One of the things that has long annoyed me about Vista is that when you need to use ctrl-alt-delete to bring up the Task Manager to kill a locked-up program, you have to go through an extra screen first that gives you choices to lock your computer, log off, etc. I think this was the same in XP, except that it only brought up a little dialog box. Vista needs to redraw the entire screen. The problem is that if you have an out-of-control process, your machine is probably running low on resources already, so then the added cycles needed to redraw the screen slows things down even more. I’ve had situations where it can take a minute or two to bring up the dumb screen.
Last night, I had a run-away process that was in need of killing, and in the course of trying to figure out why it was having problems (it was something I wasn’t even using at the time) I happened to stumble across a nifty shortcut. It turns out that Vista lets you use ctrl-shift-escape to circumvent the big screen and go right to the Task Manager. So farewell ctrl-alt-delete: from here on out, I think my only three-fingered salute on Vista will be ctrl-shift-esc, since I never use any of the other options on that screen anyway (hence the annoyance.)
I’ve never been a fan of the Windows QuickLaunch bar. (For those that don’t know, it’s that area of the Taskbar just to the right of the Start Menu where you can put shortcuts to the programs you use frequently.) Don’t get me wrong – I understand its purpose, and for a lot of people I can see how it would be useful. But my problem is that I’m a tiny bit obsessed with using my keyboard for, well, anything I can. In fact, my #1 least favorite “feature” of Windows Vista is the quick search thingy in the Start menu, because it took away the ability to effectively launch programs with the keyboard. In XP, you could hit the Windows key to bring up the Start menu, and then just hit the first letter of a program. So long as no other programs on the menu started with the same letter, it would just launch. For example, I have Firefox set as my default browser, so it shows up on the menu as “Internet”. In XP, I could simply hit the Windows key, then “i”, and Firefox would launch. But that stupid quick search on the Start menu got rid of that capability.
So anyway … where was I? Oh, yeah – the QuickLaunch bar. As I was saying, I used to pretty much avoid using it because, until today, I thought that they only way to launch something from it was with the mouse. But then I read about a cool keyboard shortcut. It turns out that in Vista (and as far as I know, this is a Vista-only thing), you can simply press and hold the Windows key, and the press 1 to launch whatever program is first (the furthest to the left) in the Quicklaunch bar. Windows-2 launches the second program, and so forth.
Obviously, this is limited to only ten items (Windows-0 launches the tenth), but it’s still a great shortcut. I’ve gone in and rearranged the QuickLaunch bar so that the ten programs I use the most will now be much easier to access.
One of the great mysteries about Windows Vista for me has been how to get the power button on the Start menu to shut down the computer rather than putting it to sleep. I’ve seen lots of posts elsewhere that say to go into the Control Panel, select Power Options, and then click the “Change what the power button does”. However, this changes what happens when you press the physical power button on the machine, not the one in the Start menu.
Well this evening, I was playing around on my wife’s machine because the screen saver didn’t appear to be kicking in, and purely by chance I finally found the setting. So here goes: the solution to one of Vista’s best kept secrets.
You do indeed start by going to the Control Panel and selecting Power Options. You can also get there by clicking the “Change power settings” link in the screen saver dialog box.
Once you’re in Power Settings, you need to click the “Change plan settings” link under whichever power plan you are using. In the next screen, click “Change advanced power settings.” This is the dialog box you need – scroll down to the “Power buttons and lid” option, click the plus sign to expand it, and there you have it – “Start menu power button.”
Some day, someone will have to explain to me why Microsoft decided to make “sleep” the default option, and more importantly, why they decided to hide the setting. For now, though, I’m just glad I finally found it.
Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of the “Start Search” option on the Start menu …
