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[Reimar]

I think it's time to start an Windows 7 thread because there a lot what the users need to know about Win 7.

There a lot differences between Windows 7, Vista and XP! There also some feature of Windows 7 which are not enabled by default unlike Vista Ultimate. And many more.

So, please feel free to post all you infos, which maybe help other Members and user's here.

Thanks and happy computing with Windows 7.

Edited by Reimar, 2009-02-07 07:57:42.
added a sentence to the title

[Reimar]

How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek)

Windows Aero features in Windows 7 has been greatly enhanced and improved with new features such as Aero Peek. Without Windows Aero Glass Transparency effect, the many premium user interface (UI) goodies and extravaganza visual experience such as windows with translucent glass design and new windows colors in Windows 7 won’t be enjoyed by the system users.

In most circumstance, if the PC’s display card satisfy the minimum requirement to run Windows Aero, which appears to be not much different to what’s required in Windows Vista - 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB (gigabyte) of RAM memory and a DirectX 9 compatible GPU with a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM, installed with Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver - Windows 7 will automatically enable and turn on Aero upon installation.

However, in some scenarios, Windows Aero may not be turned on, or is having problem to enable. The scenarios include no supported video driver been found during installation, and after updating the VGA graphic display card driver, Windows 7 does not automatically enable Aero Glass effect. Or, Windows 7 is installed on a computer which barely meets the minimum requirement, and Windows 7 has a hard time deciding that it’s indeed able to run Windows 7 Aero without problem.

Tip: Another way to know if your Windows 7 system supports Aero or not is to look at Windows Experience Index score. The score (both base score and subscore for graphics component) should be equal or higher than 3.0 for Aero to work. To view your Windows Experience Index, go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, then click on “Windows Experience Index”.

Whatever the cause, here is the easy way to fix all issues, bugs or problems related to Windows Aero, and then turn on and enable the Windows Aero feature in Windows 7, thanks to a new troubleshooting task tool added in Windows 7.

To display Aero effects such as transparency in Windows 7, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that Windows Experience Index has been calculated and computed.
2. Click on Start menu.
3. Type the following text into the Start Search box: Aero
4. Click on a search result listing under Control Panel group that named as the following: Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects
6. Trick: If you don’t see “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” in the search results, click on Control Panel to see all Aero related items in Control Panel.
5. An “Aero - Troubleshoot computer problems” wizard dialog will appear. Click on Next button.

Fix and Troubleshoot Aero Transparency in Windows 7

The troubleshooting wizard will try to detect any problem by running a series of checks against various components required to make Aero works and running, such as video memory, Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) service, color depth, theme, power settings and etc. At the end of the analysis, the wizard will attempt to fix the issues related to Aero service and restart the Aero feature.

6. Tip: If there is still items that are marked with red cross which indicates is the problems that prevent Aero from working properly, fix the issues and then rerun the “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” troubleshooting wizard again.

Tip: To create a shortcut to ‘Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects’, right click on it on search results, and then click on Open file location. On the “All Tasks” window opened, right click on Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects again, and select Create Shortcut to place the shortcut on desktop.

If everything fails, try the hack to force enable Windows Aero in Windows 7.

[Reimar]

Hack to Force Enable Aero in Windows 7

Windows 7 has a nice little Windows Aero troubleshooting tool to find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects, and then enable and turn on Aero support (and also Aero Peek) in Windows 7.

If the tool does not work to enable Aero feature in Windows 7, the trick to force enable Aero in Windows Vista may still work in Windows 7.

Follow these steps in the instruction below to force enable Windows Aero Glass Transparency effect on system with video card (graphic accelerator adapter) that does not meet the WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model ) specifications, which provides functionality required to render the desktop and applications using Desktop Window Manager, a compositing window manager running on top of Direct3D 9.0Ex, and provides device driver interfaces required by Direct3D 10 runtime used in Windows 7.

1. Open Registry Editor (RegEdit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM

If the DWM registry key is not found, right click on Windows and then select New -> Key to create new branch and name it as DWM.
3. In the right details pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit value) named UseMachineCheck, and set its value to 0.
4. In the right details pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit value) named Blur, and set its value to 0.
5. In the right details pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit value) named Animations, and set its value to 0.
6. Restart the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager in Services in Control Panel (type Services.msc in Start Search), or run the following commands in a command prompt with administrator privileges:

net stop uxsms
net start uxsms
7. Attempt to enable and apply Windows Aero in Windows 7. Restart the computer if required.

The trick above also may work to enable Aero on Windows 7 and Windows Vista installed on virtual machine (VM), especially in Virtual PC 2007. VPC 2007 uses S3 as virtual display adapter, which is capable of running Windows Aero. When the guest Windows 7 or Vista OS uses software-based hardware check after hack above, it will find only S3, couple with actual Aero-capable video card, may allow Aero to run in VMs as in real physical machine.

[Reimar]

Problem Steps Recorder

Microsoft recently published a demonstration of Problem Steps Recorder (PSR) in action. PSR allows users to record their issues and provide help desk support agents or friends/family with the result. The result is a ZIP file with a MHTML report of the actions a user has taken. The report is basically an automated set of screenshots with documentation of the steps the user took.

You can launch this new feature under the troubleshooting section in control panel or by searching for psr.exe in the start menu.

[Reimar]

Windows 7 tips and tricks

Two Microsoft employees have posted helpful Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets this week.

Tim Sneath has posted 30 secrets/tips on his blog. Some of the highlights include the following:

Get Quick Launch toolbar back
1. Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
2. In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
3. Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons".
4. Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

Windows Vista taskbar
Right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog. Select the "small icons" checkbox and under the "taskbar buttons" setting, choose "combine when taskbar is full".

Starting explorer from "My Computer"
To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it's in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Old behaviour for Windows Live Messenger
Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\ and set the properties of msnmsgr.exe to Vista compatibility mode. This will place the Messenger icon back in your system tray and remove the 2 annoying tabs on the taskbar.

General

Win+Up Maximize
Win+Down Restore / Minimize
Win+Left Snap to left
Win+Right Snap to right
Win+Shift+Left Jump to left monitor
Win+Shift+Right Jump to right monitor
Win+Home Minimize / Restore all other windows
Win+T Focus the first taskbar entry
Pressing again will cycle through them, you can can arrow around.
Win+Shift+T cycles backwards.
Win+Space Peek at the desktop
Win+G Bring gadgets to the top of the Z-order
Win+P External display options (mirror, extend desktop, etc)
Win+X Mobility Center (same as Vista, but still handy!)
Win+#
(# = a number key) Launches a new instance of the application in the Nth slot on the taskbar.
Example: Win+1 launches first pinned app, Win+2 launches second, etc.
Win + +
Win + -
(plus or minus key) Zoom in or out.


Explorer

Alt+P Show/hide Preview Pane


Taskbar modifiers

Shift + Click on icon Open a new instance
Middle click on icon Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon Open a new instance with Admin privileges
Shift + Right-click on icon Show window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc)
Note: Normally you can just right-click on the window thumbnail to get this menu
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon Menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All, etc.
Ctrl + Click on grouped icon Cycle between the windows (or tabs) in the group

[slackula]

I understand that there was something in the EULA about MS denying testers of W7 the ability to use it in a live or "real" environment. Does this mean that if I install it on a machine in the office then I am breaking the EULA?

I am confused by this, I would like to try W7 out on a computer at the office, but it *might* be used to test things out in a "real" situation. Can I do that or not?

[H2oDunc]

I've only had Vista for just over a year and now I have to upgrade to 7? They don't mess about those Microsoft boys do they ? No wonder old Gates is worth a few quid  

[Reimar]

H2oDunc, on 2009-01-16 19:20:03, said:

I've only had Vista for just over a year and now I have to upgrade to 7? They don't mess about those Microsoft boys do they ? No wonder old Gates is worth a few quid  

Vista is more than 2 years on the market now and Windows 7 is just Beta1 and will be not on the market before the end of this year or beginning next year.

But, if they go that way they started, further, the upgrade is worth to do.

[H2oDunc]

I'll have to start and have a look at it then Riemar Cheers  

[Reimar]

H2oDunc, on 2009-01-16 19:52:52, said:

I'll have to start and have a look at it then Riemar Cheers  

I run Win7 bin Dual with Vista and rarely use Vista now on the Laptop!

Cheers.

[Reimar]

Video of Windows 7 Installed on Netbooks

Following Microsoft's release of its Windows 7 Beta operating system, a number of PC users were keen on finding out just how fast the new OS developed by the Redmond, Washington-based software giant was.

People all over the world downloaded the new operating system from Microsoft and installed it on their own PCs, including those small-sized portable computer systems known as netbooks. On that note, the guys over at jkkmobile went a bit further and installed the OS on three different netbooks, namely the Fujitsu U2010, the Eee PC 900A and the HP Mini 1000.

There's a 38-minute video of the hands-on experience with the three ultra-portable computer systems running on the Windows 7 Beta OS, meant to provide users with the details on how the Beta release of Microsoft's upcoming operating system is being handled by these three devices. The video isn't suppose to provide a comparative performance test between the netbooks but their performance levels on the new operating system.

Full article HERE

[Tywais]

Want to try Windows 7 but don't want to destroy your current XP/Vista installation.  Here are the steps to do it:

How to dual boot Windows 7

[Wash]

I live in the remote North East of Thailand and so far have not been able to get a workable copy of Win 7 downloaded.  I have tried at least 10 times to download it and every time I get some form of "it ain't gonna install" problem after creating the iso disk, with the most prevelant being corrupt of missing files.  I have tried different downloaders, DAP, Orbit and the normal Windows downloading procedures, all with no workable iso disk resulting.  I am right now downloading to a USB stick and will try that after the download completes.  Each download is a huge task in that it takes as long as 15 hours to complete.  I am using IPStar satellite connection.

Is there any way to get a copy of the DVD with Win 7 build 7000 beside downloading it?  I can make the trip to Udon Thani but was really hoping that there was a soure where I could order it.

Thanks

[croftrobin]

I have tried 2 video cards and Aero works on each, and you can see the transparencies.
An Nvidia 5200 (128mb)-with  Windows Experience Index score of 2.0
and an Nvidia 5500 (256mb) - with  Windows Experience Index scoreof 2.8
so you can experience Aero on less than a  Windows Experience Index score of 3.

Reimar, on 2009-01-13 16:17:50, said:

How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek)

Windows Aero features in Windows 7 has been greatly enhanced and improved with new features such as Aero Peek. Without Windows Aero Glass Transparency effect, the many premium user interface (UI) goodies and extravaganza visual experience such as windows with translucent glass design and new windows colors in Windows 7 won’t be enjoyed by the system users.

In most circumstance, if the PC’s display card satisfy the minimum requirement to run Windows Aero, which appears to be not much different to what’s required in Windows Vista - 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB (gigabyte) of RAM memory and a DirectX 9 compatible GPU with a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM, installed with Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver - Windows 7 will automatically enable and turn on Aero upon installation.

However, in some scenarios, Windows Aero may not be turned on, or is having problem to enable. The scenarios include no supported video driver been found during installation, and after updating the VGA graphic display card driver, Windows 7 does not automatically enable Aero Glass effect. Or, Windows 7 is installed on a computer which barely meets the minimum requirement, and Windows 7 has a hard time deciding that it’s indeed able to run Windows 7 Aero without problem.

Tip: Another way to know if your Windows 7 system supports Aero or not is to look at Windows Experience Index score. The score (both base score and subscore for graphics component) should be equal or higher than 3.0 for Aero to work. To view your Windows Experience Index, go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, then click on “Windows Experience Index”.

Whatever the cause, here is the easy way to fix all issues, bugs or problems related to Windows Aero, and then turn on and enable the Windows Aero feature in Windows 7, thanks to a new troubleshooting task tool added in Windows 7.

To display Aero effects such as transparency in Windows 7, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that Windows Experience Index has been calculated and computed.
2. Click on Start menu.
3. Type the following text into the Start Search box: Aero
4. Click on a search result listing under Control Panel group that named as the following: Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects
6. Trick: If you don’t see “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” in the search results, click on Control Panel to see all Aero related items in Control Panel.
5. An “Aero - Troubleshoot computer problems” wizard dialog will appear. Click on Next button.

Fix and Troubleshoot Aero Transparency in Windows 7

The troubleshooting wizard will try to detect any problem by running a series of checks against various components required to make Aero works and running, such as video memory, Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) service, color depth, theme, power settings and etc. At the end of the analysis, the wizard will attempt to fix the issues related to Aero service and restart the Aero feature.

6. Tip: If there is still items that are marked with red cross which indicates is the problems that prevent Aero from working properly, fix the issues and then rerun the “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” troubleshooting wizard again.

Tip: To create a shortcut to ‘Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects’, right click on it on search results, and then click on Open file location. On the “All Tasks” window opened, right click on Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects again, and select Create Shortcut to place the shortcut on desktop.

If everything fails, try the hack to force enable Windows Aero in Windows 7.

[Tywais]

Virtualization of Windows 7:

Another method of getting a feel of Windows 7 without interfering with your existing operating system is to "virtualize" it.  I tried it under VMware Workstation 6.0.0 and installed it using the Vista selection for OS type.  Reserved 1.5GB memory and 16GB disk space for the test.  Installation of Windows 7 took about 15 minutes excluding formatting time.  The installation went flawlessly and straight forward.

Start up time to password prompt was ~19 seconds.  After entering password, ~5 seconds to windows fully up.  Overall performance is good considering the overhead of running in a virtual environment.  Saw a peak of 100Mbps disk I/O and my EDGE connection pushing up to over 100kbps in line with the host operating system performance (XP).  7.61GB was free out of 15.8GB total available disk space after installation of Windows 7.

Here are various virtualization software packages that could be tried.

VMWare Workstation
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
VirtualBox

Hope this is helpful.

 Windows_7a.jpg   327.77K   38 downloads

[Reimar]

A simple way for to adjust the size of the Desktop Icon's is to use the following method:

1. click once on one Icon;
2. hold down the Ctrl Key
3. use the Scroll wheel of your Mouse for to large or enlarge the Icon's
4. right click somewhere in free desktop
5. click Refresh.

That's all

By the way, the same method works in Windows Vista as well.

[Reimar]

Repair of Windows 7 and even Vista:

In case you can't start Win 7 or Vista, you'll need to boot from the same DVD used to install that OS.

After the Screen with the License Agreement you can choose the option: Repair.

Unlike XP, you can't reinstall Windows & or Vista and that Repair function works for damaged startup's only.

That function can also be used in case you had installed Windows 7 and Vista on the same drive but on 2 different partitons. If the Bootmanager of Windows is damaged, the Repair function will repair that Bootmanager as well and you will be abel to start both OS's again.-

[Reimar]

Windows 7 beta testers find critical Windows Installer Bug

Mary Jo reports that a number of Windows 7 Beta testers have come across a bug that crashes the system randomly whenever they try to start a Windows Update or install anything using Microsoft's MSI installer. Enthusiast Chris Holmes claims that many users have started experiencing random crashing of explorer and msiexec.exe when trying to start Windows Update or install anything that uses an MSI based installer. Some have gone to the extent of reinstalling the beta.

Rafael has discovered that the fault arises from the Software Quality Management (SQM) Client which is a part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). It seems that any process that calls WinSqmStartSession in ntdll.dll will start crashing when machine throttling is enabled in the registry and when CEIP is running.

Read the full report HERE

[Reimar]

Windows 7 beta affected by Vista viruses


As Microsoft diligently prepares to launch Windows 7 it will be working hard to fix all the holes in the OS before its launch; one hole that has yet to be fixed is an exploit using the auto play feature for USB drives.

The Register reports the exploit works by creating a malicious autorun.inf file and loading it onto a USB peripheral. When a user accesses the auto play menu it may appear that they are only opening a folder on the USB device when they are actually installing malicious software on their computer.

This exploit currently works on both Windows Vista and Windows 7 beta. Microsoft is still developing Windows 7 so there is a good probability that this hole will be patched when the OS launches sometime later this year.

[Reimar]

Microsoft Hardware Support for the Windows 7 Operating System Beta Release

If your computer is running a beta version of the Windows® 7 operating system, the following information can help you select the correct beta software to download for your Microsoft Hardware product.

For the best Microsoft Hardware device and software performance, it’s essential to install all of the important and recommended Windows updates from the Windows Update site.

Important: These are beta versions of software to support Microsoft Hardware devices on beta versions of the Windows® 7 operating system. The following table lists the beta software you will need to install to support Microsoft Hardware products for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The notes column contains late-breaking information and additional details that you will need to read and reference in order to install the beta software. Please read the notes before you install the software. Product Release Notes include information about 32-bit and 64-bit products wherever appropriate.
Download: Drivers Pro 32-bit and 64-bit beta

[Reimar]

Windows 7 build 7025 screenshots leak with versions info

Microsoft released Windows 7 Beta few weeks ago and the only version that was released during this beta was Windows 7 Ultimate. However, a select testers were invited for a separate Windows 7 Home Premium Beta program.

It is still unclear about the different Windows 7 versions that Microsoft is planning to release. A chinese website has leaked the Windows 7 build 7025 screenshots which could have answered the different versions of Windows 7, Microsoft is planning to release.

Without any further discussion, below is the leaked screenshot:



So, there you go. It looks like Microsoft is still going along Windows Vista's path in releasing a Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic editions. It is really disappointing to see a Windows 7 Home Basic edition - May be it is a 'touch-free' version or would it be a version specifically targeted towards netbooks?

One more thing to notice in the leaked screenshots are the good old Quick Launch and Show Desktop Icon!



Neowin had reported earlier that IE 8 RC1 is due soon and the leaked screenshots do confirm that IE 8 RC1 is on its way!



If you've missed our coverage of the new features in Windows 7, check out the links below:

• Windows 7 Beta quick review
  
• Windows 7: Windows Backup Overview
  
• Windows 7: Explorer Search overview
  
• Windows 7: Superbar overview
  
• Windows 7: HomeGroup Overview
  
• Windows 7: BitLocker To Go & Biometric improvements overview
  
• Windows 7: Easy Connect
  
• Windows 7: Problem Steps Recorder
  
• Windows 7: Action Center Overview
  
• Windows 7: User Account Control (UAC) Overview
  
• Windows 7: Calibate Your Display
  
• Windows 7: Federated Search
  
• Windows 7: Device Stage
  
• Windows 7: Internet Explorer 8 Overview

Source

[Reimar]

How to Get the Old Thin Taskbar Buttons with Text in Windows 7?

Windows 7 contains new iconized taskbar buttons which only show program icons. Its a new feature in Windows 7 and looks nice. But a few people might find it difficult to use.

http://img.photobuck...bar_Buttons.png



1. Right-click on Taskbar and select Properties.

2. You'll see "Taskbar buttons" option will be set to "Always combine, hide labels". Change it to either "Combine when taskbar is full" or "Never combine".




"Combine when taskbar is full" option will group same program buttons in taskbar like Windows XP and Vista. "Never combine" option will disable grouping.

3. Apply it and you'll get the taskbar buttons with program text.



4. If you also want to get the thin taskbar like previous Windows versions, then also enable "Use small icons" option.



5. And now you'll enjoy the same old thin taskbar with program text:



Source

[Reimar]

How to: Windows 7 Offline Domain Join

Windows 7 is widely indentical with Server 2008 R2 and Server 2008 R2 will be Windows 7 Server Edition.

Windows 2008R2 features part I: Offline domain join
Since Windows NT4, clients who wanted to join a domain always needed a direct connection to the domain, either via VPN, dial-in or direct connection. New in Windows 2008 R2 is the option for an offline domain join.. how does this work.. ? read on!
A new program is introduced called djoin.exe. We can use djoin.exe to join a computer to the domain without actually having a connection to it.

How does this work?

1.      Logon to a system that already is a member of the domain with an account that is allowed to join computers to the domain

2.      Use djoin.exe to create a text file (the blob) that contains all information for the computer to join the domain when it is online.

3.      On the new computer use djoin.exe to import the blob

4.      Reboot the new computer when it’s connected to the network


By default, computer accounts are created in the Computers OU, however we might not want the new machines to be placed in that OU. If this is the case, create a new OU and make sure the account that you run djoin under has sufficient rights to it. To provision a new computer, use the following command:  djoin /provision /domain <domainname> /machine <machinename> /savefile blob.txt
The command will create a new computer object and a file called blob.txt.
Optionally you can specify the OU using the parameter /Machineou <OUname> else the default Computers OU is used.

If the computer account object is already created, you can use the /reuse option.

If your domain controller is not yet running Windows Server 2008 R2, use the /downlevel command.


Copy the created blob file to the new client and run the import command. Even though it is a text file, the blob is not really human readable, it’s certainly not in xml format…
The command to import the blob is: djoin /requestODJ /loadfile blob.txt /windowspath %systemroot% /localos

Now the /localOs option can be a bit scary. If you accidentally run this command on a domain controller, it will result in a broken Active Directory Domain Controller that you can only demote/promote to bring it back to where it was.

Our client machine has a base install of Windows 7 and is renamed to CL2 in this case before using the new command:

Make sure your start the command prompt with Administrative privileges, otherwise the join will fail:

After a (manual) reboot, the computer joined the domain:

The main question if off course: why would you want this?
The procedure involves a non-human readable blob, and no passwords. You can easily pre-create all the blob files and distribute them to for example supplier of workstations. They can provision the laptops for you. You would not have to give them accounts and you do not have to give them access to your environment.

And Microsoft's reason:
For example, an organization might need to deploy many virtual machines in a datacenter. Offline domain join makes it possible for the virtual machines to be joined to the domain when they initially start after the installation of the operating system. No additional restart is required to complete the domain join. This can significantly reduce the overall time required for wide-scale virtual machine deployments.

Now if you want to deploy computers using a Unattend.xml file, you can also specify the Offline Domain join in there:
<Component>
<Component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin">
<Identification>
<Provisioning>
<AccountData>Blob.txt</AccountData>
</Provisioning>
</Identification>
</Component>
Published Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:57 AM by Parzival

[Reimar]

Microsoft neuters UAC in Windows 7

In an attempt to make Windows 7 generate fewer UAC (User Account Control) prompts Microsoft has neutered the mechanism to the point where it’s next to useless.

Here’s Long Zheng’s take on the issue:

The Achilles’ heel of this system is that changing UAC is also considered a “change to Windows settings”, coupled with the new default UAC security level, would not prompt you if changed. Even to disable UAC entirely.

Now you might not think that this is all that important since this setting cannot be changed unless the user chooses to do so. Wrong.

With the help of my developer side-kick Rafael Rivera, we came up with a fully functional proof-of-concept in VBScript (would be just as easy in C++ EXE) to do that - emulate a few keyboard inputs - without prompting UAC. You can download and try it out for yourself here, but bear in mind it actually does disable UAC.

Fortunately, there’s a simple workaround:

Until when Microsoft decides to fix this, if they do at all, beta users of Windows 7 can also apply a simple fix. Changing the UAC policy to “Always Notify” will force Windows 7 to notify you even if UAC settings change. Annoying, but safe.

What’s also annoying is that this issue has already been reported to Microsoft which claims that the way it works is “by design.” If that’s “by design” then it’s also bad design. I think that Microsoft’s gone too far to please the anti-UAC crowd with this change.

SOURCE

[Reimar]

Reliability Monitor

While Windows has long included administrator-oriented performance and reliability monitoring tools, they were never of much use to end-users, unless of course your idea of excitement is to watch line graphs update in real time. With Windows Vista, that's all changed: A surprisingly interesting new tool called Reliability Monitor provides an ongoing snapshot of your PC's reliability, and this information is useful for troubleshooting regardless of what kind of user you are.

Before the advent of Reliability Monitor, Windows users had few ways in which to accurately determine how well their PCs were performing. Essentially, you would install the OS, a hardware device, or software application, or perhaps you would update the driver for an existing device. Any one of these actions could cause the PC to work better or, in the more memorable experiences, cause it to swoon wildly out of control, perhaps blue-screening down to a hard stop. In such cases, you would have to rely on your own troubleshooting skills to figure out what happened: Was it the RAM I just installed? Or perhaps that Adobe software update? Sometimes you'd simply never know.

Windows Vista builds on the troubleshooting tools provided in previous Windows versions to help you figure out what's going on with your PC. There are older tools like Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, and the Disk Defragmenter that have been improved somewhat in Vista. And then there are tools that are brand new to Vista. Reliability Monitor is the most useful of those new tools.

Because Microsoft considers the Reliability Monitor to be an advanced diagnostic tool--which I think is ridiculous, by the way--it is hidden away in the Reliability and Performance Monitor management console. You can access this console, which includes the updated version of the Performance Monitor in addition to the new Reliability Monitor and a cool Resource Overview view, in a variety of ways. The simplest is to type relia in Vista's Start Menu search box and clicking the link that appears for Reliability and Performance Monitor. Here's what you'll see:



The Resource View is displayed by default, and it provides a nice is overly simple overview of your CPU utilization, disk activity, network activity, and memory utilization in real-time graph form, along with expandable detail views of each.

Secret: The CPU utilization chart is nice, but it's not as detailed as the one you get in Task Manager. For example, Task Manager displays separate CPU usage graphs for each physical CPU, CPU core, or even CPU Hyper-Threading (HT) unit; the Resource View shows a single graph only.

To access Reliability Monitor, click on the Reliability Monitor link under Monitoring Tools in the left pane. The view will change to display a line chart detailing your system's reliability over a period of time from the day you installed Vista through today. Reliability Monitor provides an overall score, or System Stability Index, which measures your system's reliability as of this moment on a scale from 0 to 10. You can also look back over time and see the trends that caused the System Stability Index to go up or down. If you experience an application failure, for example, the score will go down on the day that failure occurred. Meanwhile, the score will slowly rise after successive days with no issues.



Depending on your personal experience, you may be surprised by the score you see. That's because the Reliability Monitor is unforgiving for any kind of error, whereas it rewards uptime with only small reliability score improvements. In my opinion, Reliability Monitor is a bit harsh: I have systems that I feel have performed admirably, but Reliability Monitor is not impressed.

Reliability Monitor tracks five kinds of issues: Software uninstalls, application failures, hardware failures, Windows failures, and the vaguely-named miscellaneous failures. To find out what's going on with your system, you can click any column in the line chart and the System Stability Report section at the bottom will expand appropriately to show what, if anything, happened on that day. There are different icon types displayed in the chart that detail the types of issues that happened. A red "x" is the most serious: This represents an application crash, OS stoppage, or other major issue. A yellow "!" triangle (or "bang") represents less serious issues, such as non-responding applications. A white "I" (or information) balloon represents the least serious issues: You'll see this for software uninstalls or other issues that don't necessarily affect your score but are notable nonetheless. For days in which there are no icons, nothing happened: Either you didn't use the PC at all or everything went smoothly.

Tip: If you want the System Stability Report to display every single issue that's occurred on your PC since you installed Windows Vista, click the drop-down list box in the upper-right corner of the window and choose "Select All."

Reliability Monitor is important because it helps you pinpoint what's going wrong on your PC. If you are experiencing bizarre crashes, this tool can help you determine if it's a hardware-related issue or a software problem. If a particular application is crashing repeatedly, you can see that and decide whether you want to uninstall it. You can also use Reliability Monitor in tandem with Vista's Problem Reports and Solutions control panel to alert Microsoft of problem devices and software: Vista does this automatically, but you can manually launch this tool by running Control Panel and navigating to System and Maintenance and then Problem Reports and Solutions. Then, click on Check for new solutions to trigger an upload of your problems to Microsoft. (A simpler way: Open the Start Menu and type prob in Start Menu Search.) Any failure that has triggered a Reliability Monitor issue will be sent to Microsoft and, when solved, you'll be alerted via a pop-up. You can also view your problem history to see a list of issues you've submitted:



Tip: Administrators and power users can run Reliability Monitor against remote computers on the local network. However, you will have to configure this capability on the PC that you'd like to access remotely by enabling the Remote Registry service to run automatically.

Secret: You may be curious how Vista creates the score for the System Stability Index. Microsoft tells me that recent failures are weighted more heavily than past failures, while periods of success are rewarded with the assumption that older issues have been resolved. Days in which the PC is powered off are not included in the score.