Vista Tips and Tweaks

[Spooky]

jamesagmoore;

Very nice tip. Thank you

One thing about doing the registry key, its OK to leave the IPv6 enabled in the connection properties. However, when you use this reg entry if you take a look in device manager at the hardware, for the NIC card under Network Adapter you will see a '6TO4 Adapter' with an exclaimantion point on it, don't be alarmed if you see this as it will be normal for some to see this after using the reg key, its not broken or anything its just disabled by the reg key in favor of IPv4 instead of IPv6 having to be converted to IPv4 in some cases.

Disable IPv6 in Vista (makes ipconfig more readable):

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community...guy/cg1005.mspx

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters]
"DisabledComponents"=dword:000000ff

Edited December 11, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

Heres some small security tips if using the IE7 browser in Vista. It turns out the numerous tracking sites and services on the internet may be specifically targeting IE7 users in some way, places like ad-tracker and click-tracker, those places that load up cookies to keep track of your activity on the net when you visit a site.

Its a good idea to use the pop-up blocker in IE7 set to high. These tracking sites have may have found a way to place their selfs in your 'Trusted Sites' list thru the use of a cookie or other methods.

In IE7, click on 'Tools' - the 'Security Tab' , then click the 'Trusted Sites' icon, then click the 'Sites' button and take a look and make sure nothing in in your Trusted Sites that you don't want.

If you click on each zone you will find that you need to enable 'Protected Mode' for each zone, its a good thing to go ahead and do this. If youv'e disabled UAC, even if you have the 'Protected Mode' selected then protection is not really enabled. Protected Mode will not really be enabled if you disable UAC, even though it appears to be because the box is checked. To see if you actually have Protected Mode enabled look at the lower right of the browser in the status bar, if it says that Protected Mode is on then its working, if it says that protected mode is off even if youv'e checked the box to turn it on then it is not working. If the UAC prompts bother you then see my post for the reg tweak about enabling UAC but supressing the UAC prompts.

You might also consider placing these tracking sites in your 'Restricted Sites' list and ensuring the 'Restricted Sites' security level is set to high.

Edited December 18, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

Using Ctrl-Alt-Del brings up the Vista screen where you can choose to start up Task Manager if you wish. Its different from the more traditional manner that caused Task Manager to start up in windows in the past, the thing just started up and there was no big screen pop up.

You can get the same type of more traditional activity with Vista also, but you just can't use Ctrl-Alt-Del to get there from here, so heres what you do:

1. Create a shortcut on your desktop and give it a target of 'C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe', call this shortcut 'Task Manager' (or anything else you choose)

2. After the shortcut is created, right click on it and choose 'Properties' then click on the 'Shortcut' tab.

3. Click in the 'Shortcut key' field (it should say 'None' at this point), and when your cursor starts flashing in the field enter the key combination you want to use to start up Task Manager (without the big Vista screen) by pressing the actual key combination to be used. You can't use Ctrl-Alt-Del, but you can use something like Ctrl-Alt-T.

4. Click 'Apply' then 'OK' and your all done. Now the next time you hit the key combination you assigned the task manager will start up instead of the Vista choice screen.

Edited December 18, 2006 by Spooky

[usasma]

I can't recall if this was mentioned previously - but Ctrl-Shift-Esc will bring up the Task Manager directly.

[Spooky]

Some video card drivers for Vista from OEM's are beginning to appear. Some of these might not support the manner in which Windows Photo Gallery displays a pic on a DirectX surface. This might get some frustrated when they try to view their years of collected pics. There is a work around however that might work out for you if you are experiencing this problem. The below registry entries may help solve the problem for you:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery\Viewer]
"ForceSoftwareRender"=dword:00000001

The 'Viewer' sub key does not exist by default, so if your not using a reg file to make the changes you will need to add the 'Viewer' sub key manually, then add the "ForceSoftwareRender"=dword:00000001 value. Or...copy and paste the above into a text file and save it as 'ForceSoftwareRender.reg' (or another 'anothernameyouchoose.reg'', after you save your new .reg file then merge it into the registry. After the changes are made you will need to restart the computer.

This reg entry makes Vista use GDI instead of DirecX for redering the pics in Windows Photo Gallery. If you later decide to upgrade to drivers that do provide the proper support then delete the 'Viewer' sub key before you upgrade drivers and restart.

Edited December 22, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

In 2007 Daylight Savings Time has been extended by four weeks due to the Energy Policy Act for the United States. There is a Vista work around for the problem in setting Daylight Savings time when this happens, simply visit this knowledge base artical at MS, which is located at :

How to configure daylight saving time for the United States in 2007

[Sn4k36]

Here's a nice little trick that i've picked up tonight...

First open the command prompt with the admin rights.. Just by right clicking on command prompt in the start menu and click on "run as admin" and type this in:

rundll32 slc.dll, SLRearmwindows

Then hit enter and reboot...

What this does is reset the activation time for windows vista.. It's great if you only got like 1 left or your on ur last day of running windows vista before it has to be activated..

Have fun

[Spooky]

The shortcut arrows in Vista are actually overlaid icons. You can get rid of them using a couple of different methods, one of which concerns removing, renaming, or changing the value of the more traditional 'IsShortcut' key (outlined elsewhere in the Vista Tricks and Tips section). However, there is a slight problem with changing the 'IsShortcut' key, since Vista relies heavly on links if you change this key some items that rely on links may fail to start up.

So we need another method. Using the reg entery below gets rid of the shortcut arrow overlay. Actually what this reg entry does is substitute the shortcut arrow overlay for a transparent overlay which is exactly what TweakUI from MS did in the past. So...here it is for ya...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\shell32.dll,52"

For the correctness of it all the registry entry path should actually be shown as

"29"="%SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll,52"

The 'Shell Icons' key doesn't normally exist in Vista. This reg entry creates the key, and puts the '29' REG_SZ entry in the key and gives the REG_SZ '29' a value of "C:\\Windows\\System32\\shell32.dll,52" which points it to a transparent icon (icon #52) in the shell32.dll file. This reg entry gets rid of the shortcut arrow and at the same time doesn't break our links like the 'IsShortcut' key method might do in Vista.

BTW, the above reg entry points to a 16x16 w/16 colors transparent icon in the shell32.dll file. If your running your desktop with the highest setting (32) you might need a transparent icon to match. And in case your interested that hsortvut arrow is in imageres.dll and not in shell32.dll as it once was.

Edited December 27, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

User Account Control, or UAC for short. Yes, I know its a bad word to many, however, it really is your friend and will save your butt at some time or another. Part of the reason for the anger of some over UAC is its name, think about it, User Account Control...."CONTROL!!!! Why is MS wanting to control my computer?" In the beginning of Vista UAC was named User Account Protection (UAP), perhaps they should have left it named that way because the word 'Protection' is much more suitable then 'Control' when in reality the aim of UAC is to protect the user. Anyway, UAC is here for right now. Rumor has it that UAC will quietly go away beginning with SP1 for Vista, I don't know the accuracy of those rumors but in the mean time there are a few tips for living with UAC.

There are a few different ways to disable UAC;

1. The easy solution is through Control Panel. Type "UAC" into the search bar at the top of the screen and you'll be presented with a User Accounts GUI that allows you to turn UAC on and Off.

2. At the start menu type 'msconfig' and hit enter and a System Configuration editor will start up. Click on the tools tab and scroll down to the 'Disable' and 'Enable' entries for UAC.

3. You can also disable UAC by using registry entries (outlined in the Vista Tips and Tweaks section)

The above methods are a brute force approach as they just turn it on or off without offering any control over the finer aspects of UAC. Right now your probably thinking "What finer control aspects?"...Yes there are some finer control aspects for UAC, or at least there is a way to get a more control over UAC so you can keep it enabled and still live with it.

There's a more subtle configuration choice that gives you some of the benefits of UAC without any of the prompting. You'll need to edit the local security policy to control this, do the following:

1. From the Start search bar type 'Local Security Policy'.

2. Accept the elevation prompt (if you get one).

3. From the snap-in select 'Security Settings' - 'Local Policy' - 'Security Options'.

4. Scroll down to the bottom, where you'll find nine different group policy settings for granular configuration of UAC.

Perhaps the best choice I can suggest for you here is to select and change the setting 'User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode' from 'Prompt for consent' to 'Elevate without prompting'.

Read the explanations on the second page of the property sheet for each policy setting before changing anything. Be careful here because you can mess something up and be locked out of your own computer.

Edited December 26, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

You can turn off the Vista Start menu baloon tips one of two ways, use either Gpedit.msc or the reg entry below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; turn off start menu baloon tips
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091
"NoSMBalloonTip"=dword:00000001

[kankan]

Enable Glass without a supported card contributed by harunaksoy

Download the file here. It just adds a key in your registry

> Hello!!

I have installed the Final VISTA Enterprise and used this registry entry. I am now facing some pb and would like to get back to previous registry settings. Sadly i did not make any backup.

The 5048-5219_glass_enable.reg contains the following code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DWM]

"UseAlternateButtons"=dword:00000000

"EnableMachineCheck"=dword:00000000

"Glass"=dword:00000001

"Metal"=dword:00000000

"ForceSoftwareD3D"=dword:00000000

"DebugMessages"=dword:00000000

"DebugZOrder"=dword:00000000

"DebugMouse"=dword:00000000

"DebugDumpTree"=dword:00000000

Could someone show me a way to get back to initial state? Give me a capture of his regisrty?

By the way, anyone know a way to "re initialize" the whole registry state under vista (console i suppose)

Thank you for answers.

[Spooky]

Export your existing DWM key, the one you show below. Then delete the DWM key, hit F5 to refresh the registry, then browse to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows]

and make sure there is no DWM subkey (sometimes Vista migrates keys to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]. If the DWM key does exist then delete it too. Then re-start. If you wern't able to run glass as it was set up by Vista without putting those keys in the registry then you should come back up in your original state of not being able to run Aero Glass and some default theme will be loaded.

There may be some sort of detection activity, but Vista should (if your system is healthy) re-create the keys it needs in this case.

Enable Glass without a supported card contributed by harunaksoy

Download the file here. It just adds a key in your registry

> Hello!!

I have installed the Final VISTA Enterprise and used this registry entry. I am now facing some pb and would like to get back to previous registry settings. Sadly i did not make any backup.

The 5048-5219_glass_enable.reg contains the following code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DWM]

"UseAlternateButtons"=dword:00000000

"EnableMachineCheck"=dword:00000000

"Glass"=dword:00000001

"Metal"=dword:00000000

"ForceSoftwareD3D"=dword:00000000

"DebugMessages"=dword:00000000

"DebugZOrder"=dword:00000000

"DebugMouse"=dword:00000000

"DebugDumpTree"=dword:00000000

Could someone show me a way to get back to initial state? Give me a capture of his regisrty?

By the way, anyone know a way to "re initialize" the whole registry state under vista (console i suppose)

Thank you for answers.

Edited December 28, 2006 by Spooky

[Spooky]

The way Vista tests a USB flash device for use with ReadyBoost can be a little 'deceptive'. Some USB flash devices will initially test as not compatable, however, they may really be compatable. Theres a little trick to it that the average user may not realize, and this may be the reason why some USB flash devices are not listed in the various lists on line as compatable with ReadyBoost when in actuality they may be compatable.

When you first plug a USB flash drive in Vista comes up and asks you what you want to do with it, one of the options is to use it to speed up your system, click on this and Vista will check the flash device for compatability with ReadyBoost. The problem is that the very first test may not be accurate if it comes back and tells you that the device can't be used for ReadyBoost when it may be perfectly capable for use with ReadyBoost. So...here's the trick to determine if your device is or is not compatable with ReadyBoost;

1. Insert the USB flash device, and let Vista detect the device. When it comes up and asks you want you want to do close the GUI and do not make any selection.

2. Next, go to USB Flash device in explorer or disk management and format the device. Format the USB device you plan to use for ReadyBoost with NTFS and cluster sizes of 4096. Name the drive something you want like 'My_ReadyBoost' or something.

3. After the format is complete right click on the USB device and choose 'Properties' then the 'ReadyBoost' tab.

4. On the ReadyBoost tab unckeck the box to stop testing the device every time.

5. Next, click the Test again button. If the tab changes from the test tab to a tab that gives you two options of 'Do not use this device' and 'Use this device'. Check the 'Use this device' box and do not make any other changes on the tab especially to the 'Space to reserve for system speed' slider, leave the 'Space to reserve for system speed' setting at what ever Vista recommended.

6. Click 'Apply' then 'OK'. Your almost done - go to step 7

7. After completing the above steps go back to the tab in step 5 and check the 'Do not use this device' item. Then in explorer re-format the device as FAT32. After re-format go back to the tab in step 5 and check the 'Use this device' item. Now your done, and if your device is truely compatable you can now use the device for ReadyBoost.

The fact that the tab changes is not a true indication of ReadyBoost capability. Some flash devices may in fact allow this tab to be shown and still not be ReadyBoost capable. To determine if your device will indeed be ReadyBoost capable look on the flash device after you complete the above steps, if a file named ReadyBoost.sfcache exists on the flash device and the flash device is actually being used when you access any hard drive in your computer to start up an application then congratulations as your device may actually be ReadyBoost capable even if it initially tested as not capable.

May or may not work for all USB flash devices, If the tab with the two options in step 5 above will not come up, or the file named ReadyBoost.sfcache does not appear on the device, then the device is truly not compatable with ReadyBoost so you will not be able to use it for that purpose. The flash device must handle a capacity of between 2 to 3 times your installed RAM. While your using the device as a ReadyBoost drive you can't use it for normal storage purposes you can only use it for ReadyBoost. The ReadyBoost device must be USB 2.0 and the USB port your plugging it into must also be USB 2.0.

I stumbled across this when an IT friend of mine gave me a call and told me that all 30 of the company purchased Verbatim 4GB Store and Go USB Flash devices were giving mixed results for ReadyBoost with several different machine models. Some would pick the Store and Go USB Flash drives right up and let you know the devices were ReadyBoost compatable and didn't need further testing by Vista. Some machines would not detect the device as compatable. We knew the flash devices were ReadyBoost capable because some machines were using them just fine and detected them as compatable, so we came to the conclusion that differences in chipsets may be the dividing factor because on the machines with certain chipsets the devices would be detected and used just fine with ReadyBoost but the exact same Verbatim 4GB Store and Go USB Flash device plugged into a machine with a different chipset would not initially sucessfully test as ReadyBoost capable. After doing this little trick, all the machines that tested the USB device as not ReadyBoost compatable intially were now using the devices in a ReadyBoost capacity without complaint. There was a noticible improvement in speed of the system, it varied between systems, but there was a difference.

So...you be the judge, give it a try and see what happens, it can't hurt. Hope this helps someone out.

Edited January 5, 2007 by Spooky

[Spooky]

This registry tweak sets the AFD buffer to 1024. Setting this value in the Vista registry increases the number of messages sent before flow control is imposed. This increases throughput speed some (not bandwidth) and helps out with browsing etc....

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD\Parameters] 
"BufferMultiplier"=dword:00000400

This value does not normally exist in the Vista registry.

[Spooky]

Well, it was attached before but i guess the recent board update did away with it. Here it is attached again.

You can disable driver signing in the GPE and the desktop search service within Vista its self.

As promised, here is the reg tweak file i'm using. It does not include everything in the Vitsa Tweaks and Tips section because some of those earlier ones don't work with the Vista RTM.

Anyway, open the attached reg file with notepad,

I see no *.reg file ???  

And has someone made a tweak yet to disable the windows-desktop search service?

Also, to disable driver signing?

vista_reg_tweaks.zip