Alexander’s Blog

If you’ve run into a situation where Windows Help and Support is no longer working, you will notice that the Help in other applications, such as Internet Explorer is also affected. You get the following error:

Windows Vista has a ReadyBoost feature that can improve the performance of your Windows Vista computer. ReadyBoost has certain requirements so not all USB flash devices can be used for Windows ReadyBoost. Here’s a method that you can try to force ReadyBoost on a USB flash drive. I am not sure if it has any adverse effect so use it at your own risk.

1. Plug in your USB flash drive in Windows Vista.

2. In the AutoPlay window, click on the “Speed up my system” option. You may see the following on your screen which indicates that your USB device doesn’t support ReadyBoost.

If you don’t see the AutoPlay window, go to My Computer, right-click the USB drive, click on Properties, then click the ReadyBoost tab.

3. Uncheck the box “Stop retesting this device when I plug it in.”, click OK and then remove the USB drive.

4. Start the registry editor and go to the following location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\EMDMgmt.

5. Look for the folder that starts with {”_??_” as shown in the following screen shot.

6. Set the values of ReadSpeedKBs and the WriteSpeedKBs to 1000 (decimal).

7. Plug in the USB device again and you should be able to use ReadyBoost.

This method may not work on every USB flash drive and you should know that you are modifying the registry at your own risk. However, I don’t use the same drive that I am using for ReadyBoost for storing my data so I am not worried about losing any data on the USB flash drive.

If you have been using Microsoft ActiveSync to synchronize your Windows Mobile powered devices in Windows XP and now are planning to upgrade your PC to Windows Vista, this blog entry is for you.

I recently did a fresh install of Windows Vista on a client laptop that was previously running Windows XP SP2. I wanted to make sure that Microsoft Outlook will synchronize with the Pocket PC Phone, just like it did in Windows XP. I assumed that the support for mobile devices is better on Windows Vista so that should be a no brainer. It turned out that I was completely wrong. Microsoft ActiveSync 4.2, which is the latest version of ActiveSync synchronization software for Windows Mobile powered devices, doesn’t work on Windows Vista. It only supports Windows XP and earlier versions. There is a Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 Beta 2, which is also not supported on Windows Vista.

On Windows XP, you can use ActiveSync 4.2 to synchronize your PC via USB cable, Bluetooth, or infrared connection. According to Microsoft “If you have Windows Vista, your synchronization settings will be managed through the Windows Mobile Device Center. Windows Mobile Device Center is available through Windows Update and the Windows Mobile Device Center page.” I am sure there are good reasons, which I don’t know, for not including Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows Vista.

Although you can download the Windows Mobile Device Center (Beta 3 release) from Microsoft’s Web site, it is only meant for Windows Vista RC1. In addition, Microsoft recommends that you do not use this beta software on your production computer. To summarize, Windows Vista doesn’t support ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center is still in Beta and is only supported on Windows Vista RC1. Just out of curiosity, I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Beta 3 for Windows Vista (published on 10/6/06), only to find out that it didn’t do the job.

After a lot of googling, I discovered a solution that involved hacking the registry to include a WHOS key. This solution posted on microsoftweblog.com finally solved the problem and showed me the update that was missing after running Windows Update. Here’s the solution.

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft.
3. Right-click the Microsoft key and then select New, Key and add a key called WHOS.
4. Reboot your computer (some people have been able to get this to work without rebooting but I had to reboot to see the results).
5. Run Windows Update. You will notice a new update that will allow you to configure and synchronize using Windows Mobile Device Center. You should reboot again after the update.
6. Configure your mobile device and synchronize with your Windows Vista PC.

Needless to say, there are some questions as to how well Windows Vista supports mobile devices. Windows Vista was RTM’d in November and as of today there is still no official replacement for Microsoft ActiveSync. In addition, you can only add one mobile device at a time in Windows Vista, which is not Microsoft’s intent but perhaps this is an issue because the Windows Mobile Device Center is still in beta. And there is still no support for podcasting.

Despite all these hassles with ActiveSync, do I still recommend that people upgrade their Windows XP computers to Windows Vista, the answer is ABSOLUTELY! The advantages of upgrading to Windows Vista far outweigh the disadvantages.

In Windows Vista, when you use the search feature, Windows automatically includes the file index search, which can be huge because it includes all the searchable files on your computer. To speed the search process in Windows Vista, you can modify the registry per instructions below.

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
3. Double-click Start_SearchFiles in the right-hand pane.
4. Set Value data to 0.
5. Restart your computer.

Keep in mind that by modifying the search this way you are reducing the scope of the search to exclude hard drive files. If this is not what you want to do, then you may want to leave the registry setting to the default.

To encrypt a file in Windows XP, most people right-click the file, go to the Properties, click on Advanced, then click Encrypt contents to secure data. However, there’s an easier method. You can add the Encrypt or Decrypt option to the shortcut menu so all you have to do is right-click on a file or folder and select Encrypt. If the file is already encrypted, the available option will change to Decrypt. You must be logged on with an account with administrator privileges and the volume must be formatted with NTFS in order for you to configure your computer for this feature.

1. Start the registry editor by typing regedit.exe in Start, Run.
2. Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Explorer\Advanced
3. On the Edit menu, click New, DWORD VALUE.
4. Type EncryptionContextMenu as a name for the value.
5. Type 1 for the value date.
6. Close the registry editor. You do not need to reboot for the changes to be in affect.
7 Go to Windows Explorer and right-click a file or folder on the NTFS partition. You should see the Encrypt option on the shortcut menu.