Category Computers

If you are running Windows Vista and have installed Service Pack 1 (SP1), you can gain around 800mb of disk space back.

When you install SP1, it backs up all the files in case you want to remove SP1.  But chances are pretty good that once you have SP1 installed you really have no reason to ever install it, so it is safe to remove those backup files.

It’s pretty simple.  Press Winkey+R to pull up a run dialog.  Type in Vsp1cln and press enter.

A prompt will confirm deleted the files.  Enter y obviously and it goes to work removing these useless backup files.

Enjoy reclaiming a bit of your hard drive space!

In my article here I showed you how to make ISO, BIN, and other CD/DVD Image files mountable by simply double clicking them in Vista.

To accomplish this I used a tool call Creative Elements Power Tools.  It worked fine for what I was doing at the time.

Fastfoward 45 days or more later… I go back to use that tool again to manage some other file extensions in Vista only to discover the tool is now expired and they want $18 to register it.  After promptly uninstalling that bullcrap I went on the hunt for a 100% definitely free tool that would accomplish the same task.

I stumbled upon a freeware tool called File Type Manager that will allow you to manage file types to your heart’s content.  I actually like this tool a bit more.  It’s more “power-user’ish” which I appreciate.  No fluff and stuff bullshit, just a straight-up tool to manage what you are wanting to manage.

Even though it was written in 2001 apparently, it still works perfect in Vista!  Just note that when installing it you will get some warnings about it trying to install old versions of files.  Just be sure you keep the current versions of the files you have on your machine and you will be just fine.

That’s all for this post.  Just wanted to update anyone who may have used that tool in my other post and pass along a free tool I found.

I’m sure you’ve seen them… we’ve all seen them… the little green shield icon with the words “Hacker Safe” next to them.  Showing those links on a site is supposed to make the end user feel safe that their servers are, as the claim, “hacker safe”.

Now I for one have never put any amount of credibility in to that badge.  The claim alone is ridiculous.  Just because it passes some mysterious (what kind, who knows) checks from the hacker safe server, then that site is invulnerable to ALL hacks every where.

I got news for you… it’s bull shit, and I have (more) proof.

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First off, I’ll say I know there is a plugin that sort of does this for Daemon, but it does not associate all the file types and there is no way to add additional types to it and is quite buggy, as well as doing other shit I didn’t like.

I’d been wanting to do this for some time now to simply make it more efficient to mount CD/DVD images with Daemon Tools.  I always felt going through the DT menu from the tray icon was a giant pain in the butt.

In XP this process is different, and actually easier… but at the last LAN I was at every one was one Vista except for one person, so I’m not going to bother with XP instructions… although you can probably figure out how to do it in XP from these.

Vista’s dumb-down feature creates another casualty when it comes to trying to manually edit file type associations.  There is basically no way to do it.  You can change which program a file opens with, but it has to be a program… there is no way to input custom things for file types.  F-you Microsoft.  How do you REMOVE features from your flag ship OS?  Anyway…

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Shortly after Christmas I upgraded my gaming machine’s video card from a now-outdated ATI X850XT to a top of the line Asus 8800GT TOP edition card.  The card seemed to run great for less demanding games, and even on more demanding ones for shorter periods of time.

The first time I got to really punish it at a LAN party the card failed.  I started getting a lot of artifacting along with system lockups.  After looking in to it I found out the card was overheating.

Now, I had to ask my self why the performance video card I just shelled out $300 for was OVER HEATING.  Long story short, Asus majorly fucked up when designing this card.

1) The card has ZERO ability to control the speed of the fan.  Not only that, but the fan isn’t even a dynamic speed fan, it has 2 wires going to it.  It turns on, and that is it.  This means the card has NO ability to ramp up fan speed as the card heats up from intense 3D game play.  WTF?

2)  The memory chips on the card have ZERO cooling.  NEITHER ACTIVE NOR PASSIVE.   You read that right.  There are not even small heatsinks on the ram chips.

Asus really screwed the pooch on this one.  They put out a performance video card, then fail to give it adequate cooling, causing the card to over-heat and eventually lock up non-stop.  Why would Asus do this?  Well my theory is the company’s apparent ever-declining lack of quality.  They have had massive problems with other products they make (specifically the Striker Extreme motherboard… another performance piece of hardware that has XBox-360 levels of failure rates).  I should’ve known better then to buy Asus after their Striker incident, but the card had the highest numbers of any 8800GT and I couldn’t pass it up.  Now I am paying for it.  My machine is sitting silent with out a video card right now as I send the piece of crap Asus back to the lovely folks at Newegg (best company I have ever dealt with BTW).  As soon as I get my refund I will be buying the EVGA 8800GT SuperClocked edition card.

From what I’ve read online EVGA actually did things right.  You can control fan speeds and the heatsink covers the whole card.

Never again Asus.  Never again.