Smallvoid.com

Have spent the last few months writing a few articles for CodeProject.com. During this time the collection of unpublished tips have been growing. Here is a few to start with:

• Added Vista Tip about how to run programs elevated without UAC prompt. Credits HowToGeek.com
• Added Vista Tip about how to change the OEM branding of the Welcome Center. Credits Unlock for Us
• Added Vista SP1 Tip about how to restore the search context menu option. Credits VistaX64.com
• Added Vista Tip about how to enable auto-tuning of the RWIN in Internet Explorer

Have also been playing around with Wordpress to add support for HTTP 304 return code when using wp-cache. After enabling the support, then this blog returned 3 times as many 304 responses, though the bandwidth usage is pretty much the same according to the website statistics.

I changed from Windows 2000 to Vista some time ago, and low and behold Vista uses a wee bit more disk space. Sadly enough the system partition is only 15 GByte, so it is a "daily" struggle to keep disk usage down (Especially when SP1 had to be installed). Right now there is 2 GByte available free space, after installing all my usual applications, this lead me down the futile road of trying to minimize the size of the Windows install.

• Using NTFS compression to save disk space is not a recommended strategy when using Vista, but there are some candidate folders when using WinXP.
• Saving power using CPU throttling is automatically enabled on Vista, but it can also be done on Windows XP.
• It is quite easy to change the default folder view for all folders in Windows XP.

Note AVG is frequently nagging about upgrading to version 8.0, and the new AVG version introduces a Link Scanner plugin. The Link Scanner will be installed even if selecting not to install it. The Link Scanner will make hooks into you web-browser, and be activated whenever a link is clicked or a search result is displayed. If not interested in having this babysitter around, then one can uninstall it with this command-line (Better than disabling as it will prevent the warning about an AVG component not running):

avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch

Microsoft have made Vista even more stable with SP1 (though the major contributor is probably Vista ready drivers), and have at the same time given XP some love by collecting all patches released since SP2 into a single tested SP3 package.

Vista SP1 introduces a new Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol service, which allows VPN over SSL and makes it easier to setup VPN connections.

WinXP SP3 now also includes the Network Access Protection Agent, which makes it easier to protect the network against simple user mistakes, such as forgetting to apply security and antivirus updates. The Wireless Zero Configuration have been split into two, so now it only takes care of Wireless 802.1X authentication, while the new Wired AutoConfig service takes care of wired connections.

Note Firefox 3 RC1 also seem ready for prime time (besides the usual bug fixes). Been using FF3 the last few weeks and it has been very stable (Had to upgrade my firefox addons and the Flash Player plugin manually). Really like the new features in the address-bar, but I miss the persistent Go-button. Another new feature is the ability to duplicate a tab by holding down the CTRL-key while dragging the tab with the mouse (Would be nice with a right-click option). Detailed list of Changes in Firefox 3

Windows Vista includes support of several new network features if they are available on the network interface card (also possible with Win2k3 SP2). One of the new features is the Receive-side Scaling (RSS), which actually solves the issue of MMCSS needing to throttle network traffic, as it offloads the handling of interrupts and DPC to other CPU cores. Though one cannot use RSS if using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).

• Added Vista Network Tip about the available features in NDIS 6.
• Added WinNT Network Tip about the available features in NDIS 5.
• Added Vista Tip about how to disable the auto detection of the folder template. Credits Vistax64.com
• Updated tip about Windows System File Cache with details of how to set a max size for the file cache in Win2k3. Credits NTDebugging Blog

Seems a lot of people like to save hard-disk space using NTFS compression, but accidently also compresses the boot manager files so it fails to boot.

Have added some articles about the Vista Boot Manager and system recovery:

• Configuration of the boot manager entries which also includes two free utilities that are easier to use than BCDEdit.
• Windows Recovery Environment which replaces the Recovery Console known from Windows 2000/XP/2003.
• Boot Manager is missing or compressed which describes some solutions for these errors.