Fix Windows Vista Errors

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

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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.

Registry tweaks are a very easy and simple way you can change settings etc in your Windows Vista computer, you can even perform some task not available in your control panel. If you need to know how to access your registry to edit just go here;

• Open start and type run
• In the run box type Regedit
• Your Regedit box will open, it is here that you can edit your registry

Before you do any edits to your registry you should make a backup so if you do make a major mistake you can just restore this good version of your registry. To make a backup of your registry to this;

• Click the Start button and type systempropertiesprotection in the Start Search box
• Wait for Windows to search for available disks and most recent restore points
• In the System Properties dialog box on the System Protection tab click Create
• After the restore point has been created successfully click OK two times

Now here is a link to a list of a bunch of common registry edits for Windows Vista, we will be adding more to this list in the future so make sure you bookmark it.

Windows Vista Registry Edits

Because this is such a hot topic, we have devoted alot of our resources to showing you how to speed up Windows Vista. So far with the tweaks on our blog and website, you can get considerable improvements in Vista performance, in some cases up to 300% improvement.

So what we have done is put together all the best Vista speed tweaks into one article. As we get more speed tweaks, we will continue to add them in.

If you have any doubts about your Vista performance, then get started with these tweaks and you will find some definite improvements.  You will also find this extremely useful if you have hardware constraints and can not physically upgrade your system RAM, etc.

Speed Up Windows Vista Guide

I have talked in previous posts about disabling the Windows Vista Aero desktop to increase the overall speed of your PC, so today I thought I’d give 2 quick tweaks you can perform to speed up the Aero desktop if you wish to keep it.

Transparent Glass Effect

The Transparent Glass Effect can be a really cool looking effect for your desktop but it can also slow down your PC, to disable it just;

• Right click somewhere on your desktop
• Click personalize
• Select windows color and appearance
• Uncheck enable transparency (note – your PC may not have this option)
• Done

Windows Minimize/Maximize Animation

You can speed up every action you do by disabling the Windows Minimize/Maximize Animation, to do this just;

• Open run
• Type in systempropertiesperformance
• Go to the visual effects tab
• Uncheck Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
• Done

Here are two new tweaks I have discovered that should boost the performance of your Vista PC, remember if you do use these features don’t disable them!

Windows Hibernation

Hibernate is a feature seen in many operating systems where the contents of RAM is written to non-volatile storage, such as the hard disk (as either a file or on a separate partition) before powering off the system. Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources thus can slow down the performance of your PC so if you don’t use this service you can disable it;

• Select Control Panel
• Click hardware and sound
• Click Power Options
• Click Change when the computer sleeps
• Click Change Advanced Power Settings
• Expand the Sleep selection
• Expand the Hibernate After selection
• Crank the selector down to zero
• Click Apply

Remote Differential Compression

Remote Differential Compression (RDC) allows data to be synchronized with a remote source using compression techniques to minimize the amount of data sent across the network. By constantly checking for file changes RDC can potentially slow down your system performance, to turn RDC off just do this;

• Select Control Panel
• Switch to Classic View
• Select Program and Features
• Choose Turn Windows features on and off
• Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression