Pages Tagged “Windows”
Reviews
- Arc (Web Browser, discontinued) ★★★☆☆ An interesting experiment in finding different ways to use the web, on the idea that people don’t want to use it more, they want to use the web less to accomplish what they want.
- Boxes (GNOME) ★★★☆☆ A simple GUI wrapper around Linux’s built-in virtualization support. It makes simple things easy, but to adjust advanced settings you either need to edit config files manually or use another GUI.
- Brave (Web Browser) ★★☆☆☆ A privacy-focused browser, but for every cool privacy feature there’s something else that makes me want to firewall the application away from my system.
- DuckDuckGo ★★★★☆ A private-ish search engine that’s also serving less slop than Google. Disposable email aliases are convenient. The browser extension and standalone browser block known trackers, and the Android app can block trackers in other apps too.
- Ecosia (Search) ★★★☆☆ Non-profit search provider that uses renewable energy and partners with environmental organizations. AKA “the search engine that plants trees.”
- Firefox ★★★★☆ I still have a soft spot for Firefox. At times it’s been the best web browser on Windows and Linux. It’s still good, has a solid extension ecosystem, and serves as an important bulwark against one company dominating browser tech.
- Fluent Reader ★★★☆☆ A simple, no-nonsense, modern-looking RSS/Atom newsfeed reader for Windows, Mac and Linux. Optionally sync with multiple services, but I’ve had issues with Nextcloud.
- Google Chrome ★★★☆☆ There was a time when Chrome was the fastest web browser available. It isn’t anymore, and over the last few years it’s felt less like a user agent and more like a Google agent.
- Jellyfin ★★★★★ Great for playing music across my local network, doesn’t phone home to a cloud or try to upsell subscriptions.
- KeePass Password Managers ★★★★★ KeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.
- Kobo (eBook store and readers) ★★★★☆ A solid alternative to Kindle, from the eBook selection through apps and hardware. The app works well on my eink tablet without too much tweaking, though it still wants to sell me more books before I can open the one I want to read.
- Kristall ★★★★☆ Cross-platform desktop browser for the small internet, including Gemini, Gopher and Finger. A little faster than Lagrange, but fewer features and hasn’t been updated in a while.
- Lagrange ★★★★★ Lagrange quickly became my favorite Gemini client on the desktop with its clean and convenient UI, stability and speed across platforms. And the mobile version works well too.
- LibreWolf ★★★★☆ Customized Firefox, with an eye toward security and privacy. Follows the stable release channel. Works well most of the time, but privacy features can break some sites.
- Manyverse ★★★★☆ Takes the pain out of setting up and running SSB. Unfortunately it doesn’t overcome SSB’s inherent challenges of discovery, data size or multiple devices. (So far?)
- Microsoft Edge ★★☆☆☆ Once you turn off all the Microsoft specials, it feels usable again – but then, it’s just another Chromium skin.
- Microsoft Outlook (Desktop) ★★★☆☆ I won’t say I’ve never liked Outlook, because the macOS version has been pretty decent for a while now (if a bit of a resource hog), but the Windows versions have always been awkward, cluttered, and quirky.
- Microsoft Surface Go 2 ★★★★☆ A great ultra-light Windows 10 tablet with detachable keyboard. Or an annoyingly slow Windows 11 tablet.
- Notepad++ ★★★★★ A perfect balance of powerful and lightweight, Notepad++ is far more capable than Notepad, but doesn’t complicate things like a full IDE.
- Opera (Web Browser) ★★★☆☆ Opera used to be one of my favorite browsers back in the day, but its current incarnation just doesn’t appeal to me. I much prefer Vivaldi, which is a spiritual successor to the original.
- Parallels ★★★★☆ A virtual machine application for macOS that makes it easy to install a Windows, Linux or macOS guest. Downside: annual subscription.
- RSS Guard ★★★★☆ A solid cross-platform feed reader that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Extremely capable and customizable. Syncs with multiple services.
- SeaMonkey (Internet Suite) ★★★☆☆ The old Mozilla Suite lives on! Featuring web, email, news, an HTML editor, IRC client and more. Recent work has mostly been to keep it working and backport security fixes, so web app compatibility lags way behind even the ESR Firefox.
- Thunderbird (Email and Calendar) ★★★★★ Stable, capable desktop email application, works well with multiple accounts including Gmail, Nextcloud, easy to set up and use but with advanced settings when you need them. FLOSS.
- Tor Browser ★★★★☆ When you really want (or need) to stay private while using the web, Tor is the way to go. Just keep the drawbacks in mind when you do.
- UTM ★★★☆☆ A simple application wrapped around macOS’ built-in virtualization and emulation capabilities. Fewer bells and whistles than the commercial options, but works better for some purposes.
- Vivaldi (Web Browser) ★★★★★ Spiritual successor to the original Opera browser, this ultra-customizable web browser can open into a full suite for email, calendar, feeds and more – but only if you want it to.
- VMWare Fusion ★★☆☆☆ VMWare Fusion worked great on my Intel-based MacBook for work for years. But since Broadcom bought the company, I can’t even find it.
- Waterfox ★★★★☆ A Firefox fork aimed at improved performance and privacy, without sacrificing usability. Also available on Android.
- Web Browser Recommendations Vivaldi, Orion, Waterfox and Zen are my current favorites. I want to like Firefox, but I’m not so sure about Mozilla these days. Safari’s OK. LibreWolf and IronFox are good for everyday privacy, Tor for advanced scenarios. Falkon and Dillo are good for slow hardware.
- Whalebird (Mastodon client) A simple desktop app for Mastodon and (most) compatible Fediverse servers. Fast, runs on multiple platforms.
- Windows 10 Mail and Calendar (discontinued) ★★★☆☆ Not a bad email client. Snappy, works with multiple accounts. Some issues with Nextcloud calendar and contacts. So of course it’s been discontinued in favor of Outlook.
- Wine and Crossover ★★★★☆ THE major compatibility tool for Windows apps on Linux or macOS, including SteamOS. And a commercial distribution with installers and support.
- Zen Browser ★★★★☆ Similar to Arc, Zen has a non-cluttered design that stays out of your way. Unlike Arc, it’s built on Firefox, runs on more platforms, and doesn’t require you to log in just to use it!
Tech Tips
- Chkdsk Fail (Obsolete) If chkdsk gives you a ‘cannot open volume for direct access’ error on Windows XP, try running msconfig and selecting a Diagnostic startup.
- Downgrading a Microsoft Surface Device to Windows 10 You can reinstall Windows on a Surface tablet or laptop using a hardware-specific recovery image and a USB drive. Microsoft will want you to log in and provide the serial number of the device you want to reinstall.
- Find the missing Windows 8.1 update on a Dell (Obsolete) If the 8.1 update is missing from the Windows Store, you need to uninstall a minor update and then reinstall it manually.
- Google Drive insists “A newer version is already installed” (Solved) Drive wouldn’t reinstall because the uninstall had failed. What finally worked was copying the program files from another computer and re-running the uninstaller.
- How to Get Rid of Windows Live Messenger (Obsolete) Start to uninstall Windows Live Essentials, then choose which pieces you want to get rid of. And WLM will go away.
- Invisible Taskbar Icons on Windows - But Only Microsoft Store Apps (Solved) Clearing caches, fixing corrupted files, just unpinning and repinning might work - or you might just need to uninstall Google Drive.
- KB5034441 Won’t Install The Windows 10 installer didn’t set aside enough space to install this fix, but a generic error covers up the actual reason.
- Keep Your System Updated! Most drive-by computer infections use old vulnerabilities for which patches are already available.
- KeePass Password Managers KeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.
- Minecraft Bedrock Beta vs. the Microsoft Store There’s got to be a better way to do this. Actually, I know there’s a better way to do this, because Minecraft already does it in Java Edition.
- Move Your iTunes Library from Mac to Windows In theory it’s easy, but you have to deal with a different folder structure, illegal characters, and then wiping and resyncing your iPod.
- Remove GPS Tags After Taking a Photo Google Photos won’t remove GPS data from an image, but you can easily remove just the location data using a desktop or laptop.
- Unhide the Windows 10 ESU Offer Windows Update is a bit flaky about making the offer to enroll a Windows 10 system in an extra year of security updates. If it’s not showing the offer, this can make it re-check whether your system qualifies: cmd /c ClipESUConsumer.exe -evaluateEligibility
- Wacom Registration error: “Profile ID Missing” (Solved) Uninstall and reinstall the drivers, or manually reload the registration page in your browser instead of following the link.
- WGA False Positive Experience The time Windows mistakenly told me I was running a pirated copy…because Norton Internet Security had blocked its validation attempt.
- Windows 11 “PROCESSOR START TIMEOUT” BSOD on Parallels I got this error trying to relaunch my VM after updating Parallels Tools. The solution was simple: turn it off and back on again.
- Windows Losing Drives After Sleep (Solved) It turned out the motherboard had two SATA controllers, one of which worked properly and one which didn’t. I just moved the cables over.
- Windows on MacBook Boot Camp Stops Connecting to External Displays Go into Device Manager and tell it to show hidden devices. There could be a broken display config interfering with the driver for the real adapter.
Blog Posts
- The Anti-Vista
ZDNet reports that Windows 7 is doing what Vista couldn’t: convincing people to replace Windows XP. The best quote in this article: “Windows 7 is the Anti-Vista.”
- Thoughts on Screenshots for Tech Support
I used to get annoyed when someone would send a complete screen shot along with their tech support request. I thought it was a waste of bandwidth when a simple text message would do just as well, and be faster to send, receive and display. But the thing is, screenshots have their advantages. For one […]
- Hello chkdsk, my old friend…
Hello chkdsk, my old friend I’ve got to run you once again Cause my Windows box is acting weird And the disk drive must need something cleared And the error that was printed on my screen Made me scream And put aside my work For chkdsk
- Alphabet Soup: XP SP and EV SSL XSS!
Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I was just way too busy prepping for our move this weekend. A couple of interesting news bits I noticed when I got into work this morning: It looks like I’ve been lucky with installing Windows XP Service Pack 3. I’ve had no problems with the one machine […]
- Apple UI Nitpicking
I appreciate that Apple offers a single software updater for all its free Windows software. But one thing annoys me about it. It opens a window, then opens a message box showing a progress meter as it checks for updates. Only one problem: It fills out the “New software is available” caption before it actually […]
- Safari on Windows
Wow. I have to admit I was not expecting this at all, but Apple has just announced they’re releasing the Safari web browser for Windows. Increased consumer choice, of course, is a good thing. The most immediate benefit, though, is that Windows-based web developers (the majority) who haven’t been willing to buy a Mac to […]
- The Fall of Windows 95
Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition will stop getting security updates next month. Firefox 3, due out next year, will require Windows 2000 or later. A lot of controversy has erupted over the wisdom of these decisions. But how many people are still using these older versions of Windows? And how quickly are […]
- Browser War, OS War
It occurred to me today that if you lay out the three major players in computer operating systems and the three major players in web browsers, the results track remarkably well. Windows and Internet Explorer. The dominant player. Obtained that position by being good enough, cheap enough, and promoted enough to win a protracted two-way […]
- Who needs version numbers, anyway?
Just a day after Firefox decided to jump from 1.1 to 1.5 (triggering far more discussion than the numbering change really deserved), Microsoft has announced the official name for Longhorn: Windows Vista. Okaaay. Yeah, I can see the connection: a vista is something you see through a window. But at that point, why not just […]
- Suggestive logo
Here’s another example of using a design that suggests a logo, rather than using it outright. This is a “Win Compatible” badge from the package of a KVM switch. (I think it was from IOGEAR.) What I like about this is that it manages to get the idea across clearly even though it doesn’t use […]
- Reinventing the Upgrade Wheel
The internet is a hostile place. Viruses, worms, and worse are constantly trying to break or break into your computer. Software developers are constantly fixing the holes that can let them in. It’s become critical to keep your system up to date. Unfortunately this can be very frustrating, even for a power user, for one […]
- Setting up Windows
We finally replaced our 4-year-old Windows Me computer with a new Dell (I’d had enough of building computers a few weeks ago) and it arrived yesterday. Katie had already asked me to upgrade her Mac while she made pizza for an office party. I had planned to finish installing Tiger first, but once you get past […]
- Restart your computers!
Microsoft’s automatic update system is now offering an update to the Windows Installer. That’s the program that handles all those .msi files you use to install new applications, keeps track of what’s currently installed, and lets you uninstall them. And it needs to reboot after installing? WHY? What low-level system file did they have to […]
- The Pain of Winstallation (a Haiku)
Windows gets installed Now reboot–again!–again! Why so many times?
- Subtle Update Hint
Something that could help with the ever-shrinking window between turning on a new (Windows) computer and getting hacked by some automatic probe is to just make downloading security updates part of the setup process. I installed two Linux distributions this weekend, Mandrake 10.1 and SuSE 9.2, and both did this. What I liked about the […]
- IE 2 Flashback
I had to reboot one of the Windows servers on Thursday, at which point the GDI+ checker installed by Tuesday’s security fix popped up a message explaining that there was still some software with the JPEG vulnerability. OK, fine, I’ll run it again and see what’s missing. So I clicked on, well, OK, and it […]
- Always check the requirements
We have a “yours, mine and ours” set of computers at home. My system started out as a Compaq Presario in 1994 and has been upgraded piecemeal over the past decade, Katie replaced her Power Mac with a G4 last year, and we picked up an eMachine to use as a dial-up server when we […]