There is an issue with Vista complete PC back up and restore if you are restoring to a clean system from more than one DVD or CD. It appears that the catalogue is stored on the last disc in the back up set but this appears to be undocumented.

This means when you run your Windows Complete PC Restore, either from Vista or by choosing repair your computer during an installation, and insert the first disk of the back up when asked to insert the backup media you get the message “No valid backup locations could be found” which initially is just a bit worrying.

If you insert the last disk of the backup set, the catalogue is found and you can choose the backup and the backup options you want. When the backup starts you will be asked to insert the first disk.

Vista will try and run most programs without admin rights even if you are signed on as an admin. Some programs such as Visual Studio need admin rights so it is worth setting them to always run as administrator.

Confusingly, looking at a shortcut’s properties, the compatibility tab has an option to “Run this program as an administrator”. This option is greyed out:

To set the shortcut to run as administrator go to the shortcut tab > click on Advanced… > check Run as administrator:

Trying to install Vista on a machine and getting a blank screen after one of the reboots?

This could be caused by an incompatible display driver. I solved this problem by:

1. Reboot the machine and hit F8 to get the Windows boot menu.
2. Select Safe Mode with Networking.
3. Vista will boot then will complain that it cannot continue with the installation in Safe Mode. Do not hit OK!
4. Press Shift + F10 to get a command window.
5. Run Device Manager by entering ‘devmgmt.msc’.
6. Right click the video card and select Update Driver.
7. Choose ‘Select a Driver’.
8. Select ‘Choose from a list’.
9. Click on the generic VGA driver and hit Next to install it.
10. Close the wizard, close the Device Manager, close the command prompt.
11. Click OK on the installation message and Vista will reboot.
12. Finish the install, create a restore point, then install the correct video driver.

With Vista (and probably XP and IE7) right clicking on a zip file on a network share brings up an Internet Explorer dialogue:

This page has an unspecified potential security risk. Would you like to continue?

It appears that the OS thinks that your network share is in the Internet Zone rather than the Intranet Zone. This is easily fixed by:

1. Control Panel > Internet Options > Security.
2. Select Local intranet > click Sites > Advanced.
3. Type your server name into the textbox (e.g. If the server is called FileServer just type FileServer) and click Add.
4. Click Close > OK > OK.