Windows Vista Article Categories

With the goal of making quality training on Microsoft products more accessible using modern technology, Microsoft has expanded the Microsoft Virtual Academy worldwide. Also known as the MVA, the growing site offers free training created and delivered by the product experts at Microsoft via live online and on-demand training courses. 

If you are having issues with Google Chrome or simply want to remove all customizations and extensions, Chrome 29 introduced a new reset browser feature.  Simply click the button and everything except for your bookmarks, saved passwords and history will be reset.

For some users the ability to hibernate their PC instead of shutting down is disabled on Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.  All modern PC hardware supports hibernating and it is a great alternative to using sleep or the standby modes that continue to use power and can drain your battery if you have a laptop. Hibernation does not use any power after and it saves the state of your PC so you can resume just like you never turned your PC off with all of your applications running and open that you previously were using. 

Word 2013 includes a brand new typing animation that glides across the screen as you type and to a new line upon hitting Enter. Excel 2013 includes a similar feature where the cell selection graphic glides around the grid when using the arrow keys. Some will love the new animations but others may find them distracting. In typical Microsoft fashion, a registry key was created that allows power users to disable the animations. 

The Java Runtime Environment has become one of the most exploited components of any operating system. Even the US Department of Homeland Security warns users to disable java unless they have a really good reason to use it.  For most of us the days of Web sites requiring you to run Java applets has long passed.  However, there still are a good number of desktop applications written in Java so simply uninstalling it is not practical. Instead, a good way to minimize your risk is to disable the Java browser plugins.  That is the primary attack vector, meaning how Java is exploited, in most cases and closing that door will significantly improve the security of your device.