How To Make Windows Vista Look Like Windows XP

How To Make Windows Vista Look Like Windows XP

The problem:

I have friends who complain that they don't like the look-and-feel of Windows Vista. They want to get rid of all the Vista visual elements such as the round Start button and replace them with the XP visuals.

Windows Vista Desktop	Windows XP Desktop

You can make Vista look-and-feel like the more familiar XP.

The following procedure will produce a Vista computer with an XP look-and-feel. It's quick, it's easy, and it's almost fool-proof.

1. Left-click on  
2. In the Start menu,
   • Right click Computer
   • Select Properties
     
   or
   • Left-click on Control Panel
   • Left-click on System
3. In the left-hand Tasks pane, left-click Advanced System Settings
4. In the UAC dialog box
• left-click on  
or
• enter the name and password for the machine's administrator
5. On the Advanced tab, left-click Performance
6. On the Performance tab, left-click on  
7. Left-click "Adjust for Best Performance"

Be aware:
Changing the above, and then resetting back to the original, might alter some of your toolbars and desktop icons. That's the "almost" part of "almost foolproof."

Speed Up Windows XP (more)

There are thousands of little ways to make your computer run slower than it could. Microsoft manages to make all the wrong choices on those. Fortunately, guys like I can help correct Microsoft's bungles. That's why you pay us the big bucks.

Hard drive technology is constantly evolving. One of the areas where improvements have been made is in how the hard drive (and DVD/CD drive) transfer data from the drive to memory, and back from memory to the drive.

Way back when, we stopped using hamsters to power PCs. That's when 'bugs' were insects that crawled inside the machine and shorted circuits. Back then data transfer used a technology called PIO.

Nowadays the standard data transfer method - much, much faster than PIO - is DMA. Don't worry about the terminology. I'm just throwing around tech-talk to impress you.

Sometimes your hard drives and DVD/CD drives are set to use PIO instead of DMA. Here's how to check and correct (if needed) that error.

1. Find the icon called My Computer
2. Right-click My Computer
3. Left-click Properties
4. Left-click the 'Hardware' tab
5. Left-click the 'Device Manager' button
6. Halfway down the list of devices is "IDE ATA\ATAPI Controllers"
7. If "IDE ATA\ATAPI controllers" is not listed, you don't have a PIO/DMA problem. You can close down the Device Manager
8. If 'IDE ATA\ATAPI controllers' IS listed,
9. Left-click the adjacent 'plus sign'
10. Right-click 'Primary IDE Channel'
11. Left-click 'Properties'
12. Left-click the 'Advanced Settings' tab
13. 'Transfer Mode' should be set to 'DMA if available.' If it isn't, it will say 'PIO Only'
14. If needed, left-click the arrow to the right of 'PIO Only'
15. Select 'DMA if available'
16. If the program lists a 'Secondary IDE Channel,' repeat the above steps for the secondary IDE channel.
17. That's all; close all 'Properties' windows
18. Close 'Device Manager.'
    

Any speed improvement gained will show up after you re-start the computer

MicroSoft Vista, Part 2

Microsoft Vista is an operating system for personal computers. It usually is found installed on new personal computers.

For openers, let's discuss the concept of an "operating system." Simply put, the operating system is your computer's traffic cop. It directs all of the odds and ends that go on inside your computer.

All computers have an operating system - even your cell phones, your car's computer, your high-tech "IP" telephones, your "TIVO" (a TV's Video Recorder - VCR - on steroids).

If the operating system (OS) is good, you never know that it is there. It just does its job quietly, while it turns your keystrokes and mouse clicks into documents, screen images, internet 'activity', music, and the like. Good operating systems include

• Apple's Macintosh
• newer versions of Linux
• Windows XP, although it took a couple of years of patching before XP became a fairly good OS.
  

Windows Vista is still rough around the edges - and all the way through. Many industry pundits (and I) doubt that it will ever become a polished, well-running, unintrusive OS.

Technically speaking, Microsoft has stopped selling Windows XP and requires that all new PCs built by Microsoft Partners have MS Vista pre-installed. Oddly, even though XP is not longer being sold for installation on new computers, XP still outsells Vista. Go figure.

Why is that?

• Performance. Vista is overweight. It's bloated. It uses much more memory than XP or Linux. It requires a faster processor than those OSs.
• Quality. Vista is buggy.
• Usability. There are some computer components that will not work with Vista. There are MANY programs that will not work with Vista.
  

Some of those vendors - MicroSoft Partners - will thumb their noses at MicroSoft and will build you a less-expensive (but equally good or even better) PC with XP installed or with Linux installed.

They can 'install' XP because the Vista license allows you to 'downgrade' to XP. I challenge the use of the term 'downgrade,' but that's my personal problem. In any case, if you follow my advice, you'll insist that any new computer that you buy will have Windows XP - or Linux - or both - installed.

As PC operating systems go, Windows XP is a good choice. Most of the bugs have been worked out, and there is considerable available hardware and software that play nicely with XP.

It's a good time to consider Linux as an OS on any computer, new or used. Granted, Linux is not Windows, and not all Windows software will run on a Linux computer. But

1. Most Linux installations include software called "Wine". Wine is a product that is designed to enable you to run Windows software in a Linux environment. Not all WIndows programs will run under Linux/Wine, but 6500 Windows programs do....
2. Every day new Linux programs are released... programs that perform the same functions as MicroSoft-compatible programs - and usually faster than MicroSoft-compatible software,
   
3. These days, most people use computers for Internet browsing, e-mail, simple text operations such as writing letters (you know, those old-fashioned documents that required envelopes and stamps - and used complete words and complete sentences), preparing term papers, playing music, playing videos, and homework. Linux excels at all of those tasks.

Another option for running alternative operating systems is the "virtual machine." To use a virtual machine

1. take any computer running any of the Big 4 OSs: Vista, XP. Mac, Linux
2. install virtual machine software (all 4 have free VM software available)
3. use the VM software to create and install "Virtual XP", or "Virtual Vista", or "Virtual Linux" (Mac OS is different)

The virtual OS becomes a second operating system that can run simultaneously with the original OS and can share the computer's hardware resources: memory, disk drives, network, audio/video circuitry, and so on. You can switch between those 2 (or more) OSs on-the-fly without losing any data - or even with out 'losing your place' in what you were doing before the switch.

The point of all of this is that you don't have to buy a computer with an expensive, poorly written operating system (that would be Vista). You have alternatives.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Nowadays, you can substitute the word "Vista" for XP".

Hi, Honey. I'm Home (Part II)

The hiatus is over. Black Box and all of its invaluable tips, tricks, and traps will be back soon.

Until then, here is another quick tip:

You CAN get away from that awful Microsoft Vista. Getting a good operating system - Windows XP, as one example - is not a cakewalk, but it's not hard, either.

You might need professional help (but don't we all, from time-to-time). You definitely need

1. a license for Windows XP
   
2. the XP installation disks and the Windows XP installation key.

If you don't have the XP disks and key, consider these possiblilites:

• if you have an older computer, you might have an XP license available
• have a computer store or qualified technician install XP for you
• by one on e-Bay - from a reputable e-Bay vendor

The easiest way to set up XP on your Vista computer is to use what's called a "dual boot." The idea is that when you try to install XP on a computer that already has an operating system, the XP installation process will offer the opportunity to wipe out the old operating system (in this case, Vista) or to set up a "dual boot." Choose "dual boot."

When your computer has Vista and XP and a successful dual boot option, and when you start your computer, you'll be presented with a choice: Windows XP or Windows Vista. When you choose one of those, the computer will start the operating system that you chose. You can choose either each time you start your computer.

Be aware: if you use a dual-boot system,

1. the first installation will keep all of the existing software installed on it
2. the second installation will NOT have any of the after-market software that you installed; you will have to install any software that you want to use and the second installation (XP)
   
3. both installations will have access to the data that you created and saved using the first ) installation (Vista) - if you use the standard 'file system' on both. Chance s are that you will use the standard file system - the one called"NTFS."

If Vista is giving you a lot of grief - that seems to be Standard Operating Procedure for Vista - you can improve your situation.