CharlotteTheHarlot

---> How do you do this in Windows 7? Yes, "Explore" as written results in a TreeView and "Open" does not. {A} I see one problem in that code there, once corrected it should work fine in Windows 7 Explorer. That %SystemRoot% will need to be encoded in an Expand_SZ string which can be only be entered in a REG script using @=hex(2): followed by the correct bytes. Instead you can just use plain text with a harcoded path to the C:\Windows\Explorer.exe. Obviously this is not helpful if the %SystemRoot% is on another volume. {B} I forget what those two values "BrowserFlags" and "ExplorerFlags" exactly mean, but I believe they place some restrictions or modifications on the action from the Shell. I do know they appear in malware reports pretty often so I just leave them out in my own REG patches. I'll let someone else explain their purpose if indeed they have a useful one. {C} Note that those context menu entries ( Open, Explore, etc ) are the default commands normally seen at the top of the context menu and are "root level" subkeys hanging off the HKCR\Folder object ( and other obects as well: Drive, Directory, etc ). They have been like that since Windows 95 almost 18 years now. Consequently a lot of utilities and policies and reg tweaks change those duhfault registry locations. Personally I like to work off custom subkeys with unique names so that nothing can change them easily, and which leaves the official Windows keys untouched. I'll show you how to construct your own custom version.Here is an example using two synthetic keys, incorporating all the changes and should work just fine on Windows 7 ( no time to test it right now ). They will appear in the context menu with a helpful description and will not affect those standard "Explorer" and "Open" entries. To remove these two keys just uncomment ( remove the semicolons ) from the last two lines! [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Folder-TreeView] @="Windows Explorer ... Open with TreeView" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Folder-TreeView\Command] @="C:\\Windows\\Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I,%L" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Open-Folder-Directly] @="Windows Explorer ... Open Directly" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Open-Folder-Directly\Command] @="C:\\Windows\\Explorer.exe /idlist,%I,%L" ;;; remove the comments here to delete these two custom keys! ;[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Folder-TreeView] ;[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\Shell\Windows-Explorer_Open-Folder-Directly] The custom key names are shown in bold brown for clarity. That is what you will see in REGEDIT if you browse the HKCR\Folder\Shell tree. Inside the actual Context Menu you will see the more useful description text, denoted above in bold red. This is helpful when you have a huge context menu and they are all unsorted madly out of order. Change either or both to your liking!

tal ormanda ... About computer power supplies surviving mains sags ... You want to hear a definitive answer but I'm afraid there is not one definitive answer. Remember that even within the same model of something there is variation. Unfortunately there are many models of computer power supply so now we're talking massive variation. Add the variables from all the possible power companies and their wiring from them to you and we are approaching infinite variation. This is why it is NOT answerable. Personally, I find modern power supplies ( 400W and up ) pretty tolerant on the primary side. They are designed for our shoddy mains with a wide range of voltage ( I think 100 to 130 ). And like someone else said above, often make it through noticeable sags ( not "brownouts" which are usually from external sources and last too long in time ). However, the fact that I find them excellent is a product of my specific environment. In general, the problem is in the duration of the sag. Under a cycle ( here at 60 Hz less than a second ) everything UL listed should survive and many quality power supplies will surprisingly make over a second. The crappy things that always seem to have a blinking time display like Microwaves, Clocks, Coffee Makers, etc have tiny power supplies made by the lowest bidder and we should really call them ... sag flags. Don't take this the wrong way but remember that whatever you read online might be interesting, it may even be correct, but it is not wise to place complete faith in it. So, if you have an abnormally long or deep sag from the air conditioner or refrigerator the electric motor or related circuits might be going bad ( pulling way too much inrush current ), or it might not! You will want to consult a licensed electrician for your area ( over here it is by county ) familiar with the local system to spot any defects. They will know the source ( your utility ) and its track record, they can glance at your power lines on the poles and tell if it is shoddy, and most importantly all around the house for anomalies. I know just enough to be considered dangerous but rely on several friends who are electricians to stay alive! Sags are not unusual. We have a washer that always cause a short sag and a dryer that causes a very very short sag and they have been consistent for years. They are on their own separate circuits ( if they were on another with something else it would no doubt be worse ). When the motor starts to go south I should be able to tell by the difference in lights dimming and motor sound. Oh yeah, there is a groundwater sump pump that makes the biggest sag! Every.time.the.float.clicks.up.again.and.again.and.again. So when we have these tropical storm and hurricane floods it goes like that for days every 10-15 minutes, on and off and on and. But the computers and stuff on different circuits sail right through it fine. By all means use separate circuits ( not outlets, circuits ) if possible. NOTE: one possible exception is that using interconnected equipment on different circuits can create a ground loop or hum. If your mega-stereo and TV are on one circuit and the computers on another and you jack your nVidia mega-super-card to your Plasma TV, or your computer audio to your kilowatt stereo the potential for different grounds exists. They are even described as dangerous in some scenarios. I put all similar things one circuit to be safe. And ask my friends. Slightly related: I once had a TV and Microwave on the same circuit as a computer and if a DVD was burning while the TV was on and you turned the Microwave on at the same time it caused a deep sag and then the circuit tripped off. I never really figured out why and just moved them to separate circuits and no longer have any of them. But it was probably the large inrush on a circuit already saturated ( probably 10A ) just pushing over the breaker. Just an inconvenience really, well, and a DVD coaster and 5-stage Chkdsk Yeah go for different circuits. And UPS if you can swing it because it will make most issues like this a moot point. NOTE: circuits can and usually have multiple outlets. It pays to know which are which, at both ends. I prefer labels at the wall outlets and back at the breaker box.

Steven Sinofsky Looks Back at Microsoft and Ahead to More Disruption ( AllThingsD 2013-05-30 ) Former Windows head Steven Sinofsky talks about life after Microsoft ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) Former Microsoft Windows chief: I was right to kill the Start button. And to leave halfway through the Win 8 rollout ( UK Register 2013-05-30 ) He's back! ( NOTE: I am copying the quotes exactly as they appear, but be warned that as is often the case in what passes for "Journalism" these days, the actual quote marks are the only parts I would trust as verbatim quotes. Much of the other text looks like quotation but may or not be the author paraphrasing. If I were Publisher or Editor these journalists' heads would roll like it was the French Revolution. ) He's lying. I'm sorry, but he is. I figured with the passage of time that Sinofsky might try this. Steven left the building on a Monday. No-one leaves on a Monday unless he suddenly quit unexpectedly without notice or was fired. Additionally, this was the week before ( not of ) the Thanksgiving holiday. I noted at the time that a planned exit would have been targeted over the holiday to dodge the news cycle and protect the MSFT share price. Furthermore, no-one in his position leaves without notice ( especially on a Monday, 10 days before Thanksgiving ). People in his position have transition periods with a healthy overlap. What happened? There was most likely a heated discussion with ultimatims delivered back and forth and either Sinofsky quit on the spot or was fired and escorted out. Trying to describe this any other way is a big fat deception. If by "sold" he means shipped into the captive OEM back-channel monopoly, then it makes sense. This is the way Tony Soprano sells garbage collection services. I think Sinofsky just tipped us off to something. And that is how Microsoft wants to help get dumb computers into the hands of the Sheeple. Consider that Microsoft admits to helping OEMs with their design ideas. Now understand that the "BlackBox" design ( loosely prototyped under Vista with DRM added to the OS ) is the golden goose for Big Hollywood and Big Computer including Microsoft. Your consumer electronics DVD players are "BlackBox" gadgets, albeit somewhat passive without phone-home ability. A veritable stew of chips including DRM designed to protect the disc media from the owner, rather than the owner from the disc media. Needless to say the owner of the device cannot modify these circuits ( even by law now! ) even though they paid for the thing. Hardware protected path, software protected path. The whole entire path protected. Get the picture now? This is how "owners" of computers instead become "users" of computers. This is how free people become sheeple. This is how the chain of control from Hollywood right down to the user gets established. Microsoft is already very busy on our end planting DRM and removing customization and personalization, even floating the Kinect concept of eyes and ears on you the whole time ( see Microsoft Patent #20120278904 ). The BlackBox therefore is the ultimate key to control, but since they cannot easily turn our PC's into hardware BlackBoxes ( not for the lack of trying, enabling protected paths was a lunge in this direction ), instead Microsoft will simply take the "P" out of "PC". The ultimate goal is the destruction of the Personal Computer. Well that was a big load of nothing. Simple and interesting question ducked like a politician being questioned about a sex scandal. Sinofsky is probably gonna regret the photos they took. None are flattering and most are ready-made for Photoshop ( not the one below ). Also, note the crappy journalism throughout. You will be very hard-pressed to figure out what were actual quotes unless you watch the video and transcribe it for yourself. Journalism indeed! More like a Journalism fail that matches the legendary Sinofsky fail. EDIT: added link mentioned by Jaclaz, fixed typo(s)

Can you tell that Microsoft is busy trying to put out brushfires right and left from all these little content-free stories developed around little nuggets of leaked information? Microsoft says it is listening to negative feedback about Xbox One DRM ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) Sure you are! The problem is that it goes in one ear and right out the other. Same for Windows 8. The interesting thing is that there is a Softie in the comments trying hard to convince folks how important DRM is for them. And you want to know what the core of the argument is that the Softie uses? It goes like this ( paraphrased ): 'Well since your games are installed to the HDD, DRM is vital because of how easy it would be to copy them'. ... Epiphany! ... Now we know why Microsoft made this drastic change of not playing games from the disc instead choosing to install them first. It wasn't to gain some performance edge after all. It was to open the door to unlimited DRM, including phoning home. Thank you anonymous Softie for inadvertantly spilling the beans. Microsoft reveals more on its 'liquid black' design for Xbox One ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) Another fluff piece bordering on the ridiculous ... The controller's liquid black color also allows the colored A, B, X and Y buttons to look like they are 'floating' on top of the device, according to Microsoft. Skipping the absurdity of "matching" blacks and making it blend in to the background ( What? The little "X" logo won't be visible? ), did you catch the great disconnect: "allows the colored A, B, X and Y buttons to look like they are 'floating' on top of the device"? That's the NeoWin author suggesting a non-flat 3D GUI? Wait, isn't that kinda old now? Hypocrites! Xbox One controllers designed to last a decade, or more ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) And another fluff piece where Microsoft talks up some little factoid, this time implying some super-construction of the game controller. Photos of testing labs. Blah, blah. One sharp commenter asks a very good question ... ... which cuts right to the chase indeed. If you think about it, Microsoft missed an opportunity here. This alleged uber-controller should be released standalone as a peripheral for any console or other use. Furthermore, a 10-year warranty would be a marvelous idea. First of all they get to prove they are not lying. Secondly it is unarguably a pro-consumer move. But most importantly it could start a race for the top for both manufacturing quality and warranty policy, something the industry needs as we race to the bottom in practically all categories. That last part would also be very pro-consumer. So the rhetorical question of the day is, will Microsoft do any of these pro-consumer things? Microsoft is Investing a Billion Dollars in Xbox One Games ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-30 ) Not really a lot of money believe it or not. If they build and/or sell 100 million consoles, that will equal spending a mere $10 per system, a drop in the bucket. Now here is something interesting. They say they are delivering 15 exclusive titles. Want to know what that calculation works out to be? 1,000,000,000 dollars divided by 15 game titles = $ 66,666,666.666666666666666666666667 How about that? The number of the beast indeed. I think this commenter at the article nails it though ... EDIT: typo

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 secrets REVEALED ... sort of. Redmond lifts the veil on anticipated 'Blue' update ( UK Register 2013-05-30 ) Windows 8.1 offers plenty of Metro enhancements, but mostly forgets about the desktop ( TechSpot 2013-05-30 ) Microsoft Teases Return of Start Button in Windows 8.1. This isn't the Start button you're looking for. ( Maximum PC 2013-05-30 ) The other sites are catching up to those recent stories now. These three are non-Shill sites, unlike NeoWin, so the commenters are a little less forgiving. Okay, a lot less. Thing is, a lot of people still haven't yet realized that the "Start Button" points to Metro, they see the headlines about "Return of the Start Button" and assume Microsoft has fixed it! This is true at almost all the places I've seen. Then some commenter mentions it and a few more catch on, but not all. I wonder if Microsoft counted on this the same exact way they counted on the term "Windows" in "Windows RT" to fool people into thinking it runs any Windows programs. This begs the question, when going through the effort of creating this FAKE Start Button, who exactly did they think would appreciate it? Bing search in Windows 8.1 to work anywhere in the OS ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) And one commenter spots the potential problem ... Naturally he is lambasted by fanboys who immediately cite Google and Apple and other bad comparisons. Microsoft is walking on thin ice here. Doing this on their Surface tablets has no antitrust problem, same as Apple on their iPads. Those devices are their products. MetroTards and MicroZealots cannot understand this simple concept - 99% of Windows computers were NOT manufactured by Microsoft. Microsoft is a 3rd party to those OEMs and home builders, if they try to monopolize these systems by kidnapping the users into BING or their walled-garden Store they are out of bounds. That precedent was affirmed with the MSIE vs Netscape saga around 1998. Now considering that fact, just how can a locked-down walled-garden with Microsoft approved apps from their Store and built-in BING search ever be anything except another monopoly case? And how could they be so id0tic to step into these waters yet again? I repeat, talking about Microsoft or Apple hardware products has nothing to do with this at all. It is clever misdirection. No-one has any expectation about using their software on someone else's hardware as shipped. But OEM computers and home-built all get the OS installed first, and if it is a walled-garden pOS it is effectively locking out everyone else at the point. HTC reportedly cancels plans for 12-inch Windows RT tablet ( NeoWin 2013-05-30 ) Wow, another one bites the dust. I have to give NeoWin some credit here because almost everytime these RT stories come up, they are the first, and often times only one to even mention it. It probably means they are watching RT stories like a hawk, not necessarily looking only for negative stories obviously, but interesting nonetheless.

I think you might be right. I have seen that exact same thing before and I think it leads to having the consecutive tags example: {b}{/b}text that I mentioned earlier. P.S. no, I do NOT type these things in by hand!

Now you're just asking for it. Fixed link. ( and just kidding, always appreciate a correction ) EDIT: typo fixed before he nails me again!

I haven't kept up with the ins-and-outs regarding Win9x and SATA but you should read all the pertinent posts by Dencorso and RLoew ( and others I am forgetting, sorry! ). I am pretty sure that there are strange issues there as well as with RAM. Hopefully they are reading this and will correct me if I am wrong.

Analyst: PC buyers will wait for Windows 8.1 ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Uh huh, yeah, I'm sure that's what they are waiting for! Microsoft: Office 365 Home Premium brings in over one million subscribers Lemmings ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Microsoft has sold more than 20 million Office 2013 licenses + subscriptions ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Note that the first story came first, about 4 hours in advance of the second one. The second article actually was due to them contacting Microsoft for clarification, it wasn't released automatically. So the first one got them all happy because it sounds like 'Wow, a million subscriptions!' ( BTW, why would anybody cheer such a factoid anyway? ). But then came the second story which brings the numbers into focus, and we can now state: 20 million total Office customers of which 1 million are subscribers, demonstrating anything but a wholesale jump to the cloud like the author of the first article tried to imply. As for these drips and drabs of information, It exemplifies how liars manipulate the news, releasing in data in carefully measured doses. Nothing is ever as it seems anymore. Especially at Microsoft.

Coverage from other sites ... More rumors of Start button addition in Windows 8.1 pop up ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Windows 8.1 start buttons leaks, looks familiar ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild. It's not the same Start button as Windows 7's, though ( UK Register 2013-05-29 ) Windows 8.1 Start button shown in leaked screenshots ( The Verge 2013-05-29 ) New Start experience? Windows Blue is looking more like Windows Blah ( PC World 2013-05-29 ) The comments are getting funny, especially in the MetroTards'R'Us NeoWin threads. Some clever commenters were playing them using: "What's the matter, you afraid of change now" Naturally that doesn't go over well. Anyway, so the big news is that there will be a fake Start Button, that points to Metro! If this wasn't so serious you might chalk this up to a gag. But it is serious and looks and feels more like a cynical attack on their customers. I wonder if Apple was ever this ridiculous? Important new fact, apparently official ... There will be an option to use the Metro wallpaper ( that quasi Art Deco mess ) on the normal desktop, so that the user will not be confused by the sudden changes when bounced into Metro! Recall that the one criticism Microsoft acknowledged at the expense of all others over the course of two years was when some fanboys complained that the desktop didn't look enough like Metro! That's right, this is what Microsoft chose to hear. They ( probably astroturfers ) complained about the desktop! Meanwhile the entire world was complaining about the opposite, having Metro thrust in your face at random intervals for no reason at all. Holy crap. They couldn't be more hostile to the users if they tried. Speaking of Start Menus ... RetroUI Free Start menu for Windows 8 announced ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) New Pokki Start menu for Windows 8 adds touch support and more ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) The MetroTards are unhinged as usual. Good for a laugh maybe, but if you have high blood pressure just stay clear. Actually if you have a high IQ you also should stay clear because it is suspected that hanging out with the logically challenged can drag down your intelligence. EDIT: fixed link

Breaking News: Microsoft confirms plans to deliver the biggest FU in the history of FU's ever delivered! Here's how the new Windows Blue Start Button may work ( Mary Jo Foley ZDNet 2013-05-29 ) Coming in Blue: Boot to Desktop, Start Button, and More! ( Paul Thurrott 2013-05-29 ) Well, I thought the dramatic headline should match the breathless blog posts from these authors. Mary Jo Foley has herself a "scoop" describing the morbid details of voluntary Microsoft suicide. Their decision is to kick their customers right in the balls with a slight modification to Windows 8 where they place an icon, no a "charm" where users expect a Start Button, and this thing will launch Metro. Yes, Metro! Paul Thurrott follows up basically rehashing her story, acting as the rear guard for his MicroMasters. Neither one could bring themselves to criticize the arrogant cynicism of such a move, perhaps the boldest and most brazen fraud ever perpetrated by a company on its captive audience. But what about logic? Does it even exist? How could two years of pointed criticism delivered in painstaking detail at this Metro abortion possibly go unheard? Has it actually gone unheard? Has it actually gone ignored? NO! I submit that what has happened is not a mistake, and not an accident. What we finally have is confirmation that Microsoft's plan was the destruction of the desktop of which the first attack had to be on the 17 year old Start Menu. No other answer can suffice after this long a period with this amount of criticism. This was their chance to simply change course and admit to a blunder of epic proportions. The lack of this now proves that the plan all along was to dismantle the desktop, leaving the substitute walled-garden, and now it is exposed. Naturally Thurrott is miles away from the truth in his little follow-up article as is his MicroZombie choir. But that is to be expected from the MicroShill contingent. I expect no-one here at MSFN in this thread is surprised at all, we called this thing a year ago after nearly a whole year of kicking this around, in fact I called it "War" at the time. So two years is enough. It's over. Microsoft says FU to you, and me, and everyone else that gives a darn. So what is gonna happen now? Will the adoption rates magically jump because of a "Start" Charm that launches Metro? Will the worldwide criticism and anger subside? What will happen is many more people will awaken to the fact that Microsoft is now their sworn enemy. That's right, enemy. They are beyond clueless and have been outed as devious and nefarious and acting in bad faith. Their plan is to kidnap you into their walled-garden Apple-style universe at all costs. This isn't Microsoft's "Classic Coke" moment, it is Microsoft's classic cocaine moment where they are acting exactly as coke or smack addicts devoid of rationality. Time to wake up people! It's now or never.

If nForce3 is supported then that is news to me, but it certainly may be true. I would research this first though and make sure people have it running with Win9x and that the chipset drivers are available. About the 775 boards using i865, I never came across one yet, but it is very good news! There are a gazillion 775 chips you can choose from ( naturally only one core will be usable ) but you gain on the dramatically improved Core and Core2 architectures ( I imagine this would work right? ). Since only one core can be used you would seek out the highest frequency dual-core you can find with the biggest L2 cache around. I would love to see benchmarks under Win9x. And yeah, that 2 GHz limit was in Win95 I believe. I have one 478 still in use for Win9x that allows every 478 ever made and I have changed the CPU a dozen times, with no concern for the frequency even over 3 GHz. I think you might want to read the threads about RAM though, because this is a problem. Just install Win9x using 512 MB DDR and then later install more RAM and edit SYSTEM.INI using the guidelines in the thread Dencorso has posted in his signature ( Day-to-day running Win 9x/ME with > 1 GiB RAM ). You will need Rudy Loew's patch I believe to go above 1024 RAM ( is this correct? ). The key to getting fast performance on Intel chips is to get away from Celeron to their non-neutered big brothers. Along with this comes much much larger L2 cache which give immediate gains in performance. It also helps to be able to use the various BIOS settings for timings of RAM, FSB, PCI and CPU clock in a favorable combination. I neglected to mention this above but it is typically a limitation of "big box" boards that they saddle you with almost no BIOS freedom. In some cases there are 3rd party BIOS mods that unlock some things but it is very much hit and miss. So if there is a choice between a couple of possible boards, some further research should be done to see which has the more favorable BIOS for "over-clockers". Such a board will make your life easier when tweaking RAM-CPU-FSB for best performance. EDIT: just wanted to add that what I meant by "seek out the highest frequency dual-core you can find with the biggest L2 cache" is that getting a Quad-Core means three unused cores all expending some wasted energy versus the one unused core if you buy a dual. So it's more economical to buy the fastest dual-core in the case of Win9x.

While we're talking about Opera ... news I posted here. I'm not happy this morning!

First of all, get a new computer guy. Modern quality can be dodgy but not like he describes. He is completely wrong about "a year or two at best". Secondly, get a spare computer or two. Single core computers are not desired by much of anyone so you should be able to get one for a song. PATA drives are getting tough. I regret letting some get away over the years that I should have kept. If you have a recycle/dump nearby, go down there when they have the schedule dropoffs and befriend a worker ( maybe slip him a $50 or $100 tip ) and grab a bunch of computers destined for scrap. You might get lucky with some HDD's intact and you will probably get well over a hundred dollars in other usable parts, perhaps even entire working systems. Thirdly, it is probably theoretically trues that 5400 rpm run cooler than 7200 rpm, but there are much more significant variables than spindle speed. If the drive has no active airflow over it from a fan that will immediately cause higher temps. Allow dust to accumulate, same thing. I can say for sure that I have never seen a spindle speed caused problem. It would be a complete mistake IMHO to base the purchase of a 5400 over a 7200 because of belief it will be cooler. There are other reasons, also hypothetical, that say the 5400 will last longer, something I also cannot agree with. I wrote some stuff about HDD reliability here, but in a nutshell: keep them cool, dust free, don't move them while running. Fourthly, there is no problem using multiple disk drives as long as you mind cooling. If you can space them out better than the default tightly packed cages allow you will aid in airflow. I always cut a hole in the front bottom of my cases and put in a 120mm fan. Then I put all HDDs immediately in front of it in a separate removeable 3.5" drive cage. I'll get a picture one of these days but imagine the standard 3.5" cage removed and with rubber feet and a handle attached ( I also bevel the sharp edges and paint it ). This means I can quickly pull the power and data cables and pull out the whole set of drives at once for case cleaning and updating. The important thing is that my HDDs are not allowed to gather dust ( I blow them off with canned air if any dust has accumulated ) and there is always a big fan on them. I usually have no reason to run four or six drives at once, but I can, and it happens like once a week when I do an incremental backup ( update ). So I usually operate computers with two running drives, with two others also in the rack set up as mirrors of the first two. Open the computer, pop in the power and data cables, reboot, run the incremental backup apps, power down, yank the two, reboot. Yes, this is much easier with SATA drives. All the other stuff is tricky and unreliable, especially cloud backups. The only advantage is offsite storage in case of catastrophe. I would like to see how someone who's system boot drive dies, gets up and running again from his cloud backup After trying a ton of different ways I now just go for simple. Clone the HDD to another equal or larger HDD ( outside of Windows using HDD manufacturer tools ). Swap them and boot the clone to make sure it works. Keep running the newer one day-to-day and hook up the spare one for incremental backups ( inside Windows, it mirrors any file changes since last backup but leaving the boot sector as it was ). In case of a lightning strike or any other failure it is a simple matter of swapping in the spare ( and then getting yet another spare to clone to and repeat the procedure ).

IDC Cuts PC Forecast, Says Users are Content to Use Older Systems ( Maximum PC 2013-05-28 ) IDC cuts its 2013 PC shipment forecast; sees decline of 7.8 percent ( NeoWin 2013-05-28 ) And it continues. If you screw up a product platform enough people will buy less, hold on to their older systems, and skip having to deal with your Metrofied walled garden fiasco. There is some karma backfiring here also, because when people cling to their old, working, predictable, non-Walled personal systems, it causes future problems for Microsoft in the "support" sector. They wanted to kill it to get people into the Metro ATM cash machines that will theoretically produce side streams of income and they won't mind "supporting" them, but instead will have to "support" non-cash-producing systems outside of their control. So I'm all for it. Save old computers, parts and software. And you know it ticks them off. Do not go quietly into the night. Microsoft: Many people feel social networking access helps at work ( NeoWin 2013-05-28 ) Complete with a giant infographic. So we have Microsoft defying common sense again, this time pretty much defying logic also. I would bet that even the "social" developers like Facebook and Twitter have strict guidelines about burning up the work hours screwing around on their personal pages. I bet even Microsoft does this. So what could be the purpose? Well they have an ulterior motive of course since they purchased Yammer. At the end of the infographic it says: To learn more about Microsoft's many social tools for the workplace, visit ... Talk about self-serving research! Chromium-based Opera browser now available on Windows, Mac ( TechSpot 2013-05-28 ) Opera launches first Chromium-based beta version of web browser ( NeoWin 2013-05-28 ) :realmad: Utterly horrifying, so far. This "beta" called 15.0 rips out all the functionality and character of Opera, including customization. They even damaged the GUI itself. Many commenters are pointing out that for all practical purposes this thing is like a Opera skinned version of Chrome. So what's the point? Why not close up shop and make a skin for Chrome and call it a day! It seems all the life, spirit and soul has been sucked out of each and every company these days, with the soulless Microsoft of course leading the charge. I haven't yet ventured over to Opera.com to see the reaction, but it is going to be bloody. Maybe someone will get them to release the classic Opera as open source while they dabble in their ridiculous Chrome(less) fantasies.

New Port on Xbox One Controller Makes it Incompatible with Current Gaming Headsets ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-28 ) And the hits keep on coming, while Microsoft continues to copy Apple at every turn! Can we officially call them MicroApple now? Every one of these radical anti-consumer actions have been criticized for years when done by Apple. A majority of the slow-cooking-frogs have done exactly that yet turn on a dime to lend moral support for their slave-master. And notice that Microsoft again cannot give clear answers. That final quote: "We will share more details in the future." should be Microsoft's new motto! Microsoft: Xbox One's Kinect to have privacy options ( NeoWin 2013-05-28 ) Another panic response but lacking details as usual. And with their new company motto as well: We’ll share more details later The main reason they are addressing this is the potential Kinect tie-in with Microsoft Patent #20120278904 and the fact that spying and wiretapping and similar devices are definite no-no's under many laws. There are actually many ways this thing can go south, and I like to point out that it is built-in home casing equipment useful if the bad guys ever figure out how to access it from outside. But it can also be problematic from the inside too. For example, you could certainly buy and use one, but a gray area is if you have people over your house and do not tell them they are being recorded, filmed or observed. The NeoWhiners are going through major logical contortions to rationalize this one. But it will all end when some parent finds their kids naked photo on the internet or if one half of a separated couple figures out a way to use it to spy on the other half. ( Inspiration ) Microsoft analyst says Microsoft should sell off Xbox and Bing ( NeoWin 2013-05-28 ) This article is like tossing a bag of turds into the NeoWin childrens' sandbox. They are not happy about it. How dare anyone suggest Microsoft sell off Xbox or BING! Good fun.

You'll most likely end up joining this party here! ... ... ( I had posted a screenshot of my Quicklaunch with multiple browsers and lo and behold a bunch of others quickly followed suit. ) It kinda demonstrates how folks adapt to the quirks of modern technology, mostly out of necessity from the craziness and lack of respect for compatibility seen in all the "Big Computer" corporations. Having multiple browsers available is the only way to successfully get through the day because they all have their own agendas and apparently none of them give a darn about standards. Anyway, the point is that there is no need "to switch". Take them all for what they are worth ( not much I guess ) and use the right tool for the right job ( literally, install them all ). This leads to some other secondary quirks, for example you can successfully import bookmarks and other settings between them even if it is not immediately obvious. My favorite example is when you install Firefox and it offers you mutually exclusive checkboxes ( boolean "OR" ) for importing from MSIE or CHROME ( but not Both or any others! ) So to do it again importing from the other browser you need to open "all bookmarks" ( I think it's called ) and then look for yet another option to "import". That is bad enough but other browsers have even less helpful facility than Firefox. But installing multiple browsers and using them is do-able and frankly unavoidable. Eventually you will settle upon what works best for you. I prefer Opera in general because the settings are tucked away in discrete files and tweaking can be done outside the running browser and porting is way simple and upgrading means editing/copying a few files rather than registry punch-ins ( at least currently, who knows what is going to happen down the road ). FWIW, I can live comfortably with just Opera and the occasional use of Firefox, reserving MSIE for Windows Updates in the rare case of when I even go there ( Opera handles all ad hoc Microsoft downloads including those requiring genuine check ). I have moved away from Chrome because of the lack of customization, it strikes me as borderline MetroTard these days.

Jaclaz makes a good point because the forum software has undergone some radical changes over time. I cannot remember the IPB version numbers but the last big update simply FUBAR'd some of the most basic in-post formatting options, particularly with color using canned "other styles" like CODE and CODEBOX. There is a thread here somewhere where I painstakingly re-created the MBR sector bytes and their purposes all color-coded from another great site by The Starman. And suddenly after the software "update" it was completely FUBAR in every sense of the word. I remember just bailing on technical posts for a while after that because it was such a Microsoft-like change for the sake-of-change kinda thing. This was a case of breaking backward compatibility by tweaking the CSS translation for no good reason. After going through that disaster I can easily chalk this type of bug up to another IPB screwup. Having said that, IPB is the only forum software I am aware of that lends itself to this type of forum with technical details and editing, embedding and other options. The only alternative is to use in-line images everywhere which is a big step back.

Okay, it looks to me that you ruled out a 32/64 bit quirk and you ruled out a standard/admin permissions issue. I just tried this in Firefox 11, Opera 11 and MSIE 8 on WinXP ( admin ) and using those steps it did not recreate the bug. I have noticed two bugs, but very sporadic in Opera 11 that are similar but not re-create-able ... {1} the BBcode tags end up consecutive before the text they are supposed to be surrounding like this: {B}{/B}text, (substitute square for angle brackets) {2} an extraneous string of text lifted from the pending comment is padded at the end of the comment. I would guess that MSIE is completely innocent of this bug, and instead it lies in the CSS translation layer that is built into IPB forum software and is manifested as different quirks in different browsers depending on their quirky adherence to the HTML-CSS standards. Google hits ... now this one is labeled "solved" but does indicate other similarities. I suspect that this one will fall into the black hole of PITA bugs that will never get solved. And I now think that I was completely on the wrong path thinking that it is a local permission or settings problem.

Lenovo plans to start selling smartphones in the US within a year (TechSpot 2013-05-27 ) Not very detailed information yet, but you have got to wonder how the favorite OEM of MicroZealots and MetroTards will feel about this if they sell Android or another flavor of Linux phones. I suppose it is possible they might use Wp8, but if not Lenovo will become the next obstacle of many many obstacles to Windows Phone marketshare which is already teetering on the brink of oblivion. Lenovo Reach revealed; will remember all of your passwords (NeoWin 2013-05-27 ) Oh what can possibly go wrong with this idea! Well let's see, rewrite that sentence: "The end result is that a hacker only needs to crack one login and password to access all of their websites and services.". Setting aside the utter insanity that your security passwords should be entrusted to Chinese slave labor in the first place, all you need to do is hack one single target to get the whole enchilada. The inevitable headline will read: 'Lenovo Reach hacked by Anonymous two months ago'. This is positively Darwinian now. That means that people actually deserve the consequences and we will need to experience all the obvious pitfalls and hand out all the Darwin awards, in short, go through the motions even though we know the inevitable outcome, because the Human Race is doomed. Xbox One reportedly will be region-locked (NeoWin 2013-05-27 ) The NeoWhiners are lining up to tamp-down this story: "Hey, it's just like the Xbox 360" or "You had your chance to complain before". Translation: 'Stop complainin', we already accepted this'. Proving that there is a subset of the population that are slow-cooking frogs and that you only need to slip the precedents past them in baby steps and they will accept anything at all. Read the next article to see how we end up if we allow slow-cooking frogs to decide our fate ... Anti-piracy group wants to legally deploy rootkits against pirates (TechSpot 2013-05-27 ) So the BSA and the Hollywood Mafia were emboldened by previous precedents ( judges going after MP3 downloader parents, Microsoft inserting DRM into Vista, etc ... ). Now what could possibly go wrong here? Kinect anyone? Please review Microsoft Patent #20120278904. The precedents established today will bite you in your assets tomorrow. Calling George Orwell. Microsoft: Xbox One part of its future 'Home 2.0' plans (NeoWin 2013-05-27 ) Someone remind me why it was that we disabled that Universal PnP service again? It proves that anything will be forgotten given enough time, no precedent is too big a bite, you just need to keep coming back at the victims again and again and wear them down. I've railed against networking home security before because it gift wraps your entire strategy with a nice bow on it in a single target location for intruders. They will penetrate and get through and have access to baby monitors, surveillance cameras, security tapes, password stores and everything else all from a single point. It is stories like these that have convinced me that Microsoft is incapable of ever doing the right thing. Given a choice between hawking some service to retards or sticking to responsible practices perhaps with less customers but doing the right thing, they will invariably do the former. But this is old rews really. Now connect the darn dots and imagine networked home security with a working Kinect! Please review Microsoft Patent #20120278904. It is positively inevitable that Kinect will be compromised and become the tool of intruders. By intruders I mean hackers and home invading criminals casing the joint for a physical robbery. Microsoft already is an invader and intruder, albeit non-physical, but criminal nonetheless.

I didn't read the PDF yet but NewEgg has a page here. Did you find the exact PDF yet? If not, you really should because you must research all the details. This appears to be it., but I don't have time to read it now. Quickly glancing at the specs at the old NewEgg page says Via chipset. Now IMHO these are the worst of the three major possibilities, but they can work if you get the Via 4-in-one or whatever it was called. If Asus has the correct chipset driver package, fine. CPU says it accepts Athlon XP, which is a chip I liked very very much and was awesome with Windows XP so you know that on Win9x it will be fast as all heck on it. Big thumbs up! For comparison, the highest end Intel Pentium 4 Prescotts at 3.4 GHz will be more absolute horsepower seen in synthetic CPU benchmarks like Whetstone, but the tradeoff comes in the dramatically different cooling heat sinks and fans. Athlon XP gets away with tiny little coolers but those Intel P4 Prescotts use monsters. I can't remember the TDP off the top of my head but they do gobble up power. Now for the RAM, it says DDR memory which is I believe the best possible for Win9x ( definitely do not get a board using old SDRAM! ) so that's a definite thumbs up. SoundMax audio and S3 video ( onboard ) are pretty much the lowest but if you have cards to replace them it is a moot point. Keep in mind that it is adding complexity when adding these cards, more failure vectors for device drivers under Win9x, but it is successfully done all the time. USB 2.0 is also important ( it has it ) because anything less I wouldn't accept. Another thumbs up. Anyway, I just want to re-state that you should first target the motherboard by chipset, then get the PDF and find all allowable CPU's. Once again, be aware that certain motherboards might not allow the use of all the CPU's that physically fit the socket. You will want the Athlon XP 3200 or 3000 supported. It makes no sense today to get a motherboard that limits it to one of the earlier Athlon XP models ( I don't know if this one does because I didn't read that PDF ). Historically it was a cost consideration, but today it is not. It is only a motherboard availability consideration.

Apologies if someone posted this already. Here's another thread lambasting the Xbone MicroFail. I stumbled on it from links seen in Tech Broil :: XboxDone. Xbox One Used Game Fee Has Gamers Raging While Angry Joe Fights Back ( Gaming Blend 2013-05-22 ) I just have to highlight another most excellent use of a movie segment as a critical meme ... iBzvb2JSpQNRM.gif ... right-click open in new tab. It is a different kind using GIF animation instead of a large video format ( it is 10 MB and while I'm sure it will embed I just didn't want to have it slow down the page for people like me that have 150 posts shown at a time ). And it is well done. I noticed this segment from Se7en used in the past, but the author has updated it with fresh XboxOne information. Well done indeed! And effective. That thread contains a lot of comments, and as usual hardcore gamers are not pleased. What I find most interesting is that it is like a flashback to this thread a year ago and other places well before that. They are now discovering, and finally believing what we unfortunately also discovered, and that is that Microsoft has turned a corner with no way back. You can detect the same anger and frustration that we all experienced earlier. They have finally become aware of the gravity of this paradigm shift. Microsoft has effectively targeted and offended their entire customer base now. Windows, Phone, Programmers, Office users ( most seem still asleep ), and Gamers. Steve Jobs in his most wild fantasy could not have asked for more from his eternal rival. Remember the great movie: Murder By Death? Microsoft has made the sequel and it's called: Suicide By Death. I could post dozens of these articles, and so could Formfiller who I know is also in some of these forums and has spotted quite a few himself. I think he'll agree that the Xbox One reception is mirroring the unprecedented Windows 8 fiasco. I can't say for a fact that this kind of thing has never happened before, but I believe I have never seen anything like it where a company has burned all its bridges in such a systematic fashion. Maybe the "New Coke" analogy is truer than we think, perhaps even far surpassing it. I still have no doubt that Microsoft is incapable of backtracking. It's arrogance precludes such a concession. But I really hope they do in fact backtrack, because there are a lot of fanboy MicroZealots and MetroTards that are in dire need of having their bubble burst. And it would be spectacular to watch them detonate! EDIT: typo

Win98se and WinME are pretty much interchangeable at the chipset level but device drivers for things like modems and things may have different packages. You definitely do not have to go all the way back to 2003 because there are boards made into 2005 that are fine, and quite possibly even later. There are two main steps to take: get a supported motherboard, and then the CPU. [1] You will want to start by targeting the motherboard by chipset, not the CPU. For Intel I believe the last fully supported chipset is i865, and for AMD on nVidia the last is nForce 2. I don't know what the last Via chipset is. There may be sketchy or modded support for Intel boards beyond i865 also and this forum is definitely the one to ask about them. You will soon have all the answers you need. "Fully Supported" means there are chipset drivers ( for Intel that is the so-called INF Installer ) that enable all the onboard functions in Windows 9x. There are ways to dodge this somewhat by using add-in graphics and sound cards that have native Win9x support thereby obviating the need for that component of the chipset drivers ( you will have no onboard video or audio capability ). But this gets into the esoteric and nitty gritty so you may not want to be in on that level of detail. I'll let others mention the newer chipsets but if you want safe i865 is the one. [2] After you find a supported board, then you need to get the official specifications for that exact model, usually a PDF, and find the supported CPU list and find the best ones (single core is all that will ever work in Win9x though I think multi-cores might run but with obviously only one core utilized). By "best" I mean shorthand for non-Celeron, highest frequency with biggest L2 cache. For Intel these will invariably be a Pentium 4 from the earlier Northwood era or the later, faster and hotter Prescott era. You can actually get the 3+ GHz 2 MB L2 Prescotts working for Win9x. Remember that the CPU comes after the motherboard! It is completely dependent on the motherboard specs. Just because you have a socket 478 board does NOT mean it is capable of using any 478 CPU. I actually have a few by Dell here that can only use chips before the later Prescott steppings limiting their boards to the 3+ GHz with only 1 MB L2 cache models, but other boards support all the steppings. So you shouldn't limit yourself to "big box" boards at all! They might actually limit your CPU choices. After you get a motherboard and research the maximum CPU possible then you head off to eBay and PriceWatch and find a single CPU for sale which will doubtlessly cost almost nothing these days ( unlike 10 years ago! ). Also keep in mind that if you locate a great Win9x board with full chipset support, but say it comes with a crappy Celeron or too early non-Celeron ( 2.0 GHz rather than 2.6 GHz or 3.2 GHz ), as long as that board supports it there is nothing to stop you from pulling that CPU and replacing it with the maximum CPU allowed by the specs. This is probably a good plan actually. There are probably tons of retiring boards like this that the owners never considered upgrading the CPU. You're in luck because it is a buyers market! 3.4 GHz Prescott for $10 to $20 on this list. EDIT: typo

Jorge, I've seen something similar in Opera, but very sporadically, and I haven't been able to nail it down but I think it lies in saved settings like cookies. Now, to go further out on a limb I believe permissions can also tie into this. Assumption-1 ... you have Win7sp1 64-bit Assumption-2 ... you use standard non-Admin account {a} Install both 32 and 64 bit versions of MSIE9 ( also manually check Windows Updates until all MSIE patches are gone ). And have both shortcuts available and clearly identified on your desktop or taskbar or start menu. {b} Using standard account test MSFN BBcode formatting in each MSIE version, one at a time (close other one). Does it happen identically in both? {c} Now repeat {b} for both versions but start MSIE each time using right-click > run as administrator, test again. Does it happen identically in both? If it works okay as Admin I would suggest that there is a permissions issue in the cookies and/or settings that will require some tweaking ( probably either the cookies folder location will need to take ownership or some registry keys that I cannot yet identify will need same ). One step at a time though. Ruling out the 32-64 bitness first is important ( obviously if your Windows is 32-bit then it is already excluded ). Then, identifying this as only occurring in non-Admin usage will prove it is permissions related. FWIW, I just tested MSIE8 on WinXP ( admin naturally ) and could not recreate the problem.

... uncanny, right? Anyway, it is very hard to believe that Apple is dumb enough to directly copy Microsoft's retard style especially considering that is is almost universally despised. I don't know much about the internals of Apple except for other people's comments and it seems this hipster Jony Ive was a buddy of Steve Jobs and now that he died has a sort of free reign to screw things up. Not a great plan IMHO. I'll tell you what. Apple fans are loyal and the last thing you want to do is break that customer loyalty ( that would really be copying Microsoft ). But the iPhone is nothing if not consistent. Change that interface ( and even worse the Mac OSX ) and you are gonna have a real problem because the people using iPhones are not computer experts and expect things to be simple. Mark my words, a big change in the iPhone GUI will start a backlash the likes of which Apple is NOT equipped to understand. Now this is definitely still a rumor, and suspiciously like a rumor Microsoft might float to ease their own suffering, so we'll wait and see. I neglected to mention the source article for those stories is here ... Jony Ive’s new look for iOS 7: black, white, and flat all over ( 9to5mac 2013-05-24 ) ... which is a marvelous parallel to the long-running conflict in the Windows universe since several over-paid under-achievers named Steven Sinofsky, Jensen Harris, Sam Moreau and Julie Larson Green took it upon themselves to move the GUI forward to 1980's level visuals. For example, take a gander at some MacTards taking shots at the commenters that do not want a repeat of the Windows 8 puke-worthy disaster to befall their beloved iOS ... Holy crap! The same smug arrogance that Windows MetroTards routinely display even utilizing their patented strawman arguments with crazy analogies! Another ... Typical! When you run out of facts to argue ( taste is subjective, not right or wrong, you can't prove someone wrong for enjoying nice graphics over flat garbage ) use logic fallacies like "ad hominem" or "appeal to authority". "Johnny Ives is the #2 reason for Apple's success behind Steve Jobs", well I don't know enough about Apple to judge that statement but it sure sounds like a pant load of poop to me. Hey iOS users, the 'Tard just called you stupid. You gonna take that? Continuing on, another ... Oh no you didn't! Now the arguments are direct clones of our MetroTards! "Change is painful!". If you MacTards and our MetroTards are so longing for change, why don't you change to Android? Ironically, a radical change in iOS will do just that. It will be the ultimate gift to Google, Samsung and the Android platform. Yet another ... LOL Another Dot Matrix clone! Can we call you Dot MacTrix? Hey Mac dudes, the 'Tards are telling you to shut up and wait for the release, then you may complain about it when it is too late! We've been through this over here in WindowsLand and we now know not to question authority. NOT. I wonder if Jony Ive has himself a "Destroying iOS" blog like Sinofsky had where he chooses to answer a few softball questions while disregarding the overwhelming majority that ridicule the project. Overall the blog comments run approximately 60-40 or 70-30 against the Sinofsky-like redesign, I only picked the first four "ChangeTard" comments. Here's some against the changes, some of many ... I hear ya brother. We often have used the word "insane" to describe Sinofsky and his team of MetroTards. Ditto that. And we Windows users have always had the most customization capabilities of all GUIs yet still the Microsoft brain(less)trust forced changes upon Windows users with NO options to change it whatsoever. Welcome to the party pal! You're exactly right ( except for the Store part I think ). It is horrifying. The defining characteristic of iOS is exactly the gloss and shine and elegant appearance at least for the home screen. And what's the point of high density retina displays if they're just gonna show low-end amateur graphics? Ask your 'Tards that question. Sorry, your opinion does not count because the MacMetroTards said so. Jony Ive is a legend you know! He is responsible for the success of Apple! Trust him. Stop resisting change you Luddite. Anyway, we're gonna need some catchy names for these Mac MetroTards (MacroTard?). Anyone? EDIT: typo