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Disable Vista Aero when running an Application

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If you want the best performance possible from a certain application (i.e. your favorite game, Photoshop, or Virtual PC) you can set the compatibility mode on that application to automatically disable Vista Aero when ran and automatically re-anable it when closed.  To do this:

  1. Right-click the shortcut used to access the application and select “Properties”
  2. On the Compatibility tab, check the box to “Disable desktop composition” (for even more performance, you may also want to check “Disable visual themes”)
  3. Click OK on the properties window.

Cannot Set Default Printer in Vista

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I recently came across an issue on a client PC where i could not set a printer to be the default.  When I right-clicked the printer and chose the “Set as Default Printer” option, absolutely nothing happened.  After researching the issue, I was able to manually make the printer the default by adding the following registry key:

Name: Device
Type: Reg_SZ (String Value)
Value: “printername, winspool, portname”
Location: HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows

 In my case, the Windows key didnt exist under CurrentVersion and had to be created.

Sound or Network Icons Disappear from the Notification Area (System Tray)

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In Vista, I have seen my network and sound icons disappear from the notification area quite often.  Microsoft KB article 945011 explains why and how to workaround the issue.  Unfortunately, this isnt a permanent fix and they still seem to disappear occasionally.  I have created a batch file to do the work for you so that you can run it often if need be.  Take the following text, paste it into a text file and then save it as restore_icons.bat or something similar (must end in .bat).  Run it to restore your icons.

 NOTE! This blog breaks up the first two lines at the first space.  Make sure you piece the code back together as it should be.

reg delete “HKCUSoftwareClassesLocal SettingsSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionTrayNotify” /v IconStreams /f

reg delete “HKCUSoftwareClassesLocal SettingsSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionTrayNotify” /v PastIconsStream /f

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
explorer.exe

Error Message When Attempting to Add a Vista PC to the SBS Domain

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You may receive the following error message when attempting to add a Vista PC to a Small Business Server domain using the SBS wizard (http://servername/connectcomputer):

“The Small Business Server Networking Wizard was not installed. You may not be a member of the local Administrators security group on this computer or your Local Intranet security settings may be set to High. Click Connect to the network now to try again and click Yes when prompted. If the wizard fails to install, contact the person responsible for your network.”

To resolve this issue, you probably need to update your SBS server to support that Vista PC.  The update is commonly referred to as “Ripcurl”. 

Read more at the official SBS blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2007/02/09/sbs-vista-client-update-ripcurl-now-available.aspx

NT Password Recovery Boot Disk for Vista

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If you’ve lost your local Windows password in the past then you may have already found this tool.  This is a very handy boot disk to change your Windows password and should be a part of any technician’s toolkit. 

This post is a warning though….the previous versions of this tool should not be used on Vista!!!  There is a new version which supports Vista and that is the only version that should be used.  Using the previous version on a Vista machine will corrupt the filesystem and make it difficult to get your system to boot again.  Somehow, it corrupts it to the point where the Vista installation CD cant even be used to repair it.  To get my system to boot again after making this mistake I had to use an XP installation CD to run chkdsk and correct the errors. 

 Here is the link to the latest version of the Password Recovery Boot Disk:
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Vista Network and Volume Icons Disappear from the System Tray

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It seems to be a common problem that your Network and Volume icons may disappear from the system tray.  If this happens, it may be a quick fix by going to the properties of the taskbar and checking off each one on the Notification Area tab.  If however, these options are greyed out, then the problem may be the icon “History”.  To resolve this, delete the following keys in the registry then restart the Explorer.exe process.

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesLocal SettingsSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion TrayNotifyIconStreams
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesLocal SettingsSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion TrayNotifyPastIconsStream

Start++ Customize You Vista Start Menu Search

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Start++ ScreenshotI was looking for a way to customize the Windows Vista Start Menu Search for the longest time and I finally found an app that lets me do what I wanted.  Initially, I wanted to be able to type things like “kb xxxxxx” in the search field and have it automatically go to the url for the Microsoft KB article that corresponds to the number I supplied (in this case http://support.microsoft.com/kb/xxxxxx).  Start++ lets you do just that and more.  Check it out!

 http://brandontools.com/content/StartPlusPlus.aspx