Month: September 2012

Stardock’s Start8 menu for Windows 8 is getting better. You now have the ability to ‘pin to the Start menu’ just like Windows 7. All about the look and features here.. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/features.asp And guess what? It is in beta presently, but the full version only costs $4.99 which is well worth it in my opinion. Imagine getting all of the benefits of Windows 8 and a usable Start Menu too. Despite ultimately having to pay for Start8, this could be the deal maker re Windows 8 success not only at home level, but also enterprise. The way that Start8 is … Continue reading Windows 8 – Start8 makes it all better..

It has been just two years and nine months since the Toshiba joined the home network. Apart from connection issues via the RealTek RTL8191 SE, it has performed well. There was no hint of what was to come even as it was powered down for the evening. Who would have known that the next pressing of the power button would do NOTHING. All the laptop could do was show that it was still connected to AC power and the fan on the cooler base was still working. A local laptop repairer has suggested ‘reflowing the GPU’ but that will cost … Continue reading Toshiba L500.. R.I.P

I can’t help but feel that computer users get the privacy they deserve. All kinds of junk, ridiculous statements and claims, photos etc. are uploaded to the likes of Facebook and other social networking sites, and people squawk because it is public? Isn’t that what social networking is all about? Haven’t these people caught on that social networking sites try to sail as close to the wind as they can? Why do they think that Facebook has to keep changing its privacy agreement? It is full of double talk, worded to sound like they are on the side of the … Continue reading Privacy on the Internet..

How do you receive email? An email client? Online? I get mine through an email client, Outlook 2010. If you don’t know, this is part of the Microsoft Office Professional Plus set which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Publisher. Mainly, I use Word, Outlook and OneNote, and occasionally the others. Re Outlook, I have four email accounts covering personal, business, registrations and Microsoft specific stuff, and I use the Contacts, Calendar and Notes sections all of the time. I would find life very difficult without Microsoft Outlook and OneNote, and have Genie Timeline backing them up every 8 … Continue reading Mail clients.. setting up for a fall?

Windows 7 is reporting that my card reader unit is slowing down the process of coming out of sleep. I assume that it includes hibernation because I never use the sleep function. The 9 in 1 card reader is running on generic drivers, but it looks like they all do. I haven’t seen a packaged card reader which includes more then the reader and first layer packaging.. Needless to say, the card reader works as does the USB port on it, and I would rather have a card reader than worry about the 2.1 second delay in coming out of … Continue reading Card readers

An exercise in total frustration for the user who has caught it, and also for the person asked to fix it. This rogue anti-virus will not let go. Everything that the user tries to do is intercepted. Any attempt to search for and download tools to thwart it are blocked or re-directed, and core Windows functions are disabled or removed in their entirety. So, how did I remove it from a client computer? I will tell you now that LUCK played a part. First, I took the drive from the client machine and hooked it up to mine via the … Continue reading Live Platinum Security..

What a magical piece of kit this is. A cheap CPU heatsink and fan assembly where the fans are painfully easy to remove for cleaning. There are three versions of the Hyper 212 and mine is the type with the clip-on fan assembly. Two small moulded clips on either side hold the fan to the heatsink and there are small pieces of rubber between the fan and the heatsink to stop vibration. To remove the fan assembly, simply prise up two clips on the same side and it literally falls away. I can clean everything easily, get at the main … Continue reading The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus..

.. doesn’t have touch capability. Mind you, I am not surprised really. Who would want to leave grubby paw prints over an IMac look-a-like.. It will be difficult enough keeping the keyboard and finger pad clean. Plus, and the distance that one normally sits away from the screen, it would require the relative arm length of a Chimpanzee. Enter the new finger pad where you can swipe away to your heart’s content. I am assuming that it would work with any Windows 8 PC and could become the accessory to have if it is sold separately. I would imagine that … Continue reading This HP high end all-in-one Windows 8 PC

So, IE 10’s Adobe Flash component has to be updated through Windows Update, does it? Oh dear. I don’t do other browsers because I don’t like either the browsers or the way that the parent companies operate. It seems that putting Windows 8 into Virtual Box and leaving it there until it is GA’ed was not such a bad idea after all. Just to put all minds at rest, I will do ok fumbling around in Windows 7 and IE 9 for the time being, trust me.. I have to admit to not fully comprehending why Adobe and Microsoft can’t … Continue reading IE 10.. dodging the bullet..

I have been running a non-PWM fan on my CPU heatsink ever since changing it from the standard fitting. PWM fans are easy to recognise as they have a four pin connector instead of the usual case fan three pin type. The fitted fan on the new heatsink was a seven blade 2000rpm three pin type which was ok but maybe not doing the best job. The new fan is a CoolerMaster Excalibur nine blade 2000rpm PWM type, and it is super quiet. The old SilenX fan has been repositioned to take up the spare fan mounting in the top … Continue reading Better cooling..