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Try to rename the recycle bin in windows. You cant!

But wait, a simple registry tweak, and your all set to rename it to what ever you want!

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Unlock the Administrator account

Turning on the Administrator account is straight forward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator.

Then enter this command and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:yes

From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it.

If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:no

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This tweak applies to Windows Vista or XP. If you are running many applications, especially large resource hogs that eat huge amount of memory, your system may become unstable or even crash.
You can increase the total amount of memory in your system with a simple virtual memory adjustment of the paging file on your system.

The paging file (Pagefile.sys) is a hidden file on your computer's hard disk that Windows XP uses as if it were random access memory (RAM). The paging file and physical memory make up virtual memory.

According to Microsoft Help and Support "By default, Windows stores the paging file on the boot partition (the partition that contains the operating system and its support files)"

The rule of thumb is to set the virtual memory page file to be 1.5x (times) the physical memory installed roughly. The intent here is to have enough virtual memory so you can multitask and handle opening more programs at once.

For example, if you have a PC with 2 Gigs of Ram, the the paging file size would be aprox 3 Gigs, giving you a total of roughly 5 Gigs.

Although your system my not use it all the key here is to set an adequate amount and limit the page file from growing further than it needs to be. This video tutorial takes you through the steps of quickly setting up this scenario.


 
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 Does your PC have what it takes to support it? How do you enable it?

This is the intention of this article as we go through demystifying the details behind using the Aero features in Windows Vista.


First lets review the features that Aero has to offer.

Vista Aero enables the new a see through Glass look and feel in which the Start Menu, taskbar, and all onscreen windows and dialog boxes take on a new glass-like translucent sheen.

To use Windows Flip, hold down the Alt key and tap the Tab key to cycle between all of the running applications and open windows.

Aero also enables dynamic window animations, so that when you minimize a window to the taskbar, it subtly animates to show you exactly where it went. Also Aero enables Live Taskbar Thumbnails, when you mouse over buttons in the taskbar, a small thumbnail preview will pop up, letting you see the window without having to actually activate it first

So what does it take to enable Aero?
First , the version of Vista that you need that supports Aero is either Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition. If you have other versions of Vista then they will not have Aero.

Windows Aero requires high system specifications in order to work, with the minimum requirements of at least 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor and 1 GB (gigabyte) of system memory.

Your video card must support DirectX 9.0 and up (preferably DirectX 10) with Pixel Shader 2 in hardware and be supported by a new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver. In addition, your video card must have must have enough dedicated memory (128 Meg of RAM is the minimum recommended) to drive your display for a particular screen resolution with Aero.

Use this chart as a starting point to guide you in determining the proper screen resolution.
64 MB video card - Uses less than 1280×1024 (fewer than 1,310,720 pixels) resolution
128 MB video card - Use 1280×1024 to 1920×1200 (1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels)
256 MB video card - You can use higher than 1920×1200 (more than 2,304,000 pixels)

Configuring Windows Vista Aero
Microsoft has nicely provided a handy configuration utility to Aero that enables you to fine-tune how it looks. This functionality is available via the Personalization section of the Control Panel. The quickest way to get there is to right-click a blank area of the desktop, choose Properties,
and then select Windows Color and Appearance from the Personalize appearance and sound effects control panel.

You can pick between preset color choices by selecting one of the color scheme swatches shown at the top of the window. You can also disable transparent glass (really translucency) or vary the intensity of the translucency to meet your liking.

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The best way to improve system performance is to make better use of your RAM. Understanding the Windows Task Manager's Performance graphs and indicators will help you determine what you should do.

The first rule of thumb is that you can never have enough RAM. More is better. So if you can afford to go out an buy a little bit more phisycal memory do so, otherwise follow my tips below.

Video explains what to look for    

The Task Manager's Performance tab provides the best way to monitor memory use. To run the Task Manager, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, then click on the Performance tab. With it, you can interpret the information as mentioned in the video above and make better use of your memory.

Video notes:
If the Total Commit Charge exceeds the Total Physical Memory, you probably need more RAM. When the Commit Charge is regularly higher than the Physical Memory available, it means that you have to regularly use a Page File, which may slow down your system down if its old. Buy more RAM in that case.

If the Peak Commit Charge is frequently at or near the Limit Commit Charge, you need to increase your memory. When this occurs, it means that your PC is frequently out of memory or close to being out of memory. Either add RAM or increase your Page File size.

Check the PF (PageFile Usage) make sure its not in the red

The Performance Tab has the following areas. ( Important ones are highlighted Red )

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If you're one of the millions trying to live an eco-conscious life, you might be changing your light bulbs to energy saving, you can walk to work, but what are you doing about reducing your carbon footprint when on your PC and electronics and all the related daily activity you do around it?

Here are some suggestions on how to become more IT eco-friendly with the use of technology these days. We only live once, lets make the best of it.

Here are various ways you can contribute:

Hosting on "greener pastures"
If you are looking for a hosting environment for that new website of yours, you might want to look into a eco-friendly environment. HostPapa is one example, they use a 100% renewable energy green web hosting environment for their data centers.

HostPapa has taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power their data center, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space. These energy sources supply HostPapa's entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as wind and solar-powered energy.

Use Energy Star Certified PC Hardware
Newer PC hardware in most cases uses less energy, and there’s a good chance it will also come with energy-management tools that shut off the power automatically after lengthy idle periods. Many computer components and electronics from a motherboard to an external hardrive have the Energy Star Logo on it. These green friendly products help fight global warming by meeting strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency all without sacrificing quality or performance. So, just look for this logo to save energy, money, and the environment the next time you shop for green electronics.

However there are other technologies like AMD's chip maker's PowerNow! which optimizes battery life and provides performance on demand when required by an application. PowerNow! also allows the AMD CPU to dissipate less heat under normal operating conditions, providing a cooler and quieter-running notebook.

Here are a list of the latest popular hardware you can get that are energy saving compliant:

Laptops examples
- HP Pavilion DV6785SE 15.4" Entertainment Laptop (Core 2 Duo)
- All the new Apple Laptops for example are Energy Star Qualified, the Apple MacBook MB403LL/A 13.3" Laptop 2.4 GHz (Core 2 Duo) is the bestseller of the bunch.
- Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E/H 16.4"(2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Laptop

- Asus Eee PC (with Solid State Hardrive)

Note:
If you looking for the energy-efficient hard drivesthe new Toshiba hard disk drives is something to look at. Among the list of models announced is the new 400GB 2.5-inch MK4058GSX HDD. Designed for notebooks and laptops, this HDD uses only two platters which apparently display the highest density data among all Toshiba HDDs. The MK4058GSX's operation is almost inaudible and it even uses 20 percent less energy than what the current 320GB MK3252GSX HDD model does.

Here are some LCD Monitors that are worthy of a look at:

Did you know a 42-inch plasma TV could consume more power than a large fridge? To put it into perspective with other TV technologies; a 28-inch CRT TV consumes 100W, a 42-inch LCD consumes twice that amount, while a plasma could use as much as five times that consumption. In short, if you really have to get a TV set, it would be best to go for LCD TVs, although it's obviously the wisest choice to continue using your old CRT TVs if they still work. If you want you want to make sure of what you're buying, wait until November 2008 when Energy Star starts rating energy efficient TVs.

- Acer AL2216Wbd 22" LCD Monitor
- HP W2207H 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor

- Samsung SyncMaster 920NW 19" LCD Monitor
Printers
- Canon Pixma MP610 Photo All-On-One Inkjet Printer
- Brother HL-2170w 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless
- Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Photo Printer
If your curious on your enery consumption today for ordinary electronics

Calculate Your Energy Consumption

Use the Energy Calculator to see what your electronics' use means for your wallet by the minute, day, month and year.

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You have deleted or overwritten system files and now your system or application doesnt want to work?

or maybe

You had the system corrupted by a 3rd party application or virus?
Its time to go back and restore a point in time when the system was stable and working fine.

On the Mac OS Leopard its the TimeMachine, in Windows XP and Vista its System Restore. Though both are not exactly the same they can serve the same purpose, to backup critical data, applications or system files only and create a restore point of these. Its up to you to control and decide what and when you want to backup your data.

However, since not everyone has terabytes of free space to have their system completly backed up incrementally every day, the average user really needs to pick and choose exactly what matters most. In other words make sure you are backing up your system files only at a minimum. Applications can always be re-installed with less hassle, but the operating system, well thats another story.

In Windows we want to backup the registery files primarily and a few other default files which the Windows system Restore takes care of automatically. System Restore enables you to restore your computer to an earlier state without losing data. This is ideal if your computer is not operating well because of a configuration change, a problem with an application, or the introduction of viruses or other unwanted software. By restoring to an earlier point in time before your computer began to have problems you may be able to get to stable or normal state.

On the Mac, OSX the Time Machine keeps a continual chain of backups over time, allowing you to turn the clock back in time to find the file you’re looking for. However needs to be told in the advanced settings not to backup all applications for example, all you want are your main user system profile files primarily, those are the ones that contain your system preferences amongst many other things which can be the cause of many system corruption issues.

In my years of experience with Windows and users it seems to have the most issues with system file corruption, so lets focus on that in this article. In the case that your system has become unstable, no longer functions properly or your getting the blue screen of death. Don't despair , and definitely don't re-install the entire operating system with the Recovery CD you might have, there is a good chance that if you have enabled System Restore and done a regular restore point every so often you will be able to get your system back.

The key here is that before you do a major update, upgrade or do a change to your operating system you need to do the System Restore checkpoint. Most problems tend to occur after you install something new which didn agree with your system. We have seen this in Windows when you install drivers, applications or get a computer virus. We have seen this on the Mac with a simple upgrade of QuickTime which the OSX system depends on for much of its multimedia playback compatability.

Windows Vista Users should use - Windows Vista Backup and Restore Center
Follow Microsoft's step by step instructions here in using the Backup and Restore Feature in Windows Vista. Then follow these step by step instructions for using System Restore. Since Windows XP the System Restore feature has been carried forward in Windows Vista and
slightly improved, but are basically the same.

You can watch PCWizKid's video tutorial for using the Backup and System Restore (see below).

Windows XP Users should use - Windows XP Backup and System Restore 

Below Video tutorials for using the Backup and System Restore (which is similar in Vista).
 

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If you have a new computer with an OEM preload of Vista already installed and have no recovery CD or backup to restore from you will probably get into trouble one day when you need to recover the OS or re-install system files. Your not alone many PC's don’t come with any kind of Windows Vista CD. Some may come with a recovery CD from the manufacturer (IBM, Dell, HP, Sony and so on) but most recovery CD's will delete all your files and restore your computer to the state it was in when you first purchased it which isnt necessarily what you want.

Similar to using the Vista System Restore feature, if you are unable to access your system to use it you can use the Windows Vista DVD’s which come with a recovery center to allow you to fix operating system related problems. Microsoft made a recovery disc for this purpose which you can download for free.

This "recovery center" on the this special recovery CD from Microsoft provides you with the option of recovering your system via automated recovery (searches for problems and attempts to fix them automatically), rolling-back to a system restore point, recovering a full PC backup, or accessing a command-line recovery console for advanced recovery purposes.

One thing I want to make clear, this special recovery cd for vista cannot be used to install or reinstall Windows Vista fully from scratch.

NeoSmart Technologies is hosting a special copy of the Windows Vista (32 or 64bit) Recovery Disc for your convenience. It is a 120 MiB download, and in the standard ISO format which you will need to burn the image to CD before you can use it. Once you created the CD you can boot with it and follow the screen instructions.

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You can have lots of RAM and a fast CPU but if your hard drive is slow, it brings down your system. In windows when files get saved they are split up into pieces across the drive fragmenting them. The Disk Defragmenter puts them back together in one area which makes accessing them faster.

Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented files on your hard disk so that the PC performs better. Because disk fragmentation occurs over time it is common for you to start seeing slower response times when loading or accessing files in windows.

-r
This is the default setting and defragments file fragments that less than 64 MB.

-a
Analyze the selected drive / volume & display a summary report, consisting of analysis and defragmentation reports.

-c
Defragments all volumes on the computer. Don't specify a drive letter while using this.

-w
Perform FULL defragmentation of files of ALL sizes.

-f
Forced defragmentation even when there is less amount of free space on the drive being defragmented. A volume must have at least 15 % free space before Disk Defragmenter can completely defragment it.

-i
This makes Defrag run in the background & operate only if the computer is idle, like when run as a scheduled task.

-v
Displays complete reports.

-b
It optimizes boot files and applications only.

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Getting more range out of your wireless networking gear can be a challenge

Here are some pointers on how to extended your Wi-Fi range.

First if you are planning on getting a new wireless router 802.11b or g, forget it, get the 802.11n models if you can afford it instead. You can never be upto date and if your planning on transferring data within your own network aswell then 802.11n gear is what you need.

Now if you already have a 802.11b/g router, dont worry, if you have problems with signal strength or get cutoff intermittently, the first thing to try is moving the router. Best spot is at the highest most central point of your house (unless you live in the basement).

Remember, the signal needs to travel through walls, metal, interference form other wireless devices and the signal can get week easily. So now you tried moving the router around, still not much of an improvement? Try a Range Extender or replace the small original antenna on your router with a high-gain antenna replacement which is cost effective.

Ensure if possible that your PC or Notebook connecting to the router is using the same wireless version, meaning if you buy a 802.11n model router, your laptop or PC should have a 802.11n adapter in it otherwise your going to default to a lower speed.

If you find that the location isnt the issue, try change channels in your router’s firewall configuration screen. You’ll find a “Wireless Channel” setting in the wireless configuration portion of your router. Most routers default to channel 6, or 11, but if your neighbors are all on channel 6, then you might be seeing slow speed and lower range due to interference. Try one of the other channels (start with 3, 1, and 11) to see if you get a better signal with them.

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For those that are not planning to install Windows Vista anytime soon, and want the styles and feel Vista has to offer when it comes to eyecandy and functionality, there are a few ways you can do this which can change not only the skins to Vista, but also icons, menus and your bootup screens.

The most popular aspect of Vista is its Aero - Transparency and 3D Flip.

To get opaque windows on Windows XP, you can try out a various software packages. Forget WindowsBlinds, thats not a true enablement of the Vista experience, what you really need is the
BricoPack Vista Inspirat Ultimate 2. This free pack which modifies Windows XP system files in order to change its appearance and make it look like Windows Vista. Before installing this BricoPack, please read the instructions page "about the BricoPacks". You must not install this pack on Windows x64 OS. However I would say this is the easiest and quickest way to change your 32 bit Windows XP OS to Vista Styles.

There is an app called WinFlip which can give you the similar experience of Windows Aero in Vista. It runs in the taskbar and Aero effects (3D flip) can be invoked by pressing the Windows key + Tab. Get it here Download WinFlip

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If your looking for a change in your desktop appearance and behavior, you might want to try the freeware version of Real Desktop. It gives your ordinary desktop new life and turns it into
a next generation 3D Interactive Desktop.

The recommended system requirements are as follows:

• Windows® XP / Vista
• Windows® DirectX 9.0c
• AMD ATHLON™ XP 2400+ or higher (alternatively Intel® Pentium® 4)
• 512 MB main memory
• DirectX able graphic card: 128 MB NVIDIA® Geforce™ 6 or better,
  ATI® Radeon™ 9700 or better
• Screen resolution 1280 x 1024 at True Color (16 million colours)
• Internet connection

My initial thoughts were the amount of resources it probably uses up, but I was surprised to see it didnt take that much memory compared to my Firefox browser.

Also I loved how you can configure it to look the way you want with wallpaper and backgrounds giving it your personal touch.

You can stack icons, drag them anywhere on the desktop and flip them around. The Recycle Bin becomes a three-dimensional trash can. This certainly looks like a feature that could be a part of the next release of Windows 7 perhaps.

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