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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/

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  • Browser wars..

    Microsoft is in trouble again for not promoting other browsers over its own in EU versions of Windows 7 SP1. As you can plainly see from the graph, Internet Explorer is streets ahead of all of the competition and rising. Well, it would be if the green...
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  • Windows 8.. Incompatibility

    Starting with an upgrade to Windows 8 over the top of Windows 7 which is already running FrontPage and Twinbox ..  Windows 8 + FrontPage 2003 + Office 2010 + Twinbox (latest or any version) = OK, No major issues..   Starting with a fresh, clean...

  • An ‘open and shut’ case..

    One minute everything is fine, and the next? All shut down. The problem persists, but I have nailed it down to the case top/front panel headers, the panel itself. Coolermaster added a ‘ground’ cable to the later panel headers, but the fix doesn’t work...

  • Office 365 launch

    Virtual Launch Event for the new Office 365 for business. Date Wednesday, February 27 th 8 am PDT and 5 pm PDT Why Attend? • Learn how the new Office 365 can help people do their best work in a world of devices and services • Hear customers talk about...

  • A $1.17 cable..

    .. notably a SATA extension power cable is all that stands between a reliable PC and a $100 + payout. Last week, and for the first time in weeks, my PC decided to shut down again.. TWICE. The annoying part is that I can’t remember what I was doing at...

  • 8 on a Netbook?

    I read a post in the Windows 8 forum re installing Windows 8 on a Netbook and getting caught out by the screen resolution. Older Netbooks can’t manage more than 1024 x 600 due to the drivers and/or the screen technology of the day when made, so Windows...
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  • Metadata scare..

    Have you heard about this utility? Document Metadata Cleaner.. http://www.pointstone.com/products/metadata-cleaner/ A quote.. Whenever you create, open, or save a document in Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, that document may store information (known...
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  • The ‘8’ ball..

    Unless Microsoft pull something out of the hat and include it in a service pack for Windows 8, this OS will maybe become known as the ‘8’ ball. Presently, it has a real knack for scuppering itself, as can be seen in the Windows 8 forums. Apps...
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  • Trusteer update..

    Don’t blame me, I am only the messenger.. From Trusteer this morning “Please be advised that the links we provided you are short-termed and will expire in the following week.We will publish a fix for this problem soon.” Hopefully, directly after the links...
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  • Online banking security..

    Banks are eager to ensure that transactions between themselves and their customers are safe for obvious reasons. To this end, you may get a request to install software called ‘Trusteer Rapport’. Always eager to help out, I landed on the Scotiabank page...
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  • Saving Favourites..

    A term used by Microsoft in reference to what everybody else calls ‘bookmarks’. The folder containing Favourites can be found in the User <name> folder.. So easy. So, when somebody asks me how to save Favourites, I tell them where the folder is...
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  • In the news..

    iPad mini sales are cutting into iPad sales are cutting into iMac sales. And this is a surprise? Hardly.. Of course, it does throw a spanner into the works for other manufacturers in as much as there has been a rush to bring out largish tablets. Apple...
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  • Latest ATI HD 4000 driver.. a problem..

    If you notice a problem after installation, use a restore point to get back. Don’t do what I did and suspect everything BUT the driver. It isn’t worth the time In this case. it stopped the sleep function of my PC. Also, before installing ATI drivers,...
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  • ATI drivers for the HD 4000,3000, 2000

    There is a new driver, dated 20/1/2013, on the ATI driver support page.. http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx I wish that I had a snapshot of the driver page when Windows 8 appeared. It was obvious that...

  • Windows 8 training..

    For the home user or small business, there is essentially no training. The screens while installing show basic mouse movements which do not work too well in practice. In order to set up applications like accounting stuff or even MS Office, access via...

  • Upgrade prices rise.. a lot..

    As of February 1st, the cost of a Windows 8 upgrade rises substantially from $40 to $200. I don’t know about you, but I can’t see too many paying out that kind of money for a product that is known to be difficult and not altogether reliable, certainly...

  • PATA/SATA vs. SSD..

    A PATA/SATA hard drive.. .. is good value per Gb.. .. is available in a lot of sizes.. I can tell that you were expecting more, and there is.. Mechanical hard drives start off life quite well. Treat then carefully, don’t let them overheat, don’t...
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  • Twenty five per cent? Ouch

    Just recently, I downloaded and installed the beta version of Speedfan (4.48 beta 6), and I have noticed at times a rise in the CPU temperature. So what do you think is causing the rise? I will tell you.. Task Manager shows it as being Internet Explorer...
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  • Desktop applications: 1 Windows 8 UI: 0

    Apart from MS Office 2010, I have a few minor applications on my PC. Skype Messenger A utility to capture YouTube videos Filezilla to upload changes to my website Paint.net because it is more accomplished than the Windows offering Arcsoft Photostudio...
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  • Speedfan and Windows 8..

    If you didn’t already know, SpeedFan 4.47 doesn’t like Windows 8, but there is a fix. It is called SpeedFan 4.48 beta6 and to get it, you have to sign up.. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php SpeedFan is a very useful utility for desktop PCs and I do recommend...
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