Computer Hardware and Software
Posts tagged NT
Environment Variables in Windows NT
Feb 6th
Environment variables are specially named aliases or placeholders for certain basic system properties that are present for convenience in programming and in system administration. Although they are mostly of interest to technical people, some can be useful to the average PC user and these are discussed here.
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Environment variables have long been used in computer operating systems and are present in Unix, DOS, and Windows The word “environment” used in the context here refers to various features of the computer system and certain basic system data. Here is one of Microsoft’s definitions:
Environment variables are strings that contain information such as drive, path, or file name. They control the behavior of various programs. For example, the TEMP environment variable specifies the location in which programs place temporary files.
Q. What is Windows 7 XP mode?
Feb 5th
A. Windows XP Mode is available in the Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. It is essentially two things: the new version of Virtual PC, called Windows Virtual PC, and a Windows XP Professional SP3 virtual machine (VM) configured with Windows Firewall and automatic updates enabled. XP Mode could be preinstalled on new computers if OEMs choose to install it, and the mode will also be available as a download from Microsoft.
Windows 7 hides the XP VM from the desktop user. Applications that will only run on Windows XP are executed within the VM, but the application window is displayed on the Windows 7 desktop, offering the end user a seamless experience. Applications installed on the VM will also be displayed in the Windows 7 Start menu and can be pinned to the Task Bar. Redirection of user data folders is performed with XP Mode, so when a user accesses an application running in XP Mode they still see their normal document folders.
XP Mode is essentially just running a VM on Windows 7 with seamless application execution. Organizations that use this technology will probably also want to integrate with Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), to get better management of the Windows XP image.
To enable the Windows XP Mode, your processor must support virtualization (it must have AMD-V or Intel VT) and virtualization must be enabled in the BIOS.
The inclusion of XP Mode will allow organizations to adopt Windows 7, even with applications that don’t run on Windows 7, by running the applications in the VM. Long-term applications should still be updated to run natively on Windows 7, however, to allow the VM to be retired. Running applications natively provides better performance and less management overhead than the maintenance required on the Windows XP image.
Activate Windows 7’s Hidden ‘God Mode’
Jan 5th
Handy trick if you’re setting up a machine for the first time and need to access many settings:
I think it is not really needed to explain a lot – just do the following 3 steps:
Create a new folder Name it: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} That’s it
here a picture how it looks like if you open this extremely helpfull folder:
AWESOME – I love windows seven
for more information see: http://www.osnews.com/story/22691/Activate_Windows_7_s_Hidden_God_Mode_
ReactOS Shell + new developers
Dec 27th
The shell that users interact with in ReactOS is actually several components all tied together, which is why a rewrite is highly nontrivial. Besides the explorer shell itself there are the shell32, browseui, comctl32, and shlwapi libraries, to name just a few. In ReactOS, much of the functionality in the libraries are all crammed into the explorer shell because the libraries themselves did not really exist. This is due to the current explorer’s Wine heritage and the fact that Wine really does not need a shell32 implementation. One such example would be the start menu itself. This is not actually implemented in explorer, but merely exposed by it. Another is the menu system Read the rest of this entry »
Regarding UserAccounts in ReactOS
Dec 17th
Hi,
many of you know we don’t even support multiple Users at all, but I made some thoughts these days what way would be the best. I looked at the Linux and Windows ways and see pros and cons in both. Lets Compare them. Read the rest of this entry »
ReactOS 0.3.11 released!
Dec 16th
The ReactOS team is proud to announce the release of ReactOS 0.3.11. This release has been delayed by quite some time due to various blocker bugs which manifested each time we tried to release. A lot of time has gone into hunting down these bugs and various steps have been taken to try to ensure we don’t hit this problem again. This isn’t to say we don’t have a lot of new and exciting features in this release. Two of which stand out are the huge changes to the Memory Manager and another leap forward for the sound stack