Entries tagged with vista - Channel 10

Group Your Taskbar Windows with Reg Hack

sarahintampa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:55:00 GMT

The Lifehacker blog offers up a great little registry hack for grouping similar items on your taskbar. You may have noticed that the taskbar only groups items when you have launched enough windows to fill the taskbar. However, if you want to group similar programs all the time, a simple registry hack does the trick. Go to:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced

Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named TaskbarGroupSize at that location, setting the value to 2 or higher to set the number of programs to activate the grouping.

Get a Vista Theme for Your Smartphone

sarahintampa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:30:00 GMT

[Hey Forina] Whether you have a Microsoft smartphone or Pocket PC, you can now download a free interface that makes your phone look like a little Vista computer. The interface comes with some pre-installed background images, or you can use your own by pressing the "Action" key. On the right side of the screen a sidebar displays, showing a very Vista-like clock, plus the current weather, a battery indicator, and a signal strength indicator.

The main screen is called the "Start Screen," which is a heads-up display that shows your missed calls, text messages, appointments, news, and more.

You can then browse into other screens to see details on the weather, read the news, view your message history and missed calls, and access your program launcher.

You can see more images of these screens and other functions as well as download the program from here if you would like to try it out.

Get Drop Shadows in Your Screen Capture

sarahintampa — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:40:00 GMT

The Digital Inspiration blog posts a great tip on how to capture Vista's Aero Glass drop shadow when you're doing a screen capture without having to buy any expensive software.

The trick is to put the window you want a screenshot of in front of notepad. Then do a print screen or Vista's Snipping Tool to take the picture and save the file. Next, open the file in any editing program like Windows Photo Gallery and crop out the parts you don't need.

Quick, painless, and best all of free! Nice tip!

WebSlices Hit the Desktop

sarahintampa — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:24:00 GMT

I just saw a post this morning about Sean Lyndersay's new Sidebar gadget called the "WebSlice Viewer Gadget." This brilliant little creation brings IE8's WebSlices (bits of web content that you can access from the new IE8 Favorites Bar) right to your desktop via a simple Vista Sidebar gadget.

The gadget, currently in alpha (you've been warned!), requires Vista (unknown if x64 supported, but let us know), IE8, and a web page that has some WebSlices. Each instance of the WebSlice Viewer shows only one WebSlice, so you will need to open multiple gadgets to show multiple views.

You can download the WebSlice gadget from Sean's SkyDrive.

Cubedesktop

sarahintampa — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Here's a twist on multiple desktops: software from Cubedesktop increases your working space by offering you a 3D virtual desktop environment. With Cubedesktop, you will have 6 virtual desktops which you can move between in different ways, one of which is a 3D cube. As you move from desktop to desktop, you will see a live preview of what's happening. All the windows update in real time, so you can find just the one you are looking for. Each desktop can be named (like "work," "school," or "fun") and can have its own wallpapers and icon arrangement.

Besides the 3D cube, you can also use features like the "Window Exposer," which tiles the open windows on to your screen, or a simpler Desktop Explorer. The software is available as a free trial for both XP and Vista (does not specify if x64 supported). (via Go2web20)

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 5

brianjo — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:03:00 GMT

This week on the podcast, JD and I welcome guests Nic Fillingham and Andrew Duthie for a lively discussion of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, cool stuff we saw on Channel 10, and we ask the question, "How do you handle all the different social networks?"

Links:

Vista Keyboard Shortcuts

Larry — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:52:00 GMT

I'd play keyboard shortcut Jeopordy with anybody. As a long time shortcut user, I can get by without a mouse - dropdowns, checkboxes, tabs - no problem. Of course, I got to this point by working on computers with problems (and usually no working mouse).

Then Channel 8's Max Zuckerman came into my office and minimized everything to desktop simply by laying hands on my keyboard. Turns out what Max was doing was hitting Windows+3 on my keyboard, which launches the third item in your Quick Launch bar (just to the right of the start button), in this case - Show Desktop.

I realized I have shortcuts to learn yet, and set out to find all of them. There are two sites you should spend time with if you want to be a shortcut power user. The first is this shortcut list at ItsVista.com, the second is this Windows Help site. Knowing these can save you a lot of time in the course of a day, especially if you're out of batteries with your cordless mouse.

Browse Shadow Copies with ShadowExplorer

sarahintampa — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:33:00 GMT

ShadowExplorer is a cool utility that lets you browse the shadow copies created by all versions of the Vista OS in a point-and-click GUI fashion. With ShadowExplorer, you can see the available point-in-time copies, browse through the copies that have been created, and retrieve older versions of files and folders as needed. It should be noted that ShadowExplorer is in no way a replacement for backups, but it can definitely help you find an restore older copies of file from time to time. The utility is available as a free download from here. (via ghacks)

Antique Books via Silverlight

sarahintampa — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:15:00 GMT

Wow, I just found an amazing example of WPF and Silverlight thanks to the .net DEvHammer blog. "Turning the Pages 2.0" is an application that lets you "virtually" turn the pages of precious, antique books. Real books! In spring 2007, the British Library, in collaboration with the Society of Chief Librarians, Scottish library authorities and Microsoft, launched the 'Hidden Treasures' competition to put important manuscripts held in public libraries online. Normally, these books would only be able to be seen under glass and open to a page, but you wouldn't be able to read them. Now you can not only turn the pages, but you can also rotate the book, zoom in and out, move the book around, make notes, and read or listen to expert's commentary on each page. 5 Books are available in this format:

* Dorset Federation of Women's Institutes War Records (1939-45)
* Textus Roffensis (1123-24)
* Arbuthnott Missal (1491)
* Staunton's Embassy to China: Proof Plates (1797)
* Diaries of William Searell of Beddgelert (1844-46)

You can get the Silverlight version here and the Vista version here.

S1Digital HTPC Solutions

Nic — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:20:00 GMT

S1Digital are a company based out of New York offering custom built, high end HTPC solutions for both the end user and professional installer.

One area that differentiates S1Digital in the premium HTPC space is that they have a consumer-direct channel via their web site where you can customise and order HTPC's like the Media Center Mini Edition.

We sat down with Paul from S1Digital back at CES 2008 to learn some more about the company and the types of rigs they build and sell.

Company Web Site: http://www.s1digital.com/

JD and Brian Podcast - Episode 2

brianjo — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:14:00 GMT

JD is traveling, but I talk to Rob Morris, founder of windowsmoviemakers.net about his hugely popular community site. We discuss communities, Windows Movie Maker, getting started in video editing, and hosting your videos on the Web.

Links from todays show:

windowsmoviemakers.net

Tutorials

PapaJohn's Home Page

Windows Movie Maker on Microsoft.com

Media Center Plug-In: Internet TV

sarahintampa — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:31:00 GMT

MiraWorldTV is a free plug-in for Windows Media Center that lets you to stream Internet TV from around the world straight to your Windows Media Center PC or TV. The plug-in, which works on Vista Ultimate or Vista Premium, provides thousands of mainstream channels built into the app and its database is updated frequently. The videos themselves stream from their respective sources, but the MiraWorldTV app offers a program guide which gives you information about the channel and the program playing, if that is made available by the content providers. You can even create your own channels from your favorites. In addition to American channels, there are also channels from Germany, the U.K., Turkey, and others. The app is free, but donations are accepted. However, there is no support, so you're on your own if you have issues. Still, it's cool enough to be worth checking out! (via AppScout)

Stop Vista's "Folder Sniffing"

sarahintampa — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:29:00 GMT

In Windows Vista, "sniffing a folder" means that the OS decides the folder type based on the files it contains. For example, a folder with MP3s is determined to be "music" and a folder with JPGs would be determined to be "pictures." However, if any corruption occurs (like if you did something crazy like putting MP3 files at the root of C:) there is no easy way to reset the view. However, there is a reg hack* that will fix this problem.

*Note: before hacking the registry you should try the Reset Folder in Folder Options (Organize -> Folder and Search Options and then go to View tab)

With this hack, any and all remembered folder settings in Explorer for view state, window position, sort order, column information, folder type, toolbar toggles, and search result views will be lost and reset to the original defaults.

This hack with delete and reset Windows Vista Folder Views and Folder Types Settings to their Clean, Default State:

Click on Start
Type regedit in the Start Search box, and press Enter to run Registry Editor.
Click Continue on User Account Control dialog prompt.
In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry branch: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags
Right click on the "Bags" registry key in the left pane, and click "Delete."
Click "Yes" when prompt for confirmation to delete the registry key and all its subkeys.
Next, navigate to the following registry key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU
Right click on "BagMRU" registry key in the left pane, and click "Delete."
Click Yes when prompt for confirmation to delete the registry key and all its subkeys.
Close Registry Editor.
Log off and log on again or restart computer so that the registry keys can be rebuilt and recreated.
After logged on, open Windows Explorer, go to Folder Options (Organize -> Folder and Search Options) View tab, and make sure the Remember each folder’s view settings is checked.
To ensure that any changes to Folder settings in Explorer window, close the Explorer window after changes to save the settings. Windows Vista will only remember the state of folders of the window is closed.

If you don't like to hack your registry yourself, you can download reset-vista-folders.reg in a zip file from the My Digital Life forum.

(Thanks to My Digital Life for this tip!)

Talking High End HTPCs with Inteset

Nic — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:34:00 GMT

From 4TB, rack mounted, RAID 5 content servers (for the home) to gold tipped, passively cooled, multi-room Media Center extenders, the world of high end, home theatre PCs (HTPCs) will have most of us drooling and seriously consider smashing open the piggy bank.

One of the companies at CES this year in the high end HTPC space was Inteset. We sat down with David Hirsh from Inteset to talk about the types of products and services his company offers and what sets high end HTPC's apart.

Company Web Site: http://www.inteset.com/

Automate your home, AV with life|ware

Nic — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:48:00 GMT

One of the most impressive displays at CES 2008 wasn't on the show floor. Instead of a traditional plasma-screens-and-pamphlets CES booth life|ware chose to build three fully functional homes out front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the various home automation products and solutions they offer.

Jason from life|ware gave us a tour of the living room in one of the e-homes and showed us some very cool home automation solutions integrated with Windows Vista Media Center.

For more info on life|ware visit http://www.life-ware.com

5 Programs for Tweaking Vista

sarahintampa — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:40:00 GMT

Was TweakUI your favorite PowerToy? Have you been searching for something similar for Vista? Several different programs are available that may be what you're looking for. Here's a quick list:

TweakVI is a software program designed just to tweak and optimize Vista. The program comes in 3 editions - basic, premium, and ultimate - so there is sure to be one to fit your needs. Only the basic edition is free, but it includes desktop tweaks, Start Menu tweaks, IE & Firefox tweaks, Hardware tweaks, System info, Virtual Desktops, System folder tweaks, Mouse tweaks, Outlook tweaks, & Shutdown tweaks.
VistaTweaker is small enough (664KB) to run from a flash drive but has a huge list of tweaks available including IE tweaks, Windows UI tweaks, System tweaks, Software tweaks, Network tweaks, and more.
XdN Tweaker is small too (516KB) and supports XP, Vista, and even Windows Server 2003. XdN can tweak things like disabling Windows Mail's splash screen, disabling user account control, better save folder views, remove or replace IE7's search box, disable the "send to" option, and much more.
Stardock's TweakVista: Unlike other programs, TweakVista automatically prompts with enhancement recommendations, offering easy “one click” updates to otherwise complex changes, but it's also safe to use. TweakVista is a great way for casual tweakers to get their feet wet without having to worry about causing major havoc on their system. However, there are enough features for the experienced tweaker to enjoy it, too. The trial is free, the program itself is $20.
Vispa is a free executable that doesn't even require an installation in order to use it. It's focus is more on privacy, allowing you to do things like disable error-reporting and other similar communication. But you can also turn on settings like "fast shutdown," which is really a reg hack, without you having to dig into the registry.

My Dream Machine: Tuning

nhodge — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:26:00 GMT

This Part 3 of a 3 part series on My Dream Machine (Part 1, Part 2)

Tuning.

I finished Part 2 with a Windows Experience Index of 4.7

Stated goal: an all round 5.9 for all measurements.

Off to order more bits, and change some components in the beastie: General Melchett.

Tweaking time.

Video Card.

At the time of building this machine, the NVidia GeForce 8800GT cards were extremely popular, if not sold out. Many gamers and performance enthusiasts had to wait in a queue for their cards to arrive. DirectX 10. Those extra smooth graphics in Crysis. Nice. Shame I don't play Crysis, but if I did - it would look way excellent.

Once the card arrived, and I arrived home: a quick swap over and installation of the Vista x64 drivers, and another check of the Windows Experience Index: 5.6. We are getting closer.

Temperature

Like any new performance car owner, I want to take it out on the track and safely measure the top speed. How fast can this thing go?

Before heading down the motorway of speed, it's time to talk safety.

Too much heat in your PC, and your engine is going to be fried. Melted bits of copper, silicon and gold. Fire could erupt. Safety first. To ensure safe speed, keeping your performance PC cool is paramount.

Using a nifty little tool from Franck Delattre, CPU-Z: you can find out many things about your motherboard. The hotter a PC is, the less efficient the electrons. The cooler, the longer the components work and the more efficient your PC. Keeping air flowing through the PC and cooling all the hot bits is a key game all performance enthusiasts.

I decided to get a faster yet quieter rear case fan to pull air through the case, and replace the stock-supplied CPU fan. Intel provide a sufficient CPU fan with their processors, but knowing that colder is better, a little research was in order.

After looking at what other AUSPCMarket guys where buying for their Intel Q6600s. Result: Zalman CPU fans. Below is a photo of the fan installed.

Installation process (note, being the hardware n00b that I am: this took an hour. Chiefly gathering the courage to remove the underside heatsink)

Remove motherboard from case
Remove existing CPU fan with the badly designed plastic clips
A benefit of the Gigabyte motherboard: removable underside heatsink. Remove this
Screw new baseplate onto front/backside of motherboard
Clean off old thermal grease from top of CPU
Re-apply new thermal grease to top of CPU
Screw down new baseplate for fan
Clip on new fan
Wire in fan to CPU_FAN connector on motherboard
Replace motherboard, restart PC

What is my target temperature? Less than 50degC in my research is a good target temperature for my configuration. With the application of the Zalman fan, I managed to reduce the core temperatures by an average of 5-7 degrees C, and the ambient temperature in the case by the same measurement. This was a net change in temperature after installing the new RAM and Video card as described above. The NVidia Geforce is a mini-motherboard on its own: it has its own power connector, fan, processor and memory.

I found CPUID's Hardware Monitor an excellent, and more accurate tool, for measuring both the speed of the fans and the temperature on hard disks and video card.

Overclock

As this machine is my "go-to-work drive", stability is critical. Burning out a cylinder is not a good look.

But, on the weekends.. well, it's time to see what General Melchett can do. As a side note, I own a MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works. My wife has taken this beauty of a car around a racing track at near 200km/hr. This also happens to be my work car. Really don't know why this is relevant, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Overclocking is a little rocket science, a little play with the numbers and mostly fun. Essentially, you are tweaking values in the BIOS at boot time to increase voltages, bus speeds and clocking to get a faster PC. Thankfully, for overclocking newbies, the Gigabyte BIOS has a great mechanism for tweaking. If you set something wrong, it switches back to a known-good default. Almost fail-safe BIOS tweaking.

By tweaking the Bus Speed to 350Mhz, I managed to push the processor to 3.15Ghz. The fans where blaring as the core temperature raised to above 60degrees C due to the core voltage going to greater than 1.3v - the cries of "she cannae go any faster, captn" rang through my head.

Memory

The memory scored a 5.6 in the initial construction. Using two packs of Corsair Twin2X DDR2 XMS2-6400 Twin Pack was financially a good purchase, however not the fastest. The speed is not the absolute maximum; with a little research I found that the Corsair was OK. It was more a matter of latency.

Memory has speeds. There are these strange codes saying things like "2-2-2-12". These numbers refer to the latency timings at a very low level; and the smaller the numbers the faster the memory can be read to and written from. And it is no the direct speed, but rather the "queue waiting time". The smaller the number, the smaller the queue and the less waiting time.

A quick review of the Gigabyte motherboard list of supported RAM modules pops up an interesting choice: Geil DDR2-800 Quad Pack. Lower latency timings, and boom! above that 4Gb barrier on the beastie.

Lesson: when making performance PCs, check memory latency timing speeds. Lower the better.

Recheck the Windows Experience Index:

We get 5.9s all around! Success.

Added bits bill: AU$1,257.19

Windows in Terminor: the Sarah Connor Chronicles

sarahintampa — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:17:00 GMT

Ha! I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed that! If you have been watching Fox's new show, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, then you too may have noticed something odd in the scene where John Connor visits a nameless computer franchise store to in order to get some quick internet access. As he begins working on the PC, which initially appears to be a version of Windows Vista, strange things appear. First, there is the chess game, then some sort of control panel where the icons have no labels, some sort of floating search box (LeSearch?), and finally, an IE options bar that is launched from the task bar. His Vista sidebar even featured a Windows Media Player gadget that was never publicly released! Maybe that is the OS of the future? The iStartedSomething blog has more details on the blow-by-blow, screenshot geekery for us to ponder.

My Dream Machine: Planning

nhodge — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:12:00 GMT

This Part 1 of a 3 part series on My Dream Machine (Part 2)

I am a software guy. Install software, tune the bits, configure the system. Find the limits. Show others how to use it. Software has been the central theme of my geek journey. A Hardware Guy? Well, not so much.

Traditionally, Dell and Apple have made my software-centric life a breeze. After finding some money resting in my account (or someone else's budget), I would wander to an online store and build a machine. After two weeks of impatience, the computer arrives and off I go into software installation heaven.

Challenging your limitations is a natural part of human existence. For me, I had conquer my own personal everest. Time to build something that will go fast, just like the car tweakers from The Fast and the Furious.

Building your own computer is at the core of PC freedom. Picking and choosing the components, plugging it all in. Installing the software. Ensuring that the devices all work. Knowing that your tool-of-trade is constructed by your own hands. Adding more bits later. Finding more money. Adding blinkenlights. All a part of the experience.

Time to build my own dream machine. So started the General Melchett project.

Goal.

Apart from building my own machine, I wanted to make a fast-yet-upgradeable computer. Defining fast as a 5.9 score for all components of the Windows Experience Index in Windows Vista's Performance and Tools

Why only 5.9? 5.9 is as fast as the present versions of Windows Vista display.

What do I want to do with my self-created frankenstein-ian machine?

Anything better than my Toshiba M400 for editing videos. In fact, anything is better than the old Toshiba.
Able to run multiple virtual machines under Virtual PC to test out software, special new things from Microsoft and others without breaking my main workstations
Dual screen to have TV/video/Podcasts running on one side, whilst working on the other. Or at least attempting to work

Making an informed purchasing decision using internet tools and research is easy. As an Aide-mémoire, I installed Live Labs Listas, to manage my collection of knowledge in snippets.

So the simple goal is a reliable performance machine that have fun driving to and from work everyday. Maybe pop out onto the racing track on weekends.

First: Vista x64. what is 64-bit?

The first consideration was a desire to run Vista x64. I needed to the full value of the 64bits that Microsoft have engineered into the operating system. As x64 is a long topic, I've a separate post on the matter.

Second: The Processor

Windows Vista has support for multiple processors. Multiple cores are really handy with heavy number crunching tasks, such as video encode/decode/transcode.

Research lead me to Quad-core processors - and specifically, the Intel Q6600 processor. As AMD had yet to release the Phenom in retail, and Intel their 45nm range of processors - this particular beastie fit the bill. And the budget.

Another core reason for choosing the Q6600 was the freedom to overclock. (For the balance record: my Windows Media Center PC runs on AMD Athlon 6400+)

Third: memory

A big question: DDR2 or DDR3 memory? DDR3 memory, whilst faster to read/write - is way expensive at the present time. The speed of the FSB. I have decided to wait for DDR3 to reduce in price, or the smart scientists do wonderous things with DDR2.

As you will see, my initial choice of brand of DDR2 memory set me up with 4Gb but didn't perform to my 5.9 expectations.

Fourth: motherboard

One of the beauties of choosing a motherboard and processor combination is the upgradability of either, and the "chipset" on the motherboard.

A chipset defines the range of processors that can be supported, memory speeds, 'system bus speeds', audio and other hardware enhancements.

As the next processor I will upgrade to on this particular PC will be a reasonably priced 45nm processor with a greater cache and more performance, thinking of the future is extremely important.

In this configration, I have chosen a Gigabyte motherboard due to their x64 drivers, choice and the value of the features; many SATA connections (eight!), ability to RAID up on the motherboard and overclockability.

Another feature, which came in handy when later tuning, is the removable motherboard cooling heatsink on rear of motherboard.

Fifth:Case

The case I chose had two additional physical constraints: width and height. As this workstation was destined for my GeekSpace at home, the desk my wife kindly let me purchase had certain constrains.

Sixth: The bits that are needed to make it work

The power supply is an important choice. I chose a 620W power supply which has enough head-room for additional pieces to be added. A key feature of the Corsair powersupply chosen was its use of modular power cables. Many power supplies provide rats-nest of cables to wire into hard disks, motherboards, fans and the like. There is invariably cables left over, or you run out of SATA power for instance. Modular installations provide a connector on the powersupply and a collection of cables to suit your installation. Highly recommended.

Disk drives: 10,000 RPM 'boot' drive and 2 x 500Gb (mirrored) 7200 PRM data drives. RPM is a measure of the revolutions-per-minute of the hard disk. The higher the RPM, the quicker the data is found, and the quicker the hard drive. As I was going for 5.9s, I chose a Western Digital 10000 RPM drive.

Second choice of memory: Geil 8Gb of RAM (note: originally purchased older RAM that wasn't fast or big enough. this now sits in my self-built Media Center)

Video card: NVidia 8800GT. The first card I purchased was permanently borrowed by my son to play Crysis. Had to purchase a second 8800GT. All the rage at the time of purchase, there was a waiting list for these beasties.

Monitors: In a similar vein as the case, the hutch in the GeekSpace had limited height; and I wanted two monitors exactly the same. Time to go to Dell and check the specifications of their LCD displays. I chose two Dell E228WFP displays.

Keyboard: Microsoft Wireless Entertainment 8000. Highly recommended. As I also use the PC as a Windows Media Center, the keyboard is just brilliant at 4 metres.

Seventh: Sundries

Like all geek houses, there are bits of hardware of unknown vintage lazing around the house. Included in this list is an old DVICO USB digital TV receiver. Also on the new shopping list included an internal USB module for SD/CF media read/write, DVD/CD R/W drive, desk speakers.

Chosen an Australian online vendor that ships within Sydney on the same day. Clear the credit card! Off we go purchasing the bits and pieces.

Total bill: AU$4,351.79

Next episode: the building

Further References

Touring the Windows Vista Pavillion

Nic — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:36:00 GMT

The Windows Vista Pavillion at CES is a huge white tent divided into several sections demonstrating the various Windows Vista usage scenarios; Digital Memories (photos), Music, Gaming, Productivity, TV & Movies etc etc.
We took a tour through the pavillion and checked out some of the cool new devices on show - such as the HP MediaSmart TV and Samsung "back pack" Media Centre Extender.

We also sat down with JP Wollersheim from the Windows Live team and ran through the updated work flow for digital photos on Windows Vista. From camera to PC to email, photo printing labs and wifi enabled digital photo frames.

64bits. More than 2 times 32

nhodge — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:57:00 GMT

Dentists don't bother me. Due to an absence of nerves, they can repair my mouth and teeth without anaesthetics. The prospect of installing the 64 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate scared me more.

The word-of-mouth on the use of 64-bit Vista has been "leave it for servers" and "be very careful with drivers" to "don't do it"

Rather than succumbing to the hearsay, I decided to install Vista Ultimate x64. Yeah, techies have shortened "64-bit" to x64.

Pleasantly and surprisingly, things just, well, worked. Strike one against hearsay.

Choice with Windows Vista

Inside my box of Vista Ultimate, there are two CDs: one for Vista 32-bit and the other for 64-bit.

These two CDs belie the great differences. Computing without bounds.

How RAM and device drivers are related

Hardware manufacturers must produce something called a device driver. This is a special thing that sits symbiotically within Windows operating system. Many drivers live near the kernel. The kernel is the beating heart of the operating system.

Operating systems are complex things. They sit between you, the software on your PC and the hardware you have installed. Hardware tends do strange things.

Hard disks have small failures, keyboards and mice are plugged in and out; the wireless network changes as you move around. Not to mention the choice of hardware devices: from USB finger print scanners to paper scanners and strange keyboards - the operating system, with the help of device drivers, must manage these oddities.

For the operating system to interact with the device driver, and subsequently the hardware; a part of memory must be left aside or mapped. This piece of memory is used as the post box through which In 32-bit versions of operating systems, this cannot be greater than the totally addressable memory: 2^32 (2 to the power of 32 = 4Gb). As this memory is locked away for the device driver: the memory available to applications is reduced.

My first Microsoft supplied laptop had 4Gb of RAM. With the installation of Vista Ultimate 32-bit, the amount of memory left was 3Gb. Major limitation.

So how to work with more than 4Gb? This is where 64-bit solves the problem. 2^64 is a big number, and more than 2 times 2^32. Lots more.

Memory

Operating systems all have bounds. 128K on the original Mac; the famous 640K barrier on DOS. Various kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte limitations have fallen and are forgotten.

Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95 started the 32-bit revolution along with the 80386 processors of the time. Since the mid 1990s, the prospect of gigabytes of memory seemed remote. With high definition video and 3D worlds, memory, processor speed and network performance, different styles inputs: such as shown in Microsoft Surface; the requirement for more memory and processing power is stark.

3D math and environments not only are there an extra set of figures ("the magical Z-dimension"), but also the interaction of elements: light, shade, physics. This takes memory and processor performance. 3D is a large part of the future of how we will communicate with computers to each other.

This extra math and data comes down to memory. Having lots of it. And more than 3Gb of it.

Windows Vista, in its 64-bit versions support 128Gb and more of RAM. This is way more than 4Gb x 2.

Signed Drivers

As device drivers are generally mapped to a particular high place in memory, it is written with certain upper bounds in mind. With 32-bit operating systems, this is 4Gb. 64-bit Windows upper bounds.

As kernel device drivers sit inside with the operating system, quality is important. Microsoft, and you, don't want strange pieces of code doing evil things.

In the digital world, there is a way of determining the source of bits: digital signatures. Windows Vista 64-bit drivers need to be signed for kernel mode use (KMCS)

So, with different bounds and signed drivers: the ability to source drivers for your hardware is paramount when installing 64-bit Vista.

Since the release of Vista in early 2007, hardware manufacturers have been releasing drivers for 32bit and 64-bit Vista. Before installing on your workstation or laptop: I strongly suggest doing an audit of your hardware and check with hardware vendor's web sites.

My Results

So, what of my 64-bit experiments?

I've installed Vista Ultimate x64 on an Intel Quad-core (GeneralMelchett, my home workstation) and an AMD64 Athlon (my Media Center PC) with success. Both are running perfectly.

Installing Media Center, NVidia cards, hard drives in RAID configuration, various mice and cards; my only minor disappointment has been iTunes/iPod. Whilst iTunes installs, there are low-level device drivers to burn from iTunes, and the iPod is not recognised as a valid piece of device.

No more painful, theoretical 'speed of sound' barriers. Doing many things in one computer is no longer like pulling teeth. Even without the needle. Maybe I'll be old enough to hear the young-uns complain about 64-bit limitations. Heh.

Further Reading

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows Vista Feature Focus:P 64-Bit (x64) Support
How to determine whether your computer is running 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows
Installation choices for 64-bit consumer versions of Windows Vista
Windows Hardware Development Central
Tony Northrup, 32-bit Vista Memory Limits
Tim Sneath: Choosing Between Vista 32-bit and 64-bit Editions
Windows Vista Benchmark: 64-bit faster than 32-bit, 64-bit-computers
National Instruments: A Closer Look at Vista Part III: 32-bit vs 64-bit Windows

Witty for Vista

sarahintampa — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:07:00 GMT

From the Windows Vista Team Blog, I learned of Witty, a Twitter client for Vista. The software, powered by the Windows Presentation Foundation built into Windows Vista, runs like a "real" application and like some apps, can be minimized to the system tray. Like most Twitter apps, Witty lets you post updates, view timelines, view replies, respond to direct messages, and open links in your browser. However, Witty has some more unique features that make it stand out like the skinning capabilities, fade techniques, spell checking, the ability to remember the window location & size, and a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts. You can download Witty here.

Windows Sideshow toiminnallisuus Windows Mobile laitteisiin

jukkaw — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:06:33 GMT

Mielenkiintoinen juttu löytyi Jason Langridge:n blogista

Windows mobiili laitteet laajentavat liikkuvan henkilön mahdollisuuksia aivan uudelle tasolle. Katso, mitä Ikanos Consulting on kehittämässä ja lataa esiversio täältä.

Office Tips Sidebar Gadget

sarahintampa — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:00:00 GMT

With the new Microsoft Office Tips Gadget, you can teach yourself a new tip or trick for Microsoft Office every day. The gadget, designed for the Windows Vista sidebar, is great for new users, or for those of us who found ourselves overwhelmed with all the new features of Office 2007, and not enough time to learn them all. With this gadget, you can just learn a little bit at a time. When you see a new tip display, all you have to do is click on it and it will display the full text of the tip, and then you can go test your newfound knowledge in Microsoft Office. To download this gadget, click here to visit the Windows Live Gallery. (found on the Windows Vista Team blog)

Tivo Gadget for Windows Vista

sarahintampa — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:22:00 GMT

Mike Swanson recently blogged about a cool new gadget he wrote for the Windows Vista Sidebar, the TiVo Gadget for Windows Vista. The gadget, available for download here, is the perfect addition to TiVo users' desktops. Even if you have multiple TiVos in your house, you can utilize this gadget to see the "Now Playing" lists from your DVR. You can configure the gadget to group shows from the same series together and when the gadget notices a new recording, it will ding. For homes with multiple TiVos, you can give the units friendly names, like "Downstairs" or "Den" to help identify them. When you click on the name of a TV show in the gadget, you can see the show's description. There is a bit of trickery involved to get the TiVo's name for use in the gadget because TiVos, unlike most networked devices, don't share their name (aka "the service number") on the network. There are several steps involved to get your TiVo's name, but Mike has them well-documented on his blog post, so they're pretty easy to follow. Once you have the service name, you just enter that and your Media Access Key into the gadget's settings and you'll be done - your TiVo's "Now Playing" list will now be on your desktop!