Spooky

Photoshop? It isn't something found in Vista normally. A new theme someone has developed? or a registry hack...come to think of it there was something someone did earlier in the beta (a registry hack) that allowed you to place windows in a certain order when you used flip3d, i'll see if I can find it.

If its a shortcut that looks like a folder its probably a symlink (also called Junctions in win2K), these are new for Vista. I posted something about them here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...amp;hl=Junction And, if you can't take ownership in the GUI (Sometimes Vista will not let you) look in the Vista Tips & Tweaks section where I posted something about a Vista command line utility called Takeown which may help you out.

In winXP we got rid of the Outlook Express splash screen by using the reg tweak: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{** Identity ID **}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0] change or add the NoSplash as a Reg_Dword and change it to a 1 With Vista its no longer called Outlook Express - its now called Windows Mail in Vista. It looks basically still the same as Outlook Express did but its improved. With Vista the 'NoSplash' tweak still works but its eaisier to use now because you don't need the identity anymore so it lends its self a little more handy for use in un-attended installs. To get rid of the Windows Mail spash screen use the below reg entry: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;lets get rid of the Windows Mail splash screen [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Mail] "NoSplash"=dword:00000001 Or you can use the .reg file I attached to this post. nowmsplash.reg

Windows Internet Computer Name (WICN), This is really neat Have you ever wanted to be able to find and connect to your computer across the Internet, but did not want the complexity and cost of buying a domain name and using dynamic DNS? With Windows Vista, you can using the Windows Internet Computer Naming. Enabling the Service This service can be used with two types of names, secured or unsecured. The difference is that unsecured names are simple to type, such as JohnDoe.pnrp.net, but can be spoofed, such that the computer you connect to using this name is not guaranteed to really be your computer (that is, you might not be the only JohnDoe who used that name). Secured names are more complex as shown in the following example: p.p4562b4628ac54782dda52789038476237e7c7263.pnrp.net To Setup an Unsecured Windows Internet Computer Name Choose a name you would like to use. For simplicity, it should be only lowercase characters, with no special symbols. We recommend your e-mail address without the @ or '.'. For example, johndoe@microsoft.com would become 'johndoemicrosoftcom.' This name will be referred to as (peername) in the following instructions. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and right-click Command Prompt, selecting Run as Administrator from the menu This will cause a UAC prompt which you should accept, and then you will be presented with a command window. In this application, type the following commands and press ENTER after each one. 1. Netsh 2. p2p 3. pnrp 4. peer 5. set machinename name="(peername)" publish=start autopublish="enable" The command window should report back "Ok" To setup a Secured Windows Internet Computer Name On the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and right-click Command Prompt, selecting Run as Administrator from the menu This will cause a UAC prompt which you should accept, and then you will be presented with a command window. In this application, type the following commands and press ENTER after each one. 1. Netsh 2. p2p 3. pnrp 4. peer 5. set machinename publish=start autopublish="enable" The command window should report back "Ok" Getting a machine's Windows Internet Computer Name To get the Windows Internet Computer Name of a machine after you have set up the service, follow these instructions: On the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and right-click Command Prompt, selecting Run as Administrator from the menu This will cause a UAC prompt which you should accept, and then you will be presented with a command window. In this application, type the following commands and press ENTER after each one. 1. Netsh 2. p2p 3. pnrp 4. peer 5. show machinename Machine Name: b304d5a80b1ae3a5d2d4eee783e57ed8084f1fcb Use this format DNS name in other applications to refer to this machine p.b304d5a80b1ae3a5d2d4eee783e57ed8084f1fcb.pnrp.net The machine name is being published. The machine name is configured to be published automatically. The Windows Internet Computer Name from above is: p.b304d5a80b1ae3a5d2d4eee783e57ed8084f1fcb.pnrp.net. Using the Windows Internet Computer Name Windows Internet Computer Names can be used virtually anywhere in Windows that accepts an IP address. Some examples are: Ping At a command prompt (on either the computer with the name published or another computer) run the ping command. This ping should succeed, the same way it would if you used an IP address or a DNS name. Remote Desktop Remote Desktop can work with Internet Names as well. Enable Remote Desktop via the following (skip if Remote Desktop is already enabled): Start 1. Right-click Computer and select Properties 2. Click Remote settings 3. Accept the UAC prompt 4. In the new window, click the radio button next to Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop and then click OK. 5. Close all windows opened in this process. Now you can use Remote Desktop to connect from another computer. Start->All Programs->Accessories->Remote Desktop Connection 1. In the Remote Desktop Connection window, type in your Internet Name for your other computer (from above) into the Computer field and click Connect. 2. Log on with your normal credentials. Note that the above will now work from any Vista computer on the Internet that has IPv6 connectivity (this generally means any computer not in a corporate network). Other Applications Again, this name will work with virtually any part of Windows. If you run Internet Information Services (IIS) on your home computer, you can use an Internet Name to access a Web site on your home computer, or an FTP site. You can set up an RSS subscription to a feed from your home computer. If you have a multiplayer game where you normally type in IP addresses or DNS names, try a Windows Internet Computer Name. To learn more about WICN, the peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) and other peer-to-peer technologies in Windows Vista, visit the Microsoft Peer-to-Peer Networking website at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutio...2p/default.mspx.

Are you having trouble installing Vista on a Toshiba (Vista ready) notebook? One possible solution might be this. Attach a CRT monitor to the notebook and use Fn+F5 to select CRT display only, then proceed with the install. May work for other notebooks/laptops also.

That article is for a build that was pre-RC1 in which there was a global button, however, it was removed in later builds. Look at the date on the article - 7/6/06 which was pre-RC1.

I don't believe that Vista will do what you want thru a registry entry.

I've got VPC 2004 but am not using it and haven't used it in a while, so correct me if i'm wrong but wasn't there something in VPC 2004 (a trick or hack or something) that let you set any amount of memory up to the max? I just can't remember right now.

"copy the DVD to the HDD"; Where does it say that at, I didn't see it. In fact the license says that you can make a back up copy and doesn't specify how that copy is done, so a copy to the hard drive would be a back-up.

Well.....I guess i will add blindness to the list of my endearing qualities

Theres a beta RTM driver now available from ATI.

Here is some info concerning this: (at least I think this is what your talking about) Event ID 4226: "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts." In order to understand what this means, you have to first understand some basic TCP/IP. I'm not going to go in depth with how TCP/IP works, all of its states and packet-types, but I'm going to go over the most basic part. When a client initiates a TCP/IP connection to a server, the protocol has to negotiate the connection information before any data is transferred. TCP, Transmission Control Protocol, helps to ensure that information gets to its destination reliably over an IP network. It does this with the TCP Handshake. The TCP Handshake Process Step 1: Client sends a SYN packet to the server. This packet is more or less the absolute beginning of the TCP/IP communications process. This puts the client's port in a SYN_SENT state. This makes it await an ACK packet. Step 2: Server, if it is there and LISTENING, will respond to the client with a SYN/ACK packet. This will put its port into the SYN_RECVD (RECEIVED) state. and make it await an ACK packet. Step 3: Client receives SYN/ACK packet, puts its port into an ESTABLISHED state and responds with an ACK packet. From here on out, data can be transferred between both of these devices. With this process explained, we can now go into why and how Event 4226 works and is triggered. Starting with Windows XP SP2, Microsoft limited the maximum amount of SYN_SENT states that you can have on your system to 10. There was a way to change this in XP but it can't be changed in Vista. There are only 2 ways that a port will come out of the SYN_SENT state. Either the connection receives a response, or the connection times out. With that all in mind, let's look at how it affects various internet protocols such as HTTP. Client requests a web page via URL. DNS server responds with the IP address. Client sends a SYN packet to the HTTP server. HTTP server sends a SYN/ACK, Client sends an ACK, Server begins sending data. Client displays it on screen, connection closes. In this scenario, the HTTP server was there and sent a response. Because of the way HTTP works, it only needs one active connection at a time. Thus, even if an HTTP server is not there, at maximum there will only be 1 connection in the SYN_SENT state (unless the client is set to retry over and over again). Most of the internet uses just one connection, with exception to P2P applications, where they use many connections. On previous Windows operating systems, when a user runs a P2P application, the client receives a list of hosts that are sharing the file that the client wants. The client attempts to connect to all of these hosts. Let's choose an arbitrary number that there are 50 "servers" that the client wants to connect to. The client sends a SYN packet to up to 50 servers, and simply waits for some to time out. If they time out, oh well. It still say, has 10 that responded and opened a connection. This method of not limiting was a great way to increase the spread of worms on the internet. Your computer would get a worm, and start hitting entire ranges of IPs. Regardless of if even a fraction of these hosts responds, the worm just spreads itself to as many hosts as possible from your system. Limiting the amount of "half open" (syn sent or syn recvd) connections that are happening at the same time DRASTICALLY reduces the spread of the worm, while having very minimal effects on "legitimate (I use this word loosely here, legitimate meaning any software the user actually wants on the computer) connections. Because the worm-infected PC now has to wait for connections to either timeout or receive a response, the worm's spread is drastically reduced. When it's trying to hit 20,000 hosts, it greatly increases the amount of time as it might have to wait for 15,000 connections to time out before it can continue to spread. How does this affect P2P? Let's get back to the P2P for a minute here. So your client sends SYN to 50 other machines "at once (short period of time)". machines 1, 23, 40, and 45 respond, while everything else doesn't. You now have a near immediate 4 connections. With the TCP/IP half open limitation, it would send SYN to the first 10 hosts. Host 1 responds, so it sends now to host 11. The other 9 time out, it now sends to hosts 12-21. 11 times out, it now sends to 23, which responds ,and then begins on 24. So what happens here is a slight delay in the connection process as it goes through the lists of hosts. This has no bearing on the transfer speed between Hosts 1, 23, 40, and 45. By all means, once that connection is established that's pretty much it for the TCP/IP limiter. If all 50 responded, you could connect to all 50 hosts without any limitation at all. So the real issue on P2P networks with regards to this "problem" are the people who don't understand how to configure their internet connections, or the people who configure them with the intent of not allowing incoming connections. Q: Does this affect my regular internet habits (Chatting, web surfing, e-mail)? A: Not at all. Q: Will this slow down my P2P use? A: Minimally. It will slow the rate in which you connect to other hosts, but it has no affect on any speed you receive from any host you connect to. This is simply a limit to how many hosts in the list of hosts that you make attempts to connect to. Q: Does this mean I can only have 10 connections at a time? A: No, you can have 10, 20, 30, 40 connections to any host you want provided they are configured to allow it. This simply limits the number of attempted connections. In the end, you will connect to as many hosts as are available for a connection, just connecting to them at a slower pace.

This sounds like either a CODEC (a likely suspect) of maybe vid card drivers. What "Advanced Vista Codec Package v4.1.5 codecs"? What build of Vista?

"When I try to use a p2p filesharing program, I get the max tcp connections reached in the event log. How can I increase these connections? " You can't, the max number is fixed and can't be changed like in previous versions. "When I try to copy files to to one of the shares on those machines, I lose all network connectivity and my system has to have a hard reboot." Thats kind of odd assuming that sharing is set up correctly and you have the right connection set up (Public, Private, etc...). Even if it was some strange permission thing you would just get some kind of message that you couldn't do that. Are you sure the router is set up properly and your only using one of the cable modems at a time? A two-cable-modem set up may have something to do with loosing the connectivity (its confused as to which modem to use possibly which has the possibility to produce a no-connectivity situation for Vista). Also try disabling the IPV6 and just use the IPV4. There was a problem with the nvidia nic's earlier in the beta but i think it got resolved (I'm using the marvel-yukon on-board nic's myself and they work fine), if none of the other machines are using IPV6 this may also be causing the problem and make sure your router can handle the IPV6 also. (BTW, why two cable modems?)

When you use hibernate in Vista (just like in XP) it creates a file called hiberfil.sys. This file can grow rather large, you may have noticed that its also enabled by default when you install Vista (as it was in XP). Anyway, if you don't use hibernate and turn it off this file is still left behind, and sometimes its large enough to impact the amount of drive space you have available, and guess what - you may not be able to just delete it like in winXP. While there may be different other ways one simple and straight forward way to get rid of it is log on as the Administrator and open up a Command Prompt then type "powercfg -h off" (without the quotes), hit enter...and voila! no more hyberfil.sys.

After the recent flurry of negative feed back concerning the Vista EULA that limited the license to one install and then one transfer for a total of two before a new license was required MS has changed the EULA to something a little more realistic: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=166

Its always irritated the heck out of me that Windows explorer by default always opened at 'My Documents', which is now just 'Documents' in Vista. You can make Explorer open at the root of any drive or at any folder if you wish instead of at the default Documents folder, heres how to do it by applying an old windows trick that still works in Vista; 1. Create a shortcut to explorer.exe on your desktop or anywhere else you choose. 2. Right click on the shortcut and choose 'Properties' then click on the 'Shortcut' tab. 3. You will see the default '%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe' in the 'Target:' field. This is what your going to change. 4. Delete the '%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe' in the 'Target:' field and paste in the below: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n, /e, c:\ 5. If you want explorer to open at the root of a different drive change the 'c:' of the above to the drive you want e.g... 'd:' 6. if you want to open at a different folder change the 'c:\' (or what ever drive your using) to read 'c:\your folder here' (use what ever drive you need for the 'c:' part) 7. After you have made your changes click Apply then OK. Heres an example that opens at 'C:\Program Files': C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n, /e, c:\Program Files

I don't know about you, but I used the heck out of the old "Explore From Here" right click context menu item in Windows Explorer in Win XP and Win2000. Its like anything else, once you get used to it and its no longer there you feel sort of lost in the way you operate. I'm the same way with handy menu items. You may have noticed that just like its ancestors Vista also has explorer but also like its ancestors it falls a little short when it comes to the right click menu on folders and files in explorer. You can add "Explore From Here" to the right click context menu in Vista explorer. Start up regedit and add the below registry entries or just use the reg file attached to this post. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Explore From Here] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Explore From Here\command] @="explorer.exe /e,/root,\"%1\"" explorefromhere.reg

Hers an interesting technical article for Protected Mode: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/09/528963.aspx

Yep, how true, but there has got to be a way around it. I know that when SP1 for Vista comes out that UAC might go away.

You can turn Vista User Account Control (UAC) on and off by using the msconfig utility, but if you just want to do it without the start-run-msconfig - click on the tab - scroll down...yada yada yada stuff, you can use the reg entries below, or use the attached .reg files, to turn it on and off. You will need to reboot for any change to become active. These can also be used if your setting up an un-attended install and want to have UAC set on or off when the un-attend install completes. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;Disable UAC [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "EnableLUA"=dword:00000000 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ;Enable UAC [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "EnableLUA"=dword:00000001 disableuac.reg enableuac.reg

It seems that if you turn off UAC that the Protected Mode in IE doesn't work regardless of the setting in the Tools\Internet Options\Security tab setting that is checked to enable it. If you start up IE in Vista and you have UAC turned off, look down at the bottom and you will see 'Protected Mode: Off'. I can't find anywhere in the Vista help where it says that turning off UAC will also turn off the Protected Mode. I want to find a setting somewhere, possibly in the registry, that will enable the Protected Mode even if UAC is off. Has anyone looked at this yet? So far i've not been sucessful in finding a registry setting to do this but there has to be a way.

OK, just finished working out how to do it. This is just so cool. This is Complete PC backup and it works really, really well. One really cool part is that the "image" is in VHD format, which is the format used by Virtual PC and Virtual Server. If you download the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 Beta 2, there's a tool included called VHDMount. This tool allows you to mount a VHD file in the host OS so that it appears as another physical drive. You can mount your CompletePC Backup file and then grab any individual files or folders that you may need, without having to restore the entire backup. I've always ignored the windows backup thing and never had any interest in it because it never seemed really useful overall to help me with what I needed to do, so I just ignored it in the Vista beta also without ever considering that it might have changed to something more useful. Its about time MS included something like this, I like using native OS features rather then having to install a third party app. Very cool indeed.

Thats slick, thank you for posting this information. Been doing the Vista beta for over a year now and never realized that and forgot completly about the backup utility. Could you please post detailed instructions for how to accomplish this? Thank You

Ahhh..OK I see what your trying to do now. I don't have the exact solution for you, but i can tell you that you can't manipulate the install.wim in the way you want to (or at least the way I think your trying to do it), you can however do it I think by rebuilding it with the winPE methods described in the help files for winPE 2.0. I'd also be careful not to replace the existing .wim, save it somewhere just in case.