Month: October 2010

I dug out an old game of mine having noticed that the Windows 7 Compatibility Centre claims that it is Win 7 64-bit compatible. The game in question is Microsoft Train Simulator v.1. Yes, it installed in compatibility mode, and it started without any corruption of the initialization screens. It ran very well in actual fact. Unfortunately, it would not unattended. I could play out any of the tasks included, but turn my back for a few minutes and it would disappear as in close down. There was no fuss, no error message, nothing in Event Viewer, and the Action … Continue reading Game compatibility

I have been using it exclusively for a while now. Good points: Messages can be sorted in date order while still keeping flagged messages grouped at the top It is fast’ It works with the Community NNTP Bridge It is customizable Bad points: None Mesnews = 1  – Windows Live Mail Wave 4 = 0

If you want to fax from a Windows 7 64-bit computer, and unless you are using a new laptop fitted with a compatible analogue modem, you will need to buy one. The Windows 7 Compatibility Centre has a list of compatible modems, and a quick look at prices for aforementioned modems is a nasty business. The cheapest option is a USR 5637, a cute little white USB 56K modem which sells for cdn$60. Prices for others get really silly after that. Some good news for Windows 7 32-bit users. The Intel 536ep analogue modem works, and I know this because … Continue reading Analogue modems

Potential for partitions on OEM systems: Windows 3.1.. A possible three extra partitions over and above C as the OS created and required only one partition for it to work. The operating system recovery option was nine or maybe ten 1.44mb diskettes, always supplied even when the OS was preinstalled. Diskettes containing installation files for bundled software would also be included. Windows 95.. As per Windows 3.1 except that everything was now on CD. Windows 98/ME..  saw the advent of the CD recovery set which would wipe out any user created partition in the event that it was run. Even … Continue reading Partitions.. a dying strategy

This is the Softpedia page where you can download the XP Zune theme. It is representative of many pages on the Internet. The searched title is along the top, but look at what is below and around the download button for the theme!! What hope is there of the average computer user keeping their computer free of invasive crap? Recommended: Advanced Registry Optimiser – RegistrtyBooster 2010 Recommended by who? The guys who will stitch up the user for money to get the junk to finish its scan and ‘clean’ stuff that doesn’t require cleaning is who.. Too many Internet pages … Continue reading Website advertising – stay on side PLEASE..

You should defrag. It keeps files in some kind of order and, while it may speed up general operations a little, it will reduce wear and tear on the hard drive heads too. I have always been a fan of Diskeeper, and not just because the integrated XP defragger was a derivative of the same. Diskeeper always seemed to take up less resources than others while it was doing its stuff. It still does, and it doesn’t install functions which remain if you decide to uninstall for any reason like PerfectDisk does. There are two problems with the latest Diskeeper. … Continue reading Defrag

Finally.. It has taken a while to find a news reader which works like Outlook Express, Windows Mail and the earlier Windows Live Mail news reader did. Why have I looked for something different? Back in the old days (pre-Wave 4), it was possible to sort newsgroup posts in descending date order. In this way, all new posts appeared at the top of the list. What happens now is that older posts which get new input are appearing at the top. A good idea? Not for me.. We could also flag posts which we had created (easier to find), and … Continue reading A replacement for Windows Live Mail Wave 4 news reader