As time passes, hardware producers release more and more drivers fully compatible with Vista for their products, but what about people having various devices that won't get new drivers? Since this is a problem that a lot of computer users have, but I wasn't able to see any interesting solutions, let me share with you a bit of my recent experience...


Just like many people I know, in the last decade I used only one network interface card, an excellent Compaq Netelligent adapter, with an Intel chipset (no intention to advertise, but I had to tell you this). On my old computer, I had just enough memory to install Vista (512MB), so I installed it, more to see how it looks and feels, because I had already in mind the configuration of my new Vista system. All went fine, apart from setting up the network... and the reason is obvious: Vista didn't find any compatible driver for my card!

In most cases, using Vista's troubleshooter won't take you anywhere, so you'll have to find a solution, and for some people, dropping the old hardware isn't an option. Next, I will tell you how I solved my problem, but this is not a solution for every piece of hardware in the wild - you'll have to try for yourselves.

After completing the troubleshooting procedure without success a few times, you have to retrieve a driver compatible with your hardware for Windows 2000. If that's not available, look for the latest driver compatible with the Windows NT-family of operating systems.

Choose to install this driver, and disregard the warning you'll get from the operating system (notice the screenshot above). When you finish, reboot, but only if you're asked to do it. In the most fortunate case, your hardware device should start working properly as soon as the drivers have been installed.In my case, the network adapter worked like a charm. Unfortunately, placing it in my new computer would have a negative impact on my video card's cooling, so I chose to use the on-board NIC.

Feel free to experiment with your old hardware that's not ready for the junkyard yet, and get back here and report your results. It will be my pleasure to find out that my hints helped other people keep their old devices running on Microsoft's last operating system!

When moving from a computer to another, the settings that you fine tuned for months, maybe even years, are the hardest part when it comes to backup and restauration. Since Opera is a top Web browser, I am sure a lot of people are looking for solutions to move their settings from a computer to another.

When I say "settings", I am not thinking about the bookmarks, but especially about the saved passwords and other information that's not so easy to retrieve. Just think about this - when you open Opera, it loads 30 sites, and apart from that, the browser is the safe that keeps your passwords and personal data, and all that you can do is export your bookmarks... but having exactly the same Opera setup on your new computer is much easier than you ever imagined!


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->First of all, you have to save your old Opera folder, or at least have it close at hand. For example, browse to your Program Files folder, and copy to a USB stick the entire Opera folder. If space is a problem, then you should check the About screen of browser, because it contains very useful information. Just look below...

Did you notice the precise locations of your settings? Now, let me explain... All that you need to switch from a computer to another your entire Opera setup is to keep the old "profile" folder, and copy it into the program's folder as soon as you install the browser on your new computer!

If you are using the Mail feature, then you also need to copy the "mail" folder to your new computer. Incredibly easy, don't you think? I'll be waiting for your feedback and questions, as usual, so don't be shy and fill in the text box below with your comment!

If you ask someone about a program to read or write PDF files, the most probable answer you'll get is "Adobe Acrobat". No matter if it's about the free to use Reader, or the high-end PDF editing Adobe Acrobat Professional, Adobe rules this part of the market with an iron hand, and there's nothing strange about this, since they introduced the PDF format in the first place. Today, their Acrobat line of products got a new update, bringing the current version number to 8.1.1, so let's see what do we get...


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->The new version patches 8 problems, including a security vulnerability noticed on the Windows platform, in conjunction with Internet Explorer 7, and two issues that caused the Windows version to crash. It's interesting to see that all serious problems of the program seem to occur with the Windows version, while Mac OS versions of Adobe Acrobat work without problems in the same conditions that cause crashes in Microsoft's operating system...

As it seems normal, after checking the fixes list, only the Windows versions of the Acrobat family got updated, and the current release is designed to run on Vista, XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003.

At last, if you're insterested about the system requirements, here you go - Intel Pentium III or equivalent, 256MB of memory (512 recommended), 470MB of disk space, 1024X768 resolution, CD-ROM drive and Internet or phone connection, needed for product activation.

To grab one member of the Acrobat family, simply go to the official page and get what you need. We have shown you the way, and now we are looking forward to hear your comments, as usual. Don't keep us waiting!

A lot of computer users consider that once their PC's display looks good and the colors are all right, they don't need more, but I have seen too many people using their monitor and video card the wrong way, so I have to give you some hints about this. Anyway, since I got a really good software for helping people get the best out of their display hardware, I will get straight to it, instead of giving you tips on how to improve your Windows visual experience without using additional tools...


Setup

EnTech Taiwan, a company with a decade of experience in software development, has recently released version 3.75 of its advanced tweaking program for a wide range of graphics cards and monitors, an application called PowerStrip. The full program is priced at $29.95, but I got a shareware version free to download and try, as usual.

Offering support for virtually any operating system from Microsoft, apart from the ancient MS-DOS, PowerStrip comes in two small setup packages, one English version with almost 1MB in size, and an International one, having 1.42MB in size. Obviously, if you don't need support for any other language than English, the small package would do just fine.










<-125x125 Button - left->As you can see in the screenshots above, there isn't anything really different when it comes to installing this program, but I must confess that I would like to see an installer that uses windows with the same size, next time. It's not really a bad thing, but I always get a bit confused when I see an installer that displays 3 or 4 windows with different sizes and shapes as I setup a new program...

Interface

With PowerStrip, the interface problem is really simple, because you don't get to see it often. Anyway, as you can see in the screenshot to the left, the place where all the features of the program are gathered is the corner of your monitor where PowerStrip's system tray icon is located. All you have to do is right click that icon, and move on to explore the program's features, as I will...

Features

The first thing to notice is the warning you get when you graphics hardware is detected, because this is really important. While you don't need a Computer Science degree to use this program, having the documentation of your video card and monitor at hand would be a great idea! After you press the OK button, you're taken straight to the Quick setup screen...

In this window, you can notice the default clocks of your graphics adapter, as well as the maximum resolution and refresh rates of your monitor. Be aware that these won't combine - in my case, for example, I won't be able to run 1600X1200 at 120Hz! As I was saying earlier, be sure to check your hardware's manufacturer site for information about what you got, or simply grab the manual, if you have it close at hand.

The profiles that you can save and use are 4 in number, namely the application, display, color and performance profiles. Without getting too technical, things look really simple - first, you set your own display, color and performance profiles, save them, then create application profiles to use the presets that you saved. For example, you can create a default power saving mode with low GPU and memory frequencies and a low-contrast color scheme, together with a high resolution to use when performing office tasks that require a lot of space on the screen, as I do.












Of course that games always need the best out of your computer, so you can also use PowerStrip to overclock your card, but don't forget to test the new frequencies carefully, increase them step by step and check the temperatures of your card often, because it would be a shame to fry your $400 video card...

Sometimes, you don't need a profile to slightly change the visual settings, so using the keyboard shortcuts available for changing gamma or to quickly restore the video card's clocks when smells like a 90 Celsius degrees card is as easy as 1-2-3, and that's all you'll find out from me today, before drawing the conclusions...

The Good

PowerStrip has support for an impressive amount of video cards and monitors, is very easy to use, and the price required to register your copy isn't really high either.

The Bad

As I was using it, the program suddenly stopped responding, but that happened only once. I would really love to see some updated graphics pumped into PowerStrip's interface, because the ones we can see now have been there for ages...

Conclusion

While I can't advise you to grab this proggie and start overclocking your GPU and video memory like crazy, this one of the main goals of this program, and it does its job the right way. Other than that... check it out and see for yourselves, I strongly recommend you to give it a spin, but be careful with those dangerous low level settings, because sometimes, there's no second chance, if you get things wrong...

Developer: EnTech Taiwan
Price: $29.95
Trial Link: Download

The most basic software that every user uses on his computer is, without any doubt, the operating system. Another sure thing is that, with all its problems, Microsoft Windows has been the dominant operating system on the market in the last decade, and things aren't going to change anytime soon, as I see it. While Windows Vista didn't receive it's first Service Pack, new information about its follower is already surfacing...



Windows 7, known as Blackcomb in its early days, and then codenamed Vienna, is expected to be Vista's successor on the market, but the planned development time frame should be at least 3 years, according to Microsoft. If they manage to delay it as they did with Vista, then we shouldn't expect it to become publicly available as a final release earlier than 2012, but let's not draw early conclusions, because there are more important things to find out!Probably the Vienna codename will also become a part of the past, because now, this future product is known as "Windows Seven" or "Windows 7", and the University of Illinois had recently the privilege of seeing an amazing demo from Eric Traut, a chief operating system design engineer from Microsoft. To view the movie of this demo, simply click this link.

Did you like the looks of the Windows stripped to the bone? Fortunately, the next Windows version is not going to look like that, but it's good to see that Microsoft is working on optimizing the old NT-based kernel.

For now, this can be considered only a technology preview, and I am not going to tell you anything about Microsoft's efforts headed towards virtualization, because at this time, I want to consider "MinWin" exactly what it is: a split-second glance into the future. Please watch the movie and share with us your opinions below...