Gnomie Jerry Smith writes:

I upgraded to Windows Vista about eight months ago and have been somewhat pleased. I found that the overall UI has been changed very much — specifically the start bar. It took me a while to get used to, but the transition ran somewhat smoothly. Around Thanksgiving I found that the computer was starting to run slightly slower and decided to check out the RAM on my HP Pavilion a1250n and found that Vista Aero had taken away 300 MB of my RAM! I was more than slightly annoyed at this and found that the only way to fix the problem was to disable Aero (even though I didn’t want to because I thought it made the UI much nicer). So I decided to ask for another GB of RAM for Christmas and that did the trick. My computer has been running fine since the upgrade. Here my top five tips that I have for new Vista customers.

• Disable the sidebar. It’s nice if you want your computer to slow down so much that it takes forever to start up. I found that there was really no use for it and that it had really pointless gadgets. I mean… come on! A clock? There’s already one in the bottom left corner.

• Upgrade to at least 2 GB of RAM. If you can’t afford it or you don’t want to, then disable Aero and set the display theme to Vista Basic. It will speed up your computer so much.
• Customize the size of the desktop icon text. To do this, right click on the desktop and go to personalize. Click the adjust font size (DPI) at the left. Click custom and drag the ruler to change the size. This makes reading the icon text easier.
• Group the icons. This way you can put the most used icons in the middle of the screen or anywhere else you want them. I have my desktop organized into three sections. Two across the top and one down the right side. The first group is hard drive links, and my recycle bin, and anti-spyware/firewall. The second group is basically all my most used programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, yadda, yadda, yadda. My third group is links to file folders that contain documents. There is a link for My Documents, Pictures, and Music, and also my Web site, Projects, and School Work.
• Disable pointless start up programs. Do this by either going into the startup folder in the all programs folder or run “msconfig.” This opens the System Configuration Utility. Go to the startup tab and disable anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Especially do this after installing HP software on your computer — it typically comes with a lot of bloatware.

Have fun with you new OS. Explore, poke around, and have fun with it. If you really mess anything up just roll back the computer using System Restore. Have fun!

One of the advantages of using the Public folder is that it can simplify file sharing on your network. It eliminates the need for you to have to share individual folders. For example, if you have a folder called MyFolder on your computer that you want to share with users, all you have to do is copy or move it into the Public folder.

Before you can share any folders and files on your PC running Vista, you must enable File and Printer Sharing. To enable it:

1. Open the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Under the Sharing and Discovery section, click the down arrow beside File Sharing.
3. Select the option labeled Turn on file sharing.
4. Click Apply.

Once File and Printer Sharing is enabled, you also need to enabled Public Folder Sharing. To enable it:

1. Open the Network and Sharing Center.
2. Under the Sharing and Discovery section, click the down arrow beside Public folder sharing.
3. Select one of the following options:
   • Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open files.
   • Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open, change and create files.
4. Click Apply.

Once Public Folder Sharing in enabled, the contents of the public folder are shared with users on your network.

Gnomie Chuck writes:

Chris,

This may be better addressed in “Diana’s Tips” but I am sending you the request just in case. We currently have three users set up on my computer and because it is located in the central part of the house, all three of us use the computer on a very regular basis. Here is my problem:

Using Windows Vista, we change between users very often. When we click the Windows icon (in the bottom left corner) and slide the cursor over to the arrow on the right of the window that pops up, we often mistakenly select “shut down” instead of scrolling up to “switch user.” Obviously we then have to go through a whole shut down sequence and then turn the computer back on. Is there a way to tweak the order of that pop up window so switch user can be located to the bottom of this list?

I believe our old XP operating system had the “switch user” at the bottom of the list, so we were quite used to that arrangement and now we are having trouble getting used the new configuration.

I know this a pretty trivial request but I figure that if anyone can find a fix for this it would be you or your readers. Keep up the good work on your site and emailed newsletters.

Gnomie Sam Horne writes:

Have you ever decided that you want quick access to system programs that dont give you the option of installing quick launch shortcuts when you wish that you could? Say, if you wanted to have quicker access to your volume mixer? Well, there is a quick and simple way of doing it.

Open up your volume mixer, then right click on the taskbar and go to task manager. When task manager comes up, make sure you’re on applications, then right-click on volume mixer and click on “go to process.” Once on the process, note down the .exe file name (in this case, SndVol.exe). Then click on your start button and type in the program file name, and it will show up. You then have to drag it into your quick launch icons and place it where you like.

If you want to have a keyboard shortcut for the quick launch of your program of choice, put it within the first 9 quick launch buttons. A WINDOWS +1 shortcut is for the first designated quick launch (second quick launch button equals WINDOWS +2, etc.). So there you have a quick launch shortcut for a system program of your choice! Now enjoy getting to those programs that hide in the corner much more quickly!