Resizing partitions in Vista can lead to a meltdown—you may not be able to boot. Here’s how to resize and still boot up, problem-free.
One of the cool things about Vista is its ability to resize partitions using diskmgmt.msc. This trick works great for those times when you need to shrink or grow a partition. Unfortunately, [...]

You don’t need to wrestle with BCDEDIT if you want to change how Windows Vista boots, especially on a multiboot system. Use the free VistaBootPRO instead.
As you’ve seen [Hack #10] hacking the way that Windows Vista boots is pretty tough if your only tool is the command-line interface.
There’s a much better solution than going mano [...]

Edit or create a startup menu that lets you choose which operating system to boot into in multiboot systems, or create a menu that lets you choose different startup options for your single operating system if you have only XP installed.
If you’ve installed another operating system (in addition to XP) on your system, your PC [...]

affled by Windows Vista’s BCDEDIT command-line tool for customizing multiboot startups? Who isn’t? Here’s an easy guide to its basics.
If you’re only looking to customize the basics of your Windows Vista multiboot system, there’s no need to download and install VistaBootPRO [Hack #12]. You can, instead, directly hack the BCD store using BCDEDIT.
Before you get [...]

Resolve system-level bugs and overcome feature limitations by upgrading your BIOS.
Sometimes a vendor learns of problems or limitations only after a product gets to market and is used in a lot of different situations. Nearly every system board and PC system on the market undergoes at least one significant revision of the BIOS after the [...]

You may be able to find a BIOS upgrade to work around that unhackable, squeaky clean OEM BIOS.
If you want to do hardware and BIOS hacking, you may run into problems because your BIOS may not support a variety of hacks. A “dumbed-down” BIOS setup gives you few options to choose from, while a truly [...]

Some of the stuff your computer does at boot time is of no use. Disable those features to boot faster.
The system BIOS does a lot of work in the P.O.S.T. (Power On Self Test) phase before it gets your system to the point where it reads boot-up information from a disk drive to load an [...]

Increase your PC’s performance and speed up startup times by shutting off applications and services that you don’t need.
One of the best ways to speed up your PC without having to spend money on extra RAM is to stop unnecessary programs and services from running whenever you start your PC. When too many programs and [...]

Having to type in your logon information on a system with two or more user accounts can be a pain. This hack shows you how to tell Windows Vista to log on to your primary account immediately.
When you have more than one user account on a Windows Vista PC, every time you restart your PC, [...]

Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC—and make Windows shut down faster.
No matter how fast your PC boots, it’s not fast enough. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible after startup, whether you use Windows XP or Windows [...]