Vista Resources
I have installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my new PC, and while I’m still getting to grips with it, I have come across a few tools, gadgets, suggestions that make a few things easier and nicer to look at. I will probably continue to add new information as I come across it.
Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (FxVisor 1.2)
XP had TweakUI, Vista doesn’t, so removing the arrow on shortcuts is slightly harder, but FxVisor makes it easy!
Add Internet Explorer to Vista’s Desktop (FxDeskie 1.2)
Some people like to have the Internet Explorer icon on their desktop. In XP that was easy to turn on, but in Vista it isn’t With FxDeskie it brings that simplicity back.
The default clock on your sidebar is OK, but I prefer this one!
Make Winamp the default MP3 player
Unfortunately Winamp 5.x isn’t entirely Vista compatible, hopefully this situation will improve in a later update. The file types option does not have much effect in Vista, especially on MP3 files.
You will have to right click on an MP3, choose Open With, then “Choose Default Program…”
How to change the power button in Vista to shut down your PC
Sending your PC to sleep is great and all (amazingly fast to turn back on), but sometimes you don’t want to have to worry about the power going out and losing all your data.
Black Viper’s Windows Vista Service Configurations
Black Viper’s site is fantastic. He offers descriptions of what each service in Vista (and previous versions of Windows) does, and what the best setting for it is. His site was offline for a while, but it’s back and better than ever.
Make Firefox your default browser
Although you may think that Firefox is your default if you said Yes when it asked you, it might not be the browser that opens (IE) when you click on links in some programs such as mIRC or Yahoo! Messenger. This is easily fixed however.
Click on Start, Default Programs, Set Program Access and Computer Defaults, click on Custom. Now you’ll probably see that your browser option is set to “Use my current Web browser”, you must select Firefox here to force the setting. This might actually be the case for Opera too, I don’t use it myself so I can’t be sure.
