How to Change Windows Vista Boot Screen
Some of you remember how it was possible to change the boot logo screen of Windows 95/98. I'm not sure why anyone would go into the trouble of actually doing it, but it seems that it is possible to do the same for Windows Vista.
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19.11.2007 Change Logon Background in Windows Vista
I caught this via Steve Clayton (who caught it via Jeff Sandquist showing off his home) - Stardock has a really neat application called LogonStudio that allows you to change the background of your logon screen in Windows Vista. I absolutely love the space background.
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2.12.2007 How Much Memory Does Vista Need?
With Windows Vista coming soon to a retail channel near you, one of the important questions to ask is, "How much memory does it really need?" There are the official minimum requirements of 512 MB, but we all know that minimum requirements don't translate to a great experience.
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23.1.2007 Microsoft agrees to change Vista desktop search
Microsoft agreed Tuesday to make changes to the desktop search feature in Windows Vista in an effort to assuage Google and head off a further antitrust battle with U.S. regulators.
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20.6.2007 Vista “Out of Memory” errors
You just can’t seem to throw enough memory at Vista. There have been a number of issues that Vista users have reported relating to copying and moving data, especially large numbers of files.
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17.10.2007 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 Microsoft to change Vista to satisfy Google antitrust complaint?
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has agreed to modify its new Vista operating system in response to complaints that its desktop search function puts Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) and other potential competitors at a disadvantage, a source familiar with the case told Reuters on Tuesday.
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20.6.2007 Vista: the Gender Challenged OS, After the Longhorn Sex Change
Windows Vista is a Microsoft gender-challenged operating system, after it has survived the Longhorn sex change. Just bear with me, it will all make sense in the end, I promise.
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22.3.2008 Mythbusting Windows Vista - Memory Management
Windows Vista is well on it's way and everyday more and more information is released. A lot of this information is misunderstood, regurgitated and out of the ashes many a myth has risen on Vista. I'd like to welcome a special guest author, Ned Gnitchel, who will be presenting a number of articles over the next little while debunking some of these myths. Ned works for a large software company and is a specialist in OS Internals, Directory Services and Collaboration.
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13.3.2006 Resolve Windows Vista Out of Memory Errors
Windows Vista "out of memory" errors are intimately connected with the way the operating system manages virtual address space.
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29.8.2007 Windows Vista Memory Tweak Guide
With every release of a new operating system come new demands and Windows Vista is by large no exception to this rule.
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23.10.2007 Vista SP1 Installed System Memory RAM
One of the aspects that Service Pack 1 changes for Windows Vista is the way that the operating system reports the amount of installed system memory.
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13.6.2008 What would you change in Windows?
If you were hired by Microsoft to make the Windows experience less annoying, what would be on your to-do list?
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30.4.2008 Check for RAM Error or Defect in Windows 7 and Vista with Windows Memory Diagnostic
Memory or RAM is one of the most important electronic hardware component on a computer systems, not only in term of speed or clock frequency and size, but also the reliability of hardware ecosystem of the RAM sticks or memory modules and its subsystem.
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1.10.2009 Can Dell change the Linux market?
After a lot of hemming-and-hawing, Dell has decided to accept the verdict of its IdeaStorm users and sell pre-installed Linux.
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26.2.2007 Exec says new Windows head will change culture
Sinofsky comes to the Windows group, which has not shipped a new product in nearly five years, with a reputation within Microsoft as an effective taskmaster and a track record of on-time new software releases delivered in regular intervals.
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27.3.2006 Change Office 2007 Product Key
When Office 2007 was RTM'ed and downloadable on MSDN I used Office Professional 2007. For my new course, SharePoint BI, which I'm writing at the moment I needed InfoPath as well.
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1.1.2007 Microsoft: We Didn’t Change Automatic Updates
Software giant says users are responsible for the modifications that generated claims of unauthorized patch installs.
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20.10.2007 Microsoft Details IE 8 Security Default Change
The company will enable DEP/NX (Data Execution Prevention/No Execute) by default in IE 8 when running on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
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11.4.2008 XP: Get Updates No Matter What or Change your Product Key
If your windows installation has issues, or for some other unmentionable reason is unable to get updates from the windows server, this is what you need to do.
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27.3.2006 Popular Instant Messenger, Gaim, Forced to Change Name
It was announced, yesterday, that the popular multi-headed instant messaging client, Gaim, has undergone a name change. The new name, Pidgin, comes after years of secret discussions and legal issues with internet giant, AOL.
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8.4.2007 Set and Change Windows 7 Registered Owner & Organization with SetOwner
It may happen that you have bought second hand laptop or computer with preinstalled Windows operating system and you are looking for the way to change ownership information.
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20.11.2009 The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software
Ray Ozzie has a long and storied history of technological innovation, with accomplishments that include creating Lotus Notes and founding Groove Networks.
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14.4.2007 Prevent 1.0 - Stop Unauthorized Copy, Delete, Move & Change of Settings
I am sure everyone has faced the situation where either their friends, colleagues, family member of kids renaming, deleting important files or changing settings like wallpaper, screen resolution etc. this is typical with younger sibling.
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17.9.2009 Windows 7 Non-Uniform Memory Access Architectures
Windows 7 will be able to take advantage not only of faster CPUs, but of multiple processors on a single chip. The 64-bit edition of the operating system in particular will be able to support over 64 Logical Processors per machine.
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28.12.2008 Minimem - Optimizing Windows Memory Usage
Running too many applications can cause computer performance to slow down or even crashed.
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24.8.2009 Release Unused Memory with VC RamCleaner
One of the main factors that causes computer performance slowness could be due to memory leak whereby memory is not being released properly after it was used.
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13.10.2009 Kernel Memory Space Analyzer Version 8.1 and guide
Microsoft Support Professionals Toolkit for Windows. The Kernel Memory Space Analyzer is a tool to help expert debugging engineers analyze Windows crash dump files.
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31.8.2006 Samsung develops new graphics memory speed limit
Samsung is getting ready to produce extremely fast memory chips to be used on future graphics cards.
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25.2.2007 Xbox Gets Bigger Live Games, Memory Card
Microsoft plans to allow Xbox Live Arcade games to use more space, announcing it had increased the official size limit from 50 to 150 megabytes. In addition, the company also announced a larger memory card with a capacity of 512MB.
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5.3.2007Nanochip promises cheaper, denser flash memory replacement
A number of companies have
been toiling away for years on
a replacement for flash
memory.
Nanochip, a relatively
small company that has
received VC funds from Intel,
among others, says it will
come out with a device in 2010
that will hold eight times as
much data as flash.
Additionally, the device's
cost per gigabyte will be two
to four times less, says
Nanochip CEO Gordon Knight.
Many
solutions have been proposed
for replacing flash--phase
change memory, spintronics,
silicon nanocrystals--and so
far no clear winner has
emerged. Phase change memory,
which involves heating
microscopic points on CD-like
media to record data, seems to
be the current leader. It
isn't perfect. No less a
luminary than Intel co-founder
Gordon Moore said it was just
around the corner, in 1970. ..
winbeta.org -
02.08.2007Microsoft denies Sony's Vista hardware claims
Microsoft has denied Sony's
claim that the current release
of Vista supports neither
Intel's Turbo Memory
technology nor hybrid hard
drives.
The spat
between the companies arose
after Sony revealed to
ZDNet.co.uk that it would not
include Turbo Memory an
embedded flash memory module
formerly known by its code
name Robson in this summer's
Vaio notebooks because Vista
will not allow the benefits of
Turbo Memory to be utilised
until Service Pack 1 (SP1) of
the operating system is
released later this year.
Turbo Memory is an
optional component of Intel's
Centrino Pro/Duo platform
(previously known as Santa
Rosa), which makes use of
Vista features such as
ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive.
These features use
non-volatile "third-stage"
memory alongside a computer's
RAM and traditional hard drive
to boost performance and
start-up time. Most
manufacturers are ready to
release Centrino Pro notebooks
that include Turbo Memory,
although HP has turned it down
due to worries over cost
efficiency and the limitations
it places on users who want to
use external flash memory to
boost performance...
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07.06.2007Windows Vista Memory Tweak Guide
With every release of a new operating system come new demands and Windows Vista is by large no exception to this rule.
There are several
relevant components to the Windows memory subsystem. In this guide we will put special emphasis on the hard drive, processor and RAM, taking you
through a variety of settings to optimally configure these and hopefully end up with an overall smoother running system.
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23.10.2007Gates: Windows 7 will "take less memory, be more efficient"
It can be argued that Microsoft's main focus with Windows Vista was security. While sceptics try to
claim
that there has not been much improvement, Vista does appear to be Microsoft's most secure OS to date.
Nevertheless, it's far
from perfect, and not only on the security front. While many tests show that Vista outperforms XP on some high-end computers, the average computer
system does not run Windows Vista as well as it does Windows XP. This will of course change as the average computer becomes more powerful and as
Microsoft tweaks the operating system (SP1 already offers some help), but the fact of the matter is that Vista is recognized as a slow operating
system.
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13.05.2008Changes afoot in Vista SP1 RC0/Windows 2008 RC0 kernel memory dumps
With the advent of Windows Vista there are changes made in how the operating system determines if it can take a kernel memory dump or not. Starting
in Vista the amount of memory allocated for kernel mode could vary dynamically. If the pagefile is not big enough, switching to minidump at dump time
cant be done easily. So the dump stack initialization is happening at the time of boot where this check for the pagefile size is done.
What does this mean? It means if you don't have a pagefile as large as physical memory at boot, and your system is configured for a kernel
dump, you'll end up getting a minidump. If you permit me to opine, this makes sense in the client space where a valid dump is more critical than a
corrupted kernel dump, as the results usually would get uploaded to Microsoft via WERCON or another mechanism. If further triage is needed MSFT could
contact you with the ability to setup a kernel capture.
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16.10.2007Improved startup repair tool, media throttling among Vista SP1 changes
To reassure customers that it really has been addressing consumers' concerns about Vista, Microsoft has made its change log to Windows Vista SP1
publicly available early...
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11.12.2007Microsoft: 10 Vista Activations
Spotted this over at Bit-Tech
earlier today:
"A Microsoft
spokesman... told us that
Windows Vista will not require
a system re-activation unless
the hard drive and one other
component is changed. This
means that enthusiasts will be
able to swap CPUs, memory and
graphics cards out without any
worry about having to
re-activate with MS, either on
the internet or by phone.
Should you change the
hard drive and another piece
of hardware - for example for
a major upgrade such as a
motherboard change that
requires a re-installation -
Microsoft will allow you to
re-activate up to 10 times.
You will not, however, be able
to have more than one machine
activated
concurrently."
This could pose some serious
problems for enthusiasts that
are constantly switching rigs
or components around. Although
Microsoft reserves the right
to allow more than 10
activations per copy, the
bit-tech folks believe keeping
a base 'activated' image of
Vista might save some
headaches down the road.
Update: Yes,
the article is rather vague
but does raise some
interesting issues. Most
importantly, what does
Microsoft consider a
re-activation to be? According
to the article you wont have
to 're-activate' a copy of
Vista unless you change the
hard drive and an
additional component. If I
simply reformat my existing
Vista PC and run the
activation wizard, will I have
used up one of my ten
activations?
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26.10.2006Windows Vista: How much memory is enough?
Usually a hardware upgrade isn't required for a new operating system. Yet if you are planning to upgrade Microsoft Windows XP to Microsoft Windows
Vista, it's almost impossible to avoid a PC overhaul.
Aside from things like the speed of your processor (minimum 800MHz), and
using a videocard that supports Vista's sublime Aeroglass graphical interface (DirectX 9), the most important and limiting factor is going to be
memory. If the PC doesn't have enough RAM to satisfy Vista's intense thirst, you'll be the slowest thing on two wheels. For the record, Vista's
minimum memory requirement is 512MB, though realistically that should be doubled.
Much of the focus on Microsoft Windows Vista
has revolved around its steep graphical interface requirements. Vista craves graphics cards that are DirectX 9.0C compatible with 128MB of memory to
run its AeroGlass feature. Next is the large drive space requirement, sitting at 15GB just for its installation files, Vista is a fat OS.
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29.08.2007Intel moves closer to flash memory replacement
Intel has been tinkering with
a concept of a phase change
memory device chip for nearly
30 years. Intel CTO Justin
Rattner demonstrated a 128-bit
sample of code-name Alverston
at the Intel Developer Forum
in Beijing and will start
sending samples to customers
in the first half of this
year. Intel is working on the
project with ST
Microelectronics. The chip,
made of a material similar to
the material that makes up CD
ROM discs, is divided up into
tiny bits.
When
heated, the material inside a
single bit turns crystalline.
As a light is shined on the
bit, the reflected image is
registered as a binary value
of "1". When reheated and
cooled, the same bit becomes
amorphous and becomes a "0".
Phase-change memory is seen as
a replacement for flash memory
but it could also factor in
the type of memory inserted
into computers. Although
manufacturers have been
shrinking the size of flash
memory chips rapidly and
steadily over the past several
years, the inherent properties
and structure of flash have
led many to believe that
progress will begin to slow in
the coming decade.
Manufacturers have been
scrambling to craft
alternatives out of such
technologies as nanocrystals,
magnetic memory and
spintronics.
Intel
co-founder Gordon Moore talked
up the potential for Ovonics
memory, a variant of phase
change memory, in a September
1970 article for Electronics
magazine. In 2001, the company
touted it as a possible flash
replacement and analysts
predicted it could hit the
market by ~2003. Phase change
memory consumes little power,
lasts far longer than
conventional memory, and can
hold large amounts of data in
a small space. The bits also
can't flip or get corrupted
easily. However, switching a
bit from crystalline to
amorphous requires pulsing it
with an electronic charge or
heating it up rapidly to 600
degrees Celsius without
flipping the neighbouring
bits.
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18.04.2007Intel Eyes 2GHz Memory with XMP Technology
Even though a number of memory makers have already released memory modules capable of operating at 1.80GHz, there are no memory modules to break the
2.0GHz barrier nowadays. But this may change soon, as Intel is not only working with JEDEC on 1866MHz and 2133MHz DDR3 standards, but also plans to
enable such speed-bins via its extreme memory profile (XMP) technology.
śWe are working on adding a few more speed bins to JEDECs
standard DDR3s definition “ specifically like 1866MHz and 2133MHz “ even though these speed bins will first be covered by the XMP spec,ť said
Christopher Cox, senior staff engineer for Intels platform memory operations, in an interview with
TechGage web-site.
At the moment Intel is reportedly working on its Intel X48 platform that will officially support PC3-12800 (1600MHz) memory as well as faster,
e.g., 1800MHz and higher memory modules via XMP. Technically, PC3-17000 (DDR3 2133MHz) memory support via XMP may be available as soon as memory
modules can work at such speed. However, in order to get beyond that, PC3-17000 has to be ratified officially.
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10.10.2007Notebook Makers Moving to 4 GB Memory As Standard
Digitimes reports that first-tier notebook manufacturers are
increasing the standard
installed memory from the current 1 GB to 4GB. They claim the move is an attempt to shore up the costs of DRAM chips, which are currently
depressed because of a glut in market. The glut is supposedly due to
increased manufacturing capacity and
the slow adoption of Microsoft's Vista operating system. The proposed move is especially interesting, given that
32-bit Vista and XP cannot access 4 GB of memory. They have a
practical 3.1 — 3.3 GB limit. With Vista SP1 it seems that Microsoft has decided to fix the problem
by reporting the installed memory rather than the
available memory.
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22.12.2007Microsoft Concedes to Google and States, Will Change Vista Search
In agreeing to make what could
be described technically as a
minor change to the way it
handles its options for
consumer desktop search,
Microsoft last night may have
made its most symbolically
significant statement to date
with regard to its current
stance in the technology
market: It backed down, in
response to a complaint from
Google that its placement of
desktop search capabilities
within Windows Vista
constituted a breach of its
antitrust settlement agreement
with the US and states'
governments regarding
middleware...
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20.06.2007Vista SP1 to be just 45MB over Windows Update?
Mary Jo Foley got a chance to
see a note sent to certain
testers of Vista SP1 earlier
this month and quite a few
interesting factoids have
turned up in it:
Q: How big is SP1?
A: śWindows Vista
SP1 is approximately 45 MB
when delivered over Windows
Update and is designed to not
significantly change the UI or
regress application
compatibility.ť
Q: What are some examples
of śsupport for emerging
technologies and
standards?ť
A:
śWith SP1, Windows Vista can
boot via EFI (Extensible
Firmware Interface) on an x64
machine. SP1 supports ExFAT, a
new file format that will be
used in flash memory storage
and consumer devices Support
for SD Advanced DMA Support to
improve transfer performance
and decrease CPU utilization
is part of SP1
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30.07.2007Memory Usage of Chrome, Firefox 3.5, et al.
This experiment graphs the
memory usage of Chrome and Firefox 3.5 (along with Safari and Opera)
over a series of 150 Web page loads using an automated script. Firefox 3.5 shows the lowest memory usage in all categories, including average memory
usage, maximum memory usage, and final memory usage. Chrome uses over 1 GB of memory due to its process architecture. Safari 4 and Opera show memory
usage degradation over time, while Chrome and Firefox 3.5 are more reliable in freeing memory to the OS.
winbeta.org -
21.06.2009New theme coming for Vista
Mentioned at a dinner last
night with Jim Allchin was
that a new theme is coming to
replace the Non-Aero Theme for
Vista Capable PCs (PC's that
cannot run Windows Aero).
Also mentioned were
some other great features
coming from Vista, Restart
Manager and Windows
ReadyBoost.
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25.05.2006Tracing the memory leak: Is it Firefox 3?
Yesterday, we mentioned that we've been noticing recent versions of Firefox, including 3.0.5, have exhibited the memory leak problems that used to
plague Firefox 2. We are noticing this on both Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1.
We'd also noticed that systems where the add-on Tab Mix Plus
was installed, did not appear to exhibit the same memory leak. Today, we uninstalled Tab Mix Plus (reluctantly, because we like it) from one system.
On that system, the memory use pattern has
changed, perhaps moderated, though we're not sure the leak has gone away. It now appears to be
slower than in our tests yesterday, and from time to time, something in Firefox does clean up parts of memory from time to time. In one test,
we had two Firefox windows open with seven tabs open in one of them, a dozen in the other -- a pretty full slate. Task Manager is showing us that
Firefox grabs memory in one-megabyte chunks per second, for about a minute at a time, and then leveling back out to about 300,000 KB.
So if
it's not a leak right now, at least it's a
fight, and we'll let you know what else we find...
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20.01.2009Windows Vista: The Facts
When choosing a new operating system, the first thing many people ask is, "What will it help me do?" In answer, much of this site shows you the
great experiences Windows Vista helps you have. The second thing many people say is, "Prove that it's better." In particular, many of you have
asked about performance and safety improvements. The following information provides specific proof that Windows Vista is faster and safer.
- The
majority of Windows Vista-based PCs boot in less than a minute, which can be an improvement over Windows XP boot times. And the new Windows Vista
sleep and resume features can bring your PC to life in a snapin fact, the vast majority of all Windows Vista-based PCs resume from sleep in less than
6 seconds.
- PCs running Windows Vista that are equipped with 512 MB memory experience a performance boost of up to 40 percent with Windows
ReadyBoost. Just plug a USB flash drive into your computer, and Windows Vista will automatically start using it to speed up memory access to important
data.
Read full story.....
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20.01.2008Lexar to put Wi-Fi on a memory card
The memory chip manufacturer will use technology from Eye-Fi to add network connectivity for users of its own memory cards...
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11.01.2008Dell, Intel, and Microsoft to push 'ReadyBoost,' Hybrid Drives
Companies including Dell,
Microsoft, and Intel announced
on Wednesday the formation of
a new group to promote the
adoption of nonvolatile
memory, or NAND flash, in PC
storage applications.
The Non-Volatile Memory
Host Controller Interface
(NVMHCI) Working Group, as
it's being called, will be
chaired by Intel and will
provide a standard software
programming interface for
nonvolatile memory subsystems.
The group says the
interface will be used by
operating system drivers to
access NAND flash memory
storage in the applications
such as hard drive caching and
solid-state drives. Today, PCs
already use this technology;
"ReadyBoost" is what
Microsoft calls its Vista disk
caching technology that makes
computers running the OS more
responsive by using flash
memory on a USB 2.0 drive, SD
card, or other forms of flash
memory. ..
winbeta.org -
31.05.2007Microsoft bails on virtualization licensing changes for Vista
Microsoft almost tweaked its
licensing terms for Windows
Vista yet again this time in
order to ease virtualization
restrictions that irked a
number of customers and
partners. But in the eleventh
hour, company officials
decided against the move,
resulting in Microsoft
cancelling its planned
announcement.
Microsoft officials were
preparing to announce
officially on June 20 that
Microsoft had a change of
heart and would allow users to
run all versions of Windows
Vista in a virtualized
environment. Microsoft
prebriefed a number of news
and blogging outlets,
including me, about the
planned change under
non-disclosure.
Currently, Microsofts
end-user license agreement
(EULA) specifies that users
can run only the Business and
Ultimate versions of Vista in
virtual machines from
Microsoft and other vendors...
winbeta.org -
20.06.2007
