Recent Posts

2626

General Software Discussion / Re: XP SP3 fresh install work with SP2 key?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 30, 2009, 06:30 PM »

You can download a full ISO version of Windows XP SP3 Pro and Home.

See http://www.tipandtri...via-http-or-torrent/

which has all the full ISO versions (and the links are to the Microsoft download site so they are safe - sorry I take that back all the links have now changed and they are at various other sites including torrents. The original checksums are given though so you can check the download is the original unaltered MS ISO file).

There is another thread with other references to SP3 downloads at https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=12466.0

2627

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 30, 2009, 11:04 AM »

If it isn't a daft question why use vLite on a beta installation of Windows 7? If you are installing to an empty partition why not just use the proper installer - there will probably be enough issues because it is a beta version without adding vLite into the mix?

FWIW I got some feedback via the MS forums about the mysterious hiding the currently active OS when you install Win 7 beta on a separate partition. Apparently there were some partition table corruption problems when Vista beta was first released and so to avoid the issue recurring they decided to hide the original operating system from Win7.

Personally I think this is a ludicrous solution as they are writing the partition table every time you swap OS on your system and it seems to me to make it more likely they will corrupt your system! How difficult is it for a company like MS to get partition tables right - nothing much has changed in years with partition tables!!!

2628

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 Free Promo

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 30, 2009, 11:00 AM »

Yes - 2009 is a lite version of 8.

Ashampoo's sales and marketting needs some serious cleaning up - I am still getting upgrade offers to both versions 6 and 7 - even though I am a registered user of both. The only version they haven't tried to flog me is version 8!!

2629

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 30, 2009, 05:25 AM »

In that case copy the contents of the whole ISO into a folder in your existing partition and then look in AutoRun.INF to find out which file is launched from the DVD when it is inserted and double click that - it should allow you launch the installer from Windows and then make sure you choose a fresh install in a new partition.

2630

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Xara Xtreme 2 - $19 until 4th February 2009

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 30, 2009, 04:47 AM »

Is anybody else having trouble with the link to the special price?  I can't get it to load from the direct link or from Carol's affiliate link.

-cthorpe (January 29, 2009, 11:34 PM)

Both links work fine here - try clearing your browser cache.

2631

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 08:39 PM »

True ... but I bet if you put your DVD in with Windows XP running it will start the installer.

2632

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 08:17 PM »

AFAIK all newer Windows setups can run from any earlier version of Windows - most will just allow a fresh install but where an upgrade is possible it will be the default mode of operation and you need to specifically choose clean install and the destination if you don't want an upgrade.

Is there a reason you can't run it direct from a bootable DVD?

2633

Found Deals and Discounts / Xara Xtreme 2 - $19 until 4th February 2009

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 04:42 PM »

Xara have discounted lots of software in the past but this is the first time I can recall any version of Xtreme for $19. (Usually these offers refer to Xara X1 which is older).

Check it out at http://site.int.xara...m/offers/xaraxtreme/

The current version of Xtreme is version 4 and there is a comparison page for you to see what the differences are.

If you want Xtreme 4 you can upgrade from this version and the upgrade costs $59 to Xtreme 4. This is a saving of $11 on the list price of $89 so you could effectively treat it as a 12.3% discount on the current version.

If you want to share the joy

If you want to buy it and be nice to me at the same time you could use my affliate link to place your order.

The offer is on the home page towards the bottom right.

Many readers will know I am not related to Xara in any way but just like their software and recommended it so often I figured I may as well get an affiliate link. If you search round here you will also see it has not always been a smooth ride with me and Xara - in particular I didn't like some of their upgrade policies in the past but that is water under the bridge and there is new management. If you want vector drawing software, Xara have always been at the top of the game with fantastic, amazingly quick and responsive software, compared to Adobe Illustrator, and all at abudget price.

2634

Living Room / Re: Microsoft's Pay-Per-Use PC: ...Worst? Idea? Ever?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 01:32 PM »

Apple are already doing this with their various lease schemes (at least in the UK) - the difference being that at the end of the lease period you can buy the computer for a nominal sum or get a new system to continue the lease.

2635

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PerfectDisk 10 @ -20%

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 09:30 AM »

Thanks - I'll go an look. Come to think of it I think that is how I ended up with 2 licenses for the main product - plus I bought the VMWare products as well.

2636

Living Room / Re: Scrotumgate

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 04:44 AM »

ROFL - what a brilliant comment. (Name dropping I knew his son ... albeit many years ago)

2637

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PerfectDisk 10 @ -20%

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 29, 2009, 04:40 AM »

I received discount offers (by the trash can full) but I did receive maintenance upgrades for the two versions I own - they came in the form of an email including a new license number. It was only a few days ago so maybe they are working though them.

Out of curiosity how do you renew the maintenance agreement - I only seem to have it having bought an upgrade last year?

2638

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image 11 Home for US$ 9.99

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 04:54 PM »

Just to add to the maintenance costs for the Corporate version of True Image (if you choose to take them) last Nov were:

True Image Echo Workstation application £8.40 (UK Pounds) + VAT
Universal Restore £4.08 +VAT

This gives one year of upgrades (minor and major during the 12 month contract)
Priority telephone and email support (and they do respond to emails very quickly)

Rather than upgrading to new versions of the Home version regularly this costs no more and is easily budgeted for  but you always use a properly tested verion of the software which is designed for the corporate market. If they screw this up the business will fold so they have a vested interest in getting it right.

As I said you can renew the maintenance contract every year - the only problem is they don't make it terribly obvious how to do that but an email usually gets an instant answer (it didn't help that last November they had completely revamped their website so that everything had changed).

See http://www.acronis.c...terprise/sales/amps/ for maintenance products and http://www.acronis.c...rise/products/ATICW/ for the corporate version of TI.

Before you upgrade to this version from a Home version I suggest you contact them and check the upgrade path works (they may have a different path to upgrade for Home user versions).

2639

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 03:39 PM »

Just stick to shortcuts and it works fine

2640

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 01:03 PM »

Doesn't seem to like Firefox with RoboForm visible - keeps trying to move the roboform bar rather than the window ?? (That is using the little arrows window buttons - works OK with keyboard shortcuts)

2641

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image 11 Home for US$ 9.99

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 11:28 AM »

Disk Director hasn't been updated in a long time (I got mine as a free upgrade to version 9 in 2005 and there have been a few minor patch updates but nothing major).

To be honest it is difficult to see what can be added - unless specific support is needed for the new extra large devices.

My suggestion is to by TI Echo Workstation (and purchase 'maintenance' with it).

It is a bit more expensive (though they will give you an upgrade price from the home version if you ask).

The maintenance is very cheap and can be renewed every year so you always keep up to date.

The advantage of WS version is that it is thoroughly tested and solid - unlike the Home versions which were always buggy (esp. in new releases).

2642

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 10:38 AM »

$200 ??? Isn't that as much as one of the monitors ???

How about house bricks and a plank? To adjust the height:

fine adjustment - turn bricks on to edge or flat
gross adjustment - add another brick at each end

Give a rather 'rustic' look to your desk but it is cheap and effective!

2643

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PerfectDisk 10 @ -20%

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 08:09 AM »

I haven't used DK in a while so I don't know what the current version is like but I like PD's ability to organise data much better than DK and also when I swapped I found it much better at doing a complete defrag than DK.

2644

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PerfectDisk 10 @ -20%

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 07:11 AM »

I use PerfectDisk and got a free upgrade to version 10.

As usual it seems good and solid but it really is the same package as they always sell and I can't see any noticeable difference from version 9 (2008).

They say:

• version 10 is faster - well it doesn't seem to be on my system
• new AutoPilot - which looks pretty much the same as in the previous version as far as I can tell
• enhanced user interface - the only difference I can see is that they changed th colours in the drive map (which is just plain confusing when you are used to their colour scheme in previous versions)
• Free Space Management - looks exactly what they had in the previous version and all it does is list duplicate files and lets you choose which one (if any) to delete. They also have a warning that deleting duplicates is not a good idea in many cases - so why not avoid flagging duplicates that are potentially dangerous to delete?

They are MS certified - well whoopty-do .... they actually pay MS for a certificate - bully for them. Doesn't actually mean much!

The only genuinely new things seems to be:

• you can pause indefinitely - why would you want to do that? If you are doing something disk intensive then you would want to reanalyse the disk before continuing with a defrag wouldn't you?
• Win7 support - but given that Win7 still uses NTFS as its base filing system it isn't exactly a great leap (plus Win7 isn't finalised yet so they really shouldn't claim compatibility until they can actually test the product on the final version!)

All in all it is a solid app and if you are buying with 20% discount then it is worth having but as an upgrade I am not convinced unless you want Win7 support at this point? Certainly if you are tempted by the upgrade give the trial a run and be prepared to reinstall the old version.

2645

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Online Apps Alternatives

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 05:07 AM »

Appears anything other than the Notesake tour is not currently available.

2646

Living Room / Scrotumgate

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 04:36 AM »

Budding male cellists can heave a sigh of relief :

http://www.independe...scrotum-1517846.html

 

2647

Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 28, 2009, 04:06 AM »

You look a bit depressed in the pic ...

How about Blocks of wood cut to the size and shape you want and spray painted to match the desk or the monitor stand?

If you want to spend money why not get two wall mounting kits and get them off the desk altogether?

Another alternative is a simple bookshelf - those long slotted metal strip type book shelfs are incredibly strong (So long as you fix them to the wall properly) and then it is easily adjustable.

See http://www.knapeandv...page=products.18.219

(this shop is very expensive any DIY place would have these pretty cheap)

2648

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for simple backup software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 27, 2009, 06:18 PM »

For simple file backups what is wrong with Windows Backup ?

2649

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Online Apps Alternatives

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 27, 2009, 10:23 AM »

The question that always occurs to me when I see sites like Zoho is 'how long until one of the big companies comes along with a large cheque to kill it off?'.

2650

Living Room / Re: Evernote Icon - what the heck is it? Anyone actually like version 3 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on January 27, 2009, 04:23 AM »

I just really like the version 2.2 client and particularly the indexing of handwritten notes.