When Microsoft unveiled the Aero engine in Vista – and later expanded upon for 7 – it brought about a sea of usability and visual changes. While some changes were more just for eye candy, and perhaps trying to match what Apple was doing in OS X, others were more functionally based. Taskbar thumbnail previews probably straddles a bit of both sides; in Vista/7 hovering the mouse over the application window in your taskbar will result in a live thumbnail of the window contents. You’ve probably seen yourself the examples of a video file playing in real-time in the thumbnail.

I’m not positive my productivity and efficiency has increased whatsoever with this flare but I do know one thing that I find annoying – there is a slight delay, maybe not even 1 second in length, from when you mouse over the application and the thumbnail displays. It’s an odd behavior to have in my opinion, it results in the perception of the entire system appearing slow and bogged down. Interestingly, it’s not a limitation but rather a design decision to have the delay. While I’m sure there is some grounded rationale behind it, it makes little sense to me and the slight pause had me investigate how to remove the delay.

Launch the Registry Editor from Start->Search.

Traverse the tree down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.

Right-click in the right panel select New->DWORD and naming the key ExtendedUIHoverTime.

The value of ExtendedUIHoverTime will control the delay in the thumbnail display; the time is measured in milliseconds. Double-click the key and setting it to 1 will result in an instantaneous display. Logically, you could define the delay to something longer if you’d like.

Remember that you must log off and come back in to apply many registry settings, this one included!

The notion of Start->Run has been ingrained in most enthusiasts minds as the premise existed since the days of Windows 95. The method was an efficient way to launch commands without the need of traversing the Start Menu – assuming you knew what you were looking for. For reasons unknown, Microsoft chose to remove the Run command from Vista and Windows 7′s Start Menu – replacing it with the Start->Search command instead. Generally, Start->Search expands upon the Run command of old as it can pull from an indexed database, meaning you don’t need to know, or path explicitly to what you are launching.

For the most part, the functionality works fantastically but there are circumstances where the process bogs down, especially when the command in question isn’t part of the indexed database – like a remote network path you are trying to access. It’s times like these that one may miss the Run command. Keyboard junkies may already be thinking to themselves, what about WinKey+R? This is an effective alternative as the Run command dialog still exists in 7 but more and more computer users are shying away from memorization of obscure shortcuts. For those users, they should know it’s quite simple to return the Run command back to it’s rightful spot in the Start Menu.

1. Right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties.



2. Click the Start Menu tab and choose Customize.



3. In the Customize Start Menu dialog scroll through the list and look for the check-box next to Run command. Check it!



4. OK out of the two dialog windows, returning yourself to your desktop view.
5. Click on the Start Orb and notice that the Run command has returned.

In the days when processing power was measured in megahertz and memory counted by the megabytes, PC users were always striving to eek every little bit of performance possible. Microsoft Windows has long had the stigmata of being a bloated and heavy operating system and a lot of that stems from the sheer amount of processes running in the background, typically unbeknown to the user. In the Microsoft world, background processes are called services and chances are, you have a number of services running that you don’t even need. Don’t have a printer? You still have the Print Spooler service running unless you actively disable it. For most, the days of performance squeezing are long gone but that doesn’t mean it’s completely dead.

Vista Services Optimizer is a free Windows utility that aids in the ability to streamline your Windows system. There are plenty of articles on the Internet that describe each and every service but often times you are still left confused on whether or not the service is truly necessary. Vista Services Optimizer takes the guess work out of the entire process by analyzing your running system and providing suggestions on what to disable. It will never lead you down the path of disabling a vital Windows service.

A system scan and recommendations thereafter is great but Vista Services Optimizer takes it a step further by asking easily answered questions about your system. Do you have a scanner or digital camera? Have you installed anti-spyware software? The answers to these questions will help the software further pin down your requirements.

If you end up getting yourself in trouble still by disabling something you actually needed the Rescue Center can revert to a previous snapshot of the system services state. Additionally, you can have multiple profiles defined and applied on a whim. If you are playing a resource intensive game, it may make sense to disable different services.

Vista Services Optimizer requires the .Net 3.5 framework and, of course, Windows Vista.

It’s pretty well accepted by computer users that every new iteration of an operating system brings about higher hardware requirements. New features and functionality are not free, especially when it comes to computer resources. This situation was no different when Microsoft released Vista as the replacement to XP. Hardware advances quite rapidly while battery technology, at least in the consumer space, has crawled to a general standstill. Laptop users who upgraded their XP systems to Vista were hit with a decrease in battery life, even though it was the same hardware that ran XP happily.

There is no dispute that a Vista install on a laptop uses more juice than XP. Most users then suspect that all the visual effects and eye candy available in Vista are the culprit to the decreased battery performance. With that being said, what options do you have? Short of down-grading to XP, the best option is to just turn off all the visual flair and reclaim some of those CPU cycles. Unfortunately, Vista doesn’t exactly provide that type of flexibility – in that either all the visual effects are off or on. Ideally, you’d probably be fine with the effects when running on AC power and then fallback to a degraded visual experience when operating off the battery.

Vista Battery Saver is a free software program designed to handle just this situation. The application provides the ability to turn off the Windows Aero interface or Sidebar depending on whether you are plugged in or not. Further, the options can remain enabled until the battery hits a certain drain level. While it doesn’t seem like much of a big deal, often times just an extra 15 minutes makes all the difference.

I got a question today from a user about how to adjust this behavior, specifically regarding icons. While this isn’t new to Vista – it’s been around for as long as I can remember – it is possible to configure the icons, typically on your Desktop, to open with just a single-click.

1. From within a Windows Explorer window click Organize and then Folder and Search Options.



2. Under Click items as follows select the radio button next to Single-click to open an item.



3. You’ll notice you have two sub-options available from step 2 both relating to how and when to underline the icons. You can chose to either underline when pointed on by the mouse, or always to underline – similar to the behavior in most web browsers. The choice is yours.

Microsoft introduced a number of tools in Windows Vista that help in diagnosing of system problems. If you are the one that typically has to fix or address problems, you are quite aware of such utilities as Task Manager, Event Viewer, and Performance Monitor. With Vista, there is one new tool you should keep in your arsenal – the System Health Report. In the same way that proper physical health is maintained by seeing a family doctor regularly, Microsoft has the same idea when it comes to your computer. Results from a series of tests and performance metrics are gathered, organized, and presented in an intelligent list – albeit somewhat technical. Does your computer receive a clean bill of health? The results may surprise you!

1. To launch, click the Vista Start Orb and in the search box type performance. One of the results returned will be Performance Information and Tools.



2. Click Advanced Tools.



3. Here you see many of the performance and diagnostic utilities provided to you by Microsoft. The one we are interested in is at the very bottom, Generate a system health report.



4. The report will begin running immediately and will take a minute or so to complete.

   

5. After the report is done collect the data you are presented with the findings. I was surprised to find my computer failing a few things. Some caution must be taken though as a Failed test isn’t necessarily black or white. In my results you can see that I failed the Hardware Device and Driver Checks test. Further digging reveals it is because I have a network adapter installed, but disabled. A disabled device obviously can’t function correct; though in my instance it is disabled for a reason.

Not only can the system health check-up reveal existing problems it has the ability to predict future problems. As an example, the battery of tests including scrubbing the SMART data from your hard drive – a series of metrics that can keep track of disk errors and such. The multitude of information the report includes is staggering and full-on geeky. Still, there is useful information provided for users of every level.

While Vista’s Aero look is pretty to gaze at, it’s not for everyone. It goes without saying that the effect is not free, at least as it pertains to your system resources. Aero uses more memory and more CPU cycles than Windows last generation interface. All this adds up to increased battery usage on laptops and overall decreases in performance for memory and CPU intensive operations.  The sledge hammer approach would be to just disable Aero across the board, sticking with the look and feel of Windows 95. Thankfully, we don’t have to be that drastic if we are only interested in squeezing out every last bit of performance in specific situations. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as it should be – enabling or disabling Aero quickly and on demand. With a bit of registry magic, one is able to provide a quick toggle option when right-clicking on the desktop.

1. Click Start and in the Start Search box type regedit.exe.
2. Traverse the Registry Editor navigation tree on the left hand side down to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\Shell.



3. Right-click on Shell and select New->Key. Title the key Aero Enable. Then, right-click on the key you’ve just created and create a New->Key called command.



4. With the newly created command key selected, double click on the (Default) and assign it a value of Rundll32 dwmApi #102.



5. Repeat step 3 and 4, titling the key Aero Disable and assigning (Default) to Rundll32 dwmApi #104.



6. Now right-click on your Desktop and see the two new options you’ve created: Aero Enable and Aero Disable. Selecting either option triggers just what the name implies.

Microsoft introduced a new metric in Vista titled the Windows Experience Index (WEI), a numerical representation for performance of the hardware in your computer. The WEI encompasses five sub-scores for processor, memory, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, and disk subsystem. Confusingly enough, the WEI is not an average of the five scores but rather the floor, or the lowest score of the five. The WEI ranges from a low of 1.0 to a high of 5.9 for Vista but we can assume that the high will continue to increase in future iterations of Vista or Windows in general – we hope hardware continues to advance after all.

But what is the purpose of WEI? It can be summarized in a simple sentence. WEI allows users to match software requirements, typically games, to the hardware in their computer. The idea was to simplify the complexity of the answer to the question will this software work on my computer? I think it’s a pretty good goal but we aren’t quite there yet because many users aren’t even aware of it. So here is how to see your Windows Experience Index and re-run the test should your hardware change.

1. Right-click on Computer from your Vista Start Menu and select Properties.



2. You will see a numeric value next to Rating. This is your current WEI and to re-run the test click on the Windows Experience Index link.



3. After the UAC prompt, Windows will begin to run a series of tests for each of your components. Don’t be alarmed if your system jumps in and out of Aero or if the screen flickers!



4. Upon completion it will return to the screen above in step 2, but this time with perhaps a new WEI.

You should make it a habit to keep this score up to date because WEI has an API which allows applications to reference the score and adjust their performance accordingly. The WEI is also a quick way to see any potential bottlenecks in your computer – it’s going to be your lowest sub-score of the five. Upgrade that component and your WEI and computing power will evolve.

Just a quick tip today. Have you noticed that the default install of Vista results in the desktop icons being enormous? Perhaps not, but since I like everything just so, it was immediately noticeable to me. While I don’t understand the rationale behind the decision, it’s extremely simple to fix.

Click your mouse on the desktop. While holding down CTRL, mouse wheel up or down and watch the icons resize accordingly. Easy right?

If you don’t have a mouse with a wheel there is another way, thankfully. Right-click on the desktop and choose View. You’ll see three options to chose the displayed icon size. Classic Icons is actually what you would be most familiar with from the XP days. The disadvantage of using this method the lack of a finer control in the resulting size; with the mouse wheel method, you achieve a few more intermediate steps rather than just the three provided.

Part of Microsoft’s secure computing initiative in Vista includes the disabling of the local administrator account. The rationale is that if would be hackers knew the account name they only needed to guess the respective password before further damage could be done. With a disabled administrator username, hackers or even malicious scripts need to determine the username that holds admin privileges as well as the accompanying password. It’s a minor change really that sounds better on a bulletted security features list than in practice. Nonetheless, I will never be one to fault Microsoft in working to improve security in their product.

The other day I got an email from a reader that asked about enabling the local administrator account in Vista. While I’m not entirely sure why this would be necessary – I’ll update this post if the user answers my reply – the process is pretty simple.

1. In Vista, click Start and right-click on Computer then choose Manage.



2. From the left hand menu expand Local Users and Groups and select Users.



3. You’ll see Administrator in the right hand panel. Right-click on it and choose Properties.



4. Now uncheck the box next to Account is disabled. Now on the Vista Welcome Login screen you should see the Administrator username as one of your login options. Easy!