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| How To Edit Context Menu Items. |
| The Right Click Menu or the Context Menu is the menu, which appears, when you right click on the desktop or a file or folder. If you wish to reduce the Context Menu clutter or remove items from this right click menu which are no longer useful, you will have to edit the registry or use an application. |
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| "All work and no fun makes an MVP a dull guy!" |
| April 22th, 2008. Well, this was proved wrong at this years MVP Summit's Party at the Experience Music / Science Fiction Museum, where MVP's got to showcase their other talents. Several MVP's from various countries put up an excellent performance. The just concluded Microsoft Global MVP Summit 2008, was held in Seattle & Redmond, 14-17 April. Over 2000 MVP's & RD's attended the Summit. The Summit consisted of four days of intense technical lectures & breakout sessions covering various Microsoft Technologies. |
| Steve Ballmers comments on when he called Vista a 'Work In Progress' or his reactions to the popularity of Yahoo Search, make an interesting read ! Ballmer was all game ! He wore a T-Shirt presented by the Canadian group. Not one to stop there, he also wore a Simpsons Tie presented to him by an America MVP. |
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| Windows Search 4.0. |
| March 28th, 2008. Windows Search 4.0 lets you perform an instant search of your computer. Windows Search 4.0 helps you find and preview documents, e-mail messages, music files, photos, and other items on the computer. You can use this search engine to index a program's content and to obtain instant results when you search in a particular program. |
Windows Search 4.0 includes the following improvements:
• Support for the Encrypting File System
• Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
• Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
• Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations
• Improved indexing performance
• Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
• Per-user Group Policy settings
• Windows software updates for Watson errors
• Support for some new enterprise Group Policy objects. |
| Download. |
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| Windows Vista SP1 : Pre-Install Checklist. |
| Windows Vista SP1 is now available from Microsoft Download Center, and is now available on Windows Updates too. Here is a check-list of some things which you may want to ensure before going ahead with its download and install. Everthing should go smoothly, but it always good to take a few precautions ! |
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| Microsoft's Non-Windows OS : Singularity. |
| Mar 6th, 2008. Singularity is a Microsoft Research project started in 2003 and completed in 2007, to build a highly-dependable microkernal operating system in which the kernel, device drivers, and applications are all written in managed code. Now available for download. |
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| Internet Explorer 8. |
| Mar 6th, 2008. Microsoft has unveiled Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. A full features page has been revealed which lists the following additions to IE 8. It is also available for download. Go here for more. |
| Dec 20th, 2007. Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) beta 1, is being targetted for release in the first half of 2008. It will be designed and built for a broad range of customers including consumers, enterprises, partners, web developers, and others. |
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| Windows 7. |
| April 6th, 2008. Windows 7 Release Date : All Smoke, No Fire ! |
| Jan 26th, 2008. Microsoft : Windows 7 STILL in planning stage & will take 3 years to develop. |
| May 27th, 2007. (WinVistaClub's 1st Post) Ever since the last quarter of 2006, when a survey was held on a Microsoft web site, where one of the questions towards the end of the survey was "Have you ever heard of Windows Mesa?", the question itself and the answer to it, has foxed many... |
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| Office Open XML Formats : An Idea Whose Time has Come. |
| March 17th, 2008. The Ground has been set. Battlelines drawn. The Open Document Format (ODF) proponents are opposing OOXML on the grounds that 'multiple standards' are not advisable. While Microsoft has been accused of influencing NGOs and Govt officials on their stand; its opponents, including IBM, havent really been lagging in this respect. Which way will the die be cast ? Which way should the die be cast? |
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| How To Save The WLM or any other Live Installation Setups. |
| Microsoft no longer provides stand-alone installers for Windows Live Messenger for direct download. You have to download it and other Live products through Windows Live Installer. |
| Once Windows Live Installer has finished downloading and installing Messenger, browse to C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources, where you will be able to see the WLM and other Live products installers too. Back Up the one's you want ! |
| You may have to uncheck 'Hide protected OS files' from Folder Options, to be able to see this folder. |
| Find out who has deleted you in Windows Live Messenger! |
| Just in case you didn't know, here is a way or two, you can find out if any of your friends have deleted / blocked your name from their contacts list ! |
| Menu Bar > Tools > Options > Privacy > LHS Box Allow List > Rt Click on the persons name.
If you see that the Delete Menu is ACTIVE, then it means that the person has deleted you ! |
Additionally, Tools > Options > Privacy > View
Here you get to see the List of those Who Have You In Their List Of Contacts. |
| Of course, Messenger Plus! Contact List Clean-Up Box, can also help you here. |
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| Windows Vista : Looking Back, Looking Forward ! |
| Jan 30, 2008, marks the 1 Year Anniversary of Windows Vista General Availability ! |
| So how has 2007 been for Vista ? And what should a Vista user expect in 2008 from Microsoft ? |
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| How to Reboot Windows directly into SAFE MODE. |
| If you want to reboot directly into safe mode, you have to (yawn!) watch the computer reboot, watch the various BIOS messages, select which operating system you want to boot with, and then press F8 at the exact moment to enable the Advanced Boot menu. |
| But you can directly reboot into safe mode by creating this shortcut and placing it in your start menu. |
| Rt-click, create a new shortcut on the desktop and in the end place it in C: \ Documents and Settings \ All Users \ Start Menu. For the target path, use c: \ windows \ pchealth \ helpctr \ binaries \ msconfig.exe -4. Name the shortcut as say 'Restart Options' |
| ALTERNATIVELY you can download and use a simple .exe utility called BootSafe . |
With this utility you dont have to struggle with the F8 key or MSCONFIG. However, when you want to leave Safe Mode and return to Normal mode, you NEED to use this program again to get a reboot into Normal mode.
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| How many times can you reinstall Windows Vista? |
| Microsoft has now gone on record saying that you can re-install Vista up to 10 times. |
| However, you can reinstall Windows on the same computer as many times as you want because activation pairs the Windows product key with information about your computer’s hardware. If you make a significant hardware change, you might have to activate Windows again. Microsoft. |
| Computer Beep Codes and Description of Problems. |
No Beeps : Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals
One Beep : Everything is normal and Computer POSTed fine
Two Beeps : POST/CMOS Error
One Long Beep, One Short Beep : Motherboard Problem
One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps : Video Problem
One Long Beep, Three Short Beeps : Video Problem
Three Long Beeps : Keyboard Error
Continuous Hi-Lo Beeps : CPU Overheating
Repeated Long Beeps : Memory Error. |
| Vista inspired Visualization Pack for WMP11 |
| Psychedelia Vizualization Pack - Psychedelia and synesthesia are realized in these visualizations. Your music is translated into colors, shapes, and motion. Contains 7 visualizations with over 40 variations in total: Album Art 3D, Bubbles, Distortion, Gigertron 3D, HypnoBloom, Ribbons and UpCuber. Make sure your onboard or graphic card has 2.0 shader model support. |
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| File Size: 5.7 MB. Download. Submitted By : Third Eye. |
| How To Repair 'Background Intelligent Transfer Service'. |
| The BITS Repair Tool will help you fix a problem caused by the corruption of BITS state files. The problem stops the host process for Windows Services, which prevents you from using BITS to transfer files. This Service is required for Windows Updates to run ! So should find that your BITS Service is not functioning properly, use this tool to resolve the corruption and re-enable BITS transfers. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. More at MicrosoftSupport. Download. |
| What to do when Windows demands a 18770 Characters password ! |
| If you get such an Error Message: |
"Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords."  |
| Here is what you need to do...seriously ! This may interest Windows 2000 users more. Click MicrosoftSupport. |
| How to make Windows Installer work in Safe Mode. |
| Windows installer will not work under Safe Mode, this means that programs cannot be installed or uninstalled in safe mode without giving a specific command using msiexec in command prompt. To make windows installer to work under safe mode you need to create a registry entry for every type of safe mode you are login into: |
Safe Mode - Type this in a command prompt:
REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\ MSIServer"/VE/T REG_SZ /F/D"Service" |
Then start the Windows Installer service by typing net start msiserver
Safe Mode with Network - Type this in a command prompt:
REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\ MSIServer"/VE/T REG_SZ/F/D"Service" |
| Then start the Windows Installer service by typing net start msiserver. Source. |
| How To Clear past icons from the notification area. |
If you click Start > rt click > properties > taskbar tab > (bottom) customize,
you will see a lot of old/unistalled/unsued icons, in the past items. |
So, how to clear these (clutter) past items from the notification area ?
Open Regedit.
Delete the 'iconstreams' and 'past icons stream' values from the following
registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\
TrayNotify |
| Then, open task manager, click the processes tab, click explorer.exe, and then click end process. |
| Next, in task manager, click file, click new task, type explorer, and then click OK. Your clutter would have cleared up ! |
| How to Register / Unregister dll's |
To register or register a dll or ocx file :
Click Start > Run >Type
regsvr32 <path & filename of dll or ocx>
To un-register a dll or ocx file :
Click Start > Run >Type
regsvr32 <path & filename of dll or ocx> /u
Click Enter. |
| Microsoft Article Q249873 gives a good explanation of Regsvr32 usage and error messages. |
Emsa Register Dll Tool and Register/ Unregister OCX/DLL Utility
are two utilities, with which you can achieve the same on the fly.
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| What are .nfo / .diz files ? |
| You may have come across these NFO and Diz file, and possibly wondered what they were for? |
| Normally NFO files are associated with the Microsoft Info Viewer.
If you've downloaded cracks or serials from warez sites, you will almost always get these files. |
| Actually the file is just a txt file with a different extension and usually some ASCII art. The NFO has all the info about the app/game in it, including burn/install instructions and a serial number if needed. You can simply open it in a notepad ! |
| The Diz file is just like a file tag, usually just with the application name and the release groups name. If you right click and open it in notepad you can see the text and read about the program. |
| But to see the full beauty of these files you need a special font that displays the ASCII properly. Download and install DAMN NFO Viewer or GetDiz . |
| And if you wish to remove them, go ahead ! In case your junk remover does not identify these as junk, you can search for *.nfo or *.diz and delete them physically. |
| What are thumbs.db files ? |
| The thumbs.db file is a hidden file, generated by Windows. It is a database file containing the small images displayed when you view a folder in "thumbnail" view (as opposed to tile, icon, list, or detail view). |
| No harm is done by deleting thumbs.db files. Deleting the Thumbs.db file has no real effect on your operating system or the future ability to view thumbnails at any time. It is automatically re-created, in the respective folder, each time you 'view' thumbnails. |
| To turn off this feature and save some disk space:
Open Folder & SearchOptions>View>Check "Always show icons, never thumbnails" > Apply > OK. |
| But if you like to view folders/files as 'thumbnails', as opposed to icons, etc; best to keep this option on. |
In XP you 'see' these 'hidden' files thumbs.db scattered all over the place. In Vista the thumbnails 'thumbcache' are stored at C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\ Microsoft \Windows\Explorer
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| Automatic Updates may not be the best way to stay protected! |
| Strange as it may sound, Automatic Updates isn't the best way to protect yourself if you want the latest patches as soon as possible ! |
| If you have automatic updates 'on', chances are high that your pc may download and install, what are known as MS06-040 patches, immediately. however, automatic updates may not start downloading most patches until three days after Patch Tuesday ! In a way, it's understandable that Microsoft would want MS06-040 to be installed on as many people's PCs as possible before downloading any other patches. |
| For complete novices, who have little knowledge of Windows, its best they leave automatic updates turned on and hope for the best. but more experienced windows users, manually visiting the update site or installing a third-party patch-management program remains the better option. |
| Don't force 'OOBE baby' to sleep... |
In the initial days, when you try to restart or shut down a Windows Vista-based computer, the system may take a long time to restart or to shut down. Alternatively or Additionally, you may receive a message that resembles the following:
Windows is configuring updates. This may occur 1-2 days after you first start Windows Vista; or sometimes after a WindowsUpdate. |
| This problem occurs because the system must perform maintenance functions to delete unnecessary files. Typically, this process will occur one or two days after the Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) Wizard runs. When this problem occurs, it may take as long as 10-20 minutes to shut the system down. The process occurs only one time. |
| Suggested Solution : just wait for the process to finish once. |
| Speaking of OOBE, here are some real handy links : |
| Out-of-Box-Experience Wizard Stops Responding or Requires Computer Restart After You Change the Computer Name |
| How To Install / Uninstall OOBE |
| Windows Splash Screens. |
| Ever since the dawn of the Windows operating system, Microsoft has used Splash Screens as a means of distracting us while the operating system is loading. In addition to their entertainment value, the Windows splash screens typically provide us with some sort of feedback on the progress of the sometimes lengthy startup process. |
| Techrepublic Gallery, is one place where you’d be able to browse and review through all the splash screens from Windows 1.01 to Windows Vista. able to browse and review through all the splash screens from Windows 1.01 to Windows Vista. |
| See Inside your Index.dat file |
| Index.dat are files hidden on your computer that contain all of the
Web sites that you have ever visited. Every URL, and every Web page
is listed there. Not only that but all of the email that has been
sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being
logged. |
| Its removal is difficult. To protect your privacy, you may wish to remove
it. Manual removal procedure is tedious. |
Else you can always use any good cleaner like freeware 'CCleaner' to remove them.
Want to see all the information hidden in it ? Download and use the 60KB freeware INDEX.DAT SCANNER. It promises to be quite a revealing experience ! |
| Windows Help Program |
| The Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program is no longer included with Windows operating systems starting with Windows Vista. But Microsoft has now updated the program WinHlp32.exe, which enabled viewing of help files stored on older .hlp file format in earlier editions of windows. this now supports Vista and can be downloaded from Microsoft, if you'd want to view 32-bit .hlp files in Vista, you must download and install this program. More at KB917607. |
| How to remove orphaned dll's ! |
| In Windows, When you uninstall programs (sometimes improperly),
some dll's or the shared dlls, may be left behind. Such left-behind
entries in the Windows Registry and/or such orphaned dll files,
can hog system folders space or bloat registry or cause other problems. |
| The following 2 utilities can help ! |
"Archive dll" helps scan system directory for orphaned dll's.
it identifies dll's with ZERO hits. These can be archived
or removed later on, once you are sure. |
| "Dll Orphans" will search your computer for a list of files that are
not being used along with Registry Entries for files that are no longer
valid. these can be backed up and then maybe when you are sure, removed. |
| Good to read both their 'help/read-me' files first !
Better to create SystemRestore point before trying them out !! |
| Best to leave the Microsoft entries, as-it-is !!!
Some good info here at TechSupportAlert |
| How To Re-open Closed Tabs on Internet Browsers. |
| So you've accidentally closed your browser tab or maybe you've changed your mind and want to re-open it. Here is how you can do it in IE, Maxthon, Firefox, Opera & Safari. |
|
 Will Windows Vista RULE? |
Aug 7th, 2007. A Qualitative Report Card By 3 MVPs. |
| IMPACT OF VISTA. |
| HAS VISTA MET EXPECTATIONS. |
| HAS VISTA REALLY INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY OVER XP? |
| FUTURE OF VISTA. |
...Vista will rule, if not for anything, than the sheer fact that people are familiar with Windows...Microsoft wants more and more to get hitched onto their bandwagon... piracy  be damned ! Open source is there... but still we dont see any boom on Desktop users using Linux. Mac?... well, too busy catering to their niche 5% market share ! |
|
| Also check out Windows Vista is the most Secure OS! |
| List Of Windows Live Services & Products. |
Make the best of Windows Live! Have you tried all of these Windows Live Services? You can get the most from Windows and the Web with Live software and services. They are easy to use. These betas help you stay connected and share what you want on the web, your PC, and even your mobile phone. Learn more, download, and try the betas now. Or start with these ... |
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| Avoid Tweaks of Dubious Value. |
There are some Windows / Vista tweaks which can at best be considered to be of doubtful value. Though most of them may not cause much harm, some of them, may hurt performance. Some of them may have worked with older Windows versions, but are redundant now. Frankly speaking, the best "tweak" is to throw RAM at it ! |
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| Arresting Windows Rot ! |
| If you are a Windows user, you know this ! As time passes by your once snappy windows starts become sluggish... And the most to be affected after the rot sets in, is the (Internet) Explorer ! "Windows Rot" is defined in the UrbanDictionary as the process by which a Windows machine becomes progressively slower the longer you use it and the more software you install on it. |
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| How To Run Multiple Instances of Yahoo Messenger Without Any Software. |
| Click Start > Run > Regedit > Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SoftwareYahoo\ Pager\Test Rt click on RHS pane and create a DWORD registry value named “Plural”. Double click the new DWORD entry and set the value to 1 > OK >Exit> Reboot. |
With this you can be online with multiple Yahoo ids at the same time. 
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| BROWSER MYTHS. |
| Internet Explorer Myths |
eg : Microsoft developed Internet Explorer from scratch
NO ! The vast majority of Internet Explorer's code today was likely written by Microsoft itself, but the browser was originally developed from the source code of Spyglass Mosaic, a relatively unknown browser developed by Spyglass, Inc. |
| Firefox myths |
eg : Firefox is faster than Internet Explorer
This blanket statement is not always true. Relative speed results depend on many factors, including hardware-related. The Internet Explorer window typically comes up faster than Firefox the first time you double-click on the program icon. This is mainly because core Internet Explorer libraries are actually loaded into memory as your computer is starting up... |
| Opera myths |
eg : Opera was the first browser with tabs
NO ! Despite common belief, Opera was not the first web browser to support tabbed pages. The first known web browser with tab support was InternetWorks, back in 1994. |
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