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DESKTOP TIPS FOR VISTA. |
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| Create a Desktop shortcut to Switch User Accounts in Vista. |
| If you browse in C:\Windows\System32\ folder, you will come across and .exe file named as tsdiscon.exe. This is the Session Discontinuation Utility. This process disconnects the current session, and can be used to create a shortcut to switch users in a click. |
To do so, Rt click on desktop > New > Shortcut > Type
C:\Windows\System32\tsdiscon.exe
Click Next > Name it 'Switch Users' > Finish.
Give it a suitable icon. |
| Create A Handy Shortcut To Disable or Enable Vista Firewall. |
| If you need to disable or enable the Windows Vista Firewall frequently, you may want to create its shortcut on your desktop instead of going all the way through the Control Panel. You may find this esp handy if you find the firewall obstructing any of your task or while playing games. You can create it shortcut as follows: |
| Rt click on desktop > New > Shortcut > Type or better still, copy-paste |
netsh firewall set opmode disable |
| Click Next > Name it 'Disable Firewall' > Finish. Give it a suitable icon. |
| To Enable the Firewall copy-paste instead |
netsh firewall set opmode enable |
| and name it Enable Firewall. |
| On clicking on both, a black box will appear and then disappear with the letters OK in it. You may have to Run it as Administrator. More such Firewall Commands at Microsoft Technet. |
| Show Your Name In Vista's Taskbar. |
| Well here's a tip, which may interest some; esp the younger set. You can customize the alphabets appearing after the time numerals in the taskbar. Put your name if you wish ! Click Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Customize Button > Time tab. Here, change both the AM and PM letters to any name you wish. Click Apply > OK. |
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| You can always reset the settings to default, by simply clicking on the reset button or by changing it back manually to AM and PM. |
| Create Clear Clipboard Desktop Shortcut. |
| Should you wish and feel the need to clear your clipboard frequently, you can create a desktop shortcut to clear clipboard, as follows: |
| Rt click on desktop > New > Shortcut > Type |
cmd /c "echo off | clip" |
| Click Next > Name it 'Clear Clipboard' > Finish. Give it a suitable icon. |
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| Create Desktop Shortcut To Clear Windows Vista Memory in one click. |
| Windows Vista Memory Management is excellent in my opinion ! But, if you are an intensive user and if you feel that your computer is beginning to run a little slow after working for quite some time, here is a shortcut you can create on your desktop to reduce resource usage and or remove idle processes. |
| Rt click on desktop > New > Shortcut > Type |
%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
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| Click Next > Name it 'Clear Memory' Finish. Give it a suitable icon. |
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| Lock your Computer in a click. |
You may create a shortcut on your desktop for locking down and securing your computer,
Rt-click on desktop > New > Shortcut.
In Location box, type |
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation |
| Click Next. Give a name box type a name for the shortcut eg Lock Computer. Click Finish. Then select an appropriate icon for it. |
| Disable DWM in a jiffy, while playing Games in Vista. |
| While running certain Direct3D applications like Games, you sometimes get to see a black square window. This happens in Vista with DWM 'on'. To turn the Desktop Window Manager on or off in an instant, click 'Ctrl Shift F9' |
| Rather useful on occassions ! |
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| How to re-arrange or organize Vista Taskbar Buttons and System Tray Icons. |
| While working, if you have several windows open, and if for some reason you'd like to have your two of you taskbar buttons, which are situated away from each other, next to each other, you can use any one of these utilities to shift or re-arrange them. |
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| Taskbar Shuffle and Taskix let you drag and drop them wherever you want them. They don't require an install and you can set them to start with Windows too. Additionally, with TaskBar Shuffle utility, you can also re-arrange the system tray icons too ! Also checkout XNeat Windows Manager which lets you adds additional features to the Windows taskbar and system tray, that enables you to minimize any window to an icon in the system tray (instead of the taskbar), keep any window on top, set a custom transparency level, and also hide any window or tray icon, furthermore the program allows you to re-arrange the order of the taskbar buttons by simply dragging them around. XNeat Windows Manager integrates into the right-click menu of the taskbar and system tray. It also allows you to change the taskbar appearance by hiding the Start button, system clock and other elements. |
| How To Launch or Change the Screen Saver state in a click in Vista ! |
| To launch your favorite screensaver in a click, you can create its shortcut on your desktop. You can search for the screensavers in the System32 folder by typing *.scr in the search bar. |
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| Right click on your desktop. Select New > Shortcut. Copy-Paste |
%systemroot%\system32\Aurora.scr /s |
| into the location box > Next. In name enter Aurora, and click on Finish. Give it an appropriate icon. Copy/Cut-Paste your new shortcut where ever you want. |
| To change any screen-savers state in a click, try FlipSS. It is an utility which lets you, stop the screen saver, if its running when the program switches the state to 'off', and manually start the screen saver. It can prove to be useful if you are burning CDs and don't want the screen saver to start up suddenly. The Command line options are /on, /off, or /start. |
| Run the 'Program Compatibility Wizard' from Desktop. |
| If you need to run the Program Compatibility Wizard frequently, you may want to create its shortcut on your Desktop. |
To do so, right click on an empty area on your desktop.
Select New > Shortcut.
In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, copy-paste the following in the box: |
%windir%\system32\mshta.exe res://%windir%\system32\acprgwiz.dll/compatmode.hta |
| Click Next. Name the shortcut : Program Compatibility Wizard , and click Finish. Then select an appropriate icon for it. |
| Remove the Evaluation text from Vista SP1 RC on desktop. |
| Even if you are not using an evaluation copy of Vista and your Vista is a genuine activated one, after installing the Windows Vista SP1 RC, an Evaluation Copy watermark text is shown on the bottom right corner of Vista's desktop, situated right above system tray or notification area. |
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| It will show up immediately or after the second time you reboot after installing SP1 RC. And by the way, if you uninstall SP1 RC, the watermark will still be there until you reboot two times after uninstalling SP1 RC. |
| To some, this 'Evaluation Copy. Build 6001' message is annoying. |
| Back up your new (post-SP1) user32.dll.mui file and replacing it with your original user32.dll.mui file is said to make the watermark go away. In Windows Vista, .mui files are usually the language resources. The user32.dll.mui, situated in C:\Windows\System32\en-US is the one for the desktop. |
| MyDigitalLife has a hacked/patched user32.dll.mui to remove the “Windows Vista - Evaluation Copy. Build 6001″ watermark text. If you wish to hack it yourself, here is the procedure. Best to backup the original user32.dll.mui just in case you want to revert or fall back to it. Then copy and overwrite the original user32.dll.mui with the patched user32.dll.mui. Best to always create a System Restore Point first ! |
| Give Vista's balloons the Aero look. |
| Here is how you can give Vista's balloons the Aero look. Take your pick ! Do you prefer the Beta 1 or the Longhorn look? |
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| GlassToasts replaces the "ugly" Windows Vista/XP style balloon notifications with the Beta 1/Longhorn style glassy toasts. With this application the balloons in Vista will also have an aero glass look. |
| How To Reserve an Entire Taskbar Row for Taskbar Buttons. |
| You can set your taskbar so, that one entire row at the top can be reserved for the Quick Launch Icons, and the bottom row for the Taskbar Buttons. |
| To do so, un-check Lock Taskbar, after rt-clicking on Taskbar. Drag the Taskbar up, by the border, so that it doubles in size. The position your mouse's' cursor on the upper half of the dotted vertical Quick Launch Border. The cursor will now change to the 'resize arrow'. Now, click and hold down the mouse button to drag it to the area below the Quick Launch. |
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| You may find this useful if you have a habit of keeping a lot of windows open and you need an entire row dedicated to the buttons. This works in Vista, as well as XP. |
| How to create a XP style Toolbar in Vista. |
| One of my first and favorite tips for XP to create a toolbar can be used in Vista too, with a minor modification. This can help you to clear up your desktop clutter too. |
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Unlock the taskbar.
Rt-click on your Desktop and create a new folder. name it, say, MyToolbar.
Put all the shortcuts you'd like to appear in this folder.
Now drag it to any extreme side of your screen.
Say, drag it to the top of your screen, it will take the form of a thin horizontal strip.
You may drag your desktop items onto it, now too.
Rt-click on it, and select how you want it to behave.
You may want to Check on 'Show Large Icons' and 'Autohide' and Uncheck 'Show title' & 'Show text'. |
| Vista's Hidden Bootscreen. |
| Vista has a bootskin called Aurora which can be activated using the following setting. |
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| Disable UAC first. Click Start > Run > msconfig > Boot tab > In the Boot Options click No GUI Boot > close. Reboot. On reboot Defender may give you a message prompt. Click on Ignore/Accept/Ok. Enable UAC again. |
| Create Shutdown, Restart, Log Off, Suspend Shortcuts on Desktop. |
Create a SHUTDOWN Shortcut thus:
Right click on an empty area on your desktop.
Select New>Shortcut.
In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, type : Shutdown -s -t 00
Click Next. Name the shortcut : Shutdown , and click Finish.
Then select an appropriate icon for it ! |
Create a RESTART Shortcut thus:
In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, type : Shutdown -r -t 00
Click Next. Name the shortcut : Restart , and click Finish.
select an appropriate icon for it now ! |
Create a LOG OFF Shortcut thus:
In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, type :
Shutdown.exe -L
Click Next. Name the shortcut : LogOff, and click Finish.
Then select an appropriate icon for it. |
Create A SUSPEND shortcut thus:
In the Create Shortcut wizards location text box appears, type: rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState
Give the shortcut a name like Hibernate. |
| Tweaking Vista's blinking cursor. |
| A small tip : The blinking cursor in Vista is really thin, and sometimes it can be very hard to find. In case you want it to be made a little more thicker, you can do it as follows : Go to Control Panel > Ease of Access > Optimize visual display. |
| Towards the bottom of this page, you will see a "Make things on the screen easier to see". From here, you can make your cursor thicker. The default is 1. Even making it '2' is good enough. |
| Change the Start Menu Power Button from Sleep to Shutdown.. |
| By default the power button on the Vista Start Menu is set as ‘Sleep’. You can change this power button to ‘ShutDown’ as follows : |
Open Control Panel > Power Options > Change when the computer sleeps > Change Advanced Power Settings > Scroll down the list in the window till you find 'Power Buttons and lid' > Change the default action of the Start Menu Power Button, by expanding its view.
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| How to Launch 'Quick Launch Bar' Apps Quicker in Vista ! |
| A small tip ... Windows Vista automatically assigns shortcut key combinations to the first 10 items you place in the Quick Launch Bar. To launch them, just press the Windows Key and the number corresponding to For instance, to launch the 5th application in the Quick Launch Bar, press Windows and 5. These areVista's Quick Launch Hotkeys. |
| How To Assign A Hotkey To The Snipping Tool. |
Vista's nifty screenshot has no provision to bring it up on the fly ! You can assign a hotkey to it as follows : Open Start Menu > All Programs >Accessories > Rt-click on Snipping Tool and select Properties. In the empty shortcut key text box that you see, place the mouse cursor and press a hot key like, say, 'ctrl+F12'. That's it ! |
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| NOTE. |
How to kill Vista's explorer.exe in 3 clicks.
Reduce Thick Borders of Explorer in Vista.
Retain Transparency EVEN AFTER Maximizing A Window.
Use BreadCrumb Bars 'Copy Address' to Create Shortcuts of Buried Folders |
| HAVE BEEN MOVED TO EXPLORER TIPS. |
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These Links may Interest You:
Windows Vista Explorer Tips
Handy Vista Tips |
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