[geek]nerd[/geek]

[Dark_Silence]

I'm lazy and nervous when it gets to big changes to my system, so I was looking for explanations and quick fixes.

i dont know about explanations most of the time, when nothing works anymore on my computer, i format everything, because i ind it quicker than trying 1000 things that dont work and looking on every forum for help.
Especially that with win xp and vista, it is easy to format. The only annoying thing about it is that it always takes hours to reinstall all the programs and games after.

Did you change something in your hardware?

 

[rahvin]

i dont know about explanations most of the time, when nothing works anymore on my computer, i format everything, because i ind it quicker than trying 1000 things that dont work and looking on every forum for help.
Especially that with win xp and vista, it is easy to format. The only annoying thing about it is that it always takes hours to reinstall all the programs and games after.

Did you change something in your hardware?

No, no changes since I bought this machine in January 2007. No formats since then either.
For me it's not the applications and games (I play one or two for about six months and I usually don't care about keeping them longer) but I'm a little anal about having the main programs run with tons of personalization. I should just take the chance and switch to Vista so I don't get pissy about putting everything back "as it was" and let myself flow on the waves of change.

 

[DisplayofCharacter]

I should just take the chance and switch to Vista so I don't get pissy about putting everything back "as it was" and let myself flow on the waves of change.

I run Vista and haven't had any problems with it. I am more of a gamer type when it comes to computing, so I wanted the DX10 support as well as the knowledge that I won't have to upgrade and pay more later for a system I was going to eventually need. Upgrading, from what I've heard, can be tricky for older systems, but yours sounds plenty competent. I don't have experience upgrading - I installed Vista on essentially a blank hard drive after I built my computer. Now more than ever Windows walks the user through everything so it should be very easy. The only problem is:

A) Vista eats RAM like its candy because of some superfluous graphical interfaces. It tries to look "more prettier" (and it generally is, but not by a lot) while chomping up resources. I have most of the effects disabled and it still takes between 20%-30% of my 2 gigs of RAM at any given time.

B) The cost! I used a system builder disk and it was still around 80$ USD, if I remember correctly. I don't know if that is much of a deterrent because XP still costs around that anyway.

Vista does sometimes baby you but by and large I don't find it annoying, and its been stable (for the most part, no BSODs yet, but one or two hiccups). Plus Service Pack One is supposed to be released later this year. Its at a point where if you're going to go the Microsoft route, Vista is actually starting to make sense.

 

[Dark_Silence]

i got my copy of vista for free from some institute of my previous university

I havent had any major problems with it. I had to buy a new motherboard because the chip on my old one wasnt supported anymore and it was not very likely i would get drivers for vista (without the driver, i couldnt use the aero interface). Then i had to reinstall vista because it wouldnt start up with the new board, and finally reactivate it.
sometimes there are still some programs that freeze, but not much, and i dont see why people complained so much at first.

I didnt upgrade either. Once again, i formated the hard drive and then installed Vista.

But i really want to buy a second hard drive to test linux. I currently have kubuntu installed on the old computer at my parents, and i had a rather positive impression about it. Now i would like to test it on a better computer. it will probabily be annoying with my ATI graphic card, because the drivers for linux are crappy (ati doesnt or didnt want to give away their work for free developpers). What i like with linux is the software packages... no need to buy expensive softawres or to look for some cracked version of it (ok only thing i will miss is MS office, because i hate openoffice.org) . But i still need windows for the games. I wish they'd run on linux without having to use emulation...

 

[hyena]

I currently have kubuntu

my pick too.

 

[Siren]

Edit: Took a quick look at that software's features... I do have a generic cleanup program (the freeware CleanUp! application) and the aforementioned registry cleaner (can't remember the name). I'll get Tune-Up anyway, though, it's worth a check. I would really love to at least get an error message for those processes not starting.

I use that too, usually the 1-click-maintenance feature every now and then. Typically it will give me a few tens of registry problems and it will fix them too.

 

[Salamurhaaja]

Oh I'm having so much fun with my new laptop *sarcasm*

Windows Vista is pretty fucking painful, but I think I'm getting the hang of it, if only
I could get it to understand that I wanna install my drivers and software in english
and still have my swedish keyboard, other than that it's getting there, gonna install
all the shit with a UK keyboard and then switch to swedish when I'm done.

Maybe there is so cheat to this, but I installed it the same way as XP and the damn
language options work differently for some reason.

In a way this is good, cos I could use the Vista "experience" for work, but then again...

I do love the keyboard on this laptop, it's very similar to the one I've been using for a
while now, Logitech Ultra Flat, except it has a bit less feedback. And of course I finally
got to bust out my new Razer DeathAdder, which is just WOW, can't get a better mouse
anywhere if you ask me and if you claim anything else, you haven't tried it.

Now if only the Windows Vista Explorer was anywhere near as good as the XP one, I'd
be happy, I wouldn't call most things in Vista upgrades anyway, it kinda feels like they
took the worst parts of XP and some random Linux distro and mashed them together to
create something truly horrifying.

Next up is intalling foobar2000 and hope I get it to work like it did on XP, after that, I do
believe it's time for a break for some HL2, BioShock and maybe I get me a copy of COD4
again, been a while since I've had a machine this powerful, gonna be fun to see how they
look in max graphics and max resolution, which btw is 1920x1200 on a 17" monitor, it gets
a bit small, but I can still work everything fine, maybe I'm not that old yet.

 

[Matse]

And of course I finally got to bust out my new Razer DeathAdder, which is just WOW, can't get a better mouse
anywhere if you ask me and if you claim anything else, you haven't tried it.

I prefer the Logitech mouses. I have tried both.

Next up is intalling foobar2000 and hope I get it to work like it did on XP

http://neugablonz.de/index.php?seite=foobar2000
Designs by a friend of mine and imo the best there are.

 

[rahvin]

I'm in a somewhat similar situation, planning to install Vista on three machines in the next month (one at work and two at home). I'm going to do all the inevitable troubleshooting at work - so at least I get paid for shouting angrily at the computer - and write down the trickiest passages of customization needed to make it work like I want it to. It should probably come as no surprise to those who know me that I can be a little... anal about personalization.
Then I'll repeat the process at home on an older machine (hoping it can stand the OS), and finally transfer all the changes on my main computer, hoping I'll be spared the worst of the headache.

I'll have to set it up so that everything is in English but working with an Italian keyboard, so I'll let you know if I find a quick way to fix this. I'll be using Vista Ultimate SP1, by the way. I remember installing it once before and not having any particular issue with the language aspect of it, though.

And I'm likewise interested in a good foobar2000 configuration (thanks Matse for the tip, I raise you this ) but all the best ones require playlist files which I don't use as of now (and therefore ought to create in big numbers).

I wrote down a list of applications I plan to install on the new machines. Most of them I'm already using and satisfied with. I'm posting it for everyone's amusement. Feel free to: (a) suggest additions or substitutions based on your experience; (b) not mention the obvious clues to my shameful life of digital crime.


WINDOWS VISTA SP1

ADOBE READER 9 - freeware

CLEANUP! 4.5.2 - freeware

DOSBOX 0.72 - freeware

EMULE 0.49a - freeware

GOOGLE EARTH 4.3 (beta) - freeware

K-LITE CODEC PACK 3.9.5 - freeware

IRFANVIEW 4.1 – freeware

PATHSYNC 0.35 – freeware

KEEPASS 1.11 – freeware

CCLEANER 2.9 – freeware

REGSEEKER 1.55 – freeware

AD-AWARE 2008 7.1.0.8 - freeware

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007

MIRC 6.31

FIREFOX 3.0 - freeware

[Extensions: Download Statusbar 0.9.6.1
TabMix Plus 0.3.6
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.0.45]


THUNDERBIRD 2.0.0.14 - freeware

NERO 8 8.0.3.0

TWEAKVI 1.0 1085 - shareware

REAL ALTERNATIVE 1.80 - freeware

WINAMP 5.53 - freeware

[Plug-ins: Album list 2.06]

FOOBAR2000 0.9.5.4 – freeware

[Plug-ins: http://www.fooblog2000.com/category/config/config-fofr]

TAG&RENAME 3.4.6

EXACT AUDIO COPY 0.99 prebeta 4 - freeware

LAME 3.97 - freeware

HIJACK THIS! 2.00 - freeware

PUTTY 0.60 - freeware

UTORRENT 1.7.7 - freeware

WINZIP PRO 11.2

WINRAR 3.71

DVD SHRINK 3.2.0.15 - freeware

IZARC 3.81 - freeware

DAEMON TOOLS LITE 4.12.4 - freeware

SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY 1.5.2 - freeware

4T TRAY MINIMIZER 4.40 - freeware

UNLOCKER 1.8.7 - freeware

VDMSOUND 2.1 - freeware

VISTAGLAZZ 1.0 – freeware

EVEREST ULTIMATE 4.50

SPEEDFAN 4.34 - freeware

DC++ 0.707 - freeware

DVD REGION + CSS FREE 5.9.8.5

ITUNES 7.6 + QUICKTIME 7.4.5 - freeware

MP3 GAIN 1.2.5 - freeware

ACOUSTICA CD LABEL MAKER 3.17

WAVE STUDIO - freeware

CREATIVE WAVE STUDIO 5 – freeware

NOKIA PC SUITE 6.86 - freeware

CHROME GLASS MOUSE POINTERS - freeware

PHOTOSHOP CS3 EXTENDED
DEFRAGGLER 1.02 – freeware

DIRECT VOBSUB 2.37 – freeware

JR DIRECTORY PRINTER – freeware

 

[Salamurhaaja]

ADOBE READER 9

Switch to Foxit PDF Reader, it's about 5000 times less bloaty than
the Adobe pile of crap, yeah, I don't like Adobe.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

EMULE 0.49a

If you're already using uTorrent, which btw sucks, why do you even
bother with this crap? Also get rid of DC++ already.

GOOGLE EARTH 4.3 (beta)

Don't install Google Spyware, it's useless shit anyway.

FIREFOX 3.0

[Extensions:
Download Statusbar 0.9.6.1
TabMix Plus 0.3.6
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.0.45]

You're missing the most important extensions, AdBlock Plus, NoScript
and All-in-on Gestures.

WINZIP PRO11.2

WINRAR 3.71

IZARC 3.81

Why all 3 when the last one is all you need?


As for foobar, I don't use themes, since I run mine always minimized, but
I do have some mods for it and last time it was kinda painful to fix.

 

[Dark_Silence]

rahvin: add VLC media player to your list, it is a lot better than Window$ Media Player, it can play anything without downloading any codecs, even ntsc dvds without changing anything in your dvd player (they dont work with Window$ Media Player, )

Switch to Foxit PDF Reader, it's about 5000 times less bloaty than
the Adobe pile of crap, yeah, I don't like Adobe.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php




If you're already using uTorrent, which btw sucks, why do you even
bother with this crap?

what do you use instead of utorrent? I used to have azureus before, but i thought it slowed down my pc when it was on, so i choose utorrent instead

 

[rahvin]

Switch to Foxit PDF Reader, it's about 5000 times less bloaty than
the Adobe pile of crap, yeah, I don't like Adobe.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

I've heard many, many people complain about Adobe's pdf reader, but I've never had any trouble with it. Maybe I just didn't need the memory it was stealing from right under my nose. I'll give your option a try.

If you're already using uTorrent, which btw sucks, why do you even
bother with this crap? Also get rid of DC++ already.

I don't use uTorrent a lot, because I seldom download torrents. The reason why I still use Emule is because some stuff I do look for fairly often is indexed on certain sites by emule link, and so far I haven't had much luck finding the same material on torrent sites. DC++ I keep for the odd occasion when I misplaced a single mp3 rolleyes and I'm looking for it specifically.

Don't install Google Spyware, it's useless shit anyway.

Do you mean that I should avoid installing Google stuff that comes with the application, or are you saying anything Google is spyware? I'm sure not as alert as you when it comes to privacy handling and information sending, so if it's just a matter of Google knowing I frequently look at satellite images of Sweden and using the information I probably don't mind. I might worry if there's more to it, though.

You're missing the most important extensions, AdBlock Plus, NoScript
and All-in-on Gestures.

Thanks for mentioning #2 and #3, I'll get them asap. As for AdBlock Plus, I remember trying it a couple of years ago and realizing it was blocking things I didn't want it to, or messing with certain pages. Is it worth to try again? I'm not overly annoyed by any pop-ups on the sites I frequent.

Why all 3 when the last one is all you need?

You're right. The first two are leftovers from when the latter wasn't on the list due to me not knowing about it.

 

[rahvin]

rahvin: add VLC media player to your list, it is a lot better than Window$ Media Player, it can play anything without downloading any codecs, even ntsc dvds without changing anything in your dvd player (they dont work with Window$ Media Player, )

I'm using Windows Media Player Classic, though: meaning the small .exe file you can find on a number of sites. It does play more or less anything I've ever thrown at it and it's not annoying at all, so I don't have a good reason to change. You're certainly right about WMP 11 or whatever number it has got to by now.

 

[Dark_Silence]

I'm using Windows Media Player Classic, though: meaning the small .exe file you can find on a number of sites. It does play more or less anything I've ever thrown at it and it's not annoying at all, so I don't have a good reason to change. You're certainly right about WMP 11 or whatever number it has got to by now.

yeah, i was talking about WMP 11, which i never use

 

[Salamurhaaja]

I've heard many, many people complain about Adobe's pdf reader, but I've never had any trouble with it. Maybe I just didn't need the memory it was stealing from right under my nose. I'll give your option a try.

Do that, it's not that the Adobe takes a lot of memory, it's more that it takes
5000 hours to turn on cos it loads totally useless shit. Foxit loads almost
instantly and it's not that I don't have the time, but I just want speed from
most things these days.

I don't use uTorrent a lot, because I seldom download torrents. The reason why I still use Emule is because some stuff I do look for fairly often is indexed on certain sites by emule link, and so far I haven't had much luck finding the same material on torrent sites. DC++ I keep for the odd occasion when I misplaced a single mp3 rolleyes and I'm looking for it specifically.

If you were on a proper torrent site (and no, PirateBay is not one) you would
find anything you need. I'm on 3 private sites and I've never had any issues
finding anything I might need.

Do you mean that I should avoid installing Google stuff that comes with the application, or are you saying anything Google is spyware? I'm sure not as alert as you when it comes to privacy handling and information sending, so if it's just a matter of Google knowing I frequently look at satellite images of Sweden and using the information I probably don't mind. I might worry if there's more to it, though.

Well, this all depends on how you look at it, of course, but I find Googles
privacy policies so lacking that I don't even accept cookies from any of their
sites and they did have these "super-cookies" back in the day, along with
what most people would call spyware on their programs.
Frankly I don't trust when they say they only follow your browsing habits to
give you better ads and shit (another reason to hate the fuckers).
Haven't really looked into it late, so not sure if that is still going on, but it
wouldn't surprise me at all.

Thanks for mentioning #2 and #3, I'll get them asap. As for AdBlock Plus, I remember trying it a couple of years ago and realizing it was blocking things I didn't want it to, or messing with certain pages. Is it worth to try again? I'm not overly annoyed by any pop-ups on the sites I frequent.

AdBlock Plus is a different extension from AdBlock and as long as you don't
mess with the settings too much (maybe defaults even), the pages will look
fine, except it will be missing all those flashing banners and other pointless
crap that you definetly won't miss. It doesn't really do anything to popups,
that is build into Firefox these day anyway.

You're right. The first two are leftovers from when the latter wasn't on the list due to me not knowing about it.

Ah, figured it was something of that nature, I haven't even looked at WinRAR
since I found Iz, no point really.


I'm fairly happy now, I switched my keyboard to Swedish, so now I have much
easier time typing and so forth. Also copied all my music from the external HD
to the comp, now I still need to install foobar and maybe some games to test
the system out, I already found a Vista driver/SW for my Nostromo, so that
makes me a happy boy.

Still a lot of shit to do here.

I'm not sure if I'll keep the stand I have for it, I kinda like it, but maybe I can
just use the docking station part of it, the monitor is a bit high, so I will have
to see how my neck likes it.

Another thing I don't find too much fun is that the reply box on forums, like
here, is like 400x400 pixels or something, I could have a lot bigger one and
maybe it wouldn't scroll like crazy.

 

[rahvin]

more suggestions

Thanks. Going to follow your advice on every count except for the Google part. I trust/respect your stance concerning trackers and all, but I just don't think I'm the kind of person who would consistently remember to be mindful and wary of that. I browse a lot (and probably recklessly), I buy stuff online from commercial sites, I rarely register for or subscribe to anything, and I don't think I've had a case of aggressive spyware in two years: as long as I'm good I'll naively believe my applications are all trustworthy.

As for all the p2p stuff, I guess I'll send you a PM later.

 

[Salamurhaaja]

As for all the p2p stuff, I guess I'll send you a PM later.

Feel free, I think I have invites left on at least one of the sites, the most
generic one that has a bit of everything.

 

[plintus]

Just got this baby:

 

[Salamurhaaja]

I'll get me a camera from work after I come back from Finland and I can show a pic of my new laptop,
it's pretty sweet. And now that I've used it in the stand for a couple of days I've gotten used to it
and my neck is not suffering, so all is good.

Now I still need to work on some programs, foobar is installed but some mods I have for it are not
working exactly as they should, nothing major, but an update might work wonders, I just copied the
stuff from my XP machine to this Vista machine, should be surprised it actually works.
Then again, it's not coded my Microsoft people

 

[plintus]

Now I still need to work on some programs, foobar is installed but some mods I have for it are not working exactly as they should, nothing major, but an update might work wonders, I just copied the stuff from my XP machine to this Vista machine, should be surprised it actually works. Then again, it's not coded my Microsoft people

I'm not switching to Vista for a while, at least on a work machine, as I need to run DTP software which is not supported under Vista (Adobe had to release a new version, and I still required to work with the old one).

BTW, just got to know that Crysis can be tweaked the way to run Ultra-High and most of DX10 features on DX9, want to try that one out tonight/tomorrow