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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Don’t like to be forced to activate Windows Vista after 30 days? With this simple hack, you can extend that period to a full 120.
When you install Windows Vista, you’re asked whether you want to “activate” the operating system right away. When Windows Vista activates, it contacts Microsoft servers over the Internet, and registers itself [...]

Tired of seeing the same old Windows Vista logo every time you start Windows Vista? Here’s how you can replace it with any one you want—for free.
Start Windows Vista. Stare at the same boring boot screen you’ve seen approximately 2,984 times. Ho-hum. Another day of computing.
It doesn’t need to be that way. You can create [...]

1. Problem
You want to determine if a string contains another string, or want to find the position of a string within another string.
2. Solution
PowerShell provides several options to help you search a string for text.
Use the –like operator to determine whether a string matches a given DOS-like wildcard:
        PS >”Hello World” -like “*llo W*”
        True
[...]