The Beanster Blog

I was able to locate Boot Camp 2.1 drivers online here   I've installed the linked drivers and so far everything seems to be working.  MacBook1,1 on Windows 7 SP1 Since this machine has a tiny 60Gb HDD, I'm working with a 35Gb Boot Camp partition. I've successfully installed Service Pack 1. So there's that, I did get this warning prior to updating to SP 1. Windows 10 nag screen LOL! So what's next? Option 1: do an in-place update of Windows 10 to find out if a) the drivers for Windows 7 will work b) if Windows 10 will run smoother on it vs my Wind U123H. If this pans out I might remove the tiny stock 60Gb HDD replace it with my spare 500Gb HDD and do a fresh install of Windows 10. Option 2: skip the in-place update, go directly to swapping out the drive and do a fresh install of OS X Leopard 10.5.x and do a clean install of Windows 10 and just hope the Windows 7 drivers work. Option 3: I could stay with Windows 7 SP1 however mainst...

This is my mom's old MacBook1,1 it's running OS X 10.5.8 Leopard ~ which is super old and no longer supported. The battery is bloated and busted Ynzal isn't accepting it for trade-in anymore, and a new battery is cost prohibitive. I've installed Windows 7 32-bit but the Leopard discs are gone so I can't get the proper Boot Camp drivers. it sucks that Apple is not providing the download of Boot Camp drivers for this series of laptops. So the option is to buy a Snow Leopard disk from Apple  so it can be updated to another old OS? Seems like too much cost and trouble for super old hardware. I am still undecided on what to do with this old clunker. Not sure how secure it will be as a Server. Linux perhaps?

iCloud Control Panel 3.0 is out and it supports Outlook 2013. You can use Apple Software Update to get it or grab it here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455 Remember to shutdown Outlook before setup After a few minutes you get this screen Now I have iCloud contacts, mail & tasks in Outlook 2013 (I don’t use iCloud Calendar, and photo stream)

So I have finally made the switch to OSX (sort of). Santa was very nice and gave me a 15inch Retina MacBook Pro It's a sweet machine with a beautiful display and really well built. It's superfast because of SSD. The downside is it's 256Gb can be a bit cramp for someone like me who has a huge iTunes library and dual boot to consider. I have been loosing sleep because of 4 major issues though. 1) BootCamp - I finally got this to work after about 3 attempts. I had mistakenly selected a partition size that would not fit Windows 8 (in the future). There is no official support for Windows 8 yet so I have sticked with Windows 7 Home Premium for now. I did purchase the $40 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro (valid only until 31-Jan-2013) but I will hold off installing that until BootCamp support becomes available. For now I am quite happy with the performance of Windows 7 on this machine. Instead of buying or pirating Office for Mac I have decided to install Office 2010 which I own on...

So my notebook crashed this afternoon wasn't doing anything just playing podcasts, I noticed it stopped abruptly (I was doing some paperwork) and when I check the system was unresponsive. I hit the power button to reboot and the poop hit the fan. Tried to boot into safe mode -- no joy Tried to repair the MBR -- no joy So I went ahead and reformatted. My backups are current so I'm not worried about data loss. It's just a chore to rebuild a system just the way you like it. This is the 3rd major issue I've had with this notebook, I'm not blaming Acer entirely though. My friends are advising me to switch to a Mac, but I am apprehensive. Aside from the obscene Apple tax, I'm just too comfortable with Windows 7. I suspect an HDD issue, so I will be observing the system as I rebuild.

So my notebook crashed this afternoon wasn't doing anything just playing podcasts, I noticed it stopped abruptly (I was doing some paperwork) and when I check the system was unresponsive. I hit the power button to reboot and the poop hit the fan. Tried to boot into safe mode -- no joy Tried to repair the MBR -- no joy So I went ahead and reformatted. My backups are current so I'm not worried about data loss. It's just a chore to rebuild a system just the way you like it. This is the 3rd major issue I've had with this notebook, I'm not blaming Acer entirely though. My friends are advising me to switch to a Mac, but I am apprehensive. Aside from the obscene Apple tax, I'm just too comfortable with Windows 7. I suspect an HDD issue, so I will be observing the system as I rebuild.

A few days ago I was successfully able to load 3 different OS on my resurrected MSI Wind U123H. These were: Mac OSX 10.6.2 Snow Leopard Windows 7 Home Premium MeeGo 1.0 Tonight I have decided a 4th OS to my netbook. You might be wondering why I would do this… and the simple answer is because I can. Yep that old geeky tinkerer’s mantra… I have chosen Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx netbook remix for the 4th OS. I used this guide (thanks to the OP) Here is how I have my HDD partitioned: Partition 1 Primary 117Gb is Windows 7 Home Premium Partition 2 Primary 97Gb is OSX Partition 3 Primary 298Mb is GRUB (bootloader) Partition 0 Extended 17Gb Partition 4 Logical 6Gb is for MeeGo Partition 5 Logical 8Gb is for Ubuntu 10.04 netbook remix Partition 6 Logical 4Gb is Swap for Ubuntu / MeeGo (recommended as x2 of your system RAM) Some useful links: Ubuntu MeeGo SnowyWindOSX (google it)  

Since my netbook is back from the shop and it’s as if it’s brand new. Well you all know what that means… It is time to tinker with it. Right now my Wind U123H is running Windows XP SP3 (which it came with). I don’t think I can stand XP anymore. After using Windows 7 you just can’t go back. The Wind is packing a 250Gb HDD and I think that is more than enough space for three OS. I will be trying to do a triple boot system. Mac OSX 10.6.1 Windows 7 Starter MeeGo 1.0.1 I will be installing in the order above and hopefully it all works out. I will be sure to report on how the install goes

The most painless way I have tried so far. There are two (2) parts to your iTunes Files & Library, files are self explanatory and the library will include your playcounts, playlists etc etc. If you sync your iPhone or iPod you need to move your entire library so that you won’t have to make a new partnership. Here’s what you need: iTunes USB HDD Patience Step 1: Copy your files to Ext HDD Plug-in the USB HDD to source PC Start iTunes Edit > Preferences > Advanced (tab) Point it to your USB HDD click ok File > Library > Organize Library… Consolidate Library iTunes will now copy the files over to your HDD Exit iTunes Step 2: Move your Library to Ext HDD Start > Run… type in the library location Copy the files to your Ext HDD Eject your HDD ========================================== Step 3: Move files to new PC Hold Shift key and click on iTunes you will see...

So I finally caved and got a new notebook. This time I have decided to go with a full notebook instead of a netbook. Basically I needed more horse power than what the crippled ATOM systems were offering. The ACER Aspire 4740G has these specs. 14” 16:9 HD LED LCD Screen Intel Core i3 2.13Ghz 2Gb DDR3 RAM Nvidia GeForce 310M 512Mb VRAM 320Gb HDD WiFi / BT / Webcam / Card reader DVD-RW HDMI + VGA output Linux OS Coming from using a netbook for a little over 2 years I certainly felt the difference in the screen size, the weight and of course the keyboard. I did not bother with the Linux OS since I had just purchased Windows 7 Home Premium retail box a few weeks ago. I decided to install the 64bit version so I could take advantage of better security, 64bit apps (if ever) and of course more system RAM (4Gb max). Not the most accurate gauge of system performance but this is the Windows Experience Index Report as always it’s the Aero performance ...

I decided to install the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack on my MSI Wind U123H and surprise surprise it broke Windows Mobile Device Center Bluetooth Syncing. I decided to try a 2 year old fix I did on my then UMPC (SONY VAIO UX280P) running Vista HP and it works on Windows 7. On the PC. Open WMDC > Mobile Device Settings > Connection Settings Make sure Bluetooth is selected under Allow connections to one of the following Close them windows Hit Start (Orb) + R (Run command) type in regedit then hit enter Navigate to the ff: key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services look for SerialPort and modify it to COM7 Exit the Registry Editor and Reboot your PC Connect as you would :D HTH

WMDC/Activesync has always been a headache for most Windows Mobile users, myself included. Last week I began experiencing sync issues with my palm Treo Pro. My device would connect fine via USB or Bluetooth, start to sync but then it would get stuck trying to sync my Calendar appointments. Since my Outlook was updated and I had good backups of my PST files I went ahead and erased partnerships on both device and PC. No joy. I then decided to sync only Contacts, Tasks, Notes this worked but once I ticked Calendar WMDC appeared to freeze up. I also got an error message saying: An error occurred while syncing to your server blah blah blah, which was really odd because I did not use exchange sync. To make matters a bit more difficult to troubleshoot… The thing was my other device an HTC Touch3G was syncing ok with the same machine. So it was something wrong with the Treo. I did not want to do another hard reset because I had just done one a couple of weeks back. I decided to do a search...

Ok try these out on your unlocked Protected Features build 6801 of Windows 7 pre beta... -- Whilst Clicked on a Window bring it up to the Top Edge of the Screen, you will see sort of a water drop effect and when you release the mouse button the window will be maximized. -- Aero Shake - While grabbing a Window go left and right with your mouse and it will minimize other Windows and leave current one open. -- AWESOME! Use this and the Win7 keyboard shortcuts and take control of your machine now!

I was listening to TWiW [This Week in Windows] - and one of the topics discussed was keyboard shortcuts. I immediately started tapping around my keyboard and here is what I've come up with... Really useful! ---- Windows Key + -- Tab = Aero [press Tab to cycle between Windows] E = Windows Explorer R = Run Command F = Search X = Mobility Center L = Lock Computer U = Ease of Access P = Projector T = Cycle Super Taskbar Items S = OneNote Screen Clipping Tool [requires OneNote] M = Minimize All Windows D = Show/Hide Desktop Up = Maximize Current Window Down = Restore Down / Minimize Current Windows Left = Tile Current Window to the Left Right = Tile Current Windows to the Right # = Quicklaunch = = Magnifier -- In Windows Explorer -- Alt + Up = Go up one level Alt + Left = Back Alt + Right = Forward ---- I think some of these will work on older versions like XP and Vista, go try it out on your PC/Notebook/Netbook and let me know how you like it.

Technology is supposed to help us make things easier however sometimes it gives headaches as well. Here's a few reminders on how to lessen tech stress specially nowadays with viri, malware, trojans etc. I wrote about this in May '07 but it is still relevant today! --- READ ON ---