I thought that this solution was common knowledge all around, but it seems not to be, so here’s how. First off, the problem. When you boot your computer, an error message pops up, saying one out of two: (more…)
Category: Operating systems
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Windows Vista SP1 – First impressions
So, I finally bought a new computer. It’s a pretty smooth bit of kit if I might say so. It’s a HTPC, with a 3GHz CPU and 4GB RAM. It also runs Windows Vista Ultimate, and is my first real day-to-day encounter with said OS.
The computer arrived at my place a little more than a week ago. Setup was quick (quicker than the setup of a preinstalled Windows XP machine) and simple (simpler than the setup of a preinstalled Windows XP machine). It boots quickly (well, it’d better with the amount of CPU and RAM I got for it), and seems stable.
I went for Vista Ultimate, because I wanted all the bells an whistles of Vista, and so it seems I have got. First off, is visually very appealing. Windows Vista is pure eyecandy, no doubt about it. When that’s said, most of the tips, tricks and hotkeys I know for Windows XP Professional, seems to work in Vista as well.
Vista has a handfull of new features, compared to Windows XP. Though I haven’t tried them all out, I have found the following particularly useful:
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Renaming your wireless network connection
Being one to muck about quite a bit with my computers, my wireless network connection is now called “Wireless Network Connection 5”, like so:
Annoying though it may be, it is, however, really easy to remedy. Here’s how:
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Windows XP Service Pack 3 – a quick overview
Windows XP is Microsoft’s longest living operating system to date. Released in October 2001, it succeeded the total failure that was Windows Millennium Edition, and has, in turn, been succeeded by Windows Vista. Service Pack 3 is, as implied by the name, the third major upgrade package – Service Pack – released for Windows XP. Unlike SP2, SP3 contains no changes that are directly experienced by the end-user. SP3 was released for download on May 6th, 2008.
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Turning off the mail count in the Windows XP login screen – Registry
The other day, my girlfriend had been using my computer, and logged into MSN. When I restarted the computer, I noticed this message:
This is both annoying, and it really looks stupid. I mean, sure I get a bit of email, but I rarely have as many as 20 emails in my inbox, and even if I did, my hotmail inbox is not my primary email. Add to that the fact that this count has been taken from my girlfriends’ hotmail and we’re starting to get to the bottom of my frustration. Frankly, I don’t want it to tell people whether there are any unread email at all.
Apparently, there are a few programs that feed into this count; Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird and MSN Messenger to mention but a few. So, how do we remove it? As it happens, it is pretty simple to do just that, but it does require some fiddling about in the registry, so if you’re not comfortable with that, just leave it alone and clean up your inbox. Here’s how to do it:
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Apt-get FTW or: How I learned to stop worrying and learned to love Ubuntu
I love technology and fiddling with computers and gadgets dearly, and so, one of my long-term goals have been to has an operational computer running Linux, with which I can do most, if not all, of what I am able to do with my Windows computers.
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Like most IT-professionals who has been working in the business for more than, say five minutes, I have got a pretty decent stash of computers laying around at home. One of these is a HP Compaq nc6000 portable computer – one of HP’s finer pieces of work in my opinion – complete with 1GB of RAM and an intel WLAN interface card. I’d tried to install this with Ubuntu earlier (version 6.06 – Dapper Drake), but found no joy when trying to get it up and running with wireless LAN. Since a computer with Linux without an internet connection is rather like a bicycle to a fish (in other words,not very useful), I decided to shelf the experiment.
Then, a friend of mine invited me to Linux installation evening hosted by OLUG – Oslo Linux User Group and PING, and told me to bring a computer to install Linux on. So, hoping to get my computer up and running with Linux and WLAN, I brought the aforementioned nc6000.
I booted the computer with the Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD, and chose the install option. The installer installed without a hitch; and when it booted back up, it got online, with wireless LAN, right out of the box.
If you know nothing about Linux; let me tell you this; the most absurdly useful set of commands I have found so far (within 48 hours of installing the computer) are the following three: -
Deactivating Automatic Reboot after Windows Update
Have you ever returned to your computer only to find it having restarted, and all of your data gone? For a myriad of reasons, I keep my computers running continuously for a long time at a time. This makes this insistence on a reboot not only annoying, but in its extremes, it can actually make me lose work. To prevent this, I have disabled the auto-reboot, and I am no longer annoyed with repeated requests for reboots.