Windows - Tips & Tricks

Calc - Calculator

Cfgwiz32 - ISDN Configuration Wizard

Charmap - Character Map

Chkdisk - Repair damaged files

Cleanmgr - Cleans up hard drives

Clipbrd - Windows Clipboard viewer

Cmd - Opens a new Command Window (cmd.exe)

Control - Displays Control Panel

Dcomcnfg - DCOM user security

Debug - Assembly language programming tool

Defrag - Defragmentation tool

Drwatson - Records programs crash & snapshots

Dxdiag - DirectX Diagnostic Utility

Explorer - Windows Explorer

Fontview - Graphical font viewer

Ftp - ftp.exe program

Hostname - Returns Computer's name

Ipconfig - Displays IP configuration for all network adapters

Jview - Microsoft Command-line Loader for Java classes

MMC - Microsoft Management Console

Msconfig - Configuration to edit startup files

Msinfo32 - Microsoft System Information Utility

Nbtstat - Displays stats and current connections using NetBios over TCP/IP

Netstat - Displays all active network connections

Nslookup- Returns your local DNS server

Ping - Sends data to a specified host/IP

Regedit - registry Editor

Regsvr32 - register/de-register DLL/OCX/ActiveX

Regwiz - Reistration wizard

Sfc /scannow - Sytem File Checker

Sndrec32 - Sound Recorder

Sndvol32 - Volume control for soundcard

Sysedit - Edit system startup files (config.sys, autoexec.bat, win.ini, etc.)

Systeminfo - display various system information in text console

Taskmgr - Task manager

Telnet - Telnet program

Taskkill - kill processes using command line interface

Tskill - reduced version of Taskkill from Windows XP Home

Tracert - Traces and displays all paths required to reach an internet host

Winchat - simple chat program for Windows networks

Winipcfg - Displays IP configuration

Windows Vista comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions depending on which CPU type you have. The 64-bit version will only work on 64-bit processors, however the 32-bit version can run on all types.

Some users will have a processor capable of running the 64-bit version of Vista but have the 32-bit version installed by default. This won't cause any problems, but it does mean you may miss out on some advantages (such as being able to utilise large amounts of memory). If you are in this situation, you can check to see if your computer can handle the 64-bit version of Windows Vista using the following steps.

First, open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start Menu > Control Panel.
Then click System and Maintenance.
Then select Performance Information and Tools.
This will display your computers performance index rating, allowing you to View and Print details.

Logon wallpaper is the wallpaper or image that windows xp shows on screen when windows logs on (before it asks for username & password) . It’s usually set to the image-logo of the brand(manufacturer) of our computer (e.g. in compaq laptops). Now we can set it to our own image or any other image(any bmp file) by following trick.

Open Startmenu->Run type regedit and press ok to open registry editor.(shows a tree like structure of directories at left)

In that hierarchical structure in left, navigate to registry entry
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

In right side pane see a number of values placed in a table format. choose the value named Wallpaper from there and double click it. Now you see a box with value name as Wallpaper and value data as Path to the image file .There give the full path of the image(bmp file) which you want to set as logon wallpaper by deleting previous path and writing path to your bmp file e.g. C:\WINDOWS\lon.BMP (to set image lon.BMP file as log on wall paper).

Also double click on WallpaperStyle and change it’s value to 2 to get a stretched wallpaper at logon.

Put that bmp file in windows directory for better results.
If that is a jpeg file, convert to bmp file by opening in Windows Image Viewer and save as bmp.

Then, click on the Compatibility tab at the top of the window. You can then tick the "Run this program in compatibility mode for..." box and choose the operating system the application is designed to run under (i.e. Windows XP). You can also choose any other options, such as running at a reduced resolution, then click OK.
Hopefully this will then let you run the application, but you may need to try several compatibility settings to find which works best for a troublesome application.

You can resize your Desktop Icons in Windows Vista very easily. Just follow the instructions given below:

* Right Click on the Desktop
* Click View
* Select "Large Icons", "Medium Icons", or "Classic Icons"

You can also manually adjust the size of the icons on your desktop. This isn't hard but it does take a bit of coordination:

* Left Click on the Desktop
* Hold down the CTRL key
* (While holding down the CTRL key) Scroll your mouse wheel up or down to adjust the icon size