HI! Well, I'm starting to get into my new(?) HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium alas and I have some random questions for y'all, rather basic stuff I imagine as I'm pretty much a novice with Vista. Okey-dokey then, here goes....

1) How do I change the Windows highlight color?

2) How do I change an external drive name and drive letter? I'd like my Seagate external HD to be permanently labelled 'S', like it was on my old Toshiba laptop with Win98 SE, but as it stands it just reverts to the next consecutive letter each time I activate it. I tried the procedure I used on my Toshiba (can't recall exact steps now), but no luck.

3) I set my mouse cursor to "Automatically move pointer to default button in a dialog box" under Mouse options, but it only does it in web dialog boxes, not with regular windows/system dialog boxes. For instance, when I close a text document and it asks "Do you want to save changes?", the pointer does NOT automatically go to the "Yes" button as I'd like and I believe it SHOULD. It did so for ALL dialog boxes on my old Win98 system, in both web and Windows. Is there some other place where I'm supposed to select this option, other than under Mouse Properties?

4) Is there a way to eliminate the Windows Sidebar icon in systray, without losing the Sidebar itself of course?

5) Is there a way to get Favorites into the Start Menu like Win XP used to offer? Also, to get History into the Start Menu? I did this on my old Win98 SE machine, but it was a little complicated, I recall inserting a looong ID number somewhere to identify the specific folder (there were many other numbers for other folders too, like Control Panel, etc).

6) I have my Recycle Bin set for Confirmation before discarding, but sometimes it doesn't do it, noticeably when I drag an item to the trash. But hold on, just now it DID confirm when I dragged a shortcut there, earlier it did NOT in the same situation, twice. I thought maybe there was a differentiation between when you right-click delete vs. dragging to the trash. Now I can find no rhyme or reason for it, it just seems inconsistent?

7) Is it better to yank a laptop power cord out of the wall everytime the battery is fully charged, or would disconnecting at the laptop port be better (good for battery life to discharge it, also don't want machine getting unnecessarily hot)? I'm just thinking it could do damage over time if it gets loose/compromised at the laptop connection, and then you could have a useless computer.

8) I just downloadeded Gabriele Ponti's SendToToys, which looks great, but there are a couple of Send-To options I don't get and might not install (or can I delete them after install if I want?). First, there's a Send To "Default Mail Recipient", but there's already a "Mail Recipient" in the Send-To menu, so is that necessary, is there some difference between the two I'm unaware of? There's also a Send To "Recycle Bin", but isn't that the same as hitting right-click delete? Lastly, there's a Send To "Dos Prompt", which I'm not sure I even get or will ever use, but it sounds neat if the occasion arises.

9) Is it okay to remove Adobe Acrobat (2 apps) from Start Menu/Programs/Startup. I rarely use Acrobat and figure it's a waste of resources and time to have it load at every bootup.

10) How do I import my OE address book into my new Windows Live Mail program? Keep in mind, my OE program where my addresses are stored is on my old Toshiba laptop and not on my new HP where the Live Mail program is installed, so the addresses must be transferred between the two laptops. I did "Export" the address book by creating both a .txt and .csv document in the old OE program, so those files have been transferred onto my new machine, but now what? How do I get them INTO my new Windows Live Mail program Address Book? Excuse me if this is explained within the Live Mail program (I saw something about this, but it didn't make sense to me at first glance), as I've yet to study it thoroughly.

Hope this isn't overkill, with all my diddley questions in one long entry!

Thanks for all your help in advance. --joanne

Hopefully no longer squashed ....

The evil battery that brought the whole mess to my attention is Lithium-ion. It includes one of the notebook feet, which makes things wobble without, and constant removing and replacing is more than we wanted to ask of the hosts. But an elderly battery brings the system to its knees. Cannot even boot up with the battery in place. I think it's three years old, and the sister machine is a year younger. Might be a year more.

The obedient battery is in the car under a sackful of Christmas chocolate freezing to bits and will be reported on later. I'm afraid to go near the chocolate.

>>it's okay to remove just about anything from Startup except for your AV

That one surprised me. It probably depends on which AV, but the link to mine in Startup was just to the main icon. Without the Startup item I had to go through (All) Programs to reset the AV schedule or look in the vault, but resident protection was still there.

So if you never use the AV's notification area icon, kill the beast.

>> So if you never use the AV's notification area icon, kill the beast. <<

Yah, that too....  connie

We have a lovely local hardware store. I generally take the dear departed with me, hold it out in my hand, and the nice man gets me a new one. They certainly don't carry as many items as the local home superstore, but they have the things I need. Like just one kind of food chopper because why carry the ones that aren't as good. And keys for the kind of radiators nobody has installed for 50 years and such.

So I think what we want are furniture bumpers - for those who don't have chair rails in the dining room. About a half a centimeter thick for the Acer. Or more because they can be shaved.

>>Thanks for all the numbered responses

You're welcome!  You went to the trouble of numbering the questions, so it seemed appropriate to follow in suit...  <smile>

>>I actually much prefer the Vista/XP one

You prefer scolling through that silly list to locate something to launch?  Bah!  Server 2008, which chares the same code base as Vista uses the more familiar XP style.  I was a at a MS event in a Fry's in San Marcos and when I saw that, I asked "Why was that not used in Vista"?  The MS rep had no answer and was not even aware there was a differnce...  <sigh>

>>I like having the program listing of recently visited programs on the left,

I don't.  Privacy freaks don't either...

>>My question is, what is the best way to NOT use the battery when it's NOT needed

Run with the system plugged in - that doesn't use the battery.  Most modern laptops will run without the battery installed as well (I see you mentioned that the battery is part of one of the feet (dumn design, IMHO) so you may need a shim to balance things...

>>how do I NOT use the battery

What leads you to believe you ARE "using the battery" when the unit is plugged in?

>>I suppose I could research just about anything there

I do.  Really.  I have a botton on my keyboard that brings up Google.com - I use it that much...

>>you're kinda talking yourself outa a job, aren't you

Not at all.  There are many places for "answers".  This is't a "job" here - we are all volunteers, doing this because we like to...

The official "Laptop Battery Removal Substitute" has two parts. The second is a loosely wadded Handiwipe. Paper falls apart and fabric lints, so we use the fake fabric for battery hole stuffing and keyboard mops.

And after those two are done, new laptops get their own designer outfits.

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