Introduction

Many PC users will have taken the plunge and either bought a new PC with Microsoft Vista or upgraded their old machine. Although this operating system debuted with a mixed reception, it is the default operating system for many systems.

As with any operating system there are a few tips and tricks that you may not know, but probably should. This guide lists the top advanced tricks to get the most out of your Windows Vista installation. For a full list of geneneral tips and tweaks, check out this list of Windows Vista Tips. Some of these things are items that you might miss from Windows XP, others are new features that Vista hides away:

• Generating a System Health Report
• Memory Diagnostics Tool
• System Stability Index
• Windows Drive Manager
• Automatic Windows Logon
• Return of the Run Menu
• Disable UAC

Generating a system health report

This first tip is a great example of a new Vista feature that most users wouldn?t know about unless they explored every corner of the control panel. Vista is able to generate a ?System Health Report? that is great for troubleshooting potential problems with your system. This 60 second process will create a list of system technical details, earmarking those which could cause system performance problems.


To load the application, run ?perfmon /report? from the command line or find it in the control panel by visiting:

Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools > Generate System Health Report

Most of the likely problems encountered will be missing drivers or high usage of system resources, which will quite often be the memory but could be poor disk I/O performance or a whole other range of unexpected issues. This information is a great basic diagnostic tool for problems that you may not have realised you had, and resolving them could result in a more stable, faster system.


Once the report is generated, any problem areas will be marked with a warning symbol or a red light, followed by information and links to help troubleshoot the problems. It won?t be possible to detail how to fix every problem you encounter within this page, however most of the suggested resolutions are actually really useful (unlike previous versions of Windows that would go round in circles).