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.
1. Click Start > Control Panel.
2. Open Ease of Access > Ease of Access Center > Explore all Settings > Use the computer without a display.
3. Uncheck the checkbox by Turn on Narrator and click Save.
These steps also work in Windows 2008.
Many thanks to the forum post: How to disable Windows Narrator.
Here’s a tip for those who like to keep their Windows Vista computer super-secure. You can encrypt your pagefile so that data can’t be easlily extracted from it.
To set Windows Vista to encrypt your pagefile, by running the following command (You can run commands by pressing the Windows Key + R):
fsutil behavior set encryptpagingfile 1
Doing this will make your system function slower as it has to constanty encrypt and decrypt the pagefile. If you find this setting doesn’t work out, you can disable encryption of the pagefile with this command:
fsutil behavior set encryptpagingfile 0
Did you try to find the Windows Vista Snipping Tool and find that it’s missing? Here’s what you can try to bring it back.
First, be aware that the Snipping Tool is only available in the Premium, Business and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista. If you have these versions and you still can’t find the Snip tool, under Start > All Programs > Accessories, you probably have Tablet PC turned off.
To enable it again:
1. Click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off. Click Continue if prompted by UAC.
2. Check to see if Tablet PC Options is checked.
How to disable the File Compression feature in Windows. These steps should work in Windows 2000, XP and Vista.
1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.
2. Type regedit and click OK.
Read more… »
How to disable the File Encryption (EFS) feature in Windows. These steps should work in Windows 2000, XP and Vista.
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 SYSTEM
then CurrentControlSet
then Control
then click FileSystem.
4. Look for an entry on the right side for NtfsDisableEncryption. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on FileSystem and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of NtfsDisableEncryption. Press the Enter key when you are done.
5. Right-click the NtfsDisableEncryption entry and click Modify.
6. To disable EFS set the Value data to 1. (To enable EFS again, set the Value data to 0 or delete NftsDisableEncrpytion)
7. Restart the computer to apply changes.
Now when trying to encrypt a folder, the following error will be produced:
An error occurred applying attributes to the file:
{file path and filename}
Access is denied.
Windows Vista Command
In Windows Vista, you can accomplish the same thing by simply using the following command on the Run line:
fsutil behavior set disableencryption 1
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