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Archive: Windows

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February 1, 2007

"Upgrade" to Windows Vista without a Previous Version of Windows

Vista Upgrade

Contrary to previous reports, DailyTech now uncovers the news of a workaround that enables a "clean install" of Windows Vista from an upgrade DVD, without a previous version of Windows on your system. The hack--which involves installing Windows Vista first as a 30-day trial, followed by installation of the real thing as your "upgrade")--seems tedious, but not too difficult.

(Via Slashdot)

Related:

Hands On: The Essential Vista Upgrade Guide (Computerworld Article by Preston Gralla)
Geek to Live: Windows Vista Upgrade Power Tips (Lifehacker)

January 30, 2007

Free 3 months of T-Mobile WiFi - Just pretend to run Vista

Img M634
A few of you sent in how to get free WiFi by changing your browser's "user agent" to be a Vista machine, so here's i-hacked.com step by step...

"For the release of Microsoft Vista, T-Mobile is offering 3 free months of their hotspot service. The catch is... You have to be running Windows Vista. (don't do it)

Here is a quick tip to get three months of free hotspot service at the firm's North American WiFi access points found at Starbucks, Borders, FedEx-Kinkos, hotel chains, etc. Turns out, they only use the agent information for validation... So that enables us to SPOOF IT!

1. Download the firefox extension for spoofing user-agents: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/
2. Restart firefox and goto: Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options > Options... \
3. Click "User Agents" and then "Add"
4. Fill out the window with following info:

Description: Internet Explorer 7 (Windows Vista)
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
App Name: Microsoft Internet Explorer App Version: 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
Platform: Win32

5. Save it, goto Tools > User Agent Switcher > Then click the newly added one. Browse over to http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/vista/ and you should be redirected to a trial sign-up page." - Link.

Make Java-based Apps Play Nice with Vista

If you've tried to run certain Java-based applications on Vista with the Aero user interface eye candy enabled, you might have received the following error message: "The color scheme has been changed to Windows Vista Basic". This is because older versions of Java don't play well with Vista's Aero Glass user interface.
If you'd like to eliminate this annoyance, you have a couple of choices, but the first thing you need to do is install the latest and greatest version of the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) from java.sun.com. Then:

If the software you're using has a "Java not included" option, install that instead. You might have to follow some extra instructions to set it up (such as setting a JAVA_HOME environment variable), but when you're done, everything should work fine.
Dig into the software you've installed, and look for a java or jre subfolder. You'll need to find your JRE installation (check C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0). Copy everything from there into the misbehaving software's (Processing in the following example) jre folder. Here's how it's done at the command prompt, but you could rename java to java.old and copy the new JRE in using Windows Explorer as well:
```
C:\>cd \processing-0123

C:\processing-0123>ren java java.old

C:\processing-0123>xcopy /s "\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0" java

Does java specify a file name

or directory name on the target

(F = file, D = directory)? D

\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0\COPYRIGHT

\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0\LICENSE

\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0\README.txt

...
```

However you decide to do it, the next time you run the troublesome app, it should now appear in all its Aero-enabled glory!

Six Tips for Hacking Windows Vista

elevated prompt.jpg

Preston Gralla, author of Windows XP Hacks, 2E (as well as the previous edition) and Windows Vista in a Nutshell, has some great news for all you early Vista adopters out there:

Finally, the long, five-year wait is over--Windows Vista is here. But you won't have to wait five years if you want to start hacking it; you can start right now. Check out these six top tips for hacking Windows Vista.

Here are the six hacks in his article:

Hack the Windows Explorer Shortcut Menu
Hack Windows Vista Screensavers
Hack the Elevated Command Prompt
Hack Aero's Glass Borders
Hack System Restore
Hack Vista's Blinking Cursor

How about you? Got any early hacks to share? We'd love to hear them. Just use the "Suggest a Hack" form in the sidebar. Your hack might get featured on this site or just might end up in Preston's next Hacks book...

January 29, 2007

Take Slick Screenshots on Vista

Window Clippings is a screenshot tool written by Kenny Kerr to exacting specs from Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths. Kenny's put the tool out there for all to enjoy. It can do some great stuff: capture the Window's drop shadow, include the parent window, and even cleans up whatever is behind translucent window borders. Link. (via The ADO Guy)

January 23, 2007

Stream Music to Airport Express Without iTunes

You don't need to use iTunes to stream audio to an Aiport Express. You can use the Windows Media Player, WinAmp, Rhapsody, etc...

oAEP - Stands for ovesen.NET Airport Express Player. This small application records the music and sound played by your pc and streams it to an Airtunes enabled Airport Express. It has never been this easy streaming music and sound to your Airport Express without using ITunes.

Yes, you red correctly. You can use Media Player, WinAmp or another music player with your Airport Express.

Source included. Neat, this means you can also stream formats iTunes doesn't, like Ogg Vorbis (well, with a plug-in you can).

Related:

JustePort

(Thanks, Phil!)

January 21, 2007

Synchronize Files Quickly and Easily on Windows

I like to switch between computers; I might prefer Mac OS X one minute, Linux the next, and Vista five minutes later. To make this work, I like to keep all my files in sync (sure, I could set up a file server at home, but I want this to work seamlessly if I leave the house). For my essential work files, I use Unison at the command prompt, and it works great. But I ran across SyncToy, which is a very fast, Windows-only program for syncing files. I started using it to mirror my photos and MP3s from my Mac to my PC, and I'm hooked.

January 8, 2007

Play MS-DOS Games on Vista

Error Message

If you try to run an old DOS game on Vista, you'll probably get an error "This system does not support fullscreen mode." Fortunately, this isn't a dead end. Download a copy of DOSBox, the greatest MS-DOS emulator for any platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and more), and try running your game under DOSBox. Not only will you get support for old-school graphics like CGA and EGA, you can even run it in a window!

DOSBox on Vista
Sopwith on Vista
Related

January 5, 2007

Command Line Zip for Windows

Go-to Hacks author Paul Bausch shares another productivity problem he's solved for himself with a bit of hacking:

Windows doesn't have a command line utility for compressing files (that I know of), and I had to come up with a way to automate some file transfers today. So I whipped up a tiny Perl script that will zip up a file.

He adds that his hack works well with Windows batch files and will save him a bunch of bandwidth. If Paul's homegrown fix looks like something you could use too, check out his site for the code.

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