Archive for the 'Software' Category

Firefox For a World Record

Published
by
Chris
on June 15, 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

Download Day 2008

Firefox has to be the best web browser that I’ve ever used. It’s so customisable and it’s great. Since the first day I started using it many years ago, I’ve never looked back. I’d have to say that the main thing that got me hooked was the tabbed browsing. It’s so much neater and a heck of a lot better then having the task bar full of website and a million different windows.

Firefox is just about to hit a new stage of it’s life. It’s about to hit the public release of version 3. I’m currently running the latest beta version RC3. I’ve been having a peak at version 3 since Beta 2 and much say that I’m excited to see where things are going with the web browser. The latest version of Firefox is the best yet with over 15,000 improvements over the previous versions.

To help celebrate the launch of Firefox 3, the team are trying to set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. People can make a pledge to download the new version on June 17th. There will also be a special certificate that you can download on the day.

I’ve signed up, have you? Just click on the red banner above for more information.

My Thoughts on IE8

Published
by
Chris
on March 8, 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

As some of you may know, Microsoft have released Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 to the public. I downloaded it the other day and gave it a bit of a test run, as this a primarily a developer release for web developers to ensure that their sites will work. As a primary browser for every days tasks, I’d advise you to stay away from it. There are a lot of sites that will break. I’m guessing the main cause of this is that IE8 is a standards compliant browser (finally!!), and that a lot of that hacks that are used to get sites to look right in previous version of IE are causing these issues.

I’ve since removed IE8b1 from my computer as it was conflicting with Outlook Today in Outlook 2007. All my calendar entries and task links had a permanent underline. This was quite annoying, and upon removing IE8b1, it’s all fine again. Hopefully this fix this in future versions, but for now, I’ll be sticking with IE7 via IE Tab in Firefox.

Making phone calls via Outlook

Published
by
Chris
on February 25, 2008
in Hardware, Software and Technology
. 0 Comments

I’m a frequent Microsoft Outlook (currently using 2007) user and have been for many years. I just can’t see to get away from it, and I’m yet to find anything that comes close to it. One thing that keeps me is that I can sync my phone with it, which in turns syncs with my Google Calendar.

Up until today, I’ve always looked at the little phone button on the toolbar and wondered how that works. Well, it’s a lot simpler then I though. I just had to plug a modem in to the phone line, and hit the button and it makes a call. How awesome is that!?!?! Now I can call anyone in my contact list with the hit of a button, instead of reading it and then keying it into my phone, then pick up my phone. Oh, and the best part about it is that this works over my VoIP line. Free calls and lazy dialing!! :D

Cleaning the Windows

Published
by
Chris
on January 14, 2008
in Software
. 6 Comments

One thing that annoys me with Windows is how easily useless stuff builds up and never goes away until you stumble across it all. Sure you can trudge through it all and find uninstallers or manually remove it, but I usually find the best way is a simple reinstall of Windows. Oh, and by the way, I’m not talking about windows on your house, I’m talking about WindowsXP. :p

Over the past year I performed a number of hacks and mods, most of which can’t be removed. Two big ones I done were to add Media Center 2005 to XP Pro and add the sidebar from Vista.

So now, I’m currently going through Windows Setup (formatting at 25%), then comes the fun of installing drivers, updates and then finding all the programs that I use daily.

On the upside, this gives me a chance to look at what I use and see if there are any alternatives out there that may be better.

Some may wonder why I don’t just install Ubuntu (or other linux flavour), but the reason behind it is that I can do things much faster in Windows, I don’t really have time to tell Ubuntu who is boss trying to work it out, and I have a heap of Windows only programs that I use regularly and I don’t want to fart around with virtual machines, oh, and I stream to my Xbox360 and my wife doesn’t like Linux.

Reader Question: For you Windows users out there, how often do you do a fresh install of Windows and why? Any hints or tips I should take note of for next time?

Vista Sidebar for XP

Published
by
Chris
on June 11, 2007
in Software
. 0 Comments

Please note that some info in this post may be out of date. Please use this post for reference purposes and a point in the right direction.

Ever since I first used the Vista back in the early days of when it was still in Beta, I fell in love with the Sidebar that it had. Sure enough it’s not a feature rich as Desktop Sidebar, but I but I still like it.

For the last little while, I’ve been looking for a sidebar project that is able to use the gadgets for the Vista Sidebar, but I was starting to think that this didn’t exist. The closest that I’ve found is a sidebar project from thoosje.com, but it has it’s own library of gadgets, so I was still out of luck. Then I stumbled upon this post over at joejoe.org.

Vista Sidebar in XP

As you can see from this screenshot, I’ve got it working, and it works great. Adding gadgets isn’t the same as in Vista, you have to add them manually, but the how to is in the read me in the download.

If you’d like to try this out, head on over to the post at joejoe.org (linked above), and click on the big green image at the bottom of the first post. It says something like “Vista RTM Sidebar for Windows XP”. For anyone that is confused or doesn’t understand what’s going on, all you need to do is install VIAOXP/2003, make sure you have IE7, WMP11 and KB918997 installed, and follow the rest of the instructions.

Convert XP Pro to MCE

Published
by
Chris
on April 2, 2007
in Software
. 0 Comments

Since the 2007 Fall Update, I no longer have a need to run MCE on my PC. The main reason I done this was to get Transcode 360 to convert video files so they would play on my big TV.

Yesterday I helped a friend of mine, Daz, set up Windows Media Center Edition 2005 to work with his Xbox360. After a bit of stuffing around thanks to Microsoft doing such a outstanding job as they always do, we managed to get it all working after a few hours.

There were 2 main issues that we came across. The first was that when installing MCE, it would ask for the WindowsXP Service Pack 2 CD, but what it really wanted was Disc 1 from the install disc set. We finally worked that one out only to find that Update Rollup 2 wouldn’t install cause it wanted MCE 2005 which we had. A quick google search found a registry hack to fix that. After that it was pretty much all fine an dandy, except for a few network tweaks.

I must say that I’m pretty impressed with the Media Center feature on the Xbox360. So much that I’ve decided to have a go myself, so today, I went on a hunt to find a *cough* copy *cough* to experiment with.

Well, I didn’t think it was possible to convert WindowsXP Pro to Media Center Edition 2005. Not an upgrade, but more like installing a program. Basically what I found was a disc image which basically does a few hacks to WindowsXP Pro so that it thinks that it’s MCE, and then you install the MCE software and the updates, and if your lucky, you should have MCE on your PC.

I gave this a go and installed it on an old hard drive I had laying around that still had an install of WinXP. I went through all the steps and done everything exactly as the instructions say (it’s pretty strict), and after about an hour I had MCE on my PC. Pretty simply. I then proceeded to install Update Rollup 2 (required for the Xbox360) and there I started to run into a few issues. Pretty much the same error as Daz was getting, though the solution wasn’t the same. I had a browse through the UPDATE.INF file with the rollup and made sure that all the required registry settings were the same. I found a few for the .NET framwork that weren’t the same, so I fixed them up, and away we went, Update Rollup 2 was installing. I was pretty happy then.

I added the Xbox360 extender software and now my 360 has MCE working on it.

Since I done this on an old HDD, now I have to go and do it on my main hard drive. Though I will backup all my data just in case something does happen to go wrong. I read about a few people that have lost everything due to a bad burn of a disc and things like that.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am still using my legit Windows product key. This was one of the main factors of this task.

If any one is interested in this, let me know either by leaving a comment here (make sure you leave your email address), or via my contact page.

Please do not ask me for info about this. The site that had the links is no longer online. Here is a possible source that may do the same, but I haven’t tried this so I cannot confirm. If this source has worked for you, would you please mind leaving a comment below.