RileyTec Tips

Among many nice features in Vista, one of the more annoying is User Account Control (UAC). This is a system gatekeeper, which is a good idea, but UAC just goes too far. It doesn’t just want permission to install software but pops up when adding, removing or renaming any Start Menu folders, or setting the system clock, or various other common, every day, relatively safe tasks. One solution is to turn UAC completely off:

1. Click on Start then Control Panel
2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety and select User Accounts
3. Click Turn User Account Control on or off
4. When prompted by UAC itself, click Continue
5. Uncheck the box and click OK
6. Choose the restart option when prompted

Bear in mind that this method does put your computer at greater risk, especially if you routinely log on as an administrator.

One of the more frustrating problems with Microsoft Windows is its start up performance. It has been a problem since day one really and remains so even with Vista, in fact Vista could well be the worse offender thus far. There are, however, a few things you can do to improve the situation.

Device Drivers
Your computer could be loading device drivers for hardware you no longer use. To save on system resources, uninstall these drivers. Be careful though because a careless choice can cause significant problems. Create a restore point in System Restore Point before proceeding. By default, Device Manager does not show devices that are not currently connected to your system so we start by making them visible and then work in the Device Manager:

1. Open a Command Prompt window (normally found in the Accessories folder on the Start Menu)
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 and press Enter
3. Hold down the Windows key and press r
4. Type devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Device Manager
5. Choose View and then Show Hidden Devices
6. Click the plus sign (+) next to each of the branches to examine all of the drivers on your system

Devices that are not currently connected appear with a pale version of the icon. If you come across a device that you are sure you no longer use, right-click on it and choose Uninstall. Then follow the prompts shown on screen to complete the process. When you have finished, close the command-prompt window you opened in step 1 above to re-hide your unconnected devices.

Network Mappings
Once you have mapped a network drive to a letter on your computer, Windows will automatically try to restore that connection every time you log on. Since restoring network connections takes time, you can speed your start up process by dropping the connections you are not using:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Type Alt-T then D to open the Disconnect Network Drives dialog box
3. Select the drives you want to disconnect and click OK

In the future, if you want to connect a drive only for the current session, make sure Reconnect at logon is unchecked when using the Map Network Drive command.

Start Up Programs
You can free up system memory and recover processor cycles by clearing out some of the programs that start each time you log in. Download Autoruns, a free application from Microsoft-owned Sysinternals to find out which programs are loading on your PC at start up. Autoruns includes a line of description for each entry in plain English and lets you hide signed Microsoft entries, allowing you to quickly narrow your focus to third-party programs. Disabling or deleting entries takes just one click so be careful. You can also consult the Startup Applications List by Paul Collins, which is a searchable reference of common startup items providing a description and classification for each one.

The use of pirated software is illegal. The following procedure is described purely for the purpose of education. Additionally, do not use this crack if you have already tried another, or have used the re-arming technique documented on Windows Secrets. This crack will stop the activation timer, permanently leaving the time left for you to activate your Vista at 30 days. Windows Update will continue to run normally.

1. Start your PC and enter its BIOS setup
2. Set your system date to 31 December 2099
3. Save and Exit
4. Re-start the PC from the Vista installation CD and follow the normal installation procedure
5. Vista will install and after rebooting your PC, ask you to enter an account name and password
6. Follow the on-screen instructions until the entire installation process completes
7. Shut down Vista and re-start the PC, once again entering its BIOS settings
8. Set the date back to the correct value
9. Save and Exit the BIOS and continue booting in to Vista
10. Download and unzip vistacrack.zip
11. Right click on vistacrack.exe and select Properties
12. Go to the Compatibility tab and select the Run this program as an administrator check box
13. Close the properties window and double-click vistacrack.exe to run it
14. Select Crack
15. The crack process will start and the PC will reboot
16. When Vista loads it will show a warning on the system tray about blocked programs, right click on the system tray icon in question and select to allow the program to run
17. The warning will pop up a second time, click Allow
18. The crack process will open and complete
19. Select Finish

The crack is now done. To check whether it has worked, reboot your computer a final time and do the following:

1. From the Start Menu, select Run
2. Type slmgr.vbs -dlv and click OK
3. Look at the last line of the results window (it can take several seconds for this window to pop up so just be patient), if it says the time remaining is 43200, the crack worked

Remember: the use of pirated software is illegal.

Microsoft Outlook maintains a nickname list that is used by the automatic name checking and completion features. The nickname list is automatically generated as you use Outlook. If the nickname cache becomes corrupted, Outlook may not be able to identify recipients, may offer incorrect recipients when automatically completing the e-mail address, or may send the message to the wrong person. Additionally, if one of your contacts changes their email address, Outlook will continue to remember their old address indefinitely. Use this procedure to reset the Outlook nickname cache in MS Windows XP:

1. Quit Outlook
2. Click Start and then Search
3. In the left-side panel of the Search Results window, click All files and folders
4. In the All or part of the file name text box, type *.nk2
5. In the Look in selection box, select Local Hard Drives
6. Click More advanced options and click the Search hidden files and folders check box
7. Click Search
8. Once found, right-click the appropriate NK2 file (most probably “Outlook.NK2″) and select Rename
9. Rename the file to Outlook.bak and then press Enter
10. Close Windows Explorer
11. Launch MS Outlook

Outlook will now generate a brand new nickname cache.

To remove the Links toolbar from Internet Explorer, you can simply right-click any area of the toolbar and deselect it from the menu. However, doing this will not remove the Links folder from your Favorites. Do not just delete this folder as at best, it just will not go away and at worst, it will cause a variety of problems with your browser. Instead, open your Favorites menu and right-click the Links folder. Choose Properties from the popup menu and select the Hidden check box. Click OK and re-start Internet Explorer.

To quickly cycle through open applications in MS Windows, hold down Alt and repeatedly press Tab. Just let go of all keys once the desired application is highlighted. Similarly, in Apple OS X, hold down Command and repeatedly press Tab. Another option in OS X is to use Expose. Press F9 to invoke it and then just select the desired window with your mouse. However, if you have Spaces enabled in OS 10.5 (aka Leopard), Expose will only show you open windows in your current Space whereas the Command-Tab method will cycle through all applications across all Spaces.

One of the most irritating things I find about Microsoft Office XP is its insistence on automatically customising all the menus based upon how often you use each command, leaving all the other menu options hidden under those infurnal double-arrows. To turn this off and have your MS Office XP applications show their full menus all the time, open any Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), and select Tools then Customize. Now select the Options, check the box marked Always show full menus and hit the Close button. Those hideous double-arrows will never be seen again.