Facts about windows VISTA

1. If you press <SHIFT> key and right-click on a folder, you'll get "Open Command Window here" and "Copy as Path" options.

2. You can enable "Checkboxes" to select items using "Folder Options". It helps in selecting multiple items.

3. Windows DreamScene doesn't work, if "Show Translucent selection rectangle" option is disabled from System Properties (Performance Settings).

4. DreamScene stops running, when we maximize the active window.

5. When you change something from Performance Settings in System Properties, the Aero theme is automatically changed to Vista Basic theme.

6. If you press and hold <CTRL> key and then scroll with your mouse backward/forward on desktop, then the desktop icon size will increase/decrease.

7. If you press and hold <CTRL> key while pressing <ALT> + TAB or <WIN> + TAB, then it'll not disappear after leaving the keys. It'll remain there on screen and you can easily navigate through the windows.

8. Open "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and go to "Notification Area" tab. Now look carefully at the image and you'll find that the sidebar icon is still from Vista BETA releases and they forgot to update the image in RTM.

9. A new interesting feature in Vista is "Taskbar Thumbnails", which shows the opened windows previews when we move the cursor in taskbar. Yeah it works perfectly but I found that if we minimize/maximize a window by clicking on the taskbar and keep the cursor on it, then it doesn't show the thumbnail preview, it just shows the simple tool-tip.

10. One more thing I noticed, If a window is minimized, then its taskbar thumbnail doesn't show the live preview instead it shows a static preview. Same thing happens in case of <WIN>+Tab or <ALT>+Tab. It also shows a static preview of the window. And if the window is maximized, then u can see a live preview.

11. You can disable the startup sound (when Animated ORB is shown before login screen) from "Sound" applet in Control Panel.

12. There is a HIDDEN boot screen in Vista. Just enable "No GUI Boot" option in "Boot" of "msconfig".

13. By default Power button in Startmenu is not set to "Shutdown" in Vista. But you can change it using "Power Settings" applet in Control Panel.

14. Its related to the HIDDEN files. If a file/folder is HIDDEN under another folder/drive and we press <CTRL>+A or Select All, then Vista doesn't show any message saying "This folder contains hidden files. To select all files enable "Show hidden files" option from Tools -> Folder Options" and even if we enable "Status bar" in explorer. It doesn't show "x hidden files" in status bar. In XP status bar used to show no. of all files including hidden files and also explorer gives message when we try to select all files.

15. Enable "Statusbar" by pressing <ALT> key and go to "View -> Statusbar". Now open any folder containing images. Select any image file and see its size in statusbar. Now refresh the folder by pressing <F5> key and again select that file. Now see its size again in Statusbar. You'll be surprised by seeing its size. It'll be doubled. Again Refresh and again check the size in statusbar. It'll be again doubled. and so on...

So if you select a file and see its size in statusbar, suppose it is 1 MB, then after refreshing the folder and again selecting the file will show its size as 2 MB in statusbar and so on... If you select a different file after refreshing the folder, then it'll add the new file size in previous file size and will show the sum in status bar.

16. Go to "Organize -> Folder & Search Options". In "View" tab, enable "Show hidden files and folders" option and disable "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" option. Now check the Desktop, you'll get 2 "desktop.ini" files on desktop.

Now one thing : why are there, 2 desktop.ini files? I came to know that 1 file is for current user and 1 for all users profile. Ok, but why are these files shown on desktop after enabling/disabling above mentioned options? In earlier versions of windows (like XP) no such file was shown on desktop even the file exists in desktop folder, but it was not used to show on desktop. It was a good feature.

But in Vista, it looks so annoying. Many users like me enable "show hidden files/folders" option and disable the option "hide protected system files". But if we do so, then desktop starts showing those 2 ugly files. I want a clean desktop, as clean as possible.

And if you delete the files, they'll re-appear after a restart !

17. I always disable "Folder Options" in my windows, so that no one can change the options and no one can enable "show hidden files/folders" option. You can disable it either using "gpedit.msc" or using Registry Editor. Open regedit and go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoFolderOptions and set its value 1. It'll disable "Folder options". But in Vista "Folder Options" and "Search Options" have been combined in a single option "Folder & Search Options". So if we disable "Folder Options" using registry editor or gpedit.msc in Vista. It doesn't disable "Folder options" completely. I found that we can still access them by using following method:

Open "Search" and click on "Advanced Search" button. Now search for anything by typing something in Name, Tags or authors text boxes. After doing this, you'll get another toolbar under these options. Now click on "Search Tools -> Search Options" and what's that? You'll have full access to "Folder options". Every tab will be visible. So what's the use of disabling "Folder Options"? IMO, Search Options should only show "Search" tab and not all tabs.