By default, Vista's Windows Explorer opens the documents folder of the logged in user, and it always gets back to this location. As usual, most users don't agree with Microsoft, and the reason is very simple - most of us don't use that folder to store any important files, and it would be much better if Windows Explorer opens up showing the contents of your C: partition, for example.

As usual, you don't need a guru to fix this for you. We'll show you that changing Windows Explorer's default location is as easy as 1-2-3...


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->The good part is that all you need to do is change the target of the shortcut to Windows Explorer, and there's no need to edit the registry or do anything else special. Obviously, if you want to get back to the default setting, you can do it in a snap... but let's get to work now, shall we?

- Press the Start Orb, and then right click on Windows Explorer.

- Choose Properties to edit the shortcut's target.

- Replace the highlighted text from the screenshot below with one of the following...

"%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,c:", to have all drives visible, and C: highlighted and expanded;
"%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,%systemroot%", to open Windows Explorer in the Windows directory, without seeing the other drives;
"%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/select,c:", to have Computer highlighted in left, all drives visible and C:
selected, but not expanded, in the right side.

- Press OK to save your shortcut and start Windows Explorer again!

At last, if you didn't figure it out already, here's a bonus tip - to open a certain folder, it would be useful to use somehing like
"%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,folder_name_and_path", for example "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,"c:\Jake's Movies". I hope you will find these tricks useful, so... good luck!

Vista's sidebar can prove a useful tool in many situations, for example when you want to have latest news delivered on your desktop in real time, but there's one problem - the default RSS feeds included by Microsoft in the sidebar gadget may not be exactly what you need... so some changes are needed, of course!

The only problem is that the Common Feed List, Microsoft's innovation that allows more programs to use same feeds without having to import or export using OPML files, isn't as flexible as expected, and removing the default feeds from the gadget is a real challenge. Anyway, this is not a challenge that Windows users won't defeat, so let's see how can we remove the default RSS feeds from the Common Feed List, shall we?


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->While you won't need to edit the registry, write any line of code to use in a script or something like that, the solution that we have for you involves using "a hidden path", and by that I mean that you have to use Internet Explorer to perform the changes. How? Here's your answer...

- Open Internet Explorer.

- Tap Alt+C to bring up the Favorites Center.

- Left click on Feeds to open the Feeds window.

- Expand the Microsoft Feeds folder and delete the ones you don't need.

- Go back to your Vista desktop and check the gadget to see the changes.

As you probably imagine, adding new feeds is done the same way - you open Internet Explorer, add new items in the Common Feeds List, and then you'll be able to select them in the Feed Headlines gadget. Good luck!

To be honest, I hate having icons on my desktop. In fact, I always liked to keep my desktop as clean as possible, and if that means no icons at all, works just fine for me. Since it's not all about me, I must admit that most people like to organize their stuff on the desktop, and the most frequent used icons have always been "My Computer""and "Network Neighbourhood", but Vista comes with a desktop that only has Recycle Bin, so let's talk about how to make things right...

After learning how to bring back the old Start Menu, you'll see that restoring the old icons to your Vista desktop is also a piece of cake. Are you ready? Here it goes...

- Right click somewhere on your desktop to bring up the contextual menu, and choose Personalize.

- From the Personalize appearance and sounds window, left click on Change desktop icons.

- Check the icons you want to have on your desktop in the window that appears.

- Press OK to apply the changes. No restart is needed.

- Go back to your Vista desktop and enjoy your old items with a new look!


As you can see, it was really easy, just as promised! Be sure to check back SoftDistrict tomorrow for some new Tips & Tricks, because we have a lot of new, interesting ones coming up!