Twelve unnecessary Vista features to disable
Excess code has a way of slowing down an operating system; here are 12 Vista features that you can turn off right now.
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5.9.2008 Disable Windows Vista Evaluation Watermark from Desktop
If an user install Windows Vista in trial or demo or evaluation mode, by skipping and not keying in any Windows product registration key when asked during installation of Windows Vista.
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24.11.2006 Enable/Disable/Swap the Task Manager in Windows Vista
Task Manager is a system utility that ships by default with Windows Vista. The tool is not new to Microsoft's latest operating system, having survived from older versions of Windows.
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11.10.2007 Turn Off or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista
User Account Control (UAC) is a new security feature in Windows Vista that requires all users to log on and run in standard user privileges mode instead of as administrator with full administrative rights, thus prevent unauthorized or accidental changes that could destabilize the computers or allows virus and malware to exploit the system-level privileges provided to the local administrator to attack the network security, compromise computer safety and privacy, and damage files and settings in the network.
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19.12.2006 Disable and Turn Off Windows Vista Search Indexer and Indexing Service
Windows Vista has greatly enhanced its search algorithm where the search process is now not only faster, but users can also easily search for almost all kind of files, documents, pictures, videos, emails and contacts in Outlook 2007, and even commands or application programs’ executables.
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19.9.2007 How To Disable Use the Web service to find the correct program Displayed in Windows Vista
When opening a file with unknown extension, normally you will see an additional window popping up that give you options of whether to use the web service to find the correct program or select a program from a list of installed programs.
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20.3.2009 Disable and Remove Half-Open TCP Connections Limit (to Unlimited) in Windows 7 and Vista SP2 with EnableConnectionRateLimitin Registry Key
Officially, the incomplete half-open outbound TCP connection attempts allowed at any one time is now unlimited by default in Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP2 (Service Pack 2), and Windows 7. Actually, the ability to limit or restrict number of half-open outgoing TCP connections system can create or establish is built into Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7, however it’s disabled by default.
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8.6.2009 How to Enable or Disable Windows Task Manager
ask Manager is a versatile task management and system utility in Windows operating system. With Task Manager, user can view detailed information about computer performance (CPU usage, physical memory, kernel memory, handle, thread, commit charge, etc.), running applications, processes, network activity and statistics, logged-on users, and system services.
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18.6.2008 Bypass and Disable Genuine Windows Validation Check
Microsoft has made it harder for illegitimate, or for whatever reason, your copy of Microsoft Windows couldn't be validated, users to retrieve updates via Microsoft Updates or Windows Update, and download programs from Microsoft Download Center.
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19.5.2006 Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7
To help our customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 soon after the final version of the browser is released (planned for fourth quarter 2006).
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27.7.2006 Microsoft: Disable or Remove the Pilot of WGA Notifications
Microsoft is providing end users with the instructions necessary to disable or remove altogether the WGA Notifications anti-piracy mechanism from Windows XP.
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1.9.2008 How to Disable/Turn off Bing Home Page Image
Microsoft new search engine Bing.com is steadily becoming popular and more and more users have started using bing to search.
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3.8.2009 How To Remove and Disable Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
Windows 7 and Windows Vista comes with a memory diagnostic utility named as Windows Memory Diagnostic. Windows Memory Diagnostic is an utility that capable of scan, check and diagnose computer’s memory subsystem including physical RAM modules or sticks.
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5.10.2009 WinodwsUpdateSilencer - Disable Windows Update Restart Alert Message
Windows Automatic Updates is definitely helpful feature to keep Windows up to date with latest updates and thereby keeping it secure from viruses, worms and hacker.
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9.9.2009 Disable Aero Snap Auto Maximize and Arrange Window in Windows 7
Windows 7 includes a new feature called Aero Snap that intends to improve open windows management on the desktop. Aero Snap allows user to drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize the window automatically, or to the left or right side of the screen to resize the window to fill and take up half of the screen estate on the moved side automatically.
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19.5.2009 Windows 7 RTM Changes Disable DirectX Client-side Rendering over RDP 7
Changes implemented post-RC and ahead of the release to manufacturing deadline of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have stripped away the DirectX client-side rendering over RDP 7 from the operating systems, Microsoft has informed.
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22.6.2009 Disable and Remove OGA Office Not Genuine Notifications Uninstall KB949810
After installing Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications (KB949810) from Windows Update, OGA Validation will perform genuine test on installed Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 software. If Office product is validated as not genuine, “This copy of Microsoft Office is not genuine” notification message will be displayed on notification area (system tray), at splash screen during Office program (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) startup, and at Office’s toolbar or ribbon with extra “Get Genuine Office” tab or element.
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18.10.2009 Disable and Remove URGE Online Store in Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11)
Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) for Windows XP is the latest Windows Media Player (WMP) for Windows Vista, and available as free standalone program downloadable from Micrsoft for genuine Windows XP SP2 users. WMP 11 features Windows Vista-like feel and touch user interface, plus several other improvements and enhancements.
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20.11.2006 Hack to Turn Off and Disable Windows 7 CD or DVD Writer Burning and Auto Tray Ejection Feature
Windows 7 inherits the capability to burn or write to CD and DVD burner or writer, with additional support to directly burn ISO and IMG disc images with Windows 7 Explorer.
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18.8.2009 How to Install Vista Language Packs MUI on all versions of Vista + video tutorial
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Business versions of the Microsoft licensing restrictions can only preserve a language!
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23.9.2008 The Vista Built-in Super Administrator Account Has Survived in Vista SP1
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is designed to evolve the RTM version of the latest Windows client from Microsoft, made available in November 2006 to business customers, and in January 2007 to the general consumers.
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15.2.2008 Vista SP1 Is Out, XP SP3 Old News, the Pink Edition of Vista Is In
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is now nothing more than water under the bridge, now that the service pack was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, shipping to general users on March 18.
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27.3.2008 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008 Instant Change Vista Product ID with Vista ProductID Changer
In past we have reviewed number of application to recover product key like Product Key Finder, WinGuggle, Windows product Key Finder.
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1.11.2009 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 x64 Vista SP2 JPG Rendering Performance Inferior to x86 Vista SP2's
The JPG rendering process on 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is inferior to that on the 32-bit variants of the operating system.
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10.6.2009 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the “Chinese” come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however “ Vista Boot by gkend” does promise even more.
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21.5.2007Microsoft: Please Don't
Disable UAC
At Windows Vista lab in
Redmond before the release of
Beta 2, Microsoft developers
showed off the new OS to a
room full of MVPs and
enthusiasts. But even the
company's most loyal fan base
turned ugly when User Account
Control took the stage. Now,
Microsoft is begging users not
to disable the controversial
feature...
betanews.com -
28.06.2006Microsoft: Malware can disable UAC in Windows 7 "by design"
A month has barely passed since the public beta debut of Windows 7 and we have our first horror story. UAC (user account control) was the major gripe
with Windows Vista which annoyed most tech savvy users and confused ordinary consumers. Microsoft has changed the behavior in Windows 7, lowering the
requirement for user interaction when changing system settings. The apparent downside to this is, according to reports, the way Microsoft has changed
the behavior makes it extremely easy for malware authors to write code to disable UAC without user intervention.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
30.01.2009Twelve unnecessary Vista features to disable
Vista, thy name is bloat! The latest Windows packs a lot of code -- more than any version of Windows ever -- and some of it is just plain unnecessary.
All of that excess code has a way of slowing down an operating system. You can regain some PC performance by removing unneeded features.
InfoWorld have identified a dozen Vista features that you can turn off right now. Some are shiny baubles that slow down graphics performance, while
others are optional utilities that hog memory when they shouldn't. A few can actually be quite useful, though they play a major role in bogging
down your PC.
neowin.net -
05.09.2008Windows Vista Dec. CTP 5270
ScreenShots
I wanted to release some
[b]screenshots of Vista Dec.
CTP 5270[/b] for people to get
a first hand look at the great
new OS from Microsoft. (Best
viewed at 1024 x 764) Click
Read More! For ScreenShots +
How to disable the permit and
deny application in Vista
5270!
Please Email
for any additional images! -
Enjoy
[email=CiscoTM@Gmai
l.com]CiscoTM@Gmail.com[/email
]..
winbeta.org -
23.12.2005Lenovo lets you disable your laptop with a text message
In the next couple months Lenovo will be rolling out a BIOS update for its Montevina laptop users which enables remote shutdown and subsequent
encryption via text message. The tech relies on the laptop having a WWAN connection and activates when a custom string, defined by the user and sent
from a single, paired phone, is received. In other words, you can choose whatever you want as the shutdown signal, from a cool "Kill" or
"Self-Destruct" to a long, patronizing multi-part message about the thieving youth of today. Constant Secure Remote Disable, as it's called,
isn't being touted as a first line of defense.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
25.11.2008Vista Performance and Reliability Pack Unofficial Release
Thanks Nekrosoft for the news
on this major update to
Windows Vista that should for
most of us improve the speed
and reliability of Windows
Vista significantly!
Please note: These fixes
break all current methods of
bypassing driver singing
requirements except the good
old F8 during boot (that you
have to do every single time
you start vista)
IF
you are using Rivatuner,
atitool and or Peerguardian on
64bit vista, you will have to
use F8 every single time to
disable driver signing
requirements to use those two
programs. x86 version is
unaffected.
These
updates should go official on
the next patch Tuesday (in one
weeks time). Please read more
for the download links and
information on these
updates.
R
ead full story.....
neowin.net -
30.07.2007Microsoft hands Vista code to security vendors
Microsoft has taken the first
step toward addressing
complaints made by security
vendors Symantec Corp. and
McAfee Inc., which had feared
that the software giant's
upcoming Vista operating
system would harm their
customers. On Monday,
Microsoft released API
(application programming
interface) code that will
allow security vendors to
disable the Security Center
management console that will
ship with Vista. Symantec and
McAfee had complained that
without the ability to disable
this software, Vista users who
had purchased their products
would receive duplicate and
confusing security messages.
The APIs are being
released via several of
Microsoft's security partner
programs, including the
SecureIT Alliance and the
Microsoft Security Response
Alliance, said Adrien
Robinson, a director with
Microsoft's Security
Technology Unit.
neowin.net -
17.10.2006Microsoft ignores Vista upgrade loophole
Microsoft will not close a
loophole that offers consumers
a cheaper way to upgrade to
Windows Vista.
The procedure is
time consuming, but allows
users to save about 35 per
cent of the purchase price for
the regular Windows
Vista.
"People without a licensed
copy of XP that use this
workaround are violating the
terms of use agreed to when
they purchased the upgrade
version of Windows Vista," a
Microsoft spokesman told
vnunet.com.
"As such, we believe only a
very small percentage of
people will take the time to
implement this workaround, and
we encourage all customers to
follow our official guidelines
for upgrading to Windows
Vista."
Microsoft added that it does
not have any plans to disable
the workaround at this
time.
jcxp.net -
08.02.2007Vista: What are wmpnscfg.exe and wmpnetwk.exe and Why Are They Running?
So you've been going through Task Manager trying to figure out why so many services are running when you notice there's two items for Windows Media
Player in the list¦ but you don't even use Media Player. What's up with that?
It's not like the processes take a lot of
memory¦ I just get irritated when there's a process that restarts for no good reason. You disable it, and then somehow it's back. Annoying!
winbeta.org -
12.03.2008Microsoft to release update to detect Vista activation exploits
Alex Kochis: <...> Later this month Microsoft will release an update to Windows Vista through Windows Update that will enable Gold and SP1-installed
systems to detect the presence of the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS exploits then alert the customer of their presence. The dialog box (shown below) also
provides customers with guidance about what they can do to fix it and provides a Web link for more details, so that customers can learn about the
particular exploit and learn how to disable and remove it. If they are a victim of software piracy, the linked Web pages will provide information on
how to get genuine software.
winbeta.org -
22.02.2008Windows 7 vs Windows Vista: The UAC Benchmark
One of the most hated features of Windows Vista is the
User Account
Control, or UAC in short. Many people found it annoying and chose to
disable it right away, even if this meant exposing their system to
additional security threats. In Windows 7, Microsoft has seriously changed this feature. Now users have a lot more control over it and how it works
and it should provide a better user experience. To see how much improvement this means in numbers, I have run a comparison between the default Windows
Vista and Windows 7 UAC levels. Let's see which one wins and why.
winbeta.org -
05.08.2009Sony laptops disable Windows 7's XP Mode
It's not looking good for Sony Vaio owners who were looking to get their hands on a hot, fresh release of Windows 7 - Sony has disabled hardware
virtualization in their laptop range, thus rendering Windows XP Mode in Windows 7, and many other Virtual Machine Based products, such as VMware and
Virtualbox pretty much useless. Sony claims that they are disabled for "security" reasons - which doesn't really seem to make any sense; Sony
has also said that they will re-enable hardware virtualization on "select" laptops from the Vaio range.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
11.08.2009Lenovo creates SMS "kill pill'
If BIOS-level passwords, fingerprint recognition and encrypted hard drives aren't enough for the most paranoid portable PC user, get set for the
latest in security. A new service will allow users to disable a lost or stolen 3G notebook by sending it an SMS message! From early next year,
Lenovo's new Constant Secure Remote Disable service will allow owners of the latest ThinkPads to shut down their system by sending it a special
SMS message from your mobile phone. Once the laptop shuts down, the self-encrypting hard drive will scramble the data.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
26.11.2008BREIN claims victory over Demonoid, Demonoid claims downtime was coincidental
There's a bit of a public
relations tug of war currently
going on between BREIN and
Demonoid. BREIN is a Dutch
copyright protection firm
who's made a name for itself
by attempting to rid the
Netherlands of "illegal"
BitTorrent sites. Demonoid is
a private BitTorrent tracker
who has gained a significant
following over the last
several years. Caught in
between is LeaseWeb, a hosting
company that serves many
BitTorrent websites.
BREIN's latest victory
came last week when a Dutch
court ruled that LeaseWeb must
disable the BitTorrent site
Everlasting.nu and provide the
owner's personal details to
BREIN. Everlasting.nu wasn't
the only site BREIN wanted to
see disabled. As part of the
same complaint against
Everlasting.nut, three weeks
ago BREIN also demanded that
LeaseWeb disable Demonoid as
well.
Yesterday, it
appeared that BREIN had gotten
its way. Demonoid was off
line, and BREIN claimed
victory over another
BitTorrent website...
winbeta.org -
28.06.2007TweakVista Beta Now Available
TweakVista is a utility that enables
users to optimize the
performance and behavior of
Windows Vista. The program has
been designed to allow both
casual, non-technical users to
safely use it as well as
contain a host of advanced
features for power users to
dig into the internals of
Windows Vista.
The
feature-packed utility
includes features such as:
- Security Handling:
Users can now easily and
safely adjust the way Windows
handles security prompting
including the new UAC (User
Account Control)
-
Memory Optimization:
TweakVista knows which
start-up services different
types of users will typically
use and offers recommendations
on what services to disable.
Users can easily switch
between different profiles
(including the default) based
on their needs to maximize
performance and memory use.
- Resource Control: Tweak
Vista has several features for
keeping an eye on and flagging
programs that use excessive
amounts of resources (memory,
CPU, or system handles) as
well as integrating seamlessly
with built in hardware
diagnostic reports...
winbeta.org -
21.06.2007ActiveX Under Seige: Facebook, MySpace Image Uploaders Vulnerable
Web surfers are urged to immediately disable ActiveX controls from IE to protect against a swath of publicly reportedand unpatchedsoftware
vulnerabilities.
The US-CERT is urging Web surfers to immediately disable ActiveX controls from Internet Explorer to protect
against a swath of publicly reportedand unpatchedsoftware vulnerabilities.
The US-CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team)
recommendation follows the release of exploit code for multiple zero-day flaws in image uploaders used by Facebook and MySpace and bugs in the ActiveX
control that ships with the Yahoo Music Jukebox software.
winbeta.org -
05.02.2008Understanding Windows Vista Service Hardening
Microsoft has been touting Windows Vista as the most secure Windows ever. Backing up that claim, Microsoft has included a number of new security
features in the operating system. These new features are designed to address some of the common vectors by which previous versions of Windows have
fallen to anonymous miscreants and other criminals.
One such new feature in Windows Vista is known as Windows Service Hardening.
In older versions of Windows, services did not necessarily run with the least possible privileges. In fact, Windows services often ran under accounts
with very high level of access, such as the LocalSystem account. Further, users are often not aware of the services running on their systems, and do
not realise that some services are safe to disable. Finally, services and user applications ran in the same space, which could result in inappropriate
access. As a result of services running with privileges that did not match necessity, and services running that users did not require, Windows
desktops were left more vulnerable to attack.
winbeta.org -
04.09.2007US-CERT: Turn Off ActiveX for Security
Although it's not the first
time this branch of the US
Dept. of Homeland Security has
made this suggestion, its
Computer Emergency Response
Team this morning is
recommending that users
disable ActiveX altogether, in
the wake of yesterday's
discovery of a critical
vulnerability...
betanews.com -
02.11.2006Windows 2003 KB: Slow network communication from Vista RTM (6000) to Windows 2003 SP2
Brad Rutkowski: This was one issue I worked on for quite some time a few months ago. We found that Vista clients were taking forever to download
group policies from domain controllers in the regions while Vista SP1 and XP clients did not see the issue. If the local DC was running LH or Windows
2003 SP1, we didn't see any issue. If the server was running Windows 2003 SP2 though and had a certain type of hardware we would see the latency.
Based on customer reports, Windows Dev learned of more widespread devices in the network that dont understand greater window
scale factors. So, they improved the heuristics in SP1 for when to limit or disable auto-tuning, which is why we only saw in in Vista RTM and not
SP1.
The bug is in Windows 2003 SP2 and the details can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947773 So if you find that you have vista clients experiencing network
latency when hitting a Windows 2003 SP2 server (File server, DC, Exchange, etc) then you should look into this hotfix.
winbeta.org -
31.01.2008Disabling UAC Slows Vista's Bootup Time?
Blogger Chris123NT is reporting that the LUAFV driver, which controls UAC in Vista, can cause latency issues if the controversial feature is disabled.
Apparently, once UAC is disabled, a registry tweak that disables the driver in question also needs to be applied if the user wants to have solid boot
times back (improved boot times obviously vary from machine to machine). The problem occurs in both Vista RTM and the current beta build of Vista SP1
(6001.17042). This seems to me like yet another reason why it’s not a good idea to disable UAC, but I'm sure UAC haters will have a very
different perspective. It will be interesting to see how fast Microsoft will patch this problem, considering how important security is nowadays.
neowin.net -
15.12.2007
