Month: January 2010

A network printer should not be difficult to install, and my well tried procedure for connecting a network printer across platforms did not work, no matter how I tried.Very disappointing. Windows 7.. I just had to go for it.. The upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium did not take too long to complete, but there is not much by way of other software installed. There is definitely a speed increase over Vista in general operation and everything works. Video is reduced to the basic VGA standard which is not particularly good but usable, network speed allows for maximum transmission in … Continue reading And yet more on the ECS L7VMM upgrade..

With a Windows Experience Index of 1.0, it is never going to be a gaming machine. The ATI 9250 never was an all time great anyway, but it puts up icons on the screen and will easily handle the standard Windows offerings. Tinker and Hold’em are a couple of no-no’s because the 9250, being only 128mb, can’t display them, but SP2 installed with no issues, as have all other updates. While the performance isn’t lightning fast, it is way more than acceptable and is very smooth as one would expect from Vista. It would have been nice to have been … Continue reading An update on the ECS L7VMM upgrade..

A new Toshiba laptop has become a permanent fixture on the home network here and, as it is new, it came pre-installed with Windows 7. It has the new quad core i3 Intel processor, 4g of DDR2, and it pushes Windows 7 64-bit around very nicely indeed. This has freed up an aging ECS L7VMM desktop machine running 2gb RAM and XP Pro. Initially, I had thoughts about installing Windows 7 onto this one, but I couldn’t get it to boot from the Windows 7 DVD. So I decided to install my original retail Vista Ultimate. At first, all went … Continue reading No more XP on the home network..

Video card is an MSI N6600 – 256mb.. The latest graphics drivers for Windows 7/Vista, version 196.21, have caused me to do a restore back to a previous restore point. Rolling back the driver does NOT work, as IE8 still flickers after doing so. When the mouse pointer runs across the various items in Pageflakes, Netvibes etc, the IE8 window flickers badly, and is totally unusable. As a result, I am back with version 191.07 which works perfectly..

I have one of these, but it is no longer part of my computer configuration. Why? Well, my humble abode has become a ‘no smoking zone’ since the appearance of my favourite granddaughter. For those of you who are not ‘in the know’, it is a Sunbeam Cigarette Lighter for PC and is Windows 7 compatible (no drivers required). The biggest problem with the device is that it has to be used in conjunction with accessory cigarettes which tend to produce a lot of smoke and tar deposits. Fortunately for me, I have fast track access to outside, but it … Continue reading The Ultimate PC accessory

Many older printers may only have basic driver support, in which case you will lose maintenance utilities which show ink levels etc. Also, 64-bit support may be thin on the ground, and printers without 64-bit support will not work if connected direct or through a network to your new 64-bit operating system. This is a list of the major printer manufacturer websites where you will either find good news or the prospect of having to buy new.. HP http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/win7web/printer-support/us/en/deskjet.html Dell http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?journalid=7AD5D998C33F895AE040AE0AB6E11C5F&docid=362037 Canon -  (includes other Canon product lines) http://www.usa.canon.com/app/pdf/Windows7_compatibility.pdf Epson – this manufacturer prefers not to produce lists http://www.epson.ca/cgi-bin/ceStore/support/SupportIndex.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes Brother … Continue reading Printer compatibility with Windows 7

It is called ‘Personal Security’ and it produces its own version of Window’s Security Center which looks almost the same as the real thing except that the ‘Shield’ symbol is a mirror of the real one. The Personal Security control panel looks like this. Needless to say, this control panel will only allow two functions. One will temporarily hide it, and the other will allow you to pay for the full version. If you attempt to use Internet Explorer to find fixes that will see it off, PS warns you that the site you are visiting is not safe and, … Continue reading A particularly nasty piece of malware..

.. but wait. A short case study I have an aging Biostar T6100-939, manufactured in the heady days when XP held down 76% of all PC users. Windows support was good, and there were even XP 64 drivers available for it, although I only ever ran XP Pro 32-bit. The chipset is the nVidia nForce 410/6100, all budget stuff. The integrated  video part which was billed as 256mb had no real gaming performance, so I fitted an MSI N6600 256mb video card which has performed well enough, giving me good detail and reasonable frame rates when playing CFS 3 and … Continue reading So, you think that you are in the clear..

If extended lists scare you, don’t do this. I now have a ‘god mode’ window containing two hundred and sixty nine functions. Fortunately, they are split up into forty five categories.. A quick recap 269 functions spread across 45 categories OK, this is how you do it. Double click on ‘Computer’ Create a new folder and give it this name (copy it from here and paste the name in) GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} A split second after the folder creation and paste operation, you will get an icon which looks just like the regular ‘Control Panel’, except for the fact that this one … Continue reading Windows 7 ‘god mode’ ..

When I heard that some were coming back, I can’t say that I was over the moon, but thought that Tinker might make a welcome change from FreeCell. So I waited and waited, checking Windows Update for it, but alas nothing appeared. Then I found out that I have to join Games For Windows Live, which I duly did, but every time I tried to log in, it sent the rest of the network offline. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS PLAY TINKER, JUST LIKE I USED TO PLAY IT IN VISTA. I have uninstalled all of the crap and … Continue reading Ultimate Extras.. Part 2