There are couple of situations where the use of USB drive brings a certain benefit:

• When you are trying to install Windows on a netbook or your optical drive is broken
• When you want to create a live USB from an ISO image (requires some extra effort)
• Theoretically, the transfer speeds should be better and the installation process is a little faster
• You can protect your original install media from wear and tear.

There are a number of ways to create a bootable USB drive, however most of them require copying files manually – making it prone to mistakes. WinToFlash makes the entire task a lot simpler by the magic of automation.

Download WinToFlash from here. It is a portable application, all you have to do is extract the zip file and you are ready to go. Start WinToFlash, pop in the Windows CD/DVD, plug in the USB flash drive and specify the paths. Click ‘Next’ and sit back and watch WinToFlash create a bootable USB drive from the installation media. This might take some time depending upon the size of the installation media.

WinToFlash can also be used transfer Preinstalled Environments (PE’s) to a flash drive. Go to the ‘Tasks’ tab and choose the appropriate option you want to use.

Creating a bootable flash drive from an ISO image is a little more involved. WinToFlash doesn’t let you specify an ISO image as the source for Windows file. To get around this limitation, you can do one of the following:

• Extract the ISO file. Most modern archiving software can extract files from an ISO image. I used 7-zip.
• Virtually mount the ISO image (try Virtual CD-ROM control panel) and specify the virtual drive as the Windows file path in WinToFlash.

The rest of the process remain unchanged and you will get a bootable USB drive after successful completion.

I want to install Linux using a bootable flash drive?

As the name suggests WinToFlash only works with Windows installation media. If you want to install Linux using a USB drive we suggest you have a look at UNetbootin. It works well with ISO files and can even download the required files if you don’t currently have them on your computer. You can also use built-in tools included in many distributions these days, if you already have Linux installed on another computer.

How do I check if my computer can boot from USB drive?

That is a question I get asked many a times. You can refer to your computer’s manual to check if you are able to boot from a USB drive. If that doesn’t work or you have a custom-built computer than you can always check the BIOS settings to see if there is an option to boot from External drive or USB drive. If there is one, make sure your computer is configured to look for a USB drive before it defaults to boot from the hard disk.

After you are through with the installation, I would suggest that you move the USB drive option back down the order and protect the BIOS settings with a password to minimize the risk of your computer being compromised.

If you have some other nifty ideas on installing/upgrading operating systems without burning a DVD, we would love to hear about them in the comments!

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1. Get lightning fast and clever at the command line

You can use keyboard shortcuts and other command line tricks to make entering commands easier and faster. You might already know about the ‘tab’ key which completes partial commands and even file and directory names.

Here are some other keyboard shortcuts you can use within terminal:

Also don’t forget to check out 4 websites where you can learn cool command line tricks

2. Launch Ubuntu Linux Applications with keyboard

There are two ways you can achieve this:

• Use applications like Launchy or Gnome-Do that make it easier to launch applications by typing a few characters of the application’s name.
• Or you can summon gconf editor (Alt+F2 then type gconf-editor and hit enter), and navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings, double click on any of the run_command_N and type in the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to an application then make a mental note of the number N. Then go to apps > metacity > keybinding_commands and double click on command_N (N being the number you used above) and type in the command you want to run. As an example if you wanted to run Firefox you would type in firefox.

Also check out these Ubuntu keyboard shortcuts you might not know about.

3. Start from wherever you left off

You can make Ubuntu remember the applications you had open when you last logged out, so that when you log back in again you’ll find all those applications running and you can resume right from where you left off.

To achieve this go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications, then go to the options tab and check "Automatically remember running applications when logging out"

4. Create a Separate Ubuntu Linux Home Partition

New versions of Ubuntu arrive every 6 months. Although you can upgrade to the latest version via the update manager, sometimes the upgrade doesn’t work as expected so some users like to do a fresh clean install.

The disadvantage with that of course is that you lose data you had in your home directory. To overcome this you can create a separate Home partition when you are installing Ubuntu, size it according to your requirements and then when you decide to install Ubuntu the next time, simply specify this partition as the Home partition (by choosing /home as the mount point).

All your files and data on the Home partition will be preserved even after a fresh install.

5. Update and Install Ubuntu Linux Software Without Internet Connection

There are lots of way to do this, the easiest of all is to use APTonCD. APTonCD allows you to create CDs and DVD’s containing all the packages you want, which you can then use to install software on computers without an internet connection.

Note that APTonCD requires you to have an internet connection (or downloaded packages) to create the installed media. However once the media is ready you don’t need an internet connection for any of the machines you want to install the software on. Insert the appropriate CD/DVD and use apt-get as you would normally.

6. Install new fonts, Microsoft fonts and improve font rendering

Ubuntu doesn’t offer many choices when it comes to the fonts. However you can easily install new fonts including those from Microsoft like Arial, Verdana, impact and many more. You can use different sites to find the kind of font you are looking for.

7. Use PPAs, Install latest versions of software

There are a lot of steps that a software has to go through before it becomes part of Ubuntu or becomes available through the Ubuntu repositories. While all those steps lend additional stability, it generally means that you don’t get the latest versions of all the software as soon as they are released.

If you like to stay on the cutting edge, you can search for Personal Package Archives for your favorite software on Launchpad and add those to your installation’s software sources. I briefly touched on PPAs and how to use them here. If that seems like too much work, you can also download the latest deb packages and install them by double clicking (you won’t get automatic updates for the software if you install it this way).

Remember you might get into an occasional trouble or two with the latest versions, but mostly it wouldn’t be catastrophic. You can always hop over to the Ubuntu Forums to get quick help.

8. Be the root

The root account is disabled by default on Ubuntu installations, mainly to prevent you from doing something you didn’t intend to do. However if you "promise to be careful" you can enable root account as follows:

1. Type sudo passwd root and provide a root password.
2. Then head on over to System > Administration > Login Window, go to the Security tab and check "Enable local system administrator login"

You should now be able to login as root from the Login prompt. As an alternative you can use "sudo su" to provide your password and get root prompt.

9. Run Windows applications and games

Who wouldn’t like to play Counter Strike on Ubuntu (unless of course you are completely not into it) or perhaps even run Photoshop? Well it is very much possible and here is how to do it.

10. Shorten boot time with profiling

Ubuntu Linux devs have done a great job with the boot time, Jaunty is fast and Karmic is slotted to be even faster. There is however a bit more you can do by profiling your boot. Profiling lets Ubuntu make a list of all the files that are accessed during bootup, it then sorts the files according to how they are stored on your hard disk. So the next time the system is booted, the files would be read faster.

To profile boot you need to follow these steps

• At the grub menu highlight the kernel you boot most often.
• Press e for edit.
• Choose the line starting with kernel and press e again. Now add the word profile to the end of this line. Hit Enter and then press b to boot

Note that while profiling, the system will boot slower this one time, the next time however you should see an improvement. Also keep in mind that all this is machine-dependent and also depends on the arrangement of files on your hard disk, so the difference you see might not be huge, or even nil in some cases.

11. Try out different Ubuntu Linux Desktop Environments and Desktop Managers

If you are looking for something different than the default Gnome interface, you should check out alternative desktop managers that you can use. If it is a complete Desktop Environment you are looking for, KDE4 has come a long way and is now impressively usable and fun. You can do a "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop" to get KDE.

12. Create a media center or a media server

It would be great if you could easily browse and manage your huge collection of music, videos and pictures. Mesmerized by Windows Media Center’s slick interface? Wait till you see what all cool options you have to turn your Ubuntu system into a media center. You can even access your media collection on your phone, PSP or a different computer if you set up a media server on your Ubuntu machine.

13. Share Firefox profile data with Windows

Many people use Windows and Linux on the same machine. If you are one of them, there would have been times you couldn’t find that bookmark you created or password you stored when you were using Firefox from within Windows. Check out how you can share Firefox profile data across operating systems without syncing it over the web (works best if you have the same version of Firefox in both OS’s). For different computers you can of course use Weave.

14. Customize Nautilus to your liking

Nautilus is the default file manager on Ubuntu. While you may be content with what it does, there is lots more you can make it do. You can use extensions to improve functionality and even add custom functionality to Nautilus

15. Compile your own Kernel

If you can’t find something to keep you busy for the weekend and you have your customization hat on, how about building a kernel to specifically meet your requirements? This is frankly more of a learning experience. Some might say that it enables you to use just the features and drivers you require, but if everything is working fine with the kernel supplied and you don’t have any interest in the Linux kernel, skip ahead this one is not for you.

If however you require some of the experimental features of the kernel, or need it to be compiled in some other special way we say you check out this guide within Ubuntu Documentation.

16. Change Usplash Screen and create a custom splash screen for GRUB

So you didn’t count the last one? Here is another one then. A Usplash screen is Ubuntu text and a logo with a progress bar that you see when you boot up Ubuntu.

If you would like to change that to something more interesting follow these steps. What better way to show your Linux fu than customizing the very first screen that appears? You can create a custom splash screen using one of your photos, GIMP and a little tweaking. Here is the how-to.

Know some more tips or great hacks for Ubuntu Linux users? Sure you do, go ahead let us know about them in the comments.

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Today I’ll show you how to set up a “dual boot” system that includes Linux (specifically Ubuntu Linux) alongside Windows XP or Vista. There will be no hard-drive partitioning (that’s scary!), instead Ubuntu will be installed in this case as if it were any other Windows program. This also makes it easy to uninstall later, in case you don’t like it.

Why would someone want to do this? Maybe you’re just beginning to really learn it, like I am. Maybe you’re a gamer who is just not a fan of the Windows interface and would like an alternative. Maybe you’re the power-user type and just wants to see what the fuss is about. Any reason you may have is valid. I’m just a big fan of free software who wants to help spread the word.

To get started, there’s no need to go to the Ubuntu site and download or order a CD-ROM. In this example, all you will need is to download and run the Wubi installer. Wubi started as an independent project, but is now officially supported by the Ubuntu community as a method of installation.

On the first screen, you’ll provide your desired username and password as well as designate the size of your “virtual disk” file, which your PC will see as a Linux file system.

Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, this next part may take a while. Wubi will download an image of the Ubuntu installation CD. As long as you’re on a broadband connection, this shouldn’t take more than an hour or two; Feel free to ignore the approximate download time at the onset.

After a few more installation screens, you’ll be prompted to reboot your system. Doing so should bring you to a new screen, giving you a choice whether you want to boot into Windows or Ubuntu. Select Ubuntu anytime to finish the installation.

Don’t panic when you see the formatting-partitions screen; Only the virtual disk file on which Ubuntu sits is being formatted.

After another reboot, enter your username and password and gaze upon a fresh pristine Linux desktop. It takes a little bit of getting-used-to, but the learning curve isn’t that steep.

Feel free to glance over the documentation to get your feet wet, check out our many articles on Linux use, and join the forums if you have any questions. Don’t be afraid of asking something “stupid”.  We were all n00bs once. Well, except me. I’m still a Linux n00b. But hey that’s what I’m taking out student loans for.

My choice of Ubuntu may have upset some Linux fans. Feel free to let me have it, and tell us why your favorite distribution is better, in the comments.

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The Recovery Console is a special command-line interface for Windows XP which allows an administrator to identify and locate drivers and files which are problematic, as well as troubleshoot system settings. It’s recommended by Microsoft only for advanced users (in other words, that nerdy kid down the block), and only when Safe Mode (pressing the F8 key at boot-up) is not working.

To install the Recovery Console, you will need your Windows XP CD. The version of Windows XP on the CD must match or surpass the version installed on your PC, thus a Service Pack 3 disk is recommended. If you don’t have one, try to borrow one from a friend or co-worker. If you can’t find one, you can download setup disks or disk images from Microsoft.

For demonstrative purposes, we’ll assume that you have a Windows SP3 CD loaded into your CD drive at drive-letter D:

To install the Recovery Console, follow these steps (lifted from this Knowledge Base article):

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons  where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.

   

4. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.

   

5. Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console” appears on the startup menu.

The black screen with white text can be intimidating, but if you’ve ever played with the command line, you should feel right at home here. If you need help, just type “help”, and optionally, the name of the command you’re curious about, like “help fixmbr”.

I’ll run down the highlights of what commands you’ll most likely use:

“Bootcfg” recovers the Boot.ini file.

“Chkdsk /r” looks for bad disk sectors and attempts to recover any information which can be read from them.

“Copy” copies a file to a target location.

“Delete” deletes one file.

“Disable” disables a Windows system service or driver.

“Enable” restarts a disabled service or driver.

“Diskpart” manages hard disk partitions. Be very careful using this!

“Expand” decompresses a compressed file. This is good for getting files off the installation CD if needed.

“Fixmbr” repairs the boot code on a hard-disk. If your operating system “cannot be found” you’ll likely use this command, along with little brother “Fixboot”.

The Recovery Console is scary but helpful, and you’ll be glad that you’ve installed it on your hard disk before Windows gives you any trouble. If you have any system recovery tips, please leave comments below.

Image credit: Paul Boxley

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While installing the operating system, the installer takes care of writing appropriately to the first 512 bytes to allow the operating system to boot and detect partitions. Once that has been done, you do not have direct access to the MBR (which is generally not recommended). However, there are times when you need to take things in your own hand (like backing up MBR before restoring a hard disk image or an OS install, making a partition bootable, or recovering from a corrupt MBR etc), for such times there is a small utility you can use, called – MBRWizard.

MBRWizard allows you to save/restore MBR, fix a corrupt MBR, you can hide/unhide hard disk partitions, make a partition bootable or delete it all together, make a flash disk bootable etc.

MBRWizard is a command line utility you can download from here. Fire up Command Prompt and browse to where you have MBRWiz.exe stored (or else add the directory to your PATH variable), type MBRWiz and you will see a list of all the options. You can then decide which option to choose according to what you are trying to accomplish.

Here are a few examples.

To create a backup of MBR

MBRWiz /save=C:\savedMBR

You can then use this backup copy to restore MBR in case you ever have to.

To restore MBR from the saved file

MBRWiz /Restore=C:\savedMBR

To see an exhaustive list of all the partitions along with attributes

MBRWiz /List

To Hide a parition use

MBRWiz /Hide=Yes /Disk=0 /Part=2

To delete a partition

MBRWiz /Part=2 Del

You can find the complete documentation of all the options and how to use them, here. The site also lists how you can troubleshoot MBR problems when you cannot boot into the operating system. Although in such situations, you must have a way to boot from a CD, USB drive or (ahem..) floppy disk and be able to run MBRWizard. Check out how to make your own Windows Live CD, MBRWizard would be a nice utility to have on your live CD.

MBRWizard is a great tool to have everything is working fine, as well as when you need to fix MBR issues. You must have your favorite tools to jumpstart a problematic computer. We would love to hear about them so tell us in the comments.

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I had a machine that was badly damaged and infected after being without antivirus for a bunch of months. When I got it I wouldn’t even connect it to my network. I was going to boot to Knoppix and have at it but I decided to give Avira’s AntiVir Rescue System a Go.

The images below are not from my actual rescue but I went back to capture these images for the article. I was not able to capture the screenshots in my normal manner due to not being in Windows. So the shots are either from my digital camera or from Avira’s website. Please bare with me.

I downloaded the days current ISO. This ISO contains your bootdisk and virus definitions. Once you burn the ISO or disk image (you may use one of free Nero alternatives for that) you can boot your computer to it. To boot to your CD-Rom you will need to have the burnt cd in the drive and then restart your computer. When the bios screen shows up you should see something in the upper right hand corner that says press F12 for boot menu or something similar. Hit F12 and then choose your CD-Rom as the boot device. You will see AntiVir load. Then you will see a screen similar to the one below. The date after the version number should be today’s date. The date on the shot below is 10/9/2009 from 10:43:09.

I hit 1 and then enter. AntiVir Rescue System will continue to boot. You would hit 2 if you just want to boot into your normal operating system.

Once the program starts it will be in German. Simply hit the UK flag to change the language to English. In case you don’t know what the British Flag looks like it is the second one, it is Red White and Blue. You can see it in the image below.

Hit the configuration button on the left and choose your options. I selected Smart Scan and allowed it to clean my files. If it can not be remove it will rename them.

You can also choose if you want it to remove dialers, jokes, games or spyware.

Next we need to tell it what to scan. Do you see the directory box at the bottom? I circled it in red below. You need to hit that and browse to your Windows Installation.

For this machine it is in SDA1. Simply look at each of them and try and locate the Windows directory or Documents and Settings. When you find those folders you found your Windows Installation. Then hit Virus Scanner on the left followed by Start Scan.

Your scan will run with your options and in the end hopefully it will turn out as well as it did for me.

Do you have another Boot Tool on Windows to clean infections? If so please share with us. Show the community how smart you are today!

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This can be achieved by using a regular USB/pen/thumb drive (whatever you call it). Basically configure your system to boot windows from USB stick. The hack would be more than enough to keep even your curious geeky computer friends from booting into the system. That said, it is by no means foolproof (which security measure is? ) so you might not want to bet your life on it.

*** DISCLAIMER : the following method requires you to make some changes to your operating system. MakeUseOf cannot accept any legal liability if anything goes wrong with your PC and you should proceed at your own risk. Please read the instructions thoroughly before beginning and if you are still not sure what you are doing, you should seek help from a knowledgeable friend ***

A key requirement for the hack to work is that your system should support booting from a USB device. This can be verified from within the BIOS menu. So if you have an older system that doesn’t support booting from USB devices, this one is not for you. We will cook up something else! Although, now that I think about it, theoretically (because I have not tried) the hack should work with a floppy disk as well. So you guys with older systems can also follow along and let us know if it worked.

What we are going to do is transfer some of the important files (you will see which ones) that Windows needs in order to boot, to the USB drive. Now if someone was to boot up the PC without your USB drive the system won’t find these important files and will thus fail to boot.

So now that you know the concept, let’s get working:

• Format the USB drive.
• Within Windows Explorer go to Tools > Folder Options. Within the View tab, choose “Show hidden files” and uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”.



• Open up the Windows Partition (usually C:), copy boot.ini, NTLDR and ntdetect.com onto your USB drive.
• Boot up the system and change the boot order preference to check for a USB device first. You can access the BIOS menu generally by hitting F8 when the computer just starts.

Just in case you are curious, the boot.ini file is required to tell where the operating system resides. NTLDR is the NT loader which actually loads the operating system. ntdetect.com detects basic hardware that is required to boot up the system.

The changes are fully recoverable, although it would require some work for the uninitiated. If something goes wrong or you want to restore back things as they were then use the Recovery Console from your Windows CD.

Then at the command prompt issue “bootcfg /rebuild”. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

The solution is not foolproof. Even if someone is not able to boot your system he/she can easily get your data by using a live CD. So you might still want to keep your data encrypted.

Do you know of some other clever ways of preventing unauthorized access? Share them with us in the comments section.

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Recently my Linux hard disk crashed on me and it was then that I discovered that there was a limited choice of data recovery tools that I could use on my Linux system. In my desperate attempt to revive my hard disk (and the data on it), I came across these two great pieces of software TestDisk and PhotoRec that single-handedly saved my hard disk.

TestDisk – Recover Lost Partitions

TestDisk is a partition recovery software that can recover any lost partition or make a non-booting disk bootable again. It can be really handy when your hard disk has crashed due to faulty software, viruses or any accidental removal of the partition.

It doesn’t matter whether you are using Windows, Linux, Mac or any other UNIX system because TestDisk is able to recover them all.

As you can see from the image above, TestDisk is run in the terminal (or DOS) mode. That doesn’t mean it is difficult to use. There is no command line to remember. All you need to do is to move your arrow keys and press Enter to select the right answer, just like how you answer an online survey.

Select the hard disk to scan for the lost partition :

Select the partition type :

Find the lost partition :

Write the data to the partition :

Most of the time when your hard disk has crashed, or fails to boot, it doesn’t mean that it is spoilt. It could just be due to a corrupted file or accidental removal of the boot record, which can be easily fixed with TestDisk.

I have successfully restored two 80GB hard disks that originally could not be booted up.

PhotoRec – Recover Lost and Deleted Files

PhotoRec works to recover lost files from any storage devices, including video, documents, pictures and archives from hard disks, memory cards, USB thumb drives and CD-ROM’s. It doesn’t care what filesystem you are using and it goes deep under to dig out any underlying data.

Even if your storage device is severely damaged or re-formatted, there is a great chance that you can retrieve your data, as long as it has not been overwritten.

Unlike other data recovery software, PhotoRec does not come with a nice user interface and it does not allows you to select which files to restore. By default, it will recover all the files that it can find, but you can configure it to search only for a particular file extension.

A point to note while using PhotoRec: you should never restore a file to its original location as it will overwrite the data and make the file unrecoverable. Instead, restore the files to a secondary hard disk or a separate partition.

Conclusion

I would strongly recommend TestDisk and PhotoRec as Linux data recovery tools. Although they are not as visually appealing, their solid support for multiple platforms and filesystems give them a great advantage over other data-recovery software, not to mention that they are free too.

If you are using Windows and want to retrieve lost files, other data recovery software (such as Restoration and Undelete Plus) would be useful as they have a better interface and give you more control over which files to restore. However, if you are on Linux, Mac or any other platform other than Windows, PhotoRec would be a great alternative.

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Well, ready to get started? Let’s do it.

Messing around with the actual login can be quite fun as well. Actually, if that does not pump you up enough, what if I told you it was easy? Yes, well, it is! Here are a few cool things you can do with the registry to make your login screen a little more personal:

Add A Login Text Reminder

This little reminder will pop-up everytime you start the computer, right before the login screen boots. You can edit it to say whatever you like.

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.ext.

2. When the Registry Editor loads, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version \ Winlogon

3. You should now see a multitude of registry keys that are essential for the logon. To do what we are trying to do, add a text reminder, find the registry key LegalNoticeCaption and right-click, and select Modify.

4. Now, type whatever you like in the box to set a caption/title for the window.

5. For the actual text you would like to display, find the Registry Key right under it titled LegalNoticeText and again right-click it, then select Modify. Type whatever you like in the box.

Set Default Logon Identity

Also conveniently placed in the Winlogon directory is the Registry Key titled AutoAdminLogin, DefaultDomainName, and DefaultUserName. These keys set the default login credentials for the system when the login is loaded. If you simply want to save time by automatically setting the correct username and password everytime, and this computer is not used by a bunch of people then it is fine.

If the computer you are tweaking happens to be used by many people then I would not recommend using this tweak, unless, of course, you are intending on everyone using the same account. Anyway here it is:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.exe.

2. When the Registry Editor loads, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version \ Winlogon

3. The AutoAdminLogin key should be set to 0 currently if your system does not automatically log you on. If the system does, though, automatically log you on, then this should be set to 1.

4. The DefaultDomainName key is the default user directory the username is selected to do. Usually, this will not need to be changed, unless you are logging onto a server.

5. The DefaultUserName key, obviously, sets the default username. You can change this to whatever you wish to accompany your username.

Change the Logon Screensaver

Changing the logon screensaver may be the best part. The ability to show your friends your ultra-cool hacking tweaking skills and superior computer modding. Anyway, here is an easy way using some cool software. (Note: The installation is quite easy and shouldn’t need much explanation.)

1. Download BootSkin.

2. Find and download new or used current “BootSkins” provided after installation to change your boot screen. (To download and access new “BootSkins” you can go to WinCustomize.)

Hope these small tweaks help you get a little closer to the perfect computer. Have fun tweaking!

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	MZ Vista Force is a full-fledged tweaking machine! It’s broken down into Performance Tweaks, Windows Tweaks, Internet Optimizer, StartUp Manager, Services Manger, and Backup Restore. Use it to easily clean up junk files off your hard disk or speed up Internet browsing in Vista. You can also modify lots of esoteric settings like the speed at which the Start Menu displays and clearing out the page file at shutdown. Lots of options and a definite download!
	A Vista Tweaker from Stardock that packs a bunch of features into a small package. Disable unnecessary startup programs, update drivers that are out of date, get a benchmark of your computer performance, and lots more. The full version has some extra stuff for $20.
	Vista Logo Boot Generator is a free Windows Vista program that you can use to change the default boot screen in Windows to your own custom image. You can use an image of two sizes, either 800×600 or 1024×768, so you’ll have to scale any images you might want to use to that size first and they must be in .bmp format. So if you have a nice picture of your spouse or something else you wouldn’t mind seeing at startup, use this to customize the boot screen!
	Vista Boot Pro is a cool freeware app that you can use to easily mange the boot configuration and settings in Windows Vista without having to manually edit the BCDEdit file. You can also use Vista Boot Pro to back up the existing boot configuration before making changes in case something goes wrong. Also useful for multi-boot systems where you want to set the default OS, etc.
	What’s the most annoying thing about Windows Vista? Could your answer be UAC or User Account Control? Mine too! I hate it! It’s a pain! But it’s also bad to turn it completely off. So what to do? Use TweakUAC, a nifty little tool you can use to Turn off UAC, Turn on UAC, or put it into Quiet mode. Quiet mode means Administrators are not bothered with prompts when doing admin tasks, but it’s still remains on for programs, etc. Finally!
	Any other annoying Vista feature? How about those giant arrows on your desktop shortcuts? Do they really need to be THAT big? I mean come on! We know they are shortcuts. If you hate those little shortcut icons, you can get rid of them by using Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover! A free app that either lets your remove the shortcuts or make them smaller like they used to be in Windows XP. Ahhh that’s better!

Any other Windows Vista utilities that you just can’t live without? There are a couple of more that I like to use, but I’ll leave that for another post! Hope you enjoyed these!

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