Big PC Geek Tech Blog

In case you have not heard, Vista Service Pack 1 has been officially released my Microsoft. The update includes all of the security updates since the release of Vista, a huge amount of performance updates/bug fixes and a few other things.  For a list of everything, check out the release notes here. I have updated my system to SP1 with no issues. I suggest you update as soon as you get a chance.

If you have Windows Vista, you may have used that Power symbol button to turn off your computer or you may have not. The button is actually Microsoft’s improvement to Hibernation we all know so well from Windows XP. When you click the button Vista actually writes everything your are doing from Ram to your hard drive and puts the computer into a very low power state. The great idea behind doing this is so you can quickly return to your session without waiting for the computer to boot up.

So here is the process: You click the Power Button from the Start Menu, your computer writes your session to your hard drive, and finally the computer turns off. Once you do this, there is a bit of lag time where you can’t do anything because your system is being written to your hard disk but once it is finished, you are ready to go. when you want to turn on your computer, just hit the power button and log in if necessary. You will notice your computer will be ready in a few seconds, much faster than your normal boot up.

I have noticed while making tech house calls, that many people who have Vista don’t use it’s built in search from the Start Menu. You will be amazed how cool and quick it is. As soon as you start typing the the program, everything with that name in it starts to pop up and you can select the program or type the whole name and hit enter. If you are a slow typist, I can see why you would not use this feature but if not, you are missing out on some Vista efficiency. The cool part about Instant Search is that it gets faster the more you use it. Next time you click the start menu, try to type what you need. For an even quicker result, get in the habit of hitting the Windows key on your keyboard and then begin typing.

Want to know if you should upgrade to XP or buy a new computer with Vista? Most people can’t see all the new features in Vista when they buy it in a computer and I think it has helped create a notion of Vista as a useless upgrade. If you have been thinking about buying a new computer, pretty soon you wont have a choice other than Vista but here is the link to a list published by Microsoft. Click Here