How to send a remote assistance invite to somebody in Windows Vista.

1. Click Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Windows Remote Assistance.

2. Click Offer To Help Someone.

3. Enter the name or IP address of the computer you want to connect to.

4. The user will receive a message. The user will need to click Yes to allow the session. You will then have access to control the PC.

How to start Remote Desktop and login to another computer from yours in Windows Vista. The capability must be enabled on the computers you wish to login to.

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection.
Alternately you can hold down the Windows Key and press R, then type the command mstsc, and click OK.

2.  You can either type the Computer Name or IP Address of the computer you wish to remote into into the drop-down menu.  You can also click Browse For More to see the a list of computers you can remote into.

3. Click Connect.

4. Click the user you wish to use and enter the password for the account and click OK.

Your computer should then login to the computer where you can navigate as though you were sitting in front of it. Use the menu at the top-middle of the windows to minimize, maximize, etc. the Remote Desktop window.

Set your network location each time you move your computer onto a new network. This setting optimizes your system for use at work, home or in a public location.

1. Click Start > Control Panel.

2. Open Network and Internet.

3. Open Network and Sharing Center.

4. Click Customize next to your network connection.

5. Choose Home, Work or Public as your location.

6. Click Close.

Is the Administrator account missing from the Windows welcome screen? Here is how to enable it in Windows Vista or Windows XP.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows NT
then CurrentVersion
then Winlogon
then SpecialAccounts
then click UserList

4. Look for an entry on the right side for Administrator. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on UserList and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of Administrator. Press the Enter key when you are done.

5. Right-click the Administrator entry and click Modify.

6. Set the Value data to 1 and click OK.

7. Close the registry editor and restart the computer. The Administrator account should now be an option on the login screen.

Can’t find Network Connections in the Control Panel? Here’s how to enable it.

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’t load

4. Delete ncpa.cpl on the right side.

5. Close the registry editor and now you should have the Network Connections option listed in the Control Panel.

How to disable user tracking in Windows XP and Vista. Disabling this feature disables customized menus and other features that require user tracking information such as which files were accessed and the times they were accessed.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
then Software
then Microsoft
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then click Explorer

4. Look for an entry on the right side for NoInstrumentation. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on Explorer and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of NoInstrumentation. Press the Enter key when you are done.

5. Right-click the NoInstrumentation entry and click Modify.

6. To disable user tracking set the Value data to 1.
Set the Value data to 0 to enable user tracking.

Windows Vista users are experiencing many problems with their printers. Some users are experiencing problems using the Add Printer Wizard to add their printer. It gives them an error:

Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied

Thankfully there is a workaround to this issue.

1. Go to Control Panel and choose the Printers under Hardware and Sound.

2. Then choose Add Printer.

3. Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port.

4. Select Local Port and click Next.

5. Type in the \\computer name\printer name for the Port name. Example: My computer’s name is oztech and the printer name is HPColorL so I typed in \\oztech\HPColorL

This workaround should work for most configurations.

In Windows Vista, a problem may occur where the Hibernate option is grayed out. This could happen if your system doesn’t support the Hibernate feature, or doesn’t have enough hard drive space to save data during hibernation. Try these steps to enable the Hibernate option.

1. Click the Start orb and type command in the Start Search box.

2. Right-click Command Prompt in the Programs list, and click Run as administrator.

3. Click Continue on the UAC screen if it appears.

4.  Type powercfg /hibernate on and press Enter. You can then type Exit and press Enter to exit out of the command screen.

Configure Windows XP or Windows Vista to perform a boot defrag. All of the boot files will be organized on the hard drive together and the system will boot slightly faster.

1. Click Start > Run and type REGEDIT

2. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Dfrg
then click BootOptimizeFunction

3. Double-click on Enable on the right side and change the value from N to Y.

4. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Are you tired of the standard cover sheets in Windows Vista Fax? Add your own. You can either create your own, or start with one of the cover sheets included for Windows Vista Fax. To find these sheets:

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Windows NT\MSFax\Common Coverpages

This will show all of the included cover sheets. You can edit these in any program that will edit bitmaps. Photoshop, MSPaint, Paint.NET or the include Cover Page Editor will all do this for you.

When you’re finished creating or editing your coversheet, simply save your bitmap file under a new filename in the Common Coverpages folder. Then whenever you print to the Windows Vista Fax driver you will have the option of selecting your customer cover sheet.

Also see:
How to Send a Fax with Microsoft Vista

Shadow Copy allows keeps previous copies of files. It enabled you to rescue data in the event that you totally messed something up or removed data from a file that you want to get back. To use this feature, you must be using the Ultimate, Business, or Enterprise version of Windows Vista.

Access a previous version of a file by performing the following steps:

1. Find the file and right-click the filename and click Properties.

2. Click the Previous Versions tab.

3. Select the version of the file you wish to open.

A feature that gets often overlooked is the ability to limit the hours that a printer is available to users. Let’s say you don’t want Al in Accounting to be able to print out flyers for his party on the high quality color printer after hours. You can lock down your printer during certain hours in Windows XP and Windows Vista. You will of course need administrator rights to do this.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Printer.

2. Right-click on the icon for your printer and select Properties.

3. Click on the Advanced tab.

4. Select the option for Available from and you can set the hours you would like to keep the printer available to other users.

5. Click OK when done.

1. Right-click a blank area on the taskbar and select Properties.

2. Under the Taskbar tab, check the box for Auto-hide the taskbar.

3. Click OK.

Disabling the Aero transparency can greatly increase system performance in Windows Vista.

1. Click on the desktop and select Personalize.

2. Select Windows Color and Appearance.

3. Uncheck the box for Enable Transparency to disable transparency. Check it to enable it.

I enabled the Narrator feature in Windows Vista, but I couldn’t find a way to turn it off. Finally I found a way to disable the setting.

Many thanks to the forum post: How to disable Windows Narrator.