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DExposE2 – Windows clone of Mac Expose

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Mac users love Expose. DExposE2 is a clone of Mac OS X’s Expose feature for Windows XP and Vista. Aside from the basic Expose featuresDExpose2 features a handful of extra features like interactive previews, hot corners, multi-monitor support, and more. You can get DExposE2 as both a portable and installable application. Hit the portable install if you want to check it out without installing anything or if you’re sure you’ll use it hit up the full blown application.

DExposE2 can be downloaded at Devrexster.

You can also check out this video to see it in action:

Customize Vista before installing it

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Windows Vista from Microsoft takes a lot of resources, we all know that. vLite provides you with an easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking.

This tool doesn’t use any kind of hacking, all files and registry entries are protected as they would be if you install the unedited version only with the changes you select.

It configures the installation directly before the installation, meaning you’ll have to remake the ISO and reinstall it. This method is much cleaner, not to mention easier and more logical than doing it after installation on every reinstall. It allows for Service Pack slipstreaming too!

Grab vLite and check out more at the vLite site.

Vista – reclaim space after Service Pack 1 install

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When you install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on your computer (or even if you install a copy of Vista that already has SP1 on it), the installer will not remove the older versions of Vista files from the hard drive. This is because the older files may be required in case you decide to uninstall SP1 later from the system.

SP1 added some needed tweaking and really helped stabilize Vista, why not reclaim some disk space by removing all the older Vista files?

There are no manual steps involved. Just open your Windows command prompt and type vsp1cln.exe (short for Vista SP1 Cleaner). It takes less than a minute to execute.

*vsp1cln.exe is added to your Windows Vista System folder after you install Vista SP1. The command window will display:

Would you like to continue? (Y/N): y

Performing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Disk Clean-up…

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Desk Clean-up completed.

This will make  Windows Vista Service Pack 1 permanent on this computer. All the older files are deleted now and your hard disk has tons of extra space for other important files like videos and photos.

You computer need not be connected to the Internet for running the Vista SP1 cleaner tool. And you won’t be able to remove Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later.

View Original Article Here

NoPE releases fully cracked Windows Vista

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The Register is reporting that a warez group called NoPE has released a fully cracked copy of Vista. The install appears activated, updates work, and no key needs to be entered, straight from the installation media without any effort on the part of the pirate. There have been other Vista cracks out there, but they required a bit of effort on the part of the person installing it, it wasn’t exactly mainstream ready.

It’s taken a few months since the launch of Windows Vista but the product now seems to be successfully cracked It’s even more simple to install than previous leaked copies of WindowsXP – which always required a serial.

So can Microsoft’s new anti-piracy measures, coupled with Windows Update, will be able to counter-measure this new release? Even if it does, now that warez groups have found a method to install pre-cracked versions on the installation media Microsoft will have a significant fight on its hands to keep Vista piracy-free.

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Hide language updates on Vista (or hide optional updates)

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If you’re like me, you keep your system up to date and patched. It’s good practice, but a bit annoying under Vista (at least under Ultimate Edition) because even if you’ve applied all the updates you need you’re constantly shown that you have 14 optional updates. Turns out they’re all language packs… I’m pretty sure I don’t need Chinese or Dutch language packs installed.

It turns out it’s pretty easy to hide them from view. Open Windows Update and click on View available updates. You’ll see something like this:

chooselanguageupdatestoinstall.png

Notice all the languages that you’ll never have a need to use. All you have to do to hide these updates, is to right-click on an item in the list, and choose “Hide update” from the menu.

languageupdateshide.png

Pretty easy eh? Now when you go to Windows Update you’ll see what you expect: “No new updates available…”. If you ever want them back there’s a “Restore hidden updates” link on the left-hand side of the screen that will let you put them back in the list.