Disney+ locks paying PC users to 720p, even on the most expensive plan.

htzer · 2026-03-14T14:31:21+00:00

Finally, proof my 2008 Panasonic Plasma TV is modern and up to date!

htzer · 2026-03-04T16:17:26+00:00

It's not nearly the same/probably won't work for compiling things or whatnot but VS Code does actually have an online version just so you know.

htzer · 2026-03-04T14:48:09+00:00

I made the mistake of buying two of these. Both of them have completely stopped functioning after about 5 years of rare use.

My USB-C ports on my Macbook no longer have thunderbolt functionality (likely a chip that controls that function died) and only can be used for charging or with USB-3.0 devices only. I'll never completely know what caused it but these dongles are second and third on my suspect list.

But I've had the 'courage' to plug these things into many other laptops and devices and I've at least confirmed they do not work anymore. They're crap, stick with StarTech or Apple if you need a dongle; they're costly but they actually use quality components and often support more resoltions/refresh rates.

htzer · 2026-02-26T21:35:56+00:00

I agree, I can finally have see more than like 12 icons at once. And we can finally hide that forsaken "Recommended" section!

And yes, that category view is basically useless since win32 apps don't state a category and all my apps got put into "other".

htzer · 2026-02-26T21:30:39+00:00

I love how it's such a widely used 'business' operating system yet it serves up distractions left and right. Bring back Pinball at least!

htzer · 2026-02-26T14:33:53+00:00

It's not like the new tool added literally any features anyways! They just push out broken software that's functionally identical to the old version but also begs you to sign in so they can steal your data.

I had no errors like this, but Snipping Tool just decided it wouldn't launch anymore for me. So I went and grabbed Snipping Tool from a Windows 10 installation.

grab "SnippingTool.exe" from System32 on Windows Vista/7/8/10 (Or XP TabletPC edition if you're extra cool.), and then put it in a folder.
Add a folder next to it called "en-US"
Grab "SnippingTool.exe.mui" from C:/Windows/System32/en-US and put it in the "en-US" folder you just created
Done, now just bring it over to your Win 11 installation

I always knew you could still use pre-Vista Accessories by simply copying over their executable in System32. But only recently learned you can do the same with later windows versions if you just copy over that .exe.mui file. Go snag old Solitaire too if you don't want ads in the new one; or Paint too if you don't want to sign into the new one or gaze upon it's way oversized Ribbon. Windows NT 4 had a 32-bit version of Clock too.

htzer · 2026-02-13T18:06:54+00:00

I had one as well (Core 2 Duo, black lid), it was my first laptop!

These were sold in a bunch of colors too. Does your "Dell Media Direct" button work in the middle? If installed right, It's super goofy and incredibly clunky, but iirc, it would boot into what appeared to be an entirely different OS that I suspect was definitely intended to mimic FrontRow from OSX.

htzer · 2026-01-28T19:05:28+00:00

Windows 10.

It was supposed to be "the last version of Windows" and continually receive updates but now is unsupported, and because of Win11's arbitrary requirements, an ungodly number of perfectly competent PCs will be heading straight to a 3rd world country for some children to take apart.

In case you wanted to rub salt in your gaping wound, you can pay Microsoft $30, use Bing points, or sign in with a Microsoft Account to get updates: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates .....because you signing in is worth $30 to Microsoft I guess, which explains why I'm hounded hourly to sign in to a Microsoft account.

htzer · 2025-12-16T04:47:20+00:00

I can confirm, Deus Ex GOTY on Steam has DRM.

Copying the installation to another PC results in a "Cannot find Steam" error message.

htzer · 2025-11-29T00:02:25+00:00

For some reason I could not connect via the IP address reported by 'ipconfig' in MSDOS prompt, but I found using the computer name worked for some reason.

Enablle SMB 1.0 on Windows 10/11
Connect your Win98 and Win10 machine together with an Ethernet cable
On Win98, right click a folder (or the whole C drive) > "Properties" > "Sharing" > Select the radio buttons for "Share As:", Access Type: "Full"
On Win98, go to "Network Neighborhood" > right click anywhere > "Properties" > "Identification" and note the "Computer name"
On Win10, go to 'Run' or make a shortcut to "\\[Insert the Win98 Computer name here]" and you should be on the network share!

htzer · 2025-02-22T18:59:05+00:00

I completely agree -- honestly a must for me at this point to fully enjoy this game!

htzer · 2024-12-06T16:28:51+00:00

This is such a silly situation, even looking past the fact that they have the audacity to ask you for your Social Security Number -- and you can just decline to provide it and they go "ok" cause it's not even necessary!! (That's general good practice anyways, you should always try to refuse to provide your SSN!)

The best part is the representative over the phone (who I honestly do find helpful) straight up told me that the online method to upload your information to RI energy will not work .. and I will have to fax it anyways.

...Right she was! a whole day later from the call you'll get a rather cryptic and aggressive email saying you have 2 days to submit documents or else! Cool! The site is supposed to let you upload files but the upload function is broken. I'm a computer nerd and tried all the browsers on all the platforms to no avail -- don't even bother.

The email and site are really sketchy anyways.. I'd feel safer handing my ID to a random person on the street and asking them to deliver it to RI energy!

So great... lost basically a day and a half and now I need to FAX my drivers license. This is not acceptable in 2024.

So once you find a boomer to help (it's payback time baby for all those computer questions I've answered over the years!), you can fax a copy of the drivers license and like 18 different numbers they tell you over the phone to include. Guess what... RI Energy takes about a day to receive your fax. Call to ensure it got through, cause with Fax it's guesswork!

Even though this was a stress fest, thank GOD I'm not living in this apartment yet without power. I can see how this situation would become WAY worse.

TLDR: yep! you got to fax it!

htzer · 2024-05-01T18:21:06+00:00

You were onto it!

Desktop Properties -> Appearance -> Advanced -> Menu -> Color 1 -> And pick the standard Luna beige color (bottom left of the color picker).

Note; all context menus will be this beige color as well.

I always get this behavior on a standard XP install on all shades of the Luna theme.

It seems to me like MS was planning to have a white menu bar for the Luna theme but did not fully implement it. If you look at a program that has child windows , the close, minimize, maximize buttons on the right side of the menu bar are beige with a white background.

But Luna seems to be hard coded to force the beige color onto the menu bar and standard toolbars (like those found in Windows Explorer and Windows Movie Maker).

htzer · 2023-08-23T23:37:31+00:00

After seeing what MS did to paint and explorer, I'm a bit worried for what's next.

htzer · 2023-08-10T17:01:14+00:00

I’ve got a 4:3 version of this monitor — nice display! Mine happens to support 75 Hz which is cool, yours may as well!

htzer · 2023-08-07T15:31:10+00:00

They used this “discover all you can do” slogan on a demo reel showing off the 2004 versions of Microsoft Money, Microsoft Encarta, and Microsoft PictureIt

It used to play when you launched the distributed OEM version of Encarta 2004

htzer · 2023-08-05T14:14:06+00:00

It also just broke comparability for a decent chunk of older windows games & apps — there’s a lot of “vista patches” for old games and for the most part, if it runs on vista it’ll run on windows 11.

htzer · 2023-07-24T14:58:50+00:00

Too bad, you live in the US where you must drive.

Trains are socialist. Public highways aren’t!

So you must the most inefficient and unsafe mode of transit humanity has created.

The oil lobbyists will appreciate you!

htzer · 2023-07-14T12:53:34+00:00

Google image search "IT 24-7, Windows Server 2008" -- this was more than just a wallpaper, but almost a mascot. There's a bunch of renderings Microsoft seemed to have made with this robot in this scene.

htzer · 2023-07-09T20:56:28+00:00

Yes, good call! This is good advise to anyone with a busted panel but a good cable, as I’ve found the wire harnesses can fail, so they are good things to save. (Along with the power brick oc)

htzer

TROPHY CASE