see a tree you can use to navigate the various graphical and user-interface resources in the file; -expand the IMAGE branch and then open one of the numbered folders therein. Inside each numbered folder is a single entry representing a different resolution of the stock Welcome screen background image. Choose the one corresponding to your PC's current display resolution (the dimensions are shown in the gray box once you select the entry); if you don't know your current resolution, open the Personalization page in Control Panel and click Display Settings.
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You can edit the image right in XN -Resource Editor, but you'll likely want to grab a photo from somewhere else. Any photo will do, provided it has exactly the same pixel dimensions as the one it's replacing. If it's too big, use your favorite image editor to shrink and crop it to size. Too small? Just pad it with black space. When you're ready, copy your new image to the clipboard (Ctrl-C) and then return to XN and press Ctrl-V to paste it over the selected image. Save the file and close XN when you're done.
The last step is to replace the imageres .dll file with the one you've modified, but since it's in use, Windows won't let you touch it. To get around this, restart Windows. After the screen goes black, but just before you see the Windows boot screen, press the F8 key to display the Advanced Boot Options menu. (Restart again if you miss your chance.) Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and press Enter. When the Command Prompt window appears, click the window and type:
copy imageres-new.dll imageres.dll
and answer Y to confirm that you want to replace the file. When you're done, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, click the arrow next to the red button on the bottom right-hand side of the screen and select Restart. The next time you see the Welcome screen, it should look different, if not better.
The last step is to replace the imageres .dll file with the one you've modified, but since it's in use, Windows won't let you touch it. To get around this, restart Windows. After the screen goes black, but just before you see the Windows boot screen, press the F8 key to display the Advanced Boot Options menu. (Restart again if you miss your chance.) Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and press Enter. When the Command Prompt window appears, click the window and type:
copy imageres-new.dll imageres.dll
and answer Y to confirm that you want to replace the file. When you're done, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, click the arrow next to the red button on the bottom right-hand side of the screen and select Restart. The next time you see the Welcome screen, it should look different, if not better.
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