Windows Tips, Tricks and Information Blog

Finally Windows forums are ready, so register yourself free and start posting and rock it.

http://forums.windowsblog.net/

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We will soon have our windows forums up and running. All the site visitors will be able to discuss and share their problems and resolve them in forums.

So stay tuned. Already got vbulletin license for it.

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Windows Vista upgrade is totally different from earlier release of windows.

Windows Vista is not like the previous versions of windows, where you can no longer wipe out your existing Windows installation and install a fresh install of Windows Vista with the upgrade DVD.

Users that already wiped their previous Windows installation with the Windows Vista install disk while installing the upgrade version will be surprised when they try to activate Windows. It won’t activate! Why? Windows is looking for a full version product key because the user did not install the upgrade version of Windows Vista from within a previous version of Windows.

Users that want to perform a fresh Windows Vista install the traditional method are not going to be able to active their upgrade copy. If you still want to do a clean install with Windows Vista so that your XP settings and junk does not get ported over, there is a new method that will allow you to do a clean install and activate your upgrade version.

Fresh Windows install with the upgrade version of Windows Vista

1. Use your Windows Vista DVD to wipe out your previous Windows installation and install Vista without a product key.
2. After you have Vista installed, use your Windows Vista DVD again and perform an upgrade using your upgrade product key. Yes, upgrading Windows Vista to Vista works.
3. Your upgrade key will now activate Windows and you will have a clean install of Windows Vista.

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Windows Vista has a new hdd encryption feature “BitLocker Drive Encryption”. BitLocker can be very useful for businesses and home users security. Unfortunately, BitLocker Drive Encryption by default requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM Chip) version 1.2 or later installed in your computer. Most of the computers and laptops on the market do not come with TPM chips installed as they are usually found in high end business computers. If you have Windows Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise but do not have a TPM chip, you can still use BitLocker Drive Encryption.

In local group policy there is a hidden setting that will allow you to turn on the ability to use a USB storage device instead of a TPM key to store the encryption key. This is a great feature for those who don’t have the latest high-end hardware because you can still use hard drive encryption. However, every time you turn on your computer, the USB storage device that has the encryption key located on it must be plugged in. Without it, your computer will not boot up. One BitLocker Drive Encryption is setup with a USB storage device, that USB storage device basically becomes the key to your computer.

Follow these steps to turn on the ability to use a USB storage device with BitLocker Drive Encryption on hardware that does not have a TPM device:

1. Click on the Start Button and key in gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
2. Navigate through: Computer Policy, Administrative Templates, Windows Components and BitLocker Drive Encryption.
3. Right click on Control Panel Setup: Enable advanced startup options and select Properties.
Check Enabled and hit OK.

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There was a lot of controversy of the new Windows Start sound in Windows Vista. Originally, Microsoft was planning on making this a mandatory sound that users would not be able to disable. This sounds like a great idea from a Marketing perspective since all Windows users world-wide would hear the same notes when their computer starts up. However from a user perspective this could be a nightmare. Thankfully Microsoft responded to the vocal Microsoft community and gave users the option to disable this sound.

Follow these steps to disable your Windows startup sound:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in Sound. Select Sound from the list.
2. Click on the Sounds tab.
3. Remove the check from Play Windows Startup sound.
4. Hit OK.

Enjoy.

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Windows Vista includes a great little utility that allows users to finally make soft and hard file system links in the file system. This can be very useful from a software compatibility standpoint as well as a great way to organize your computer. Unlike a shortcut, a link is at the file system level and can be used to create an alias for a file or folder that is in a different location. For example, you can create a hard link (Directory junction) called c:\win that points to c:\windows\system32. After the link is created, you can open up command prompt or explorer and browse to c:\win and you will see the contents of c:\windows\system32. This is not a new technology, it has actually been a core Linux and Unix feature for as far as I can remember but it is nice to finally have it in Windows Vista.

Links can be created with the mklink command line utility.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
                refers to.

Let’s say that you want to create a directory junction like I mentioned earlier called c:\win that points to c:\windows\system32:

1. Open up an Administrative Level command prompt.
2. Run: mklink /j c:\win c:\windows\system32

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When I am working in command prompt the majority of the things I do require an administrative level command prompt. I normally have to right click on my command prompt shortcut and then select Run As Administrator. However, there is an easy way to modify the shortcut so that you no longer have to right click on it and select Run As all the time.

1. Right click on your command prompt shortcut and select Properties.
2. On the shortcut tab hit Advanced.
3. Check the Run As Administrator box and hit OK.
4. Hit OK once more to close the properties window.

You now have an administrative level shortcut without the right click.

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