Navarr's Tech Side

One of the few problems that have really been giving a bad rap to Windows 7 users is the loss of proper Bluetooth Connectivity on Dell Laptops, specifically the Truemobile series.  The cause is, unsurprisingly, a lack of Dell support – no updated drivers.  In fact, if I recall, my Bluetooth wasn’t working properly on Windows Vista either, which the computer came pre-installed with.  Since the problem is Dell Drivers, the solution is fairly simple:  Screw Dell, set it back to the Windows Drivers.

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I’m sure every single person in the tech world can agree that Windows Phone 7 Series is a stupid name for a product, almost as bad as iPad.

However, if we take a step back and re-think about this incredulously long name and what it means exactly, you’ll see it may not be as entirely stupid as it was at first glance.

Windows Phone 7 Series describes the combined devices that will be running this new Operating System.  Just like the older OS devices will be called Windows Phone Classic Series.  “Series” is simply an added word to describe the devices together.

Therefore, in truth, Windows Phone 7 is the name of the OS itself, which is a lot less stupid than Windows Phone 7 Series.

I’m still wondering if there is a specific way they could make the name for the series itself more appealing.

This is just a small update to the whole Steam on Windows 7 thing.  Looks like they’re embracing more Windows 7 features than I saw previously.  Discovered this while downloading Zero Gear today:

This actually isn’t a post against Windows 7.  In fact, you will find very few of those among this blog, if any at all.  This is actually a post voicing my disappointment with the very popular Social Network Gaming Software, Steam.

One of the first things quickly and easily noticed is that it uses its own Window customization.  This really isn’t such a big deal for me.  Sure, it’d be nice if it could do the whole aero thing and fall back on this, but this looks pretty cool, so I’m not really going to fault them for this.

Next is actually mostly a good thing.  Steam has this very nice jumplist for Windows 7, something not a lot of other programs have really taken the time to integrate just yet.  You can see video games I have recently (attempted to anyway) launched from Steam, their own quick links to important parts of their client, and an optional (disabled by default) ability to change your current status from the jumplist.

The one problem I have with this jump list is that the tasks have no icons.  You could easily find some sort of icon for each of their little tasks.  A shopping cart for Store, a generic user-like figure for community, etc etc but there is nothing there.

Then of course, there is my ultimate pickle with Steam.  As I’m sure you can tell from the above screenshot – Steam has NO PRESENCE in the Windows Games Explorer.  This is awful!  The Games Explorer has been around since Vista, and yet Steam has yet to embrace it.

There could (and should) be (at the very least) a high resolution steam icon under Game Providers.  It’s not very difficult to make, and the “News” feed you see from Games for Windows LIVE is a simple RSS feed.  They could either populate this with the news from their site, or just a list of new releases, creating a steam:// URI (if it doesn’t already exist) to open up links in their own client.  Instead, they don’t even touch this.

As for games, I don’t know if they show up in the Explorer or not.  I don’t have any spare cash lying around, so I haven’t been able to check for myself – but somehow I doubt that the games appear there (though, I could be wrong – can anyone vouch for this?).

Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in a future version of Steam, and embraced by Rival companies. (I’m looking at you On Live.  Yes, I expect this from you as well).

What are your thoughts on the matter, anyway?

The most difficult problem I’ve encountered with Windows 7 is making it Blue Screen on me.  You’d think after so many different versions, Microsoft would’ve made it much easier to crash your computer – but it seems like they’re doing just the contrary!  What do these fools think they’re up to?

Either way, I’ve made my Windows 7 (RC) box Blue Screen on me twice – so I’ll share with you how I did it.  Make sure to leave your own Blue Screen of Death stories in the comments below.

BSoD #1 – ATI TV Wonder

My first BSoD is brought to you by the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB PC TV Tuner, and yes – it is a very long name for a product.  Aren’t you thankful I didn’t put “Diamond” in front of it?

Over all, this was an excellent product that I’m VERY happy I purchased from woot.com at a price far below its stock value.  It was pretty much plug-and-play (I didn’t run the CD at first because, well, my Sony DVD drive has crapped out on my Laptop and will only read DVDs now.  What the hell, Sony?)  What was interesting about this device (and ultimately lead to the BSoD) was that Skype recognized it as a video source (read: Webcam) and decided I might want to use it.  I thought that was fairly cool, but didn’t dabble any more into it (until later, right before my crash).  So, while I had this thing plugged in and made Windows Media Center scan for channels, I decided “Well, I’m bored – I wonder what happens if I open this thing up in Skype too?  I got my answer with some weird looking static, and then a Blue Screen.  Congrats,  Navarr!  This was your first ever Blue Screen with Windows 7 (RC even!).  And that was the last of that.

BSoD #2 – Lexar 4GB ExpressCard SSD

This is another small device I found for cheap on the internet, and purchased immediately because – well, it could be used with the Windows 7 ReadyBoost and I wasn’t using my Express Card slot on my laptop – I didn’t have any use for it. 

It normally works pretty well.  I’m not sure if the problem I’ve been encountering is Windows, My Computer, the Card, or it simply becoming loose but every now and then it will unmount and remount – so it may just be loose.

Either way, this happening over and over again while the device was dedicated to ReadyBoost has, of course, damaged the file system.  After doing this enough times, eventually my computer Blue Screened on me – once.  It hasn’t seemed to happen again.  I’ve since repaired the file system and got it working again, but I’m not sure how long it’ll stay.

Final

So those are my BSoD Horror Stories for Windows 7.  Do you have any of your own?  Has Windows 7 ever crashed for you?  Tell me all about it in the comments!

I’m not much of an Apple fanboy, in fact I generally don’t care much for the brand at all.  But today’s iTunes update has made even me smile in elated happiness just a little bit.

Why is this, you ask?  Because Apple is making sweet, sweet love with Windows 7.

As you can see, iTunes has added the ability to pause and skip forward and backward in Windows 7, a feature that (so far as I know) is only supported by Windows Media Player at this moment in time.  But that isn’t all.  The application now loads up quicker, doesn’t usually give off that annoying black background in place of UI elements, and even includes some Windows 7 Tasks!

As you can see very plainly in this picture, iTunes 9 has added tasks involving the iTunes store.

This is all of the secret love making I’ve found so far.  Have you found any?  If so, please, post about it in the comments!

In the entirety of my house, I happen to be the only Windows user (and an Avid one at that!  Macintosh can suck my Windows 7 Orb!), but for some occasions I too wish I could use the Macintosh.  For such things as the local web server, and in the future possibly making iPhone applications.

Now, I don’t like going downstairs to use the best non-laptop Macintosh.  Its hooked up to a High Definition Projector system, and it is simply a burden to try to get anything code-wise with it done, without either sitting up close to the screen, or using Apple+ to make it larger, so, I did what any geek would attempt to do.  Get Apple’s Screen Sharing system working with my Windows Box.

I have to be honest with you.  It was a hassle and it was definitely NOT worth it.  Regardless of client side settings, VNC was incredibly slow over the Local Network.

However, as some of you may wish to try this yourself, I’ve included the instructions after the break.

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The newest Developer version of Chrome has introduced support for the fantastic Windows 7 Jumplist.  So, to see what you’ll be able to get soon enough:

As you can see, it supports Tasks, Shows you what you recently closed, and gives you a list of your most visited websites for easy two-click access!  And don’t worry about something bad showing up.  If you want to get rid of something, just right click and “Remove from this list.”

You can also PIN any item you wish to the list! 

Good going Chrome!

Should be aptly renamed to “Windows 7 Ungenuine Disadvantage.”

Why you ask?

Simply because a single simple hardware revision (“upgrading” your computer for example) can make it lose it’s mind.

Would you like to know the modifications I had to make to my computer to get “You may be a victim of software fraud” and “Activate Now” popping up all the time since the first time I activated with a serial code provided from Microsoft?

I had to make one: Attaching a second IDE hard drive that’s less than 20GB.

That one IDE hard drive freaked Windows 7 out like there is no tomorrow.

Luckily, since the Beta is free; I have another key; and have re-validated my version of Windows 7 as genuine.

There is nothing more noticeable by running the Windows Live Beta on Windows 7, then the fact that the two were made for each other.  This shows most with Windows Live Messenger; and how it has tasks for everything and is built into the new taskbar perfectly.

All of the Windows Live programs that I’ve tested (excluding the hopefully nowhere near finished Windows Live Movie Maker) also now have high-resolution icons to represent their programs (instead of just the old 32×32 pixel images).

You have to admit though, Windows 7 looks beautiful.