Section: Windows Vista
Although most Windows software comes with an installation program, there can still be problems if you install or uninstall software. A failed installation can cause the installation not to be redone without clearing the failed installation. Unfortunately a failed installation can often not be undone, which means you are stuck with a chicken and egg situation.
Another common situation is when you installed a trial of a software product and after expiration you need to uninstall it before you can install a registered version. In case the uninstall process is not complete, chances are the software will keep on indicating the expired status.
If the standard uninstaller for the program does not work, you can try to manually remove the software. This means that the related files need to be removed from disk and all related configuration data needs to be removed. Some (older) software uses local configuration files that reside with the program in the installation directory, but most software will use the Windows registry to store configuration information. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
With many innovations being made to today’s PC’s hardware, laptops and desktops have become much smaller and lighter. But one drawback to that light weight convenience is heat.
Computers today can pack more processing power in a much smaller and denser space, if you don’t keep them cool, you can pretty much guarantee a hardware failure will occur.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to keep tabs on hardware temperature using a free utility called CPUID.
HWMonitor from CPUID software is a hardware monitoring program that reads your PC Systems main health sensors, such as voltages, temperatures and fans speed. I mostly use it on my home PC to keeps tabs just on temperature since I use a laptop. Read More»
Posted in Hardware, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 1 Comment »
Microsoft plans to debut serving Windows Search 4.0 automatically to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 by the end of July. With the final version up for grabs through the Download Center since the beginning of June 2008, the Redmond company is now wrapping up Windows Search 4.0 for delivery through Windows Update. However, only users with Windows Vista with Automatic Update enabled will receive the update by default; Windows XP users running either Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 will have to perform a manual upgrade.
“Windows XP users will see Windows Search 4.0 available as an Optional update, which means you must visit the Windows Update Web site to install it. Windows Vista users with SP1 installed will see the update as a Recommended update. This means that, if a Windows Vista user has set their machine to automatically install updates, Windows Search 4.0 will automatically install on PCs running Windows Vista SP1. The release of Windows Search 4.0 to Windows Update will be gradual for these users,” revealed a member of the Microsoft Update team. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
The SuperFetch service in Windows Vista preloads your system’s memory with the applications that you use most often. This makes launching of those applications much faster, but it might be an unwanted behavior for system tweakers or gamers.
There’s no hard evidence that enabling or disabling this service will increase performance in general, but if you open and close applications often you should definitely leave it alone. You will have to test your configuration to know for sure.
Note that I don’t recommend disabling this service, but we try to cover how to do everything on Vista.
Open up Services in Control Panel or by typing services.msc into the Start menu search or run boxes. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
Volume Licensing is just one of the modalities to acquire Microsoft software, but perhaps, as customers are concerned, it is also the most appealing because of the cost savings it implies. In contrast to the retail copies of Windows Vista, the main benefit of the Volume Licenses is that it takes the cost of the packaging and of the media out of the price equation of the product. And this, of course, is not valid just for Vista, now complete with Service Pack 1, but also for additional Microsoft solutions that make the object of Volume Licensing. In the Redmond giant’s perspective, one of the most relevant benefits for volume license customers is the ability to acquire Software Assurance.
“Software acquired through Microsoft Volume Licensing is a software license only. A software license provides the right to run a Microsoft software product. Savings above retail boxed software prices can be realized by participating in a Microsoft Volume Licensing program. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows Vista | No Comments »
Improve your experience in Windows Vista with Pctipsbox TOP 10 free recommended downloads.
1. MZ Vista Force is a system tweaker. Use it to accelerate performance, juice your browsing speed, clean up your hard disk, clearout bandwidth-wasting startup programs, and even fine-tune Windows Media Player and Explorer.
Many of the settings here are exceedingly fine-grained. Want to change the speed at which the Start menu search displays? With Mz Vista Force, you can. Download Mz Vista Force.
2. Vista Boot Logo Generator allows you to change it easily your boot screen with one that you created yourself or with a graphic that you find online. You’ll have to create or find the image in two sizes: 1024 by 768 pixels, and 800 by 600 pixels. Both must be in .bmp format, at 24-bit color depth. Once you have them this utility replaces your boot screen with them. Download Vista Boot Logo Generator. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software, Windows Vista | 4 Comments »
Is your windows Vista getting slower and slower now that you have been using it for almost a year and have installed many programs and used up more space since you first installed the OS? If so here are a few tips to tweak your PC to get that boot up performance back making it quicker.
First thing you should do is always get rid of your temporary files and any unused programs. Once you have done that then run the defrag tool to reorganize your hard drive. Defragmenting your files puts them back into one contiguous space on your drive optimizing your boot time.
To get Vista’s defrag tool to give you some information about your hard disk, and to controlWindows Vista Memory which hard disk or partition it defragments, you will need to use the command line defragmentation utility. It will still not give you any feedback while defragmenting, just as the GUI version of the defragmenter will not, but at least you can get information on the fragmentation level of your hard disk, control whether to defragment even if the file fragments are larger than 64 MB, and control which partition or hard disk to defragment. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | No Comments »
This guide shows you how to run the check disk (chkdsk) command from the System Recovery Options included on the Windows Vista DVD.
So your computer won’t boot up and you need to run check disk (chkdsk) on it to try and repair errors on the hard drive. This guide shows you how to run check disk by booting from the Windows Vista DVD and running check disk from the System Recovery Options command prompt.
Run Check Disk from a System Recovery Command Prompt
1. Place a Windows Vista DVD in the DVD drive and restart or turn on your computer. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | No Comments »
This tweak will increase the performance of your external hard drive (s) by turning write caching on as well as activating advanced performance.
In Windows Vista, write caching isn’t enabled by default because removable devices could lose data if removed too quickly. This is great for USB thumb drives that are frequently inserted and removed, but in the case where you have a large hard drive in an external enclosure that’s never disconnected from your computer, this feature can decrease performance. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | No Comments »
For reasons inexplicable to mere mortals, Microsoft doesn’t allow you to customize how Windows Vista’s screensavers work for example, by changing how the bubbles look in the Bubbles screensaver, or the number or thickness of the ribbons in the Ribbons screensaver.
If you’re willing to get your hands dirty by using the Registry, though, you can customize both. For the Bubbles screensaver, for example, you can turn the bubbles metallic or keep them transparent, configure whether the bubbles should have shadows, and display the bubbles against the desktop or instead against a solid black background. For the Ribbons screensaver, you can change the number and thickness of the ribbons.
To customize the Bubbles screensaver, launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or at a command prompt and pressing Enter. Then: Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
