TIPS FOR INSTALLING VISTA ON YOUR PC

Windows Vista can create a System Health Report using inputs from its Performance and Reliability Monitor.

Generate system health reports

A well-organised, information packed report always comes in handy in pinpointing problems that could crop up with your PC. Windows Vista is packed with diagnostic tools for your PC that let you do just that.

 

To get the system to generate the report, go to your Control Panel, and select System and Maintenance. Next, go to Performance Information and Tools. On the left, where you have the Tasks list, select Advanced tools. Now, click the last item on the menu before you, which is Generate a system health report. The system will spend about a minute gathering information, which means you can run several of these reports, and it won’t take up too much of your time.

 

To get an idea of what your system’s ideal performance is like, run a report immediately after a boot, before you start any programs. Then try generating reports while running the most stressful programs, and see the variation between the two.

 

Free up space on your hard disk after installing Vista

When you install Vista on your PC, it automatically backs up all the files that were replaced during the installation. However, once you are comfortable with using the OS and are sure that you will not need to uninstall it, you no longer require these files, and they are simply taking up space on your hard disk. Here’s what you can do to get rid of them.

 

In your system32 folder, there is a tool named Vsp1clean.exe, which can remove all these files. To run this tool, all you have to do is open up a Command Prompt (or press the Windows key + R), and enter: Vsp1cln.exe

 

This will remove all the backed up files from your system, which are the older versions of components that have been updated. Using this tool can free up 600-700 MB of space on your hard disk. 

 

Run Parental Controls in Vista

Are you worried about what sites your kids are accessing on the Web? Parental Controls is a new feature in Windows Vista that was made for you. It allows you to filter certain websites that you think contain harmful content, or only allow sites that you think are harmless.

 

In order to use Parental Controls, you need to be using the Administrator account, and have a separate account for your kids. Also, you should keep your children from accessing the Administrator account by password-protecting it, otherwise they may be able to log in and change the settings in Parental Controls.

 

Go to the Control Panel and choose User Accounts and Family Safety. Next, select Set up parental controls for any user. This will take you to a list of accounts. Select your child’s user account. In the screen that opens up, click the radio button to turn on Parental Controls. Then, click Windows Vista Web Filter, and check the radio button for Block some websites or content. At this point, you can choose whether you want to block sites on a default-allow or a default-deny basis. If you choose Only allow websites which are on the allow list, Vista will only allow your child to access the sites you specifically mention, and deny access to everything else. Click Edit the Allow and block list. Now, enter the URLs of the websites you want to allow or block access to, and click allow the appropriate buttons for Allow or Block. Your settings will be saved, and your child will only be able to access the sites that you allow him/her to access.