And as explained in the previous section, Windows Explorer will be more likely to display your pictures as thumbnails if they’re in the Pictures folder (or a subfolder thereof). But what if you don’t want to put your pictures there? Previously, I wrote about how you can change the location of the My Documents folder, but what if you only want to move the My Pictures folder?

Since years of digital photos can take up gobs of hard disk space, many people have started storing their pictures (as well as their music) on second hard disks, and it can be a pain to have to manually switch to the new location each time you need to open or save a file. The solution is to tell Windows where your Pictures folder ought to be, a
task that requires a quick Registry modification (make sure to backup the registry first):

1. Open the Registry Editor by running “regedit”

2. Expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders then choose My Pictures:

3.  To edit the value, double click the “My Pictures” registry entry and enter a new path of the My Pictures directory:

For example, to change to “D:\Pictures”, enter that path to the value data field then click OK:

The change should take effect immediately, but you may have to restart any open applications before they’ll recognize the new location. To test the change, open Microsoft Paint (mspaint.exe), and select File > Open.  The default folder should be the path you entered above.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done!

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Change the location of the My Pictures folder

Remember that registries are advanced Windows and program parameters  so make sure to change only the registry values we will discuss below. Be sure to backup the Windows registry just in case. 

Let’s try to edit the Bubbles Screen Saver registry parameters first.

· Click Start and type REGEDIT on the search box to launch the Registry Editor window.

· In the Registry Editor window navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Screensavers\Bubbles.

· Right click on the Bubbles key then select New and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value

· Rename the new DWORD (32-bit) value to MaterialGlass. Double click on the MaterialGlass key and type 1 in the Value Data to make the bubbles transparent and type 0 to make the bubbles Metallic.

The Figure below shows the metallic texture of the bubbles screen saver.

The Figure below shows the transparent texture of the bubbles screen saver

· If you want to display a shadow below the bubbles create a new DWORD (32-bit) value and rename it to ShowShadows and type 1 in the Value data.

· Here is another example but now on the Ribbons Screen Saver. To do this go to the Registry Editor window and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Screensavers\Ribbons.

· Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value and rename it to NumRibbons and type the number of ribbons you want to be displayed, the maximum number is 256.

Test the screensaver to see your updates at work:

Enjoy tweaking the Vista screensaver registry entries!  Just remember this always: don’t touch registry values if you don’t what they are for, they could break your system.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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An advanced registry hack for Vista screensavers

On a shared PC, folders outside a user’s documents and settings folder are accessible by anyone who can login to that PC.  However there are cases that we would want to restrict access to folders. In this post I will show you how to set security permissions on a folder in Windows Vista. 

· Right click the folder you want to set the access permissions for and then select Properties.

· In the properties window click on the Security tab then click on Edit.

· On the Permissions window click on the Add button to open the Select Users Group or Groups window.

· On the Select Users or Groups window you can enter the usernames of the accounts you want apply the restrictions.

· If you are not sure of the usernames click on the Advanced button to open a search window. In the search window click on the Find Now button to display all the available usernames. Click on the user then click OK.

· On the Permissions window you can now set the permissions to deny/allow by checking the checkbox under the deny/allow option.

· On the security window that will pop up click OK.

· The access permissions for the folder will now be applied.  As you can see deny entries take precedence over allow entries.  Be sure to remember this rule as it causes confusion for a lot of new users.

In the example above, I set all permissions for the guest user to deny.  This means a guest account will not be able to modify or even read the contents of the folder.  If guest log’s in to the PC or connects to the folder using LAN, the guest account will not be allowed to see the contents of the folder.

This is useful if you have multiple accounts setup on your computer, i.e. for kids or other family members, but want to prevent others for accessing a folder. 

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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How to set folder permissions in Vista

· To start insert a blank disk (CD, CD RW, DVD, DVD RW) in the optical dive. The auto play menu should pop up. If not open windows explorer and double click on the icon of your optical dive. In the auto play menu click Burn files to disk:

· The Burn a Disc wizard will open, type your preferred disk title and click show formatting options arrow.

· You will be able to choose what will be the format of the disk you are going to burn.

· Live File System will allow you to copy files to the disk at any time, like a multi session disk, rather than burning files all at once.

· Mastered allows you to burn files once even if the disk have free space left. This format is also more compatible with older operating systems.

After choosing your preferred format click on the Next button. Windows will now format the disc and you will then be asked to drag or add the files you want to burn on your disc.

· Locate the files you want to burn to the disc and drag them to the media folder.

The dragged files are not yet burned to the CD so you can still edit the files while “staging” them to this folder.

· After dragging the files to the window click on Burn to Disc button

· Choose the recording speed you like to use. You can also change the disc title. Check the option Close the wizard after the files have been written and click next.

· The burning process will now start. Wait until the process finish.

Fro users familiar with Nero or Roxio, the process is similar but the interface is not.  As long as you know which buttons to press, you can burn files in no time using only Vista’s media burning capability.

Ben shows you how it’s done.

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How to burn CDs and DVDs in Windows Vista

1. We will use a laptop and an ordinary monitor as an example, we will label laptop monitor as monitor 1 and ordinary monitor as monitor.  You may use the same steps on a desktop as long as it has more than one VGA or DVI ports.  

2. Connect the VGA cable of monitor 2 to the VGA socket of your laptop. The VGA socket is usually a blue color and has 15 pin holes. And almost all laptop have a VGA socket. You can do this while your laptop is turned on.

2. A window will pop-up, just click the option that tells you to extend this monitor.

3. Now you will see both monitors with the same display, as if you just have two monitors doing the same thing. This kind of setup is the best when making presentations using PowerPoint.

The following steps will let you extend the Vista desktop so you can two displays with different windows on them.

4. Right click on your desktop and click “personalize”.

5. Then click on “Display settings”.

6. The Display Settings window will pop-up as shown below. Click on monitor that has a number 2 on it, then check “Extend the desktop onto this monitor”.

7. Optional: Adjust the resolution bar until both monitors have the same resolution

You can also position your second monitor anywhere you want from right, left, top or bottom by just dragging the monitors.

Some of the good looking setups I found on the Net are below:

From http://1.bp.blogspot.com

From http://skattertech.com

By the way, you can add more than 2 monitors as long as you have a motherboard that can support more than 1 video card.   For example, if you have 2 video cards with two DVI outputs then you can have up to 4 monitors on a single desktop. 

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How to add a second monitor in Windows Vista

Click on start and type services on the search box and hit enter. This will launch the services window.

On the services window scroll down to the Widows Firewall entry and check the status if started startup type should be automatic.

To configure windows firewall follow these steps.

Navigate to Start > Control Panel > Security > Windows Firewall. This will open the windows firewall window.

On the Windows Firewall window you can see that the firewall is turned on. You don’t need to configure Windows Firewall under normal operations, but if you want to run applications that need to connect to the internet then you have to make some configurations on your firewall.

To configure your firewall to allow programs and connect to a network or the internet click Change Settings. On the settings window, make sure your firewall is turned on, click on the Exceptions tab. On the Exceptions tab you will see all programs that are allowed by Windows Firewall.

You can add programs to pass through the firewall by clicking Add Program. Click on the program you want or you can browse the location of the program’s exe file if it is not in the list then click OK. The program you have included can now pass through the firewall and can access external networks or the Internet.

Operating the Vista Firewall is not a simple process, as you have seen but it is a necessary thing to do to prevent malicious programs from spreading in your PC and local home or office network.  In the next posts we will show you how to use third party alternatives to the Vista Firewall so you can achieve more system protection.

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To add items to the Send To menu, follow the steps below.

· Click Start and type SHELL:SENDTO in the search box and hit enter.

· Or navigate to C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo.

· In this window you see the default items in the Send To menu.

· In the Send To window you can add shortcuts for your programs which you often use or add the locations of your folders you want to place your files.

· To add a program in the Send To menu. Locate the program you want to add and create a shortcut for that program then copy the shortcut to the Send To menu folder. Usually programs are located in C:\Program Files folder.

· In this figure you will see that the location of the program is at C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player. I’ve created a shortcut for the wmplayer file which is the executable file of Windows Media Player.

To create a shortcut, right click on the file and select the create shortcut option and a shortcut will be created, in this case, the name of the shortcut is wmplayer – Shortcut. Copy the created shortcut to the Send To folder. You can also rename the shortcut to your preference.

· To add a folder of your choice, first you have to decide or create the folder then create a shortcut for that folder and copy it to the Send To menu folder.

· Here the folder named MYFOLDER was created in the Documents folder and also a shortcut for the folder was created. Then copy the shortcut again to the Sent To folder.

· You will see in the figure that the shortcut was renamed to MY FOLDER.

I hope this tip helps you customize the Send To menu. Use it for quicker access to your most frequently used programs or folder locations.

Ben shows you how it’s done.

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You can make it as pink as a rose or purple as an eggplant.  Whether you prefer ornamental plants or botanically classified “berries” as a Windows interface color, the steps below will guide you to achieve the look that you want.

NOTE: Windows Aero is not included in Windows Vista Home Basic. If you have this version, you won’t be able to enable Aero and use it. You must upgrade to at least Windows Vista Home Premium.

Choose Windows Vista AERO as color scheme.  Right click the desktop and choose Properties to go to the appearance settings:

Right click on your desktop and select Personalize to launch the Personalization window.

On the personalization window click on Window color and appearance.

In this window you can change the color of the windows, start menu and taskbar. If you don’t like the available options, you can click on ‘Show color mixer’ to create your custom colors.

A small roll-out menu will open three options: hue, saturation and brightness. Moving the sliders right or left will change the color of your window and taskbar.

After you have decided the color that you prefer, click on the OK button and the new color will be applied.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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The system restore feature is ideally enabled before you do something crazy to your computer – like installing new hardware that doesn’t have a signed Windows driver or opening a file from an un-trusted source.   

To enable or disable system restore in Vista follow the steps below.

Click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools >System Restore.  This will open the system restore window.

Click open System Protection on the system restore window to open the system properties window.

On the System Properties window you will be able to see all the available partitions and the most recent restore points.

By default system restore on drive C:/ is enabled. To enable system restore to other partitions just click on the check box of the partition where you want to enable system restore and click OK.

To disable system restore, just uncheck the checkbox on the partition you want to disable it for. Unchecking all boxes will completely disable system restore.  When you uncheck a box for a certain partition a security warning message will pop up, just click Turn System Protection Off to disable system restore.  Note: It is recommended to turn on system restore on your system partition (Drive C:/)

System restore does not backup your documents, it only affects the registry and system files used by Windows.  This means if you have your email or pictures deleted, system restore will not be able to help you with that.  All it does is save restore points of system files, so you can use it to boot or restore from that restore point. 

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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What if you already maxed out your PC’s physical RAM?  Vista by default combines the computer’s Physical Memory with temporary space in the hard drive. When the computer needs more memory, it uses a virtual RAM using your hard drive. This is called the paging file or the swap file in Unix and Linux lingo.   To tweak your computer’s paging file, follow the simple steps below.

First, go to your Desktop and right click on Computer. From the right click menu select Properties.

In the System window, click on Advanced system settings.

The System Properties window will open directly at the Advanced tab. Go to the Performance section and click on the Settings button highlighted in the screenshot below.

In the Performance Options window you will see the current size of the paging file. To configure it click Change.

By default, Windows Vista manages the paging file size for all your drives. To change this, you need to uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives option.

You can customize the paging file size for each of your drives. By default, the paging file is placed on the drive C: and it is automatically managed by the system. If you want to use another partition, select the partition (C:) and select the No paging file option and click on Set.

Now you need Windows Vista to create the paging file on another partition. Click on the partition where you want to create your paging file and then select Custom size or System managed size.

If you want to have a custom size of paging file you will need to specify values for the initial and maximum size of your paging file. For the initial size you should have a value close to your Physical Memory (RAM) and for the maximum size approximately 2.5 times. Others recommended fixed size with the same initial and maximum size. If you want to go for this approach the size should be 2.5 times the size of the installed RAM.

After making all the necessary changes, click on OK. If you increased the size of the paging file, Windows Vista won’t require you to reboot the computer to apply the changes. However, if you decreased the size or changed the location of the paging file you will need to reboot the computer to make the changes take effect.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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Tweak the Windows Vista page file size

To set the program’s picture source, you will need to open the preferences window of this Windows sidebar object. All sidebars are configurable on a single way, just click the wrench like icon at the top-right side of the picture. (Note that this icon will appear only when you hover your mouse inside the sidebar object.)

The Slide Show preference window will let you set the folder, delay, transition effect and shuffle mode. Don’t forget to check the “Include subfolders” option to let the pictures inside subfolders to be included on the slide show. Click OK after you set the options that you desire:

You might want to change the position of the pictures other the sidebar so just drag the picture outside the sidebars panel:

It will appear as a bit bigger picture frame with more than twice the size as the original. It would have been great if we can set the actual size of the picture frame but sadly there is no way to set it on the settings window.

The Slide Show sidebar is a one cool toy to have in the Vista package. Folks who always want to view their pictures will appreciate the benefits of having this turned on in their desktop. Now only if there is a way to set the actual size…

For more Windows Vista tips, subscribe to our feeds at Online Tech Tips!

Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.

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To remove the recycle bin, there are two ways you can go about it: either delete it by right-clicking on it or go into Personalize Desktop and un-check it from there. Both methods simply remove the icon from the desktop and nothing else.

Note that whichever way you remove the icon from the desktop, deleting files will still end up in the Recycle Bin. If you want to delete items and bypass the Recycle Bin, you first have to change the settings to not send deleted files to the Recycle Bin by going to Properties.

You need to select the “Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.” radio button.

OK, so how do you simply remove the Recycle Bin from the desktop? Just right-click and choose Delete.

The other way to remove the icon is to right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize. Then click on Change Desktop Icons on the left side.

Then uncheck the box next to Recycle Bin and you’re done. This will remove the icon from your desktop. If you want to restore the Recycle Bin, just re-check the box.

That’s it! Again, the thing to note is that deleting or removing the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop does not mean deleted files will bypass the Recycle Bin, you have to change that in the settings if you want to do that. Enjoy!

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Hide the Recycle Bin in Windows Vista

One of the new features is the new powerful Windows Calculator. So what is the big deal about the calculator in Windows 7? Well, like the Vista calculator, it can convert units, has a scientific mode, and does all the normal calculator tasks.

However, it also does a lot more! Other than the two modes mentioned above, it has a new Programmer Mode and Statistics Mode.

Programmer Mode: Image Source: Lifehacker

Statistics Mode:

But that’s not really the best part. There is now a feature called “Templates”, which are basically preconfigured formulas for calculating gas mileage, mortgage payments, leases, hourly wages, days between two dates, and more!

Luckily, someone managed to figure out a way to get this calculator onto Windows Vista. You can download the Windows 7 Calculator for Windows Vista here and simply run the calc.exe file that is included.

If you want to completely replace the Windows Vista calculator and make the Windows 7 calculator the default calculator, you can replace the calc.exe file in the following location with the one in the zip file.

C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe

Also, replace the calc.exe.mui file in the following directory with the one included in the zip file:

C:Windows\System32\en-US\calc.exe.mui

Just make sure to first backup the original calc.exe and calc.exe.mui files in case something does not work correctly. If you have any problems, post a comment here and I’ll see if I can help. Enjoy the new calculator! Source: LifeHacker

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Use Windows 7 calculator on Windows Vista

With ReadyBoost technology, Vista is able to use the available free space on the flash disk as a caching mechanism like a disk cache.  It uses recognition algorithms to quickly recognize sequential I/O.  Since hard disks are still better at sequential I/O, this recognition algorithm speeds up the whole process – it won’t have to access the whole sequence before processing the next step.

To illustrate, the picture (taken from splotchy.com) below is easily recognizable as Obama:

The silhouette is enough for us to recognize that the picture above is Obama.  This recognition process means we do not have to be given more details to be able to distinguish the pictured individual from other people.  Like us, our computers don’t need more bytes of information to be able to perform recognition.   Think of the picture as the input and “Obama” as the output.  With recognition, the overall input and output (I/O) process is faster. ReadyBoost uses this concept to be able to speed up Vista’s I/O. 

To turn on ReadyBoost on your flash disk, right click the drive and then click the ReadyBoost tab.  Make sure to choose “Use this device” to turn on the feature on that disk.  Allocate about the same recommended space for your setup. In this case 1840 MB was allocated.  Click OK to apply the changes. The maximum ReadyBoost allocate-able space is 4G.

Some things to remember.  Although you will get significant I/O performance gain from this feature, there is a price to pay.  That price will be the allocated space from your mobile Flash disk.  You will not be able to use this space for files.   You will need to choose “Do not use this device” under the shown tab above to bring back that allocated space.

Here are some posts about ReadyBoost:

• http://www.sandisk.com/readyboost/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_I/O_technologies#SuperFetch
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

Ben Carigtan writes about computers, web sites, technology and how to get the best out of them.

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Improve Vista performance using ReadyBoost

By default, however, the new Windows Search feature only indexes the partition where the OS is installed, usually the C drive. This is fine, unless you have a second partition or second hard drive to store your data files. In that case, you have to manually add that second hard drive to the search index, but it’s a two step process.

Step 1: Turn on search indexing for the second hard drive/partition

In My Computer, right-click on the drive and choose Properties. Check the box that says “Index this drive for faster searching” and click OK.

For some strange reason, this does not actually add the drive to the indexer, so you have to perform one more step.

Step 2: Add drive to Indexing Options

Now go to the Control Panel and click on Indexing Options. In the dialog box, you’ll see a list of current locations that are indexed by the Indexing service. Click the Modify button and check off the second partition or hard drive that you want indexed, i.e. D:, E:, etc.

If you do not see the drive you are looking for, make sure to press the Show all locations button at the bottom of the dialog. You should then see all of the possible choices:

That’s it. Windows will begin indexing the new location and results from those extra drives should now appear in your searches. In this way, you can also add network drives to the Windows search index as long as the drive is a mapped drive. Note that turning on indexing in Windows is a great way to find files quickly and I would suggest you keep it on in Vista, however, you may want to turn off indexing in XP to increase computer performance. 

You have also be interested in third party programs that can you find files quickly in Windows, such as Super Finder or Google Desktop search. 

Also, read this post if you are getting the error “Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed“, it’s an annoying error that can happen sometimes in Vista. 

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Add a second hard drive to Windows Vista search index