Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 06, 2007 by CyberNet.

Are you planning to purchase Vista after Service Pack 1 is released? Your plans might have just changed. Microsoft says that they don’t have any plans to issue a major service pack for Windows Vista like they did with Windows XP. This came from a senior Microsoft official who said that Vista was “high quality right out of the gate,” and in other words, is not needed.

When asked whether they would continue to have service packs, the corporate VP for Windows Marketing says that they will, however they won’t be as urgent, or as important as XP service packs were.

If you recall, Service Pack 1 for XP was around 30–134MB, and the second one was much larger at around 75–266 MB.  SP1 patched security holes, but also added additional functionality like USB 2.0 support, and a “Set Program Access and Defaults Utility”.  Within that service pack, Microsoft removed Java Virtual Machine which was a requirement after a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems.

One of the big differences with Vista is how users get updates.  When Microsoft can add updates slowly over time using Windows Updates, there’s really no reason for one big update like a service pack.  Which also means, to those who said that they were going to wait until the first service pack was released to make the upgrade, you’ll have to think of another reason to continue using your XP machine.

Source: CyberNet Forum (Thanks Richard) [via iTnews.com]

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This article was written on August 27, 2009 by CyberNet.

UPDATE: As some commenters have pointed out certain antivirus applications are flagging this application as containing a trojan. My antivirus, NOD32, did not find any virus though. So it’s up to you whether you want to proceed.

We’ve seen all kinds of Aero glass emulators for XP cross our path. The problem is that the moment they start to show any potential the developers fall off the map and updates are pretty much non-existent. A few weeks ago when I saw one called Border Skin over at Lifehacker I put off trying it because, frankly, I was sick of being disappointed.

Man, I have to say that I’m sorry I didn’t try this sooner. First off, it’s portable so there’s no installation involved. Just download, extract, and run. The settings are self-contained in the directory you run it from so there’s not a bunch of random files you need to worry about finding should you decide to delete it.

Second, it looks remarkable. You can turn the blur effect on or off, there are about 15 different colored themes you can choose from (the one pictured above is the Windows 7 style), and overall it just feels like it’s part of the operating system. Over the last few days I’ve been using this full-time on one of my XP machines, and there have been very few times that it even crossed my mind that this wasn’t an integrated part of the operating system. It’s that fluid.

Lastly, performance. This thing performed so well on my XP laptop that it got me wondering what it would be like on a low-end piece of hardware. I don’t have any old computers lying around, but then I realized that throwing it in a virtual machine would be a really good test considering that Aero glass on Vista or Windows 7 isn’t available in any virtual environment due to graphics restrictions. So I put it on an XP virtual machine with 512MB of RAM, enabled all the effects including blurring, and then took the screenshot you see above. It all worked amazingly well even on a virtual machine with limited resources. The only issues I saw was some slight jumping if I’d drag the windows around really fast, and when closing a window the border would remain visible for about a half a second after the app closed. Definitely not a deal breaker, and these results were much less noticeable on my dedicated machine.

It also got me wondering what it does with “borderless” windows such as Google Chrome. Good news… it does nothing! I was worried that it may add a border around those applications regardless of whether they need one or not, but it doesn’t. This is because it has an “exclude list” file that can be used to specify windows that shouldn’t be skinned. Common apps like Chrome and Windows Live Messenger are already in this list for you.

So a big thanks to the developer for coming up with an awesome solution, and I can’t wait to see what else will be added in future versions! This is already the most complete Aero glass emulator for Windows XP that I’ve used, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Border Skin Homepage (Windows only; 32-bit only; freeware)

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

When April 8 comes around, it seems that many ATM machines around the world would run into a particular problem, so much so that it might be a whole lot more difficult to handle compared to the relatively peaceful Y2K experience that we had 14 years ago. After all, most of the ATM machines worldwide still run on Windows XP, the operating system from Microsoft that will no longer be supported by Microsoft themselves from that date onward. BusinessWeek claims that 95% of active ATMs in the world will be powered by Windows XP, and when there is no more support from Microsoft, it would most probably mean that your ATM machine is going to be vulnerable to external hacks and the like.

(more…)

Windows XP Still Runs On 95% Of ATM Machines original content from Ubergizmo.

Microsoft is not going to change their minds concerning support for Windows XP, where such support is still on track to end 90 days from now, and the date in question would be April 8th, 2014. Apart from that, the software giant has also confirmed quietly what had been making its way across the grapevine, that Microsoft will also stop offering Microsoft Security Essentials for the Windows XP operating system after April 8th as well.

This bit of news arrived through a new revision of Microsoft’s Windows XP end-of-support web page which sported that little bit of detail. To be more specific, it read, ”Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date.” I guess that’s that, and all good things must always come to an end. Still, if you want to continue using Windows XP, it always pays to be careful, and Microsoft has recommended a bunch of best practices to follow in order to protect your PC from any unwanted intrusion, including running an up-to-date antivirus, applying security updates regularly for the remaining software installed, as well as using modern software that will feature advanced security technologies, followed by the support of regular security updates. We have been warned, that’s for sure. Would this make you ditch Windows XP and upgrade to a newer version of Windows?

Windows XP For Microsoft Security Essentials Ends This April 8 original content from Ubergizmo.

This article was written on April 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Grouping similar Taskbar buttons in Windows is either a feature you love or hate. It’s nice because when your Taskbar starts to get full it will start grouping applications together to conserve space. For example, if you have 10 Firefox windows open at a time they will only show up as a single button on the Taskbar if you have grouping enabled.

This may not only help reduce clutter in your Taskbar, but for some people it could help maintain their sanity. The only thing is that the grouping of similar buttons will only occur once crowding sets in on the Taskbar. Don’t worry, it’s actually possible to let the feature kick in regardless of how full your Taskbar is. Just look at this screenshot I took after applying the tweak I’m about to show you:

It grouped the two Windows Explorer windows into a single button despite there being nothing else on the Taskbar. Feel free to proceed if you’re running Windows XP or Vista…

–Customizing Taskbar Grouping–

1. To simplify the process we’ve created this registry file that you can download (advanced users can find the registry information toward the end of the article). After you download that go ahead and extract the file. If you double-click on it right away it will set the Taskbar to start grouping when two or more of the same applications are open.

   If you want to change it to, for example, group only when there are three or more of the same applications open you’ll need to edit the file. To do this right-click on the TaskbarGroupSize.reg file you downloaded, and choose the Edit option. You would replace the “2″ with a “3″ in this case resulting in the line looking like this:

   "TaskbarGroupSize"=dword:00000003

   Similarly setting the value to “0″ will force the Taskbar grouping to return to the default method.

2. Now you need to enable the setting. If you feel like killing some time you could restart your computer or logoff, but it’s probably easier to just re-enable the option in the Taskbar properties. To do this right-click on the Taskbar and choose the Properties option. Uncheck the Group similar taskbar buttons option if it is already checked, and then click Apply. Now check the Group similar taskbar buttons box, and click OK:
   
3. The feature should now be enabled. If you didn’t modify the Registry setting in Step 1 you should see that any two similar windows will be grouped together regardless of how much space is being occupied in the Taskbar:
   
4. You can go back and modify the Registry setting in Step 1 at anytime. Running it again will merely overwrite the current value, and setting it to “0″ will return the grouping back the Windows default method.

–Advanced Users–

If you’re an advanced user and know your way around the Windows Registry you can create the necessary value yourself. You’ll need to navigate to this location:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced

Then you’ll need to create a new DWORD (32-bit) value called TaskbarGroupSize there. A value of “0″ will disable the feature, while a larger numerical setting (2 or higher) will initiate the grouping when that number of similar windows is open.

–Overview–

So now I’m curious… how many of you use Taskbar grouping in the first place? I generally don’t use it, but I know a lot of people who do. Drop us a comment below with your thoughts.

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