Great Vista tweaks

Category Soft, Vista, Tips & Tricks | Permalink | 12. March 2007

« iPhone Like Touchscreen Technology Youtube Video | Free Style USB Optical Mouse Strapped to Your Finger »

Vista Interface

Flip3d

WinKey+Tab opens the Flip3d task switcher, then use your mousewheel to scroll through the open programs while continuing to hold down WinKey+Tab.WinKey+CTRL+Tab leaves the the Flip3d task switcher open after you release the keys, handy for showing off Vista or just keeping an eye on things.

RUN command

WinKey+R opens the RUN command box, which is now nested inside the All Programs menu. If you really miss it though, you can add it back to the Start Menu:Right click on the Start button, and click “Properties”. In the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” dialog, click “Customize”. Scroll down and in the list you shall find “Run command”. Check the box next to it. Close any open dialogs by pressing OK. Also, typing in a program name in the Start Search box in the Start Menu and hitting ENTER will execute the program, just like the RUN command line, and even accepts switches. Try it, you might like it.

Display Windows Explorer Classic Menus

You may have a bit of a hard time adjusting to Windows Vista’s new Windows Explorer window style, which doesn’t include the menu.There are two ways to bring it back, one is temporary and the other is more permanent:If you want to view the menu but not have it always displayed, simply press the Alt key. The menu will fade into view.If you want the menu to always be turned on, click the first button on Layout configuration button (first button on the top most bar in Windows Explorer). From the drop down list, check “Classic Menus”.

Desktop Icons

You can resize the large Vista desktop icons by right clicking on the Desktop, View, and selecting one of three sizes, Large, Medium, and Classic.But wait, there’s more! You can variably adjust the size of the icons by left-clicking on the desktop, then holding down the CTRL key while spinning your mouse wheel up and down. Little tip here, if you’re going for small icons, you may want to bump the mousewheel up one more notch after you’ve hit the smallest setting. That leaves the icons at the same size, but retains things like shadows and perspective, at the absolute smallest setting the icons are “flat”.

Turning off Aero

You can toggle Aero on and off by using the Ctrl+Shift+F9 keyboard shortcut.Add another time zone to your clock
One nice addition to Windows Vista is the ability to display the time in other time zones.Click on the clock. Click “Date and Time Settings”. Click on the “Additional Clocks” tab. Check the box labelled “Additional Clock #1″, and from the drop down menu choose a time zone. Give the clock a name, such as “Microsoft” or “Texas”. Press OK. You can repeat this for the second additional clock as well.To add a location to the Places bar (left hand pane in Windows Explorer)In Windows Vista, there is a new pane on the left hand side of Windows Explorer which contains links to items you wish to access quickly. It works a bit like the left hand pane in the Mac OS X 10.3+ Finder. In previous builds, you could not really customize the Places bar but now you can! Simply drag and drop a folder onto the plane, and voila!Use the Search box in Windows Explorer to filter a file viewDid you know you can easily filter the list of documents and folders in a folder using the Search field in Windows Explorer? For instance if you have a folder containing a lot of folders and documents and you are specifically looking for “Vista”, all you need to do is type “Vista”, or even just part of the word, such as “Vis” to limit the list of files shown.

Performance Tweaks

Disable DEP / NoExecute Protection to fix Random Windows Explorer crashesDue to the way Windows Vista’s boot editor has been created, it is now harder to disable DEP / No Execute Protection. However, after some amount of research, it would seem that some of the random Windows Explorer crashes that users are experiencing is caused by this technology. You will need to disable it and reboot, which should cure some of the crashes:Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, right click on “Command Prompt”, and click “Run as administrator”. If asked for permission to run Windows Command Processor, click on Allow. At the command prompt, type in “bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff” (without the quotes). You should receive a message saying “Operation Completed Successfully”. Restart the computer, DEP / No Execute should now be disabled.

Prevent network flooding and connection drops

The new networking stack contained in Windows Vista has some issues. This build seems to like dropping connections and in rare cases, blocking all traffic on wireless routers, requiring a restart of the router itself. To fix these problems, complete the following instructions:WARNING: Please note that this will disable IPv6 connectivity as well as the Windows Firewall security, and is not recommended unless you are experiencing these issues. This will also invalidate any network related bug reports you file against Windows Vista.Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Under “Network and Internet”, click on “View network status and tasks”. In the left hand pane, click on “Open connections”. Right click on your network connection (for example: Local Area Connection 3), and then click “Configure”. If asked for permission to open Network Connections, click on Allow. Highlight the following items and press the “Uninstall” button: Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O DriverLink-Layer Topology Discovery ResponderUncheck “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)” Next, click on the “Configure” button under the name of your network adapter. Click on the Power Management tab. Disable all power management items listed on the Power Management tab. Press OK.

To stop Windows Vista from flooding your network with traffic:

Press WinKey+R. Type “services.msc” (without the quotes) If asked for permission to open “Microsoft Management Console”, click Allow. Double click on each one of the following services and change its startup type to “Disabled”. Base Filtering EngineIKE and AuthIP Keying ModulesIP Helper ServiceIPSecWindows FirewallClose the Services window and restart Windows.

Enable System Restore

The System Restore service is one cause of performance issues, and for some people, it doesn’t even work and is disabled by default in this build. You may wish to enable it, as it is a very useful feature if it works for you.Click on the “Start” button. Hover over “Computer”, right click on it and then click “Properties”. On the left hand side, click “Advanced Settings”. If asked to permit the action, click on “Allow”. Click on the “System Protection” tab. Check any checkboxes listed for your hard drives that you wish to includePress Apply. You can now create your first restore point.

Disable un-needed Services

There are some services in this build that can be disabled without impacting any features (except the Security Center service, some people may find this annoying).Disable the following:
• IIS Admin Service - if you don’t plan on using IIS, you don’t need this enabled.
• Offline Files – Disabling this helps to speed up Windows Explorer when performing network tasks.
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol
• PRNP Auto Registration
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) – if your computer isn’t going to be running as a mail server, you don’t need this.
• Tablet PC Input Service – If you do not use a Tablet PC or you’re on a desktop computer, you don’t need this.
,
Gaming and DWM

If you are trying to play any DirectX games under Vista with an LDDM compatible video card with Aero Glass enabled, you may notice that the game performance is slow or laggy, but you can disable DWM temporarily when the game executable has run. To do this, follow these instructions:
1. Locate the shortcut for the game you are wishing to play, or the executable file (which can usually be found somewhere within X:\Program Files, where X is the drive letter you have installed Windows Vista to. You can find the target executable file from right clicking on its shortcut and clicking “Find Target”.
2. Right click on the shortcut or the executable, and from the context menu, click on “Properties”.
3. Click on the “Compatibility” tab.
4. Under “Settings”, check “Disable the Desktop Window Manager”, and then press OK to dismiss the properties dialog.This will temporarily disable DWM while running you game, and it should give you a performance boost with the application. Once the application or game has quit, DWM will be re-enabled.

987 Read