For some reason the hibernate function is not enabled in either Windows Vista or Windows 7 by default (even if your BIOS supports it). On top this, enabling this power saving feature isn’t as simple as marking a check box.

If you want to make use of this rather nice function then here is how to do it in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I find this feature especially useful on laptops because it essentially allows you to snapshot your current session and resume from exactly where you left off. Additionally, the bootup time from hibernation is usually much faster than a cold boot.

Windows has always had the native screen capture functionality via the Print Screen button, but this is extremely limited to just capturing the full screen or the active window. Of course, then you had to paste this capture into another program to actually save the image making this a rather cumbersome process. Windows Vista now has a much improved utility for handling this called Snipping Tool (available via Start > Programs > Accessories).

The link above gives you brief walk through of how to use it, but it should be self-explanatory. It allows you to custom select the capture area, markup the resulting image and save it without having to go through another program.

For the most part, this utility should meet the needs of 95% of your screen capture needs.

One of the biggest changes (for the better) added to Windows Vista is the UAC (User Account Control) security feature. While this is a fantastic security measure, it often gets criticized for being ‘annoying’. This is completely unfair since it addresses one of Windows’ most critical issues: user security. A great article which explains almost to in-depth is: Inside Windows Vista User Account Control.

If you read nothing else (the article is rather lenghty), you should at least read the section “UAC’s Goal” as this gives a very concise explanation of what UAC’s intent is:

The UAC solution to these problems is to run most applications with standard user rights, obviate the need for administrator rights all the time [...].

Linux and Mac both have a similar measure in place, and have for a long time. UAC is here to stay and for good reason as it is an extra layer of security which Windows has needed for a long time.

Up until Windows Vista, the native tool for managing startup program was ‘msconfig’. While there are more powerful utilities available, this is sufficient for most user’s needs. Windows Vista has done away with this tool and instead has replace it’s startup programs manager with a more powerful tool built into Windows Defender.

Here is how to access it:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on Performance Information and Tools.
3. Click on Manage Startup Programs.

The interface is intuitive enough, but you will notice this gives you significantly more detail than msconfig. Addtionally, you can also see network enabled programs as well as programs which are currently running in the same detailed view by selecting the appropriate item from the dropdown at the top.

While this certainly isn’t as powerful as other tools available, it should be good enough for the majority of your needs.

Full disclosure: I personally subscribe to the philosophy that “benchmark = lie”, simply because there are so many factors which can influence results and typically the benchmark results have little bearing on actual practical use. That said, I know a lot of readers probably do not share my opinion and enjoy reading about – and performing – benchmarks.

So for those of you interested, here is an article which you might find interesting: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Windows 7. The tests compared in this article are:

• How long does each operating system take to install?
• How much disk space was used in the standard install?
• How long does boot up and shutdown take?
• How long does it take to copy files from USB to HD, and from HD to HD?
• How fast can it execute the Richards benchmark?

First off, consider the source when reviewing the results. Additionally, you get some ‘colorful’ responses to the article which are pretty entertaining.

Of course, Windows 7 is still in it’s beta stages at this point, so any performance results are subject to change drastically before its release.

One of the first thing Windows Vista users will probably notice is there is a pretty signficant change to the way navigation works in Windows Explorer. One notable change is how you go ‘up’ a level, that is easily get to the parent folder of the folder you are currently in.

There are several ways to do this, such as:

• In the address navigation bar, click the folder representing the parent folder.
• Manually change the address location by editing the text (bah).
• Use the shortcut key Alt+Up Arrow.

My favorite and the fastest way I have found is by using the Alt+Up Arrow shortcut. This works exactly as you would expect. Additionally, you can use Alt+Left and Alt+Right to navigate back and forward, respectively.

A very handy trick Windows Vista users can take advantage of is the ability to launch programs via the desktop right-click menu. This article explains exactly how to do it.

This tweak is extremely useful for launching your most common applications as it can be much faster than typing items into the Run dialog box, using Quick Launch or tracking down items in your Start Menu. Additionally, doing this allows you avoid adding extra shortcut icons (clutter) on your desktop.

The downside is you can only access this menu when you right click empty space on your desktop, so if you have other applications open you would have to minimize or close them first. Other than that, this is a quick and clean way to launch many of your common applications.

Windows XP users who have taken advantage of the excellent user interface control tool, Tweak UI are probably well aware of the fine tuning it offers. Now Windows Vista users have a similar tool available at their disposal: Ultimate Windows Tweaker.

The author themselves title the tool ‘Tweak UI For Windows Vista’:

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows Vista to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, It can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have IE 7 or IE 8 installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only.

There are over 125 tweaks at your disposal. Additionally, the program does not require you to install it so you can copy it to a flash drive and carry it anywhere.

Nothing much else I can really say here except Windows Vista users will definitely want to give this tool a download.

If you are a Windows Vista user, before you start looking around for an external tool to backup your important data, consider using Windows Vista’s built-in backup tool. Before going any farther I need to point out this feature is only included with Vista Business and Ultimate (much like the way the NTBackup tool was only included with XP Pro and not XP Home). Other versions do not have this function built-in.

That said, if you do have this tool available to you here is a very simple walkthrough on how to set up a backup plan. Overall the tool is pretty simple and should be self explanitory. In addition to covering the backup tool, Outlook users should take note of the the walkthrough on how to create a backups of your email data file (PST).

There are hundreds of tool out there (some free, some comercial), so regardless of what backup method you use, the important thing to remember is you need to be backing up. You may think you don’t need it until it comes time when you really need it.

In the past, whenever you purchase an upgrade release of a Microsoft OS, you have to provide proof that you own a previous version for the upgrade to continue. Typically, you prove this by either installing on top of an eligible OS or by inserting the older installation media during the installation process. Well, the same is true for Vista upgrades versions, with the exception that the Windows Vista upgrade counts an unactivated copy of Vista itself as an ‘older’ copy.

Using this trick, you can get a fully functional legal copy of the Vista version of your choice for a significantly cheaper price since you just need the upgrade version. This workaround is apparently here to stay because Microsoft knows about it and still included the trick with SP1.

While I haven’t tried this personally, it sounds like you can really save yourself some cash and go with just an upgrade copy of Windows Vista instead of the full retail version.

One of the biggest criticisms Windows Vista receives is for the User Account Control (UAC) prompts. While this is a security feature by design which is often blown way out of proportion (as you can probably tell, I don’t think they are a big annoyance at all), instead of completely disabling it, try TweakUAC.

This free program offers 3 modes:

• Off – no explanation needed.
• On – the opposite of ‘Off’.
• Quiet – prompts to do administrative tasks (i.e. open Computer Management, etc.) will not prompt you for confirmation, however UAC is still in full effect for user accounts. This is probably the option most should select.

You can read a full description of each mode on TweakUAC’s download page. Like everything, greater security comes with the price of lost convenience (think airports).

If you have multiple boot options (i.e. XP, Linux, etc.) configured on your Windows Vista installation, or you just want to tweak some of the options available, you could use the command line tool BCDEdit or the much more user friendly EasyBCD.

From EasyBCD’s web site:

EasyBCD is NeoSmart Technologies’ multiple award-winning answer to tweaking the new Windows Vista bootloader. With EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring Windows boot entries is simple, and there is no easier way to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader – on the fly, no expert knowledge needed!

Since a lot of users who load Linux on their machines complain that the installation overwrites the Windows boot loader, this utility can be a great way to get the configuration back the way you want it (disclaimer: I have not tried to do this, but it makes logical sense that you could). There is an extensive screenshot gallery available to view and you can’t beat the price (free).

Vista users may want to make a bookmark of this page since you never know when it might come in handy.

Yesterday Chris Flores, a director at Microsoft for the Windows Client Communications Team, wrote at length about what’s going on with Windows 7.

A few things were brought to light about how Microsoft does things concerning the Windows operating system, such as:

The six dimensions of quality

• Device compatibility
• Application compatibility
• Reliability
• Performance
• Battery life
• Security

All of the above cover just about everything concerning a desktop computer or laptop. You’ll notice that these six items are not called tiers because that would denote importance of one over the other. The terminology is applied to state “all this stuff counts.”

Questions answered

Is Windows 7 going to be a major release? Yes. Not “maybe,” not “this will be an add-on .” Flat out yes, it will be a major release.

Will Windows 7 be using a new kernel? No. It will continue to use the same kernel architecture used in Vista. Some may think this sounds bad but it’s actually good because it means anything designed for Vista will run on 7 and won’t require a workaround.

A “solid foundation”?

The only thing Chris said that really made me say “Um.. excuse me?” was:

Windows Vista established a very solid foundation.. ..on subsystems such as graphics, audio and storage.

This says to me “The guts of the OS are great, but everything else was.. unfinished.”

When Windows 7 arrives it will actually be finished this time around when it becomes generally available.

This is not to say Vista doesn’t work. It does work. But for many it just doesn’t work well.

Showing progress

According to the article, the Windows team is on schedule concerning the OS development. This is a whole lot better than before where Microsoft kept delaying Vista over and over again.

Microsoft appears to be committed to releasing major releases of the Windows operating system sooner than later to keep up with the pace of future technologies.

But we’ll see what happens when release time is near. We’ll be watching.

[Source: Windows Vista Team Blog]

I wrote a week ago about slipstreaming SP3 into a Windows XP install CD, but what if you want to do the same thing for Windows Vista using the recently released SP1? If so, this article walks you through the process.

After comparing the two processes, it seems the Vista method is much more complex. Microsoft seems to have concentrated more on making Vista easier and faster to patch as opposed to the slipstreaming method. One advantage to this is you can use the vLite tool to “trim the fat” off your Windows Vista install and have your settings built into a custom installation DVD.

I haven’t tried this method, but I would be interested to hear any feedback from readers who have.

Every Wednesday night @ 8pm EST when we do the PCMech Live broadcast, one question always comes up, that being:

Does the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 really fix anything?

The answer is yes, it does. I have to go by reported information because I don’t use Vista, I use Windows XP Professional Edition (with Service Pack 3.)

The caveat to using Windows Vista has remained the same: Use newer hardware/software/peripherals or the OS won’t work correctly. That has not changed. In addition, you should use newer quality hardware/software/peripherals. If you have something known as “junkware”, it will perform like, well.. junk.

You will notice at this point that, seemingly like magic, not as many people are complaining about Vista as they were in pre-SP1 days. Except it’s not magic. Many fixes were applied and many of them worked. I won’t say all of them worked, but most did.

If you have a computer running Windows Vista and haven’t upgraded to SP1 (why I don’t know,) you should. It has been confirmed to help out quite a bit concerning the overall operation of the OS.

If you’re still using Windows XP, don’t take this article as an indicator to run out and get Vista. If you like Windows and want to stay with it, wait for Windows 7.

[Source: Chron.com]