Enable Windows Vista Boot Screen in Windows 7

This tutorial will help you in:

• Enabling Windows Vista boot screen in Windows 7
• Completely disabling boot screen in Windows 7
• Restoring default boot screen in Windows 7

A few years back, we addressed a weird problem of Windows 7 in which Windows 7 was showing Windows Vista boot screen (green progressbar with black background) for many people. We also posted a tutorial to fix this issue and to restore default boot screen in Windows 7:

[Fix] Windows 7 Boot Screen Changed to Vista Style

Ever since we posted the above mentioned tutorial, many readers have asked us about doing the reverse. Many people want to do the opposite thing, They want to forcefully enable Windows Vista boot screen in Windows 7 because according to them, Windows Vista boot screen is minimal and takes less time in loading the OS.

Did you know Windows 7 already comes with Windows Vista boot screen which can be enabled or activated using a simple DOS command? Yes, you heard it right. You don't need to use any 3rd party tool or boot screen to have Vista boot screen in Windows 7. You can activate it using simple commands in Command Prompt.

Today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you how to enable and enjoy Windows Vista boot screen in Windows 7. We are not going to use any hack or tweak or any 3rd party custom-made boot screen or software. We are just going to take advantage of a built-in command in Windows 7.

Actually here we are talking about the built-in BCDEDIT (Boot Configuration Data store Editor) tool of Windows 7 which is provided to customize Windows Boot Manager i.e. boot loader screen which is shown at system startup where you see other operating system entries if you have more than one OS installed in your computer.

We can use BCDEDIT tool to enable Windows Vista boot screen in Windows 7 as well as completely disable or turn off boot screen in Windows 7. BCDEDIT allows users to customize bootux (Bootup User eXperience) using its parameters.

So if you also want to enable Windows Vista legacy boot screen in Windows 7 or want to disable the boot screen in Windows 7, check out following simple steps:

A. Enable Vista Boot Screen in Windows 7:

1. First of all open Command Prompt as Administrator using any method given here.

2. Now run following command:

bcdedit /set {current} bootux basic

You'll get "The operation completed successfully" message.

3. Now close Command Prompt window and restart your computer.

That's it. You'll see Windows Vista boot screen at startup.

B. Completely Disable Boot Screen in Windows 7:

You can also completely disable boot screen in Windows 7. Once you disable boot screen, you'll see a blank screen instead of the boot screen for a few moments and then you'll see the login screen and Desktop.

To disable boot screen, you just need to replace basic term with disabled in the above mentioned command.

So run following command in Command Prompt to disable boot screen:

bcdedit /set {current} bootux disabled

Now Windows 7 will have no boot screen at startup.

C. Restore Default Boot Screen in Windows 7:

If you have activated Vista boot screen or completely disabled boot screen in Windows 7 and now you want to restore default boot screen of Windows 7 which shows animated items/balls that come together to form Windows logo, replace basic or disabled term in the above mentioned commands with standard term.

So run following command in Command Prompt to restore default boot screen:

bcdedit /set {current} bootux standard

It'll apply default boot screen in Windows 7.

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Filed Under: TRICKS Sunday, 29 March 2015 No Comments

Enable Automatic Backup of Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks in HTML File at Shutdown

Bookmarks (or favorites) are very essential and useful feature of any web browser. Whenever we are browsing on Internet, we bookmark many website links to read them later or to save them for future use. We also bookmark many websites which we regularly visit for quick and easy access.

Since we add several websites in bookmarks, it becomes hard for us to remember all of them and that's why bookmarks become very important for us. Almost all web browsers allow their users to export/import (or backup/restore) bookmarks to store them on safe places or to use them in other web browsers.

Many web browsers also provide built-in features to automatic sync bookmarks and other browser data such as cookies, history, preferences, etc to make users life easier. For example, Mozilla Firefox provides Sync feature which can take backup of your bookmarks, passwords, history, add-ons, preferences, etc regularly and can restore them whenever and wherever you want.

But Sync requires you to create a new user account and also it stores your important data on clouds which can be a security issue for some users. Also there is no 100% guarantee that your browsing data will always be synced successfully. Sometimes it may corrupt your important data in case of browser crash or other things.

That's why today in this tutorial, we are going to share a simple, easy to use and built-in way to take automatic backup of bookmarks in Mozilla Firefox web browser at every shutdown. In other words, after applying this trick, Mozilla Firefox will automatically take a backup of your bookmarks each time you close Firefox.

By default Firefox creates backup of bookmarks in places.sqlite file using JSON format which is not fully readable by text editors or browsers. With the help of this tutorial, you can have both HTML as well as default JSON (sqlite) backups of your bookmarks in you Profile folder.

NOTE: The HTML file of your bookmarks backup is created with the name bookmarks.html inside your Firefox Profile folder. If you don't know about Firefox Profile folder, check out following link to read more about it:

All About Mozilla Firefox Profile Folder and Configuration Files

There are many benefits in using this trick:

• It'll take bookmarks backup in a single HTML file which can be viewed in any web browser
• Your bookmarks will always have latest changes as the HTML file is updated at every exit
• The backup is stored on your local computer not cloud so no security issues
• No use of any 3rd party extension/add-on

So if you are a Firefox user and want to enable this automatic bookmarks backup feature, check out following simple steps:

1. Open Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It'll ask for confirmation, click on I'll be careful, I promise! button.

2. Now type bookmarks in the Search Filter box and look for following boolean key:

browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML

3. The entry "browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML" would be set to false. Double-click on it or right-click on it and select "Toggle". It'll set its value to true.

4. That's it. Close Firefox window. Now whenever you'll open and close Firefox web browser, it'll automatically export your current bookmarks into HTML file "bookmarks.html" in your Firefox Profile folder.

If you want, you can copy and paste the HTML file to your USB drive or a different partition to take another backup.

PS: There was also a way to customize location of bookmarks.html file using "browser.bookmarks.file" preference. You could get the automatic HTML backup of bookmarks in your desired folder instead of Firefox Profile folder but that trick no longer works in newer Firefox versions as Mozilla has removed the preference functionality from Firefox code. Interested people can check following old article mentioning the removed preference trick:

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