PaintShop Pro won't save images as JPG (Fixed)

Today I was not able to save anymore images in PainShop Pro as jpg (png will work). PainShop Pro will simply freeze if I try to do this.

The issue: a clipboard monitor called PureText was conflicting with PainShop Pro. Closing the program solved the issue.  

I have no clue why the programmers of PainShop Pro chose to hook to the clipboard while saving the output as JPG but obviously is not only pointless but also poorly implemented.

Case solved.

Adding Windows 10 to Windows' 7 boot menu

So, I installed Windows 10. I didn't liked it (at all) so I installed after that Windows 7 (on a different partition).
Now after 6 months I would like to see if Window 10 has improoved a bit, but Windows 7 won't show it in its boot menu. So, I cannot boot into Win 10 anymore.

Solution: bcdedit
Run the command prompt as administrator. Type bcdedit and it will show all installed operating systems (that it can recognize).

In my case (Win 7 primary, Win 10 'lost' partition) the output is this:


C:\>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn

As you can see the current OS is Windows 7 on C: partition.





First of all, make a backup copy of your boot entries, in case you fuck up something:

C:\>bcdedit /export c:\bdc_entry_backup
The operation completed successfully.




Then type the following command. It will add Win 10 (identified as 'bootmgr') at the list of available bootable OS's:


C:\>bcdedit /displayorder {current} {bootmgr} 

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=K:
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
displayorder            {current}
                        {bootmgr}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {24334bf1-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {24334bef-7a25-11e5-866b-bca012dbdc37}
nx                      OptIn


Done.
_________

More details about bcdedit here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff541231%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#editing_the_boot_menu_in_windows_vista_and_later

Install Win XP on Toshiba Qosmio x505 (part 2)

How to install Windows XP on Toshiba Qosmio x505 laptops (part 2)

Installing the Conexant chipset sound driver

(Part 1 is here)

The second stage in installing the Windows XP on Toshiba Qosmio x505 laptops is the dreadful Conexant sound driver. I have modified an existing driver to make it work .

Here I have uploaded a modified driver that will work with Windows XP 32 bit. So, YES FINALLY THIS IS THE DRIVER THAT TOSHIBA AND CONEXANT REFUSES TO GIVE YOU! YOUR SOUND PROBLEM IS SOLVED NOW!

Download Toshiba Qosmio Conexant sound driver.

Just download the archive and unpack it (you may need WinRar for this). You will find three folders numbered 1,2,3. The numbers correspond with the steps you have to perform (see below).

Enter folder 1.

Run "Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio\ASetup.exe"

Run "Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio\us\Install.bat"

This will restart your Windows without any questions. So, be prepared (save your work).

Enter folder 2.

If Windows ask for drivers go directly to step 3. If not, run this file:

Run "Restart UAA using DevCon\Restart_UAA.bat"

Enter folder 3.

When Windows ask for drivers for your Conexant audio chip, point it to the "High Definition Audio Device\XP32\" folder.

That's all. If Windows recognizes the driver it will let you know. The SmartAudio utility is FULLY functional also!! The audio chipset will be listed as Connexant Pebble High Definition SmartAudio. Enjoy and don't forget to leave feedback!
Don't forget to send a "Fuck You" letter to Toshiba for its great nonexistent customer support and for locking its laptops on Windows 7 64 bits (poor Linux bastards, I pity you also :) ).

_________

Edit:

If the process is not successful please leave a message. You may need to change a line in the above script. I will provide guidance.

I will try to upload a newer driver soon and to create a software tool that will automate the process for you and to make the driver compatible with ALL possible laptops (not only Toshiba) that have a Conexant audio chip.


____________________

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Install Win XP on Toshiba Qosmio x505

How to install Win XP on Toshiba Qosmio x505 q860

FULL TUTORIAL

We all know, Widows Vista and Windows 7 sucks because it makes you brand new computer creep like a zombie. Unfortunately, in its casual "great" wisdom Toshiba decided not to support Windows XP (or any 32 bit OS) anymore. So, we will have to cut our own way through the jungle.

Here is how to install the most successful OS system from Microsoft (yes, it is Windows XP 32 bit). 

0. While you are still in Windows 7, go on Internet and find the Win XP 32 bit driver for your network cards

a) If you are using the wireless to connect to Internet do a Google search for "LAN 8191+8192 SE driver".

b) If you are using a network cable to connect to Internet do a Google search for "LAN Atheros AR8131 driver".

Download the driver(s) and keep them in a safe place. Don't install them yet.

1. Get a Windows XP 32 bit CD or a Windows XP CD image (if you indent to perform step 2).

2. If you are brave and have some skills and time slip stream Intel SATA drivers into the CD. This process is necessary if you want your drive to run at maximum speed. Anyway, the performance gain is very very low so don't bother. Do a search about how to use nLite to slip stream drivers into the original Windows setup CD. If you have a floppy disk (but I doubt) you don't have to use the sleep stream method: just put the drivers on floppy and press F6 during Windows setup to make Windows to ask for that floppy disk and read the drivers from it.

3. Burn the Windows setup image on the CD. You can use Toshiba's disk burner utility.

4. Rebooting

At this point it is the time to say goodbye to your current Windows installation. So, goodbye Windows 7 on 64 bits. Die in peace sucker.

If you have skipped the step 2 or you have the SATA drivers on a floppy disk, you need to go in BIOS and switch the disk from 'AHCI' to 'Compatibility' mode. To do this, reboot your computer and as soon as it starts, keep F2 pressed.

Insert the CD, reboot the computer and keep the F12 key pressed to see the Boot menu. Choose to boot from CD.

5. Installing Windows

Install Windows XP 32 bit for the CD.

When it ask where to install Windows, click every single partition and press "D" to delete it (Windows will ask you two times more if you are sure you want to delete each partition). When no partition is left, create new partition as large as the entire drive (500GB).

Windows will offer you to format the new created partition. Do so. Choose "Quick format".

6. After Windows is nicely installed in your computer, the first thing you will need is to install the network drivers to you can access the Internet.

7. Download and install Intel chipset drivers. Do a search for "Intel PM55 driver for Windows XP".

8. Download and install nVidia 360M drivers (M comes from "mobile" so don't download the driver for desktop video card but the one that has an "M" for mobile/laptops/notebooks).

9. See post here, about how to install the Conexant audio drivers.

Now you have the most important drivers installed and the computer running solid and stable. The rest you will figure out by yourself. But here are some suggestion about what you may need/want to install:

From Toshiba web site download:

HDD protection utility (TC30050600D)

blue tooth stack TC00201800O

cardreader o2 TC70052200A

HDD SSD Alert for Windows XP v3.1.02 tc00143300k os2009306a

laptop checkup v2.0.3.198 tc10060800c

Conexant sound driver

Synaptics v14 0 3 C XP32 (from http://drivers.synaptics.com)

Toshiba Service Station for Windows XP TC00209700D

usb charge TC00130400K

web cam TC30049700J

Notes:

It should work on all x500-505 Toshiba Qosmio variants.

I already uploaded for you the most important Toshiba Qosmio drivers here.


____________________

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BioniX Wallpaper Changer

4GB of Toshiba bloatware

Toshiba preinstalls a loat of bloatware on Toshiba Qosmio laptops. I decided to tidy up my Toshiba laptop to make it boot faster. Also, after uninstalling all kind of Toshiba garbage, setup files, trial games and other leftovers, and deleting the multi-language files (except English) for all installed software, I decreased the consumed space from about 4.5GB to only 152MB.


The following processes are running by default on all Toshiba Qosmio laptops. You can safely stop them using MSConfig.


SmoothView.exe - TOSHIBA SmoothView Zooming Utility.
Is installed on various Toshiba Laptops and handles zooming and scrolling of the screen to create a larger desktop.

TcrdMain.exe - TOSHIBA FlashCards - 27MB RAM
Without it the Fn key will stop working.

NDStray.exe - 1.2MB RAM
Tray utility for network switching application which permits switching network devices and settings with a click on the tray icon. While it is not required, for people who span multiple networks and want an easy way to go from wired to wireless and change addresses and other network settings, it's a must have.
Assists you managing and configuring your Wifi/Bluetooth Components in your Notebook. Stop it if you don't use your wireless. NDS Tray is combined with the Toshiba Tool Config Free.
Can be stopped? Yes, but the ConfigFree icon will disappear from system tray.

TosNcCore.exe - Message Center - 8.6MB RAM
If you stop it the Toshiba Buletin Board icon will disappear from system tray.
Can be stopped? Yes. Thanks god!

TPwrMain.exe - TOSHIBA Power Saver - 11MB RAM
Can be stopped? Unknown.

tosSENotify.exe - Toshiba HDD/SSD Alert Utility - 9.8MB RAM
It checks S.M.A.R.T status of the HDD.
Can be stopped? Yes, but run it once per week (or more often if your laptop is over 2 years old).





Things to be uninstalled definitively:

Toshiba Bulletin Board - about 150MB
Toshiba Reel Time - about 150MB
Corel DVD MovieFactory - 708MB!
TOSHIBA Games (including "Game Explorer" and "Game Console") - about 40MB
WORKSSETUP folder - 1.1GB (location c:\Program Files (x86)\TOSHIBA\WORKSSETUP\)
Vcredist_x86.exe - This is a Visual C redistribution file. Do a search in your computer and delete it from everywhere.



Toshiba support forum:
http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com


____________________

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BioniX Wallpaper Changer

Toshiba Qosmio - Hands on

First impression

x505 is a very powerful gaming (ish) oriented laptop from Toshiba. Actually, it is pretty powerful (of course a laptop can never be a desktop replacement) for the amount of money you spend on it.

First of all I was impressed by the amount of bloatware and crapware Toshiba installed in this computer. The size of the hard drive is 500GB. After formatting only 477GB are available for use (this is normal). From this amount, Toshiba wasted about 27GB for crapware (well, I guess 1 or 2 GB goes to Windows OS). So, only 453GB were available.
When starting Windows, then amount of RAM wasted to run all Toshiba bloatware is 1.4GB and the boot time is OVER TWO MINUTES. Amazing, huh?
Edit: Just installed Windows XP 32 bit and the boot time is about 40 seconds. Toshiba offer no support for Windows XP or any other 32 bit OS, so you are on your own if you REALLY want to do it!
See my post in July. It will give you some guidance in this big adventure. It took me more than 16 hours to do it.


Computer specs

Toshiba Qosmio x505, red/black
CPU: Intel Core i5 M430 2.27GHz
Screen: 18.4"
RAM: 4GB
HDD: 500GB
Graphics: GForce nVidia GTS360M
(see details at the end of this post)

OS: Win 7 Home Premium, 64 Bit
Price: $1099 + $47 shipping
Purchased from: J&R www.JR.com, USA (They really suck. I paid $47 for overnight shipping but they delayed the shipment few days).


Windows Experience Index (Win7 64 bit - June 2010)

CPU: 6.7
RAM: 5.9
GPU: 6.8
HDD: 5.9

Windows Experience Index (Win7 32 bit - February 2011)


CPU: 6.4
RAM: 7.1
GPU: 6.8
HDD: 5.9

I know, compared with my ancient desktop computer, the performance of this laptop really sucks.


Included stuff

Included goodies*: none
Included software (not counting free crapware like Acrobat Reader): Microsoft Works

*I was expected to find some goodies in the package, such as USB adapters, VGA/HDMI adapters, screen cleaning cloth, car 12V power adapter, etc, etc, etc. There was nothing in the package (except the gigantic brick-like charger). Nothing. Not even the Windows 7 CD. I never receive such a disappointing empty package for an expensive product in my life.


Hardware

Performance index: Windows 7 gives a shameful 5.9 to this Toshiba laptop.
For $1200, an index of 5.9 is not something to be proud of. With this kind of money you can upgrade your PC to a mega number-crunching monster.

Dead pixels: none
I was lucky here :)

Screen quality (1-10 scale): 6 (update: I just downgraded this to 5).
Screen quality is good. A bit too Very bright and over exposed. You will have to set the brightness way over 100% to get an acceptable image. At the same time, the more you decrease the brightness, the more you may want to compensate by increasing the contrast. Unfortunately, on most laptops (Toshiba Qosmio included) there is no button to adjust the brightness.
Update: I just found that I can adjust screen brightness and contrast from nVidia software. The image quality is much better. Unfortunately, the controls are not easy accessible (more than 3 clicks away). If the light level changes often in your room, it will be difficult to re-adjust your screen contrast.

TouchPad quality (1-10 scale): 2 3.
The touch pad has a rough texture. This makes your finger not to smoothly glide over it so the cursor movement is extremely jerky especially if the fingers gets sweaty.
Update1: the more I use the touch pad the more I hate it. I will go today to purchase a true touch pad tablet.
Update2: I just upgraded this from 2 to 3 after uninstalling touch pad drivers. Now it works way much better).

Quick multimedia buttons:
Some buttons have a very bad placement, so when you rest your arms or use the keyboard you accidentally touch them. Most annoying is when you want to press the Escape key and accidentally touch the "start player" button. This will start the dreadful MediaPlayer when you DON'T need it.


Sound quality (1-10 scale): 6 8
Update: The choppy sound improved significantly after uninstalling crappy sound utilities (not sound drivers) such as Dolby Surround tool. Grade upgraded for 6 points to 8.

Keyboard quality (1-10 scale): 7
Keyboard itself is not bad. On the other side, its layout is not great.

Keys layout (1-10 scale): 4

Web camera quality: average
Compared with the web camera I have on my EEE PC 1000, the quality of this web camera is really poor. The edges of objects appear extremely sharp (like in a game with no anti-aliasing) and the image is extremely dark if the room is not enough illuminated (you need to stay in direct sunlight to obtain a good picture).

Slimness: 2
Adjectives like slim, small, tiny, thin, etc cannot be used when one is describing this computer. The laptop is gigantic and mega heavy. However, I will not give a small grade to Toshiba Qosmio because it is big. I wanted a powerful and big screen laptop so I expected something big (even though it could have been better).


Battery and Power adapter:

Yes. This laptop needs a special section for 'power adapter'. The power adapter is more than "huge". I will rather use adjectives such "gigantic", "humongous", "enormous" and "brick size" for weight and size.
Here are some reviews right on Toshiba's web site. 99% of customers agree that the charger is huge: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?poid=366631

Battery will discharge to 1% in about 3 hours. Not very bad, but also remember the battery is youg, it will get old really quickly especially that Toshiba exaggerated with the loading time - about two hours to fully charge the battery!! This will kill the battery really soon!
Test conditions: Initially the battery was fully charged. I was installing drivers for Win XP, browsing the Internet, rebooting 4 times. The screen brightness was set to 6 (out of 8).

Design: 9
Very very nice design. The red back-lights make a nice impression over the black background, especially in dark.

Boot speed: 3
Boot speed time after some bloatware was remove from start up is about 105 seconds. We can see that the low performance HDD drive put its fingerprint over computer's overall speed.


Nice things
The TouchPad has a handy button from where you can quickly turn it on/off.
Nice, design. Nice backlight for all non-keyboard buttons.
Pretty quiet when working at low capacity (extremely loud for 4-5 seconds after power on).
Nice HDD anti-shock (and anti-drop) protection.
eSATA port (I really needed that for my external drive).
Button to turn on/off the wireless LAN.



Adware, crapware, bloatware

The worst thing about this laptop (except the power adapter size and no support for XP) is the software. So, the first thing to do first after purchasing the laptop was to start uninstalling the crapware and adware.

Adobe Acrobat reader: 209MB
Toshiba Online Backup (you have to pay to use it): 2.2MB
Amazon Links (more crappy stuff that you need to pay for): MB
Google Toolbar for IE: KB
Norton Internet Security (demo): about 200MB
Microsoft Office Student 60 Days demo: about 350MB
Jerky sound utility (makes Winamp lover the volume every time the OS makes a system sound.
NetZero adware ("free" software that connects you to a service for which you have to pay)
Some blog/hosting services adware ("free" software that connects you to a service for which you have to pay)
WildTangent adware ("free" gaming platform that connects you to a service for which you have to pay)
TouchPad driver (interfere with my tablet driver; the touchpad acted weird anyway before isntalling the tablet)
Many other garbage Toshiba utilities removed...



Conclusions

Good:

Big and powerful.
Very good gaming performance (for a laptop).
Good speakers.
Good battery file (for this power consumption).
It doesn't get too hot.

Bad:

Tons crappy software (bloatware) preinstalled.
Really bad drivers.
Poor sound card.
It came with Windows 64 bits. No software and drivers for Windows XP.
Poor customer support (no email support at all). No printed manual. No Windows CD (or at least recovery CD).
Gigantic power adapter.
Really heavy (well it is somehow expected to be that heavy).

Overall feeling (1-10 scale): 6



Full specifications

Display Type: Widescreen TruBrite TFT LCD display

Screen Size: 18.4"

Maximum Resolution: 1680 x 945

Memory Type: DDR3

Memory Size: 4GB

Memory Speed: DDR3 1066

Memory Slots (Total): 2

Maximum Memory Supported: 8GB

Capacity: 500 GB

HDD/SSD Drives Included: 1x 500GB

Hard Drive Speed: 7200 RPM

Processor Brand: Intel

Processor Class: Core i5

Processor Speed: 2.26GHz, Dual-Core, 430M

Processor Number: 430M

Operating Systems: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Expansion Ports: 1 - Express Card Slot/54 or 34

Graphics Description: Discrete Graphics

GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M

Video Memory: 1GB GDDR5 discrete plus up to 1274MB dynamically allocated

Optical Drive Type: SuperMulti DVD±RW Dual Layer Labelflash

Supplemental Drive Type: Media Reader

Capacity: Multi-In-1

Media Types: Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, SecureDigital High Capacity, MultiMedia cards

Audio Description: Integrated Audio

Audio Chipset: Dolby Home Theater

Audio Channels: Built-in harman/kardon® stereo speakers

Integrated Microphone: Yes

USB Ports (Total): 3

eSATA/USB 2.0 Combo: 1

FireWire Ports: 1

Audio Out Jacks: 1 - SPDIF, 1 Headphone out

Microphone Jacks: 1

VGA Ports: 1

HDMI Ports: 1- REGZA LINK (HDMI-CEC)

eSATA Ports: 1 eSATA/USB Combo


Network
========
LAN: Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit

Wireless: Realtek RTL 8191SE

Communications Description: Integrated LAN, Integrated Wireless LAN

Data Transfer Rate: Up to 300 Mbps, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN

Protocols: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n



Width: 17.4"

Height: 1.63"

Depth: 11.6"

Weight: 9.7 lbs

Mouse Type: TouchPad Pointing Device

Buttons: Volume Media Enable/Disable Mute Energy Saving Mode CD/DVD Control

Scrolling Capability: multi-touch control

Keyboard Type: Premium US Keyboard

Battery Type: 12-Cell Lithium-ion

Biometrics: Kensington Security Lock Slot

Color: Black/Red

Integrated Webcam: Yes

Software Included: N/A



____________________

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BioniX Wallpaper Changer

Delphi 2007 - (bad) Review

Delphi 2007 - Same old stuff under a new hat?

We all love Delphi. It is smart, easy to understand, really fast and user friendly.

But is the IDE the one that makes is so nice or the language?

Every time Borland released a new version forced as to go through a painful learning and re-adaptation process. But not because of the language but because of the buggy IDE.

You can't argue with me: there are HUGE lists of unresolved bugs for every possible version released.

It is the same for Delphi 2007? Let’s find out. I just installed Delphi 2007 on my computer. First time I was really glad to have it because people ware speaking nice about this new version.

After the first attempt to install it failed, I tried again and I somehow succeed.

Until now I can report more bad stuff that good ones. Anyway I am still happy that I can report also good stuff.

Compared with Delphi 2005, Delphi 2007 is a charm. Compared with Delphi 2006 it is a little bit better. Compared with Delphi 7 it is worst.

* I thought that Delphi 2007 is free of .Net. Well that was a lie. Delphi 2007 refuses to install without .Net 2.0 (and other craps like this).

* The first bug I saw few minutes after I open the IDE for the first time was the fast blinking icons in the tool bar. I had the same problem with Delphi 2005 and 2006.

* The next bug, this time a really big one was the help system which in 30% is working. Imagine yourself what is with the rest of 70%.

The help system is a disaster. It takes much more time to load than Delphi itself. If you ask help for an instruction/window on IDE it always answers: 'Error. No help found for 2029. OK | Details'.

When it does not display that stupid answer then it returns allot of garbage from MS .Net and MS API help. In most cases the right answer is not there.

For example after pressing F1 for while the cursor was on the reserved word 'Function', the help system returned (after 37 seconds!).

Conclusions?

* Sometimes the cursor has the same color as the IDE background. You can have big fun trying to figure out where is your cursor on the screen. The solution is to restart the IDE and pray to work. If not, restart again (and pray harder).

* Delphi 2007 takes a lot of time to load to memory (my system is AMD 64 x2 4.6GHz and 1GB DDR2 at 800MHz). The average amount of memory for small projects is 50-120MB. But sometimes if goes to 600-1000MB.

So you need at least 2GB or RAM to work with this version of Delphi.

* Other small problems can be observed in IDE. Many windows behave strange or you have no buttons to configure them. For example if you have error when you compile a program, the 'Messages' will pop-up at the bottom of the IDE. This is ok. Right? But after you fix the problem the window does not close itself as in Delphi 7. So every time you compile a program you need to go and manually close that window.

* The undo system is also a disaster. Sometimes is working, sometimes (most of the cases) is not. So if you made a mistake you can't undo it so you need to rewrite all that code.

I don't think that Delphi 2007 is better than Delphi 7. Actually it is a disaster. Not as big as Delphi 2005 but still a disaster. I hope that Borland (hic, CodeGear) will release a patch (or more) really soon, but until then Delphi 2007 can't be used.

I didn't post here every small bug I have found, but only the big ones. I will update this entry as I will find out more.

Now I am supposed to speak also about the good parts of Delphi 2007. Well until I will have the patch to be able to run Delphi 2007 form more than 1 hour, I will post also the nice parts of Delphi 2007, until then I will stick with Delphi 7 and with its already known bugs (and work around).

Please drop me a line if you know how to make the help system to work and how to remove the useless (MS API) results from a search.

Win7-Wrong folder permission

Under Win XP I never touched the permissions of a file/folder. I was happy with the way it worked. But recently, I have installed Windows 7 on a drive that previously hosted Windows XP (I installed Windows 7 on top of Win XP - XP is now gone). Now, some programs do not have 'read' and/or 'write' access to their own folders - and I am not talking about system folders like 'Program Files' but normal folders like 'C:\my data\my own folder\program folder'.
I see that for folders created under Win XP I have some user groups that do not exist for 'normal' folders (folders created by me recently under Windows 7).

For example, for the Win XP folder I have:
* Creator owner
* System
* Account unknown(S-1-5-21 blablabla...
* Admins
* Users

For Win7 folders I have:
* Authenticated users
* System
* Admins
* Users



Trying to delete the 'Account unknown' gives me:

Windows Security You can't remove Account Unknown(S-1-5-21-1220945662-706699826-839522115-1003) because this object is inheriting permissions from its parent. To remove Account Unknown(S-1-5-21-1220945662-706699826-839522115-1003), you must prevent this object from inheriting permissions. Turn off the option for inheriting permissions, and then try removing Account Unknown(S-1-5-21-1220945662-706699826-839522115-1003) again.

---

To solve this:

Add a "Authenticated users" group to those folders. You can watch other Win 7 folders to see how the permissions are set to "Authenticated users" group. To add this group, just press the 'Add...' button and in the last box (the largest one) write "Authenticated users" (without quotes) then press "Check names" button. If everything is OK, the "Authenticated users" text will get underlined. Press OK and wait for Windows to apply the permissions.
Now you will be able to access the XP folders like any other regular Win 7 folder.

Solution 2:
I have found that some junk is left behind if you are using the first solution. More exactly you will see an account called 'Unknown user' appended to all yuour old folders. The best solution is to rename the current folder for example from 'MyData' to 'Old', make a new folder using the original name ('MyData') and move all content from the old folder ('Old') to the new folder ('MyData'). The new MyData folder will have the correct permissions applied to it.



____________________

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BioniX Wallpaper Changer

Windows 7 - Review

I have installed Windows 7 some weeks ago on a separate disk but quickly abandoned it as it crashed on me with some very beautiful blue BSOD screens. As I got my last BSOD screen 3 years ago with Windows XP, I quickly returned to this lovely OS.

However, as my new laptop came with Windows 7 I have to stick with it so I had the change to work with Windows 7 for 4-5 days now.

My impression?

Installing Windows 7 on top of XP

The bad news is that you cannot install Windows 7 in top of Windows XP. However, I was really impressed to see that the guys from Microsoft decided to keep your old Windows XP files instead of deleting them during Win 7 installation. So, when the installation of Windows 7 is ready, you will find your old Windows (XP) in a folder in the root of your drive. You will find there also the "Documents and settings" and "Program files" folders. Great job Microsoft!

The installation of Windows 7 is way way way way way much easier that Windows XP. Basically you can put the original CD in, start the installation and leave for a coffee. Windows will install basically everything without asking you all those stupid questions about how to set the network or other stuff.

Visual

Windows 7 is definitively eye-candy, but the price you have to pay for this candyness is really high. I am a power user and I have many many windows open on screen. Switching between these windows is painfully slow and it is decreasing the productivity quite a bit.

Downgrades and other problems to expect

In Windows 7, Control + Alt + Del will not open the Task Manager. Instead you have to use Control + Shift + Esc. Not a big deal, but it will take a while until you will get used with it. You will definitively press Control+Alt+Del for a while until you will get used to use the other shortcut.

Some program such as "PowerMenu" will not work at all. Some other programs and old games (Stronghold Crusader Extreme) may encounter problems while accessing the disk because the new policy applied by Win 7 restricts access to some folders (for example Program File). Many of these problems can be "corrected" by running the program (if it is trusted) as administrator.

Some old hardware (my lovely A4Tech mouse) will not work as smooth as in Win XP because (of course) of drivers issues.

The Control Panel is a mess at a first glance. Everything is rearanged and over-simplified. However, there is a setting that allows you to switch the control panel to "classic" mode.
Anyway, some stuff are still difficult to use it, for example, you have to click a lot to change a simple setting such as "Hibernate after x hours".

Managing file association is the biggest mess. My (advanced) file manager has a nice and handy tool that lets you to change file type associations in just 3 seconds. However, Windows 7 does not like you to do this from any other point expect its own bulky and difficult to use interface.

New tools & other goodies

Under XP, Task Manager had less to offer so I had to use other (more advanced) tools to manage my system. I really enjoyed seeing that Task Manager is now a decent program. It now shows the full path of all running applications (oh yes!) and has a decent resource manager.

Windows Experience Index (keyboard shortcut Win + Break) is a nice tool to quickly compare the performance of two different computers (very useful when you are in a computer store to pick a laptop and you want to see/compare the performance of each one).

Windows will automatically search for drivers. Yes, Win XP could do that too, but in Windows 7 this feature really works!

Bad things to expect when upgrading from Windows XP

I never format my drives so when I upgraded, all my folders created under XP are still on the drive. The problem is that Windows 7 cannot access some folders because the permissions are a mess. So you might have to manually re-set the permissions for some folders. I will blog about this soon.

Overall performance 

Windows 7 is not much different than Windows XP as usability. 

Without running speed tests, and relying only on my 'feeling' I would say that Win 7 is a bit slower than Windows XP but not much and only in some areas. Probably if I will invest 600-700EU to upgrade my hardware it will work as nice as Windows XP. But remember: Win XP works already really nice already, without any additional investment). So if  you intend to purchase a license, be prepared to spend some extra money to upgrade your old video card and CPU, especially if you want that eye-candy Aero interface on.
Under Windows XP, while performing regular tasks (programming, music, browsing), the CPU utilization was 0%. In Win 7 the CPU is usually at 30% even more. So, 30% of your CPU will be wasted for doing nothing (well, not quite nothing, probably for displaying the eye-candy Windows interface). If you look in Task Manager, non application is taking CPU, so probably those 30% of CPU utilization goes to the kernel/GUI.

Under XP I used to defrag my disk while I was working. Under Windows 7, the computer cannot be used when you defrag your disk. Even if my disk has a nice Experience Rating of 7, while defragging, the whole computer runs like a slug.

Reliability

When speaking about reliability and stability, it seems Windows 7 needs several SP releases until it gets to the point where Windows XP is. Installed from the CD, it seems to be unstable. However, I let Windows 7 to upgrade itself and I got no additional blue screens until now. Let's hope it will stay this way.

Conclusion

Switching to a new OS without waiting for the service packs to be released may a hasty act. But it is also nice the breath of fresh air that Win 7 offers. Think only to those poor guys that upgrade to Vista in its early days. They were used a Guinea pigs.

I will recommend you NOT to switch YET to Windows 7 definitively, but to install it as secondary OS, especially if your hardware is more than 9 months old! Then migrate slowly your non-critical software (multimedia players and so) and leave the productivity tool on the XP machine. When you think Windows 7 is stable and fast enough (after you have upgraded your hardware) you can move to Win 7 definitively.

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My system:
AMD  64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ (index: 5.4)
4GB RAM DDR2 (index: 7)
GForce 7600GS (experience rating: 4)  :(
Seagate Barracuda (index: 5.9)