Posts Tagged ‘Vista’
Microsoft Australia Admits Vista Was A Mis-Step
November 21st, 2010 by DustinThe Microsoft Chief in Australia, Tracy Fellows, has a great outlook on Microsoft products. I like how she can admit to mistakes, and freely admits that Vista was a “miss-step”. The big thing isn’t that you made a mistake, it’s how you handle and recover from that mistake. I loved Vista, it was a great product. A lot of the problem with Vista was that the third party developers weren’t ready for it. Windows 7 is greatly superior to Vista, though, showing that they did fix the few problems that did exist with Vista.
When asked if Microsoft’s Windows 7 PC operating system is a return to form after the PR disaster that was Vista, she doesn’t hesitate.
“I think there are a few things you learn when you, let’s call it ‘miss-step’. You need to take accountability. I think we stepped up and said ‘what were the mistakes with Vista’ and learned from them.
“That’s the difference and it’s now the fastest selling operating system in history.”
Canadian-born Ms Fellows has lived in Australia for 27 years. She notches four years as Microsoft Australia managing director in January.
Change default boot screen in Vista
October 17th, 2010 by DustinFor a quick and easy way to change your boot up screen to something a little better than the default progress bar, follow these few easy steps. This will give you the better looking Aura boot screen.
1. Go to the Start Orb, type “MSCONFIG”, without quotes, and press enter. Click on the “Boot” tab.
2. Check the “No GUI Boot” box. Click “Ok”.
3. Reboot to see the new boot screen.
How do I open the Vista box?
October 17th, 2010 by DustinWhile this may seem a simple, trivial question, many have asked it and it truely is a hard box to get open!
Here’s how to do it:
Remove the red and clear tape on the right hand side of the box. You may need to cut it. Pull the red pull tab on the top left part of the box to open. Easy, and theft proof? 
Thanks to Pepper in Seattle for the image.
What are the minimum specs for Windows Vista?
October 17th, 2010 by Dustin- A modern processor (at least 800MHz).
- 512 MB of system memory.
- A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor).
- 1 GB of system memory.
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
- 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
- DVD-ROM Drive.
- Audio output capability.
- Internet access capability.
Where are the games in the Vista Business edition?
October 17th, 2010 by DustinIn the Business version of Vista, games are not included by default. This helps to keep the guys in suits busy all day without wasting time playing Solitare! Here’s how to get your games back.
1. Go to the Start Orb | Control Panel | Programs and Features
2. On the left pane, click Turn Windows features on or off
3. Scroll down until you find Games. You can check the Games or click the (+) sign and select only the games that you want. Click OK and the games will install and you are in Solitare heaven!
Increase Thumbnail Size on Taskbar
October 17th, 2010 by DustinThe live thumbnail view when you hover over the icons on your taskbar is a very nifty feature, and is very handy. I use it very frequenty to get to the window and browser tab that I need right away. But, for those that want larger thumbnails than what Microsoft offers, here’s how.
1. Open regedit (Start > type regedit and press enter)
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband
3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) and name it MinThumbSizePx
4. Change the value to the size in pixels that you want your thumbnail to be (use the Decimal value). I used 400.
5. Restart the computer (or log off and log back in). Start a program, and hover over the icon on your taskbar. Larger thumbnail!
