Spooky

I use Notepad a lot, I generally use a certain type of font or something as the default for Notepad. One thing I do like is being able to set the settings I want to have Notepad use, and having Notepad ready to go for me after I finish a customized un-attended install because I already know that NotePad doesn't normally save settings between use like I want it to. To do this I use the below reg key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] In this key you can find a bunch of things that you can modify for defaults for Notepad, these are (defaults shown): [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] "lfEscapement"=dword:00000000 "lfOrientation"=dword:00000000 "lfWeight"=dword:00000190 "lfItalic"=dword:00000000 "lfUnderline"=dword:00000000 "lfStrikeOut"=dword:00000000 "lfCharSet"=dword:00000000 "lfOutPrecision"=dword:00000003 "lfClipPrecision"=dword:00000002 "lfQuality"=dword:00000001 "lfPitchAndFamily"=dword:00000031 "iPointSize"=dword:00000064 "fWrap"=dword:00000001 "StatusBar"=dword:00000000 "fSaveWindowPositions"=dword:00000000 "lfFaceName"="Lucida Console" "szHeader"="&f" "szTrailer"="Page &p" "iMarginTop"=dword:000003e8 "iMarginBottom"=dword:000003e8 "iMarginLeft"=dword:000002ee "iMarginRight"=dword:000002ee "fMLE_is_broken"=dword:00000000 "iWindowPosX"=dword:00000041 "iWindowPosY"=dword:00000097 "iWindowPosDX"=dword:000003bd "iWindowPosDY"=dword:00000217 All of these can be modified to set the indicated attribute for NotePad. Sometimes you need to add an item that doesn't exist in the registry, lets say for example your working with a bunch of text files and you want Notepad to use the very last settings (font, etc...) you used when you open up the next file and you also want the next files to always open at the same position on your desktop, then do this by adding a DWORD called '"fSavePageSettings" and set its value to '1' to enable and enable the existing "fSaveWindowPositions" by making its value a '1' like the below: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Notepad] "fSaveWindowPositions"=dword:00000001 "fSavePageSettings"=dword:00000001 There ya go...now go forth and tweak

I use the heck out of Notepad. Sometimes its handy to have it open a file thats not normally associated with Notepad but can be read by Notepad. To make this more handy for me I add a right click context menu to Vista so that an 'Open with Notepad' context menu item appears if I right click on any file. I use the below reg entries to accomplish this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; add open with notepad to right context [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with Notepad] @="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with Notepad\command] @="notepad.exe %1" Open up Notepad and paste the above, save it as notepad_right_click.reg (or any name you choose), then right click on the file and choose Merge. (CAUTION: This reg tweak may create a conflict with Office if its installed. This reg tweak may also increase the computer shutdown time on some systems. In case of conflict the wise thing to do, as with any tweak, is remove this tweak and not try to work around it)

You can add the 'Move To Folder' and 'Copy To Folder' right click context menu items in Vista by creating the below registry entries: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;add 'Copy to Folder' to right click context [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}] ;add 'Move to Folder' to right click context [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}] Open up Notepad and paste the above, save it as move_copy_folder.reg (or any name you choose), then right click on the file and choose Merge.

not sure what eopen is. Anyway, re-burn the DVD at a low speed like 2x and try the install again and see if that helps. And....dont try to upgrade over a previous beta version.

From the MSFN home page, the news article - states: "...because Microsoft never used to give keys as a "thank you" gift to testers." This is not entirely correct. I've been testing since WinNT and have always received a free complimentary copy with retail keys. I got free copies for WinNT, win2k, win95, win98, win98SE, winME, winXP, and now Vista. Some of them were available as downloads and some were shipped to me on CD. It was the level of involvement that determined (basically the number of bugs submitted) if you got a free copy and keys or not. This is just the first time that MS has made a free complimentary copy and keys available to anyone who just filed a single bug in an OS beta. r3loaded; I'm a little confused, you said "(ok, using my beta keys)". If you received beta keys as a Technical beta Tester on the Connect site (not the ones for the public beta preview distribution) then you were a valid beta tester so if you filed at least one bug against Vista you should receive your free complimentary copy and keys. If this is so then read up a little for information on how to do this. And...if your not using the public beta preview keys and got keys as a beta tester then why do you think they turned you down for the beta?

A lot of confusion going around as to who is eligible for a free copy and who is not. Here are a few things gathered that might answer some questions about this: 1. If you were an invited Technical Beta Tester (TBT) for the Vista beta, more commonly known as a Beta Tester, and filed at least one bug report against the Vista product at any time during the Beta period you will receive a free complimentary full retail copy. You will receive an email regarding this, simply follow the email instructions. Your product keys will be provided in about a week. It doesn't matter when you joined the beta as long as you qualifed as a TBT for the Vista product. (invited Technical Beta Tester (TBT) = if you applied to become a beta tester for the Vista product, had access thru Connect and were able to d/l the builds thru Connect and the Vista beta is listed as part of your participation on Connect, then you are an invited Technical Beta Tester (TBT), otherwise you are not.) 2. If you only d/l the publically available builds and were not a TBT (see #1 above), then you will not receive a free complimentary copy of Vista. 3. If you are a TBT for another product (even if you were able to d/l the Vista builds from Connect) and the bugs you filed were not against Vista but were against one of the other products (IE for example) then you will not receive a free complimentary copy. 4. If you are actually a TBT for the Vista product and did in fact file bugs against the Vista product but have not received the emailed instructions for the free complimentary copy, it is strongly suggested that you contact the proper MS personnel in the beta newsgroups as quickly as possible to correct the over sight. If you are a TBT then you have access to the beta news groups. There have been a few hiccups regarding sending out the email (some who qualified for the free copy did not get the email) and they are being handled on a case by case basis by MS so get into the beta news groups to have it corrected if you fall into this category. You will also need to send your Connect Handle and the FeedbackIDs for all submitted bugs. Of course if you had an MSDN subscription or something like that you get the RTM thru that program.

Its not so low, all you need to do is apply to become a beta tester. But you have a few years as Vienna is not slated to roll out until 2012 so they might start the beta around 2010.

You can enable it to keep the core security features running but get rid of the pop-ups. However, you will need to make sure that if anything installs that you intended for it to install. I posted some stuff in the tweaks and tips section, a couple of posts dealing with UAC.

The public beta didn't count. You had to have been one of the actual technical beta testers.

Glad you got it sorted out. I also posted the reg tweak for ClearType in the Vista Tips and Tweaks section earlier today.

Enabling ClearType in Vista is easy, you can do it in the GUI, and besides its enabled by default anyway. However, tuning ClearType in Vista is not so easy as there is nothing exposed in the GUI for tuning. ClearType is integrated into Vista. There is , however, a way to adjust ClearType in the registry. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "FontSmoothing"="2" "FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002 "FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:000003e8 "FontSmoothingOrientation"=dword:00000001 These settings affect ClearType 'Globally' across the entire operating system. They may not, however, have much effect for HTML as seen in Internet Explorer. For Internet Explorer you may need to turn on ClearType in the settings for IE. The "FontSmoothingType", "FontSmoothingGamma", "FontSmoothing", and "FontSmoothingOrientation" items already exist in the registry. The settings for each important item for ClearType activation and tuning are: "FontSmoothingType" - a DWORD value: 1 = ClearType is not used for the font smoothing, standard font smoothing is used instead - 2 = ClearType is used for font smoothing. (setting to '2' also enables ClearType) "FontSmoothing" - a DWORD value : 1 = use font smoothing, 2 = use ClearType font smoothing. This is a REG_SZ value, not a dword. This is different from "FontSmoothingType" and is not a switch to help turn on ClearType to begin with. This tells the font smoothing to use AFTER ClearType is enabled. "FontSmoothingGamma" - a DWORD value: Perhaps the most important setting for ClearType. Range is 1000 to 2200 (integer). Setting to 1000 (the default) produces the most readable text for most people (its the darkest against a white background with a black font). 2200 gives the lighest text. You may be able to go below the 1000 value, I haven't tried that yet since the official lower limit is 1000. "FontSmoothingOrientation" : This is a hard one to figure out. It seems basically to determine if the display will use RGB, BRG, or a flat pixel structure. Most LCD screens are RGB so play with this one a little if your using a LCD display. The values for this dword are 0, 1, or 2. These values for "FontSmoothingOrientation" and what each does is represented below: Flat = 0 - The display device has no pixel structure. This means that light sources for each color are spread equally on the pixel area—this is referred to as gray scale rendering. This is how a standard display device works. ClearType is never applied to the rendered text. RGB = 1 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: red, green, and blue. ClearType is applied to the rendered text. BGR = 2 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: blue, green, and red. ClearType is applied to the rendered text.

ALL RTM builds of Vista are 6000.16386.061101-2205. This is correct. The License (CD key) you buy determines which flavor you can install.

yep, thats a valid email...I got one too.

Well, I guess I will not be posting the reg tweak after all. Ya know that laptop I mentioned that died on me? Guess where the tweaks for the ClearType registry settings were...yep, you guessed it, on the laptop. I shipped the darn thing off today for repair/replacement. I thought sure i had transfered those things to the server at home. Sorry...i'll post them as soon as I can. But in the mean time, part of what I remember is this: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002 "FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:00000898 These already exist at that registry location and determine if ClearType is on or off with the FontSmoothingType dword (2 = On, 1 = off). "FontSmoothingGamma" determines how light or dark the font is. Range 1000 - 2200 - 1000 is the darkest. There are a few others that appear if you have an LCD screen, i just can't remember them right now.

OK, try here: http://icee.wordpress.com/2006/10/14/cleartype-tuning-tool/ BTW...I now have the proper registry settings worked out for enabling clear type on CRT monitors. OK, heres the low down on clear type for Vista; ClearType for Vista (at this time) is already in Vista and all you need to do is enable it, however, it doesn't expose any adjustments for CRT monitors in the GUI, just the ability to enable it. So the settings you get with ClearType in Vista depends on what type of device you have, with CRT monitors you really only get one settings and that has to be set in the registry (but these may be expanded upon to include other settings). If you have a LCD screen you get a few more settings adjustable in the registry (I think at this time - can't tell right now because my laptop crapped out on me or i'd check for ya). Anyway i'm going to post the only setting you get for CRT monitors and how to enable ClearType in the Vista Tweaks and Tips section in a little bit, keep watching. (I thought I was on the track with the registry entries I posted earlier in this thread but I was wrong - see the reg tweak in the Tips and tweaks section a little later and you will see the difference)

You can also use the ClearType tuning tool found on the internet. Do a search in goole for 'ClearType_Tuning_Control_Panel_Applet'. It works for me. But remember, cleartype was intended for LCD devices, so a CRT device might not see the full advantages of cleartype but should see some improvement. Right click on the file and choose install to install it. It will install a control panel applet also so you can access it from the control panel.

Hmmm...I wouldn't recommend this method as it exposes your password to where ever on the internet or a network it goes to. You should never need to recover a password for the OS by accessing any form of network. So...with this method we have the possibility of having your OS compromised by giving your password and location (by the email address or by simply determing what IP address the password recovery request came from) to some unknown and not trusted party. All in all, this method is a way for someone to harvest IP addresses of computers and their login passwords, and thus sets them up for attack and exploit. And...if i'm not mistaken this was also one of the methods used by the guy who was finally caught that set up the zombie network consisting of million of computers. I would not recommend that anyone use this method.

These are great tips and tweaks, why don't you guys post them in the Vista Tips and Tweaks section?

You can also do this as a 'one stop' measure: right click on cmd.exe and choose 'Properties' then click on the 'Compatability' tab and towards the bottom under 'Privilage Level' check the box with 'Run the program as an Administrator' next to it. This also works for other programs. Now it starts up in admin mode every time.

bkraptor; Did you enable Clear Type first as I described further up (above the reg entry post I made) in this thread?. Yes your correct, the reg entries don't normally exist, you have to create them. Yes, reboot to see changes. But Like I said, these are experimental and may not work for everyone at this time. They are also part of a larger registry project i'm working on for clear type on all devices. Ohhhh, I forgot this....make sure you have font smoothing enabled. In that same reg key area you can find the font smoothing key, or you can enable it in the system - advanced settings. Sorry I forgot this. The XP power Toy works fine for me, don't know why it isn't working for you. Are you using it while logged in as the Administrator? However, there are known mixed results with the XP Power toy for this. LLXX is correct. Screen shots don't really help with describing what it actually looks like on your particular monitor/device. He is also correct that ClearType works at the device level. A particular device may be able to handle some aspects of ClearType but may not be able to handle all aspects of clear type, and some devices may not be able to handle any aspect of ClearType. Remember also that ClearType was originally specifically created to work with LCD type displays. As you have experienced, ClearType may make some things look better on some devices without the device being fully able to handle all aspects of ClearType, in particular the color arangements dealing with Pixels which were specifically intended for LCD devices.

OK, if someone wants to experiment with the registry settings i'm playing with here they are - use at your own risk, these are experimental only and i do not offer any gurantee. Add the below entries. Backup the registry area first just in case. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "ClearTypeLevel"=dword:00000064 "TextContrastLevel"=dword:00000001 "GammaLevel"=dword:0000076c "PixelStructure"=dword:00000000 ; 'ClearTypeLevel' = Describes the level of ClearType color clarity - value integer value that ranges from 0 to 100 and 100 is default, 0 renders grey scale ;'GammaLevel' = Describes the level of the pixel color component for a display device. - integer value that ranges from 1000 to 2200. The default level is 1900. ; 'TextContrastLevel' = Describes the level of contrast for displayed text. The text contrast level allows you to adjust the rendering of text based on the stem widths of glyphs. The text contrast level is an integer value that ranges from 0 to 6 — the larger the integer value the wider the stem. The default level is 1. ; 'PixelStructure' = Describes the arrangement of pixels for a display device. The pixel structure corresponds to an integer value that ranges from 0 to 2. The default level is 0 which represents a flat pixel structure. ; ; PixelStructure Values: ; Flat = 0 - The display device has no pixel structure. This means that light sources for each ; color are spread equally on the pixel area—this is referred to as gray scale rendering. ; This is how a standard display device works. ClearType is never applied to the rendered text. ; ; RGB 1 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: ; red, green, and blue. ClearType is applied to the rendered text. ; BGR 2 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: ; blue, green, and red. ClearType is applied to the rendered text. ; defaults are shown above

Someone call? Anyway, in Vista; start up Help and Support - search for ClearType in the Help and Support - you get 9 results for 'cleartype' , click on the result 1, follow instructions for turning on 'ClearType'. the cleartype tuner located on the internet at: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleart...uner/Step1.aspx doesn't work for Vista properly right now. However, the XP Power Toy does work for Vista for some people. You can get the power toy at: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx ClearType for Internet Explorer needs to be turned on seperately in the Internet Options Advanced Settings. I have an experimental registry file i'm testing. I'll post it when i'm done and sure it works for everyone. Hope this helps. bkraptor; There are four settings for cleartype, these are (if these were registry entries): 'ClearTypeLevel' = Describes the level of ClearType color clarity - value integer value that ranges from 0 to 100 and 100 is default, 0 renders grey scale 'GammaLevel' = Describes the level of the pixel color component for a display device. - integer value that ranges from 1000 to 2200. The default level is 1900. 'TextContrastLevel' = Describes the level of contrast for displayed text. The text contrast level allows you to adjust the rendering of text based on the stem widths of glyphs. The text contrast level is an integer value that ranges from 0 to 6 — the larger the integer value the wider the stem. The default level is 1. 'PixelStructure' = Describes the arrangement of pixels for a display device. The pixel structure corresponds to an integer value that ranges from 0 to 2. The default level is 0 which represents a flat pixel structure. PixelStructure Values Flat = 0 - The display device has no pixel structure. This means that light sources for each color are spread equally on the pixel area—this is referred to as gray scale rendering. This is how a standard display device works. ClearType is never applied to the rendered text. RGB 1 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: red, green, and blue. ClearType is applied to the rendered text. BGR 2 - The display device has pixels that consist of three stripes in the following order: blue, green, and red. ClearType is applied to the rendered text. The greenish tint you spoke of is probably an improper setting for the Pixel Structure.

The RTM is legitimately available from a few different sources right now; OEM, MSDN, and today on MVLS. Advanced copies were also made available to some Partners. Its also available to those in TAP. The poster could be anyone of these.

while its indexing thats normal. But it shouldn't be indexing that much after the initial install, mostly when you delete something, change something, or install/add something. Can you qualify 'significant boost'? If you disable 20-30 services thats like 60 - 80 % of the services and then you'll see a very significant performance loss. You haven't actually disabled that many have you? Well...yeah, its slight but the 'slightness' is only temporary, it doesn't have any significant effect on total performance just maybe at certain times. I hardly see any indexing at all and then when it does do something its really fast and I don;t see any performance hit with it at all. I saw the services your talking about but mine aren't using any CPU time like they are doing anything, they are idle with 0 CPU time being used. My Vista boxes are not on the internet right now while I make some network changes but i'll look again when I bring them back on line. How much indexing are you seeing? Continual, intermittant, more then twice every few minutes, several times an hour...?

what are you running? I haven't noticed any performance impact from it. How does it work out for you if you turn it off?