SuperWasp

Productivity tips, reviews, tools, software and gadgets.

Finally New Visualizations for WMP!

Finally some new visualizations for Windows Media Player:



Thanks to two Microsoft employees who worked on it for a long time, you can now enjoy this beautiful screen animation when you're listening to your music.

As a requirement to run these visualizations, you will need a graphics card that supports at least shader model 2.0 (most DirectX 9 graphics cards will), which might seem like a high requirement for visualizers, but how else are you suppose to create visual magic right?

Included in the single package are 7 visualizations with over 40 variations in total, including

• Album Art 3D - 3D cubes with the album art of the song you’re currently playing


• Bubbles - inspired by the Bubbles Vista screensavers also featuring the album art


• Distortion - distorts the album art in a 3D waveform


• Hypnobloom - hypnotic checkered purple rings


• Ribbons - inspired by the Mystify and Ribbons Vista screensavers (as seen above)


• Gigertron 3D - 3D layered visualizer bars


• up cuber - a pigment arrangement of 3D hexagon cubes

Enjoy, it's a free download!

Labels: download, free, media player, Vista, visualization, Windows, WMP

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, August 31, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

FIX: Firefox Slow Response for Localhost on Vista & XP

When developing on Vista (or XP with IPv6) you'll notice that Firefox is extremely slow on localhost-sites.

Here's a fix, courtesy of Dan Wahlin's Weblog, via ScottGu's blog.



In Firefox, type about:config and then in the filter box type dns. You'll see an entry named network.dns.disableIPv6...

Double-click that line so that it reads True, effectively disabling IPv6.

Labels: Firefox, fix, patch

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, August 30, 2007 | PermaLink | 4 comments

Additional Updates for Windows Vista

Here's a collection of recent updates for Microsoft Windows Vista that are not pushed through Windows Update or Microsoft Update.

• Download Update for Windows Vista KB936710 or x64 version
  

  Install this Microsoft update to help resolve a secondary graphic card operability issue when running DirectX 10 applications on multiple graphics cards.



• Download Update for Windows Vista KB941090 or the x64 version.
  

  Install this update to resolve an issue where messages become stuck in the Outbox and cannot be deleted when using Windows Mail. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.



• Download Update for Windows Vista KB940105 or the x64 version.
  

  Install this Microsoft update to resolve potential Graphics Virtual Address problems that may occur when running Windows Vista.



• Download Update for Windows Vista KB936004 or the x64 version.
  

  Install this update to resolve an issue where a USB telephony device (USB telephone, handset, headset and so on) is unexpectedly set as the default audio device on a computer running Windows Vista.

Source: Bink.nu

Labels: Microsoft, patch, update, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

New VirtualPC images released for IE6 and IE7

As expected, Microsoft has released updated VirtualPC hard disk images with IE6 and IE7. These contain a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit. For more information on installing and using these images, read the blog post about running IE6 and IE7 on a single machine.

These new images will expire on December 7, 2007. By that time Microsoft will probably release updated images again.

Remember that you can download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for free!

Labels: IE, IE6, IE7, Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 7, Virtual PC 2007, VPC, VPC2007

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

ATI Releases Catalyst 7.8 with Free Half-Life 2 Games

After the rather buggy Catalyst 7.7 drivers, ATI has today released the highly anticipated Catalyst 7.8 driver set.

• Download Catalyst 7.8 (English, 72MB)


• Download Catalyst 7.8 (Multilanguage, 107MB)

Note that Catalyst 7.8 also installs the Steam Games client and you can get 2 free games from ATI here: Half-Life 2 DeathMatch and Half-Life 2 Lost Coast!

This is a quote from the ATI website:

Effective immediately, all owners of ATI Radeon graphics cards may receive a free copy of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch via Steam. Steam will automatically confirm the presence of ATI Radeon hardware and then enable immediate access to full versions of the games free of charge.

Besides tons of bugfixes, there should be a noticeably performance improvement – especially for the Radeon HD 2600 and HD 2400 series.

Here's an extract of the Release Notes, some of the fixes for Vista and XP:

• Call of Duty->United Offensive: Having all of the in-game settings at their maximum levels along with the Catalyst™ Control Center->3D aspect set to Optimal Quality no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit) operating system failing to respond after a short period of game play. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28793
  
• The default audio device is no longer set to ATI HD Audio after installation of the display driver for the ATI Radeon™ HD2900, HD2600, and HD2400. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28483
  
• Hot-plugging a CRT to a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ X1100/1150 series of product no longer results in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25801
  
• Enabling CrossFire™ followed by disconnecting and then reconnecting the CRT display device no longer results in duplicate video options being seen within the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27457
  
• Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting AA to 14x and AF to 16x no longer results in the AA showing a setting of 0x level when disabling CrossFire™ and unchecking the AA option in the 3D aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27458
  
• Making changes to the Color aspect found in the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes no longer results in the Reactivate ATI color controls button remaining active after the Catalyst™ Control Center is closed and then re-launched. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27459
  
• Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting the OverDrive™ clocks to their maximum settings no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center failing to accurately report the requested OverDrive™ values. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27621
  
• Performing an un-install of the display drivers on a CrossFire™ configured system no longer results in extended desktop mode becoming active resulting in all of the desktop icons failing to appear. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
  
• Catalyst™ Control Center->3D->Anti-Aliasing: Unchecking the option to Use Application Setting found in the 3D aspect page when CrossFire™ is enabled no longer results in the maximum AA setting being 6x. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows XP operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28479
  
• Performing either a custom or express install of the display driver no longer results in the system possibly failing to respond and the installation of the driver failing. This issue was known to occur when using an ATI Radeon™ X1950 CrossFire™ Edition product installed on in a system containing an Intel975. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28481
  
• HDMI audio stutter is no longer heard when playing MPEG clip at certain resolutions on some HDMI device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28484
  
• The Scaling options found in the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer disappears when relaunching the Catalyst™ Control Center after applying optimized and custom formats for Component Video. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28855
  
• Connecting a secondary display device (CRT) and enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in invalid refresh rates being available in the Display Manager. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
  
• Making adjustments to the Gamma, Brightness, and Contrast and not applying the changes no longer results in the desktop image failing to return to its default color values when performing a hot-reboot of the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
  
• All supported display resolutions are now available in the Display Manager when connecting a secondary display device and enabling extended desktop mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28789
  
• Performing an un-install of the display driver no longer results in the display entering an extended desktop mode and the desktop icons failing to be displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
  
• Setting the Avivo Video Brightness to less than 0 within the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer results in a white frame being created in the Windows Media Player when fullscreen mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28790
  
• The Enable ATI Overdrive clocks for 3d applications is no longer available on non supported products such as the ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28477
  
• Setting the Avivo Video De-interlacing setting to auto, motion adaptive or vector adaptive no longer results in certain DVDs, menu videos and some special features failing to benefit from the options. Further information on this issue may be found in topic number 737-27196
  
• The color depth no longer changes to 8bpp when enabling or disabling CrossFire™ for the first time. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28485
  
• Connecting a TV followed by removing the display resolution of 640x480 from the mode table no longer results in the both the TV and LCD failing to display an image. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28490
  
• An unhandled exception no longer occurs when running an OGL application and resuming from S3 under Vista on various ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27960
  
• Windows Media Player: Playing a DVD in full screen mode no longer results in vertical bar corruption being noticed during playback. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28497
  
• DVD display no longer blinks in red when Overdrive is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28794
  

Some of the fixes for XP:

• Star Wars knights of the Old Republic 2: Corruption is no longer seen when running the game on some members of the ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27098
  
• CounterStrike Source, Day of Defeat Source, and Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Excessive fog is no longer noticed when playing these games. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28795
  
• The Overscan/Underscan slider bar is no longer enabled when setting display resolutions of 1280x1024 or higher on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28843
  
• Adobe After Effects 8: The application no longer fails to load on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ X700 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28796
  
• PowerDVD6: Momentary desktop corruption is no longer noticed when minimizing the DVD playback window after stretching the playback window approximately 80%. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28797
  
• The system no longer becomes unresponsive and no longer requires a reboot while randomly moving Video Player window from primary to extended desktop under certain hardware configurations where the second adapter is an ATI Radeon™ X1200/1250/1270 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27092
  
• A warning message indicating CrossFire™ cannot be enabled because some 3D applications are running or the interconnect cable is not connected, or the motherboard has no communication channels between PCI-Express slots is no longer displayed when using a motherboard with an Intel I965 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28798
  
• The CrossFire™ page is no longer greyed out and cannot be enabled when attempting to use a software CrossFire™ configuration on a system using a motherboard with an Intel I975 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28799
  
• The Avivo components are now listed in the ADD/Remove Programs after installation of the display driver. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28800
  
• Switching HD-DVD titles during playback with hardware acceleration enabled no longer results in the playback to be blocked. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28802
  
• WinDVD8: Playing a DVD and changing the video setting to Hardware Acceleration mode no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28803
  

Labels: ATI, download, driver, drivers, free, games, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista, XP

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

FIX: Solving ATI Black Screen Problems in Vista

I've mentioned in my previous post about remotely restarting Vista with RDP that my switch from the finally fully working but oh so slow nVidia Quadro FX 550 card to the very fast (Aero Graphics: 5.9, Gaming Graphics: 5.5) and affordable XpertVision ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Super didn't work out because of the many sleep/hibernate problems in Vista.

To explain the situation a bit more, here's what my problems (and some early solutions) looked like.

• The system (sometimes) boots normally and the ATI card performs fast and stable.


• Putting Vista into Sleep mode or Hibernation mode always works.


• Shutting down Windows Vista also always works.


• Resuming from Sleep or Hibernation, or powering up sometimes works, but other times this can lead to this:
  
  
  
  1. Boot or resume works but with black screen syndrome: Windows is running but the ATI card appears not present and thus you get no picture whatsoever. You can however log in remotely using Remote Desktop Client.
  
  
  2. Boot or resume fails during the BIOS POST routine, and after some 30 seconds you get two beeps indicating your machine is tired of waiting on the video card to come alive.
  
  
  
  In the first case, it is enough to shutdown your pc remotely, and then retry the whole routine.
  In the second case, it only helped (in my case) to eithe remove and reinsert the ATI card, or to remove the power while your pc is hanging in the BIOS routine. Both solutions reset the video card and should get you going.
  


• Note that this happens with the ATI Catalyst 7.7 drivers, as well as with the beta version (RC3) of Catalyst 7.8.
  

However, while checking the very limited ATI/AMD support site, I decided to try some of the few solutions they had for similar but not identical problems.

To my big surprise, one of them actually worked... I've been able to put my workstation to Sleep, Shutdown, Restart for several times and not once did it fail.
Here's the solution:

1. Open the Start menu and type services.msc, then press Enter:
   
   
   


2. You'll now see the list of services. Select the ATI External Event Utility service, then press Enter:
   
   
   


3. This brings up the properties window. You'll notice that the service is started but that you can't stop it.
   
   
   


4. Change the Startup Type dropdown list from Automatic into Manual.
   
   
   


5. Close this window by pressing the OK button, then reboot your machine (with a proper restart via the Start menu).
   


6. Test the Sleep, Shutdown, Restart and Hibernate functions... it should work now.
   

I hope this really solves it, and that I don't need to revise this post or write a follow-up.

Labels: ATI, crash, driver, hibernate, Microsoft, problem, problems, sleep, Vista, Windows Vista

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, August 10, 2007 | PermaLink | 5 comments

Leaked Vista Reliability and Performance Updates Officially Available

Some of you already installed the leaked versions, but here they are officially from Microsoft. Install both of the updates, they're highly recommended!

1. 
   
   An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista
   
   Download Update 938979 for Vista 32-bit
   Download Update 938979 for Vista 64-bit
   

   
   This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who are using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.
   
   By applying this update, you can achieve better performance and responsiveness in various scenarios. This update also improves the reliability of Windows Vista.
   
   This update resolves the following issues on a Windows Vista-based computer:• You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
   • A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
   • If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
   • When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
   • When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
   • After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
   • When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
   • If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:• Canon EOS 1D
   • Canon EOS 1DS
   For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   932988 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932988/) Files from a Canon EOD 1D or 1DS camera may be corrupted after you use Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, or Windows Explorer to edit the file metadata in Windows Vista or in Windows XP Service Pack 2
   • After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
   • Poor memory management performance occurs.
   

   
   


2. 
   
   An update is available that improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista
   
   Download Update 938194 for Vista 32-bit
   Download Update 938194 for Vista 64-bit
   
   

   
   This update resolves some compatibility issues and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better reliability and hardware compatibility in various scenarios.
   
   This update resolves the following issues:• The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   932539 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932539/) The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver on a Windows Vista-based computer
   • The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer's power button.
   • The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
   • The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
   • The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
   • A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
   • Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
   • You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
   • Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
   • Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
   • Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
   • The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
   • You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   931671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931671/) Error message when you put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep while a PPP connection is active: "STOP 0x0000009F"
   

   
   

APPLIES TO
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Business 64-bit Edition
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition
• Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit Edition
• Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition

Labels: Pack, patch, performance, reliability, update, Vista, Windows Vista

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, August 08, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments

How to shutdown or restart Vista via RDP?

I'm sure Murphy must be around the corner, because when I recently upgraded my video card from nVidia to a new ATI HD 2600 based card, I encountered a lot of problems that I did not expect.

As I've written before, the ATI video card and drivers in my notebook performed flawlessly from Vista Day 1. The nVidia drivers for the Quadro FX 550 on my workstation however had lots of problems, but in the end I've been able to solve it with more recent beta drivers and removing the SoundBlaster X-Fi card. Since that moment my workstation behaved perfectly also — no troubles with sleep, hibernation, shut down, restart whatsoever!

However, when I recently decided that the nVidia card was way too slow for this powerful machine, I've chosen an ATI-based card so that I would not encounter those problems again. But! Apparently the latest ATI Catalyst 7.7 and even Catalyst Beta 7.8 drivers still have problems with this brand new ATI HD 2600 XT Super, turning the whole sleep/shutdown/restart procedure back into a nightmare.

Sometimes the machine doesn't boot at all, just two beeps meaning it is tired of waiting for video initialization. At that point you can't even access the BIOS. The only way to revive is remove the power cord while it is turned on, or remove the card and reinsert it. Both solutions reset the video card from whatever buggy state it was left in.
Other times, it boots perfectly and restores the last session you were using, except you get NO picture... just a black screen! The only way to gracefully recover from this mess is to use Remote Desktop Connection from another machine. A glance at the event log reveals the following suspicious events:

The device 'ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT' (PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9588&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00\4&cff77c&0&0020) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

The device 'High Definition Audio Controller' (PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_AA08&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00\4&cff77c&0&0120) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

The device 'High Definition Audio Device' (HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1002&DEV_AA01&SUBSYS_00AA0100&REV_1000\5&921ff23&0&0001) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

Note: The HD Audio device is a feature of the ATI Radeon HD 2600/2400 series, it is located on the video card and not on my motherboard.

Update: I've been able to fix these problems, see my recent posting about it.

Now using my workstation via RDP is fine and works really well, but it is no substitute for the real thing. It's as slow as the nVidia FX 550, so what did I change cards for then?

So the time has come to reboot the machine...but how to do that via Remote Desktop Connection? As you can see, you don't get the usual choices from the Start menu. The Power button has been changed into an X to disconnect the session:



The fly-out menu isn't any better, you just get Log Off and Lock:



If you look carefully, you'll notice a new button on the Start menu, it's called Windows Security. (This also happens on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Workstation/Server)



This brings you to the following screen (similar as pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete on your own Vista machine) where you'll notice the red power button in the bottom right corner. There you go: Restart, Sleep and Shut Down!

Labels: Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 | PermaLink | 3 comments

No more silent AutoPlay bypassing in Vista

Yeah, you know the trick, it's saved us from a lot of trouble. Holding down that Shift-key when inserting a CD or DVD made sure that nothing was autoplayed...

Now what do my eyes read in the Help-section from Windows Vista:

Why can't I override AutoPlay by pressing the SHIFT key as I could in Windows XP?
AutoPlay has been redesigned. Now holding down the SHIFT key opens AutoPlay regardless of the default setting.

For a moment I thought Microsoft had given in to the pressure of their commercial partners, but luckily you'll get the list of AutoPlay choices and thus you can always choose "View files".

Labels: AutoPlay, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, August 02, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments