How to Make Vista Faster

How to make Vista Faster: In the following simple solution, I'll show you how to make Vista Startup and Shutdown faster. There are many options available to make your Windows Vista quicker, however, many of these options require reducing Vista's functionality. We will try to focus on options that do not limit functionality.

Making Windows Vista Boot and Shutdown Faster:
Perform a "Disk Cleanup":
Click Start and type Disk Cleanup in the Start Search box, then press Enter and follow the onscreen instructions
Run "Disk Defragmenter":
Click Start and type Disk Defragmenter in the Start Search box, then press Enter and follow the onscreen instructions (select Defragment Now)
Empty the "Windows Prefetch" Directory:
Navigate to C:\Windows\Prefetch and delete all files and folders within, then reboot. After the first couple of reboots, Windows Vista should boot and shutdown faster

Those are just a few tricks that I use to help Windows Vista Boot or Startup and Shutdown quicker. Of course there are many more options like removing programs you never use, stopping programs from launching at startup and reducing Vista eye candy visual effects like Windows Aero.

Keep in mind that just like it's predecessors, Windows Vista will slow down over time as you fill the hard drive with information. Performing these steps at regular intervals should help keep your system speedy and performing well

Vista 64 bit Adobe Flash Player

Vista 64 bit Flash Player: In the following simple solution, I cover the process of Installing Adobe Flash Player on Windows Vista 64 bit Operating System. As you may have noticed when running Vista 64, when you visit a site that contains flash elements and you proceed to the download link to download Adobe Flash Player, you may be presented with an error that says:

"Sorry, your platform is not supported".

Strangely enough, the problem isn't that your platform is not supported, but rather that Windows Vista's 64 bit Internet Explorer is not supported. You can still install and run Adobe Flash Player on the Windows 32 Bit Internet Explorer that is included with Windows Vista.

Adobe has another link that will allow for installation of the Adobe Flash Player. To install Adobe Flash Player on 64 bit Windows Vista, use the following procedure.

Installing Adobe Flash Player on Vista 64 bit:
Open Internet Explorer (Make sure your not using the 64 bit version)
Visit this link to download and install the Adobe Flash Player addon
If allgoes well, you should now be able to view those flash sites in all their glory using Internet Explorer on your Windows Vista 64 bit System.

Setup cannot copy the file cmnicfg.xml

Setup cannot copy the file cmnicfg.xml: Typically, a user will receive this error during a Windows XP installation. The other day, a friend of mine decided to uninstall Windows Vista from his computer and reinstall Windows XP. He recently used nLite to create an unattended Windows XP Pro installation CD and proceeded to perform the install.

Toward the beginning of the installation, he received the error "Setup cannot copy the file cmnicfg.xml", If he skipped the file and continued, he would get a copy error with the following files:

Setup cannot copy the file ipcfg.xml
Setup cannot copy the file osinfo.xml
Setup cannot copy the file potscfg.xml
Setup cannot copy the file pppcfg.xml
Setup cannot copy the file trustmon.dll
Setup cannot copy the file trustmon.mof
Setup cannot copy the file twcli32.msi
Setup cannot copy the file dwil1033.dll
After having skipped the files and then continuing to the setup
phase, immediately upon starting he would get the following errors:

Fatal Error: internal setup data structures are corrupted
SAM initialization failed because of the following
error. Directory service cannot start 0xC00002e1

At first, we thought maybe he had a corrupted CD or a bad burn. However, after looking into the situation further, it appears that the fully automated or unattended install settings were causing the errors.

As it turned out, the problem was that the Automated Windows XP Installation disk was not prompting to format the partition, therefore, the installation was trying to access a directory that it did not have permission to access causing the file copy failures.

Fixing the Setup cannot copy the file cmnicfg.xml errors:
You could use a Windows XP installation CD that is not setup for Unattended Installation

Or you can do this:

Download the Gparted ISO and burn it to a CD
Restart your computer, booting from the Gparted CD
Use Gparted to delete, create and format your partition
Restart your computer from the Windows Installation disk and proceed to install Windows XP

Remove Yahoo Toolbar from Firefox

In the following simple solution, I'll show you how to remove the Yahoo Toolbar from Firefox. The Yahoo Toolbar is often unknowingly installed with other software packages. There is nothing wrong with the Yahoo Toolbar, but if you don't use the tools that are offered, you might consider it to be taking up precous space in your browser.

Uninstalling Yahoo Toolbar from Firefox:

Open your Firefox Browser and navigate to Tools > Addons

Locate Yahoo! Toolbar from the list of Add-ons, then click the Uninstall button to remove the Yahoo Toolbar

Restart Firefox and your Yahoo Toolbar should be gone!

HP Scanner - NO SCAN OPTIONS - Won't Scan

This error occurs because the HP scanner can not communicate with your computer and thus won't scan. In most
cases this is simply because you do not have all of the necessary drivers installed.

Insert the software CD into your CD ROM drive. The software installer should automatically start
Install the software and restart your computer when prompted
Try to Scan using the Scan To or Start Scan buttons on your printer
If your still experiencing problems, try this:

Windows 98, Me, and XP:

Navigate to Start > Run, type msconfig and press Enter
From the Window that appears, click the Startup tab
* Locate HP Digital Imaging Monitor from the list
Check the box next to HP Digital Imaging Monitor
Click Apply then click Close
Click Yes to restart
* If HP Digital Imaging Monitor is not on the list, the driver was not correctly installed. Proceed to uninstall and reinstall the software from your installation CD.

For Windows Vista:

Click Start, type msconfig in the search box and press Enter
Click the Startup tab from the window that appears
* Locate HP Digital Imaging Monitor from the list
Check the box next to HP Digital Imaging Monitor
Click Apply then click Close
Click Yes to restart
* If HP Digital Imaging Monitor is not on the list, the driver was not correctly installed. Proceed to uninstall and reinstall the software from your installation CD.

How to install Windows XP on a DV9000 Laptop

Windows XP on DV9000: In the following simple solution, I cover the process of installing Windows XP Pro on an HP DV9000 series Laptop (with Intel processors). We will be using nLite to create a remastered Windows XP Pro installation disk with integrated SATA drivers. You must also have a backup USB flash drive or hard drive handy to store essential system and network drivers that need to be installed to gain access to the internet for the remainder of the driver downloads. I've personally tested this tutorial by successfully installing Windows XP Pro to a HP DV9030US notebook.


IMPORTANT: Download and copy the following essential system, network and optional video drivers to a USB Flash drive. You will need them after the Windows XP install to get access to the internet and download the remaining drivers.