AdventuresInVista
Hints, Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Windows Vista

RSS regeneration
12 April 2008 in AIV News | Comments (0)

Quick apology - seems my RSS feed regenerated itself when I moved the site to the new server. In my case, this resulted in me receiving the last 5 posts again. Doh!

Apologies folks!

Moved and Upgraded
12 April 2008 in AIV News | Comments (0)

I’ve finally managed to find some time to move some more of my sites across to the new server. You can follow my progress over at GoDHN.com, but I just wanted to let you all know that AiV was moved yesterday. Hopefully there wasn’t too much downtime!

There’s still a couple of things to check (plugins, feeds working ok, etc), but everything LOOKS fine.

I also took the opportunity to upgrade to Wordpress 2.5 - love the new Admin system, and actually… it all seems a bit quicker!

Please let me know if you spot anything untoward with AiV!

How Cool is Messenger 8.5?
22 March 2008 in General | Comments (0)

I’ve just downloaded Live Messenger 8.5 onto one of my Vista installations, and I gotta say… I love it!

It’s not a whole lot different, but everything just feels a bit sleeker and more refined. For example, here’s the main contacts screen…

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Vista SP1 Released to Windows Update + My Thoughts
19 March 2008 in Maintenance | Comments (0)

Earlier today, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was released to Windows Update.

If your computer is set to download updates automatically - you’ve probably already at least started to download it, if not installed it already.

Since the MSDN release, SP1 seems to have shrunk somewhat, coming in at a mere 66.9 megabytes. Good news for all those with slow connections.

Go download it now from Windows Update!

Continue reading…

Tuesday Tweak - Change your MTU
11 March 2008 in Tuesday Tweaks | Comments (2)

MTU (or ‘Maximum Transfer Unit’) is used by all networks to limit the amount of bytes in a packet. Normally, this is set to 1500 bytes… but there are some networks that just dare to be arkward.

My service provider - AOL - is one such case.

AOL (in the UK at least) require an MTU setting of 1400. If you use the AOL software, this stuff is handled for you. But if, like me, you’ve set everything up manually, you’ll need to change the MTU setting on both your router and all your computers.

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Introducing Internet Explorer 8
9 March 2008 in Browser Wars & Internet Explorer 8 | Comments (2)

And yes… it’s standards compliant.

Microsoft used the recent MIX08 event to unleash Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8. Aimed squarely at developers (although, as far as I can tell, anyone can download it), IE8 is ushering in a new era of compatibility and standards compliance for Microsoft. Here it is in action…

As you can see, it looks pretty similar to any other version of IE, although there are some important differences…

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Vista Service Pack 1 released to MSDN subscribers
21 February 2008 in Maintenance | Comments (0)

It has been noted on a few Vista blogs that Service Pack 1 RTM (Ready To Manufacture) had appeared as a download on MSDN.

As an MSDN subscriber, I can confirm this, and report my installation experience.

The download itself is about 447mb, and once that’s done, there is just 1 file to launch.

After you’ve accepted the terms, and clicked Next and Continue a couple of times, the automatic installation process starts. A few restarts later and your machine is ready to go.

The installation warns that it could take up to an hour, but in reality that was more like 30 minutes, which isn’t bad. At no point was I left thinking “um.. has it broke?”.

Once restarted, nothing much appears to have changed on first glance. A couple of my icons have been moved about, but apart from that… I can’t tell the difference!

I’ll let you know how I get on…..

Tuesday Tweak - Stop Vista pinching your bandwidth!
20 February 2008 in Help & Tips & Tuesday Tweaks | Comments (1)

By default, both Windows XP and Windows Vista like to reserve some of your internet bandwidth for themselves. The idea is that the operating system can carry on doing stuff in the background (downloading updates, etc), while you enjoy a fast, responsive, internet experience.

That’s all well and good, but by default it reserves a whopping 20 percent!!!

The good news is that you can control the amount reserved, and even set it to 0, by following these simple steps…

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Tuesday Tweak - Faster boot-up on a dual-boot installation
29 January 2008 in Help & Tips & Tuesday Tweaks | Comments (0)

Does your PC have a boot menu on startup? Perhaps because you’ve got Windows XP and Windows Vista installed side-by-side?

You can speed up your startup by shortening the length of time the boot menu appears, as follows…

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Tuesday Tweak - Password Free Logon
22 January 2008 in Help & Tips & Tuesday Tweaks | Comments (0)

If you’re the only user of your PC, having to enter your password each time you logon can be a bit of a pain. The good news is this can be fixed!

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