Thumbs.db in Windows 7
Until today, I thought Windows 7 does not create thumbs.db files. But I was wrong.
I was using a Windows 7 Professional Edition machine to browse a network share on a Windows XP Home Edition netbook. The share contained two JPEG image files which I had put there. Seconds after browsing the network share, a thumbs.db file appeared beside the two image file.
I knew that Windows XP machine could have not created the file, since I had disabled thumbnail caching on that machine. To be certain, I checked the file’s creation time and run cacls.exe to dump the NTFS permissions of the file. As I expected, the file creation time was almost the same as that of my browsing the network share and the Guest account has full access permission. (In Windows XP Home Edition, any file created on a network share by a user on a remote computer is owned by Guest account. That is not always the case with Windows XP Professional Edition.)
Microsoft has confirmed this behavior and explained how to disable it. Please see: Renaming a network folder in Windows 7 Explorer fails with “the action can’t be completed…” (21 November 2011)
PNGGauntlet: Pictures shall be compressed!
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a popular image format. It features lossless compression, meaning that images stored in this format take less space than an uncompressed image without losing quality. (On a side note however, I doubt you have seen an uncompressed image recently. Most popular image formats today compress images. It is a fact however, that not all PNG supporting software can create PNG files of optimum size.
PNGGauntlet, by Benjamin Hollis, is a Windows freeware app that can compose PNG files with more effective compression algorithms to achieve smaller sizes. The optimization process is time consuming but the resulting PNG files are usually smaller. I have sometimes achieved 50% smaller files. The app itself uses three other third-party components that work in the background but do not have a user interface of their own, namely DeflPNG, OptiPNG and PNGOUT. PNGGauntlet compares the compression result of the three and keeps the most compressed version.
Optimized PNG files may lose their original time stamp or their metadata, but the app features options to prevent such loses. These options are not enabled by default.
Smaller PNG files are easier and more cost-effective to transfer over the Internet, especially when one of the consumers is a mobile device connected over a metered Internet connection and has to pay for its Internet traffic.
Exit Windows using keyboard
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You can shut down, restart or log out of Windows with just a standard keyboard; this method works on all popular versions of Windows for PCs, i.e. Windows XP, Windows 7 and the upcoming Windows 8. Although I have not tested, but I believe this method should work in Windows Vista and all members of Windows Server family of operating systems. Read more…Ancient inscription on installing Windows discovered!
Today, I found a precious old instruction list detailing how to reinstall Windows and its software on a machine; so, I decided to publish the list here. Read more…
Windows 8 Beta – First impression
Finally, I managed to download a copy of Windows 8 Consumer Preview and try it out. Not an easy feat for one who is constantly roaming and is away from home. I am afraid it did not leave a good impression on me. Here is why.
Windows 8 Basic theme
Windows 7 Basic theme
My Documents?! I am framed!
Seasoned Windows users know that the Documents folder (formerly My Documents folder) is a folder where unscrupulous applications create cryptic folders and store cryptic files with the sole intent of making it unusutable for actual user documents. “My Digital Junkyard” is now a more becoming name. Unfortunately, it is impossible to…
The ever-changing world…
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Computer icons of software – from left to right: IcoFX, Window Clippings, WinSnap, .NET Reflector, Paint.net and MediaCoder |
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IcoFX, Window Clippings, WinSnap and .NET Reflector are commercial computer programs that has once been freeware. I still keep their old freeware versions and I plan to keep them perpetually.
Paint.net has also once been free and open-source but is now just freeware. Oh, and let us not forget MediaCoder which was once free and open-source but is now an advertisements-supported trialware – virtually, free to look but not free to touch.
A side note: Adobe has started charging licensing fees for using “premium” features of Adobe Flash platform in their software.
No, I am not complaining; just reporting the history.
MySpace Music Has Questionable Ethics?
Sometimes you have a conversation via e-mail that’s so bad it just warrants publication. As the author of Paint.NET I get a lot of e-mails. Sometimes they’re simple questions about Paint.NET and I reply to them. Sometimes I don’t, depending on how much time I have or if I’m in a bad mood (I try not to reply before I’ve had my morning coffee, I learned that a long time ago!).
Flash Player 64-bit installer defeats its purpose
Adobe Systems has recently released a 64-bit version of Adobe Flash Player for x64 processors.(There is still no 64-bit version for IA-64 platform. No surprise there.)
The 64-bit installer installs both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Adobe Flash on x64 versions of Windows. (It should. After all, 32-bit software are also supposed to work on x64 systems.)
However, there is a catch: The 64-bit installer is a 64-bit app itself, meaning that it won’t run on 32-bit version of Windows. I still have to download both 32-bit and 64-bit installer packages since I administer computers that have 32-bit Intel Atom processors. So, here is a question for Adobe: If a system administrator has to download both installers, why needlessly increasing the size of 64-bit packages?
Tips for programmers and software optimizers: If you develop an installer that has supports for multiple platforms, make sure it can actually be installed on multiple platforms.
