Chris's Corner

Where I talk, rant, and do mostly everything

July 2006 - Posts

  • Firefox To IE7

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 25 2006, 08:51 PM

    Blake pointed me to this, and if you ask me, I think it's awesome.  He made a nifty little app that allows you to import your firefox bookmarks/feeds into IE7.  Go check it out!

    http://windowscoding.com/blogs/blake/archive/2006/07/25/Convert-your-firefox-favorites-and-feeds-into-IE7-with-_2200_Firefox-To-IE7_2200_.aspx

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  • Microsoft - Want Vista x64 to Fail?

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 23 2006, 08:04 PM

    I am really starting to think Microsoft are TRYING to make x64 an all out flop.  See it wasn't all that bad, untill 5472 came along.  5472 x86 is an absolute dream.  X64 is like the spawn of satan on your computer screen, it's HORRIBLE.  In their infinite wisdom, MS started requiring drivers to be signed in x64 versions of vista.  In previous builds, this stupid feature could be turned off by means of the command "bcdedit /set nointegritychecks ON".  Well if you do the mentioned command in 5472, it will take but it won't actually disable the need for signed drivers.  And Microsoft, I am NOT going to hit F8 on every damn bootup.  From what I hear they are going to be removing the F8 feature too.

    So with that mentioned I think it is our responsibility to let Microsoft know that this is NOT what we want.  I am tired of Windows being catered to idiots, if I want to run unsigned drivers then I will.  It is my computer, STOP telling me what I can and cannot do with it.

    I say all testers who are not satisfied with this, STOP TESTING X64.  This will send a message to MS as they need all the feedback they can get on the x64 SKU's.  If noone tests them, and Microsoft doesn't disable the driver signing requirement, then they will look pretty stupid when NOTHING works on x64 and x86 is smooth as butter :).

    So Microsoft, stop trying to make the x64 transition so damned impossible, and give the power users control of their systems back.  Give us the ability to disable the signed driver checks.  Untill then, I will NOT test a single x64 build from here on out, I'll do x86 all you want though :).

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  • Windows Vista Build 5472 Tips & Tricks

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 21 2006, 11:05 PM

    I have posted the tips and tricks guide for Vista build 5472.  A few updates included, not all that much changed from beta 2, but I did simplify a few things.  Anyway, I will update it as I come across new things.  So enjoy it, and click below to view it!

    http://www.longhornblogs.com/chris123nt/articles/16458.aspx

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  • 5472 Howto: Fix Calendar Gadget

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 19 2006, 09:58 PM

    While I'm working on the 5472 tips & tricks guide, I figured I'd throw the community a pretty helpful tip before the full guide goes up.  Anyone who has tried to use the calendar gadget knows by now that it is broken.  Luckily the fix is pretty easy.  Here are the steps to fix your gadget:

     

    1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets\Calendar.Gadget\en-us\ (where C:\ is the drive you installed Vista on).
    2. Inside this directory you will see a bunch of files.  The ones we are interested in are calendar.js and calendar.css.
    3. Place calendar.js into the js folder.
    4. Place calendar.css into the css folder.
    5. Load up the Calendar gadget on your sidebar.
    6. Enjoy!

    More tips soon to come with the whole guide, so stay tuned :).

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  • Windows Vista Build 5472.5 Released

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 17 2006, 03:49 PM

    Microsoft have released Windows Vista build 5472.5 (winmain_idx01.060713-1900) to beta testers today.  This build contains many bug fixes and improvements over beta 2 and build 5456.  If you are a beta tester please download this build and submit your feedback to Microsoft!

    Oh and for you XBox 360 lovers, there is extender support for the 360 in 5472!

    I will post more information about this build after I install, including screenshots so stay tuned.  I will also be writing up a tips and tricks page for this build.  I did not do one for 56 since I kind of knew this was coming :).

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  • Installing .NET 1.1 in Vista 5456

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 08 2006, 03:57 AM

    Anyone who has tried to install .NET Framework 1.1 in Vista build 5456 knows that it just throws an error during install.  Aaron Stebner has posted instructions on how to work around this issue on his MSDN Blog.  Click below to view his post.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/07/06/658484.aspx

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  • Experience with Vista x64

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 06 2006, 03:30 AM

    So people have been telling me to blog about my recent experience with Vista x64 build 5456.  First let me start by saying that the x86 counterpart has been smooth as silk for me, everything just works the way it's supposed to.  I really haven't even hit many bugs I would describe as major.  With x64 however the situation is very very different.  First off the install process took significantly longer, an hour versus 22 minutes for x86.  After install it booted to the desktop and it seemed like everything was going to be ok.  Boy was I ever wrong.  Time to install sound drivers, should be routine.  Nope, the drivers won't work, even after jumping through all of the lovely x64 hoops (disabling UAC and turning off the driver integrity checks in the kernel).  Finally the sound drivers installed but the sound was all scratchy and the microphone didn't work!  Some could blame Creative Labs, but I'll be honest and say that I really think the Vista sound stack needs a LOT of work before this thing goes RTM.  A sound stack isn't supposed to garble sound out of nowhere when watching google videos and talking on skype.  X86 does have some slight sound issues too but nowhere near as bad as the x64 version.

    For anyone wondering my system is fully x64 compatible, here are the specs:
    Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @ 2.6 GHZ, 2 GB Kingston ValueRam, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum mobo, NVIDIA Geforce 7800GT, Creative SB X-FI Platinum, Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, 300 GB Maxtor SATA, 2 320GB Seagate SATA2, DVD-Rom, DVD+-RW.

    Hopefully Microsoft can work out these issues within the next few builds because I would REALLY like to start using my system to it's fullest potential (x64 OS on x64 hardware).

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  • Hello Everyone!

    Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Jul 03 2006, 06:28 PM

    Hello everyone!

    I'm new here so first let me start by introducing myself.  I am Chris123NT, also known as Chris Holmes to people who know me personally.  Most of you have probably heard of me through my Longhorn/Vista tweak guides and the countless other contributions I have made to the community as a whole.  I would like to thank Robert for allowing me to be a part of this great site, and I hope I can help make it better than ever before!

    Look for new posts from me in the near future, one of which will describe my less than pleasing experience with Windows Vista x64 Build 5456.

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