Month: December 2013

I read today that the Windows 8.1 upgrade breaks Windows Fax and Scan’s ability to send a fax. I can confirm that it does indeed break Fax.. This is the problem.. FXST30.dll which is located in the Windows System32 folder There is a fix. Download and save a new version of the file from here.. http://hevanet.com/hb/FXST30.dll  You may have to TAKE OWNERSHIP to do so, as this is a system file. Find the original in the Windows System 32 folder Rename it FXST30.old Copy the new file into the System 32 folder The fix is done, and you will now … Continue reading Windows 8.1 and Fax..

My HD6450 gets Windows 8 support proper which is good, but to do much more than basic stuff, it is a total waste of $$$. NORAD’s Santa tracker asked if I wanted to view Santa’s progress in 2D. I was aware when I bought it that it was no top performer, and only wanted it to get Windows 8 compatibility. Even so, the 6450 is a poor excuse for a video card. I equate it with cheap forks (cutlery type) which bend if pushed through anything with a greater density than butter. My old AMD 939 system running an nVidia … Continue reading Video performance..

.. to all who venture here throughout the year.. Merry Season’s Greetings and here is the same greeting for those who are colour blind.. Merry Season’s Greetings Don’t you just detest all of this PC stuff, PC as in Political Correctness, not the venerable PC that we all love and sometimes don’t.. If you receive a tablet as a present, regardless of installed OS, ignore the next part because you will be too busy getting mad with it.. .. And a happy new year..

Not really finished because a website never is, especially when the content relates to a constantly moving target. I recently changed the compiler from FrontPage 2003 to Ewisoft Website Builder, and I knew that it was going to take time. The HTML produced by FrontPage was not new standard friendly, so there was little point in Ewisoft being able to import FP 2003 stuff directly. This lead to opening up pages in IE from my old site, and then copying and pasting into WordPad or MS Word. The stuff copied well but the default font changed to the Word Processor … Continue reading My website..

.. is a disk utility which shows very clearly indeed the health of your hard drives, be they internal or external.. See here.. It isn’t the world’s most useful disk utility ever in that it doesn’t have any tests other than what it runs when starting up. However, it does contain useful info: Model number – now you can easily determine which hard drive tools to use (they are not all the same). Serial number – useful if you want to check the warranty status without having to remove the drive. Drive letters allocated to the partitions on the drive. … Continue reading CrystalDiskInfo..

If you read the article in the link here, you could be forgiven for thinking that revival of a proper Start menu is a strong possibility. It was always going to be that way because 90% of computers are STILL traditional desktop or notebook types  Also, the rush to buy touch enabled desktops and laptops never happened for a couple of reasons.. They are way more expensive than their non-touch counterparts.. They come pre-installed  with an operating system lacking obvious basic controls with which it could be worked, a scenario which is about as welcome as getting a jail sentence … Continue reading Windows 8 to get a proper Start and STOP menu..

There I was, trundling through life in Windows 7, going into the forums almost every day, and then Windows 8 appeared and spoiled it all. Looking at the future of me continuing to support Windows, I set up a third hard drive in my case for use with Windows 8 developer preview in a ‘virtual’ dual boot configuration, but Windows 8 wanted dearly to trash the Windows 7 installation on the primary drive. REFORMAT and RETHINK.. So, I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to ‘contain’ Windows 8, and I installed it into a virtual machine. Working … Continue reading Windows 8 support..

I learned many years ago never to use any program, application or utility which saved in a proprietary format. For instance, what happens if your favourite program is discontinued? A good example is Microsoft Picture-It. This was a far more popular program than I would ever have believed, so it must have had a lot of good and easy features to use. The trouble is that it saved to a proprietary format. I believe that XnView, an open source photo viewer/editor can but don’t hold me to it. Is XnView in the same league as Picture-It? Apparently not (I have … Continue reading No continuity..

Client operating systems Latest update or service pack End of mainstream support End of extended support Windows XP Service Pack 3 April 14, 2009 April 8, 2014 Windows Vista Service Pack  2 April 12, 2012 April 11, 2017 Windows 7* Service Pack 1 January 13, 2015 January 14, 2020 Windows 8 Windows 8.1 January 9, 2018 January 10, 2023 * Support for Windows 7 RTM without service packs ended on April 9, 2013. Be sure to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 today to continue to receive support and updates. As of October 30, 2013, Windows 7 is no longer … Continue reading Some dates for your calendar..

If there is one function that a Windows 8.1 desktop user doesn’t need, it is ’Hot Corners’.  A Windows 8.1 desktop user needs hot corners even less if, like me, the preferred place for the task bar is at the ‘top’ The hot corner does a great job of hiding the Start button and Quick Launch, and it doesn’t respond to instruction given within the hot corner. Great, super. Fortunately, the Windows task bar can be pulled away from its position easily, giving access to controls which can see the hot corners banished for ever or a ‘refresh’, whichever comes … Continue reading Windows 8.1 – Hot Corners?.