NBR Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide

How Do I configure IE 7 x64 to be the the deafult verson of Explorer when I clink on web links from desktop or from within apps? In my previous Server 2003 x64 i had it set up as so but forgot if I did it or if it was default. I do know I had to manually move the x64 IE7 short cut to the quick launch myself and I did it in vista too. I don't get the "open with" option anymore if I click on web link icons. Do we have to use that edit app in Vista just to customize our ""right Click, open with menue and "edit"?

 

Can sombody help w/ the "right click" menue editing? I had an app that sort of worked under Vista Business x64 but cannot find it. It was a GUI install and allowed me to input my own default "edit" and so on (ie; Edit In Photoshop).

Can I get some ideas of some known working ones I can try?

thankx in advance.

 

@deathstick & @Lappie: I used to just use RMClock when I'm in Vista on the high performance profile, and now I know that I can change the throttle percentages in the control panel. Thanks!

 

My power profile settings are working now, but I did loose the ability to right click on certain files to edit the open and edit with options. Yes I had an app installed but now since a system restore it is no longer there but the weird part is the edits I made are still aactive. I use Symantec endpoint and need or want to create a "scan with" option so I can scan individual items on the fly.

 

Also I wonder if the power settings are different for the balanced profile in Windows 7 since there's no high performance profile. Lappie, that's weird that the right click ability on certain files disappeared.

 

OK, I found the app. It was File Type Doctor. I didn't mean to say the Vista standard "locked" "right click" stuff is gone, I meant that I dont always get the prompt for the custom edit mode (ie: File Type Docter) I have to right click on an unknown file to get it to prompt. It was supposed to be in the right click menur of Windows explorer to edit at any time on any supported file type.

In a nut shell, it works when you can get ti to open, I just cant find how to manually open/run it.

 

There is a high performance profile in Windows 7, click "more power options" to see it.

 

Has there been an update on Vista SP2 yet? I'm eagerly waiting for it.

 

The rumour mill states that the planned release date may be delayed a month. Of course, the official release date is "when it's qualitatively ready."

 

What is the best advice on slipstreaming and rebuilding a Single Vista Business x64 SP2 disc. How do I make sure the additional or certain add ons are slipped in?

 

Use Vlite. See this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=271701

And SP2 is still a beta. I wouldn't recommend slipstreaming it until it's final.

 

Yep it would be a VERY BAD idea to slipstream it. If SP2 beta is like any other SP beta you will have to remove it before you can install the release version. That could be just a tad problematic if you had slipstreamed it.

Gary

 

Yup, SP1 had the same issue. I believe there is some discussion about it in the thread I linked plus in this thread (good luck finding it ).

 

Will vLite allow for us to configure the install disc for 2 or more systems where each require a different RAID/AHCI and or other wifi drivers? What about teh same version driver but a choice of either RAID or AHCI?

 

This sort of question is best asked either in the vlite thread I posted earlier or in a new thread in the Windows forum. This thread is really for discussion about the stuff in the first post as well as recommendations or suggestions for new things.

 

Hi guys,

I have just purchased a XPS 1530 laptop with Vista Home Premium and 320 GB 7200 RPM SATA drive.

Hard disk of my laptop makes lots of noise and I read on this forum that it may turn out to be faulty. So I am looking for a good tool to monitor the Hard Disk of my laptop. I need to find out what state it is in and whether it is healthy or not and accordingly I would contact Dell.

I have heard about tools like SpeedFan, HDTune, HDDlife etc. but I do not know which one is easy to use and best for a laptop since I do not want any side-effects (malware, crashes and other failures..)

Please advise.

Emperor

 

Search for "CrystalDiskInfo" - version 10 was freeware, if its still around that's a good program to do what you need.

However - SMART may not tell you its faulty and it fails, and vice versa.

 

Hi DetlevCM,

Thanks for replying to my question. if SMART is not the way to know whether Hard Disk is faulty or not then is there any other way in which I can find out this information?

Also does CrystalDiskInfo has any side-effects which I should know? Thanks for help!

Emperor

 

I have no knowledge about side effects from Crystal Disk - it only reads Smart information and does nothing otherwise.

About SMART

This was postet in Hardware some time ago.

A study found that overal, SMART data is not too useful, as drives whicha ccording to SMART were perfect have failed and drives which were "bad" continued to work.
SMART is only an indicator.

The only way to definitely find out would possibly be to take it apart or use x-ray whatsoever - ultrasound...
Nothing you could do, and mothing any manufacturer would possibly ever do.

 

Les/Gary,

One quick question I have is - do I need to run the defrag to rearrange bootup files on a SSD ? Will that give me any boost in startup times ?

__________________
XPS M1330 l Tuxedo Black l T9300 l 4GB DDR2 l 128GB SSD l 13.3 LED l Integrated Graphics X3100 l Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N l 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery l Bluetooth 2.0+EDR l Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1

If you are a total non-gamer road-warrior like me, why wouldn't you just go with X3100 integrated option : no-problem, longer-battery !

 

I doubt if you will see much (if any) benefit, due to the low latency of SSD drives. The whole point of defragging any files is to deal with the latency of moving the heads from track to track.

Gary

 

Nobody can tell - not really as they aren't in physically different locations. However it wouldn't do any harm.

(Unless done far too often say every few minutes so that too much is read/written)

 

I believe it's actually detrimental to defrag a SSD because it lowers its lifespan drastically and there is no (or at least, no measurable) performance gain.

 

I think the lifespan wouldn't be too affected if you defragmented a SSD once every few months after an initial defrag.

I mean, its the same as shifting files.

 

If one only defragged once every few months, then yes, it wouldn't really affect anything. I've read some articles recently pertaining to defragging (or not) a SSD. Once I get back home I'll see if I can pull them up.

 

The defrag of the bootfiles (which is what the OP asked about) only needs to be done after a new driver, service or startup app is added. So I doubt if this would affect the lifespan of the drive. But since there is almost no latency in an SSD, there is no need to do a defrag at all, as far as I can tell.

Gary

 

This is weird but when I open up Task Scheduler, I get the following error message:

"The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with.TMM" when I didn't tamper with it in any way.

When I check MobilePC, the only task there is is HotStart and there is no TMM task. I was just wondering what the settings were for the TMM task so I can create a new one.

I know what the task is for (multiple monitors) but I haven't tried yet to see if my external monitor is affected by this (and won't be able to try for at least another week) and unfortunately, I don't have it backed-up/exported.

 

Hey Gang.... Just jumping in to say Hi!!! And its nice to see the animals still here right Scud and Crash???

And crash is a Mod? My God....has NBR lost its mind?

 

Hey!! It's great to see you stop in as well! And yup, Gary and I are still here causing havoc

I believe they have

 

What? Me? Havoc? Nah, you must be mistaking me for someone else. ...Big ol' grin...

Gary

 

Hey...just got something that is pretty amazing... Called an ironkey 8Gb for work...

https://www.ironkey.com/demo

Security of information has just reached a new level.

 

After a new install of Vista Enterprise (same disc as used on my notebook) I no longer have "hibernate" on the shut down menue. I used the usual powercfg / hibernate -on and get to set it up in power options now but still no shut down mue choice. How do I get it back? It was there when same DVD installed to my business notebook. Does Vista set up differently when it knows it's beeing installed to a server or workstation that normally dont utilize S4 modes?

Also, now that the workstation enters S4, when it resumes, it hangs at an error (I will note this next time it does) and I have to soft reset to get it to post one more time and then it gos. The Server 2K3 X64 R2 Enterprise does not do thins on same system (dual boot, 2 sets or RAID 0+1 physiocal drives).

Additionally, is there a trick to get Vista to write the hibernate file save to a Intel Turbo RAM if its the same size, ie: 4g for notebook to speed up enter & resume from S4?

 

How is this a Vista tip or tweak?

Anyway... I saw advertisments for these things - but I don't need it.

 

eheheheh Being the author, guess I am free to say pretty much anything I want in my own thread I guess. Thanks for your concern though.

 

We just ordered some IronKey's at work

 

It looks a little Mission Impossible-esque...self-destructing and all.

...nice to see you around Les. =D

 

IE7 speed tip? How do I stopp the pop up for flash active x plug in from annoying me to install in x64 brouser when it is already installed under the x86 version? If I choose never install anything from adobe, I now cant run even my CS4 DVD. How do I allow certain items like that to run?

Yes, I ask in terms of speed, cause it takes to long to scroll around clicking on thisn then that just to open a simple app you trust and will always use. Can the UAC be customised , like a "take control" fix?

 

Try installing it under x64, maybe?

Gary

 

Help me somebody!

Following step 8 of the tips, I inadvertently disabled Tablet PC Optional Components, not realising that this would disable the Tablet PC Input functionality.

Now when I try to launch that system, I get the following message:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\TabTip.exe: The system cannot find the file specified.

I have subsequently tried re-ticking/reinstalling the Tablet PC Optional Components box (under Window Features in Programs and Features) but, after a long winded 'please wait while the features are configured' attempt by the system, I get the following message:

An error has occurred. Not all of the features were successfully changed.

Please, please, please can somebody help guide me through getting this functionality up and running again as I really can't face a full system restore at this point? I'm wondering if there is some other element subsequently switched off that will require switching back on prior to me being able to re-enable PC Tablet Optional Components?

 

Maybe you should try starting a thread of its own here in the Vista section - that would possibly yield more results.

 

Thanks, I'll do that too but had thought that, as the issue arose from following the steps outlined in this thread, the thread author or a co-contributor to the thread might be best placed to help in resolving the query.

 

If my TMM Task is deleted, how can I create a new task to have it set back to default?

The actual problem is that when I open Task Scheduler, I get an error:
"The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with.TMM" when I didn't change any settings whatsoever.

 

great guide. I turned off indexing, but it told me that I had to be the administrator, but I am the only user on the machine. so I said ingore (it was about memtest.exe), then another file could not be accessed, so I said ignore all.
now I am wondering if none of the files property were changed. how do I check if indexing has been really turned off?

 

What does memtest.exe have to do with indexing? What was it EXACTLY that you did?

Gary

 

I went into the C drive properties and unticked the "index this drive for faster searching" then I said to apply to all subfolders and files and it went through every file. but it told me I needed admin privileges to change the properties of the files.

 

This is likely referring to certain files and folders.

For instance, C:\Windows\...

If you are trying to turn off indexing altogether, I wouldn't even bother un-ticking and whatnot...I would just disable indexing in the programming Add/Remove Windows Features area

 

Then disable Indexing Service from Services.

 

Hi there...this is a great Thread...I followed the guide and the time my DV7 takes from start to a working desktop is 1'07''...45 sec to the login screen, 22 sec to working desktop.

Works for me....

 

really good thread thanks

 

Guys...

I booted my laptop today and...WOAH!!!! to my surprise, my laptop booted up to a fully working desktop in 47 seconds!!!!!!!!!!! This is counting since I tapped the power button until I can fully open a window with no lag...pretty awesome!

THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS THREAD!!!!