How to get the look of Vista without giving up XP

Although you don't get the "under the hood" changes to Windows (such as the new Explorer), it does make XP look and feel more like Vista - including adding the Sidebar.

pack changes most of the system icons, skins and toolbars and also adds new enhancements to your desktop such as a dock bar or a different system tray clock. In this release, you´ll get bunches of stuff you´ve never seen before in this pack such as Windows Media Player skins, WindowBlinds skin, new stuffs, etc.

Click on link to freewarefikles download page: Vista Transformation Pack 5.5 - Freeware Files.com - Desktop Category

Astronomy - Xena becomes Eris

On 7th September

Xena is Eris
Gabrielle is Dysnomia

Astronomy - Dwarf planets get names and numbers - Francis Reddy

I liked the unofficial names better

How to change the location of the print spool folder

XP uses the spool folder on your hard disk to store queued print jobs. Without it, you'd have to wait until printing was finished to use other programs on your system. The spool folder is located on the partition where your Windows system files are installed, but if this partition gets low on free space, you can move it to a different location. This can also speed up performance. Here's how:

1. First, be sure you're logged on with an administrative account.
   
2. Click Start | My Computer.
   
3. Select the drive where you want to store the spool folder.
   
4. Click Make a New Folder under File and Folder Tasks in the left pane.
   
5. Type a name for the folder.
   
6. Click Start | Printers and Faxes.
   
7. Click File | Server Properties, then click the Advanced tab.
   
8. In the Spool Folder field, enter the path to the new folder you created in step 4.
   
9. Click Apply.
   
10. After any documents currently printing have finished, click Yes.
    
11. Click OK.
    

Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet)

I'll never remember where this is so I thought I'd BLOG it. Wonderful Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet) I knew some of it I learned some new stuff.

One Pill, Two Pill, Red Pill, Blue Pill

I'ts been a long time since I rock and rolled but some things are interesting (or in this case scary) enough to warrant a blog post. Although the cute names are stolen from the Matrix, this SVM based "ultra-thin hypervisor that takes complete control of the underlying operating system"

"The idea behind Blue Pill is simple: your operating system swallows the Blue Pill and it awakes inside the Matrix controlled by the ultra thin Blue Pill hypervisor. This all happens on-the-fly (i.e. without restarting the system) and there is no performance penalty and all the devices..."

'Blue Pill' Prototype Creates 100% Undetectable Malware

How to reinstall Windows XP without reactivating

How to reinstall Windows without reactivating

Need to format your hard drive and reinstall XP, and don't want to have to go through the product activation process again? You can save the activation status info and then restore it after you reinstall the operating system, as long as you haven't made any changes to the hardware. Here's how:
Before reformatting, in My Computer, double click the drive letter on which you installed XP, and navigate to WINDOWS\System32.
Click "Show the contents of this folder" if necessary.
Copy the following files to a floppy, USB drive, CD/DVD or network location: wpa.dbl and wpa.bak.
After reformatting and reinstalling XP, select NO when asked if you want to activate Windows now.
Restart in Safe Mode.
In My Computer, open the WINDOWS\System32 folder and rename the existing wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files (if you have them).
Now copy your old wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files to the System32 folder.
Restart and you should not be requested to activate again. This only works when you reinstall Windows on the same computer and the hardware remains the same.

Why HD DVD is gonna beat Blu-Ray

OK, so this article is from Microsoft's XBOX 360 site but the argument on the second page if the Xbox.com | E3 2006 - HD DVD Explained article is quite compelling: the quality is the same, the cost is lower and there is an nice and easy upgrade path that support legacy DVD and TV systems. Why would anyone want to go with Blu-Ray?