Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

After a new hard drive installation or maybe just to keep things organized the way you like, you may want to change the drive letter of a hard drive partition, CD or DVD drive in Windows Vista. The Computer Management tool makes this a snap.

Note: You cannot modify the drive letter of your main partition on your PC. In a normal Windows Vista installation, this is the “C Drive”. All other drive letters, including CD and DVD drive letters, can be modified though.

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type computer management in the search box after clicking Start. Choose Computer Management from the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2. Click on the System and Maintenance link.

Note: If you’re viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won’t see this link. Simply double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and proceed to Step 4.

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Tags: hardware, vista, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

I have often ran across computers that I needed to gain access to for data recovery, but I didnt have the administrator password to access the hard drive. Since in many situations, there is just one administrator account I can’t log into another administrator account and change the password so I have to rely on other methods. I could put the hard drive into another computer as a slave and gain access (sometimes) or I could try installing a second copy of the operating system in parallel and gain access but there must be a better way.

That way is to try to reset the administrator password to something you do know and allow you to access to the user profile and the data. In most cases,

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Tags: computer, hardware, vista, windows, xp

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Most of us know that changing your Windows Vista logon password regularly is a good habit to help keep your PC secure. Changing your password in Windows Vista is pretty easy and is something you should do if you’re having problems remembering your current password.

Follow the easy steps below to change your Windows Vista logon password:

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

2. Click on the User Accounts and Family Safety link.

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Tags: vista, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Changing the Windows Vista product key may be necessary if you discover your current key is pirated or illegal but you don’t want to reinstall Windows Vista to activate your new legal key.

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type system in the search box after clicking Start. Choose System from the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2. Click on the System and Maintenance link.

Note: If you’re viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won’t see this link. Simply double-click on the System icon and proceed to Step 4.

3. Click on the System link.

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Tags: vista, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

If you are using Windows XP or Windows 2003, you must have seen a pop-up message asking whether to send this error report to Microsoft whenever a program stops working abruptly. Microsoft has included Error Reporting so that they can make Windows better and stable but this can be bugging if you tend to have more programs crashing every day. Microsoft also has provided an option to disable this feature and error reporting is an optional report.

To Disable or Enable Error Reporting in Windows, follow these steps:

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Tags: windows, xp

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Here are some miscellaneous tips for debugging HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in Mozilla Firefox.

They include references to Firefox extensions (plug-ins) that you will need or want, as well as tips for configuring Firefox, how to actually invoke the debugging procedures, and a few shortcuts to keep in mind. A number of landmines are also pointed out along the way. (Please avoid stepping on those, because it gets messy.)

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Tags: internet, web

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Did you know that the Open Dialog Box, and the Save Dialog Box that are common to most Windows programs contain much of the functionality of the Windows Explorer? The window pane that shows the list of files available to open (or to overwrite) is essentially a miniature Explorer, and as with Windows Explorer, there are a myriad of viewing and sorting features available. You can even do things like delete files, rename files, copy files to the clipboard, and more.

The default display is list view, but it can be changed icon views, the detail view, and even the thumbnail view. In the details view, the columns can be sorted. Most of the functions that are available in the context menu of the Windows Explorer are also available here.

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Tags: vista, windows, xp

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

The popularity of the internet browser Firefox continues to grow by the day, but it still has a few annoying quirks. One of these is that it can be difficult to watch Windows Media Player videos within Firefox.

Luckily, thanks to Port 25, who are the team at Microsoft who look after interoperability, there’s a new Windows Media Player Plugin for Firefox. Once installed this plugin will improve support for embedded Windows Media Player videos.

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Tags: software, web

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Sometimes playing videos on your PC isn’t easy, particularly when they have been downloaded off the internet. This is normally because your PC doesn’t have the necessary codecs installed to play the video file in question. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats.

The quickest way to ensure that your PC can play all video files is to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. The K-Lite Code Pack is a collection of almost every codec under the sun, that will allow you to play all your video and audio files.

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Tags: computer, software, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Every time technology advances to create new business capabilities, opportunities arise for that technology to be used to harm your business. Case in point: intranets and extranets. Networks are invaluable, keeping your employees connected whether they’re in the office or across the country. But networks are also a prime target for hackers, malware, and other threats. So a fundamental item in your security arsenal needs to be a bulletproof, centralized firewall.

The idea, essentially, is that there are bad guys out there, and you need to put something between them and your network. A firewall controls your network traffic, allowing or blocking activities and access based on security policies you set.

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Tags: internet, software, windows