Everyday Nerd » Vista

Protect your PC – Disable AutoPlay

Nerd — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:27:49 +0000

Windows 7 disables the AutoPlay feature which has been abused by malware (like Conficker). Now, Microsoft provides this same functionality for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

Download Disable AutoPlay for Windows

Disable Group Policy Service on Windows Vista/7

Nerd — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

As an administrator, I like to have FULL control of the computer that I use everyday. Most companies deploy group policies that will set defaults to your computer, and not allow you to change those settings. This will require that you are an administrator of the computer that you are using.

Open Regedit, and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\gpsrv. Right click on the gpsrv key, and select Permissions. Go to Advanced, and the Owner Tab. Change owner to your account, and click OK. Next, select Administrators, and check the Full Control box.

Click OK to close the permissions window, and look on the right hand section of Regedit. Look for this start key. Double click the Start DWORD, and change the value to 4 – this disables the service.

Reboot, and you will not get any group policies assigned to your computer. Note, that every time you log in, you will get a message, warning you that Windows cannot connect to the Group Policy service. Just click the X, and ignore.

It is best to do this before you have joined your computer to the domain. Do it with a local account that has administrative rights, reboot, then join the domain. This will ensure that you do not get any policies applied to your machine.

Vista & Server 2008 Service Pack 2 released

Nerd — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:37:28 +0000

Microsoft released Service Pack 2 today for Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista (all versions). With performance enhancements, and other bug fixes, this is a must have update. Make sure you have Service Pack 1 installed already, as it is a prerequisite.

Download Vista/Server 2008 SP2 32bit

Download Vista/Server 2008 SP2 64bit

Fix slow Vista log on times

Nerd — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:45:43 +0000

A friend of mine, Scott, works at Microsoft, and he sent me this KB article today, and a note:

One of the guys on my new team does the "Fix it" links. I stumbled on this one a few days back and might come in handy if you think your Vista logon time has started to slow down a bit.

Thanks for the lookout Scott!

The KB Article is here: KB958909

Replace Vista’s Annoying UAC with Norton UAC (Beta)

Nerd — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:32:26 +0000

Vista’s UAC can be annoying, and although I’ve shared with you how to make it less annoying, Norton (Symantec) has come up with a replacement UAC that is makes it much better!

With one BIG feature – “Don’t ask me again” I think I’m in love! There are several programs I run during the course of the day that the UAC prompts me. I run them every day I don’t need to be prompted to open the command prompt, or and administrative mmc window! Also, it’s fast! Much faster than the default Windows UAC.

Thanks to Norton UAC Replacement, I’m running UAC-less on the daily apps that I use, but still have the protection from of UAC for everything else! Although it is in Beta, Norton UAC Replacement is solid, and I have had no issues so far – I’ve been running it for about two weeks now.

Link: http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php

Free Alternative to Vista Media Center: Origami

Nerd — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:42:00 +0000

Do you have Windows Vista Home Basic, or Business? Wish you had the Vista Media Center? Well, now you can have the next best thing! Microsoft Origami although designed for the UMPC platform, has come to Vista, showing a very nice interface for your media! While it doesn’t measure up to Media Center, Origami still has a easy to navigate, and very functional media "center."

Download Origami Experience 2.0 here

Tame Vista UAC to be less annoying

Nerd — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:02:03 +0000

UAC is a great security enhancement to Windows Vista (over XP) but you know, it can be rather annoying too! As an administrator, I use certain programs that require me to “Run as Administrator” – such as command prompt, computer management, and others. Thanks to the HowToGeek, here are 4 ways to make your vista experience better…

**Note: Disabling and/or modifying UAC may put your system at risk. To be the most secure, leave UAC at default settings.

1: Disable UAC completely via Command line:

Disable UAC:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Enable UAC:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

2: Disable for Administrators Only

To configure this setting on Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, you can use the Local Security Policy configuration. Just type in secpol.msc into the Start menu search box and hit enter.

Now browse down to Local Policies \ Security Options

Find the following in the list: “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” and double-click on it.

Change the setting to “Elevate without prompting”. You should be all done.

<< Download Registry Tweak >>

3: Disable Screen Dimming

UAC itself is a good thing – but on some video cards, it seems to take forever for the screen dimming to pop, and prompt you. So, this is my personal favorite – keep the security, but get rid of the dimming:

<< Download Registry Tweak >>

4: Create Specific shortcuts that don’t prompt for UAC

This is quite a nice little trick. You want UAC, you want Desktop Dimming, but you just have one program that you run all the time that you don’t want to prompt you for UAC. This is for you…

Open up Task Scheduler (Start, Search box, type task), and then on the right-hand side click the “Create Task” link:

Enter a name for the task, and check the box for “Run with highest privileges”

Click the Actions tab, choose New, and enter the path to the program you want to run.

Choose OK button to close. Right click the task, and choose “Run” – just to make sure that you have done it correctly, and it doesn’t prompt for UAC.

Create the Shortcut to Start the Task

Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New, Shortcut

Enter the following: schtasks /run /tn “TASKNAMEINQUOTES”

As you can see, I used Command Prompt as the name for the task.

Give your shortcut a meaningful name, and then click next to finish.

You now have a shortcut that will launch your application in administrator mode without prompting you for UAC!

I’m a bit anal, and don’t like that generic icon, so right click on the shortcut, choose properties, and then Change Icon. Also, change the Run drop-down to “Minimized” (to hide the schtasks command line utility).

The simplest thing to do is just browse down to the application that you are opening with the shortcut… and you should see the icons for the application itself.

So now you have a nice looking icon that launches an application in Administrator mode… with no prompts whatsoever.

Elevator (Windows Vista Permissions)

Nerd — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:26:20 +0000

Source [LifeHacker]

Windows only: Freeware application Elevator disables the User Account Control prompt for specific applications through your right-click menu, getting rid of the UAC annoyance for apps that require administrator privileges every time they run. Elevator is freeware, Windows Vista only; installation requires a little finesse, so be sure to read the instructions.

Link: Elevator

Vista SP1 officially released!

Nerd — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:22:21 +0000

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an update to Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues; supporting new types of hardware; and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also will continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional).

Get the x86 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en.

Get the x64 standalone package @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en.

Enjoy!!!

Vista SP1 Released to Manufacturing today

Nerd — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:38:06 +0000

Microsoft Vista SP1 is RTM today! It will be available to the general public in March.

RDP Update from Microsoft: no more /console

Nerd — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:10:12 +0000

Recently Microsoft released an update (also in SP1 for Vista) to the RDP (Remote Desktop Client) that seemed to break the /console. I found this out earlier this week when trying to connect to the console of a server, but would not – would only connect to the normal RDP non-console session.

Well, after verifying that my shortcut to with the /console switch was there, and I wasn’t going crazy, I ran mstsc.exe /? from the run line, only to find this:

/admin — Connects you to the session for administering a server.

Needless to say, I think Microsoft should have given some warning about this, or at least keep /console active until the next release – to give people a chance to the change. But that is my opinion…

Enable Vista’s Administrator Account

Nerd — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:00:49 +0000

Source: [Lifehacker]

For the average Windows Vista session, the "Needs your permission to continue" prompts are just momentary, occasional annoyances which can be disabled or by-passed. But if you’re planning to do a lot of tweaking or installations, having a dedicated Administrator account—like the kind available in XP—can be mighty helpful. The How-To Geek blog shows how to enable (and disable) the account from the log-in screen:

First you’ll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing "Run as administrator"

Now type the following command:
net user administrator /active:yes

Log out and you should see an "Administrator" account available. Un-doing the tweak requires running nearly the same command, but with /active:no at the end. Like the Geek, we’ll note here that only experienced users who know exactly what they’re doing should use this type of account, and that Microsoft obviously doesn’t want you to do this as a normal thing. All the same, it could be a boon for easier troubleshooting.

Tip: Uninstall software that doesn’t give you the option

Nerd — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Have you ever had software that shows up in Add/Remove Programs, but doesn’t have the Remove/Uninstall button?

I recently had a program (a custom repack of WinZip) that only had the Repair option. Well, I use WinRAR exclusively, so I wanted to remove it.

To fix this open Regedit (Start, run Regedit), and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

From here, you can either go through each sub-folder, looking for the software in question, or highlight Uninstall, go to Edit, Find and type the name of software you are looking for.

Once you find it, look for two keys: NoModify & NoRemove – they are pretty self explanatory as to what each key does. Change the key value from a 1 to a 0 (zero) to deactivate the key.

Next, open Add/Remove Programs again, and you will see the Uninstall button now!

This works for Windows XP / Vista (Probably 2000 as well, but not tested)

Slow Terminal Session from Vista to 2003 R2 – Fixed

Nerd — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:01:00 +0000

I regularly remote administer servers, most of which are Windows Server 2003 R2. I starting having an issue a few weeks ago when connecting to certain servers that the mouse response was extremely slow. The keyboard function was fine. I had a quick fix – every time I click the mouse, I would press the Ctrl key, which seemed to speed it up, but was extremely annoying.

Now I have found a fix!

Open a Command prompt as Administrator, and enter this command:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

If you want to to re-enable it:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

This immediately fixed the issue – no more slow RDP sessions! Now, back to work…

Windows Vista SP1 – Released to Public

Nerd — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:21:00 +0000

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC is now available through Windows Update. Experience the WU based Vista SP1 installation by following 4 simple steps. Windows Vista SP1 RC distributed through Windows Update will be applicable to Windows Vista machines that are running on any of the 36 languages supported by Vista RTM.

If you already installed the Service Pack to your machine by using the standalone package, you must uninstall before you scan Windows Update for Windows Vista SP1.

Systems running on Windows Vista RTM require as many as three updates before SP1 can be installed. These updates are permanent to your Windows Vista systems. Windows Update will detect your system configuration and offer the prerequisite packages that are applicable to your system.

Download: Vista SP1 RC1

Source: [Neowin.net]

Get Vista Ultimate – For FREE!

Nerd — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:02:00 +0000

You love Microsoft right? Well if you do, and you don’t mind them collecting data from your computer habits for 3 months, filling out a few surveys, you can score a free copy of one of the following from the Windows Feedback Program:

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit DVD)
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
Microsoft Money Plus Premium
Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008

A bit worried about privacy? Read the FAQ. I’m going to give it a shot, and let you know how it goes! I have already received a free copy of Windows Vista Business, and Office 2007, but now I can grab Ultimate

[Sign up here]

Finally! Microsoft Outlook 2007 Sidebar Gadgets!

Nerd — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:45:00 +0000

I really like the sidebar in Vista, but it has been lacking some good Outlook gadgets. No more! Now, with the Outlook 2007 Appointment and Task Gadgets, it shows a clean and interactive way to get to your calendar and tasks.

Yes, there have been other sidebar gadgets for Outlook, but were lacking in some way. Thanks to the guys at Microsoft for creating these two gadgets!

Download: Outlook 2007 Appointments Gadget
Download: Outlook 2007 Tasks Gadget

Vista Updates: Better Battery Life!

Nerd — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:55:00 +0000

Finally! Microsoft is releasing another update later this week that will improve battery life. Nick White (MSFT) posted on his blog this morning:

The non-security updates planned for release through Windows Update this week include:

An update on system compatibility, reliability and stability: extends the battery life for mobile devices, improves stability of wireless network services, and shortens recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity, among other fixes.

An update to USB core components: mainly affects systems returning from sleep or hibernation, fixing problems causing 1-2% of all crashes reported.

An update to Windows Media Center: among other things, affects interaction issues occurring between Media Center PC and Microsoft Xbox 360 when Xbox 360 is used as a Media Center Extender.

Expect availability via Windows Update on November 13th.

Remote Desktop Sidebar Widget

Nerd — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:50:00 +0000

I like widgets… One that I use every day, many times a day is the Remote Desktop widget.

I love that it has a history, and favorites, as well as an easy console and full screen selection.

Go get it here!

Edit File Types in Windows Vista

Nerd — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:11:00 +0000

VISTA ONLY

Source: annoyances.org

"File Type" associations are the links between your documents and the applications that create them. For instance, when you double-click a Microsoft Word Document on your desktop, Windows knows to start Word and instruct it to open the document because of the Microsoft Word Document file type. Likewise, when you click a website link in an email message, Windows knows which browser to open (e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer) because of the HTTP Protocol file type.

The Folder Options window in Windows Vista is missing the File Types tab found in earlier versions of Windows. So how do you edit file type associations in Windows Vista?

There are three ways:

Method #1 (on the fly):

Right-click a file of the type you want to change, and select Properties.
In the General tab, click the Change button.
Choose a program from the list, or click Browse to select an .EXE file on your hard disk.

Method #2 (view a list of file types):

Open Control Panel.
In Control Panel Home, click Programs, and then click Make a file type always open in a specific program.
Or, in the Classic View, open Default Programs and then click Associate a file type or protocol with a program.
Highlight a file type in the list and click Change Program.

Unfortunately, neither method in Vista allows you to choose anything but the default programs, such as the programs listed in your files’ context menus. If you want complete control over your file types, use this tool:

Method #3 (File Type Doctor):

Download and install Creative Element Power Tools.
Open the Creative Element Power Tools Control Panel.
Turn on the Edit file type associations option, and click Accept.
Right-click a file of the type you want to change, and select Edit File Type to show this window:
Click Help if you need more information.

Vista Service Pack 1: Official Release Q108

Nerd — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:12:00 +0000

It’s official! Microsoft is releasing Vista SP1 Beta in September, and release in 1st quarter 2008. SP1 is to have plenty of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and improved reliability. Microsoft is only releasing the beta to about 10,000-15,000 testers in September.

Official Vista Performance and Compatibility Packs Release

Nerd — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:16:00 +0000

I told you earlier that Vista Service Pack .5 was unofficially released. Well now, Microsoft has officially released two KB’s that are supposed to increase performance, compatibility, and reliability.

KB938979 “Performance and Reliability”

This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who are using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.
By applying this update, you can achieve better performance and responsiveness in various scenarios. This update also improves the reliability of Windows Vista.
This update resolves the following issues on a Windows Vista-based computer:

•You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.

•A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.

•If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.

•When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.

•When you copy or move a large file, the “estimated time remaining” takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.

•After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.

•When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.

•If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:

•Canon EOS 1D

•Canon EOS 1DS

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

932988 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932988/) Files from a Canon EOD 1D or 1DS camera may be corrupted after you use Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, or Windows Explorer to edit the file metadata in Windows Vista or in Windows XP Service Pack 2

•After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.

•Poor memory management performance occurs.

Download: 32 bit & 64 bit

KB938194 “Compatibility and Reliability”

This update resolves some compatibility issues and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better reliability and hardware compatibility in various scenarios.
This update resolves the following issues:

•The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

932539 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932539/) The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver on a Windows Vista-based computer

•The computer stops responding, and you receive a “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer’s power button.

•The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.

•The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.

•The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.

•There are stability issues with some graphics processing units (GPUs). These issues could cause GPUs to stop responding (hang).

•Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.

•You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.

•Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.

•Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.

•Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.

•The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.

•You receive a “Stop 0×0000009F” error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

931671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931671/) Error message when you put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep while a PPP connection is active: “STOP 0×0000009F”

Download: 32 bit & 64 bit

Vista Service Pack .5 "Released"

Nerd — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:23:00 +0000

From: Neowin

938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

Improves performance in resuming back to the desktop from the Photo and Windows Energy screensaver.
Resolves an issue where some secured web pages using advanced security technologies may not get displayed in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista.
Resolves an issue where a shared printer may not get installed if the printer is connected to a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and User Access Control is disabled on the Vista client.
Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files.
Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate.
Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted.
Resolves a compatibility issue with RAW images created by Canon EOS 1D/1DS Digital SLR Camera which can lead to data loss. This only affects RAW images created by these two specific camera models.
Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode.
Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files.
Improves the performance of Vista’s Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption.

938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the reliability and hardware compatibility of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

Improved reliability and compatibility of Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics.
Improved quality of playback for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray disks on large monitors.
Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista.
Improved Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
Improved the reliability of Windows Calendar in Vista.
Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
Increased reliability and performance of Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep.

Download: Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack for x64 or x86 version

Vista: Finally – Faster File Copy!

Nerd — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:34:00 +0000

f you are running Vista, you have, I’m sure noticed that copying a file over the network is ~~somewhat, freakishly, insanely~~ slow. I finally found the tweak to unlock those bits to let them run free!

Go to:

Start, Control Panel
Open Programs, then Program and Features
Select Turn on or off Windows features in the left pane
Uncheck Remote Differential Compression

Great, that’s it! Your file copies will now be faster!

Test drive Vista & Office Free

Nerd — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:36:00 +0000

Microsoft just added Windows Vista Enterprise, and Office 2007 VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) to Microsoft Download Center. You must have Virtual PC to use (another free download). Registration is required for download. Here’s a hint: There is a time limit before the VHD expires – Expected. But, if you hang on to your 4 downloaded original files, just unzip them again, and you are back up running again – until it expires again. Perfect for testing software on Vista, and checking out how Office 2007 functions with Vista.