Re: Doesn't Affect Me
Umm - I think you're wrong there:
Windows 3.1 - no TCI/IP - requires Trumpet Winsock or similar to connect to the 'net
WFW 3.11 - introduced TCP/IP as an installable component of the native Windows stack
IIRC
Posts by CreosoteChris
15 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2012
DAY ZERO, and COUNTING: EVIL 'UNICORN' all-Windows vuln - are YOU patched?
Win XP? Your PLAGUE risk is SIX times that of Win 8 - NOW
Thursday 31st October 2013 10:30 GMT
Re: meaningless stats
Other major causes of XP infection:
Pirate copies which refuse to operate Windows Update and don't get the holes patched (fixed by MS product activation in later releases)
Product delivered with time-limited copies of Norton Security etc (fixed by MS Security Essentials with increasing effectiveness - now baked-in on Windows 8)
Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8
Friday 8th March 2013 15:15 GMT
Re: Worked for me
I ran with Win8 defaults for 6 weeks on a 3-screen no-touch desktop setup, thinking "give it a fair shot and see what happens" Never got to like it though... it was perfectly useable once the app/filetype mappings were adjusted to stop TIFKAM from appearing. But not preferable to W7 for a pure desktop.
Then I installed Start8 and *instantly* I felt at home, thought "this is what it should have been at the outset" Start8 is very well-thought-out and has lots of nice touches. Classic Shell is OK, but Start8 is worth it, quality at the price of a pint.
Bad mistake by MS, marketing Win8 without Start8 or similar features.
Microsoft parts clouds over Bing Maps with massive sat pic upgrade
Ready or not: Microsoft preps early delivery of IE10 for Windows 7
Friday 15th February 2013 14:24 GMT
Re: Making me sure to turn "auto updates" off then
Yes you can ignore the hype - not much difference from IE9 in everyday use. Using it on Win8 is quite pleasant because
(1) Your favourites follow you around between machines by default, if you log in with a Hotmail or similar account - but that feature isn't likely to appear in non-Win8 implementations
(2) The tabs are detachable - real handy if you have a multi-screen setup
Overall though the big issue is lack of support for decent ad-blocking - Firefox with AdBlock and NoScript (or the equivalent Chrome setup, I haven't investigated) will be preferred by most readers here.
Clash of the Titans: Which of you has the greatest home lab
Tuesday 12th February 2013 12:58 GMT
"Not a real OS" but........
....quite a handy home lab platform.
For years I ran a motley assortment of PCs with various OSes - but I recently managed to wipe the slate clean, and consolidate the whole lot onto 1 box.
I can boot Win7, W2K12 server, Linux Mint 14, and an Ubuntu cut that I don't like, won't use, and will probably delete soon. And I have the capacity to create whatever other x64 OS variants I want - all conveniently available, all on my main (now only) desktop PC.
Good riddance to KVM switches and noisy old legacy kit - hello Windows 8! Hyper-V available in the desktop product is one of those "under the hood" features that can turn out to be really useful - certainly was for me.
Haterz can downvote me to their hearts' content, and no doubt will - but the verifiable facts speak for themselves. Cheers!
PS - I even cobbled together a selection of left-over kit, and flogged it as a working PC for £220 beer money.
Every single Internet Explorer at risk of drive-by hacks until Patch Tuesday
Friday 8th February 2013 16:15 GMT
Re: A question
I just dipped my toes in the Linux water a few months ago (Mint 12 running as a Hyper-V VM)
- Installed NoMachine NX free client to get the full-screen experience. Had to do some config file editing, but that's OK, it taught me some rudiments
- Upgrade to Mint 14 broke it.
- Trawled around for a fix and eventually got one (manually downgrade some component called Cairo)
- Next maintenance update to Mint 14 broke it again.
I kinda like Mint, impressed with the user-friendliness, installation ease, seems like a big step forward from a couple of years back. As for the update-breaks, maybe I was just really really unlucky.....
....but claims that Linux updates just work, and never break anything year on year strike me as "evangelist at work".
Report: Over 1.5 million UK drivers will have hydrogen cars by 2030
Oracle 'fesses up: Java security flaws more than storm in teacup
Wednesday 30th January 2013 10:54 GMT
Crapware Payload
Oracle's Ask,com crapware payload is even more malignant than standard - if you accidentally leave the defaults enabled, you can't just go to CP - Add/Remove and uninstall. The installer routine is coded to wait ten minutes before inserting the entry on the Control Panel list.
It's clearly intended to prevent moderately experienced Windows users from undoing their errors when they clicked too fast through the installer defaults.
Oracle should be ashamed of associating itself wih such utterly scummy pracitces. It stinks.
Biz users, hard-up punters: Nobody loves Windows 8
Friday 11th January 2013 18:14 GMT
Hmmm - agree that this will be knee-jerk down-voted - but there's an undercurrent getting little comment. All the reviews of the new generation of hybrid laptop/tablet PCs (less so Surface RT) have a consensus - yep, the new systems are are really functional - use 'em for business like a regular LT, then use 'em as a tablet in front of the TV, on the train etc.
The underlying trend - more and more touch-enabled hybrids - actually makes Win8 look like a product with a future (albeit one where the Wintel PC market share is in structural decline). Another version of Windows without touch would have been a far worse choice.
I've got a Win8 setup running Hyper-V so I can call up Win7, W2K12, and even (gasp) Mint - all at the same time if I want to, and it works A-OK. Very functional for someone with power user techie requirements - and I look forward to the next round of work-laptop hardware refresh when I'll be in line for a decent hybrid.
Yes - recent Mint versions work out of the box, a huge step forward for Linux, no struggling to get it up and running half-decently with popular hardware - props
Yes - as a user of a no-touch desktop, after six weeks I concluded that I'd prefer Start8 to keep the TIFKAM stuff out of my face. (And Start8 at $4.99 works an absolute treat).
Yes - MS is facing a structurally-declining market for Wintel laptops, there will be no glory-days sales boom for Win8
But actually it's a decent effort, and the benefits will emerge over a period of time, as the user-base shifts to hybrids. The immediate jarring shock of dual-GUI will fade into the background, and the users will actually like it.
Hey Lenovo, want to kill Apple? Look to Samsung hitman for tips
Tuesday 8th January 2013 13:09 GMT
Who's the Innovation Leader Now?
Not so long ago it seemed like Apple was the leader in laptop innovation - not any more. No touch-enabled LTs, and - let's face it - nearly every LT will be touch-enabled in 2 or 3 years.
Meanwhile owners of the Yoga products love'em, and think Windows 8 is just fine,
Writing's on the wall
Nokia chief Elop: 'Android? Hey, anything's possible!'
Scoop! The inside story of the news website that saved the BBC
Wednesday 28th November 2012 23:33 GMT
Re: bonus tracks (tech speak alert)
Chris Hughes here - props to Matt for his comments, and to Andrew for writing the excellent article - it certainly gives a true impression of the febrile atmosphere in that newsroom.....
....but as I remember it, my first priority was to rationalise the infrastructure features of the Windows network there. I arrived to find a setup where the DCs, DNS servers, DHCP nodes, and other critical-path (like SQL Server) resources were the same 2 or 3 machines. The journalists' Win95 workstations were becoming unresponsive many times a day - it was messy.
The first thing I did was to reconfigure those resources in a rational way, spreading the various server roles around the network to eliminate SPOFs, maximise resilience, and make the whole thing hang together as a coherent, best-practice, distributed setup......
....and then the journalists were able to get busy, and the real work started. After that, it got really manic.
Regards Chris
PS - "Bob Eggington" made my favourite boss-anagram ever... "No gent, big gob" - a bit harsh, but Bob took it the right way - we had important stuff to do, and in the right circumstances, a little humour lubricates the big machine.....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
