Category: Windows

[Win8.1] ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 on Windows 8.1 / 64 bit

As I wanted to use an older Notebook with ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 Graphics Chip, I needed to get an recent driver.
Sadly, ATI/AMD does not provide drivers for Win 8.1 / 64 Bit for this old chips.
However, with Digitalflem you can create your own "old/new" Driver:

1.) Download the ATI Catalyst 10.2 Windows 7 | Vista (64-bit) legacy driver, start the installation and abort it - so you got the files unzipped
( i.e. from http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATI-Catalyst-10.2-Windows-7-%7C-Vista-%2864-bit%29-download-2478.html )

2.) Download the latest ATI Catalyst Driver for Windows 8.1 (64-bit), start the installation and abort it - so you got the files unzipped
( i.e. from http://support.amd.com/de-de/download/desktop?os=Windows+8.1+-+64 )

3.) Download and install Digitalflem 2.0 from: http://digitalflem.mydiscussion.net/download

4.) Start Digitalflem 2.0 and follow the Guide: http://digitalflem.mydiscussion.net/guide

[Win7+] Software Accesspoint

Sometimes you just need to give wireless access to one of your little toys (i.e. Tablets, Smartphones, Raspberry Pis with Wifi - you name it) - but you got no wifi accesspoint with you. Starting with Windows 7, this ain't a problem anymore. You can setup an software ap in just a minute:

Enter following code into your command line interface to start an software accesspoint with the SSID WiBridge and the password mh28-dyi9-txwt:


netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="WiBridge" key="mh28-dyi9-txwt" keyUsage=persistent
netsh wlan start hostednetwork

You can check upon your ap via:


netsh wlan show hostednetwork

And you can stop it with:


netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

[Win8.1] EEE PC 1015PN and Windows 8.1

Very funny coincidence: Exactly one year after my devastating test of Windows 8 on the EEE PC 1015PN ( here) I tried Windows 8 again - 8.1 to be frankly.

After booting from the DVD, I entered my Key and choose to keep my data and such - an Upgrade Installation. Sadly, installer told me that I needed to choose that after booting into Windows 7 and starting the installation process there. Well, I did. But I only could choose to keep my data - not my programs(!). Sad, but - well. So - if you want to install and keep your stuff: Try to install Windows 8 first and then upgrade to Windows 8.1! I made an backup (just in any case - last time showed me the importance again...) and started with the installation. I took quite a while, but in the end it succeded. This time (and maybe because I changed my Wifi/Bluetooth Card from Azure for an Intel ABGN/WiMax Card?!) - I got none problems with Wifi. Working excellent from the first moment on.

I even got Optimus working by following my own tutorial here, by using the mentioned Versions.

Concerning other drivers and tools: I installed successfully the Optimus Tool, Capshook Driver - all by using the Windows 7 Compability Mode. ( I needed to use that as well on the Optimus Driver installation!)
Regarding - especially - the AHCI Drivers (Hotkey Service) and the SuperHybridEngine Tool - well: First of them gives REAL problems. It won't work and always remind to install an working AHCI Driver. Luckily, some guys found out an way to change that: Just install these tools from an newer ASUS EEE PC - the Asus 1225B. And that does work! Link: Source, Drivers - Good thing: Without the blocking AHCI Drivers Optimus does work correctly. But fixing ACPI is not enough. You need to setup the right Touchpad Driver!

About the Touchpad? Well - you need another Hack for Windows 8: Go with these. I chose the Elantech Touchpad driver Version v.10.6.6.0.

What I really changed? Well I did some normal stuff like disabeling the User Rights Control Thingy - as well as I changed the Resolution of the Display with this little hack. That got the Metro Apps working and my display from 1024x600 to 1152x864. Ok, it is not very crispy - but really gives more usability. ( Just watch for the "Display1_DownScalingSupported" setting in the registry and enable it )

To get back your classic Start Menu Button - use: http://www.classicshell.net/

Ok, that was a lot of stuff and I am curious to see how Windows 8.1 will perform in "real life". Well, I am off to installing some more tools and such.

[Win7] Upgrade Error in Android SDK for Windows

Recently I got an error on trying to upgrade my Android SDK, claming that I would not be able to access an URL. I was looking around the Internet and got the information that I should first upgrade the Eclipse Plugin. OK!

Upgrading AVT:
1. In Eclipse go to Help
2. Install New Software ---> Add
3. inside Add Repository write the Name: ADT and Location: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
4. after loading you should get Developer Tools and NDK Plugins
5. check both if you want to use the Native Developer Kit (NDK) in the future or check Developer Tool only
6. click Next
7. Finish and Restart Eclipse

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14869929/update-android-sdk-tool-to-22-0-4latest-version-from-22-0-1

Ok, that got my Plugin to the latest version. But I still could not upgrade to the latest SDK. And thats when I found out that you need to start the SDK Manager as Administrator (right click, run as Administator) - and voilá: Upgrade successfully.

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4771895/android-sdk-manager-not-installing-components

[Win7] Asus EEEPC 1015PN: Getting Optimus working (again) on Windows 7 Pro

Optimus is a really nice concept: Having installed an low-power Intel GMA3150 next to an "high-end" (compared to the Intel ;)) NVIDIA ION2 with 512 MB RAM (and CUDA!) is very nice - switching between both cards on the fly depending on the application - awesome. But getting it to work can be quite painful. I had to reinstall the drivers on my EEE PC and got it wrong. And now that it is working, I just want to write it down. Just in case, you never know ;)!

1.) Get Windows 7 Pro or better installed
2.) Get all the Updates on your system
3.) Install and start the GraphicsSwitch for Windows 7 from Asus for your EEEPC 1015PN
4.) Choose Optimus Mode and reboot your system.
5.) Install the Intel Driver. Latest and working version is the GMA3150 15.12.75.50.7.2230
You can download that here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19494&lang=eng&wapkw=gma+3150 After that, reboot!
6.) Install the Nvidia Driver. Latest and working version (for me) is the Verde 301.42 driver. You get that here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/44972/en-us - Could be that a newer version does work to, but thats what I came up with after trying a lot of different versions. After installing, reboot.
7.) You should be done. Right-click on your Desktop, choose NVIDIA Systemsettings. In these settings you can enable two cool options from the "Desktop" menu:
a.) "Start with graphics processor to context menu" - with right click on an Application you can choose to start that program with your highend gpu
b.) "Show Actitivy Symbol in Infobar" - that does show you whenever the GPU is working on something. And if that symbol does not show up some boots later - well, that mostly says that some update broke your Optimus Setup.

But by now, I think you know how to get that up and running again! 🙂

[Win] Update DeltaCopy

In terms of backups, I still love Rsync / DeltaCopy. Rsync is an awesome protocol, as it does only transmit data changes. So it is extremly useful if you are running on an slow dataconnection and try to backup big data chunks or files you are working on. It does save time as well.

The problem: DeltaCopy (which was developed by Synametrics) is not supported anymore and has been replaced by their (non free) tool Syncrify. (And no, the free Personal Edition does not count as a useable alternative!). Problem with DeltaCopy would be the really old Version of the used rsync Part. But don't worry, it is really easy to update that one (and that will resolve many problems including the ones experienced with special character filenames etc).

Martin Edenhauser has got one of the latest versions of rsync for windows as download on his blog: http://it-em.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=54cms/front_content.php - just go there, grab the 3.0.9 (or other latest version) and unzip it into your C:\Program Files\Synametrics\DeltaCopy folder, overwriting the old files. (And don't forget to do it on the Server Side as well, if you are using the DeltaCopy Server as well !)

Thanks Martin for your great work!

[Win7/8] Batch Print / Work with more than 15 Files

Windows 7 / 8 do limit the number of files you can "batch-work" with, after selecting them in Explorer and Right-Clicking for options.  The Standard Limit is set to 15 files. Selecting more than 15 files will remove options like "Print" from the context menu. To work with more than 15 files in batch mode, open your registry ( Run, "regedit" ) and go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer 

Create an new DWORD key with the Name MultipleInvokePromptMinimum and the Decimal Value of the Maximum Files you want to batch work with. I.e. 1000 (which could be too much or not enough - depending on your work and machine!)

And thats it. If you want to reset that option, just delete the created DWORD key again.