How to stop your PC's Windows clock losing time

QUESTION The clock on my Windows 7 PC is unable to correctly keep track of the time. I'm not sure whether it's resetting itself to a different clock than the one I use, but every day it loses about 5 minutes – I've been tracking it using the time on my Android phone. Oddly, my colleague has recently reported the same issue. How can I make my PC display the correct time? Paul Gilligan

HELPROOM ANSWER There are a few possible scenarios here: firstly, Android phones do not necessarily keep reliable time – hence the existence of apps such as ClockSync, which automatically correct your handset's time and report back any inaccuracies. It's not unusual for a clock to drift by several seconds per day, but the 5-minute error you're noticing does seem a little extreme.

Windows has clock synchronisation built in, and it can synchronise with any of five internet time servers. This includes time.windows.com and others run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US.

To check whether Windows is set up to synchronise with one of these servers, open the Control Panel and select ‘Date and Time'. Select the tab labelled ‘Internet Time' and click ‘Change settings'. If you're not set up to synchronise with an internet time server, you can select one here. Make sure the box next to ‘Synchronize with an Internet time server' is selected before you press Ok.

If your settings are correct but the incorrect time is still being displayed, click the ‘Update now' button. Watch your computer's clock and see if it changes. If the synchronisation fails, select a different internet time server and try again.

You should now be able to see whether the time with which Windows is synchronising matches the time reported by your Android phone.

If you have an older computer, one common reason for an incorrect date and time is a failing CMOS battery. These usually last for years, so the battery is unlikely to be the cause if your PC is less than three to five years old.

Malware has also sometimes been reported as the reason for incorrect time results so, as always, make sure your security software is up to date.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

How to fix 'invalid COM' Registry errors

QUESTION My 18-month-old Windows 7 laptop grinds to a halt every time I try to use it. Finding and fixing any Registry errors and hard-drive corruption using Iolo System Mechanic solves the problem until the next restart. I've uninstalled the programs I don't use and clear the cache twice a day. I don't know what to do next. Many of the faults reported by Iolo concern invalid COM references. Jaki Collins

HELPROOM ANSWER It's difficult to diagnose this issue without further information, but the fact that a clean-up utility is able to alleviate the problem suggests that it isn't the laptop's hardware at fault. If the issue is recurring regularly, it's possible that you're running low on hard-drive space.

The Windows Registry contains hundreds of thousands of entries, which makes the 20 or so errors reported by System Mechanic a drop in the ocean and somewhat irrelevant.

Check your remaining disk space next time the problem occurs. You've already uninstalled the applications you don't need, but some additional spring cleaning may be required to free up enough space for Windows to store the temporary files it creates during normal operation. Keep at least 15 percent of your drive's capacity free

Read More

How to convert a hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS

QUESTION I want to format my Windows 7 PC, but its hard drive contains 200GB of files that I must first transfer to my external hard drive. The problem is this drive uses a FAT32 system, which won't let me transfer any file larger than 4GB, and I can't convert it to NTFS as it already has files stored on it. Is there a way to convert my external drive from FAT32 to NTFS without losing the data stored on it?Autoschediastic

HELPROOM ANSWER Windows includes a utility for converting FAT32-formatted drives to NTFS. It takes a few minutes to run and is usually reliable, but we wouldn't recommend using it without having backed up your files. If something goes wrong, you stand to lose a lot of data or endure a lengthy file-recovery process.

The convert.exe command line utility can convert a drive partition from FAT32 to NTFS, keeping all data intact. Note that it can't convert in the opposite direction, from NTFS to FAT32. You will need to be logged in with administrative privileges to use it.

After you've backed up your files, head to the Start menu and type cmd into the Search box. Right-click cmd.exe in the results pane and select ‘Run as Administrator' to open a command prompt.

In the following example, our system drive is drive C and the NTFS drive is drive E; substitute the correct drive letters for your personal setup. It's important to select the correct drive letter for conversion. Within the command prompt type E:, then DIR, and press Enter. This will show you the list of files and folders on the drive in question so you can verify that it's the correct drive.

Now enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each line:

C:
convert E:/fs:ntfs

As a safety precaution, you may be prompted to enter the volume label for your hard drive. Ours is called ‘USB DISK'; you should substitute this with the name of your drive and press Enter.

This process may take a while depending on the size, speed and content of the drive you're converting. When it's finished, you'll receive a ‘Conversion complete' message.

An easier, but more expensive, option is to purchase a new NTFS-formatted external hard drive and transfer the contents of your old drive to it. You can then convert the old drive to NTFS and use it to back up files stored on the new drive.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

How to change the Window Glass colour in Windows 7

Microsoft's Window operating system offers plenty of ways to customise the interface of your PC. Windows 7 offers Themes - combination of pictures, colours, and sounds – that can be used personalise your machine with. We’ve already shown you how to change the theme in Windows 7. However, you may want to change just one aspect of a theme, such as the desktop background or window glass colour (the slightly see through border around your windows), particularly if you don’t want to use the colours associated with the existing theme. Here’s how to change the window glass.

Step one
From the Start menu select the Control Panel.

Step two
Click on Appearance and Personalization, and from the options displayed under Personalization select Change window glass colors.

Step three
Now select a colour from this displayed. If you'd prefer not to have the glass effect, uncheck the box next to Enable transparency.

Step four
You can also adjust the intensity of the colour using the horizontal slider located next to Colour intensity or adjust the Hue, Saturation or Brightness of the colour by clicking Show color mixer and using the sliders that appear.

Step five
By selecting Advanced appearance settings, located towards the bottom of the window, you'll be ale to specify the colours for different types of windows, along with the spacing between icons. If you may any changes press Apply, followed by OK to close the Window.

Step six
Return to the Window color and appearance window and press Save Change to complete the adjustments you've made.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Keep using Windows XP programs, upgrade to Windows 7

QUESTION I regularly play Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Lock-on, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force and Call of Duty on my XP PC. I'd like to upgrade to Windows 7 but I'm concerned about program compatibility. Alternatively, could I buy a Window 7 PC and use disk-cloning software to continue using my existing setup on the new hardware? I'm aware of the advantages of running Windows 7, but I really just use this PC for gaming. Michael B Smith

HELPROOM ANSWER The issue of compatibility is one of the biggest potential problems facing anyone contemplating a change of OS. However, Microsoft provides plenty of tools and guidelines to help you.

Visit the Windows 7 Compatibility Centre and download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. This tool will scan your PC and flag up any incompatible software or hardware. Make sure any external devices, such as USB printers or drives, are plugged in and turned on.

You can also browse for reports on any particular software or hardware you may have installed. Links are provided to the Microsoft Answers forums, where users discuss their experiences of running various applications within Windows 7.

Another important consideration is whether you should go for the 32- or 64bit version of Windows 7. The latter is necessary if you want to make use of more than 3GB of system memory, but brings with it yet more compatibility issues – some software is specifically designed for 32bit Windows.

Some users have reported issues with the games you mention in Windows 7, although many have got around them with driver updates and by tweaking settings.

If you find yourself having to buy a new PC, cloning your hard drive can be problematic – the new system will have different hardware to your old system, so the OS may not run. Furthermore, your copy of Windows will have been activated on the old hardware and you may not be able to transfer the licence to the new system.

You would be better off instead buying a new PC running XP, then reinstalling your software and transferring your files and settings using Window's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Alternatively, a third-party migration tool, such as Orlogix Transfer MyPC or Laplink PCmover, can offer additional capabilities.

You can still buy a new PC running XP, although you may need to customise the spec of a Windows 7 machine to achieve this. Also note that not all hardware configurations will support the OS, so it's worth explaining what you want to use the PC for to your chosen vendor.

Of course, unless there's something wrong with your current PC, you may not have to upgrade at all. Support for XP ends in a few years, but we're a long way from being in a situation where XP-compatible hardware can no longer be purchased.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

How to recover data from a damaged hard drive

Your PC's hard drive overheats and then shuts down, leaving precious files and photos beyond your reach. How do you recover data from the damaged hard drive? Our Helproom Expert explains all.

QUESTION My CPU cooler became detached, resulting in the PC overheating and shutting down. I can no longer access the partition on which I store my photos. The 230GB IDE disk is partitioned into H: 128GB RAW Healthy Primary Partition and K: 104.89GB NTFS Healthy Logical Drive. Windows 7 reports that H is inaccessible and the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. Is there anything I can do to regain contact with the H partition and all my photographs? My backup is a few weeks out of date. Malcolm Sharpe

HELPROOM ANSWER Given the right tools, data can be easily recovered from almost any hard drive. For severely damaged drives this can be an expensive process, but users all too often give up on valuable data that's far easier and less expensive to restore. Even data stored on a hard drive that's no longer recognised by the PC's Bios can occasionally be recovered using software tools alone.

Thankfully, the relatively small file size and self-contained nature of Jpeg images makes partial recovery possible, even if sections of the drive can't be read.

Basic and freeware utilities such as Piriform Recuva are ideal tools for recovering photos from damaged hard drives, but will often struggle to bring back data from a RAW partition.

One free utility that can achieve this task is EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard. That link lets you download the free version; the full program costs $69 (£44). You could also try ZAR.

You may need to take additional steps to start recovering your data from a RAW partition, such as ‘unformatting' the drive. ZAR provides a tutorial for completing this process. The tool's image-recovery feature is free to use.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

How to move the task bar in Windows 7

Microsoft's Window operating system offers plenty of ways to customise the interface of your PC. Windows 7 lets you change several aspects including the theme, desktop background and even screen resolution on your PC.  Furthermore, you can even move the location of the taskbar, which is traditionally found at the bottom of the screen. Instead Windows 7 lets you drag the taskbar to any of the four edges of your display. Here’s how to move the taskbar and subsequently that Start button in Windows 7.

Step one
To begin with you need to make sure the taskbar isn’t locked. To do this right-click on an empty section of the taskbar and check to see if there’s a check next to Lock the taskbar. If there is, click on it to remove the check mark.

Step two
Now click on an empty space in the taskbar again and drag the cursor to the edge you want the taskbar to appear on while holding the mouse button down. When the taskbar is in the location you require, let go of the mouse button.

Step three
To ensure the taskbar can not be moved or resized accidentally, right click on any empty space on the taskbar and click Lock the taskbar again to ensure it remains locked.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Recover files lost when you reformat a hard drive

HELPROOM ANSWER We don't have much detail about the external drive to which you've lost access, but we presume that you have some sort of backup system in place that copies your data from drive C to drive D.

The issue with changing drive letters is a frustrating one. Booting from a CD to install an operating system can often result in your drives and partitions being assigned different letters to the ones they have inside Windows. It's therefore of the utmost importance to take great care when selecting a partition for formatting. Looking at the drive letter alone may not be enough; also look at the reported size of the volume and whether it has any existing volume name associated with it. It's also a good idea to unplug any external drives before you begin, as they can simply confuse matters.

If you accidentally format the wrong drive, immediately stop the installation and attempt file recovery using a file recover software tool such as PC Tools File Recover, Paragon Backup & Recovery 11, or similar. Formatting doesn't destroy your data – it simply tells the OS to treat all usable space as available. It's not until you place new files on the drive that your original documents will be overwritten. Once new data is written to the drive, however, your original files will become irretrievable. If you're not familiar with the data-recovery process, the best option is to hand over your drive to someone who is.

Files created under a previous installation of Windows may have permissions configured that, by default, are not accessible to other operating systems installed on the same PC. To get around this you need to take ownership of the files. This must be executed from an Administrator account.

To take ownership of a folder you will first have to turn off simple file sharing if you have it enabled. Open Windows Explorer and choose Tools, Folder options. Click on the View tab and look in the Advanced Settings section for the ‘Use simple file sharing (Recommended)' entry.

Deselect this option and click Ok.

Next, right-click the folder over which you want to take ownership. Select Properties, then click the Advanced button on the Security tab. Select the Owner tab in the new window that appears and choose your account name (or Administrator) under 'Change owner to'. Also select the 'Replace owner on subcontainers and objects' entry, then click Ok. Click 'Yes' if Windows asks any further questions about taking full control.

You should now be able to access your files and folders. Note, however, that this won't be possible if you encrypted your files in the previous installation of Windows.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

What to do when you get a Windows Blue Screen

QUESTION My Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop runs Windows 7. Every so often I get a Blue Screen with the message 'data dump'. The PC restarts so quickly that I can't read any more of the information displayed. Any idea what's going on? Hilary91

HELPROOM ANSWER You can change your system settings to stop the laptop from restarting after a blue screen. This will give you more time to read the information and determine what has caused the crash. It should at least give you something you can search for online.

From the Start menu, right-click on Computer and select Properties. Click ‘Advanced system settings'. In the section marked ‘Startup and Recovery', click the Settings button.

Clear the box next to ‘Automatically restart' in the section labelled System failure. Click Ok. The next time a blue screen occurs, it should remain onscreen long enough for you to write down any ,useful information or take a photograph.

The message you're seeing regarding a 'data dump' is telling you that Windows is creating a file containing debugging information. There are tools that can help you debug this information to find out what is causing the crash.

One such tool is BlueScreenView 1.45. It can analyse the contents of the data dump to discover the cause of the crash.

In our screenshot, we caused a crash using a utility called 'NotMyFault'. We can see that myfault.sys is the cause of the crash. Your dump file will contain different information, but the details provided should enable you to hunt down the culprit.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

New Kyocera phone will put voices in your head (in a good way)

Kyocera isn’t really known for successful innovation in the smartphone realm. Anyone that remembers the dual-screen monstrosity that was the Kyocera Echo can attest to that. With Kyocera’s newest foray into Android smartphones, however, there is a notable feature that you don’t see much of. The Kyocera Urbano Progresso uses the bones in your head instead of a speaker to deliver sound to your ear. It’s called bone conduction, but how the heck is it supposed to work?

The sound you go around hearing all day is obviously transmitted to you through the air by sound waves, but you also experience bone conduction. When you speak, your own voice is transmitted through the skull as vibrations. Since bone is considerably more dense than air, your voice sounds lower to you. Ever hear a recording of your own voice? It probably sounds higher than you hear it in your head. Electronic gizmos that use bone conduction need to account for the frequency shift to avoid distortion.

A device that uses bone conduction audio is essentially bypassing the ear drum. It is your eardrum (or tympanic membrane) in the middle ear that concentrates sound waves down into vibrations that can be detected by the cochlea in the inner ear. Bone conduction vibration waves simply affect the inner ear directly. To think of it another way: a bone conduction transducer can act as your eardrum.

A major problem with bone conduction has always been the quality of the sound. Because of the nature of the bones making up your skull, stereo sound is muddy and harder to keep straight. With a phone outputting only mono sound, this is no problem. The range of frequencies you can pick up with bone conduction audio is also narrower than with sound through the air. Again, this is much more a problem for music than it is for phone calls which already have fairly poor audio quality.

One of the biggest barriers to getting bone conduction technology in phones has been the power requirement. It usually takes more power to output enough energy in the form of vibrations to match the volume you would get over the air. Kyocera claims to have solved this problem with its proprietary Smart Sonic technology.

So in a phone, the disadvantages of bone conduction are minimized, but there are also a few clear advantages. If you’ve ever been in a noisy room trying to take a call, you know how frustrating it can be as you press the speaker harder and harder to your ear in hopes of blocking out some of the background noise. With bone conduction, the sound passes right from the transducer to your inner ear making it easier to hear the other party.

People that are hard of hearing could also find unique benefits in the kind of bone conduction used in the Urbano Progresso. Most cases of hearing loss come from damage to the eardrum, which bone conduction handily circumvents. Some users with hearing loss already use hearing aids that make use of bone conduction, so the technology in this phone is not without precedent.

Kyocera plans to bring its Smart Sonic transducer technology to the US next year, but the Urbano Progresso is launching soon on Japanese carrier KDDI. Reportedly, the sound on the Kyocera Urbano Progresso is quite good, so perhaps this will be the first smartphone to successfully get this technology into people’s hands — and ears.

source : View the original article here

Read More

Cloud gaming is the future

Despite my misgivings, though, cloud gaming does have promise. Worldwide roll outs are now so rapid that in five or 10 years, a large percentage of the developed world will have fiber to the home or cabinet. It will take time, but with enough pressure from console makers and publishers, developers will eventually fine-tune their game engines, too.

What then? What will happen when there is no logical reason to keep a console in your living room? With the PS4, Xbox 720, and Wii U all coming down the line, cloud gaming isn’t going to take off in the near term — but what about the nextgeneration of consoles?

It is entirely possible that the Xbox 1080 will simply be a dumb little box, with four gamepad sockets on the front, and HDMI and power on the back; it could even be built into a Microsoft TV. Microsoft already has a huge cloud presence, too — and really, streaming games isn’t all that different from streaming movies.

The appeal of cloud gaming to companies such as Microsoft and Sony is immense. In an instant, short of breaking into the local data center, software piracy goes out the window. With the expensive console out of the way, their pool of prospective gamers (and customers) immediately swells. By default, the Xbox 1080 service might be completely free — but just like today’s free-to-play games, Microsoft could charge you for additional levels and in-game items, as well as the ability to connect multiple gamepads, output at higher resolution, unlock higher framerates, and so on.

Cloud gaming is completely cross-platform, too: There’s no functional difference between a PC monitor, TV, smartphone, or tablet. Imagine being able to pause a game at home, and then continue it on your tablet or office computer. Imagine multiplayer games where you’re in front of the TV, but your friend is on the other side of the world, playing from a Facebook window on his laptop.

The flip side, of course, is that Microsoft (or EA) could charge you for excessive use (“you have exceeded our fair-use policy…”) — and what happens if you get banned? Do you lose access to all of the games you’ve purchased? Will you have the option of storing saved games locally, or will they all be in the cloud?

Ultimately, though, in much the same way that cloud computing and storage has exploded in the last few years, cloud gaming will follow suit. Cloud gaming, like cloud computing, digital downloads, and streaming video, simply has too many benefits to ignore.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Does Ivy Bridge replace discrete video cards for gaming?

Wondering how much lowering the resolution further would help the other tests, I dialed them all down to 1680×1050 and reran the tests at the same settings.HAWX 2 was still the only one to get above 30 fps (61 fps), though Batman: Arkham City and Lost Planet 2 came extremely close (29 fps and 29.1 fps respectively). Things clicked considerably more at 1440×900, with only Heaven and Metro 2033 still holding out — which they also did at even the lowest resolution I tested, 1280×800.

But I wasn’t satisfied with the video quality at any of these resolutions; lots of things looked just a little too blobby for my tastes. So on every game that passed my first test, I upped the details just a tad to see whether it could hack a slightly more demanding challenge. HAWX 2 again flew at all four resolutions,Lost Planet 2 was fine up through 1440×900, and that was all. Nudging the settings up still further,HAWX 2 hit 33 fps and Lost Planet 2 made it to 35.2 fps at 1280×800, but neither could surpass 30 fps even at 1440×900, so that’s where I stopped.

Even with the minor detail improvements I implemented toward the end of the testing, you still have to forsake a fair amount in terms of video quality just to get these games to play — and then generally at frame rates most legitimate gamers would barely consider good. Don’t get me wrong: As far as I’m concerned, Ivy Bridge marks a significant leap forward for Intel, and definitely suggests some good things to come on the graphics side. But I can’t quite get myself to the point where I feel comfortable pretending that this is a major victory.

The main thing Intel has proven — or, if you prefer, proven again — with Ivy Bridge is that, if you want to play 3D games that both perform well and look good, even at lower (I would argue too low) resolutions, you absolutely need a discrete video card. There’s no way around this. It may not be news to most (okay, any) system builders, but the average consumer who buys an Ivy Bridge system and is attracted by the possibility of not having to shell out another three to five wallet-size portraits of Andrew Jackson just to get the newest titles to play is going to be disappointed.

Ultimately, the conclusion to draw here is exactly the one Loyd did: Intel has functionally obliterated any compelling reason to buy a $60 video card. I’ve been a bit skeptical of the need for them for years, to be honest, as I’ve generally questioned whether the gains you might see in tasks like video transcoding were worth the money if robust gaming remained elusive. But if Intel and AMD chips can handle all the basic stuff themselves and do it well — which they now do — the GPU guys will either need to devise a much better argument for the entry-level models, drop the prices across the board to edge the $100 cards (which I’ve found in most cases to be worth the money) closer to or even onto the lowest pricing tier, or give up on trying to court that segment at all. And once Ivy Bridge gets around, AMD and Nvidia will need to make that decision sooner rather than later.

So Intel definitely deserves to be congratulated on a solid release that will change our outlooks about processing and integrated video for at least the next year or so. Just don’t assume that Ivy Bridge’s strides translate into a revolutionary rethink of the graphics market for everyone. Those for whom gaming is, at most, a sometime thing will unquestionably notice some benefits. But everyone else should stick with at least a $100 standalone card (and preferably at least a $200 one if they can afford it) to ensure the games’ performance and appearance make them worth playing.

source : View the original article here

Read More

Microsoft bans third-party browsers from Windows on ARM

In a twist that’s very reminiscent of Microsoft’s naughty nineties, Mozilla has revealed that Windows RT — aka Windows 8 on ARM — will only support one web browser: Internet Explorer. While Firefox will technically be able to run in Metro mode on Windows RT, it will be so crippled as to be unusable; in “classic,” Desktop mode, third-party browsers such as Firefox won’t be allowed to run at all.

Updated @ 8:00am: The issue seems to revolve around API access in Windows RT. Third-party developers (and apps) will only have access to the WinRT (Metro) API, while Microsoft’s own software will have access to the low-level (and old school) Win32 API. This means that Mozilla canbuild Firefox for Windows on ARM, but without access to Win32 it will be very hard to compete with Internet Explorer.

At first blush this sounds like a classic ploy to stymy the opposition and regain market share — and for all I know, maybe it is — but there are also a few logical reasons for Microsoft’s decision. From the get-go, Microsoft has been leery of developers porting x86 code to ARM, in case these ported apps don’t have the efficiency and stability that a low-power (and battery-powered) ARM tablet requires. It’s for this reason that Microsoft didn’t offer some kind of OS- or hardware-level x86>ARM translation.

Browsers are also one of the juiciest attack vectors for malware — and also one of the most “visible” aspects of a modern operating system. If a user installs Firefox (or Opera or Chrome) on a Windows RT table, and then it gets bogged down with malware and toolbars, you are likely to walk away with a sour taste for Windows RT; “It’s just like Windows 7 damnit!” By only allowing Internet Explorer, Microsoft should be able to keep Windows RT running smoothly for longer. (This is the same reason that Apple doesn’t allow third-party operating systems on its iOS devices, incidentally.)

Finally, moving away from the logical and more towards legal and ideological wrangling, Windows RT isn’t Windows 8. We always wondered why Windows 8 on ARM was suddenly renamed to Windows RT, and this is probably the reason. With one fell swoop, Microsoft may have escaped the the antitrust ruling that forced European versions of Windows to offer alternative browsers, and done an end-run around the DOJ-Microsoft antitrust settlement in 2001.

Irrespective of the reasoning behind the restriction, we should discuss the heinous implications forusers. First up, this means there won’t be any browser add-ons on Windows ARM tablets. There also won’t be any HTML5 web apps (either from the Chrome Web Store, or Mozilla Marketplace, or fancy WebGL-powered websites. If tablet computing turns out to be as big as Microsoft and Apple are anticipating, then this restriction will seriously hamper competition, and thus the continued, rapid advances being made to web browsers and underlying technologies, such as HTML5, JavaScript, and HTTP.

I think it’s unlikely, but if ARM tablets beat out x86 tablets, this could mean a return to the mid-’90s digital dark age, where more than 90% of web surfers used Internet Explorer — a fate worse than death itself.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Thunderbolt for PCs a reality as Ivy Bridge launch nears

If you’re a PC user dreaming of Thunderbolt, today’s news will be music to your ears. According to reports, Intel has begun shipping its second-generation Thunderbolt controller, which means motherboards supporting the technology (like Intel’s DZ77GA) and the company’s next generation CPU will be able to ship. Cactus Ridge is Intel’s first Thunderbolt chip that supports Windows, and is expected to launch alongside the chipmaker’s upcoming Ivy Bridge CPU.

Cnet reports that Ivy Bridge should land on April 23, and Intel is making a push among partners to include Thunderbolt support in motherboards built for their new CPUs. The company obviously has a vested interest in seeing this happen: it co-created the technology alongside Apple and, with USB 3.0 taking hold in the industry, Intel’s window is closing fast.

Ivy Bridge CPUs will have integrated support for USB 3.0 but not for Thunderbolt, so the additional controller is required. Acer, Asustek, and Lenovo are expected to be some of the first to debut the high-speed interface for Windows computers, but it is believed the option will be restricted to high-end laptops and desktops.

Why? Intel is fighting a battle of perception among PC manufacturers. HP has committed exclusively to USB 3.0 as it sees no “value proposition” in Thunderbolt. That is bound to hurt the specification overall, as HP is the world’s largest PC maker by a decent margin. Second place Dell has so far been quiet on its plans, further adding to the uncertainty.

Uncertainty is not the friend of business, and this is the biggest reason why manufacturers have so far steered clear of producing peripherals with Thunderbolt support. Save for a handful of drives and ultra high-end items such as Apple’s Thunderbolt Display, there isn’t much out there. Compare this with USB 3.0, which already has dozens of peripherals, and is widely available, including through retailers like Target and Walmart.

Thunderbolt will try its best to catch up, though. Intel’s PC Client group chief Kirk Skaugen said earlier this week at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing that he expects at least 100 Thunderbolt-capable devices available at retail by the end of the year, increasing to the “hundreds” in 2013.

PC support is key. While HP may be a lost cause, Intel must focus on the rest of the market, especially Dell, to ensure that Thunderbolt does not go the same way that FireWire did. There too Apple had its hands in the pot, and created a standard that was too expensive to implement. Sounding like Thunderbolt yet? USB 2.0 was cheaper and easier (and also featured backward compatibility), and it won the day.

As ExtremeTech’s Sebastian Anthony pointed out last year, if Thunderbolt peripherals continue to cost $200-300 more, it doesn’t matter who supports it — nobody’s going to use it.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla form W3C group to clean up the mobile web

Citing severe mobile fragmentation and unstandardized standards, Facebook, Mozilla, Microsoft, Samsung, Verizon, Intel, and almost every player in the mobile space — except Apple and Google — have announced at Mobile World Congress 2012 that they’ll be forming the W3C Core Mobile Web Platform (Coremob) Community Group. This group will bring together developers, OEMs, browser makers, and carriers to agree on core features that will “accelerate the adoption of the Mobile Web.”

Now, we can dissect this development in two ways: First, this could just be 29 companies looking after their mobile interests. While desktop browsers are all fairly close in terms of feature parity — the HTML5/hardware acceleration Browser War of 2010 made sure of that — mobile browsers are horribly disparate. At best, mobile browsers support a tiny subset of HTML5 and have fairly awful JavaScript performance — at worst… well, I’m sure you’ve all had an awful mobile surfing experience that you can draw from. This W3C group might simply have the noble intention of getting mobile devices to the stage that they can reliably run open web apps.

But then why are Apple and Google not part of Coremob? Both are active members of the W3C in general, but for some reason they’re not interested in cleaning up the Core Mobile Web Platform. When it comes to standards, mobile Safari and Android’s stock browser are certainly two of the better browsers out there, but they’re still no where near powerful enough to be the basis of a mobile web platform — so that can’t be the reason. The reason they’re not part of the W3C group, of course, is because they’re both making vast amounts of money through their proprietary, locked-down app stores.

Curiously, though, Google does have the Chrome Web Store, and Chrome is coming to Android, so you would think it would be somewhat interested in the mobile web platform. Google has historically been very hot on emerging web standards in desktop Chrome, but perhaps the conflict with the Android Market is too hairy to ameliorate.

Facebook and Mozilla might come across as unlikely bedfellows, but at the end of the day they bothreally, really want to live in a world where the web is truly free from monolithic, monopolistic corporate interests. As it stands, through almost complete domination of the smartphone and tablet markets, Android and iOS dictate the direction of the mobile web. It’s a scary thought, but if Apple and Google decide that open web apps pose a threat to their empires, they don’t have to support them. Much in the same way that Microsoft stifled the internet with Internet Explorer 6, Apple and Google could do the same.

The only way to break this stranglehold is through competition. Firefox for Android has been jogging along and is now fairly usable. Boot to Gecko opts to do away iOS and Android entirely, and replaces the OS with a web browser Samsung has Bada, its own OS. Microsoft and Nokia are doing jumping jacks on the sidelines, waiting for a chance to shine — and of course there’s Windows 8, which will make a huge splash.

Back then it was Firefox that broke through the Internet Explorer iron curtain — this time Mozilla’s back, and it’s brought some friends.

source : View the original article here

Read More

US and EU antitrust regulators have their eyes on Windows RT

US and European regulators have a watchful eye on Microsoft, after it emerged last week that it would be impossible for other vendors, such as Google and Mozilla, to develop browsers that are competitive with Internet Explorer on Windows RT (Windows 8 on ARM).

Microsoft disclosed last year that development of third-party apps would be limited to Metro on ARM processors. Microsoft leaned on security concerns as its chief reasons for why it was locking down the platform, but that wasn’t enough to prevent developers from complaining.

It is surprising that it took until now for somebody to make a big stink about it, but here we are. At issue is the 2009 decision in which the EU required Microsoft to give users choice of browser when installing Windows, as well as offering a version of Windows without Internet Explorer. Mozilla claims that Microsoft’s locked-down Windows RT violates this ruling.

Microsoft’s in the clear — for now

Not so fast. The European Commission says it is aware of Mozilla’s claim, but the ruling applied to PCs only. This means that if Mozilla wants to push the issue, it will have to argue that tablets are still PCs. That said, there is the possibility that ARM-based PCs could pop up in the future — actually, that’s probably likely — so Microsoft’s going to have to figure out a defense of its position soon.

The US is taking the same “wait and see” attitude. According to TechNewsWorld, the Senate Judiciary Committee does plan to review Microsoft’s browser decision, but called it “preliminary” and said no hearing is scheduled. So while there may be some question as to whether or not Microsoft is running afoul of the law here, it appears for the time being that Redmond is in the clear.

So, is Microsoft really doing anything wrong? I don’t think so. Windows RT is not Windows, and really isn’t intended for PCs but devices, where other companies have similarly strict app requirements. Look at Apple, it does the same thing in keeping a lot of apps out of iOS. Microsoft is doing the same, and in both cases it has a lot to do with security.

It’s all about security

Browser vulnerabilities are the most common way attackers gain access. When code for these apps are more tight, there are less holes for the hacker to exploit. The browsers in these mobile platforms are more tightly linked to the OS itself. Device operating systems are very strict in who they let in to certain processes — regardless of whether its iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etc. — and that’s a good thing.

While it is disappointing that we cannot select our own browser with modern mobile operating systems, in reality we’re much better off. The attack vectors are limited and if somebody’s getting in, it’s the platform’s fault. The evidence has shown that the tighter the control on the ecosystem itself, the less of a chance of malicious attack. Just look at the difference between Android and iOS when it comes to malware.

Android’s much more lenient app rules have allowed attackers to exploit the OS much more frequently then they have on the iOS platform. But even there, Google has clamped down on some sections of the code in an attempt to protect you the user. Then above and beyond security, the device market is nothing like the PC industry.

In mobile devices, you have something called choice. Don’t like one platform and its rules? There’s plenty of others to choose from. It’s not like you’ll ever be forced to use a Windows RT device — and heck, if you really want to use a different browser, there’ll be plenty of low-power x86 Windows 8 tablets anyway.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

How many people does it take to make 9 million Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphones?

Over the last year, a truly huge number of column inches has been dedicated to Apple’s relationship with Foxconn, the Taiwan- and China-based manufacturer who produces the iPhone and iPad. First those stories revolved around a spate of suicides and explosions, then we boggled at the fact that Foxconn has 1 million employees, and finally the news cycle was rounded out with Apple working hard to improve worker conditions at the factory — and its public image.

For a company as large as Apple — to date it has sold around 200 million iPhones and 80 million iPads, and it’s by far the most valuable company in the world — such scrutiny is inexorable, but it also means that other companies tend to get washed away by a tsunami of Apple press. Take Samsung, for example, a South Korean conglomerate with 350,000 employees worldwide and $220 billion in revenue in 2010 — more than twice Apple in 2011, its biggest year yet (by far). While Apple has sold 180 million iPhones in total, Samsung sold 300 million phones in 2011 alone — and its market share is increasing. On the back of the Galaxy S2, Samsung’s smartphone market share in the US rose from 10% to 24% between 2010 and 2011. Worldwide, Samsung is by far the largest smartphone maker.

Which brings me neatly onto the Galaxy S3. This morning, Reuters announced that pre-orders of the Samsung Galaxy S3 now total 9 million. This is huge. First-weekend sales of the iPhone 4S totaled “just” 4 million. 9 million would make the Galaxy S3 the fastest selling gadget ever — a title currently held by Microsoft’s Kinect, which sold 8 million units in 60 days.

Buried at the bottom of the Reuters report is another equally interesting tidbit: According to an unnamed Samsung official, its smartphone factory in South Korea is running at “its full capacity of 5 million units per month.” Back in March, a Foxconn insider said the company was gearing up to produce 57 million iPhone 5 handsets this year — divide that by 12, and you get 4.75 million units per month.

Now, I’m not entirely sure how Samsung does this, but South Korea actually has a rather high income per capita — $24,000 — and the average monthly salary for a factory worker is $2000 per month. The average monthly wage for a Chinese Foxconn worker is only $400. As far as I can tell, this simply means that Apple pays significantly less to produce its iPhones. A report from February confirms this disparity: If you average it all out, Chinese workers get $8 per iPad, while Korean workers get $34 per iPad.

If we throw some other numbers into the mix, we can derive some other interesting facts about the manufacture of Apple and Samsung smartphones. In March, what seems like the diary of a Foxconn worker was published on the web. This worker, named Li Qi, says that in the lead-up to the launch of the new iPad, his production line churned out 150 iPads per hour. Li Qi’s base wage is 2,350 yuan per month ($370) — and considering Foxconn employees work six days a week and eight hours per day, that means he gets paid around $15 per day, or $1.85/hour.

Looping back around to that $8-per-iPad figure: If the team produces 1200 iPads during an 8-hour shift, and they get $8 per iPad, then it costs Foxconn $9,600 to staff each production line for a day. Divide that by the employee pay of $15-per-day, and we get 640 — the number of workers on each production line.

We’re not done yet! Another report from a Foxconn worker says that iPhone production lines are expected to spew out 3,500 units per day. We don’t know if this is because iPhone production lines have more workers, or because they’re easier to make. If we assume the latter, then 640 employees can create 84,000 iPhones per month (before overtime). If the Galaxy S3 is roughly equivalent to the iPhone 4S in terms of manufacturing complexity, then Samsung’s South Korea factory must have 60 production lines to produce 5 million Galaxy S3s per month, for a total of 38,400 workers.

This might seem like a fairly small number compared to Foxconn’s city-sized factories, but it’s more than 10% of Samsung’s total workforce, or more than Google’s entire workforce. It’s also worth noting that Samsung produces almost every component found inside the Galaxy S3, too, from the Exynos processor, to the OLED display, to the RAM and NAND flash — so, all told, we’re probably looking at at least 75,000 people working flat out to produce the first 9 million pre-orders, and then the tens of millions of Galaxy S3s that will be sold in 2012.

source :  View the original article here

Read More

Home » Cool Windows Apps & Tricks » How To Unlock Your Computer After Forgetting Your Windows Login

Most passwords aren’t that difficult to reset, particularly those online. There is one that can give you trouble, however – your Windows login password. If you forget this you will be locked out of your account and unable to access all of the files and software specifically tied to that account.

Unlocking your computer won’t be easy, but it is possible. Let’s take a look at how you can access your system even if the login has been forgotten.

Resetting Your Windows Login Password – The Super Legit Way

Windows has a built-in password reset feature. It would be rather pointless if anyone could reset it, so you have to do the preparation before you forget your login if you want to be able to use this feature. This consists of creating a password recovery disk, which can be any removable USB drive or even a floppy disk. Please note the instructions here apply to Windows Vista/7.

To begin, do a Windows Search for Password Reset Disk. You should see “Create a password reset disk” as your first option. Select it.

This will open the Forgotten Password Wizard. The introductory screen explains the basics, and once you’ve read it, click next. Here you can select the disk that you want to use for password recovery. Since only removable drives can be used, only they will appear as an option. Select a drive and click next.

On the next screen you will have to enter your current password. Do this and click next to begin creation of the password recovery disk. This will likely be a fast progress – it literally took five seconds on my PC. And you’re done.

Resetting your Windows login is now easy as pie. Just click the “reset password” link below the login screen and follow the on-screen steps. You’ll have to select the appropriate disk and then enter a new password. Presto! Your computer is unlocked.

Resetting Your Windows Password – The Not-So-Legit Way

Using the password reset disk is just fine if you have prepared beforehand, but if you are reading this article, I’d say there is a fair chance that you didn’t. I don’t blame you. Windows doesn’t remind users to create a reset disk.

If you are locked out of Windows without the legitimate recovery option you will have to turn to a third-party password cracking tool. The best free option is Ophcrack, a tool which uses something called a “rainbow table” to guess your password.

To use Ophcrack, you must download the .ISO and then burn it to a CD. This creates a live cd that you can boot from. Most computers are set to boot from any bootable CD by default, but you may need to change your BIOS options so that your optical drive is first in your boot order. There are separate versions for Windows XP and Windows Vista (the Vista version should work with Windows 7) so make sure you download the correct one.

Once you boot via the Ophcrack Live CD you need to select a mode. The default is “automatic” and that is what you should generally use. The software will run through several more steps, which include black screens with running lines of text, before entering into the Ophcrack menu and beginning the cracking process. Don’t be alarmed – things are working as intended. Once a password is cracked it appear in the right-hand column on the main window.

There are some severe limitations to what this tool can do. Ophcrack won’t work against strong passwords that use many random characters – particularly if you are trying to crack a Vista/7 password. The cracking process can take some time, as well, depending on the password you are trying to crack. Simple passwords tend to be quick – complex passwords take more time.

Another problem is lack of support. There aren’t many solutions if you run into a bug or error, and since the software runs by booting into a Linux environment, troubleshooting can be particularly tough if you don’t know much about Linux (like me). If you are running in to any problems with the tool, try Ophcrack’s FAQ wiki page.

Conclusion

These methods can work, but they’re not perfect. Recovering your Windows password via the legitimate method requires preparation. Ophcrack, on the other hand, is open source software with poor support that has difficulty with complex passwords.

source :  View the original article here

Read More