Category: upgrade

Windows 10 Upgrade – How it Went

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

(Give a like and share with a friend who needs this info please, I don’t have $100000 pr team, it’s just me here)
First I had a friend send me a link to Microsoft’s site where they explain how to install.
So no.. I never got the notification that the update/upgrade said
Here’s the link to the Windows 10 download. Be sure to read everything and make sure you have every piece of requested and required information and meet all requirements before moving on.
I have the end user license agreement available in pdf form.
I followed the instructions on that page, got my serial key ready and plugged in a dvd and a usb (belt and suspenders) and downloaded the media creation tool for my system, and just installed and hit the “next” button maybe three times. If that.

after about 35 minutes of downloading and 20 minutes of finalizing

For your Nvidia video cards, let windows update your drivers, it may take a few minutes but just let windows handle it.

Cool thing is I have been running dual monitors for a little while, so when the computer booted up, I had not one but two start menus and it is not a cloned desktop. Desktop icons right where I left them before the upgrade.
I did my run through of tests.
Run:
GIMP
AutoCAD
Photoshop
Adobe CS3

Nothing had a hang up.
Next will be a few more tests (to be added later) and then I will try and uninstall/roll back my operating system back to Windows 7.

The Cons:
windows 10 okay, nothing spectacular other than dual start menus when you have two monitors. after that…. bleh..
Taskbar looks a bit like the fake taskbars we’d put on windows 3.1
Redmond ? Whirling dervish? or Caldera skin? what was it called?
Start menu is a bit lacking. and please let’s not change the word “program” to “App” even if you are trying to force us to buy cloud space for the “apps” that we already paid for, for our 2 tb store bought personal hard drives.

Microsoft Internet Explorer seems to still be there.
and windows 10 still calls for it


Now this could just be because I am on an upgrade instead of a full install of windows 10. Uncertain as of yet. Wait for a few more updates.

Finally found Control Panel type stuff
startcontrolpanel
Just right click the start menu and you will see many of the control panel functions.

Settings for EDGE

Edge Settings

Edge Settings

Mostly the same as Firefox, top right of teh browser. You can also change the color of your browser there.

 

Why was windows 10 free?

GIMP 2.8 Angry Review

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man

Image Editing Software for freeGimp, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.
The software I have considered the alternative to Photoshop, for many years.
I have Gimp and Photoshop on my home and my work computer. I have always considered gimp the superior, just because of how fast and simple it is to find what you are looking for, the huge list of file types you can save images as.
Gimp has released an update. 2.8
There have been many changes with 2.8. U have to say; I am not happy with any of the changes.

You will not catch me updating any more of my computers with it.
The clone tool, there is no slider anymore for adjusting brush size, It’s now about pressure. Why is pressure, not a new addition, instead of a replacement?
I now have to export my images, instead of saving them.
What happened to antialiasing ? why do my images look so grainy now?
Why is Gimp slaughtering my computer?
I need to find an install of 2.6 and I will just block the gimp website in my hosts file so I never forget and accidentally try and “upgrade” again. EVER!I have found on the “Old Apps” website they list Gimp 2.6.7

The look of Gimp 2.8 is plain by today’s standards. Not worth installing. and functionality is may as well be one button, with acid on it.

I know.. It’s free, but it’s also as useless as rock. and that’s free too.

This goes for 2.8 and 2.8.2

Computer Refurbish for Work

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Well at the office, we have another cad guy coming in to do some designing. The only available computer we have for him is an old Dell computer. E-520 to be exact. This computer has a 2.6 gig P4 processor and two DDR2 pc4200 256mb memory sticks. We do not have a windows 7 disk for dell computers but we have the original install disk of Windows xp that came with that computer. So our operating system by limited selection, is windows xp professional 32 bit.

We cleaned out all dust, hair and carpet fuzz from the computer to make sure this design machine works (by default) at optimal condition for this old of a computer, and to do our best to make this computer run as good as it did the day it was first built. That is of course if the operating system runs at original condition. Just so you know why we formatted the computer.

Here is a look at the project computer before any hardware upgrades or updates.

XP Install on Board Video

This Dell computer we are using has been taken off site and used in another city at a coworker’s house for work. So yeah, it has been slammed with lots and lots of viruses. So many have been on this computer and removed from this computer, many of the normal functions did not work properly. So we formatted the computer.
We yanked out the two pc4200 256mb memory sticks and installed two 2gig pc 5300 memory sticks, and an Nvidia 9500 1gb vmem PCI-Express video card.

The Parts have been brought in for the computer while we were half way through the install of the operating system. We tied back some of the loose wires.

Before the parts installed. Xp installing

We used the Nvidia 9500 simply because the computer only has a 350 watt power supply and no available power connections to plug into a better video card.
We have done this install so many times, not one single error was capable of happening.
Except the small notice that says we have upgraded memory and video card.

Closest to an error we got.

This upgrade was at the cost of only $160 up front but also there is a $30 mail in rebate (we have not done yet) for the video card, and $25 mail in rebates for each stick of memory. If all goes well with the mail in rebates on these computer parts, then we are looking at an $80 upgrade to take this 7 year old computer that has been beat down and been a virus farm for at least 4 years, and turn this computer into a full on design machine.
After the operating system Windows xp pro was fully installed, we installed all 84 updates available. Of course that is after going to another computer and downloading network drivers and burning them to a cd, so we could sneaker mail them to the Dell project computer.

Design computer upgrade is complete

So now this computer is ready to go. He says he has autodesk 2011. If autodesk 2011 is as smooth of a success as autodesk 2010 was on my computer, then we are in the good and this computer will run like a monster.

Operating system is fully installed

So far, the computer is a sucess. We shall see what happens Tuesday when the final test of the design software puts the computer to work (stress).

Installing Hard Drive in External Case

Posted onAuthorTruXter

If you are wanting to set up an external hard drive, by using an external hard drive case and an internal hard drive that you are wanting to use with it, I assure you, this is not a hard task.

For this build and install of the external hard drive kit, We have an acomdata external hard drive case with sata and pata capabilities. Under $30 at Fry’s. The hard drive we are using is a sata 500 gig Seagate under $45 at Fry’s.

First step is to get all of your hardware  and spread it out in seperate locations so you can keep your parts visible and easy to distinguish.

External Hard drive Kit.

See that? there is very little in that set. Manual, Power cable, usb cable, case, standing base and hard drive .

Next Step is to open the external case. Usually two up to 4 small screws at one of the ends of the hard drive case.

opening external hard drive case

Now you just have to slide everything out of the external hard drive case. With this one you just push to the other end.

Ejecting the tray

Some of the external hard drive cases have wires inside that are connected to light, just look closely for the wires to slide off , this hard drive case does not have wires for lights.

Dissasymbled External hard drive case

Now the simple step is to connect the wiring before you rock the hard drive into the external case.

Connecting the wires to a hard drive

Inserted hard drive in external case

Now begin to reassemble  your hard drive case. most just snap together.

External Hard drive Build

Now you are just reversing everything you did before, only now your gadget weighs a tiny bit more.

Final touches

Put screws back in  for the end face plate and then set the stand.

tightening stand for external hard drive case.

Now you just have to connect the usb cable and the power supply  and then power on the Hard Drive.

External Hard drive connected

Now that you have the hard drive set up and connected, look for the light on the outside of the case to be on to confirm all is working. Some external hard drive cases have a blinking light if you messed up.

Now watch your computer for any notifications saying that a new device is connected. To take that a step further, look at your list of storage devices and see if a new device shows up in the list.

eternal hard drive

Most Companies that make external hard drive cases, don’t force you into proprietary software, but some do. if your new device does not show up in the list, you may have a few steps to perform before you can access your software stored on the new electronic component.

I hope you liked the HoWto, if you have any questions feel free to ask them below, comments are always open.

World Of Warcraft Cataclysm Won’t Install

Posted onAuthorTruXter

If you are stuck in the same loop as everyone else who can not get World Of Warcraft Cataclysm to fully install, the trick seems to be to fully unintsall Wow and then reinstall World of Warcraft from scratch. Now there are world updates that you will see installed on top of other world files. There is a loop happening there. The trick is to delete those files after they install and just go straight to connecting to the server. before the game starts, Blizzard will patch your issue and replace the missing files with the new files that you were getting earlier. Seems patching on log in has more up to date files than what is on the server for full installs. Somewhere in there, there is a Weird looping issue going on (the full install ).
I have been hearing that people are having this issue from the download and from the install disk.
Blizzard has noticed the issue and are currently working on it.
And yes quite a few people have already maxed out.
Enjoy the game.

HFGL (have fun good luck)

Starcraft II Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Starcraft II Review

Ten or so years ago, Blizzard put put out Starcraft. The game was so well designed so well built, that some countries actually held tournaments playing as the Zerg, Terran and Protoss  species/races. The game in some Asian countries was more popular than the Olympics.

After ten years of dormancy, it has come back to challenge us again.

Here is my first day with Starcraft II (I wrap it up with a full review)

Bought My Startcraft II today.
Got my starcraft II today on Twitpic
Install took a while but nothing major. Just felt like forever. but what the heck is 5-10 minutes when I have been waiting ten years.
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”534″ entryid=”0_5sowc5dg” width=”400″ height=”330″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]
After install was a download of a patch.
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”534″ entryid=”0_m1k5chwa” width=”400″ height=”330″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]
Then came the video we all saw in the teaser. Seemed there wasn’t a lady talking in the teaser. so… listen closely you might hear something you haven’t heard.
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”534″ entryid=”0_dv1v94bu” width=”400″ height=”330″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]
Oh, video card crashed at the end. It’s okay I have another :-)
On first Install of the game, the cenematics, Really good. This is what I have been waiting for. The cigar is back ( the thing that seemed to have the best detail in SCI).
The Blizzard people really know how to do CGI.
Reynor here on Twitpic
That little ps2/ record player thing with the Hologram . Cool effect.
Starcraft II hologram on Twitpic
Difficulty selection for Starcraft II
Share photos on twitter with Twitpic
Casual Normal Hard Brutal
I selected Casual. Come on. I’m learning.

Huge selection for hotkeys.
Starcraft II hotkeys on Twitpic
I can’t imagine I memorized that many keys with the first Starcraft.
Menu Selection for Starcraft II
Starcraft II options. on Twitpic
Video Resolution didn’t go as high as I wanted. Seemed to be a bit of an anti-aliasing issue going on. Kind of wavy. No lag or nothing just an occasional wave in the video and some broken lines.
After finishing the first mission you go back to bar.
Starcraft II sitting in bar between missions. on Twitpic
They put plenty of items for you to click on and get curious about. I looked at everything. because I want to know all of it.
End of third mission in the game.
starcraft II end mission 3 on Twitpic
it took me 20 minutes to do that. and I had it set on the lowest difficulty.
On board a battle cruiser.
Onboard a battle cruiser starcraft II on Twitpic
Your bar from the first is now a Battle cruiser. Back Starcraft I, we just called them “BC” gotta type fast mid game.
You can click a lot of stuff there also. You learn a few things that way. It’s not like the first diablo where people just babbled random useless stuff and then the same stuff all the time. They actually change their phrases after each mission.
if you click around enough, you learn tricks about the game, study abilities that you can’t have unless you learn them by clicking stuff and buy better weapons.
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”534″ entryid=”0_5mvrvoul” width=”400″ height=”330″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]
That guy sounds just like Chris Pirillo. He has plenty of videos on youtube. Just type his name. you will see. Kinda looks like him also.

FYI His Name is “Steadman”

Now all of the media is presented. Sorry I didn’t want to install fraps… I’m on strike. So my pics are via cam on my cell.

Time for the Review

Game play

At first I was upset because the buildings didn’t lay out in straight lines like they did before in the first Starcraft. I kept getting my SCV stuck between buildings. That is of course until I found the button that allows me to sink the supply depot underground. After seven missions i haven’t seen if that prevents attacks on them. I am sure a Zerg can attack it… Right ? All of the old buildings look the same, just you get a better look at them now. They seem to do all of the same stuff and the costs and upgrades are still the same. There are a few additions to equipment and to units. I don’t want to ruin to much. Just there is something that looks like a flying vulcher. That thing has some awesome artillery. Turret Lasers :-D !!!! Fire bats are bigger, but still have low range ground attack weapons only. but they can be upgraded pretty good.

You know, I don’t think I want to ruin it for you . So I will not go into it. Kinda hard to talk about Starcraft ii and not same the names of the units. They are all listed on Blizzard’s site with Starcraft unit name next to it. But you just don’t know what it all means till you play. So I don’t want to ruin the surprise for when you buy your copy of Starcraft II.
This game is a 100% must buy for any person who enjoyed Starcraft or Starcraft Brood Wars. They reference so much. The familiarity is there.
If you are a console gamer who has never played a PC game, a game that was created for pc and played on pc only, you will not get the fun in watching the videos. The videos are all very important. This is not a RUSH-RUSH-RUSH-RUSH-complete the game kind of game. This game is not for the console kiddies.
Online play, I think they scrapped the idea of the chatroom. How can you talk smack and get your butt handed to you after? There is a forum option and a community option, but the community option just sends you to Starcraft II website.

I didn’t dig much into the online play at all. I just want to finish teh game first and get the hotkeys memorized before I do all that.

Ladder matches are back.
Everyone is huge Muscular except the women and the scientists.
Jim looks different and voice sounds different. Many return roles. Different voices but similar. could be the same people, it has been ten years and all.

Also they removed the community. I find it hard to make a challenge when you can’t talk crap. So here is the community of Starcraft II Clans.

Scoring for Starcraft II

Scoring is on a 1-10 scale. 10 being best and 1 is sucky.

Resolution 9

Cinematic 10

Game play 10

Audio 10

If you want to understand a pc gamer and how we are a breed apart.

GTA IV PATCH 7 / EFLC PATCH 2

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man1 Comment

A new update is now available for both GTA IV and EFLC through GFWL. Downloadable versions will be made available on the Rockstar Games Support site.

GTA IV

v. 1.0.7.0 / 1.0.6.1 (Russian) / 1.0.5.2 (Japanese)

– fix a bug causing tree leaves to look transparent
– fix a bug that prevented uploading of rendered videos to Social Club when attaching certain music tracks
– fix for clip capture “OFF” slowdowns occurring when near waters edge
– expose “detonate” in custom key mapping options menu for Grand Theft Auto IV, Lost and Damned so users can remap “down” arrow key

EFLC

v. 1.1.2.0

– fix a bug causing tree leaves to look transparent
– fix a bug that prevented uploading of rendered videos to Social Club when attaching music tracks from the Ballad of Gay Tony
– fix for clip capture “OFF” slowdowns occurring when near waters edge
– fix for slowdown occurring when getting in a boat during “Sexy Time” mission in The Ballad of Gay Tony
– expose “detonate” in custom key mapping options menu for Lost and Damned so users can remap “down” arrow key
– EFLC now has it’s own settings file called “SETTINGS_EFLC.CFG” to avoid possible conflicts with GTA IV installations

From What I see, There is nothing lost on my end. The game plays very good. The shadows still look  good like they did in patch six. The trees look quite well also. Game play was very smooth. Some of it felt a tad too smooth. But i am not complaining about that. it’s just i am used to certain things lagging a whole lot . When it doesn’t I kind of over steer.

one tiny error during install.

Install Error

This error is nothing. It just confused windows lol. Everything was fine.

Patch seven, very good. I didn’t even have to update drivers this time. But still waiting on latest Nvidia and ATi drivers to be released.

GTA IV PATCH 7 / EFLC PATCH 2  Gets

9/10 from me.

I would say full ten but there is a tree issue I see from time to time.

[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”534″ entryid=”0_n09yptwj” width=”400″ height=”255″ addpermission=”” editpermission=”” /]

Windows 7 Beta 7100 Ends 2 days

Posted onAuthorGame News

Sure did not feel like very long on that dang thing. 2 days as the drum beats and it’s lights out or upgrade.
I did find few Windows Vista installs that come with free windows 7 upgrades. for around 130. To me that sounds like
a peach of a deal. Found it at zipzoomfly, not going to link it because heh. I’m not getting any kick back.. nah because I don’t feel like searching for it till I’m ready, but I did saw it earlier today. So I know it’s there

Good Luck

Windows 7 At home, good, bad, it’s ugly

Posted onAuthorTech News

Ok for starts,

I did do a big full test of windows seven at work on a machine and threw everything at it that makes vista and xp crash. the version we used for that test is windows 7 32 bit, here is  Windows & in Workplace Environment.

I have to say that anyone who preaches on about 7 being better than windows Vista, You really did not even try both with an open mind. I like vista, Seven is not impressing me at all. All the stuff about vista I heard everyone complain about but never noticed myself, I am seeing it in Windows 7. I think by now it’s just common enough to blame everything on George Bush and Windows vista, it’s the first two things out someone’s mouth. But ok here is what I get in the trial at home on  windows 7 64bit.

Well I am on day two of windows 7. The default drivers it installed, amazed me, almost as much as windows vista did. Video card drivers, not so much. I am forced to use almost one year old nvidia drivers. Fine.
For the record, my machine is a mid way between work horse and light gaming machine, nothing to brag about in either direction.
Specs are
AMD 5600+ 2.9g dc
3 gigs pc6400 800mhz
Nvidia / evga 9500 gt 512 mb
some ecs motherboard
air cooled.

Well the video drivers have been iffy on me and would not let me use the manufacturers drivers. This has always been my special sweet spot, using EVGA drivers instead of nvidia drivers has always givin me a cooled advantage. but no, win 7 rc is forcing me to use the ones they have from the update service at Microsoft, if I install anything else I look at 8 bit graphics at best.

Well I tend to do my benchmarking at pc pitstop.com (full test) . to say the least, my scores drop dramatically over my vista scores. I usually use the old test , it’s hard to find but it’s there it’s a link in the description kinda hidden there. my scores have been i the 3000’s for about a year now. With windows seven they dropped to 1500. strangely it shows my 2d fps increased by nearly 100 fps. Well that’s cool…..
So I turn to my faithful typical benchmarking methods of real testing. :-)
I crack open every version of Grand Theft Auto and install them all.
On gtaiii I get the same hesitation I used to get about 6 years ago. While passing under bridges and through tree covered areas there is a lag that comes in spurts. with vice city, the yellow almost takes over the screen and the cut scenes are jittery just like it was the day the game came out and I was on out dated hardware. San Andreas, well not much better.
GTAIV For me to achieve the 23 FPS at best in game I had to turn everything off or all the way down. When I was on Vista I was seeing 35+ FPS with some things turned to medium. Yes I know my video card is not the best in the world, but it was the same one I was using on windows Vista and it makes a great “before and after” comparison.

Now for the lock out issues everyone complains about with windows Vista.
I head to MVPS Hosts site to update my hosts file to block bad sites and advertisements. Nothing fricken happened. Wouldn’t block anything, So I head to the ETC folder to modify the file by hand. HA! No administrator rights to modify that file. Meanwhile in the background I am playing myspace mobsters. I refresh a page and bam new advertisement, all my browsers drop and fricken notice comes up telling me my computer might be compromised, and it offers this virus scan. then it scans my computer anyway and says I have a virus then tells me to update. I freak out and try and close the page and notice, it’s not windows explorer, it’s Mozilla. it’s a fricken spam scam. See if I could have changed my hosts file, that never would have happened. so I head to bit defender to scan my disk onlline. would not allow me!!!!!! WTF!!!!!
So I head to emsi and get a-squared and do a scan, sure enough… I am infected with 4 types of Trojans. I am upset now.

The hardest thing for me to find, I still have not found it yet, is how in the blue hell do you turn it so that you can see your file extensions? Have they disabled so much user ability that they have turned that off? I feel as if I am being dumbed down and pacified with big shiny buttons.
You can like windows seven all you want, but I really have this whole thing figured out.
Either it’s going to turn out to be Mojave, or windows ME 2.0

still the same issue with Windows Seven that bothered me most with Windows Vista , No Ftp. You have to download Fire FTP for firefox and use that . You no longer have direct access with windows Explorer.  I find this unacceptable. It really feels like we are being dumbed down.

After some help, someone linked me to how to use notepad as administrator to modify files such as the hosts file
Here