Fix Windows Vista Errors

Your monitor flicker or the refresh rate of your PC can contribute to problems such as eyestrain or headaches with the user.

Basically, humans can see light flickering up to 25 hertz. Anything above that level humans can not see but it can affect people, that is why you can get major eyestrain looking at a flickering light (above 100 hertz).

You should control your flickering in your PC to reduce any chance of the mentioned problems. You should control the flickering on your computers screen by reducing the refresh rate to at least 75 hertz.

To do this in Vista just follow this;

• Open control panel
• Click appearance and personalization
• Click personalization
• Click display settings
• Click advanced settings
• Click the monitor tab
• Select a new refresh rate
• Click apply and OK

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

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

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

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.