Vista offers the following controls, in addition to Internet Explorer's built-in Parental Controls:

• Windows Vista Web Filter

This controls what websites, downloads and other miscellaneous web usage is allowed.

• Time limits

This controls time curfews on computer usage, in case you are not around to enforce it.

• Games

This setting allows you to limit what type of games can be played on this particular user account.

• Allow and Block Specific Programs

This setting allows you to prevent any other activity in case it doesn't fall in Vista's guidelines, and for other manual fine-tuning.

Vista also has a feature called Activity Viewer, which will show you the top-ten websites visited, blocked, as well as file downloads and attempted (blocked) downloads, any games played (though web-based games have to be managed through the Vista Web Filter), e-mail and instant-messaging events as well. This feature can be engaged independantly of all other parental controls.

To begin using Parental Controls in Vista, simply:

1. Click the Start Orb and left-click on Control Panel. This will bring up a new window.
2. Within this window, double-left click on User Accounts. The window will change into the User Controls window.
3. On the left hand pane, single left-click Parental Controls. (this is usually found under See Also: Parental Controls at the bottom-left corner of your screen) This may take a minute to load, so be patient. A "User Access Control" window may come up as well, if it does, click Continue.
4. From the Parental Controls window, click on the account you wish to apply new controls to. If one does not exist, here is your opportunity to create a new one via the control at the bottom labeled Create a new user account. Otherwise, click on the account you wish to work on.
5. The controls for that specific account will come up. Most of them will be grayed out, to start. To enable the other controls, simply click On, enforce current settings under Parental Controls.
6. Once On, enforce current settings is enabled, the rest of the window lights up. To go into the details of each feature, simply click on the words that are lit up for that option, and to enable, disable, and customize the strength of each setting to your liking. Also, note that you can come back here any time to customize filtering if it is too strict, not strict enough or if your teenager has just been grounded!

A quick summary of available features:

Vista Web Filter

Beneath this setting you will find the ability to block all, or only some specific, web content. If you choose to block only some, you can then edit a block list to add and remove blocked content. If you choose not to block specific content, you can utilize a built-in web restriction level which will attempt to sort out content for you. If you choose "Custom", you will get a front end that allows you to choose what content the user of this account should and should not be seeing. Note that this is not foolproof as new websites come out every day, but it should block a very high degree of them. Lastly, you can choose to block or allow downloads on this account.

Time Limit

This option will give you a week-style calendar in which you can click to block a specific time period (in increments of one hour). Click that square again to unblock it. This account will not be able to log on during the blocked periods!

Games

This option allows you to choose which installed software may be launched from this user account. You can block all games, or a varying setting based on user age. This works with Vista-capable software to judge what that game's setting is. If you are concerned about a piece of software in particular, you can also block it using this section of parental controls.

Allow and Block Specific Programs

This section defines whether the user can use all programs (with the exception of those listed above), or ones that are specifically allowed, also known as a whitelist.

View Activity Reports

If you've enabled this feature for this user account, you may come back to this section under your profile to view activity reports. This will give you a summary of that user's latest activity, such as web sites visited, attempted downloads, logon times, and programs that have been run.

I sincerely hope that this introduction to Vista's Parental Controls has been helpful to you. If you believe it has, please consider forwarding this website to your friends, so that they too might get the most out of their computer!

Spybot Search and Destroy/Avg Free

These 2 programs are the backbone of my computer security. Each one compliments the other in the sense that one will take care of the malicious software that the other doesn't. First you have Spybot, an easy to use anti-spyware program that has a very useful feature, immunization. Used on both Internet Explorer and Firefox, Immunization stops spyware from entering your computer. Second you have Avg Free, which is a powerful Anti-Virus program that block viruses from entering though downloads or Peer-to-peer traffic. You set AVG free to do full hard drive searches for viruses during times that you are away, asleep or otherwise not at the computer. My only complaint about these 2 programs is that they are memory hogs when they run full searches.

Winamp

Yep, good old winamp. I choose Winamp over many other media players because it can play back a wide selection of media file types, both video and audio. Unfortunately, many people cut it short because they don't realize that Winamp has plug-ins that allow you to run many types you would not expect, such as Real Media (.rm) and Flash Movie (.flv) files.

Firefox

Please for the love of Ra, don't use Explorer. Firefox is a heavily customizable browser that give the power and flexibility needed when doing things like watching streaming media, playing online games or just surfing the web. You can also do some of the strangest things like check the country of the website your on, or color code your tabs. but this is apart of Firefox's unique user base.

Open Office

A good program but I'd only install it if you don't already have Microsoft office already aboard. Open office is a free alternative to the much necessary in the day and age program.

Crimson Editor

A personal choice and it's a bit dated but it's a good replacement for notepad. tabbed for organizing multiple text documents a spell checker for multiple programing languages. It's a great program for those who create web pages from scratch.

FrostWire/BitTorrent

If your into the whole Peer to Peer thing, the FrostWire and BitTorrent combo is for you. FrostWire is a hacked up free version of LimeWire Pro, FrostWire comes with no bundled viruses or spyware. Fairly easy to install, you can use LimeWire to share your favorite (non-copyright) software, games, and more! BitTorrent is the same but for .Torrent files. A word of advice though: You should always seed the files. If you fear the fact that a certain organization (like for instance the RIAA) will come after you, then you already know it's illegal and should never have downloaded the files to begin with. Not seeding is quite inconsiderate and can leave others who wish to have to file, hanging at 5%.

Peer Guardian 2

Good for keeping your Peer to Peer activity and web browsing private from them peering eyes. Blocks the IP addresses of known troublemakers from gaining access to your computer.

IceChat

A Great IRC Chat program for those who know IRC. It's simple to use and has extra features for those who really know what they're doing.

Turn off the Welcome Center startup page.

This is as simple as deselecting the Run at Startup check box. You do not need this to run at startup to enjoy Vista.

Change the sleep time on your computer.

If your computer has already gone to sleep please note that tapping a couple of times on the space bar wakes it quicker than moving the mouse. Go to the Windows start button and select Control Panel. It is the 3rd item from the bottom right. Select System and Maintenance green link, then go to Power options and select the blue link Change when the computer sleeps. You will notice they have it set for a measly 30 minutes, way too short for going to get something to eat and drink while you work at home. Set the Turn off display time to something you can live with, say 4 hours (I set mine to never). Set the Put the computer to sleep time to something you can live with. Save changes and exit out of the power options.

Change the defrag disk parameters.

It comes set to defrag every week and this is overkill for most users. I set mine for monthly defrag although on my old XP Professional system I only defragged once a year. Go to the Windows Start button and select Control Panel, the 3rd item from the bottom right. Select the green System and Maintenance link then scroll down to the category called Administrative Tools. Select the blue link Defragment your hard drive and click on the link. It should come up as Run on a Schedule and you can modify schedule. Do so. Select monthly out of how often, day 1 in days and 6pm or another time suited to you. This would mean defrag at 6pm on the first day of the month. Defragging keeps your files tight and together on your hard drive so they load faster. Of course, you could always take it off the schedule and defrag by going to the defrag scheduler when you want to.

Get on the Internet.

Get with your ISP and hook up to the Internet. Hopefully you do not have dial-up as it is much slower than anything else out there. I use my cell phone as a modem and typically run 7-10 times faster than dial-up for $25 a month. If you are stuck with dial-up but have a cell phone see if this option is available to you. After you connect to the Internet, just let your computer sit idle for awhile….Windows will download some updates and notify you to restart when it is done.

Get rid of PC-cillin by Trend and buy Norton Internet Security 2008 for $49.

If you decide to do this, go to the Start button and select Control Panel. Under the green link Programs select the blue link to Uninstall a program. Select Trend software PC-cillin and uninstall it. After it has done its' job close the Control Panel. Have your Internet up and running and put the CD in the CD player to install Norton Internet Security 2008. Once Norton Internet Security 2008 has been installed, change the scan schedule. It comes set to full scan weekly as did disk defrag, this is also overkill as long as you do a quick scan after every days work is done if you were on the Internet. Double click the Norton Icon and select Schedule a scan. The select Schedule a full system scan. Select month for Schedule Task: and then select The 1st Sunday of every month, select time consistent with when you will be on the computer (You might shy away from 6pm or whatever time you set your defrag to, give full system scan a couple of hours prior to defrag. Select OK to save your changes and exit out of Norton.

Burn your music library to Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Player has been completely revamped and it is well done. Once again make sure the Internet is up and running. This will fill in your album information and your song tracks for you. Place the CD you want to copy songs from in the CD player and it should auto start. You will see a tab on the Windows Media Player that says RIP. This is the tab to copy from CD to computer, they call it ripping now. Select the RIP tab. You should see the list of song titles with them all checked. Deselect the songs you do not wish to copy. Select START RIP at the bottom right. Wait for ripping to finish and then you can close Windows Media Player. Repeat this process for each of your CD's you want to copy from. I have 95 songs from 24 CD's in my music library.

Burn a custom CD for your car from Windows Media Player.

You do not need the Internet up and running to do this. Install a blank CD in your CD-W drive. Open Windows Media Player and select a playlist you have made and want to burn from, or select Play All if you do not have a previously made playlist. Select Play, and then View Queue. You can then Edit Queue which will allow you to select a delete box by each song. Delete the songs you do not want burned to your CD, bearing in mind the CD can only hold 80 minutes of audio. Once you have done this, save the playlist under a new name. Use the Window button to return to the main selection screen and select your new playlist. This time select Burn, if you have too much songs selected it will warn you and you can delete some more. If not, it will merrily burn you a music CD with your favorite music on it.

Change your desktop background to your favorite photo.

You do not need the internet up and running for this activity. Your photo must be downloadable from where it is. I have a digital camera with compact flash card, so here is what I do. I have taken a photo of my son and his fiancée, turned off my camera, removed the compact flash media card and inserted it in the appropriate compact flash reader in my 9 in 1 card reader on the front panel of my computer. I then go to Windows start button, select computer, and select the drive with the media in it. I then select the photos I want copied and copy them to the Sample Pictures folder. This is under C:/users/public/public pictures. After doing this, make sure you expand your right task bar and find the safely remove hardware icon and click on it. It should bring up a yellow dialog box telling you it is safe to remove your media card. Do so and click the dialog box. Go back to the Windows start button and select it. Select the Control Panel, 3rd item from bottom right. Go over to the second column and find Appearance and personalization the second from the top. Go to the blue link called Change desktop background and select it. Browse photo locations if not started in Sample Pictures to Public pictures/Sample pictures which is where you should have put your photo when you copied it over. Just click on your picture twice to turn the background to it. Under How should the picture be positioned select the leftmost button. This stretches the picture over your monitor screen. Select OK and close the Control Panel.

Getting the red eye out of your computer photos using Adobe Elements Studio. You need the Internet up and running if this is the first time you've used Adobe Elements Studio. You will patiently wait at most an hour, unless you have dial-up and then it will be even longer, for an update package to load of 193 Mb. Open Adobe Elements Studio and allow the updater to do its thing. Afterwards, click on the camera icon to load Adobe Elements Photoshop 6.0. Select the Edit button. Once the program has loaded, under the menu heading FILE select open. Navigate to Sample Pictures, or wherever you put the photo with red eye at. Double click the photo to load it. A little past mid-way down the left screen side you will see a “red eye”. Select this tool and then position it over your photos red eye and click it. This however, does not remove the entire red eye-it did not on mine. The third icon down on the left side is an eye dropper. Select this tool and then at the top of the icons set sample size to 3 by 3. Using the keyboard hold down the CTRL key and press the "=" key 2 times to enlarge the photo. Move the eyedropper tool over the part of the eye you want the color to be and click one time. Now switch to the brush tool, it is above the paint can icon on the bottom left. Using the eye drop tool this way causes the paint brush to change to that color. Set the paint brush paint size at the top to a small brush. Then just paint over your red eye and your job is complete. Don't forget to go to the file menu and Save your changes. If you were working on your background picture you will need to reload it or restart your computer for it to take effect.

Burn a movie DVD. Once again, if this is the first time you have used Adobe Elements Video shop 4.0 you need to be connected to the internet. Double click the Adobe Elements Studio icon, and then click the camcorder icon in the middle. If this is the first time, let the updater do its job prior to continuing, the wait could be as long as an hour, much longer if you have dial-up. Assuming this is a new project select the new project icon. Name your new project and the film layout studio will load. Click on the left most tool bar item titled Get Media. Click on DVD on the lists that come up. Select GET MEDIA FROM: to be your DVD player where the movie you want to make a copy of is in. Then click the Get Media button at the bottom of the pop up box. It will load the time clips backwards, if you hold the mouse over the first clip it will be VTS_01.03, the second clip will be VTS_01.02 and the third one will be VTS_01.01 if you have 3 scenes.

When you drag and drop them to the time line make sure you drag them in numerical order so you do not play your movie backwards. After you do this you can press play in the center of the screen to make sure your movie plays in the correct order. Then insert a blank DVD of 2 hours total time and select the green share tab at the top left. Click on disk Burn DVD or blue ray disk. Make sure your Burn To: is set to disc. Disc name should be what you want to name the disc, such as Jenna's Wedding. Burner location is the DVD drive you have the blank disc in, either DVD or Blue Ray drive. Select how many copies you want to make. Leave presets alone. On quality, deselect the Fit contents to available space. The Burn button is in the middle right of the screen. This will start encoding the material for you. It takes about 12 minutes to encode 1.5 hours on my system. After that it burns the disc in about 5 minutes, and if you are making more than one copy each copy will take about 5 minutes. That is all there is to it.

In Order of Importance:

1. Mozilla Firefox - Regarded by most to be the best web browser, fast with lots of available add-ons
2. 7-Zip - Free file compressor/decompressor, supports most formats out there
3. Sun Java - Better alternative to Microsoft Java (you will need this)
4. Adobe Acrobat Reader - Necessary to read PDF files (you will need this)
5. CCleaner - Small, fast app that helps you remove all the accumulated clutter on your system, also has a registry fixer
6. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack - Installs all the codecs you need to view any video file. NOTE: you need to remove all previous codec packs (if you have any) before using this or they will conflict
7. Trillian Instant Messenger - Combines AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM, and many other chat programs into one program
8. Winamp -  Simple music player compatible with most formats
9. Metapad - Replacement for notepad with no filesize limit. After you download it, unzip it using 7-Zip and rename it as "notepad.exe" and place it in your windows folder to replace notepad.

Restart your computer and enjoy your faster boot time

Dialog Box Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)
• CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)
• TAB (Move forward through the options)
• SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)
• ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
• ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)
• SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
• Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
• F1 key (Display Help)
• F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
• BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts

• Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
• Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
• Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
• Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
• Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
• Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
• Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
• CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
• Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
• Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
• Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
• Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts

• Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)
• SHIFT five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)
• NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)
• Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)

Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

• END (Display the bottom of the active window)
• HOME (Display the top of the active window)
• NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
• LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
• RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

Shortcut Keys for Character Map

After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts:

• RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line)
• LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line)
• UP ARROW (Move up one row)
• DOWN ARROW (Move down one row)
• PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time)
• PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time)
• HOME (Move to the beginning of the line)
• END (Move to the end of the line)
• CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character)
• CTRL+END (Move to the last character)
• SPACEBAR (Switch between Enlarged and Normal mode when a character is selected)

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Main Window Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL+O (Open a saved console)
• CTRL+N (Open a new console)
• CTRL+S (Save the open console)
• CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item)
• CTRL+W (Open a new window)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the MMC window menu)
• ALT+F4 (Close the console)
• ALT+A (Display the Action menu)
• ALT+V (Display the View menu)
• ALT+F (Display the File menu)
• ALT+O (Display the Favorites menu)
• MMC Console Window Keyboard Shortcuts
• CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane)
• ALT+Minus sign (-) (Display the window menu for the active console window)
• SHIFT+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item)
• F1 key (Open the Help topic, if any, for the selected item)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window)
• CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window)
• ALT+ENTER (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console)

Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

• CTRL+ALT+END(Open the Microsoft Windows NT Security dialog box)
• ALT+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right)
• ALT+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left)
• ALT+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order)
• ALT+HOME (Display the Start menu)
• CTRL+ALT+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen)
• ALT+DELETE (Display the Windows menu)
• CTRL+ALT+Minus sign (-) (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
• CTRL+ALT+Plus sign (+) (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)

Microsoft Internet Explorer Navigation

• CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
• CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
• CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
• CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
• CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
• CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
• CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
• CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
• CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
• CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
• CTRL+W (Close the current window)

Themes

For the “base” of it, which will do a lot of the work, I used The Vista Transformation Pack 7.0. It works great! It includes: Windows Vista Aero Theme, Windows Vista Basic Theme, Visual Task Tip, ViOrb, Thoosje's Vista Sidebar, and LClock. Too look it's best, I recommend using all of these features, but you do not have to. To get the Vista Transformation Pack 7.0, go here.

Vista Transformation Pack 7.0

Aero Glass Interface

For the best Windows Vista Interface, you need to pay money. You must buy WindowBlinds 5 or 6 to get it. Sorry, but it does not work with the free trial! Although, there are some free programs that will let you do it, but unfortunately they are not as great looking. These include the following - TrueTransparency (I recommend), FastAero, and VystalVivid. Trust me, TrueTransparency is by far the best one that I know. FastAero is pretty good, but the Aero Buttons are not realistic and too large. VystalVivid is probably the best, but it is incredibly annoying because it has this very stupid affect where when you close out of an application, it slowly fades away. Now don't say “Well I think I'll get Vystal then!” because you think you can live with it. TrueTransparency is the best because it looks good except for the text. The text isn't really that bad, it just doesn't look exactly like Vista. To get WindowBlinds, go here. To get TrueTransparency, go here. To get FastAero, go here. And to get VystalVivid, go here.

True Transparency

Windows Flip 3D Feature

The only one that I have tried and liked is WinFlip. WinFlip completely does its job as good as Vista does. All you have to do is download it, run it, then press Windows Key+Tab and there you go! You can download it here.

WinFlip

More Stuff

To get the greatest effect, you should do a couple of things. First, make sure after you've installed everything and set up everything, you should restart again. I found that this sets everything right and gets you more comfortable knowing everything works. Second, you might want to consider downloading everything updated. Make sure that you have Windows Media Player 11, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 2.0.0.9, XP Service Pack 2, etc. The quickest way to update all Windows Applications is to Run Windows Update. Third, if you have Firefox, listen up because you won't want to miss this! I found an awesome way to make Firefox look exactly like Internet Explorer 7, but it isn't! The best way to do this is to follow this guide.

Enjoy!

I'm sure most of us in some way shape or form have unwanted material stored onto our computers automatically after being viewed on the internet, which are still, viewable by anyone. But don't take this article as ONLY an effective way to remove these files, it's also an effective way of freeing up space on your hard disk altogether, improving the overall performance of your computer!

Here are simple instructions for viewing and or deleting these files.

1. Click Start button
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click on “Performance and Maintenance”
4. Under “Pick a task” you should see a link that says “Free up space on your hard disk”. Click this.

A “Disk Cleanup” window should pop up, and begin calculating your stored files.

(This process will likely take a few minutes)

When the calculation process is complete, and new window should pop up, named something along the lines of “Disk Cleanup for [your computer name here] (C:)”.

If you search across it, you will come across the words “Files to delete:”.

Click highlight the “Temporary Internet Files” selection, go down to the lower part of the window, and click the “View Files” button.

A new window named “Content” should come up, with files with random lettering on them; you may open these files, and few everything you've come across on the internet so far.

Once you are ready to delete these files, go back to the “Disk Cleanup” window, make sure there's a check mark in the box next to “Temporary Internet Files”, and click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window.

A box should come up asking if you are sure you want to perform these actions. Click Yes.

And there you have it! Your first method of removing unwanted files from your computer!

A second, alternative method is downloading, and using “Media Detective”. They offer a free 1 month trial, so you could just use it and lose it if you wish.

Good luck to you and your new clean computers!