Tutorials

How to Fix the BootMGR is Compressed Message at Boot Why does this BootMGR is Compressed message appears at boot? Well, for some bizzare reason, Vista also compresses the BOOTMGR when you select (check) to Compress this drive to save data space option on the C: drive. When BootMGR is compressed Vista cannot boot from it. This will show you how to fix this boot error. Here's How: 1. First of all, boot from your retail Vista or Windows 7 installation DVD, or from you bootable Vista USB or Windows 7 USB installation thumb key. ( By pressing Esc and f8 ) NOTE: If you do not have a retail installation disc, then you can create a Vista recovery disc or Windows 7 system repair disc to use to do the steps below with instead. 2. Now you...

How to Unassociate a File Extension Type in Vista and Windows 7 This will show you how to set a file extension to be associated with nothing for all users instead of some default program without having to delete the file extension unless you wanted to. This is a standalone EXE program that does not install to your computer. CREDIT TO: Ramesh Srinivasan -www.winhelponline.com/articles/231/1/ Here's How: 1. Download the free unassoc.zip file and save it to your desktop. 2. Right click on unassoc.zip (On Desktop) and click Open. 3. Extract both files to the desktop. (See screenshot below) 4. Click on the Unassoc.exe icon to run the program. NOTE: I would recommend that you put these two files in a new folder and save them in...

How to Create a Complete Computer Backup and Restore Image in Vista Windows Complete PC Backup creates a backup image, which contains copies of your programs, system settings, and files. The backup image is then stored in a separate location from the original programs, settings, and files. You can use this backup image to restore the contents of your computer if your hard disk or entire computer ever stops working. For more information, see: Windows Help and How-to: Back up your programs, system settings, and filesBACKUP LOCATION: A) If you want to delete or copy the entire WindowsImageBackup folder to save it to another location to keep a copy of it, you will need to open each subfolder in the WindowsImageBackup folder and grant...

How to Hide or Unhide a Windows Update in Vista This will show you how to hide a Windows Update so it will not show up again in the available updates list to be installed. You can unhide the Windows Update to allow it to be in the list again if you wanted to install it later.For a complete list of Windows Updates with descriptions, see: ITsVISTA: Windows Updates How to Hide a Windows Update 1. Open the Control Panel. (Classic View) 2. Click on the Windows Update icon. 3. Click on View available updates. (See screenshot below) 4. Right click on the update you want to hide, and click Hide update. (See screenshot below) 5. Click the red X button in the upper right corner to close the window. How to Unhide a Windows Update 1...

How to Restore Missing Default New Context Menu Items in Vista This will show you how to restore any nonworking or missing default menu items from in the New context (right click) menu. This includes the Folder, Shortcut, Bitmap Image, Contact, Rich Text Document, Text Document, and Briefcase menu items.This will restore the entire default key entry in the registry for the menu item that is missing in the New context menu. For more about the ShellNew key and how to add a menu item of your own, see:How to Add and Remove a New Menu Item in VistaIf New is missing from the context menu, then see: How to Restore or Remove New from the Context Menu in Vista and continue this tutorial to restore any missing menu items in the New...

How to Delete a Service in Windows This will show you how to delete a service of your choice from the Services window.This can be handy if a program (ex: antivirus) that you installed added a service, and it was not removed from Services due to it not uninstalling properly, or you just want to delete unused services to make it easier to modify the other services.Once you delete a service, it is gone from Vista. I would strongly recommend that you create a restore point before doing this just in case you need to restore the deleted service. The only other way to restore the deleted service is to reinstall Vista, or the program that added the service. Here's How: 1. Open the Start Menu, then type services in the search box and press...

How to Replace a System Program without Modifying System Files or Permissions If you like to use replacements for system programs like notepad.exe or calc.exe then this is for you. This will show you how to use a popular replacement for notepad.exe or any other exe by using "Image File Execution Options" key in your registry. You must have Administrator privileges to edit the registry key and these settings affect all users but this is very simple, does NOT involve taking over file permissions, does NOT involve replacement of any files, and is VERY easily reversible. This works for Windows NT/2K/XP/Server 2K3/Vista/Server 2K8/Win7IMPORTANT NOTES: 1) If you use this to replace example.exe, ANY program named example.exe located...

How to Restore Missing Default Start Menu Shortcuts in Vista This will provide you with separate downloads that include all of the All Programs default shortcuts in the Start menu for each edition of Vista so you can either restore all of the shortcuts or just the ones you need.A Start Menu shortcuts download for the Vista Enterprise edition is not included in this tutorial. You can use the download for Ultimate in it's place. EXAMPLE: Start menu All Programs for Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate NOTE: To compare and see the features in each edition of Vista, see: Windows Vista Editions Overview and The Vista Editions Comparison Table To Restore Default Start Menu Shortcuts used by Current User Only NOTE: All...

How to Add a Tray Icon for Windows Mail This program will add a system tray icon that will allow Windows Mail to be minimized to the tray icon allowing you to be notified of new messages without Windows Mail being on the taskbar.This program will not integrate into Windows Mail, but is a stand alone EXE program that works with Windows Mail. WinMailTray Current Download Site: http://www.msblog.org/download/WinMailTray.zip Written by: Kristan Kenney Confessions of a Windows Enthusiast Another free program that has a few more features is Windows Mail Tray Icon. How to Install WinMailTray 1. Click on the Download button below to download the WinMailTray.zip file from the Current download site above...

How to Run Check Disk at Startup in Vista or Windows 7 This will show you how to use and run Check Disk or chkdsk at startup from within Vista, the command prompt, and the registry to check for corruption and possibly repair errors and bad sectors on the hard drive.If you had changed your default boot screen, then you will need to temporarily uncheck the No GUI boot to be able to see what is happening when chkdsk is running at boot up. See: How to Enable the Hidden Aurora Boot Screen in Vista or How to Change the Default Boot Screen in Vista SP1This will take about 20 minutes or so to finish, depending on how big your hard drive is. Do not stop chkdsk once it has started, let it finish. It could cause errors on your hard drive. When...

How to Enable or Disable Search Index in Vista and Windows 7 This will show you how to Enable or Disable the Search Index. You may want to disable it to get more accurate search results, or to stop your hard drive from running so much. The Index keeps track of the files on your computer and stores information about the files, including the file name, date modified, and properties like author, tags, and rating. The index is used to make searching for files in Vista much faster. Instead of looking through your entire hard disk for a file name or file property, Vista scans the index, which allows most results to appear in a small fraction of the time that a search without the index would take.The Index will run slowly in the background...

How to Create a Vista SP1 Slipstream Installation DVD This will show you how to create a Vista installation DVD with the Vista SP1 slipstreamed into it for any 32 and 64 bit version of Vista you want. This DVD will allow you to do a clean install of Vista with the SP1 all at once instead of installing Vista first then the SP1.This Vista SP1 slipstream installation DVD will also allow you to run a Repair install on Vista with SP1 installed now. Before, you could not use a normal Vista installation DVD ro run a Repair install on Vista with SP1 installed since Vista with SP1 was a new version than what was on the Vista DVD.If you have a Dell OEM computer, then see this link to help you possibly create a sliptream installation DVD from...

Bypassing 'Show Desktop' bug in RocketDock This tutorial will show an easy way to bypass RocketDock of minimizing too when pressing the 'Show Desktop' button. 1. Make a new Text Document. 2. Enter the following lines into the document: Set shell = wscript.CreateObject("Shell.Application") Shell.MinimizeAll 3. Save the document. 4. Rename the document to a VBscript file. (ex. Minimize.vbs) 5. Put the file in your Documents folder. (or somewhere where it won't be deleted) 6. Make a shortcut of the file and put it on your desktop. 7. Right Click and select 'Properties' 8. Go to the 'Shortcut' tab. 8. Press 'Change Icon'. 9. Put this line in the browse tab: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll 10...

How to Add Take Ownership to the Context Menu in Vista This will add Take Ownership to the Context (right click) menu for all folders, files, and drives in Vista and Windows 7. Application files, (EX: EXE, CMD, MSI) will still have Run as administrator instead of Take Ownership in the context menu. When you use take ownership on a folder, it will take ownership of all the files and subfolders inside the folder to. To manually take ownership of items in Vista, see: How to Take Ownership of a Item in Vista To restore TrustedInstaller as the owner for a protected system resource, see: How to Restore TrustedInstaller as Owner of a File in Vista This Take Ownership context menu item needs to be used while logged on to an...

How to Take Ownership of a Item in Vista and Windows 7 This will show you how to take Ownership of a file, folder, registry key, or drive where you have been denied access to allow you to give full control of it so that you will be able to delete or modify this item. When you do this, you replace the security permissions to have access. You will quickly notice that you cannot delete or modify system files, even as administrator in Vista. This is because Vista system files are owned by the TrustedInstaller service by default, and Windows File Protection will keep them from being overwritten. You will encounter a "Access Denied" error. If you are trying to delete a folder, then sometimes you will need to delete the contents within...

How to Change the System Restore Disk Space Usage Amount in Vista By default Vista allocates 15% of your selected hard drive volume to storing System Restore points after installation. If System Restore is turned on much later, it may only allocate a minimum of 30% of the available free space instead. When the allocated space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete the older restore points to make room for the new ones. System Restore needs at least 300 MB allocated to it to run, and will not run on a hard drive smaller than 1 GB. In the Vista Business and Ultimate versions, this area is also where backup copies of deleted or changed files are stored and made available through the Previous Versions feature (Shadow...

How to Fix Chkdsk will Not Run at Startup in Vista If after you set Check Disk or chkdsk to run at startup it will not run, then this will show you how to fix this problem so chkdsk will run at startup. This problem is usually caused when the autochk.exe file gets corrupted, or the registry BootExecute data value is incorrect. This is not for if chkdsk cannot finish or stops running. Check Disk uses the file autochk.exe to run chkdsk. If you still cannot run chkdsk at startup after this, then you might consider performing a System Restore, Repair Installation, or Clean Installation to fix the problem. See related links below. If you had changed your default boot screen, then you will need to temporarily uncheck the No GUI boot to...

How to Set Vista for the CPU L2 Cache Memory Size The SecondLevelDataCache records the size of the processor cache, also known as the secondary or L2 cache. If the value of this entry is 0, Vista will attempt to retrieve the L2 cache size from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for the platform. If Vista fails for some reason to retrieve the L2 cache size from HAL, then it uses a default CPU L2 cache size of only 256 KB. If the default value of the SecondLevelDataCache value is not 0, Vista will use the value (amount of memory) you set instead of 0 (for 256 KB) as the L2 cache size of. This value is designed as a secondary source of cache size information for Vista when the HAL cannot detect the L2 cache from the CPU.This sets the...

How to Extract Files from the Vista Installation DVD This will show you how to extract original files from the retail Vista installation DVD. You can then use these extracted files to replace missing or corrupted system files in your current Vista installation.Normally you will find out that you have corrupted system files that cannot be repaired after your run a sfc /scannow command and look at it's log report. Here's How: 1. Download and install the same free 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) 7-Zip program version as your 32-bit or 64-bit Vista. 2. Use Compatibiliy Mode on the 7-Zip shortcut and check the Run this program as an administrator box. 3. Run 7-Zip, then click on Tools and Options. Next, click on the Select all button and...

How to Prevent or Allow User Profile Folders Location Change in Vista This will show you how to allow or prevent the default locations of the C:\ Users\(user name) Personal User folders from being changed for all user accounts on the computer. These are the Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures, Save Games, Searches, and Videos folders.This is allowed by default in Vista. EXAMPLE: Personal User Profile FoldersNOTE: Location is at C:\Users\(User Name) EXAMPLE: Music Folder Properties Set to Allow and Prevent Location Change NOTE: When prevented the Target location field is still there, but you cannot change it. Through the Local Group Policy Editor 1. Open the all users, specific users or...