8.1 just for fun

[TechnoMage]

Why? It works just fine for me!

Deathstar vs Spinrite!
Well, Spinrite refused to even run on that nasty little drive. But, back in it's day, the Deskstar was a pretty desirable drive. It was 500GB, SATA III.

However when I tried Spinrite on my working Windows 7 drive and the working Windows 8.1 drive, it ran as I remembered it running years ago, the last time I used it.

But on a 1TB HD, run time is in excess of one day. Spinrite was written for much smaller HD's.
Sorry Steve!

 

[endeavor]

No need to be sorry since that that Spinrite version is 15 yrs old and was not expected to..
Anyway if you are so inclined you can head over to the grc.spinrite.dev forum, or his Spinrite GitLab development forum here:
https: //dev.grc.com/users to catch up on it all. I really don't follow it daily closely though, I just know that I and all licensed owners of the last version of Spinrite will be eligible for a free upgrade to the intermediate latest updated version of Spinrite, so that's a nobrainer, but for the final totally revamped release after that, there will be an modest adjusted charge

 

[TechnoMage]

I'm not in the habit of even trying to go to URL's that I find in text, in a post, on a forum.
Not even a hot link.....Arggg!
But I guess I'm failing in my old age, because I tried that one, but IE errored out.
Even when I tried taking out the space after the colon, still NO GO.

It's all kind of academic, because I'm really not in the market for any more software.
Over my 40+ years of doing computer repair, I've spent way more money on Technical Software than I even care to remember. No mas, Amigo!
I think the last one I bought, was a professional "Password Removal Tool". I've only needed it twice, so it didn't really pay for itself.

 

[endeavor]

Right, I've also previously noticed many technical websites do not support IE anymore at all. Support for IE sadly is/has ending. Because of that myself now use Firefox and/or a Chrome derivative, depending. My IE is not set default anymore either, but just trying that link right now you're right, opening Sign in in IE will not work, but yes of course it works in all other modern browsers - However to note of course you need to have an account there to sign-in or you will just land at the sign-in page, which is mostly for devs anyway. That's why I also put the other newsgroup link in there for those that specifically use news readers to follow any of the many forums on grc. I use my newsreader (WinMail) ..but surly other folks may use the clunky online version @ GRC | Discussions Online

I put spaces in my links before Because I personally don't like how they get assimilated into as you see above, their header link, whereas like you I prefer to actually see the real link naming before I click on it. ymmv

It's okay, no worries about all this at all, I was just talking outloud about things when I saw your nostalgic reminiscent post here.

 

[spapakons]

Well, as I have said on many occasions here and on Tenforums, if you cannot find native (Windows 8.1 32-bit) drivers try older (Windows 7 or even Vista 32-bit). Your AMD 64 can run Windows XP x64, Vista and 7 64-bit but lacks the required instructions to run Windows 8 or 10 or 11 64-bit. You either install Windows 7 64-bit or 10 32-bit. I suggest to stick with 8.1 32-bit or upgrade to 10 32-bit since probably you'll have hard time finding 64-bit drivers.

PS: IE 11 is not entirely dead yet. You can press F12 to open Developer tools, then change the User Agent to bypass compatibility checks and open some "incompatible" sites. For example, change the Agent to "ipad" to open Netflix (you must have Microsoft Silverlight installed to play videos). Change the Agent to "Firefox" to play YouTube videos (some may fail to play due to unsupported format, but most play OK).

 

[TechnoMage]

My personal Computer Guru was visiting me one day, when I was having a problem viewing a video that I made with my own video camera. As usual I wanted to use the Media Player, but it said it could not play the video.
My friend suggested that I download and install the "K-Lite Codec pack".

Codec Guide: K-Lite Codec Pack - For Windows 11 / 10 / 8.1 / 7

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a free software bundle for high quality playback of all your music and video files. It is easy to use, but also very flexible with many options. Enjoy problem free playback of MKV, MP4, AVI, FLV, and all other multimedia file formats.

www.codecguide.com

I downloaded the Codec pack and installed it (it's free) and I've never had any problem playing any Audio or Video file since then. There are different levels of the Codec Pack and I usually try for the Mega pack.

Just a suggestion. I hope someone will find it useful.

TM

 

[spapakons]

I know many would also suggest VLC that plays almost everything, but there is a catch... VLC plays videos and music using its own built-in codecs, not any system-wide codecs. This means that you cannot use any other application to play or edit video with VLC installed. In contrary, when you install K-Lite codec pack these are system-wide codecs, so you can use them in all video applications either for playback or editing. That's why I don't like VLC and prefer K-Lite codecs instead. The fact that VLC originated from Linux which I hate gives me another reason to avoid it. I prefer Windows solutions, not Linux.

 

[TechnoMage]

I'm more or less familiar with VLC. But I don't and won't use it.
When I'm setting up a new PC (past tense) I always set it up to use the Windows Media Player, and I install the K-Lite Codec Pack. Then I can go into the Audio Equalizer and set it up for best music quality.
It's amazing the music that can come out of cheap little PC speakers, when the Equalizer is properly set.
I always want good sound, whether I'm listening to the 'Tocatta & Fugue in D minor' or a movie on CD.
I'm sure someone knows what I'm talking about. Eh?

 

[TechnoMage]

Just for fun:
I've noticed, that when I install Windows 8.1 on an older system, the installer will try to provide drivers for all the hardware...... Video, LAN, and Sound. But sometimes on the first pass, it can't find all the drivers.
However, several days later, after several reboots, all of a sudden it will find the correct driver and install it.

That just happened to me, when I installed Windows 8.1/Pro/x86 on an old eMachine. The sound has never worked on that old PC, so I've always had to use some add-on sound device. And, the 8.1 installer could not find the sound drivers for the on-board sound chip, during the initial install.
After many re-boots of that old PC, I noticed a message in the system tray, that Windows was installing sound drivers. What?!!! I plugged my speakers into the sound port on the motherboard and VOILA, I had sound.
I've never understood why, but what Windows 8.1 may not do today, it will do sometime later.
Techno Magic!

Just one more reason, why I love Windows 8.1 so much.

Cheers Mates!
TM

 

[spapakons]

If you are listening to MIDI music files, you can use a good quality soundfont (sf2) file and be very realistic. In VLC you select the soundfont in the MIDI plugin (don't remember how it's called). For other media players you can use Coolsoft virtual MIDI synth and load the soundfont there. VirtualMIDISynth | CoolSoft You can also use Coolsoft MIDI mapper to easily change the default MIDI output device to Coolsoft virtual MIDI synth.

 

[TechnoMage]

Meaning no disrespect, but......that's all Greek to me!

 

[spapakons]

Before the MP3 audio files the computers of the era did not have the processing power and adequate storage capacity to store recorded music in good quality. So the only alternative was to store the music score and instruments details to reproduce this music as good as possible. Think of an advanced synthesizer. MIDI files contains data about which instruments to use and which notes to play. This in practice means that the quality of the music is not the same, but depends on the quality of the soundcard. How faithfully it reproduces each instrument sound. Soundfonts are instruments recordings containing all notes an instrument can play. So the soundcard simply reproduces these recordings at the appropriate duration according to the MIDI file. This method is called wavetable synthesis and produces the best quality if also the quality of the soundfont is very good. Coolsoft software allows any soundcard (not only Creative's) to use soundfonts for better MIDI playback. I hope that now you understand.

 

[TechnoMage]

I must admit, that audio is not my forte'. I'm more into nuts and bolts, or Amps and Volts, ones and zeros. lol
The deepest I ever got into music, was doing an overhaul on a very old Hinners Tracker Pipe Organ, back in 1967.
At this point in my 79 years, I'm happy to just be able to listen to some really good music.
The music piece, "Synth Sample" constructed in machine language on a Commodore 64 computer has got to be one of my favorites. One small miracle was that I actually understood how that was done.
Today, I enjoy putting music, in .mp3 format, on a Flash Drive and then play it in my car. My car actually has a pretty good sound system, if properly adjusted.
Bach's Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor is one of my favorites.
Happy Memorial Day,
TM

 

[spapakons]

I remember in the 90's programming my 8088 PC in GW-Basic note by note to hear a crude square wave version of music. Some fast scores that I could not play properly on my piano, I programmed my PC to hear them. One of these was Doors' Break on Through. To play syncs I divided the duration of the sync between 4-6 times and played each of the two notes in sequence for the duration. Real Mathematics! Today's Primary school kids only know how to click. They hardly have the experience to install their games.

 

[TechnoMage]

I remember in the 90's programming my 8088 PC in GW-Basic note by note to hear a crude square wave version of music. Some fast scores that I could not play properly on my piano, I programmed my PC to hear them. One of these was Doors' Break on Through. To play syncs I divided the duration of the sync between 4-6 times and played each of the two notes in sequence for the duration. Real Mathematics! Today's Primary school kids only know how to click. They hardly have the experience to install their games.

After the B'zillion hours I spent learning and programming in Commodore Basic, when I built my first IBM Compatible PC, I decided to NOT learn GW Basic. Instead I learned DOS and Batch language.
And I was still doing C-64 and C-1541 repairs. I didn't like the Kernel (OS) on the C64, so I got a eProm programmer, and I re-wrote the Kernel and got rid of most of the 'Safe Defaults' and all the Tape Commands, and greatly sped up that little computer. I burned my own eProms with my custom Kernel and sold those chips across the Mid-West at computer shows and Ham-Fests.

The little 8-bit C-64 was very limited in just what it could do, and the IBM compatibles (clones) were quickly taking over the personal computer field. So to keep up with the flow, I had to give up my C-64 and build myself an IBM XT Clone, and the rest is history.
When my friends saw what I had built and how it ran, they all wanted one, thus I was thrown into the Computer Business. That was almost 40 years ago. I'm still trying to get out of it! lol

 

[spapakons]

Even today it is amazing how you can speedup a computer just by stopping some useless applications loading at startup, defragmenting the disk and disabling some useless "protection shields" from the Antivirus. The real surprise comes if you replace the mechanical disk with an SSD.

 

[TechnoMage]

Absolutomundo Amigo!
People come to the forums all the time, complaining about slow performance.
They do the same thing on the car forums too. And the answer is usually so simple.

My favorite analogy is the 1/4 ton pickup truck with 2 tons of sand in the bed. Not conducive to high performance.
In the beginning, Windows big selling factor was its ability to "Multi Task" but that comes with a price.
Whether you have just one window open or 20, you still have just one cpu, and everything has to be processed by that one chip. Multi-core cpu's help, as well as Max RAM and a good SSD, but there is still that ONE cpu. That's the Choke Point on every PC. (unlike a mainframe computer that may have multiple CPU's.)
You can tweak and tune a PC till the cows come home, and if you still insist on overloading your CPU, you'll pay the price. Famous old saying: "There's no such thing as a free lunch". Or: "if you wanna play, you'll have to pay".

If I'm gonna download a movie, or new OS, I shut down everything on my PC that I can, and still keep Windows running. Only when my cpu is running with minimal load, do I start my download.
Works for me!

TM

 

[spapakons]

Another trick is to open Task Manager and set some applications at lower priority, so the CPU is much more responsive for anything else. I was editing two SD videos at the same time and also captured a new video with a mere Pentium 4 3GHz and 2GB RAM. I was setting the video editing applications to low priority so the capture would not drop frames.

 

[TechnoMage]

Fine, but you're talking about things that the average user would have no idea or concept of. Or, Above their pay grade!
I've spent years dealing with people who barely know how to turn on a PC, and then don't really know the proper way to shut it down.
So I try to reprogram the PC to run as efficiently as possible, and maybe even do some self-maintenance, and shut down with a handy "Shutdown" Icon on their desktop.
Most of what is being presented here, is WAY over the heads of the average user. Just fine for the Gurus, but..........
I might have been a Guru, of sorts, at one time, but at 79 I must admit, "I'm loosing it!"

Cheers Mate!
TM
PS: Remember the "Black Viper"? For each version of Windows, he would publish a list of all the "Services" in Windows, and which ones that could be set to OFF or just set to manual run. Microsoft installs a service for everything that anyone might possibly ever want to do, and way too many of those services are redundant to the home PC user.
Disabling the services that you'll never use, can greatly increase the performance of the PC. I put all that into a batch file that I run when I'm setting up a new install of Windows. It takes only a few seconds and really helps.

 

[TechnoMage]

Since the death of Vista, I've been running "Windows Mail" as my email handler. It was/is almost exactly like good ol' Outlook Express, which I used for years, prior to Vista. With a little hacking, it worked just fine in both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, but NOT in Win10.
I wonder how many other guys did that? Surely, I'm not the only guy who did that!

Now, today, Google has decided that Windows Mail does not conform to it's security spec's, and they are refusing to let me log in to GMail with it. Arggg!
So, fighting with Google is like dueling with GOD. Not good! And, I had to go shopping for a new Email handler.
Eureka! I found it! Mozilla/Thunderbird came to my rescue. And it's about as close to Windows Mail as any I've seen. And, it's FREE!

Like so many things you can download from the web, it comes with NO instructions. But with 40+ years of computer experience behind me, I'm figuring out how to tweak and tune Thunderbird to handle my GMail, and come as close to working like Windows Mail as possible. It's like breaking in a new pair of shoes....it can be a little painful till the break-in process is done. But Google accepts it, so that was the biggest hurdle.

Cheers Mates!

TM