Posts Tagged ‘ windows xp

HARC 1 - Vista Tips for the Average User 01 May 2008 at 4:35 pm by Jason 311 views

Welcome to the first edition of my Helpful Article Corner (HARC)! I think once a week I’ll post some articles that you can read that will all fit a common theme of some sort. This will be different than my daily links, as those are just random interesting links that I’ve come across each day or so, and these will be articles I’ve chosen over the week that all fit a common theme! So sit back, enjoy, and let’s see how this goes!

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Today’s topic will be “Vista Tips for the Average User.”

As you may know, Windows Vista is the brand new Operating System for your home PC that was released by Microsoft as the long awaited successor to Windows XP. A lot of people have expressed concern over Windows Vista and it has caused a lot of grief, as it is very different from XP and most of the support is quite technical in nature. Here to help you along are some great articles, written for non-technical people, that should help with some of the questions surrounding the new OS.

Tips for installing Windows Vista on your computer

You’ve had your eye on Windows Vista since it debuted and now that you know you can make your desktop look pink, shiny and have bubbles floating around as your screen saver you have every intention of spending your next bonus to ensure you get your very own copy of Vista as soon as you can. Your only concern now is if your three year old computer can handle a Vista installation and if you will be able to install it on your own. [Click to Read More]

Tips for starting your computer faster with Vista

We’ve all been there…sitting at our computer desk, waiting, tapping impatiently for our computer to finish restarting so we can continue playing our favorite game. It’s terribly frustrating to watch your computer begin to start up only to have to wait another ten minutes for it to be usable, but thankfully for all of us impatient people in the world, there are ways to decrease the amount of time it takes for your Windows Vista computer to start up. [Click to Read More]

Using parental controls in Windows Vista

As parents, we now have to worry about not only strangers approaching our children at school or on the playground, but we also have to be concerned about strangers approaching our children online. With social networking sites, emails, and role playing games abundant on the internet it can be incredibly difficult to track our child’s movements and protect them. With the parental control feature found in Windows Vista, we can use our operating system to help monitor our children online, keep them from sites that as parents we feel are unsafe, and even keep them offline when they have too much school work to do! [Click to Read More]

Using Windows Vista System Restore

At one time or another we’ve all installed a program or opened an email with a virus that caused our computer to blue screen with random errors or simply operate at a snail’s pace. It can happen to the novice computer user or even the skilled technical support guru and thankfully Microsoft knows this and plans for it. [Click to Read More]

How to downgrade from Vista to XP

If you are one of the many computer users who have been using Windows Vista only to find yourself unhappy with it’s features and your computer’s performance, you still have the ability to downgrade to Windows XP. As long as you own your own Windows XP version on a CD, the process is simple. [Click to Read More]

There you have it! Five articles for the maiden voyage of our new Weekly segment! I hope you all enjoy this, and if you have any suggestions, please let me know!



+ Windows XP SP3 Released to Windows Update! By Jason 29 April 2008 at 12:58 pm 431 views 1 Comment

From Neowin.net & Bink.nu:

Windows XP SP3 is finally here for those that use Windows Update, and here is a direct link to the stand-alone version of SP3 for x86 XP systems (32 bit). Thanks Bink! Neowin reader WindowsNT says: “There won’t be a 64bit version until Windows Server 2003 hits SP3 since they share the same code base.”

Here is an interesting article regarding SP3 performance, ignoring the fact that Vista SP1 is still faster than XP SP2/SP3 users will enjoy a performance boost over SP2. When will people learn that Vista ain’t all bad!

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system.

Links:

Download Direct: Stand-alone installer for Windows XP SP3 English, 32 Bit (316 MB)

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 for Chinese Traditional, 32 Bit Systems

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 for Spanish, 32 Bit Systems (308 MB)

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 for German, 32 Bit Systems (313 MB)

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 for Polish, 32 Bit Systems

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 for French, 32 Bit Systems

Or just use Microsoft Update: Service Pack 3 for Windows XP via Windows Update (Size varies)

Again, from Neowin:

Known issues:
On some hardware configurations, you may encounter the Windows XP SP3 BSoD Endless Reboot Loop with Stop c0000139 on GDI32.dll Error, follow this guide to repair your XP installation. Thanks daPhoenix for the tip!

Also, if you need the Uxtheme.dll, you can use my patch (it’s English Only):

Download Direct: Windows XP SP3 Modified Uxtheme.dll for English Systems

Have fun updating, everyone!



+ Windows XP SP3 RTM Uxtheme.dll By Jason 23 April 2008 at 4:45 pm 5,599 views 13 Comments

For those who have updated their system to Windows XP SP3 RTM and need the patched uxtheme.dll, here you go:

Uxtheme for Windows XP SP3 RTM (fixed Checksum)

I hacked it myself and it is indeed the RTM (v5512) file, not one of the Release Candidates. An easy way to patch it is using the program “Replacer“! As with most things, buyer beware… if this kills your PC, sorry! Here’s a screenshot of it doing just fine on my machine:

Uxtheme 5512

Uxtheme 5512

Enjoy!

UPDATE - Now with Checksum goodness!



+ Microsoft has released the dates of Windows XP SP3! By Jason 15 April 2008 at 4:18 pm 157 views No Comments

Taken from Neowin.net:

With Service Pack 3 for Windows XP just over the horizon, we’ve managed to get our hands on the internal schedule for the release of the highly anticipated update to the aging operating system. As you can see in the list below, most of the stages will occur before the end of the month, though forced automatic updates won’t land until June. This delay should give system administrators an ample amount of time to prepare for the upgrade or simply come up with an excuse for when things go awry.

  • April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
  • April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
  • April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
  • June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates

Good news, everyone! SP3 will most likely be the last service pack for XP, and man, it’s been a long time coming! :D Spread the word!



+ A System Call That Should Never Fail has Failed By Jason 25 March 2008 at 6:16 pm 355 views No Comments

I know it’s a small post, but I just had to call your attention to this post on TechBlog

Whoops!

How awesome is that? Click the link above for a bigger screenshot and some good info (also a link to some humorous fake error messages).  Oh, and for those thinking it’s a fake error message, Microsoft would like to talk to you:

WSASYSCALLFAILURE
10107
System call failure.
A system call that should never fail has failed. This is a generic error code, returned under various conditions.

Returned when a system call that should never fail does fail. For example, if a call to WaitForMultipleEvents fails or one of the registry functions fails trying to manipulate the protocol/namespace catalogs.

Returned when a provider does not return SUCCESS and does not provide an extended error code. Can indicate a service provider implementation error.

The truth is funnier than fiction sometimes… it also should act as a lesson to people who write and define error messages.  :lol: