The windows start menu is one of the more convenient features of the windows operating system. The start menu is divided into three parts divide by separation lines as shown below.

The part on the left above the line are program that will always be shown on the menu unless you manually remove them as shown below from the list and are called ‘pinned’ items.

The programs below that line are added as you open new programs. If you want to add one of them permanently, put the cursor on the icon and hold down the left mouse button and drag the icon above the line.

The All Programs selection is located under the last separator. Putting your mouse over the ALL Programs option produces a list of all the programs that are available on the start menu.

Unfortunately, sometimes the start menu stops working.

What Causes the Start Menu To Stop Working?

There can be several causes for this problem, but the most common causes are:

1. Corrupt or missing operating system files
2. Damaged registry keys
3. Virus or spyware infection

How to Fix the Start Menu Not Working Problem

The repair depaends on the cause of the problem.

Corrupt or missing operating system files

1. Use the following steps to repair the problems:
   Press Ctrl + Alt + Del or right click anywhere on the task bar to open the Task Manager.
   Select File -> New task(run) as shown



2. type cmd in the dialogue box and then press Enter.
3. At the Command Prompt window, type the sfc /scannow and press Enter.
   Insert the Windows XP installation disk in the CD/DVD drive if prompted.

The System File Checker will detect and try to fix or replace missing or corrupt operating system files.

Corrupted Registry Key

To fix a corrupted you need to use a good registry cleaner that has the ability to repair corrupted entries. In fact you should clean your registry as part of a regular maintenance program.

Virus or Spyware infection

Run and anti-virus and anti-spyware program to do a complete scan of your computer and eliminate all threats.

Summary

I would perform these repairs in the following order:

1. Do the anti-virus and spy-ware scan and if that doesn’t fix it
2. Repair the system files and if that doesn’t fix it
3. Clean the registry. Even if one of the first two steps eliminates the problem, you should still run a good registry cleaner to optimize your operating system performance.

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The Physxloader is a module of the NVIDIA Ageia PhysX driver used by several model lines if NVIDIA graphics cards. These drivers bring real time video effects to a program, usually a game that allows everything to look more realistic. Windows 7 does not support the Physx drivers.  The good thing is that they don’t get this error. The bad thing is that also don’t get the great graphics performance this technology brings to gaming and other video applications.

You may receive the following errors:

• Physxloader.dll Not Found
• “This application failed to start because physxloader.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
• Cannot find physxloader.dll
• The file physxloader.dll is missing
• Cannot start a required component is missing: physxloader.dll. Please install [Game APPLICATION] again

Sometimes the errors pop up at startup and at others times during the heat of game play.

Fixing the Physxloader.dll Problem

Most problems are caused by the driver files getting corrupted. The easiest way to repair the error is to uninstall the drivers, reboot the machine and then reinstall the drivers.

Perform the following steps:

1. Click Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs
2. Scroll to the NVIDIA PhysX driver software
3. Select Uninstall
4. Restart the computer

You should also remove the files from the startup configuration by performing the following steps

1. Click Start -> Run
2. Type msconfig and Press Enter
3. In the System Configuration Utility that opens, locate NVIDIA related software under the Startup tab
4. Clear the check box next to NVIDIA files
5. Click OK to restart your system

Conclusion

Since most applications tend to leave various fragments of themself behind even after they are uninstalled, you should now run a good registry cleaner to remove these items. When that has been completed, you can reinstall the latest versions of the drivers and start enjoying your games again.

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By default windows automatically adds all user accounts that exist on a computer to the list displayed on the Welcome screen so the user can click on their ID and log on. Would you like to have an invisible user account to work on your computer?

One way to accomplish this is to create a hidden user account. Now this doesn’t mean that no one can’t see the account but it does mean that your user account ID will not be displayed on the Welcome Screen.

It is good for creating accounts that you don’t want other users of the computer to know exists. To prevent others from seeing the account profile you will need to use the NTFS permissions to remove their ability to read the directory as well.

However, this kind of account is normally used to keep another family member from knowing something exists. If they are extremely computer literate, it may not be possible to keep them from finding the account. This trick worked for me to keep my teenagers out of my banking information on our shared computer in the family room.

Hiding a User Account

To create a hidden user account in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, perform the following tasks:

1. Click on Start-> Control Panel -> User Accounts
2. Select Create a new account and then follow the prompts until it is created

Once the account exists or if you want to hide an existing account do the following:

1. Click Start -> and go the Run command and type regedit in the dialog box as shown below



2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList as shown below



3. If SpecialAccounts and UserList is not found, create the new sub-key and name them  those names
4. Highlight UserList, then right click in the right hand pane of the registry editor.
5. Select New -> DWORD and name it the exact same name as the account you want hidden



6. Then double click on the key you just created, a box similar to the one below will appear



7. Keep the value at zero to hide the account or change it to 1 of you want it to be seen on the welcome screen.
8. Exit the registry

Restart the computer for the changes to take effect

How to Logon to a Hidden User Account

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the windows login dialog box and then type in  the user name and password.

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There are two different schools of thought on whether to upgrade to a new operating system or to start over and do a clean install. There are merits to both methods.

A clean install will guarantee there will be no software incompatibilities and you should get the best performance from your computer. The down side is that you will have to reinstall all of your applications and hardware drivers and then restore all of the files your created or downloaded. You inevitably will lose some data and some applications and hardware may not work anymore.

Are there Restrictions on What Can be Upgraded?

An upgrade is easier for the non-technical person because it will retain your files, your user settings and the programs you had installed in vista. The table below shows the possible upgrade options.

If your current version of vista cannot be upgraded to the version of Windows 7 you purchased, you will need to do a clean install because even though you are offered a custom installation option it is basically a clean install because it does not retain your files, programs or user settings.

Also you cannot upgrade a 32 bit version of Vista to a 64-bit version of windows 7. Nor can you upgrade to a lower version of windows 7. For example you cannot upgrade from Vista Ultimate such as windows 7 professional or home premium.

Checking Your Current Operating System

To check what version of Vista you are running:

1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start -> Control Panel and then clicking on System and Maintenance
2. Select Performance Information and Tools
3. Click View and print details.
4. Under System, System type will tell you type of operating system running, and, if you are running a 32-bit operating system whether you can run a 64-bit version of Windows.
5. If you are already running a 64-bit version of Windows, you won’t see the 64-bit capable listing.
6. Preparing to install the Windows 7 Upgrade

Perform these tasks before you begin the install:

1. Make sure you are running at least service pack 1 for vista. It is listed on the My Computer Properties page
2. If available connect your computer to the internet
3. Update your anti-virus program and then do a full scan of the entire computer
4. Defrag your hard drive
5. Run a good registry cleaner
6. Reboot your computer
7. Turn off the anti-virus program
8. Write down the following information

• Windows 7 product key
• Your username and password (especially if you use a finger print reader or other biometric device to log on because you have to type your user name and password when you log on for the first time after the upgrade

Installing Windows 7

1. Start the installation program by booting off the CD or USB drive or double clicking the setup file if you downloaded it to your hard drive.
2. When the install page opens, click on Install now
3. If you are connect to the internet, select get important updates for installation when prompted
4. When you see the window below, select Upgrade

You may get a compatibility report. Just continue to follow the on-screen instructions to finish installing Windows 7.

When the installation is complete, reboot the computer if it does not reboot automatically.

Post Instillation Procedures

Make sure that your anti-virus is turned back on

You may need to upgrade some of your device drivers. I recommend you go tone of the web sites that offer a free driver scan to see if you need to upgrade anything. If you need to update any drivers, you can use the websites paid service or, since most of these websites will give you a list of the drivers that need to be updated, you can go to the windows 7 compatibility center for links to download and install the drivers yourself.

If you had any shared printers in Vista, you will need to re-share them in windows 7.

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Most windows users either use Outlook or Outlook Express as their email client. If they own Microsoft Office, they use Outlook. If not, and they don’t want to have to use their online clients at home, they will use outlook express. One benefit is that if you have more than one email account, you can open most of them up in outlook express. Some online free email account hosts such as yahoo charge a small annual fee (currently $20) to allow you to download your email into an email client on your hard drive.

The most common errors that occur in Outlook Express are usually corrupted registry entries, program conflicts, and mailbox setup or mail server problems. These problems can range from mildly annoying to a complete inability to send or receive any email.

The following are some common error messages that may occur when using Outlook Express:

• “A time-out occurred while communicating with the server 0x800ccc19”
• “Task ‘server name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0x800ccc0f): ‘The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact the server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server responded: ?”
• “The operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server 0x8004210a”
• “No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.”
• ‘Outlook is unable to connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server. If you continue to receive this message, contact the server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).”
• “Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes of this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity.

Causes of the Problems

Most of these errors are the result of problems with your internet connection or incorrect configuration settings in your outlook express account.

Fixing the Problems

Internet Connection Problems

Try the following steps to resolve the problem:

1. Open internet explorer and see if you can browse to several different websites
2. If you can, you are connected to the internet and that is not what is causing your problem. Skip to the Account Settings section
3. If you can browse, you must first establish and internet connection
4. Check that your computer is connected to your modem and that the modem is on. In fact, turn the modem off, unplug the modem and then plug it back in and turn it back on.
5. Check the settings of the firewall or router to ensure the SMTP (25) and POP3 (110) are open (if your ISP uses different ports, make sure the correct ones are listed. For example, my ISP uses port 587 for SMTP.)
6. See if you can browse the web. If yes, your modem needed to be reset. If not continue
7. Open Internet Explorer and then try to open a Web page. When an error message similar to “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” displays, click on the Diagnose Connection Problems link. The Network Diagnostics dialog box will open. Follow the instructions to diagnose connectivity problems with your system
8. If for some reason the networks Diagnostics program does not open, use the Network Troubleshooter instead by selecting Start-> My Network Place-> View network connections. The window below will appear



9. Follow the instructions and use the wizard to diagnose, and resolve your network connectivity problems
10. If none of that works, go to Email account settings

Email Account Settings

1. Open outlook express
2. Select Tools -. Accounts and click on the Mail tab
3. Double click on the email account your are having problems with
4. Make sure all of the followings items are the ones your email provider gave you to use for your email account:
5. Email address (general tab)
6. SMTP and POP3 server addresses (server tab)
7. Login username and password (server tab)
8. SMTP andPOP3 port numbers (advanced tab)
9. Once this is configured, reboot your computer and you should be able to send and receive email.

If for some reason, it still is not working go to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/assistsupport and use the tools there to provide a\more advanced troubleshooting.

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As I discussed in my last post, all of the hardware, software and operating system configuration used by your computer are stored in the windows registry. All of the individual user preferences, profiles, accounts, etc. are also stored in the registry. That is why an problems with the registry can cause problems from an application not working quite right to the entire operating system crashing.

How Do You Know if Something is wrong with the Windows Registry?

Common symptoms of registry problems are:

• Slow performance
• Hardware not working correctly or not at all
• Computer freezes
• You keep getting windows or application error messages
• System crashes (the famous blue screen of death)
• Takes “forever” to boot up
• Applications not opening or crashing periodically
• System won’t boot

The windows registry is a hierarchical database and like all databases, it requires routine maintenance such as compacting, correcting file association, removing corrupted entries, removing tombstones and orphans. Let’s look at each of these items individually.

Compacting – process of reclaiming hard disk space used by the database. Basically it is the process of defragging the database to improve efficiency.

Correcting file associations – anytime you install or uninstall something, changes are made to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry hive. Over time there can be a lot of unnecessary or incorrect information stored in this key. Cleaning makes sure that file associations exist only for files that can actually be opened on the machine exist

Corrupted entries – they are just taking up space and are useless and could cause problems if a process tried to use them so they need to be removed

Tombstones – this is data that was written during a specific operation and then marked for deletion during the next compacting or cleaning.

Orphans – are entries that no longer belong to any application or piece of hardware because it no longer exists or in no longer installed on the system

How Do You Clean the Windows Registry?

You could manually edit the registry and remove all of the unnecessary and corrupted data. But unless you are an expert on all of the possible entries in the windows registry, I don’t recommend that you try doing this because if you make a mistake, your operating system may never boot again.

The best way is to use a windows registry cleaner. Registry are software programs written by people who are experts on every possible entry in the registry. These programs will perform all of the necessary maintenance we described above as well as specifically look for damage done by viruses, Trojans and other forms of malware. They will try to repair and/or recover corrupted data if possible. They do this by analyzing your registry entries and comparing then to a set of ‘normalized’ entries. Normalized means that the data is consistent and properly formatted and is a technical term used in databases.

Registry cleaners are a much safer way of doing the routine maintenance on your windows registry.

Where Do You Get Registry Cleaners?

There are two kinds of registry cleaners, commercial and free ones. Here are some of the differences:

Recommendation

Commercial registry cleaners usually do a better job and are safer to use. At least one free registry cleaner is good, but, unless you know a lot about the working registry, use a commercial program.

MBR is the acronym for Master Boot Record. The master boot record is located in the boot section of your hard drive, which is the first sector on the first platter. When you boot your computer, the master boot record tells the computer’s BIOS (Basic Input Output System) where to find the bootstrap code for the operating system.

So if the MBR is corrupted, the BIOS can’t find the operating system and you can get error messages like the following ones:

• Missing operating system
• Error loading system
• Invalid partition table

Looks pretty scary, doesn’t it?

However, it is usually not that hard to fix a corrupted MBR and usually the rest f the hard drive is just fine and will boot normally once your fix the master boot record.

What Causes Damage to the MBR?

A lot of things can cause damage to the MBR such as viruses designed to corrupt the boot sector.  Some of them copy the original MBR to another file. Others do this by overwriting the MBR with virus code. In fact viruses and malware are one of the most frequent causes but, any file can become corrupted especially files that are accessed as frequently as the MBR.

How to Fix the MBR

The stapes to fix the MBR are slightly different in the different versions of Windows. So I will cover them separately.

Windows XP

1. Insert your XP installation disk in the CD-Rom and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Welcome to Setup screen, press “R” to open the repair console
4. Enter your administrator password when prompted
5. At the command prompt, type fixmbr and press enter
6. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
7. Remove your installation CD
8. Restart the computer

Windows Vista

1. Insert your Vista installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language and location options and then click Next
4. Click on the Repair your computer option
5. Select the Windows Vista operating system and click Next
6. Enter your administrator password when prompted
7. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
8. When a command prompt appears, type bootrec.exe and press enter to fix the MBR
9. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
10. Remove your installation CD
11. Click Restart in the System Recovery Options window

Windows 7

1. Insert your Windows 7 installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language, Time and Keyboard Input options and then click Next
4. Click on the Repair your computer option
5. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
6. When a command prompt appears, change to the boot directory
7. Now type bootsect /nt60 SYS and press enter to fix the MBR
8. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
9. Remove your installation CD
10. Reboot the computer

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Basically error 12029 is an HTTP protocol error message that is telling you your web browser could not connect to the web server that you requested. This problem can occur anytime your browser requests a connection to a specific web page. The connection request occurs either when you type a URL into the browser’s address window or when you click on a link on a web page that goes to a different website. The error is shown below.

Can this Error be caused by a Virus, Trojan or some other form of Malware?

While it is possible that a virus, Trojan or some other form of malware could cause this error, it isn’t very likely. Since this is basically a connection, addressing or routing problem, simple configuration or actual physical connectivity problems are much likely causes. However, scanning the computer will determine if there are viruses present.

Possible Causes

There are several possible causes for this error such as:

• The server may actually not be available
• TCP/IP address configuration errors
• DNS server error
• Firewall blocking

How to Fix a 12029 Error

Let’s look at each of the possible causes individually since they each have a different solution.

The server may actually not be available

The web server may not be available because it is down or has exceed the maximum number of simultaneous connections or bandwidth that it is allowed to have because web hosting companies restrict both bandwidth usage and the number of connections to a specific website.

To test this, try to connect to another website using the same application or web browser that got the error message. If you can contact another web site, then the web server is unavailable. All you can do is wait a little and try to access the first web site again

TCP/IP Address Configuration Error

The first thing you need to do is check to see if you have an IP address.

Open a command window by selecting Start->Run and they type cmd in the box. A command window will open

At the prompt, type ipconfig /all. You should get results similar to what is shown below

Make sure you have addresses in the IP address, DHCP and DNS server slots. If you do than the problem is not being caused by a bad IP address.

If you do not, first type ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew to get a new address.

If you do not get an IP address and you are connected to a wireless router in your house, reboot the router by turning it off and then back on again.

If you do not get an address and you are connected directly to your ISP, reboot your modem by turning it off, waiting 30 seconds and then turning it back on again. If rebooting doesn’t solve the problem, call their help desk and report the problem. They will help you fix it

DNS server error

Domain Name Servers (DNS) have only one job and that is to translate a URL like Microsoft.com into an IP address so your computer can talk to the web server.

Open a command window by selecting Start->Run and they type cmd in the box. A command window will open

Type nslookup {domain you are trying to reach}. Examples of domain names are microsoft.com,  utube.com, whitehouse.gov, etc.

The picture below shows the results when I typed nslookup support.microsoft.com

If you get an answer then the DNS server is working correctly

If you do not, then try looking up another website URL using the nslookup command

It that doesn’t work, first type ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew to get a new address and try both lookups again

If it still doesn’t work, call your ISP’s help desk and report the problem

Firewall blocking

Your windows firewall may be blocking the application you are using to connect to the web server.

Select Start->Control Panel and then click on the Windows Firewall icon

When the window opens click on the Exceptions tab as show below

If the program you are having problems with isn’t listed as an exception, add it which should fix the problem.

Recommendation

One of the fixes above should have solved the problem. If none of them worked, and you have an IP address and your DNS server is working, I suggest you do the following:

1. Run a complete virus and malware scan of your computer
2. Run a good registry cleaner to repair any corrupt or erroneous entries
3. Reboot the computer

Everything should work now.

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Back in the 1980s McDonald’s decided to make ringing up products easier, minimize errors and save time by putting pictures (icons) of the food items on their cash registers. Following McDonald’s lead, both Apple and Microsoft decided that rather than just listing the names of applications on the computer’s desktop, they would provide little pictures to the represent the programs. Usually the picture is the logo of the application.

Clicking on the icon will launch the application’s executable file. The first icon below will execute the Internet Explorer executable, iexplore.exe. The second icon will open filename.doc by running word.exe to open Microsoft Word if it is available on the computer. If Word is not available windows will open the file by executing wordpad.exe to launch Wordpad. The third icon calls exe.exe to launch the temp folder.

Each icon has a set of properties associated with it that are stored in the master file table. The icon’s properties will contain the full path to the executable or the location of the file or folder as shown below. Notice on the word document property sheet it tells the operating system that the file opens with Microsoft Word.

Shortcuts are pictures that represent active links to a windows object. The shortcut below is for an application called New Novelist. Notice the arrow in the bottom left hand side of the icon. It denotes that this is a shortcut rather than an icon. Also notice that the path to the program is in double quotes. That is because it will be passed as a variable to the program launcher so that the application can be opened. It also tells the operating system what folder to use as the root for the application. If it didn’t do that the operating system would not know where to find all of the other files the application needs to run.

The maximum allowable size for an icon in Vista is 256 x256 pixels which allows them to be shown in high resolution.

Displaying the Internet Explorer Icon in Vista

I have absolutely no idea why Microsoft chose to so it, but by default the internet explorer is not displayed in Vista. There is a graphical user interface tool for displaying other system icons but it does not work for internet explorer. If you want it to be available on your desktop you will need to edit the windows registry by performing the following steps.

• Click on Start -> Run
• When the dialog box opens, type Regedit in the Start Search box.
• Press Enter
• When the Registry Editor appears, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
  CurrentVersion\Explorer\HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel The picture below shows the area of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive where you need to go.

• Find the HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel key and click anywhere inside the NewStartPanel folder.
• Pull down the Edit menu and select the New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value command as shown below and

• Type in {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D in the Value Name text Box as shown above
• Then put the value 0 in the Value Data text box
• Click OK

• To complete the operation, click OK and close the Registry Editor. In a few moments, you’ll see an Internet Explorer icon on your desktop
• If the new icon isn’t already there, click on any free area of your desktop and press the F5 key to refresh your desktop

Delete the Internet Explorer Icon

If you change your mind later and want to delete the icon, follow these steps:

• Click on Start -> Run
• Type Regedit in the Start Search box.
• Press Enter
• When the Registry Editor appears, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
  CurrentVersion\Explorer\HidedesktopIcons\NewStartPanel
• Delete the DWORD (32-bit) entry
• Close the registry editor
• Click on any free area of your desktop and press the F5 key to refresh your desktop. The IE icon should be gone.

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One of the biggest features that Microsoft has been using to sell Vista besides its spectacular graphics capabilities is the ability to customize the operating system and truly personalize your PC. While you have always been able to customize windows, vista does allow you to customize the following items:

• Colors
• Desktop Background
• Screen Saver
• Sounds
• User account picture
• Windows Themes
• Windows Sidebar
• Sidebar Gadgets

The Control Panel

Since windows 3.1, the windows control panel is the place to go if you want to change the default settings for any aspect of the windows graphical user interface GUI. Some of vista’s control panel functions are different and others identical to those in windows XP. Most XP users do not like the default view that vista provides for the control panel. To an inexperienced user this may be easier but it usually annoys the experienced users who really want to see all of the available applets in a single window. The picture below shows the default control panel view in vista.

You can change it back to the classic view as shown below simply by selecting Classic View in the left pane.

There is a compromise between the default and classic views. You can choose the classic view and click on the Category column heading at the top shown above to sort and then choose group. This groups related icons together.

Personalization

Switch to the classic view of the control panel because it will require less steps than using the default view. Select the personalization applet in the control panel.

Themes

This is toward the bottom of the window. Themes allow you to select different schemes. If you like one of the available schemes, a single click will change all of the setting to provide the theme. It’s basically a one click settings control.

Choose the Windows Vista theme and click OK. Your selection will be displayed as My Current Theme. You can save any theme you create by selecting Save As and giving the file a name. It will be saved in the .theme format.

Colors

If you have Aero capability and is already enabled you will see the screen below.

If not, you will see the next screen. Features unique to Aero is the ability to adjust the transparency of a window, Flip (Alt?) which shows live thumbnails of all of your open windows and Flip 3D (Win?) which lets you go through the thumbnails like you were looking at them on a rolodex. If your hardware supports, select to run windows aero.

Effects

Regardless of the selected color scheme, there are three options under Effects. All are checked:

• Standard
• ClearType (default)
• None (uncheck the box)

Show shadows under menus – puts shadows under menus. Personally I don’t like this feature

Show window contents while dragging – again this is a preference and entirely up to you.

Desktop Background

Select Desktop Background. This is a much better interface as shown below than the one in XP because it lets you select the background by choosing the picture. The pictures are selected from the following disk locations: Windows Wallpapers, Pictures, Sample Pictures, Public Pictures and Solid Colors. You can limit background choices to your pictures folder. There is also a browse button to let you search elsewhere.

Screen Saver

This hasn’t changed since XP so there are no real surprises here. Your options are:

• None – standard presentation setting
• 3D Text – you select the text
• Aurora – looks something like the northern lights
• Blank – actually blank
• Bubbles – cute
• Mystify – animated geometric shapes
• Photos – you select a folder or use image tags to select them as a slide show
• Ribbons – color displays
• Windows Energy – requires a 3D card combination of Mystify and Ribbons
• Windows Logo – a fancier version of the logo

Sounds

There really isn’t anything new her either. To apply a sound scheme:

• Select the Sounds tab
• Under Sound Scheme, select the sound scheme you want to use.

User Account Picture

You can select what picture you want to appear next to your user name on the welcome screen and on the start menu. The picture can be one of the ones included in windows or one of your own.

Windows Sidebar

You can customize the sidebar by keeping it on top,, hiding it and adding and removing gadgets from it. There are many gadgets available from the Windows Live Gallery website.

Open the Windows Sidebar by clicking the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Sidebar.

You can’t change the width of Sidebar. However, you can detach gadgets from the Sidebar and place them anywhere on the desktop. When you close the sidebar, the detached gadgets will remain open.

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