Apr 20

Download Windows XP SP3 (RC1) from Microsoft

Posted in: Microsoft, Pre-Release, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows XP

This article was written on December 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’m not sure how long this is going to be available, but it looks as though Windows XP users can download the first Release Candidate of Service Pack 3 (SP3) straight from Microsoft. One member over at the WinMatrix forum posted the download link, which directly points to XP SP3 executable installer located on the Windows Update server.

The download is 336MB so make sure you have some time set aside for it to finish, but I have downloaded and verified that it is the real deal. Here are a few things you should know before downloading XP SP3:

  • SP3 is cumulative, so users can install SP3 on top of Windows XP SP1 or SP2.
  • SP3 is able to update any version of XP, including XP Media Center.
  • SP3 will not upgrade Internet Explorer to version 7. The Service Pack does include updates for both versions of Internet Explorer, but the main version of IE that you’re running will remain untouched.

The installation process took me about 15 minutes to complete, which I would say is good because I was expecting it to take much worse. Here is a screenshot gallery from my journey:

(Click to Enlarge)
XP SP3 - 1 XP SP3 - 2 XP SP3 - 3 XP SP3 - 4

Download Windows XP SP3 (RC1) from Microsoft

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 19

CyberNotes: How to add Breadcrumbs to Windows Explorer in XP

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, Windows XP

This article was written on June 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

One of the best features that I have found in Vista is the nicely designed Windows Explorer. It makes it easy to navigate through your folders, and allows you to put frequently used folders in the sidebar on the left side. Best of all is the great breadcrumb navigation that allows you to navigate backwards through folders with ease.

Vista’s Windows Explorer

Getting those breadcrumbs in Windows XP is actually very easy, thanks to a free application that was just released last week called QT Address Bar (Download Mirror). If the name sounds familiar, that’s because we previously wrote about a program they make called QT TabBar which puts tabs in Windows Explorer.

So now back to the breadcrumbs. I’ve only seen one other application (found on Lifehacker) that did something like this, but it didn’t take on the same appearance of Vista’s Windows Explorer. QT Address Bar is about as close as it gets, and here’s the simple steps needed to set it up:

  1. Download QT Address Bar (Download Mirror) and install it. The installation is a one-click process so it only takes a second. Oh, and the uninstallation is just as easy since all it really does is register a few things with the operating system, so you won’t find any folders in the Program Files.
    QT Address Bar
  2. Either logout of Windows XP and log back in, or restart the computer.
  3. After you’re back in Windows, open Windows Explorer. Don’t panic, you’re not supposed to see QT Address Bar yet! Right-click on a toolbar and select the QT Breadcrumbs Address Bar option from the menu:
    QT Address Bar
  4. Now that the QT Address Bar is visible and working, you should consider removing the normal address bar by right-clicking on a toolbar and unchecking the Address Bar option.
    QT Address Bar
  5. Now have fun with it! QT Address Bar actually goes one step beyond what Vista does by allowing you to deeply navigate folders from within the breadcrumbs. You can even right-click on a folder from within the breadcrumbs:
    QT Address Bar

There ya go, now everyone still using XP can benefit from one of my favorite things in Vista’s Windows Explorer. Let us know if you have any other tips on how you bring some of Vista’s features into Windows XP!

QT Address Bar (Download Mirror)

Thanks to the anonymous tipster for pointing out this program!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 18

CyberNotes: How to Change the Primary Monitor on a Laptop

Posted in: CyberNotes, Software, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on June 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

When hooking my laptop up to an external monitor, the first thing that I like to do is extend my desktop over to that monitor. That way I am able to use my main monitor, but I am also able to utilize the screen on my laptop which practically doubles the amount of screen space I have to work with.

The only problem is that Windows has never let me choose which monitor is the primary one, and by default it always sets my laptop to be the primary display. I don’t like this because I have my main monitor in front of me, and my laptop sits more off to the side. Despite there being an option to choose which monitor is the primary one in the Display Settings, it has always been grayed out for me. After several hours of messing around, I have finally been able to figure out a solution that should work for everyone who has that option grayed out.

Vista’s External Monitor Option Grayed Out

On Windows Vista, the grayed out option reads “This is my main monitor” while on XP it says “Use this device as the primary monitor.” The two options mean the same thing, but the wording has been changed in Vista.

The reason that the option is grayed out is because some graphics cards don’t support changing the primary monitor. Well, they do, it just takes a little trickery to get it done. It won’t take you long to do, and doesn’t require you to download any additional tools or hack the registry. I was actually surprised at how easy it is after I figured out how I could get around it:

  1. Here’s what I’m starting out with: the monitor on my laptop is enabled and my external monitor disabled:
    Vista External Monitor
  2. The first thing you need to do is to enable only the monitor that you want to be the primary one. This is done by pressing the Function (Fn) key on your laptop along with the “F” key that switches the display. There should be either a picture of a monitor on the “F” key or it should say something like “CRT/LCD”. For me the key combination is Fn+F8:
    External Monitor Keyboard Shortcut
  3. So right now I have my external monitor enabled, and my laptop screen is off:
    Vista External Monitor
  4. Now I open up the Windows Display Settings, click on the box with the number 2 in it, and choose the “Extend the desktop onto this monitor.” In this case the secondary monitor is your laptop and should be the one disabled:
    Vista External Monitor
  5. Now enjoy the bliss of having the Start Menu in front of you instead of off to the side:
    Vista External Monitor

Note: You can also reverse this process to have the Start menu show up on the laptop’s monitor instead of on the external monitor.

The cool thing is that Windows will remember this setting so that every time after setting this up, it will properly designate the primary monitor. As soon as you unplug the external monitor, Windows will then move the Start Menu back to the Laptop just like you would expect it to.

Hopefully this will help someone out there because I spent hours searching the Internet trying to figure it out before finally sitting down and trying to come up with a solution myself.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 14

Automatically Empty the Recycling Bin at Startup

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on January 30, 2009 by CyberNet.

One of the things that I noticed with my desktop computer is that I’m constantly deleting large files, and after awhile it can consume quite a bit of space. I restart the computer a few times each week, and I decided that upon startup would also be a good time to have the Recycle Bin emptied.

After I started searching around I found that there wasn’t a special command designed to empty just the Recycle Bin. I did, however, stumble upon a way to execute the Disk Cleanup Wizard via the command line in a way that requires no user interaction. That means I could not only empty the Recycle Bin, but also temporary and other unneeded files.

Here’s what you have to do:

  1. From the command line run this line of code:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sageset:1
    sageset.png
  2. A window should appear where you can configure what items you want cleaned/emptied when this profile (that we’ve designated as number 1) is run. Check the boxes for each of the options you want executed. Press OK when finished. Note that the Disk Cleanup will not run after you press OK.
    disk cleanup-1.png
  3. Now you need to create a scheduled task. In Vista the action you’ll want to assign will be:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1
    And it should look something like this when entered in the New Action screen:
    new action.png
    If you’re asked whether you want to run the program with the /sagerun:1 arguments you can press Yes.
  4. Now you can choose the rest of the settings yourself, such as when you want this to run. One of the options you can pick is to execute this when your computer starts.
    task schedule.png
  5. You’re done!

As you can imagine this tool can clean up a lot of different areas on your PC according to whatever schedule you setup. I’ve also started backing up my entire PC each night, and I have this script run before the process is initiated to ensure that unnecessary files aren’t being backed up. So it’s become a rather critical part of my daily routine.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 11

Windows 7 closes gap with XP, is poised to steal top market share this month

Posted in: mac os x, MacOsX, market share, marketshare, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, PC, stats, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows7

As recently as a year ago, Windows XP was the kingpin of PCs in the US with 43.1 percent market share. But that’s rapidly changing. StatCounter shows that while Mac OS X is creeping up slightly and Windows Vista continues its death march, Windows 7 is on the rise, steadily closing the gap with trusty ole’ XP. Last month, XP’s share sank to 32.17 percent, while Windows 7’s edged up to 30.84 percent, leaving the latter poised to overtake XP — something the much-maligned Vista never did. And if early numbers are to be believed, it’s already happened: StatCounter says that for the first week in April Windows 7’s share (among desktops, at least) totaled 31.71 percent, compared with XP’s 31.56. Either way, it seems Microsoft has convinced consumers that it’s finally safe to upgrade.

Windows 7 closes gap with XP, is poised to steal top market share this month originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechAbsolute, Royal Pingdom  |  sourceStatCounter  | Email this | Comments

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Apr 09

While We Were Gone…

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Laptops, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows, Windows XP

This article was written on May 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

digg ars olpc firefox logos icons.pngDid ya miss us? We’ve been out of town since last Thursday, and since then there were some pretty big announcements that we wanted to be sure to cover. It appears as though the last few days before last weekend was the prime time for acquisitions. ;)

–Firefox 3 RC1–

Mozilla released Firefox 3.0 RC1, which indicates that they are on the home stretch before releasing the final version. The Release Candidate doesn’t have many changes over the previous Beta, but as expected it’s a bit more polished:

  • Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
  • Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
  • Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatibility and stability.
  • Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.

Thanks to “C” and “Cory” for the tips!

–Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Ars Technica–

Ars Technica has joined the likes of Wired and Reddit! That’s right, Condé Nast has acquired the news site that most geeks have come to love. They won’t disclose what was paid for the site, but TechCrunch says is in the $25 million range.

What I’m interested to see is whether the Digg button on Ars Technica will remain considering that their parent company are also the proud owners of Reddit. Ars Technica’s articles are constantly plastered all over the front page of Digg, and removing the button could cause them to drop in traffic. Maybe they’ll just add a Reddit button alongside it?

–Ask.com Acquires Dictionary.com–

When you need to lookup a meaning of a word there is a very good chance that you head straight to Dictionary.com. I know I do. That site has now been acquired by Ask.com, and they also get Thesaurus.com and Reference.com as part of the deal. By purchasing the rights to these sites Ask.com is looking to return to its roots a bit by being able to quickly answer basic questions.

Thanks for the tip Omar!

–CBS Acquires CNET–

CNET has got to be one of the top technology sites on the web, and they sure showed it with their price tag. CBS acquired them last Thursday for $1.8 billion, which includes all of the properties owned by CNET. Here’s a quick list of CNET’s more popular assets: ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, MP3.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon, Download.com, and TechRepublic.

–Digg Launches New Comment System–

Digg has finally decided to revise their comment system, and I think it’s much better than before. There’s just one problem… they didn’t test it in Opera. A formatting glitch would be one thing, but the new Digg comment system crashes the Opera browser anytime you try to visit an article. They admitted that they didn’t test the system in Opera, and tried to justify the glitch by saying that Opera users account for less than 1% of the visits to Digg. *sigh*

–Windows will be Available on the OLPC–

Looks like Windows is coming to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) after all. These budget machines will run a $3 version of Windows XP and Office called the Student Innovation Suite. I have a feeling that these laptops will now be even more appealing to developing countries.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 28

Windows XP on the OLPC

Posted in: Laptops, Microsoft, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows XP

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

OLPC Windows XP BSoD Microsoft is not going to stand on the sidelines when it comes to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. They have given 40 engineers the daunting task of getting Windows XP running on the OLPC (a.k.a. XO project), which is equipped with a 433MHz processor, 256MB or RAM, and a 1GB flash drive. The biggest chores they face is getting XP to fit on such a small drive, and writing drivers that will work with the laptops specialized hardware.

Microsoft is trying to convince the XO project to add a slot for an internal SD memory card, which would be able to boost the amount of storage space to 2GB. It sounds odd that the XO project would listen to Microsoft’s requests, but there have been reports that countries are holding out on buying units because they do not run Windows. So there is some incentive for the XO project to keep an open ear to Microsoft.

Microsoft is hoping to have the a test release of XP for the OLPC in early 2008. They are investigating the possibility of having the operating system installed before the computers even leave the factory, but schools and government will still be required to buy a license. There’s no word on how much that would cost, but manufacturers are rumored to pay $15 to $30 per license for regular versions of Windows, so it will likely be lower than that.

Maybe they’ll also be able to change their slogan from “One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time.” to “One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time. Unlimited Blue Screens!” :D

[via BBC]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 21

Tweak Vista & XP with XdN Tweaker

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on August 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

XdN TweakerI’m astonished at how many tweaking utilities have been released for Vista thus far. We’ve got TweakVista, VistaTweaker, TweakUAC, Vista Sidebar Styler, and Vispa. Now we’ve got one more that we can append to that list: XdN Tweaker. This one is a little more unique than the others, and the reason for that lies in its cross-compatibility.

This tiny app has customization tweaks that work in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista, Server 2003, and XP. There’s nothing to install…just download and run the tweaker. After you’re done you can safely remove the program, and your changes will remain in place.

There are quite a few different things that you can do with this, but my favorite is the option to disable the black "faded" background that appears behind a UAC prompt. It takes just one click to remove that background, and I actually think the prompts appear faster by having that disabled.

Here’s a mixture of the things that you can customize on both XP and Vista:

  • Changes the number of Folder views Windows saves.
  • Resets the folder views Windows has saved.
  • Add/Remove classic Windows 2000 user control panel icon.
  • Disable/Enable ATI Catalyst Control Center right click on Desktop (only for use if you have an ATI video card and have the Catalyst Control Center installed).
  • Disable/Enable ‘SendTo’ right-click menu.
  • Allows you to adjust and tweak TCP/IP settings.
  • Disable/Enable ZipFolders.
  • Disable/Enable the Outlook Express/Windows Mail splash screen.
  • Put the File menu above the Back/Forward buttons in IE7.
  • Remove or Replace the Search box in IE7.
  • Disable/Enable User Account Control prompts under Vista.
  • Disable/Enable the “- Shortcut” text under Vista.
  • Attempt to force Vista to better save folder views.
  • Disable/Enable Windows Media Player Explorer context menus.
  • Add/Remove “Take Ownership” to right-click menus under Vista.
  • Disable/Enable the Documents item on the Classic Start Menu.
  • Changes “Delete” to “Search…” on Recycle Bin.
  • Turn off the annoying full screen “black” UAC prompt.
  • Add/Remove the Network Connections icon to Control Panel

XdN Tweaker Homepage
Source: Lifehacker

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Mar 04

MyFive: Computers We’ve Owned…

Posted in: Laptops, Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on April 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

For Today’s MyFive, we’re taking a look at the computers that we (meaning Ryan and I) have owned over the last several years. We’re also interested in hearing what computers you’ve owned over time and which you have found to be the best. The one thing you’ll notice with our computers is that for our “1st generation,” Ryan and I each had a different model, and that’s because they were bought before we got married.  Ever since we got married and Ryan sucked me in to technology, we’ve always bought two of the same computer at the same time. Prior to meeting him, I never would have thought I could get so excited about getting a new computer, but I have to admit, I do. :)

Our list below briefly includes the specifications and a picture. The pictures you see are real images of the computers that we had and were taken before selling them on eBay (it’s amazing we still had them). Anyhow, on we go with our five “generations” of computers…

1st Generation

The first generation of computers includes Ryan’s first laptop and my first laptop. They were bought before we got married, so they’re the only computers that aren’t the same.  Ryan received his for Christmas as a gift, and I bought mine during my 2nd year at college.

2002-2005 – Ryan’s Compaq Evo N800c

  • 80GB hard drive
  • 1GB RAM
  • Intel Pentium 4 Mobile at 1.60GHz
  • Windows XP Professional

compaq n800

2003-2005 – Ashley’s Compaq 910US

  • 30GB hard drive
  • 256MB RAM
  • AMD Athlon XP 1.33 GHz Processor
  • Windows XP Home

compaq 910

2nd Generation

The “2nd Generation” was the first and only Tablet PC we’ve ever purchased, it was also the first time we bought two laptops at the same time. Being college students, we didn’t have a whole lot of money to spend so we were looking for a great deal. These Tablet PC’s definitely were a great deal, but boy did we have problems getting ones that worked! It took about three tries for each of us before we ended up with a working computer. Averatec did eventually discontinue their line of Tablet PC’s shortly after we purchased ours. Over-heating seemed to be the cause of most of the issues we had which resulted in terrible battery life, unexpected shutdowns, and super-slow performance.

Oh, and these were the only computers we’ve had where they sold for more on eBay than what we paid for them in the first place, even after stating the issues!

2005-2006 Averatec C3500 Tablet PC

  • 60GB hard drive
  • 512MB RAM
  • AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+ with PowerNow Technology 1.66GHz
  • Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

averatec

3rd Generation

After having quite the experience with the Averatec computers, we decided to go with a more well-known company for our “3rd generation” of computers, Dell. Of course Dell isn’t known for using quality parts, but we never had any issues. All in all, these were great computers and it was so nice to not have to worry about the computer over-heating and turning off unexpectedly.

2006-2007 Dell XPS M140

  • 60GB hard drive
  • 1.5GB RAM
  • Intel Pentium M/Centrino 1.73GHz
  • Windows XP Professional

dell m140

4th Generation

Because we never had any issues with our Dell XPS M140 laptops, we decided that we would stick with Dell, but upgrade to a computer with better specs. This is what we ended up with last year:

2007-Present Dell Inspiron 6400

  • 160GB hard drive
  • 2GB RAM
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T5200 1.60GHz
  • Windows Vista Ultimate

dell inspiron

5th Generation

It’s about that time of year again where we upgrade our machines. We carefully looked at different models and manufacturers to see what would be the best option for us, and over the last two months we’ve been reading all kinds of reviews so that we could make a good decision. We’ll fill ya in within the next week or two on which computer we decided to go with. Stay tuned…

Question: To wrap it up, what computers have you owned and which have you found to be the best in quality and performance?

Update: Some people are wondering how we’re able to upgrade laptops so frequently. This comment helps explain that and how we spend very little to do it.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Mar 03

Charting the upgrade path from DOS 5.0 to Windows 7 (video)

Posted in: Microsoft, Today's Chili, upgrade, video, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Charting the upgrade path from DOS 5.0 to Windows 7 (video)

If you’re old enough to remember tweaking your Autoexec.bat and tackling IRQ conflicts, days when launching Windows required typing “win” at a command prompt, prepare for a blast of nostalgia. YouTuber Andrew Tait (aka “TheRasteri”) took a freshly minted VMWare instance and spent what looks to be a full day running through every version of Windows starting with DOS 5.0 and Windows 1.0, which was basically just Explorer paired with one heck of a crummy text editor. From there he dutifully leads us on a crazy upgrade path all the way up to modern times, charting interesting things like how long a version of Doom installed in DOS ran (failed in Windows 2000, but worked again in Windows XP) and when color settings made in Windows 2.0 were finally overwritten (also in 2000). It’s 10 minutes in length and is probably the most interesting video you won’t watch today.

Continue reading Charting the upgrade path from DOS 5.0 to Windows 7 (video)

Charting the upgrade path from DOS 5.0 to Windows 7 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrunchGear  |  sourceTheRasteri (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

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