Tag: Windows 7

Improve Screen Readability – LCD Screen Native Resolution

It never fails to amaze me how many people do not take the time to optimise the readability of their screens particularly when they will be using it for many hours a day. I must have lost count of the number of times I have seen LCD screens running below their native resolution resulting in …

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Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Imminent

Just a quick update for this evening. The rumour mills are in full swing with reports of the first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released very soon. Furthermore, there have been leaked copies of pre-release builds of the unified service pack floating around on the web. As a …

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Windows 7 Tip – The Case of the Missing Run Box

Windows 7 - Start Menu with Run command enabled

If you are an old hand with Windows like myself you may have become accustomed to using the old “Run box” found by click on “Start” and then “Run” since Windows 95. However, with Windows Vista and Windows 7 it disappeared from the Start Menu in favour of getting people to use the newly included …

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Spot Interesting Software License Agreement Clauses with EULAlyzer

EULAlyzer License Agreement Analysis (Google Chrome)

Just a quick tip for tonight. Looking at those end user license agreements (or EULAs) every time you install a new piece of software can be very time consuming exercise. Of course, EULAs are there for a reason but the fact that they can run into thousands of words in length its not surprising that …

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Evernote – Cross-Platform Notes in the Cloud

Some people, such as myself, are not entirely and completed wedded to a single content and device ecosystem in that I have the Samsung Galaxy S as my mobile phone (an Android device for those unfamiliar with it), a Windows 7 custom built desktop  at home, a Windows 7 MSI Wind netbook and an Apple …

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Sleep and Hibernation Modes – What’s the Difference?

Over the years the humble shut down menu in Windows has been home to a number of options since it appeared back in Windows 95. If you can cast your mind back fifteen years, the usual suspects in the menu were: Shut down the computer Restart the computer Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode Close …

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Windows Home Server – Vail is Fail After Abandoning Drive Extender

Windows Home Server Vail Fail

In a hark back to the flop of the Windows Vista “wow is now” campaign Microsoft has seemingly shot itself square in the foot by announcing that the second version of Drive Extender (or DE) technology from Windows Home Server was being dropped. For those of you wanting to know about the original Windows Home …

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Microsoft Temporarily Disables URLs in Windows Live Messenger

If you are using an older version of Windows Live Messenger you may have noticed that URLs have been disabled (i.e. they are not clickable). Microsoft has taken this step to help prevent a worm spreading through its instant messaging service (although presumably someone could still copy and paste the link manually into a browser). …

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Regain the Traditional Start Menu with Classic Shell

Settings Screen (Courtesy of Classic Shell)

Here’s a quick tip for those that may have made the move to Windows 7 before realising the changes to the start menu and the taskbar or otherwise had change thrust upon them without much choice (like your old computer having gone to heaven thus requiring the purchase of a new computer). One of the …

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Terminate A Lingering Windows Media Player

Windows SideShow

Since building my new computer I have noticed that when I have closed Windows Media Player its process would continue to run in the background and, over time, gradually use up more memory. Now, I’m not short of memory by any means with 12GB in total but this problem does have the side effect of …

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