Make Windows Live Hotmail your default email program in Windows Vista

If you use Windows Live Hotmail as your main email instead of Windows Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird or some other email program, and you want to make it come up as your default email program when you click on a mailto link, here is how to do it.

Go to this WinHelpOnline page, download the registerhm.zip file and follow the instructions under the Registering Hotmail with the Default Programs tool heading. It is very simple. This only works in Windows Vista (not Windows XP).
This utility can make it so Windows Live Mail comes up when you click on a mailto link, or want to send a link, when you press the mail button (if you have one) on your keyboard, or when you send an email directly from a program on your computer. In other words, it makes Windows Live Mail your default email program.

For Windows XP, check out the instructions here.

Windows Vista SP2 details

Details on Windows Vista SP2 emerge

2 items that should be interesting are:

Windows Connect Now (WCN), a new tool to assist in connecting to Wi-Fi networks.
and
Improved support for resuming with active Wi-Fi connections.

I think the Wi-Fi connection interface is fairly good now, but I'm always open to improvements.
And for the 2nd item, many clients I know have issues with reconnecting after temporarily losing a wi-fi connection. An improvement in this area would be very welcome.

SP2 is expected to be ready for final release sometime in the first half of 2009.

Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 - All Good

It's been weeks now since I installed SP1 for Vista. My computer works much better now. No crashes at all and programs start quicker and transfers are faster.

But, before you rush out and install SP1 (if you haven't yet) you need to take some things into consideration.
- If you have a new computer that runs Vista well, make sure you update your motherboard and other hardware drivers first
- If you have an older computer that does not run Vista well, you may encounter problems. Do research first on your particular hardware and SP1.
- If you are running old programs (more than a few years old), you may encounter problems. Research your programs and Vista before applying SP1


I do run some old programs, but they work fine in Vista with SP1.
I've also found that SP1 fixes some previously buggy Windows Updates and fixes the problems they created.

Windows Vista SP1 - So Far So Good

I installed Windows Vista SP1 today. I ran Windows Update to get it (this is the recommended method of getting and installing Vista SP1). It is about 66 MB.

Before you download/install this, you should close any programs you have open and not use your computer for anything during the next hour (besides installing this update). You will need to be around during the whole process as you will have to click on a couple of things that come up.

First it downloads.
Then installs.
Then, during the reboot process it goes through 3 more stages of installation.
After rebooting, my wireless connection was not fully connecting. I had to reboot 3 more times to have my wireless connection working fully automatic again.

Also, after installing, something called Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program (aka Windows SQM Consolidator, aka wsqmcons.exe) is now running in the System tray. To deal with this, open it from the system tray icon. If you want to join, choose Join, and okay. If you don't want to join, check Join, then check I Don't Want To ... (you have to do this to un-grey the Okay button), and then click on Okay. To then remove the process, press Shift+Ctrl+ESC to bring up the Task Manager, look at Processes and find it and kill it. When you reboot it should not re-appear.

Everything seems fine after those two issues. Now, to see if it fixes the glitch of the updates that came in a while ago that conflict with drivers and cause my computer to crash once a day.


UPDATE
A couple of days later, this is what I've noticed:
- hasn't crashed (which is better than crashing every day or two)
- smooth and less buggy
- programs seem to load quicker
- touchpad settings keep reverting to default after restarting. This is an annoying problem that I had when I originally set this up, but I solved it by re-installing the Setpoint software from Logitech for the mouse I use via USB port occasionally. I haven't figured out how to make the touchpad settings stay since SP1.
- otherwise, all good. I recommend installing SP1 (but make sure to update all drivers first).
-

Firefox 2.0.0.7 and Vista and Firewalls

UPDATE
Zone Alarm has since fixed whatever bugs were it in that conflicted with Firefox and Thunderbird in Vista. No more crashes and freezes. Things work fine now.

UPDATE
If you are using Windows Vista, Zone Alarm and Firefox, and you can't connect to the Internet with Firefox (but you can with other programs), and Zone Alarm is not letting you configure Firefox, uninstall Zone Alarm and re-install it. This should fix the problem.


Original post:
There is a problem with the latest version of Firefox with some firewalls if you are using Windows Vista. The problem is that you can't connect with Firefox - the firewall blocks it and won't let you configure the controls to allow Firefox access. For a Norton firewall, you should be able to purge your firewall's program list, then do a scan for programs and it should work again. For Zone Alarm, it is a different matter.

Zone Alarm does not like Firefox 2.0.0.7 in Windows Vista. It won't even let you add Firefox to the program list (if you have removed it to try to fix this problem). As a temporary work around, turn the Program Control off in Zone Alarm.

I'm going to try to totally uninstall Zone Alarm and re-install it to see if this works.