John Topley's Weblog

Windows Category Article Archive

If you've missed an article then follow the links below to view the articles within the category.

Saturday, 22 January 2005

109 Steps To Windows' Nirvana

I treated my computer to two upgrades for Christmas, neither of which has exactly worked out how I'd hoped. What follows is an abridged account of nearly three weeks of personal computing misery. It all begins with those upgrades…

Saturday, 06 November 2004

Unfinished eXPerience Reloaded

This is the third in a series of two articles in which I deconstruct the Windows XP user interface and show some areas in which it's lacking or is just plain unfinished.

Saturday, 10 July 2004

Reality Metaphor

I've just had a strange thought. Imagine what it would be like if you took the desktop metaphor popularised by MacOS and Windows and turned it inside out and applied it back to real life.

Saturday, 07 February 2004

Microsoft Installer And RunAs

I recently installed the ActivePython IDE from ActiveState. Yes, I'm playing with Python but more on that in a future blog entry. Being a good Windows citizen, the installer for ActivePython is a Microsoft Installer (*.msi) file.

Sunday, 18 January 2004

Event Log Paranoia

As a user of the Windows NT flavour of Windows since 1996, one of the things that I've got into the regular habit of doing is checking the event logs for anything untoward.

Monday, 24 November 2003

Unfinished eXPerience Redux

Windows superstar Raymond Chen has provided explanations for a couple of the Windows XP user interface oddities that I wrote about previously.

Thursday, 30 October 2003

Unfinished eXPerience

When Microsoft launched Windows XP in late 2001, they made a big deal about the changes to the user interface, which were the biggest revamp since Windows 95. I found it surprising, coming barely a year after the mature and evolved Windows 2000 interface.

Friday, 19 September 2003

Windows Into The Past

I have a slightly seedy secret. That's not easy to say or admit to. The secret is this: I'm fascinated by the development and history of Microsoft Windows. There. It's out in the open, a secret no more.

Friday, 15 August 2003

Not Having A Blast

The MSBlast virus has been in the news this week as Windows users across the world have been heard cursing Microsoft. So who's to blame?

Thursday, 12 June 2003

Broken Windows

I don't know about you but I'm getting fed up with patching Windows XP. I usually visit Windows Update once a week to see what's new, and barely a week seems to go by without there being a new fix or update to download.