When I provided these manual instructions for restoring a BKF file, I promised that Microsoft would release a tool to simplify the process. Well, here it is.

Before you install it, you’ll need to turn on or install the Removable Storage Management by following these steps:

1. Click the Start button and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Programs.
3. Click Turn Windows Features on or off, and respond to the security prompt.
4. Select the check box next to Removable Storage Management to turn the feature on, and then click OK.

Microsoft funded a study by Principled Technologies to compare the performance of the Windows XP user interface to the Windows Vista Aero interface. Here’s my summary:

• Comparisons were done with a variety of different computers, some more powerful than others. Naturally, the Aero tests required computers capable of running Aero. So, these results don’t necessarily apply to your old XP computer.
• With or without Aero, Vista performs about the same on business tasks (like opening Office documents). Some things are faster, some are slower, but it’s a wash overall.
• Vista with Aero performs about the same as Vista without Aero. So, don’t feel like you need to disable Aero for performance.
• Though all my computers are capable, I can’t run Aero because screenshots look awful. I’m fine with either interface. I’m just saying, even if Aero did cause a performance impact and you wanted to turn it off, the other Vista improvements more than make up for it.

Question:

Hi Tony, merry Christmas!I read your article about dual monitors on Microsoft’s site, and was wondering if you could answer a question for me. I understand if you can’t reply, but I thought I’d give it a shot.

I recently set up dual monitors on my system, and have noticed that when I drag a window, or even move my mouse across from monitor one to monitor two, everything on monitor two is about two inches below monitor one.

To clarify, moving the mouse straight across from monitor 1 to monitor 2, the cursor drops about two inches. The desktop wallpapers appear properly though.

Any ideas how to correct this? I’ll be glad to give you any system info you require. Thanks!

Answer:

Dual monitors can be flakey in both Windows XP and Vista. This is an easy fix, though.
1. Open the Display Settings dialog:

• In Windows Vista, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Under Appearance and Personalization, click Adjust screen resolution.
• In Windows XP, right-click the Desktop, and then click Properties. Then, click the Display tab.

2. The two monitor icons are probably not aligned. Drag them so they’re lined up, just as your physical monitors are. You should also double-click the resolutions. Then, click OK.

That’s it!

Microsoft is working on a tool to simplify restoring files from backups you made with Windows XP, but it’s not ready yet. In the meantime, plan on scrapping your old backups–as soon as you get Vista running, do a Complete PC backup, and then schedule nightly backups.

If you really need to restore files from a .BKF file, this thread provides guidance. I’ll copy the steps here for reference:

1) create a folder somewhere, call it ntbackup just so you can keep track of
what you’ve done
2) from an existing XP installation, copy these 3 files into the new folder:
ntbackup.exe, vssapi.dll, ntmsapi.dll. Optionally, copy the files
ntbackup.chm and ntbackup.hlp. Do not overwrite any Vista files that have
the same names.
3) run ntbackup.exe. dismiss the error dialog concerning removable storage
if it appears.
4) catalog the backup file as you normally would (select the Restore tab,
then select Tools/Catalog) then select and restore your files. Remember to
restore them to an alternate location using the drop-down box in the
lower-left corner of ntbackup.

If you don’t have a running XP installation, then extract the listed files
from the XP installation CD. If you don’t know where these files are, you
can use search to find them; they will have the same filename except the last
character will be an underscore (e.g., ntbackup.exe will be ntbackup.ex_ on
the CD). i have not done an exhaustive search of every version of XP’s
installation CD to determine their locations.

Since you are (presumably) not running as an administrator under Vista as
you probably were under XP,
1) some extraneous errors may occur during the restore. check the results
of the restore to ensure that you got all the files you needed from the
backup, and apply the appropriate security settings to the restored files
manually if necessary
2) You might need to turn off the option to restore file security. (Hit the
“Advanced” button in the restore dialog).

ntbackup also appears to work for backing up files, but I wouldn’t trust it
to do so correctly without extensive testing.

If you want to connect to another computer in your home across your network, follow these steps (you’ll need access to an administrator account):

1. On the computer you want to connect to, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

2. Make note of the Computer name (listed halfway down the page). Then, under Tasks, click Remote settings.

3. If all your computers are running Vista, click Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication. If you have some earlier versions of Windows that you want to use to connect to this computer, click Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop.
4. Click Select Users.

5. In the Select Users dialog, click the Add button. Type the name of the user you want to grant access to, and then click OK. Repeat this step to add more users.

6. Click OK twice.

Windows Vista will automatically open the necessary exception in Windows Firewall. Now, you are ready to use Remote Desktop to connect to the computer from another computer.

If you need to enable Remote Desktop on a computer that you can remotely manage but doesn’t yet have Remote Desktop turned on, follow these steps:

1. Use Regedit to open the registry of the remote computer.
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server.
3. Set fDenyTSConnections to 0, and create it if necessary. It’s set to 1 by default, which disables it.

• HyperCam2. Captures a portion of your screen to an AVI file. Can capture sound (or not). This has a free trial, but it’s $40 to buy, and I haven’t found a free tool that does the job.
• Microsoft GIF Animator. Converts an AVI file to a animated GIF. This is a free tool.

First, use HyperCam to capture the portion of the window you want to record. Then, open the saved AVI file in Microsoft GIF Animator. Configure it (such as causing it to repeat or removing excess frames), and save the GIF file. Then, put the GIF file on your website like any other file type. I made the animation below (which shows the non-Aero alt-Tab in Vista) using these tools.

Longer movies can be really big (that one is 711KB), but it’s still easier than posting something to YouTube, and it doesn’t require a browser plug-in. Here’s an example of a screen capture showing typing.

Type Access is the autoreplace feature that should have been built into Windows. When it’s enabled, it’ll work with any application. And, it works in Windows Vista and earlier versions of Windows.

It’s good, and I’m using it right now, but it’s not without its drawbacks (especially when compared to AutoComplete it Word):

• It’s not integrated into your spell checkers
• It won’t automatically detect common typos, such as holding down the Shift key too long and capitalizing the first two letters of a word
• It comes with a couple of dozen phrases built-in, but none of the common ones you’d expect, such as: (c), ™, (r), or commonly mistyped/mispelled words.

Of course, you can add your own phrases, but I’d really need to add thousands of phrases to make it as helpful as AutoComplete built into Word.

If you know of a similar app that you prefer, please add a comment.

With Internet Explorer 7 (either in Windows Vista or Windows XP), you can zoom the game in to be almost full-screen (after the jump).

First, open the game in Internet Explorer and maximize it to take up the whole screen (try pressing Alt-Space, X). Press F11 to make Internet Explorer full-screen. Then, hold down the Ctrl key and press + repeatedly (Ctrl-+) to zoom in the flash game until it takes up the full browser window. You might need to scroll up or down to center it horizontally.

To zoom back out and make the game smaller, hold down Ctrl and press -. To zoom back to normal, hold down Ctrl and press the number 0. Here’s a game to try it out on:

Gust: review, discussion, hints, tips and walkthrough at Jay is Games

1. Click the picture you want as your wallpaper so that the larger picture opens in your browser.

2. Right-click the picture, and then click Set as Background.

3. Click Yes when prompted.

I scaled these pictures way down to make them easier to download–my camera (a Canon 5D) takes huge pictures.

If you have a tool you like more, add a comment.

• Windows-F. Open a search window to quickly search files, e-mail, pictures, and music on your computer. Probably my favorite Vista feature.
• Windows-E. Open an Explorer window showing your computer.

(more after the jump)

• Windows-R. Open the Run dialog. For example, to run the Calculator tool, press Windows-R, type Calc, and then press Enter. In Vista, you really don’t need to open the Run dialog–just press the Windows key, type the name of your app, and press Enter.
• Windows-D. Show the desktop (minimizes all windows). Press Windows-D again to re-open them all.
• Windows-L. Lock your computer (a good thing to do before you walk away).
• Windows-N. Opens a OneNote window for taking quick notes, if you have Microsoft Office OneNote installed.
• Windows-U. Opens the accessibility tools.
• Windows-X. Opens the Windows Mobility Center if you have a portable computer. This is a very useful tool which gives you access to wireless network and power settings, and other stuff you need if you’re mobile.
• Alt-Tab. Switch to the last window you had open. Hold down the Alt key and press Tab repeatedly to browse between different windows. Use Shift-Alt-Tab to browse in the opposite direction.
• Ctrl-Tab. Switch to the last document you had open within the current window. For example, if you have multiple tabs open within your Web browser, this will keep your browser open but switch to the last used tab.
• Alt-Space, N. Minimize a window to the taskbar.
• Alt-Space, X. Maximize a window to cover the whole desktop.
• Alt-F4. Close the current window.
• Ctrl-Z. Undo the last change. Use Ctrl-Y to redo the last change.
• Ctrl-C. Copy text. Use Ctrl-V to paste it somewhere else.
• Ctrl-X. Cut text. Use Ctrl-V to paste it somewhere else.
• Ctrl-S. Save the current file.
• Ctrl-W. Close the current document or tab without closing your program.
• Tab. When filling out a form, takes you to the next field. Use Shift-Tab to go back to the previous field.
• Ctrl-P. Print.
• Home. Jump to the begging of the line. This button is near your Page Up and Page Down keys.
• End. Jump to the end of the line.
• F1. Open help.
• F2. If you have a file selected, rename the file.
• F5. Refreshes the current window.
• Ctrl-Alt-Del. Opens the secure desktop, which lets you lock your computer, open Task Manager, change your password, or log-off.

“I was wondering if you could perhaps help me. I read your bio and was impressed with your skills and talent. I play DAoC and experience SERIOUS lag in the game. I have a AMD 4.2ghz Dual Core with 1gb ram … An NVidia GeForce 7600GS video card … It has 512gb ram. I am on a 3gb cable modem. When I am in the game for the most part it is playable … But when I go where there are other players the latency is so severe that either I can’t move for minutes at a time or I go link dead and have to quit out and restart the application … I am not an expert on PC’s but I know enough to kill all my background programs before playing … When the really bad lag occurs my HD is hitting solid … The light never goes out … I have a 140gb Western Digital HD and have formatted and re-installed WinXP Pro and ran all the updates and have the newest drivers for my video card. I don’t know if this is enough info for you to help but would sure appreciate any and all help you can give … I thoroughly enjoy playing the game and it is very disheartening to experience this absence of performance on a machine I have spent so much money on … I have other friends that play on lesser machines with not as much resources as I have and while they do experience moderate amounts of it they don’t even come close to my frequency of occurances … I have and run the latest spyware / virus software and don’t use any p2p (bearshare/limewire) software … I don’t know if you can help me but I could sure use any and all advice you can give. !!!“

My answer after the jump:

Lag can be caused by lots of things, as you’ve figured out. Does the game give you a network latency measurement? That would be my guess. Network latency is separate from bandwidth; you can have lots of bandwidth and you’ll still have latency. If nothing else, the speed of light limits how fast your packets travel across the Internet, and if the server on the other side of the world, communications back and forth can easily take more than half a second (which is too much for gaming). In the case of multiplayer games, packets have to travel from your computer, to the server, to all the players, back to the server, and then back to you. That’s why they try to match-make multiplayer games and servers within a specific geographic region.