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Pirated Windows XP fades to black
Microsoft has announced a significant update to its Windows Genuine Advantage system. In future users of pirated copies Windows XP Professional - which, it says, is the version most commonly stolen - will find that their Windows desktop has been replaced by a plain black screen. In addition, a translucent message will display in the bottom-right hand corner, warning that the copy of Windows "did not pass genuine Windows validation":
Users will be able to replace the desktop wallpaper if they choose, but after one hour it will change back to the black screen. The notifications produced by previous versions of WGA, which pop up from the system tray, will continue to appear.
The new notification system mirrors the one used in Windows Vista, but with one crucial difference. A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Zdnet that the new WGA system for XP Professional does not include the "kill switch" that severely limited the abilities of non-validated copies of pre-SP1 Windows Vista.
More information on the WGA blog.
Reasons to love Vista: Media Center
I have, in the past, had something of a love-hate relationship with Windows Media Center. Although Media Center 2005 had some fantastic features - it could record an entire television series at the click of a button, give instant access to hundreds of CD albums and display instant photo slideshows on TV - it could also be, well, a little cranky.
In particular, my Media Center PC had a frustrating habit of spontaneously forgetting which TV listings accompanied each channel, requiring a frustrating hour of messing about with the setup wizard before it could do anything. After re-tuning a few times I ended up with a channel list of over 200 channels - not bad for Freeview, except that 150 or so of them were duplicates. What's more, it didn't always turn itself off - not ideal in these days of sky-high energy prices.
With this in mind, I finally crossed my fingers, took a deep breath and upgraded the system to Windows Vista Home Premium, which includes Vista's updated Media Center. And, remarkably, it works really well.
Admittedly, the upgrade wasn't cheap: as well as a copy of Vista I had to invest in a new processor (Celeron E1200, £30) and motherboard (uATX with an HDMI port, £45), but the results are stunning. The TV setup system has clearly been much improved: after scanning for channels I was braced for an entertaining ten minutes associating each one with a listing, but Vista sorted that all out for me. The recorded TV and music interfaces are much improved - the "wall of CD covers" presented in the music menu is particularly nice and, best of all, the computer slips neatly into a deep sleep after recording a programme. The next step is sorting out a way to record from both Freeview and a cable TV box; something that I never even attempted with Media Center 2005.
So, for me at least it's a case of Vista Media Center 2, MCE 2005 1 after extra time. But what are your experiences of Media Center: a pointless graphical doodad that Apple could have implemented more neatly, or simply the best personal video recorder around?
Review: Cyber Clean
Cyber Clean looks and feels like silly putty (and even comes in a similar small plastic pot), but it's the product's smell that gives it away - the faint whiff of (non-drinkable) alcohol means it must be a cleaning product.
In this case, it's a keyboard cleaner - any kind of keyboard, in theory, can be cleaned with this stuff. The way it works is that you remove it from the pot and press it flat and hard against the surface to be cleaned. Leave it there for a few seconds, then lift it away and with it will come all the dust and dirt that's built up between or under the keys.
We tried it on a variety of keyboards including several desktop and notebook models, as well as mobile and standard telephones. It worked reasonably well in that a certain amount of dust and particles were brought up each time. You can fold the substance over and use it again quite easily because the dust and dirt is absorbed into the material itself.
But it does feel a bit... funny, lifting away all that dirt and simply folding it into the putty, then using the same (now dirty-ish) putty again. But it continued to work and, the manufacturers claim, adds a layer of bacterial protection as well (obviously, it's harder to test that bit). It gets progressively murkier in colour the more it's used, and there's a handy colour chart on the side of the pot to tell you when it needs to be replaced.
The product still left a bit of dirt under most of our test keyboards, although on the very dustiest it got rid of a fair amount of the dust in the first couple of presses. This is a good alternative to the other easy cleaning option (using a compressed air spray to blast the dirt out), but it isn't as thorough as the best (dismantling the whole thing and putting it in the dishwasher). Clearly, it has its benefits in terms of time and effort, although at £20 for four pots, it isn't cheap.
Microsoft video explains Shadow Copy
No it's not a new Batman character, Shadow Copy is a utility built into Windows Vista (not Home Basic though) that saves a copy of files each time they are changed. This means you can reverse a saved change to a document later on. This gets around the problem in some programs that clicking on Save removes all of the Undo history.
It makes more sense to see it in action, and that's just what this video on the Windows Experience blog does.
Game of the week: Dino Run
The aim of Dino Run is to run. Fast.
You play the dinosaur, and you're being chased by all sorts of things that want to make you extinct. From fireballs to dust storms and plain old big rocks, there's plenty that will kill you.
But build up enough momentum and eat enough small furry mammals to gain points, and you'll make it through to the next level.
Lighting up
Some years ago there was a lot of talk about the Optimus keyboard, a device on which all the keys were tiny LED screens, with the result that, not only did it look very cool, it was completely customisable.
The only problem with it was that it turned out to be extraordinarily expensive - somewhere in the region of a thousand dollars. Which in turn means it's extremely rare, too.
A more affordable version popped up this week in Thinkgeek's monthly email. The US shop is selling the Luxeed Dynamic Pixel LED keyboard, a snip at just USD200. 
While it can't display custom keys, it does have 430 LEDs, allowing you to light up each key in whatever colour you like, and even to do tricks such as displaying a rainbow across the breadth of the keyboard.
It's pointless, true, but it's still very impressive. And in a non-tech-related vein, but from the same email of new products, Thinkgeek is selling flavour pils, in the form of Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets, which make sour and bitter foods taste sweet. Now that's the sort of future science I like.
August security update for Internet Explorer now available
Word from the IEBlog that the IE Cumulative Security Update for August is now available. It is on Windows Update so should be downloading now if you have Automatic Updates enabled.
As this update is rated Critical, I'd recommend heading over to the Update site anyway just to make sure. I'm on my way there right now...
Changing the size of icons on the Vista Desktop
One of the benefits of Vista is the improved file icons that can show previews of images and videos. The only snag is making the icons big enough to see what they contain. The good news is that there's an easy short cut for changing the size of the icons.
Simply hold down the Ctrl button and then move the mouse scroll wheel up and down to make the icons bigger or smaller.
Sadly this doesn't work in Windows XP. I'm sure there's a program somewhere to add this, I'll take a look but if anyone knows do tell us about it.
Chandler organisation software released
There are all kinds of programs around designed to help you stay organised no matter how busy you are. The best known is without doubt Outlook, but there are alternatives.
One worth looking at is Chandler, not least because it takes a very different approach. It's also open source so there's no charge to download or use. There are
Rather than organise by tasks, events and contacts, Chandler organises by projects, bringing all three together into one place. It makes a certain amount of sense especially when dealing with different groups of people.
One of the things that excites me about Chandler is the online synchronisation. Not only does this allow you to access the same account from several computers, and keep them all up date, but there is a web interface for working on a shared computer.
It is possible to run a server for a Chandler account yourself, assuming that you have a computer connected to the internet running Java. Personally, I have signed up for an account with Chandler Hub to keep life simple for the moment. There's even a Chandler widget for an iGoogle page to quickly add note to a Chandler account.
Definitely worth taking a look if you want to improve your organisation.
If Chandler interests you, I can recommend the book charting it's inception, Dreaming in Code (on Amazon UK). As well as a fascinating insight into the way software is designed, it shows the problems of trying to decide how to organise large amounts of data. And it gets even harder when they try to give people the freedom to organise themselves the way they want to. I read this book over Christmas and thought it was very good.
Game of the week: Switch
Like all the best Flash games, Switch is supremely easy to pick up, harder to master, and has a difficulty curve that makes it almost impossible to play (in a good way) after a few levels.
Moving your puck around the board, pick up the balls that are coloured the same as the puck. Then click the mouse to change your puck's colour and mop up the rest. You can switch colour at any time, but you'll get more points if you stay in one colour for longer (or play it safe and switch regularly).
If you want to cheat, take a look at the level codes.
Extreme recovery measures for Vista
Some time ago I wrote a workshop about how to use Bart's PE to create a Windows recovery disk for Windows XP. It is a version of the Preinstallation Environment that computer builders can use to test hardware and install Windows.
Bart's PE is a great way to recover an unhappy computer and it also can be used with the backup software DriveImage XML. Some preparation is required before the computer goes wrong but this is time well spent in my opinion. You will need either a Windows XP disc or a folder called i386 with the Windows files in in order to create the disc.
Someone on our forums brought up the question of what to do with Vista, as Bart's PE does not work here. It's a bit of a shame but thankfully there is a recovery environment included on the Vista DVD.
I wrote a workshop for the Ultimate Guide to Vista Troubleshooting but here are some of the more important steps.
Insert the DVD into one of the optical drives on the computer and restart the computer. Press the space bar when the message ‘Press any key to boot from CD or DVD’ appears. The Windows setup software will load. Set ‘Language to install’ to English and ‘Time and currency format’ to English (United Kingdom). This should also change the ‘Keyboard or input method’ to United Kingdom, otherwise set this as well. Click on Next
Click on Repair your computer.
The Recover Console will then ask you to select which version of Vista to repair. This should be very simple as most computers will only have one installation. Left-click on it and then click on the Next button
The first thing to try is the System Restore option as the wizard works in exactly the same way as in normal windows. As Windows is not running from the hard disk this may succeed where it has failed in Windows.
The Windows Complete PC Restore is only available on Windows Vista Ultimate. If you have Ultimate this is a good alternative to DriveImage XML, although it will not save backups to a networked drive.
If neither System Restore or Complete PC Backup are available or work, there is still hope in the Command Prompt. This is the most basic way of entering commands but is still capable of copying your files off the computer and onto a USB key or hard disk (you will need to connect this before turning on the computer). It is also possible to start some Windows programs that are installed on the computer, type notepad to start this text editor for example. Some antivirus software may work and this may be able to repair damage from viruses.
A full list of the commands available can be found from the Microsoft website at http://blogs.msdn.com/winre but one really clever ability is that USB Keys and hard disks can be recognised by the Recovery environment.
On our computer Vista was on the C drive and the USB drive was detected as F
Type the following commands, pressing enter after each and without the quotation marks: ‘F:’ ‘md vistadocuments’ ‘c:’ ‘cd\users\[username]\Documents’ ‘xcopy c:\users\[username]\Documents\*.* f:\vistadocuments\*.* /e’
This will copy all of the files in the documents folder to the external hard disk. To copy and entire user profile leave out \documents or to backup all users copy from c:\users\
Can your computer play HD?
We're seeing more computers supplied with Blu-ray drives and they make an attractive backup option these days; I need quite a pile of DVDs just for my photo collection, let alone other musical projects.
But the new format is not just about backups (vital though they are) but about movies in high definition.
Just like when DVD was first released, high definition is relatively demanding for even fairly modern computers. To avoid disappointment if you're considering adding a Blu-ray disc for movies, it's worth downloading and running the Cyberlink Blu-ray Disc Advisor first.
This utility looks at the hardware in the computer to see if it is up to the job of playing high definition movies. As you can see from the screen grab, my productivity is safe from movies!
Windows performance myths debunked
I recommend taking a look at this article over at Lifehacker talking about inaccurate advice for improving the performance of Windows.
There's nothing malicious in the advice that is criticised but I'm firmly of the opinion these days that there's no point in poking around with the Registry and critical settings if there isn't a direct need.
Likewise, Registry cleaners are particularly hard to evaluate. I've run them on computers and seen no discernable improvement to performance. It might improve matters but shaving even hundreds of calculations off a processor that can perform 2 billion a second isn't really going to make much difference.*
There is now an official Microsoft guide to tweaking Vista so that is probably the best place to start
*In fact the best way to demonstrate just how fast processors are was described to me by Intel a few years ago. They were talking about how their processors could go into a power saving sleep mode in just a few tens of clock ticks. That meant the computer was spending quite a lot of it's time in a power saving mode between the keystrokes of a fast typist.
How to test a search engine
What with the recent launch of new search engine Cuil, the folks at Slate have come up with a tripartite test that should sort the men from the boys, technically speaking. Essentially, it's three queries that will give you an overall view of how well a particular search engine performs, and what information it prioritises.
Excel can be exciting
Few people can get really excited about Excel given that it is dedicated to number crunching. I've been known to (indeed have a reputation for) rave about the ability to create your own functions or the improved conditional formatting in Excel 2007 but I'm conscious it puts me in a small minority.
If you find getting other people interested in Excel spreadsheets, the 15 tips over at Pointy Haired Dilbert should prove useful.
The formatting options in Excel (The grabs suggest 2003 and later) are pretty good and are an effective, but often forgotten way of drawing attention to figures. I've been guilty of only thinking of myself when creating spreadsheets, and have then paid the price of indifference and boredom later on.
New look for delicious
I've been a big fan of delicious for some time now, with a collection of 877 bookmarks, tagging them with multiple words is the only way I have any hope of ever finding them again.
It has been given a new look and even a new address http://delicious.com rather than http://del.ico.us.
I like the new look as it has added more information without spoiling the clean lines of the old design.
If you are interested, you can find my links at http://delicious.com/timsmith714, and you can send me links using the tag for:timsmith714
Edit the Office 2007 Ribbon
Although in the main, I'm in favour of the Office 2007 ribbon, it can be frustrating to have lost control over how the toolbars work*.
There is more scope for customisation than first appears and it is possible to create tabs for the Ribbon. A video on editing the Ribbon can be found on the MSDN Office Developer Centre in various video formats along with all of the code used, so there's no need to type it all by hand.
It is rather techie, and you will need a copy of Visual Studio to edit the code (sadly the Express Editions of Visual Basic or C# don't appear to be enough - I'd love to be proved wrong if I've missed something). But even if you don't want to get your hands dirty, it's a fascinating insight into the way that Office works.
Editing toolbars in Word 2003
* For example I spent a few minutes removing the icons and toolbars I never use and adding in some that I wanted. For example, there was no point having icons for copy and paste because I always use the keyboard shortcuts. On the other hand I do need the word count box so that in. The rulers were also turned off because I rarely have to pay attention to layout, only the content. This is what I came up with.
August wallpapers from Smashing Magazine
A new, a new collection of wallpapers from Smashing Magazine, all of which are free. Always good for some variation.
