Windows Vista – Missing Mail icon

Things have moved in Windows Vista 64 bit and sometimes it’s hard to find things you know should be there.

One item that is hard to find is the Mail icon that you need to use to add profiles for Outlook, for example. You’ll find it in the Control Panel but not alongside all the other icons. Instead, click the View 32-bit Control Panel Items View 32-bit Control Panel Items group. There you will find Mail alongside other options like Java, QuickTime and some others.

Restore a file association in Windows Vista

 

Don’t ask me how I did it – it has been one of those weeks! but I somehow associated zip files with Photoshop. So, every time I needed to extract the contents of a zip file Photoshop would open and gag on the file – not unsurprising but very annoying.

A fix was required. The solution is in the Registry but it’s not hard to find or to fix. You do need to have your wits about you and never touch anything you don’t understand. Oh! and back up your registry before you start playing with it.

Choose Start > Run > type REGEDIT and click OK and then, when the warning comes up, click Continue. You have to be an admin to use this tool.

Navigate to find this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\

and then locate the extension causing issues, in my case zip

Then find the UserChoice option under this, right click and choose Delete. This removes any custom choice and returns your association to what it was when Vista was first installed. Problem solved!

Finally, choose File> Exit to exit the registry editor.

Vista

Oh, I love Vista (Not!)

Ok, here's my dilemma. I'm an administrator and I uninstall a program. It tells me during the uninstall that it has left bits and pieces behind in my Application Data folder. Ok, so I'd like to get rid of these. Problem is I can't see the folder and when I opt to see hidden system folders, I can't open it.

Yikes? Well not totally a problem. You see your

C:\Users\\Application Data

folder really isn't a folder - it's a shortcut - that's why its icon has the bent arrow on it. It is really a shortcut to a real folder - called:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming

and that folder is totally accessible just by clicking on it.

So, you can clean up after programs if you know where to look!

Getting Vista's Windows Media Player to play videos

Vista's Windows Media Player will play audio and video files, only if it has the codecs for them. Codecs are like translation programs, without the codecs you get exactly zip, nada, zero on the screen. Sucks huh?

Unfortunately not all the codecs you need are included in Vista so you might try to play a video and find you have no visuals although the sound might play just fine, or vice versa. The solution is to download the codecs you need to play the range of media files you're likely to encounter.

To locate the codecs you need, visit softpedia.com and search for the Vista Codec package. At the time of writing the latest version is 5.0.3 and it can be found here.

Download it and install it and you should be right to play just about any media file around.

This is the file which Microsoft should have provided. These codecs should be supplied with the player, after all, what use is a DVD or audio player if it doesn't play disks? If you buy a physical DVD player you don't expect to have to go out and buy something extra to make the player and your disks compatible. Just because the player is software doesn't excuse the lack of compatibility.

So, yes, it sucks you have to go find and download this file, but kudos to the guy who did all the work so we don't have to.

Start menu catastrophe in Vista

I'm starting to face facts - very soon, I'll have to replace my production computer and that means it will need to be Vista. Until now, I've used a laptop running Vista when I needed to write something Vista related but frankly I don't like Vista at all. Part of this is I don't like the dummed down interface. I need to move around my programs and network fast, and using the default settings is like walking in treacle.

One thing I hate is the new Start menu - give me back the Windows XP Start menu please! If you know how to do it, you can get it back - Yeah! Right click the taskbar and choose Properties to display the Taskbar and Start Menu dialog. Click the Start Menu tab and click Classic Start Menu - this gives you a faux Windows XP version of the start menu - it's not perfect but it beats the Vista version hands down.

Next up - Windows Search sucks big time and what I do to avoid using it!