PC Hints and Tips

Vista can transform any spare USB flash drive or SD card into an additional memory cache. To use the ReadyBoost feature, simply plug the drive into a spare USB port (or insert your card into the slot) and when AutoPlay kicks in, select Speed Up My System. You can specify how much of the available memory it should use. Any noticeable improvement in speed will largely depend on how much memory you have installed in the first place. Lower-spec laptops will probably benefit the most.

ReadyBoost isn’t available for XP but there is a decent alternative in the shape of eBoostr (www.eboostr.com). This commercial product costs between £12 and £20 or there’s a free trial version you can use for up to four hours at a time.

One annoying feature of WIndows Vista is the thickness of the windows borders. They are huge, they look ugly, and they take up too much space. To get the nice, thin window borders that you got used to with XP, right-click the Desktop and select Personalize. Click ‘Windows Color and Appearance’, and then click the Advanced button. In the drop-down list of items select Active Window Border and set the size to 1. Then select Border Padding and set the size to 1. Click OK twice to apply the settings.

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.

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.

Vista lets you add two extra clocks, for different time zones, to your Taskbar. Just click Start, Control Panel, Clock, Language and Region. Choose ‘Date and Time’ and select the Additional Clocks option.