Change Default Icons of A Shortcut

By DustinPosted on

Windows has always allowed you to change the appearance of your icons, and the procedure is pretty much the same in Vista and 7. If you don’t like the way your default icons look, you can always change them. There are plenty of built in icons to choose from, as well as many able to be downloaded. If you feel extremely adventurous, you can try your hand at designing one yourself.

Here is how to change the default icon in Windows.

1. Right click on a Folder, Shortcut, or Drive and click Properties.

2. On the Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon… on the bottom of the panel.

3. Select the icon of your choice, browse for a new icon collection (usually in c:WindowsSystem32imageres.dll or shell32.dll) or a custom .ico that you’ve built or downloaded.

4. That’s it. You’re done.

Before and After

Before & After

Create Folders With No Name

By DustinPosted on

Sometimes you want your Desktop to be nice and neat, so you only have a few icons on there. But, you know what the Recycle Bin and My Computer looks like already (this works with other icons, as well, I am using these two as an example). So, here is a quick and easy way to get rid of the names below the folder.

Right click the icon you want to change and go to Rename.

Hold down the ALT key and press 0160 (ASCII for the Space), and press enter. Tada! No name for the icon. You can do this to whatever icon you’d like.

Disable Autorun on CD/DVD Drives

By DustinPosted on

Many times, you don’t want your CD or DVD to process the Autorun file. You know what you want to do, and you do it. But, disabling the Autorun feature isn’t the easiest to find. In fact, you have to edit the registry to do it. Here is how.

1. First, open the Registry Editor (Start, Run, type regedit -or- Start, type regedit in the search box and press enter).

2. Navigate to the key ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetservicescdrom


3. Right click the key on the right pane titled AutoRun and click Modify. Change the 1 to a 0.

4. Restart your PC, and the Autorun feature is disabled for your CD/DVD drive. This can be very handy for those that dislike the Autorun feature.

How do I open the Vista box?

By DustinPosted on

While this may seem a simple, trivial question, many have asked it and it truely is a hard box to get open!

Here’s how to do it:

Remove the red and clear tape on the right hand side of the box. You may need to cut it. Pull the red pull tab on the top left part of the box to open. Easy, and theft proof? 🙂

Thanks to Pepper in Seattle for the image.

I just added more RAM, why won’t Windows see it? (Under 4GB)

By DustinPosted on

I just upgraded to 2 GB of RAM. Why is Windows still showing 1 GB?

If you upgraded your RAM, and your BIOS shows the added RAM, but Windows does not, give this a try. This is different than is you are adding more than 3 GB to a 32Bit version of Windows.

1. Go to the Start Orb, type “MSCONFIG” (without quotes) in the search box and press enter.

2. Click on the “Boot” tab, then “Advanced Options”.

3. Uncheck the “Maximum Memory” box if it is checked. It may be checked and set to use your old amount of memory.

This is the most common reason I see memory upgrades go un-noticed in Windows (other than the 4GB Limit on 32Bit Windows!).

List installed applications and versions from the CLI

By DustinPosted on

You can get a list of the installed applications, and their versions from a simple and easy to use command line tool. Follow these easy steps to see what is installed without installing a third party program (although there are some GREAT third party programs out there that do an excellent job!).

1. Open a command prompt (either Start > Accessories > Run or Windows Key & R).

2. Type WMIC and hit enter. You will now be in the WMIC tool, with a prompt that says wmic:rootcli>

3. Type product get name,version and hit enter. Alternatively, you can get a txt or html file by using /output:c:listapps.txt product get name,version or /output:c:AppList.htm product get name,version , respectively.

4. You will end up with a display similar to this:

My Recycle Bin is gone! How do I get it back?

By DustinPosted on

How do I get my Recycle Bin back?

A very common mistake in Windows Vista is accidently deleting your Recycle Bin instead of emptying it. There are both options when you right click the Recycle Bin, and it happens more often than you think.

You can get it back, though. Just follow these few steps.

Right Click on your Desktop and select “Personalize”.

In the left pane of that window you you see the Tasks. Click on “Change desktop icons”. In there you will see the option for Dsktop icons. Recheck the box next to “Recycle Bin”, click “OK” and close the Personalization window. You will have restored your Recycle Bin.

Send To Right Click Customization

By DustinPosted on

If you want to quickly send a file to someone or move it, you can right click it and select Send To. However, there are a lot of things you can send it to, even if they aren’t on the Send To list. Here’s how to access them, and how to add or remove items on the Send To menu.

1. Right click a file, and select Send To. This is what you get.

2. Hold down the Shift key while you right click a file and you get a lot more options on the Send To menu.

3. To add or remove items from the Send To menu, open the “Computer” folder. Type shell:sendto in the address bar. You will see what you currently have in your Send To menu. You can drag and drop items in there, or delete ones you don’t want.

What are the minimum specs for Windows Vista?

By DustinPosted on

A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

  • A modern processor (at least 800MHz).
  • 512 MB of system memory.
  • A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

  • 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor).
  • 1 GB of system memory.
  • Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
  • 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
  • DVD-ROM Drive.
  • Audio output capability.
  • Internet access capability.