Fix Windows Vista Errors

You will notice that on your start menu in Vista it shows all your links to major programs etc, but it also shows recently opened files and programs. Personally I have used this very often when I log back onto my computer and want to re-start whatever I was doing quickly, but only I use this computer.

If you are running a PC with other people and do not want them to see what you have been up to you may want to disable this feature. To disable the ‘latest’ list on your start menu just do this;

• Right click your taskbar and click properties
• Select the start menu tab
• Uncheck store and display a list of recently opened files
• Uncheck store and display a list of recently opened programs
• Select apply and OK

I was having a read through a bunch of old post on this blog today and realised I havn’t done some post on some of the most basic Vista features, including turing on/off the Aero desktop. If you want to either turn on or turn off you Aero desktop then follow these points, remember you need decent video cards etc to run the Aero desktop.

Turn Off Aero

• Right click your desktop
• Click personalize
• Click windows color and appearance
• If the appearance setting box shows up you are probably not running Aero
• If you see the windows color and appearance box then click the open classic appearance link
• In the color scheme drop down click windows vista basic
• Click apply
• Now click OK and you are done

Turn On Aero

• Right click on your desktop and click personalize
• Open windows color and appearance
• Under color scheme select Windows Aero
• Click apply an OK
• Done

You can tweak around with the Aero desktop or speed it up by reading some of my older posts;

• Change the Aero Borders and Styling
• Speed Up Windows Vista Aero Desktop

For whatever reason you have, you may want to remove the notification area from your taskbar. That is the area (you hardly notice) that is located at the bottom right of your desktop and may include time, volume control, security issues or other programs.

If you really want to remove your taskbar notification area then you have to do this simple registry hack;

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

• Create a new DWORD
• Name it NoTrayItemsDisplay
• Set the value to 1 (you can get it back by setting this value back to 0)
• Done
• Your taskbar notification area should now be gone

Fix Windows Vista Registry Errors - Free Download

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

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

This is a pretty common question we get regarding Windows Vista and we havent yet addressed it on our blog, so here is a full post for all you new users on how to turn off the User Account Control (UAC).

User Account Control is considered by many to be a very annoying feature in Vista. If you are new to Vista, UAC is the annoying prompt that you get whenever you try to do something. There are a few ways to disable this, but we will do it via the control panel.

• Open the control panel
• Click on “User Accounts and Family Safety”
• Click on “User Accounts”
• Click “Turn User Account Control on or off”
• Uncheck the UAC option
• Click “OK”
• You will then be prompted for a reboot

OK, when shifting to Vista one of the things I personally found really annoying was the new start menu and program listing. I thought it was just me….until I started receiving emails from other users and friends complaining about the list structure, instead of the expandable trees.

Well the list down does seem less accessible than the old XP expandable tree style menus and for those of you that can’t stand it, here is how you can change it. After the change, the program listing will behave just like it did in Windows XP. Don’t worry, you can always change back.

Change to the Vista classic start menu:

• Right-click on the Vista start icon
• Select “Properties”
• Click on the “Start Menu” tab
• Select “Classic Start menu”
• Click “OK”
• Enjoy the better start menu

———————
Free Download - Fix Vista Errors and Speed Up Your PC

Here is a cool little Windows Vista secret for opening your quick launch items.

Just press the “Windows key + x”, where x is the number identifying the quick launch icon.

So in the example below, to open up the Thunderbird application, the user would press the Windows key and the number 2 on their keyboard. To fire up Firefox, it would just be a matter of pressing the Windows key and 1.

You will obviously need quick launch items for this to work. You can easily add items to your quick launch bar, just by dragging them in there.