Fix Windows Vista Errors

Do you need to lock down your computer in a hurry (don’t want your boss to see your game of solitaire!), then here are a couple of shortcuts you can use;

Keyboard

Simple, just use this shortcut

• Win key + L

Mouse

• Right click your desktop and select new > shortcut
• Type the following in the first screen
  • rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

• Now click next
• Now select a name for your shortcut (ie. SHUTDOWN)
• Click finish
• Done

Yahoo have released a new version of their homepage, being the first major change for the page since 2006. Here is a video showing the new site;

Note: Home editions of Windows Vista do not allow remote desktop.

If you never use the remote desktop feature (or if you use another product) then you may want to disable it as it is just another wasted resource on you PC.

To disable your remote desktop follow this;

• Open up you system box, either by;
  • Control panel > system and maintenance > system
  • Right click you computer icon in your start menu and click properties
  • In you start search box type system, it will be listed just as system
• In the left column click remote settings

Now under the section called remote desktop simply uncheck ‘Don’t allow connections to this computer’, this will disable the remote desktop to your PC.

You may have noticed the ease of access button on your Vista logon screen in the bottom right hand corner, this is designed so that anyone with a disability can change setting etc so they can easily use the PC.

But what this also means is that even though no one can access your computer unless they know the password, anyone can walk up and still change your ease of access settings.

You may want to disable this button, you do this by;

• Download the software here
• Run the software as an administrator
• Now click OK
• You will now come to a screen with an option to disable ease of access
• Click disable
• You should still be able to see the ease of access button on logon screen, but it will not be active

This is a very easy tweak to perform but can be very handy if you want to quickly open a web page or a page in explorer.

To add an address bar to your taskbar just do this;

• Right click in your taskbar
• Go to toolbars
• Click on address
• You will see an address bar now in your taskbar

You can now just add a url into the bar and the page will open up in your browser, or alternatively you can navigate to a page in explorer from here.

Now this tweak probably sounds useless to many of our users out there, but it is actually a handy hack for some.

If you do design or work with images etc you would have encountered a time where you needed to move the arrow 1 or 2 pixels but found it tough with the mouse, this is where Mouse Keys is useful.

Mouse Keys is a small application that allows you to control your mouse arrow with your numbers keys, thus allowing you to easily move it 1 pixel at a time.

To activate Mouse Keys just follow this;

• Open control panel
• Click ease of access
• Click change how your mouse works
• Click setup mouse keys
• Here you can change the setting to your liking
• Click apply
• You should use the shortcut of Alt+Shift+Num Lock

This happened to me recently and at first I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I looked into more and found that the solution was easy.

Basically what happens is that in an explorer folder it shows the files icon but does not show the name, so I had a bunch of similar icons with no names.

What the problem here is that Windows believes you have set the folder as a pictures folder and selected to hide the files names. I have no idea why this happens (unless you have selected that option), but the fix is quite easy;

• Navigate to the folder
• Right click and select customize this folder
• Click the customize tab
• In the top dropdown select pictures and videos as your folder type
• Apply and OK
• Now back to the folder and select view (you may need to hit alt first)
• Uncheck hide file names
• Your file names should be back again