How To Install Windows Vista via Flash Drive

How To Install Windows Vista via Flash Drive

• Open Command Prompt, type “diskpart” and press[Enter].

• Type “list disk” and press[Enter]. Carefully note down the USB flash drive’s disk number listed here. For example, Disk 1 is USB drive, disk 0 is C:

• Type “select disk 1” and press[Enter]. Here the diskpart utility is instructed to choose the disk 1 as the drive to be worked on.

• Type “clean” and press[Enter]. This command is to clear information on the volumes, partitions on the USB flash drive.

• Type “create partition primary” and press[Enter]. This command is executed to create primary partitoin on USB flash drive.

• Type “select partition 1” and press[Enter]. This command instructs the Diskpart utility to select the newly created partition.

• Type “active” and press[Enter]. This command will make current partition active to enable the USB flash drive to boot from.

• Type “format fs=fat32” and press[Enter]. This command formats the drive to Fat32 file system.

• Type “assign”and press[Enter]. This command assign a drive letter to newly formatted partition.

• Exit from Diskpart utility by typing “exit” and press[Enter].

• Now insert the Windows Vista if you are not yet insert the CD/DVD.
  

Assume that your DVD-drive is E:\ and your USB flash drive is F:\
Then type “xcopy e:\*.* /s /e /f F:\” and press[Enter].

Wait until all the process done. Now your USB flash drive is ready to install Vista.

#This command will dump all the contents of Windows Vista from DVD onto the USB flash drive.
#Nest step is to set your BIOS to boot from USB. Done !

How to Increase SATA HDD Performance in Vista

How to Increase SATA HDD Performance in Vista

Nowadays, SATA hard disk drives are very common. They offer a series of advantages compared to older models, one of them being the improved performance. Windows Vista not only offers built-in support for SATA hard disks, but it also allows you to squeeze a little more performance from them.

You can increase SATA HDD Peformance by going to Computer(right click) > Properties.

Then select "Device Manager" on your left sidebar.

Go to Disk Drives and select the SATA hard disk you want to speed up.


Right click on it and select Properties. The Device Properties window will open. Here, go to the Policies tab, check the Enable advanced performance option and click on OK.

Windows Vista will now improve the performance of your SATA hard disk by enhancing write caching.

IMPORTANT !!!: In order to make these changes, your user needs to be an administrator. If your computer does not have a backup power supply such as an UPS(Uninterruptible power supply) it is not advisable to enable this option. I personally had issues with data corruption on computers without an UPS. It is better to be safe than sorry.

If you have an UPS or a laptop with a working battery, then enabling this option does not put your data at risk.

How to Customize Send To Menu in Vista

How to Customize Send To Menu in Vista

The Send To menu allows you to quickly send files and folders to another location.

By default, the places where you can send a file or folder are the following: 'removable drives' such as the memory sticks that are plugged into your computer, your CD/DVD-RW drives, a 'Compressed (zipped) Folder' , your Desktop, your Documents folder and 'Mail Recipient' which means attaching it to a new e-mail message using your default e-mail client.

You can customize the SendTo Menu options, which means you can add your own options, where you want the files to be sending to.

1) First, click on the Start button and, in the search box, type 'shell:sendto' and click on the shell:sendto search result or press Enter instead. The Send To folder will appear.

In the Send To window you can add your own favorite places where you want to send other files or folders.

2) To add your own option in Sendto menu, you need to decided about the place where you want to send other files or folders. Let say in D:\Folder1\.

Go to Folder1, right click it > Create Shortcut . Then Copy/Cut the created shortcut folder To Sendto menu folder.

3) Done. Once you have added all the shortcuts you wanted to the Send To folder, you can right click on any file or folder from your computer and send them to any of your new favorite places. If you want to remove a location from the Send To menu, just delete its shortcut from the Send To folder.

How To Disable User Access Control(UAC) in Vista

How To Disable User Access Control(UAC) in Vista

UAC or User Access Control is a new feature of Windows Vista that is meant to enhance the security of your system. Each time an application is installed or whenever an important system change is made by the user or by a running process, the screen is blacked out and temporarily disabled and a dialog is shown with the choices to allow or deny the action.

This UAC pop up is quite annoying especially to those who a new to Windows Vista. Actually you may disable this function.

To disable UAC, go to Control Panel > User Account

Click "Turn UAC On / Off "

Deselect the option Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer and press the OK button.


That's it. Restart your computer for the new setting to take effect.

How to Configure Vista for Automatic Log On

How to Configure Vista for Automatic Log On

I've been using Windows Vista for a few month and I can say that I'm very satisfied. I've already update my Vista 32-bit to SP1. If you're still new in using Vista and wonder how you can configure your Vista to log on automatically, I can show you how..

Steps :-
Type in "control userpasswords2" or "netplwiz" (without quote) into the Start Menu Search box, hit enter, and you'll see this screen:


Uncheck the box that says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer", and then hit Apply. You'll see a username and password box. Enter in the appropriate information here and hit OK:


Done !! Your Vista will automatically log on with your user account...

Windows Vista SP 1 : What Do You Expect?

Windows Vista SP 1 : What Do You Expect?

Are You Vista users? Good because the first release candidate of Windows Vista Service Pack 1(SP 1) will be available within just a few days. So what do you expect from this release?

The goal of Windows Vista SP1 is to address key feedback Microsoft has received from its customers without regressing application compatibility. Windows Vista SP1 will deliver improvements and enhancements to existing features that significantly impact customers, but it does not deliver substantial new operating system features. For example, the service pack improves the performance of the desktop shell, but does not include a new version of Windows® Media Center.

The updates in Windows Vista SP1 fall into three categories, Quality improvements, Improvements to the administration experience, and Support for emerging hardware and standards.

Some of the updates and improvements are:-

· SP1 addresses issues many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Windows Vista, as reported by Windows Error Reporting. These include issues relating to Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player, and a number of drivers included with Windows Vista.

· Adds support for exFAT, a new file system supporting larger overall capacity and larger files, which will be used in Flash memory storage and consumer devices.

· Enhances support for high density drives by adding new icons and labels that will identify HD-DVD and Blu-ray Drives as high density drives.

· Improves power consumption and battery life.

· Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.

· Improves the speed of copying files, folders, and other media.

· Improves startup and resume times when using ReadyBoost.

· Users can control which volumes the disk defragmenter runs on.

You can read the detailed about Windows Vista SP1 enhancement at iStartedSomethingdot]com.