PCTips Box

A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s also much easier for someone trying to help you solve a computer problem if they have access to your computer. They can see the problem and figure it out much faster if they can access your computer rather than taking shots in the dark by asking you all kinds of questions.

This guide shows you how to ask for remote assistance which enables someone to view or control your computer remotely.

Warning: Only give people you trust access to your computer with Remote Assistance. (more…)

1. Vista screensavers in windows xp
2. Download Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
3. Windows SteadyState for Vista and XP
4. The beginner’s guide for portable applications - part 1
5. Download Windows Installer 4.5
6. How Does Windows Product Activation Work
7. Microsoft Offers TCP/IP Fundamentals for Windows
8. Access Sysinternals utilities over the web with command prompt
9. TOP10 - June 2008 Popular Tips
10. XP SP3, Some Problems Emerge
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Microsoft is offering Windows Vista users no less than 17 User Interface (UI) Language packs designed for integration with the operating system. However, the company informed that only the 32-bit editions of the latest Windows client can have LIPs implemented. In fact, the Language Interface Packs are restricted only to the English language versions of 32-bit Vista, with no support for the 64-bit variant of the operating system or for previous Windows releases. The 17 LIPs can be installed on Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, but only 15 of them also play nice with the Starter SKU.

Albanian, Assamese, Bosnian - Cyrillic, Bosnian - Latin, Gujarati, Hindi, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kazakh, Macedonian, Malay, Marathi, Serbian - Cyrillic, Tamil, Uzbek - Latin, Vietnamese and Welsh are all the language UI packages offered for Windows Vista. With the exception of Icelandic and Welsh, all can also be deployed on the Vista Starter edition. The rest of the Vista SKUs are supported by default. (more…)

The latest version of a solution accelerator initially dubbed Windows Vista hardware Assessment is now available for download. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is now at version 3.1 and has hit RTM stage. The latest build of the assessment and planning solution accelerator is tailored specifically to the most recent Windows client and server operating systems, namely Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 SP1/RTM, including the Hyper-V release. Version 3.1 is up for grabs straight from Microsoft, and is designed to streamline as much as possible the evaluation and planning phases of large scale software migration processes in complex IT infrastructures.

“Formerly known as Windows Vista Hardware Assessment, this new release is now packed with many new features such as: Hyper-V virtualization candidates assessment (+ improved virtual machines inventory); SQL server discovery and assessment; 64-bit installation support; and Desktop Windows Security Center assessment,” revealed Baldwin Ng, Senior Product Manager, Solution Accelerators Team. (more…)

An update is available that will help improve the performance and reliability of Windows Vista SP1.

This update includes the following improvements on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer:

1. The stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird.

2. The reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang). (more…)

This guide shows you how to allow computers to connect to a computer and use it remotely via Remote Desktop.

The only Windows Vista versions than can be connected to via Remote Desktop are Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. All versions of Windows Vista can use Remote Desktop to remote to another computer though.

Enable Remote Desktop

1. Right-click Computer in the Start menu and then select Properties.

2. Click Remote settings in the Tasks list on the left side of the System window.

3. Select Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop if computers connecting to it will only be from within a local network or are running versions of Windows other than Vista. Select Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication if computers connecting to it will connect from the internet or all computers connecting will be Windows Vista. (more…)

Microsoft has updated Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and made new English-language installation packages available for download as of June 23, 2008. Designed to integrate with Windows Server 2003 SP1, SP2 and R2 (x86, x64 and Itanium-based) along with Windows XP SP2 (both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions) and SP3 (only 32-bit), the updated release of Windows PowerShell 1.0 does not target Microsoft’s latest Windows client. Windows Vista SP1 is ignored with the latest variant of Windows Power Shell available since January 30, 2007, the day that Microsoft also made available Vista RTM.

“Windows PowerShell is a new command-line shell and scripting language designed for system administration and automation. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers control and automate the administration of Windows and applications,” Microsoft informed in the product’s description. “Windows PowerShell includes more than 130 command-line tools (called ‘cmdlets’) for performing common system administration tasks, such as managing services, processes, event logs, certificates, the registry, and using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).” (more…)

In the first half of June 2008, when they gave a taste of the new features cooking for Internet Explorer 8 which are planned for integration starting with Beta 2, Jane Maliouta - IE Program Manager and James Pratt - IE Product Manager pointed out that IE8 would come with slipstream support by default. This is valid as early as the Beta 1 Build of Internet Explorer 8, but only with Windows Vista RTM, Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has left Windows XP SP3 out of the IE8 slipstream equation, this is nothing new for XP, as slipstreaming was also not supported even with Internet Explorer 7.

“With IE8 and Windows Vista, you are able to integrate IE8 into the image file of the original operating system in about 15 minutes. No more booting the OS image, manually installing IE and re-capturing the image. The slipstreaming support also extends to IE8 cumulative updates and language packages. Slipstreaming IE8 into an OS image will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not currently offer a solution for slipstreaming Windows components, which are built using update.exe,” Maliouta revealed. (more…)

Stop for a minute and take a look at your desktop. How many icons, folders and files do you see? Probably a lot. So what’s the big deal?

It could be causing your Windows Computer to slow down.

Not when your Computer boots, but when you log on or off, right click on folders or icons, even trying to open a folder or file from the desktop. For users with roaming profiles, having a large user profile can degrade system performance. But it can also cause issues even if you do not have a roaming profile.

Storing large folders or file on your desktop is convenient, as long as you keep the size under control. Even if you use tools such as Disk Cleanup or CCleaner, desktop files and folders are not included during cleanup and can get out of control. (more…)

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Make sure you’re in the Classic View of the Control Panel by clicking Classic View in the Control Panel’s left sidebar.

3. Open System.

4. Click Device Manager in the left sidebar of the System window.

5. Right-click the device you want to uninstall the drivers and then select Properties.

6. Click the Driver tab in the device properties window. (more…)