Want to try Linux but don’t fancy the risk of turning your brand new computer over to dual boot? Then use your old computer as a Linux workstation. Linux will run on older computers that modern versions of Windows turn their nose up at. So stop ditching your old computers into landfill sites and get into the World of Linux. Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) is a good one to start with.
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 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.
