Auri's Blog

Have you been worried about Windows XP app compatibility in Vista and Windows 7? Is it holding you back from an upgrade? Microsoft may have a trick up its sleeves with Windows 7’s “XP Mode”. Taking advantage of a technology called “virtualization,” which runs one operating system as a “guest” on top of another operating system (the “host”), Microsoft can launch applications and they’ll run using Windows XP, right inside of Windows 7!

A beta of Windows XP Mode should be released to developers and partners next week, and to the general public by May 5, alongside the Windows 7 Release Candidate, so you should be able to get your hands on this for a test drive soon.

A bit of history: Apple had to do this with “Classic” mode in Mac OS X. It was a kludge, but virtualization technology was in its infancy at the time. Apple’s solution could only share files and, to a limited extent, the clipboard. Classic mode didn’t support Mac OS X printers, user settings, and so forth – so it was quite a hassle to run the old Mac OS 9 apps on Mac OS X.

Microsoft, having purchased Connectix, makers of Virtual PC, and given the benefit of time, has learned a lot about virtualization, and has been steadily improving virtualization support in Windows.

So will you be able to work with your Windows XP Mode apps just like regular apps running in Windows 7? You shouldn’t have a problem. This is shown to a good extent in “Unity” mode in emulation apps on the Mac like VMWare Fusion and Parallels. This mode runs Windows apps as though they’re running on the Mac desktop, although it’s not perfect, considering the OS differences (see Figure 1 for an example). Windows XP apps should run side-by-side just fine with Windows 7 apps, and you should technically be able to switch between them with no issues.

Now, most applications today run perfectly fine in Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, this is a great solution from Microsoft to address the needs of those holding out on upgrading their XP installations due to legacy hardware and software concerns. Some solutions just plain need Windows XP. It’s good to see Microsoft doing something serious about this, rather than just telling everyone to upgrade their software. Yes, Microsoft understands that upgrading software isn’t always an option.

No details on the licensing side have been announced so far. This means we don’t yet know if you’ll need both a Windows 7 and a Windows XP license. My guess is you’ll have to enter your old Windows XP license key to “activate” Windows XP mode, and it will just run transparently, like when you use Compatibility Mode in Windows Vista (see figure 2).

I’m definitely curious about how drivers will be handled, and where they get installed, and how application installations are managed.

There’s a great article by Ina Fried over at CNet, so click here to read that article for more information.

Figure 1. VMWare Fusion’s “Unity” mode running Windows and Mac apps on the same Mac desktop.

Figure 2. Will Compatibility Mode in Windows 7 be tweaked to run Windows XP in a virtual machine? I hope it’s this easy!

In a tough economy, free is better than cheap. Luckily for us in the Windows world, there are a lot of completely free, and reliable, applications for us to choose from. Be it productivity software, painting, email, browsing, instant messaging, or many other areas, you can find what you need. CNet’s Download.com has compiled a great list of many products. They call it the “Windows Starter Kit,” but I think it’s more of a one-stop-shop for finding great applications for your PC. I have raved in the past about Download.com, especially since they promise adware-free downloads. That’s cool.

Check out the article at: http://download.cnet.com/8001/2701-19409_4-2-1.html?tag=page;page

Below are the categories they cover in the article:

• Office and Productivity (word processing, database, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, and more)
• Email clients
• Web Browsers (although IE 8 and Firefox are my favs right now)
• Image editors and screen capture
• Music jukeboxes (I don’t personally like iTunes much anymore, preferring Zune instead, but that’s just my 2c, and CNet loves Apple)
• Video jukeboxes and playback
• File compression/decompression
• Instant messaging, Twitter clients, and the like
• Bit torrent software (although I’m against piracy, which is what most P2P software is used for, I’m listing it here because it’s in the article)
• Disk utilities (disk defragmenters, process monitors, and more)

Now, they left out a many great applications and utilities:

• Microsoft’s Zune – talk about a great music player, and the subscription plan is hard to beat.
• Trillian Lite – A good all-around instant messaging app that supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, and other protocols.
• Microsoft’s Live Software – A complete suite of incredibly robust and free software from Microsoft. Like Apple’s iLife, but with more functionality, and greater breadth. Did you even know about half this stuff?
  • Live Photo Gallery – Manage your photos, touch them up, create panoramas, share on Facebook and Live Spaces.
  • Live Movie Maker – Create movies with an easy point-and-click interface. Then publish to disk, disc, or the Web.
  • Live Mail – Easy to use and supports all types of mail systems, including Hotmail.
  • Live Messenger – A great instant messaging application, supporting video and audio chat, customized themes, and more. Winner of the 2008 CNet Editors Choice award.
  • Live Writer – The best blogging tool out there. Hands down, this software rules.
  • Live Mesh – Effortlessly sync your files across all your systems, remote access all your computers, all with Live Mesh.
  • Live SkyDrive – Share your files with co-workers, friends, and family. 25 GB of free space. Nice.
  • Live Family Safety – Control how your kids access the Internet. Limit searches, block or allow Web sites, control chats in Live Messenger, and more.
  • There are many other Live products, too, so check it out at download.live.com.

Do you have any great free products you’d recommend? Post those recommendations in the Comments!

Best,

-Auri

Have you ever been to a meeting, only to be hit with many text message interruptions? Have you been at work and received messages, and you just *have* to respond? What about being out to dinner, and text messages come flying in?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could tell them all you’re busy? Just like an instant messenger?

Well now you can. Introducting Mobliza, my free utility to save you from being rude.

Get it now: http://get.mobliza.com

Mobliza installs on any Windows Mobile 6 Professional device, like an HTC Touch Pro or AT&T Fuze. I haven’t tried it with dozens of phones, but it should work fine.

Mobliza has three modes:

AWAY: Automatically create canned messages to tell contacts you’re away. Simply check the Away box and you’re done. Mobliza tracks all the texts that come in, and you can respond if you need to.

AUTO: Just for fun – have Mobliza carry on conversations all by itself. Just make sure you’re cool with a computer doing the chatting for you. Seriously.

MOBLIZA: Basically this is the Auto mode, but between you and Mobliza instead of someone sending texts to your phone. It’s more of a game. Try "tell me a joke".

I hope you get a lot of use from this app. It’s saved me in a lot of meetings, when driving, and at dinner.

No longer will you have the urge to respond to every text message when you’re busy doing something else!

Mobliza is Copyright (c) The Auri Group, LLC, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

At MIX ‘09 Microsoft showed off SuperPreview, an incredible tool for Web developers looking to make sure Web sites look the same across all browsers. SuperPreview can cut development and design testing time significantly with these awesome features:

• Preview ASPX, PHP, JSP, and HTML Web pages as rendered by different browsers side-by-side
• Previews can be generated by IE6, IE7, IE8, FireFox, and even Safari!
• Highlight areas in one preview and see them highlighted in the other preview, so you can see where DIVs are having issues
• Overlay previews on mock-ups or on other previews to see alignment issues – way cool
• Save development time and client budget by giving this tool to your design and testing teams
• Much, much more, and it’s FREE

Side by Side Previews:

PHP and ASPX pages in SuperPreview: (note these images came from Microsoft’s SuperPreview Features Page)

There are obviously some limitations, especially since this is only a beta release, but this should be in your development arsenal.

Download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8E6AC106-525D-45D0-84DB-DCCFF3FAE677&displaylang=en

Microsoft also showed off Expression Blend 3 Preview, with a Sketch Flow feature. Simply “sketch” your site pages with simple WPF controls, and fill in the blanks. Yes, an entire site shell built quickly, with no code. How cool is that? Thanks Microsoft. (to be fair, the Sketch Flow feature was not included in the beta, bummer)

There’s a lot more to be learned, with oodles of videos to watch – just visit the MIX ‘09 site.

Best,

-Auri

Apple’s really been strutting their multi-touch patent power lately. Their legal dogs are on Palm, Google, and maybe even Microsoft. Don’t violate our multi-touch patent!!! But wait… didn’t the movie Minority Report show practically the same gestures? Can Apple patent in 2008 something that’s already been materially presented in 2002, and on the big screen to millions of viewers, no less?

I’d love to hear your comments!

Ok, at first I thought the issue was the fingerprint reading software. That’s not the case, and I have since deleted that post.

The real problem was a process named APOINT.EXE. It was preventing me from selecting multiple items with my Control key.

To fix the problem:

1. Launch System Configuration Manager by going to Start, then Run, then typing MSCONFIG
2. Click the STARTUP tab
3. Uncheck the box next to the item named ALPS POINTING-DEVICE DRIVER and with the command APOINT.EXE.
4. Click APPLY and then OK.
5. Restart your computer. You may have to restart twice.
6. Problem solved!

I hope this helps!

Best,

-Auri

For those of you who want to relive the lost art of keyboard jockeying, here is a great video I found going over useful keyboard shortcuts in Vista and Windows Explorer. Credit to Tech Republic for this great segment.

The link he discusses in the video for the "76 Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows Vista" can be found here.

Are you looking for a great image editing program with some Photoshop-like features, but you don’t want to tip the budget scales? Sure, The GiMP is out there, but it’s hard to use in my humble opinion. My development team introduced me to a great FREE program, and I want to share it with you – PAINT.NET. In fact, even though I do have Photoshop, I use Paint.NET for quick tasks like cropping and blurring. It’s just crazy fast.

Some of its benefits:

• Simple, easy to use interface
• Tabbed document editing, so you can see all the open images at once
• Photoshop-like capabilities, like blur effects
• Doesn’t take half a minute to load like Photoshop
• Fast
• No spyware!

Feel like trying it out? Go to Download.com and get it free.

Another tip: The folks at CNet’s Download.com "certify" their downloads as spyware-free. If a program has been recommended to you, try finding it there first, if you want to make sure you’re getting something reasonably safe.

Best,

-Auri

Are you a Windows Media Center junkie? Do you want to work with those DVR-MS files it creates, but can’t find a tool to help you? Well, I hope this article answers your questions!

Using the free utility DVRMS Toolkit, you can:

• Convert DVR MS files to MPEG for moving to DVD.
• Convert DVR MS files to WMV for playback on your Zune or other WMV capable device.
• Remove all commercials from your shows.
• More!

To get DVRMSToolkit, go to its official Web site. Make sure you download the latest version that’s appropriate for your PC. For example, if you are running Windows Vista 64-bit, make sure you download version specifically marked x64. (Another tip: If you’re running 64-bit Vista, always try to get the 64-bit version of applications…)

Being a free tool written and designed by a developer, the interface for DVRMS Toolkit isn’t shiny and polished like Windows Live Movie Maker. So, a few pointers:

• The program to use after install is DVRMStoMPEGGUI.
• To set the Input file, which is the video you want to work with, simply double-click the white box next to Input File.
• To set the Output file, which is the video file DVR MS should create, simply double-click the white box next to Output File.
• Don’t mess with Process Priority.
• Make sure you set the Profile to the operation you want to perform.
• Keep Use Selected Profile checked.
• You likely won’t have to tinker with the Process Directory tab’s contents.
• You may randomly get messages saying DLLs aren’t registered. I’ve found it safe to ignore these messages.

A few tips about DVRMS files:

• Windows Movie Maker can also work with these files, so you can create videos directly from them.
• Converting files to MPEG makes them easier to work with in many video editing applications, since MPEG is a video standard.
• DVRMS files work a LOT better in Windows Vista’s Media Center than from Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). If you’re having a lot of trouble with shows recorded using Windows XP MCE, consider upgrading that machine to Vista Home Premium or Vista Utimate.

A few more tips for Windows Media Center:

• Make sure you use the Windows Media Center instead of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It’s just plain better.
• If you’re looking for a very good over-the-air tuner, get the PC HD TV from Happaugue. It comes with a great antenna, but keep in mind that antenna has a huge magnet weighting it down!

I used this application extensively to create my Superbowl

DVDs. The commercial skip feature works like a champ!

Geeky Developer Note: If you’re a software developer, you can change the program to your liking, and it’s written in C#.

Enjoy!

Best,

-Auri

Sometimes you just want to work on your mobile device without having to hold it in your hand. Seriously, have you ever tried cleaning up programs on there? That stylus sure does get annoying. And, well, for software developers like me, we need to see the device on our computer desktop without having to glance at it all the time.

Luckily, there’s a free program out there that solves this problem. MyMobiler is a free, highly rated application for accessing your Windows Mobile device when it’s plugged into your computer via ActiveSync. It’ll show you the Mobile’s screen and can even magnify the screen for wary eyes.

To snag it, go to http://www.mymobiler.com/