System Health Report in Windows Vista

The System Health Report is one of the most useful diagnostic tools in Vista. It takes input from the Performance and Reliability Monitor and turns it into a well-organized, information-packed report that does a good job of spotlighting potential problems. To run this report, open Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, and then click Performance Information and Tools. In the Tasks list along the left, click Advanced tools. The last item on the resulting list is Generate a system health report.

Super Fetch

A key improvement to Windows Vista is a technology called SuperFetch. SuperFetch learns which programs you use most and preloads them into memory, so you don't have to wait a long time for your applications or documents load.

Cool Feature: Windows ReadyBoost™

Windows Vista introduces a new concept for adding additional performance to a running system. Windows ReadyBoost™ lets people use flash memory on a USB 2.0 drive, SD Card, Compact Flash, or other memory form factor to provide additional memory —memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Insert a USB 2.0 memory drive with at least 512 MB capacity. When prompted, click use this device to speed up my computer.

Vista Tip - Make a mistake when saving a file?

If you accidentally make a change to a file and save it, you can still get the old version back! Simply right-click on the file, choose “Properties”, then click on the “Previous Versions” tab and choose an older copy of the document.

Wow, that was easy! This is going to save me from a few mistakes and re-writing my docs1

Vista Tip - Easy File Find

If you need to quickly find a program, but can’t remember where it is, try typing its name in the Start Search box located at the bottom of the Start Menu. The Start Menu will display a list of programs and allow you to quickly open the one you are looking for without the need to look through the entire list of All Programs.

Now isn't that easy?

You can do the same for files!!!

Did you know that you can quickly and easily find a document by typing a few words from what’s inside it in the Windows Search box? Click the Start Button and then start typing! You can instantly search through all of your documents even if you don’t know the name of the file.

Vista Blog Tips

Hey! did you know you can subscribe to feeds from your favourite blogs and have them show up in your sidebar? yep! Pretty cool eh? I work in a call center and we run Vista Ultimate on our computers. I happened to figure this out one day when the call volume was low.

It is really a cool thing to have when a little boredom hits. Nothing like keeping up with all the latest Stampers and Crafting blogs. If I can't be at home stamping in my office, I might as well read all about others who are at home, being creative, putting the ink to the paper and making Beautiful works of art for me to look at and envy.

so... wanna know how to subscribe? If you have Vista installed, the RSS feeds is either on your sidebar or you can add it. Then, when you browse to your favourite blog, click on the orange feed symbol up in the toolbar of your browser. A dialogue box will open and you can then add the blog to your list of feeds that comes in every day. It is probably a good idea to have a few subsriptions as only the latest updates from the sites show. If someone (like me) doesn't update very often, you won't get new content until the blog is updated.

Here is what the sidebar looks like, as you can see I am watching the temperature in Vernon, BC and in Honalulu, Hawaii. There are lots of other things you can add to your sidebar, check it out!

So, now you all know what I do when I am at work. Nice Job eh?