Category: Technology

After reading the reviews on this Build, I decided that maybe I should again try running Windows 10 on my phone (Lumia 640). I tried running an older version last spring and uninstalled the software as soon as I could. It was a mess. The reviews on this build gave me just enough confidence to try it again.

A version of Build 10586 is supposed to be available to the public next week so the build is at or very near RTM. (Release To Manufacturing). I figured things were much improved so I started the upgrade last night on my way to bed.

Build 10586.11 updated smoothly. It seems faster and more responsive than Windows 8.1 I have yet to find any bugs or things that don’t work. The phone kept most of the settings for things that I use daily. Yes, a few apps were not compatible and are no longer listed as installed on the phone. I had five errors on apps but they were not things that I needed. I know at least two of the five were replaced by features in Windows 10.

Here was my punch list of things to adjust after the upgrade.

• Bluetooth was off and needed to be turned on when I got in my car.

• The Music app tile on my phone was not directly linked to my music library any more. I ended up removing it and replacing with the Groove Music tile. The Groove Music tile will often be the album cover of whatever song is playing. This is cool.

• Missing from my main screen was Data Sense. I was able to find a new one in Settings and added that to my screen. It retained my settings and usage numbers after the upgrade.

• Web pages that I had attached as tiles opened mobile versions of the pages when I expected to see full desktop versions.

• I had to re-pin the Weather app to my main screen.

After upgrading, do a restart of the phone and then check to see if there are further updates.

Two issues that I am aware of were causing problems for some users.

• First, the unified mail box was removed due to inserting a bug into phone performance for some users. I think this feature will be fixed and available soon.

• Second, Nokia’s Here Maps was disabled. Here Maps was recently sold to a consortium of European auto manufacturers and this might be a factor in the app being turned off. This should only affect people upgrading from Windows Phone 8.1 It is recommended to use Windows Maps. Mapquest, gMaps, and the regular map program all seem to be working.

The people app is still linked with Facebook. I thought this might break after upgrading since it no longer works on my Windows 10 desktop computer.

So far I’m a happy camper with this Build. Try it, you’ll like it.

Update 11-21-2015

After looking thru the phone further, I found that some items did not upload themselves. I have noticed no performance hit because of these. They might be relics that are normally hidden or not fully uninstalled.

Also, I had to delete my Hotmail account and set it up again to get it to sync.

Based on feedback from others, as a rule nothing Nokia related is likely to follow to Windows 10. Whether it works or not after an upgrade will probably vary for each user.

I don’t use Skype at all and rarely use Facebook but both ended up needing some love to insure they were happy. Skype, must be installed on you phone and not SD card. You may have to adjust you storage setting to get it to install. As you can see, I did have a few lingering problems. I have seen many fantastical claims on how to work thru these issues on the Internet but they are unproven and many involve resetting phone to factory setting. My problem with that is then why did I upgrade if I need to reinstall everything anyway?

When things work great on your computer the world is somehow a happier place. However, when something goes wrong then you know you are in for a bumpy ride.

The other day my daughter wanted to watch a DVD on her desktop computer which has a new installation of Windows 8.1. She couldn’t get it to work. I was not surprised. I figured it was missing the codec required to run the movie.

I decided to load my old copy of Roxio 2010 on the computer and figured that would solve the problem. OK, I know that loading Roxio is a bit of overkill but I figured she might start using the computer if it could burn DVDs also. Our Wi-Fi signal in her room is really bad so it made sense to use the computer that was wired to our home network.

After three tries, Roxio would not install. It kept hanging on the installation of Microsoft’s .Net 3.5.

At that point I thought, I will just go on the Windows Store and look for a DVD player. I found one that I had heard great things about and then was prompted for a password. The daughter didn’t know her password for her Windows Live account so that idea tanked also. I then went to the website for the DVD player that I found in the Store and then downloaded the free program that I couldn’t get off the Windows Store because the child (insert sarcasm here—she’s 23) didn’t know her password. So now, after about an hour off messing around, the DVD was able to be played.

However, the issue with .Net really bothered me. I tried the usual search of support threads on the Internet. As usual most of the advice was well meaning and totally worthless. Add and Remove Programs was a waste.

Downloading .Net 3.5 as a standalone install is not available on Microsoft’s website. I don’t trust third party solutions; who knows what Trojans or worms could be embedded in their “solution”. Only one suggestion made sense. Install .Net 3.5 from the Windows 8.1 installation disk.

As you have guessed, there is indeed a catch. Inserting the disk into your computer will not allow you to access a way to install the .Net framework for 3.5. You need to do it thru a Command Prompt with elevated privileges.

Here is what you need to do.

1 Put Windows 8.1 DVD into your computer’s DVD drive. Don’t let it run. It just needs to be in the drive. If you have the install files of a flash drive, this method should work just as well.

2 Open Command Prompt with Administrator rights. As is usual in Windows, there is more than one way to do this. Try this first, simultaneously press Windows key and letter X, you will get a menu on bottom left side of your computer screen. Click on Command Prompt (Admin)

3 Now that the Command Prompt is open, you need to type a command to install .Net Framework on the computer. Please note this command must be typed exactly. To help you be successful, remember that there is a single space before each backslash in this command. A total of six spaces appear in this command. Also note, Windows is typically agnostic in regards to capital or lower case letters but other operating systems may read these as different letters.

Type this in the Command Prompt

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:D:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

In the above command, it is assumes that D is the drive letter of you DVD.

After pressing the enter key, the screen will look something like this

On my daughter’s computer, it hung for several minutes at Enabling Feature 60.4 %

Finally it was done.

Then when you check Add and Remove Programs you will see that .Net 3.5 is installed.

I then ran Windows update and had to install 14 updates related to the .Net Framework. Oh, and yes, after all this, Roxio did install successfully.

Apple rolled-out their new phones and tablets today. It’s clear that they’re missing Steve Jobs because their stuff today was boring, old, and overpriced.

Both the phone and tablet announced today, are lower in specifications than existing products already offered or announced by Microsoft. Oh, on the new Apple tablet demoed today, they were using Microsoft Office as their proof they could do something besides games on the new tablet.

Phone
The new Windows phones are capable of running any apps available for Windows 10 (phone, tablet, and desktop). If the programmer writes his code properly, the app can run on any Windows device.

Oh, the Continuum feature means your phone can function as a desktop computer including HD monitor, keyboard and mouse.

specs-comparison-lumia-950-xl-vs-iphone-6s-plus

Tablet
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 runs the desktop operating system unlike Apple’s tablet which runs a phone OS.

Surface Pro 3 starts at $799 with pen, Apple starts at $999 plus extra $99 for their “pencil”.

This should insure that Apple stock remains in the basement for months to come.

People think I spend all my time documenting the exploits of the Just Us Brothers which just ain’t so. I spend most of my day with computers but mostly I’d rather be building them.

Recently I had to make a new computer for my daughter. She is an aspiring teacher about to enter her first year instructing third graders. I went to visit the classroom and found that the student computer in her room was a veritable antique. It was a 350 MHz computer with 198 MB of RAM running Windows 98 with a Novel network client. It was not connected to the school’s network. It was clear that this private school was living off the donations of others and needed some help.

I did a lot of research and decided that my best bang for the buck would be to get an AMD A8 processor—since it had CPU and video on the same chip—and then get a compatible motherboard and 4 GB of RAM.

I wanted a 32 bit version of Windows 7 as I deemed it would be the most backwards compatible. I went to my local Fry’s Electronics and bought these items plus a DVD Writer for $15. My budget was $200 and I spent $222 including tax for the four items that I purchased.

The computer was housed in an old case with a 430 watt power supply that I had out in the garage. Everything when together well until I tried to install the operating system and then the BSOD (blue screen of death) appeared about 14 percent of the way through the installation process. I tried two different hard drives and got the same result. Not knowing if the drives were bad, I had my wife pick up a new drive at Fry’s. The ones at my house were living for many years in the garage so they might be bad…

My wife got a 1 TB drive for about $50. I installed that and hoped for the best. BSOD.

I tried a different DVD drive and got the same result. BSOD.

A that point, I removed part of the RAM, and tried the installation with only one 2 GB stick of RAM. The installation worked! I then tried to install the drivers from the motherboard DVD. BSOD. Finally, the computer refused to boot into Windows; even after trying all restore points.

I then ran the memory checker on the Windows DVD. For the first time ever, the on screen message said that I had a hardware problem. I don’t run that utility very often but that was a disturbing result.

Instead of taking the time to troubleshoot the motherboard, CPU and RAM, I decided to return the whole mess, get a store credit and start over.

I checked Fry’s weekly ads and saw a motherboard/CPU combo for about $222. It was and Intel i5 with onboard video and an ASUS motherboard. I decided to go with this since it was $75 cheaper to get this combo than purchasing the items separately. I then had to get a 4GB memory stick. This set-up cost me an additional $81. (Of course the Fry’s closest to my house did not have the CPU in stock so I had to run to Roseville and get it there.)

I took everything home and installed it in the case. I turned on the power and surprise, it booted up into Windows 7. Yeah, the Windows install created on the AMD processor booted up on the Intel motherboard. (By the way, this has worked every time I have tried it. It’s a testimony to the diversity of Microsoft.) After a few reboots to load additional drivers, I installed the network drivers from the motherboard DVD and ran Windows update.

The hardest part was finding a 32 bit copy of Office in my house. We all use 64 bit programs when possible. I found an unused copy of Office 2010 and loaded that.

So now my daughter has an up to date computer. The computer even has the flag in the bottom corner asking if I wanted to upgrade to Windows 10. My own computer doesn’t even prompt me for that.

My take away from this is that AMD has a quality control problem. Anybody can manufacture a motherboard for their processors but whether it works properly or not is completely out of their control. All the AMD motherboards for which I could find reviews for the A Series processors were in the same situation. 60 percent of the reviews rate the motherboards as good and the other 40 percent were reporting that the boards were junk. AMD needs to get this issue in hand.

Oh, all motherboards mentioned in my review are by ASUS.

Yesterday I received an email from Microsoft about upgrading my computers to Windows 10. (I’m on their Insider’s list so I get access to some things quicker than the general public.) If after reading my story you wish to try your hand at Windows 10, here is the link
Windows 10 Download

Anyway, I downloaded the tool that they had linked on the webpage to install Windows 10. Things didn’t quite go as advertised.

I downloaded the 64 bit version of the program (19 MB) and ran it.

The Upgrade this PC now option did not work. Once the program tries to download, it crashed.
Use the second option Create installation media for another PC

It will allow you to pick language. English (United States) worked well for me.

Windows version (Home or Pro). Don’t use choices ending in “N”

Architecture is 32 or 64 bit OS

 

I downloaded the ISO image to my windows 8.1 computer. When download was completed, I copied file to my son’s gaming computer.

Once copied, I mounted the installation file as a drive. For any newbies reading this, Windows 8 can make an ISO image into a virtual drive. The ISO image will then act as DVD player complete with drive letter.

I double clicked on the setup executable file and selected upgrade. After a few prompts Windows downloaded some update files and began installing. On the Internet I kept reading that it takes 20 to 40 minutes to run. This is rubbish. My best guess is an easy two hours. After nursing the computer for an hour and a half, I went to bed to let it finish. The installation progress was at 32 percent.

Then this morning, I spend another 20 minutes just to get it up to the normal desktop. Upon initial boot, the second monitor was not working and the primary monitor was the wrong resolution. Lots of background activity on the hard drive indicated to me that the OS was still downloading and installing updates and passes. I ran Windows Update and got confirmation that the NVidia drivers were finally loaded and then by doing a restart everything was as it should be.

I have yet to hear about any problems running games and that is a good sign.

Finally, I am off Verizon. My contract was up this week-end and I switched to Cricket Wireless. I got on the lowest tier plan from Cricket and now have more data and a lower bill. 2.5 GB for $35 per month.

I chose the Lumia 640 as my new phone. It was $129 plus sales tax and a $25 connection fee. My old phone was HTC 8X with 16 GB of on board memory. While the Lumia only has 8 GB, it has an SD Memory slot. I had already bought a 64 GB memory card from Amazon for $26. The SD Card was put in the phone as it was being set-up at Cricket.

I took the phone home and set it up. After I entered the credentials for my Microsoft Account, I was asked if I wanted to restore from the backup of the HTC phone or start with a clean install. I chose to restore from the backup. This took a while to run—again do this at home. As the backup began installing, my phone automatically switched to my home’s Wi-Fi. All my custom settings except Bluetooth seemed to be installed when finished. Also, all phone apps were downloaded; most without any user intervention needed. Only 4 MB of the data plan was used to setup the phone and close to 6 GB on the Wi-Fi.

Also during the process of setting up the phone, my new SD card was detected. When prompted, I said “Yes” to use the SD card. All music, photos, documents, etc. were automatically set to go to this card instead of using the remaining memory on the phone.

Only maps that were downloaded were stored on the phone memory. I could find no setting to move these to the SD card.

The phone screen is slightly larger than my HTC, but is seems much bigger. I set my HTC phone on top of the 640 just to compare the size. To me it seemed about 1/8” bigger around all four sides.

The phone has fewer physical buttons than the HTC, only Power and Volume. The traditional Widows Phone buttons of Back, Windows, and Search are now virtual buttons on the touch screen. So far, the Lumia is faster than the HCT in booting up and running apps. I have not put the camera thru its paces yet but hope to do that soon.

It’s a great experience. Oh, and the color is Cyan which is bright, happy blue.

Lumia 640 can be viewed here

At my work, we use the full version of Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional. Unfortunately, Adobe has scrubbed their website of any updates for their software because this version is too old. Officially they ended support as of June 26, 2013. http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/end-support-acrobat-8-reader.html

Our IT department is deploying new Windows 7 Enterprise boxes and I get to go behind them and install Acrobat 9 Pro. Version 9.0.0 does have some bugs and security holes—which clearly doesn’t bother our IT guys too much or they would have a more up to date version. Anyway, users are experiencing some glitches—especially when opening PDF files in their Internet Explorer 9 web browser (I know, different blogging item).

Anyway, I figured that the best way I could help them was by updating Acrobat 9. Running the update within Acrobat 9.0.0 does not work on our network. Getting past our Active Directory group policies and out of the firewall seems like a constant hindrance to network performance. Anyway, I decided to try and find updates on the Internet while avoiding malware and phishing sites. After several searches and a few trips to Task Manager to kill IE 9 when I stumbled on suspicious websites, I found both an upgrade path and a secret Adobe file server.

While Adobe no longer links their webpages to any updates, it does still show the upgrade path to Acrobat 9.5.5—the final version of Acrobat 9.

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/update-patch-acrobat-reader-7.html All upgrade links take you to error page for file not found.

I downloaded all files and installed them in order and was successful. Every few updates, you need to restart the computer.

Regrettably, I did not bookmark the site where I found Adobe’s FTP server. But as of this writing, it is located here.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/9.x/

As an experiment, I skipped a few updates. Skipping resulted in failed updating of Acrobat. If that happens restart the computer and then try the correct upgrade again. Here is the experiment that I did on a computer.
I started with a machine that had 9.0.0 installed.
I then ran updates in this order
9.1.0 restart
9.1.2; 9.2.0; 9.3.0 restart
9.3.2 restart

At this point Acrobat’s Update utility wanted to run. Just to see what happened I let it run. It tried to jump Acrobat to 9.5.5. After the computer restarted, I tried to run Acrobat. I got an error. Then I went to the Control Panel and opened Programs and Features. On Acrobat 9, I ran Uninstall/Change and ran Repair option. Then Acrobat self-repaired and 9.5.5 was able to run.

Based on this, try installing a few more updates and then if 9.5.5 wants to install, you can try it.

Verizon Wireless is having a promotion today to get people to switch to their company. Missing from Connection Day is the Nokia/Microsoft brand. Windows is not on the list either but Blackberry is? This is why I plan to leave Verizon. I want better pricing and more options—they offer neither.

Here’s what I learned at work today.

PC Configuration and Problem Symptoms
PC with Acrobat and Acrobat Reader both installed; Acrobat older version than Reader. In my case Acrobat 9 and Reader 11.

Employee has PDF form that is supposed to be filled-out automatically in web browser. In my instance it was a deposit form from State Treasurer website. When trying to generate deposit slip with numbers from the website, employee gets this error message:

There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader.
It is running, please exit and try again. (0:104)

It took three hours but the fix is easy. It is in two parts.

1. Registry Edit
a.Run Regedit as Admin
b.Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Adobe\Acrobat\Exe
c.Change Key
d.From “C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Adobe.exe” to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader11.0\Reader\AdoRD32.exe”

2. Acrobat Reader
a.Open Acrobat Reader
b.Go to Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced)
c.Click on Host button
d.Enter website address where form data is coming from (copy and paste from web browser)
e.Click OK

Step 1 changes default only for opening documents in web browser from Acrobat to Acrobat Reader. You do not need to change file associations in Control Panel. Step 2 should get rid of security prompt when opening PDF populated with data in the web browser othwise you may need to refresh the page.