Thread: Windows applications and stuff

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft to battle in the clouds

"Its OK trust us, we'll keep all your stuff online in our servers if you fancy"

Not a chance, at least theyre offering an option not to.

the few big companies wealthy enough to be able to build the huge data centres on which this new form of computing will depend.

dslextreme.com

BBC NEWS | Technology | MS offers peek through Windows 7

A few more screenshots and a bit more info

First look at Windows 7's User Interface

Microsoft maybe in a bit of a bind , xp has settled in and rarely crashes and with the added bonus of the gained familiarity of how it works , well neither vista nor 7 have shown anything to entice me to switch .

If I could get everyone in the office to move to Linux, I would, but until Photoshop & Illustrator are written for Linux, it isn't going to happen (and no, I don't believe using a Windows Emulator is a solution).

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

If I could get everyone in the office to move to Linux, I would, but until Photoshop & Illustrator are written for Linux, it isn't going to happen (and no, I don't believe using a Windows Emulator is a solution).

How far off Photoshop is the GIMP, havent used it for a while.

Originally Posted by melvbot

How far off Photoshop is the GIMP

Miles off.

Video Demonstration: New Windows 7 Taskbar, Peek Feature Look Awesome

Another vid of features, Taskbar this time.

Seems like theyre adding a bit of funk-tionality to Windows 7

Windows 7 Screencast: New "Aero Shake" Clears the Windows 7 Desktop

No sound on this clip. When you grab the window to move it around if you shake it left to right or whatever it minimises the other windows on the desktop, shake again and they re-appear.

I spotted this for all you Windows users out there

Featured Windows Download: DeskAngel Helps You Manage Your Windows Desktop

DeskAngel -- a free desktop enhancement tool for windows

First link has a screenshot of what it does, second link is direct to the site. Its free as well.

Can I request a thread title change please?
I can lump all the Windows stuff I come across in here instead of starting a new thread .

Some lucky Windows users out there today

Trayeverything

Featured Windows Download: TrayEverything Stashes Programs in the System Tray

TrayEverything 1.21 | winapizone.net

RBtray

Featured Windows Download: RBTray Minimizes Any App to Your System Tray

Moitah.net

Trayconizer

Featured Windows Download: Trayconizer Makes Any Program a Permanent System Tray App

Trayconizer 1.1.1 - WhitSoft Development

All free apps to minimise apps to the system tray even if they dont support it natively

Just cant wait for some of those snazzy Windows 7 features like Aero Shake?

You can have most of them in XP or Vista if you want


http://http://lifehacker.com/5085657/aerosnap-brings-the-windows-7-snap-feature-to-xp-vista

The end of an era - Windows 3.x

Wednesday, 5 November 2008
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News



Windows 3.x established the look of the operating system.

An application has expectedly quit.

Windows 3.x has come to the closing moments of its long life.

On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US.

The various versions of Windows 3.x (including 3.11) released in the early 1990s, were the first of Microsoft's graphical user interfaces to win huge worldwide success.

They helped Microsoft establish itself and set the trend for how it makes its revenues, and what drives the company until the present day.

High flyer

For many computer users 3.x was the first Windows-based operating system they used, and the software established the iconography of Microsoft's flagship product.

As it was updated the software started to make PCs a serious rival to Apple machines, as it could take advantage of much improved graphics, had a broader colour palette, and could use multimedia extras such as sound cards and CD Rom drives.

Microsoft maintained support for Windows 3.x until the end of 2001, and it has lived on as an embedded operating system until 1 November 2008.

Windows 3.x has found a role onboard some long-haul jet aircraft.

As an embedded system, it was used to power such things as cash tills in large stores and ticketing systems.

One of its more glamorous uses as an embedded operating system is to power the in-flight entertainment systems on some Virgin and Qantas long-haul jets.

Tech specs

Stefan Berka, who runs the GUI Documentation Project, said the important technical innovations in the software were its extended memory that could address more than 640KB and the improvements to hardware support.

The fact that it was 100% compatible with older MSDOS applications helped too.

Windows 3.x required an 8086/8088 processor or better that had a clock speed of up to 10MHz. It needed at least 64KB of RAM, seven megabytes of hard drive space, and a graphics card that supported CGA, EGA and VGA graphics.

By comparison, the Home Basic version of Windows Vista requires a 32-bit 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB of hard drive space, and a graphics card with at least 32MB of memory.


Many people still rely on older operating systems.

"I haven't received an e-mail about Windows 3.11 for a long time," said Andy Rathbone, author of a Dummies guide to the software. "But I wouldn't be surprised if some people still use it."

Sales of the software still pop up on eBay, he said, but not at a price that would tempt him to part with his unopened copy of Windows 3.1.

Agent Quang from home IT support firm The Geek Squad, said he regularly encountered venerable operating systems in customer's homes but it had been a long time since he saw Windows 3.x.

"The majority of machines we see are running XP," he said, "Vista is still a bit flaky here and there and people are not comfortable with it."

But, he said, Windows 95 and 98 were still popular with some customers.
"We see them on laptops and people are unwilling to let them go," he said. "It's perhaps because in the early days laptops cost a lot more money they do now, and there's much more perceived value there."

Agent Quang's personal favourite operating system was Windows 98 because, by the end of its life, the software was so solid.

Old Iron

He said anyone running an ageing operating system might face problems as they try to find a web browser that could run on it and display the latest online innovations.

"We had a case a while ago a customer with a Windows 98 machine trying to view her website and the pictures were just not coming up," he said.
"Eventually we had to install Netscape Navigator to get it working."

Stefan Berka said he had recently re-installed Windows 3.11 on a computer and was surprised at the results.

"Personally, I had fun at my last Windows 3.11 test installation to make it a useful desktop operating system again," he said.

"With patched SVGA driver for 1024x768 resolution, Internet Explorer 5, WinZIP, VfW and Video Player, it was still useful," he said. "The desktop was ready after a few seconds' loading time."

Said Mr Rathbone: "Windows 3.11 would still work reasonably well today, provided it only ran software released around the same time." He cautioned against anyone considering returning to the olden days and using it as their mainstay operating system. He said: "I wouldn't connect it to the internet, though, as it's not sophisticated enough to ward off attackers."

news.bbc.co.uk

If youre running Windows XP but like the look of the Vista sidebar take a look here

Windows Sidebar, Real one,Pack by ~joshoon on deviantART

Its the actual Vista sidebar scripted to run in XP so you can grab the gadget/widgets from the MS site.

This is for people who might be on dial-up or on really slow connections

http://www.baresite.com/

It strips the site of all the fancy crap that takes ages to download on slow connections and leaves the basics like links and images.

Just checked my HSBC account and noticed that theyre givng away McAfee anti virus free to internet banking users. You can download it to 3 PC's if you want.

ZoneAlarm by Check Point - Award winning PC Protection, Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, Identity Protection, and much more.

Free copy of Zone Alarm firewall if anyone fancies it

This is very similar to Expose on the Mac. Move your mouse into the corner of your screen and it invokes an action like show desktop etc.

programsforpeers - Hot Corners v2.2.2.0

Minime:
Minime is a tool that allows you to minimize applications like Windows Media Player to the system tray. What makes this tool unique is that it keeps the system tray clean by minimizing all applications into a single tray icon.

SaphuA

freeware

World's First Triple-Engine Web Browser

Do you use multiple web browsers? Juggling multiple web browsers is not so uncommon to overcome incompatibity and inefficiency of web sites or browsers that are not well optimized to web standards. But it's not that power users who know how to install and use multiple browsers actually love the hassle at the cost of their precious time.




Lunascape Web Browser - The World's Fastest Browser Ever



This is an ALPHA release, freeware. Might be useful for anyone doing web design who wants to check sites in the main renedering engines without having all 3 browsers open at once.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by melvbot

How far off Photoshop is the GIMP

Miles off.

Worlds apart? And with the extensions/plugins available for PS, makes Gimp look like Windows Paint. FaceShop is kinda nice.

Originally Posted by melvbot

ZoneAlarm by Check Point - Award winning PC Protection, Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, Identity Protection, and much more.

Free copy of Zone Alarm firewall if anyone fancies it

It is a bit naggie but it works really well.

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Originally Posted by melvbot

ZoneAlarm by Check Point - Award winning PC Protection, Antivirus, Firewall, Anti-Spyware, Identity Protection, and much more.

Free copy of Zone Alarm firewall if anyone fancies it

It is a bit naggie but it works really well.

if you can use Zonealarm I would suggest moving to Comodo personal firewall - free - you have to get it to learn your apps the same as Zonealarm , but it seems a lot better to me.