Your unique Windows Vista operating system product key will have come printed on a slip of paper inside the software's packaging. During installation, you enter this product key into your computer to validate your copy of Windows. If you've lost the piece of paper that contained your Windows Vista p

While the Windows Genuine Advantage Notification 2008 tool is meant to keep pirated copies of Windows operating systems from being used, the software may accidentally nag users with valid product keys. When this happens, it is necessary to delete the WGA tool from your computer. Microsoft does not i

Service Pack 2 for the Windows XP operating system contains many still-popular features of the system such as Bluetooth support and Windows Firewall. Installing SP2 to your XP system is a prerequisite to use these features, as they are not included in the default installation of Windows XP. This req

Wiping, or "formatting," your computer is typically done with the installation disks presented to you with your system, but that need not be the case. You can fully format your computer using any available DOS boot disk, allowing you to erase the contents of your hard drive to help keep your private

Throughout your laptop computer's lifetime it can be exposed to many different security threats such as spyware or virus programs. Eventually the operating system may become corrupted and you can experience frequent crashes or serious loss of system speed. The quickest and most thorough fix is to fo

Windows Defender is a Microsoft spyware removal tool. It comes preinstalled in Windows 7 and Vista operating systems. By default, Windows Defender launches automatically when you start your computer; however, you may want to disable it if you plan to use a different spyware or security program. With

An icon is a picture or a visual display of specific programs, functions and files on your computer. Icons make it more convenient for you to identify the specific programs you want to use. The Start menu is a location in Windows operating systems that shows all your recent and most frequently used

Windows XP Is not easy to find in 2011. Microsoft is devoting its efforts toward Windows 7, and even its Windows XP Web pages more prominently feature Windows 7 than XP. Microsoft no longer supports versions of Windows XP before SP3, and computer manufacturers stopped selling installed copies of XP

Developed and marketed by Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 is designed to surpass the performance of past versions while improving efficiency and using less energy. On top of operational cost improvements, Windows Server 2008 also expands on remote accessibility options and the coordination of multipl

A boot CD is a type of CD that allows your computer to boot into an alternate operating system. A boot CD can be used to repair your current operating system, wipe all the data off a hard drive, or use a portable operating system that runs completely off the CD. Using the free ImgBurn program, you c

Windows Vista was developed to increase the ease with which computer users can find the things they need and organize their computer desktops. One way Microsoft accomplished this was by adding the Windows Sidebar--a long, vertical area that runs along the right side of the desktop. It is fairly ea

The command line program, called the "Command Prompt," is a handy utility for performing operations on your computer. For example, if you are logged into a remote computer and want to shut down the remote computer, you can do so from the Command Prompt application. This is particularly useful becaus

With StickyKeys, when you press any modifier key (Control, Alt) it remains active until a nonmodifier key is pressed. This is useful for people who have difficulty pressing two or more keys at once.

DameWare designs tools for network administrators handling busy infrastructures.Alistair Berg/Digital Vision/Getty ImagesIf you're a network administrator using basic Windows management tools, you may be interested in DameWare's collection of administrative utility tools. DameWare steps...

Several blocking options reduce light penetration through skylights.skylight supermodel image by Edward White from Fotolia.comIf you're interested in adding both light and the illusion of space to your kitchen or bathroom, a skylight may be one of your options. Though skylights offer both...

If your hard drive becomes too full, or if certain files are deleted, some software may not operate properly. There are programs that help you increase the available space on your hard drive and to recover files that were erroneously deleted.

Microsoft Windows Vista allows users plenty of scope for customizing their experience. One of the most immediately noticeable changes can be seen by changing Vista's Windows Explorer font. Windows Explorer is the program used to navigate between directories and folders such as My Computer and My Doc

Chkdsk is a Windows Vista utility that searches for problems and errors on a computer's disk volume and attempts to fix them. It looks for things like lost clusters, bad sector related problems and directory errors, to name a few. If you're running into some problems on your system, and you have not

Windows Vista is an operating system by Microsoft. It succeeded the popular XP edition, but was later replaced by Windows 7. This operating system introduced a slightly different graphic user interface than the previous versions. You can add programs to this operating system either from a CD or a DV