Category: Windows Vista

How to Install Telnet on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8

I am going old school for a bit but hopefully this article and a future article on how to deal with mail on a mail server via telnet could come in handy. Anyway, on more recent versions of Windows (from Vista onwards) this isn’t included by default. Fortunately, you can install it quite easily as follows: …

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How to Tell Which Drive Contains Windows

Here’s a quick tip for today. If you’re using a recent version of Windows from Vista onwards then there is a simple way to see which drive has Windows installed on it. Just go into Windows/File Explorer by hitting Win + E on the keyboard and then select Computer or My Computer on the left hand …

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Shortcuts to Restart, Hibernate, Standby or Shutdown Your Computer

Here’s a tip that might be handy for those using Windows 8 or most other recent versions of Windows. If using the charms bar in Windows 8 makes your head explode then you might fancy creating a shortcut to restart, hibernate, standby or shutdown your computer. It’s very easy to do as follows: Right click …

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Boost Windows Security With EMET 3.0

Thanks to John Tomic for this tip. While Microsoft does a reasonable job keeping on top of the various security vulnerabilities found in its software your system will still be exposed to threats between the time they are identified (if at all) and the time when the patch is successfully installed. Like insurance, it can …

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COM Surrogate Process and High CPU Usage

Just an observation on Windows 8 that I wanted to share which may also help others using Windows Vista and 7. Recently, I was seeing some graphical glitches occur under Windows 8 as well as CPU usage getting stuck at 25% for unusually long periods of time on my quad-core i7 desktop. This meant that …

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Life in the Start Menu and the Start Screen

Even after the launch of Windows 8 for MSDN and TechNet members the complaints about the Start Screen still persist along with calls for the Start Menu of old to return for better or for worse. We’re still seeing various pieces of software coming out to mimic the functionality or presence of the old Start …

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Upgrades Aren’t Always Painless

Just a quick update for today. With the impending release of Windows 8 it’s a good time to remind people that upgrades (be it hardware or software) aren’t always seamless or painless. Whilst there isn’t an expected problem with people upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7 or even Windows Vista you should always prepare …

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Internet Explorer and 64-bit Windows

Just a quick note for this evening. On 64-bit versions of Windows you actually end up with two versions of Internet Explorer as part of the “out of box” installation. You might be forgiven for thinking that you would be using the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer by default but that often won’t be the …

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How to Fix Windows Activation Error 0x80072F8F

The last thing you want to see during a Windows installation is an error message and particularly one which might not give you any helpful information on how to correct it (and not many Windows errors fall into that bucket). Anyway, this is a simple yet frustrating problem that I came across recently and I …

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Get Windows 7 Resizing Capabilities in Windows XP & Vista

Here’s a quick tip for those of you still on Windows XP and Windows Vista. One of the great things about Windows 7 is the ability to quickly and simply put two windows side by side by using keyboard shortcuts (so “Windows Key + Left Arrow” to snap a window to the left of the …

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