Tag: Windows
September 28, 2008 by
Jason
Here’s a nifty little trick for creating a text file listing of the contents of a folder, without using any extra software. Step one is to note down the path and name of the folder concerned; if it’s a long one, click on the folder icon in Windows Explorer so that it’s displayed in the address box, then right-click on it and select Copy. Now open a command window by going to Run (XP) or Search (Vista) on the Start menu and type ‘cmd’
A DOS like window opens and at the flashing prompt type cd then a space and type in the path and name of the folder – in my example the folder is called ‘Pix’, so the first line looks like this:
cd C:\Pix
If you used the Copy trick simply right-click on the flashing prompt and select Paste.
Now press Enter and the cd (change directory) command changes the display to show the path and name of your folder, thus: Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
September 21, 2008 by
Jason Following the release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 at the end of August 2008, Microsoft offered a toolset designed to permit advanced customization of the browser. Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8.0 Beta was dropped after the English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German localized versions of IE8. On September 16, the kit was updated to reflect the wave 2 of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 releases. Earlier this week Microsoft made available 21 new fully localized flavors of IE8 Beta 2, bringing the total number of language versions to 25.
“With the release of these additional languages, the IE8 IEAK can now build an additional 20 language packages. We’re excited to enable more users to download IE8 Beta 2 and use it in their native languages,” revealed Vishwac Sena Kannan, IE international program manager.
The September 16 release of Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8 Beta is tailored to the new span of IE8 Beta 2 language versions. The kit is designed to permit the customization of Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Internet Explorer browser. IEAK 8 Beta enables customized packages of IE8 Beta 2 to be put together, and this is valid for the many flavors of the browser. Read More»
Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »
September 21, 2008 by
Jason Normally, the blue screen of death contains a driver name, and some addresses; if you’re lucky, removing that driver will do the trick. But what if there is no driver name on the BSoD? And what if you don’t have all the skills to play with crashdumps and debuggers?
In this case, Autoruns comes to the rescue. This is a graphical tool that allows you to disable/enable drivers in a very easy way.
The strategy:
1. Boot into safe mode (since the system is crashing when you attempt to boot normally);
2. Start Autoruns, and switch to the Drivers tab;
3. Go through the list, and uncheck the drivers that are suspicious;
4. Close the program, restart and boot normally
The steps above will be repeated until the system is able to boot correctly.
When that happens, remember what were the last changes you applied, and try to enable some drivers back - until you figure out which one of them was causing the issue. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
September 20, 2008 by
Jason Save energy
Leaving your PC on wastes both energy and cash: running it overnight could cost you more than £100 a year. It’s time to stop sinning and make some savings.
Step1: Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Power Options. If your system uses the High Performance power plan then you can save a little energy by selecting Balanced.
Step2: Selecting Very low power delivers a real energy cut, but mainly by limiting the work your CPU can do, so it’s best used on laptops or PCs that aren’t running anything too intensive.
Step3: Click Change plan settings for your plan. Windows Vista normally turns the display off after 20 minutes of inactivity; cut this to 10, perhaps set the PC to sleep after 20 minutes or so.
Save power – disable Windows Aero at will
Run REGEDIT and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\Shell. Right-click the Shell part, select New > Key and call it Aero On. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
September 18, 2008 by
Jason
If you use a 64-bit version of Windows Vista on a computer with multiple processors or on a multi-core (dual-core, quad-core) processor (which is quite usual), you can use a simple setting to accelerate booting of the computer (OS).
Depending on the configuration of your computer, this setting may result in a smaller or substantial improving of the Windows booting time. Please be aware that this setting is not intended for novice users and it can cause booting problems on incompatible (mostly “noname”) computers.
By default, Vista detects and switches to a multi-processor core only after the basic functions of Windows are loaded - for actual booting it uses only a single core (logical processor). With the following setting you will enable using of all available cores/processors also for booting.
Run the MSCONFIG command (Start > Run) and go to the “Boot” tab. There click the “Advanced options” button. In the “BOOT advance options” dialog check the “Number of processors” option and set the number of processor cores you have available in your PC. Exit the command with OK. The following restart should be faster. Read More»
Posted in windows vista | 3 Comments »
September 17, 2008 by
Jason On September 16, the Redmond company went live with the second wave of IE8 Beta 2 releases, offering the browser in no less than 21 localized versions. The fresh IE8 Beta 2 releases covering 21 additional languages on top of the original four are supported only on the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista RTM and Service Pack 1, Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Windows Server 2008.
“The IE team is pleased to announce the availability of Internet Explorer Beta 2 in 21 additional languages. The languages released today are fully localized versions of the IE8 English Beta 2. The Complete List of IE8 Beta 2 Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish,” explained Vishwac Sena Kannan, International Program Manager.
Microsoft is currently gearing up for the availability of the gold build of Internet Explorer 8. The Redmond giant has not confirmed a deadline, except to say that it expects to deliver the final IE8 two years after the general availability of Internet Explorer 7 considered by the company to be January 30, 2007, the Windows Vista launch day. Read More»
Posted in Internet | 4 Comments »
September 17, 2008 by
Jason You may ask yourselves, why should this article be any different from all those tweaking tutorials around the Internet or, better yet, why should you read this when you can install a program that does it all for you? Here’s why: this article will help you make important changes to your system with just two windows opened: this one and a notepad. That’s all! No need to click your way through dozens of windows, no need to go through the risk of pushing the wrong button and crashing your operating system.
Furthermore, you don’t have to pay a single cent! Why pay for a program to do what you yourselves can do in just a few seconds? And last but not least, you will be able to choose from a list only the tweaks that you’re interested in and then apply them on any computer, at any time with just a double-click. Tweaking can hardly get any easier than that! Think how cool that would be, especially after reinstalling Windows.
Let’s start by creating the file that will do all the magic. Right-click on your desktop, create a new text document and name it tweaks.reg. Windows will ask if you’re sure that you want to change the file extension – click Yes. Right-click the file and choose Edit: a blank notepad window will appear. There are two things you must keep in mind: first of all, for the magic to work your text document must start with ‘Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00′. Secondly, later on, be very patient when copying something to paste it in your document. If you copy an incomplete text, the tweak will not work and you might alter other system settings. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 3 Comments »
September 14, 2008 by
Jason Despite all its quirks, Windows does do some things for a good reason. Some files need to be locked down when they are in use, otherwise you risk damaging the file or harming the Operating System. Unfortunately Windows XP seems to be plagued by files that cannot be deleted. These are frequently simple files like videos (AVI), MP3s or other seemingly harmless files. You try to delete the file, Windows waits a few seconds before announcing that access is denied, the file is currently in use and cannot be deleted. However, you know it’s not in use and you just want it deleted.
If you have encountered this problem, here is a step-by-step process for trying to purge the files you can’t delete. It starts with the basics for Windows XP and moves on to more involved tricks. The process will work for all recent Windows releases, but Windows XP has been causing the most the problems, so we will focus on it. Please note: we are assuming that the file is not crucial to the operation of Windows - deleting important system files can cause havoc. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
September 10, 2008 by
Jason Windows Aero is the premium visual experience of Windows Vista. It features a transparent glass design with subtle window animations and new window colors.
Here are some solutions to common problem with running Windows Aero.
Which editions of Windows Vista include Aero?
The following editions include Aero:
Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate. Aero is not included in Windows XP or earlier versions of Windows.
To find out which edition of Windows Vista you have on your computer, do the following:
Open Welcome Center by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Welcome Center.
The edition of Windows Vista you’re running is displayed with your computer details near the top of the window. Read More»
Posted in windows vista | No Comments »
September 09, 2008 by
Jason
From the perspective of a platform developer, Microsoft has to maintain an equilibrium between the innovation it introduces with its software products and support for legacy applications. Both Windows Vista and Internet Explore 8 offer an ample example of the Redmond giant struggling to achieve such a balance. This is why the company is lending a helping hand to customers migrating to its latest products. In this regard, the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 is designed to sniff out and permit the mitigation of incompatibility issues. The collection of tools, as well as the adjacent documentation included in the toolkit, are tailored to Windows Vista releases via Windows Update and Internet Explorer.
“ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows Vista more quickly. You can use the ACT features to: verify an application’s compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment; become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users; and test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows Internet Explorer Internet browser,” reads an excerpt from the toolkit’s description. Read More»
Posted in windows vista | 1 Comment »
