Mike's Window

Mike's Window

A commonly held 'view.. '

"Well, it worked in Windows 95!"

MVP Award years

2005 - 2006 - 2007

2008 - 2009 - 2010

2011 - 2012 - 2013

The original MVP logo

My Favourite Utilities

Speedfan is a great hardware monitor which can automatically control fan speeds, warn when temperatures are rising in the case, and do a SMART scan of your hard drives. A 'must have'.. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Piriform Speccy tells you what is inside the box and with great accuracy.. http://www.piriform.com/speccy

Networx shows download/upload bandwidth used.. http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

Piriform Recuva is probably the best file recovery utility around and is free too.. http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Treesize shows you what you have got, where it is, and how much space it is all using.. http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

Windows 8 alternative start menus.. Classic Shell.. http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

Stardock Start8.. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

EaseUS Partition Manager is the best free utility of its type.. http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

YoWindow, a weather utility which appears to work with the Windows 8 desktop.. http://yowindow.com/

My Favourite Gadgets - Windows 7 and Vista only..

Gas Buddy.. http://www.londongasprices.com/VistaGadget.aspx

NetMeter.. http://addgadget.com/

Network Monitor.. http://samwtucker.com/

Asst'd gadgets.. http://gallery.djinngo.com/gallery/index.html

Weather fun.. http://yowindow.com/

Syndication

Blog Archive List

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The Lenovo G780 gets help..

It needed it too. Supplied originally with a 4gb RAM chip, it was struggling. I looked at all of the stuff at Start up and that ran in the background. Yep, I could have closed much of it down, but I am not a believer in doing that, and there were one...

Published Fri, Jun 14 2013 14:10 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware, Laptop
A keyboard for 10-10 vision or kids..

Enter the Klear Keys XL.. It is a full 104 key, high visibility keyboard, black letters on a green background. The green colour is easier on the eyes than similar keyboards fitted with yellow keys. There is no wrist rest, and the edge around the keys...

Published Mon, Jun 10 2013 11:05 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware
Watch Out..

There’s a data miner about.. Where are they mining? Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple, PalTalk, the video chat room community . Dropbox maybe.. was slated to be the next one added to the list. That list covers most exits,...

Published Fri, Jun 7 2013 18:39 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Security
Windows 8.1 - installing the preview and RTM

Sourced from here.. http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-goes-public-with-windows-8-1-upgrade-policies-7000016419/?s_cid=e589&ttag=e589 If you apply the preview to an existing Windows 8 installation, when it comes time to apply the RTM, assuming that you...

Published Thu, Jun 6 2013 12:39 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8.1
Tiled Windows?

In response to criticism of full screen apps and the difficulties of multi-tasking between screens, Microsoft is going to introduce the facility to tile Windows. Let’s see what tiled Windows look like.. Could I multi-task between these Windows?. Word...

Published Wed, Jun 5 2013 20:57 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8.1
Touch devices - the hidden costs..

Except for the U-Scan store checkouts, the vitamin information panel at a local pharmacy and ATMs, I generally don’t like touch devices. It is difficult to get into a mess with the three types mentioned, although some still manage it These devices...

Published Mon, Jun 3 2013 12:49 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Touch
Don’t throw out your Windows 7 disk just yet..

Re the upcoming Windows 8 Start button.. “The experience doesn't replicate the Windows 7 Start button and menu, but it's an improvement over Windows 8, Silver said.” Any improvement is welcome…………. I think.. "The Start button will not...

Published Fri, May 31 2013 9:42 by Mike Hall
Windows 8.1..

I am sitting outside on my balcony in the South West Ontario sun, shaded by a large sun shade over a smoked glass table, my machine is a three year old Toshiba Netbook running Windows 7 Home Premium in 2gb of RAM. It doesn’t have the rather annoying multi...

Published Thu, May 30 2013 12:36 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Where is the evidence?

I was in my local Apple Store yesterday. My five year old grand-daughter likes to play on the iPads, having learned from one of her friends who has one, and the staff there don’t seem to mind. So, I decided to look to see what an iPad/iPad mini could...

Published Thu, May 30 2013 10:21 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
How to forward mail (or do anything) in Outlook.com..

The Hotmail interface has changed, and this is what you see when you first open it. Yes, it has the new Windows 8 look, but all of the tools are still there. Note the almost complete lack of tools across the top. Oh my, how could Microsoft do this to...

Published Tue, May 28 2013 9:22 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Mail
Windows Blue.. more FUD?

Windows Blue, leaked version build 9364, still has no proper desktop start menu, but other features have appeared. There is more in the Control Panel app which is bringing claims of ‘the end of the desktop for sure’ forward again If these ‘leaks’ are...

Published Sat, May 25 2013 15:19 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
An Open Letter to Microsoft.. By John C. Dvorak

Dear Sir or Madam, This is an open letter to everyone and anyone involved with Windows 8. Don't let the critics get you down. You've done good work and it should be rewarded. Immediately ask for a salary raise of 10 to 20 percent. You deserve...

Published Sun, May 19 2013 6:37 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Rumours or Real?

Windows Blue .. The story so far... http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/06/windows-8-at-6-months-q-amp-a-with-tami-reller.aspx PC sales .. No, it is not the fault of Windows 8. It is because there is a shift to tablet forms...

Published Tue, May 7 2013 20:03 by Mike Hall
On the case..

The new Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced case has now been in service for thirty five days. In that time, it has not displayed any of the annoying characteristics of it’s predecessor. Windows has not shutdown once and everything is working. I still dare...

Published Mon, May 6 2013 22:08 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware, Windows 8
Where did all of the Netbooks go?

I have found out where. The manufacturers took the keyboards off and called them tablets, everybody except for Acer, that is. A quick look at a Netbook gone by.. This is a Toshiba NB250, one of the better netbooks of the day. It is powered by the Intel...

Published Thu, May 2 2013 11:10 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Netbook, Tablet
The difference that a FULL driver makes..

The desktop tower: Windows 8 – not quite fully supported AMD Phenom II X4 running at 3,4ghz 8gb high performance RAM ATI HD4250 video WD 500gb High Performance SATA The Netbook: Windows 7 – fully supported Intel Atom running at 1.6ghz 2gb standard RAM'...

Published Mon, Apr 29 2013 17:36 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware, Windows, Games, Device drivers
Windows 8 - Network hardware compatibility ..

After a week of moving my workspace around, tidying up cable runs, committing an aging Panasonic Fax/Phone machine to the local Goodwill store, I thought it best to try out some of my older network adapters. The two adapters are: An Ultra USB 2.0 Fax...

Published Sat, Apr 27 2013 11:09 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware, Windows 8
The best mobile PC.. for business.. or anybody

Some interesting results here.. http://www.soluto.com/reports Of course, the one advantage business supplied machines have over the OEM stuff in stores is the slim customized corporate Windows image, rigorously tested over maybe a year before being applied...

Published Wed, Apr 24 2013 15:04 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows, Other stuff, Performance
Did Microsoft miss the point?

I’ve spent a bit of time defending Windows 8 in the forums of late, and as a consequence, I am not getting as many ‘marked as answers’. The other reason is that moderators no longer cruise the forums marking answers just to make it look like the forums...

Published Tue, Apr 23 2013 10:35 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Return of the official Start button?

They say that the return would not boost PC sales, but while it might not boost sales to Windows 95 levels, it would no doubt make a difference. Presently, a consumer walks into a computer retailer, sees a cellphone which has been clumsily disguised to...

Published Wed, Apr 17 2013 20:10 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, Start Menu

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Mike's Window

A commonly held 'view.. '

MVP Award years

The original MVP logo

My Favourite Utilities

My Favourite Gadgets - Windows 7 and Vista only..

Links

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives

Blog Archive List

The Lenovo G780 gets help..

A keyboard for 10-10 vision or kids..

Watch Out..

Windows 8.1 - installing the preview and RTM

Tiled Windows?

Touch devices - the hidden costs..

Don’t throw out your Windows 7 disk just yet..

Windows 8.1..

Where is the evidence?

How to forward mail (or do anything) in Outlook.com..

Windows Blue.. more FUD?

An Open Letter to Microsoft.. By John C. Dvorak

Rumours or Real?

On the case..

Where did all of the Netbooks go?

The difference that a FULL driver makes..

Windows 8 - Network hardware compatibility ..

The best mobile PC.. for business.. or anybody

Did Microsoft miss the point?

Return of the official Start button?