A Warning, and a problem with Windows Live Essentials (particularly beta)

Hi all,

DON’T BOTHER TRYING THE NEW BETA OF WINDOWS LIVE ESSENTIALS…!

With that said, let’s carry on. It’s been a while since I blogged properly (aside from Plinky, of course) so here I am.

Recently, I wanted to synchronise my Personal Message in Windows Live Messenger with my Facebook status (MessengerDiscovery live says it does this by the way, but so far I can’t get it to work…) using the WLMessenger Facebook application. However, I couldn’t get it to work. Somebody from MS advised me to try the new beta, which has this function.

Of course, me being me I promptly tried it out and immediately regretted doing so. Within the space of the 5 minutes I gave it a go on my computer, the software hung and stopped responding I don’t know how many times, and it was generally slow and unresponsive, despite my CPU/RAM/temperature/Internet connection, etc being absolutely fine and normal. The status thing also didn’t happen by the way.

Deeply unimpressed, I decided to uninstall the new WLEssentials beta suite and reinstall the current versions I had before. Simple enough, I thought. I uninstalled them, using their own installer thing, and it said they were gone, so I fired up the current version’s installer. It said that Messenger, Writer, etc could not be installed because I already had more recent versions installed! LIES!

After a LOT of messing around for a couple of days with regedit, deleting folders and various uninstallers and registry cleaners, (speaking of which, I should probably do a Glary checkup about now…) someone helped me on Windows Live Help, and someone else on Byon’s Blog (links at the bottom) and eventually, using MyUninstaller, and everything else, I managed to get rid of it all, and all the rubbish it left behind, and installed a clean, fresh Messenger and Writer to my computer. I couldn’t thank these people enough; they’ve really helped a lot. It seems that the messed-up installations were not showing as they were filed under either windows updates or system components (or both) which MyUninstaller showed by default, but I hadn’t seen the option in Revo Uninstaller, which is my usual uninstaller. As a result of fiddling with it until 03:00 this morning, everything seems to be running ok, and I am writing this using Windows Live Writer once again!

Here is the thread on Windows Live Help, which I recommend if you’re having difficulty:

http://windowslivehelp.com/thread.aspx?postid=8b70be4f-0bb7-4317-ba49-eba1d8cd5ca6#8b70be4f-0bb7-4317-ba49-eba1d8cd5ca6

And here is the link to Byon’s Blog:

http://byon.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/windows-live-essential-beta-0×80280007-error/#comment-534

By the way, one of the many errors I had was the infamous 80040154 when trying to sign into messenger at one point. Comment here or on the links I gave if you’re having difficulty with WLEssentials, and I really recommend Windows Live Help (http://www.windowslivehelp.com/) for anything you’re struggling with because they were really very helpful.

Windows 8 Rumours!

Flicking through my usual read-through of Lifehacker, etc I came across some rumours about Windows 8 is indeed in development, and extensive plans are underway right now! The image to the right is apparently a prototype machine, sporting a 5+-point multitouch display, infrared proximity sensor (for proximity-based sleep/waking), ambient light screen dimming/brightening, omnidirectional microphone, etc. It actually sounds awesome, and I’d love to try one out. I’ve been thinking of getting myself a desktop in the near future, but I might hold out of this kind of thing is due to come out any time soon…!

Apparently, over the weekend an Italian site called Windowsette got hold of some secretive Microsoft presentations, all about the planning of Windows 8. There’s a lot of detail on this site, which is where I found out about it:

http://msftkitchen.com/2010/06/windows-8-plans-leaked-numerous-details-revealed.html

What do you think though? Do we really need another build of Windows, or should Microsoft pay more attention to providing Win7 users with updates to add functionality, stability etc that 7 is lacking? I can see the argument for both, but I hope Windows 7 doesn’t become too obsolete any time soon; I’m already thinking of upgrading my hardware, and another OS on top of that could start to eat into my student loan…

Working LEGO Printer: “Hello World!”

Hey all,

I can guarantee that this is one of the best things you’ve ever seen. If not, there’s something seriously wrong with the world…

 

IT’S A FELT TIP! Yeah!

Just amazing. This would go so well with the previously mentioned LEGO Router and CPU from a while back.

Thoughts? Comment… :)

Mediamonkey: My solution to the “not adding tracks to library” problem…

Hey all,

A lot of people seem to be having a lot of trouble with this, so I thought I’d post the solution which worked for me, which I found by accident, incidentally.

1. Open up whatever folder your track is in.
2. Drag it to the “Library” section on the tree in Mediamonkey.
3. Restart Mediamonkey.

The track should be there, if your system works anything like mine. For the record, if it helps, I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate, on a Toshiba Satellite A300D-15B system. Administrator account, obviously, with UAC turned right off.

Hope it helps! Seems to be a fairly widespread problem that could, like it did for me, just fix itself…

How to get up to 10Gb of free space on Dropbox!

EDIT: I have now got a new Dropbox account which I will be using for work if I can get enough space from referrals. If not, then I’ll stick to USB! This new link works exactly the same as before. Many thanks to all those who signed up before, and thanks in advance to those who will! Free space for all! :)

Hey all,

I didn’t actually know this feature existed until yesterday. So far I have an extra 1Gb+250Mb from doing this, and hopefully soon I’ll have the full 10Gb of free space! What more can you ask for? This is so easy to do, and adds another dimension (literally) to an already indispensable piece of software. It works on PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone, etc too. That’s probably the best thing about Dropbox; it just works! That’s all there is to it!

Basically, all you have to do to start getting extra space is follow this link to sign up for Dropbox (all free) and download:

http://db.tt/ku2JooO

It’s a secure referral link rather than the standard signup page. Clicking will take you here:

Fill out the details on the right, and click the button. That will take you to the download page. If the download doesn’t start on its own then just click the link in the blue box at the top. Save the file (or run, or whatever), and you’re done!

When it asks you if you do or don’t have a Dropbox account, say you do, because you just made one on the first page! A lot of people make a second account, not knowing this.

That’s it! Once you start to use Dropbox, you will automatically get an extra 250Mb of space, just for signing up. You can also easily take this up further to 2 and a half Gb by completing the “Get Started” steps (go to the Get Started tab at the top of the Dropbox website after signing in).

Anyone who does this will have my eternal gratitude, because not only do you get an extra 250Mb, but so do I! (to a maximum of 8Gb). You can do the same thing after following my referral link by inviting other people yourself, thereby getting even more space (I won’t get space from that, but you will!)

(My old one)

Dual-Booting Awesomeness

HI all,

First of all my apologies for not writing in a few days – I’ve been a little preoccupied with my latest project.

I love Windows 7 (recently upgraded to Ultimate from Vista HP), I just think it is, in a word, wonderful. However, its compatibility leaves a lot to be desired, despite it being much, much better than Vista for running older games (which I really enjoy, things like LEGO Racers, Doom 3, Deus Ex, Worms: Armageddon, Pharaoh, Unreal, Vietcong, etc).

However, it is usually the case that they just won’t work at all. “No problem!”, I naively thought, “XP-Mode to the rescue!” So I downloaded the virtual machine software, etc and got myself XP in a window from Microsoft! I thought it was absolutely amazing, and so chose myself a simple, very much not-hardware-intensive game to try it out with – LEGO Racers. Made in 1999, it is a very simple game without the kind of graphical awesomeness you’d get today. Despite that, it is very fun, addictive and amusing.

I actually found out while looking for that image that there is a LEGO Racers 2 – I’ll have to get it now! Yes, I know. I never grew up. Anyway, so I tried installing that in XP-Mode, and it worked fine. The problem was when I tried to play it. Everything just failed completely (bearing in mind this is a laptop which can happily run Vietcong, Far Cry, Matrix: Path of Neo or Assassin’s Creed) and the task had to be ended abruptly.

Suffice to say that my virtual machine hasn’t been touched since… O_o

Anyway, so I used an old copy of XP Pro my dad had, thankfully with the licence with it, and away I went! EASEUS Partition Manager (thanks to Giveaway of the Day.com, one of my favourite websites ever) helped the process considerably. I Googled for a tutorial (just to make sure I was doing everything right) and the process went smoothly and painlessly enough.

However, there was a huge problem. Well, a couple, which I will talk about in case anyone else encounters them.

First of all – I couldn’t connect to the Internet any more under XP, as I didn’t have the driver for my wireless connection. That’s a bit tricky when XP looks for the drivers … on the Internet … so I had to go onto another computer (lucky we have others in the house) and download the driver to a USB, transfer and install. Then I could get underway with installing Microsoft Security Essentials, etc smoothly.

Then there was another problem. Everything worked, but sound. Try as I might, there was no way that I could find a sound driver anywhere. (for general interest, it’s a Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 now that I look it up under W7) The Toshiba website seemed to have nothing for XP, and neither did anyone else. I spent a free trial of 30 minutes’ tech help with one of Virgin’s techies, who was a nice enough dude but unfortunately quite useless. I’ve never had remote assistance before though – the experience was very weird. He installed WinRAR as well, which I don’t want – I prefer 7Zip. That’s next on my to-undo list.

Eventually one of my dad’s friends over on the Tiscali forums (which is really very good by the way for tech help: http://www.talktalk.co.uk/forums/ found a link to a much more exhaustive list of drivers and software from Toshiba than the ones I’d got to before which had everything I needed and more, so everything was sorted in the end. It only took an afternoon as well, I was really pleased with that.

A few days later, I have a fully updated and functional XP as well as 7. 7 has been stripped of all its gaming spam so it is even running a bit faster, while XP is filled with games! To give you an idea, here’s the graph of my XP partition according to Disk Space Fan (very good program by the way, featured on Lifehacker: http://tinyurl.com/ydtvaru):

By the way, to make it a little clearer just how overkill (excuse the pun) I’ve been with this installing recently, here’s Program Files (all games) highlighted:

61.5 Gb of games! And Halo 2’s next on the list, as I’ve heard there’s a way to make it compatible with XP, which affords you better performance. Can’t argue with that. ^_^

Now I’d better actually get on with some work for a change, 8 weeks until A2-Levels. Fun fun fun…

I’ve decided that for productivity reasons blogging will be my break from work, not gaming. It’ll give me some typing practice too which will be great as I do my exams on a laptop. Yes, my writing is that bad. Mock if you will, I care not… XD

Until next time… :)

Using Windows apps as a Browser!

Hi all,
Access the Internet through Notepad, Paint, Calc, etc…
What you need:

• Computer + MS Windows
• Internet connection
• A body with which to operate said system…
• Electricity, etc, to power said system. Also fuel for said body. I recommend chips. I love chips. Chips love me… ^_^

A long time ago I found out this neat little trick that will get through school filters, if they’re not clever and annoying like they are at my college and remove the bit we need. Anyway, that aside, it’s a funky move that seems to be little-known too, so listen carefully. I’ll only say this once. Sorry about the slightly condescending highlighting by the way, I used to like playing with Snipping Tool you see. (ahh, the novelty of upgrading OS back in the day…)

Here goes…
I’ve only tried this on XP (skinned to be old btw in the pictures – it was done on a knackered old relic so I did all I could to make it comfortable in its final years…) but I assume it might work on older systems. I haven’t as yet found how to do a similar trick in Vista – I assume there is a way, but I have yet to find it as the Help function seems different in Vista/7. By the way, I know it’s not technically hacking as such, more a little-known feature, but never mind.

Step 1 – Choose your App:
Open up a Windows app. I know for sure that this works with Notepad, Calculator and Paint. Haven’t tried it in any others yet but logic suggests that it could work with others too.

Step 2 – Getting a Little Help:
Go over to Help. Funny that this the only time I’ve ever actually used a Windows app’s Help function!

Clicking Help Topics will take you to this screen:

Step 3 – The Easiest of All Hacks:

This is the most simple, easy and ridiculous of hacks in the world. Right-click the bar at the top of the window (whatever its proper name is…) and go to Jump to URL…
The MicroSoft Leprechauns will then bring you this funky monkey box:

Simply type in where you want to go (the example being my old forum, The Sanctuary, at http://schamael.proboards.com) and Bob’s your uncle! Well, unless you’re me. Then Paul is in fact your uncle. But he is my uncle. Get your own…

… O_o …

Assuming you’re connected, you’ll get this:

Enjoy! and use responsibly…

LEGO Router and CPU

Here’s a wonderfully well-made LEGO creation that I had to share with you all. I stumbled upon it a while back and thought it was an example of purest genius.

Here is the page devoted to the LEGO router, made from a Linksys WRT54GL:

http://tfvlrue.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/lego-router-wrt54gl/

Here is the page devoted to the arguably much more impressive (though in my opinion a little less beautiful) CPU tower:

http://tfvlrue.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/lego-computer/

I just think things like these are absolutely wonderful, and are just too cool to not share.

Enjoy :)

LogMeIn Express: Simple Screen Sharing

This is not a new software, but something which I think is extremely useful, and nobody really seems to know about it much.

I thought it deserved to be more well-known, and so I thought I’d share it here.

https://secure.logmein.com/US/products/express/Default.aspx

Basically, there are two links – one on the left for installing a small app that shares your screen with other users, who don’t even need to install anything to see your screencast!

To share your screen with other people, simply give them your 9-digit code, and all they have to do is type it into the box on the right of the main site. The screen is shared via a simple Flash app within the browser. The lag isn’t too bad either, similar to Skype’s screen sharing facility.

There’s a built-in chat window for users to talk easily while screencasting. Perhaps more useful is the remote control feature, whereby the viewer can take control of the screen sharer’s mouse. This really sets it apart for me, and I find it extremely useful for helping people with technological crises (something I seem to find myself doing more and more these days).

Have you ever been trying to tell a friend how to do something over online chat, and been utterly frustrated by their lack of understanding or, worse, by them not listening to your clear step-by-step instructions? Then this is probably the tool to use. As with any remote control/viewing software, user discretion is advised, only share with people you trust and don’t have any passwords on-screen, eh?

NOTE: If you’re running Windows 7 (I am) or assumedly Vista, then your theme will be set to Aero Basic (or whatever it’s called) when screensharing. It appears to dislike the eye candy :D