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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

Remember the Vista/XP problems?

I do and only too well. If both were installed on the same machine, shadow copies and restore points would disappear daily. It is what forced me to go to Vista full time and dump XP. This time, the decision is not so clear cut because moving entirely...

Published Wed, Oct 10 2012 10:38 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows 7 and 8 do NOT like to co-exist..

All hard drives checkout as ok, and Windows 7 runs flawlessly, boots flawlessly, and does everything else flawlessly UNTIL Windows 8 is introduced to the system. Even when I had Windows 8 in VirtualBox, it still played up a bit but only affected itself...

Published Tue, Oct 9 2012 9:25 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows 8 – Start8 makes it all better..

Stardock’s Start8 menu for Windows 8 is getting better. You now have the ability to ‘pin to the Start menu’ just like Windows 7. All about the look and features here.. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/features.asp And guess what? It is in beta...

Published Sat, Sep 29 2012 9:34 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, Start Menu
This HP high end all-in-one Windows 8 PC

.. doesn’ t have touch capability. Mind you, I am not surprised really. Who would want to leave grubby paw prints over an IMac look-a-like.. It will be difficult enough keeping the keyboard and finger pad clean. Plus, and the distance that one normally...

Published Mon, Sep 10 2012 12:51 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Hardware, Windows 8
IE 10.. dodging the bullet..

So, IE 10’s Adobe Flash component has to be updated through Windows Update, does it? Oh dear. I don’t do other browsers because I don’t like either the browsers or the way that the parent companies operate. It seems that putting Windows 8 into Virtual...

Published Sat, Sep 8 2012 21:23 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, IE
Is the PC really dead?

I was listening to a local radio show a couple of days ago where there was a discussion about the use of smart phones and tablets/iPads. Some didn’t know that email sources can be turned OFF, say from a work account such that they did not become a menace...

Published Sun, Sep 2 2012 17:19 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 7, Windows 8, PC
Windows 8 usability..

This is a very good piece on how to navigate Windows 8 if you are into using the keyboard more than the mouse.. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows8ProductivityWhoMovedMyCheeseOhThereItIs.aspx The guy also has a mega multi monitor setup too, so not...

Published Sun, Aug 26 2012 13:00 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Windows 8.. all I want or need..

.. is to be able to basically run it in order to support it in Microsoft Answers. As long as I know how it works and where everything is, it doesn’t have to be the primary OS. So, I have the option of dual booting, a procedure I have never liked, or Windows...

Published Wed, Aug 22 2012 20:19 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, Virtual Box
Windows 8 - back on the shelf..

Everything is back to normal, as in Windows 7 normal. I kept working with Windows 8 for some three hours after I posted the previous blog post, but I still couldn’t justify the losses and the awkwardness. They said that anything which would run...

Published Sat, Aug 18 2012 14:40 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows 8-balled?

OK.. Stuff that still works.. All of the internal hardware Existing peripheral devices Networx Winpatrol Stuff that doesn’t work or is a pain All of my stress reducer games The traditional Windows games which are now only accessible via the UI formerly...

Published Fri, Aug 17 2012 19:29 by Mike Hall

Filed under: compatibility, Windows 7, Windows 8
Windows 8.. On our own for now..

It’s neat being able to install the latest Microsoft operating system before it becomes main stream. MSDN and TechNet account holders have been able to do it since August 15, but it is not all plain sailing. Microsoft’s infrastructure which will back...

Published Fri, Aug 17 2012 10:08 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Office, Service Packs, Windows 8
Windows 8.. It’s on..

Upgrading to Windows 8 would have gone without a hitch were it not for a defrag utility called RAXCO PERFECTDISK 12.5 Windows 8 reported it as incompatible and asked that it be removed. Easy to do? Not hardly.. It very quickly brought back memories of...

Published Thu, Aug 16 2012 11:55 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
They had to do it..

Microsoft have rolled out Windows 8 to a third of their workforce to demonstrate that it can be done. See here.. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mscio/archive/2012/08/07/deploying-windows-8-within-microsoft.aspx Great stuff, but everybody knows that it can be...

Published Wed, Aug 8 2012 22:19 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
If this is true..

.. it will be a real game changer for me.. Microsoft blocks Windows 8 Start button, boot-to-desktop hacks: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9230024/Microsoft_blocks_Windows_8_Start_button_boot_to_desktop_hacks?source=rss_latest_content&utm_source...

Published Tue, Aug 7 2012 8:38 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, Desktop
No more Metro..

I was going to write about this yesterday, but the Euro reason for having to drop the name was not clear, so I deleted what I had written. My first thought was a clash with the Paris Metro. This is a stylish rapid transit underground system in Paris,...

Published Sat, Aug 4 2012 9:03 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Mavis, we need a new tutor..

I was at a birthday dinner last week. Throughout the meal, there was healthy conversation back and forth across the table, but there was another conversation going on underneath the table too. No, it wasn’t the toddlers who could no longer sit still....

Published Fri, Aug 3 2012 12:45 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Windows 8 is RTM as Hotmail sings it’s swan song..

That is ‘Released To Manufacturing’ if you didn’t already know. A master of the complete Windows 8 is made and from that originates the DVD’s and ISO’s. MSDN and TechNet will release the ISO’s on August 15th, and the OEM manufacturers will be busy...

Published Wed, Aug 1 2012 14:29 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8, email
Unhappy with MacOS?

If you read the article in the link below, you will see that it is not just Windows users who are displeased with the way upgrade operating systems affect the speed of a machine or the way in which the user interacts with it. http://www.zdnet.com/blog...

Published Wed, Jul 25 2012 20:30 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows, An aside, Windows 8
August RTM

MSDN and TechNet account holders should get Windows 8 during or at the end of the first week of August. Are you guys excited? I wouldn’t go that far but I am interested enough to give it a whirl. At the end of the day, it is an operating system designed...

Published Sun, Jul 22 2012 22:35 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 8
Windows Gadgets are bad.. allegedly

A while ago, Microsoft removed many of the gadgets from Gadget Gallery because it wanted to encourage the writing of APPS in readiness for Windows 8. Now we are told that gadgets are bad and always have been…two sources of many.. http://nakedsecurity...

Published Sun, Jul 15 2012 9:00 by Mike Hall

Filed under: Windows 7, Windows 8, Gadgets

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Browse by Tags

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

Remember the Vista/XP problems?

Windows 7 and 8 do NOT like to co-exist..

Windows 8 – Start8 makes it all better..

This HP high end all-in-one Windows 8 PC

IE 10.. dodging the bullet..

Is the PC really dead?

Windows 8 usability..

Windows 8.. all I want or need..

Windows 8 - back on the shelf..

Windows 8-balled?

Windows 8.. On our own for now..

Windows 8.. It’s on..

They had to do it..

If this is true..

No more Metro..

Mavis, we need a new tutor..

Windows 8 is RTM as Hotmail sings it’s swan song..

Unhappy with MacOS?

August RTM

Windows Gadgets are bad.. allegedly