A Grab Bag of Great Vista Interface Hacks

Hack ClearType

You can, however, turn off ClearType. To do it through the GUI, right-click the desktop and select
Personalize→Windows Color and Appearance→Open classic appearance properties for more color.
options→Effects. The screen shown in Fig appears. In the drop-down box, select Standard,
and click OK and OK again. ClearType is now turned off
Remove the Text from Desktop Icons

Rightclick an icon and select Rename. Then, while holding down the Alt key, type 255 on the keypad, then
click the icon. The text will disappear from your desktop. If you’re using a laptop, you’ll need to turn
on numlock, and use the K key for the letter 2, and the I key for the letter 5, to enter 255

Use Checkboxes to Select Items in Windows Explorer
in Windows Explorer select Organize→Folder and Search Options→View.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen, and check the box next to “Use check boxes to select items.”
Click OK.

Get Back Your Favorite Desktop Icons

Right-click the desktop and select Personalize. On the lefthand side of the
screen, select Change Desktop Icons.Check the boxes
next to the icons you want to appear, and click OK.

Make Windows Animation Go Slo-Mo

Launch the Registry Editor Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command
prompt (see Chapter 13 for details) and then:
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM.
Select Edit→New DWORD (32-bit) Value, and create a new DWORD called AnimationsShiftKey.
Give it a value of 1.
Close the Registry Editor.
Log off of Windows and then log back in again, or else reboot.
Hold the Shift key and minimize or maximize a window. The animation will be slowed downconsiderably. To make the animation go at normal speed, let go of the shift key.

Speed Up Windows Aero
One problem with Windows Aero is that it may slow down your system. If you want, you can turn it
off:
Right-click the Windows desktop and select Personalize→Window Color and Appearance.
Click “Open classic appearance properties” for more color options.
In the Color scheme drop-down box, choose Windows Vista Basic or Windows Standard, and
click OK. Aero will now be turned off.
But what if there are some things you like about Aero, such as windows animations, but others you
don’t like, such as transparent windows? You can turn off some Aero features to speed up your PC,
but leave others on that you like using. To do it, select Start→Computer→System Properties. Click
Advanced system settings, then in the Performance section, click the Settings button. A screen like the
one shown in Figure appears. Uncheck those features that you want to turn off, then click OK.

Hack Your Way Through Windows Vista’s Aero Interface

Hack Aero’s Glass Borders
The borders around system windows, such as dialog boxes and the Control Panel, are transparent
in Windows Vista’s Aero interface. You’re not stuck with those border sizes, though; you can shrink
them or make them larger:
Right-click the Desktop and select Personalize.
Click Windows Color and Appearance.
Click “Open classic appearance properties” for more color options.
From the dialog box that appears, make sure that Windows Aero is selected as the colorscheme. Click the Advanced button on the right side of the dialog box.
Select “Border Padding” in the Item drop-down box, as shown in Figure 2-1. To change the sizeof the border, type a new size for the border. (The default is 4.) Click OK, then OK again. Thesizes of the borders will now change
Moving the slider to change the amount of transparency in window borders

Hack Windows Vista Multiboot Systems with VistaBootPRO

You don’t need to wrestle with BCDEDIT if you want to change how Windows Vista boots, especially on a multiboot system. Use the free VistaBootPRO instead
The fi rst thing you should do after installing VistaBootPRO is to back up your existing BCD store.Using VistaBootPRO is quite straightforward. To see your BCD store information, click View Settings.
For a basic overview of your BCD store, and how your system is set to boot, select Overview, as
shown in Figure. It describes, in plain English, how your system is set to boot, and shows you
the basic settings in the BCD store
An overview of the BCD store, and how Windows Vista boots
Click “Manage OS Entries” to get to the most important part of VistaBootPRO. Here’s where you
can change the order of the boot menu that appears when your PC starts, set one of the operating
systems to be the default, rename any of your operating system list entries, and change the amount
of time the menu displays before you boot into your default operating system. As you can see in
Figure 1-24, the use of this screen is quite straightforward. Make your changes and click Apply, and
the next time you restart your PC, your new boot settings take effect.
The Advanced Settings button contains mainly esoteric options, but it’s the place to go if you
want to debug the boot process, enable or disable the boot GUI mode, allow or disallow the use of
unsigned drivers in the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, along with similar options.
The fi nal button, Bootloader, will let you uninstall the Windows Vista bootloader, in case you have a
dual-boot system, and want to revert to the boot loader of the previous version of Windows

Confi guring the most important multiboot options

Create a Startup Menu Even If You Have Only One Operating System

Even if you have only one operating system, you can create a boot menu that will let you choose to
load your operating system with different parameters. For example, for menu choices, you might
have your normal operating system, a mode that lets you trace any startup problems, and Safe
Mode. To give yourself the option of operating systems with different parameters, create separate
entries for each new operating system choice. For example, for the version of the operating system
that traces potential startup problems, you could create this entry:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Trace Problems XP Home" /fastdetect /bootlog /sos
This entry creates a startup log and displays information about the drivers and other operating
system information as it loads.
For the version of the operating system that loads in Safe Mode but still allows networking, you
could create this entry:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Start XP Home" /fastdetect /safeboot:network
The boot.ini fi le would look like this, assuming that you want the menu to display for 30 seconds and
you want normal XP startup to be the default:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Trace Problems XP Home" /fastdetect /bootlog /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Start XP Home" /fastdetect /safeboot:network

Editing Files

To edit the fi le, open it with a text editor such as Notepad. Following is a typical boot.ini fi le for a
PC that has two operating systems installed on it—Windows XP Home Edition and Windows 2000
Professional:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
As you can see, there are two sections in the fi le: [bootloader] and [operating systems].

[boot loader]
This section controls how the boot process works; it specifi es the default operating system and
how long a user has to make a selection from a boot menu, if a boot menu has been enabled.If you want a delay of 15 seconds, for example, enter 15 forthe value. Use a value of 0 if you want the default operating system to boot immediately. If you want
the menu to be displayed indefi nitely and stay onscreen until a selection is made, use a value of -1.
To change the default operating system, edit the setting: in the preceding
example, to default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

EX:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

[operating systems]
This section specifi es which operating systems are present on the computer, and detailed options
for each one. XP uses the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) path to specify the location of the boot
partition. In the preceding example, the ARC path is:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
The fi rst parameter, which identifi es the disk controller, should be 0. The second parameter, the
disk parameter, should also be 0. The rdisk parameter specifi es the disk number on the controller
that has the boot partition. The numbers start at 0. So, if you have two or more hard disks installed
and the second hard disk has the boot partition, the setting is rdisk(1).

When you’ve fi nished editing the boot.ini fi le, save it. The next time you start your computer, its
settings will go into effect.
In this example, if we want the menu to appear for 45 seconds, the default operating system to be
Windows 2000, and the XP splash screen to be turned off when we choose to load XP, the boot.ini
fi le should look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=45
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Customize Windows XP Multiboot Startup Options

If you’ve installed another operating system (in addition to XP) on your system, your PC starts up with a multiboot menu, which allows you to choose the operating system you want to run. The menu stays live for 30 seconds, and a screen countdown tells you how long you have to make a choice from the menu. After the 30 seconds elapse, it boots into your default operating system, which is generally the last operating system you installed. You can customize that multiboot menu and how your PC starts by editing the boot.ini fi le, a hidden system fi le,The boot.ini fi le is a plain-text fi le found in your root C:\ folder.launch Windows Explorer, choose View→Tools→Folder Options→View, and select the Show Hidden Files and Folders radio button. To make it a fi le you can edit, right-click it in Windows Explorer, choose Properties, uncheck the Read-Only box, and click OK