Tripredacus

I'm not certain you will be able to solve this with software alone. You can get internal enclosures that support removing, disconnecting or powering off hard disks but even this may not be enough. The SATA controller would also need to support this function. Some boards do support hot-swap on certain ports, or a backplane/controller may be needed. Without having that part taken care of, Windows may become unstable, throw an error or even lock up. What is the reason you want to be able to do this?

For a period of time... Windows Live Essentials was installed by OEMs on systems that had Office 2010 or the first Office 2013 version pre-installed. It isn't a paid product, so while it may have been installed on the computer when you bought it, it isn't a cost to either you or the OEM who sold the system.

Personally, I don't mind flat or square designs. Regarding Windows 8 UI changes, it should have been an option. Say in XP you could use Luna or use the old themes to make things flat or high contrast if you wanted.

USB debugging sounds interesting... Do you have a specific KB relating to that one?

Patience is wearing thin on posts from users constantly asking to be included in the closed beta and/or complaining about being excluded. See this post if you have any questions: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/163489-startisback-17/?p=1087985

Well it is one example. The one based on filename was around since at least XP and maybe even older. If you run a ProcMon session and then execute something, you can see where Windows checks the registry to see if the program is allowed to run or not. Its interesting as I've NEVER seen Windows reject an application based on those entries, except for when they are utilized by a virus. AppLocker (available in Ultimate and Enterprise SKUs since XP) has the ability to filter/block applications based on the more advanced methods you are thinking about. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424357%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

I have not heard any evidence that online activation servers for XP have been disabled. Sometimes people have run into activation problems, but not at 100% to indicate it no longer works.

This is something I've run into when combating viruses. Some viruses will use the exclusion list to block antivirus applications from running or installing. The simple ones, at least, do this by adding a path and/or filename of the program into the registry. Sometimes these entries are protected and can only be seen using advanced or third-party registry editors/viewers. Funny enough, renaming the .exe allows the application to run. If you've ever used gmer, you'll notice if you download it, it downloads as a randomly generated filename. This behaviour started once viruses using the block list became more numerous. http://www.gmer.net/

No background removal was done, actually, with the script. It was one reason why I chose to do the colorization and transparency on both layers. You can especially tell with the brighter area to the left of the center guy. This is from the background of the particular shot I chose.

Ah you know, I didn't save the layered version, so I can go off memory I guess. That image was only 4 layers. Layer 1: 371x100 image with the 2 drummers, the man in the middle, and the sun rays. Technically also the dark portion at the bottom is trees/grass and the lighter portion is the sky. Layer 2: this is 371x100 image with the light blue scripted elements. I am not certain if this one, or the other image is "on top" as both layers have lowered transparency. So the fact that you can see the script on the dummers does not indicate it is on the top layer. Additionally, both layers have been colorized. Layer 3: This is the greek text you see. It is "random" and does not particularly mean anything. It is there only for background decoration as I typically like to put some sort of "design" behind text. It is not random, as in that it is whatever TRIPREDACUS is turned into when using that font. The font used was Symbol, Open Type. I believe I used one of the default gray options and not using the color wheel. Its transparency is down a bit as well, and has a soft glow added to it. Layer 4: This is my name here, and after a bunch of fiddling I decided to just use the standard Xenotron font. It has a glow on it as well. I did just a bit of tinkering with this and the other text layer to make sure it stood out enough and didn't have too much "black on black" going on. This project had a bit more R&D time put into it. Firstly, I had a base image I liked (the drummers) however its proportions were not as workable to fit into the permitted signature size here. Simply put, the base image was too tall. That is why the guy in the middle has no head. He also wears some mask with horns or ears on the top like the other two guys, and it easily makes the image twice as tall. The shot was only shown in this close fashion, with not enough real estate on either side to make it fit. This is fine, as it doesn't look horrible. I thought about removing the guy from the center, but I didn't want to deal with the sun rays because I wanted that pattern in there. The use of the text background using the Symbol font was not my first choice. Originally, I wanted to use Akkadian and to have an actual cuneiform word of phrase there. It was too late in the day and it was already become too time consuming to determine a correct translation to use. The internet is still a little too "mixed up" when it comes to Akkadian, as most sources seem to mix it with Sumerian and other Assyrian languages. Source for the first two layers from this:

Another one to try out.

A: Well that is just the marked answer. If you spend any amount of time on MSFT forums, moderators will mark just about anything as an answer. I've even seen off-topic posts marked as answers. Its kinda silly. So for that thread there, I would consider that DominicP's post was a better answer. The real problem with the approach to 8.1 is that MS considered it a new OS version. As such the key algorithms were changed where an 8.0 and 8.1 Product key is not interchangeable. It is obvious to us that 8.1 is an Update and shouldn't require a new product key. So if you want a Windows 8.1 DVD you need an 8.1 Product Key. Also I would like to point out that a motherboard failure is not widely an acceptable reason for loss of hard disk data.

Ah, this "sort of" explains why when I go to update the Flash for Firefox (from the Extensions page) it goes and downloads the Flash for IE instead. Now to figure out why that happens...

Oh a smiley... it reminds me of what shows up on the Firefox (Mozilla really) web developer toolbar. Here is a picture: It shows 3 things it checks - the first, I'm not sure, it always says "Standards Compliance Mode" and has a green check - CSS - Javascript If there is an error, it will show the red circle with the X in it. Suffice it to say, 99% of websites show the CSS errors, and quite a few show the Javascript error. This screenshot I took is how it appears when viewing this thread.

Your Surface example is silly because no one would buy a tablet to do that kind of work. Let's be honest, MS isn't marketing these products to people like us, that's why they seem to be "toys" and not something that can replace our existing computer setups. But for most of the people in the world, they aren't using their computers for technical reasons, be it for job or for fun.

Sky/OneDrive is the perfect place to upload memory dumps!

I'm not certain, I've only used Python with certain games. Is Python available with 64bit files? If not then, I do know some of the PE projects have succeeded in adding wow64 support. You could look into that.

I found this: However since it is from a blog, it may not still be true... As in most cases, blog writers do not go back and change their entries when things change. But at least it may help as it talks about Guest Additions: http://www.sysprobs.com/install-windows-10-on-virtualbox-and-its-guest-additions I also wonder if the version of VirtualBox matters. Are you using the latest version that supports Windows 8.1?

I see the usefulness of multiple desktops to be roughly equal to just having multiple monitors. What jaclaz describes is a similar setup to my own uses, except that I am using monitors rather than switching around desktops. And my only experience with switching desktops was a short time with Ubuntu, where their desktops are like some 3D cube sitting inside your monitor you could flip around. My lack of understanding, however, is whether it is more efficient to use multiple desktops, as in... how the OS itself handles the things currently not seen. As with multiple monitors, everything is in the current (interactive) session with the user.

"Donald Duck"

You don't have to use a MS account. There is a thing you can click to make a local account, but if you install with no network connection (not helpful on notebooks of course) then it won't prompt you for the MS account at all and just show you the screen to create a local account.

This has been covered before. Prior to Windows 8 release, it was said it would be 64bit and 128bit versions only. The problem is that the consumer and business markets (aka the customers) are not ready yet to abandon 32bit nor have any real need for 128bit Operating Systems. Of course, there are those in super high-tech fields that could use such a thing, but they are presently in the minority.

This is the Websites and Boards section. You can see it at the top of the screen. Here is an example of my view: Here is a link to the category: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/4-websites-and-boards/ The topic title and the first post is about getting a Forbidden error trying to access a portion of a forum member's website, that is why it is here. If you have a question about where you can find drivers for a specific device, you can post in the Drivers section: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/88-device-drivers/ Or the appropriate OS section. But you might want to search beforehand, in case there is a topic already present that may help you out.

The only way I've managed to integrate MSUs that will not go in with DISM, is to use Windows Update while in audit mode and then sysprep and capture the image. This isn't what I would consider a standard practice. I used it once for a custom image, but wouldn't normally do it.