Windows Vista
Firefox Addon Tip: Easy Drag-to-Go
Jun 26th
Easy Drag-to-Go is a Firefox plug-in that will decidedly make you more productive by implementing mouse gestures when handling hyperlinks and text on web pages.
- Find this add-on here [Free].
Web browsing, to me – and I gather this goes for many people nowadays – has become something of a second nature. Not a day goes by without me surfing the web for something or other. It has just become a part of my life [style].
Everyone has different habits when it comes to the use of a computer, but generally – as I see it – there are two types of people. Firstly, there are keyboard-people who try to accomplish as much as they can using solely the keyboard by taking advantage of the multitude of keyboard shortcuts most operating systems and applications carry with them.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are mouse-people, who evidently accomplish most of their work by virtue of the mouse. I assume this group of people is far greater in size since it was the one that ignited the whole GUI-movement in software interfaces.
Web browsers are applications that require a hybrid interaction style, though, combining extensive keyboard use with mouse movements and clicks. While surfing the web, I personally like to keep one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. This way I can easily open new tabs using the various keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+T, Cmd+T) and move between tabs quickly (CTRL-TAB).
A big part of my web routine involves open links, obviously, and I prefer opening links in new tabs. This usually requires me to hold down the CTRL or CMD button while clicking a link (Windows-based browsers often allow the middle-mouse-click to achieve the same effect). While this is behavior I can easily get used to, I found a great Firefox Addon that handles all of my link opening and text searching by use of mouse gestures, which have increased my productivity exponentially.
‘Gesturing’ your way through
Easy Drag-to-Go is not your usual mouse gesture-enabling add-on. While traditional
gestures usually employ the right mouse-button to open new tabs, to go to the next/previous
tab and to close the current tab, Easy Drag-to-Go has a different take on gestures. Here’s how it works by default:
Opening links
To open a new tab you can simply do the following:
- Drag a link up to open the link in a new foreground tab
- Drag a link down to open the link in a new background tab
This dismisses the need to hold down a keyboard button to insure that a link opens in a new tab, and, you have to the choice to open something in the background in case you decide you want to deal with something later on.
Searching
Saw a word on a page you’d like to Google Search (or Bing Search!)? No need to retype it or copy-paste it into that search box! Just go ahead and select it. Once it’s selected:
- Drag the selected text up to search in a new foreground tab
- Drag the selected text down to search in a new background tab
This functionality is especially handy when researching stuff for your blog (or anything else).
Images: You can also assign the add-on to save dragged images to a default location on your hard drive.
Recommended!
How To: Tweak Firefox' look to fit into Vista/Windows 7
Apr 21st
One of the many features of Firefox 3 was native UI-integration on Windows XP, Vista, Mac and Linux. While Firefox’ Mac-version does look rather native, Mozilla completely dropped their efforts to take advantage of Windows Vista’s (or 7’s) Aero Glass effects.
Because Firefox has such a vibrant addon-community, you can achieve the effect below by using 1 custom theme and 2 add-ons:
The stuff you’ll need to achieve this look:
- The Theme: Strata Reloaded which you can find here.
Just hit the ‘Add to Firefox’-button, accept it and let it churn away. You may want to deny the restart, since we’re not done installing add-ons yet.
- Add-on 1: Glasser, download here.
While the theme above introduce prettier icons and the colored bar, Glasser makes Firefox’ chrome transparent like (Internet) Explorer windows. The latest version of Glasser is only compatible with the latest Firefox 3.1 beta. If you click the older version link, you can select the version that’s compatible with the latest stable version of Firefox.
- Add-on 2: Menu Mod, here.
You can hide the menu bar as Internet Explorer does by default by installing the Menu Mod add-on. Once installed, press F2 on the keyboard to toggle the menu bar’s visibility.
“Et voila, c’est tout” as the French say. It’s a pity Mozilla didn’t make this look the default one, it’s much nicer and certainly more native.
Many thanks to the respective theme/add-on developers.
Free App/Win: Advanced window management with MaxTo
Feb 24th
As screen sizes/resolutions continue to grow, more and more web users have stopped browsing the web in fullscreen mode. Since a lot of websites are designed in a fixed-sized fashion, they usually create humongous white space on either side of a site’s content pane. This is especially so at screen resolutions of 1680*1050 px and up.
Windows Vista has a just a few measures in place to order your windows in such a way that you can take advantage of your screen real-estate optimally. These measures are limited to stacking windows next to each other vertically and horizontally. With some manual juggling you can get the windows just right, but you’re bound to continually repeat yourself many a time since Windows doesn’t generally do a good job of remembering window positions (yes, even if you use the shift-click-close trick).
MaxTo is a free Windows app that has a more elegant take on efficient window management. This lightweight [free] piece of software provides a straightforward UI in which you can define so called “regions”. After having defined these, just place a window approximately within a region and hit the maximize-button. The window or dialog will maximize right up to the limits of the predefined region. This simple but ingenious concept will undoubtedly inspire a flurry of optimal workflows for your Windows PC. And if you do prefer a window to span the whole screen occasionally, just press and hold the shift key while maximizing a window.
- Download MaxTo from www.maxto.net (Windows only)
Click-Wheel Interface Coming to Windows 7?
May 26th
Update
Windows 7 eventually did not include anything like the concept laid out below. Perhaps you’re interested in my other Window 7 coverage?
It certainly seems so from the screenshots that have been popping up all over the internet lately. A lot of them are most likely souped up for conceptional purposes, but one thing certain returns steadily: the click-wheel-like interface. Usually the Windows Logo Orb is seated in the center of a wheel with numerous icons surrounding it. These images are by no means official, nor were they acknowledgded by Microsoft.
They’re certainly fancy looking, though I wonder about the practicalities of it. Translucencies in the user interface as a whole seem to be coming back, too, sometimes turning out nearly transparant, other times more opaque.
First look: Windows 95 !
Mar 28th
Windows 95, codenamed Chicago, has finally been released! It is the most exciting and promising release of the Windows Operating System ever. Along with it, Microsoft introduces 32-bit computing for the first time and with it, is planning to replace MS-DOS and Windows 3.1(1). At last, anyone with or without prior computing skills can easily step into the world of Windows without a steep learning curve.
GUI
But, most noticeably, Windows 95 introduces a major paradigm-shift with its revolutionary Graphical User Interface (further referred to as ‘GUI’). Windows’ exciting new GUI is ‘document-centric’ and far easier to use and understand than its predecessor ‘DOS’. Gone are the days of the command prompt. Point and click is the promising motto of Windows 95. The ‘Start’-button is the most prominent element in this concept, since it’s the central access hub to everything on your computer; from the Help-function, to the new Control Panel, to every single program you’ve ever installed.
Clicking the button invokes cascading menus to expand in a beveled style, like every other element in the renewed Windows user interface. Old Windows 3.1 application immediately adopt this refreshing look and fit right into their interesting new environment.
The gray bar that runs along the screen horizontally is also a new feature and is called the ‘taskbar’. It holds the Start-button, the task-buttons and the system-tray. Every running application is accompanied by a button, which allows decent multi-tasking for the first time. The system tray shows programs running in the background and the system clock at all times.
Every object can be interacted with: a left click usually selects an element, double clicking opens a document or starts a program and right clicking usually shows a contextual menu. Don’t know what a certain icon stands for? Right click it!
Desktop
Resembling a real desk, the Desktop is the home of numerous system icons, like ‘My Computer’ and ‘Network Neighborhood’. User created content and shortcuts can also be placed on the desktop, however. Shortcuts are icons that point to applications and files, making it easier to access them.
Great DOS-support
DOS is still an integral part of Windows, even though it’s initially used as a boot loader. Windows 95 has full support for DOS and can even run several command prompts at the same time, each in their own consolidated, configurable shell. You can choose to run DOS application windowed or more traditionally, in full screen. Run DOS and Windows 95 alongside each other for the best of both worlds!
Support for long filenames
Through the use of the VFAT file system, Windows finally allows support for long filenames. These can be up to 255 characters long (mixed case). Also, file extensions no longer need to be a mere 3 characters long. This support is confined to Windows 95 only, though, since this feature isn’t supported by DOS and earlier version of Windows. When encountered in these OSes, they’ll be truncated to their 8.3 cousins. For example: ‘Checklist for Trip to Venice.xls’ becomes ‘CHECKLIS.XLS’.
Plug and Play
Plug and Play or PnP is a technology that detects hardware automatically. Many peripherals can be automatically installed, doing away with the intricate hassle of driver-gathering and installation. These devices have to be especially equipped with this technology, though. Until it is broadly available, this feature will be greatly crippled. Fear not, new devices are being released as we speak.
Older computers are supported too, since the user can easily specify a driver for an unrecognized device.
Other improvements
The built-in Paint has been enhanced and WordPad has been introduced, which is pretty much a fully-fledged word processor and fully compatible with Word for Windows 6.0. An advanced media player has been included, along with support for full-motion video. Windows 95 is also deemed to be the most stable version of Windows ever, since 32-bit applications built for Windows 95 will not be able to crash the OS, as happened every so often in Windows 3.1. Full backwards compatibility has been retained, despite the completely new 32-bit platform. DOS and 3.1-era applications will continue to work flawlessly.
System Requirements
Microsoft recommends the following to run Windows 95 smoothly:
- Processor: 386DX or higher (486 recommended)
- RAM: 4 MB or more (8 MB recommended)
- HDD: 55+ MB
- Floppy: 3.5 inch high density
- Video: VGA or higher (256-color SVGA recommended)
And optionally:
- Microsoft Mouse of compatible
- Modem
- Soundcard and speakers
Windows 95 should run fine on Windows 3.1 era hardware, but better is recommended for optimal performance.
Conclusions
I’m very excited about this new OS, especially after the Windows 3.1(1) debacle. It’ll take a while before 32-bit computing becomes mainstream, but Windows 95 will be at the frontline. Who knows what greatness the next version of Windows will bring us!
Now, let us return to 2008…
Vista Setup Error: 0xE0000100. Huh?
Mar 22nd
In the light of Microsoft’s release of Windows Vista’s first Service Pack, I was inspired to finally format my laptop’s hard drive. I had been using it non-stop since September. My laptop, a Dell XPS M1710, thankfully shipped with a Vista DVD, as opposed to the usual ‘recovery partition’. I popped in the disc and rebooted.
A few dialog boxes in, right before I was able to select a partition for Windows to inhabit, Setup exclaimed with great fanfare:
Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation. Error code: 0xE0000100
And.. That’s it. No Vista for me, I reckoned. In search of solutions (of which I found none), I ended up doing some research on this glitch in the Windows Vista installation process. It turns out this exception doesn’t pop up very often due to its extensive prerequisite conditions (taken from Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article):
Install media is based on an image the manufacturer created.
The manufacturer used the System Preparation tool (Sysprep) to create this image.
The hard drive is partitioned into 2 or more partitions.
The Windows partition is larger than 40 GB.
The size of the partition is a multiple of 4 GB.
Admittedly, these are a lot of prerequisites, which explains why so few on the Internet have encountered it, let alone found a solution. Nonetheless, many people buy pre-manufactured computers, especially in the realm of laptops, so the vector for this issue is larger than you think.
Microsoft’s bogus fix
Here’s the funny part.
Microsoft proposes the following solution: a hotfix to the DVD image. Great, but the catch here is that normal consumers are incapable of making such modifications to the image. Only official system builders, who own of the appropriate software – acquired from Microsoft, through their licensing program – are able to make these alterations.
This basically translates into: tough luck. You’re pretty much left in the cold with this largely undocumented issue.
It turns out, though, that Microsoft isn’t entirely to blame.
P.S.: In case you’re interested, this hotfix has to be requested from Microsoft through a special form. Just for the heck of it, I made an attempt at getting my hands on it. Of course, my request got denied fairly rapidly.
Solution
After having mucked around for a couple of hours, I came to the conclusion that Dell’s custom MediaDirect partition (their pathetic attempt at media center software) was invoking this. It somehow managed to corrupt the partition table, rendering Setup incapable of reading it.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to solve this. First off, check whether your computer/laptop is still eligible for warranty. If so, you can take a chance at trying to repartition the drive (this is what I did):
- If you still have access to a working version of Vista, be sure to try out Windows’ own partition manager and remove the conflicting partition. I don’t guarantee this’ll work, but it’s worth a shot, since it can be done while Windows is running. At this point, make sure you have BACK-UPS.
Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management (left pane) - In case you don’t have access to Windows, try a third-party partitioning app. A great open-source one is GParted. This is a 50 Meg live-cd that can be downloaded for free. Again, this may not work and you may need to try a whole slew of other software.
You can also (try to) request a new install DVD from your manufacturer. Most are hesitant to this, though, so be prepared. They’re most likely going to charge you an unreasonable amount of money or brush you off entirely.
If all else fails, you could also try to request a new hard drive to replace the defective one.
And meanwhile?
If you’re unlucky and you have to wait for a new install disc or hard drive, you might still be able to use your computer in the meantime. Without Windows. You could try to install a flavor of Linux. It’s free and not by any means perfect (like Windows), but it gets the job done fine. I’d suggest you try Ubuntu Linux, the most popular Linux distribution of this time. It’s newbie-friendly and loaded up with a lot of stuff to get you going. You may like it. And in case you run into trouble, there’s a great community waiting to save your ass, any time of day/night.
If you’re one of the lucky ones to have encountered this error, I’m curious to hear from you!
Vista Tip: Multiple clocks
Feb 15th
In this inter-connected world it’s sometimes hard to keep track of time — literally. With international communication spanning across the entire globe, you’re able to talk to people you’d probably never encountered without it. The only culprit to real-time communication is the differing time zones, though. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to keep track of multiple zones at the same time?
In Vista, there are at least two ways of incorporating this.
The first one is to use the Windows Sidebar. There’s a variety of gadgets available, amongst them various clocks. You’re not limited to one clock! Place as many as you are able to deal with on a day-to-day basis. The only prerequisite here is that you must be a Windows Sidebar user (and some resources to spare, perhaps). It does take up some screen real-estate, so it might not be suitable for normal aspect monitors (4:3 — as opposed to 16:9).
For those who don’t share an affinity with the sidebar, there’s also a built-in option that integrates with the system clock. Make the system clock visible by clicking on the the clock in the taskbar. Then, select the "Change date and time settings" link. Choose the "Additional Clocks" tab and voilà. Windows allows you to add two auxiliary timezones alongside . They’ll be displayed next to your local time when you click on the clock.
Vista Tip: Customize the Favorite Links in Explorer
Jan 23rd
As a power user I greatly value every effort to simplify common tasks like file operations and other every day stuff. Copying and moving files/folder is one of those things and Windows XP used to do a great job at this with its dynamic ‘File and Folder Tasks’ side-pane. I got used to the fact that these shortcuts appropriately adapt to whichever file type is under your cursor and presents you with a list accordingly. Until…
The new Explorer Shell in Vista incorporated a lesser dynamic sidebar that limits your options to well-known shell destinations like Documents, Music and Searches. The horizontal blue-greenish bar that runs across the window allows for some dynamic behavior, yet it’s limited to only opening stuff with certain applications.
Out of the box, there’s not much you can tag on outside of your own Favorite Links. Which, in retrospect, could come in handy.
- Open up an Explorer Window, right click on some empty space and select ‘Open Favorite Links Folder’
- Add new links by right clicking in an empty spot and selecting New > Shortcut
- Follow the Wizard and presto!
The shortcut be anything, not just folders.
Vista Tip: Remember Window Positions and Sizes
Jan 18th
If you’re set in your ways, like me and many others, it might bug you that windows and applications seemingly always return to their default position and size after having closed them. Windows XP used to do a great job at this and Vista certainly didn’t lose this capability, although it might seem that way sometimes.
A quick fix:
- In an Explorer Window, make sure you have Vista remember Window Settings:
- Select ‘Remember each folder’s view settings’ in the ‘View’ tab:
Sometimes Vista still forgets the position.
In that case press and hold CTRL while clicking the Close-button and all should be well again.
Vista Trick: Multiple Selects with Checkboxes
Jan 5th
You can select multiple files and folders in different ways. Dragging a box around them with your mouse is one of them. Selecting one and using the arrow keys in conjunction with SHIFT is another. Clicking and dragging with a touchpad hasn’t proven handy and needs some precise fingerwork. There’s a way to make it easier if you’re stuck with a trackpad or just prefer handy clickitry.
Windows Vista has the option to make selections using checkboxes familiar from webpages alike. This feature isn’t enabled by default, but is reachable in just 2 steps. Here’s how to:
- Open an Explorer Window, it doesn’t matter which, and click through
Organize > Folder and Search Options
- Click the View-tab and look for
‘Use check boxes to select items’
- That’s it!
