Vista Battery SaverNote: Vista Battery Saver Is Currently In Beta Mode, And It might screw up your vista system, not that vista is aready screwed
It's not a secret, that cool WDM (Aero user interface), announced in Windows Vista eat laptops' battery as hungry animal eats it's victim. But what, actually, "eat" your battery - mostly three things: Aero, Sidebar and your wide laptop screen. We have nothing to do with screen, but we can disable either Aero UI and Sidebar, while working on battery. Let me introduce Vista Battery Saver
MC Radio Gadget © 2006http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=364690c1-1b50-4cbc-b08b-1c99321ec0fe&l=1
- A sidebar gadget to play Singapore online radio stations.
- Use prev/next buttons to select station
- Click the play button to start streaming
- Song title ticker updates continuously even when player is stopped
- Volume control via mousewheel or taskbar volume
- Remembers last station played
The Start menu got a big overhaul in Windows Vista, with a number of significant changes made as a result of usability testing and research. One of the nicest innovations to my mind is the search bar at the bottom, which searches through your programs, document files, emails and anything else for which a search provider is registered; this saves a lot of time hunting around. Want to run Powerpoint without having to browse around the "All Programs" menu? Just type "Powerpoint" in the searchbar. Can't remember which of the myriad dialog boxes and settings you have to go through to find the Device Manager? Just type "device" in the search bar.
Of course, there are times when you may still just want the fast but dumb Run dialog that Windows XP provided:
It seems that some people think we got rid of this altogether, when in fact we just removed it from the default settings since most people won't need it any longer. The quick way to get at it is to use the Win+R shortcut key combination at any time - this is what I tend to use most of the time.
If you want to restore it permanently to your Start menu, here's what you do:
Right-click on the Start menu and choose Properties;
Select the Start Menu tab and click on the Customize... button;
Ensure the "Run command" option is checked.
Now the Start / Run command will be restored to its full glory. Of course, you can swap in and out a bunch of other choices (I like the Administrative Tools to be right there, but I don't much care for Pictures, Games and Music to be top-level items on my work machine.) Here's how I have my default menu configured - you'll see it's also docked to the left-hand side of the screen:
If you're a reader of this blog, I'm going to take a low-risk gamble and assert that you probably consider yourself a power user. You pride yourself in the responsibility of having full and absolute control over your machine environment and anything that comes between that perfect human-machine symbiosis is to be spurned. If only there were a way to turn User Account Control off on a Windows Vista machine, you'd upgrade immediately. Well, dear reader, I'm here to help.
Firstly, it's worth a brief digression into the benefits of this feature. Running as admin is a bad thing, as most of us know. Aaron Margosis has blogged extensively on this issue, and I won't rehash it here. But for reasons of compatibility, running as a standard user can still be a somewhat painful proposition. Windows Vista attempts to give you the benefits of both worlds by allowing administrators to execute most processes in the context of a standard user and only elevating the privileges on their user token by consent, in addition to allowing standard user accounts to perform administrative tasks by selectively elevating a process to use administrator-level credentials.
In general, UAC has turned out pretty well. It was pretty intrusive in early builds, prompting often and sometimes capturing focus at the wrong time. For the vast majority of users, UAC will offer a valuable level of security protection that will protect against malware: it simply won't have the rights to perform invasive actions like installing device drivers or services. Once a system is configured, you'll rarely see UAC prompts unless you're an inveterate settings tweaker. Incidentally, you can find out a great deal more about how UAC works, what you need to do to your own applications so that they co-operate well with UAC, and the rationale for its design at the official UAC blog.
It is possible to switch UAC off. I really don't recommend it - if you like full control over your machine, surely you want to know when something is attempting to perform an administrative-level action? Nevertheless, I'd prefer to have you run Windows Vista without UAC than having you run a different operating system.
There are two ways to disable UAC. The easy solution is through Control Panel. Type "UAC" into the search bar at the top of the screen and you'll see this task presented:
This approach is pretty brute-force, though. It just switches the whole thing off. 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, as follows:
From the Start search bar, type "Local Security Policy"
Accept the elevation prompt
From the snap-in, select Security Settings -> Local Policy -> Security Options
Scroll down to the bottom, where you'll find nine different group policy settings for granular configuration of UAC.
What does this do? Despite the warning from the Windows Security Center, UAC isn't actually switched off. It's still there, and all your processes will still run as a standard user. To prove this, open a command prompt and try to save a file to the c:\ directory. You'll get an access denied error message. However, when a process is marked for elevation, instead of getting the secure desktop elevation prompt, the request will be silently approved. To show this in action, right click on a command prompt shortcut and choose "Run as Administrator". You'll see the command prompt open without elevation, but the window title will show that you're running with full administrative privileges.
Using this approach is better than nothing, but it's a bit like relying on everyone else having a vaccination against measles to protect yourself from infection. Read the explanations on the second page of the property sheet for each policy setting before tinkering, and be careful!
As many of us move forward from Windows XP or prior beta versions of Windows Vista to the final RTM version, I thought this little tip / secret might be in order. You may be aware that Windows Vista includes a number of different ways to upgrade a computer, from a straight in-place upgrade (insert CD, run setup and choose upgrade) to Windows Easy Transfer, which allows you to copy settings, programs and data from an old setup a fresh shiny new OS environment. But I'm the purist type who hates even the thought of leaving any detritus around and insists upon a clean install to a pure, unsullied partition.
In doing this, it's not unusual to find some folders that can't be accessed, even by an administrator, because their ACLs were set for accounts with SIDs that applied to an old partition. For example, on my home machine, I switched the C: and D: drive cables around and installed Windows Vista RTM on the new drive. Having tested everything worked, I wanted to delete some old redundant directories (like the old \Program Files directory). If even an administrator can't access the file, how do you take it back?
The secret lies in two command-line utilities, one ancient, the other completely revised for this release. Respectively, these are takeown (which takes ownership of a file or directory) and icacls (which sets new ACLs on that directory). I created a small batch command on my system called itsmine.cmd, as follows:
takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t
From an elevated command prompt, you can run a command such as itsmine d:\hard_to_delete and this will reset ownership and ACLs on the hard_to_delete directory such that a command like rd /s d:\hard_to_delete should work.
These two lines have saved me a lot of pain over the last week as I've gradually flattened and reinstalled the RTM version of Windows Vista on each of my machines: hopefully they'll be equally useful to you!
Saw this posted on one of the internal forums today, and I thought this was something that was worth sharing. If you're a keyboard junkie, you'll love this.
Do you have a few applications that you're always firing up? Would you like a system-wide keyboard shortcut to run them? Here's what you do. Simply add shortcuts to the Quick Launch toolbar, as shown in the screenshot below.
Now you can simply use Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 and so on to launch each application. For example, on my machine, Win+3 launches Notepad and Win+6 launches the VS command prompt. This works no matter what application has the focus.More coolness coming your way soon, courtesy of Windows Vista!
I don't know about your workflow as a developer, but I often find myself switching back and forward between an Explorer window and the command shell. For example, sometimes I'm looking around the filesystem for a project that I created a while back and then I want to build it from the command line or rename some of the files or something.
Here's a trick that I don't think many people are aware of. Right-click on any folder on your Windows Vista machine while holding down the shift key. You'll see an extra context-sensitive menu item there: Open Command Prompt here. Just click on this menu and a command window will open with the current working directory set to the folder's actual location.
Figure: folder context-sensitive menu, with and without the shift key modifier.
In the past there was a Windows XP powertoy that did this; now it's built into the operating system (albeit hidden away to protect the unwary from themselves). What's really cool about this is that if the target folder is a network location, Windows Vista silently maps a network drive to that location before opening the folder (so that your command prompt has a valid path containing a drive letter) and then deletes the network drive once the command prompt is closed.
Before you start your day to office or at the end of a hard day in office - before you step out view the traffice condition at all Major Expressway like Woodland Checkpoint, ECP, PIE, CTE, TPE etc. Make your drive smooth!http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=8c8c07ef-23a2-4f40-8ba8-5c6366157ed2&bt=1
Description:Singapore Weather could be surprising, parts of the city could be sunny and it could be raining in your side of the city. Get surprised no more with the Singapore Weather Gadgethttp://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=ef34f777-0f54-4e46-ad90-76862e19d24b&bt=1&pl=1
tyOriginally posted by Hanagata:wooo good guide for vista... give a thumb up
Description:Use Virtual Map technology to find any place in Singapore, while using Yellow Pages to find business information. View information about SMRT locations and book taxis. Track loved ones as they move through the city using GridÂ’s peace of mind services.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=afd575d0-273c-4d34-a81a-cd25ac1dd9dd&bt=1&pl=1
Street Directory never looked easier and comprehensive.
Description:Quick and easy access to your most recently used Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 documents. This gadget lets you easily open, pin, or unpin the most recent items from your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint MRU. Requires Office 2007.
Description:Gadget shows a current status of a battery. On a clique it opens the Windows Mobility Center.Esp Great for laptop users
Description:I have always had a dictionary handy...but looking away from computer to book and vice versa gets me dizzy and makes my neck hurt. I developed a need for a piece of software like this. When I could not find one, I developed the solution myself. MyDictionary is my first gadget...as such, the graphics are not up to par with other gadget graphics. But, new software is supposed to work first, and then work well. Later on, I hope to add some options that include choices as to what reference site is used and also implement choices of different, better background graphics. Please note: The websites that this software interacts with are in no way affiliated with this product. If you like this gadget, go to www.southside-solutions.com for more information about our other interesting gadgets, including MiniDictionary 1.0 and MiniThesaurus 1.0 - they use less screen real estate. I think many of you will find them suitable to your needs. I appreciate your use of our software.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=9e6b3bd3-bae4-437a-b613-ee538ee04c72&bt=1&pl=1
Description:I start-sleep for shorter intervals but use this to quickly hibernate when leaving for travel. This is a one-click to hibernate button. With Vista I rarely shut down but want to protect my data using BitLocker with TPM+PIN. I use hibernate to conserve battery life and enforce the PIN.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=5793247b-5cae-4291-abbb-b3aaed78bf79&bt=1&pl=1
Descriptionisplays system usage details (CPU, MEM) for quad core processors. Same visual styles as iiNet usage meter.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=ad5503bc-41ef-4f71-b06a-1f9887757efe&bt=1&pl=1
Should work with single/dual core cpu's too.
Description:Monitor the signal quality, service set identifier and IP address of your wireless network connection. Features include four colour signal bars and a padlock symbol indicating a secure connection.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=9cea999d-3730-40c5-ade2-4a8b2877f332&bt=1&pl=1
Description:The DESlock+ Gadget provides password based 256bit AES encryption from your Desktop.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=0533b5e0-6add-4768-8595-de86d1b06316&bt=1&pl=1
Drag files onto the DESlock+ Gadget and enter a password to encrypt or decrypt files from any folder.
Right-click the Gadget to encrypt or decrypt the Windows Clipboard, ideal for encrypting your email, notes or other sensetive information.
The DESlock+ Gadget is also compatible with the full DESlock+ product, available from www.deslock.com.
Description:System Control is much more than your average shutdown gadget. Aside from the normal Shutdown, Restart, Lock, and Sleep / Hibernate, we give you Switch User, Log Off, Task Manager, Run Window, and Command Prompt. All of those buttons can be re-ordered or disabled / enabled.http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=426dc418-12ce-481a-b886-89a66ca9127e&bt=1&pl=1
This gadget has two sizes: Small, which accommodates 3 buttons at a time, and Large which gives you the ability access all the buttons at once. In addition to that, we have 10 themes at your disposal.
Worried about accidentally shutting your machine down? No problem. We have an in-gadget confirmation for buttons with greater functionality. We also have a lock button in case you need it.
In addition to the buttons, we also have the time below, which can be changed in the settings panel to: 3 different time formats, date format, overall CPU usage, overall RAM usage, or just plain nothing.
ItÂ’s small, sleek, powerful, and very customizable.
New 1.2 Update!
Website: BuildAGadget.com
Description:This gadget monitors your PC's drives and shows you the available space for those you've selectedhttp://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=17b251a1-4970-433c-9e3d-ad209b0ecd40&bt=1&pl=1
The results of the Windows Experience Index are stored in an XML file that you can modify to spoof your score. Who wants to show off a 2.1 system? LetÂ’s make that a 9.9 powerhouse
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Navigate to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore.
Open up the most recent file in that folder. Make sure that your account has write access to that file. If not change the file permissions.
Parse the file looking for the WinSPR entry. These are the items you want to edit. The maximum value you can use is 9.9.
Save the file and you just turned your 2.1 system into a supercomputer.