Full version of Skype

For quite a while Skype has been shipping with a small-size Web installer. Since it is a programme which relies on the Net to do its job, I can understand the concept of these installers.
The problem is that I tend to burn all necessary applications on a CD and use it to equip a newly installed Windows with all the stuff needed for everyday use. This way I save myself from waiting a dozen of applications to be downloaded before the system is usable. That's why I needed the full version of Skype downloaded once and for all.
And here it is - the full-installer version of Skype (always the most recent one):

www.skype.com/go/getskype-full

It's about 21 MB and is downloaded from the Skype servers. I hope the link would help you and will save you from downloading questionable Skype installations from 3rd party installers.

Remove IE8 'Install Windows Search' Teaser

Just today I installed the all new Windows Internet Explorer 8 final version. I've been using it since the early betas at work and had no problems with it (except some beta-period error messages). I can say that I got used to surfing with IE8.

But at home things went the annoying way. IE8 installed just fine. I set it up and started using it. But - to my surprise - every time I started entering any URL in the address bar, I got a teaser line:

Download Windows Search to improve history and favorites results

advertising Windows Search on the top of the URL dropdown list.

Turned out that IE8 will show the line whenever Windows Search 4 is not installed on the system. Should I mention how MAD and IRRITATED I got!!! My home computer is a 3-years old Celeron 2.4 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM machine and I had no intention to slow it further down by burdening it with some 'witty' indexing searching engine.

So, with just a few clicks (using Google - sorry, Microsoft and Windows Live), I managed to find the solution:

1. Open Start Menu-> Run


2. Paste the following line:
   
   
   REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search" /v CurrentVersion /t REG_SZ /d 99 /f
   
   
   and hit OK (or Enter)


3. Restart IE8 and voilà - the advertisement is gone

Many, many thanks to steppres for this solution!

Of course Microsoft had cleverly foreseen that quite a lot of users will start searching for a "solution" of the problem and had conveniently proposed such "solution" suggesting the user to... install Windows Search 4.0. OK, I do use Search 4.0 at work and on my laptop, but these are capable machines. I would recommend Search 4.0 to anyone who's got processor with 2 cores or more - it really finds things fast, though it lacks some guru search techniques (search by date, size, etc.) - these are well hidden and almost undiscoverable. So, if you need simply to search by file name and content - get Windows Search 4.0 anyway.

Resistive vs Capacitive

Now, when Nokia N97 was finally oficially announced and the Net was filled with arguments whether it is or it is not the iPhone killer, most people cling to the touchscreen type and point out that, see, N97 is with resistive touchscreen while iPhone is with capacitive. This leaves the impression that resistive is something bad. Well, guess what – it is not. Here’s the theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen#Technologies

And what’s the conclusion? That while capacitive screen has generally better performance in terms of contrast and picture clarity, the resistive screen will simply work. This can be summarised in one word - stylus.

By the way, I do not believe that Nokia N97 will manage to outgrow iPhone in terms of sales. At least not in US. People there are so overwhelmed and used to the Apple’s products that Nokia needs to literally struggle. What’s more, the market there is under the reign of operators, thus lacking truly free market for mobile devices. A place where Nokia is almost a stranger.

Freezing Safari (for Windows)

For a week or so I've been getting irritated every time I tried to use Safari 3.2 on Windows (I use it for testing purposes and each and every time I get sick by its GREYness). It was freezing for 10 seconds or so after startup upon clicking on any menu or trying to enter URL. After searching the Apple support and the rest of the Web with no obvious solution (tried reinstalling, but to no avail), I decided trying to play with the settings (not that there are so many settings to play with).

Turned out it got fed up with the History. Put the history to 1 week back and it started up in a snap.

But still, I wonder, what's so hard for Safari to chew in a bunch of history addresses on a Compaq dx2300, Dual Celeron 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, that FF2/3, Opera and even IE8 beta 2 could bite off in a split second?!

ICQ No More

OK - I used to have ICQ on every computer I stumbled upon. But not any more. It seems that with every next version since ICQ 5 (especially ICQ 6) gets more and more adware with system resource requirements that just any average 1-2 years old computer break. Not to talk about the crashes and the mess with its files installed all over the machine and the "useful" ICQ toolbar. I've started hating ICQ because of the slow speed of ICQ6. But what disgusted me most were the advertisements in the chat window. Here in Bulgaria we used to get a beer logo in the chat window - can you imagine that!? And the adware in the main window. Geee... I will never use ICQ any more. There are so good multi-protocol freeware programs out there with ICQ support. Here are my preferred (most used by me first):

• QIP - the original version was a pure ICQ client with tabbed chatting, multiple instances, cool features (merging history, per-contact alerts). The new Infium, though, is multi-protocol with even more features. QIP is light - very light - and has everything out of the box. Supports plugins. Infium natively offers VoIP. Oh, it's Made in Russia, as well ;)


• Miranda - is an Open-Source, multi-protocol, plugin-based instant messaging program. It has an immense feature-set, but after installation all goodies need to be manually added. One of the drawbacks is that Miranda is clumsy in multi-user mode. It originally asks for no password at start and one should hold Ctrl upon launch in order to bring up the user account manager (guess there's a plugin for that, but I have never used one). It is rather meagre in UI design, though.


• Trillian - the most beautiful client. It is multi-protocol, feature-rich and is so sleek in style. But it has a great problem with windows - default chat window size is very small; it can be changed manually for every contact, but upon tabbed-chat style it goes back to normal. I wait for the new Trillian Astra and who knows - it might be the new favourite kid on the block.

So, guys, I urge you to try one of these. Miranda and QIP (not Infium) have installation-less versions - just extract in any folder and have a look!
You will see no advertisements, no slow performance. What is more - any of these (QIP in lesser extend) are meant to be all-in-one IM clients.