Microsoft Talk

Downloading Windows Vista Service Pack 1 from Windows Updates:

• Download Windows Vista Service Pack and unpack it to your system.
• Run SP1Beta_Hack.cmd with administrator privileges and Windows Updates afterwards. It should show KB935509 which you should download and restart afterwards.
• Run Windows Updates again, it should display KB937287. Download and restart your PC afterwards.
• Run Windows Updates for a third time. Download the now appearing KB938371, restart your computer.
• Finally, visit Windows Updates again and you should see the Service Pack 1 Beta for Microsoft Windows Vista available for download.

Removing the Evaluation Copy message:

• This is fairly easy to accomplish. Run watermark_fix.reg first
• Rename user32.dll.mui to user32.dll.mui.old in C:\Windows\System32\en-US\
• copy user32.dll.mui from the archive to that location
• Reboot Windows Vista

Several websites claim that this is the legal way to download Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta. I’m not a lawyer and can only use my judgment here but I really can’t see a huge difference between downloading the Service Pack from Torrent sites or the Microsoft website. Both are not really authorized downloads somehow.

Via GHacks

Related Reading: Vista Cursors for XP | Copy Files Faster

Aaron shares a scripting technique that allows you to elevate to admin any given process, from the command line or in a script.

Script is written in JavaScript, which needs be placed in your user’s PATH (i.e., any directory mapped in the PATH variable) and executed from the command line.

In Vista activate a command with this script, and the UAC prompt will appear as it would if you’d manually launched the program as admin.

Vista Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista Tip, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

It’s called WOWLoader! Basically a patch by hackers that lets you play Halo2, meant for Windows Vista, on Windows XP SP2.

he latest version of the patch called Wowloader, first introduced at Filefront Forum earlier this week, contains a game setup loader (loader.exe) and a few DLL files like dwmapi.dll, mf.dll, mfplat.dll, wow.dll and xtaskdlg.dll which need to be placed in the directory where Halo 2 is installed. The loader.exe is required to install the game and subsequently launch it everytime. Users have reported to play Halo 2 successfully on Windows XP with Wowloader.

Download Wowloader 0.3

VIA ThinkAbdul

The x64 edition of Vista requires signed drivers for hardware?which can be a real problem if you have an application that attempts to install a driver that isn’t signed. Because driver signing isn’t something many independent software publishers bother to do (some simply lack the resources to do it), that often leaves them out in the cold.

Fortunately, according to Chris Holmes, there’s a workaround: It’s possible to manually edit 64-bit Vista’s boot configuration to disable the check for signed drivers. If you do this, any driver, signed or unsigned, can be installed as long as you have admin privileges.

However, one thing to be mindful of is that if you do this, it’s a one-way street: You have to leave driver-signing off in order for an unsigned driver to work. In other words, you can’t disable driver signing, install the driver in question, then re-enable driver signing. The process is simple enough.

1. Open an elevated CMD prompt (hit Start, type CMD in the search box, and then press Ctrl-Shift-Enter to run CMD as an admin).
2. Type: bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
   (Note: That’s DDISABLE — with two Ds — for “Driver Disable.”)

Driver signing should be disabled after you reboot. Note: The way this command is phrased, it’ll only make the changes in question for the current boot configuration. (If you want to create a second boot configuration with driver signing turned back on, that may be useful.)

Via TechTarget

Vista, Vista x64 Drivers, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista, Vista x64 Drivers, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Tech blog My Digital life links to a modified version of Dreamscene, describing on how to install and use this version on your operating system.

Just download the modified version, unpack it to your system and run a bat file that handles the installation as an administrator.

Dreamscene will then be available after the next restart.

Vista, Dreamscene, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista, Dreamscene, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

JohnTP shares a cool tweak tool for Vista. It’s Tweak VI.

What’s Tweak VI?

TweakVI is a software that lets you tweak hundreds of hidden features of Windows Vista, optimize your PC and customize it to your needs.

TweakVI is available in 3 different flavours:

1. Basic Edition
2. Premium Edition
3. Ultimate Edition

Only the basic edition is free.

The features not available in the basic edition are

• Memory optimization
• RAM disc drive, Pagefile setting, virtualdrives and ReadyBoost control
• Windows Vista Service manager
• Folder statistics and folder icons
• Autostart settings
• Taskbar and sidebar restrictions and settings
• Internet connection optimization
• File renamer, File shredder
• Password generator
• Manage installed softwares
• Registry repair, cleanup, backup and restore
• User Account Control (UAC) tweaks
• DiscDoctor

Checkout John’s blog for more juice

Vista, Tweak, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista, Tweak, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista Aero, that glassy effect on your Vista, is not available on Home Basic version.

There is a work around to that. I cannot test this, since I do not have the Home Basic version. But, you my dear reader can test and let me know if you have Home Basic version of Vista.

Workaround:

Change the values of two registry keys and restart Windows Vista.

1. Open the registry by pressing Windows + R,
2. Type regedit, press enter
3. Navigate to the key Hkey_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ DWM \ and change the value of the entry Composition to 1 and the value of CompositionPolicy to 0.
4. Restart

1. Select the Aero interface by right-clicking on the desktop
2. Select Personalize from the menu.
3. Switch to Colors and Appearance
4. Click on Classic Appearance Properties
5. Choose Windows Vista Aero from the menu.

That’s it!

Vista, Aero, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

Vista, Aero, MSTalkOnline, Alpesh Nakar

In my earlier posts here and here, I have highlighted about Vista’s ReadyBoost.

To note is that earlier versions of USB memory drives are not supported. However, there is a reg hack to make Vista Readyboost work with these drives.

To do that do the following. Right-click the device that you want to use for Readyboost and select properties. Switch to the Readyboost tab and uncheck “Stop retesting this device when I plug it in”. The old test values are stored in the registry which means that we have to edit some settings there to make Vista believe that the USB device meets all of the requirements. Unplug the device from the computer before you proceed.

Go to the key HKLM (Local Machine) -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows NT -> CurrentVersion -> EMDgmt which displays a list of all known USB devices on your computer. Choose the one that you want to use for Readyboost and edit the following keys in the right pane:

• Device Status - Change that value to 2
• ReadSpeedKbs - Change the value to 1000
• WriteSpeedKbs - Change the value to 1000 as well

After that is done you can use the USB device for Readyboost.

Vista, ReadyBoost, VistaHack

Vista, ReadyBoost, VistaHack