Microsoft finally released a fix for an issue that has been bugging me.

When you click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area on a Windows Vista based computer, and then you click Safely remove Device_name, the device may not be removed as expected. Additionally, you do not receive a message that verifies whether the device was safely removed.

Note This problem occurs only when you left-click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area and then click Safely remove Device_name.

This problem occurs because of a timing issue in which allocated memory may be released while the system is removing the selected device. When this behavior occurs, the system can no longer find the information about the selected device. Therefore, the device is not removed.

Get hotfix through email Say you live in US!

I don’t know if it is a bug in IE, or if my Nephews are playing a game with me. Suddenly over the weekend I started to get prompted for the parental controls password

Hmm. I do not know the password…since I never set one. If I try to turn it off or modify it by going into Internet Explorer settings…

Quick search of the net and I discover that you can simply browse to this key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

See the key that says Ratings?

When I deleted it I was able to get back into IE again.

Now I can browse to any site I want, without being asked for a password.

Update: Just got a note from a reader:

Steve,
Um…you just told my kids how to get around the parental controls. Thanks!

David

David - Actually not. If you only allow your kids to have a non administrator account they cannot access the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key in the registry.

A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing. They accumulate and save files that are most often requested by thousands of Internet users in a special database, called “cache”. Therefore, proxy servers are able to increase the speed of your connection to the Internet. The cache of a proxy server may already contain information you need by the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy to deliver it immediately. The overall increase in performance may be very high. Also, proxy servers can help in cases when some owners of the Internet resources impose some restrictions on users from certain countries or geographical regions. In addition to that, among proxy servers there are so called anonymous proxy servers that hide your IP address thereby saving you from vulnerabilities concerned with it.

Anonymous Proxy Servers

Anonymous proxy servers hide your IP address and thereby prevent unauthorized access to your computer

…

And I’m pleased with it.

Performance:

The overall Windows Experience Index is 5.4, which I believe is pretty good. The limiting subscore (5.4) is the disks, actually, and they are very high-speed SATA II 7200-RPM drives, though you can get 10,000 RPM drives which should be faster yet. The highest subscore is the Windows Aero graphics, 5.9. Everything else falls between, so the system is reasonably well balanced.

Quietness:

When there is nothing else going on in the room, TV and the old computer turned off, sitting at my desk, I can hear a faint, low-pitched roar similar to the sound you hear by holding a large seashell up to your ear, but certainly not that loud. It has a resonance to it, despite my efforts to dampen sounds inside the box. I think that the rear fan is the origin of most of the noise. It’s not objectionable, because it’s faint, but I will probably try to do more to limit the sound, such as:
Click to continue reading "The Computer Is Built!"

Written by Don on November 4th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on quiet and otherSoftware and hard drive and raid and vista.