Month: October 2012

This weather service has worked well through three operating systems, and has been my preferred weather service here in Canada. When running Windows Vista and 7, I had it piped through into a gadget called WeatherCentre and the service worked well Windows 8 doesn’t do gadgets, so I installed the original notification icon and it ran and did all that it should despite warnings from Windows 8 that it was an incompatible program. I uninstalled it and re-installed using compatibility settings, but Windows 8 still didn’t like it. This morning, I noticed that the CPU temperature was up, so opened … Continue reading Windows 8 Compatibility – The Weather Network

If you want to install Windows Media Center for free into Windows 8 Pro, you have until January 31st, 2013 to get it.. Fill in your email address, type in the code and then wait. The key will be sent to you, but not immediately and maybe not for 48 hours even.. but you will get it.. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs  OK.. unlike previous Windows versions, you type this into a search add features and then follow the onscreen instructions, entering your new key code along the way. Windows 8 then proceeds to install WMC and will reboot at the end of the … Continue reading Windows 8 Media Center..

The MS Community forum is busy..  As usual after the release of a new operating system, there are all types of failures. Why does this happen? Incompatibility, Incompatibility, Incompatibility,. What constitutes a perfectly running Windows 7 installation does not necessarily constitute a perfectly running Windows 8 installation. Utilities are generally specific to an OS, whether they are for hard drives, printers, or virus protection and maybe even CPUs. Removing them is not always too straightforward, and some leave bits behind. The software authors would argue that by leaving bits behind, re-installation of a utility doesn’t reset everything back to day … Continue reading Windows 8 forums..

This operating system has been designed for multiple machine types, and you will most likely use Windows 8 because it is part of the deal when you buy a new computer. After the initial setup and personalisation, this is what you will see.. This is a screenshot of mine, and I have added one or two items and removed a few too, but you get the picture. The ‘full’ buttons on the left are Windows 8 ‘apps’ and the block of buttons to the right are standard desktop applications and utilities. The major difference is that Windows 8 Apps run … Continue reading Windows 8 – Living with it..

If you had no Windows 7 support, you will get no Windows 8 support. ATI have Windows 8 drivers up and ready for the HD 7000, 600o and 5000. Conspicuous by their absence are the HD 4000, 3000 and 2000. Windows 8 has basic support for these, so don’t expect good gaming graphics even with the simpler games. For general use, they pass. nVidia on the other hand are supporting everything from the Geforce N6600 and beyond, Quadro, Tesla and ION. nVidia 3DVision is not supported along with all legacy products, many of which didn’t get Windows 7 support either. … Continue reading Windows 8 drivers.. Graphics

Key points are like movie trailers. You get 10 minutes of good action and find that the full version includes 80 minutes of a mind state called ‘frustration’ Can we have the first slide, please? "We shunned the incremental. We boldly reimagined Windows." (Sinofsky) Somebody at Microsoft boldly reimagined XP. We got Vista. "We see today as a grand opening." (Sinofsky) The Windows apps store has a glaringly obvious omission. It is called a Start menu. I give thanks to Stardock’s corner store.. "Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a PC now really is." (Ballmer) I have Windows 8 and … Continue reading Key points at the Windows 8 launch..

The move to Windows 8 is only the third time that I have ever thought about upgrading rather than clean installing. I was put off ‘upgrading’ years ago after it went tragically wrong and I lost everything. The second time, I tried the Windows 8 upgrade on Windows 7, but it too went tragically wrong because I had a disk utility running that was incompatible with Windows 8, despite claims that the version was Windows 8 friendly. This last time. my Windows 7 was running perfectly and, apart from the ESET NOD32 v.4 business A-V solution, there were absolutely no … Continue reading Windows 8 – Upgrading..

In this case, Realtek HD Audio.. The symptoms.. Some media files played ok and some didn’t. YouTube files were worst hit, even ones that I had downloaded. Was IE10 the culprit? No, because playing YouTube stuff in Opera produced the same results. The solution.. Realtek have HD Audio drivers for Windows 7 and 8 combined. After installation of the new drivers, all audio is ok now.. http://www.realtek.com.tw/

Forums > Newsgroups > forums Microsoft technical support used to be fed through the Compuserve forums. This is where the beginnings of the Microsoft MVP program were rooted. Microsoft then set up their own newsgroup servers to boos and hisses from some of the community. Eventually, the noise settled down as the contributors adapted to the new ways. Unfortunately, the Microsoft newsgroups didn’t always attract the nicest of people, and because it was based in USENET, there was a notion that one could do, say, act, and type exactly what one wanted to type, regardless of the morality of the … Continue reading Change is a pain in the ……….

.. makes all the difference.. This is Windows 8, complete with Quick Launch, Stardock’s Start8 and the Canada theme pack. It looks and behaves just like Windows 7, apart from the lack of gadgets. The toughest learning curve so far has been the Start8 menu. It took all of five minutes. The general appearance is flat and squared off. Not so good.. Some programs need to be set to run in compatibility mode and run as administrator. The theme is being used just to make the view of my monitor more interesting for you. I run a black background because … Continue reading A decent Start menu..