Recover Files with Shadow Copies on Any Version of Windows Vista
This article was written by our very own whs, one of the most helpful forum members.
Shortcut Key to Hide Windows Vista Sidebar Behind Other Windows
If you’ve used Windows Vista for any length of time, you probably already know that using the Win + Space key combination will bring the Sidebar and all the gadgets to the front… but how do you send it back behind your open…
Remove Optional and Probably Unnecessary Windows Vista Components
In the never-ending quest to rid your computer of unnecessary bloat, Windows Vista has a lot less options than prior versions, but you can still get rid of some of the extra Windows components that you don’t need….
Disable Windows Vista’s Built-in CD/DVD Burning Features
The vast majority of people I know use a software like Nero to handle all their CD/DVD burning even though Windows Vista has built-in support for burning. So how do you get rid of the built-in Windows Vista burning features s…
Remove "Map Network Drive" Menu Item from Windows Vista or XP
If you have never used the “Map Network Drive” dialog box, do you ever wonder how to get rid of it? Personally I only map drives from the command line so I never use it either… so I’m thankful there’s a registry hack that c…
How to Disable SuperFetch on Windows Vista
The SuperFetch service in Windows Vista preloads your system’s memory with the applications that you use most often. This makes launching of those applications much faster, but it might be an unwanted behavior for system twea…
Add Internet Explorer 7 Icon to the Desktop in Windows Vista
I’m sure many of you are thinking… can’t I just make a shortcut? You are correct, that’s the simplest way to do it… but the icon we’re talking about today isn’t a shortcut… it’s the actual IE icon that used to exist in …
Setting up Gmail IMAP Support for Windows Vista Mail
We’ve already showed you how to use Gmail’s IMAP support in Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and even KMail, but what about the built-in mail client in Windows Vista… how could we leave that one out?…
Make Explorer Show Window Titles in Windows Vista
Nobody is really sure why Microsoft decided that explorer windows shouldn’t have a title anymore, but that’s the way things are. You can still look in the address bar to see what folder you are looking at, but there’s another…
Applying Themes To Your Windows Vista Sidebar
The look of the Windows Vista Sidebar is a little drab, and there’s no way to customize it with the default tools in Vista. Thankfully third party developers have stepped up to the plate and created an application that will l…
Fix for Special Folders Reverting to Default Folder Icon in Windows Vista
My inbox has been flooded with people asking why the “pretty” icons in their user folder keep turning back into regular folder icons, and what they can do to fix it. After writing the first article about the Music folde…
Fixing Problems with Synergy on Windows Vista
If you use the excellent Synergy application to share your keyboard and mouse between computers, you’ve probably noticed some weird behaviors in Windows Vista… especially when running any application that requires administr…
Why Did Windows Vista’s Music Folder Icon Turn Yellow?
I’ve been getting emails left and right from readers complaining that their Music folder icon has turned from the default shiny icon into the generic yellow folder icon. After doing some research I finally have a workaround f…
How to Debug a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget With Visual Studio
One of the ancillary benefits of our Vista Gadget breaking and my email filling up with complaints was that I learned how to debug a Vista Gadget in Visual Studio, so I’m sharing the wealth with everybody….
Make Windows Vista Stop Asking for Password When Resuming from Sleep
If you’ve got a home computer that you put into sleep mode, you might be irritated that you have to enter your password every time it wakes up. In most cases you could just remove or not use a password, but if you are doing f…
Enable "Ubuntu Style" Logons in Windows Vista
If you like the way Ubuntu requires you to enter your username and password instead of clicking on an icon, you can enable the same thing for Windows Vista in a somewhat similar style logon process. This is really most useful…
Enable "Pin to Start Menu" for Folders in Windows Vista / XP
The Start menu in Windows Vista and XP allows you to “Pin” items to the top for quicker access to your favorite applications. The problem is that you can’t pin folders to the start menu, even though that would be very useful….
Tabbed Explorer Add-on for Windows Vista (and an Up Button too!)
I’ve been hoping for a Tabbed explorer add-on to Windows Vista ever since I made the switch, but what most of you have been talking about is the lack of an Up button like XP used to have. Reader Shawn wrote in with a solution…
Disable Windows Calendar in Windows Vista
If you don’t use the built-in Windows Calendar or use it to display your Google calendar, you might be interested in removing the application from Windows Vista.
Dealing With Windows Vista Time Sync Problems
Many people have reported problems with synchronizing their clocks with the internet time servers, especially time.windows.com, which seems to have a ton of problems with uptime. We’ll go through a few workarounds to fix this…
Disable AutoPlay in Windows Vista
Windows Vista’s AutoPlay options are a great improvement over Windows XP in terms of flexibility, but unfortunately there are so many options that it can be confusing, especially since there’s no specific mention of USB Flash…
Clean Up Past Notification Icons in Windows Vista
A very useful feature in Windows is the ability to automatically hide system tray icons when they are not in use. The problem is that over time, Explorer caches a list of every single icon that it’s ever seen, and your list m…
Quick Help: Restore Flip3D Icon in Windows Vista
After writing the article yesterday about how to restore the show desktop icon, I received a number of emails asking if I could post the shortcut for Flip3D as well, so I’ve zipped up a copy of that shortcut as well….
Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout in Windows Vista
If you switch resolutions a lot you’ve probably experienced the problem with Windows moving your icons around every time it switches to a lower resolution, such as when playing a video game or hooking up your laptop to an ext…
Disable Explorer Breadcrumbs in Windows Vista
Dozens of people have written in and expressed their hatred of the new breadcrumb feature in Windows Vista’s Explorer address bar, and especially because you simply can’t turn it off… until now.
