I have bought an Acer Extensa notebook after reading the under 300 Euros notebooks test in the latest c't magazine where it came up as the winner regarding battery life and the rest wasn't too bad either. I chose the 4 GB model so it won't thrash the hd all the time. The Extensa comes … Continue reading Fighting Secure Boot
Category: Windows
Sabotaged by Windows Update
Microsoft released a Windows Update this week that caused quite a problem for Delphi developers still using Delphi 2006 to 2010. When starting a second instance of the IDE they now get the error Cannot create file C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\EditorLineEnds.ttr The update in question is a security update for all supported Windows versions and has the number … Continue reading Sabotaged by Windows Update
Using a bar code scanner? Watch out for your keyboard layout!
We are using a bar code scanner to scan the serial numbers of all hard disk drives we buy. This is supposed to make it easier and less error prone to put them into an Excel list for tracking their whereabouts (we use quite a lot of drives for storing video data). Of course, when … Continue reading Using a bar code scanner? Watch out for your keyboard layout!
Windows 7 Blue Screen Of Death with error 0x7B
If you ever had to change the motherboard of your computer and wanted to keep the Windows installation on it, you might have encountered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death with an unhelpful error code. In my case, this was a Windows 7 installation where the on board SATA controller started to misbehave. These problems … Continue reading Windows 7 Blue Screen Of Death with error 0x7B
Comparing INI files
INI files are a simple but powerful means of storing a program's configuration. They have existed since the 16 bit Windows times, where they were stored in the Windows directory, later on they were stored in the program's executable directory and nowadays they usually go somewhere into a user's home directory. Microsoft has tried to … Continue reading Comparing INI files
Windows advanced Batch programming call :bla%var%
While looking for the equivalent of a switch / case statement for Windows batch files, I came across this answer on Stackoverflow. Basically, what it does is using environment variable substitution for simulating: case %var% of 1: rem do something 2: rem do something else 3: rem do something completely different end The code looks … Continue reading Windows advanced Batch programming call :bla%var%
Updating Windows Defender signatures (only)
One of my problems with Windows 8 is that Microsoft recommends to keep Automatic Updates on the setting "Install updates automatically" while I prefer the setting "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". (Actually I don't really want to choose whether to install them but rather when to install them.) It's possible … Continue reading Updating Windows Defender signatures (only)
Using MSConfig to disable autostart
I guess most of you know that you can use msconfig (Start->Run->"msconfig") to disable programs that are automatically started by Windows. And you might have wondered where these entries go, when you disable them. Especially it looks like magic if entries in the start menu's Startup folders are concerned: You disable them in msconfig and … Continue reading Using MSConfig to disable autostart
Accessing legacy operating systems remotely via Virtual Box
In the process of moving forward to Windows 7 we found, that there were still some computers running Windows 2000. The original plan was to get rid of them in the process because they are (and have been for some time) an uncalculable security risk and of course the hardware is quite old as well … Continue reading Accessing legacy operating systems remotely via Virtual Box
Delphi 6 on Windows 8.1 (64 bit)
After getting Delphi 2005/2006 and 2007 working again the last stumbling block was Delphi 6. It used to work fine on Windows 8 but after the update to Windows 8.1 it always started the registration wizard for a new activation. Unfortunately this activation did not work, I tried it twice, just to be sure. So, … Continue reading Delphi 6 on Windows 8.1 (64 bit)