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Way to spread the Anti-MS FUD.

Straight from the Games for Windows Requirements page:

"Games that support gamepad controllers must support the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows using the XInput API.
...
This requirement does not apply to games that only make use of the mouse and/or keyboard."

Last year I picked up an HP Pavilion A1540N running XP Media Center Edition, which is more or less Windows XP SP2. I was very annoyed to find that when I pressed the sleep button all the fans kept spinning. A bit of rummaging around led me to the control panel for Intel's Viiv Feature, which is intended to turn your PC into a 24x7 media control center. Well, call me a Luddite, but backwards me only wanted an economical PC on which to get my work done, and this high power, high noise sleep mode wasn't what I had in mind. Turning off Viiv seems to have solved "the problem". Sleep works fine now, and so does hibernate.

By the way, somewhere back in this thread someone mentioned a problem hibernating Windows machines with lots of resources (e.g. > 1GB Ram). FWIW, I had good luck applying Microsoft Update KB909095. There is also at the bottom of that page an announcement of another fix that specifically claims to be for hibernating with > 1 GB.

Anyway, the Viiv stuff was my main problem. You wonder just how many new power plants get built when companies ship this stuff enabled-by-default to people who don't need it.

Last year I picked up an HP Pavilion A1540N running XP Media Center Edition, which is more or less Windows XP SP2. I was very annoyed to find that when I pressed the sleep button all the fans kept spinning. A bit of rummaging around led me to the control panel for Intel's Viiv Feature, which is intended to turn your PC into a 24x7 media control center. Well, call me a Luddite, but backwards me only wanted an economical PC on which to get my work done, and this high power, high noise sleep mode wasn't what I had in mind. Turning off Viiv seems to have solved "the problem". Sleep works fine now, and so does hibernate.

By the way, somewhere back in this thread someone mentioned a problem hibernating Windows machines with lots of resources (e.g. > 1GB Ram). FWIW, I had good luck applying Microsoft Update KB909095. There is also at the bottom of that page an announcement of another fix that specifically claims to be for hibernating with > 1 GB.

Anyway, the Viiv stuff was my main problem. You wonder just how many new power plants get built when companies ship this stuff enabled-by-default to people who don't need it.

Instead of posting here, can't "Question Guy" install WinDbg and load the Windows' minidump. The callstack at the moment of BSOD is usually useful for determining who might be at fault. I used this approach recently for a colleague whose computer was crashing. She uninstalled her Logitech webcam drivers and software and problem was immediately solved. 30 minutes effort - that's quicker than reading the responses to this /. story, which probably won't elicit the answer anyway.

Drivers can, and bugs in the OS can. User-run programs can only (accidentally) trigger one of those...

If only. The way Microsoft does DRM, much of audio and video processing takes place in kernel space.

SetPowerRequirement might be what you're looking for. It might be CE specific, though.

Slightly off tangent, but hibernation (S4) fails in WinXP SP2 if you have more than 1GB of RAM.

Works just fine for me. Probably because I installed the udpate mentioned in the resolution section of the article sometime last year.

Slightly off tangent, but hibernation (S4) fails in WinXP SP2 if you have more than 1GB of RAM.

My biggest problem with standby on my WinXP machine is that my machine will randomly wake up after a random amount of time. I've already disabled WOL and Wake-on-USB, but my computer will wake up randomly from standby anywhere from 3 minutes to never. I still can't figure out what's causing the problem. :(

There was some useful info in this article about configuring your network adapter to support wake-on-lan, but what about wireless adapters? In my experience they don't seem to support WOL or any equivalent.

At least at one point, I found one 802.11 adapter or chipset that supported OnNow-style wakeup, but I don't know whether drivers supported that.

You'd have to keep the radio on, though, which means there's some power you can't save.

Is there any sort of WOL capabilities in the new 802.11n?

That's probably more of a chipset issue than a protocol/PHY issue, so I'm not sure there'd be any chanages in 802.11n - unless there's some radio-layer changes to allow the receiver to run in a low-power mode capable of receiving a wakeup indication.

Windows XP will often times not give s3 suspend as an option even when turned on in BIOS. But with Microsofts dumppo.exe utility you can force it to use an S3 or S4 state. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/products/Oemtest/v1.1/WOST est/Tools/Acpi/dumppo.exe To force it to S3, run this under command prompt "dumppo admin minsleep=s3"

I'll keep XP because of several reasons :

1) Nobody mentions this but Vista is incompatible with Visual Studio 2002/2003.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa948853. aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2006/09/26 /772250.aspx
http://www.techworld.nl/article/2436/problemen-vis ta-en-visual-studio-zorgen-voor-onrust.html

Also, VS 2005SP1 doesn't seem to play nicely as it does on XP when you look at this laundry list of issues
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa964140. aspx

2) XP just plain works! I develop on a latitude 810 and it would crawl under Vista.

3) i'd like to install windows XP on my Intel iMac under Bootcamp. Vista is too unstable for that and as i'm only running it as a secondary OS along OS X i won't make the extra investment.

there's probably loads of other things to consider but these were mine;)

I'll keep XP because of several reasons :

1) Nobody mentions this but Vista is incompatible with Visual Studio 2002/2003.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa948853. aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2006/09/26 /772250.aspx
http://www.techworld.nl/article/2436/problemen-vis ta-en-visual-studio-zorgen-voor-onrust.html

Also, VS 2005SP1 doesn't seem to play nicely as it does on XP when you look at this laundry list of issues
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa964140. aspx

2) XP just plain works! I develop on a latitude 810 and it would crawl under Vista.

3) i'd like to install windows XP on my Intel iMac under Bootcamp. Vista is too unstable for that and as i'm only running it as a secondary OS along OS X i won't make the extra investment.

there's probably loads of other things to consider but these were mine;)

Microsoft and other big companies develop big patent portfoloes to protect themselves, and to use against competitors with even vaguely similar projects.

That's one theory, that the only patent trolls are these huge conglomerates. In reality, small predatory licensing companies without any products or interest in cross-licensing are going to start hurting the bigger players.

It's exactly why Sendmail rejected using Microsoft's patented "SenderID", as described by Eric Allman here.

Err, no. Are you thinking of Apache?

it's exactly why GPLv3 has all this complex and oddly writtten patent material

Microsoft distribute SFU which contains GPL code. All we have to do is resync against the Microsoft distribution to be freed from the constant threat of patent lawsuits on the stuff they're redistributing. The original SenderID license had similar patent language designed to shield Microsoft, unfortunately for them it was not sub-licensable and therefore unworkable.

I hope the Mono project can be re-licensed under GPLv3 to avoid repercussions from this sort of suit.

Really? I hope it dies a horrible death.

No, it would be a runtime error like casting a String to Object then to Integer. Wow, you are really obtuse.


A runtime error? What's the point of java generics except to save on typing casts?


It really amazes me that Microsoft can copy something already largely done, Java, and hopelessly screw up the their own implementation so it is very difficult to make fast and at the same time screw over their customers with a very narrow, rigid, confining generics system. Come back when C# gets wildcard types for instance; the guy who got them into Java, now stolen away and working for MS, has pretty much admitted it's impossible with the CLR's messed up type system. It's sad really, it's like Microsoft has some kind of corporate policy to saddle us with 3rd-rate crap.


You have to be kidding. Java's generics implementation has limited them totally. Tell me why List{String}.class == List{Dog}.class. Do you consider that a good type system?

You do NOT want wildcards for generics because wildcards are a big ugly hack and hacking them onto the C# would be a piece of piss (there would be no need to hack the CLR cause it's just compiler magic).

Please reply with a link to the guy who said that wildcards couldn't be hacked onto C#.

For a property unhacked solution to wildcards, please read this and learn something: http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.a spx?type=inproceedings&id=1215

Microsoft, in its Windows Mobile platform, also gives carriers the ability to prevent users from installing applications that have not been approved by the carrier - just like Apple presumably will. See Windows Mobile 5.0 Application Security. This is why many T-Mobile users can't install third-party applications on their MDA/SDA devices without unlocking them, which is no trivial task.

The real solution here is to urge Congress and the FCC to force mobile phone carriers to allow users to purchase and connect any compatible equipment of their choice to the network - just like they did in the 1960s to Ma Bell.

We all know that Microsoft is going to play games with DirectX. And not the fun kind - the buy vista or go fuck yourself kind, wherein the next Halo and the next everything-not-based-on-an-ID-engine will only run on Vista.

I thought the same thing about Windows 2000 when WinXP came out. I kept waiting for the "next DirectX version will be XP-only" shoe to drop. And it never did. In fact DirectX still works on Win2K, Windows ME and even Windows 98, despite many other MS products being XP/Vista-only at this point (like Internet Explorer).

Not to say they won't try it this time, but so far they've been very conservative about removing DirectX support for older Windows versions, which is why my games partition still runs Windows 2000...

If you want to run XP and 4GB ram make sure you get the 64bit version, otherwise you can only use 3GB see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/2/3/d23b9 533-169d-4996-b198-7b9d3fe15611/downgrade_chart.do c

Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?
Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium.

Oh really?.

Visual Studio Express is free.

Microsoft sponsors Coding4Fun and the Beginner Developer Learning Center - and did I mention the Kid's Corner?

Free introductory e-texts like "C# for Sharp Kids?"

Let's be honest here. MSDN is positioned to supply just about everything a teacher could ask for in the elementary and secondary grades. In any language you could name.

Visual Studio Express is free.

Microsoft sponsors Coding4Fun and the Beginner Developer Learning Center - and did I mention the Kid's Corner?

Free introductory e-texts like "C# for Sharp Kids?"

Let's be honest here. MSDN is positioned to supply just about everything a teacher could ask for in the elementary and secondary grades. In any language you could name.

According to the Windows Life-Cycle Policy page, Microsoft intends to stop selling Windows XP via Retail and OEM channels on 31-Jan-2008. As a procurement officer, would you buy into something that already has the Death Knell sounding upon it?

Taken from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/ WinXPStarterFS.mspx:

With Windows XP Starter Edition, first-time home PC users can have up to three programs and three windows per program running concurrently. Further simplification of the operating system includes setting a maximum display resolution of 1024x768 and no support for PC-to-PC home networking, sharing printers across a network or more advanced features such as the ability to establish multiple user accounts on a single PC.

From the marketing department: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/ WinXPStarterFS.mspx

In an effort to provide an affordable and simple introduction to personal computing, and as a result of ongoing collaborations with governments on PC access programs and increasing digital inclusion, Microsoft Corp. has developed Windows XP Starter Edition, an operating system designed for first-time PC users in developing technology markets.

This really seems like monopoly protection. Microsoft charges non-profits a charity version of XP for $139 http://www.dealtime.com/xPP-software--license_cate gory__search__charity-14844_retail

If Microsoft were serious about providing affordable computing, they would offer this program to budget constrained schools world wide. They would offer the same license to the non-profits.

Enjoy,

Informational, Microsoft Windows XP actually does have virtual desktop that is not an third-party addon. Interested may check out virtual desktop manager: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/power toys/xppowertoys.mspx

Can anybody tell me if it's possible to remove Ubuntu from the dual-boot later?

Well, I can't fathom what Microsoft are spending $6.58 billion dollars on, especially with regard to Vista(!?).

See for yourself what they're researching.

Say what you will about their business tactics, but Microsoft does do a large amount of basic research, much of which hasn't been (and won't be, for the foreseeable future) marketed as a product.

I'm just dealing with a bug introduced in IE7. This bug makes my life harder as a web programmer, along with all the other quirks and inconsistencies in IE. So yeah, why they hell would anyone require IE?

"There is still no full consensus over how certain things should be displayed."

www.w3c.org

I think you may be wrong?

"So you'd have to do the page two or three times to make it compatible with every browser. But that, in turn, would cost more money."

In my world, I call that "doing my job." That is to say, not half assing it. When I design something I concurrently test it in both browsers. Being a web developer in the polybrowser world means testing your product as you develop it, anything less is unprofessional.

As a personal anecdote, which I'm sure we all can attest to: I've seen plenty of pages that render properly in IE and Firefox. Corporate ones at that. Even http://www.microsoft.com/ renders properly in both. :-)

"You realise RPC is, in fact, a UNIX feature? That it's there on your Linux/Sun/BSD/OSX box? That like anything running on a known port it's easily blockable at the firewall? Or via IPSEC if you don't run a firewall? And that the Win2003 firewall will block it by default?" - by blowdart (31458) on Tuesday April 17, @02:47AM (#18763925)

Good points blowdart... here is one you can add to your arsenal, so to speak (correct me where needed if you feel it is necessary. I grow more by critique than by any other thing I get online imo).

Here goes, in regards to the quote of your words above: OR, via port filtering (present in NT based OS' as far back as I am aware of, working via ipnat.sys & ipfiltdrv.sys working with tcpip.sys iirc, & in this order:

1. After the IP packet has been formed, Tcpip.sys passes it to the firewall-hook driver, Ipnat.sys, for processing.

Windows Firewall checks whether the traffic is a specific type of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) message that Windows Firewall is designed to block. If the ICMP message is blocked, Windows Firewall discards the packet.

Windows Firewall checks whether the traffic is Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) tunnel maintenance traffic. If so, Windows Firewall analyzes the traffic to determine the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Call ID that identifies the specific PPTP tunnel so that incoming GRE-based traffic for the PPTP tunnel is allowed.

If needed, Windows Firewall adds a dynamic entry to the exceptions list so that the response traffic will be allowed.

After processing, Ipnat.sys passes the IP packet back to Tcpip.sys, which uses the IP forwarding component to determine the next-hop IP address and interface. For more information, see Understanding the IP Routing Table.

2. Tcpip.sys passes the packet to the filter-hook driver, Ipfltdrv.sys, for processing.

Based on the next-hop interface, Ipfltdrv.sys compares the packet to the configured outbound IP packet filters.

If the outbound IP packet filters do not allow the packet, Ipfltdrv.sys silently discards the packet. If the outbound IP packet filters allow the packet, Ipfltdrv.sys passes the packet back to Tcpip.sys.

3. Tcpip.sys passes the packet to Ipsec.sys for processing.

Based on the set of IPsec filters, Ipsec.sys determines whether the packet is permitted, blocked, or secured. If permitted, Ipsec.sys passes the packet back to Tcpip.sys without modification. If blocked, Ipsec.sys silently discards the packet. If secured, Ipsec.sys adds the appropriate IPsec protection to the packet before handing it back to Tcpip.sys.

Tcpip.sys then sends the packet over the next-hop interface to the next-hop IP address.

(In fact, specifics of mechanics and ordering for your reference in the future is here -> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns /cableguy/cg0605.mspx & that's where I learned the mechanics/specifics of it better than I had it down when I started using & learning about this stuff back in the NT 4.0 days).

In other words, for your reference? You can stall RPC stuff that way as well by ip filtering if necessary, and it works with your software AND hardware firewalls as well, and is often called "the poor man's firewall", since it is less flexible than security policies or software & hardware based firewalls out there today.

It is good for layered security when all is said & done & works FINE with today's software and hardware firewalls as well as ipsec stuff for the most part and like the other more commonly used methods for security you noted? Well, It just works and in combination with them all running concurrently for layered security online.

Still, what I am trying to say is this:

I found your post worth every point you have been modded up to by the staff here for, because you are absolutely correct afaik!

* Good job!

APK

Virtual PC 2007 + Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image = Ability to test IE6 and IE7 on your dev machine.

Virtual PC 2007 + Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image = Ability to test IE6 and IE7 on your dev machine.

USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.

USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. We advise against playing or accessing content or using applications protected by other digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other rights management services or using full volume disk drive encryption.

"Though Silverlight sounds very promising, and may actually displace Flash video as the means most sites use to stream content, Microsoft has yet to even hint at the planned existence of a Linux plug-in."

I've seen Microsoft talking about Linux support several times and they've said that they take into account market share and what customers want. To bad the article and the Slashdot news post doesn't do anything to mention this but instead chooses to go with the they're-after-us-conspiracy-talk. Instead of being a cynical reactor, be active! Step up to the challenge and make yourself heard, instead of entertaining your Microsoft disapproval. Say to them that you would like Silverlight support for Linux. Start a petition or something.

Don't believe me? Here is an example:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?Pos tID=988552&SiteID=1

<object CLASSID="clsid:xxxxxxxx-yyyy-zzzz-aaaa-bbbbbbbbbbb b"
CODEBASE="http://www.sourceforge.net/opensourc ecodec/windowsbinaries/
install.cab#version=a,b,c ,ddd"
width="640" height="480">
<param name="Src" value="filename.ext">
</object>

Hello!

BTW, ISA is still supported in Vista/Longhorn:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/bus/PCI/ISA-b us.mspx

Cheers, Roman

Quote from the WMP Mac website: "...Microsoft will continue to offer Windows Media Player 9 as a free download for Macintosh users, but has no plans to provide future updates or product support for Windows Media Player for Mac...."

This is not something uncommon for Microsoft to do to Mac users (well, actually it is because they usually drop all hope of support on thier Mac versions, not just crucial parts.)

Why would Microsoft support Linux?

Hmm... I don't know. Five months ago they signed a deal with Novell in the interest of enhancing interoperability between Linux and Windows. Remember that?

Are you telling me that was all a sham??? :O

Yeah, I'll run my servers on Linux when I want to start losing money. Get the facts, people.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no Linux support:

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/downloads.asp x

We're tired of you nerdy /. cockroaches always going on about
the evil Bill Gates and his Micro$oft empire. (dollar sign not mine).

I for one, welcome our new MS flashy overlords, and let's face it-
in Soviet Redmond, Silverfish will plug YOU in!

From the MS website:
MS Firefox Plugin

MS notes that:
If you use the Firefox browser:
Save "insall.msi" to disk. Once the downloads completes click 'Open'.Installation will start.

Perhaps THIS will shut up some of you tiresome insallent MS bashers! Most of you appear to be in your /dotage anyhow.

A media format that uses non-free tools to edit, convert, or re-encode is a crap format (there are free tools for h.264). Yes, Microsoft does provide free editing/encoding tools for Windows Media. Windows Media is a crap format for other reasons (e.g. insufficient cross-platform support).

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/1345 0/13450.html
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/w indows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/if.mspx?mfr=true (search page for "nul")


It exists.

There is no "Media Edition". Vista is available in 5 SKUs: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. Ultimate and Home Premium contain Media Center. Enterprise and Ultimate contain BitLocker.

It is actually cross-platform. WPF/E or Silverlight, as it is now called, supports both Linux and Mac OS systems.

Go take a look at the Silverlight Downloads and tell us where the Linux download is. Mmkay?

Being one who came from Newspaper and Photography roots, I'd have to say that Adobe hasn't got a lot of room to talk when it comes to Monopolies. Granted, Microsoft is the big winner in that field.. but Adobe is set as a standard for basically every Graphics and Photo editing establishment on the planet. Not only that, they charge an ignorant amount for their software as well.

The only way that Microsoft can compete in this, would be to offer something with the same features and do it for a fraction of the cost. But, I've used most of the new Microsoft Graphic toys, and Adobe has nothing to worry about. They're very basic, and will get the job done for those who want an alternative. The web design pieces will be substantially cheaper than anything adobe has to offer, but I'm sure there are open-sauce versions that will have the same functionality.

Those who wish to check some of them out can visit http://connect.microsoft.com/ to see what I'm talking about.

This is another Microsoft (help I'm bleeding money) tactic. Recently Microsoft proclaimed it will end support for XP on January 31st 2008; this, a quick decisive 'squeeze as much blood out of the turnip before the turnip dries up' tactic which will keep money streaming in for Microsoft a little while longer: people will run out and buy whatever they need to keep on Microsoft-ing away.

Taken into consideration with this article on Florida bureaucracy out-bureaucracy-afied by Microsoft henchman.

And what of the empires (that'd be Microsoft) attempts in California? What about Texas and Minnesota-- Microsoft is there too?

Are our public (synonymous with open standard) bureaucrats bureaucratic enough to represent us and what is good for America?

Politicians/Bureaucrats are blind to the monopolistic efforts carried out by Microsoft -- maybe its time we elected some 'Slash dot-ers.'

The National Center for Women and Technology is funded by Microsoft and Avaya (which "specializes in call center technology", according to Wikipedia). This sounds like a keep-wages-down lobbying effort, like Microsoft's lobbying for more H1B visas.

Microsoft needs low-wage customer-paid armies of second-tier people to keep their software mess going. It's in their interest that computer science education be dumbed down.