Archive for January, 2007
Test Drive Vista
Cool. Enough said.
The posts on this weblog are provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confer no rights. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...How to increase broadband connection speed in Windows XP/2003?
To speed up the Internet connection speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer’s memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the NIC or the USB modem. …
How to increase the hard disk speed in Windows XP/2003?
To speed up your hard disk speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer’s memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the disk. This tip is only recommended if you hav…
What is Windows Registry?
The 32 bit version of Microsoft Windows uses a database to maintain and store the settings and options for the operating system. This database is known as Windows Registry.The 32 bit versions of Windows includes Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 a…
To Create a Nameless File or Folder
Normally you have to have a name for an icon, just spaces are not allowed.To create an icon with no name attached to it follow the steps given below: Make sure NumLock is onHighlight the Icon you want to changeRight-Mouse click and select RenameWhile h…
To Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop
To remove Recycle Bin from the desktop: Run REGEDIT.Find NAMESPACE key in left pane (HKEY_Local_Macine \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Explorer \ Desktop \ Namespace)Expand NAMESPACE (click ‘+’ box)Delete the value RECYCLE BIN i…
Taking Screen Shots of the Desktop
If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this: Hit the Print Screen key. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the Windows clipboard. Start up a graphics editor and paste it in.Alt + Print…
Another reason to get Vista Ultimate
I mentioned one
reason to get Vista Ultimate a while back: Volume Shadow Copy. Well, another
reason to get Ultimate is that it includes a MPEG2 encoder/decoder. Why should you
care? Well Windows XP always required 3rd party MPEG decoders to do things such as
play DVDs. If you own a Media Center PC then
you know just how sorry this is since it’s completely useless without one.
It was always blamed on licensing costs (MPEG is not free).
Well great, so how did 3rd parties take care of this opportunity? The usual way…
they created buggy substandard software that was sometimes ok at decoding but incapable
of encoding. Or, it would install their DVD player that would often get in the way
of the built in Windows software it was meant to service and behaved a lot like Anti
Virus and Security software constantly saying “hey look at me!!! check out my always
running tray icon process, and watch how I take over when you insert a DVD”. They found
all sorts of ways to take something that costs $5 or less to licence and turn it into
anywhere from a $15 to a $60 “opportunity” with fancy bells and whistles you never
needed in a DVD player. Thankfully, nVidia finally came out with a decent
decoder a few years after XP came out but seems like they too have fallen victim
to the “Bronze”, “Gold”, “Platinum” strategy of selling you more expensive sugar water.
Anyway, Vista Ultimate now
has a genuine Microsoft included quality MPEG encoder/decoder. One less way to get
stuck in DShow Hell.
You can now expect the same level of quality from DVDs and the like that you get from
Windows Media Video.
update: the mpeg decoder is also included in Vista Home Premium.
The posts on this weblog are provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confer no rights. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.
