Remove text on taskbar icons like Windows 7

An easy way to give your Windows Vista box a clean look is to remove the application labels on the taskbar. With a registry hack you can make your Windows Vista taskbar look similar to the Windows 7 icon only taskbar.

1.Click on the start button and type in regedit and hit Enter.

2.Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop\WindowMetrics.

3.Create a new REG_SZ value and call it MinWidth

4.Set the value of MinWidth to 56

5.Restart

Configure your Windows Vista for fast shutdown

Ho I need to wait for 5-6 minutes to make my laptop shutdown because I am using Microsoft Vista on my Laptop!!!. I googled about this and I found some information to avert this problem.Edit some information in the Regedit can increase the speed of shutdown in Windows Vista.Start Run (Windows Key +R) program and type regedit and hit enter.Navigate through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control On the right pane Modify the WaitToKillServiceTimeout string by right clicking on the string. The value will be 20000, make it 5000 instead. This worked well for me.

Source: http://www.iamatechie.com/configure-your-windows-vista-for-fast-shutdown/

VMware disables Autorun/Autoplay function in windows 2000/xp/vista

Source : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaapps/thread/3d8d7893-7fba-4f59-8962-1d074ca95edc

This normally happens as VMware diables autorun in the host PC to prevent any unexpected behaviour. To renable the autorun feature, run VMware as and administrator {since i am using vista) right click on the VMware icon and click run as Administrator, clik yes/allow when the window pops up. Now in the VMware window at the top click on EDIT, and select preferences. Another Menu Box should pop up, click on the tab that says DEVICES, you will see a tick beside "Disable Autorun on the Host", just untick it and click ok, then restart the pc. that should fix your problem, PLEASE NOTE, IF YOU DON'T RUN VMWARE WITH ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS OR AS AN ADMINISTRATOR, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE OPTION.

The free VMware Player hasn't such option but setting the registry dword-value

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"

to 91 (Hexadecimal) solves this, this means it should look like: "0x00000091 (145)" in the registry then.

Code for .reg-file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091

Salah sangka Windows Vista

WINDOWS Vista adalah versi keenam bagi keluarga sistem operasi Microsoft Windows yang mula dipasarkan pada 8 November 2006 dan ia dilancarkan ke pasaran Malaysia pada 8 Februari 2007 menonjolkan antaramuka terkini yang cantik dan lutsinar dikenali sebagai Aero.

Walaupun baru berusia dua tahun berbanding sistem operasi sebelum ini, Vista menerima banyak kritikan sehingga menimbulkan kontroversi mengenai keberkesanan sistem terbabit di pasaran.


Namun, ia dinafikan Pengarah Kumpulan Perniagaan Pelanggan, Organisasi Perniagaan Pemasaran, Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, KT Ng yang menggambarkannya sebagai cabaran kepada semua produk baru di pasaran.

Menurut KT Ng, selepas lebih dua tahun di pasaran, Vista menunjukkan peningkatan dari segi jualannya apabila pengguna mula menerima sistem operasi terbabit sebaik memahami keperluannya secara menyeluruh.

"Memang diakui ketika peringkat permulaan sistem operasi Vista diperkenalkan di pasaran, ramai yang menganggap ia menyusahkan dan tidak stabil namun selepas beberapa tahun menemui pengguna, pandangan negatif itu terus lenyap," ujar Ng.

Mengulas mengenai penggunaan Vista yang dikatakan terlalu 'berat' untuk ditampung perkakasan perkomputeran, Ng memaklumkan pendapat itu hanya didorong salah faham mengenai spesifikasi sistem operasi diperlukan.

"Microsoft Vista memiliki enam versi yang berlainan mengikut keupayaan komputer masing-masing, kalau pengguna memasang versi Ultimate pada komputer berkeupayaan memori satu gigabait, pastinya ia tidak mencukupi," jelas Ng.

Katanya, Microsoft menyediakan enam versi berbeza bagi menampung keperluan perkakasan pengguna seperti 'Starter', 'Home Basic', 'Home Premium', 'Enterprise', 'Business' dan 'Ultimate'.

"Kesemua versi terbabit berfungsi secara berlainan. Mungkin ia menjadi salah faham apabila pengguna tidak diberi pemahaman jelas mengenai ciri setiap versi itu sehingga menimbulkan keraguan terhadap keupayaan Vista," katanya.

Ng berkata, walaupun pandangan negatif mengenai Windows Vista masih menular di kalangan pengguna, statistik yang ditonjolkan menunjukkan sebaliknya dengan penerimaan terhadap sistem operasi terbabit tidak pernah pudar.

"Mengikut kajian Itpsos Insight pada Disember 2007, lebih 71 peratus pengguna berpendapat Windows Vista lebih baik berbanding sistem operasi diguna pakai mereka sebelum ini.

"Selepas enam bulan pula iaitu pada Mei 2008, kajian dalaman mendapati 84 peratus pengguna yang memasang Windows Vista di tempat kerja atau rumah bersetuju untuk mencadangkannya kepada rakan lain," jelas Ng.

Katanya, Windows Vista mempunyai sistem keselamatan lebih baik berbanding XP dengan beberapa ciri diperbaharui menawarkan perlindungan yang tidak akan didapati pada produk lain.

"Ia termasuk kawalan akaun pengguna dan sistem pemacu enkripsi 'BitLocker' yang melindungi data walaupun pengguna kehilangan PC memandangkan pengguna kini lebih mudah alih dengan beberapa peranti," katanya.

Jelasnya, ia melegakan pengguna yang risau mengenai kehilangan data akibat kecurian terutama membabitkan maklumat tiada nilainya dalam sistem simpanan PC.

"Kajian kami juga mendapati Windows Vista mengurangkan kelemahan dari segi keselamatan sebanyak 20 peratus jika dibezakan dengan XP SP2 manakala ancaman 'malware' mampu dikurangkan 56 peratus," kata Ng.

Katanya, Windows Vista juga mempunyai kelebihan dari segi sistem mudah alih apabila ia mampu disepadukan dengan perkakasan berkaitab yang meningkat naik kebelakangan ini.

"Di samping itu, Windows Vista berjaya membuktikan keberkesanan dari sudut produktiviti apabila mampu mencari maklumat lebih pantas jika diperlukan dengan antaramuka mudah," tegasnya.

Bukti dikeluarkan penyelidik terkemuka iaitu IDC mendapati Windows Vista mengurangkan masa mencari maklumat kepada 42 peratus selain mengurangkan 16 peratus carian tidak berjaya berbanding XP SP2.

"Jadi, ke mana hala tuju Windows Vista selepas dilahirkan dua tahun yang lalu? Memang tidak dinafikan masyarakat terlalu terdedah kepada Windows XP kerana ia bertapak lebih enam tahun sejak 2001.

"Banyak aplikasi dibangunkan berdasarkan sistem operasi terbabit dan ramai juga yang bermain permainan komputer menggunakan perisian sama menyebabkan kesukarana menerima produk baru," katanya.

Beliau berkata, Microsoft menyedari pengaruh XP yang tegar di kalangan pengguna namun berusaha memberi kefahaman dari semasa ke semasa bagi mempromosikan Vista kepada mereka.

"Kalau dilihat di iklan atau pergilah ke gedung komputer Low Yatt, pengguna akan mendapati kebanyakan peranti menggunakan sistem operasi Windows Vista kerana ia adalah evolusi baru," ujar beliau.

Katanya, masalah aplikasi yang tidak dapat digunakan melalui platform Vista akan ditangani secara komperensif dengan kerjasama rakan kongsi bagi membolehkannya diselesaikan.

Mengulas mengenai kesediaan perkakasan PC yang mampu disesuaikan dengan Vista, Ng berkata ia bukan masalah besar kerana kebanyakan peranti dijual di kedai bukan lagi memiliki memori rendah.

"Ekosistem perkomputeran merubah segala-galanya membolehkan Windows Vista dipakai tanpa ragu," jelasnya.

Beliau turut membayangkan Microsoft kini bersedia untuk membawa Windows Vista dengan Pek Servis Ke-2 dalam tempoh suku kedua tahun ini.

Sumber : Harian Metro 22 April 2009

How to Clear and Delete Recent Documents List in Office 2007 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint uses new Office Fluent Ribbon user interface with a big right pane section of the Office menu been devoted to “Recent Documents” list. The “Recent Documents” list reconds each and every files that user opens recently, and display the list whenever Office button is pressed for quick easy access.
The “Recent Documents” list shouldn’t be any problem if you’re the only user on the computer. However, if the same computer and same user account is shared by many people, or you’re using a borrowed or public computer, the “Recent Documents” will expose documents using trace. To protect your privacy, users need to delete all file opened history in “Recent Documents”.
Click on Office button, and then click on Word Options (in Word 2007) or Excel Options (in Excel 2007) or PowerPoint Options (in PowerPoint 2007) in the bottom of Office Menu. Go to the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Display section. Set the value for Show this number of Recent Documents: to 0 (zero).
Click OK button. Repeat steps above again, and set back the value for the number of Recent Documents to show to its original default, i.e. 17. If you don’t want this particular Office 2007 application to remember any Recent Documents, you can leave the value at 0 and skip this step. Note that you have to do this for each Word, Excel and PowerPoint individually. And if you not intend to delete all entries in “Recent Documents” list, or don’t want to perform the task one by one on many Office 2007 products, it’s possible to clear and delete the “Recent Documents” items, all or some of them, in the registry.
To do so, run Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and navigate to the one of the following registry key branches:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\File MRUHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\File MRUHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\PowerPoint\File MRU

Each registry key represent a corresponding Office 2007 product respectively, which should be pretty obviously. Inside the File MRU key, there are plenty of items on the right value pane. Delete any - one, some or all - of the item entries that you want to make disappear and delete from “Recent Documents” list. Restart respective Office 2007 program to see the changes.

How to (Successfully) Install Cisco VPN Client on Windows 7

If you do not follow these instructions when installing the Cisco VPN Client on Windows 7, you will probably end up in an endless blue screen / reboot cycle!

Uninstall any previous version of Cisco VPN client that you may have installed
Reboot
Download the Citrix DNE Update and install it.
Reboot
Make sure you have Cisco VPN Client 5.0.4.0300 (or newer, if available)
Install the Cisco VPN Client
Reboot

source : http://weblogs.asp.net/bhouse/archive/2009/01/15/how-to-successfully-install-cisco-vpn-client-on-windows-7.aspx

Use any USB stick to ReadyBoost your computer

Sooner or later, everyone's computer tends to slow down. Call it old age or simply doing too much, but even the most cutting edge PC's seem to lag after a year or so of use. For those who aren't keen on opening up their PC to put in more memory, Windows Vista has a handy little feature called ReadyBoost that can use USB sticks for additional memory. Unfortunately, Windows Vista doesn't take kindly to the slower sticks on the market and refuses to use them. Proving once again that we control the computer and not the other way around, here's four simple steps to get around this limitation and use any USB stick you have to increase your computers memory.

1. Setup

First things first. Plug the device in. Ignore AutoPlay if you have the enabled, and go to Computer in the start menu. When it pops up, right-click the USB stick and select properties.

First things first. Plug the device in. Ignore AutoPlay if you have the enabled, and go to Computer in the start menu. When it pops up, right-click the USB stick and select properties.

2. Disable the stick

Click on the Readyboost tab on the properties menu and check Do not restest this device. Click okay and unplug the stick from your computer.

3. Edit the registry

Woah! Don't panic, it's not as frightening as it sounds. Firstly, you need to open regedit, by opening the start menu and typing regedit, then enter. The registry window should load up.
Using the left-hand pane, work your way through the following folders: HKLM (Local Machine) -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows NT -> CurrentVersion -> EMDgmt. You'll have a list of USB devices the computer has encountered, one of which should be your USB stick. Click on it.
Here there's a few details you need to edit. Double click on Device Status and change the value to 2, then ok. Do the same for ReadSpeedKBs and WriteSpeedKBs, changing their values to both 1000. Exit the regedit and breathe a sigh of relief.

4. And back in again


Now all that's left to do is put the stick back in and once again go to the device properties (Computer > Right-click on drive). If you look under the Readyboost Tab, you'll be able to now select Use this device. Success! Now enjoy your faster PC.