Tips & Trips Vista

In our previous article Windows Vista Tips and Tricks – Part I we saw some basic tips and tricks in Windows Vista Ultimate. In this article I have tried to cover all the tips and tricks that would help you customize your work environment according to your taste and make it user-friendly.
We always want to work in an environment that is friendly and is according to our requirements, so that we save efforts and time on performing repetitive tasks. Windows Vista gives us the flexibility to tweak the functionalities to suit our requirements. In this article we will see ten more tips to do so. These tips have been tried out on Windows Vista Ultimate.


Tip 1: Add ‘Computer’ to your taskbar for quick access –
It is very convenient to have a quick access to your folders or the ‘Computer’ (all your drives) at a click. For that, you can add a shortcut just like the quick launch on your taskbar. Just follow these steps:
a. Right click on the taskbar and choose Toolbars and then click on ‘New Toolbar…’
b. Then either select ‘Computer’ or if you want to have a quick access to a particular folder then browse to that folder and click on ‘Select Folder’.
c. Now you would be able to see a ‘Computer’ folder on the taskbar and two arrows next to it. When you click on the arrow a pop-up displays and lets you browse through all the drives and folders.
Tip 2: Additional clock on your desktop
If you want to know different time zones while you work, you can add additional clocks to the system tray in Vista. Right click on the clock, and then choose ‘Adjust Date/Time. Click on the Additional Clocks tab and then you can add one or two additional clocks to the tray and select their time zones.
Tip 3: Adding frequently used programs to Start Menu
There are few programs that you use regularly that get stored in the Start Menu. But only limited programs get a space over there. For accessing the other programs you have to follow the normal procedure of browsing the Start Menu through its parent folders. But you can customize the Start Menu to display your frequently visited programs. For that you need to place your programs into the Start Menu folder.
For all users-
Browse to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
For specific user-
Browse to C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Tip 4: How to disable Aero in Windows Vista
In order to reduce memory consumption, you can choose to disable Aero effect. To do so, Right click on desktop > Select ‘Personalize’ > Window Color and Appearance. Click on ‘Open classic appearance properties for more color options. In the dropdown, choose ‘Windows Vista Basic’.
Tip 5: Change the Windows Vista screen during boot
You can change the Windows Vista boot screen by enabling the ‘Aurora’ boot screen. Go to the Control Panel > Select ‘Classic View’, Open ‘Administrative Tools’ > ‘System Configuration’ shortcut > Select ‘Boot’ tab and click on ‘No GUI boot’ > Now restart your computer to see the ‘Aurora’ boot logo.
Tip 6: How to easily ‘zip’ files on Vista
Right click on a file or folder > Select ‘Send To’ > Click ‘File compressed’.
Tip 7: Disable 'Recently opened files' list
Right click taskbar > Select Properties > Start Menu tab > Uncheck two checkboxes under ‘Privacy’ ( Store and display a list of recently opened files, Store and display a list of recently opened programs) > Click OK.
Tip 8: Customize the Start Menu Options
You can customize the Start Menu by choosing the programs and order in which they appear on the Start Menu. To do that:
Right click on the taskbar and choose Properties. Then select the Start Menu tab to open the Customize Start Menu window.
Taskbar Start Menu Properties
In this window choose different programs and settings you want. You can also change the size of the menu that means the number of programs displayed in the menu.
Customize Start Menu
In addition to these you can choose the browser as well as email client.
Tip 9: Resume Previously Opened Window With Desktop Button
This is one of the most important and frequently used button or shortcut in the Quick Launch Toolbar. The first time you click on this button you would be taken to the desktop. In other words, Windows Vista brings the Windows desktop to the foreground of all the other open windows. The second time you click on this button, Windows Vista hides the desktop and resumes the previously open window.
Tip 10: Disable Remote Control on your Vista
Open Control Panel > Select ‘Classic View’ > Double click on 'System’. Now click ‘Remote Settings’ link in the left pane. A dialog box pops up > Uncheck ‘Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer’ check box > Select ‘Don't allow connections to this computer’. Press ‘Ok’.