Archive for April, 2013

Windows 8 to restore some classic features?

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Windows 8 is getting labeled as the next Windows Vista.  I am not so sure it deserves that label.

People are lamenting it’s slow acceptance and are talking about the doom of the desktop and laptop to the great hopes of the Cloud evangelists.

I would argue the main problem with Windows 8 acceptance falls mainly on Windows XP.  It was a solid dependable operating system and companies and people are slow to change. Even today; some companies are in the process of migrating to Windows 7.  Other companies converted to Windows 7 in the last year or so and are not interested in starting a new conversion.

There is of course the lack of touch screen technology to make use of Windows 8 tile approach but in time that will change.

Probably the biggest shock when you first look at Windows 8 is the missing Start menu.  I have to admit to being a little lost when I first looked at the OS.  Some things are always expected and I would think Microsoft would have done a better job with the OS to allow for old familiar things to be brought back if the user wants them.

There are rumors Windows Blue will restore some old features. It has even been said this will restore PC purchases.

Time will tell.

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Shutting down a workstation through remote desktop.

Wednesday, April 17th, 2013

Every once in awhile I come on a workstation which only has “Logoff” or “Disconnect” through remote desktop.

What to do when you want to reboot or shutdown?

There are a few ways to do this:

1) You can use the Alt+F4 keys to bring up a shutdown window which has the options for restart and shutdown.

2) You can use the Ctrl+Alt+End keys to bring up the old Ctrl+Alt+Del menu where you can select shutdown or restart

3) You can enter:  shutdown -s -t 10  to shutdown in 10 seconds or you can enter: shutdown -r -t 10 to restart in 10 seconds.

Keep in mind new operating systems will do things different such as the Ctrl+Alt+Del menu is different for windows 7.

One thing I find still works is the shutdown command.

Finally, I keep forgetting the Alt-F4 approach.  I was reminded of it here.

 

Counterspy Enterprise discontinued.

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

A major problem of IT people is the tendency to keep everything with the justification of “But I might need this some day!” I was cleaning my cube and found our old copy of Counterspy Enterprise. Keep or toss?

I did a quick check on the Net and found the product had been discontinued with a suggestion to upgrade it to Vipre Enterprise. Sounds nice but for two problems 1) The upgrade chance was two years ago.  2) My current company likes SEP.

Into the recycle bin it goes.

XP Support Countdown Clock

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Found a little countdown clock provided by the people of Camwood in the UK.