Data Execution Prevention is a relatively new technology in Windows that performs some additional memory checks to help prevent malicious code from being executed on a PC.

This is generally excellent news for PC users, as it can prevent many viruses and malware from being run (even if a virus scanner misses them). However, it can also prevent legitimate applications from running if they execute code in a forbidden way.

Unless you have a specific problem with DEP, it wouldn’t be recommended to disable this useful feature.

To disable DEP completely, launch the command prompt in administrator mode by typing CMD into the start menu and pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER:

Once the command prompt has loaded, type the following command and then press Enter:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

You can then close the command prompt window, and DEP will be disabled. Should you wish to re-enable Data Execution Prevention follow the same method but run the following command:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn

If you are a power user, it is quite likely that you miss the “Run” menu from every previous version of Windows. Although most people won?t miss this is very handy to quickly run applications without loading up items on your start menu.

Right Click on the Start Menu > Properties > Start Menu Tab > Customise > Check “Run Command”

Alternatively, you can use the shortcut key of Windows Key + R each time you need it.

Windows Vista can sometimes cause network adapters to show up as connected to an “Unidentified Network”, sometimes limiting the network to local access only.

There are many reasons that can cause this problem, but some suggested solutions to try are:

• Reset your Router using the web control panel.
• Update your network adapter drivers.
• Temporary disable any Anti-Virus/Firewall package to see if the problem is resolved.
• Try assigning a static IP address to the network card.
• Disable IPv6 on old network cards / routers.

These suggestions may help you narrow down the cause of the “unidentified network” problem.

Workgroups are an easy way of grouping a collection of network PCs (for example, all of the computers in your house could be one). When you get your PC you may find that it is already of a workgroup and want to change it, or perhaps you need to join a new workgroup.

To start this process, press WINDOWS KEY + PAUSE/BREAK to load up the System information window. Then click Change Settings under the Computer Name, Description and Workgroup settings menu:

Then, click Change:

Now type in your new workgroup into the appropriate box and then click OK:

You are now a member of the new workgroup and should be visible to other networked PC’s.

Many people will have a network of computers, with a central printer connected to only a single PC. It is easy to share this printer with user networked computers, allowing everyone in your workgroup to print directly.

First of all, you need to enable printer sharing on the host PC (the one with the printer directly attached). This allows other PCs to see the shared printer and connect to it via the host computer. To do this, open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start Menu > Control Panel:

Then, click View Network Status and Tasks:

If printer sharing is disabled, click the button next to Printer Sharing, then Turn on Printer Sharing and click Apply:

Printer sharing is now enabled on the host computer, allowing access to the connected printers (as long as a username/password from that PC is used).

On the PC you wish to grant access to the printer, browse the network from the host PC to view the printer listing. Once you have found the shared printer you wish to use, right click on it and select Connect:

It may require a username and password from the host computer, if so type these details in. Windows should now install the required drivers and add access to the shared printer, allowing you to print from any application.

Internet Explorer 7 that comes with Windows Vista automatically defaults to using MSN as the search provider. Many users will want to use an alternative search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

You can easily change providers by loading IE7 and clicking on the small arrow to the right of the search box, then clicking “Find More Providers“:

This will load a list of other large search engines, from which you can choose to make the default option (simply click on your choice):

This will bring up a dialog box asking you to confirm your selection. Tick the “Make this my default search provider” box and then click Replace Provider. This will make the search engine you have selected the default search engine for any queries performed in the IE7 search box.

Clearing your search history has never been easier when using IE7 in Windows Vista. Simply load up Internet Explorer and then click on the Tools menu, then select “Delete Browsing History“:

Then, click the buttons next to the items you wish to remove from your PC (you can delete all by clicking the button at the bottom of the window). Most people would want to remove the History and Form Data (which keeps a record of what you type in to forms). To do this, click Delete History and Delete Forms:

Many people access FTP sites, either to upload a website or to backup data from their PC. The normal way to access the FTP is to use some software called an FTP client, but there is a much easier way of accessing these.

Just like you can map a network share to appear as a drive on your PC, you can also map FTP to a drive. This means if you use FTP to upload a website, you can browse your site’s files using a drive letter that you assign in Windows Explorer.

First open Windows Explorer by running explorer.exe from the run menu (press WINDOWS KEY + R to access this):

Once Windows Explorer loads, press ALT to access the toolbar and then click Tools > Map Network Drive.

Now, click Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures:

Click next on the first page of the wizard:

Now click Choose a custom network location and click next to specify a FTP site:

Enter your FTP address and click next (in this example we use the Microsoft public FTP):

If you need a username and password, enter them here. Otherwise, click next:

Now choose a name and click next:

Your new FTP drive is up and running, click finish to complete the wizard and bring up the new drive:

You can now view the FTP site as a folder in Windows Explorer:

Although you can’t technically use this as a normal drive (i.e. by accessing it via x:\) you can select the FTP site from almost any application as a drive. If you really need to map the FTP site as a drive, try using NetDrive (and run it under XP compatibility mode).