Fix Windows Vista Errors

The Aero theme that ships with Windows Vista is a pretty nice theme, but we often get people asking about the borders and how to shrink them etc.

Well the good news is that with the Vista Aero theme you can do a lot of customization to the borders. You can increase or decrease the size/padding of the borders, you can also change the levels of transparency of the borders and their colors. Lets look at how you can do this.

Changing border size/padding

• Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select “Personalize”
• Click on “Window Color and Appearance”
• Click the “Advanced” button. You will also need to ensure that the Aero theme is selected
• To alter border size, select “Border Padding” from the dropdown list and choose the size you prefer. Larger or smaller

Changing color/transparency

Some users hate the transparency effect, while others love it. Here is how you can change the transparency and colors on the borders.

• Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select “Personalize”
• Click on “Window Color and Appearance”
• Turn transparency on or off by checking the “Enable transparency” option
• You can choose how transparent by moving the “Color intensity” slider
• Lastly, you can choose the color scheme you want

From the 15th of December this year you can buy special ‘red’ editions of Windows Vista Ultimate that will raise money for developing a vaccine to Aids.

The red version will have a few bonus extras like screensavers wallpapers, gadgets and Dreamscene, but the main point of this special version is to create more awareness around the world of this deadly virus.

Vista now joins an odd group of mega-brands linked to (RED), including struggling Starbucks and GAP. American Express and Apple have also signed on. And on World AIDS Day, Microsoft’s MSN hosted the launch of a (RED) music service.

The Red version of Vista Ultimate will be available for $219.95; students can qualify for the $64.95 pricing via Microsoft’s Web site also.

You can find out more about the product here - Windows Vista Red

I recently had some problems with my Vista computer that the volume control icon kept disappearing and whenever I tried to activate it in the properties area of my taskbar the volume control was grayed out.

Apparently I wasn’t just going nuts but it is actually a bit of a bug that many Vista users have been experiencing, and from what I can read about it no one really knows why! But there is something you can do about it, this fix requires a little registry editing so like usual - backup your registry (I have also added the .reg file for those who hate editing their registry).

Through the Registry

• Open regedit
• Go to these locations
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
• In the TrayNotify string delete both IconStreams and PastIconStreams
• Once you have deleted them all reboot your PC
• This should fix the problem

Through the .reg File

• Copy the following code into a notepad file and call it trayiconfix.reg
• Open the file and you should enter the registry
• It should fix the errors for you
• You will now have to reboot and the volume problem should be fixed

If for some reason this fix did not work or you have any other questions regarding the volume controls please leave a comment.

In Windows Vista there is a top secret super administrator account. This account is different to the regular administrator account (that most are familiar with) and it is not part of the adminstrators group.

By default this account is turned off and hidden, hence the secret. But we will show you how you can unlock and use this powerful account. This super administrator account won’t get those annoying UAC messages and you should be able to easily administer anything you want on the computer without hassles or rejections.

Unlock the Secret Administrator Account in Vista

• First you need to open the command prompt as administrator. This is done slightly different to how you would normally open the command prompt. To open it as administrator, do the following: Click Start, Programs -> Accessories, then right click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”
• Type the following command and press Enter: Net user administrator /active:yes
• If you ever want to turn it off, do the same, but type: Net user administrator /active:no

This new unlocked administrator account will now appear alongside your other accounts at the welcome screen. Have fun with your new powers!

The Language bar is a toolbar that appears on your desktop automatically when you add text services, such as input languages, keyboard layouts, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, or input method editors (IMEs).

Your language bar should be located in the bottom right or your desktop next to your taskbar, but if you cannot locate it you may need to activate it. Here is how you can enable, disable and change your settings on the Language bar;

• Open control panel
• Click clock, language and region
• Click regional and language options
• Click the keyboard and languages tab
• Click change keyboards
• Click the language bar tab
• Here you can change all the settings you want for the language bar, as well as hide or show it

Windows Vista service pack 2 (sp2) is set for an April 2009 release says reports released by many tech websites.  SP2 is set to be released with;

• Windows Search 4.0
• Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack
• The ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media “natively” in Vista
• A simplified tool for configuring Wi-Fi
• exFAT file system will be able to support Coordianted Universal Time (UTC) timestamps

The beta version of SP2 was released in October this year so we are very interested like thousands of others as to just how good SP2 will be in the full release.

Remember those commercials for Windows Vista with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld that were supposed to help rejuvenate the brand?

You have probably long forgotten, so here are the commercials in case you want to see them again:

http://fix-vista-errors.com/blog/2008/09/09/gatesseinfeld-shoe-commercial/
http://fix-vista-errors.com/blog/2008/09/16/second-seinfeld-commercial/

Well this was a 300 million dollar ad campaign and personally I think the money could have been better spent and so do most other people that were surveyed. In a recent survey which appears on Advertising Age here, the Seinfeld and Gates commercial was rated as the worst commercial (or best worst ad).  However, Apple was rated as no 1. I think its time for Microsoft to hire a new ad agency.

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