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5.27.2009

Reinstalling .... portable Firefox 3?

It may seem strange, but a while ago I spent 20 minutes reinstalling Firefox 3 Portable. That's right. Portable! It turns out that show how the Firefox browser was messed up. For instance the right click menu will create a huge white space area in the middle, and then the [OK] button on the preference screen couldn't be closed.

So instead of wasting time googling about the possible fix, I just reinstall everything. (Well I did googled a short while but then I realized that it was just not worth it.)

The reinstalling process was not complicated, but it did take time since I need to reinstall all the plugin, and then reinstalled all the gmail account with the Gmail manager. And finally I have to set up my Gmail delicious account. But when all was done, I got a clean working browser. And somehow I found the browser loads up slighltly faster than it used to be, which is always a welcome change.

5.26.2009

Crash in Sonar 8 under Windows 7? What the ...

So I was editing some long and painful audio program on Sonar 8 under Windows 7, and TWICE I got the bluescreen of death. However, this is the first time I experience this. And seriosuly I don't know if I should blame Windows 7 RC1, or blame Sonar 8, or even blame the Firewire Solo driver.

So I just set up the auto save, and .... continue finishing my work :-I .

5.12.2009

Installing Windows 7 RC on desktop

It was partly because the video driver kept crashing the Windows 7 beta on my desktop, and partly because the beta will be expired very soon, I finally bite the bullet and did a Windows 7 RC clean installation on my home desktop PC.

So far I haven't installed any software except Deamon Tool, and I already experienced the first Windows Explorer crash. Could Deamon Tool caused Windows Explorer crashing problem? Time will tell.

I also installed the Japanese language from the MSDN Windows 7 RC language pack. It was a success, which was kind of different from my installation experience on my Lenovo X60T Tablet PC. Well, I am glad that it worked out.

So far all the installation I did was coming through properly. However, Daz Studio still doesn't work unless I install the following driver:

From ATI Site, pick Windows 7, 32 bit, Radeon, Radeon HD 4800 series, choose version 8.612 (posted date 5/5/2009, Windows 7 WHQL Driver)

So now Daz Studio is working properly, but I don't know for sure if I also bring back all the video driver problem that I experienced in the last 3 weeks. We'll see.

5.08.2009

Another 2 reason of not running Windows 7

Two more things that irritated me at work when running Windows 7

  • iTune Blue :

    I was running iTune 8.1.1.10 on my Windows 7 Release Candidate Lenovo X60T laptop, and I had problem syncing my iPod Touch with my PC on a iTune library living in my removable harddisk which I bring it from place to place.

    First the iTune was bitching about not having access to that folder, so I have to go to Windows directory, and give my login account all the previlege to access that folder. And now it is bitch about me not have previledge to sync my application. I was like what the f. So finally I ran iTune on administrator mode. And finally everything working fine. What the f again.

  • SQL Server 2008

    I problem access accesing the database on Windows 7 beta running SQL Server 2008. AFter fooling around, I finally get around the problem by disabling all Firewall on the Windows 7 beta.

5.07.2009

Windows Media Center on Windows 7 : Piece of Junk

Found another thing that I do not like about Windows 7: the Media Center. The UI looks good but the performance was ultra sluggish. Compare with my media experience on my iPod Touch, the Media Center experience was simply terrible. Everything was access, wait, wait and wait.

I'll probably never use the feature again.

5.06.2009

Crash

Windows 7 explorer constantly crashed when copying big (4+ Gb) files from one directory to another directory. This can be very irritating, and could really prompt me to go back to Windows XP.

STrange Firefox 3 "security problem", and my solution

I was trying to use Firefox 3 portable on my Tablet PC which recently have Windows 7 Release Candidate installed in it. Somehow Firefox 3 has problem running with plug ins. Eventaully I found out that I can solve the problem by making Firefox 3 portable running in administrator mode. Very annoying but at least it works.

5.05.2009

Not as stable as I thought

At first I though Windows 7 Beta would run great on my home desktop. Well, so far it was fine .... until I encountered some strange graphic related glitches. It seems like whenever I do something that touches the graphic, some strange problem may show up, and sometimes even hang the machine. And then there are times when the explorer will crash itself, and suddenly all the desktop folders will be gone.

Well, granted it's a beta software. Maybe the release candidate will work better. I do, though, hope that I can wait until the Chinese language pack release before I install Windows 7 RC on my desktop. We'll see.

Not working ....

So I tried the official Langauge pack on Windows 7 RC installation on my Lenovo Tablet PC. Still no go, just like how I experienced with the Simplified Chinese langauge pack. Waht the ***k is going on.

And then ThinApp was failed to install on the Windows 7 beta box on my desktop. Well, at least I was not the only one who experience the sadness.

5.04.2009

No 3D Studio Max 9 for Windows 7?

Strange, for I tried to install 3D Studio Max on Windows 7 beta and it failed. Yet I have no problem installing Maya 2009.

5.03.2009

Messing with codec ... again ....

I wasn't dealing much with Codec ever since I started using KMPlayer. It played almost all the stuff that I throw at it, and it works pretty OK as a portable player.

Things changed recently, however, when my friend at work started giving me a bunch of video files he downloaded . Suddenly a lot of things that he gave me, including some .ts file (which seems to be Blueray rip based on the file extension .ts and also because the file size 30+ Gb and the picture quality). So now I am back to my journey of finding the perfect codec set in order to play contents that he gave me.

At first I tried PowerDVD. It played the .ts file with awesome video quality and smoothless, but there's no sound. In fact, as of now, I still couldn't find a way to make the audio working.

And then I tried Win7Codec pack and the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 4.80. Neither of them gives me the .ts playback result that I want.

Finally someone at Mainland China did the magic, created "KmplayerPlus2009v2a.exe". AFter I installed that, the .ts playback started working in the KMPlayer, althought the video quality isn't as great as in PowerDVD, but at least I got the video playing with proper sound.

Installing Windows 7 Release Candidate on Lenovo ThinkPad X60T (Tablet PC)

Because the Windows 7 beta is about to expire, I have to install Windows 7 Release Candidate on my Tablet PC. So far it was OK .... until I realize tht the Traditional Chinese, Japanese and otehr Language Pack for Windows 7 Release Candidate are NOT ready yet. Sigh. Thank goodness I only tried it on my Tablet PC first before I wipe out my desktop. Guess i need to wait for a while for the language pack then.

On the bright side, several apps ne working great with Windows 7 RC, including Deamon Tools, and so on.

The Vista hardware drives that I used to set up Windows 7 Beta are still working fine. Nice.

I have "Multitouch" (touch screen and Tablet) working. it's not like super awesome, but it can come in handy sometimes.

I also got my Mac OSX back. All I need to do is install Acronis OS Selector. It will find the OSX partition, and inside it I can choose to boot to Windows 7 or OSX.