Justyn Smith | Blog » Vista

Windows 7 Build 7057 Login Screen for Windows XP, Vista and 7

Justyn — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:44:51 +0000

Most of you already know that Windows 7 build 7057 was leaked. Most of you probably noticed the lovely new login screen and would like it on previous versions of Windows.

Look no further, you can have the Windows 7 Build 7057 Login Screen working on Windows XP, Vista and 7 now! Continue reading to see how to download & install them after the jump.

Vishal Gupta has released copies of the login screen for Windows XP and Windows Vista and 7.

Windows XP: After downloading, extract the ZIP file using WinZip, WinRAR or 7-zip and look for the “LogonUI.exe” file in “Normal Screen” or “Wide Screen” folders. That’s the file which contains the login screen. You’ll need to replace existing “logonui.exe” file present in “%windir%\System32” folder with this downloaded one. Use Replacer to replace the file.

Vista and 7: After downloading the ZIP file, extract it using WinRAR or 7-zip. Now install “Stardock LogonStudio for Vista” which is FREE and included in the pack.

After installing LogonStudio, double-click on the “SevenVG Login Screen.logonvista” file. It’ll open in LogonStudio, apply the login screen and you have done.

Desktop Icons as list view

Justyn — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:19:17 +0000

I remember back when I was using Windows XP there was a shell extension that allowed you to have your Desktop Icons as a list view. I did a quick Google Search and found an application called Deskview.

Deskview not only works in Windows XP but also works in Windows Vista (x86 and x64). To really shrink your icons in Vista, essentially what you would want to do is set them to “classic” icons or hold down your CTRL key and use your mouse wheel to shrink or enlarge them. Then you will want to run deskview.exe to change them to list view.

Now what this small application does is simple and it doesn’t have any options. You double-click it to set your Desktop Icons as a list view then double-click it again to change them back to the default setting.

On the left is what the normal icons look like, and on the right is what the list view looks like.

Note: I didn’t create this program, nor do I know who did. If someone knows of, or you are the author of this software please don’t hesitate to contact me to add your credit!

Where did hibernation go, Vista?

Justyn — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:00:38 +0000

I was going through all the Vista power options, trying to get my Hibernation mode back on, which seemed to have disappeared.

I found out the hibernate option will disappear if you have recently run Disk Cleanup, which I did. By running this it removes the hiberfil.sys file resulting in no hibernation. See Microsoft article KB928897.

After googling around, I found a simple method to enable / disable hibernation:

1. Click start, type “command” in the Start Search box (without quotes)
2. Right-click Command Prompt in the Programs list, and click “Run as Administrator”
3. If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.
4. In the Command Prompt, type “powercfg –h off” (or “on” without the quotes), then press enter.
5. Close the Command Prompt window and you’re done

You should now have hibernate and hybrid sleep options for your power profiles.

Replace Notepad with Notepad2, Vista

Justyn — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:02:15 +0000

One of my previous posts was about the text editor Notepad2. Which as I mentioned before is a lightweight editor which also has syntax highlighting.

Now I recently noticed a forum post on MSFN, on how to replace Notepad with Notepad2, so without further ado, here is the code:
takeown /f %Systemroot%\notepad.exe takeown /f %Systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe icacls %Systemroot%\notepad.exe /grant "%username%":f icacls %Systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe /grant "%username%":f IF EXIST %SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64 (bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions "DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS") copy %Systemroot%\notepad.exe %Systemroot%\notepad.original.exe copy %Systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe %Systemroot%\System32\notepad.original.exe ECHO. ECHO Original notepad.exe has been renamed to "notepad.original.exe" in its original folder. ECHO. copy notepad2\notepad2.exe %Systemroot%\notepad.exe /y copy notepad2\notepad2.exe %Systemroot%\System32\notepad.exe /y
Now all you need to do is save this into a bat file, I called mine replacenp2.bat. Then just create a folder called notepad2, with a subfolder the same, and place the notepad2.exe file in it, and run the command, and voiola, Notepad is replaced with Notepad2.

So the directory structure should look something like this:

notepad2
replacenp2.bat
- notepad2
  - notepad2.exe

Update: Now, I tried running the command, but for some reason (even ran as admin), it didn’t want to copy it. So I opened up an elevated command prompt, and it seemed to copy & replace fine.

History repeats itself

Justyn — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:22:18 +0000

Well it seems like everyone touted Vista as “the bad OS”, especially when SP1 came out, causing reboot loops. A lot of people seemed to steer clear of SP1, saying that XP was a lot better.

Now, the question is, everyone that put dirt on Vista SP1 for the endless reboot loop, and sticking with XP for the stability, seems like they got what they asked for. Microsoft recently released SP3 for XP, and guess what – it has an endless reboot bug also.

Now, I haven’t noticed many people saying things like “XP is a piece of sh*t”, but why? It has the same bug that Vista SP1 had. I thought everyone would now be saying “I’m sticking with Windows 2000 SP4″, since it seems to be “the stable one” now.

Well there’s my rant for the day. Vista SP1 reboot loop vs XP SP3 reboot look, take your pick.

On a lighter note, the Vista SP1 reboot loop has been fixed for awhile now, so it seems, in light of things, Vista seems to be the stable one for now.

Notepad2 editor

Justyn — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:58:05 +0000

I generally do all my HTML/PHP/CSS editing in Notepad, and one fallback with the Notepad that comes with windows is syntax highlighting. I found this neat little program called Notepad2, which is lightweight, doesn’t require any installation, and doesn’t change anything in the registry which is a bonus!

The installation file weighs in at 247KB, a small amount of data for such a feature-rich notepad. Another bonus is you can also replace the default Notepad that comes with windows with Notepad2, which you can view howto’s for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

I highly recommend checking out the Notepad2 website, or downloading Notepad2 (v2.1.19 at time of writing), you wont be disappointed with it.

Certified Vista advisor

Justyn — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:32:33 +0000

I received my package in the mail today from Microsoft, containing a “Windows Vista Advisor” shirt and certificate. I obtained it from doing the Vista Fact or Fiction awhile ago. As far as I know it is still valid, but you only receive the certificate now instead of the shirt.

Laptop Finally Setup

Justyn — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:02:14 +0000

Well, I have been setting up / copying / backing up stuff from Rachelle’s laptop to mine, and it is finally all done.

The laptop runs beautifully, can really notice the difference going from 32bit Vista to 64bit, everything is just so much more snappy and executes faster.

Rachelle also bought a new camera today, a Fuji Z100fd, have yet to test it out yet, so will see how it goes.

That’s all for now, Rachelle and I are going to go out for dinner, and give the new camera a workout, will post how it went.

BigPond NextG v2.10.4 Update

Justyn — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:36:47 +0000

In a previous post I wrote about how much the new connection manager (2.10.4) mutilates the connection on the computer. Well currently there is a simple fix that addresses the issue. I have tested it multiple times and seems to work fine on both, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Here is the following commands that (should) fix up the issue fine.

If anyone tries this, and it successfully works, please comment here and let me know.

Windows XP

start > run > cmd [press ok]

netsh winsock reset

netsh interface ip reset

restart PC and test

Windows Vista

start > start search > command [press enter]

netsh int ip reset

restart PC and test

The above commands should fix up the issue people are having with 2.10.4 on both Windows XP and Vista.

New Laptop

Justyn — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:43:26 +0000

Well I have decided not to get the dell anymore, since they can’t provide a tax invoice until I receive the goods. So Rachelle and I went looking around on Wednesday for a new laptop, and ended up going to Joyce Mayne to see a friend, Josh. After waiting quite awhile since he was serving someone, we got down to business.

I ended up getting a HP dv6733tx (RRP $1999) with 4gb of RAM instead of the 2gb, I also got a Belkin NE-07 Carry Bag, and 24 months HP warranty on the thing, all for under $2000. It came with 2gb originally, but Joyce Mayne are doing a “double your ram for $1″, so I took advantage of that The only thing I am going to need to do is install Vista 64-bit instead, since it comes with 32-bit, it wont recognise the 4gb of RAM.

I am also getting it salary packaged through work, so no tax, and at tax time I get it back. I should have the funds when I get paid, so I will have an early birthday present. Thanks Josh for doing such a good deal on the notebook and extras