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What went wrong with Windows Vista

Dave Farquhar Windows June 4, 2017December 3, 2018vista, windows 7, windows 98, Windows Vista, Windows XP

What went wrong with Windows Vista? If you were around when it launched, you probably wouldn’t argue with me if I said the things that went right were easier to count than the things that went wrong. Windows XP lived nearly forever because Vista was so bad.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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Check SSD alignment in Windows

Dave Farquhar Windows March 27, 2017August 17, 2018command prompt, raid array, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 8

It’s important to check SSD alignment in Windows. If your SSD isn’t aligned, you reduce its performance and its life expectancy. Fortunately in many cases, your SSD will be properly aligned, but it only takes a minute to check.

Dave Farquhar

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The HP Elitebook 8440p and Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Windows February 28, 2017February 5, 2022amd, BSOD, command prompt, dell, hp, intel, nvidia, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, Windows XP

I got an HP Elitebook 8440p because I wanted something a little newer and faster than my old Dell E1505. It was certainly newer and faster, but it had a problem. Every morning it greeted me with a BSOD. That E1505 was getting older and it had its own quirks, but I don’t remember it ever bluescreening on me. Here’s how I fixed the bluescreens I got with the HP Elitebook 8440p and Windows 10.

Not only did it bluescreen, but the behavior seemed pretty consistent. Two days in a row, I woke the laptop up from hibernation, and about nine minutes later, it bluescreened.

Dave Farquhar

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XCOPY vs ROBOCOPY

Dave Farquhar Windows August 30, 2016August 11, 2018command prompt, Japan, lunchtime, PIP, syntax, vista, WAN, windows 8, windows me

XCOPY vs ROBOCOPY: Which do you like? If you’re a command line jockey, both Windows tools have their place. Here’s how I decide when to use which one.

Note: If you’re looking for a comparison of Robocopy and the third-party freemium tool Xxcopy, see this post.

Dave Farquhar

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Can’t connect to this network? Here’s the fix.

Dave Farquhar Windows July 6, 2016November 26, 2018dell, hp, intel, lenovo, optimizing windows, vista, Windows 10, windows 7

After upgrading to Windows 10, when I unhibernated my laptop the next morning, my wifi connection didn’t work. The connection dropped and I couldn’t reconnect. Forgetting the network and reconnecting didn’t help. Any time I tried to reconnect to my wireless network, I’d get the message that Windows 10 can’t connect to this network.

The problem seemed to be in the power management.

Dave Farquhar

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Change your printer’s IP address in Windows

Dave Farquhar Windows April 26, 2016July 15, 2017UNC, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 8

Sometimes you may need to change your printer’s IP address, such as after you rearrange your network. It’s not hard to do, it’s just not always immediately obvious where the settings are.

This method works in Windows 7 and Windows 10. It probably also works in Vista and Windows 8, but I don’t have those versions anymore.

Dave Farquhar

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Stream from Windows Media Player to Android

Dave Farquhar Android August 21, 2015February 19, 2017android, chrome, DLNA, Media Player, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, Windows Media Player

I wanted to be able to stream from Windows Media Player to Android. I have lots of media stored on my Windows computers, but what if I’m in a room that doesn’t have a computer, or outside?

Good GenXer that I am, I spent decades collecting CDs. Some of my stuff is as common and ordinary as it gets. But some of it isn’t on any of the streaming services and probably never will be because there were exactly two other people alive who liked it.

I ripped most of them with Windows Media Player and stored them on my PC with the biggest drive. But that’s not necessarily where I want to listen to music from. Media Player can stream between multiple PCs, but it can also stream to an Android phone or tablet, which, in many cases, is even more convenient.

Dave Farquhar

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Windows 10 is out. I say you should upgrade, just not necessarily right now.

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized July 29, 2015July 25, 2015acer, new hardware, Technical Preview, vista, Windows 10, windows 2000, windows 7, windows 8, windows 98, windows nt, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Windows 10 is out today. Of course I’ve been getting questions about whether to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10, and I’ve been seeing mixed advice on upgrading, though some of that mixed advice is regarding Microsoft history that isn’t completely relevant today.

My advice is to upgrade immediately if you’re running Windows 8 or 8.1, and to wait, perhaps six months, if you’re running Windows 7, but I still think you should do it. I’ll explain.

Dave Farquhar

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Why you need to be planning for Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Windows January 26, 2015January 25, 20151990s, Technical Preview, vista, Windows 10, windows 7, windows 8

A longtime friend asked me at church on Sunday about Windows 10. My answer was fairly succinct: Windows 7 has five years left in it, so we’ll probably all end up running it at some point.

Microsoft made a number of announcements last week, so here’s what you need to know about it.

Dave Farquhar

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More Home Depot details emerge

Dave Farquhar security September 22, 2014September 20, 2014antivirus, breach, Brian Krebs, code execution, Data breach, home depot, malware, Payment systems, Retailing, vista, vulnerability, Windows Server, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Late last week, Home Depot finally released a statement about its data breach. At least they had the decency to call the attack “custom” and not spin it as “advanced” or “sophisticated.” Even “custom” is really a euphemism, as the attack wasn’t all that different from what other retailers experienced earlier in the year. It may have been as simple as recompressing the BlackPOS malware using a different compression algorithm or compression ratio to evade antivirus.

The breach involves about 56 million cards, making it a bigger breach than Target. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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