Archive for November, 2009
Can I Install a 32-Bit Operating System on a 64-bit-Capable PC?
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Forgive me for an emotional outburst, but this one made me laugh and cry when I saw it in the search-stats. To tell the truth I am surprised that at this point in time people are still asking such questions as those below. – Nevertheless, the purpose of this blog is to educate and help people; which is what it’ll continue to do. The questions were actually worded similar to “Can I use Windows XP…” or “Can I use Windows 7… 32-bit on a 64-bit computer?”: – I’ve seen both versions. Windows XP is the only operating system that I recommend using the 32-bit version of by default. Why? - Because there were so few 64-bit drivers written and produced for XP that it really isn’t worth bothering with the 64-bit version of XP unless you happen to be a techno-masochist. XP is pretty much outdated anyway; I’m using the 32-bit version of XP I currently have installed on 1 of my 2 comps until the machine has a major hardware failure, or 2014: Whichever is sooner. If you’re dual-booting XP and Windows 7, or running XP in a virtual machine inside Windows 7, then I encourage you to run the 32-bit version of XP… Which will run perfectly well on a 64-bit-capable computer. As for Windows 7; why oh why would anyone want to run the 32-bit version of Windows 7 on a 64-bit-capable box? There is only one valid reason that I’ve heard so far; and that is that some of the internal hardware as well as a number of the external peripheral devices are so old that they won’t work in a 64-bit environment no matter what. ‘2 Important facts here: -
Resisting the impulsive urge to tell the person to stop being so mean and tight-fisted, and upgrade their old hardware and/or buy/build a new box; I see this as probably the only valid reason to install the 32-bit version of Windows 7 on an otherwise 64-bit-capable machine: i.e. One that has at least a 64-bit-capable motherboard and processor. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 is packed in the same presentation-case as the 32-bit version; so why oh why oh why would anyone want to install the 32-bit version on a machine that is 100% capable of running the 64-bit version? – But yet I know of at least one case where this has actually happened. It baffles me; honestly it completely does my head in. “A lot of the application software I use is only available in 32-bit.” and “A 64-bit operating system uses up more RAM”, whilst possibly true; just don’t cut it with me: – - So I reply to that with: Wait a while until the 64-bit versions of your software appear, use the 32-bit versions until then, and fit extra RAM if you have less than 4GBs installed. It’s not exactly going to cost you a fortune; and 32-bit software runs fine in a 64-bit Windows operating environment anyway. There is just one device that I’m having trouble with as far as Windows 7 64-bit is concerned; and that’s my Labtec webcam 6.0.1: I have XP 32-bit drivers for it on CD, which is fine for my XP system. When I try to install it on my Windows 7 64-bit box, though, the Vista 64-bit driver won’t install for some reason. Normally, in most cases, if no Windows 7-specific 64-bit driver is available, (At least, I can’t find one online.) then the Vista 64-bit driver is usually good enough. – Not in this case though: it just doesn’t want to know. – But it’s only a cheap webcam; it’s not anything massively expensive or irreplaceable. It cost me less than £7 around 2 years ago: It’s hardly the crown jewels! I’ll just buy a newer model with a Windows 7-specific driver. – ‘Simple as that. + One more thing I’d better make clear, as an addition to the above, since I notice that Google sends relevant traffic here, is that yes, you can run both a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version of the same OS on the same machine… BUT in order to do it legally you’ll need a separate licence for each version: One licence will not cover both 32 and 64-bit. + + If you’re intending to run both 32 and 64-bit operating systems then I suggest that you use a separate disk for each OS. You can partition a single disk if you must; but using separate disks will avoid complications cropping up over time; trust me on that. + (Added 28th December 2009.)
I realise that I’m being long-winded with regard to this Windows 7 64-bit fixation of mine; but it’s a wide topic that I’d like to ensure that I’ve covered all aspects of to a large extent, without completely flogging it to death so much that readers protest with their mouse and back-button. That’s all. |
Guest-Postings Requested: I’ll be Scaling-Back a Bit
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As you’ve probably noticed, the number of posts being produced has increased in the last couple of months to between 5 and 8 a week. This has been quite a heavy load on me, as it hasn’t really allowed me to concentrate fully on other things related to this blog, such as implementation of other features related to increased delivery of service, etc. As a result of this I’ve made the decision that I’m going to have to scale back on the number of posts that I produce. I do, of course, encourage people to submit guest-posts: - How do I go about sending in a guest-post? Submitting guest posts isn’t as simple as jotting down the post on a text file or Word document and emailing it “as is”. You see I, and any other blogger for that matter, would ask that if you want me to publish your work on my blog, you make things as easy as possible for me: - That entails setting your article out as a web-page, as you’d like to see it published on this blog. When you’ve done that, save the web – page in html format, in an htm or html file, and send it, along with any images (.gif, .jpg, .png) and a text-only copy also, plus a very short 150-or-less-word-biography of the author, to guestpost at kustomkomputa dot co dot uk. I don’t promise to publish it, and even if I do I don’t promise to publish it exactly as you’ve laid it out; but I’ll keep it as true to the original as I can.
The benefits of guest-posting The last time I asked for guest-posts I did so by making the matter into a form of competition: The result of that was that I initially had a few guest-posts submitted, about half were published, and then the whole idea fell flat on its face, and nobody bothered sending in any more. People; guest-posting is a great way of getting recognised and being heard: It goes toward becoming established as an authority in your field of expertise, and not only that but you’ll also get a link back to your own blog plus some free internet real-estate. – So if you’re a techie-type with your own particular tech-page or blog it’s an unbelievably good way of spreading the word, increasing your blog-traffic, and promoting your brand. In other words you’re not just helping me out by writing content for my blog, but you’re also helping yourself out by advertising yourself, your brand, and your blog. So the immediate future is that I’ll be producing less free-content for the time-being. Of course I’ll still produce some, but not as much as I have recently been producing. I’m not going to be sitting on my bum playing games or doing any less than I was before. I’ll be doing more work behind the scenes and less actually free-content-wise. On my tod I’m only a single person: I don’t have an entire team dedicated to running and maintaining this blog. Apart from the odd guest-post that I publish, I do everything single-handedly: The coding, maintenance, design, production, publication, the lot; it’s all done by Yours Truly. When I finally get the resources I’ll start outsourcing; but in the meantime I’m all on my tod. Bearing that in mind I need to get to a point where this blog becomes a self-financing operation. I’ve been running at a loss to this point in time, and that’s something that can’t continue indefinitely. In fact it’s something that can’t continue period. I’m going to have to spend a lot of time behind the scenes to generate revenue from this blog. if you thought my banner-ads pay for it then you’re very much mistaken: At best they assist towards financing it. I’m currently on David Risley’s BlogMasters Club course, (Click the BlogMasters Club banner in the footer of this and all other pages and posts for more.) on which I’m learning from square 1 how to generate an income from blogging, rather than running at a loss as I have been doing during my first year of blogging. I am learning, and I have so much to implement, but if I put all of my efforts to creation of free content then I’ll lag behind and continue running at a loss. Conclusion So while I’m easing off the posting, you have an increased opportunity to get yourself heard, to promote your brand and image, to become known as an authority, to advertise your blog and increase your traffic; all by guest-posting. I currently have between one and two-hundred visitors a day, and, at the time of writing, this blog ranks 560,261 out of X-billion on Quantcast. So get with it: I look forward to reading and publishing your tech-postings. If you don’t send any in then don’t be at all surprised if you see the number of new free-posts published drop from this point onwards. ‘Any questions, points, whatever? – Please comment.
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Another IE6 Rant – With a Sting
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If you’ve read some of my previous articles on this blog; then you’ll be well aware of my utter distaste for and loathing of Internet Explorer 6. – That’s not Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as a whole: I have nothing against Internet Explorer – (Although as we’ll go on to see, all versions of Internet Explorer appear to be riddled with seen and unseen security-holes.) although I don’t use it anymore. (I used to use IE7 a lot, but now I’ve converted to FireFox since 2008.) – I’m talking only of Internet Explorer 6 here: Webmasters hate it, designers and developers hate it. People still use it though. I believe those using IE6 are either XP-using corporate environments with a lazy IT department, (That means almost all corporate environments: There are very few IT departments that do a decent job; mainly because the company won’t finance them to do more than the bare minimum in most cases.) or totally indifferent XP users whose attitude is pretty much : – “It works as it is; so there’s no reason to change it.” They installed the IE6 browser as the default browser that came packaged as part of XP, and have been using it ever since. Although there are versions 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer freely available on the internet, as well as a whole host of other compatible browsers, all of which work well with XP; these indifferent users either don’t have the where-with-all to be able to upgrade a browser, or they simply can’t be bothered, or both. Well, you crap-browser-using die-hards; here’s a reason to upgrade to Internet Explorer version 8, or better still, FireFox: - Security firm Symantec have, some days ago, discovered a new zero-day Internet Explorer exploit that affects versions 6 and 7 of Internet Explorer. Symantec’s advice is as follows: - “The exploit targets a vulnerability in the way Internet Explorer uses cascading style sheet (CSS) information. CSS is used in many Web pages to define the presentation of the sites’ content. Symantec currently detects the exploit with the Bloodhound.Exploit.129 antivirus signature and is working on new signatures now. Symantec IPS protection also currently detects this exploit with signatures HTTP Microsoft IE Generic Heap Spray BO and HTTP Malicious Javascript Heap Spray BO. A new IPS signature, HTTP IE Style Heap Spray BO, has also been created for this specific exploit. To minimize the chances of being affected by this issue, Internet Explorer users should ensure their antivirus definitions are up to date, disable JavaScript and only visit Web sites they trust until fixes are available from Microsoft.” Disabling JavaScript will render most of the web sites you use unusable. – Do yourself a favour and either upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, but according to this article from h-online.com, even IE8 has a glaring security hole. – So do the best thing and install FireFox, and make it your default browser.
I’m not alone. Just to prove that I’m not embarking on a single-handed-crusade against Internet Explorer 6, I’ll quote another webmaster, Rich Menga, from the page on his blog called ‘Screw XP (computer geekery)’ : - “…there are still morons out there that still run that browser. And yes, if you use IE 6, you’re a moron because that browser has more holes in it than Swiss cheese…” “…IE 6 users only account for a very small fraction of my [Rich Menga’s] visitors. From a web design point of view, you have no idea how annoying it is to make sure things work in IE 6…” “…screw IE 6 users because I’m not going to accommodate for that craptastic browser anymore…” “XP users don’t bother me, but writing about it and designing for IE 6 does…” “…IE 6 is well known to be one of the worst web browsers ever and is positively ancient. It was superseded THREE YEARS AGO by IE 7 and that was superseded eight months ago by IE 8.” - Rich Menga; shooting straight from the hip in his usual style. So, once again, I say that it is in your best interests, if you are an Internet Explorer user, and particularly if you are a user of IE6, to start using another browser.
Piece of Cake. There really is no big deal to it: All you need to do is visit a page on which you can get another browser, – there is a listing of four of those in the section of this site called “Get Yourself a Better Browser Today” – download the .exe file, run it, and make that browser your default browser. – It really is that simple. For the sake of web-developers, progress, and for your own sake too, I suggest that you make a start now. More than 1/3 of my visitors are still using IE6! – Sometimes I ask myself: Am I wasting my time writing this blog; just for a lot of people to totally ignore the advice that I give? – It’s like pulling teeth! I’ll spell it out very simply: - Web developers are no longer bothering to include the complicated special extra coding necessary to get IE6 to display the page properly. – That includes popular sites such as You Tube, as well as many others. Internet Explorer 6, despite being the default browser that ships with XP, is probably the worst browser anyone can possibly use. You would be well advised to use FireFox instead. (All of the Internet Explorer versions are security nightmares to a certain extent; IE6 especially so.) You will hardly ever be able to display a webpage 100% properly using IE6. – That includes pages from this blog as well. |
64-bit Confusion
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I’m writing this article because, over the last few days, I’ve been watching people searching Google and the other search engines with questions like: -
OK I made that last one up. – But there seems to be quite a bit of confusion regarding 32-bit and 64-bit since Windows 7 was launched. Hopefully this post will clear up some of the confusion.
Firstly, to run a 64-bit operating system you need 2 main things: -
Just because your computer has always run a 32-bit operating system doesn’t necessarily make it a “32-bit computer”. – It is highly possible that you’ve been running a 32-bit operating system on 64-bit-capable hardware for a number of years, and then maybe not. The computer that I’m writing and editing this post on is (almost) fully 64-bit capable – I should know; I designed and built it myself. – Yet by choice I’m running 32-bit XP Professional on it. Why?
- But I get it though: Most people have probably just 1 computer to themselves, and they want it to be as good as it can be. I myself am a prominent online advocate of 64-bit hardware and software. – Except for office computers: I see absolutely no reason whatsoever for anyone to upgrade their office computer from XP 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit until at least 2013; when staff-retraining on a new operating system will be necessary in preparation for Windows XP to become obsolete in 2014, as well as to be ready for Windows 7’s successor; which I expect to hit the shelves in 2014/2015. I’m going off the point a bit here; so I’ll return to the main topic of this post. If you don’t have a 64-bit-capable processor and motherboard then your computer can’t run Windows 7 64-bit. If, on the other hand you do have a 64-bit capable processor and motherboard, then although you can run a 64-bit operating system, there is a possibility that some of your other hardware won’t work with a 64-bit operating-system; such as my old TV-card, for example. You may be able to get 64-bit drivers that will allow certain hardware components to run in a 64-bit environment; but some hardware may be so old that it was built for 32-bit only; once again, my old TV-card, for example. That, in itself, shouldn’t be a major problem if you do have a 64-bit-capable motherboard and processor, however: New minor hardware components are fairly inexpensive: -
- So upgrading minor hardware can be a fairly-inexpensive task. What about major hardware; such as motherboard, processor, etc? If you’re going to the lengths of replacing the motherboard and the processor, just for the sake of running 64-bit software, then in my opinion you may as well start from scratch and build yourself a completely new computer. If you replace the old, non-64-bit-capable, motherboard with a new 64-bit-capable motherboard, then you’re definitely going to have to get a new processor. You’ll also find that you’ll need new RAM, as your old RAM – probably DDR or PC133 or something similar, won’t fit and also won’t work with your new motherboard. – Also you’ll quite probably find that your existing power-supply unit (PSU) either doesn’t have the right connectors to connect to your new motherboard, or that it’s mechanically incompatible with your new motherboard because it gives power-emphasis to the 5-volt-rails rather than the 12-volt-rails as required by modern componentry, or all of the above combined. – In fact you could end up with a situation where the only thing you don’t end up changing is the case. – And even then the case might not be perfectly compatible with your new motherboard with regard to connectors, mountings, whatever.
Here is a general rule that I stick to: - If it’s more than 5 years old and it needs upgrade/repair: Bin it and build or buy new.
On the theme of this post, you should also read: -
Free Windows 7 Product Guide & Help Program Microsoft have provided a free downloadable product guide for Windows 7. Also this article has a link from which you can download the Windows Help program for 7
Can I Install Windows 7 64-bit on a System With Only a Single-Core Processor? Is it possible to do it? Is it worth doing it? – Find out in this article.
Can I Run Windows 7 64-bit on the XP Machine I Ran 32-bit on? If your hardware is 64-bit compatible then yes…
Windows 7 is Out There: Should You Upgrade? Is Windows 7 a turbocharger for your PC as Microsoft would have you believe, or is it simply a great functional OS?
64-Bit Windows 7 and Device Compatibility Upgrading to a 64-bit OS makes sense; and it’s easy to do if you have the right hardware. – But the compatibility issue could be the only problem in some cases.
In this article we’ll take a look at installing Windows 7: This article deals mainly with moving from XP straight to 7; although upgrading from Vista is mentioned too.
- It’s all a bit here and there at the moment: There’s old hardware still around that won’t run 64-bit, there are people who stick to 32-bit because they’re afraid of change, and of course there are people who don’t understand the difference between 32 and 64-bit, neither do a lot of them care: It’s easier to remain ignorant but it’ll never make you wise by doing so. A Quick word on upgrading your 32-bit Windows software OS installation to a 64-bit Windows software OS installation: - - There is no “in-place” upgrade available; whether you’re going from XP 32-bit to 7 64-bit, Vista 32-bit to 7 64-bit, or even 7 32-bit to 7 64-bit, for that matter. You will have to back-up everything you want to save, reformat your hard-drive, (Only the C: drive.) and install Windows 7 64-bit as if it were a new installation; which is, in essence, what it is. You cannot ‘upgrade’ from 32 to 64-bit: You have to wipe the drive and start again. No doubt that’s pissed a few people off: – Believe me; the extra hassle IS worth it. – But you’ll need to fit more RAM too: I recommend an absolute minimum of 4 gigabytes of RAM with a 64-bit operating system. – You’ll find out why when you start using it… Well if I tell you everything it’ll take all the fun out of it, won’t it? – Besides; if I tell you all I know then you’ll be as wise as I am, and we can’t have that. Conclusion. As always; a’la box pour les comments is somewhere below; and it’s time that someone used it, so I’d be grateful if you’d set the trend. ‘Many thanks, and happy 64-bit computing. (You may notice that I’m using Trebuchet MS font in this article. – That is, in fact, my default font, and things appear to work better when I use it; therefore I’ll be doing so from now onwards. – If you experience problems due to this; use the magnifier feature in Windows 7. ————————————————————————————————— —————————————————————————————————
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How to Make Vista Appear More Like 7
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Hey everybody. It’s been a while since I’ve incorporated any videos in posts; ‘sorry about that: Video can make some posts so much more interesting and easy to view. With that in mind; I’ve included 2 videos with this post: - The first video explains how you can make Windows Vista look like Windows 7. – That’s only look like Windows 7 though; if you want all the features and performance-gains, etc, of Windows 7, then you’ll have to do an upgrade, or, better still, a complete reformat and reinstall. (If you do go for a complete reformat and reinstall then do remember to do a full backup beforehand.) This second video, below, explains how to add the Aero-Shake feature to either Windows Vista or Widows XP. I apologise that the sound sucks – Blame the producer. I hope you enjoyed watching those two videos. Thank you for viewing them on kkomp.com – Beyond. If you have any comments that you’d like to add then please do use the comment-box below.
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How to Make Your Machine Automatically Look For Drivers in XP
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This was a post I wrote a while back, as a prospective guest-post on another tech-site. The owner of that site went on a trip just after I submitted it, and they delegated it to their staff to prepare it for publication. Six weeks or so later I asked the staff member concerned what had happened to the post. All I got was a dismissive “No idea” initially; but after pursuing the enquiry it became apparrent that this person hadn’t even bothered with it. In the light of that; having retained a copy of it, I’ll post it on my own blog. Even though it may be a bit late to post any more XP advice, I’ll publish it nevertheless. If you’re updating your computer running Windows XP with a new device, maybe a graphics card or something, and you don’t have a driver for that piece of hardware; there is a way that you can actually get the operating system to help you find a driver for the device. If you connect a new device in Windows, the first thing that the operating system will do, after detecting the new installation, is scan all of the relevant files and folders on the disc to see if it can find a compatible driver for the new device. Sometimes it’ll find an older driver that works, from the operating system’s files; but a driver written in 2001 or thereabouts might not exactly be up to scratch for more modern equipment. If it does install a driver, it’s always best to check in Device Manager to find out how old the installed driver is. How do I do that? First, open Device Manager. There are a number of ways of doing this: The easiest two ways to do it are; either to right-click the “My Computer” icon, click “Properties” and select the “Hardware” tab, then click the “Device Manager” button in the top section of the dialog box. Alternatively you can actually create a Device Manger icon on your desktop; which will open Device Manager when you click it. To find out how to do this, click this link. When you’re in Device Manager, click the + signs in the boxes until the hardware device that you’ve just installed appears. Right-click the name of the device and click “Properties”. Click the “Driver” tab and look at the line that starts “Driver date:” If that date is more than a year ago I would suggest going to the devices’ manufacturer’s website and seeing if a newer driver version has been released. (There are a number of drivers in Windows XP that don’t have a later version than 2001: These are mainly some of the system drivers, which appear in the System section of Device Manager. The reason for this is that they were written at the same time as XP was, and they’re XP specific. Microsoft didn’t re-release XP itself, and therefore those drivers were never updated – and they probably have no need to be either. A number of updated system drivers were added with the release of any of the three service packs; but yet others still bear the original 2001 date. Don’t worry about these. – there is nothing you can do about it; nothing legal anyway.)
What now? If Windows can’t find a suitable driver then the next thing it does depends upon how you have the Windows Update setting set. To discover how you have it set in Windows XP, right-click on the “My Computer” icon and select “Properties”. Click the “Hardware” tab, and click the “Windows Update” button on the right in the second section down of the dialog box.
In the smaller dialog box that appears you’ll see that there are 3 radio-buttons. If you put a . in the top one then Windows will connect straight to Windows Update to look for a driver if it can’t find one on the disc(s). If you put a . in the middle one then Windows will ask for permission before it looks in Windows Update. If you put a . in the bottom one then Windows won’t bother looking for a driver in Windows Update. I’m not saying that it’ll find a driver that is compatible every time it looks in Windows Update; but it’ll increase the chances of doing so if you let it look. If it finds and installs a driver, then I suggest that you check in Device Manager to find out how old the installed driver is. If you don’t know how to do that then see the section “How do I do that” above. Windows Update doesn’t always offer you the latest driver for a device. In fact I’ve had one as old as three years offered for an nVidia graphics card, so it’s always best to check. Why use the latest driver in preference to any driver that works? As time goes by, manufacturers may update their technology’s performance by rewriting some of the routines performed by the driver to enhance performance of their product in any number of ways; perhaps even to prevent it causing a BSOD. Also there may have been security problems identified in a driver which therefore called for the writers to issue a new version with the security problems patched. If you use an old driver the chances are that it’ll work 9 times out of 10, but maybe not quite as well as a newer version, and/or it may have a dodgy security flaw in it too. Have you ever had to call on Windows Update for a driver using this method herein? Did you get the driver you needed? Did you get an older driver from Windows Update and have to go to the manufacturer’s website? |
FloatLED On-Screen Hard-Disk Activity Indicator (Free Software)
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The case-mounted LED hard-disk activity indicator isn’t all that good for analysing hard-drive-activity with – Not only because it’s on the front of your computer case; which could be behind you as you view the screen, or under the desk, but also if you have multiple hard-drives you can’t tell which one is active.
Cue FloatLED: This clever little device brings your disk-activity LED on to your screen; which is where you look at everything else. – But not only does it tell you of drive-activity; it also tells you which drive the activity is from, and whether the activity is reading, writing, or both.
This will be a diamond for those of you who have more than one physical drive and know that one of them is making funny noises. – Or for those of you who like to imagine they’re flying the Star Ship Enterprise when they’re sitting at the screen; it’s another flashing indicator. Beam me up Scotty. (Latin = Transmittae mae cirtum Caledonum.) |
Try 3-Day-Money: It Might Have Your Name Written On It
| On this blog I’ve mentioned the name David Risley a fair bit in the past. You might also have seen some banner-advertisments for products that he’s created; one of which is 3DayMoney.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with David Risley, I’ll explain a few things about him briefly:- He’s an internet marketer and problogger who lives in Tampa, Florida, and he’s been blogging since well before it was even called blogging. He now makes a living from the internet, and very comfortably supports a family which includes a wife and daughter, and a son on the way. “- So what?” You ask. – Well, for one thing, David Risley is the reason that this blog exists: If he hadn’t encouraged me to start blogging in 2008 then kkomp.com – Beyond would never have started. I’ve met and spoken to a number of other bloggers online and off, but, without meaning to take anything away from anyone else – as there are many other totally professional, competent, and experienced bloggers out there- many with a great personality too, I feel that David Risley is always a dominant authority in the blogosphere, and to me he stands out as one of the if not the, top leader in his profession. In fact he’s pretty-much my role-model. “OK so you’ve got a schoolgirl-type-crush on him. – Big deal.” No; it’s a completely different kind of admiration that I have for him: OK I admit that he’s handsome, etc, etc… But disregarding that totally as I do, I admire him for his professionalism, intellectuality, perseverance, determination, charisma, and, more than anything else, his dedication towards making every product that he creates give the customer that much more than anything before it has. “All right I get your drift: Build him an altar why not. – I’m not here to join some guy I’ve never met’s fan-club.” ‘Fair comment; but the reason why I was telling you all that was because he’s promo-ing one of his products again, and I’m in on the promo too. – So I’ve put together the following video and stuck it up on You Tube; and since I made it I thought I may as well post it on my own blog too. “- And this has what to do with technology and computers?” ‘Funny you should say that, actually, because David Risley is a tech-problogger as well as being an internet-marketing guru. Take a look at PC Mech; that’s his first blog, he still owns it. - Anyway, enough of this. – Before long all the reading’s going to be sending you to sleep. – We can’t have that before you’ve watched this short video. – By short I mean less than 2 minutes. – Watch and enjoy: -
- Now that TinyURL that was mentioned all through the vid is http://tinyurl.com/yauyu5v. I chose to use TinyURL to shorten it as they give a preview for the security-conscious. If you’d like to preview the TinyURL’s destination before clicking on it then click here: http://tinyurl.com/preview/yauyu5v. – No I respect your caution: You never can be too careful these days. Anyway that’s what’s on offer, and it’s all that it says and more: I have the product; in fact I’ve owned it close on a year now, and it gets the Shazza-stamp-of-approval, with merit. I know that you’re possibly thinking “I’m a technician/engineer/hobby-tech-person/whatever, not bloody Sir Alan Sugar or Stella McCartney!”. I never even considered that I’d be reading a blog, let alone running one, only two years back. I thought my destiny and living was in building computers… Maybe you’re the next internet business and/or blogging sensation, waiting to come into bud? Who knows? Has the product got your name written on it? There’s only one way to find out. That’s my piece said then: If you want to add anything then there’s the customary comment-box somewhere below on the page. – Do give some feedback if you like.
Let David Risley teach you the basics of a six-figure problogger business in only 3 days. The course includes 14 videos, and has a 92 page transcript, checklist, and audio podcasts of all modules included. Download my FREE 5-page .pdf report on 3-Day Money |
My Computer Appears Busy But the Processor’s Almost Idle!
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This kind of situation can happen a lot; particularly when running Windows XP I’ve noted. It can even get to a point where the entire machine seems to freeze-up, and nothing appears to respond: Not the display, nor any functions. – Yet the processor-monitoring display appears to show that the processor-load never goes above a couple or three percent while this is going on. There may be a number of reasons why this is happening, and several things that are going on here: - Screen-requests Windows XP queues screen requests and executes them one at a time: Therefore if the queue becomes too long you may find that the display may become sluggish at times until the queue of requests have all been processed. During this time the processor’s waiting for the queue to clear and is idling and/or getting on with any other minor processing tasks. Disk-access The major reason why the system appears to jam-up is due to disk-access, possibly combined with the above screen-request queuing. You may notice that at the time your computer becomes temporarily unresponsive the hard-disk activity appears to be constant. – That means that queued data is being written to, and other data is being read from, the hard-disk. While this is happening the processor is just twiddling it’s thumbs while waiting. Disk-access is a well-known bottleneck in computers. While the processor can interact with RAM whilst only having to wait a couple or three cycles for a response, it’s a totally different ball-game when it comes to accessing data on the hard-disk: The processor requests the information and waits. The request quickly gets to the SATA controller, and either joins the queue or is passed straight to the hard-disk. This takes a minute fraction of a second thusfar, as it’s all electronic and happening extremely fast.
When the hard-drive receives the instructions, however, the slow part begins: First the hard-drive’s electronics process the request and instruct the read/write arms to retrieve X data from Y location on Z platter. The read/write arms then have to physically move to do so, and when they find the data they may have to read it a number of times to ensure that the data they send back to the electronics is a 100% perfect copy of what’s stored on the magnetic disk. In the meantime the processor has been waiting several thousand cycles or more already, and the reply’s not even been despatched yet. After another hundred or so cycles the processor receives the long-awaited reply. – Meanwhile other operations dependant upon the outcome of that request are backing up in the processor queue. – Many of these could be pieces of data that when processed will result in another screen request, upon which the graphics-processor on the graphics card is waiting in order to complete a screen-draw while it holds other pending requests in a queue. At times this situation can escalate to a point where the request-queue for the hard-disk, as well as every other queue, becomes so long that the entire machine has to wait a while for the multiple-queues to clear and their respective caches to empty, and thus the entire machine becomes temporarily unresponsive for a while. – All because hard-disk access times are so slow compared to other request execution times. Is there a way to avoid these excessive queues building up? Not completely, no: But the more RAM that’s installed and the less the number of processes running at the same time, the less frequently this situation will occur. Why? Each process requires a separate process-thread in the processor. That in itself isn’t a problem with today’s processors, especially multi-cored processors with hyperthreading. – But the processor still has to issue various requests of other components related to each individual process; many of which will be for access to data on the hard-disk, resulting in a queue of a length dependant upon the number of requests for hard-disk data issued. – Therefore the less threads running at once, the smaller the queue. RAM and 64-bit Also the more RAM installed the more can be used by the processor to store data in. The more data stored in RAM rather than on disk the quicker the processor can access that data when it needs to refer to it… And at this point I return to one of my favourite subjects: The advantage of a 64-bit operating system over a 32-bit equivalent. A 32-bit operating system can only see an absolute maximum of 4 gigabytes of RAM. When the system caches and shared-graphics-memory if any have all been taken into account that usually leaves about 3.5MBs – Which isn’t always enough, depending upon how many processes are being run. Eventually the available RAM is all used up and the processor relies upon the paging file on the hard-drive for storage. – The consequence of this is that over time the queues build up and – see above.
A 64-bit operating-system, however, can theoretically see over 3 exabytes of RAM: About a small football-field’s area of 1GB RAM sticks. In reality a 64-bit Windows operating system can see well over 10GBs RAM; and the most RAM that can commonly be installed on today’s motherboards is usually 16GBs anyway. Is that enough RAM to prevent massive queues building up. Normally, yes. (I have a 64-bit Windows 7 box running 8GBs of DDR2 800MHz RAM and it’s never “frozen” even once in 8 months, no matter how many process are being run on it.(Yes I’ve had the beta 64-bit, the RC 64-bit, and now the RTM 64-bit of Windows 7 on it.)) …In short then; the more RAM the better, in which case a 64-bit operating system is going to be superior to a 32-bit operating system in that regard. Solid-State disks Also, solid-state disks help one heck of a lot too; as the disk-access-time for SSDs is much quicker than for their spinning-platter equivalents – because there are no moving-parts in SSDs, and therefore the seek-time is vastly reduced. There is one drawback or more, though, with SSDs at the time of writing: Firstly they cost a small fortune in comparison to spinning-platter disks. The price is coming down, it’s already more than halved, but there is a long way to go yet. Secondly they aren’t available at the same storage capacities as spinning-platter drives: the largest commercially-widely-available SSD drive at time of writing is 320GB, although there are 500GB and larger SSD prototypes in use in secret in the military and in big industry to a lesser extent. (I can’t confirm that as a fact for obvious reasons; but you can believe it or not as you like.) Do I have to change my operating system to a 64-bit (Windows 7) OS, buy an SSD, and install more RAM to avoid my comp “freezing”? No; but those three things would be a complete solution. If you’re running 32-bit XP I would advise an upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7, provided that your machine is 64-bit capable. If you’re running 32-bit XP and intend to continue doing so, then if you have with less than a single gigabyte of RAM installed I’d advise you to add a gigabyte to whatever you currently have installed. If you want to buy and can afford to buy an SSD than go for it if you like; but upgrading to a 64-bit operating system with 4 gigabytes of RAM or more should solve most if not all of your worries. (Personally I’m going to wait until SSD storage becomes much bigger in capacity and also until the price is less than twice the price of standard HDDs before I invest in that technology.) Do I have to stick to Windows? Not at all: I do because I’m me, but you can use any operating system you want to use. I don’t advise trying to run Mac OSX on a PC though; unless your name’s Psystar. I’ve tried most operating systems; and I’ve found that Windows works best for me. You’re not me though, and maybe Linux or something might be preferable to you for your needs. – Try a dual-boot of Ubuntu and Windows. Ubuntu’ s free after all – so you have nothing to lose apart from a bit of time. … So if your computer (running Windows) becomes unresponsive temporarily at some point, you’ll now know why it’s doing so. – Does anyone have anything to add to that? If so please use the comment box below. – It seems a shame to waste it.
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A Quick Review of the $365k Blog Traffic Formula
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Excuse me for making another sales-y pattern-interrupt as an out-of-schedule blog post; but I simply had to notify you about this: – - It’s not tech-related as such’ unless you happen to run a tech-blog, but information like this should be shared; especially when there’s a special offer on the product between 24th and 27th November, if I remember rightly. Just recently I had the opportunity to get my hands on the "$365k Blog Traffic Formula" Further on in this post I’ll tell you what this is all about, but first of all let me assure you that this isn’t one of those free eBooks which you can find on other sites. If you’ve always wondered what the blogosphere heavy hitters do to attract oodles of cash and generate a massive traffic flow on a daily basis, then you’re in luck: -. 7 probloggers reveal the secret to their success, how they attract free traffic, and where do they get it from. And…? Well, if you could just talk to one of these peeps for a few minutes, you could learn one or two methods to better monetize your own blog by attracting more quality traffic. – I’m not saying that whatever efforts you make in that department, if you have your own blog, aren’t excellent; but onwards and upwards at all times is my motto; or at least one of them. - What that means is that you won’t have to pay any of these pro bloggers any consulting fees, neither do you have to attend their seminars, nor do you need to leave the comfort of your own home. You can actually download the book immediately and start using these traffic-getting strategies straight away on your own blog(s). – And the entire package will only set you back $37, one-time. That’s less than $6 per interview! – Is that good value or is that great value? You will NEVER get the chance to talk with a problogger for $6, not even if you only had one question to ask! What I also like about "$365k Blog Traffic Formula" is the two additional interviews included as complimentary gifts. – These interviews alone are worth more than the asking price, and I’m not the only one saying that. One thing I don’t like about this product is that it doesn’t include an interview with all my other favourite bloggers; but I suppose you can’t please everyone, – and hopefully there’ll be an add-on or version two update soon. So at the end of the day it’s in your best interest to get your hands on your own copy of "$365k Blog Traffic Formula" if you want to learn from the best in the field: Probloggers such as Chris Garrett, Daniel Scocco, Darren Rowse, Jack Humphrey, Jason Katzenback, Matt Garrett, and Yaro Starak. ‘Best of Blogging to you. - ‘Quick post, so no pictures in this one. |
kkomp.com – Beyond – The Public Newsletter: 20th November 2009
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Hello and welcome to another public newsletter. In this newsletter I’ll mention some changes I’ve made to this blog, we’ll take the usual look at and quick review of the last fortnight’s posts, and I’ll include some general small talk. Ch-ch-ch-changes… Ok, so to turn and face the strain, and get the ball rolling, I’ll mention that the last thing I’ve done, as far as this blog’s layout is concerned, is to have the latest post displayed in its entirety on the Welcome (home) page. This may change to having excerpts of the last few posts displayed with a “read more” link for each post. – I’m still fighting with php along with the assistance of some paid help, in order to get this optimised. – Bear with me on that. Time may change me; but I won’t change time. I’ve also changed the logo again, as you may notice: Whilst the simple black-text on a blue background was easy to download and possibly sufficient, it wasn’t exactly particularly eye-catching, and failed to initially capture the reader’s vision. I apologise to anyone still using dial-up, for the fact that the logo now takes about ten-times the amount of time to download; but such is progress. – In the same way that people no longer spend hours to optimise their blogs in order that any readers still using Internet Explorer 6 (spit) can gain maximum viewing pleasure, so I see no reason to use a minimalistic theme any longer for those still using dial-up. Internet Explorer 6 is yesterday’s browser, despite being the default browser which loads with XP; it’s horrible with a capital H, and these days webmasters expect people to use other browsers, which is easy to do. – Just download and run another browser; it cost nothing and it’s easy. – In the same way, if anyone’s still using dial-up, then I suggest that they start using a decent internet connection: Dial-up is yesteryear’s internet-connection, and should, in the light of necessity, be upgraded. I’ll carry on making small changes to the logo over time, as I have been doing. Another thing is that I’ve changed the name of this blog from “Beyond” to “kkomp.com – Beyond”. “Beyond”, by itself, says not-a-lot: Yes; it does convey a sense of being at the forefront or even ahead of that; but as a brand it sucks. kkomp.com says even less than that, true, but the two together are a definite brand-name ( See PC Mech.com: PC Mech is a linguistic invention in itself; although maybe rather more appropriate for a tech blog..): That’s something which will be important as this blog becomes more and more business-oriented and commercialised over time. – Don’t worry; I’m not going to start charging for every article: There’ll always be free content on this blog, but I can’t continue indefinitely to run this blog for no-profit or at a loss. – It’s just totally unrealistic to expect me to do so. – So I will be slowly and gently turning the blog into a moneymaking-venture in addition to hosting much free content. I do hope that you like the improving layout. Whilst layout is only a part of the whole; it is nevertheless something that contributes to the overall attractiveness of a blog, and a good layout is therefore equally as important as producing great-value content. I’ll be doing another reader-satisfaction-survey in the foreseeable future, and I hope that I get a decent response to this one with regard to numbers participating: The turnout in the case of the last one was worse than that of a British local election.
Promotion At this point; I’d like to remind you that I’m giving away a free report; “Some Things to Try if XP Crashes During Boot”. Windows XP can, and in certain cases, does, crash during boot-up. This 25-page report in pdf format will give you many tips and ideas for getting your XP computer restarted so that you can diagnose the problem. You’ll see the purple text at the top of the sidebar on almost every page. Simply insert your email address in the space provided, and click on “Get the Free Report”. You’ll get a confirmation email from FeedBlitz with both a confirmation-link for my email list, as well as a download location for the free report. I ask you to download the free report as well as clicking the confirmation-link. On The Move On that note; I’ll be moving my mailing-list from FeedBlitz over to Aweber fairly soon; so at some point those already on my mailing list will receive a confirmation email from Aweber with a link to click to indicate that you still want to receive emails from this blog. I’d ask you to simply click that confirmation-link when you get the email from Aweber, and that’ll be all you’ll need to do. If you’re not on my mailing list then you’re missing out on a free report, insider information, notification of blog updates, the whole shebang. I suggest that if you’re not on the mailing list, you get your free report as well as click the confirmation – link so that you’ll be a part of it and you’ll stop missing out.
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Reviews And now; a review of the posts that have been posted since the last Public Newsletter: - It’s not uncommon to reinstall Windows and find that your sound doesn’t work anymore. This article examines why this is and how you can put it right. (- It can be a pain when that happens; particularly when the motherboard’s so old that you have to scour the internet to eventually download the driver from a back-catalogue of a Chinese website that trickles data to you at 10Kb/s!) A partially-automated method of backing-up your entire blog, including the database, and storing the backup on your computer. – Forget using MySQL and phpMyAdmin to back-up your database separately: This method will automatically back your database up to your server, so that you can download the database backup to a local backup-file, along with your other files. The cost? – Nothing. The introduction of Windows 7 brings some explosive-growth figures; yet Apple aren’t doing too badly in comparison. – The OS war continues; with both the major players gaining some ground. Microsoft have provided a free downloadable product guide for Windows 7. Also this article has a link from which you can download the Windows Help program for 7 . – Yes you’re not alone with your new Windows 7 installation: Microsoft have provided much help and tuition online. In this article we take a look at the results of my recent customer satisfaction survey with respect to this blog. Abysmal turnout; but nice, helpful, answers. In the following post I veer towards where the fields of technology and literacy attempt to intersect. Sometimes the terminology and phraseology that I use is misunderstood. – I left a comment on another blog where I used the phrase “32-bit-retardedness. The blog’s owner later went off on one and announced to a live audience that I’d called him retarded because he had installed 32-bit Windows 7. – In this article I explain that the term “retardedness” as I used it refers to slowness, rather than severe mental incapacity. Logging in to your personal accounts on someone else’s computer is never a good idea. – This article looks at a few of the reasons why. – Possible identity-theft being just one of them. Is it possible to do it? Is it worth doing it? – Find out in this article. – Some people may still be running a single-core processor in their system; so is it worth their going 64-bit when they upgrade to Windows 7 on their existing box? Sometimes a computer might shut down by itself without warning. In this article we look at a few of the possible explanations for this. The last thing visually-impaired people want is to search for a magnifying glass when they can’t see anything. Windows 7 doesn’t help much in this regard; but here’s a solution. – The visually disabled could have been catered for a bit better by Microsoft: But not to worry; help is here. I’ll do a deal with you: I’ll trade you a supposedly undocumented shortcut trick for the privilege of having you on my mailing list. (Non-compulsory.) – In this article I show you a tip to help towards enhancing your online security with regard to emails. Weather or not That’s about it then. – Other than to not bother to have to tell you to stay warm if you’re in the UK: The weather is so unbelievably mild for the time of year, it’s incredible. It’s still like Autumn (Fall). – The tree outside my window still has leaves on it; despite the recent gusty winds.
Be ready for the cold snap before the New Year, though: I’ll go on record here and predict that there’s a strong chance, 50/50 I’d venture, of a traditional Victorian-style Christmas weather-wise in the UK this year. – Yes it could be that cold. – Get your central-heating and boilers etc tuned – up now just in case. Witch’s intuition can be wrong; but usually it’s fairly accurate. That’s all. – Enjoy the weekend, or even the strong – end; depending on whatever it is you’re doing.
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Help: I Reinstalled Windows and I Lost My Sound!
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That’s a fairly common problem, and the reason for it is that your computer has a specialised sound codec that requires a specialised driver that’s not included with your copy of Windows. Windows might either have installed the best driver that it could find, which, it turns out, isn’t up to the job, or it can’t find a suitable driver, realises it, and therefore gives up trying to install any driver. What is a driver? A driver is a piece of software, specific to a relevant piece of hardware, that translates the instruction data from the machine in which it is situated into a command sequence that is recognisable by that piece of hardware. Without that driver the piece of hardware might as well not exist as far as the operating system is concerned, as it has no other way of recognising it or communicating with it except through the driver. Imagine you came face to face with an alien: You have no idea what anything the alien says means, and the alien can’t understand your language either: Therefore, unless you can find an interpreter that speaks both your own language as well as the alien’s language, there is no way of you and the alien communicating properly. Now imagine that you are the computer, the alien is the piece of hardware, and the driver is the interpreter… You now get the idea. Each is special All drivers are hardware-specific, but Windows, particularly in the case of Windows XP, includes driver models that in many cases will just translate enough to allow your hardware to function in a limited capacity until you can download and install the proper driver. There are two other cases that could be possible too: Either Windows has the exact driver for the hardware, in which case it’ll install it and the piece of hardware in question will run properly from the outset, or the case may be that either Windows will attempt to install a driver that fails to install properly because it’s not the right one, or Windows will see that it doesn’t have the correct driver and won’t try to install anything at all in relation to that piece of hardware – With the result that when the operating system is fully installed and begins functioning, it won’t even see that the related hardware exists at all. If Windows attempts to install a driver that it thinks might work but finds that it doesn’t it’ll, in the case of XP anyway, abandon attempts to try further and leave a bad driver in place at times:This will result in a similar outcome to not having any driver installed usually, plus a black exclamation-mark on a yellow background will appear in the Device Manager in relation to that piece of hardware, indicating that the operating system sees that a device is present, but the installed driver is the wrong one and thus there is a fault somewhere. The device may show up as something like “PCI Multimedia Device”, indicating that Windows knows what type of device it is, but no more. In short; without the drivers Windows has no way to control the hardware so it treats it as if it’s not there. In such cases the right thing to do would be to totally uninstall the device in Device Manager, and install the correct driver(s).
How do I find the correct driver(s)? Drivers come from one of two places; those being either your Windows installation or your hardware manufacturer. The good news is that it’s usually not too hard to find drivers; particularly for recent versions of Windows from XP onwards. Manufacturer-specific hardware drivers can be obtained from places such as the HP support site, if your machine was manufactured by HP. Other major computer vendors like Dell and others also take advantage of the internet to have support sites that provide the latest software drivers and updates for the machines that they sell. And most also have fairly active support forums these days where you can get specific help for your computer and hardware from other users as well as, occasionally, the vendor’s staff too. In some cases you might need to actually determine what specific piece of “driverless” hardware is in the computer, and then visit that hardware manufacturer’s site to download the latest updated drivers. That’s very common for custom built machines, or machines from smaller vendors: ‘Not as common in mass-manufactured machines, such as Dell computers, for instance. Once you’ve found the correct driver(s) for your piece of hardware, you’ll probably find instructions for installation from the manufacturer either on their website or in a readme file within the installation-package itself. – Usually it’s a pretty straightforward case of simply running the .exe file and an installation wizard takes care of the rest of the process with minimal user interaction. In your particular case you may find that you have a particular specification of Realtek driver required to operate the onboard sound hardware on your motherboard, perhaps, or something similar. 7 Windows 7, at time of launch, appears to have either a proper a driver or a substitute-driver that’ll make the hardware operate at reduced-level for almost every piece of hardware imaginable at the time. – Another thing about Windows 7 is that it’ll search Windows Update for drivers that aren’t included on the DVD during installation, so it’ll possibly7 be quite rare to discover that a driver is missing after installation in the case of that operating system. Having said that, though, there will no doubt be new drivers produced for new hardware over time that neither Windows 7 nor Windows Update will have in their respective driver-arsenals.
At the end of the day; the best place to go for drivers is to the manufacturer’s website; particularly in the case of graphics card drivers. See this article for more on that. Have you anything that you’d like to add to that? If so then please do comment. |
Back-Up Your Entire WordPress Blog – Easily
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In the same way that you should always make backups of your computer’s operating system as is, plus your files; so, in the same way you should back up your WordPress blog.
Optimise first
This is where database-optimisation comes into its own. Optimizing your database means clearing out all the unwanted crap that’s making it huge, and only keeping the entries that are needed. In the old days you had to learn MySQL, install and operate phpMyAdmin, etc, to do that. These days the geeks associated with WordPress have built a plugin so that you don’t have to.
Database back-up
This time the free plugin’s called WP-DB-backup, and it once again avoids you having to learn MySQL and phpMyAdmin by automating the backup of your database.
FTP it
OK – So your database now is backed up daily to your server, and you back-up all the files on your server on a daily-basis, manually, via FTP. – That way you’ve backed up everything, including your automatically-backed-up database too. (Unfortunately you will have to install and learn phpMyAdmin if you ever need to restore your database files; but at least you’ll have a backup or more to hand should the need arise.)
Buy “WordPress on Crack” – Build your own WordPress plugins: Click Here! |
How is Windows 7 Doing Marketwise?
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According to figures released by Net Applications on or around 5th November 2009, it would seem that Windows 7 had at that time already taken 3.67% of the operating system market; a 1.68% growth since its launch on 22nd October 2009.Most if not all of the figures released on 22nd October were related to the free release Candidate, but the increasing figures suggest that many users are upgrading their operating systems to Windows 7. Despite this somewhat explosive growth; it appears also that Windows 7 installations, in the main, are simply replacing older Windows operating systems, rather than capturing market real-estate from competitors. From September to end of October 2009 the Mac’s market-share grew from 5.12% of the market to 5.27%; a rise of 0.15%. Did those users migrate over from Linux or Windows; or are they perhaps using Windows and Mac on separate computers? Maybe they’re new users? It appears that Windows 7 isn’t causing any Mac people to convert at this time. The overall Windows market share in fact dropped slightly in October. Nevertheless, Windows accounts for 92.52% of the marketing total, according to available figures released on 5th November, compared to 92.77% in September. – It’s growth, then, for both Microsoft and Apple. That fact could well be due to the timing of Apple’s release of Snow Leopard, as well as the factor of a good pricing policy on their part. The low price of Snow Leopard in comparison to Windows 7 is offset by the high price that Mac users initially paid for their machines; so all in all the cost of running either comes down to a similar figure at the end of the day. Of course, the figures released by Net Applications quite obviously are more relevant to the USA than globally it would appear, although do correct me if I am wrong. The sales of Macs in America appear to be greater then their global sales figures; so the figures presented herein could paint more of a cloudy picture for Windows 7 than is actually the case.
Whatever the case; it appears that Microsoft have scored rather well so far with their new operating system. It would be interesting to compare the difference in percentage terms between those Win 7 users who are installing the 64-bit version and those installing the 32-bit version. – I don’t have those figures available currently, but any significant increases in 64-bit usage is sure to increase speed of the heralding-in of the age of 64-bit computing. Why is this so important? Because although a 64-bit operating system utilises more memory-space for its operation, with an increase in 64-bit computing comes an increase of both operating system and hardware-versatility: Gone is the up-to 4-megabyte memory limitation with 64-bit, and it’ll be a good few years before a motherboard is manufactured that can hold even a single exabyte of RAM. Also advantageous is the fact that 64-bit hardware is far more multi-application-flexible; therefore executing a number of different programs simultaneously puts less strain on the hardware and allows faster operation. I’ve heard it said amongst certain geeks that standardisation of 64-bit software with regard to a Windows environment will be at least two years in coming: Personally I doubt that, and would estimate that figure to be one year at most. Without the 64-bit-adoption-statistics to hand, however, I can currently only speculate. What’s your view?
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Free Windows 7 Product Guide & Help Program
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‘Unfamiliar with Windows 7? ‘Wondering whether to upgrade and ‘don’t know what to expect? ‘Don’t know how much better Windows 7 is than Vista? - Then you need Microsoft’s Windows 7 Product Guide!
Why am I promoting it? There’s nothing financially in it for me. – But there’s a lot in it for you, so read it and find out about Windows 7; whether you purchase it or not. From the Overview section of the download page: - “The Windows 7 Product Guide provides a detailed look at the many new and improved features in Windows 7. The guide is designed as an accurate source of information that can help you to understand how Windows 7 Simplifies Everyday Tasks, Works the Way You Want, and Makes New Things Possible. The guide is also designed to provide IT Professionals with information about how to Make People Productive Anywhere, Manage Risk Through Enhanced Security and Control, and Reduce Costs by Streamlining PC Management. This is not a help and how to guide. Rather, it provides an overview of the many exciting features in Windows 7 and pointers to more information. The Windows 7 Product Guide is available in both XPS and PDF formats.” You can use either the XPS reader included in Windows Vista and Windows 7 to read the documents in their .xps version, or if you prefer you can download the .pdf version and read the documents in Windows XP, Vista, or 7. – The choice is yours. It’s available in 2 formats and it’s free; so grab your copy today. – And while you’re at it, why not join my mailing list too? - Windows 7, and my mailing-list: The future of computing, if I may be so bold.
Windows Help - Oh yes; one more thing: If you’re wondering where the Windows Help program is in Windows 7; particularly if you never bothered with Vista; but upgraded to Windows 7 from XP, read on: - Microsoft didn’t include the Help program on the Windows 7 disk, just like they also didn’t include it on the Windows Vista DVD. – But you can download it online. According to Microsoft, on the download page: _ “Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) is a Help program that has been included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating system. However, the Windows Help program has not had a major update for many releases and no longer meets Microsoft’s standards. Therefore, starting with the release of Windows Vista and continuing in Windows 7, the Windows Help program will not ship as a feature of Windows. If you want to view 32-bit .hlp files, you must download and install the program (WinHlp32.exe) from the Microsoft Download Center.” - So the Windows Help program for Windows 7 is a supplemental program, referenced in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as KB917607. It’s downloadable for free online. What happens now? When you attempt to download the Windows Help.exe files for Windows 7, you’ll first have to validate your copy of Windows 7. If this is your first time of validating your copy of Windows 7, you might have to download the Windows Genuine Advantage tool before you can proceed. When you’ve done that, and it’s settled down, scroll to the bottom of the window and click on “continue”. You’ll be informed whether your Windows installation is genuine or not, and if it is you’ll be able to download either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of the additional software. (Download the x86 file if you’re running the 32-bit version of Windows 7, or the x64 file if you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows 7.) Select the ‘Install using Windows Installer…’ option and let it do the deed: Your help files are now installed. – Target neutralised.
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Results of my Customer Satisfaction Survey
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I didn’t get as many responses as I’d hoped to get; but all-in-all those responses that I did get were favourable: - In response to Question #1 (Multi-choice.); “Overall; do you like this site?”: - Around a third of respondents said that “the design sucks, but the content is good.” Since then I’ve improved the design a lot, although I’m sure that there’s room for more improvement. A couple of people said “It’s brilliant!” – Thank you to those people. – I now know that a tiny section of my readers are compulsive liars. Around a third said “Yes. – It’s reasonably good all round.” – That’s encouraging to hear. … But almost two-thirds said “It could be better.”. - Fair comment; what couldn’t? – Having said that though, I’ll not get complacent about things. – I’ll keep striving to make this blog better and better as time goes by.
Question #2 (Multi-choice.) asked “Am I providing what you want and expect from this site?”. Around a third of respondents answered “Yes; I’m satisfied.”. Around two-thirds, however, answered “Yes; but ‘could do better.” Before I start getting big-headed about it, though, the fact was that almost a third said, before the latest design changes were implemented “The site’s layout needs improvement.” I didn’t get anyone responding in this way after the improvements were made. – Possibly because nobody could stand the sight of the blog any further from that point; however I’ll gauge the effects of those and any subsequent changes in the next survey, if I still have an audience.
Question 3 asked “How do you feel that this site could be improved? (Be as specific as you want.)”. This asked the respondent to enter text into a text-box. Many people skipped this, but among the responses I got were: - “I would only say aesthetically.”, “Sometimes post topics are a bit cryptic”, and “More photographs instead of ‘cutesy’ Fairy-Doll graphics”. As you may have noticed; I’ve been working on the aesthetics, and will continue to do so over time. It is true that some titles are cryptic: That was deliberate and designed to give a tabloid-feel to certain articles. I’ll make an effort not to be over-cryptic if I can help it. As for “’cutesy’ Fairy-Doll graphics”; I think the last time I used such graphics was in June 2009 in the kkomp.com birthday post, which was deliberately done – although if it’s not liked generally I could desist from using them at all in future. The question is whether or not it would be seen as politically incorrect to not exclude them on the grounds of undue feminism. I’ve no idea why that should be the case; but someone’s bound to think of it: A man of course.
Question number 4 was the same style of question as number 3. It asked “What, specifically, would you like to see on this site in future?” One of the answers I got was “More Pagan/Witch stuff, a, extra traffic for you, and b, you’re good at being forthright, it’d be great to use it that way too. Just be polite. In answer to that I could also do a piece on the role of Lenin in the Russian Revolution; however neither would be particularly good subject-matter for a tech-blog. Whilst it’s true that I very occasionally do a piece on Pagan belief, timed to coincide with a major Pagan Sabbat; such as Litha (Midsummer), or Samhein (Halloween), generally I tend to avoid this type of article, (Despite being a Pagan myself – but not a Russian or a Communist.) as it has very little to do with technology. – However if anyone can invent a prototype for an anti-gravity device that can be fitted to a broomstick and is capable of levitating a Witch on said broomstick, I’ll make a definite point of including it as well as marketing it. Other, serious, comments included an in-depth build-your-own-computer article from more than a single perspective. – Perhaps that’s one for the future? Also somebody suggested a reader-forum: That’s a long way off at this point. – About 3000 miles away in fact, in Florida, USA currently; on PCMech.com – which is possibly where the idea germinated from. I have, in the past, thought about setting up a reader’s chatroom, but anything of that type is currently only a pipe-dream and is possibly something for the future. Before I start on projects such as that I have to be able to start generating the resources to fund such a project. Things of such a commercialised nature will come into effect on this blog in the near future. – However for that sort of project to work properly I’ll need to change the nature of this blog in order that it isn’t just used as an online reference-manual as it currently is, but, rather, a socially-interactive piece of technically-oriented media as I intend it to be. Judging by the poor response to the survey by approximately 1000 original-readers per week, I have a lot of work to do and a fair way to go on that yet. – So that is, in my opinion, something to consider for the distant future perhaps. Maybe I should lead the way and my readers will follow; but judging from the amount of responses via this blog to my previous advertising campaigns, I am wondering about the willingness to follow in the first place. – My Quantcast profile for this domain indicates that less than 10% of my readers are regulars; the rest are casual visitors. Of those regulars there doesn’t yet appear to be a significantly numerous loyal following currently to justify such a huge expansion in such areas.
Question #5, a multi-choice question, asked “Would you recommend this site to a friend, colleague, or associate?”. I’m pleased to see that everyone who responded answered either “Yes; definitely!” or “Usually, yes.”. The other choices were: – At times, maybe. – Occasionally, perhaps. – Rarely, if ever. – and; You’re joking; right!? - I must be getting something right.
Questions 6,7, and 8, were to do with my mailing-list, and have been omitted from this article as it is thought that their answers may help to personally identify people to others.
Question 9 was a question that required text-entry. “Is there anything else you’d like to add: Anything at all?”. Generally the response was fairly positive, and the theme of most of the responses was to “keep it up”.
Question 10 asked “Did you find this survey easy to complete?” It appears that nobody had any problems with that, other than somebody who indicated that they loved doing it and hated doing it at the same time.
Concluding remarks My thanks to all who took the survey. The results of this survey will go some way towards guiding the direction that this blog takes in future. Those people who didn’t take the survey: Well it’s now closed; and you had your chance. There’ll be another survey at some point in the future, so you’ll have to wait until then to have your say. Enjoy the rest of the week.
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What is Meant by “32-Bit-Retardedness”?
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This article may or may not be interesting to my readers: It contains no information of any value as such from a technical point of view. It is simply intended to clear up a particular misunderstanding.
In the following post I will veer towards the very edge of the subject of technology, at a point where the fields of technology and literacy attempt to intersect. Sometimes the terminology and phraseology that I use is misunderstood. Here is one example of such an incident: - Recently, when commenting on another blog, I used the term “32-bit-retardedness” which was instantly taken out of context by the blog’s owner. The owner was saying in his article that in his opinion there was absolutely no need to move to a 64-bit operating system at this point in time, as 32-bit was still the standard. My reply was that holding back on the migration from 32 to 64-bits, (Which I paraphrased, possibly unwisely, as “32-bit-retardedness”.) would just lead to a slow development of more 64-bit drivers and applications, making the inevitable transition slow and painful. (Those weren’t the actual words used, but the same meaning was attempted to be conveyed.) Here is what I actually did say: -
Sharron Field says: No, no, no, no, no: Mr ***** you are encouraging 32-bit-retardedness; and if everybody thought the same way as you do then everybody would stick to 32-bit and no 64-bit apps will ever be developed: Just as happened with XP and Vista. It’s not about “getting a … boner” or whatever. (Not all geeks can get a boner anyway.) – It’s about progress rather than stagnation; it’s about taking that step beyond rather than standing still because it seems more convenient at the time. - Go forth, therefore; adopt 64-bit architecture and a 64-bit operating system: Leave the 32-bitters to their RAM-restrictions, technology of the past, and look towards the bright new horizons with confidence!
As it turned out, the guy who owned the blog seems to have decided that I accused him of being retarded, and said so publicly on PC Mech Live at 8PM EST on Wednesday 11th November 2009. In doing so he tried to stop me from presenting my case, and replied that the matter was closed, after I apologised if he read it that way and stated that I had said that he was “encouraging 32-bit-retardedness”.
- So what did this term actually mean? The word “retardedness” has several definitions; both as an adjective and as a verb. While the word “retard” is commonly-used in slang as an insult recently, the tern “retardedness” applied to someone or something doesn’t necessarily refer to that person or thing being retarded in a mental capacitative sense, as the slang insult form of the tern would convey.
http://en.wiktionary.org defines the term in numerous senses: -
Retardedness; to be retarded Adjectiveretarded
The word “retarded” can also be an adjective or a verb. In the term “32-bit retardation” it is meant to be conveyed as a verb: -
Verbretarded
Further examination of the first definition of retarded as a verb gives us the following: –
Adjectiveslow (comparative slower, superlative slowest) Positive
The term retarded’s meaning, as used in the phrase under examination, bears a comparative interpretation akin to #1 above:
“Taking a long time to move or go a short distance, or to perform an action; not quick in motion; proceeding at a low speed. “
- That is as in “Taking a long time to adapt or migrate from a 32-bit to a 64-bit environment; not being quick in doing so, proceeding at a low speed with regard to doing so”. What it does not mean is that the person who takes a long time to adapt or migrate from a 32-bit to a 64-bit environment is [mentally] retarded. – To read it as such would be to take the meaning totally out of context, possibly deliberately reading it in such a way in order to have an excuse to give an unfavourable reaction to the phrase. It was true that I was making the odd dig at him during the PC Mech Live show that evening because he had gone for 32-bit Windows 7 whereas I had gone for 64-bit Windows 7: But any such digs were meant in fun. After I’d jibed that a problem he was having with a program he was running might be due to the fact that 4GB RAM wasn’t enough for the task, he launched into a rather brisk counterattack and went off on one, saying that I’d accused him of being retarded because he’d chosen a 32-bit operating system, in front of an audience of over a hundred people. He then attempted to make it as black as it could be for me, saying that I was rude and that I’d never get anywhere in business with an attitude like that (Whatever business has to do with it.)…etc. Yes, I’ve written this post to cover my ass, and in order that I can direct any questions regarding the incident to this post as a reference, rather than launching into multiple copies explanations on a 1 to 1 basis. Also, if I ever use the term again, I can send anybody who starts getting into a mood to this blog post also. In addition, it pre-empts the grapevine’s possible coverage of the event; in that it gives a clear explanation that It’s not rudeness on my part, but the ignorance of third-parties, that is at issue here. - Now someone will accuse me of accusing someone of ignorance… Comments are invited if anyone wishes to do so.
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Should You Log-in on Someone Else’s Computer?
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Logging in on someone else’s computer isn’t a wise move – Here’s why: Let’s look at this fictional example: - The unusual situation that you find yourself in one day is that your computer’s not working for whatever reason, and your laptop or netbook or iPhone is already in for repair. – Therefore you have no computer of your own available. – But your friend very kindly offers to let you use theirs for a session, just to get your pressing business sorted out in the interim until you can get online. You arrive at your friend’s house, and after swapping pleasantries you sit at their waiting computer and log in to your important accounts, such as your bank, email, Twitter, etc, see to your important pressing matters, thank your friend, and after another coffee, you start out merrily on your way back home. The following day the geek you phoned for help the day before gets your desktop working again, and you also are informed that your other hardware is ready to pick up and working perfectly. – But when you attempt to get the money from your bank account to pay for the repairs, you find that your balance is in the red. You also find that you can’t log in to your email account, and someone’s spamming Twitter using your account. Someone has possibly stolen your identity. Definitely they’ve hijacked your Twitter and email accounts, and stolen all your bank balance. – All just at the worst time that you could have had it happen to you. How did it happen? Spyware Woes Since your friend’s machine is a computer that you don’t normally have control of; you have no idea whether or not keylogger spyware on that machine is recording every keystroke you make and sending resultant data to hacker somewhere on the planet. Your friend had no idea that their machine was so infected either, until all their own accounts were hacked into as well. Other types of spyware were also recording which sites and web pages you visited, for how long, what passwords you used…etc, and the criminals raced each other to see who could get a hold of major parts of your entire online identity first.
… But spyware is not the only worry you would have in using someone else’s computer for personal business: - Browser Memories In the browser, form fields in particular, the same ones that you enter your banking account ID and passwords into, are remembered. Sometimes they’re remembered automatically, along with the password entered. Therefore someone could possibly see your user name, select it, and be able to login to your account with your password on the computer you’ve just used: Whether it’s your friend’s machine, a public computer, or even a retailer’s box. Malice Aforethought - Even your best friend’s little geeky brother, or sister even, could log on as soon as nobody was watching, enter the username that they overheard in conversation, and have full access to your account(s) from the passwords that the browser remembered. Let’s not forget, it’s fairly easy to purposely install software or set up browser features to record your user name and password automatically. – So if you don’t trust the computer’s owner 101% then this is a particular reason to not use their machine to log on to your personal accounts. – Even if – in fact especially if – they offer to pay you to do so. On the other side of the coin the person who allows you to use their computer also can get stung with accusations and/or probing from you and from the authorities during investigation into the crime. – I assure you that this will strain even the strongest of friendships up to or beyond breaking point in many cases. - So, if necessary, let others who won’t listen to your explanations use terminology about you such as “tight”, “selfish”, “stingy”, “mean”, whatever. – It’s a lot better to have some shallow half-brained person insult you than to lose everything.
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Can I Install Windows 7 64-bit on a System With Only a Single-Core Processor?
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‘First question: Will the 64-bit version of Windows 7 run on only 1 core? Answer = Yes, but… …But the single-core CPU has to be 64-bit capable. That rather limits the field, as there aren’t many single-cored processors that are indeed 64-bit capable. The ones that I know of are: - On the AMD side there’s the Athlon 64 single-core; probably the best-known of all the 64-bit single-core processors. The Athlon 64 is available in Socket 754, Socket 939, Socket 940, Socket AM2, and, surprisingly, even in Socket AM2+. The problem with most if not all the Socket 754, 939, and 940 Athlon 64s, is that they won’t fit a board that is capable of running hardware compatible with Windows 7. Having said that; I’ve seen a Socket 939 motherboard built to run XP running Vista (Which has the same hardware requirements as Windows 7.) on an Athlon 64, but it ran rather jerkily and badly – and not many of the peripheral ports worked.
That leaves us with Socket AM2 and Socket AM2+. The thing with a socket AM2 motherboard, (Which boards are commonly, in most cases, hardware-compatible for use with Windows 7.) is that a processor-upgrade will allow you to run a dual-core Socket AM2 Athlon 64 X 2 processor, as most if not all socket AM2 boards are compatible with dual-core processor architecture. – Therefore there appears to be very little point in running a single-cored Athlon 64 processor on it. – But if you want to do so then there appears to be no reason why you can’t do just that. In a similar vein, a socket AM2+ motherboard will definitely run a dual-core processor, and may also normally allow you to run a triple or quad-cored Socket AM2+ Phenom on it; ( As I do.) so once again there appears to be no reason to run a single-cored processor on it. – But, having said that, if you want to do so then there appears to be no reason why you can’t do just that.
Staying with AMD, we now come to the Sempron: The Athlon’s inferior relation. There aren’t many 64-bit Semprons around as far as I’m aware, but nevertheless there are indeed some. Sempron 64s are available in Socket 754, also possibly in Sockets 939 and AM2. – The same applies to these socket designations if they hold a 64-bit Sempron as with the Athlon 64 notes above. Moving on to Intel we have our last single-cored 64-bit-capable processor that I know of: That being the P4-600 series of processors: Intel’s eventual answer to the Athlon 64 series from AMD. These processors, in my opinion, suck big time: They use an architecture based on the Prestcott design, and were Pentium 4 with a few bells and whistles. You’ll be extremely hard-pressed indeed to find a board that holds one of these processors that has hardware that will support Windows 7. – So in short we can forget that series, as well as Intel, for the purpose of this article. At the end of the day, then, if you have a motherboard with a single-cored AMD Athlon 64 on it, and it’s a Socket AM2 or AM2+ designation, then there is a good chance that you can run Windows 7 on it as-is. – If, that is, you can’t be bothered to upgrade the processor to a dual-core. Final summary: It’s just not worth running Windows 7 64-bit on a single-core processor, even though it’s possible to do so in a couple of cases. – Upgrade the processor instead, if your comp is a candidate and is that old. (Up to 6 years old at time of writing.) For an article on upgrading your Socket AM2 processor from single to dual-core, click this link. |
Why Does My Computer Experience Random Shutdowns?
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You’ve had your machine switched on a while, and you’re in the middle of a project. –‘Time for a break; so you go out to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. When you’ve made coffee and grabbed a biscuit you return to your desk to find your computer’s displaying a Welcome screen and waiting for you to log in. - For some reason it shut down and restarted without being told to do so. Maybe this has happened before, at random times; and you’re furious about it. Why could it be happening?
It could be a number of things: - 1) RAM issues 2) Overheating due to too much load 3) Dodgy or corrupt programs 4) Dodgy, old, or corrupt device drivers 5) Bad Windows XP setting choice Or maybe something else.
Let’s take a look at the 5 we’ve listed so far: -
1. RAM issues If a fault has developed in one of the RAM chips on one of the sticks, such as even a single transistor failure, which causes it to not work as it should, then Windows or whatever operating system you’re running could well become confused when it attempts to access that piece of physical memory, and go into a tizzy, resulting in a BSOD. How would you discover if this is the cause of the fault? Simple answer = change your RAM sticks. If it works normally with new RAM then target neutralised. On that point; I do realise that RAM isn’t as cheap as it used to be: At the time of writing, DDR2 is going up in price, when not long ago it was dirt-cheap: Less than £10GBP for a 1MB stick. DDR3, on the other hand, is coming down in price; but it’s still not as inexpensive as DDR2. – On that basis, you might not want to shell out and change all your RAM, especially if you have around 8GBs on 4 2GB sticks, for instance. (That much DDR2 cost me about £80GBP when it was dirt-cheap.) - If that is the case then the answer is to buy a single stick, the same size and designation as the others, and try swapping just a single stick at a time with the new stick in all cases of RAM sticks on your motherboard. If the restarts stop totally at some point, leave things as they are and bin the faulty RAM stick, which is already uninstalled from your computer.
2. Overheating due to too much [processor] load. Some programs use a lot of processor resources. The more processor resources used, the more wattage is burned up and the hotter the processor gets. This is true with all processors; single and multi-core, (I’ve had my AMD Athlon 64 x 2 shut down on me for this very reason before now.) although generally, multi-core processors can bear more load than a single-cored processor. The capability, age, and fabrication technique used in manufacture can all have a bearing upon how hot a processor gets under certain working environments. To use an extreme example of this; if you were to attempt to do video-transposition, editing, etc, on a Pentium 1 processor, (Which can barely run XP, incidentally.) along with various other programs, you’d probably get a system shutdown with a BSOD due to overheating. (- And possibly fry the processor in the process too.) Keep your fans and cooler clear of dust and dirt: This, also, will help avoid overheating issues. A utility called Speedfan will tell you the current temperature of your CPU and hard drives at any time.
3. Dodgy or corrupt programs As a computer user, especially in the case of those who use Windows, you need to be careful what programs you download and run on your machine: Some programs are just badly-written – free ones and paid ones, and can screw up your operating system eventually. Other programs may have a hidden payload of adware, spyware, or even malware, in the code, which executes when you run it, and causes all kinds of trouble. Hint: If the program looks like it does too much for the price, or it is claimed to solve all issues perfectly, then it’s probably full of crap and should be avoided. Run an offline scan using your usual antivirus/antimalware program, and also run an online scan using an online scanner. – You might be surprised at what’s uncovered.
4. Dodgy, old, or corrupt device drivers Since device drivers are magnetic data just like programs, they can become corrupted over time just like programs. If you suspect a driver is causing a shutdown issue, look in Device Manager and check that all devices are functioning correctly. If a driver isn’t right, note the details written about the device, remove it, and download and install a replacement driver. Every now and again a new device-driver version is written for any particular hardware device: This is done because there may be issues in the previous driver version that need addressing, or because an emerging technology requires an extra set of functions to be added to a particular driver for whatever reason. If you’ve not downloaded new drivers recently then your shutdown issues could be due to old drivers on your disk. Check for new versions of drivers regularly; particularly in the case of graphics cards. Microsoft Update have a driver update service; which I’ve found to be unreliable, behind the times, and often gives you the wrong driver for your hardware. – The individual hardware item manufacturer’s website is always the best place to go for a driver update.
5. Bad Windows XP setting choiceThere’s a setting in Windows XP that instructs your computer to restart if a system error occurs. If you turn off that option, you may solve your automatic reboot problem – But then you’ll not see the resultant BSOD screen, if one occurs, which might well assist you to diagnose the issue. – So in short I don’t suggest that you switch on the “Automatically restart” setting. To check whether or not it’s already on, do the following: -
Click Start, then open Control Panel Switch to classic view if not already selected. Click System. Click on the Advanced Tab. Click Settings in the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck Automatically Restart in the System failure section if it’s checked. These are just a few of the many reasons why your system is restarting. It might be something to do with something you’ve recently added: If you’ve installed new hardware, software, or peripheral devices, remove – and see if the restart persists. It could be that your power-supply unit (PSU) is wearing out, or it may be due to bad capacitors on your motherboard. (See this article) There is no one answer, nor is there one single set of answers: Having said that, I hope the above information helps. |
How to Create a Magnifier Desktop Icon in Windows 7 for the Visually Impaired
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Windows 7 has made using your computer much easier – But it’s still not that easy for someone who’s visually impaired to get Windows 7’s on-screen magnifier working. – In fact, they’ll have to be able to see and discern the small round Windows logo (Start) button, in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen by default, click it using a standard mouse pointer, type the word “magnifier” into the search-bar, see the small writing saying “Turn Magnifier on or off, click it, and be taken to the Ease of Access Center. At the Ease of Access Center the computer eventually starts to talk to you, and highlights four links as an electronic voice reads them out. “To get to the help-centre for the visually-impaired; you need to find a tiny doorway which is on a corner. Press the door with a sewing needle and it will open. Type your destination into the keypad and you’ll be taken to somewhere where you’ll be given further directions verbally…” Would be the guidebook’s directions to any lone partially-sighted person if this were a real-life situation – if there were a guidebook. Oh it’s online, for which the person who wants to know how to use the magnifier needs to be able to use the magnifier in order to find out how. – Brilliant! I’m sure that you’d agree that this isn’t much help to someone elderly with failing vision. – Which will probably be why very few people actually use the magnifier feature of Windows 7. - However; if you have a partially-sighted and/or elderly friend or relative who needs fast access to the magnifier feature in Windows 7, then it would be a good idea to create a desktop icon for them to use to take them straight there.
Advertisment:
Here’s how to create the icon on the desktop. The procedure isn’t exactly rocket science: -
Right-click an empty area of the Windows 7 desktop and hover your cursor over “New”. In the list that appears, select “Shortcut” by clicking on it.
In the text-input line below where it says “Type the location of the item:” Enter “Magnify”. (Without the inverted commas.) Press return on your keyboard.
In the following text-input bar, below the words “Type a name for this shortcut”, ignore the highlighted “Magnify.exe” and type “Magnifier”. (Without the inverted commas.) : - Press return on your keyboard
You’ll now see that you have a brand new icon on your desktop with a picture, the contents of which include a screen with a magnifying glass in front of it, marked “Magnifier.
All the visually-impaired person has to do now is to click that icon and the magnifier will instantly appear, as if by magic.
The hard-to-find and elusive magnifier feature is now instantly available to the partially-sighted person with just a click. A bit of Windows 7 hassle averted on Beyond: Hardware + Software + Practical Electronics. – Thinking ahead for the disabled. … And now; some adverts: -
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How to View an Email’s Source Quickly in Windows
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Your friendly spammers Occasionally, you may get an email that appears to have been sent by someone you know, or someone who seems to know you rather well, judging from the familiarity of the way the person is coming across and their seeming friendliness. Unfortunately this is a tactic of malware distributors, who spoof a sender’s email address and send people an email as a spam that appears to come from someone close, or to be related to an important matter, in the hope that you’ll click the link provided and open the floodgates to any malware they’d like to infest your computer with.
Is that supposedly friendly email genuine, or a spoof? Other than intuition, there are a number of ways of finding out for sure: The most risky of which is to click the link in the email and download the “holiday video” or the “free idea”. – Of course that’s going to lead to you getting a box crawling with malware; so what’s the least risky way of finding out? That would be to check the message’s source. It looks something like the one below, and you can normally view it by jumping through a series of hoops, depending upon which email client you use. Trace the truth To trace the email’s source you read backwards from above the message’s content notation: – So in this case I start above where it says “This is a multi-part message in MIME format”. The first content you’ll see, reading upwards, is the destination address, which was my personal email, up through any number of stages where the message has been relayed via various servers, (In this case just the one.), and finally at the top, the sender’s information, name of their computer, etc. psiorac2x is the name of one of my machines, I use BT as an ISP, and the IP pool they’re using at that time is synonymous with the set of IP addresses they sometimes commonly use for dynamic IP assignment; so in this case I can see that I sent this email to myself on Tuesday 29th September 2009, using Microsoft Outlook Express. (You’ll note that it’s not always possible to trace the exact IP of the sender if their ISP is dynamically assigning the sender an IP address; but the ISP themselves will know exactly which IP address corresponded to which user at what time. – Therefore, unless the IP is spoofed, you should be able to complain to the sender’s ISP if need be.)
You scratch my back; I’ll claw repeatedly at yours. (No that wasn’t a sensual come-on line. Now I’m told that what I’m about to tell you isn’t documented anywhere; which, if true, makes it a rather valuable piece of information. At kkomp.com I like providing value to my readers; as it provides good content, and has the readers coming back for more. In this case, however, the information appears a little too good to give away for free, with nothing expected in return, so I’m going to do a deal with you. Thus deal is purely on trust, mind, and it’s not compulsory. – However I’d be more than appreciative if, in exchange for what I’m about to reveal to you, you’d do me the honour of joining my mailing list if you’re not already on it. Doing so will give you an added bonus, in fact; because not only will you have free notifications of every new post on this blog posted to the email address that you request to be used, but there are also other titbits of information and special offers that I send to my clientele: – From time to time I’m in a generous mood and I throw an eBook out to the mailing list, or another type of free download. I also tell he mailing-list people about any special offers before they’re offered on any of the pages of this blog. I also just communicate with my list at times to let them know what’s going on and reveal some insider information… - My question, then, is why are you missing out on all this? The answer is simple: The answer is because you haven’t joined my mailing list yet. I know that I currently do a Public Newsletter every fortnight on a Friday; but that particular newsletter is very general and makes up only a part of my communication with my readers: To get the full package; you’ll need to subscribe to the mailing list. It’s very easy to do: There’s a form at the top of the sidebar on the left of almost every page and post. Simply insert your chosen email address in there, click the button, and Feedblitz will send you an email asking for confirmation of your request. Click the confirmation link in that email, and you’ve joined the mailing list: What could be simpler? OK – Having got that covered, here is the information promised: – This trick may work also with other email clients, and/or using other operating systems; I’ll leave you to find that out. Please comment and let me know. Is that trick really totally undocumented? I’m sceptical; but once again please comment and let me know. Enjoy the coming week; and beware of “friendly” emails. |
Beyond: The Public Newsletter – 6th November 2009
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The Friday Moan It’s great to see that you lot are so rich. I thought there was meant to be a recession on; but obviously that was just negative-media-hype. I’m still looking for the destitute impoverished homeless masses sleeping in the park, but all I’ve seen is a couple of winos. – Should I add that I smelled them first: Aroma d’vagrant et l’alcohol. I also fail to see the long queues for mostly–empty shelves at the local supermarket. – So much for recession. This one is meant to be as bad as the one in the 1930’s; yet all the evidence seems to point to it being fairly superficial. Both the British and American economies have started to show signs of growth incidentally. The reason I started off in this way is because, a few weeks back, I launched a small competition that had a small cash-prize associated with it. In the first week 2 people submitted 4 entries between them, and I published one from each person. The first one went straight to Number 10 in the kkomp Top 10 and then sank. The second went straight to Number 9 and floated around between Number 8 and 16 for a week before also sinking. The object of the exercise was to write a post that would get to Number 1 and stay there over the Xmas Holiday Season. – Impossible? – No; I’ve already written a post that stayed at No 1 for over 6 months. I imagined that my 150+ original visitors per day might like to write something, get published, grab a free piece of internet real-estate, partake in a bit of link-love, and maybe win a small cash prize too. I was wrong, so you lot miss out: However, since the Season of Goodwill to all Gluttonous Temporary-Alcoholics looms in the not-too-distant future, I’m going to offer a prize to anyone who can get their post to the Number 1 spot in the kkomp Top 10 on Christmas Day and stay there all day, or longer than any other post can on that day. I don’t quite know why I’m offering to do this, as it appears obvious that you lot are all wealthy and happily well-off thank you very much. However, since I’ve scrapped the original competition due to lack of support, there’s the part of the prize-fund that I haven’t spent on eBay, namely £10UKP still up for grabs. - If you want it then get submitting your guest posts now to drafts at kustomkomputa dot co dot uk. Whoever is at Number 1 with their post in the kkomp.com Top 10 on Xmas day and stays there the longest wins the tenner. – And yes, if it’s me with any of my posts at Number 1 on that day, I will donate the £10UKP to the Overworked Female Blogger’s Benevolent Fund, of which I am the proprietor and sole benefactor. – So if you want it, rather than allow me to have it, then get writing. Furthermore… Furthermore, on a totally different topic, Windows 7 is fantastic: If you don’t have a copy yet then get one: Home Premium is good enough for most people, including myself. If you don’t have a computer capable of running it then get one or build one and run it. I encourage everyone to use the 64-bit version, which requires around 2GBs of RAM minimum. Pretty much all computers built in the last 3 years are capable of running the 64-bit version; except for netbooks, which might find it rather heavy-going, don’t have 2 GB RAM as a rule, and would be better off with the 32-bit version. RC Running Out of Time On that note I will remind all of you skinflints and freeloaders who are determined to stick with the Release Candidate of Windows 7 because it costs zilch, nothing; that your free Windows operating system will shut down every 2 hours starting on March 1st 2010. – There really is no point staying in the Freeloader’s Legs all winter in a pokey little room with a packet of extra-strong mints for warmth and an ancient laptop with Windows 7 RC on it ‘til shutdown do you part. – Splash out: The RTM version is more stable than the RC anyway. Seasoned Suddenly it’s Autumn / Fall; well it is in the UK anyway: No sooner do the clocks go back than the balmy Indian summer turns into a facsimile of a monsoon, temperatures drop, deciduous trees shed their leaves… Actually it’s not all that bad so far: Despite the early darkness I’ve seen a bumblebee hard at work on my still-blooming lavender on October 25th, and the following day I saw a black ladybird with red spots on a bush…No the red spots were on the ladybird, not the bush, silly. Enjoy this mild weather in the UK; because I predict that it’ll stay mild with a few exceptions right into early December, and then it’ll unexpectedly turn bitterly cold – I mean arctic cold – for a couple or a few weeks. I predict that there is a 50/50 chance of a traditional Victorian Christmas Day being entirely possible this year due to the natural weather. What makes me predict this? – The way that nature’s behaving, that’s what. I’m a Witch: I could well be right: Then again, the last time I made a massive and well-publicised weather prediction, that time a prediction of a blazing June and a tropical July, we had one of the worst and wettest summers on record. (1997 if I remember rightly.)
Blog Matters I’ve recently done some work on improving the design of this blog. – As you will appreciate, although I’m not a designer by trade, I am learning more about aspects of blog design and the science behind it. You’ll notice that a few months ago I’ve changed the colour-scheme to blue and black with a smattering of red, from pink and red with a smattering of everything else. This blog actually started off fairly aimlessly and directionless back in June 2008 with a not-very-good pink theme. – I never changed the theme since; I just hacked and customised the heck out of it. What you see today is still using the original basic theme framework called “Serenity Pink”. The logo started life as a pink line that was part of the original theme, would you believe. On the subject of the logo; you’ll notice that at long last it’s relatively decent: It’s actually a brand, rather than a brand confusion. There is a reason why it’s been so crappy for so long until now: That reason is because I was trying to minimise the work involved by enhancement and recycling of the older crappy logos – aka laziness at its most sneaky. They say that lazy people always end up doing the most work; and in this case that was true. At the end of the day I had to scrap the multiply-re-enhanced design; if one can actually call it a design, and start again from scratch: Something which I should have done in the case of the logo some time ago, like a year ago. Please understand that when I started this blog I was totally inexperienced with regard to blogging. – Yes really 100% inexperienced and completely without a clue: I’d heard of a blog before, although I wasn’t sure what a blog was; even though I’d read quite a few blogs and didn’t even realise that they were blogs. – That was my total knowledge of blogging at the time. I knew how to use html, was clueless about php, knew a bit about javascript, and was a corporate addict who avoided open-source software as I perceived it as dodgy stuff. An online acquaintance, namely David Risley, who is now a top problogger, and was rising to that status at the time, suggested that I started a blog and recommended that I do so using WordPress. After further talking with him and mulling the issue over in my mind I decided to give it a go. Installing WordPress was something that actually made me freak. – Honestly; I unzipped the files, downloaded them to the server, looked again, and screamed! - I’m a trained and qualified electronics technician. I was never trained in blogging. I’d self-trained in software-maintenance plus basic-peripheral devices-setup-and-maintenance, and made a living from it for a short-time. I learned about hardware initially from sitting in on lectures at college for the computer course, and realised how actually simplistic it was to me on the basis of my electronics background. (I’d actually been studying and practicing practical electronics (Mainly analogue electronics.) as a hobby since age 7. – I only actually qualified in it later in life when I took the initiative to enhance my hobby at an academic level.) - So I’ve learned and gained experience of computing at both a software and a hardware level, having an electronics background. I’m still learning and gaining experience of blogging right now. I’ve done Yaro Starak’s BecomeaBlogger course, which competently teaches the basics of blogging, and I’m currently undergoing David Risley’s BlogMasters course, which teaches how to blog professionally and properly, as well as how to generate an income from one’s blog as a problogger. Time is a great hurdle to me currently, as I don’t have oodles of time to spend blogging: However, having said that, when I decide to fully throw my oar into the problogger pond I’ll be devoting most if not all of my time to this blog on a full-time professional basis, and hopefully generating a living from it too. Does that mean I’m a problogger? Give me a chance; I haven’t even finished the course yet. Could I currently live on the earnings I’m making from this blog? Only if I were a nun with a vow of poverty and all my living expenses paid for by the church and/or state. Do I intend to become a problogger? Eventually, yes: Hopefully in the not-too-distant future. Do I intend to make a living from this blog? Eventually yes; though maybe not just from this blog. Can I start making a living from and/or monetising this blog now? Well, in a way I am starting to monetise it in line with the BlogMasters training; although there’s a long way to go yet. I’m not knowledgeable enough or in a position to tell you a lot about problogging at this time: However, when I’ve finished the BlogMasters course I’ll be trained in a lot of the aspects of problogging and will have more to say on the matter, as well as more to practice and implement too. If you’re interested in problogging as a means of generating a living, then I’ll be advertising the BlogMasters course at some point in early 2010, when I’ve finished it and the doors open again to allow in more students. What I can tell you now is that it’s a six-month course spread out over 19 modules; each with multiple training videos downloadable online, along with transcripts and to-do lists. During the course you’ll get direct access to David Risley himself, to ask questions, make suggestions for enhancing the course material, say what you’d like to learn about, and generally gain the benefit of his expertise in the realm of problogging. David Risley been blogging, initially as a hobby. since before blogging was called blogging, and he’s gained a wealth of experience over the years by buying lots and lots of training materials from a variety of other bloggers and interacting with them. Also he’s what you might describe as a born-problogger, so he’s used a lot of common-sense and integrated his natural abilities into his rise to success. On another thread; I currently have a survey running on this blog, and I’d appreciate it if all my readers would complete it for me. It’s a fairly short survey which is conducted via Survey Monkey on behalf of kkomp.com. I forget when it closes; either today or in a week I think. Nobody who takes the survey will be personally identified in any way. The answers that you give to the survey will assist me to enhance this blog further and in a way that you readers would like to see happening. To take part in the survey please click here.
Back to technology I do like to have a decent working pair of computers at all times: Why a pair? Well, if one should fail then I can always use the other while I’m repairing the failed one. Also I can try out new software on one of them and use the other for more mundane office work. It is with this in mind that I once again encourage everyone to upgrade to Windows 7: With possibly a few exceptions for the time being. Read the article Windows 7 is Out There: Should You Upgrade? for more on this matter. Other posts on the subject of Windows 7 recently include: -
How to Create a Task Manager Desktop Icon in Windows 7 Windows 7 has made using your computer much easier –except for one aspect: Calling up the task manager. In this article we learn how to very simply create a Task Manager icon on your Windows 7 Desktop to simplify the process of calling up the Task Manager. Can I Run Windows 7 64-bit on the XP Machine I Ran 32-bit on? In which we look at running Windows 7 64-bit on your existing box.
There is a particular post which I feel will be very valuable to anybody running an online business. In fact it will be beneficial also to anyone who runs a physical corporate business also: - Expert Help to Boost Your Business – For Free! Seriously–this "Group Think Tank" process has the capability to increase your profits by up to 1,000%–or more–before the year is over. A number of top-business experts have got together to share their valuable experience with you at no cost. – Yes that’s right; it’s free of charge expertise from top businesspeople. Can you really afford to miss it? The next session is this coming Thursday. I know I’ll be listening in. On the subject of business; you might find this post useful also: - You could be leaving money on the table if you’re not making the most of monetising your RSS feed. Yaro Starak’s had the doors open to another of his courses this last week. Oh you didn’t take advantage of it? Well you’ll have to wait until the doors open again in 2010 then. – I did publicise it rather much. – I even had an advert on Google for it: - Doors Closing Soon … Oops; too late.
Lisa Jackson’s been video-making again: See her Halloween production here: - - Totally off-topic for this blog; but what the heck? A little laughter never hurt anyone.
… And finally; here’s a rundown of the rest of the articles published since the last Public Newsletter: - Benefits of Doing Your Own Upgrades All you need is some basic electronics knowledge, general software knowledge,… a steady hand and relatively good hand-eye-coordination, and you’re away. To help get optimum performance from your computer, you should keep your drivers up to date. How to Back-up Social Media – Bonus Article Social media has no built-in backup; but there are applications out there which can do the job as far as Facebook and Twitter are concerned. In this post I project my predictions, based upon my impressions of quickly-advancing technology, of how a computer could be in the year 2020. An Introduction to Wireless Computer Speakers Andy Zain tells us a bit about wireless computer speakers in this article: I don’t think this idea will ever go mainstream; but I’m sure that it has its uses. Fake Antivirus Software is Infecting on a Massive Scale Partly due to the corporate greed of the kosher affiliate networks, there are now criminal affiliate networks peddling malware. Criminals are making a fortune! - That’s it for this Public Newsletter then: Enjoy your weekend, and if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere then remember, it’s getting cold outside lately; so why not stay in more, sit in front of the computer, and among other things, read kkomp.com.
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How to Create a Desktop Sound Mixer Icon in Windows 7
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Windows 7 has made using your computer much easier – but the on-screen volume controls are still a little elusive: Clicking the white speaker symbol in the taskbar pops up a single volume control, underneath which is a link to the audio mixer. But, saith I, that’s a little cumbersome; especially when you can have a decent-sized icon on your desktop which causes the mixer to pop-up on screen instantly with one click or double-click; depending upon how you have your settings set.
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We’re going to create a desktop icon which will call up the sound mixer. The procedure isn’t exactly rocket science: Right-click an empty area of the Windows 7 desktop and hover your cursor over “New”. In the list that appears, select “Shortcut” by clicking on it. In the text-input line below where it says “Type the location of the item:” enter “SndVol”. (Without the inverted commas.)
Press return on your keyboard. In the following text-input bar, below the words “Type a name for this shortcut”, ignore the highlighted “SndVol.exe” and type “Sound Mixer”. (Without the inverted commas.) : - Press return on your keyboard
You’ll now see that you have a brand new icon on your desktop with a picture, the contents of which include a screen with a picture of a loudspeaker on it. – OK I named it Sound Volume in the illustration, but no big deal:
Click that icon and the sound mixer will instantly appear, as if by magic.
… Which all goes to show that not only do I take you beyond the comfort-zone with this blog; I also actually improve your comfort-zone too. – All without having to find that elusive “any” key. A bit of Windows 7 hassle averted on Beyond: Hardware + Software + Practical Electronics. … And now; some adverts: -
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Benefits of Doing Your Own Upgrades
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When upgrading the hardware on a computer, a lot of pre-planning is required before doing the actual physical upgrading task itself. First, you have to know why you’re upgrading in order to know what particular components to upgrade. – For example; if your graphics are insubstantial; that is to say the screen appears to stick when you scroll and scroll in a chunky manner for instance, or you’re unable to get a proper frame-rate on a particular game – yet you know that your processor and RAM are well above the recommended system specs suggested for playing the game, then you’ll be looking to upgrade the graphics card., or to fit a graphics card that will take over from the motherboard’s onboard graphics capabilities. There are several main components inside a computer which you can upgrade: -
Graphics card Hard-drive(s) Power supply unit (PSU) Random Access Memory (RAM) Processor (CPU)
One or two of the above may have to be upgraded when other main components are upgraded in order to maintain component compatibility. – For example; if you were upgrading the motherboard, unless the new motherboard takes the same processor and/or same processor socket designation as the previous one, then a new, compatible processor is called for. The same goes with the RAM: Unless the previous RAM sticks will fit into the slots and have the same slot designation as the RAM slots on the new motherboard, then new RAM is also called for. Sometimes a new power supply unit may also be called for too. When upgrading a motherboard; which is about the biggest upgrade task you can do on a computer, you’ll probably want to change the processor and RAM for something faster that performs better anyway: There doesn’t seem much point in upgrading a motherboard just to have it bogged down by the CPU and RAM. A well-documented way to increase a computer’s performance is to increase the amount of RAM. This can be accomplished by adding sticks, and/or by replacing existing sticks with new sticks with more capacity on them. Replacing the processor with a faster and better-specced model of the same socket designation may also be a performance aid in some cases. (See this article, for instance.) Ideally, though, a processor upgrade should normally always be a part of a motherboard upgrade in my opinion. Hard-drives are another thing you might upgrade: Either adding one or more, or replacing one or more. – You might just want more room to store data; and therefore might, for instance, change a 500GB HD for a 1TB HD, or even just add a 1TB HD as an extra storage drive. Perhaps your old hard-drive is making unsavoury noises, or is experiencing a recent glut of bad sectors, and you feel that it’s time to replace it. Power supply units wear out and require replacing at times too. Alternatively you might require more wattage for the new graphics card that you’ve just installed, and therefore the upgrade is merely a matter of course.
I once described a computer as an adult Lego set; with wires, electricity, and data added to make it a little more difficult. Once you master how it fits together and at least the basics of how it works, you’ll find that it’s fairly easy to do your own upgrades, and save yourself time and a lot of money in the process. – It really isn’t as difficult as you may imagine: All you need is some basic electronics knowledge, general software knowledge, a static-free work area, take proper precautions, a small toolkit, a steady hand and relatively good hand-eye-coordination, and you’re away: You can upgrade your own computer(s), upgrade other people’s too for a fee, build new computers for yourself and others – The world’s your oyster. There’s not a lot of money in building & upgrading computers currently, unless you do it en masse; but it’s a useful talent to have all the same, even if only for your own purposes: Whenever your PC stops working you can just usually fix it on the spot with a minimum of effort and cost, compared to calling a geek in to umm and arr, take it away for a few days, and charge you a small fortune when they return it in a working condition. Also, whenever you feel that you could do with a performance-increase in whatever respect, you can just plan whatever upgrade you need, buy the parts, and do it whenever it’s convenient to do so, all at a cost decided to the penny by you – in that you yourself are in total control over your spending, you decide what components you’ll use, what quality of components to utilise, everything. Have you ever built, repaired, or upgraded a computer? Share your experiences. |
Keep Your Drivers Up-To-Date
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‘So Much Hardware! You’ve no doubt noticed the frankly amazing rate at which new hardware, particularly motherboards, is being produced at these days: It’s like there’s a race on to produce better and better hardware. The leading players appear to be motherboards in first place, closely followed by graphics cards, and processors aren’t far behind.
When a new processor begins manufacture, every motherboard manufacturer makes a variety of motherboards initially to accommodate that processor and get the very best from it. They also utilise the latest chipset designs, many of which are purposely designed to operate in tandem with a particular type of processor. The production run continues with more specifically-designed boards, possibly utilising newer chipsets; tailing off as the processor in question, and/or its socket designation, becomes less utilised in favour of something newer. Graphics cards are more in a league of their own; with the onus on the manufacturer to use one of the recently-introduced graphics chips from the graphics-chip manufacturers to give the best performance on screen in high resolutions and fast frame-rates, from complex multi-processor-core-utilising games software. Unique Drivers …And with each new hardware design comes a new set of software in the form of drivers; although having said that; recently companies such as Via Technologies, in the case of motherboard chipsets; and nVidia, in the case of graphics cards, have done fairly well in producing an all-in-one driver software package that fits pretty well all of their recent products. An example of this is Via Technologies’ site Viaarena; where a driver package of this sort, one-size-fits-all, cab be used to drive pretty much any recent Via chipset. - But that’s not the case with every manufacturer; and even a number of the products manufactured by such companies as mentioned above are so particularly specialised that they have their own individual driver. The good thing is that, in the case of motherboards and graphics cards, the manufacturer usually provides a CD or DVD with the product that has all the necessary drivers on it. When you install the board or card, you just simply install all the necessary other drivers from the disc. You’ll also find that the manufacturer provides a download for these drivers on their website also: This is a subject that we’ll be returning to later in this article, as there is something particularly important about that fact. Motherboard drivers mainly relate to the chipset used on that particular type of board, as well as to the onboard soundcard and any other chipset-associated graphics-circuitry if included. Also the SATA and PATA controllers, and the RAM controllers, need a driver – as does the processor itself, in relation to the specific motherboard build as well as a unit in its own right too. Windows in the Equation Operating systems such as Windows, particularly Windows XP onwards, were designed to cater for drivers to some extent, and, when installed, attach a driver to each device to allow it to at least function something like correctly and identify itself, so that the operating system can be properly installed. – But that doesn’t always happen. Windows XP was launched in 2001, and contained compatible drivers for most if not all of the technology in use in 2000. With a bit of forethought, Microsoft also created basic drivers that would at least run future hardware to some extent also. – But this doesn’t mean that Windows XP will install every driver necessary to run your system proficiently and optimally on install: As years have gone by, technologies have appeared which, although largely backwards-compatible with XP, are built for Windows Vista, or more recently Windows 7; which uses a very similar kernel to Vista anyway.
- So when you install no-frills Window XP and nothing else on your box, it runs. – Perhaps the functionality of a number of devices is impeded; for instance the graphics card is only able to work with a couple of screen resolutions, at a set monitor frequency, but nevertheless it runs. The reason for this is that it installs drivers to your devices that make them work with the XP kernel. These drivers, however, aren’t specially designed for the hardware that they’re driving in most cases, and they’re old. -She’s Boasting Again… I’ve just installed the RTM version of Windows 7 64-bit, after previously running the 64-bit RC version. – Both versions instantly recognised all of the hardware in my self-built computer, and so it should: the hardware I used was a Gigabyte motherboard that had been around a few months, as had the Gigabyte 256MB GDDR3 graphics card, the 8GBs of DDR2 800MHz RAM, the AMD triple-core Phenom processor, and so on. – All fully 64-bit capable, designed for use with Vista, and therefore Windows 7… – Except for two pieces of hardware in particular: The Realtek onboard sound-card needed a Realtek High-Definition Audio driver, which even Windows 7 didn’t carry in its arsenal: Result = no sound. Also there was no decent driver for the chipset: While Windows installed one that made it work, it didn’t have the necessary custom-designed driver that was required: The nVidia nForce System Management driver. – Both of these I had to install from the CD that came packed with the motherboard. Soon Windows 7 will start initially installing only make-do drivers that allow the hardware to function very basically with the kernel. – The good thing about Windows 7 is that if it can’t immediately find a decent driver for a piece of hardware, then it will, after installing the best driver it can find that works, go straight online to Windows Update to try to find a better driver there. Another thing is that even Windows Update isn’t always that accurate: Yesterday, for instance, I was offered a replacement driver in Windows 7 for my Realtek ethernet connection as an optional update. The replacement driver was a year older than the one that was already installed, which was installed from the motherboard driver CD, and it didn’t work: result = no ethernet connection. I rolled back the driver and the ethernet port instantly started working again. On that note; there are some automated driver-update services out there, which are supposed to always keep your computer up to date with the latest drivers. – These are also rather fallible: One of them that I used to use told me that my then Via chipset’s drivers were old, and it replaced them with Intel chipset drivers, so that it wouldn’t start. – ‘Not good. In short; automated driver update services such as this, like most AI of this point in time time, occasionally have a brain-fart, and mess up big time. (Windows XP will also go to Windows Update and find drivers; but not by default: You have to set the operating system to do this manually after installation; and even then XP will only chase down a better driver than the one already installed if you ask it to. If a piece of hardware doesn’t have a driver that isn’t available on the XP CD, or that piece of hardware has just been installed without a driver, XP will go to Windows Update to look for a better driver, sometimes automatically if set right; sometimes only if you prompt it to do so.) Windows Update doesn’t have every type of hardware driver, though, so there’s a 50/50 chance that the operating system will have no luck there. Also, Windows Update doesn’t have all the latest versions of the drivers that it does have ready to be used: If it has a newer version of the driver that you have installed, then it’ll upgrade it; but just because it’s newer doesn’t mean that it’s the newest applicable driver. ‘Time for an Update? This is where the manufacturer’s website that I mentioned earlier comes into play: – If you look in Device Manager, then you’ll see details of the driver version that you currently have installed, who made the driver, the date that the driver was released, the hardware that it’s driving, who made the hardware, the hardware’s model number, etc. Every now and then a hardware manufacturer’s research and development team will discover a flaw in a driver that was previously unnoticed. They’ll rewrite the driver to eradicate that flaw and improve performance of the product. – Either that or they’ll discover a security vulnerability in it and write it out. Having rewritten and tested the new driver version, they’ll release it to the public, so that their customers get better performance from their product. Unless you keep a lookout for new drivers you could miss out on such performance-gains. – Which is where an occasional visit to a manufacturer’s website can be very helpful. If you rely on Microsoft Update then you’ll get the odd update; but it won’t be anything like new, and you’ll probably miss out on many new driver versions. The above paragraph applies particularly to chipset drivers and graphics drivers; so keep a lookout for new versions of the drivers that you’re using especially in the case of those devices. - So in the best geeky tradition, always keep your drivers up to date, and you’ll always get more from your box. Have you checked your drivers recently? Do you keep an eye on your drivers? |
How to Create a Task Manager Desktop Icon in Windows 7
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Windows 7 has made using your computer much easier –except for one aspect: Calling up the task manager. You can either click the start button, and type “task manager” into the search bar; in which case the Windows 7 Task manager appears instantly when you hit return, (13 key-presses, 1 click.) or you can press ctrl+alt+del and the screen changes, you select “Start Task Manager”, and the Task Manager appears on the original screen. (3 key-presses (Simultaneous) and 1 click.) In XP there were a couple of round-about routes to doing it, and there was ctrl+alt+del without the extra click. – So whichever way you look at it; there is at least 1 extra operation involved in calling up the Task Manager in Windows 7. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just call it up with a single click? – The good news is that you can do just that; after a tiny bit of software engineering: -
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We’re going to create a desktop icon which will call up Task Manager. – You’ll be able to call up the Task Manager with a single or double-click of the mouse; depending upon how you have your computer set up. The procedure isn’t exactly rocket science: Right-click an empty area of the Windows 7 desktop and hover your cursor over “New”. In the list that appears, select “Shortcut” by clicking on it. In the text-input line below where it says “Type the location of the item:” enter “taskmgr”. (Without the inverted commas.)
Press return on your keyboard. In the following text-input bar, below the words “Type a name for this shortcut”, ignore the highlighted “taskmgr.exe” and type “Task Manager”. (Without the inverted commas.) : -
Press return on your keyboard You’ll now see that you have a brand new icon on your desktop with a picture, the contents of which include a screen with a green wavy trace on it: -
Click that icon and the Task Manager will instantly appear, as if by magic. … Which all goes to show that not only do I take you beyond the comfort-zone with this blog; I also actually improve your comfort-zone too. – All without having to find that elusive “any” key. A bit of Windows 7 hassle averted on Beyond: Hardware + Software + Practical Electronics. … And now; some adverts: -
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Reader Satisfaction Survey
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We start this week with a fairly short post: - I’m going to start off this first week in November by enquiring into how much you readers like this blog created by yours truly, Auntie Sharron here. Whether you love it, hate it, or are totally indifferent to it, I do encourage you to take the survey. I want to know whether I’m giving you readers the kind of value that I would like you to get from this blog; and if not then why not? Your answers will help me to improve on this matter. I’ll let you into a little secret: there’s a freebie waiting exclusively for all those who participate. – You’ll see the URL to it on the Thank You page. If you don’t visit that URL immediately, then please note it down, as you’ll never see it again once you’ve closed that page, and I wouldn’t want you to not get your thank-you gift. The survey service is by Survey Monkey on behalf of kkomp.com; and any answers that you give are between you and I in total confidence. You will not be personally identified in this survey. – Your privacy is virtually guaranteed. On that note I’ll ask you to click the link below and take the survey. Thank you.
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Expert Help to Boost Your Business – For Free!
Holy Crap, He’s Doing it Again…Just when I think Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham have topped themselves, they go and do something even more amazing… Go here to see what I’m talking about (you’re going to freak–I know I did)… Yeah, you read that right. More than 50 of the world’s most brilliant business and marketing minds. All in one place. And all ready to help you achieve the success of your dreams. For six unforgettable weeks, you’ll sit at the feet of the masters in a series of intimate panel settings, listening intently as they reveal their most closely hidden secrets for building a mega-profitable business. Seriously–this "Group Think Tank" process has the capability to increase your profits by up to 1,000%–or more–before the year is over. And the best part about it? The COST. Because, well….there is none. That’s right–you can get six weeks of in-depth mastermind training from the foremost experts on marketing and business building…for no charge. But you gotta hurry. Rich and Jay are only allowing a certain number of people inside. And since the entire industry is buzzing about this, those spots will fill up in a heartbeat. So go here NOW and grab yours. Sharron Field. P.S. I’m only scratching the surface on what you’ll get with "The League of Extraordinary Minds"… There’s TONS of powerful information inside, including: - How to successfully deal with sceptical/apprehensive prospects and buyers… - How to instantly build granite-like trust and credibility… - How to build a huge online loyal community… - Critical Keys to direct marketing success… - The formula for becoming the ultimate entrepreneur… - How to make big things happen – fast! - The one business system that works today… And on and on and on. - But you gotta go here right now to grab Rich and |
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