gHacks technology news » vista-software http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:26:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Extend Windows Vista Laptop Battery Life With Aerofoil http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/12/extend-windows-vista-laptop-battery-life-with-aerofoil/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/12/extend-windows-vista-laptop-battery-life-with-aerofoil/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 17:50:14 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/12/extend-windows-vista-laptop-battery-life-with-aerofoil/ windows vistaIt is a well known fact that it is possible to extend the battery life of laptops by turning off features that are not needed. This can be hardware devices like modems, bluetooth and wifi. We have covered applications like Vista Battery Saver before which turn of software components in Vista as well which can not only increase the battery life of the battery but also speed up Vista. Aerofoil is another program that can help extend Windows Vista laptop battery life by turning off Windows Aero and the Windows Sidebar.

Aerofoil does not rely on the Microsoft .net Framework on the other hand which is probably the most important factor. The computer memory footprint of Aerofoil is therefor much smaller than that of the other program.

vista laptop

The program can be selected to run at startup. It will place a icon in the system tray which can be used to quickly access the available options seen above. It is probably a good idea to have this or any of the other tools running on Vista laptops that run on battery.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/05/12/extend-windows-vista-laptop-battery-life-with-aerofoil/feed/ 5 Install Vista Themes Without Patching The System First http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/23/install-vista-themes-without-patching-the-system-first/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/23/install-vista-themes-without-patching-the-system-first/#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:11:24 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=8478 Microsoft is protecting the Windows Vista operating system from unsigned third party themes. The protection prevents the installation from Vista themes if they have not been signed by Microsoft. The usual way of installing Vista themes is therefor to patch the files responsible for the protection so that third party themes can be installed on the operating system. The Vista Theme customization article covers those basics.

There is however a second possibility. Third party software that can load themes into Windows Vista. These programs usually patch the files themselves. One of those software programs that can install Vista themes automatically is Style Selector.

Style Selector is a free 200 Kilobyte portable application that runs on 32-bit editions of Windows Vista. New Vista themes have to be moved into the Styles folder. The Vista theme has to make use of a .styles file to be recognized by the software program.

vista themes

Vista themes that have been moved into the folder are automatically recognized by the application. Selecting the Vista theme in the list of available themes and clicking on the Apply button will load that theme into Windows Vista.

The Startup box can be checked to apply the Vista theme during startup so that the new theme will be available even after a reboot of the system. The same preferences allow to pick a default font and font size which will then be used as the standard font in Windows Vista.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/23/install-vista-themes-without-patching-the-system-first/feed/ 11 Windows Vista Theme Customization http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/01/windows-vista-theme-customization/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/01/windows-vista-theme-customization/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:06:48 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7327 Microsoft put a lot of effort into making Windows Vista a visually compelling operating system. The system still has the same Windows Vista theme protections in place that make it impossible to add custom themes to Windows Vista. There is also no easy way to change elements like the boot logo or system icons in Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista theme customization application Vista Visual Master changes that. It is a all in one solution for everyone who wants to customize the Windows Vista theme and appearance. The application can be divided into two sections. The first deals directly with the Windows Vista theme while the second takes care of system settings that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista.

One of the most important aspects of Windows Vista theme customization is patching the uxtheme.dll file in Windows Vista to be able to apply custom themes to the operating system. This option is available in Vista Visual Master. The same menu contains an option to change the Windows Vista theme directly to another one.

Other options that relate to the visual appearance of Windows Vista are the abilities to change Windows vista icons, logon pictures and the vista boot screen. All options are easily accessible and there is always an option to restore to defaults with should ease the minds of users who feel uncomfortable about changing system files in Windows Vista.

windows vista theme

The second section is just the usual Windows Vista tweaker with the only difference that the available settings relate to visual effects on the system. It is for instance possible to remove icons from the computer deskop, remove shortcut arrows and to disable the changing of wallpapers in Windows Vista.

The main use of the tool is to customize the Windows Vista theme. It works flawlessly and creates backups of the most important files which come in handy if something goes wrong along the way.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/01/windows-vista-theme-customization/feed/ 25 Vista Start Menu http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/vista-start-menu/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/vista-start-menu/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:27:06 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7139 Vista Start Menu is a software program for all Windows NT systems including Windows XP and Windows Vista that can replace the current start menu with a modified version. The software application was recently updated to version 3 only a few months after Joshua’s initial review of Vista Start Menu. A comparison of the Windows XP start menu with the Windows Vista start menu would surely be favorable for the Vista start menu. Microsoft did not only increase the attractiveness of the start menu but did rearrange a few functions and features like the Windows Search Box to increase the user’s workflow as well.

Joshua’s recommendation was to try out the Vista Start Menu application in previous Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP. The differences in Windows Vista were not important enough to justify the replacement in Windows Vista though.

So what are the main benefits of Vista Start Menu? Vista Start Menu adds several functions on top and below the start menu that are not available in the default versions. The top bar contains all the logout, user switching and shutdown options which are accessible by hotkeys and the mouse. The bottom bar contains options to perform a local search, to open the run box and to perform a Google Search. Each with its own hotkey for faster access to speed up Vista and other operating systems it is installed on.

vista start menu

The Vista start menu itself got a revamp and some features were included that make lots of sense. The start menu is completely resizable and it can even be placed on any part of the monitor screen. The entries of the start menu stay in place even if an application gets uninstalled from the system which works great in combination with the hotkeys to open applications or menus with just the keyboard.

Vista Start Menu is compatible to all Windows NT operating systems including 64-bit versions.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/vista-start-menu/feed/ 5 Restore Files With Shadow Explorer http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/29/restore-files-with-shadow-explorer/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/29/restore-files-with-shadow-explorer/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:05:39 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=6603 Windows Vista uses a service called Volume Shadow Copy Service which is turned on by default on all versions of Windows Vista. With the service turned on the Volume Shadow Copy Service creates so called shadow copies of files in Windows Vista from time to time which are ideal if you have to restore files that got accidentally deleted or altered.

On the downside the ability to restore files using the Volume Shadow Copy Service is only available for Windows Vista Ultimate, Enterprise and Business editions.

Shadow Explorer is a software for Windows Vista that makes it possible to restore files using the Volume Shadow Copy Service on all versions of Windows Vista. The program can be installed under Windows XP but it does not work if you execute it.

Shadow Explorer requires administrative privileges to be started. The interface is then providing an explorer like window with information about the stored shadow copies in the header area.

restore files

The user can select a different version of the shadow copy that has been saved by using the pulldown menu at the top.

restore files

A right-click on selected files or folders opens up a context menu with the option to restore these.

volume shadow copy

The user can restore files in the same folder or another one. A confirmation dialog pops up if he tries to restore the files in the same folder because they would overwrite the existing files obviously.

volume shadow copy

A message appears at the end of the operation telling the user if the file restore operation was successful.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/29/restore-files-with-shadow-explorer/feed/ 1 Register file types for Explorer Preview Pane in Vista http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/21/register-file-types-for-explorer-preview-pane-in-vista/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/21/register-file-types-for-explorer-preview-pane-in-vista/#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:33:46 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=3870 The Explorer Preview Pane in Windows Vista is only displaying the contents of several file types that have been added by Microsoft as the default file types. The contents of the file extension .txt are displayed but a file extension like .php, .css or .reg are not displayed at all because they are not registered.

Preview Config was developed to offer a comfortable way to add new file extensions to the list of supported file extensions. Before I explain the software I’m going to show you how you can enable the Preview Pane in Windows Vista. To enable it you need to click on Organize | Layout | Preview Pane in the folder’s menu.

Once you start Preview Config you notice a large list of file extensions on the left side. Selecting a file extension from the left menu will display information about it in the right pane. It will display if there if the file is currently set for previews and if that is the case if it is a text file, multimedia file or Other. Adding new file extensions to the preview pane is therefor done in a matter of seconds.

preview config

The user picks a file extension from the left pane and selects the appropriate type in the right pane. For php for instance it would be plain-text. The tool can be used to unregister previews for certain file types as well.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/21/register-file-types-for-explorer-preview-pane-in-vista/feed/ 0 Change Vista’s Windows Experience Rating http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/30/change-vistas-windows-experience-rating/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/30/change-vistas-windows-experience-rating/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:30:48 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/30/change-vistas-windows-experience-rating/ If you want to show of your Windows Experience Rating in Windows Vista which displays a hardware rating of your computer but have a rather weak score you should consider tweaking the results to get a better score displayed at the end. The Experience Rating is derived from five subscores which are: Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Primary Hard Drive.

All five are benchmarked by Vista which assigns a score between 1.0 and 5.9 at the end. All five sub scores are then used to calculate the Windows Experience Rating. The weakest score is 1.0 while the highest score currently possible lies at 5.9.

Microsoft will add higher scores every 12-18 months to reflect changes in the hardware market. There won’t be a system that currently gets a score higher than 5.9 unless you tweak it with System Point.

change windows experience rating

It is possible to change the Windows Experience rating and all five sub scores with System Point which means that you should not rely on that score if someone sells you an used computer running Windows Vista. It’s great for fooling friends though.

change windows experience rating 2

Read More:

Download System Point
via: My Digital Life

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/30/change-vistas-windows-experience-rating/feed/ 1 Windows Vista Bootlogo Generator http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/03/windows-vista-bootlogo-generator/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/03/windows-vista-bootlogo-generator/#comments Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:03:20 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/03/windows-vista-bootlogo-generator/ Many users are disappointed with the selection of bootlogos that are preinstalled in Windows Vista and many would like to change the bootlogo to a custom one. The process of creating a custom boot logo is pretty easy. You do need to download the Windows Vista boot logo generator which can be freely obtained at the authors homepage.

You need to have an image in the formats 800*600 and 1024*768 saved as 24-bit BMPs which can be accomplished with any image viewer or image manipulation software. (gimp for instance). Once you have the two images you start the Vista boot logo generator and select the two images from your computer.

Select File, Save Boot Screen File As from the menu afterwards and move the generated files into System32\en-US of your Windows Vista installation.

You’ll also need to make sure the /NOGUIBOOT option is enabled in the MSCONFIG tool, otherwise you’ll only get the old 16 colour boot screen.

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