- Update to blog restyling
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 27, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsHere's a small update to the post about blog restyling. I've changed the stylesheets and the .IR code to use the Corbel TrueType font, instead of the Segoe Media Center Light font that nobody knows :-)
So, if you see plain old Tahoma in the text of this post, you should download the Microsoft Vista & Office 2007 fonts.Labels: Corbel, fonts, Office 2007, opentype, truetype, update, Vista
- Turbocharge your installations with Inno Setup
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 27, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Long time Pascal and Delphi friends surely remember Jordan Russell for the Toolbar97 and Toolbar2000 components. At that time he started a very promising application called "Inno Setup". It was an easy to configure installation program, ideally suited for the target audience (freeware and shareware authors). Years have gone by, and look who's still alive and kicking... Inno Setup.
The current implementation of Inno Setup is so powerful, it rivals many commercial installers. Here's the list of key features taken from the Inno Setup homepage:- Support for all versions of Windows in use today: Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, Me, 98, 95, and NT 4.0. (No service packs are required.)
- Extensive support for installation of 64-bit applications on the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Both the x64 and Itanium architectures are supported. (On the Itanium architecture, Service Pack 1 is required to install in 64-bit mode.)
- Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Disk spanning is also supported.
- Standard Windows 2000/XP-style wizard interface.
- Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
- Complete uninstall capabilities.
- Installation of files:
Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX's and type libraries, and install fonts. - Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
- Creation of registry and .INI entries.
- Integrated Pascal scripting engine.
- Support for multilingual installs.
- Support for passworded and encrypted installs.
- Silent install and uninstall.
- Full source code is available (Borland Delphi 2.0-5.0).
Download: Inno Setup
It's a free download, and can be used free of charge even when deploying commercial applications. You are encouraged to donate to help support the development of course!Labels: 2003, 64-bit, delphi, download, free, inno setup, installation, Itanium, pascal, Vista, Windows, x32, x64, XP
- SuperWasp Blog Restyled
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Today I've relaunched the SuperWasp blog, using a Blogger skin I developed for my family blog TV15. Several modifications were made to the skin to accomodate the longer posts: on the main blog page and on all archive pages, long posts appear with a scrollbar (on the latest browsers of course), while on the single post pages they appear as one big article.
One of the other techniques I used in the restyling is dotIR (Image Replacement for .NET). Actually, I modified the code from Milan Negovan's .IR, which on its turn is based on sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) Version 2.0b2 by Copyright 2004 Mike Davidson, Shaun Inman, Tomas Jogin and Mark Wubben.
So what does .IR or dotIR do, you might ask?
It replaces the headings and titles in the webpage with (in our case) a graphical version based on a TrueType/OpenType font. This enables web designers to use any font you like, as long as it is installed on the web server. The biggest drawback of course is that it relies on scripting and that there's a small performance hit. You cannot simply replace any text on the webpage with this technique.
Leave your comments on the new style, and problems you might encounter under this post.
- Update for Windows Vista Media Center released
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft has released the Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista (KB932818), the first update to the Media Center components of Windows Vista. Media Center functionality is available for the Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate editions.
Here's the list of improvements:Hotfix replacement information
This is a cumulative update. This update replaces the following updates:929011 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929011/)
Windows Media Center does not correctly configure a combo TV tuner that supports both ATSC and NTSC signals on a Windows Vista-based computer932753 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932753/)
When you resize the Windows Media Center window in Windows Vista, video playback may stopIssues that are resolved by this update
In addition to the fixes that are contained in the updates that are listed in the "Hotfix replacement information" section, the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista resolves the following issues:• The video may appear to freeze when the movie begins in some DVDs. • When you rotate a picture during a slide show in Windows Media Center, the wrong photo may be rotated. • The cover art for recorded TV movies may not appear in the DVD library view. • When you delete a picture in Windows Media Center, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:
AUDIO ERROR
The Url contains one or more invalid characters.• When you try to play a DVD by using Autoplay, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:
Tuner not installedImprovements that are in this update
The update also provides the following improvements:• Online Media support has been added for Windows Media Center on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. • Video Playlist support has been added for Windows Media Center Extenders. • Improvements have been made to Online Media caching. Labels: download, Home Premium, MCE, Media Center, Microsoft, patch, Ultimate, update, Windows Vista
- Nvidia Hit With New Class Action Threat Over Windows Vista Glitches
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsApparently I'm not the only one with nVidia problems on Vista:
From Bink.nu:
A New Yorker is seeking support for a class action suit against the video card manufacturer because he says drivers for the company's high-end 8800 card have caused him problems.
A new Web site seeking support for a class action suit against video card manufacturer Nvidia has appeared on the Internet.
A message on the site -- www.NvidiaClassAction.info -- asks consumers who purchased the high-end Nvidia 8800 card with the intention of installing it on Windows Vista-equipped PCs to join the proposed lawsuit.
"Nvidia said the 8800 was built for Windows Vista ... it is anything but," said Dan Goldman, the site's founder, in an interview Tuesday.
Goldman, a New York City-based investor and IT consultant, said he purchased a version of the $700 card sold by Asus International before Windows Vista was released for sale to the public at the end of January. After upgrading his computer to the new Microsoft operating system in February, and installing Nvidia drivers that were supposedly Vista compatible, "all hell broke loose," Goldman said.
Goldman's PC screen started to blank out intermittently and constantly flash an inscrutable error message that read: "Video driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has recovered."
Goldman claimed Nvidia's drivers for Windows Vista caused the problem and that the company ignored his requests for help. Now, he wants payback. "I'm entitled to damages I incurred as a result of Nvidia's misleading marketing campaign, and so are a lot of other people," he said.
Goldman, who said he spent about 100 hours unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem on this own, is in talks with three law firms in preparation for a class action suit.
Nvidia officials were not immediately available for comment.Labels: class action, drivers, nVidia, problems, Vista, Windows
- WebDevs - This Coda will make you want a Mac!
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsWhy o why doesn't anyone make development applications so beautiful and finished on the Windows platform? I realize we have the most choice, but not many apps come as polished as this one, even for a version 1.0.
Coda – One-Window Web DevelopmentLabels: Coda, Mac, web develoment, webdev, Windows
- IntelliPoint: To scroll or not to scroll?
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 | PermaLink | 3 commentsWhomever at Microsoft Hardware decided to remove the universal scrolling functionality from the IntelliPoint software, should be removed from the team immediately. If that is the same person who decided that not every key should be configurable in the IntelliType Pro software, he/she should be expelled to Siberia instantly!
I have a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 (also part of the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000), in front of me. In many ways, it's an excellent mouse:- very ergonomic for an ambidextrous model
- it's rechargeable and rechargeable AA battery is included
- quite attractive in silver, dark gray and matte black color scheme
- excellent optical performance with adjustable precision
- no noticeable Bluetooth lag (not recommended for gaming though)
- the left and right side buttons are difficult to reach
- although the wheel button turns without notches it doesn't roll smoothly
- no extra buttons (zoom, search, ...)
- But most importantly, it must use the latest IntelliPoint software and therefore it's useless!
For starters, the default configuration for this mouse is to have the scroll wheel click (when you push the wheel) launch the Instant Viewer. What on earth do we need that for? I thought Windows Vista had the great Flip-3D feature? I think I can hear them say "Nah sorry, you can't use that with your expensive mouse. You really need to use our full screen 2D viewer to see what windows are open."
Secondly, the Universal Scrolling feature has disappeared from the list of other activities you can bind to the wheel button. Put simply, you cannot scroll a window anymore without clicking the wheel button first (that's what they call AutoScroll, although I fail to discover the Auto in that functionality).
My excellent Wacom Intuos3 comes with a nice 5 button mouse that is ball free and optics free, and it scrolls immediately in any window. It's wheel rolls with soft notches, making it a very nice experience.
Additionally, my magnificent Logitech VX Revolution notebook mouse comes with an incredible free wheeling scroll wheel. It takes a little time to get used to it, but the productivity gains when skimming through hundreds of spam mails in Outlook 2007 is unbelievable. The best thing about this mouse is that it doesn't need the bloated Logitech software to work as expected, including scrolling a window without clicking. It has a search button, zoom lever, and back/forward buttons: these all work as expected in Vista. To anyone at Microsoft, please take note of this!
Finally, the magnifier functionality of IntelliPoint is very nice in theory. In reality however, it causes your Windows Vista Aero scheme to temporarily switch back to the Vista Basic interface and then immediately switch back to Aero. WTF! So it can work in Aero-mode but somehow they can't load the Magnifier DLL without switching. Uch!
Ps: I'll save my rant about IntelliPoint Pro 6.1 for a future post. There's only so much you can take :-)Labels: 7000, 8000, Aero, AutoScroll, desktop, entertainment, IntelliPoint, IntelliType Pro, Intuos 3, keyboard, Logitech, Microsoft, mouse, Revolution, Universal Scroll, VX, Wacom, Windows Vista, wireless
- Making your bitmaps scaleable and stylized (part 1)
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
This is the first post in a two part article on how to make your bitmaps scaleable and stylized. In this first part, we'll have a look at a free utility by Peter Selinger called Potrace.
There are various reasons why you would want to make your bitmaps or icons scaleable: In older times, the main reason was to be able to print the images with high resolution. Nowadays, with the advent of high-resolution LCD screens and very large icons in Windows Vista and Mac OS X, it's becoming more and more obvious that just scaling your bitmaps leads to blocky, ugly edges. Other reasons might be to convert scanned company logos, handwritten text, etc.
Potrace is a utility that converts the original bitmap into a series of vectors. It is to some extent similar to CorelTrace and other tracing tools that are bundled with scanners and graphic programs. The advantages of Potrace are of course its price (free) and the fact that it's very lightweight (you don't need bloated installation files of hundreds of megabytes).
Original scanned image:
Potrace converter output:
You can find more examples of the excellent results you can achieve with Potrace on the Potrace examples page.
Once you've converted your bitmaps with Potrace, you can save the result in various formats: EPS, PostScript, PDF, SVG (scalable vector graphics), Xfig, Gimppath, and PGM. All of these formats allow you to print or display your image at any resolution without losing edge quality.
Bundled with Potrace is a tool called Mkbitmap. This is a little program to pre-process the input bitmap to achieve better results on grayscale and color images. You can see examples and an explanation of Mkbitmap on the Mkbitmap examples page.
In the second part of this article, we'll have a look at scanning a drawing, converting it with Potrace to the SVG format, and then stylizing it with the excellent Inkscape SVG editor.
Download: Potrace and Mkbitmap (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)
Part two will be published soon. Meanwhile, comments and recommendations welcome!
Update: Corrected the link to the Potrace Samples!Labels: bitmap, convert, download, EPS, free, Inkscape, output, PDF, Potrace, scaleable, SourceForge, SVG
- Two Sidebar.exe processes running
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Posted by oVan on Monday, April 23, 2007 | PermaLink | 1 comments
Analysis of my log files reveal that quite a few people are looking for an answer to why there are 2 sidebar.exe processes running on Windows Vista.
The reason is simple: there's one process for the docked Sidebar at the edge of the screen, and there's another process to handle gadgets floating around on your desktop.
As to why there are two processes when you have no floating gadgets on your desktop, your guess is as good as mine. You can find this and other problems regarding the Vista sidebar in my previous post about it.Labels: bug, problem, processes, Sidebar, sidebar.exe, Vista, Windows
- Free tool: Universal Extractor
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Posted by oVan on Monday, April 23, 2007 | PermaLink | 1 commentsUniversal Extractor is a great little tool to extract files from archives (zip, rar, etc), MSI installer packages, and installation programs. In fact, the list of supported formats is quite long:
- Archive Type Common File Extension(s)
- 7-zip archive .7z, .exe
- ACE archive .ace
- ARC archive .arc
- ARJ archive .arj, .exe
- ASpack compressed file .exe
- BIN/CUE CD-ROM image .bin, .cue
- bzip2 archive .bz2, .tbz2, .tar.bz2
- CPIO compressed file .cpio
- Debian package .deb
- Encoded files .b64, .uu, .uue, .xx, .xxe, .yenc, .ntx
- Gentee package .exe
- gzip archive .gz, .tgz, .tar.gz
- IMG floppy disk image .img
- Inno Setup package .exe
- Installer VISE package .exe
- InstallShield Cabinet archive .cab, .1, .lib
- InstallShield package .exe
- ISO CD-ROM image .iso
- KGB archive .kgb, kge, .exe
- LZH compressed file .lzh, .lha
- LZW compressed file .Z, .tz, .tar.Z
- LZO compressed file .lzo
- MHTML file .mht
- Microsoft Cabinet archive .cab, .exe, .imf
- Microsoft Compiled Help file .chm
- Microsoft compressed file .??_
- Microsoft LIT e-book .lit
- Microsoft Windows Help file .hlp
- NSIS package .exe
- Outlook Express mail archive .dbx
- PEA archive .pea
- RAR archive .rar, .001, .exe
- RPM package .rpm
- SetupFactory package .exe
- SIS (SymbianOS) packages .sis
- StuffIt packages .sit
- TAR archive .tar, .tbz2, .tgz, .tz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.z
- UHARC archive .uha
- UPX compressed file .exe, .dll
- Windows Installer package .msi
- Windows Installer patch .msp
- Wise Installer package .exe
- ZIP archive .zip, .jar, .xpi, .wz, .exe
- Zoo archive .zoo
Download: Universal Extractor
Universal Extractor is written in AutoIt Script, a powerful freeware scripting tool. If you want to create scripts yourself, get AutoIt ScriptLabels: autoit, cab, cabinet, download, extractor, free, inno setup, installer, msi, script, stuffit, universal, Windows, zip, zoo
- Windows Vista sleep problems, revisited
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Posted by oVan on Saturday, April 21, 2007 | PermaLink | 4 commentsAs much as I was happy with the major improvement in sleep problems with Vista, I have put my feet back on the ground. After a few good sleep/shutdown/hibernate routines, suddenly it was stuck again.
After further investigation, I suspect that the LSI controller is also responsible for some of these problems. Contrary to "simple" SATA and IDE/ATA controllers, the LSI SAS and LSI SCSI controllers need much more time to activate all drives.
When Vista goes to sleep, it signals all processes of the coming event, and gives them only 2 seconds to save whatever they want to save at that point. Furthermore, Vista keeps a second copy of the LSI SAS/SCSI driver in memory, and when the sleep event is announced, that second driver is enabled because it is needed in the startup process. Due to the nature of the SAS/SCSI driver, it has to spin up all drives again before it can put them to sleep.
So after my post about updating the nVidia drivers, I have now changed my power plan settings to not spin down the harddisks after 20 min. I will keep them running all the time, until Vista decides to put the whole computer to sleep.
A quick test revealed that the machine goes to sleep without problems using those beta nVidia drivers and all disks running. I'll report later on if the change to the power plan resulted in a (near) perfect solution.Labels: beta, disk, driver, hibernate, LSI, LSI-Logic, nVidia, options, power, SAS, SATA, SCSI, sleep, update, Vista, Windows
- Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1 available
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 20, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsYou can now download Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas", the succesor to Visual Studio 2005. It's available in 3 flavours: Express Edition, Full Edition, and VPC images for your Virtual PC 2007 setup.
The full version is currently only available for MSDN subscribers, but the Express and VPC versions are here. This is from the overview page over at MSDN:
VPC Images
If you prefer the convenience of evaluating prerelease software in a virtual machine environment, you can download VPC images that include pre-installed instances of the prerelease software indicated, including any required prerequisite software.
Note: If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress these self-extracting files.
Visual Studio Express Editions
Visual Studio Express Editions are lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn tools for the hobbyist, novice and student developer.
For more information, see Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Express Editions.Labels: beta, download, Express, Microsoft, Virtual PC 2007, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Orcas, VPC2007
- FIX: How-to solve your Windows Vista Sleep problems
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 20, 2007 | PermaLink | 7 commentsYou've heard it before: some people rave about Windows Vista, others keep complaining. From the computers I've installed and/or upgraded so far, I can tell that it's a hit or miss operation. Either it all works out smoothly, or it goes down to hell quickly.
One of the biggest problems I've encountered so far is that the new Hybrid Sleep from Windows Vista works so good on my Dell Latitude D810 notebook, and at the same time totally made the Vista Experience worthless on a Dell Precision 650 Workstation and even on a brand new Dell Precision 690 Workstation.
Here's what goes wrong: you push the power button in the Start menu – this is by default configured to use the Sleep mode. Sometimes this works ok, other times you get a black screen, some USB-peripherals are correctly disabled but the machine itself doesn't power off (fans keep turning etc.). To make matters worse, you can't wake your pc because your USB keyboard has already been disabled.
It also occurs that while your machine apparently went to sleep without problems, it won't start up again or even if it does, it hangs on a black screen and you can't do anything to go further.
The big constants between my Precision 650 and the Precision 690 were: a SCSI controller based on the LSI Fusion MPT chipset in the 650 and the newer version SAS/SATA Raid controller from LSI in the 690; and both machines had an nVidia Quadro FX workstation graphics card (Quadro FX 500 in the PWS650, FX 550 in the PWS690).
The solutions I've tried:- Having tried the latest drivers for the LSI based controller, downloaded from the support websites at Dell, HP, Intel, and LSI-Logic, it didn't solve the problem. I did see controller errors in the Event Viewer that were obviously related to the sleep problem, but the most recent drivers didn't solve a thing.
- Updated BIOS firmware for the machines, installed most recent drivers for about anything in the machine, including the latest Intel INF files. No help.
- Changed the Power Plan settings in the Vista control panel to never sleep, but use Hibernate instead. Unfortunately this gave me the same problems.
- Changed the BIOS settings to use agressive S1 power state instead of S3, so that more devices are disabled and more power conserved. Alas, no resolution.
- Reset all BIOS and Power plan settings to their default. I've experienced exactly one (1) successful sleep, after that it was back to square one.
- This gave me the working solution: I changed from the latest WHQL nVidia drivers 97.46 to the nVidia beta drivers 158.18. Despite their wonderful explanation on how to install them, it didn't work at first: my video card was not supported. No problem, I've been a supporting fan of the LaptopVideo2Go website, and they have modified INF files for about every possible nVidia driver release, both official WHQL and beta drivers. So I grabbed a copy of the modified INF for the 158.18 driver and the install went smoothly. The only problem so far is that I can't access the new nVidia control panel, other than that the system runs much more smoothly than with the 97.46 driver and Sleep mode works perfectly so far!
Time will tell if and how good it keeps working, but so far the sky is bright :-)
This obviously leads me to the conclusion that nVidia was, contrary to ATI, totally unprepared for the launch of Vista, although they've had access to the beta and RC versions for months! Just do a Google search on "Vista sleep nVidia problem"... you'll find hundreds of thousands of pages. The machines I've installed or upgraded using an ATI video card never experienced this problem, they just work out of the box. In fact, they've had an WHQL'd driver from the very (consumer) launch of Vista, while nVidia had to catch up weeks and months later.
Another company that is totally unprepared for Vista is Creative Labs, but I'll save that for a future story!
Update: here's my follow-up post about more Vista Sleep problems
Update 2: I published the third post about Vista sleep problems, in which I removed the final culprit and solved the problem completely!Labels: ATI, creative, driver, fix, hibernate, hibernation, hybrid, INF, Microsoft, nVidia, problem, sleep, solution, Vista, Windows
- How-to enable adminstrative shares on Vista
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Posted by oVan on Thursday, April 19, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsWhen accessing Vista from a computer on the network, you'll soon discover that it's impossible to use the administrative shares we've known and loved for years (C$, D$, ...)
You might get this error message:Logon unsuccessful:
Windows is unable to log you on.
Be sure that your user name and
password are correct.
The solution is to add the following key to the registry. Use regedit and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add a new DWORD labeled LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set it's value to 1.
Although some sources state that you need to reboot the machine, I find it enough to logoff/logon your admin account. If you don't logoff or reboot, you'll get this error:\\COMPUTER\c$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again.
Labels: administrative, Administrator, Microsoft, registry, remote, share, Vista
- Microsoft Silverlight, not there yet!
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsYou've probably read about Microsoft Silverlight by now, the new and fancy name for WPF/E that runs on both Windows and Mac, and on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera.
The trouble is that their website will only showcase it's own Silverlight techniques on April 30. If you want to give it a test-run yourself, you're stuck with the old February CTP. This leaves me with an unfinished impression that will not, eeuh, impress potential developers and companies yet.
Maybe you want to download some Silverlight goodies while you're waiting on Microsoft to finish up? Perhaps a nice widescreen wallpaper, "Silverlight Dawn" or "Silverlight Dusk"? Too bad they offer very strange resolutions — anyone heard of 1400x864 or 1600x800 (which turns out to be 1600x1050 instead of the industry standard 1680x1050). I guess it's time for a better wallpaper from Ultimate Vistas!Labels: download, Expression, Firefox, free, IE, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Silverlight, wallpaper, Windows, WPF, WPF/E
- IE6 & IE7 VirtualPC Images 2.0 released
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Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft just published two new VPC Hard Disk Images for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2:
- Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) VPC
- Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) VPC
These VPC hard disk images contain pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit. These VPC images will expire on 08/17/2007, but by that time Microsoft will have released a newer version.
Once you have completed the download, double-click file to expand the VHD file. Start Virtual PC and create a new VPC, and point to the files you just expanded.
A few people were encountering a non-genuine Windows warning from the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notification Tool. Microsoft did not install the WGA Notification tool on the image this time around. Instead, these images have had their product keys deactivated, thus they don’t pass the WGA tests.
Remember that you can download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for free! Virtual PC 2007 runs on: Windows Vista™ Business; Windows Vista™ Enterprise; Windows Vista™ Ultimate; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows XP Professional; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition; or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.Labels: download, free, IE6, IE7, Microsoft, Virtual PC 2007, Vista, XP
- Performance update for Outlook 2007!
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Posted by oVan on Monday, April 16, 2007 | PermaLink | 1 commentsMicrosoft has silently released a much needed performance update to Office Outlook 2007.
From the download details:This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.
This update is for Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP.
» Download UpdateLabels: download, Microsoft, Office 2007, Outlook, Outlook 2007, patch, performance, update
- Download new Vista fonts legally!
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
It's so easy... just download and install the free Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer and you will have the beautiful Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 fonts on your system: Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia and Corbel.Labels: download, fonts, free, legal, Microsoft, Office 2007, opentype, truetype, Vista
- Download Vista Wallpapers
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 06, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsThe UltimateVistas.com website has launched! It contains a growing collection of free wallpaper downloads for your Windows Vista, XP or Mac desktop.

In the near future a new section with exclusive wallpapers at extremely low prices will be available, and also corporate and custom licenses.
Enjoy!
Update: corporate license is now available!Labels: Apple, download, free, Mac, photo, Vista, wallpaper, Windows
- Free Preview Handlers for Outlook 2007 and Vista
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Posted by oVan on Thursday, April 05, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsBoth Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 offer you file previewing functions. Unfortunately, not all file types are handled and this Microsoft webpage simply mentions "Available File Previewers: Check back soon for updates. We are currently working with previewer developers to list previewers on this page."
Subjectively the most needed previewers are PDF-files and code files, simply because it still takes ages to load Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Visual Studio 2005 respectively.
Here are two free PDF-previewers:- Foxit PDF file Preview Handler | does not require Adobe Reader
- PDF Preview Handler for Outlook/Vista by Ryan Gregg | does require free Adobe Reader 8
You can read more blog posts about these great tools here, here, here and here.
And here's the free Code Preview Handler from Tim Heuer:
To finish this post, here's a link to the post about the preview handler article by Stephen Toub from MSDN Magazine. You can also download his free utility directly here:Labels: 2007, Acrobat, Adobe Reader, download, Foxit, Foxit Reader, free, magazine, Microsoft, MSDN, MSO2007, Office, OL2007, Outlook, Outlook 2007, preview handler, Vista, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005
