Vista Volume (or lack of...)

Where's my volume icon gone?
Why is my powersave icon suddenly visible even when the laptop is plugged in?

This chap has some solutions >

http://winhlp.com/node/16

It's a long , detailed article which lists several solutions. If you find your system icons missing, here's the quick fix >

1. Search registry and delete all “IconStreams” and “PastIconStreams” entries (searching for the former, will find the latter.
2. Restart Windoze
3. Add them again (task bar properties, notification area > tick the boxes!)

Remote Desktops Tool for Vista

I'm a big fan of 'Remote Desktops', the MMC snap-in that combines a pane listing servers with RDP functionality.
For XP, this was provided by 'AdminPak'.

For Vista this is now known as RSAT. (Remote Server Administration Tools).

AdminPak for XP >
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c16ae515-c8f4-47ef-a1e4-a8dcbacff8e3&displaylang=en

RSAT for Vista >
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FF6E897-23CE-4A36-B7FC-D52065DE9960&displaylang=en

Vista SP1 Cleanup Utility - vsp1cln.exe

As if Vista didn't already take up enough disk space, it has hogged some more with the SP1 install. It uses double the amount of disk space due to leaving behind temporary installer files!

To release these files (several gig on my installation), run vsp1cln.exe from a command prompt, as below >

Vista Speedup tips

For the uninitiated...
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=513758

Vista : The great disk hog!

Useful links for those who are repapdly losing disk space to vista...

Manual tips for reclaiming space

Vista System Junk Cleaner tool

Vista : Disable TCP Window Scaling

TCP Window Scaling is a feature of Vista (& Windoze 2008 next year) that allows the intelligent use of a larger packet size when transferring data between hosts that support it.

The trouble is, not many hosts support it and some routers also dont like it.
The end result is people experiencing slow networking on Vista.

Turn it off like this (from Administrator command prompt) >

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Check the status like this >

netsh interface tcp show global

A nice pretty screenshot >

Vista : Where is telnet?

For some bizarre reason, telnet is not installed by default on Vista. How to get it back >



1) Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features

2) Look on left hand task pane and click 'Turn Windows Features on or off'

3) Locate and enable 'Telnet Client' in the list that appears.

4) Click OK and wait (for what seems like an eon)

Proceed to command prompt and use telnet like in the good old days :)

Vista System Restore - Disk Space Hog

Sorting out Vista's rather heavy restore footprint...



1) Open Administrative Command prompt for dos prompt



2) vssadmin list shadowstorage [enter]



< Results show disk space reserved for Vista System Restore >



Given the default is 15% of drive capacity, you'll probably want to change this....



3) vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=[drive letter]: /On=[drive letter]: /MaxSize=[space] [enter]

e.g. vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=1GB



< Should get message saying success, or error if you get it wrong! >



4) use first command to confirm new setting >

vssadmin list shadowstorage [enter]