Something new for Windows 8...

Here's something new for Windows 8 from Julien Manici, who brought us that great Windows 7 Logon Background Changer. This replaces Windows Explorer,
or as it's now called File Explorer...

This is the webpage explaining it....

And here's what it looks like. I hasten to add that this is still in beta, and if you start it up and get an error message saying that it couldn't open the Language file, I found a fix for that. Open the language file (shown as 'en') and copy it in Notepad and file it as a .txt file. Then when you click on the program's icon, all is well, and it opens just like Julien intended it to do. And as you see, it's got a very compatible Windows 8 look to it. The idea here being that you shouldn't have to fumble around through a folder system when you want your own files.
This organizes it all quite handily. It's still in development, but it promises to be a winner... And if it's anything like the Logon Background Changer, it will be. 

Here it is showing my screenshots folder contents.....

And here's what happens when you roll the mouse wheel for zooming in or out.
You can get really close to your work. This is a part of Julien's web page above, showing one of the things it can do. I think it's going to be a winner....

And I lied - sorry about that - it's still in Alpha, not in Beta, but it's doing nicely.
You should try it. (Mighty Microsoft, please note!)

Tweaking your Windows 8...

Here's where to get Classic Shell

Here's where to get 8gadgetpack.

Windows 8 vs Windows 8.1: and the winner is...

For my money, and it was my money, the winner is Windows 8, for several reasons, not least of which is that we can repair or replace our Windows 8 with the media we created while installing it.  I can't do that with the on-line upgrade for Windows 8.1.  Both systems of course contain Windows Resource Checker, better known perhaps as 'sfc', as in 'sfc /scannow'.....

But this only works when its store of correct system files in its backup remains uncontaminated. If you're trying to repair or replace corrupted system files, and the ones it is depending on are also incomplete or corrupted, there's nothing it can do for you. And that, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with Windows 8.1, because we don't have any external hard copy of the media to use for repair.
And we shouldn't have to buy the program all over again to get that media.

There was a lot of howling about Windows 8 when it came out, because it didn't have the traditional Start button in the lower left corner, and users couldn't be bothered reading the directions and finding the new location for all that under Settings > Power (Sleep/Shut down/Restart) on the Start Screen. So I've told here how to make your own shortcuts for Reboot and Shutdown on the Desktop.
Where I'm going with all this is that with a little tweaking, you can dress up your Windows 8 with tricks like that, and with free programs like Classic Shell, which restores the Start Button/Menu and etc., and 8gadgetpack, which restores and increases the number of desktop gadgets in its Windows Sidebar, as shown in my screenshots here. The Sidebar itself can be hidden by right-clicking on it, and selecting that option, and there's three pages of gadgets instead of one.
So Windows 8 can be made to do whatever your little heart desires, if only you spend a little time dressing it up. 

And the good news is, that's really worth it, because you can fix it when it breaks, unlike Windows 8.1 and its no-ISO on-line installation. Speaking of which, Microsoft could fix that, by linking Windows Resource Checker with Windows Updates and confirming the legitimacy of your Key Codes before allowing on-line replacement of faulty or missing system files. And if I can think of this solution, why couldn't Mighty Microsoft? That's my Question Everything for today, Folks....

The CPU graph in Windows 8...

This isn't jumping up and down every couple of seconds and overheating the Processor for nothing, like was happening in Windows 8.1, and there's got to be an explanation for all that, if Microsoft wants to dig into it. Getting their attention isn't easy though, and there's not a lot in it for me anyway. It's easier for me to just dump the faulty one and go back to something I know works. And 110 updates later, this Windows 8 is working very nicely, prompting me to wonder why Windows 8.1 couldn't do that, with 35,000 Microsofties to work on it for months and months. Doesn't anyone know how to play this game? Sometimes, I really wonder.... 

And speaking of wondering, when they do get an operating system that really works, like Windows 7, or its Service Pack Two which they're calling Windows 8,why don't they just polish it up a little instead of starting on a whole other thing with all its attendant headaches and pains in the posterior? Would that be too sensible, or what?

Here's the Windows 8 ready for action...

This is just some of the things you can do to dress up Windows 8 for a nicer look and so today's Question Everything is "Who needs Windows 8.1?" - Not me!

Goodbye, Windows 8.1 - Hello, Windows 8 Pro

I did it, and I'm glad - glad, I tell you! Windows 8.1 was a lot more trouble than it was worth, so I'm starting over with good old Windows 8 Pro....

There's nothing quite like a clean sheet, is there? Now, I can start all over again to add the custom icons (made 'em myself) and the sidebar and gadgets from 8gadgetpack, and all the other stuff I consider essential, like the Ultimate Windows Tweaker, and Image Resizer, and Filemenu Tools, and the list goes on. I'll be busy for a while with replacing all that stuff and others, but for now the good news is, I'm rid of that Windows 8.1, and my dual-boot setup is still intact, and my faithful old Windows 7 SP1 is still alive and well, and it could be worse.
In fact, it has been, until very recently.....(why am I smiling?)

Here's what's wrong with Windows 8.1

For most of us who downloaded Windows 8.1 from the Microsoft Store to upgrade our Windows 8, using our legitimate Windows 8 Product Key, there is no solution to this problem of corrupted files in Windows 8.1 because there is no legitimate ISO of it, and the Windows Store does not let us re-download it again to repair its problems. 

There's an unofficial 'work-around' for this, involving tricking Windows Downloads into thinking we're really downloading another copy of Windows 8 when in fact we're switching that during the process onto Windows 8.1, but the point here is that I shouldn't have to play hacking tricks with Microsoft to get a legal copy of Windows 8.1 repaired and functioning normally and testing as being complete.

And while I'm ranting about Win-8.1, take a look at my CPU graph in the little gadget on the sidebar. See those constant spikes? My Windows 7 and my Windows 8 Pro on the other computer don't do that. Their graphs are fairly smooth, and barely showing activity at all normally. And this tests clean of any infection with three different security programs, so it probably isn't infected.
So that's another problem not yet recognized or solved by Microsoft in Win-8.1.

My cure for all of the above is going to be to wipe Windows 8.1 and lose my files and revert that partition back to Windows 8 Pro the hard way, with a clean install. I've had it with Windows 8.1. This is both frustrating and ridiculous.

Website incorrectly rated by McAfee...

Wil Palma in Australia makes an open-source freeware called Winroll, which is one of my favorites, because it can roll up open windows into their title bars to show you other stuff on the screen, and I love it. McAfee's safe surfing program gives it a bum rap, so I checked it with AVG, because I suspected McAfee might be wrong. It's a very simple site, and it is a very basic program, but it works like a charm, and you ought to get it. Here's a couple of screenshots about it....and it works fine in Windows 8, in case you are wondering.

This shows what it can do. You right-click on a window's title bar to collapse it into that bar, and then to restore it to full size, you right-click it again. You can have several open windows on screen and only be working on one, with the others collapsed until you want them. When not in use, it sits in your lower right corner with the other icons, above the clock. A very handy program.

And AVG's on-line scanner says it's quite safe. I knew that, but someone please tell McAfee.... all of which just goes to show you have to be sure of your sources. I've used this little Winroll program for years, and it has always worked just fine in Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and now Windows 8.  To get yours,
go to this website for it. There is another totally different program also using the word Winroll in its name, so don't be confused. This is the one you want.

Please Note:
I've scanned my Winroll folder with Malwarebytes Pro, and it's clean, just as I expected. It shouldn't be red-flagged by McAfee. They are looking at its executable file, and assuming it is malware, because it isn't packaged as nicely as some others are, but it is clean.

 

Here's a report on a suspicious Russian site...

This site is reported to be acting as host for up to 260 others, some of whom are engaged in keylogging, tracking your surfing, and also spyware and malware, so you might like to add this one to your blacklist.  Preferably soon.

Worried about a website? Let me help...

After that music video fiasco, I got looking around for tools to scan websites, and found a couple, as shown in the following screenshots....

For the Google one, here's what to type into your browser address bar:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=(add your URL here, without these brackets.)
The AVG site is in Australia, and when I tried it the first couple of times, using the full address for my blog, it came up reading 'Whoops!' and unable to do it.
It wasn't until I left off the 'http://' that it finally grabbed it and reported on it.
So try leaving off the 'http://' and the 'www.' if you have trouble with it. It seems to be able to figure that out itself. And good luck!

If you listened to that one-hour music vid here...

...which I've just removed, you should scan your computer for malware, because I found three items in mine after listening to that whole 62 minutes of nice Christmas jazz. Here's a screenshot of what I found....

This will give you an idea where to look, and I do apologize for this, but who thinks to scan a video before posting it. How would we do that? I'm not even sure I know the answer to that one. And hopefully, this explains why the video is no longer here. It had three unwanted items hidden in it. Sorry, Folks....

Please Note:
The AppData folder is normally hidden. To make it show in your User folder, go into Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab, and change the black spot from
"Don't show hidden...." to the next, "Show hidden files, ..." as in this screenshot of it....

 

It's that time again....

Guess what came back?

Star Wars Smartphone anyone?

And here's the future of computing...

It was a tough fight, but I won...

Yesterday morning, I turned this on and nothing happened. Somehow, the Master Boot Record had been trashed overnight. When I shut it down the evening before, it was clean of infections as far as I knew, and was running fine.

Almost a full two days later, I've got it back to more or less where it was on Saturday evening when I shut it down for the night. I have no idea how it got into this mess, but I know a lot more about how to get it out of it now.

One of the nice things I learned during this is that Windows comes with its own built-in boot configuration editor, called Bcdboot.exe and here's where you would find it....(using your admin privileges) 

If, for example, you're trying to repair (or create) a dual-booting setup, you would enter each partition's letter, followed by the word Windows, and press Enter after each one's entry. Give it a moment to show a confirmation before
you enter the next one, and after entering both, type the word exit to quit it.
Then, after a reboot of your computer, you should see a dual-boot page showing you the choices of operating systems to select for use.

And yes, I know about EasyBCD and Easeus Partition Master, but this Command Prompt version cuts to the chase without a lot of distractions, and you don't have to download anything, because Mighty Microsoft builds in right into the 
program for you. All you have to do is find it. And now you know where.

Verifying the blog with Google's Webmaster

After an hour and a half of playing with HTML code, I finally got lucky and got this blog officially verified as mine with Google's Webmaster Tools. One of the problems is that there are several possible methods that you can use, and the so-called 'Recommended' one simply refused to work for me.

Every time I'd copy the stuff to be added to my page's code, there would be errors listed in red when I tried to save the page afterward. Picky little things like missing delimiters, declaration code symbols missing, or their terminations not entered. I never said I knew how - I'm just a dedicated fumbler, and we learn by doing.... But it's the results that count, and it all ended happily. My HTML finally quit throwing back red warning messages, and accepted everything as written, so I signed off and got out of there, before anything else hit the fan.

One of these days, I'm going to take this course, and learn how to actually write HTML for myself, instead of just memorizing a couple of handy phrases from it. 
Handy phrases like you can find on this Quick List. This is HTML for us flagrant doodlers who haven't learned how yet, but still like to pretend we know what we're doing. It gets us by for very simple little jobs, like creating links. So if you are like me, maybe you'd like to bookmark it.

Interesting....

An all-in-one for around $800 can't be all bad, and Acer is known for giving us a lot of bang for our buck. Both my PCs are made by them.

Dear Google, we have a problem....

When I'm trying to go to an image in my own computer's files, I get this thing popping up, and there's no active button on the goddamned thing to remove it. I have to return to a previous page, and start all over through the posts editor to get back to something I can work with. This is very annoying, and if this is one of the recent "improvements" to Blogger, then I'd have to say you're making it less user-friendly and more awkward instead of better. And why can't we have the log-in feature on the upper right of our blogs like formerly? That was a lot easier to use than the way it is now. I've scanned this thing for malware and the report said it is clean, but shit like this makes me wonder.

And before you ask, if I do try to sign in to that thing that pops up (above) I get another message saying "Error - this feature is not available." So if it isn't available, why the hell am I getting that pop-up? Google, please respond!

Check your blog for malware...

This will do a free scan of your blog (website) and tell you if it's clean or not.

Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor

This is a ten-image panorama encompassing almost 180 degrees of scenery.
And I wish I could display this in its larger size here. Here's what I.C.E. looks like while doing its thing.....

And like I said yesterday, you haven't seen a panorama maker until you've seen this one in action. It's simply magical. And Thank You, Microsoft !

Microsoft Research...

I can't comment on this aspect of Microsoft Research, but I can show you something else they've done that is absolutely fantastic....

You haven't seen a panorama making program until you've seen this one! It does its thing automatically after you dump a selection of overlapping images into it, and it can assemble a panorama not only from side-to-side but also from top to bottom, and some of those can be huge. Forget those programs that ask you to stitch things together by dragging one image over the next until you have fumbled and cussed your way to a half-assed panorama. Those days are totally gone, Baby! Get this one instead, and get a good look at the Big Picture.
Just click this link for your free download.

This is an example of what it can do. This was made from seven images of a scene I photographed this afternoon at the nearby mall. I simply sized them to the desired size, selected all, and dumped them into Image Composite Editor, and it did the rest automatically. These cranes are the ones you sometimes may notice in my sunset shots, where they will be partly obscured by trees.


 

Tonight's sunset

The white strips of light in the trees right of center foreground are illuminated signs on a couple of construction cranes at the Park Royal North Mall in West Vancouver. The open water is Georgia Strait on the far side of which is Vancouver Island.