5 posts tagged “windows”
The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 update, pushed through the Windows Update service to all recent editions of Windows in February 2009, installs the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant Firefox extension without asking your permission.
This update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for websites to easily and quietly install software on your PC. Since this design flaw is one of the reasons you may have originally chosen to abandon IE in favor of a safer browser like Firefox, you may wish to remove this extension with all due haste.
In addition to all that, it's not compatible with Firefox 3.5 so it's been disabled and they haven't bothered doing an update. Even worse, the extension has prevented users from uninstalling it so it just sits there looking stupid. It's possible to uninstall this junk after some lengthy registry editing, instructions here. I don't understand how any company, be it Microsoft or Apple or anyone else, to think it's okay to install junk on your computer without asking and then make it a nightmare to get rid of it by manually editing the system.
Right, so I picked up a font package including a bunch of commonly used typefaces, one of which is Helvetica which I like a whole lot more than Arial (plus makes my life easier when transferring files between Windows and Mac). I install the font and I go about starting up IE, Firefox and Safari so that I can view those nice tails on all my lower-case a's, but disappointment found me when I was still greeted with Arial.
At first, I thought I had a conflict in my .css files, then maybe a browser issue, then suspecting some Windows font hijacking. Sure enough and after much searching, it appears as if Windows has a regkey specifically tailored to forcing Helvetica to appear as Arial. Clearing the key and restarting seems to fix all woes.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes\
String Value "Helvetica"="Arial"
Edit: Windows font rendering of Helvetica is still off. It looks pretty bad in some cases. There is no fix.
I finally dipped my toes into Windows Vista (not as my primary OS. Yikes, not brave enough for that). At the moment, I haven't installed any peripheral stuff yet. I'm sure I'll run into all sorts of compatibility issues with various third party hardware and software that people have been reporting, but I'm optimistic. It did detect all the hardware on the computer so that's good.
It does have a better networking feature and it's prettier. Security is nice and "allow, allow, allow" hasn't bothered me yet, especially since I do the same on Ubuntu Linux and OS X. I don't like the new Start menu, makes it slow to browse though if you have a lot of applications. The sidebar and gadgets were fun for about 5 minutes but then it got annoying. It didn't do anything particularly useful, took up a huge amount of screen space (can't autohide) and is really just a poor rip off of OS X's Dashboard widgets.
Worth upgrading? There are some nice improvements with Windows Vista, but it feels more like a tuned up version of Windows XP, much the same way that Media Center was. Just small, incremental improvements, but nothing profound. I can't help but feel that Microsoft over-promised and under-delivered on Vista compared to all the wonderful things that were promised with their Longhorn preview. If you're happy with Windows XP, stick with it. If you bought a new computer with Vista stick with that. But I wouldn't go out of my way swapping one with the other. Windows Vienna is targeted for 2009.
By the way, I was just going to hit the save button on this post and noticed that my Vista box just crashed. Then it keeps crashing on the login screen and finally got back in on the third try. *Sigh*
I walked into a Best Buy today and ended up walking out with a pretty decent computer for ridiculously cheap. I haven't owned a pre-built system in years, prefer putting one together myself, but this was an impulse buy on a good deal. It's a Compaq SR1650NX with an AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB RAM and a 250GB HD. The computer was on clearance and I managed to talk the manager into giving it to me for $350!
It also comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition, which is kind of neat. I'm currently trying to get rid of the bloatware that typically comes with these machines. I've been trying to get a Linux box for some time, so I'll be dual booting.
Edit: Lucky me, I managed to snag another deal. Just ordered an nVidia 7600GT GPU for $130... that's half price!
