This post looks at how to share your printer between Windows 7 and Windows Vista when it is already attached to your Windows 7 PC. If you follow these steps closely you should be up and running quite quickly.

Set Windows 7′s Share Settings

To share you printer you should start in Windows 7′s Advanced Sharing Settings (Found in the Network and Sharing Centre, alternatively just type Advanced Sharing Settings in the Search Programs and Files box).

Once there make sure you turn on network discovery, file and printer sharing, and public folder sharing. Make sure these are enabled in both the Home or Work and Public profiles.

Depending on your setup, you might want to turn off password protected sharing. Otherwise you’ll need to enter the password for each machine in the network. Turning it off while you’re setting up printer sharing does make things a bit easier though by saving a step.

Set Windows Vista’s Share Settings

On the Vista machine we need to double check and make sure it’s sharing settings are ready to go. Right-click on Network and choose Properties. The Network and Sharing Center will then open up. Under Sharing and Discovery turn on File Sharing, Public Folder Sharing, and Network Discovery. Also on the Vista PC you might want to turn off password protected sharing, but it’s completely up to you.

Now that we have the correct settings on each machine, it’s time to put this to the test. Make sure all your computers are turned on and then open up Network on the Windows 7 machine. You should now see all the PC’s on the network.

Now on the Vista computer, double click on Network and you should see the Windows 7 machine. You should see the folders and devices that are now shared. And you should see the printer that’s already connected to the Windows 7 machine.

Test the Printer Sharing Set Up

As you can now see the printer connected to Windows 7 you should make sure that you can connect to it and print a test document.

In Windows Vista click on the Start menu and type Printers into the search box and hit Enter. Right-click on the shared printer and select Properties. Under the General tab click on the Print Test Page button. Another test you might want to perform is opening a text document and making sure you can print that to the printer that’s already attached to Windows 7.

Provided everything prints out successfully you might want to make the shared printer the default printer for your Vista PC.

Fixing any Problems that Crop Up

If your computers cannot see each other or the printer is not working, here are a few steps you might want to try to determine where the problem lies.

Double check to make sure that Network Discovery and File and Print Sharing are enabled on both PC’s.

If the printer isn’t working, double check to make sure you have the latest drivers for each OS installed.

You didn’t have to install any different drivers for this printer sharing, like you often have to when sharing a printer between XP and Windows 7.

Results with sharing printers will vary depending on the printer you own and the set up that’s needed. Older printers are in fact notorious for having issues with drivers that won’t work with either Windows Vista or Windows 7. So the only solution may be to buy a new printer.

You’ll be pleased to know that as long as network discovery is enabled on both the Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines, sharing printers is actually a straightforward process.

I hope this short post will get you started with sharing folders, files, and printers between your Vista and Windows 7 PC’s.

Soluto can shorten the time your PC takes to start up, sometimes by a fairly substantial amount. If you have a lot of start up programs running on your computer Soluto can certainly help you to speed things up a bit. It contains a full database of well known boot up applications and gives simple and straightforward advice on whether they can be safe to remove from your computers start up process. Soluto can also defer certain applications that you might want to run at start-up that can afford to fire up a little later once your Windows desktop becomes fully responsive.

After you have decided what to remove and what can be deferred to a later start up, Soluto will show you how much time you have saved when booting up your computer

Soluto depends on its quickly growing user base to help develop database tips that are safe to delay or pause.

There are a few items for which Soluto doesn’t have any advice at the moment so you may not want to remove or defer these. In time, the database will contain more and more user tips and will be even more useful!

To download this free version of Soluto please follow this link to the developers website – http://www.soluto.com/.

Note – This post was an excerpt from the QBS PC Help Easy PC Repair Guide. See some of the other things this great eBook can do for your Windows computer.

Computers running the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or Windows Vista could be rendered unusable if you install the latest anti-virus software update from AVG.

The problem seems to affect the most recent free update for AVG 2011, which was made available to users on 1st Dec.

AVG has acknowledged that the patch can send some 64-bit Windows machines in to a crash cycle, forcing a reboot of the computer from which it never restarts. The anti-virus company has since withdrawn the update.

The problem is caused by one particular virus database update, which automatically forces the computer to reboot in order for the update to take affect. Upon restarting, the PC will register a “c0000135 error”, and will not complete the boot cycle.

The software update is no longer available to users, but AVG has released a guide for those customers who have already installed the update and are experiencing problems as a result.

The step-by-step instructions how the update can be disabled, by running an AVG “rescue CD”. AVG apologised to users for the software glitch. The company has also recommended an alternative recovery method for those users who no longer have, or cannot create, a “rescue CD”.

Just days after Microsoft warned Windows 7 users of an impending shutdown of the free release candidate, the company reminded customers running Windows 2000, XP and Vista of approaching support deadlines for those editions.

The closest cutoff is April 13, when Microsoft will drop support for Vista RTM (release to manufacturing), the term used for the build the company launched at retail in January 2007. After that date Microsoft will not provide security updates for Vista RTM, said Jerry Bryant, a senior manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Instead, users should upgrade to Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), or preferably, Vista SP2, Bryant said. Microsoft shipped SP1 and SP2 in March 2008 and May 2009, respectively.

Both Windows 2000 and Windows XP face support deadlines of July 13, 2010, Bryant added in an entry last week to the MSRC blog.

Microsoft will retire Windows 2000 from all support in July, ending all security patches for the operating system that celebrates its 10-year anniversary this month.

Windows XP SP2, the popular 2004 update that beefed up the security of the under-attack OS, will also exit support on July 13. To continue receiving bug patches, users must upgrade to XP SP3, the May 2008 update. Bryant claimed that “many” customers are still using XP SP2, and urged them to upgrade to either SP3 or Windows 7.

According to web metrics company NetApplications.com, Windows XP powered 66% of the machines that were online last month, while Vista ran 17.5% and Windows 2000 just 0.6%.

Last week, Microsoft reminded users of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) that beginning on February 15, the free preview will warn of a March 1 deadline. On March 1, the operating system will start to shut down automatically every two hours.

Source: PC Advisor

Microsoft has published a list of programs that will not work or will suffer from reduced functionality after the installation of Vista SP1.

The list of programs is composed mostly of security applications, such as Trend Micro Internet Security 2008. However, programs such as the New York Times reader also feature on the list. Users are advised to install updates from the application vendor to fix the problem.

“Windows Vista Service Pack 1 contains many security, reliability and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1,” the company said.

Source: ZDNet

The Vista ‘User Profile Service’ fails to logon problem seems to occur when there are two or more user Profiles set up and one of these User Profiles becomes corrupted. But there are a small number of single users who also report the same problem. It does not seem to matter whether the users are ‘administrators’ or ‘standard’ users.

As the affected users Profile has somehow been damaged Vista has changed the Profile’s extension to .bak – a backup file. This makes the user Profile unavailable and so produces the message:

The User Profile Service service failed the logon.

User Profile cannot be loaded.

At QBS PC Help we had to find an answer to this problem as we had a Dell Laptop, running Vista, to repair. This PC exhibited the same ‘User Profile Service’ problem. Thankfully the Laptop had two user accounts set up, one administrator and one standard user. It was the standard users account that had frozen.

A few searches in Google led us to the Vista Update forum which had a post on this topic.

Of course if you are the only user of your PC you’ve probably got only one user profile set up and you are no doubt the administrator. So if this account is frozen your only option is to try and repair Windows Vista.

Turn on your computer, and press and hold F8. You will see on the screen that appears the option to ” Repair Your Computer”. Select this and hit Enter. (use your own administrator user name and password).

On the next screen you will see the first Category “Startup Repair” and the second “System Restore”. Click on Startup Repair. When this finishes restart your computer.

If the Startup Repair doesn’t work try the second option – System Restore. Again when its done, restart your computer.

Hopefully, your user account is now working again.

The Suggested Fix for two or more User Accounts

If you have two or more user accounts set up then the following solution definately works . We fixed the Dell Laptop by taking these steps.

First, you need to log on with an administrators account.

Now go to Start and in the Search Box type regedit. Get past the nagging security box and wait till regedit opens.

Now go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\

Go through the listed Profiles to find the damaged Profile. The key to the damaged profile should have a .bak appended to it.

There should also be another identical key except for the .bak extension. Rename this other key to something else (e.g. one number above the highest number).

Also rename your damaged Profile by removing the .bak extension. Now change the State property of this Profile (listed in the right hand window) from 1 to 0.

Restart your PC and try logging on with your repaired Profile. It should now work.

Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 can breathe out: the company is giving away free support for those installing the service pack.

The transition to the service pack has not been problem-free for many users, with issues such as computers falling into endless reboot cycles and broken applications rearing their head.

Normally, only Vista users who bought the retail product would be eligible for free support but, for SP1 installation, even users with an OEM copy of Vista on their computer can get Microsoft

Microsoft has started to roll out Vista Service Pack 1 via its Automatic Update process.

Until late last night (Wednesday 23/04/2008), Vista owners had to manually download the Service Pack. Now it will be automatically downloaded on machines that have Automatic Updates switched on, with the PC alerting owners when the full patch is ready to install.

However, not all Vista PCs will see SP1 immediately. Microsoft is gradually phasing in the software, while it attempts to overcome problems with third-party device drivers that can cause the operating system to hang.

Source: PC Pro

Steve Ballmer has admitted that Vista is “a work in progress”, and admitted the company has to learn lessons from its release.

Speaking at the Most Valuable Professional Global Summit in Seattle, Ballmer resisted calls for a slimmed down Windows 7: “Vista is bigger than XP and it’s gonna stay bigger than XP. We have to make sure it doesn’t get bigger still.”

However, Ballmer went on to admit that it had taken too long to get Vista out the door and admitted it had caused problems: “Vista is a very important piece of work, and I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from.

Source: PC Pro

Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 can breathe out: the company is giving away free support for those installing the service pack.

The transition to the service pack has not been problem-free for many users, with issues such as computers falling into endless reboot cycles and broken applications rearing their head.

Normally, only Vista users who bought the retail product would be eligible for free support but, for SP1 installation, even users with an OEM copy of Vista on their computer can get Microsoft’s help, according to the official Vista blog.

Source: ZDNet

Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) went onto Microsoft’s Download centre website on Monday, fulfilling Microsoft’s claim that it would be made available by mid March.

According to Microsoft, the service pack will be pushed out via automatic updates to all Vista users next month.

Standalone installers for both versions of Vista, 32-bit and 64-bit, have been made available.

Source: ZDNet

Microsoft has made the latest version of Vista’s Service Pack 1 release candidate available for download to the general public, after initially restricting it to 15,000 beta testers when it debued last week.

SP1 RC Refresh, as the update is known, requires previous versions of SP1 to be uninstalled before it can be replaced with Refresh, which may entail waiting for the computer to “reboot multiple times”, according to Microsoft.

Refresh is time-limited, with the deadline for uninstall being 30 June, 2008.

Source: ZDNet

Hard to believe it, but Windows Vista is now a year old!

Microsoft’s latest operating system was released to business users on 30 November 2006, and its first year of availability has seen what could politely be described as a mixed reaction.

Eighty-eight million copies of the operating system have been sold to to businesses and consumers so far: the consumer versions of Vista have been available since the end of January this year. Yet analysts at Gartner say “the uptake of Windows Vista in the PC installed base is taking longer than previously expected, with Vista becoming the dominant operating system only in 2009?.

A survey released last week suggests only 13 percent of businesses are planning to move all their desktops to Vista. For businesses, the problem seems to be twofold.

Firstly, Vista does not seem to offer many immediate benefits over its predecessor, XP. In fact, testing of upcoming service packs for both operating systems has given XP a marked edge in performance over Vista.

Secondly, there are currently few applications that run on Vista only. Until that happens, analysts suggest, most businesses may find it hard to see why they should invest in new PC’s to support the hardware demands of Vista.

Source: ZDNet

We have just published our latest pc help guide. This shows you how to dual boot a PC with both Windows XP and Windows Vista on separate partitions.

To view this article please click here.