Long Zheng (istartedsomething.com) has created a Windows Vista UI “taskforce” which will gather and record all known UI quirks in Windows Vista. Obviously, nothing can be guaranteed to be fixed, but Long will send the list to someone at Microsoft and hopefully get some results. He is asking for help in finding these quirks and there is already quite a big list of some interesting glitches in the Vista UI. These are also fixes that could lead themselves into “Windows 7″ as well.
Head over to his site and check out the current list, and if you know of something that should be there, go ahead and submit it. You can also help out by spreading the word about the UI “taskforce” on your blog or social network.
Windows Vista is here, and regardless of whether you upgraded from XP, or just purchased a new PC with it installed, I’m sure you are ready to customize the way Vista looks. Now we can go in all sorts of directions in customizing Vista, but I wanted to cover some of the basics as that is enough for most people.
Let me also take this time to cover a few questions about customizing Vista that you might have.
Q.Will it use many resources or “slow” Vista down?
A. By using the tools I will show you, your system performance should not be affected at all.
Q.Will this somehow “hurt” my computer?
A. Not at all. The methods used here are not system hacks, and the software I will show here is fully tested on Vista.
Q.Is this free?
A. Some applications are free, and some require a purchase after the trial period runs out. The price of the applications are typically small and well worth the investment.
Changing the Vista Logon
The logon screen is basically the first thing you see when you start your computer. Windows Vista has a nice default logon screen, but why not personalize it? To do that, just go and grab yourself a copy of LogonStudio Vista and have at it. LogonStudio Vista (free) lets you easily change a create the Windows Vista logon to any number of downloadable logons already available. If you prefer to use an image of your own, it’s as simple as drag and drop to create your own.
Updated might not be the right word, as this was almost a complete re-write. This guide, which I wrote a while ago shows you the best and easiest way to change Windows XP to look like Vista. The applications and skins that I show do not contain any spy-ware or anything like that. Some of the applications are a free download, and others might require a small purchase.
Stardock is pleased to announce the “official” public release of MyColors. MyColors makes applying premium suites a snap. A MyColors theme includes everything a user needs to completely and safely transform the Windows experience - a new Windows GUI, a new set of icons, gadgets, wallpaper, etc.
Now available on CNET, MyColors includes the “Diamond theme” which gives Windows XP and Windows Vista users a glimpse at Aero Diamond (one of the concepts Microsoft considered for Windows Vista before going with Aero glass).
The included Diamond theme is free, and MyColors itself is free as well. Additional suites can be purchased such as themes licensed by the NBA, NCAA, Ford, and others. Even if you don’t purchase additional themes, you still get a phenomenal suite for both Windows Vista and XP.
Microsoft released SP1 for Windows Vista this past week and the reviews seem to be mixed. Some reviewers say SP1 improves various system performance tests, and others say it does the opposite. I installed Vista SP1 on my main desktop PC last week, and the installation process was flawless. As far as any "real world" performance issues, I haven’t noticed anything either way. On my system, I have had no noticeable performance gains or slowdowns as others have reported.
I haven’t installed SP1 as of yet on my HP laptop, as the SP1 betas I have used kept constantly BSOD’ing my machine. I was never able to narrow down the culprit, but I am a bit wary about installing it again on this computer. I might fire up Windows Update tomorrow morning and give it another go, so we will see how that works out then.
Otherwise, my question to the community is have you, Vista users, updated to SP1 yet?
Defraggler is a new utility I discovered recently, and it comes from the same folks who make CCleaner. One of the big benefits of this application is that it lets you select files or folders to defrag, not just the entire drive. I have used it on several Vista machines, and the defrag process was fairly quick. It’s free so go check it out.
This past Sunday I discovered a trojan on my main desktop PC. Later on that day I discovered it had also made it’s way to my laptop. It had disabled some Windows applications, and just to be on the safe side I decided to just backkup my data, and restore a disk image with Acronis True Image. Doesn’t sound too bad? Yeah right..
The disk image for my desktop appeared to install correctly, but after a few hours of working with it, it appeared something got corrupted in the process. This of course, after I spent hours updating, installing applications, and updating again. So I just said forget it, and did a clean install from my Vista Ultimate disk and started from scratch.
Next, I tried to restore my laptop image, and of course the disk image was corrupt. Something must have gone wrong on my external drive at some point which screwed up both disk images. It’s now Monday and I’m going a clean install of Vista on both my desktop and laptop PC’s. The amount of reboots between updates is just incredible.
So here we are on day 3 and I almost have my laptop ready to take a new disk image. While that is being done I will finish installing applications and setting up my desktop PC, and then image that drive again as well. So 3 days of nothing but installing and reinstalling. I can’t do a bunch of things I was working on because I need the computers, so all I pretty much have to work with is my Mac which I’m writing this on now.
I guess that’s just the way it goes in a Windows world.
Entries (RSS)