Use Windows 7 calculator on Windows Vista
Posted on November 15, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | Leave a Comment
If you are not aware, Windows 7 is the next version of the Windows operating system coming from Microsoft in 2009. It will be way better than Windows Vista and has a lot of cool features that people are actually looking forward too.
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.
Improve Vista performance using ReadyBoost
Posted on October 30, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | Leave a Comment
Don’t be alarmed, ReadyBoost is not another software that you will need to download and install. The only requirement is that you have a Windows Vista installed in your PC and a USB 2.0 flash disk with a lot of free space (1G minimum). with a lot of free space we mean the bigger the better.
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.
Add a second hard drive to Windows Vista search index
Posted on September 14, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | 3 Comments
The new search capabilities in Windows Vista are certainly a significant step up from those in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. For once, you can actually find what you are looking for in a reasonable amount of time.
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.
Windows Vista codecs for Windows Media Player
Posted on July 26, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | 3 Comments
I covered VLC media player in a previous post, and heralded it as a cure for all of your codec blues. Whilst it is certainly a great way to avoid coded problems, I have recently hit a situation that VLC just did not fit, let me explain.
My new apartment has a TV (I actually have not owned a TV in years, I don’t watch TV, although I do watch movies on my PC) and I had recently been giving a remote control for Windows Vista. It suddenly occurred to me that I could use my spare laptop as a media center, and plug it directly into the TV, allowing me to watch movies on the big screen.
Clearing the Windows Vista thumbnails cache
Posted on July 23, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | 2 Comments
A very simple tip this one, but I have to admit I was not aware of it myself until today. I found I needed to clear all of the thumbnail images that are shown in the folder views within vista windows. I had installed a new codec pack, and wanted all of the thumbnails in my video library to be consistent in size and quality, so I needed to get rid of the old thumbnails.
How to change icon size in Vista
Posted on July 8, 2008 - Filed Under Windows Vista | 17 Comments
Do you find the size of desktop icons in Vista too large? For some strange reason, all of the icons are huge! I like things small, so I quickly found a way to make the icons much smaller.
There are actually two ways you can go about reducing the size of the desktop icons, either via the desktop or by using your mouse, if it has a scroll wheel. I found the second method to be the fastest and easiest.
