INSTALL FROM AN UPGRADE DISC Past Windows
versions have let you prove upgrade-readiness by
inserting a CD of the previous OS during the install
process. Vista doesn’t; Microsoft specifi cally says
“Windows Vista does not check upgrade compliance.
Therefore, you cannot use an upgrade disc
to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista.”
To work around this problem, insert your CD into
your clean computer. Don’t enter the code when
Vista asks for your license key, simply click Next.
You’ll create a system sans activation code that’s
active for 30 days. Then reboot from the CD; you’ll
be able to install the OS as an update to your Vista
installation. Now use the activation code.
SAVE YOUR MUSIC! We’ve all been buying audio
and video fi les wrapped in DRMs from Microsoft,
Apple, and others. What happens to that content
when you upgrade to Vista? If you’ve bought digital
media from stores running Windows Media
Player 10, you’ll be asked to reauthorize the content.
With stuff from Apple’s iTunes, de-authorize
your PC before upgrading to Vista. Simply sign
in to the iTunes store, and, from the Store menu,
select Deauthorize Computer. After upgrading, reverse
the process to re-enable access to your fi les.
If you’ve authorized the maximum fi ve PCs, select
View My Account from that same menu, where
you can “Clear all authorizations” once a year.
EXTEND ACTIVATION Are you testing out Vista’s
features and compatibility but not sure if
you want to go ahead and activate it? Microsoft
understands. It has built a software licensing
manager into the new OS that lets you extend the
activation period. At the Start menu’s search bar,
simply type slmgr –rearm to get another 30 days.
You can do this a maximum of three times before
Microsoft blocks further extension periods. And
once you’re locked out, that’s it.
PREVENT VERTIGO ON VISTA The new 3D desktop
is a tremendous improvement, but not all of
the features are handy, and some of the settings
are downright disconcerting. Control your own
3D experience! First, right-click Computer and
choose Properties to get the System Properties
page. Click Advanced system settings. On the Advanced
tab, click Settings in the Performance section.
The Visual Effects fi eld is where you can
choose to Adjust for best appearance, Adjust for
best performance, Let Windows choose, or go wild
with your own choices.
SNIP AT WILL Power users are comfortable using
the PrintScr key to capture screen shots, but
there’s a better way in Vista. You can use the integrated
Snipping Tool to capture any object on
your screen and then annotate, save, or share the
image. Simply use the mouse to capture free-form
shapes, rectangles, whole windows, or full screens.
After you capture a snip, it’s automatically copied
to the markup window, where you can annotate,
save, or share it. Bonus: If you’ve clipped from an
Internet Explorer window (not Firefox or Opera)
and save the snip as an HTML fi le, the URL is automatically
appended to your image. Neat!
PLAY SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON Love him
or hate him, Kevin Bacon is a name you’ll never
forget. Now you can play “find the actor” anytime
(not officially, that is, but bear with us) using
Windows Vista. First, launch Windows Media
Center from the Start menu. Navigate to TV +
Movies and select Recorded TV. Select the movie
you are interested in (Vista comes with snippets
from Apollo 13 and Vertigo, just to get you
started). Select Cast + More, pick a cast member,
and repeat until you fi nd Mr. Bacon.
WORK WITH THE SIDESHOW Vista supports a
secondary display (ideally on your laptop’s lid,
as on the cool Asus W5FE, page 29) for you to get
quick access to e-mail, photos, calendar info, and
music fi les. And that’s just scratching the surface.
SideShow info can be stored and accessed in two
ways: either from the hard drive, which takes longer
and involves caching, or directly from a fl ash
component in your system—quicker, but space
is limited. The fl ash component shows up as a
separate drive in Windows Vista that you can
drag and drop MP3s and photos to. Some gadgets
require use of the hard drive; you won’t be able
to access them if the system is off. Instead, put it
to sleep, and set Vista to wake every 5 minutes,
updating e-mail, calendar, and other gadgets that
rely on an Internet connection.
PICK YOUR FEEDS The Sidebar’s RSS Feed
Reader is handy, but by default it picks up feeds
only directly from Microsoft. Making it work for
you is a two-stage process. First, fi nd a Web page
with an RSS feed on it using Internet Explorer—
the orange feed icon at the right of the status bar
lights up to indicate the feed’s presence. Click it,
and select Subscribe to this feed. Then right-click
on the module and select Options; you’ll be able to
choose which feeds and how many items are displayed.
Want to fi nd feeds using Firefox instead?
Download the Common Feed List tool from www
.netcrucible.com/blog.
BE A BETTER PARENT Kids need structure, otherwise
they’ll spend hours browsing the Web for
dirty limericks. Turn to Vista’s parental controls
for a quick and easy way to monitor how long
they’re online—and who goes where. First, create
an account for each child in the User Accounts
control panel. Then click Set Up Parental Controls
to create and set limits. Don’t forget to enable
activity monitoring as well. It’s okay—you’re Dad,
not Big Brother. You can view them later by visiting
the same section of the control panel. But be
forewarned: Parental controls are available only
to PCs on a workgroup, not those on a domain.
BOOST YOUR SYSTEM SPEED Hybrid hard drives,
which embed a cache of fl ash memory inside a
hard drive’s 3.5-inch shell to improve its performance,
aren’t on the market yet. But they’re
just one way Vista uses fl ash memory; ordinary
thumb drives can, cheaply and easily, let your PC
read small, random bits of frequently accessed
data, a Vista feature called ReadyBoost. Here’s
the thing: To maximize its effi ciency, a Ready-
Boost thumb drive should have the same amount
of memory as is built into your system. In other
words, match your 2GB of RAM with a 2GB fl ash
drive for best performance.
UNCOVER SEND TO The Send To menu is a
handy way to quickly move fi les into frequently
accessed locations. The default locations are
Microsoft’s favorites, however, and they might
not be yours. In Windows XP it was possible to
add to the Send To menu by putting a shortcut
in the SendTo folder. But try that trick with the
SendTo folder in your Personal folder and you’ll
be hit with an “access denied” message. That’s
because it’s just a pointer to the real one, which
you will fi nd at C:\Users\username\AppData\
Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo. You can
add shortcuts to that one.
LAUNCH APPS FASTER When you place items in
the Quick Launch bar (the little icon bar next to
the Start button), Windows Vista automatically
assigns shortcut key combinations to them—well,
it assigns keys to the fi rst ten, anyway. Just hit the
Windows key plus a number key corresponding
to the icon’s position in the bar. For instance, to
launch the third application in the Quick Launch
bar, press Windows-3. Don’t see the bar? Rightclick
an empty part of the Taskbar and select it
under the Toolbars menu.
ADD 3D SOUND If you’re having trouble getting
full 3D sound in Windows XP games from
your SoundBlaster sound card, use Creative’s
ALchemy tool. Windows Vista uses an audio
API called OpenAL for its game audio, and some
DirectSound games won’t use anything beyond
two stereo speakers, ignoring EAX and other
APIs. Download the Creative ALchemy beta from
REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION As laptops
became more popular, consumers became aware
of Win XP’s power settings. Standby left your
computer running at low power; hibernate saved
all memory to disk and then shut down your
system—but often balked at problem programs.
With Vista, Microsoft redrew the rules, adding
an “away mode” and defaulting to “sleep” rather
than off. Sleep mode starts off like standby but
saves memory like hibernate. Then after 15 minutes
it just shuts off, with no back talk from programs.
Nicely done, Microsoft! To shut down
com pletely, skip the Start menu’s orange power
button in favor of the right arrow next to it.
GET HELP The Help and Support Center built
into Windows XP was a good start but far from
ideal. Though it appears similar to Win XP’s, Vista’s
Support Center is much improved. Besides
the usual documentation on core OS functionality,
Vista’s integrated system can get the latest
help info from the Web, allow a friend to help by
remote assistance, or search in “Windows communities.”
Type a word or phrase into the main
search fi eld and hit enter. At the bottom of your
returned results is a useful link to these other
sources of assistance.
RESTORE YOUR MENUS Vista’s own windows and
many new applications lack the familiar File, Edit,
and View menus. But we’ve gotten used to them
after all these years! You can enable them through
each application—if they’re included at all. To turn
them on in Vista proper, open any window (such
as Computer, or Documents), click Organize, and
click Folder and Search Options. Select the View
tab and fi ll in the check box next to Always Show
Menus. Click Apply and then OK. Alternatively, to
show the menus temporarily, just hit the Alt key
with any given window in the foreground.
ELIMINATE THAT WARNING Windows Vista hates
it when you don’t use an antivirus program, a firewall,
or some other security feature. But if you
don’t need one part of the built-in security, you
also don’t need the Security Center shield icon to
pop up constantly in the system tray. Right-click
the icon and click Open Security Center. Then, in
Security Center, click Change the Way Security
Center Alerts Me. You want to select Don’t Notify
Me and Don’t Display the Icon (even though Windows
tells you it’s “Not Recommended”).
منبع: مجله PC Magazine july 2007
راهنمای جامع ویندوز ویستا/Vista Made easy
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