Archive
Running Windows 3.1 in Browser!
Michaelv.org is coded in JavaScript and strict XHTML 1.0, with AJAX functionality provided through PHP. It has been tested for compatibility in Firefox and IE. Firefox 2 or 3 is highly recommended, but the site is almost entirely functional in IE 6, 7, or 8. Media Player does not work in IE as IE lacks the ability to dynamically instantiate <OBJECT>.
The file system is stored in SQL and is dynamic. File creation, renaming, deletion, reading, and writing can all be accomplished in real-time and with persistent results. However, for obvious reasons, visitors are not able to make changes to the file system in any way.
The goal of this site is not to create an entirely complete mirror image of Windows 3.1, but rather keep the spirit and omit features when they are not justified by an effort to usability ratio. For example, Notepad lacks a find and replace feature because it is not worth the effort. Where features do exist, every effort is made to present them in exactly the manner that they existed in Windows 3.1.
The developer has also endeavored to put plenty of features in which are not readily apparent, hopefully making the site a fun and long-lasting process of experimentation and discovery. For example, try pressing the keystroke for full screen mode in MS-DOS Prompt.
Disclaimer: The above post is extracted from Main -> Readme section of http://www.michaelv.org
Windows 7 RC is available for download!
Windows XP SP3 is on the way…
The service pack, the last major update to the six-year-old operating system, is slated for release sometime in the first half of 2008. Microsoft has not been more specific than that six-month stretch, and today even took the time to remind everyone that the half-year window is not a lock. “We are targeting [the first half of] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM [release to manufacturing], though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority,” a company spokeswoman said today.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 is twice as fast as Windows Vista in the OfficeBench benchmark program. 15,000 testers have been given Windows XP SP3 Release Candiate. It will feature over 1,000 hot fixes and patches which have been put out over the past three years and at least four new features.
Speedup your Windows XP computer in Minutes!
Found this wonderfull article which contains the tips to speed up the Windows XP computer without upgrading your hardware. To summarize, the following are the points discussed in this site:
1. Disable extra startup programs
2. Disable Extra Services
3. Adjust Display Settings
4. Remove Widgets and Background
5. Folder Browsing
6. Indexing Service
7. Size of Page File
8. Enable Direct Memory Access (DMA)
For complete details, please visit: Mobile-Pedia.com
Windows Hibernate – What it-eeeez?
Windows XP is used as sample for this article.
What is Hibernate?
When your computer hibernates, it stores whatever it has in memory to your hard disk and then shuts down. When your computer comes out of hibernation, it returns to its previous state.
Hibernation temporarily ‘freezes’ the computer when the PC becomes inactive, so it won’t work if you have tasks running constantly (eg downloading files). However it can be handy if you want the computer to sleep after a task has completed (such as creating a video).
OK, that’s the role of hibernation – so what is the hiberfil.sys file and why is it so big? Hibernation takes everything in memory and writes it to your hard drive as the hiberfil.sys file. If you have 512MB of memory, then hiberfil.sys will be about 512MB. If you have 1GB, the file will be around 1GB. The important point to remember is that even if you don’t use hibernation, hiberfil.sys will still take up this huge amount of disk space. The way to remove the file is to turn off the hibernation feature (by default, hibernate is activated automatically when XP is installed). Here’s how to do it:
=> Open the Windows Control Panel
=> Double-click Power Options
=> Click the Hibernate tab, de-select the ‘Enable hibernate support’ check box, and then click Apply.
=> Restart your computer and hiberfil.sys will be automatically deleted.
=> If you change your mind in the future and would like to use hibernation, go to the Windows Help & Support Center and search for ‘enable hibernation’. It should be the first result. The instructions detail some other steps you may need to follow to reactivate the hibernation.
Register & Unregister a DLL from Windows Explorer
Back in my developer days when I was building DLLs and OCXs, I was constantly registering and unregistering DLLs using the command line (find me a dev who isn’t a command line junkie – I still have two prompts open as I type this). As time’s gone on, I submitted to using Windows Explorer more and more to do things and (this is going back many years), someone told me how to setup a shell extension to DLLs to allow you to register and unregister them directly. I guess I kept that file around all these years and it’s useful to find it again now I’m installing test builds regularly. Hopefully, it’s obvious how this works when you see the registry file below. Simply save as xyzzy.reg and merge it into the registry.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dll]
@=”dllfile”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell]
@=”WIN_SYS”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\REG_32]
@=”Register”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\REG_32\command]
@=”regsvr32.exe %1″
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister]
@=””
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\Unregister\command]
@=”regsvr32.exe /u %1″
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ocx]
@=”dllfile”
Once you click on a DLL in Windows Explorer, you’ll see two new options to Register and Unregister DLLs. Normal disclaimer applys about messing up your registry if you choose to use this etc.
127.0.0.1 of Kamlesh Rao 