Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Vista tweaks

I got a new laptop a couple months ago (Acer Aspire 5515), and it has Vista installed. Although a number of people have reported 'downgrading' to XP, I decided to give it a try.
(Acer has a download sight for drivers, Vista and XP. Don't know if it's complete, but looks like it. Is ATI South Bridge included?)
(Aspire 5515 might be tricky with SATA AHCI drivers -- see here.

Vista's not so bad; some days it doesn't even bother me. My computer would probably run faster with XP; if I get enough frustration and time I might try it...

Some things I have to change in windows:
  • CapsLock is control.. this is where the control key should be, and how it was before IBM decided to make a 'PC'.
    (set in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout)

  • focus follows mouse -- I don't need the window to be on top to type in it.
    "correct entry should be 9F for the first hexidecimal number. That should activate the x-mouse without bringing them to the forefront"
    (does this explain the registry flag bits ?)
    You have to open registry Editor then Navigate to following location [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] For full X-Mouse, add +1h to the first number stored in binary key "UserPreferencesMask".
    For me, this was 9E, changed it to 9F.

another BartPE boot CD will work? (DVD?)
Ubuntu seems to work okay, haven't tried much..

What is the equivalent of BartPE for Vista? I did some research on this and found something that looks promising, but can't recall the name. I have it bookmark'd somewhere...

Still looking for problems with cygwin "file name too long" (using find/updatedb), stupid permissions problems (like from an external HD after copying files from another machine).
Maybe here: UTF-8 Cygwin

A cygwin package tool (like urpmi on mandriva--I like to just say "download and install the package that has curl" or netcat or gcc or whatever...).

random vista stuff: powercfg, scripting with jscript.. would like to be able to control e.g. windows media player with a javascript. What's the debugger/interpreter for playing with jscript on windows?

I should get a MacBook, then just install Linux here....

No comments: