Toggle Copy/Move Drag Action.

Not exactly a "Vista only" trick, as it works on previous versions too. How many times have you dragged a file or a folder to a location in a different volume and realizing just before releasing the mouse button that what you really wanted was move rather than copy? Well, all you have to do at this stage is press and hold the shift key before releasing the mouse button and voilà… no more repeating the whole action. I know it's a huge drag especially if you had made a tediously large selection.

"When any visual element in a software, print or electronic media bears resembels known visual attributes of the Windows Vista UI it's said to be Vistafied."

Example: This site's footer.

I am not taking any credits for coining or suggesting this term. But I do believe it's a much better term than the other term on the rise: Vistified.

Everyone who knows me; knows of my love for Microsoft, so of course there will be the talk of heavy bias in whatever I am about to say. Yes I am biased, but I am biased towards, not biased against something and I am not prejudicial. Adobe has monopoly over the portable document format they practically invented it. So much for PDF!

What we have here is a monopoly playing around with the law; twisting it to eliminate their competition against a seemingly notorious monopoly who is; but a new entrant to their playground. XPS is an all together different format, I would still need Adobe Reader to open the hundreds of pdf files I already have, and hundreds other I go through in a week. So where is the threat?

Take the following case for example, IE7 provides Live Search as the default engine in the search bar, but someone like me who has personal discontent with Google still uses Google as his primary search engine simply because we all are creatures of habit. And unless Live Search or any other engine comes up with something mind bogglingly cool or unless Google screws it up really badly it can hardly be toppled as the #1 search provider.

So what do you want? Some might say! All I want is Adobe and other players who are monopolies in one segment or the other to play fair! That's all I want.

So much for the first post under my new tag "Justice For All" in true Batman fashion, which I intended for another post but seems this post snatched the 1st place.

Disabling UAC prompts for Administrator accounts in Multi-User scenario…

Perhaps my first blog post with a sub-title. After 12 days since I thought of writing about this tip I almost gave up thinking it will never see light of the day. I've been busy with a lot of things, so I am happy that I am finally able to publish it.   Now, there may be so many articles and blogs showing you how to disable UAC that if you search using these 2 words it will generate thousands of results. But if you disable UAC from the Control Panel it wouldn't be a Power Tip would it?

This tip is supposed to be used in a Multi-User scenario, i.e. where there are more than one users using a Vista machine and you wish to "get rid of" UAC prompts for your Administrator accounts. In a single user environment this tip may not be as productive.

What we are trying to accomplish here is change the behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators to automatic i.e. administrators will no more be prompted for elevation of privileges, it's done automatically.

Note:
To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.
To change the elevation prompt behavior follow the following steps.

1. Click Start, click Accessories, click All Programs, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.
2. If UAC is currently configured to prompt for consent, the Windows Security dialog box will appear. Click Allow.
3. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then Security Options.
4. Scroll down to and double-click User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators
5. From the drop-down menu, select "No Prompt"

Also note that Security Center will warn you that User Account Control is turned off. I don't know if this behavior will change by the RTM or not, I don't think it will. However, I would like to see a warning message that is more factually accurate.

Disclaimer: I do not believe disabling UAC is a good idea, even though it's an annoyance at times. To know more about UAC and it's architecture visit this TechNet page.

-- It's really nice to see that atleast this section of TechNet has been "Vistafied".

I was supposed to start my whole Windows Vista blogging on Friday September 8th with my very 1st Productivity Tip for Vista but I was still suffering from connection jitters . And I need to work on Jaxon Rice's Kid Congo blog skin that I'm using; before I can publish that, mainly to let me fit in images at least 500px in width so they can have noticeable details.

Since the 6th of this month I've been running Windows Vista RC1 build 5600 on my office workstation (yeah I was bold and stupid enough) and on my home machine. I've reverted back to xp SP2 on my workstation but that's not because of performance issues, I will cover software compatibility - specifically Office 2003 issues in a domain environment in a different post. Coming back to Aero…

The official Windows Vista specifications for a Aero capable PC are:

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive³.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Based on the official specifications given above one would think that an intel GMA900 class graphics must have no problems with Aero. Wrong! Despite possessing 8 times the minimum required graphics bandwidth on top of being a DX9 card with Pixel Shader 2 support and 128 MB of graphic memory no GMA900 graphics chipset machine (like the 915G) runs on Aero. Many people are saying that Intel will probably come up with a WDDM driver for this chipset and it seems with the tremendous customer pressure this may happen sooner than it would, otherwise. So let's keep an eye for that. I had to say I had never installed any of the prior builds on my work machine as I knew it will appear to be a sloth for a performance freak like me. But when I finally decided to install RC1 on it, I had no doubt that I will be seeing the still ugly Vista "Windows Standard" theme. I had to say that it was a big disappointment. 

The 2nd issue I've observed involves the UAC confirmation dialog. Even on a machine with the Aero theme when you see the UAC prompt, the dialog window is in the "Standard" theme, and there is no glass. I know I won't be the only person who is bothered by this. And although it's more of an aesthetic issue, it still becomes a performance issue as it asks a very basic question. If a machine is Aero capable and is currently using the Aero theme why isn't the UAC dialog prompt window using the same theme? Let's just hope this behavior won't be there when Vista reaches the RTM milestone.

I was watching a documentary called "The Beslan Siege" on Discovery Channel the other day. This documentary returns a year after the horrific conclusion to the attack on Beslan's school No. 1 to ask why the siege ended so disastrously. The film hears first hand from children and adult survivors and from the officials involved. Among the victims interviewed in the documentary was a woman (wish I had remembered her name); Dr. Larissa Mamitova, who along with her young boy were among the victims. Near the end of the film this woman tells to the interviewer that her boy has changed ever since that fateful day of September 1st 2004, and that all he talks about is revenge and how much he hates the Serbs and the West.
The boy (at the time of the interview) was only 8 years old. The profound effect this tragedy has had on his mind made me wonder how many children like him, must have similarly been affected. Doesn't it make you wonder that with terrorist attacks that involve child victims becoming more and more frequent all that we'll end up with; is a generation that's grown out of hatred towards each other?