7 killer tips to personalize Windows Vista
After Vista was released nearly 2 years ago, I have moved into Windows Vista and I like it too much. I wonder how people finds Windows Vista as a dman Operating System and pass all irrelevant comments on it. To help those I have compiled these tricks and tweaks for last couple of days and here is my compilation dedicated to those who still fnds Vista as one of the worst Operating system. These tips and tricks will make you more comfortable while working in Vista and will definitely increase your productivity.
CAUTION: Please back up your registry before editing it. Improper Windows Registry modification can corrupt the Operating System.
Increasing SATA Disk Drive Performance
You can change performance of your SATA hard disk drive by enabling Write Caching.
CAUTION: Please perform these steps if you are using an UPS because it is an increased risk for data loss/corruption if there is a power loss.
1. Click on the Start Button, enter Device Manager and hit Enter.
2. Expand Disk Drives.
3. Right-click on your hard disk drive and select Properties.
4. On the Policies tab, check Enable Advanced Performance.
5. Click OK and close Device Manager.
Enabling Auto-Logon in Windows Vista
1) Click Start and type ‘netplwiz’ or click that name on the Start menu
2) In the GUI window that comes up, uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” box
3) Click ‘Apply’
4) In the new dialog box that opens type the name of the account you want to auto-logon by default (if the account is not normally passworded then it blank)
5) Click OK and Exit
Removing Tool Tips When You Mouse Over Something
1) Start > Run = “regedit”
2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced
3) Set “ShowInfoTip”=dword:00000000
4) Exit and Restart the computer
Removing Splash Screen in Windows Mail
1) Start > run = “regedit”
2) HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows Mail
3) set “NoSplash”=dword:00000001
4) Exit and Restart the computer
Freeing up disk space by deleting Hibernate File:
Whlie using hibernate in Windows Vista, it creates a file called hiberfil.sys. This file can grow bigger in size and you may remove it by performing these simple steps:
1) Log on as the Administrator
2) Start Command Prompt then type: powercfg -h off
3) Press Enter
Getting rid of Arrows on Shortcuts
1) Start > Run = “regedit”
2) Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > lnkfile
3) Rename ‘IsShortcut’ to ‘AriochIsShortcut’ in the right pane
4) Close regedit and Restart the computer.
Showing Administrator name on Welcome Screen
1) Start > run = “control userpasswords2″
2) Select administrator account, click reset password (input new pass) and hit “Ok”
3) Start > run = “regedit”
4) Navigaet to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon > SpecialAccounts > UserList
5) Create “DWORD (32bit) Value” with Value Name: Administrator and Value Data: 1
6) Close regedit and Restart the computer.
Comment by sarah on 30 August 2008:
Great work buddy, Thanks for the tips. These tips really helped me. Freeing up disk space is really a good one, Thanks once again
Comment by Captain Falcon on 30 August 2008:
I have never been a fan of Vista. It has many problems but these tips are quality! Thanks man!
Comment by dishnetwork on 31 August 2008:
hey thanks ill try some of these things i got a new computer with vista but im still using my old one. maybe this will help.
Comment by Devin Bull on 31 August 2008:
Hey thanks for sharing that, that’s really useful. I’m doing it for my comp now. It’s taken me a while to get used to Vista. This helps a lot.
Comment by wilson on 31 August 2008:
I have been using the WIndow Vista for two years and I also have faced lots of problems with it…
Thanks for the article, mate and I’ve bookmarked it as well!
Comment by call of duty 5 on 31 August 2008:
thanks great read, Also your site looks excellent, ive tried my hand at design but without luck.
Comment by Ajay M on 1 September 2008:
To all, these kind of comments from you guys always makes me to provide more and more quality contents. Thank you for being my inspiration.
Comment by Jeb on 2 September 2008:
These are some great tips, and thank you for sharing them. My biggest improvement to Vista was buying more memory. I can’t believe they sold the computer without 1 gig of ram. Vista is such a memory hog it needed more then the 512MB they sold it with.
Comment by Name edited on 2 September 2008:
I agree… this article is very comprehensive — keep up the great work. I just got my in-law’s a PC (from Dell) and it was a nightmare navigating for me (I’m a Win2K/Win XP guy)… I will be implementing these things on their PC later tonight!
Comment by smallcomputing on 3 September 2008:
Some good tips to help with Vista. I’d also suggest people take a look at TweakVI. If you’re familiar with TweakUI for XP, it’s a similar thing for Vista. I know I liked a lot of the tweaks that the original provided so it’s nice to have something available to do some of these things if you don’t like playing with the registry.
Comment by Bernhard on 3 September 2008:
Occasionally I look here by and read the interesting and well written contributions. Today I would like to leave gladly a greeting from Thuringia in Germany!
Comment by Hostinghelp on 4 September 2008:
Good tips! Arrows on shortcuts was always a pet peeves of mine when it came to Windows. Thanks…
Comment by Ajay M on 4 September 2008:
@ Bernhard
Thanks for being a reader of the blog.
Comment by Flo on 5 September 2008:
thank you for the tips, especially for the one with the arrows on the shortcuts, i always wanted to get rid of them.
Comment by sweety on 5 September 2008:
Thanks a Lot…………
for providing a nice stuff for vista it will really helpful to me……..
Comment by Default on 11 September 2008:
Hey thanks for sharing that, that’s really useful. I’m doing it for my comp now. It’s taken me a while to get used to Vista. This helps a lot.
Comment by jeff on 13 September 2008:
Great tips there and thanks for sharing. Very useful indeed.
Comment by Badxp on 17 September 2008:
Nice info. It’s odd why Microsoft didn’t enable the improve SATA performance by default.
Comment by Adam Gurney on 17 September 2008:
Many people refer to Vista as a “not all tweaked” windows, and I guess you do turn that around. Those are some great tools that do offer great value in the user’s experience. There are also many extensions and software package that enhance this kind of experience.
Comment by RobinGaver on 18 September 2008:
Looks interesting. I just bought a computer with Vista and when I was going to downgrade to XP I found out that it was not possible so I´m stuck with Vista. Thanks for helping me fall in love with Vista
Comment by John Taylor on 23 September 2008:
Excellent information, I’ve been using Vista for a few months and noticed recently that things are slowing down as I use more programmes. Thanks!
Comment by Jason on 25 September 2008:
Thanks for the great tips on vista
my vista pc only has 1GB of ram so i really need to tweak it, im sure with all the hours i spent tweaking i could have used that time to buy extra ram!
As for your tip on Increasing SATA Disk Drive Performance, ive always been leary of changing this setting.
Does it make a significant different to justify the risk?
The first two ways i personalized my vista was – turn on UAC & AERO.
All the best
Jason
Comment by IT Support on 25 September 2008:
Great article, I use Vista on my laptop at work- thanks for the hints.
@Jeb: I agree more memory is essential- I upgraded from 1gb to 2gb and the difference in performance was amazing.
Comment by Dwayne on 2 October 2008:
Some useful tips here, thanks. I’m not a fan of Windows Vista, but use it alongside Windows XP. A newer version will be out shortly anyway.
- John.
Comment by Mohan on 4 October 2008:
This post has come int the right time, Vista was eating my head and I was planning on switching back to xp.
Your tips do sound interesting and I think they can make the experience with vista much better.
Comment by SEO Manchester on 7 October 2008:
I think we’ll have to wait for Windows 7 before anything gets fixed Mohan!
Comment by Boat Trader on 10 October 2008:
Great tips man, works really well and also looks great. Will have to wait and see whether the system slows down or wat….
Comment by allen on 16 October 2008:
I’m still on the fence as to my like or dislike of Vista…you give some good tips here that I’m definitely going to try out.
Heh, if they make enough of a difference along with some other tweaks…Vista may make me a happy man one day.
Take Care and thanks for the goods in your posts!
Allen
Comment by Jenny on 21 October 2008:
Thanks for the vista tips. I’ve been having nothing but trouble with it, but I think this tips will help.
Comment by Casa de comenzi on 22 October 2008:
I’m still not sure if I like vista, with all the stuff it’s said about it. What I know for sure is that it has a great visual interface.
Comment by dan on 23 October 2008:
Thanks for the tips, I see that microsoft just released a patch for vista I hope this will solve some of the problems, I almost feel like going back to XP
Comment by Carrie on 29 October 2008:
Thanks for this. I like vista, but it does need some tweaking to work really well. I swore up and down that I was going to get XP on this laptop, but I just couldn’t justify the extra cost and it hasn’t been causing me any problems.
Comment by Floyd on 31 October 2008:
These are some great tips, and thank you for sharing them. My biggest improvement to Vista was buying more memory. I can’t believe they sold the computer without 1 gig of ram. Vista is such a memory hog it needed more then the 512MB they sold it with.
Comment by Ajay M on 31 October 2008:
@ Floyd
It is kind of strange that Vista PC with 512MB memory is still available. Infact apart from Vista Basic none of the other version will run on 512 MB RAM.
Comment by Roger Hamilton on 3 November 2008:
This is a great post! Thanks for the useful tips. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Gary on 7 November 2008:
Deleting the hibernate file worked great. Thanks! Good stuff.
Comment by Presenter on 13 November 2008:
It crazy that you have to pay extra for a Vista version to be able to downgrade it to XP. I want to keep XP forever. 5 minutes with Vista and I want to through the computer out of the window!
Comment by Miss Gaver on 19 November 2008:
Ha ha… Really funny with the fuzz. Must be the first time ever in computerhistory when so many people are interested i downgrading instead of upgrading