Windows Startup Sounds - 1.0 to 98 to ME to Vista watch. A piano composition incorporating the sound effects heard in Windows. A different Windows remix (All YT). To get embarrassed at a public library, press here. To disable, press here. Previously-posted I’m sure: Windows noises & Icon Wars.
posted on Oct 21, 2007 - View this thread

Steve Ballmers's been busy. Whether it's attacking Google and Linux (or being attacked back), berating the moms of 13-year-old girls who hate Vista, or just being called an alcoholic, the perennial Microsoft CEO been everywhere these days.
What happened to the good old days when he just yelled a lot?
posted on Oct 11, 2007 - View this thread

If you tried to validate a legitimate copy of XP or Vista today before 2pm, you were in for a nasty suprise. It seems that all Windows Genuine Advantage servers failed at once sometime today. One BoingBoing reader who contacted Microsoft was told to try again on Tuesday, as they expected the servers to be down for a few days. Rob Knop of the ScienceBlog Galactic Interactions responds with an entertaining rant.
posted on Aug 25, 2007 - View this thread

The How-To Geek provides hints and tips for a variety of operating systems and popular pieces of software. The how-tos cover a pleasing range of head-slapping I-should-have-known-thats to relatively advanced techniques. Follow the latest page to read the site in blog form.
posted on Jul 8, 2007 - View this thread

Crayon Physics, the delightful latest game from independent game developer Petri Purho at Kloonigames, a sort of finnish Ferry Halim. Draw objects with your crayon to get the ball to the star. The site is also home to other made-in-a-week games such as Cacodemon, which is as frustrating as it is addictive. If Crayon Physics seems too short, check out the small level pack or hack the xml to make your own. Windows only, works in Wine too
posted on Jun 29, 2007 - View this thread

Death to IE? If Firefox wasn't enough to ween you off Internet Explorer on Windows, perhaps Safari for Windows will be.
posted on Jun 11, 2007 - View this thread

Imagine your monitor as one side of a cube. Yod'm (download) is an incredibly simple and intuitive desktop manager application that allows you switch between different sides of said cube. For those of us stuck on one monitor, it's an elegant solution that eases the pain a bit. (DirectX 9 required)
posted on May 30, 2007 - View this thread

People have drawn river landscapes (1, 2) in MS Paint, but how about the Mona Lisa?
posted on Apr 4, 2007 - View this thread

I know MeFiltopians have likely found more diverse samplings of images for their desktops than the default windows samples... but have you ever wondered where this image was taken? vanity fair has.
posted on Mar 26, 2007 - View this thread

Autoplaying an Encrypted Thumb drive: Step by step instructions to get a thumb drive encrypted with TrueCrypt to automatically mount on Windows when inserted. Truecrypt requires Administrative Access.
posted on Jan 31, 2007 - View this thread

101 free games for Windows. Computer Gaming World (now called Games For Windows) lists some excellent downloads. Some standouts: Penumbra, a physics-based horror adventure; now-free classics like Star Control 2, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Maniac Mansion; remakes of other classics like the Star Wars arcade game; addictive action title Every Extend; Asteroids-meets-RTS Base Invaders, and many, many more. Are they missing anything (besides TrackMania, ADOM, and Cave Story)?
posted on Jan 21, 2007 - View this thread

Wo-wo-wo-windows wo-wo-windows windows/386 will pull these parts together and do it mighty quick. (Google video; start around minute 7) (via)
posted on Jan 14, 2007 - View this thread

YouOS.com - A javascript powered web-based desktop operating system.
posted on Dec 28, 2006 - View this thread

Today is a big day for Microsoft with the launch of three key products - Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. User groups are already up-and-running. Vista and Office have been available for some time. But maybe this is just clever viral marketing? In spite of lots of new and improved features, Vista has not been well received by reviewers. But this has been true of every Windows version since Windows 95. One thing is certain, these versions will be the last releases that focus on the desktop rather than the Internet.
posted on Nov 30, 2006 - View this thread

Sonic Invaders - videogaming without the video. [Windows]
posted on Nov 17, 2006 - View this thread

It needs an awful lot of RAM, disk space, and VRAM. Yet, with all this power, it suffers from very limited mobility (no, really); it's a big change from previous editions. It might even stop working on you, transforming your powerful workstation into a locked-down web-browsing paperweight (but what about your data?). It might not have the drivers you need to get your equipment working, which will be a problem because it won't load drivers that haven't been "blessed" by its maker. Certainly the technical challenges with Windows Vista are a handful, but what on earth were the Microsoft lawyers thinking when they inserted a clause in its EULA that specifically forbids problem-solving (clause 4)?
posted on Oct 19, 2006 - View this thread

Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it. Oops!
posted on Oct 17, 2006 - View this thread

To help enforce the genuine advantage, Microsoft will include a "kill switch" in Vista--if it's not validated within a specified time, all of its functions except web browsing are locked down and the machine automatically kicks you out after an hour. Will it mean more Linux users, an excuse to just use Google desktop, or is it just a matter of time until this, too, gets cracked?
posted on Oct 5, 2006 - View this thread

SoupToys Toybox is a digital physics simulator for Windows that lets the user create semi-elaborate machines with real world physical effects (gravity, velocity, impact, etc). For a lengthier explanation, see here. Until today, the software was trial/purchase, but as of now, it's switched to freeware.
posted on Jul 14, 2006 - View this thread

Remember Oxyd? You can find this shareware game on abandonware sites, but you probably won't have much luck playing it on your new PC. Even if you run it under DOSBox, it's hard to get it looking and sounding right. Fret no more! There's Oxyd extra for Windows and Enigma for lots of platforms. Time to dust off my Oxyd Book...
posted on Jul 8, 2006 - View this thread

``I managed developer teams in Windows for five years, and have only begun to reflect on the experience now that I have recently switched teams. Through a series of conversations with other leaders that have similarly left The Collective, several root causes have emerged as lasting characterizations of what's really wrong in The Empire.'
posted on Jun 18, 2006 - View this thread

Windows Vista. Microsoft has released a public Beta of Windows Vista. Get your free copy with 2 activation keys that will let you install on 10 PCs per key. Public Beta Link.
posted on Jun 8, 2006 - View this thread

Zen Bondage (game, non-sexual, large download (~28 MB), Windows only) [more inside]
posted on May 1, 2006 - View this thread

"In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit." -- Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft
posted on Apr 4, 2006 - View this thread

FlashMute is an essential Windows utility to mute Flash and other sounds from the browser.
posted on Apr 4, 2006 - View this thread

Schmap is an online/desktop travel guidebook. They are taking Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr and using them in their city guides. It is kind of like Google Maps + Flickr + Lonely Planet. [Contains some flash, and to try out the guide you have to install the Schmap Player.]
posted on Apr 1, 2006 - View this thread

Safely install software in a virtual layer. Sick of buggy or beta software screwing with your Windows install? Altiris SVS provides a free and nifty alternative to the software diet by letting you install software into protected layers which can be removed or restored with a single click. (It's like a thinly-sliced version of VMware.) Altiris's Juice site lists lots of interesting tricks such as easily rolling back software patches. Pre-layered software installs available here.
posted on Mar 30, 2006 - View this thread

Windows XP booting on Apple hardware: confirmed. The $14000 contest to get Windows XP to boot on the new Intel hardware from Apple is over as of today. While considerable work in the realm of device drivers needs to be done, (and the rumored method may violate the Windows EULA) much of the hardware is straight Wintel. Considering that the MacBook Pro and Intel-based iMac (not currently working) both pack ATI Radeon X1600s, serious PC gaming on Apple hardware via dual-booting may finally be in the realm of possibility. [Via: slashdot, engadget]
posted on Mar 16, 2006 - View this thread

Microsoft has released their latest CTP (Community Technical Preview) of Windows Vista. Build 5308 Supposedly incorporates many more of the final features then previous CTP builds. Microsoft has also hinted at a final release during the first week of October this year.
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - View this thread

The Portable Freeware Collection tracks free Windows software that can be launched from a USB flash drive with no installation. It advises on how to prepare and launch the software (usually as simple as saving and double clicking an exe file), and if/where settings are written to the computer. I'm particularly keen to get to grips with the Pimmy email, newsgroup and RSS client; the KM@ web browser (portable versions of Firefox and Opera are also available); and organizational joygasm NeoMem.
posted on Jan 3, 2006 - View this thread

Patch Windows now. The Windows Metafile exploits are beginning to look like one of the worst-ever Windows malware epidemics. It is a true drive-by exploit - infection with a whole raft of insidious malware just by looking at a web page with IE, or reading an email or IM with an image (depending on the program you use). It will really explode tomorrow when all the business PCs go back online, because as of now there is no good prevention with firewalls, anti-virus or IDS. The SANS Internet Storm Center handlers have been the most up to date source of information (first link above). The DSL Reports thread has good signal-to-noise. Insight and advice actually comes close to outweighing the usual microsoft-bashing in the latest /. thread on it. But Ilfak Guilfanov has outdone everyone with an unofficial patch (source included - admire the code - he is expertly patching a closed-source binary).
posted on Jan 1, 2006 - View this thread

Free Visual Studio Express Is Microsoft suddenly feeling generous, or are they just trying to further improve market share? (It's the latter).
posted on Nov 9, 2005 - View this thread

Ten years ago today, Microsoft released a massive overhaul of their flagship product — Windows 95. It added support for 256-character mixed-case long filenames, pre-emptive multitasking, and protected-mode 32-bit applications. Detractors noted that its updated interface owed a number of debts to Apple's MacOS and IBM's OS/2. Most importantly, however, Windows 95 included built-in support for dial-up networking and a TCP/IP stack. Once this technology was widely-available, it was only a matter of time until the Internet became a household word.
posted on Aug 24, 2005 - View this thread

Inventor of CTRL-ALT-DEL ridicules Bill Gates. "'I may have invented CTRL-ALT-DEL, but Bill Gates made it famous". Video clip of the episode, via TUAW, who say "The funniest part is the expression, or lack thereof, on the face of Bill."
posted on Jul 28, 2005 - View this thread

Securing public computers isn't easy, but a Microsoft kit to do that may also help families share home computers. If you share a Windows XP Home or Professional computer with other users, particularly, children, or family members, you may find the Shared Computer Toolkit beta an interesting idea. But caveat emptor: this is free "beta" software, has a spooky "validation" process to confirm your copy of Windows is "genuine," and installation is not for the faint of heart. Then again, neither is re-installing Windows after a friend/relative/SO inadvertently trashes your computer.
posted on Jul 7, 2005 - View this thread

Internet Explorer - We discovered the web. Check out this humorous parody site created for Microsoft's browser Internet Explorer. Something tells me this won't be up for too much longer though.
posted on May 28, 2005 - View this thread

Window Standpoint. If you've ever wondered what international sound artists see and hear when they're at home, staring out of their pokey apartment windows and watching the world go by, then this is the site for you.
posted on May 27, 2005 - View this thread

The clueless reviews the Mac Mini His chief gripes are "The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds." and "No serial ports, no way to connect a printer, no PS/2 ports, no floppy drive, no 5.25" bays." Let the hate mail campaign begin!
posted on Feb 2, 2005 - View this thread

The Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi now has a digital archive containing 10,000 images of medieval stained glass from English churches and cathedrals: a wonderful resource for anyone interested in medieval art. These stunning images of the windows at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, are just a tiny fraction of the extraordinary riches available on the site.
posted on Jul 24, 2004 - View this thread

Funny Microsoft Knowledge base articles. Cookies Lost After Upgrading to Windows XP, Calculator Does Not Reliably Subtract Two Numbers in Windows, etc...
posted on Jul 7, 2004 - View this thread

Whizzkid develops Linux application for Windows [...]The significance of the development is that Linux and Windows are able to work in parallel on the same computer or server. To[sic] now, the computer world is divided into systems that operate either with Windows or with Linux. [...]
posted on Apr 12, 2004 - View this thread

A symphony in Sound Recorder (Flash - sound)
Via B3ta
posted on Apr 9, 2004 - View this thread

PC Problems? Use this handy troubleshooter.
posted on Mar 20, 2004 - View this thread

With its latest security update Microsoft has disabled the ability to pass username:password pairs in URLs. If you usually use this format for connecting to your site via either FTP or HTTP, it will no longer work after you install this update.
posted on Feb 4, 2004 - View this thread

Lightspeed is a fun little shareware game that I stumbled across today. It's one of those "bounce stuff off mirrors to light up stuff" puzzle games, but with nice graphics, and additional features like a level editor and such. Warning: windows only download, shareware fee to unlock many levels and features.
posted on Jan 22, 2004 - View this thread

iTunes for Windows! iTunes for Windows! The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here!
posted on Oct 16, 2003 - View this thread

What software version numbers really mean. Not sure who started the latest trend of dropping version numbers from software. We could always blame Microsoft with Windows ME . But Macromedia is at fault too with the whole MX thing. And MX doesn't even stand for anything. Now Adobe is getting into the mix. There will be no Photoshop 8 or Illustrator 11. Just CS . So is this a good thing? Version numbers may not be exciting but it sure did make it easy to keep track of the latest upgrade.
posted on Sep 29, 2003 - View this thread

Windows Vulnerabilities XPlained I've always used Gibson Research's website to test my Windows system for vulnerabilities. With the latest BLAST aimed at MS, I thought to share his site with the class. While Mr. Gibson obviously has some axes to grind and bones to pick with Microsoft and with various software firewall makers, his explanations of how Windows can be XPloited in terms that are fairly easy to understand is most appreciated. Be sure to check out the numerous free utiltites (small downloads! I mean, really small!) that will help you plug nearly every hole in your Windows.
Didn't know MS had shut down www.windowsupdate.com til just now, either
posted on Aug 18, 2003 - View this thread

The Last Stage of Delirium Research Group (LSD-PLaNET) have posted code on the Internet that can allow hackers to exploit a previously disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system. This kind of thing happens all the time. What never happened before is a widespread government and media panic perpetuating the buffer overrun threat as terroristic in nature, originating from the Department of Homeland Security and upsetting the gerneral public at large.
posted on Jul 31, 2003 - View this thread

BuyMusic.com debuts, a service that allows the 90-some-odd percent of people out there who use Windows to legally download music like their Mac-loving brethren have been able to do with iTunes. I went and used it today and give it an initial grade of "C": The music collection is adequate but could be larger and definitely needs indie artists, the UI is tolerable but needs improvement, and the music files themselves are generally okay but of inconsistent quality. One major problem I saw is that it listed -- and let people buy -- albums that they couldn't actually download: I had this happen with a Depeche Mode singles collection. Has anyone else used it yet? What are your thoughts? And notwithstanding the imminent Windows version of iTunes (which we are told will arrive by the end of the year), how long until this site has more real competition?
posted on Jul 22, 2003 - View this thread