If your computer behaves strange, but all your hardware is brand new, shiny, and proves to be in perfect condition, next thing to check is that you have the proper drivers installed. In some cases, unsigned drivers can cause problems, despite the fact that, usually, they should work well too.

I won't get into the drivers signing issue, because there are a lot of things to discuss, and most of all, that wouldn't help my purpose at all. What I want to show you today is how to check and see if you have any unsigned drivers in Vista, so here we go...

- Press the Start Orb and type "verify" in the search box to locate the Driver Verifier Manager, and click on the highlighted item to start the tool.


- In the window that appears, choose the first option, if you're not absolutely sure that you need to select something else, then press Next.


- Be sure to have Automatically select unsigned drivers checked, and press the Next button.


- If you have unsigned drivers in your system, they will be displayed, but if everything is all right, you'll get the message you can see below, as I did...


These being said, I remind you that if you have unsigned drivers installed, but everything runs smoothly, you shouldn't worry, but be sure to check that you always have the latest drivers installed. Good luck!

If your computer's memory has problems, but it doesn't stop it from booting, you may have a pretty big problem. Defective memory can cause loss of data, system instability, and other nasty things, and best thing to prevent these from happening is to check your memory's health status. While Windows XP didn't have such a tool, Vista has it, and today I will tell you how to find it...


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First, let me give you a quick hint. When you reboot your computer, you can simply press TAB to select this tool from the Windows Boot Manager screen, then Enter to run it. Now, let's see how to set this to run at next boot from Vista, since I am sure you have already started your computer!

- Press the Start Orb and type "dia" in the search box to bring up the Memory Diagnostics Tool, and then left click on this item to launch the tool.


- In the window that appears, choose one of the two available options. In the end, the effect is the same...


At next boot, you memory will be checked, and the results will be available as soon as you enter Vista's GUI, by clicking an icon that appears in the System Tray. These being said, I only need to add that I hope that you will get the same message as the one in the screenshot below, in the end!

Today, I heard the Windows Startup sound for the last time. No, I don't have any health problems, my hearing is very good, but I will disable this once and for all. If you're one of those that got tired of the chimes that can be heard when Vista starts, here's how to disable this...


- Press the Start Orb to bring up the Start menu and open the Control Panel.


- Left click on Hardware and Sound.


- In the Hardware and Sound window, click on Sound to open it.


- In the Sounds tab, uncheck the radio box next to Play Windows Startup sound.


- Press Apply, and then OK.

This is all, now you really have a silent PC. Enjoy it!

Despite the fact that Windows always had basic disk checking tools built in, Vista doesn't seem to improve a lot this part. Anyway, if you want to check your drives for errors, there's no need to look for any additional software, because you can do this with just a few clicks!

If you used to check your disks in Windows XP using the tool offered by the operating system, then you should know that doing this in Vista is about the same, but if you haven't, I am sure this short guide is going to be really useful to you. Here we go...

- Press the Start Orb to bring up the Start menu and click on Computer to get access to the available hard drive(s).


- Left click the volume you want to check and choose Properties.


- In the Properties window, switch to the Tools tab, and click on Check Now.


- Select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors if you think your hard drive may have such problems, but be aware that this will increase the time required to check your disk a lot.


- As you can see below, when you try to check the volume where your Vista system files are located, you have to schedule this task to take place next time when you reboot, so select this option. Otherwise, wait for the process to complete.


This is it, but you should be aware that first two steps described above can be replaced by a right click on a volume letter inside your favorite third-party file manager. After that, it's all the same. Good luck!

One of the new features that came with Vista and was able to make a lot of people upgrade their hardware is the Windows Experience Index, a tool that can be compared to a benchmark used to asses your computer's Vista performance, but there are a few myths here, and some of them are also sustained by Microsoft, but today I'll try to give you the naked truth on this topic.


Probably the worst choice they made regarding this tool was to choose as your PC's score the lowest subscore obtained, so if your computer has an integrated graphics chip, you'll probably end up getting a frustrating 1.0 Windows Experience Index score. We'll continue this discussion in the end, because now I'll show you how to find what's your current Windows Experience Index.

- Press the Start Orb to bring up the Start menu and click on Control Panel to open it.


- Left click on System and Maintenance.


- In the System and Maintenance window, choose Performance Information and Tools, as you can see below.


- Now, you can check your current Windows Experience Score, and if you want to benchmark your system again (for example, if you just overclocked your CPU or upgraded your video card since last time), simply click on the Update My Score text link and go get a coffee or a beer, because it takes several minutes for the results to be ready.


Now, let's get back to our story. According to Microsoft, a rating between 4.0 and 4.9 allows you to "Run all programs from previous levels with excellent performance. Run Windows Media Center with high-definition video.", but I must disagree with them.If you are using an integrated video card, but your CPU-memory-hard drive trio gets subscores over 4.0, you'll be able to use the Windows Classic interface and get excellent all-around performance, excepting games and other graphics-intensive applications, of course.

Currently, the maximum score possible is 5.9, so don't worry if your $5,000 PC can't get a mark above 6. Probably Vista's first service pack will add higher scores to the Windows Experience Index, together with the rest of expected improvements and fixes, but there's still some time until we'll see that happening.

I will be waiting for your questions, because I am sure that this Windows Experience Index score can spoil the joy of having a new computer for many people, especially when Microsoft says that a 1.0 computer can only "Work with productivity programs, web browsers, and e-mail and instant-messaging programs. Play simple games."...