PCTips Box

Tired of the old Windows Vista default Boot Screen? Well then, there is a simple alternative solution involving nothing more than your copy of the operating system. And just a tad of tweaking, but nothing extensive, and certainly nothing that would cause Vista to become instable or unusable. The fact of the matter is that you will only have to make use of one of the system maintenance tools that ships by default with the platform. And of course that the first tool coming to mind is the System Configuration Utility, or msconfig.

In order to access the System Configuration Utility all you have to do is enter “msconfig” in the Search Box under the Start Menu. (more…)

Windows XP has a lot of new cool looking visual elements, however, those new elements take up more RAM and cause your computer to be less responsive. By tweaking your graphics settings, you can increase the performance of your computer.

To get started, Let’s reduce the color quality. This setting determines how many colors are displayed on your screen. (more…)

Deep inside Windows XP there’s all sorts of forgotten tools and utilities, some of which were carried over from earlier versions of Windows, or left behind by the developers. Here is a few for you to be getting on with and all you have to do is type the name in Run on the Start menu (without the quotes of course). Most of them are undocumented, though a few of them have some Help files which might help you figure them out but as always you use and try them at your own risk (more…)

The new Network and Sharing Center in Windows Vista is great for the average Windows user but can be a huge headache for advanced users. When I need to make a change to my network settings I don’t want to be forced to go through the networking interface for the average non-technical users. I want to go right to the settings screen and make the change.

I am a big fan of the old Windows XP network approach where I could modify all of the network settings and connect to wireless network from the Network Connections screen. In Windows Vista, the Network Connections screen still exists, (more…)