Hackszine.com: Windows Archives

Archive: Windows

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April 30, 2007

Yod'm 3D - Beryl-like 3D Virtual Desktop for XP/Vista

Yod'm 3D is a freeware virtual desktop manager for Vista that provides a three dimensional spinning cube effect, similar to a Beryl effect. It's not open source and it doesn't provide all the features of Beryl, but it looks pretty slick and I really dig the cubic virtual desktop metaphor for some reason.

Yod'm 3D -[via] Link.
Yod'm 3D demo/howto video -Link.

April 27, 2007

Reader Request: Play 3D Games on an Unsupported Card

Michael K. wrote in, asking for a hack to "enable someone to play a game on a computer with an incompatible graphics card." Normally, I would have thought such a thing impossible, but I've been itching to try out Neverwinter Nights 2, and I don't have a graphics card that supports it. I recently learned that some clever users have found that the venerable 3D-Analyze program (used back in the day to play advanced 3d games on older Voodoo cards), is more than up to the task. I used 3D-Analyze to locate the nwn2main executable, selected "emulate HW TnL caps", and launched the game. It's pretty slow, but playable. Your mileage may vary depending on the speed of the CPU, the game you are playing, and other variables.

One warning, however: in the case of Neverwinter Nights 2, 3D Analyze is not compatible with the most recent patch (1.05). So I had to download two patches: 100788-to-104860 and 104860-to-104870 and install them manually (put the zip files in the Neverwinter Nights directory, disconnect your network connection so it reverts to offline patching mode, launch the most recently version of the NWN 2 updater, and let it patch the game with those two files). After I did that, it worked.

Neverwinter Nights 2 forum thread on 3D Analyze - Link

Related:

3D-Analyze download page - Link
NWN 2 individual patch files - Link
NWN 2 Offline Patch HOWTO - Link

April 24, 2007

Run (some) Greasemonkey scripts on Internet Explorer

Jon Udell mentions a great add-on for Internet Explorer, Reify Software's Turnabout, which gives you the ability to run some Greasemonkey scripts in Internet Explorer:

...it comes in two versions: basic and advanced. If you download the basic version it only runs a small set of scripts that the Reify folks have blessed. You have to download the advanced version in order to be able to install other scripts, such as my LibraryLookup script.
I realize that relatively few IE users are likely to run Turnabout, just as relatively few Firefox users run Greasemonkey. But a small fraction of IE's large share is still a healthy number, and I'd like to do what I can to encourage interesting, important, and of course safe and responsible uses of this technology.

Jon spent some time modifying one of his scripts to work under Turnabout, and has written up some notes for anyone who wants to do the same - Link

Related:

Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension) - Link
Greasemonkey Hacks - Link
Reify Turnabout - Link

April 14, 2007

Move Partitions Around on Vista

One of the cool things about Vista is its ability to resize partitions using diskmgmt.msc. This works great for those times when you need to shrink or grow a partition. Unfortunately, if you need to move things around as I did this weekend, you won't be able to use the built-in tool.

I needed to delete a partition I wasn't using and also give more space to my Vista partition. So I turned to the trusty Gparted (a free alternative to tools like Partition Magic). It performed the partitioning flawlessly, but Vista refused to boot after that. I was prepared for that, thanks to the Gparted Vista HOWTO, and had my Vista boot DVD ready to perform the post-Gparted operation:

Boot up the installation DVD
Choose the repair option
Let the installation DVD repair the disk automatically when prompted to do so

This let Vista boot, but there was still a problem... one that I remember from messing up drive letter assignments in previous versions of Windows: Vista booted up, took me to the login screen, but wouldn't show my desktop. (In theory, the HOWTO should have worked perfectly, but I have a dual boot Vista/XP system, and things got confused).

So I had to do one more thing:

Boot Vista into Safe Mode
Log in
Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to get Task Manager to appear (the desktop will not appear normally when the drive letter is messed up)
Use Task Manager to run Regedit and make my way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and fix the drive letter assignments.

The drive letter assignments can be tricky, because you probably need to do something like rename \DosDevices\C: to \DosDevices\D: and vice versa, but you can't have duplicate names, so you'll need to change one of them to something temporary, like:

\DosDevices\C: to \DosDevices\X:
\DosDevices\D: to \DosDevices\C:
\DosDevices\X: to \DosDevices\D:

Once I did that, I rebooted, and all was right with the world!

Related:

Gparted - Link
How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows - Link
Howto move Vista - Link
LH Top 10: Free Computer System Recovery Tools - Link
How to Shrink and Extend NTFS Volumes in Windows Vista - Link

April 5, 2007

Buying a new PC? It's full of craplets

Make 494
Walt Mossberg has an article that sums up the out of the box experience for a lot of new PCs out there, it sucks - they're filled with a ton of "value added" software, offers and trials that the companies get paid to include, over the years I think Sony has consistently been the worst. I usually reformat the drive and just spend a day putting back all the drivers, it's just easier, but not many people can or know how to. It's bad for Microsoft because people blame them for a lot of what the 3rd party apps screw up.

When you buy a gleaming, new personal computer, the first thing you want to do is to try out its cool new features and make it your own. You want to savor how quickly it starts up and runs, and arrange the desktop icons to suit your tastes and habits.
But as I rediscovered recently, often what you're forced to do instead is to spend hours as a digital maintenance man wading through annoying and confusing chores.

I have set up many computers over the years, so I wasn't shocked that the out-of-box experience was less than ideal. Still, I was struck by just how irritating it was to get going with the new Sony Vaio SZ laptop I bought about 10 days ago. It was the first new Windows machine I'd bought in a few years, because I had been waiting for Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system. I was amazed that the initial experience is still a big hassle.

and here comes the best part--

The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don't act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.

Dell, or Toshiba or someone else could just come along and say they don't do this and make it a compelling feature to look for when getting a new PC.

Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal - [via] Link.

More:
Here are some ways to get rid if the craplets - Link.

March 25, 2007

vi Emulation for Visual Studio, Word, and Outlook

ViEmu is a cool add-in that brings vi/vim editing modes to several Windows apps, including Visual Studio, Word, and Outlook. It seems to have a lot of features that vi users are used to, and George V. Reilly (originator of the Win32 version of Vim, and currently releasing Win64 versions) has kind words for it:

All in all, I'm favorably impressed with ViEmu. It provides much of the muscle memory experience of Vim inside of Visual Studio. Technically, it can't have been easy to impose such a radically different input model on VS or to emulate Vim and Ex fairly faithfully.

(ViEmu has 30-day trial versions available) - Link.

Related:

George V. Reilly's Blog - ViEmu: a vi and Vim emulator for Visual Studio - Link
Vim Win64 releases - Link
Visual Studio Hacks - Link

March 24, 2007

Control Your Applications With a Wiimote

Chris Brentano sent us a tip for the Wii Loop Machine, a wickedly awesome music loop playing application that uses the Wii Remote as it's interface. As Chris puts it, "This looks like it could take laptop music battles to another level, or just make people look funny doing it. Either way, it looks super fun."

There are a couple of libraries available that will allow you to incorporate the Wiimote into your application. The Wii Loop Machine uses the Max/MSP plugin aka.wiiremote. If you're building some sort of music composing or performance system, it's worth a look.

Or you can read in the Wii Remote's raw sensor data and do whatever you like with it in your own applications. For general Wii input in OS X, Windows and Linux, check out the Wii Remote drivers list on the WiiLi Wiki. DarwiinRemote seems to be the predominant driver for OS X and GlovePIE offers similar functionality for Windows . There are a number of drivers for Linux, including a Perl driver!

It's really impressive, the cool things hackers are putting together with this device. If you've got a cool homebrew Wii project you'd like to share, just send us a tip or tell us about it in the comments!

March 20, 2007

Import Your Old Mail to GMail With GML

GMail Loader is a cross-platform Python utility that can import mail messages from several mail storage formats (including mBox and MailDir) straight into your GMail account. It doesn't currently support Outlook's PST format, but there are utilities for converting PST to mBox format (see below). Eventually, support for direct access to IMAP will be added, which should allow you to transfer mail from just about any system into GMail.

I've got years of old mail archived away from different ISPs over the years. I think it'd be interesting to push all that stuff out to GMail and re-read the discussions I was having in 1996.

Links:

GMail Loader (GML) -[via] Link.
GML Instructions for OS X -Link.
Convert Outlook PST Files to mBox Format -Link.

March 17, 2007

Update: Extend Vista's Activation Grace Period - For a Year

Last month, Brian wrote about Windows Vista's 30 day activation grace period and how it can be extended to 120 days using the included licence manager program. It turns out that with a quick registry tweak, you can extend this grace period for a year on copies of Vista that haven't been activated yet. Here's how:

1. Find this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL\SkipRearm
2. Change the DWORD value from 00000000 to 00000001
3. Run slmgr -rearm as administrator
4. Reboot
5. Repeat steps 1-4 monthly, before the 30 day activation extension ends.

This trick is supposed to work 8 times for Vista Ultimate and upgrade versions of Vista Home Premium, but not for the full version of Vista Home Premium. Since you can use the slmgr -rearm tool 3 times normally, you can do the 3 standard rearms plus the 8 skiprearm cycles for a total of 11 activation extensions or twelve 30 day periods, total.

Undoubtedly, someone will discover where the increment counter is for slmgr and you'll be able to do this indefinately, but until then, Vista users will have a year to extend activation if they wish.

Microsoft allows bypass of Vista activation -Link.

Related:

March 15, 2007

Customize Everything About Your Windows Install

If you've ever wanted to strip Windows down to the bare essentials, preload your activation key, or integrate hotfixes, tweaks, or service packs, you need to check out nLite. Point it at your Windows installation CD, follow the steps, and your customized Windows install disc will be ready to roll. nLite includes:

Service Pack Integration
Component Removal
Unattended Setup
Driver Integration
Hotfixes Integration
Tweaks
Services Configuration
Patches
Bootable ISO creation

Related:

Windows XP Hacks - Link
Windows Server Hacks - Link

March 13, 2007

Surf Anonymously Without a Trace

Surf Anonomously

Our resident Windows hacker, Preston Gralla, has another great article up at Computerworld, this time about maintaining your online privacy in the face of increased snooping from the government, web sites, and private businesses (an expanded update to a hack of the same name that originally appeared in Windows XP Hacks, 2E).

Related:

March 11, 2007

What to Do When Vista Refuses to Help

If you press F1 in an older program on Vista, you're in for a disappointment; the old help format is not supported in Vista. However, Microsoft has made the old Windows Help program available as a free download. - [via] Link

Run Commands As Administrator In Windows Vista

In Vista, if you're logged in as a normal user but need to execute something with administrator privileges, there's a quick shortcut that will let you do just this from the start menu's run box.

Just type the command, say "cmd", into the run box, and then hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter instead of just the Enter key. You'll then be prompted to authenticate, and your command will be executed as administrator. -Link.

March 8, 2007

hdparm for Windows

Back in the day, Linux users ran a utility called hdparm to make sure that their disk drives were operating at the ideal speeds. These days, Linux distributions usually can figure out the best settings for a modern drive, so it's not needed as much. Still, it's a nice tool for probing your hard drive's settings and capabilities, and Aaron Tiensivu has used the Cygwin version to check up on his drive's power management:

If you install Cygwin, or just grab the hdparm.exe executable with the cygwin1.dll, you can figure out if your hard drive/chipset supports DIPM and/or HIPM. DIPM is device initiated power management, and HIPM is host initiated power management. Both can cut down hard drive power usage which in turn can improve battery life on laptops.

You'll need to choose hdparm from the Utils section when you run (or re-run) the Cygwin setup program. Also, if you run it under Vista, be sure to start the Cygwin shell as an admin (right-click on the icon and choose Run as Administrator) - Link

Related:

Cygwin - Link
hdparm - Link

March 7, 2007

Move Windows Special Folders To Another Drive

A common problem that people have in Windows is running out of disk space on the C: drive. Because the C: drive is the default location for user created documents, photos, and music (among others), it's not simply a matter of getting another hard drive. You also need to move all of these special folders to the new disk.

Hackszine reader Naser writes:

You only need some instant wit and one small (yet nifty, I tell ya) tool released by Microsoft called "Tweak UI". With this tool, you can transfer (or relocate) so called special system folders like "My Documents", "CD burning cache folder", "My Music/Pictures" and many others to another drive.

The Tweak UI method should work for most everyone except Vista users. In Vista (and partially in XP) it's a little easier: you can right click on the Documents, Photos, or Music folders, click properties, select the location tab, and move the folder to its new location.

References: