Posts Tagged ‘Windows XP’

Most Windows 7 PCs max out memory

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Posted 18 Feb 2010 — by Arun
Category News

Most Windows 7 PCs max out their memory, resulting in performance bottlenecks, a researcher said. On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.

The 86% mark for Windows 7 is more than twice the average number of Windows XP machines that run at the memory “saturation” point. The most recent snapshot of XPnet’s 23,000-plus PCs — taken yesterday — pegs only 40% of XP systems as running low on memory.

The low-memory condition of most Windows 7 PCs is even more notable considering the amount of RAM in Windows 7 systems: According to XPnet’s polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer.

Source: Computer World.
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Windows 7 vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses

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Posted 05 Nov 2009 — by Arun
Category News

Sophos reports that Windows 7 is vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses, despite Microsoft’s claim about Windows 7 being more secure. With User Account Control (UAC) turned on, it blocked only one out of the 10 proving that UAC in it’s default configuration is not effective at protecting a PC from malware.

Microsoft also claimed that Windows Vista infection was 61.9% less than Windows XP. What they didn’t say was the market share of Windows XP was 70.5% and Windows Vista is 19%.

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Quake Live to support Linux

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Posted 15 Aug 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux

Quake Live currently supports only Windows XP and Vista. In an annoucement to QuakeCon attendes, ID Software annouced the support for Linux and Mac. Here is the annoucement:

id Software: the return of the QUAKE Live leaderboards and new Mac, Linux support

The post is not clear (atleast to me) on when the support will start. It didn’t work as of today.

QUAKELIVE

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Thunderbird 3 beta 3 released

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Posted 23 Jul 2009 — by Arun
Category Announcement

Mozilla Messaging team has released the 3rd beta of Thunderbird 3.0. According to Mozilla, Thunderbird 3 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.1 platform including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, web compatibility, and code simplification and sustainability. There are over 500 changes in this release, many laying the groundwork for future changes.

Listed below are the new feature/changes in Thunderbird 3.0 beta 3:

  • Thread Pane and Tab Refactoring
  • Fixes For Extension Developers
  • Tabbed Email Messages- Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
  • New Message Summary View – Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
  • Column Headings- The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
  • Smart Folders – The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes (e.g. Inbox) from multiple accounts together.
  • Improved Gmail Integration – Better recognition and integration of Gmail’s special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.

Thunderbird team is testing a new version of account setup wizard to make configuring email accounts in Thunderbird easier. Before you download and install Thunderbird 3.0, read the list of known issues below:

  • If you use or had previously used the master password feature, you may be prompted to enter your master password when you first start up Thunderbird.
  • Your passwords are stored in a new location. If you go back to using a previous version of Thunderbird, or switch back and forth between Beta 3 and an older version, your password lists do not get updated.
  • If using SSL or TLS, and the certificate that comes from the server is self-signed, expired, or has a domain that does not match the server domain, a dialog will be shown asking if Thunderbird should permanently make an exception for the cert. This should only be done if the error is understood.
  • The toolbar drop down folder picker does not work in Beta 3.
  • If a person has two email addresses in your address book, only one email address will be displayed during autocompletion when composing an email message
  • The new autoconfig dialog is displayed in English in localized versions of Thunderbird.
  • The extended columns in the folder pane was removed in Beta 1.
  • The compact header view was removed in Beta 3
  • Ensure extensions either come from a secure server using the HTTPS protocol or are digitally signed, or they will fail to install.
  • Windows – The keyboard shortcut for ‘Mark All Read’ has changed from Ctrl+Shift+C to Shift+C.
  • Windows – For Windows XP users, setting Thunderbird as the default email client does not work during the installation process.

If you are still interested in testing beta 3 of Thunderbird 3.0, Click here to download.

Source: Mozilla Messaging.

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Windows XP mode in Windows 7

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Posted 27 Apr 2009 — by Arun
Category News

Microsoft is introducing Windows XP mode in Windows 7 to give flexibility to run older programs in Windows 7 PC. According to the Windows Blog, All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.

Microsoft will soon be releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. It’s a good news for business and individuals who are running Windows out of liking or necessity.

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Texas budget says Hasta la Vista to Windows Vista

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Posted 02 Apr 2009 — by Arun
Category News

mySA News reports that the proposed two year, $182.2 billion budget would require state agencies to get written approval from the Legislative Budget Board before buying Vista technology related to an operating system, equipment or licenses.

Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, added the provision in committee and said it’s meant to block purchases of the technology, which has been targeted by criticism: “Don’t buy it, because it’s not worth it.”

Hinojosa, Senate Finance Committee vice chairman, said, “We have a lot of problems with the Vista program. It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It’s not compatible with other equipment, and it’s supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program that is being used by state agencies, and it’s not.”

I hope they put a total ban on using Vista and move the state agencies to open source OSes and applications. This will save them a lot every year. I hope other states would do the same.

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Ubuntu 8.10 installation issue

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Posted 31 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

I downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 yesterday in my Windows PC and made an ISO disc image in a DVD+RW disc through Nero Burning ROM. When I tried to install it in my laptop and also when I tried to use the live CD, I was getting the following error message:

{initramfs} [86.902441] end request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 9180400
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 1147550
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 9180408

This kept coming for different sectors. I think the issue could be with the burning software or the DVD. I downloaded the file again today and I’m going to write it to a CD through Ubuntu and give it a try.

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Dell Inspiron Mini 9 lauches with Ubuntu, XP

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Posted 04 Sep 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

Dell launched Dell Inspiron Mini 9 today. Dell Inspiron Mini 9 comes with either Ubuntu or Windows XP. Ubuntu system costs $349 and is $50 less than Windows XP system with identical configurations (except for the hard drive). The Mini weighs 2.28 lbs and carries solid state drive. The display size is 8.9″. Built-in webcam and bluetooth are available as an option. Dell also offers 2GB of online storage from Box.net.

Dellmini9 300x221

Source: Dell.

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Installing guest additions in latest Virtualbox in Ubuntu Linux

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Posted 23 Jul 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

Installation of Guest Additions (enables seamless mouse movements between host and guest OSes, share folders between host and guest etc) used to be pretty simple and straightforward with the older version of Virtualbox. It all changed with the newer version (I’m not sure which version to be exact). I’m using the latest version available for download and I have listed the steps I followed to install it. I installed Virtualbox in Ubuntu 8.04 and installed Windows XP Pro as guest OS in Virtualbox.

After you started the guest OS using Virtualbox, Click on Devices menu and select �Mount CD/DVD-ROM� and then �CD/DVD-ROM image� under that. This will show you a window as shown below. You’ll see
VBoxGuestAdditions.iso listed under that. If not, you have to look under C:\Program files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox in Windows or /opt/VirtualBox-1.6.2 or /usr/share/virtualbox/ in Linux. Click that ISO file and press the select button.

Then in the guest OS (Windows), open My Computer and double click the CD/DVD drive. For some people, double clicking the drive itself will bring you the guest additions installation wizard. For some, it’ll show
the files under that and you have to double click Virtualbox guest additions setup.exe file. This will get you the wizard. Go with the defaults and complete the wizard. Once it’s completed, you have to reboot the system. The screen resolution might change after rebooting. Go and change the resolution by right clicking on Windows desktop and selecting properties. You should now be able to move the mouse between the host and guest OSes without pressing the right control key.

Update: If you are using Virtualbox 3.0, you can try to install Guest Additions by clicking Devices -> Install Guest Additions. If it doesn’t work, then click Devices -> unmount CD/DVD-ROM and then click Install Guest Additions.

VirtualBox Guest Addition

VirtualBox Guest Addition

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Ubuntu 8.04 upgrade snafu

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Posted 18 Mar 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

I normally start using the new versions of Ubuntu when it enters the last part of the alpha stage. I always did a clean install until now. I was going to upgrade when Ubuntu released the 5th alpha version of Ubuntu 8.04, but I changed my mind when I saw the list of open issues. Some of the major issues were resolved when Ubuntu released the final alpha version. I thought I would do an upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon to Ubuntu 8.04 instead of doing a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04. I wanted to see how smooth Ubuntu upgrade goes from an end user point of view.

I started the upgrade process by starting the update manager from a terminal (using update-manager -d command). The upgrade took around 20-30 minutes. I was twice prompted during the upgrade to select either the latest version or the package maintainer’s version (I think one was for Samba. I don’t remember the other one). I selected the package maintainer’s version (though I wanted to go with the default option which was current or new version, don’t remember the exact wordings). After the upgrade was done, I rebooted the system as Ubuntu requested me.

When I rebooted the system, my laptop’s touchpad was not working, but the keyboard was working. I entered the username and password and pressed enter. The system just hung. It didn’t login. I tried 2-3 times rebooting, but it didn’t work. I then downloaded the Ubuntu 8.04 ISO image through my desktop and burnt it to a CD. I then rebooted the laptop and installed Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 6 from the CD. I formatted the boot, root and swap partitions and left the home partition untouched. I was prompted only once this time, for Samba. I selected the default option. The installation was done, rebooted my system and voilà!!! I could login and got my system back. All my preferences were left untouched, my Firefox bookmarks was there since I left the home directory untouched.

The overall experience was mixed. I’m not sure if the installation would have gone smooth if I had gone with the default option when prompted, during the upgrade. If you are not a technical person, then this upgrade snafu would raise your blood pressure since you are left with a non workable system. It would still be an issue if you want to install through the CD as I did, if you don’t have a separate partition for your home directory and you haven’t backed up your files (I did a backup before I started this experiment). I would still rate the upgrade from one version of Ubuntu to a newer version much superior than the upgrade from Window XP to Windows Vista. This might not be the case with everyone. Caution: Always back up your files before you upgrade.

Update: I forgot to write that Ubuntu 8.04 detected my wifi card without any problem, but the issue is, the light that shows if my wireless connection is on and is working, is not working. The light stays off even when my wireless is working fine. There is no problem with the light since it works when I boot into Windows and it worked fine until Hardy upgrade. I hope they fix this before the final release.

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