Speed Up Your External USB Drives in Windows Vista

By | January 10, 2009 |

Speed limitIf you’re like me, you’ve probably expanded the storage on your computer by adding an external hard drive or two.  I’m not talking about one of those USB thumb drives.  I’m referring to the USB connected 80GB+ drives that often require a separate power source.

In my system I store backups and archived data to the external drive, mostly items that I don’t plan to access frequently.  That being said, there is no reason why it couldn’t be a little quicker when I am using it.  Windows Vista has a little known tweak that will speed up your external USB hard drives and I’m going to show you how to do it.

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How To Properly Maintain Hard Drives with Defraggler

By | December 17, 2008 |

Pinform DefragglerIf you read our earlier article about tuning up your PC with CCleaner, then you already know about the high calibre of software that is developed by Piriform.  I’m definitely a big fan of the CCleaner product.  I’m sure you can guess that it was a no brainer that when Piriform released their next masterpiece, I just had to try it out!

Enter Defraggler, a powerful and easy-to-use defragmentation tool for your Windows managed hard drives.  This defrag tool really sets itself apart from it’s competitors by being a quality product with the perfect price tag – free.  This tutorial will give you a nice overview of the Defraggler tool, as well as provide you with the necessary knowledge to use it effectively on your home computer.

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How To Dual Boot Windows XP And Vista

By | December 15, 2008 |

xp-vista-logoEven though Windows Vista has been around for close to two years, there are still many people who can’t bear to get rid of Win XP due to its stability and better hardware support. Luckily you can get the best of both world by creating a dual boot between Vista and XP.

Here is the tutorial to create a dual boot Vista/XP system. It is divided into 3 scenarios: Installing XP/Vista on a blank unformatted hard disk, installing Vista with XP pre-installed, installing XP with Vista preinstalled.  You will find yourself in one of these scenarios.
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4 Tools To Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying Without Compromising Your Security

By | November 13, 2008 |

UAC

No doubt the Vista User Account Control (UAC) is the single biggest irritation in the whole operating system, but if you are thinking of turning it off altogether, you better think twice. UAC is a security feature that can help prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. By turning it off, you will lose all protection and put yourself in great risk of virus and malware attack. Hopefully, you have not forgotten that Windows has the most number of virus attack in the World.

A better way to deal with the UAC is to tweak it such that it continues to run in the background without popping out the annoying prompt every few seconds. Here are four software that you can use to make your UAC less annoying without compromising your security.

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How To Share Files In VirtualBox With Vista Guest And Ubuntu Host

By | November 12, 2008 |

microsoft_vista-logoFor some of you who have setup Windows Vista as the guest VM in your Ubuntu Virtualbox, you might have some difficulties in getting the Vista guest to access the shared folder in your Ubuntu host. If you are having this problem, here is the way to mount the shared folder on your Vista guest.

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Increase Efficiency: Use Windows Vista Shortcut keys

By | December 20, 2007 |

Can’t stand the lengthy process to start each application, or looking for more efficient way to increase your productivity? Here are some Windows Vista shortcut keys that might be useful (most of them work in Windows XP as well):

For writing or creating office document, press:

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How To Install Windows Vista In Ubuntu Gutsy Using VMware

By | November 29, 2007 |

For Ubuntu Gutsy users who find that they can’t live without Windows, or just want to give Vista a try, here’s your savior: VMware Server.

Vmware Server is a free to download virtual machine tool that allows you to install the various type of operating systems under a virtual environment.

Before you attempt to install Windows Vista, please make sure that your computer has at least 1GB of RAM (preferably 2GB), 16GB of hard disk space and a genuine Vista CD.

Here are the steps to install Windows Vista in Ubuntu using Vmware Server.

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Why Windows Vista Is Suitable For Gaming?

By | November 17, 2007 |

windows vista boot up imageI have many people asking me whether Windows Vista is suitable for gaming.

I suppose to use that as the title for this post, but I decided to change it. The reason being, whether you like it or not, Windows Vista is here to stay and will eventually replace Windows XP. Rather than discussing whether Windows Vista is suitable for gaming, it would be more worthwhile discussing why Vista is going to replace WinXP and become the next gaming platform.

Taking a look at the multi billion gaming industry, it is not hard to see that 90% of the games are designed to play in Windows. It is obvious that Microsoft benefits the most out of this. As such, it would be foolish of Microsoft if they were to make their latest generation of OS unsuitable for gaming.

If you ever study Vista in details, it is easy to see that Vista is really built with gaming in mind. Here’s why:
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