tech, news, productivity, views and stuff
I have published some new guides on my website.
Leopard Guides
How do I find my Mac (OS X) shortname for 10.5 Leopard?
How do I find a Leopard 10.5 Mac’s IP address?
Windows Vista Business Edition
Creating a new user account on Windows Vista Business Edition
How do I find a Vista Business Edition PC’s IP address?
Installing Bonjour for Windows on a Vista Business Edition PC.
Disabling Password Protected Sharing in Windows Vista
Windows Vista Home Edition
Okay removing and reinstalling the wireless adapter on the Q1 Ultra didn’t work, once more Windows Vista disabled the wireless adapter once more for no apparent reason or with any justification.
There doesn’t seem to be any solution to this problem on the web, others are having problems with the wireless card and video playback, but at least their wireless adapters work.
Trying a different driver to see if that helps.
Certainly couldn’t recommend the Q1 Ultra if this is “normal” behaviour, it should work out of the box without issue. Yes if you install software and hardware, sometimes this can cause issues, but out of the box a device should just work in my opinion.
Windows Vista did it again…
Annoying to say the least. Windows Vista on my Q1 Ultra discovered a (so-called) problem with the wireless adapter on the Q1 and decided (without telling me) to disable the wireless and not allow me to renable it at all (well not easily).
In the end I decided against doing a system restore (like what I did last time) as obviously some kind of Windows update was causing the problem. This time I removed the adapter from Device Manager and rebooted the Q1 and let Windows reinstall the drivers, which it did without finding anything wrong!
I wouldn’t mind so much, but this is a new Q1 and I haven’t done anything except install updates…
It’s annoying.
So there I was looking at my new Samsung Q1 Ultra and seeing how the graphics were working, working on a document and looking at a few things online, when I got called away. Knew I was only going to be a few minutes to just placed the Q1 on the desk and left.
I came back to find that Windows Vista had decided (in my absence) to update Windows, restart, lose my wireless connection and then admit that it had lost the document I was working on and would I like to create a new one!
I do find this very frustrating, if I wanted the Q1 to run itself I would leave it switched on and never use it, however I want to use the Q1 to do stuff, create stuff, read stuff, reflect on stuff. I don’t want the Q1 to try and be nice and update itself in the middle of me doing stuff. I want to retain my wireless connection so I don’t lose my blog entry, or lose the thread of the online discussion I am involved in.
I don’t want software to continually nag me that I haven’t either set it up or registered it, or run it for a while, and I don’t want the software to do it in the middle of me doing stuff.
I don’t want the Q1 to download huge updates whilst I am trying to do stuff online, downloading will slow my internet connection, download updates while I am doing other non-online stuff such as making a cup of tea.
Please just let me do my stuff, don’t do your stuff and pretend mine isn’t important!
I have been messing about with evaluating a Samsung Q1 Ultra over the last couple of days. I was trying out Internet Explorer and was surprised to find that the Q1 was not connected to my wireless network. After some investigation I found out this evening and was disappointed to find that Windows Vista decided that the best thing it could do was disable the wireless adapter as it had a found a problem with it.
Initially the problem I was having was that the device failed to connect to my wireless network, which surprised me, as I hadn’t really done very much with the Q1 except switch it on! I hadn’t installed any software (or even uninstalled software).
The wireless was on according to the Samsung software, but as far as Windows Vista was concerned there were no networks to connect to.
Very strange, after checking device manager (something I doubt any general user would do) I found that Vista had disabled the wireless adapter because it had found a problem with it. It didn’t tell me what the problem was, but was willing to go online to find a solution (well I would have gone online, but the wireless wasn’t working was it).
There didn’t seem to be any way of re-enabling the wireless adapter. I could have uninstalled it, but I wondered if Vista would let me reinstall the wireless adapter, I was pretty sure it might have got pretty obnoxious about it.
In the end I went with a system restore, something I do like about XP and Vista and restored the Q1 to this morning’s configuration which I know was working, and is working now.
I wonder if it was a Windows Update that caused the problem, I am not totally sure of the cause.
In the two guides I have written (so far) on sharing files between Macs and Vista PCs, Sharing files between a Windows Vista Home Edition PC and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5 and Sharing files between a Windows Vista Business Edition PC and a Mac running 10.4� I did not disable password protection on the Vista PCs.
This meant that users sharing files needed to enter a password (or have a matching account) in order to access shared folders on the Vista PC.
However if you turn off password protected sharing it is possible to share files without for the user on the remote computer who is accessing the shared folder to use a password.
You can use the following procedure to share files between a Windows PC running Windows Vista Home Edition and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5.
Sharing files between a Windows Vista Home Edition PC and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5
If you have Vista Business or Ultimate, you can also use the guide as the process is almost identical.
Update: guide now available.
I am in the process of writing my file sharing guide for Leopard and Vista and though similar to Tiger and XP, there are some quite fundamental differences which means it is taking longer to write the guide then I first thought.
I have recommended using the same username and password on home networks for sharing files as it makes it easier to share files.
Now with Leopard you can share individual folders much more easily, which means I may write two separate guides rather than one long one.
We’ll see how it goes, expect it soon.
If you want to run Windows on an Intel Mac there are basically four choices.
Boot Camp
This is an either or situation, which means you are running Windows or OS X, therefore if you want to change applications you need to reboot.
Has the advantage that you are when running Windows for all intents purposes your mac is a Windows PC. This means that you get the full power of your Mac for running Windows.
You need a licensed copy of Windows XP *SP2* or Windows Vista
Comes as part of Leopard, so if you have Tiger you will need to upgrade.
Parallels and VMFusion
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
These applications create virtual Windows PCs, which allow you to run Windows (and Windows applications) at the same time as OS X and therefore you can switch between them withoout needing to reboot. There is a slight performance hit when running Windows in this way but for most people this is negligible. Also you will need a lot of RAM to run these, at leat 1GB and preferably 2GB of RAM.
Coherence mode on Parallels allows you to run Windows applications seamlessly alongside Mac applications.
Both require a Windows licence, but doesn’t need to be SP2, with Parallels you can even install and run Windows 3.1! Parallels XP support is excellent, however support for Vista is less good, so you can’t use things like Aero for example.
Crossover
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/
Allows you to run Windows applications (some but not all) within OS X and you don’t need a Windows licence as you don’t install Windows.
Downside is that it doesn’t work with all applications.
Summary
Therefore there are four choices when it comes to running Windows on a Mac. Which is best? Well that depends much more on your needs when it comes to running Windows.
I have written a new support guide for those people who have a Windows Vista PC and are having issues getting their Vista computer connected to an Airport wireless network.