Visual Appearence In Vista

Visual Appearence fine tunes the colour and glass style.

To do this:-
Right click on a blank area of desktop and select Personalize.Now from the lists present under the Personalize appearence and sound effects choose Visual Appearnce.
Now there are eight colours you can select any one from them.These are:-

Aero;Frost;Smoke;Seafoam;Heritage;Sky,Heart and Candy.

You can change the Intensity by sliding the scale as well as the Color,Saturation and Brightness.

How to Change Display Settings in Vista

To do this:-right click on a blank area of the desktop and select Personalize and then click Display Settings.There you can change the Screen resolution , colors as well as the monitor refresh rate by clicking the Advanced tab.A refresh rate of at least 75 Hertz generally produces less flicker.

Recommended settings:-

Monitor size Recommended resolution
15-inch monitor 1024 x 768
17- to 19-inch monitor 1280 x 1024
20-inch and larger monito 1600 x 1200

Welcome Center In Vista

When you will log on to Vista 5365 you will be greeted by a Welcome Center on the desktop.If you don't want to view this Welcome Center then you can easily uncheck the box against 'Run at startup'.
If you uncheck this option still you can access the Welcome Center via Control Panel.On the Welcome Center page there are four items present:-

Set up devices
Windows basics
Add a printer
Personalize Windows

If you click 'Show all 12 items...' then the other options will be displayed.

In case of Vista 5381 Build,the default Welcome Center has the following items :-

Set up devices
Windows basics
Add a printer
Personalize Windows
What's new in Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Easy Transfer

Welcome Screen In Vista

Well it's still in it's beta phase,so long way still to go.
In anycase the Welcome Screen in Vista is always enabled and you can't disable it as well as the Fast User Switching is always on.

nforce Audio driver now friendly:Vista 5365

In the earlier build 5342 I had a real pain in installing the audio driver.Bit I am really pleased to see that this latest build is much driver friendly and it allowed nforce audio without any problem.

SearchIndexer.exe:-Vista 5365

Immediately after the installation I have found this very annoying bug.It pos up with a message :- SearchIndexer.exe has stopped working.

To get rid of this to the following:-

Start>All Programs>Aaccessories>Run>type in services.msc>OK

Now locate "Windows Search" and disable it.

Also make a change in the “Change the system language”.
Click on the Administrative tab and change your locale to “English (United States)”.

Otherwise you can avoid this annoying problem during installation if you keep US as default wherever you need that.

Much Improved Installation Scenario:Vista Build#5365

I have installed Vista 5365.And noticed a change in the installation from the earlier builds.It's now bit faster and during installation it requires all the following informations:-

1]Copying Windows files.

2]Expanding Windows installation.

3]Assembling Windows features.

4]Applying Windows updates.

5]Applying other updates.

6]Initializing Windows.

7]Identifying hardwares.

Prefetch Cleaning - A Myth

There is a myth that cleaning the Prefetch folder will improve performance.This is not true,as the Prefetch folder is not a cache.This is not preloaded into memory.Thus if you delete the contents of that folder then the applications load time will be increased.So cleaning the Prefetch folder is a tweak which will go against the system's performance.Ed Bott has proved it with the help of a Stopwatch on multiple test systems and documented all the reults in Windows XP Inside Out Second Edition.

Extreme tweaking with X-Setup

X-Setup Pro is an excellent software which you can use for great tweaking.

http://www.x-setup.net/downloads/home.asp

Please check out Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list first,

How to change the default opening path of Windows Explorer

Introduction:-Windows Explorer opens in My Documents by default.But you can easily change the path.

How to:-Start>All Prgrams>Accessories>Windows Explorer.

Now right click on the icon of Windows Explorer >select Properties>Click on Shortcut.You will find the default path is %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe in the Target box.Simply change it to get the desired target.
If you change it to %systemroot%\explorer.exe /e then Windows Explorer will open in to C:\ drive
If you change it to %systemroot%\explorer.exe /e, then it will open in to My Computer.
If you change it to %systemroot%\explorer.exe /e, D:\ then it will open in to D drive.

How to remove password prompt after Stand by or Hibernation

Introduction:-
When you put your system in Stand by or hibernation and after certain time when you are brought back to the Welcome screen you find a password prompt to continue.But you may easily bypass it.

How to:-
Open Control Panel>Power options>Advanced tab>Uncheck "Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby".>OK/Apply.

How to Change Default Download Location of Internet Explorer

Introduction:-The default download location for Internet Explorer is "my documents".If you want to change the download location you can easily do that.

How To:

Start>Run>Regedit>OK

Now navigate to the following location:-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

Highlight Internet Explorer;now in the right pane you will find 'download directory' ;double click on it and change the path of the directory.

Internet Explorer Opens in Small sized Window

The Problem:-
When opening a site into a new window, the new window opens up small. How do I fix it so all windows open up maximized?

Resolution:-
The first window you open will be exactly the same size as the last window closed. So closing a full sized maximum window last, will let you to have a new maximum sized window next time.Easiest way is to right-click the IE icon on your desktop, create shortcut, right-click the shortcut, properties, Run: maximized.

Firefox Flicks Closes

Firefox, the open source web browser, has recently closed an online video competition designed to promote the product.
The videos, all 250+ of them, are available online now. We've picked one or two for your weekend viewing; enjoy!

Video: 'Wheee!'
Video: 'Billy's Browser'
View: Firefox Flicks

[source:-neowin]

Favorites missing after the upgradation

The Problem:-I have upgraded my operating system from windows 98 to Windows XP and since then all my favorites of internet explorer are missing.

Cause:-This happens because favorites are located in different locations in both the operating systems.In case of Windows 98 it's located under the %Windir%\Favorites where as in case of Windows XP it's located under %Userprofile%\Favorites.

Resolution:-To resolve this problem simply copy the shortcuts of all the favorites from the old location to the new location.

LPT1 port is missing

The Problem:- I could not print to local printer (HP laserjet) and noted that there is no lpt1 port listed in devices. MB is asusp4s800,relatively new and has been working fine until today ...

Resolution:-
At first enter the BIOS and make sure that the parallel port -LPT1 is enabled in the BIOS .Save the settings and come out from the BIOS ;restart the machine and install the HP printer's driver,which is connected to the LPT1.

Vintage Windows Media Player

XP still has the Vintage Windows Media Player;but hidden.Do you want to explore it?If then simply do the following:-

Start>Run>type in:mplayer2.exe>OK

You will get a cute vintage media player,which is skinnable but sucks a lot of memories.

Flashing disk icon

The Problem:-I have a flashing disk icon to the right of the mouse pointer.What does it mean?

Resolution:-A flashing disk icon usually indicates that you've inserted a CD/DVD in the CD/DVD-ROM Drive and the system is reading the information from it. A Virtual CD program(which lets you create a virtual CD drive on your hard disk) can also cause the same type of problem.

Blank Desktop

The Problem:-

When I boot up all I get is a blank desktop. No icons or anything at all. If I press CTRL +ALT+ DEL Keys,I can open the task manager, but am still unable to bring up a desktop.

Resolution:-

To resove this issue you have to create a new Explorer.exe process from Task Manager.

Start>Run>regedit>OK
Open Registry Editor and see if shell ="explorer.exe" .
Navigate to the following location:-[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

Explorer.exe is used for the Windows desktop GUI.

Related KB Article:-
Shells Other Than Explorer.exe Replaced on Installation or Upgrade
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=228309