Windows Vista only: If you like the look of the icon-only taskbar in the Windows 7 Preview, you can get (almost) the same thing in Vista. The IntoWindows tech site explains that using a free utility, EnhanceMyVista, you can set your taskbar to only show the icons of open windows, instead of the icon and title. IntoWindows says this is how to get the Windows 7 taskbar in Vista, but I disagree—this does NOT enable Windows 7′s Aero Peek feature, or let you pin programs to the taskbar dock-style. It only halfway gives you the look of Windows 7, and not the functionality. Still, for crowded taskbars with tons of open windows and Vista’s thumbnail previews, the icon-only look might come in handy. EnhanceMyVista is a free download for Vista only and includes scads of other Vista tweaks. Thanks, HisNameIsChris!
Transform Vista Taskbar Into Windows 7 Taskbar [IntoWindows]Many Windows Vista users have encountered a Blue Screen of Death after plugging their iPods into the new iTunes 8 release. If that’s you, ZDNet’s Ed Bott describes the fix: Uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support and iTunes, then grab a newly-fixed copy of iTunes 8. Thanks, Geek!
Sometimes the most effective way to clean up Windows is to just wipe your hard drive and start over with a fresh re-installation, and that process can be so long and tedious—unless you know the shortcuts. Power Windows re-installers already know about slipstreaming with nLite for XP and using vLite for Windows Vista to trim down your installation disk to just the bare essentials and speed up the process. If you want to speed up your reinstall even further, you can copy your Windows installation files over to a bootable USB stick that has much better transfer rates. Here’s how.
If you’ve stored a good number of bookmarks (or, in Windows terms, “Favorites”) in Internet Explorer and need quick access to them, the How-To Geek has you covered, at least in Windows Vista. By creating a simple saved search and creating a shortcut to it (so you or a launcher like Launchy can get at it), you’ll have quick, search-able access to all your bookmarks. Anybody know a similarly simple method to searching favourites in Windows XP? Let’s hear it in the comments. Create a Shortcut to Search Your IE Favourites With Windows Vista Search [The How-To Geek]
The Mysticgeek blog at the How-To Geek’s site has a clever series of posts up that use free software tools to give Windows Vista Home Premium—the version that most often ships with standard laptops—the same kind of super-user powers you get with a copy of Ultimate. Mysticgeek uses FileHamster to replicate Ultimate’s “Shadow Copy” function, installing a DreamScene power toy to get moving backgrounds, and DriveIMage XML to create sturdy backups (as Gina once detailed). Hit the link below for the FileHamster tutelage; and check out part 1 and part 2 for the other tweaks. What other tweaks do you use to add Ultimate-like features to your copy of Vista? Share them in the comments. Turn Vista Home Premium into Ultimate – (Part 3) Shadow-Copy [Mysticgeek | The How-To Geek]
The go-to Vista fix-it guy, The How-To Geek, offers a much-needed tutorial and walk-through on installing print-to-PDF functionality in Windows Vista. To start saving paper and creating PDFs, you’ll need to install a copy of previously mentioned PDFCreator, but with the trick of turning off User Account Control while you install to enable its direct PDF-creating capabilities. For a simpler but much more restricted and feature-lacking solution, you could also try installing doPDF. Hit the link for some how-to wisdom. (Original doPDF post). How to Print to a PDF File on Windows Vista [The How-To Geek]
Clearly mindful that Vista is still yet to set the market on fire, Microsoft this week published a white paper explaining why businesses — and by extension, everybody — shouldn’t hold back from adopting Vista, despite its promises that Windows 7 is only a couple of years away. Here’s the five reasons in a nutshell, along with some suggestions for ways you could get the same results without installing Vista.
The SimpleHelp weblog posts a thorough walk-through of how to create a custom Windows Vista installation disc with previously mentioned vLite. We already highlighted how to slipstream Vista Service Pack 1 with vLite, but SimpleHelp’s post focuses on stripping out all the Vista features you don’t need to lighten up your installation, similar to how we trimmed down Windows XP to the bare essentials. It may sound daunting, but the step-by-step post is extremely detailed and easy to follow. How to create a custom Windows Vista Installation DVD [SimpleHelp]
You’ve been talking to (or screaming at) your Windows PC for years, but unless you were willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on pricey software, chances are it wasn’t listening to a word you were saying. With Microsoft’s new freeware tool, Windows Speech Recognition Macros, the days of you talking into your computer’s unsympathetic ear are over. Not only is it listening, but it’s up to the task of doing whatever you want it to.
The Online Tech Tips blog delves into a little-discussed feature of Windows Vista that can turn your spare blank discs into drag-and-drop bins for extra files. The Live File System mounts writable CDs and DVDs as pseudo-flash drives, letting you add files to them on a continual basis rather than having to initiate one big burn session. You can’t recover space from added files, but if you’ve got blank discs to spare, Live File System can be a handy write-as-you-go backup method. Turn your CDs into flash drives using Vista’s Live File System [Online Tech Tips]
