Fix Windows Vista Errors

We all like the windows sidebar don’t we? It’s just something about all those stupid gadgets which we all love!

I personally do use the sidebar for a couple of useful gadgets (notepad, exchange rate) so it was good when I found this tweak that will set the sidebar to a low priority. Basically what it does is stop using recources on the sidebar when you are not using it, and of course not using resources makes your whole computer run faster.

So if you want to set your sidebar to low priority just do this tweak;

• Disable your sidebar - you can find how to do that here
• Open up computer (start - computer)
• Press alt and select tools
• Click folder option
• Select the view tab
• Select show hidden files and folders and click OK
  • Note: this may already be selected
• Now exit tools
• Navigate to this location
  • C:\users\(your username)\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\startup\
• Right click and click new shortcut
• In the shortcut wizard put this in
  • C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start “sidebar.exe” /LOW “C:\Program Files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe”
  • Note: If you do have Vista installed on a different drive that C just change it
• Done - The next time you open Vista the sidebar will show up just in low priority mode

I don’t know why you would want to do this but in Vista you have the ability to hide the letter of a drive when you are in explorer.

If you want to hide your b/c etc drives then just do the following;

• Open up explorer
• Click alt then tools
• Select folder options
• Open the view tab
• Uncheck show drive letters
• Apply and OK

If for some reason you are still running all the animations on Vista (you probably are running a powerful PC), then here is a registry tweak you can perform that will enable you to slow the animations down when you want to;

- Remember to backup your registry before performing any edits!

• Open regedit
• Go to this location
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/DWM
• Create a new key
  • AnimationsShiftKey
• Set the value data of the key to 1
• Done, now reboot your computer

You will now notice that whenever you press your shift key before an animation starts on Vista it will slow down.

What does that title mean? Basically it means that are you looking at removing the ’shortcut’ text link from all of your shortcuts, it is automatically added everytime you add a shortcut.

Removing them manually is possible but just annoying, so here is a registry edit for you to try that will remove the shortcut text (this will remove all ones you do in the future, not shortcuts already done);

• Go to this location
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
• Find the key called link
• Change the value from 1e 00 00 00 to 00 00 00 00
• Done

I’ve done a few posts on how to speed up Vista etc but I havn’t gone into detail on how to make your desktop run faster and not freeze/stick/stop/blah blah.

Remember when you do these tweaks that the overall speed of your PC will depend on numerous things so sometimes these tweaks may not perform as good you hoped, that would mean there could another more damaging problem with your PC.

Sidebar

I know people out there love the new sidebar full of the gadgets, but did you know the sidebar can slowdown your interface. Remove it by;

• Right click your sidebar
• Select properties
• Uncheck Start Sidebar When Windows Starts

Visual Effects

I’m not even going to go into detail here, visual effects can slow down your PC;

• Open control panel
• Click system and maintenance
• Click performance information and tools
• Click adjust visual effects
• Now you will see a big list of all the visual effects running, uncheck the ones you don’t need

Transparency

The transparency effect can look really ‘cool’ but it also slows things down;

• Right click your desktop
• Click personalize
• Click windows color and appearance
• Uncheck enable transparency

Aero Theme

I guarantee for the first few week you use Vista you will run the Aero theme but after a while you may find it just becomes slow and you need to change it back to the basic theme;

• Open personalize again
• Open windows color and appearance
• Select Windows Vista Basic
• Click apply

You can easily set or unset a password so the user has to type a password when they enter Vista, but you may find that anyone running on a network has to (no matter what) type in a password to enter.

There is a quick tweak you can perform that you will let anyone on a network enter Vista without a password, just follow these steps;

• Open run (start - run)
• Type in gpedit.msc
• You need to navigate to this location
  • Computer Configuration
  • Windows Settings
  • Security Settings
  • Local Policies
  • Security Options
• Double click on this policy;
  • Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only
• Select disable
• Click apply and OK
• Done

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