Making a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 confirm that it is actually Vista SP1 might require a minimum amount of effort on behalf of the end user, such as right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties, but things are a tad different when an application is programmed to identify the operating system versions or the service pack releases. According to Scott McArthur, Support Escalation engineer with the Setup & Cluster team, Microsoft Corporation Enterprise Support, application compatibility problems can emerge when a program will look for the service pack version in the wrong location in the registry. The example given involved an application designed especially for Vista SP1 failing to install on an x64 copy of Vista SP1.
“The application was checking for the OS version in a registry value, specifically: HKLM – SOFTWARE – Wow6432Node – Microsoft - Windows NT – CurrentVersion - CSDVersion. On the x64 version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, however this value does not exist. The correct value does show up under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SOFTWARE – Microsoft - Windows NT – CurrentVersion - CSDVersion however. This highlights an inherent problem with relying on the registry method to capture this information. As operating systems evolve, there is no guarantee that registry information will persist between operating systems, or in some cases there may be changes between service packs for the same operating system,” McArthur explained.
In this context, there are additional methods that can be used in order to avoid such a problem. WMI queries or application programming interfaces are excellent alternatives to make an application installer dig through the registry only to find nothing, even if the right operating system and service pack are in place. McArthur advised developers to turn to the GetVersionEx function in order to test the platform version. At the same time, there are additional functions designed especially for service packs.
McArthur enumerated, “szCSDVersion: A null-terminated string, such as “Service Pack 3″, that indicates the latest Service Pack installed on the system. If no Service Pack has been installed, the string is empty. wServicePackMajor: The major version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the major version number is 3. If no Service Pack has been installed, the value is zero. wServicePackMinor: The minor version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the minor version number is 0.”
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Written by Jason on August 26th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and 64-bit and Contributors and Support and Vista service pack 1 and Windows Vista and application and computer and registry and service pack 1 and system and vista sp1 and windows and windows vista service pack.
Whenever you play computer games that utilizes 3D graphics, a decent frame rate of about 25-30 frames per second is a prerequisite to make the games run smoothly and be at all enjoyable. If you play on a desktop PC, you always have the option to put in a more powerful graphics card, but that’s not an option with laptop computers. Another problem with laptops – but one that can be avoided – is the lack of updated graphics card drivers. Using updated drivers can provide better performance in new games thanks to game-specific fixes and improvements.
The Problem with OEM Drivers
Although both of the leading graphics card manufacturers (ATI/AMD and Nvidia) provide generic driver updates regularly that are designed to work with all of the respective manufacturer’s chips – even the laptop versions – most OEMs (laptop manufacturers) do not allow these to be installed on your laptop, since they prefer to use proprietary solutions for all their driver updates. As a result, you may be forced to use drivers that are as old as your laptop if the OEM doesn’t update their drivers on a regular basis, which is unfortunately often the case.
Of course, this applies only to laptops with a dedicated graphics card from ATI or Nvidia. If you have a pure business laptop like the Toshiba Satellite M305 that comes with an Intel GPU, there’s not much you can do to boost your graphics capabilities, but you probably didn’t plan on using it for gaming either. However, if you shopped around for cheap laptops from last year and found a bargain with a decent graphics card for gaming, you could be sorely disappointed when you find out that the last driver update was also released last year.
Thankfully, there are relatively simple workarounds available that could save you from choppy frame rates and unplayable games. What fixes to use depends on whether your laptop has a GPU from Nvidia or ATI.
Mobility Modder – For ATI Laptops
Mobility Modder is an application written by Ruud Ketelaars that works with all ATI Mobility Radeon models. It modifies the original driver packages from ATI to provide support for laptop GPUs. The best part is that it’s completely free to download from here.
This way, you can just download the latest Catalyst drivers from AMD, apply the Mobility Modder fix, install the drivers and enjoy several performance and stability improvements. One good example is the latest tweak for Call of Duty 4 that improves performance by up to 35%, but lots of other popular titles like World of Warcraft and Crysis has received some improvements and fixes as well.
Modified INF’s – For Nvidia Laptops
The situation with laptop graphics cards from Nvidia is exactly the same – no support is provided for notebook GPUs from Nvidia, although the drivers are compatible with the entire range of desktop and laptop GPUs. However, just like the ATI drivers you can modify Nvidia’s Force Ware drivers to get them to work with your laptop. The folks at Laptopvideo2Go.com have figured out ways to circumvent the issue. Just replace the original INF-file with the one supplied and you can install the drivers as you normally would, but with the important difference that it works with your laptop’s video card.
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Written by Jason on August 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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People love the vista always for the fancy looking GUI effects not for functionality, and quite opposite is the case for windows XP.
Today, we have come up with top 4 applications which enables flip 3d and aero effect XP just like vista.
Let’s discuss about all these applications which will implement flip 3d effect in XP.
1. TopDesk (shareware) - It is a Alt-Tab task switcher from Otaku Software to provide flip 3d replacement for Windows XP which allows you to instantly view thumbnails of all open windows. It has almost quite the same Windows Vista Flip 3D feature which allows open windows to flip and tilt in a sliding sideway stack with transparent windows effect in 3D layout.
Download TopDesk
2. WindowFX (Shareware) - It not only allows to have flip 3d effect in windows XP, it adds special effects includes shadow under windows minimize/maximize/close/open animations.
Download WindowFX
3. Shock Aero (Freeware) - Another cool application to get flip 3d effect on XP just like vista, but you can’t customize as per the shortcut key to initiate flip 3d effect.It assigns Alt+Tab key to start Flip 3D. Portable version of this program is also available.
Download Shock Aero
4. WinFlip (Freeware) - This program will give you the same experience of Windows Aero and flip 3d experience.It runs minimized in taskbar and Aero effects like flip 3d. It does not require any installation. Download the zip file and double click winflip.exe to load and press Window + tab key to initiate flip 3d.
Download WinFlip
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Written by Jason on August 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and Windows XP and aero and application and freeware and windows and windows aero.
Microsoft has warned end users that performing Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 upgrades from copies of XP SP2 and Vista RTM, respectively, that have Onekey Recovery 5.0 installed will cause the operating systems to display a black screen following reboot. According to the Redmond company, the issue is generated by an incompatibility between the two service pack releases and Saming OneKey recovery software driver Safnt.sys.
This means that deploying SP1 on top of Vista RTM, or SP3 on top of XP SP2, with Onekey Recovery 5.0 also installed, will result in a black screen of death. Microsoft revealed that this scenario would happen whether the service pack upgrade is performed from Windows Update or through any other method. “This issue occurs when the computer contains Onekey recovery software that is earlier than version 5.1. If the computer uses the Onekey recovery software version 5.1 or later versions, this issue does not occur,” the company revealed, explaining that “Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP2 are incompatible with Onekey Recovery 5.0.”
Users affected by the problem can access updates from Microsoft that will help them deal with the incompatibility. There are releases available for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista RTM and SP1, and only for the x86 variants of XP SP2 and SP3. Additionally, the software giant explained that in order “to avoid this issue, use one of the following methods: use the Windows Update Web site to install the hotfix before you upgrade the operating system or upgrade to the newer one-key recovery application before you upgrade the operating system.”
Indeed, Microsoft has applauded the reaching of a new apex of compatibility, especially with the availability of Service Pack 1 for Vista, but exceptions do exist, and the Onekey Recovery 5.0 problems are an illustrative example in this context.
The updates are available for download via the links below:
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Written by Jason on August 8th, 2008 with no comments.
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Snowl is designed to extend the functionality of Firefox beyond the default tasks associated with the process of navigating web content. In fact, this is the premise of Snowl, that the open source browser is capable of dealing with content in addition to what it was originally designed for. Snowl, a project from Mozilla Labs, is described as nothing more than an “experiment with messaging in the browser”.
“The initial prototype supports two sources of messages: RSS/Atom feeds and Twitter. And it exposes
two interfaces for reading them. First, a traditional three-pane ‘list’ view, targeted to active reading of important messages. Second, a ‘river of news’ view, based on the concept popularized by Dave Winer, designed for casual browsing,” revealed Mozilla’s Myk Melez.
The first version of Snowl is set up to mash together feeds but not much else. However, the project does have potential. Mozilla Labs is currently considering extending support in order to accommodate various sources of messages, but especially instant messaging services such as AIM or Google Talk. On top of this, what is really lacking in Snowl as it is now is the ability for end users to interact, and this is a scenario under consideration for development.
And last, Mozilla Labs is also looking into delivering an application programming interface for the Firefox add-on in order to permit developers to built interfaces beyond what is already available. Still, for the time being, Snowl is nothing more than a simple experiment which is looking to see how the marriage of messaging with the browser will cope in the church of Firefox.
“Our next step is to gather feedback on the prototype and the ideas behind it. We want to know if the concept has promise and is worth pursuing further. We’re particularly interested in feedback on how messaging might fit into the browsing experience and if there are other interfaces (or refinements to the two interfaces built into the prototype) that would make it easier for users to have online conversations,” Melez added.
Snowl is available for download here.
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