How to enable Godmode?

You can enable it easily:
Create a new folder and name it “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” (yes this has to be the name of the folder).

Once created double-click it and you can access the master control panel of Vista.

Remove Godmode from Vista x64

Vista 64-bit does not support Godmode, if you tried it anyway it will crash your explorer.exe
To repair Vista, you will have to boot up in safe mode (press f8 on boot up) and then enter the following command via the command line (cmd.exe)

rd /s “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}”

Here’s a quick guide how to install your canoscan lide 50 drivers properly.

Download Canoscan Lide 50 Vista x64 Driver

You can download the drivers at the official canon site:
Link to download site: Canoscan Lide 50 x64 Driver

This is the direct download link for the driver

You should go to the download site (first link) if you want to download other drivers. You should download the CanoScan Toolbox for Windows x64 as well:

CanoScan Toolbox for Windows Vista x32/64 and Windows 7 x32/x64

You can simply extract the lide60vst6411111a_64en.exe to a folder and then execute the SetupSG.exe.
After unpacking the archive SetupSG.exe (yes It’s another archive) you will finally find the driver for your canoscan.

Open up the device manager (Windows + E and then right-click on “Computer”, now click on manage and select the “Device Manager”).

Connect the scanner and then simply right click it on the scanner and select “properties”. Go to the tab “drivers” and click on “Update drivers..”.

Browse to the location on your PC that you used to unpack the drivers and select CNQL60.inf as your driver.

I hope that helps!

You can use the XBox Live Points Generator to get new points.

Should you need this tool, you can grab it for free at this site:

Get XBox Live Points Generator v1.2

This tool is a hack and you are using it at your own risk.
The XBox is becoming pretty popular now that Microsoft has so many great online games. If you consider to buy one yourself, you might want to bookmark this post, so you can find it when you have purchased your XBOX.

You can use XBOX Live Points to unlock new game content. Most tools (like v1.2) are ad-sponsored to finance your points and are therefore 100% legal and working.

Once the best tool to do that would come with your graphic drivers (if you had a NVidia graphic card).
Nowadays there are some better tools to do it.

DisplayFusion is one of them.

The free version does not offer as much as the pro does, but it’s enough to do some really fancy stuff.

Above, you can see my setup. All you have to do is to open your display properties to detect a 2nd monitor and select “Extend these displays”, after that simply do a right-click on the litte tray icon of Display Fusion and click on “Desktop Wallpaper”.

You are almost done, pick a wallpaper (load from) and set a size mode. Apply it and your wallpaper should now stretch over 2 screens. Easy, huh?

Microsoft also released a Vista VHD for Web Developers and that one will be running for 120 days!
Grab it here. You will need Microsoft’s Virtual PC.

So, you may wonder why the hell would I want a Vista VHD? Well, it might come in handy to try out stuff! If you don’t need it, you can still download a Windows 7 VHD over at http://windows7themes.net

Unfortunately Vista Home does not include GPEDit, which is a comfortable editor to edit all those policies. However, there is a way to lookup the registry settings for every policy.

Simply download this spreadsheet and open it with Excel or OpenOffice.

To edit the registry, enter “regedit” into the search field. But make sure you have a backup of your registry before editing anything! Simply locate the file you found inside the spreadsheet and edit the registry values with caution.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

WindowBlinds is a program that enables Windows users to completely change the look and feel of Windows users interface. Users customize Windows by using visual styles (skins) created for WindowBlinds. With these skins, WindowsBlinds can change the look of titlebars, borders, buttons, taskbars, Start menu, progress animations, toolbar icons, Explorer views, and virtually every other part of Windows!

To use the very common .WBA format you will need WindowBlinds . For a cheap fee of $19 bucks you are getting a lot of content. By now there are whole sites that offer thousands of WindowBlinds themes. Let’s see what’s available out there.

Content

WindowBlinds is the most popular skinning tool that is available, therefore there are thousands of themes that are *exclusively* available for WindowBlinds.

There are many resources where you can find premium themes for WindowsBlinds:

- Customize.org

- Stardock’s Library 500+ Premium themes

- DeviantArt WindowBlinds themes

Most themes I would consider as premium, the quality is extraordinary high! A great community creates new and fresh themes 24/7.

Content: 10/10 Points (Big advantage here)

Installation / Usability

The installation is very easy and there is not much you have to do to install a theme. In WindowBlinds you only have to do two clicks to apply a theme, but if you try to apply a 3rd-party Windows theme it will usually be a lot more difficult and will require several tweaks before it will even work (e.g. patching the uxtheme.dll). Of course it’s more challenging to install a 3rdparty theme, but most of the time you will get better results using the easy WindowBlinds-method simply because there are so many great themes available and you can still fine-tune every detail!

Usability: 9 /10 points.

The latest WindowBlinds release is 6.3 by now:

WindowBlinds 6.x [CD]

Version 6.3 adds new layering effects to windows, faster performance, and texture options for skins.

Want to see 6.3 in action - click on image to enlarge

One of the real advantages of WindowBlinds is that you can style stuff your normally can’t. For example you can add background images to the Explorer, which would be nearly impossible without WindowBlinds.

Click on image to enlarge:

Run the following command
net user administrator /active:yes

Done. Go back to logon screen and you will see a new user account

This might come in handy if you have problems activating Windows 7, too.

This is also a short review of SoundPackager from Stardock, which is a nice tool to manage your sound schemes in Vista or XP.

SoundPackager

Ultimate Extras

First I didn’t find any sound themes for vista at all, but I knew that Microsoft offers a few alternative sound schemes to Ultimate users. If you don’t have Ultimate, you can download them here:

Download: x86-Vista | x64-Vista

What are they like? Source: WinVistaClub

One is the Glass Sound Scheme, which makes the sound seem like they are made with glass instruments. The second is the Pearl Sound Scheme, which further extends the intentionally subtle design of the Vista default sound scheme with a richer, milky palate.

You will have to right-click on “UltSound.inf” and select “install” to add the sound scheme.

XP Users:

I’m sure that many here still use Windows XP, so I will first let you know that there is an easy way to get that vista sound scheme for XP, which might be a clear improvement. Simply use the following tool:

Vista to XP Sound Theme

How to apply a sound scheme

Alright, now back to Vista. I found a useful description how to apply a sound theme at microsoft.com

To apply a sound scheme

1. Open Audio Devices and Sound Themes by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Hardware and Sound, and then clicking Sound.
2. Click the Sounds tab, and then, under Sound Scheme, select the sound scheme you want to use.

Sound Packager

Well, still no sound scheme! But then I stumbled on

SoundPackager

SoundPackacker is a little tool that was exactly created for tuning the sound appearance of your PC!
Stardock offers 13 pages(!!) of sound packages for that tool.

Actually, I was quite impressed how easy it was to add a soundpackage. All you have to do is to click on “Import” and locate that sound package you downloaded from one of their pages. After that click on “Apply” and you are set.

Preview of your sound scheme

Open the “control panel” and double-click on “Sound”. Under the tab “Sounds” you can now hear a preview of every sound assigned to a program event. In this example I chose the rock theme, so let’s rock!

You can now easily create your own sound scheme using all the sound themes from Stardock. Restoring the default theme is also much easier with this tool and requires only a single click.

I decided to grab this tool, because it’s pretty cheap (around 19 bucks) and very easy to manage your sound schemes. Rock on!

To record ‘what you hear’ you will have to change a few settings in Vista before you can do so.

Click on the image to enlarge:

1. Go to “Control Panel” – “Sound”. Click on the tab recording and do a right-click on the list of devices.
2. Make sure that “Show Disabled Devices” and “Show Disconnected Devices” is checked!
3. The list of devices should be a bit larger by now. One of the entries is called “What you hear”. Do a right-click on the entry and check both “Enable” and “Set as Default Device”.

Back in Audacity you should now be able to record exactly “What you hear” by clicking on the big red button. If it is still not working try to go to “Edit” -> “Preferences” and select your recording device from the dropdown field.

Now add those soundfiles you recorded to your system and make them play whenever you start your PC.

Sound Packager

SoundPackacker is a little tool that was exactly created for tuning the sound appearance of your PC!
Stardock offers 13 pages(!!) of sound packages for that tool.

SoundPackager

Actually, I was quite impressed how easy it was to add a soundpackage. All you have to do is to click on “Import” and locate that sound package you downloaded from one of their pages. After that click on “Apply” and you are set.