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.

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.

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows MeII, is a joke that no one wants. It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us. Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs.

The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than MeII. It can’t do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled. This is classic abusive monopoly behavior, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it.

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Tags: vista, windows

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

There is an entire library of Windows product keys available online, only a Google search away. And we all can agree that that’s by no means very far. While Microsoft is implementing measures such as the activation process and the Windows Genuine advantage mechanism, Windows users are only too keen to post confidential information on websites and make it free for all.

Some of you will go: “So what? Where’s the news?” And you would be right.

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Tags: vista, windows, xp

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

Normally I don’t have much use for databases, at least, not of my own making, but I’m beginning to come around after playing around with a little freeware utility called Treepad Lite. It’s an excellent way of organising chunks of information scatter red around your PC, that for one reason or another, you want to pull together. For example, you could be compiling a family history using folders containing pictures, scanned documents, web page bookmarks, written text and so on. Treepad Lite lets you group the files together, in a familiar Windows Explorer type

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Tags: vista, windows

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

The Windows Media Player team put a lot of work into evolving media playback on Windows Vista through the new Media Foundation pipeline, and has also been actively monitoring feedback on WMP and playback in general. While commentary has been mainly positive for Web playback through IE, we’ve noticed that there’s still work to be done to make Firefox users able to enjoy their media content on Windows.

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Tags: software, vista, windows, xp

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

Would you like to change the time format in the taskbar to military or international time format?

1. Click on the Start Button, type in intl.cpl and hit Enter.
2. Click the Customize this format button.
3. Click on the Time tab.
4. Change the time format to H:mm:ss and hit OK.
5. Hit OK once more to close Regional and Language Options.

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Tags: vista, windows