Recent Posts

1626

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 09, 2011, 06:38 AM »

LOL - how did you know I am a DNA fan

1627

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 09, 2011, 05:34 AM »

No that's just what they do in Belgium - that's why the EU is based there!

1628

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2011, 05:20 PM »

Yes 

-Carol Haynes (March 08, 2011, 07:40 AM)

When I was a boy, my father used to do this to me: answer "yes" in such a way that my question remained unanswered.

I am now older than he was then. You'd have thought I'd have learned, by now. 

-oblivion (March 08, 2011, 10:41 AM)

All I have learned in life is that I never learn.

Paradoxical eh? 

1629

Living Room / Re: XP multiuser default login

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2011, 08:12 AM »

For normal autologin add this to your registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"DefaultUserName"="User Name"
"DefaultPassword"="password"
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

replacing user name and password with the actual auto login details.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231 for full details.

Don't know of any way of delaying it though.

I suppose you could write a script that you add to scheduled tasks that runs on system startup waits for so long and then logs in if no one has logged in.

1630

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2011, 07:40 AM »

Oh, by the way... "waffles for England?" As in (my affliction) verbal diarrhoea? Or promoting the American breakfast? 

-oblivion (March 08, 2011, 04:12 AM)

Yes 

1631

Developer's Corner / Re: Thank You For Treating Everyone Like a Criminal, Apple

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2011, 03:15 AM »

It has to be said Microsoft have the same rules about pre release disclosure too - its just they have no way to really enforce it as there are too many untraceable ways of getting info out there. I suspect Apple will find it is the same for them (though it would't surprise me if they embed everything about you down to what you had for breakfast in their pre-release stuff to make it traceable.

Interesting article yesterday will have Apple worried - it appears that iPhone is rapidly becoming unhip and only suitable for the over 55s as Android phones starts to win the day (at least in the US). See http://www.windowsit...Phone-for-Good-.aspx Once the older demographic becomes the main market it can only get less and less popular with the younger market (I'm in my 50s and still don't want to look like a granny drooling over a white box).

Its the old MS vs Apple story of the 80s - open systems such as Android vs closed Apple. You'd think at some point some one in Apple HQ would say "Has anyone thought about this ..."

1632

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2011, 02:51 AM »

You can get things to run seemlessly in XP Mode - you can even pin an icon to the taskbar and it launches just as though it were a Win 7 app (albeit rather slower because on first launch the VM also starts up invisibly in the background.  After XP Mode is installed you need to run it in a window to install apps and then shutdown the VPC. You can then find installed apps in the Win 7 start menu under Windows Virtual PC.

Once running VirtualPC runs invisibly until you shutdown or restart the computer at which point VPS hibernates - so shutting down appears to take a long time too.

Depending on how much RAM they have this could be a performance hit in Win 7 too.... Just so you are warned

Best thing to tell them is when they have played the game (assuming it works) and finished to restart the computer.

1633

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2011, 05:07 PM »

Actually VMplayer looks pretty good for standard desktop virtualisation.

I have to say I do like branched snapshots and use them quite a lot but whether they alone are worth the cost now that VMP does almost all the day to day tasks is debatable.

1634

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2011, 01:04 PM »

Workstation has multiple snapshots (and gets earlier updates), which is quite usable when testing several phases of a software installation...

-Ath (March 06, 2011, 11:48 AM)

True but it is easy enough to make snapshots anyway (just copy the folder before you run the VM)

1635

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2011, 10:38 AM »

Thanks Ath - I didn't know that.

Begs the question then - who buy Workstation (apart from me?) 

1636

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2011, 05:10 AM »

VMWare is probably the best choice as it now has video acceleration which is probably necessary to play any sort of game.

XPMode is OK if you want to run an old business app that doesn't work in 7 but I wouldn't have thought it was up for gaming.

If you want to use a virtual XP system my recommendation would be to use:

VMware - difficult to use the free version (by comparison to the others) or expensive to buy the Workstation edition but with best hardware support. You can download VMWare Server for free and set up a VM and then use VMWare Player for simpler use by your father-in-law.
Virtualbox - free and easy to set up
Parallels - not free and mainly aimed at the Mac market - the Windows version is a couple of versions behind.
MS VirtualPC - the advantage of being free but just isn't nearly as good with hardware and slower than the other offerings. Advantage is a free copy of XP for Win 7 Pro or Ultimate.

in that order.

The reason you need to go through the WGA nonsense with the download is not to stop you downloading the product it is because you are issued with a free unique license to Windows XP so just copying someone else's disk is not ideal as you will be using their license too and at some point both copies might get stopped by WGA when you update them.

It's important to note too that whichever VM you go for they will need to be updated for security patches etc. as they will be intenet connected. If bandwidth is an issue this isn't trivial as there are vast numbers of updates to download - even since SP3 was released and it takes a long time even on a fast stable connection. Also you can't install it on your PC, do the updates and then transfer it to your parents computer as the activation will be broken. The VM 'sees' the underlying hardware and it will recognise it isn't the system it was installed on. (Just had this problem when I move my old XP box into a VM and transferred it to my new Win 7 box).

FWIW I am running Win 7 on a Phenom x6 processor with 16Gb RAM and I still don't think any VM would be tolerable to get games running even if it has sufficient VM hardware support.

It might be simpler to find him another game to get hooked on ...

One last thought - have they tried installing the game and running it in XP compatibility mode? A lot of games will run with a bit of effort - just make sure you force them to install and run in XP compat mode and that you run with admin privileges. Worth a try. You can do that by right clicking on the executable file or a shortcut to is and choose the Compatibility tab. Select run this program in compatibility mode for Win XP SP3 and also select Run the program as an administrator.

Probably best to do a full backup of their computer before you try it (Windows Backup System Image is very good for this) just in case it screws something up.

1637

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2011, 07:26 PM »

My vote goes with memory upgrade (as much as it will support/you can afford) and Windows XP.

Biggest problem I have found on systems is that a combination of SP3 and even the lightest antivirus (both essential if you are working online) push the minimum requirements way above MS's stated minimum - unless you want to die of terminal boredom with all the disk swapping. I'd say 512Mb is a good basic minimum which leaves some overhead for getting things done - 256 is just about usable but there will be a lot of disk thrashing!

If you are going to stay offline don't bother with SP3 or any security software and use nlite to minimise the installation and it should work fine with 256Mb or more. If you are using Office stick with an old copy (such as Office 97 or 2000) which was much lighter on resources and a good suite of programs.

1638

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2011, 07:20 PM »

VirtualBox is a good VM and it is totally free.

Agree 100% with f0dder - run Win 7 native and put XP into VM mode.

If you have a system with Hyper-V or AMD-V support don't forget to enable it in the BIOS (most systems seem to have it disabled by default).

1639

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2011, 06:09 PM »

There are various Mac VM ports - the problem is getting the source files and other necessary images that aren't for sale. I tried to do this a while ago out of curiosity and in the end I gave up as it was complicated and time consuming to do all the necessary messing about and the results seemed at best flaky.

It has to be said it is also illegal - if you believe Apple's lawyers.

1640

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: O&O Migration Kit for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2011, 11:16 AM »

I suspect you have been lucky and that you have transferred programs that don't require registry entries or files store in common folders.

Here is Microsoft's Tutorial for using WET Wizard. (Interesting acronym - wet ?)

To quote the relevant bit on step 2:

• Windows Easy Transfer doesn't move your programs, only your files and settings. You'll need to reinstall your programs by hand after Windows 7 installation is complete. Windows Easy Transfer will provide you with a list of programs that you are currently using with Windows XP.
• Don't use the File and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP to move your files. It isn't compatible with Windows 7, and if you use it, you won't be able to restore your files in Windows 7. Use Windows Easy Transfer instead.
• Windows Easy Transfer can't transfer files from a 64-bit version of Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows. If you're running a 64-bit version of Windows XP, but you plan to install a 32-bit version of Windows 7, you'll need to copy your files manually to an external location before installing Windows 7, and then move them back after Windows installation is completed.
• Windows Easy Transfer moves your music and video files, but doesn't migrate the licenses for content protected by digital rights management (DRM). This means that you'll need to re-obtain rights to DRM‑protected files from the online store that provided them after you finish installing Windows 7 and restoring these files to your computer. For more information, see Step 4: Moving your files and settings back to your computer.

I haven't quoted this for one upmanship but because these threads are indexed in search engines and it needs to be clear that WET is not designed to transfer applications. It may work in certain circumstances but it may also cause some unitended consequences in your Win 7 install too if it starts replacing 64-bit DLL files with 32-bit ones!

1641

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: O&O Migration Kit for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2011, 04:54 AM »

@Carol Haynes:

"Am I correct in reading the O&O site to say that it will migrate applications as well as data - in which case the Windows Transfer Wizard doesn't do that."

That's odd, I used the Windows Transfer Wizard to transfer all the applications and their relevant data holas bolas. It worked very well for me. Maybe I used it the "wrong way"?

I did not know the WTW existed and only stumbled upon it by accident just as I was debating with myself whether to buy the O&O migration tool or the Laplink migration tool. WTW saved me some money and did a great job. I don't usually sing Micro$oft's praises, but I'd like to give credit where credit is due. (I've been very impressed with pretty much all of Windows7 so far.)

-IainB (March 04, 2011, 08:39 PM)

Well that isn't what Microsoft says:

Quote from Microsoft Download

This software installs Windows Easy Transfer on a computer running the 32-bit version of Windows XP so you can copy your files, photos, music, e-mail, settings, and more to a computer running Windows 7.

It doesn't say it transfers programs - only program settings. You need to reinstall the programs in Windows 7. That was my understanding and has certainly been the way WTW has worked in other versions in WinXP.

Having not tried either method the O&O method seems to imply that the upgrade process maintains everything - including installed apps - just like upgrading from Windows Vista to the same edition of 7.

By the way you can do an in place upgrade from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate with just a Windows installation disk (but not 32 to 64 bit). The trick requires one file on the installation disk to be edited to unlock all editions - then when you boot from an unlocked copy you can do the following:

Windows Vista HP --- Ugrade --> Windows 7 HP (but don't enter the product key during upgrade)
Windows 7 HP -- Anytime Upgrade --> Pro or Ult (now you use the key)

If you can find a copy of Vista on disk (planty of places to download and burn these) you can upgrade from XP to 7 (again within architecture limits):

Win XP --> Vista HP/Pro/Ult (upgrade without key)
Win Vista --> same ed. Win 7 (upgrade with key)

I tried this and it worked on my laptop.

Two last comments:

1) As I understand it WTW is not an upgrade path - it is just a simple way to copy files and settings from one computer to another and doesn't do any form of 'upgrade'. You still have to do a clean install of Windows 7 and install all your apps again.
2) Any form of upgrade is not a brilliant idea - it just moves any exisiting problems and quirks to the new OS with unpredictable results. I have learned this lesson in the past to my cost.

FWIW my advice is to do a clean install and manually copy data files from the old hard disk (sorting and chucking as you go) then reinstall software and rewset 6the settings as you want manually. I don't know about other people's computers but my Win XP setup (that I am in the process of upgrading to 7-Pro-64) was full of rubbish and duplicates plus loads of software that either won't work with 7 or I haven't used in years. What is the point of upgrading and taking all the crap (both in terms of files and pointless registry bloat) to the new setup. I only plan to install things I am going to use on the new box so I want to keep it as lean as I can (despite having huge numbers of applications installed!).

FWIW I used Paragon's Virtualization Manager Pro to make a complete VM Of my old system and can still use it perfectly in VMWare if I need to check settings etc.

1642

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: O&O Migration Kit for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2011, 12:07 PM »

Am I correct in reading the O&O site to say that it will migrate applications as well as data - in which case the Windows Transfer Wizard doesn't do that.

The other thing is that the serial number is supplied in a German email with links to other tools (essentially a WindowsPE recovery CD set up) but the tools are all in German. Has anyone downloaded and tried to use these? Do they include English and do they expect German versions of Windows or are they for all languages?

1643

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: O&O Migration Kit for Windows 7

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2011, 05:19 AM »

Just got this though I don't know when I will use it).

Note - this only allows a single migration on that license number - so if you want to do more ...

For further info on the product in English see:

http://www.oo-softwa...rationkit/index.html

1644

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 02, 2011, 04:15 AM »

You could have a look at Joomla 1.5 with the free extension "Phoca Download".

For details of Phoca Download see: http://extensions.jo...wnloads/5551/details

For extra addons to supplement Phoca Download see: http://extensions.jo...-download-extensions

Note this uses Joomla 1.5 at the moment (Joomla 1.6, despite it 0.1 version increase, is a large scale rewrite and redesign of Joomla and currently most extensions aren't ready for it)

You can download Joomla from: http://joomlacode.or...ble-Full_Package.zip

And use XAMPP as a local testbed for trying things out (it is a complete package which includes a local Apache server, PHP and MySQL which can run on the Windows desktop) see: http://www.apachefri...n/xampp-windows.html

If you need a hand give me a shout and we can arrange a time to get together online.

1645

General Software Discussion / Re: I have to admit defeat ... I cannot format a hard drive ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2011, 08:52 PM »

If you want to wipe the whole drive why not just delete all of the partitions and then build a new partition table? You should be able to format the new partitions.

If you have a Easeus Partition Manager recovery disk you should be able to boot from that and do the necessary - unless there is a hardware fault on the drive.

1646

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 SP1 released

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 27, 2011, 12:57 PM »

Installed on Win7 64 here without any noticeable issues.

1647

General Software Discussion / Re: Is DonationCoder too exposed of a brand?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 25, 2011, 06:40 AM »

It may be my imagination but as someone who took part in the forums here from near the beginning I have been unable to be as involved over the last couple of years because of work. When I do visit now (still probably briefly every day even when I don't post anything) I see names I don't really recognise appearing. It may be anecdotal but I get the feeling that there is a core of us long time member but there is a growth in new members (albeit much slower than the early days) and a passing group of transient members who either only drop in from time to time or drift away.

None of this comes as a surprise to me as it is what happens in 'real' life as well as in the 'virtual' world.

Having been around for a long time I am still unclear whether the site is actually being marketed as a profit making business or whether donations are mainly designed to cover the costs of the site and allow some funding to be distributed to small donationware developers via the donation credits system.

Only Mouser can really answer my question about profitability - but I'd guess he isn't getting rich from running this site (esp. considering the amount of time and effort he puts in).

Personally I don't subscribe to the view that change is good for its own sake. Donationcoder as an idea seems to work to me and actually I appreciate the fact that it is in some ways ill-defined and open to anyone who wants to take part.

Since the last fundraiser 2 years ago, there:

1. Has not been any major changes/additions to the functionality of the site
2. Has not been any major changes/additions to the looks of the site
3. Has not seen any noticeable additions to the number of active members of the site
4. Is no addition of any major software application
5. Is a few event hosted here which earned virtually no public attention

This is a stagnant site, no growth no innovation

-lotusrootstarch (February 25, 2011, 01:05 AM)

lotusrootstarch makes some interesting points but the questions I address back in response are:

1) What additional functionality do you want to see and why
2) Do the looks of the site have to change - if so in what way and why? Cosmetic changes for the sake of making the site 'look' as thoigh something is going on seem a bit pointless to me. The heart of the site is this forum for most people - what changes would make any practical difference to the way it works?
3) How can we attract more regular members? I'd say it is mostly by word of mouth but that requires current regular members to continue to spread the word or link to the site from their own websites.
4) What other software would you like to see added? There are plenty of ways of asking for people to develop software on the this website and an amazing number of people who spend lots of time and effort coding from snacks to full blown applications which are made available for free or for donations. You are correct that the core apps from Mouser haven't seen lots of new apps appearing but I am not sure it was his intention to be responsible for all software development related to the site - it is supposed to be a community here and that requires contributions from its members.
5) Any ideas for future events and how to market them better?

In response to the site being stangnat the question I address to you (And actually to every member including myself) is "What are you prepared to contribute to make the website a more effective and 'happening' place to be?"

As in all things it is really easy to be negative but it requires everyone to make positive effort to be effective.

Personally I don't think the website is stangant - it is probably more 'stable' than it used to be but is stability a bad thing in itself?

1648

Found Deals and Discounts / 25% off PerfectDisk 11 (expires 28th Feb 2011)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 23, 2011, 02:45 PM »

25% discount on new and additional licenses from www.perfectdisk.com

Discount expires on Monday 28th Feb 2001

1649

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 SP1 released

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 22, 2011, 09:04 PM »

Anyone with automatic updates set will get this automatically. In fact I have just checked for updates and it is there now (in the UK anyway - they often do this regionally). If you don't want to make this update for a while change you automatic update settings from Auto to "tell me and let me chose"

MS have a habit of forcing updates like this or you can't get further updates - but they usually give you a fairly long period in which to make the move.

Confusing set of updates on the downloads page - do you actually NEED to install the symbols packs - and if you do should you install both for your architecture (Free and Checked) or just one ?

I presume the symbols packs are only useful if you use a debugger - but presumably they are also needed to interpret system dumps if you are unlucky enough to get a BSOD ??

Also does the ISO install the correct symbol files if you use that to do the install - and does the ISO contain the prerequisite update KB2454826 ?

For anyone not sure what they are doing MS go out of their way to cause even more confusion! They recommend you don't download to update one computer - so presumably if you are using 2, 3 or 4 computers they recommend you do download to cut down on bandwidth and time wasted.

1650

Living Room / Re: SATA III - why no better rating than SATA II ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on February 20, 2011, 06:34 PM »

OK - so how are manufacturers getting away with this con? In the UK we have the "Trades Description Act" which is specifically designed to stop manufacturers conning consumers in this way - and it has been used recently to good effect with misleading claims about false internet speed claims from ISPs. I'm amazed the hard disk manufacturers haven't been challenged!