Have Laptop Will Travel

Scan crippled hard drives for viruses using Linux

Originally posted on March 15, 2010 @ 8:42 am

On our Windows laptops, we use an army of different software just to protect ourselves from all the different kinds of malware just hanging around the net, waiting for an opening to attack our system. Don’t give me the excuse that antivirus software is expensive, there are a lot of fully-functional antiviruses out there that are pretty good. But even though we have our system running fully-protected, there’s a good chance that one or two viruses might be able to slip in. I usually don’t worry that much, a simple scan with Malwarebytes usually does the job. But what if malware has overrun your computer so much that it’s practically unusable?

If your plethora of antimalware apps doesn’t work, along with *gasp* safe mode, then you might want to try a different approach – Linux. From gHacks, here’s a way to scan your hard drive for viruses using a Linux installation. gHacks recommends that you remove the infected drive and connect it via USB to the Linux machine. Then you can scan the drive via Linux as an external drive. The, install F-Prot on Linux. Scan away. [Read more…]

Easiest Way To Install Windows Via USB Flash Drive On Your Netbook

Originally posted on September 15, 2009 @ 10:00 am

If you’re pretty much tired of your Linux installation on your handy netbook (I honestly have no idea why you’d be tired, but whatever floats your boat), you have two alternatives: either use a USB CD-ROM drive (IMHO, the easy way out) or go through the entire process of turning the flash drive into a bootable disk, and then putting the entire disc image on it, and then trying to install Windows on your netbook via USB and then realizing that you did something horribly wrong now you have to start all over again, repeat ad nauseam…

Yeah, in case you’re wondering, that really happened to me.

Thank goodness for WinToFlash then.

If you’re wondering what it can do, here’s the official description from their website:

WinToFlash is a software for transfer your Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7 setup from CD or DVD to flash in some mouse clicks. This is about you can install your Windows from flash card, USB stick, HDD, etc to your computer or netbook.

With WinToFlash, installing Windows via USB flash drive is as easy as inserting your Windows CD into a computer with a disc drive, plugging in a 2GB or larger USB flash drive, and then running WinToFlash.

Seriously, I wish I had these tools when I started out. Then I wouldn’t have those hours of frustration and screaming my lungs out because my gosh darn netbook just won’t freaking cooperate.

Download WinToFlash here.

Netflix now suported by Windows Media Center

Originally posted on May 21, 2009 @ 12:39 am

Windows Media Center users will be happy to know that Netflix is now OFFICIALLY supported.

This is the first time Netflix will have official support for Microsoft’s media-optimized OS even though users of the WMC have been using a workaround to access Netflix. When the DVD distribution company began offering streaming video services, some programmers were able to create small apps that allowed them to view the content on the Media Center. But since it was unofficial, these apps had a tendency to break down and suffer from glitches especially when Netflix makes changes from their end. It also requires an advanced level of technical knowhow to make it work. The official support for Netflix now eliminates all of these difficulties.

The new Netflix app uses Silverlight to present a seamless interface and easy video streaming capabilities. The app will even guide users in installing Silverlight in case they haven’t downloaded and installed it in their PCs yet.

Acer coming up with netbook running Google Android

Originally posted on October 6, 2009 @ 10:00 am

Apparently, Acer’s Android netbook will be available to the general public by November. The reported of the netbook is around $300 to $350, and it won’t be all that much cheaper than the current 10-inch Aspire One since it still runs Windows and will have comparable specs.

So now I’m wondering why install Android in the first place if Windows is still going to be running alongside it. I’d rather wait for the Google Chrome OS netbook, mind you.

MS confirms installation at shutdown issue

Originally posted on June 30, 2009 @ 5:50 am

Many people have expressed their annoyance over their experience of Windows installing updates on its own even when the option not to do it has been checked.

Microsoft has acknowledged that these things do happen and that the company is now looking into the matter. MS has said in its statement that the problem seems to be stemming from the notification message in the tray being inaccurate.

MS further explained that in normal operations, the user will only get the notification about the updates being ready for installation when all of the said updates have already been downloaded and ready for installation. This could be the reason why the update may appear on Windows Update but not on Automatic Updates. Another instance is that the user may get a notification of the update having been downloaded and available for installation but the update has not yet been installed
First, you only get the notification that updates are available for installation when all of the available updates are downloaded and ready to install. So if they appear to be available on Windows Update but not through Automatic Updates, that could be the explanation. Second, you may get a notification of downloaded and available, but not yet installed updates, in the shutdown dialog. In this situation the user will only see the updates with updates that doesn’t need user intervention.

Hopefully, Microsoft does find the problem and fixes it. It doesn’t need the negative view that it is manipulating things even when it clearly does not.