Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows MeII, is a joke that no one wants. It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us. Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs.

The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than MeII. It can’t do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled. This is classic abusive monopoly behavior, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: vista, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Every time technology advances to create new business capabilities, opportunities arise for that technology to be used to harm your business. Case in point: intranets and extranets. Networks are invaluable, keeping your employees connected whether they’re in the office or across the country. But networks are also a prime target for hackers, malware, and other threats. So a fundamental item in your security arsenal needs to be a bulletproof, centralized firewall.

The idea, essentially, is that there are bad guys out there, and you need to put something between them and your network. A firewall controls your network traffic, allowing or blocking activities and access based on security policies you set.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: internet, software, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Sometimes playing videos on your PC isn’t easy, particularly when they have been downloaded off the internet. This is normally because your PC doesn’t have the necessary codecs installed to play the video file in question. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats.

The quickest way to ensure that your PC can play all video files is to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. The K-Lite Code Pack is a collection of almost every codec under the sun, that will allow you to play all your video and audio files.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: computer, software, windows

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

The popularity of the internet browser Firefox continues to grow by the day, but it still has a few annoying quirks. One of these is that it can be difficult to watch Windows Media Player videos within Firefox.

Luckily, thanks to Port 25, who are the team at Microsoft who look after interoperability, there’s a new Windows Media Player Plugin for Firefox. Once installed this plugin will improve support for embedded Windows Media Player videos.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: software, web

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Did you know that the Open Dialog Box, and the Save Dialog Box that are common to most Windows programs contain much of the functionality of the Windows Explorer? The window pane that shows the list of files available to open (or to overwrite) is essentially a miniature Explorer, and as with Windows Explorer, there are a myriad of viewing and sorting features available. You can even do things like delete files, rename files, copy files to the clipboard, and more.

The default display is list view, but it can be changed icon views, the detail view, and even the thumbnail view. In the details view, the columns can be sorted. Most of the functions that are available in the context menu of the Windows Explorer are also available here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: vista, windows, xp

Originally published at PC Tips Box. Please leave any comments there.

Here are some miscellaneous tips for debugging HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in Mozilla Firefox.

They include references to Firefox extensions (plug-ins) that you will need or want, as well as tips for configuring Firefox, how to actually invoke the debugging procedures, and a few shortcuts to keep in mind. A number of landmines are also pointed out along the way. (Please avoid stepping on those, because it gets messy.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: internet, web