Vista
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 [...]
Desktop search tricks in Windows Vista
The desktop search function in Windows Vista is different from the one in Windows XP, supposedly for the better. However, not everybody likes the change. For one thing, at first glance, it doesn’t seem to have advanced search with filters like XP does. For example, how do you find files with certain extensions? You can [...]
Change Windows automatic reboot
In many Windows PCs, the default setting is to automatically reboot after a system crash. That is not always convenient since you may want to try to decipher the error message on a Blue Screen of Death. Or sometimes, the automatic reboot may get you into an endless cycle of crashing and rebooting. Therefore, you [...]
Detect malicious autorun.inf files
As previously noted, malicious software is being installed on PCs via USB sticks and CD/DVD disks by using the AutoRun feature of Windows. The malware uses an autorun.inf file in the root directory of the removable media. An application is available that warns about suspicious autorun.inf files. It is not an anti-malware program but [...]
Vista freeware
The Tweakhound (AKA Eric Vaughan) has put together a list of recommended freeware specifically for Vista systems. You’ll see some familiar programs there as well as some you may not know.
Reinstalling Windows
Ask a technical help desk something not in their script and all too often they fall back on “reformat and reinstall” as the solution to your problem. Such a drastic action is not actually called for in most cases but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it. If it comes to [...]
Windows AutoRun/AutoPlay and the autorun.inf file
Back in the days of Windows 95, Microsoft introduced the feature called “AutoRun”. It was intended for CDs and made it possible for a CD to play or start a program automatically. The actions to be taken when a CD was inserted were determined by parsing a file in the root of the CD that [...]
Freeware for 64-bit Vista
Speaking of 64-bit systems, here’s a link to a selection of freeware for 64-bit Vista that Tech Support Alert has put together. It is a selection of what the author considers best in a number of categories. Where no 64-bit version exists in a category, the article suggests a 32-bit application that works in a [...]
