In this article I will talk once more about Windows Speech Recognition and how to benefit from all its advanced configuration options. I will show you how to create new speech profiles and how to manage them, how to add vocabularies or change the existing ones used by the tool. Other topics that will be covered include: how to change the language used by Windows Speech Recognition, how to work with speech dictionaries, audible cues, and how to dictate in other applications.

Since I saw my first Sci-Fi movie flicks, I wanted to have the technology they were using. I still haven’t touched or seen flying spaceships at that scale, teleporting devices, robots that can dance or other similar gadgets. However, I have found a piece of that dream incorporated in Windows Vista's Windows Speech Recognition application. This tool tries to understand what you are saying and converts spoken words to machine-readable input such as key presses or Windows commands, thus limiting the need for using the mouse and keyboard. In this tutorial I will show you how to set up Windows Speech Recognition, learn how to use it and give you some information about common issues with this application.

I always wanted to hear my voice. I tried recording on an old cassette but didn't like the results and it was hard to rewind exactly at the point at which my voice was heard. Thankfully the technology evolved and now, with the help of microphones and computers, I can hear my voice crystal clear. However, to make a microphone work in Windows Vista, sometimes you need to do a few little extra steps than the regular plug and play. So, with that said, in this article we will show you how to quickly make your microphone work in Windows Vista.

Lots of people are having problems with their computers and many of them are caused by the applications they have installed. Some hate the fact that, all of a sudden, their documents are opened with another application instead of Word, or their movies are opened by some other application instead of the one they are used to. Others have problems with their browser not working properly due to some strange toolbars. Others receive lots of annoying messages at startup. All these kinds of problems are caused by the fact that, when installing applications, many people blindly click on the Next button until the installation ends. In this article I will give you five reasons why doing this is a very bad practice which leads to countless problems. Hopefully, I will manage to convince you to stop for a few seconds and read the windows & messages you receive during the installation of any application.

Services in Windows are quite a controversial topic for various reasons. In this article I will try to clarify them as much as possible. Therefore, I will describe what services are, how they work and where to find the list of services installed in Windows Vista. At the end, I will show you how to change their status (start, stop, etc.), their type (automatic, manual, etc.) and give you my perspective regarding which services can be safely disabled in order to improve performance.

At the beginning of 2009 I've decided to migrate to Windows Vista 64-bit and take advantage of the additional features and improvements. Although some people say that the 64-bit version is not ready for mainstream usage yet, after using it for two weeks and running some benchmarks I must say that this is not true. In this article I will give you an overview of what it means to upgrade to Windows Vista 64-bit. I will present the benefits and limitations introduced by Windows Vista 64-bit, the things you should pay attention to before upgrading, the gain in performance and my user experience since working with it.

Many people, including myself, have been hassled by the fact that you cannot add any custom entries to the AutoPlay menu in Windows Vista. You can only choose from the applications that Windows Vista wants to give you access to. To solve this problem, some suggest using TweakUI, which was designed for Windows XP, and run it in compatibility mode. Unfortunately this solution doesn't work, especially on Windows Vista 64bit. After a lot of research and testing I managed to find a rather unknown application which works both on the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista and gets the job done very easily. The application is called Autoplay Repair v2.2.2 and it was developed by a programmer named Darius Baczynski. To learn how to use it, click on 'Read more'.

One way to improve the performance of your Windows Vista machine is to streamline your startup applications. Using the concept of 'Less is More' definitely helps improving the time it takes to log in and the performance in general. Having fewer applications running at startup frees resources for the applications you actually want to run. In this guide I will start by showing you how to remove unnecessary bloatware, how to disable startup items which do not appear in the system tray and I'll show you the locations where you can find information about programs running at startup.
It is very important not to overdo it when cleaning up the list of startup applications, as you might end-up having problems. Therefore, I'll show you some tips regarding programs which you should and shouldn't disable at startup. I will end this article by showing you how to remove programs from running at startup, how to delay the applications that launch at startup and how to hide system tray icons.

One of our most popular articles is a guide on how to reset your Windows Vista password using the password reset disk. However, if you did not create a password reset disk and you have forgotten your password, you cannot login and use your computer. In these situations there are certain tools that can help you out, most of them being commercial solutions, such as Active Password Changer. Still, there exist also some free alternatives, one of them being Ophcrack. In this guide I will show how to get Ophcrack and how to use it to crack and retrieve your Windows Vista password when you don't have any password reset disk at hand.