Windows Tip: Block SP upgrades for a year!

Posted by & filed under Vista, Windows, XP.

If you want to wait until you’re sure that all the bugs are out of the latest Windows service pack for your OS, you can use a registry entry to block the automatic installation. 1. Open up Notepad and copy the following: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate] “DoNotAllowSP”=dword:00000001 2. Save the text file and rename it to “Block Windows SP.reg?“. Then merge it into the registry by double clicking it. Note: This registry entry will only… Read more »

Vista Tip: Enable Ping Replies

Posted by & filed under Vista, Windows.

In Windows Vista, how do I configure the firewall to allow pings? Windows Vista includes Windows Firewall and enables that firewall by default. The graphical interface to the firewall settings does not include an option to respond to pings. To allow Vista to respond to pings without disabling the entire firewall, follow these steps: Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, from the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator. Enter: netsh firewall… Read more »

Vista Tip: Disabling UAC

Posted by & filed under Vista, Windows.

This is the cure for toshiba laptops going black after bootup. (Originally posted at http://www.petri.co.il/disable_uac_in_windows_vista.htm ) Option #4 is probably the easiest to try to explain over the phone. This is the cause of black screens after login on Toshiba laptops running Windows Vista!! Although UAC clearly improves the security on Windows Vista, under some scenarios you might want to disable it, for example when giving demos in front of an audience… Read more »

Vista Tip: Change Lid and Shutdown default actions

Posted by & filed under Vista, Windows.

Change the Windows Vista Power Buttons to Shut Down The default action for the Power button on the start menu in Windows Vista is Sleep, which isn’t necessarily useful for everybody. You can configure this setting easily by using the advanced power settings panel, which is a little tricky to get to normally, but we’ll take the shortcut. Open a command prompt (type cmd into the start menu search bar), and then type in the following… Read more »