Month: June 2012

To save me plagiarising, I will give you the link to Mary Jo Foley’s article.. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-details-its-windows-8-upgrade-plans/13051 There.. that was quick.. Techspot have a great little table which may be easier for you.. http://www.techspot.com/news/49196-windows-8-upgrade-paths-leaked-xp-vista-and-7-supported.html… As usual, cross platforms and languages require a clean install. Personally, I favour the clean install anyway and always have. One thing I didn’t see mentioned was whether upgrading Windows 7 which has XP Mode installed would be smooth and that XP Mode would still work. I never took the time to find out if Windows 8 would even accept a fresh XP Mode installation, so I … Continue reading Upgrading to Windows 8..

Windows 8 RP has to go because it is not safe for me to boot into it. Until Windows 8 RTM appears, I will remove it and try again on a brand new SATA when the time comes. I may even save my cash and wipe out C, replacing it with Windows 8. I don’t care really because I have no recovery partition to worry about and I have a good working Windows 7 Ultimate DVD. It can all be put back if the need arises. I am in no particular hurry as I have Windows 7 which will be … Continue reading CHKDSK errors again..

I have been a fan of the WeatherCenter 2.6.2 gadget and not been shy to promote it. The only problem was that the download on the link I gave does not work. But all is not lost.. Go to this page, translate it and click on the Download button. You can either run it from the page as I did, or save it and run it later. http://addgadget.net/engine/download.php?id=95 It works in Windows 8 desktop and is way better than the Metro weather because you can use any one of six weather sources, whichever is best for your region. In Canada, … Continue reading Correcting a link..

I was recently given a laptop with a view to installing more memory. A simple enough job on the face of it, but it is only a Dell Inspiron 1200  and already has 512mb MORE than the original specs. Why on such a small machine would anybody want to upgrade memory to 1gb? This little laptop is a ‘cottage’ machine, used by multiple members of a family during summer vacations and long weekends. The users are mainly the male members of the family, and they like to prove ‘macho’ by playing online poker. It is not just the younger members … Continue reading A classic example..

I refreshed the Toshiba laptop the day before yesterday. It was working fine but the Toshiba’s primary user was having problems with Facebook and some of its features and functions. I explained that the Internet connection was fine and that it wasn’t directly due to a Windows 7 or NIC bug, but in order to prove the point, I did it anyway.. Sure enough, the issue was still there. The refresh went quite well apart from the boring period with seemingly endless Toshiba ‘Configuring the system’ screens. Finally, I managed to get the main stuff back on, and then copied … Continue reading The Toshiba gets a re-install..

.. is still a major issue for many people. Almost every reply in forums and e-zine articles about Windows 8 centres on the lack of a desktop Start, and the response of some that we need to get a life is reducing fast. Some article writers tell us that we are going to have to live with it and support the new interface. Sorry guys but as much as I am  Microsoft fan, this is one product which leaves me cold. Unlike Windows ME where, if you added enough RAM (256mb), it would almost run without crashing at all, or … Continue reading No desktop start menu.. Absolutely no desktop start menu..

This is the future apparently, but not for ever.. a convertible tablet.. In time, the above will become one of these.. and finally.. Hey, wait just one second! I have one of these already!. See how advanced I am? For the news article which spawned this blog post, see here http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/convertible-notebooks-will-sell-but-for-how-long/8061?tag=nl.e539  Some interesting comments too, no doubt filtered out such that the Microsoft Intranet can’t see them..

Paul Thurrott doesn’t think that business users will.. http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/microsoft-windows-8-businesses-143238 And he suspects that Microsoft know this already. You can read his reasoning in the link above. My older clients mainly use XP, and because the majority are linked to Rogers Cable, the default homepage is Rogers Yahoo. This is where they get news, email, access to Yahoo chat etc. The desktop icon for IE may just have moved three spaces from where it was yesterday, but if they can’t find it easily, the end of the world is assumed to be on its way. If I put an icon on … Continue reading Windows 8.. Who will want it?

Warning #1 -  Straight from the MSDN download section..  “Important: If you decide to go back to your previous operating system, you’ll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC, which is typically DVD media. If you don’t have recovery media, you might be able to create it from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer’s website for more information. After you install Windows 8, you won’t be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go … Continue reading Windows 8 RP – WARNINGS x 2