PCTips Box

Windows Vista can be completely killed by pressing a simple combination of just two keys. All you need to crush Microsoft’s latest operating system and put the much-applauded Wow at an end is two fingers. This issue has been reported independently of Microsoft, and the Redmond company has failed to issue any official comment at the time of this article. The immediate question which comes to mind is if the problem is a security vulnerability or a simple bug.

Either way, you too can watch Windows Vista die in front of your eyes. To make matters worse, the key combination is one of the most utilized keyboard shortcuts in Windows. Pressing the Windows key together with “E” will start Computer in Windows Vista. Keeping the two keys pressed will open a large volume of Computer windows. Want to crush Windows Vista? Nothing could be simpler. Just keep the two keys pressed for more than 20 – 30 seconds. (more…)

There are many methods that you can use to shut down your computer. The normal way is click on Start > Turn Off Computer > Turn Off. But here I will share with you how you can shut down your computer in different ways.

1. The fastest way

I always do this when I want to shutdown my computer. Just press the Windows key (on the keyboard) and press U key two times. (more…)

Every once in a while, Windows Explorer hangs on my machine. (I am running Windows XP. ) I will be able to switch between programs using alt+tab and all my running software still runs, but nothing I do will get Windows Explorer going again. In previous versions of Windows I could kill the Explorer using the task manager and the operating system would restart it. XP doest do that anymore, which really surprised me the first time I did this. Now what? I thought. The only thing left to do is hard reboot, right? Nope!

It turns out that logging off and logging back on is enough to re-initialize the Windows Explorer, but I am getting ahead of myself. (more…)

If you’re willing to clear the Recent Documents list, too, there’s a nice, easy way to clear the list. Right-click the taskbar and choose Properties. Click the Start menu tab and click the Customize button next to whichever Start menu option is active. If you use the Classic Start menu, simply click the Clear button. If you use the Microsoft Windows XP Start menu, click the Advanced tab and then click the Clear List button. (Yes, I know it doesn’t say that it also clears the Run list, but it does.) Now just click Cancel, Cancel—you’re not actually changing any settings.

If you need to automate the cleanup process, or if you must clear the Run list while leaving Recent Documents intact, you can do it with a Registry script. Launch Notepad and enter these two lines: (more…)

Stopping a Process in Windows XP or Vista

Why would you need to kill a process in Windows XP or Vista? We sometimes need to stop a process to diagnose a system problem, such as removing Spyware or computer viruses. One of the easiest yet most efficient way to accomplish this is to use the built-in Task Manager in Windows XP or Vista. Here’s how you do it:

1. Press “Alt+Ctrl+Delete”, then click on “Task Manager”
2. Select the process that you want to stop, then click on “End Process”.

It’s advised not to stop a system process. Stopping a system process can cause the computer to hang or freeze up.

Back in Windows XP if you were not on a domain CTRL + ALT +DEL would open up Task Manager. In Windows Vista that key combination opens the secure desktop that allows you to do many more thing. To directly to Task Manager, hit CTRL + ALT + ESC.

Vista allows you to set the priority by which programs receive CPU cycles. This explains the manual way of telling vista which programs should receive the most and the least priority.
For day to day use, this is not very important. However, if you frequently have large, demanding programs running, it can be helpful to direct vista when to focus CPU cycles toward or away from the program.

For example, usually if you are rendering video, the rest of your system will be very slow as the rendering program is taking priority. However, you can push the priority of the rendering program lower which will speed up other programs trying to run during this time. (more…)

Windows XP is a very powerful operating system, but unfortunately a lot of the very useful functionality is hidden away.

These hidden gems can be unlocked by using the Windows XP Hidden Application Enabler. This great piece of freeware unlocks 43 hidden applications and adds them to the Start menu for easy accessiblity. (more…)