Category: Windows Vista

Some programs show their icon in the system tray – called the notification area. Whenever a program shows its icon the icon and program is registered by Windows. Even after that program is deleted or uninstalled, it remains in the notification area list of programs.

If you have entered wrong user name and organization name when installing Windows, do not worry, you can change it anytime you want. Same applies if you have bought an older computer and the owner name and organization is set to different.

All the software companies sign their files with a digital signature in an attempt yo maintain the files integrity. If somehow that file is changed (by a virus, malware, hacker or a badly written software etc.) then it may be a cause for the alarm that your system integrity is violated. You ca verify and find which files are not digitally signed or have invalid signatures in your Windows Vista.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a protocol used to manage complex TCP/IP networks. With SNMP, administrators can manage and configure network computers from a centrally located computer instead of having to run network management software. They can also use SNMP to monitor network performance, detect network problems, and track who uses the network and how they use it.

Windows Vista shows a thumbnail when you hover your mouse over the icon of a window in the taskbar. This is useful feature as you can see the preview of a window without even bringing it to foreground. By default, Windows Vista shows thumbnails of size 150×155 pixels. But you can enlarge the these thumbnails size to anything you want using the Vista Thumbnail Sizer.

Over time data on your computer’s hard disk gets scattered all over the place and the hard disk has to spin extra to fetch it – resulting in sluggish response, heat generation and extra power consumption. You can avoid all these just by regularly defragmenting your hard disk once a week. You can set Windows to automatically defragment the hard disk(s) at a particular time.

Windows Vista has a useful feature called Remote Assistance which is used to receive help from a helping person (a friend or a professional troubleshooter). They connect to your computer and use it, as if it is their own computer to troubleshoot the problems. But this feature can be misused by hackers. So if you do not need any remote assistance, it is better that you disable it.

When you connect a device to your computer, Windows Update automatically checks over the internet for a new or matching driver. This can be annoying if you already have a drivers CD supplied by the manufacturer. You can disable this feature using this steps

Suppose you are working on some folders and you have to shutdown Windows. Next time you would start Windows (or logon to Windows), the open folders windows (which were open at the time of shutdown or logging off) do not appear. If you want Windows to restore the previously open folder windows at the startup or logon, then follow these easy steps.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature included in Microsoft Windows that is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable memory region. This is useful in blocking many malicious programs and prevention from getting infected.