No system is an island - Using Windows And Tech Step By Step

I remember the first time I saw single click option in Windows.It was in the days of good old Windows 98 where making "web" like desktop was cool,you simply clicked on icons and they opened as if they were web links.

Fast forward to Windows Vista.The way to turn on single click on icons here is by changing the default setting in Folder options.

Launch explorer in Vista (not the internet explorer but the Windows explorer).This can be done by going to Start > Run > explorer.exe The quickest way is to simply double click My Computer or any other folder.

Select Organize > Folder and Search Options.



Over there enable the option Single click to open an item feature.



And so you get a one click Vista which can be quite useful for those who are not exactly fond of double clicking.

Peace and happy single clicking.

Shortcuts in Windows are good,they save time and also are cool.Just think instead of clicking many times,you can accomplish specific tasks in a single click or a single hot key,wouldn't that increase productivity?

Let us take a look at how to make a shortcut to launch any screensaver in Vista.In Windows,screensavers are having the file extension .scr.These files are located in Windows\system32 folder.



If you want a quick look at what kind of .scr files are there,navigate to command prompt ( Start > run > cmd) and type cd /windows/system32.
Once in the system folder,list the scr files with dir *.scr

Suppose,I want to make a shortcut to launch the cool Aurora screensaver directly from my desktop.To do this,I create a shortcut that simply points to that particular .scr file.

To make a new shortcut,right click on desktop (that's where I want the shortcut) and select New > Shortcut.



The path should be %systemroot%\system32\Aurora.scr /s



Name the shortcut and it will show up on the desktop.



To see if it is working,simply double click on it and screensaver will launch.

All done.

Peace.

Recently,I tried to update AVG anti-virus definition files like I normally do regularly.This time however,I saw an unusual error message :



"Invalid Update Control CTF File, AVG 8.0"

What this probably meant was the AVG update database control file was probably corrupt on my Vista machine and hence no updates were getting installed.The definite fix for this error is the deleting of stale .ctf files which by default in Windows XP are in Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download in your system drive.

However,I got the error on Vista which does not have the Documents and Settings folder at all by default.Instead it has C:\ProgramData which is a symlink.



To get rid of the AVG error in Vista,go to command prompt (Start > Run > cmd).
With administrator rights,navigate to C:\ProgramData\AVG8\update\download


This will be same as C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download in XP.

List all the ctf files by doing a dir *.ctf and then delete all of those files sweetly from command prompt by del *.ctf



Confirm this deletion by trying to list dir *.ctf and no files should be found.

Try running the AVG updates again,this time the error message should no longer be there.Instead AVG will give the usual healthy message that it gives after a successful update :



To automate the above steps,a simple batch file can also be created.Take a look here if you want to do that.

Hope this has been an informative post.

Remember to religiously update your antivirus software.

Having multiple clocks in Vista has to be one of the most useful features till date in any Windows operating system.
It is possible to show multiple additional clocks(two to be precise) in Windows Vista each configured to be of a specific time zone apart from the local time that Vista displays.

Configuring this highly useful feature is quite straight forward.Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time



Select the tab Additional Clocks.
Enter a meaningful name of clocks (can be as per country or time zone).Click OK.



Move the mouse pointer near the Windows clock in system tray.There should be two different clocks showing different time zones along with the local one.

A nice feature indeed in this global era :)

Internet Explorer by default allows only 2 simultaneous downloads from single URL.This is in line with the HTTP 1.1 standards that not more than 2 simultaneous connections be permitted at a time.

This can be changed by registry hack.Let's take a look at how can we make IE download more than the default in Vista by changing it's registry settings.

Open registry editor (Start > Run > regedt32.exe)
Drill down to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings



Here,we need to create two DWORD values (of 32-bit).Right click on right side of registry editor pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit value).
Name them exactly as follows :

MaxConnectionsPerServer - This is for HTTP 1.1 compliant web servers.
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server - This is for HTTP 1.0 compliant web servers.

As a thumb rule,doubling the default values of these DWORDS should be ideal.Do keep in mind that excess greed is bad and if you try to increase to a ridiculous large number,these connections may be blocked by web servers in order to prevent excess load on them.In all possibility,setting too high a number for these DWORDS will result in super slow connections due to the throttling by web servers.

Peace.

Every time you boot up Vista,you are presented with the Ctrl Alt Del message in order to logon.If desired,this can be turned off completely.

Registry hack to do this involves firing up registry editor (Start > Run > regedt32) and going to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System



Now,we need to make a new DWORD value named DisableCAD (CAD here stands for Ctrl-Alt-Del).



After making this new DWORD,we need to turn it on by assigning it a value of 1.

Save the changes,exit registry editor and reboot.Now,there should be no need to press Ctrl-Al-Del to logon at the welcome screen in Vista after the reboot.

Peace.

In one of my earlier posts,I had shown how to change the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) information about your Windows XP machine.

Let us take a look at how to do the same this time in Windows Vista.I will demonstrate by changing the manufacturer name and adding my blog URL in the System information screen in Vista.

The original System information screen :



OEM information is stored in the following registry location in Vista :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

This contains various strings which in turn reflect the various OEM parameters.
First,I start off by changing the manufacturer name.To do this,double click the Manufacturer string and change the value to desired string (Here,I changed from Dell to AVP).

For most corporate deployments,it will be helpful if there is some kind of website address which can be viewed from the System properties.To add this,I made a new string named SupportURL with the link pointing to this blog.





On saving the changes in registry editor and bringing up the System screen (Start > Settings > Control Panel > System),this time I see the changed OEM values.



Follow the same procedure to change the system settings to it's original value,you will need to delete the SupportURL key if website link needs to be removed.

Hope this has been an informative post.

Peace.

Windows Vista by default will remember/cache user credentials when it is in a domain based environment.Needless to say,this many counts can be a potential security risk in itself as cached logon or cached credentials allow users to logon and use Windows even when it is not actively connected to domain as a kind of work offline mode.

Now,ideally restricting cached logons for Windows clients is easier and much effective by defining a GPO (group policy object) that changes the cached logon value as desired,0 in case of really tight security policies so that no user can logon offline.

Open Registry editor (Start > Run > regedt32)



The registry hack that can change the cached logon counts is located in :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Here,the string cachedlogonscount keeps a count of how many cached logons are allowed,simply change this value from default 10 to whatever is needed.
Save this string,exit registry editor and reboot once.

If this setting is propogated via a domain controller through GPO,make sure that after the policy is pushed,on the client side a gpupdate/force is done from the command prompt to ensure it is received.

Hope this has been an informative post.

Cheers.

On selecting any file or object in Windows Vista and right clicking it will always show the "Send To" option.If this needs to be disabled,there is a simple registry hack (like most of the stuff we come across in Windows) to accomplish that.

This registry hack will involve something called as ContextMenuHandlers where the key that controls the Send To option is present.

With administrative rights,open Registry Editor (Start > Run > regedt32)



Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Send To



Here,there is the default key with the following value data :
{7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}

Just remove this value data and save the key.This will take care of the Send To option,right clicking any file or object in Vista from now on with this changed key will not show the Send As option.

Like almost all registry hacks,this is reversible.To enable Send As again,simply copy paste this value data {7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837} to the default key.

Isn't Windows fun ?

Peace.

Blue screen or BSODs in Windows (Blue Screen of Death) errors as they are commonly called are troublesome to get rid of especially when you can't point to what exactly is causing them.

Windows Vista just like XP by default is set to restart once a blue screen error is encountered.To effectively troubleshoot them,you must know what kind of message and error code do they show on screen and to see that,you have to first stop Vista from restarting every time BSODs pop up.

It is quite easy to halt Windows Vista when a blue screen pops up.
Here is how :

Go to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings.



There,click on the Settings button under the Startup and Recovery section.
Once the other window pops up related to Startup and Recovery,simply uncheck the Automatically Restart option.

All done.

So from next time if you have a unfortunate experience of a BSOD,you can always look at the exact message it shows which will help in preventing it from happening again.

Hope this has been an informative post.

Update : I have posted the same post at www.ihaveapc.com

Peace.

Files by default in Windows end up in Recycle Bin on deleted.Over a period of time,many of those files can clog the bin thereby eating up disk space.

When emptying recycle bin of multiple files,this type of dialog box pops up often in Windows Vista.



What if we are pretty much sure that we need all those files to be deleted forever without being prompted for confirmation again and again?



There is a simple option that will stop further prompts when files are deleted from recycle bin.To disable the delete confirmation prompt,right click on Recycle Bin icon and go to properties,over there uncheck the option "Display delete confirmation dialog box".



In the rare case that you don't want deleted files to end up in recycle bin in first place,enable the option "Do not move files to Recycle Bin.Remove files when deleted."

It is advisable not to turn this option on as you might be needing a file that has been accidentally deleted from the bin.

A word of caution though,if not really sure if you want to delete files forever from recycle bin or not,it is best not to tinker with this setting.

Peace.