Fix Windows Vista Errors

In the past week I have done a few posts on ease of access settings in Windows Vista, those being the magnifier and the on-screen keyboard. Today I will talk about a feature in the ease of access section that will make choosing any setting much easier.

You can select an option call Let Windows Suggest Settings, and funnily enough what it does is select certain ease of access setting on the data from a few questions.

When you open the Let Windows Suggest Settings box it will start asking you some questions, after you answer all these it will then list out a bunch of appropriate setting that you can turn on that will make your PC usage easier.

Some of the questions that are asked relate to;

• Eyesight
• Physical conditions
• Hearing
• Speech troubles
• Other disorders

If you want to start this feature just follow this;

• Open control panel
• Open ease of access
• Click Let Windows Suggest Settings
• It will then go through with you step by step

Recently Microsoft announced that they were going to spend $300 million on a new ad campaign for Windows staring Seinfeld. Here is a brief news story on the issue;

Some people may have criticized a few of Windows Vista’s new applications, but I can say for sure that this new one is very, very useful. The Windows Mobility Center is basically one centralized application that lets you edit some basic functions of your PC, these include;

• Brightness adjustment
• Sound adjustment / mute
• Battery level / power scheme selection
• Wireless network status
• Screen orientation (portrait or landscape)
• External displays
• Synchronization to other machines
• Presentation settings

In the past it could have taken quite some time to change all these setting on your PC, but by using the Windows Mobility Center you can edit them all in seconds. To access the Windows Mobility Center just;

• Open control panel
• Open Windows Mobility Center

or

• Press your windows button plus X on your keyboard

We are very green friendly in our office here and we are always looking at better ways to conserve energy and better manage the environment. Since almost everyone has a PC, we can all help out with a few little steps.

Today we will look at some options  for Windows Vista energy conservation - Remember, by being more efficient and using less energy, this not only benefits the environment, but it also ends up costing you less.

The Windows Vista OS does feature significant changes to its power management infrastructure, functionality and default settings. All of these changes affect how Vista PCs consume energy. Here is some further info on the potential energy savings available when using Windows Vista and the changes from XP.

PC Power Consumption

Here are some numbers on PC power consumption and the type of savings that can be made by using sleep vs idle modes.

Common power usage output for Desktop PCs (watts):

Calculating power savings:

In projecing the potential savings, a PC left on constantly was compared with a PC put in sleep mode during non-use hours. The non-use hours are calculated at approximately 14 hours per day. So if we also factor in weekends, the approximate non-user hours for the year is: 6,160 hours.

To calculate the saved poser, we use (idle power - sleep power) x 6160 hours = annual savings.

In the table below you can see the savings (kWh):

Financial Benefits

As you can see above, a considerable amount of kWh hours can be saved by using the Vista power functions. To put this into a financial value see the formula below (this is assuming an average cost per kWh of $0.094):

760.14 x 0.094 = $71.45

So there is an annual saving of $71.45 for just a single PC by employing the Vista energy saving features. If this is applied to every PC using Vista, the saving is absolutely enormous, especially for large corporations.

Environmental Benefit

Obviously as more energy is consumed this adds to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, generating 1kWh of power in the USA results in 1.55 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions. So a saving of 760 kWh for a single PC results in a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of 1,178 lbs.

This is quite a significant saving and again, when implemented on every PC running Vista, there is a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

So if you are using Windows Vista, start using the power saving features. Not only will you save on costs, but you will be benefitting the environment.

In my last post I talked about the Vista Magnifier which can assist any sight impaired person to use their PC just that little bit easier.  Today I will talk about another good application in Vista, the on-screen keyboard.

The on-screen keyboard is essentially a keyboard that pops up onto your screen so you don’t have to use your normal keyboard, this can be handy if you are unable to use your physical keyboard for some reason or other.

To turn your on-screen keyboard on follow this;

• Open your control panel
• Click ease of access
• Click ease of access center
• Click start on-screen keyboard

If you want the on-screen keyboard to start every time you boot your computer just;

• In the ease of access center go to the explore all settings section
• Click use the computer without a mouse or keyboard
• Check Use On-Screen Keyboard
• Click save
• Done

This is a great new feature in Vista that can assist visually impaired people use their PC. The Vista magnifier allows people see close up images of their screen in a large block at the top of your PC, and zooms in on the area around your mouse cursor.

Windows magnifier actually has been around in various forms since Windows 98 but you will get a much easier to use version in Vista. Earlier versions allowed the user to magnify up to 9 times, but you can magnify up to 16x in Vista.

If you want to turn on Windows Magnifier follow this;

• Open control panel
• Click ease of access
• Click ease of access center
• Click start magnifier

Your screen should now become a bit shorter as the magnifier bar is introduced at the top of the page, you will also see a magnifier command box. In this command box you can change settings such as;

• Options
• Presentation - here you can alter the scale of the magnifier
• Tracking

When you shutdown your Vista run PC you believe it is shutting down right, well actually by default it actually goes into sleep mode and not shut down. You can easily change this setting so that everytime your computer shuts down, it does shut down.

To set your computer to shut down follow this;

• Press start and type in power options
• The power options box will pop up
• Select choose what the power buttons do
• You will now see a table with options for when you press the power button, when you press the sleep button and when I close the lid
• Go to the when I press the power button option and select shut down in both the drop downs (battery and plugged in)
• Click save changes

As you can see from this power settings page you can select other options for your liking regarding the power of your Vista run PC, have a go and work out what is good for you.

Here is a Windows Vista resource that I am sure you will all find very useful for getting the most out of your Vista.

What is it?

This guide will show you how to tune and improve Windows Vista. The focus is on a single PC, but it can be extended to environments where multiple performance and tuning may be required.

The Vista performance guide will cover the following performance areas:

• Making configuration changes that help a computer feel more responsive when you use it.
• Using hardware to boost the actual physical speed of a computer.
• Making configuration changes that help a computer to start faster.
• Making the computer more reliable may help increase performance.
• Monitoring performance occasionally so that you can stop problems before they get too big.

This resource was recommended by our friend Rick from the Vista Outreach team. So check it out.

Windows Vista Performance and Tuning

There has recently been increased uptake in the usage of 64bit Vista PCs. This has more than tripled in just the past 3 months alone in the US, and worldwide adoption is also growing nicely. The shift to 64bit is in both the corporate and consumer levels.

The shift to 64bit Windows Vista does have its advantages and the cheaper modern hardware allows for greater power at a fraction of what it used to cost. So we can only expect to see more and more 64bit desktops and laptops hitting the market.

The one problem currently is the lack of drivers. There are few drivers currently available to support many consumer products and devices such as: scanners, DVD/RW, bluetooth etc. So if you are thinking of changing to 64bit just be ready for some limitations. Although we do expect drivers to hit the market fairly soon as the demand is growing fast.

If you already have 64bit Vista or thinking of upgrading then try our free scan below to automatically keep up-to-date with the latest drivers.

For those of you already using 64bit, how has it been so far?

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Download, Update and Fix Drivers - Free Scan

I talked about in a recent post about different methods you can do to increase the overall speed of your computer using Vista, and one of these ways was to use ReadyBoost. Since that post I have had a few emails from Vista users asking for more information about ReadyBoost, and how they can set it up.

ReadyBoost is a great new feature in Vista that essentially uses the memory from your flash stick, flash drive or any other portable device as RAM. By increasing RAM using ReadyBoost you will increase the speed of your PC.

The best way to test the actual increase of speed with ReadyBoost is to use a computer with only a small amount of RAM (512mb). There have been tests done on similar computers and it was shown that basic operation where done heaps faster using ReadyBoost.

How do I setup ReadyBoost

• Insert a flash drive or any other external memory device
• In the Removable Disk Properties pop up select ReadyBoost
• Here you can select to use the device for system speed (note: You may receive a warning saying this device does not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system)
• It will now recommend how much space you should reserve for optimal performance (my 512 MB data stick shows I should reserve 430MB)
• Click apply
• Click OK