General tips Other Vista Discussions Discuss General tips in the Windows Vista forums; By now, most users understand that Vista’s standard user account helps protect a PC by preventing users from making changes that may affect other PC users. However, many users ...

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By now, most users understand that Vista’s standard user account helps protect a PC by preventing users from making changes that may affect other PC users. However, many users are failing to password-protect their administrator account; which can allow users with a standard account to gain access and make changes that could affect all users.

The solution is simple…assign a password to the administrator account. Here’s one method:

Right-click Computer and select manage > Go to Local Users and Groups and expand Users > Right-click the Administrator and select Set Password (You will be prompted with a “beware before you proceed*) > Click Proceed, enter the required password and confirm it and then press Ok. > At the confirmation message press Ok.

* The reason for this warning is that Vista protects private key to decrypt EFS-encrypted files and other settings with the user’s password. Resetting the password will cause the lost of private key. If you are using a private key, do not proceed unless you know what you are doing.

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If your hard rive is not detected or you get a warning that it's failing, make sure you have not disabled the CD and/or floppy boot options in the BIOS setup. Disabling other boot up devices to speed up booting time may in fact cause the HD being called by the boot process before it (the HD) is actually ready; thus showing errors.

[felix8406]

Just like disabling the CD and/or floppy boot options in the BIOS setup can erroneously prompts HD failures, so does changing the boot up sequence. So before you head to the store to buy a new HD, change the boot sequence.

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Don’t like Vista’s boot screen; the animated start-up bar? Then change. Here’s how: Click Start button > Type MSCONFIG in search box > Click the Boot tab > Select one of the other three options. I use “No GUI boot”, but you have other choices.

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Featured tip for Windows Vista from Microsoft Exploring Windows Newsletter

Find out how much RAM your PC has

Random access memory (RAM) is a general performance indicator that is measured either in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB): The larger the number, the faster some programs will run. Here's how to find out how much RAM your PC has:

1. On the Start menu, click Control Panel and then System.
2. In the System section, under Memory (RAM), view the amount of RAM your PC has.

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Be safe, change where Windows Live Desktop stores your email. By default, Windows Live Desktop stores your emails on the ‘C’ drive where they can easily be lost if windows crash. You can and should change the location to another partition or hard drive.

Here’s how: Select the drive where you want to store your email > Create a folder, e.g. Windows Live Backup > Open Windows Live > Select Options > Advanced tab > Click Maintenance > Store Folder > Click Change > Select the Drive > Select the folder you created > Files will be transfer when you close Windows Live

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Here are a few tips from Microsoft on how to speed up your slow PC or, as they put it, Optimize Windows Vista for better performance. http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...C954E1033.mspx