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windows

Best Take on Windows 8

December 22, 2013 10:17:41.542

I haven't used Windows 8 yet, but I have read many, many of the pundits talking about it. This may be the funniest paragraph I've read on it yet:

I think it’s pretty clear that the Windows 8 bet is failing. Windows 8 is being pre-installed on a lot of PCs, but that’s because Microsoft is pushing it through the OEMs. Microsoft could ship a hamster wrapped in duct tape, label it Windows, and a lot of OEMs would bundle it.

The rest of the post is good too - albeit more serious :)

posted by James Robertson

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On Running as Admin in Windows

October 24, 2011 17:32:50.000

There's no doubt that Windows 7 is an improvement over Windows XP; there is some doubt (at least in my mind) as to how far MS has gone in the "don't run as Admin" direction.

Why do I say that? Well, I use a Windows VM for playing games on my Mac when I travel. I went back to Mass Effect (I played that and ME 2 on the Xbox; I wanted a playthrough on Steam before ME 3 comes out). Anyway - it kept crashing on load screens in my XP VM. So I tried it in Windows 7. One long download later... it crashed on startup.

Which is where I went to the all powerful Google and discovered that the answer was... run Steam as Admin. The more things change....

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posted by James Robertson

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Upgrading Windows - 25 Years in 10 Minutes

March 3, 2011 14:12:32.000

This is oddly fascinating - a 10 minute video that upgrades (progressively) from Windows 1.0 to Windows 7. Virtualization makes it all possible :)

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posted by James Robertson

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This is Easier?

June 11, 2010 14:31:29.045

One of the things I always liked about Windows was the way that mnemonic keys were obvious - there's a little underline. Well, you can tell from that statement that I went straight from XP to Windows 7 (I use a VM under Parallels when I need Windows) - because the default now is to hide the underscores.

Seriously? What complete moron at Microsoft thought that was a good idea?

They normally only show up when you press the "alt" key, which at least makes them visible (if harder to notice). If you want the correct settings, you have to open control panel and follow this path:

Control Panel
Ease of Access
Ease of Access Center
Make the keyboard easier to use

Then, check the box labeled "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys". Jeebus. Am I supposed to know what the accelerator keys are through a mind meld with the designer, or what? And yes, this is something that, IMHO, the Mac gets wrong. Show me the damn shortcut keys.

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posted by James Robertson

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The Downside to Running a Windows VM

March 9, 2010 7:13:02.032

Since I don't run Windows every day - and i sometimes go a weeks between runs of my Windows 7 VM - the updates tend to pile up. I was about to look at doing some more VW/COM screencasts, when I discovered that 370 MB of updates had piled up. There goes the next little while :)

posted by James Robertson

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Windows 7 - Needs 64 Bit?

February 18, 2010 8:32:50.129

One way to read this ComputerWorld story is that Windows 7 is a resource hog:

Citing data from Devil Mountain Software's community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet), Craig Barth, the company's chief technology officer, said that new metrics reveal an unsettling trend. On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.

A slightly different way to view it is this: Microsoft has seen the future, and it has 64 bits, not 32. Do we "need" 64 bits? Well heck, you could have asked "do we need 32 bits?" a decade or so ago, too. Microsoft would like to have Windows 7 push new hardware sales, and I think they'd be even happier if those sales were at least 64 bit ready, if not actively running 64 bit.

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posted by James Robertson

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