Tag: fortunately
January 22, 2010 by
Jason
Uninstalling and reinstalling inbox audio driver repeatedly on Windows 7 or Windows Vista might not be the best thing to do, as Microsoft has warned that users could leave their platforms incapable of playing audio. The Redmond company does not specify the exact number uninstalls/reinstalls needed for some DirectSound output to be rendered unable to play audio, but apparently, just several such actions are sufficient.
Here is the scenario described by the software giant: “You use software to render/play audio via the DirectSound API (for example: DDK tool Graph Edit). On Vista or Windows 7, via a driver testing tool (or manually) you uninstall and then reinstall audio drivers such as “High Definition Audio Device” (HDAudio) several times. You attempt to render/play the audio stream again to a non-default DirectSound device (for example – DirectSound:Speakers as opposed to Default DirectSound device).”
Provided that users managed to reproduce the situation exemplified above, Microsoft indicates that no audio will be produced as a result of the stream leveraging a non-default DirectSound device for rendering. In addition, Vista and Windows 7 customers will receive the following error message: “These filters cannot agree on a connection. Verify type compatibility of input pin and output pin. Cannot play back the audio stream: no audio hardware is available, or the hardware is not responding. (Return code:0×80040256).” Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
September 02, 2009 by
Jason Customers testing the virtualization extensions of Windows 7, namely Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode have been experiencing performance problems in scenarios in which sharing folders are enabled. Ben Armstrong, Program manager on the core virtualization team at Microsoft, revealed that the issues reported are connected with the latest development milestone of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, namely the Release Candidate Builds. Fortunately enough, a hotfix is already available from the software giant.
“A number of users have seen performance issues using shared folders / having shared folders enabled with Windows XP Mode on the RC release of Windows Virtual PC. This can be addressed by installing this hotfix inside the virtual machine. Please note – this hotfix is for Windows XP and is installed inside the virtual machine, not in the host operating system,” Armstrong noted.
Knowledge Base Article 972435 doesn’t mention Windows XP Mode, a Windows 7 feature, which is available as a standalone download. However, the resources designed to help customers resolve “slow performance when you try to open a redirected drive on a remote computer through a Terminal Services session” applies to Windows XP Professional. And Windows XP Mode is indeed based on a free and pre-activated copy of Windows XP that is available for Windows 7. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 3 Comments »
1. Delete items from address bar history
While it’s very handy to have your recently visited pages autocompleted as you type, it’s not always desirable. Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited. You can highlight and delete these at will, for maximum privacy.
2. Protect your PC from malware
You don’t have to visit the seedy side of the web to pick up a virus – even the best social networking sites regularly host all kinds of malware. But you can reduce the chance of infection by installing NoScript. This handy add-on blocks Javascript, Java, Flash and other executable content from running unless you explicitly allow it, and is a great way to keep yourself safe online.
3. Speedily search for images
Browse Google images and your results are split into blocks of 21. But use CoolIris and you’ll get all your results displayed on a 3D photo wall, a much faster and easier way to find the images you need. It only works with some sites, unfortunately, but as these include Google, Flickr, Picasa, Yahoo, Photobucket, Facebook and MySpace then you’ll still have plenty to browse. Especially as it searches and displays YouTube videos, too. Give it a try. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
Our colleagues over at What Laptop are in the middle of posting useful tips and Q&As for solving all sorts of common notebook and netbook problems, for beginner to more experienced users, so we’ve collated 12 of the best for your reading pleasure.
1. Clean and speed up your laptop OS
It’s all too easy to fill your laptop’s hard drive with files and applications, and the more software you add the slower it’s likely to run. Traces of programs are even left behind after you’ve uninstalled them, potentially slowing your laptop further. Thankfully, it’s easy to spruce things up using an application called CCleaner. Read on to discover how to download and use it.
2. Protect your laptop’s data
Due to the portable nature of laptops and netbooks, the data it holds is unfortunately always at risk of both theft and loss. While it’s impossible to keep your laptop 100% safe at all times, you can ensure that your data is kept safe, even if your laptop is stolen or lost, by encrypting it. One particularly easy free solution you can use is TrueCrypt. Read on to discover how to download and use it. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
The release of proof-of-concept exploit code for an unresolved critical bug that allows for remote arbitrary code execution on the latest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has put developers on alert. A fix will be included in the 3.0.8 version of the browser, which is scheduled for release in a few days.
The vulnerability is described on SecurityFocus as a “Boundary Condition Error” and allows an attacker to execute potentially malicious code by calling a malformed XML file from a Web page. Parsing a specially crafted “root” XML tag in an XSL file results in a memory-corruption error.
These drive-by types of attacks have become the weapon of choice for many of today’s malware distributors. Cross-site scripting (XSS) weaknesses are used to inject rogue exploit-serving IFrames into legitimate pages. These exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, or the browsers themselves. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
Microsoft generally makes newer programs backward-compatible with their older versions, so they can at least read the old program’s files. But in Windows XP SP2, the file converters for old versions of WordPad files aren’t enabled by default. If you don’t have Microsoft Office installed, WordPad is the default application for opening DOC and RTF files—and it can’t handle the old ones. With Office installed, Microsoft Word takes over, and it will successfully open old DOC and RTF files. But even then, WordPad remains the default application for files with the WordPad-specific WRI extension. Read More»
Posted in Office, Windows XP | 1 Comment »
When you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer – a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end – not good! Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to disable this process. Read More»
Posted in Internet, Windows XP | No Comments »
in case you didnt know Firefox has a small memory leakage problems that can cause your pc to freeze up. basically what happens is when you minimize Firefox it stops consuming memory, however when you maximize it again the memory usage will increase, sometimes even doubling. fortunately, there is a small fix that you can implement.
heres what you do: Read More»
Posted in Firefox | 21 Comments »
To keep legacy apps running, Vista lets them pretend to write to their familiar file locations often under their installation folder in \Program Files or in \Windows itself. INI files, data files, templates, or even music might wind up there.
But when you go to look for those files, you won’t find them! Vista actually stores the files in a “Virtual Store” under the AppData store in your user folder. Fortunately, you don’t need to hunt around for the files, just turn on “Compatibility Files” in Explorer. When you browse to a folder that has these hidden files, you’ll see a Compatibility Files toolbar button. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | 3 Comments »
February 07, 2007 by
Jason
Whenever you start your computer, you are faced with a few moments of thumb twiddling while Windows XP boots and prompts you to log on. Although you should expect to wait for a few moments, sometimes Windows XP seems to boot rather slowly. In fact, you may notice that over a period of time the PC that used to roar to life seems a bit sluggish instead. Fortunately, you can perform several techniques that help Windows XP get the bootup speed you want. This tutorial explores how to put these techniques to work.Stopping Unneeded Startup Services Read More»
Posted in Computer | 2 Comments »
Loading ...
