If you often use Windows Help to find out how to do stuff or get the solution to a problem, it’s useful to bookmark the pages so that you can easily return if you need them again. I have lots of useful topics bookmarked. When you view a Help page, just click the ‘Add to Favourites’ button above the text. It’s then added to the Favourites button in the toolbar.
If you find Vista’s Start menu confusing, you can revert to the familiar Windows layer. Right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. Click the Start Menu tab and select the Classic Start menu option.
ReadyBoost turns any flash drive into an additional memory cache. Plug the drive into a spare USB port and Vista will ask if you wish to use it to speed up your system performance. You can specify how much of the memory to use.
Change which program loads when you double-click an MP3 file or a web link by clicking Start, Default Programs and selecting ‘Set Program Access and Computer Defaults’. Click the down arrow next to Custom to set a different default program.
If you’re struggling to find programs in the Start menu, you can reorder it alphabetically Just right-click any program in the menu and select ‘Sort by name’.
The System Stability Index rates your system from one (leaste stable) to 10 (most stable) based on problems you’ve encountered. To check your rating, click Start, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, and select Administrative Tools. Double-click the Reliability and Performance Monitor link and choose Reliability Monitor.
Vista assigns keyboard shortcuts to every item in the Quick Launch toolbar. To open the first item in the bar, press the Windows key and the number 1. For the second item press Windows + 2 and so on.
You can turn off Vista’s graphically intensive interface by right-clicking the Desktop and selecting Personalize, Window Color and Appearance. Select ‘Open Classic Appearance Properties for more Color Options’ and choose Windows Vista Basic or Windows Vista Standard in the Color Scheme box.
Vista can test your system RAM for faults. Click Start, type ‘memory’ (without the quotes) into the box and hit Enter. You can now either restart your system to check for problems immediately, or do so on the next reboot.
If you have set up a network at home with more than one computer, you can see who is connected to your PC by clicking Start, Run and entering ‘cmd’ and then ‘netstat’ (both without quotes). You will now be able to see if someone is accessing shared files and documents.
