Mike's Window : XP

The search for drivers..

Mike Hall — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:52:05 GMT

I watched a video of a Windows House Party. The organisers put on a great show, and I was impressed, especially with the six year old PC which is running Windows 7 well, presumably the 32-bit variant. I have a six year old Intel G845WN. Lets take a look...(read more)

Windows 7 - My protest didn’t last long..

Mike Hall — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:34:25 GMT

When I first downloaded the Win 7 beta, I was disappointed to find that there was no classic menu. In the forums, I made the point that it was missing and that it should be present. As the versions rolled in, there was still no sign of the classic menu...(read more)

In case you didn’t know..

Mike Hall — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:53:38 GMT

Microsoft Answers lives here.. http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/categories Windows Live, XP, Vista, 7 and Microsoft Security Essentials are covered now, and I am presuming that the list will encompass other Microsoft products before too...(read more)

How to avoid the snakes..

Mike Hall — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:55:43 GMT

During the last week of October, there are going to be many computer users upgrading their systems. I wonder how they will all work out? If it is buggy now.. It still will be after an ‘in place’ upgrade, so you need to do a bit of work before you start...(read more)

Win 7/Vista/XP networking – a possible solution

Mike Hall — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:09:07 GMT

Ever since switching from XP to Vista, I have had problems maintaining a local network. It set up without issue, but after a short period, one could guarantee that Vista would lose sight of any computer within the network. Sometimes, even the XP machines...(read more)

Classic menu revisited – Part Two

Mike Hall — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:18:38 GMT

Apologies for the gap in transmission. Like some early OEM Vista installations, I have been working but maybe not as well as expectations. In fact, at one point, I screwed everything up so bad to the point where I was considering starting over. Messing...(read more)

Classic menu issue revisited – Part One

Mike Hall — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:20:30 GMT

I think that I am beginning to understand one of the reasons why the Windows 7 Start Menu/Taskbar defaults to the way it is. Touch screen usability The oversized, widely spaced icons on the taskbar and in the Start box all point to ease of use on a touch...(read more)

In a few hours..

Mike Hall — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:42:21 GMT

I will be downloading Windows 7. That will be the most tedious part, watching the download speed go up and down. Burning the ISO will take but a few minutes, turn off the computer, disconnect the other hard drives, boot from the DVD drive, and in less...(read more)

August 6

Mike Hall — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:34:57 GMT

Some of us are going to be busy come the day. Apparently, the English versions of Windows 7 RTM will appear on MSDN and TechNet servers. Just like November 17 2006, we will all be pressing F5 to refresh the download pages, eager to get the final version...(read more)

Keyboard/mouse drivers..

Mike Hall — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:10:01 GMT

Microsoft have released Version 7 drivers of the Intellipoint/Intellitype drivers for their range of keyboards and mice, and guess what? The scroll wheel on my Optical Desktop Elite keyboard is working properly for the first time in almost two and a half...(read more)

Re. Windows FAQ (the previous article)

Mike Hall — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:55:18 GMT

If you didn’t like what I said, or you think that I was nitpicking, consider this. Many PC users have been running XP since it was introduced. I know that there was some resistance at first because it looked different and stuff had been moved about, BUT...(read more)

Windows 7 FAQ..

Mike Hall — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:36:57 GMT

Round colorful thingummybobber here: 1.. Where is the START button? We believe that the START button was far too recognizable as a feature of XP, and so we decided to give it a new look. Also, we wanted to make it more of a challenge for support people...(read more)

Windows XP to 7.. Is it time yet?

Mike Hall — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:55:28 GMT

I have been preparing an older XP machine for Windows 7 recently, and it brings back memories from 2006/7. In fairness, the machine in question is a good performer running XP, but is in the bottom 20% of desktops according to PCPitsop. The processor is...(read more)

High End? Not exactly..

Mike Hall — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:14:39 GMT

‘Mike’s Window’ is written in Windows Live Writer which is running in Vista 64. This is the OS which everybody loves to hate. I do have Windows 7 64bit RC installed too but I prefer Vista. This is my production PC.. Biostar T6100-939. AMD 64 3500...(read more)

Vista SP2 RTM.. looking both ways

Mike Hall — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:58:14 GMT

Uninstalling RC drifted along smoothly, as did installation of the standalone five language RTM. It has taken a couple of days for the system to settle back down, but Vista 64 is running nicely again, and I have no major issues. There are still niggling...(read more)

A new USB keyboard and mouse?

Mike Hall — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:11:32 GMT

If you buy a new OEM computer these days, it will most likely come supplied with a USB keyboard and mouse. It wasn’t always this way. Early IBM clone computers used a 5 pin DIN port for the keyboard and a 9 pin ‘D’ serial port for the mouse. These were...(read more)

Windows 7 – is it ‘King’ material? In my opinion..

Mike Hall — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:00:23 GMT

The news is that Windows 7 will skip from Beta 1 to RC very soon. The beta testers have been sending in reports to the MS Beta team as the rate of one every fifteen seconds. So, is Windows 7 working well? It certainly should be by the time that the RC...(read more)

This is my Windows 7 Start Menu..

Mike Hall — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:20:00 GMT

.. but the list of programs shown is not definitive yet. Some of the entries exist because I am trying them out on behalf of some of my local clients. So far, there are twenty eight icons showing and the icon size is set to ‘small’. They have...(read more)

Ultramon.. Dual Screen Functionality..

Mike Hall — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:15:59 GMT

Some you lose.. One of the most annoying events in a computer users life is losing features when upgrading to the latest and greatest OS. When I moved up to Vista from XP, my Canon scanner still retained full support because Canon were good enough to...(read more)

Managing Partitions..

Mike Hall — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:38:53 GMT

Vista has a utility which allows the user to shrink partitions. This is a useful thing to be able to do, especially as the primary drives fitted into computers are now exceeding 250gb regularly. You just know that there has to be a catch. Remember that...(read more)