Posts tagged: Windows

Browser benchmarks

By , 2010-10-15 14:14

OK, so you still use Windows. That’s cool. It’s a fine OS, and there are some things it does that Linux and Mac just don’t.

But still using IE, now that’s crazy. It’s not standards-compliant (sure, Firefox isn’t either, but it’s close), it’s not customizable (except in the form of those ridiculous search toolbars), it’s not cross-platform (yeah yeah, you don’t need it to be because you only use Windows), it’s usually more vulnerable to attack and it’s just downright buggy.

If that’s not enough, here’s my final point: it’s SLOW. And to support this point, graphs! Everyone loves graphs, right?

Above graphs stolen from Ars Technica: Windows browsers benchmarked: October 2010 edition.

Netgear WNDA3100v1 driver only

By , 2010-05-25 00:33

The Netgear WNDA3100 is a pretty nice wireless adapter, but the drivers from Netgear are bundled with a crappy management software. I extracted the basic driver files from the .exe provided so that I can install the hardware using the Windows standard methods.

The 7z contains the Windows XP/2003 and Vista/7 drivers.

WNDA3100v1 Driver

Enabling ATSC & QAM in Canada for Windows 7 RTM – Peter Near’s Blog

By , 2010-02-12 18:16

Enabling ATSC & QAM in Canada for Windows 7 RTM – Peter Near’s Blog.

Today, I wanted to PVR the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies in HD, but was dismayed to find that Windows Media Center does NOT support ATSC if your region is set to Canada. Fortunately resourceful users have found a workaround patch. See link above.

Recover Windows XP Offline files from local cache

By , 2009-11-04 14:35

Windows XP offers a handy feature that allows you to take files stored on a network drive and use them even without a network connection. The files are then re-synced back to the server the next time network access is detected. Unfortunately, the service, while a fantastic idea, is not very stable in practice. In case of errors, there IS a procedure to recover files from the local cache. It involves using version 1.1 of Microsoft’s csccmd (not available directly on MS website.)

csccmdv1.1.zip

(Note to Microsoft: if it isn’t ok for me to host this file, then let me know and I’ll remove it.)

Triple-Booting Macbook Pro

By , 2009-10-05 13:01

It’s been a week now and I still have had no success installing all 3 major OSes on my MBP. OSX+Windows works fine (via Bootcamp), OSX+Ubuntu 9.10 also (9.04 hangs on boot).

This, however looks promising:
http://tubeshards.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/install-windows-to-a-macintosh-usb-drive/

"Combo Fix" for Windows XP

By , 2009-09-26 21:53

My cousin was having some issues with missing desktop icons and taskbar on a Windows box. Some googling brought up ComboFix. Reading the description, it looks like it could be a handy tool, and from a trusted computer repair/diagnostics site.

Windows 7 RTM

By , 2009-07-24 09:23

Rumours circulating around the Internet seem to indicate that build 7600.16385 of Windows 7 is the RTM release. Naturally I was curious and went to fetch said build (7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso) from one of the usual spots. I installed the RTM from a USB drive onto a spare laptop to test it out. There weren’t too many changes, the most noticeable ones being the removal of the Evaluation watermark from the bottom right corner of the screen and a “new” wallpaper.

Windows 7 RTM "Harmony" wallpaper

Windows 7 RTM "Harmony" wallpaper

Windows 7 RTM

File associations in Windows 7 (and Vista/2008)

By , 2009-07-22 20:04

I’ve been using Windows 7 on my laptop since the 6801 build was first leaked in December ’08. However I only recently noticed that there is NO built-in tool for properly editing file type associations anymore. This is quite an annoyance, as I like to be able to assign custom icons and actions to my file types, such as adding an “Edit with Dreamweaver” to html files or “Open with Photoshop” to images. Having never used Vista, and since most of my time is spent on Linux and Mac OS now, I never noticed this annoyance before… ah Microsoft… I was happy with Windows 7 until now and this had me seriously considering going back to my XP/Leo/Ubuntu triple-boot.

Anyway enough rambling. Fortunately for my Windows 7 install, Google has answers for everything. A few minutes of googling revealed this page, which links to a handy little open-source(!) utility called Types that provides all the functionality of the built-in tool from Windows XP/2003 and older.

Types: a remedy for Microsofts silliness.

Types: a remedy for Microsoft's silliness.

Thank goodness for Sourceforge. And to the folks in Redmond… What is the deal with REMOVING functionality from your products? OK, you can provide a simple interface, but don’t make that simple interface slower and confusing for old users with old habits… or at least provide a way to revert to the classic behaviour! Which reminds me of another useless invention, the “Network and Sharing Center”…. but that’s another story.

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