scheduled tasks part 2

More of those bloody scheduled tasks that get re-enabled when you disable them… 😦

UserTask
OfficeTelemetryAgentFallBack
Office 15 Subscription Heartbeat
Scheduled Start
Scheduled Start With Network
OfficeTelemetryAgentLogOn
SynchronizeTime
Microsoft Office 15 Sync Maintenance
.NET Framework NGEN v4.0.30319
SilentCleanup
CreateObjectTask
BackgroundUploadTask
Idle Sync Maintenance Task
Idle Maintenance
Routine Maintenance Task
Regular Maintenance
.NET Framework NGEN v4.0.30319 64

 

Anyway, thanks to my beloved search engine, i stumbled on yet another stackoverflow/superuser thread concerning this same issue: http://superuser.com/questions/497500/disable-automatic-maintenance-in-windows-8

Just disable that bloody “Maintenance Configurator” task using local system privileges

Result: no more fans spinning up when I lock my laptop! ❤

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AMD Madness with Windows 8

So I’ve installed Windows 8.
I didn’t install any driver manually.
Windows found almost everything using Windows Update.

And I like that 🙂

I don’t like hunting down drivers.
It’s stupid, consumes hours of precious time, and most of all: really boring…

Today, in my quest for good video editing software, I stumbled upon Sony Vegas 12.
So…

After downloading the 30-days trial, all I got was this lousy loading screen…
And a crash report…
Which was useless…

http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1225949

Because the most valuable crash report mentions something about “gpu acceleration”. I started wondering if its corresponding Windows driver was up to date…

I knew, from issues in the past, that AMD/ATI stopped supporting my -not that old- radeon 4870 in Windows 8…
Rendering my gpu legacy 2 years after purchase date… (see what I did there? 😛 )

Anyway, things like that have been overcome for years thanks to guru3D (modded mobility drivers anyone?)

And again, they came up with modded drivers for legacy graphics cards…

windows update driver

guru 3d’s DriverVer=07/03/2012, 8.970.100.3000

Nevertheless, after installing this “seemingly” older driver, Sony Vegas still crashes…

And even better!

Now I have this as well:

 

Rolled back the driver to it’s “Windows Update” alter ego fixed one of the above issues.
But not all…

Stupid amd…

Variable signing…

In my bed, the weirdest things happen…
Today, I woke up, and tough to myself: “why do people sign their code, but not their stored data & variables?”

Let’s explain what I mean…

I’ve been messing around with Windows Phone 7 quite some time.
And now Windows 8 has the same fun challenges.

Some (most) applications which are developed by home-programmers, don’t make time to “secure” their applications. Mostly because their isn’t time, money, or the effort is just too high…

Anyway, this results in a lot of apps you can play with 😎

codeintegrity.cat

Nowadays, when you edit a W8 xaml file, the codeintegrity.cat (miaow) file makes sure you app crashes…
The codeintegrity file (part of the MS App Store) verifies the integrity of the code (no way 😛 ).
It’s a quick fix for a hack that came out a long time ago (the one where you could edit anything you wanted): www.extremetech.com/computing/143002-how-to-pirate-windows-8-metro-apps-bypass-in-app-purchases-and-more

Some thoughts: why isn’t all this encrypted/obfuscated/minimised/…, aka: why it it plain text?

A really good read from justin angel! It’s quiet funny too!

So at least I’m not the only one who thinks like that!

But a solution can be that easy!
Take your vars, and multiply them with 4. Convert them to another type (var something = (new int32(1234).tochar() ). Create a stupid mathematical formula to “hide” your variables. Or even: don’t store your variables with easy names (The function of the variable “AmountOfGold=5000” isn’t THAT difficult to guess :-p ), or just salt the entire variablebullshit!

If only our precious NMBS would do that! 😆

Getting used of Windows 8

I’m getting used of it.  😎

I’ve bought myself a Crucial M4 two weeks ago, and took the opportunity to install a fresh copy of windows 8 on it. Installation itself took about 15 minutes, and is running ever since.

So anyway, the screenshot above gives a rough look how I use Windows 8.

Microsoft tries to push metro, but I’m just not using it

I reinstalled most of my regular desktop application: firefox, itunes, windows media player (with ccc), picasa, …
And I’ve changed almost all of the file associations to use these applications instead of their metro counter parts

Metro never shows up, only when I want to start a new application (and even then, my favourite apps are pinned to the taskbar 😀 )

So, after these couple of weeks, I surely can recommend W8 to all of you!

It has build in dlna/upnp (which actually works pretty good), a beautiful task manager, superb copy handler, and overall performance even got a little bit better then W7!

Just uninstall/replace the metro apps, and you’ll be fine 🙂

 

Only the most annoying things persist: run as admin is a disaster, getting to the start menu is a big issue (fixed it with this), shutting your computer down is a hassle, and searching in settings and apps should be the same action.
So you actually have to move your mouse a lot!

And I hate AMD for dropping support for my (not toooo old) 4870 graphics card… 👿

Win8 pt.2

So they cleaned up the mess.
I guess Microsoft now actually tried to run their previous release on a desktop computer, and they found out it sucked if you don’t have a touch interface 😛

So I actually revised my opinion of my latest blogpost about their new upcoming operating system.

It’s not that bad anymore!

I still don’t actually like it, but microsoft has put a great effort in making the “metro” interface usable with only a mouse and a keyboard.
For example, you can actually scroll horizontally 🙂 (wow, impressive, incredible, nice…)
The explorer windows windows has been cleaned up (the explorer ribbon is now  minimised by default)
And some more small improvements!

At least, it now feels as a working operating system.
The previous release did not…
The entire metro-aspect is still there, but not that overwhelming as before…

So, I’m looking forward to it!

My only handicap for this moment, my creative x-fi music doesn’t work (@creative: driverupgrade plz? 🙂 )

But there might be hope:

Quick install instructions:

Download Win8 b8400 x64 here.
Mount it with virtual clone drive (or whatever iso mounting software you prefer ^^ )
Create yourself a vhd in disk management and mount it
Download imagex (find it on the internet or download the entire waik and extract it from the neutral.cab\F3_imagex with 7zip)
Then run “imagex.exe /apply h:\sources\install.wim 1 g:\ ” in cmd with h:\ your mounted iso, and g:\ your mounted vhd
Afterwards you can add windows 8 to your bootloader using “bcdboot g:\Windows”.

Reboot and enjoy 🙂

Windows 8 – my opinion

it sucks 🙂

When I first met windows 8, it was in September, with the first developer beta.
That version was installed, almost exactly 60 minutes on my computer before I removed it again…

It was just “way to beta”, and most important: skype wouldn’t work back then ^^
(of course there where a whole bunch of other reasons as well)

Now, whit the customer preview, I gave it another shot.

And at first, I liked it 🙂

It wasn’t that bad!

They fixed horizontal scrolling for example, the new side-menu’s where introduced, everything worked really smooth!

And I almost got used to it!

But…

The entire metro-interface is NOT meant for a desktop computer…
It is wonderful for a tablet, maybe for a laptop with a multitouch screen or touchpad.
But not on a mouse-operated device…
You should install whatpulse for this one… Keep an eye on your mouse statistics, see how much you move with your mouse… It’s like almost everything you want to do in windows 8 is done  with your mouse… (yes I know there are a bunch of keyboardshortcuts in win8 for popping up all of the sidebars). But it’s all so anti-“productive”…

I’ve used CPR for about a week, and then suddenly it would boot any more, just reminding me it’s still beta 😛
I’ll just stick with W7 for now 🙂

A friend of mine told me his grandmother loved it.
So maybe, people could actually love it 🙂

Just not me… 

Ps: And even worse… They ported metro to the server editions as well…

Ps: I AM looking forward to see it work on my touchpad 🙂