Category: Microsoft

Windows Vista Desktops

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

If you browse the desktops that are included with Vista and you find it lacking, there is always the collection from Hamid Darwish to spice up your desktop.

He’s the Flickr photographer that Microsoft hired to do something special for  the desktop. These are the Photos that didn’t make it:

Lost Sensations( OH ) ZoneDestination - vol. IIBeyond ClarityThe Planet of LifeExplore The RomanceThe Endless Journeydaylight editionNorthwest.OutdoorsS!lkReign of FireA Peek [ at the ] PeakThe Living SymphonyImprisonedEndless HorizonsExplorer in a world of giantsColors [ of the ] NorthwestAlone ... and facing the stormMt. ShastaInvasion of the liquidWhispers Of The PacificAngry ShoresEssential Colors of Middle EarthWizard [ of the ] Northwestheavens of the northwestAging Lands of Middle EarthThe BeastEchoes of a DreamVisions of InspirationShores of FireBy A Snowy HillsideNo Steps FurtherThe Distant Mountain - vol. II

You can download  the whole collection as a ZIP file from  his site. I’d unzip it directly to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\ so it’ll show up when you personalize your desktop.

I’m using this one on my Laptop at the moment:

http://www.hamaddarwish.com

Windows Vista- Day 4 On the Alien Planet

~ rbonini

I have to say, now that most things are working, my opinion of Vista has improved loads.

Its the little details that I appreciate now. How taskbar items light up when you hover over them, for example

Windows Live installed perfectly on its fifth try, so I’m using Writer to type this.

Norton LiveUpdate works like a charm.

Windows update works well. I like the fact that Update is integrated within Vista instead of having a website to get all the optional stuff from.

My Gmail Notifier works like a charm.

The Windows Home Server Console does not work ( can’t log me in).

The SageTv Client works fine as well.

The Console itself installed fine ( I installed it before installing anything else, including updates), but can’t open my shares. Backup, strangely, works fine.

And accessing my shares is a pain. I have to use the IP address instead of the Computer Name. Which means I have to change the IP address on my media library every time it changes. At least till I get the DHCP Add-In working again( last time I tried, my PC’s refused to connect to the Internet).

So. how did I get this far after my frustrating first 2 days with Vista?

I tried everything to get the laptop networking working again. Scott Hanselman had a post a few week back entitled: The Nuclear Option: Resetting The Crap Out Of Your Network Adapters in Vista

This is for when “Diagnose and Repair” isn’t cutting it. Thanks to JohnP for his help.

  • Go to the Start Menu, type cmd and right click, and select “Run As Administrator”
  • Type the following commands, each followed by pressing enter.
    • ipconfig /flushdns
    • nbtstat -R
    • nbtstat -RR
    • netsh int reset all
    • netsh int ip reset
    • netsh winsock reset

Now, reboot and pray. Possibly not in that order.

I tried this in vain, twice. Clearly something was wrong since none of the above list of applications were able to access the Internet or local network.

So I went one better: I re-installed Vista from scratch. Now granted, it might seem like overkill to sort out a few networking issues, but those very networking issues prevented me from using my laptop to its full potential. This is because the use the network is such that we might as well not have the computer/network-enabled-device if we can’t use the network to its full.

The install was surprisingly quick and easy. And everything ran like a swizz car from there.

The one thing to note is that my Console and Shares( via the WHS Connector)  were working fine before any updates were installed. In other words, I could type in \\SERVER and my shares would come up. Currently I have to type in the IP address. So I’m pretty sure that an update is the culprit. though I have neither the time nor the patience to rollback each one to find out which it is.

All that aside, the Dell Inspiron 6400 is a very nice machine. It keeps up with everything quite well. And it has up to 7 hours of battery time ( if you select the power saver plan). It has media keys  on the edge that left you control Windows Media Player from  the keyboard, which is nifty. The really good thing is that its not ablaze with advertising stickers like some laptops I’ve seen lately.

In the final analysis, I’m really starting to like Vista after spending several hours with it reading 1000+ RSS items this afternoon(Google Reader subscribers will know what I mean).

So its back to writing software and salvaging erratic ship dates.

Windows Vista – Day 2 On The Alien Planet

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

Now Vista has given me a ride over the last couple of days.

I can understand why people are happy with XP. Or why they want to downgrade.

OK here goes:

  • Getting the laptop to connect to the Internet through my router has been a bit challenging.
    • This affects Live Update and any other programs that download stuff  ( or need to communicate with a remote server -like registering office)- thought, curiously not IE or Firefox
  • Getting programs to install can be challenging too
    • My WHS Connector can’t install because it can’t find my server (see above and below)
    • Windows tells me that there is a compatibility problem with Visual Studio 2005. When I install the Visual studio 2005 Service Pack for Vista, it tells me I haven’t got VS installed
    • Live writer failed to download and install
  • Restore removed Office and Nortons for some inexplicable reason
  • The number one thing is that accessing my server is a pain in the butt. Connector can see the server but not verify my password. Explorer can see it via the IP address but not via the name “server”

Somebody please tell me what I should do.

WHS RTM

~ rbonini

its been a busy week around here. first my RTM copy arrives on Monday, then my laptop arrives on Tuesday – so you can imagine the chaos of re-installing both a laptop and a server – Whew!!!

So far so good.

Thought I just tried to re-install the DHCP Add-In. the install when fine, but for some reason my PC’s couldn’t connect to  the Internet. Some troubleshooting to be done there.

The connector disc appears to have an old copy of the connector since its been screaming of an upgrade from the server.

The install completed fine, after about 8 hours or so!!! The good thing is that my back-ups appear to have been preserved( I thought that was impossible – any one else see this???).

I did get SageTv installed and that appears to be working fine ( I’ve yet to configure my clients to connect to it).

Its been a wee bit of an anti climax, buts its nice to have the RTM version to play with.

WHS RTM Install – part 1

~ rbonini

Started my install around 7 this evening. All was going well till the “Installing Home Server” phase It seems to have stopped. I started the install again after it being stuck at that bit for about an hour with no progress. Now the second install is just sitting there. Tried restarting a couple of times and it didn’t work.  

So I’ve turned my router DHCP server back on while the install ( hopefully) completes.  I’m giving it the rest of the night. Then I’m copying all my data off and starting from scratch.

Its version 1 of he software, after all – a few hiccups are expected – even with the beta and CTP being tested through and through.

Facebook and Microsoft

~ rbonini

I was tempted to tell everyone who thought 15 big b’s for Facebook was excessive to look at Google’s $100 Billion valuation at IPO.

But then, it struck me, rather forcefully I might add, that Google and Facebook are completely unrelated in terms of price. Google, despite being mostly a search page, actually gets stuff done. Look at Google Earth, Product Search, Their Wifi  work both in San Francisco and with the FCC with regards to buying that spectrum, Desktop Search, Google Co-Op, Reader, Analytics, and, much, much more. The GooglePlex is a daily gathering of the brightest dev’s on the planet.

Google, in other words, has  plenty of reasons to justify its price tag.

What, pray, has Facebook done?

The question stands, but Kara Swisher beat me to the observation already (albeit from a slightly different angle):

Facebook is not Google: Although many in the tech sector make the comparison to the search giant, it is simply incorrect.

Is Facebook like Yahoo a bit? Certainly. A newfangled version of AOL? Absolutely! A very well done media play with all sorts of interactive bells and whistles hanging off of it? Yes, ma’am.

Indeed, it is growing its media business nicely, with $30 million in profits on $150 million in revenue.

But in comparative terms to the search giant, Facebook is a lemonade stand. Google brought in $3.9 billion in revenue in just the second quarter alone and, um, is increasing its dominance over the search sector in a mighty scary way.

Facebook, on the other hand, gets half its annual revenue right now from a sweetheart guaranteed revenue deal with, drum roll, Microsoft. No matter what either Facebook or Microsoft says, it is a money-losing deal for Microsoft so far.

How do I know this? According to many sources, Google is struggling to make ends meet in its own sweetheart guaranteed ad deal with Facebook rival MySpace, which is much larger, and Google has the best monetization engine out there.