We’ve filtered and sorted through the hundreds of Vista hints and tweaks to find the ones that we think the most readers will find useful. While Vista still feels new, these hints and tweaks might help you settle into your OS.

Introduction
So you’ve installed Vista, perhaps against your better judgment, and now you’re wondering what you can do to spruce it up a bit. We’re right there with you, and have poured over the Web looking for the coolest, most-useful tweaks we could find. We searched high and low, and completed this list of tweaks so that you did not have to. We have personally tested all of these tweaks and employ most of them on our own systems. (more…)

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AutoRun starts Windows programs automatically
Every recent version of Windows has features known as AutoPlay and AutoRun. These functions are designed to launch applications automatically from a external device containing the necessary AutoRun information. This is what causes an installer window to pop up when you insert a software disc into your CD or DVD drive, for example, or makes a pop-up menu icon appear in the taskbar tray when you insert a USB flash drive. (In some cases, the action doesn’t occur until you double-click the flash drive icon in Windows Explorer.)

When a disc is inserted or a drive is connected to your system, Windows looks in the root directory of the new disc or drive for a file named autorun.inf. If found, Windows executes the instructions in that file. (more…)

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Under restricted user account on Vista, you may get write successful when writing to the program files folder. These files get virtualized to a different folder, so that old applications continue to run on Vista.

When you actually go to “Program Files” in a Windows Explorer and see there will be no files there.

The file was redirected to the user’s folder. The virtualized directory is a hidden folder, to expose this view go to Organize: Folder options, from a Windows Explorer and then on the view menu, click “Show Hidden Files and Folders”. (more…)

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XP and Win2K don’t include the DOS SCANDISK Utility. However, you can perform the same task using XP’s and Win2K’s Error Checking feature. To access this feature, perform the following steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click the drive you want to check, and select Properties from the context menu.
3. Select the Tools tab.
4. Under Error Checking, click Check Now.
5. If you want the scan to automatically attempt to make repairs or check the disk for bad sectors, select those options and click Start.
6. Close Windows Explorer.

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Like we have autoplay feature on CDs, it’s possible to autorun programs and applications from your removable USB flash drive, provided you use it on Windows XP SP2.

Here’s a quick guide on how to autorun portable applications from your USB drive. (more…)

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