Vista
Quick way to configure Windows user accounts
If you want to add/modify a user account or change a user password in Windows, you can go the long way through Control Panel or you can take a shortcut. In Windows XP, go to Start-Run and enter
control userpasswords2
In Windows Vista, enter the same command in Start Search.
Restore the Run line to the Vista start menu
The Start-Run line is very useful in Windows XP but Microsoft decided to more or less supersede it in Vista with the Start Search facility. The Run line is omitted from the Start menu in the default Vista configuration but it can be restored. There are still times when I want to use the Run [...]
Windows not so “Genuine Advantage”
I’ve been complaining for a long time about Microsoft’s anti-piracy measures that go under the oxymoronic name “Windows Genuine Advantage” (WGA). In addition to continually harassing legitimate purchasers of Windows software, WGA is considered by many to contribute to security problems on the Internet. At ZDNet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a post, It’s time for Microsoft [...]
Quick way to configure Vista folder options
Managing files and folders in Windows is done through Windows Explorer and there have always been a number of settings for configuring the ways that folders are presented and managed. Many of these settings can be found in the Folder Options dialog panel. There are a variety of possible ways to open Folder Options, depending [...]
Today is Windows patch Tuesday
Today is the regular monthly patch day for Windows and other Microsoft programs. This month brings an especially large bunch of security fixes. Some of the security holes being patched are already being exploited so be sure to apply all the critical and important patches. At ZDNet, Ryan Naraine reports:
Microsoft’s April batch of security patches [...]
Automatic distribution of IE8 to begin
Microsoft has announced that it will begin pushing out Internet Explorer 8 through automatic update:
Starting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will [...]
Windows Vista tweaking utility
Prior to Vista, Microsoft provided an unofficial utility called Tweakui that allowed for conveniently customizing a number of system settings. There is no Vista version of Tweakui but Ramesh Kumar has written a similar free utility called Ultimate Windows Tweaker that is available at The WinVista Club. I briefly mentioned this utility back in November [...]
Quickly open System Restore
Speaking of System Restore, sometimes you want to make a restore point in addition to the regularly scheduled ones. Opening System Restore through Control Panel can require several steps but there are quicker ways. In an old post, I showed how to create a shortcut for quickly opening System Restore in Windows XP. In Vista, [...]
What does Windows System Restore do?
Microsoft’s opaqueness about many aspects of Windows is sometimes puzzling. I suppose the near-secrecy about technical things like the details of the Registry is because Microsoft doesn’t want anybody to mess with it. But I can’t figure out why the descriptions of useful functions like System Restore are so vague. Without more information, far [...]
Not much new in Vista service pack 2
Windows Vista service pack 2 is now a release candidate so it is pretty close to done. eWeek reports on what’s in SP2 and says there isn’t much notable other than an upgraded desktop search function.
Vista SP2 is near
The completed service pack 2 for Windows Vista should be ready soon. At ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley writes:
Microsoft is broadening the pool of testers getting the near-final Release Candidate (RC) bits of Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2008 SP2.
On February 25, Microsoft began providing subscribers to its TechNet and Microsoft Developer [...]