Microsoft Windows Vista
WARNING - Support for Microsoft Windows Vista will cease on 10th April 2012, for information on what to do about upgrading, please Click Here
Released in January 2007 as the successor to the vastly popular Windows XP, Vista was always going to have a hard job living up to its predecessor.
With a radical new user interface (for Microsoft at least) Vista was starting to make Windows look like a polished and user friendly interfae, unfortunately high hardware requirements to run features such as the Aero interface, and the decision by some hardware vendors to install Vista on low specification machines meant that the products initial launch was poorly received, and quickly bulit up an undeserved bad reputation. On the right hardware, Vista was as capable an operating system as XP, and surpassed it in many fronts.
We are big fans of Vista, and would be more than happy to help you solve your Vista based computing problems, if there isn't an article below that answers your question then please don't hesitate to contact us and we will endeavour to provide you with what you need to know.
General Topics
Keyboard Shortcuts - Navigating your way around quickly without using the mouse.
Customisation / Tweaking
Activating the Vista Administrator Account - Getting Administrator priviledges without UAC.
Changing The User Account Picture - Adding a personal touch to your user profile.
Removing the Internet Explorer Search Box - Get more screen space by removing the search box in Internet Explorer.
Monitoring multiple time zones - How to keep tabs on times anywhere in the world quickly & easily.
Changing the power button action - Making the 'power off' button do exactly what it should do.
EasilySwitch Aero On / Off - How to add an Aero On / Off to your right click button
Small Start Menu Icons - Changing from large to small icons on the Start Menu.
Customise the Start Menu - Making the Windows Start Menu work for you.
Changing the owners name - if you've have a 2nd hand PC then this tip might be useful.
Security
Beefing Up The Standard Firewall - Solving some of the shortcomings of the built in firewall.
Vista User Account Control - Friend or Foe?
Optimisation / Performance Improvement
Increasing Boot Speed - Using multiple processors to improve boot up times.
Boosting Vista - Our top ten tips for squeezing that little bit of extra performance from Windows Vista.
Reclaiming HD Space - Getting back a large chunk of drive space once you've upgraded XP to Vista.
Troubleshooting
User profile loading error - How to fix this commonly occuring Windows Vista & Windows 7 Problem