Comments for GeekTieGuy

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 05:09:51 +0000

Thanks Bruno! Hope you’re doing well too.

Comment on About by Bruno Garrido

Bruno Garrido — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:06:46 +0000

Hey GTG,
Cool blog, always something interesting. I hope you are doing well.
I like your analogy with Kitchen Nightmares

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:13:29 +0000

My pleasure! Glad to hear you enjoyed reading.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Patti

Patti — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:35:18 +0000

Thank you so much for this excellent review of the TouchSmart systems thru the years. Because of your information I have been able to upgrade my TouchSmart IQ804 all the way to Version 5.0! I currently have Windows 7 Home Premium with the TouchSmart software 5.0 running. I love the integration of windows desktop and the TouchSmart carousel. I finally don’t feel like it was use one or the other they now seem merged.

Once again a big thanks for your very helpful and useful information.

Comment on A swan song for 2012 and WPF by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 01:58:28 +0000

Thanks Lynn!

Comment on A swan song for 2012 and WPF by Lynn Marentette

Lynn Marentette — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:24:11 +0000

I liked WPF, and like you, hope that it will be resurrected in some fashion in the future. Great post!

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Tatooineghost

Tatooineghost — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:27:04 +0000

Thanks, will have a look.
Andy

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 01:25:38 +0000

Hi Andy. Sorry about the trouble with Facebook logins. They may be due to changes Facebook has made to their authentication methods. You’ll have to go through HP’s official support organization to see if that can be worked out. Go to http://support.hp.com to get started.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Tatooineghost

Tatooineghost — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:33:00 +0000

thank you GeekTieGuy, I have been playing with ts4 for a while and there seems to be a problem with facebook and the appstore. any clue as to why I can’t get them to work. Facebook says error and I should get a password from the website, even though it is the right one. Appstore has an error and always closes down.

Cheers
Andy

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 03:05:28 +0000

Thanks Carlos. No, I don’t have any plans to create a TS 5.0 Upgrade tool at the moment. You’re the first one to ask for one, I think. It’s unlikely that I’ll do the work, given that Windows 8 has put a stop to further development of the HP TouchSmart software.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:54:57 +0000

Great job Guy!!! Do you have some project to a TS 5.0 Upgrade tool? Thanks a lot

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:51:25 +0000

Andy, Sorry, I have no suggestions regarding the video driver. Thanks for leaving a comment!

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Tatooineghost

Tatooineghost — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:38:13 +0000

This is amazing, thank you GeekTieGuy. I have had soooo much trouble updating my TS IQ510uk, some sort of problem with Win8 and the Nvidia drivers. Sorted, sort of, by using the MS basic video driver. Anyway now using win8 and downloaded TS4.0. Worked a treat, only needed to reload one SP. Looks really good now it is up and running.

If you do happen to know how to fix the video driver thing, I and many others would be ery interested.
Regards
Andy

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:31:45 +0000

Dave, thanks for the vote of confidence, but it’s very unlikely that that will ever happen. The TouchSmart software would require a substantial rewrite to work properly with Windows 8. It’s not just a matter of making an upgrade package.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by DAVE DICKINSON

DAVE DICKINSON — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:36:37 +0000

Thankyou for your prompt reply,I will use the Touch capability of Windows 8 until someone as knowledgeable as you brings out a Windows 8 upgrade,Thankyou once again…………..Dave.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:07:11 +0000

Dave, unfortunately there is no version that’s compatible with Windows 8. If you want to use the TouchSmart software, you’ll have to downgrade to Windows 7 SP1.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by DAVE DICKINSON

DAVE DICKINSON — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:43:49 +0000

I have just upgraded my iq500 from vista to windows 8,however when I reinstalled the TS4 Upgrade there was a compatibility issue and I kept experiencing black screen until I uninstalled the Upgrade programs,is there another version compatible with Windows 8?……Cheers………………Dave.

Comment on A Voluntary Simplicity manifesto by Ted

Ted — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:01:42 +0000

Check out the Simplicity Collective at http://simplicitycollective.com/

I also follow that manifesto.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 04:41:12 +0000

Thanks for the comment! Very kind of you.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by StefBot

StefBot — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:46:41 +0000

Well…I gotta say-Windows 8 is available now. It ‘looked’ alright and I toyed around with the idea of upgrading. However, when I ran the tool that would tell me what programs of mine were compatible and it told me TouchSmart was not…I decided not to upgrade. I like the SmartCenter UI better and I’m willing to stick with Windows 7 for it. Windows 8 may have ‘borrowed’ a lot from SmartCenter but SmartCenter is still prettier and smoother. Please tell me Windows 8 will not bring further development of SmartCenter/TouchSmart Software to an end…it just has so much untapped potential left. Like educational apps. My sons who are young and both on the Autism Spectrum are very much visual learners and the SmartCenter UI can hold their attention like nothing else. The things that it could be used for…

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Erico

Erico — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:26:15 +0000

Hi GeekTieGuy,
I am erico from the HP global forum.
The TS4Upgrade exe is still available to download although bitly stil warns about it being a possible threat. My ESET Smart Security 6 sees no problems with the file. Downlloaded size is 4.55 MB.

Keep up the great work!

Best regards,
erico

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:26:41 +0000

@Jan Sorry, I’m not sure that that application is still available for download at the HP Support website, but you could start by looking there.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Jan

Jan — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:43:48 +0000

I succesfully installed the TS 4 upgrade on my HP 600-1160. Thanks for providing the links and information! Maybe you can answer another question I have. I accidentally damaged the HP DVDSmart application that was pre-installed on this computer. (Don’t ask me how I did this, but I did…) Is it possible to download this software somewhere so I can re-install it?

Comment on Create a multi-lingual / multi-language MSI using WiX and custom build scripts by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:25:29 +0000

Oh well…

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:25:06 +0000

I’ve uploaded a copy to my blog. This is a link to the exe: http://bit.ly/TS4Upgrade

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by John Tatar

John Tatar — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:01:17 +0000

The touchsmartdevzone.com domain expired 10/15/12. Is there another link for the touchsmart 4 upgrade tool?

Comment on Create a multi-lingual / multi-language MSI using WiX and custom build scripts by Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:53:47 +0000

Wow, now I feel retarded.

On my way back to the top of the page I actually looked at your scripts. Never mind about that whole translating to C# idea, lol.

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for all day. Thanks a lot!

Comment on Create a multi-lingual / multi-language MSI using WiX and custom build scripts by Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:48:55 +0000

I know this is a pretty old post, but is there any chance you could translate your VB code to C#?

I’m pretty new at C#, and I’m crazy bad at VB.net, but I’m supposed to be done with a project for the ‘ole day-job on Monday.

I’m done with the project, now all I have to do is make the .msi(s). The way they used to do it was a manual deployment of one .msi per language, but this looks like the perfect solution to all of my remaining problems. (assuming I can figure out how to dynamically generate this xml appropriately, and incorporate your scripts into our build server)

Greatly appreciated,
Andrew

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:26:12 +0000

Glad I could help!

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by DAVID DICKINSON

DAVID DICKINSON — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 02:11:04 +0000

Thankyou,Thankyou,Thankyou,I can finally use the Touchsmart software again,you certainly know your stuff and thanks for your quick reply,Kudos to you sir………….Dave.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:42:15 +0000

Hey, I think the download may be succeeding, but you’re getting an error when you run the program. I seem to remember error 992 as something the installer puts up when your system isn’t recognized as a system that’s eligible for the update. Sometimes this happens with refurbished machines. What kind of hardware are you trying to install on?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:38:58 +0000

Hey Dave,

This is probably what you want: http://www.geektieguy.com/2011/10/15/a-new-all-in-one-touchsmart-4-upgrade-tool/

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by DAVID DICKINSON

DAVID DICKINSON — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:16:01 +0000

I have just installed a new Vista 64 OS on a new harddrive and cannot install the Touchsmart software on my system,any tutorial would be helpful…….Dave.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Gina Taylor

Gina Taylor — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:54:14 +0000

I have repeatedly tried to download TouchSmart 5.0/5.1, but receive a message stating that it was unable to download because of error 992. Have you heard of this before and is there anything I can do about it? Thanks in advance for your time.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 05:12:10 +0000

You don’t need the ones with ,es , etc. other than the one with ,en. All of those are tutorial videos. You only need the ,en one and only if you really want the tutorial videos.

Have a good vacation!

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 05:10:22 +0000

Not sure what exactly the problem is you’re describing. What do you mean by clicking on the next download sp49873.exe manually?

If the tool hangs at the end of a softpaq download, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the “x” to close the app. Then run it again. That should restart the download of the previously hung one. It’s one of the issues I’ve never been able to diagnose fully, so I don’t know why it happens. I just have this Ctrl+close workaround.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Richard

Richard — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 04:16:30 +0000

My downloads keep hanging after completion of sp49872.exe. Don’t know why. When I clicked on the next downoad sp49873.exe manually, there’s no problem. Any ideas?

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Chad

Chad — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 21:29:15 +0000

OK. A bit further now. Downloaded all but the last few with en, es, etc. behind them.

I’m off for a week on a much needed vacation so I’ll look into it in a few weeks.

Thanks again for the help.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:06:41 +0000

Apparently most of the softpaqs moved recently (not sure why). Here’s a complete list of new locations that you can put in All_SPs.txt:

I’ve left a thread with this information over on TouchSmartDevZone.com as well.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Chad

Chad — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:52:09 +0000

That worked. But still stopping on the following…

SP49821
SP49865
SP49866
SP49868
SP49870
SP49871
SP49872
SP49874
SP49875
SP49876
SP49878
SP49880
SP49881
SP49882
SP49884
SP49885
SP49886
SP49887
SP49888

How can I find the true path to these SPs?

Much appreciated.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:00:04 +0000

Apparently one of the softpaqs was recently moved around on HP’s support servers. Someone else had the same problem and reported it over on the touchsmartdevzone.com (http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com/forum/thread/4079/TouchSmart-5.1-software-update/?page=2#28362)

This was my comment over there:

++++++
No worries, you can create a simple text file called All_SPs.txt, place it in the same folder where you’re running TS4Upgrade.exe from and put the following content in it:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/COL36389/pv-89719-2/sp49869.exe

That should work around the problem. Note: I have not tested this, so YMMV.
++++++

The commenter was nice enough to reply back and say that it worked for him.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Chad

Chad — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:25:29 +0000

I have a Touchsmart 300-1205z version 3.0 that I’d like to update to 4.x or 5.x. I downloaded the TS4Upgrade 1.0.15.0 tool and ran it. It complains of needing more softpaqs and lists them. I’ve searched for but can not find the specific updates the tools is asking for.

I’ve run Windows updates plus other Microsoft updates until no more are detected. This machine was resotred from the system restore partiion because someone had messed the it up so bad nothing would work anymore.

Any ideas?

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by Jason Shuler's Tech Blog » Getting a poorly designed ClickOnce application to Run As Administrator

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:38:27 +0000

[...] (Updated 5/10/2012 – I originally claimed that it was “trivial” to make a ClickOnce app require elevation – a commenter pointed out that ClickOnce does not support the requireAdministrator execution level at all. This does not let the vendor off the hook – they should not have used ClickOnce to deploy software that requires features ClickOnce does not support… FYI – there are workarounds from the deployment side) [...]

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by How to view advertised shortcut

How to view advertised shortcut — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:01:56 +0000

[...] a programmatic answer at How to parse “special” .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised …. Answered by Hugh [...]

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Rus

Rus — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:42:49 +0000

Thank all, I already solve my problem and now my lnk parser works well on all versions Windows. I use suggested method together with ShellLink methods. Thank you for code.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Rus

Rus — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:56:17 +0000

Hi,
Now I see that suggested solution works just for Windows7. Does anybody know solution for previous version Windows?
Thanks

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:14:34 +0000

Let me see what I can do via email.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Darshtang

Darshtang — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:15:50 +0000

I don’t know if you will get this but i have a hp touchsmart iq818a and I know it is not supported for the newest software but other people on the forums are reporting success with non supported models. Anyway whenever i use your software it always hangs at the end of the softpaq download (as you said at the end of your post) and whenever i control click the x and restart it it hangs at the next softpaq. So i individually downloaded every softpaq and whenever i try to install them (enabler first) i get error 9993. Could you please help? Thanks

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Alex

Alex — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:03:11 +0000

I had a similar problem. My Xonar sound card wasnt even being detected when returning from S3 sleep. Hibernation worked tough.
The solution was updating the motherboard BIOS to the latest version.

Comment on An easy sound device reset tool for Conexant “Waikiki” HD Audio device on HP dv8000 laptops by GeekTieGuy » Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep

GeekTieGuy » Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:06:45 +0000

[...] level (after 4 years), I've written a little app, that at least puts a band-aid on the problem. Check it out. Now you can reset the device without having to go to Device Manager and disabling/re-enabling the [...]

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by GeekTieGuy » An easy sound device reset tool for Conexant “Waikiki” HD Audio device on HP dv8000 laptops

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:02:47 +0000

[...] I’ve previously written (in February of 2008), there are some computer systems out there that have trouble retaining the [...]

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:30:30 +0000

I’m not sure. The program uses .NET APIs to see if an Internet connection is present. Perhaps your .NET configuration is bad, somehow. The only way to find out for sure what’s going on would be to debug on the system in question.

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:28:32 +0000

No, there are no hacks for that. Sorry.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:34:07 +0000

As soon as I launch the TS4Upgrade executable, I get a list of the softpaqs required, along with the note that there is “No Internet Connection”… which there is. I’ve enabled the program to pass through the Windows Firewall, and have also tried running it as administrator. What might be stopping it from successfully connecting to the internet, and what can I do about it?

Thanks!

Comment on About by Andrii

Andrii — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:27:58 +0000

Hi! Is it possible to hack TouchSmart 5.0 Software to run on multi-monitor configuration.
I have HP TouchSmart TM2T and HP 2310ti dual touch monitor. So why can’t I run TouchSmart Center on big screen (which is main) and do something else on laptop screen?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:17:33 +0000

My pleasure. And thanks for the additional findings!

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:23:58 +0000

Oh, forgot to mention:
1. I’m using .net 4.0
2. [STAThread] on your main method *may* be required too… see the SO thread please.
3. Most important – thanks for posting this!

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:21:45 +0000

Please see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4490361/c-sharp-dllimport-of-msigetshortcuttargetmsi-dll-failed-with-error-1603-under
- the return value for MsiGetShortcutTarget is UInt32 and is important (you want to check that…), and
- the [Out] modifier is missing from the StringBuilder parameters:
/*
UINT MsiGetShortcutTarget(
LPCTSTR szShortcutTarget,
LPTSTR szProductCode,
LPTSTR szFeatureId,
LPTSTR szComponentCode
);
*/
[DllImport("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern UInt32 MsiGetShortcutTarget(
string targetFile,
[Out] StringBuilder productCode,
[Out] StringBuilder featureID,
[Out] StringBuilder componentCode);
and…
/*
INSTALLSTATE MsiGetComponentPath(
LPCTSTR szProduct,
LPCTSTR szComponent,
LPTSTR lpPathBuf,
DWORD* pcchBuf);
*/
[DllImport("msi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern InstallState MsiGetComponentPath(
string productCode,
string componentCode,
[Out] StringBuilder componentPath,
ref int componentPathBufferSize);

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:53:31 +0000

Some troubleshooting revealed that the WPF Font Cache on the system was the cause of the problem. The fix was the following:

- Stop Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 service
- Delete FontCache3.0.0.0.dat in %windir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local
- Restart the machine

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:12:04 +0000

I am having a problem right after the compressed TS4Upgrade.exe file is downloaded. When I click on the file in Windows explorer, a new screen appears, but the program just hangs.

Any ideas on a solution to this problem?

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Practicing What You Preach | Slow Quest

Practicing What You Preach | Slow Quest — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:42:05 +0000

[...] Interesting article on how much fuel in a car actually goes on transporting you and why bikes are gr… [...]

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Dutchy

Dutchy — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:52:43 +0000

Custom built PC, Juli@ audio, same problem. Go back to hybernation and back to windows again solves it sometimes. Another thing, if Photoshop was open the mouse position does not match the actual tool position anymore.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:39:17 +0000

I’m not sure I follow the question entirely. Are you looking for a BIOS update that lets you install Windows 7? The BIOS doesn’t impose any restrictions on what OS you can install, Vista or Windows 7. Also, I don’t think BIOS updates are tied to a particular version of Windows. Most BIOS updates that work on Windows can be installed from either Windows Vista or Windows 7. You don’t mention which model of HP TouchSmart you want the BIOS ver 5.10 for. It’s usually pretty easy to find any updates like that on the support pages of hp.com. You enter your TouchSmart model number into a search box and then do a little bit of navigation to find any published updates.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Brad

Brad — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:07:28 +0000

Can you find the BIOS update ver 5.10 that can be install from Windows 7?

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Eric

Eric — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:01:34 +0000

Was having troubles installing the my Touchsmart to 4.0. The upgrade kept “hanging” after the 1st download. Your tip about “CTRL + hitting the ‘X’ seems to have worked and the rest of the files are starting to download now. Looking forward to checking out the new Magic Canvas. Your screen shots were helpful too! Thanks again!!

Comment on Recover from BAD_POOL_HEADER blue screen errors after upgrading hard drive by Geoff

Geoff — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:54:16 +0000

Thank you!. Worked like a charm on my XP system having a very similar problem.
Had cloned a Thinkpad (x200) using Apricorn EZ Upgrade onto a larger HDD.
System appeared to work perfectly until I ran my weekly backup (using Norton360) onto a Western Digital USB drive. Every time I ran backup; got the same BSOD with ‘Bad pool header’. I spent 5hours last night trying to resolve the problem; found lots of chatter about this problem but no working solutions. Prior to doing what you recommeded; following another recommendation, I removed all ‘ghosted devices’ showing up in my Device mgmr, but that didn’t resolve the problem (or at least not completely). Also played with Shadow Copy service, etc…to no avail.
This one worked. Thanks!.
Note: under XP, to see hidden devices you need first set a environmental variable: see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:56:34 +0000

@Dave: Thanks for your comment. Glad to hear you’re finding new value in TouchSmart 5.0/5.1! As far as the battery icon goes – I’m not using the stock mouse from HP on that system, but the keyboard and mouse software always puts up both icons, and I want the software running so some of the non-standard buttons on the keyboard work properly. I’m surprised you noticed, you must have eagle eyes!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:23:30 +0000

A PS: If the “Automatic Panning/Scrolling” video was done recently, I’d check the batteries in your Mouse….

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Just a note to say how wonderful it’s been upgrading a TS 804 from 3.0 to 4.0 to 5.0 all within a 24 hour timespan.
Additionally, I wholeheartedly concur with the ‘merging’ of Windows 7 desktop functionality into a TouchSmart environment make me a much more avid and consistant TS user; 3.0 was old, stodgy and not run much but with the incorporation of Canvas in 4.0, I begen using “that side” of my HP more Now, after the successful upgrade to 5.0, it’s the best of both worlds, and, MUCH smoother than the Windows 8 I have on a seperate partition.
A wonderful job very well done! Thank you

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Jag20

Jag20 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:41:45 +0000

I recently bought a 420t and loaded windows 8 for dual boot, but I was unable to install HP touch driver in windows 8! Keyboard and mouse works fine, but not touch. Install program was always looking for Windows7 even when i tried compatibility mode. Touch works on windows 7.

Any help to resolve this issue is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jagan

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:48:30 +0000

Please read the main page on SimplePhotoTagger, if you haven’t yet. The period where I gave away keys has ended. You now purchase a key via PayPal.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Stu13

Stu13 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:54:02 +0000

Nice job how can I get the key as well ?

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:23:42 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Glad to hear it works and that the new version is more useful to you.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Ricardo Morales

Ricardo Morales — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:18:03 +0000

Tom Carruthers: Your suggestion was the only one that has worked with my VAIO VNG-CR220E with Windows Vista (SP2). As you said perhaps it is not the most elegant but it really works.

What I did as extra was to add a System shortcut in my desktop with some keywords to follow when I have the problem again. For example, “System – Dev Manager- Sound – Realtek – Disable – Enable” (Realtek is my sound card).

Thank you very much for all the suggestions..!!

Cheers

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by BoxeeGrrrl

BoxeeGrrrl — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:58:59 +0000

Thanks for this: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp54501-55000/sp54879.exe

Installed it on top of v4.0 on my 600-1105xt just fine (did a restore point first, just in case) and I must say, I like having Windows and TouchSmart Center all at the same time. I always felt like I was neglecting the TouchSmart software in favor of doing a lot of things at once via the Windows Desktop

Cheers!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:11:11 +0000

In theory, the IQ504 can support TS 5.0/5.1. My post was produced on an IQ5xx, so that can serve as a guidepost. Of course, HP won’t support any of that if you call them. Do it at your own risk. But it is doable.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Allan Carrigan

Allan Carrigan — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:22:20 +0000

I have a question.
I have TouchSmart 504IQ – second generation according above article.
Can it support version 5 or what is the latest version it will support?

Thanks for any feeback you can give.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:19:26 +0000

Thanks!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:19:06 +0000

Hey Domenic! HP is not always the fastest at announcing things. I do try to do my part by keeping an eye on TouchSmartDevZone.com and posting there and on the HP Support Forum every once in a while. Glad you like the update! Thanks for your comment.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Domenic

Domenic — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:22:18 +0000

Forgot to mention, great article!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Domenic

Domenic — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:11:08 +0000

I bought an open box HP Touchsmart 610 series a month ago and got a great deal on it. Anyway, I love it and I was one that was checking everyday for the past several weeks about a 5.0 update for the SmartCenter. And surprisingly, I came across it last night in the driver and downloads section of HP’s website for my particular model. Not sure why HP doesn’t announce these type of things. If I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have found it. Thanks HP for the update BTW.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:03:56 +0000

Glad to hear the 5.1 update worked for you. Thanks for commenting.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:02:24 +0000

There are no updated apps published at the moment. Good to know that the 5.1 update worked for you. Thanks!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:27:04 +0000

Tom, if you’re reading this, GTG pointed out that the softpaq is out at the HP FTP site: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp54501-55000/sp54879.exe

I installed it – and it goes right over TS 4 just fine on my 610-1147c. From what I can tell, the old apps work just fine (with the exception of the free version of Paint it!). I haven’t tested all of the apps, so there may be a few that have some trouble.

As of now, so far so good. Hope to see some of the updated apps also show up for download at the HP site.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Tom

Tom — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:57:31 +0000

HP just released TouchSmart 5.1 update. I was able to run the link to update to 5.1 and it updated my 4.0 to 5.1. The only problem are the apps are still 4.0 and while they seem to run ok, some are having problems (i.e. Calendar). Do you know if there is a link on the HP site to download the 5.0 apps? If not no big deal — at least the Magic Canvas has been updated — will just have to wait for the upgrade

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:52:33 +0000

It is possible to order recovery discs with TouchSmart 5.0 included, but restoring them will only work on the model of hardware they were ordered for.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Tom

Tom — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:44:45 +0000

Do you (or anyone for that matter) know if it is possible to purchase back up disks from HP with the TS 5.0 on it and then “restore” the computer with the TS 5.0?

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:34:06 +0000

Hardware limitations are most likely not a problem. We’ve had 5.0 running on all kinds of hardware in the lab during development. I’ve usually done a quick sanity check on a 600-1050 (or was it a 1055, not sure). I’ve also run it on an IQ500 and didn’t see any problems.

The bigger question is whether HP will publish a softpaq for 5.0 at all. And whether the rest of the software suite will get published as softpaqs as well. Let’s wait and see.

Comment on A new all-in-one TouchSmart 4 upgrade tool by Vincent

Vincent — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:20:01 +0000

Here’s hoping you can do the same for TouchSmart 5.0 soon too. Do you know if there are specific hardware limitations holding that up? Processor, memory or graphics card?

Comment on Recover from BAD_POOL_HEADER blue screen errors after upgrading hard drive by john

john — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:40:45 +0000

Brilliant!
Solved my DPM issues.

thanks

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:20:08 +0000

I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for getting in touch.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Tom

Tom — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:11:31 +0000

I echo Vincent’s sentiment. I just bought the 610 (literally a week before the release of TS 5.0. I was faced with a choice of going through the hassel of returning the unit or counting on the fact that the software would be updated (which seemed obvious to me at the time). The new 610s (same hardware configuration) are sold with 5.0, so it can’t be a hardware issue. Seems like a little bit of fair disclosure would have gone a long way to creating some goodwill but obviously rather than telegraph it, it made more sense to aliennate loyal customers. I didn’t think I would have to worry about things like “refresh cycles” with HP, I always figured those concerns were reserved for consumers of the other large computer company based in Cupertino.

Certainly willing to beta test 5.0 for upgrade purposes!

Thanks!

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:08:38 +0000

Yes, a tech-savvy person could get 5.0 working on a TouchSmart 610. Each version of the software is generally designed to be easy to upgrade from the previous version. I believe that at some point the latest SmartCenter software will be released to the HP support website. Until then, nothing can be done. I’ve tried conducting a beta program in the past, precisely for people like you, who wanted to try out the latest without official support. Not sure I’ll be able to do that again, but let’s see what happens.

If nothing else, the 610 is a really, really solid desktop computer and it will most likely make a great Windows 8 machine as well. Thanks for the perspective on Windows 8 and TouchSmart.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Vincent

Vincent — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:52:11 +0000

I’m wondering how difficult is it to get 5.0 working on a Touchsmart 610? Are there processor restrictions? I know there wouldn’t be any support, but could a reasonably tech savvy customer get it working? I keep checking the Touchsmart developer forum and the Driver/Download sections of the HP site hoping that the 5.0 software is available for download for those people who have to (for whatever reasons) reformat their systems – but haven’t seen anything. Do you think the development team would be open to having other Touchsmart 4.0 owners “beta” test a 5.0?

I’m guessing that the same way HTC has built the Sense platform on top of android, the HP team could easily provide value by adding an even more polished suite of apps to the Windows 8 touch platform. The Touchsmart suite is a step in the right direction – basically making sure the touch paradigm is well executed across the most common apps. The advertising for Touchsmart shows that the product teams at least get the basic user personas – and have addressed the primary use-cases. 5.0 is a step in the right direction…I’m just worried the team won’t be allowed to go much farther – which makes me wonder if my buying a Touchsmart 610 a few weeks ago the right decision.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 05:33:18 +0000

Vincent, as of today there seem to be no plans to offer an upgrade from 4.0 to 5.0, unfortunately. I can pass along your comment to the people making those kinds of decisions, but I’m not sure how much effect that will have. A single customer saying so is better than none, but having more people express a desire for an upgrade from 4.0 to 5.0 may be helpful in swaying that decision (this comment is mostly for other people reading these comments – chime in if you would like an upgrade from 4.0 to 5.0).

As far as the future is concerned, I’m not really at liberty to talk about that – HP rules forbid it. Until Windows 8 ships, I think it is safe to assume that HP will continue shipping the TouchSmart software. If you see any good reasons to continue doing so after Windows 8 ships, I’m all ears and will do my best to communicate those to HP.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Vincent

Vincent — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:36:21 +0000

Any idea if HP is going to roll out Touchsmart 5.0 for existing Touchsmart 610 owners? I just bought mine a few weeks ago – and would hate to find out I’m stuck on 4.0.

Also with all the turmoil happening at HP and at the WebOS group, what’s in store for Touchsmart development? Will the computing group make Windows 8 touch computers and trash all the work done for the Touchsmart?

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:54:32 +0000

It may seem like I’m kidding. And of course, I have no statements or anything tangible from Microsoft even hinting that this is or might be true. And most likely never will. But it is my (not completely uninformed) perspective, illustrated through a walk down memory lane. I know what kind of relationship HP and Microsoft have had over the years that the HP TouchSmart software was produced. Trust me, they’ve looked at HP’s products VERY closely and usually long before each generation of software was released to the general public. So they’ve had plenty of time to pick out what they thought might be interesting and incorporate it into their own designs. Obviously, the UI and UX is way different in Windows 8.

I stand by my perspective that HP pioneered the concepts I marked as such on touch-enabled all-in-one desktops (and eventually brought them to laptops, too). HP and Microsoft worked together VERY closely on the IQ770 hardware and software (and I was there for the bulk of the software collaboration). By the way, just as another reminder of what happened when: The IQ770 was announced by Bill Gates in his CES keynote on January 7, 2007 and was available in stores on January 30, 2007. The iPhone was announced two days later and made available on June 29, 2007, five months later.

The comments are open, so other perspectives are, of course, welcome. I’d appreciate if additional comments people want to make steer towards dialogue and progress.

Comment on A brief history of five TouchSmart generations–pioneering ideas for Windows 8 by Pedro

Pedro — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:26:30 +0000

You’re kidding, right???

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Lance

Lance — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:19:32 +0000

I do not like Crossloop’s new business model. Furthermore I’ve had some of my tech friend’s use it and find ‘hidden’ charges. They disputed Crossloop customer service and it took forever to hear back from them.

Dealing with friend and family nothing beats Teamviewer. It is a great software and easy on the customer ends. For commercial use my colleague found ScreenConnect. I’ve used it a couple times and have had no problem. The thing was it was about ~$400-$500 price cut to that of Teamviewer depending on which features you get. So I think it is more worth it for the money unless you are doing tons of remote support or have a crazy budget.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:43:41 +0000

I’m not really into doing demos or reviews of this kind of stuff in general. Sorry.

Comment on WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 2: Windows Phone 7 by GeekTieGuy » WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 1: WebOS

GeekTieGuy » WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 1: WebOS — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:57:46 +0000

[...] Photo Tagger « Apple’s new Cupertino campus: Wow! WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 2: Windows Phone 7 [...]

Comment on WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 1: WebOS by GeekTieGuy » WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 2: Windows Phone 7

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:56:26 +0000

[...] Simple Photo Tagger « WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 1: WebOS [...]

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by GeekTieGuy » WebOS and Windows Phone 7 development – Part 2: Windows Phone 7

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:22:17 +0000

[...] into an edit box, where you can change the content. I liked this control so much, I just had to write my own version of it. The Silverlight limitations on WP7 (I can’t remember at this late stage if it was lack [...]

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Janet

Janet — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:40:34 +0000

Could you demo one more GoSupportNow?
it is cool to support video and audio conferencing in addition to remote support/access
[Updated comment: removed link]

Comment on Word 2007 and Vista Speech Recognition – don’t say "delete document"! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:03:14 +0000

Wow. Nobody has bothered to fix that yet? Unbelievable. Sorry to hear about your incident. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Comment on Word 2007 and Vista Speech Recognition – don’t say "delete document"! by John

John — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:01:41 +0000

A few years later, but I thought you might like to hear someone else had the same problem – I said “Hello” to my wife, which Word 2010 interpreted as “Delete all”. Document gone, no undo! Nice work, Microsoft. I only lost about 30 mins of work, though.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:38:23 +0000

Thanks everyone who tried out the program and asked for a key. I’ve decided that the testing and feedback period is over. From now on I’m charging the nominal amount of $10 for full use of the program. See further details in the updated post above. Thanks!

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Gwen

Gwen — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:25:55 +0000

Yes I was very confused about whether Crossloop was in fact free. I find conflicting sources about the subject. It seems now that it does cost? Maybe with the above links you can still get it for free. But at this point I’d rather just go with LogMeIn or TeamViewer. They are free and easy. I doubt they will ever change their model as Crossloop has done. You should maybe do a review on those applications. For business use I demoed ScreenConnect and Techinline. They both were cheapers than Teamviewer or LogMeIn for business support.
[Updated comment: removed links]

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Criselle Anne Reside

Criselle Anne Reside — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:05:22 +0000

may i ask for the key sir? thanks

Comment on Exemplary customer service at JanSport by Elie

Elie — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:39:31 +0000

I just sent them a 15-year-old backpack and they repaired it for free! The fabric was ripped.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by wayloo

wayloo — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:17:37 +0000

anyone fixed that webcam problem? i have a an hp touchsmart notebook pc running windows 7 professional and when i try to download the newest webcam update (since i cant run it otherwise) i get the 9996 error as well.
pretty computer inexperienced, but kind of desperate

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:53:37 +0000

A key is on the way by email.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by cosmin

cosmin — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:58:21 +0000

Thanks mate, your code works flawlessly.

Comment on Can’t install .NET 3.5 on Vista x64? Try uninstalling KB110806. by Advent

Advent — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:37:42 +0000

I’m trying to run exe on client machine, it has vista………am unable to run net 3.5 application. Any help will be appriciated.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Felipe Lavignatti

Felipe Lavignatti — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:35:22 +0000

I Need the key, please. Tanx

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Richard

Richard — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:17:55 +0000

Oh yeah and I have been installing updates on this Gateway crap computer for TWO days now. It is so slow. I wish you people out there that don’t have anything better to do then screw with the OS would build stuff that helped the community instead of screwing it up. I hate hackers too.

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Richard

Richard — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:15:54 +0000

I hate Microsucks all around. They are not concerned with what the user wants they want us to adhere to what they say we should. That is why I dual boot into Ubuntu most of time unless I have something that HAS to be done in WinBlows.

I am waiting for the day that Ubuntu is a valid and genuine contender for the mainstream. It is getting better and better all the time.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:09:57 +0000

I’ve sent you a key. Thanks for checking out Simple Photo Tagger!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by colin chapman

colin chapman — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:32:16 +0000

could you please supply a key for your software, thanks

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Tom Carruthers

Tom Carruthers — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:42:50 +0000

I had this problem and found a handy solution.

This works for me (Vista SP2). Control Panel > Device Manager > Sound, video and game controllers. Right click on your sound card (e.g. ‘SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio’) and select ‘Disable’. Then right click on the sound card again and ‘Enable’. Done.

Not elegant but you don’t have to restart your computer each time!

Hope this helps someone!

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by Chris Barth

Chris Barth — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:59:52 +0000

For the question about how to get some default strings in there and then to have them localize at runtime, I solved this problem here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5623008/resourcedictionary-source-binding-to-module-for-localization

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:11:46 +0000

You got it. It’s on the way via email.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by SHARON NELSON

SHARON NELSON — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:44:49 +0000

CAN I PLEASE GET A KEY

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:50:05 +0000

Yes, if you re-download and reinstall the shell, the entry should appear again. It gets put in place by the shell installer. And it gets taken away when the shell is uninstalled.

-G

Comment on About by Ray DeVolld

Ray DeVolld — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:55:31 +0000

I tried this. I ran regedit.exe and looked for your entry as listed above. Everything looks ok untile I get to MobilePC\HotStartButtons\1. That entry is not there. Would this be because I had deleted the shell program for Touchsmart? (all other Touchsmart apps are still on machine). I think i deleted touchcenter.exe.

If I re-download the shell (3…35 version) would the entry then appear in the list?

Thank you for your response..much appreciated

Ray

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:07:15 +0000

Hi Ray,

The one thing that I think of immediately is that your IQ504 has a faulty TouchSmart button (the button with the house symbol on it, in the lower right of the front bezel). It may be that the button continuously instructs Windows to start up the TouchSmart software. You may be able to fix this by disabling the software configuration that makes this button work: Use regedit.exe to take away the following entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\1 (or rename the entry), then reboot the computer.

Please let me know if this does anything.

-G

Comment on About by Ray DeVolld

Ray DeVolld — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 03:27:32 +0000

I have an Touchsmart IQ504 with Windows 7 installed. I bought it used. The machine did not have the Touchsmart software installed so after searching about this, I discovered your website. I typed in IQ500 (not knowing this machine is actually IQ504) and found your discussion that included the programs to download so as to install Touchsmart software and that worked out ok.

After a while (after downloading the shell and several apps), the machiine began to act a little funny. I think it is a setting, but not sure. I tried using HP support but not sure that was a help.

What the machine would do is continually reload the Touchsmart software after exiting from it (so as to go back to Windows 7. No matter what I would do, the Touchsmart software would reload. I couldn’t get it to stop from cycling. I turned the machine off many times, unplugged etc, but when restarting, the Touchsmart software would take over. When I clicked the “X” to close it down, it would go back to Windows 7 briefly, but then reload the Touchsmart software.

The HP help desk instructed me to go to the startup and check off programs that were instructed to automatically initiate and I did as instructed, but after a while, the problem would start again.

I can only control the machine now by removing touchcenter, but by doing that I can’t use Touchsmart software.

Can you think of what is causing this and what the remedy might be?

Thank you, Ray

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by jcallais

jcallais — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:40:46 +0000

Anyone have any luck installing TouchSmart SmartCenter on a new Windows 7 64bit installation. I updated my system and now my tiles are missing. I had to do a lot of tricks to get the base SmartCenter install to work in the first place. Any help would be appreciated.

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 2 by GeekTieGuy » Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 3

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:21:39 +0000

[...] written about this topic a couple of times before. But it seems like another post is in order since my main box is now running Windows 7 and I’d [...]

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status by GeekTieGuy » Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 3

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:20:35 +0000

[...] written about this topic a couple of times before. But it seems like another post is in order since my main box is now running Windows 7 and [...]

Comment on Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode by Randy Alexander

Randy Alexander — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:59:06 +0000

Thank you. You’re a godsend.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by maximiliano

maximiliano — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:23:15 +0000

tengo un problema con mi equipo no puedo abri touch lo elimino y lo restablesco y no me deja hacer nada me aparece que smartcenter dejo de funcionar alguien quien me pueda ayudar ok

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – Bing Map Phone/Desktop diffs: MapLayer.SetPosition() missing on Phone by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:56:31 +0000

Sorry mate, haven’t had time to play with that since I wrote the post. Don’t know.

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – Bing Map Phone/Desktop diffs: MapLayer.SetPosition() missing on Phone by Mike

Mike — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:21:33 +0000

Btw, i have tried using ‘ mapLayer.SetValue(MapLayer.PositionProperty, location);’, but a run time exception is thrown complaining about the values for location being invalid for property ‘Position’, regardless of what values i try.

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – Bing Map Phone/Desktop diffs: MapLayer.SetPosition() missing on Phone by Mike

Mike — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:18:05 +0000

How do you change the location of a UIElement that is a child of the MapLayer and that has already been added as a child at design time? We used to be able to use SetPosition on the desktop to do that. On WinPho, are you saying you have to remove and add each time?

Comment on HP TouchSmart / badges at PDC 08 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:41:35 +0000

What follow-up would you like to see? What needs to be brought up-to-date, specifically?

Comment on HP TouchSmart / badges at PDC 08 by Numbers Stello

Numbers Stello — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:19:27 +0000

Greetings I recently finished going through through your blog and also I’m very impressed. I do have a couple inquiries for you personally however. Do you consider you’re thinking about doing a follow-up posting about this? Will you be likely to keep bringing up-to-date too?

Comment on Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 06:10:18 +0000

DMA/UDMA. With PIO, the CPU gets involved with the data transfer. With DMA the transfer is direct. DMA means Direct Memory Access, U stands for Ultra, if memory serves. PIO means Programmed Input Output.

Comment on Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode by Bill

Bill — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 04:26:27 +0000

What Is The Recommended Setting? PIO Or DMA/UDMA

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – Bing Map Phone/Desktop diffs: MapLayer.SetPosition() missing on Phone by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:24:04 +0000

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – Bing Map Phone/Desktop diffs: MapLayer.SetPosition() missing on Phone by Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 06:30:18 +0000

Thanks, dude. I was ripping my hair out for item #3.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Double Headboard

Double Headboard — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:50:35 +0000

both picassa and flickr are good if you want to share pictures online*~,

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by IAN GOULDEN

IAN GOULDEN — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:18:03 +0000

is it possible please to have free remote assistance please ,thankyou

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by IAN GOULDEN

IAN GOULDEN — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:16:53 +0000

what error

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by IAN GOULDEN

IAN GOULDEN — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:15:12 +0000

free remote assistance wanted

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:33:38 +0000

I quite agree. And my history is with WPF. I didn’t have the patience to dig into the differences between the Phone Silverlight controls and the Desktop WPF ones. The little digging I did left me a little disappointed at how much of WPF has been forced out of Silverlight in order to make it easy to make cross-platform/small and lean. I looked at the control template for TextBox on the Phone (using Blend) and, to be completely honest, I didn’t fully understand how it works so I gave up trying to make it do what I wanted. I saw a quicker return on my investment of time and effort by “brute forcing”. You know how deadlines can be a forcing function.

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by wekempf

wekempf — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:53:29 +0000

The number one rule in WPF and Silverlight when it comes to controls is to first consider applying a template or style to an existing control before considering creating a completely new control. It’s actually quite astounding how many controls are custom controls in other UI frameworks that can be rendered in WPF/Silverlight using one of the standard controls and some template/style changes.

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:39:36 +0000

Chalk it up to my inexperience with Silverlight.

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by gius

gius — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:28:11 +0000

Hi, what about a textbox styled that without focus, it would look like a textblock?

Comment on Windows Phone 7 – No “editable” TextBlock by Josh Einstein

Josh Einstein — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 03:25:13 +0000

I don’t get it. What’s the difference between that and a text box that has a transparent border when it doesn’t have focus?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:32:13 +0000

Sorry, I don’t have time to investigate this at the moment. I hope you’ll be able to find a method that works, though.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Goverdhan A

Goverdhan A — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:35:49 +0000

I am trying to use the class MsiShortcutParser.cs as I have the requirement to read the target path from link file. I tried using IWshShortcut.CreateShortcut(filename) which works in most of the cases. This doesn’t work for me when i try to read the target path from MSGames such as FreeCell, Minesweeper and Purble Place. Using of the class MsiShortcutParser.cs also returns me null path(MsiGetComponentPath is InstallState.InvalidArg). Let me know if there is anything more to get the “ParseShortcut” function work and return me the target path for MS Games.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:09:51 +0000

I don’t see why it couldn’t be converted to VB.NET. Are you asking me if I can do it for you?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by TcoUpLoad

TcoUpLoad — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:05:22 +0000

You can convert that class into vbnet DLL?

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Anders Ø

Anders Ø — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:44:09 +0000

With excitement, I saw that the Darkfall client would be downloaded within approx 8 hours. Great! Waking up in the morning, and ready to just hit the install button, so that I could start the eventual patching. Not happening. I met the login screen like so many others, and a sickening friendly message, that Windows has installed some updates, and had to restart the computer. And uTorrent could report that only 35% of the 7gb client installer was downloaded. Not even on Windows 7 have Microsoft learned to respect the diversity of computer software and user data! It’s on the edge of crime.

Note to self: NEVER EVER turn on automatic windows update again. Don’t ever think that positive thought: “Yeah, of course, I’ll let Windows take control of that”. The risk of data loss or security breaches as a consequence of a week or two delay of a manual windows update is FAR less than having that crap turned on.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Ken G

Ken G — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:24:22 +0000

I checked out the dpecs on this, and the free version is ok, but there are better options these days. For one, there is Teamviewer, its free to use for non commercial use. Also, since Vista, and now is a secondary remote app in Windows 7 is Windows Remote Assistance. It works excellent accesing XP/Vista/Win 7 systems. If you and the party you want to remote to are using Windows Live Messenger, the person can request assistance from you and allow you to have full control.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by dclaar

dclaar — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:39:37 +0000

I totally mis-read that page to say that the *Platform Update* contained the tools, based on the line “The Windows Vista, pre Platform Update for Windows Vista, includes the following tools” line. Once you asserted that the tools were on that page, I figured that they had to be there somewhere, and then I found them, and figured out that the text was trying to tell you which version to get.

Thanks!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:43:34 +0000

A key will be on its way soon. The WIC tools (WIC explorer is part of those) are here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wictools

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by dclaar

dclaar — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:25:29 +0000

Searched for wicexplorer, found this. Can I get a key? And do you know where I can find wicexplorer on Vista?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:30:49 +0000

That’s a good suggestion. So far few people have run into the problem, though. So it didn’t seem necessary. I’ve been working on a standalone tool that does the permission changes for you, but so far I’ve not found too many people willing to test it. One issue is that changing the permissions requires a UAC prompt, and some people (probably a majority of users) dislike programs that put up a UAC prompt.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:27:12 +0000

I don’t think you need to reinstall the apps. They don’t usually store data in %programdata%\hewlett-packard.

I guess I was assuming certain things, so I didn’t make my instructions all that clear. Sorry about that. Seems you got it worked out, though. You can actually type %programdata% into the address bar of Windows Explorer, and it will take you to the right place.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:15:57 +0000

Wonder why HP cant just package this in the UPDATER?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:12:53 +0000

Well you are going to have to excuse my thickness, I am good googler but thats about it

I am running a swedish win7 and there are two program folders one that says Program and one that says Program (X86) some I am translating.

Aha could not find it because it was a hidden folder. I did all the admin changes (god what a mission) and now get the smart center up. SHould I reinstall all the apps?

Thanks so much

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 18:15:08 +0000

Well, that means that there are still issues with read/write access to %ProgramData%\Hewlett-Packard and the subfolders underneath it. Please double-check that all users have “full control” permissions to that folder and all files and folders underneath.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:41:12 +0000

Here you go, really appreciate your effort

HP TouchSmart UpdateAppSettings folder not accessible. Check file/folder permissions.
vid hp.SmartCenter.Lib.UpdateAMSConfigFileHandler..ctor()

[EDIT: extraneous text removed]

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:37:38 +0000

Looks like the two webcam app updates have the same version. Not sure why there are two entries for it.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 17:37:03 +0000

Please post the contents of the file here.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:51:54 +0000

Another thing is I discovered (which may or may not be a clue) on HP’s support page http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?sw_lang=36&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=4063&product=3900000#N3127 two WEBCAM APPLICATION updates?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:32:05 +0000

I found it not in the SmartCenter 2.0 folder where you told me to look but in the following folder C:\Users\Admin\HP\HP TouchSmart

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:23:37 +0000

Could you look if there is a file in this folder: C:\ProgramData\Hewlett-Packard\TouchSmart\SmartCenter 2.0
It should be a text file called SmartCenterTrace.txt

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:14:38 +0000

No Luck. I removed all write protection and still nothing,

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:40:58 +0000

It may be that you have the permissions restriction issue with the %programdata%\hewlett-packard folder. Make sure that it and all subfolders have read/write permission for “Everyone”.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rocketz

Rocketz — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:39:16 +0000

Hi GeekTieGuy

I have the same problem as Kelsey and Rags. I installed everything and double click on the icon and the touchsmart boot screen comes of for a second or two but then nothing happens.

I have a Touchsmart IQ830 and upgraded the VISTA 64bit to Win7 Home Premium 64bit.

I also have printer connected HP C4380

Should I uninstall all the apps and try again? Please help

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Draught Excluder

Draught Excluder — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:33:01 +0000

Great post – love the diagram.

I heard this from Amory Lovins, who explained that if you halve the weight of a car, you can cut the fuel consumption by a massive amount (like 75% or something).

Also, the faster you drive the less economic your car is as air resistance becomes very large above 30-40mph.

Comment on My first Windows 7 Theme Pack by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:06:40 +0000

Glad you like it. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Comment on My first Windows 7 Theme Pack by Chris

Chris — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:16:31 +0000

Just found your blog a while ago, really interesting (even though I’m not a fan of HP). Theme pack is beautiful, thanks very much!

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:31:27 +0000

Kelsey ran the command line “smartcenter chromeless” once, and after that things started working.

There is another potential issue that has to do with file system permissions getting restricted in the %programdata%\hewlett-packard folder, but that one has been rare as far as I can tell. Mostly caused by installing certain printer drivers.

Comment on 100000 Views – Thank You! by Bill

Bill — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:55:25 +0000

I am closing in on 100,000 views myself in a little over a year of blogging about D2 college baseball. I was just curious about whether others had blogged about the accomplishment. Congrats and thanks for the content ideas – I should cross the line in early May

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by rags

rags — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:53:50 +0000

What did you guys ever figure out for Kelsey? I am having the same issue and all of the files seem to be the correct versions. Thanks

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:10:57 +0000

I don’t remember if the tx2 includes the RecipeBox, but an enterprising person has come up with a way to install it no matter what: http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com/forum/thread/2535/-2-11-2010-Update-Tx2-Touch-Mediasmart-All-in-One-Installer/

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by Riana

Riana — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:45:17 +0000

I am about to purchase the tx2 touch smart laptop and really want the recipe box app. Is it possible? I saw on the hp site that recipe box app is only for the desktop .

Thanks!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:29:46 +0000

Yuriy,

An email is on the way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Yuriy

Yuriy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:10:36 +0000

this is a very good, simple and handy program.
thanks for sharing. But the version is limited.
can you send me a key please?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Dragoon

Dragoon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:25:42 +0000

Don’t even bother with this pay service, it’s changed so much over the years. You should look at TeamViewer, though. It’s similar in terms of functionality and business model, but it’s very easy to use.

Download the “full version” for yourself, it has the option to run without installing. You tell your friend to get the “QuickSupport” version and when he starts it there is a simple code and password he tells you about and when you enter it into your version it will connect instantly, no hassles.

http://www.teamviewer.com/download/index.aspx

Comment on HP TouchSmart SDK 3.0 – Giveaways at PDC 09 by Mark Brown

Mark Brown — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:56:10 +0000

Thanks GeekTieGuy…got mine! I had no idea how rare these were.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by potatoindianajones

potatoindianajones — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:18:42 +0000

hi i have a hp lq505 and had seen but change it to win7 the problem is that HP TouchSmart software applications were no good and say your system does not meet the minimum requirements for this update. The update was canceled. (9996). but using the HP TouchSmart software applications lq527 hp model all work well want to thank you for your help
thanks thanks thanks thanks

Comment on Microsoft also had an OS code-named “Tiger”: OS/2 1.3 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:41:05 +0000

Well, sorry again. I put the disk back in the pile of random disks I found it in. Never occurred to me that someone might want a copy.

Comment on Microsoft also had an OS code-named “Tiger”: OS/2 1.3 by Daniel K

Daniel K — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Thats a shame, but could you dump that one disk if you still have it?

Comment on Microsoft also had an OS code-named “Tiger”: OS/2 1.3 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:13:44 +0000

Hi Daniel,

Sorry. I only found the one disk I took the picture of. The rest were gone already.

Comment on Microsoft also had an OS code-named “Tiger”: OS/2 1.3 by Daniel K

Daniel K — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:48:10 +0000

Hi,

I would like to know if you still have these floppy disks and if yes, if it would be possible to obtain a dump of them.

Thank you in advance,

Daniel.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:47:24 +0000

They’ve made it harder to find the free version, and it’s now ad-supported. On this page there is a link to the ad-supported version: http://www.crossloop.com/download.htm?affid=xl&src=hp_download_button. I’m not sure if this link will work properly, but it’s a more direct link: http://download.crossloop.com/CrossloopSetup.exe?1264369536796.exe

Perhaps I need to update my original article to reflect these recent changes.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Jeff Brewster

Jeff Brewster — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:16:28 +0000

I don’t see the Free product. Is this now a Paid service?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:23:49 +0000

Ellison,

You should be able to pull the updates from the IQ527 Windows 7 software page. I’m not sure why they’re not available from the IQ504 page, they should work regardless of the model you have. As far as the DVD update goes, sometimes updates get temporarily removed when a new update is on the way. Perhaps that’s what’s going on there. Hang in there for a number of days, and maybe the DVD update will be back.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Ellison Keller

Ellison Keller — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:40:40 +0000

I have an HP TouchSmart IQ504t PC and several of the upgrades recommended here as quoted from the HP support site include files that are not available for my model (e.g., RSS, Browser, and DVD). These seem like important files so should I be pulling them from the IQ527 site to install on my device regardless or bypass those downloads all together? Also the DVD download seems to be missing from your link as well as when tyring to pull directly from HP. Is this upgrade no longer needed or is this a glich with the HP site?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:00:48 +0000

I’ll send you a key shortly.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by bill

bill — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:47:38 +0000

Me too? Thanks for doing this workl

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:15:13 +0000

Let me email you to start an investigation.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Kelsey

Kelsey — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:39:53 +0000

I’ve downloaded and installed all these updates — but my Touchsmart application still doesn’t open. If I double click on it (or push the Touchsmart button) it flashes up and then disappears, never to open completely. Any thoughts? I’m beginning to think there’s an issue with the shell itself — but I’ve updated it. Is there a way to uninstall and reinstall it?

Comment on Running Windows 7 RTM on REALLY old hardware by Bill

Bill — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:06:44 +0000

That’s actually a very nice looking machine you’ve got there, for it’s age that is. Glad to see I’m not the only one messing with win7 on old hardware – I have 7 ultimate RC running on a Compaq (athlon 1 ghz, 256MB RAM), a Toshiba (P3-933mhz, 512MB RAM), but I haven’t tried anything quite as low spec as you’ve done.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:09:04 +0000

You can’t resize the tiles because of a design change in the software. The design change is that you can now interact with the application in the tile directly. That change requires tiles to stay the same size.

The Windows icon has been replaced by a minimize button in the upper right corner. That’s more in line with standard Windows application behavior.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by John

John — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:57:14 +0000

How come I cannot re-size tiles after upgrading the TouchSmart Application software following a Windows 7 upgrade? I also noticed that the Windows icon is now not in the top left corner of screen to toggle between desktop and TouchSmart Software. Any suggestions?

Comment on New SDK for HP TouchSmart software development – out now! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:44:37 +0000

Hey Steve, sorry to leave you hanging for so long. The “key” is a GUID, so you should use the Microsoft GuidGen tool (or something like it). It’s actually the AppID, so it’s pretty important to get right, like you say.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:43:07 +0000

Coming soon via email. Make sure you look for a message from geektieguy _at_ live “dot” com

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:39:17 +0000

Check the list of known issues at the HP support website: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01778879&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=4063&product=3862522#N1973

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by Len

Len — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:46:28 +0000

I have touchsmart 820 and i instal the windows7 but i can’t play dvd or life tv the message is that no tv tuner find

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Robert

Robert — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:17:06 +0000

I’d like a key too, please!

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:03:04 +0000

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I shall check out the site. As it happens, the machine is under HP warrentee which turned out to be rather fortunate on Thursday last as the hard drive blew!! Even the BIOS could not see it, so HP collected it on Friday and it is now in Bracknell having both issues dealt with

Thanks again
Andrew

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:48:08 +0000

Andrew,

Your best bet for getting an answer to this is to post it at http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com in the forums. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how exactly to address this issue. You could open up the computer and disconnect the internal USB connection for the built-in webcam, but that’s not easy to do.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:50:24 +0000

Hi. I have been looking for a tech site about this machine and this seems to be about the best. The machine is an HP Touchsmart IQ500 running Vista home it came with. The problem is that the built in webcam is broken, does not make a picture just colours. I have bought another webcam which is Vista compliant but, when trying to use it, the light for the built in webcam comes on, even though the application (Skype or Windows Live Messenger) has the external one selected, and it refuses to transmit a picture.
I think I need to disable or uninstall the built in webcam but cannot, for the life of me, find it in services, programs and functions or anywhere else!
If andyone knows how to solve this issue, could they please let me know.
Many thanks. Andrew

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Man

Man — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:42:53 +0000

Thank you soooo much, useful, clear and simple and works like a charm too. Perfect!

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:34:01 +0000

Depending on which update you downloaded, you may need to unpack one more level down using winrar and then run the MSI file.

I think the clean install is messing things up for you. HP doesn’t support those kinds of scenarios.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by lorenzo 24

lorenzo 24 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:19:58 +0000

yes i ve made a clean install,i formated the disk everything ,but i ve succeded to install it extracting from install pack,(with winrar)and i installed with setup exe from folder setup.thanks anyway!

Comment on New SDK for HP TouchSmart software development – out now! by Steve

Steve — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:46:05 +0000

Thanks. I tried it with 2008 Express Edition last night and everything seemed to work. I’ll let you know if I find anything I simply can’t do with E.E., but for now it looks good.

The SDK is very nice, btw, for anybody who wants to try this out. I modified the Whack-a-Mole app and put it in my TouchSmart software, and then made a very simple app using the template. Couldn’t have been much easier.

One question I did have was about the key for the xml registration file. Is there some ‘official’ way to generate a unique key? I just copied and slightly modified one of the others and it worked, but I know that won’t cut it if I want to release an app.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:58:32 +0000

I’m not sure why that is. Did you install Windows 7 “clean”? In other words, did you wipe out everything on the hard drive when you installed it?

Comment on New SDK for HP TouchSmart software development – out now! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:55:55 +0000

Hey Steve,

I’m not sure what about the SDK makes it limited to non-Express editions. There are some limitations in the Express editions, such as the inability to load plugins, but I don’t think that is why in this case.

The download is pretty small, so I would just download and try installing. If you have any problems, let me know and I can investigate.

Things should work with VS2010 Beta 2, just make sure you target the .NET Framework 3.5 if you write a WPF app.

-G

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by lorenzo 24

lorenzo 24 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:43:07 +0000

why i cant install hp touchsmart,aplication?it tells me:upgrade could not finish(259).i have i touchsmart iq500.it,ive instaled windows 7,now i cant install ,the error sound like this because is in italian language:l aggiornamento non é stato completato.(259).please respond me how to install it.thanks.

Comment on New SDK for HP TouchSmart software development – out now! by Steve

Steve — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:47:51 +0000

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’m excited about developing on my TS, but I noticed that the Readme included in the SDK says ‘Express Editions are not currently supported’.

Can you elaborate on this? Is it that you absolutely need the full version, or some features won’t work, or there’s a small workaround, or that’s just them covering their legal bases?

I could download a 90 day trial of the full version, I suppose. Any idea if the 2010 VS Beta works with this?

Thanks again.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:31:13 +0000

Go to this website: http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/windows7-upgrade/index.html
You can order a set of DVDs from there. You won’t be able to download it; you have to order physical DVDs and have them sent to you.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by IBRAHIM

IBRAHIM — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:30:26 +0000

I JUST BOUT THIS COMPUTER HP IQ 500 TOUCH SMART . I LIKE TO UP GRADE ,DOWNLOWD MY FREE WINDOW 7 HOW CAN I DO THAT …… THANK YOU

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:08:07 +0000

Great! I know some of the stuff because I worked on part of it.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Nextlevel

Nextlevel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:53:56 +0000

Thanks it worked. You really seem to know your stuff. Thanks again.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:58:27 +0000

I investigated some things around the Twitter upgrade installer, and it looks like it is indeed not adding the tile to the “shell” correctly. You can do the following to remedy that: copy the file starting with Twitter_ and ending with .xml from C:\ProgramData\Hewlett-Packard\TouchSmart\SmartCenter 2.0\DefaultAppSettings to C:\ProgramData\Hewlett-Packard\TouchSmart\SmartCenter 2.0\UpdateAppSettings. That should make the Twitter app show in the TouchSmart shell.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Nextlevel

Nextlevel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:41:22 +0000

I bought the retail version of windows 7

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:43:38 +0000

It installs the full application. The thing that’s probably missing is the part where the tile gets added to the TouchSmart “shell” software. Did you upgrade to Windows 7 using an upgrade DVD set from HP or did you buy Windows 7 elsewhere?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Nextlevel

Nextlevel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:13:33 +0000

I tried to install the twitter update on my hp iq524 and it shows in my list of add/remove programs. However it does not show in my HP TouchSmart Application. I uninstalled and reinstalled several times. I restarted everytime. I updated my touchsmart application, along with every other support updated available. No luck.
Does this update install the full application? Is there another twitter application I need to install first?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Roland

Roland — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:27:17 +0000

Very nice tool. The one I was looking for Used Picassa, but there you need to tag one by one :S

Can I get the key pls ?

Comment on Troubleshooting ClickOnce deployment issues by Leonardo Perez

Leonardo Perez — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:09:25 +0000

Hello, i have just done everything explained here.. and it worked ( i had done a lot of things before i found this post, one of them was to remove my antivirus ). After i tested i began to install the things i had removed including my antivirus.. and IT HAPPEND AGAIN !!! … so in my case i uninstall and (again) clear the registry.. so my suggestions is that if u are using Clickonce.. stay away from avg antivirus ( free version in my case ).

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by Mike S.

Mike S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:09:14 +0000

I tried adding those, and got some errors – but I probably just screwed something up.
If I find out what I did wrong, I’ll update here.
THanks!

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:56:13 +0000

Mike, I’m not sure. It’s been so long now. I think the manifest for the helper app needs to require admin privileges (and so does the manifest for the real app). If I remember correctly, I just added the trustInfo-security-requiredPrivileges-requestedExecutionLevel xml snippets to the manifest Visual Studio generates for a web deployment project.

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:48:57 +0000

Thanks!

Comment on About by Mike S.

Mike S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:19:04 +0000

BTW, I like your photography!

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by Mike S.

Mike S. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:16:40 +0000

I’ve implemented part of this solution, and have run into an issue that simply a reference to Process.StartupInfo in the RunAsAdmin() function causes the ClickOnce Installer to crash.

I would think that having the ability to launch processes would be a full trust situation, which requires elevation, which is not supported in the Internet Zone.

What am I missing? What’s the manifest for the ClickOnce application supposed to look like (as opposed to the manifest for the helper application).

Help!

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:35:27 +0000

I don’t think HP has made any specific announcement about that. Unfortunately, I can’t speak to it. Maybe a good avenue would be to contact HP directly (perhaps via email) to find out for sure.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Tony

Tony — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:36:45 +0000

Has HP made clear whether Canvas and Recipe will ever be made available to legacy Touchsmart users?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by joe

joe — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:43:00 +0000

I just wanted to say thanks. I’m not a real computer buff and never would have known that all these updates were possible. Thanks again!

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:02:34 +0000

hchwa, that’s not something I know off the top of my head. It needs investigation. If a resolution can be found, I’ll try to post about it here.

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by hchwa

hchwa — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:33:20 +0000

I have TX2 Touchsmart laptop and it come with Win7 home premium. I upgrade the OS to Win7 Ultimate and I noticed whenever I try to enter the Personalize screen for the TouchSmart software, it automatically close itself after 2 seconds. Can you tell me if this issue can be resolved?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Rob, please restart the computer after the Hulu app is done updating, not just the HP TouchSmart software. That should do it.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by Rob

Rob — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:38:59 +0000

lol, I STILL can’t get Hulu to function from within the TS application.

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:55:29 +0000

I haven’t spent a lot of time with the RSS app, so I’m not sure. Does it not have some kind of button that says Settings? My guess is that’s where it would be.

And I think you’re right on the Calendar app. It always starts in the same view. I don’t think it has settings that let you say “remember my last view”.

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by Steve

Steve — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:12:21 +0000

I’m starting to use some of the TS 3.0 apps for the first time. Do you have any other customization tips for more apps? For instance, the RSS Feeds app seems entirely incapable of deleting feeds once they are added. And the Calendar doesn’t remember which view (month or week) you selected last time.

Any hints on these or other apps?

Thanks

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Practicing What You Preach | Ride Earth

Practicing What You Preach | Ride Earth — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:33:34 +0000

[...] Interesting article on how much fuel in a car actually goes on transporting you and why bikes are gr… [...]

Comment on WIC metadata in .NET: Getting around "Property cannot be found" / System.ArgumentException /"Exception from HRESULT: 0x88982F40" by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:24:29 +0000

Yeah, sorry, I guess I was assuming people would pick up Robert W.’s code to see those details. You have some great articles on this topic! Thanks for sharing.

Comment on WIC metadata in .NET: Getting around "Property cannot be found" / System.ArgumentException /"Exception from HRESULT: 0x88982F40" by Ben Vincent

Ben Vincent — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:48:51 +0000

One thing you didn’t mention is the need to add padding to the metadata. Basically you have to do another SetQuery:

metadata.SetQuery(“/xmp/PaddingSchema:Padding”, 5012);

I’ve explained more about this on my blog:

http://www.tassography.com/blog.aspx?tag=Windows+Imaging+Component

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:58:11 +0000

You need it on both computers. That’s the hardest part of getting started. After that it’s not too bad.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Sergio

Sergio — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:41:50 +0000

i have a few uestion for you guys that have tried this software, I currently live in Honduas and my mom lives in Florida and its kind of hard for e to help out with any technical prolems hopefully thi software may help. i was wonderingif i had to install this software on both the computers or jst mine?

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:25:48 +0000

Sorry, I’m not sure why that error message was produced. It depends on how the update was put together, and I have no insight into the details of that. As far as the other apps go, only time will tell. Some updates take a while to post because of the number of updates there are in total and the position they have “in line”. I don’t know if Twitter and Canvas are “in line” or not.

Comment on Upgraded your HP TouchSmart IQ500/800 to Windows 7? A tip on installing the new apps. by technabob

technabob — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:02:32 +0000

So I ran through these upgrades on my Touchsmart 815, and most of them worked. However, the Webcam update said “your system does not meet the minimum requirements for this update. The update was canceled.(9996)”. Any idea why? Is there some unsupported hardware on older models?

Also, any ideas on if I’ll be able to get some of the other new apps like Twitter and Touchsmart Canvas that aren’t on your list?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:06:37 +0000

Cool! Glad you found it useful.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Matthew Clark

Matthew Clark — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:42:27 +0000

Lifesaver! I had to convert this to VB.NET, but I couldn’t have come up with a solution without your article. Thanks to you, I went from a blank .vb module to a perfect solution.

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:42:20 +0000

A tile for a Windows program does exactly what you guessed: TouchSmart minimizes and the program runs as it normally would in/on the Windows desktop. Webpage tiles are new instances of the TouchSmart browser (they get placed in the bottom row after creation), even though the simplified creation mechanism pulls from the IE Favorites to present a list to pick from.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:38:43 +0000

Glad it helped you. Thanks for leaving your comment.

Comment on Design changes in the TouchSmart 3.0 software – what’s new and different from 2.x by Steve

Steve — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:55:29 +0000

Thanks for this writeup. My 600xt should be here in a week. Now I have a head start on the inevitable customization.

A couple of questions. What happens when you use a tile that you create from a program (for instance Notepad)? Does it minimize the TouchSmart software and launch in Windows? What about a tile from a web page? Does it launch in the browser in the TouchSmart software?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by JackZhong

JackZhong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:06:45 +0000

Thank you very much,This problem has troubled me for long time ,now see your code ,wo have resolved
it,very gratefull to you!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:18:19 +0000

Look in your email. You’ll get something from me soon.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Andrew Hood

Andrew Hood — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:08:14 +0000

this program is exactly what i was looking for, can i get a key?

Comment on HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:00:17 +0000

When the 3.0 developer information goes live, it will be on http://www.touchsmartdevzone.com (formerly touchsmartcommunity.com). It should happen over the weekend or early next week. All the materials are ready, things are just waiting to be wrapped up and published.

The 600xt is the top-of-the-line model. My only advice is to get a model that resembles the one your target customer is most likely to buy.

Comment on HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell by Steve

Steve — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:56:04 +0000

Thanks. I haven’t found any announcements about developing on 3.0 yet. If you hear anything, please let me know.

Looks like we’re getting ready to order a 600xt. Do you have any experience with this system? Any processor/memory suggestions would be appreciated.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:24:56 +0000

This problem persists with my dv8000t on Windows 7 RTM. Trying the UUA trick….

Comment on HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:47:25 +0000

I don’t think I’ll be jumping the gun too much in saying that there is a library in 3.0 that you as a developer can use to make things a little easier. There is one for the 2.8 version as well, it just isn’t documented in public (didn’t have time to get it published – bad, I know). It seems like there will be more information coming out on Oct 22, the official launch date.
Basically, you add a reference to the library (it’s in the GAC). Then you can use the stuff in the library as you see fit.

Comment on HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell by Steve

Steve — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:16:33 +0000

I’m gearing up to make an app for the new TouchSmart 3.0 software, using Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition. I planned on making a WPF Application. Does the 3.0 version include a library as well? What do I need to do to take advantage of it? Thanks.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:05:15 +0000

Look in your email. There should be something there soon.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Vera Lundell

Vera Lundell — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:49:30 +0000

Your program looks like my dream solution. May I have a key please? I have over seven thousand family travel photos to keyword, and I don’t know whether I want to even begin without a solution like yours. Thanks

Comment on New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:04:51 +0000

Comment on New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software by Posts about Gizmodo as of October 13, 2009 » The Daily Parr

Posts about Gizmodo as of October 13, 2009 » The Daily Parr — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:36:03 +0000

[...] number of Windows phone users will have to buy new devices to take advantage of the upgrade. New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software – geektieguy.com 10/13/2009 PCMag.com : This third-generation TouchSmart PC is boosted by [...]

Comment on New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software by Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:10:17 +0000

Awsome! I purchased it a week ago, and it is arriving today. I have been very excited, but can you imagine my dissapointment when I saw all the reviews for the new model today. Luckily I custom ordered mine with faster processor etc. so other than the video card (512mb vs 1gb) mine should be good to go. This has been a big step for me as I am transitioning from all macs to PC.

Impressed by such a quick reply BTW.

Comment on New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:58:59 +0000

Depending on when you bought it, it is probably eligible for the free Windows 7 upgrade from HP. That upgrade includes some of the new software, but I’m not quite clear on the exact details. Of course, you’ll have to put in some work to get the upgrade done (time, mostly, while you wait for the computer to run through the upgrade DVDs.)

Comment on New HP TouchSmart 600 and 300: choice quotes on the software by Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:44:35 +0000

Very nice! I am a bit worried though, as I just purchased a custom IQ500t. Will the new touchsmart software be available for the IQ users, or do I have to return my computer that is arriving today?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by coolcat

coolcat — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:56:47 +0000

pure brill…. after tryin loads of diffrent ways we got this and it works brill

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:23:43 +0000

My pleasure! Sorry to hear your IQ770 overheated. I sometimes do write some pretty narrow and technical posts, but judging from my blog stats, quite a few people at least look them over to see if they might be useful. I’m always happy when they are and people take enough time to get in touch with me. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting!

Comment on About by gary boehm

gary boehm — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:09:35 +0000

thank you so much for all the info you put out. I am retired deputy who was hurt in line of duty 13 years ago.I have found a new interest that is computers. I saw you helping people on hp support. my computer is a touchsmart q770 that has just quit working from overheating. saving money to get it fixed. thanks for all that you do to help folks with their computer problems. most of what you wwrite or say is over my head but I enjoy it and have learned a lot. please excuse typing can only use a few fingers lol

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Well, I guess I’d trust the InstallState.InvalidArg and look that up. Maybe the product isn’t installed properly. Or maybe the shortcut you’re trying to open isn’t an advertised shortcut, but some other type. Maybe a Shell Namespace item or something like that.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Gaurav

Gaurav — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:37:11 +0000

Immensely helpful…Thank You…

I am trying to use your code on an XP machine (VS 2008 in a WPF application) along with the WshShell method but, have run into a weird problem. The return value from MsiGetShortcutTarget is 0 (indicating ERROR_SUCCESS, i.e. the function call was successful), but the InstallState returned from MsiGetComponentPath is InstallState.InvalidArg.

I haven’t modified your code (except for the namespace), so the error is quite puzzling…

Any ideas?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:24:19 +0000

On the way. Make sure you add geektieguy (at) live -dot- com to your safe senders list so the email won’t go to your spam.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by druiddevil

druiddevil — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:07:26 +0000

I like the program. Can I have a key?

Comment on HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell by Posts about Flash Application Developement as of September 25, 2009 - Perry Multimedia Blog

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:59:26 +0000

[...] Liss experiment with processing/video and face recognition combined with working with toddlers. HP TouchSmart application development in a nutshell – geektieguy.com 09/25/2009 There is a document available for download (wrapped in an MSI to [...]

Comment on Toyota ad illustrates why it’s hard to change environmental impact of anything by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:30:55 +0000

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Sahota

Sahota — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:08:48 +0000

Beat this .. everytime the annoying update takes place .. some piece of hardware stops working in my laptop. Last time there was an update my mouse pad and keyboard stopped working. I did a system restore .. the laptop does not restart and all that when i have a assignment due next day .

Comment on Toyota ad illustrates why it’s hard to change environmental impact of anything by halcharger

halcharger — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:23:25 +0000

Man alive, I’m gonna go out right now and buy me a toyota, awesome stat!!! well done Toyota!!!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:43:45 +0000

No, I have not tried that, not even “just to see if”. I don’t usually shoot my pictures in RAW.

Comment on Debugging XBAP applications on Vista using Visual Studio 2005 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:42:37 +0000

Umm, did you look at the date when I posted this (hint: it was over 2 years ago)? Obviously things have changed since the days of Visual Studio 2005. I’m not pretending like I have all the answers. I just post things that might be useful at the time when I’m posting them. I may very well be missing something. That’s the beauty of blogs. People can build on other people’s findings and improve upon them. So maybe that would be something you could do?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by judgeman

judgeman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:52:57 +0000

Have you also tried to tag also RAW photos?
WIC should support that.

Comment on Debugging XBAP applications on Vista using Visual Studio 2005 by PIF

PIF — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:06:20 +0000

I have The exact same problems, installed everything I could(the links in the article are outdated),your “solution” does not work(at all).You are definitely missing something …

Comment on Troubleshooting ClickOnce deployment issues by Paul G

Paul G — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:03:19 +0000

Thank you! It’s been driving me crazy for weeks. I have a click once application deployed to over 150 users, and over the last 2 years not a problem. All of a sudden, one by one, each started to fail on update with “The referenced assembly is not installed on your system” error. Funny thing is, there was no pattern to the failure or version at which the updates stopped. To top it off, the application refused to uninstall. IT support for this client is provided from overseas, so I think that they have been updating the .NET Framework version on individual machines. I build the app on Vista and it is deployed to Win XP. Anyway, clearing the Apps\2.0 cache folder, calling ClearOnlineAppCache (using the COM component available in the framework), clearing the Deployment registry key, and clearing the registry keys listed in solution #2 has solved the problem.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:01:43 +0000

Yes, I’ll send one out to you soon.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Derrell

Derrell — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:50:40 +0000

May i please have a key to try this out?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Well, jacko, how about some examples, then? What programs are better? Why is crossloop silly?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by jacko

jacko — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:25:47 +0000

i don`t trust it ..and i will never trust such ..program…there others much much batter than this silly program

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:00:58 +0000

That looks similar to what my code is doing, yes. I’ll get a key out to you soon.

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:00:14 +0000

MageUI is part of the .NET SDK, I believe. I'm sure if you look on msdn.microsoft.com, you'll find plenty of information on it.

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by Chris

Chris — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:16:48 +0000

New to C#… what is MageUI? Where is it? How do I launch it, etc, etc…. Thanks for the helpful post!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by judgeman

judgeman — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:11:55 +0000

Request for a key …

Btw. I’m playing around with WIC.

Are you using code like?
metaData.SetQuery(“/xmp/dc:description/x-default”, value);
metaData.SetQuery(“/app1/ifd/{uint=270}”, value);
metaData.SetQuery(“/app13/irb/8bimiptc/iptc/Caption”, value);

Comment on Seth Godin: Is marketing evil? by John

John — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:36:36 +0000

Pretty thought provoking.

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by atempt

atempt — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:41:57 +0000

Seriously, How stupid do you have to be to put a countdown on the update restarter

Comment on Recover from BAD_POOL_HEADER blue screen errors after upgrading hard drive by Warning when cloning a hard drive « davidtaylorfamily.com – David Taylor’s Blog

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:27:45 +0000

[...] Warning when cloning a hard drive I ran into a little tech puzzler this weekend. I’m simply documenting it on my website both for me (in case in happens again in the future) and for anyone else who might have the same obscure issue. I found the solution elsewhere and will link to it here. [...]

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:47:54 +0000

In theory, yes. You would use MageUI or the command-line equivalent to open up the deployment manifest and then generate a new manifest from there after adding the localized resource dlls. If you search my blog, I have something on using MageUI in order to get UAC elevation to work with XBAP deployed apps. The steps would be similar, I believe. But honestly, I felt at the time that it wasn’t worth investigating in depth, because the XAML localization method I’ve outlined fit my needs at the time perfectly. Sorry I can’t be of more help. Thanks for stopping by and asking, though. I appreciate every single visitor and comments even more!

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by J3nonk

J3nonk — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:13:34 +0000

You said above:
….
And finally, getting an XBAP application to be deployable after localization with LocBaml requires opening up the application manifest and adding all the localized resource files to it. Otherwise a deployment error will bite you.

Do you know how to change the app manifest to add all the localized resources file?
can you share it with us?

Thanks in advance.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:36:47 +0000

Check your email. It should arrive shortly.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Robert C Taubert

Robert C Taubert — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:25:07 +0000

I’d love to get a key to try your program. Thanks

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Lalit M Aggarwal

Lalit M Aggarwal — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:27:22 +0000

I tried everytthing mentioned but still I do not get any audio after sleep mode. Even my mic is not working. I am having HP pavallion dv2119tx loaded with vista business. Any solution?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:23:58 +0000

A key should be on the way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by hugh henderson

hugh henderson — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:04:27 +0000

could you possibly allow me to try the program. Like you I have been looking for something really simple and there appears to be nothing there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

regards

Comment on Running Windows 7 RTM on REALLY old hardware by GeekTieGuy » Microsoft also had an OS code-named “Tiger”: OS/2 1.3

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:24:06 +0000

[...] (Someone was cleaning up a bunch of old floppy disks at work. I happened to come across them because I needed a floppy for updating the BIOS of a really old laptop.) [...]

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Miroslav Schreiber

Miroslav Schreiber — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:19:07 +0000

Ok guys just one thing to say… This program is AWESOME!
Same as the publisher I recently get a laptop for my mom back home in Slovakia and
I was bit worried how is she going to deal with vista. After downloading this tool my
mind is definitely set on ease… thanks a lot!
And one more thing, the program is realy for free!

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:08:19 +0000

Right. The one thing I’ve noticed is that it now starts up differently, asking you to create an account. You can, however, skip that step. If you do, you get another screen that has a timeout and a very dim Close link where it asks you to find a helper. If you simply wait or click the Close link (vary faint in the upper right), you are presented with the standard Access/Share tab interface that you can use to help someone for free with just an Access Code.

So it is still free, but Crossloop is trying harder to get you to use the service they provide and make money on.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Tim

Tim — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:43:03 +0000

Crossloop is still free. You and the person your trying to help have to have an account. You don’t have to have your account upgraded to be a helper, that is only if you are going to be making a business out of helping other people and want to contribute to crossloop because they take a cut as was mentioned previously.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:51:10 +0000

Which version of the TouchSmart PC do you have? This series of articles (written in April 2008) is based on the IQ770 software.

Are you commenting on the current version of the software (on the IQ500/IQ800 series)? What exactly makes it useless? Just the fact that it doesn’t have dual touch? No piece of software can meet everybody’s requirements 100%. There are always design goals, and those goals may not be useful to you or me, but they are to some subset of customers.

If you’re seeing crashes and hangs with the current version of the HP TouchSmart shell (2.8) and programs, you can always uninstall it (and the other HP TouchSmart programs), and you’ll soon find out if it caused issues or not.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by bmo

bmo — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:12:06 +0000

sorry geektieguy,

This is the most useless set of utilities i have ever seen. You cant even use dual touch…. meh… and it is probably the source of numerous crashes and hangs i am experiencing…

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:06:39 +0000

Craig, I posted this in 2007. Crossloop changed their business model since then. They are now providing software that lets computer experts help others with problems through “remote assistance”. Their model is to have a network of experts that help others for a fee, using their software, and then crossloop gets a cut of the fee.

Unfortunately I get no cuts whatsoever from the traffic I send their way. Funny enough, this post and the link to crossloop are some of my most popular ones.

You may think it smells, but I wish I had a penny for every time someone clicked through to crossloop from my blog. I don’t. I was just happy to find a piece of software that worked through all kinds of networks and firewalls.

I believe the software is still free, and you don’t have to sign up to be a “helper” to use it. At least I didn’t when I last used it a few weeks ago.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Craig

Craig — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:11:25 +0000

Why does your story talk about you giving your mum assistance for fre.

Yet the download screen talks about having to choose from 10,000 helpers and a 48hour money back guarantee.

If it’s free how can there be a money back guarantee and why do I have to choose from 10,000 helper, I already know who i want to connect to and they certainly are nothing to do with your 10,00 helpers.

this smells big time!

Comment on Windows Vista Ultimate customers get the shaft – again by Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:55:23 +0000

As a Vista Ultimate User, I’ve been disapointed twice. I need the language packs and went with Vista Ultimate despite the premium pricing 2 years back. The so called “ultimate extras” turned out to be a buch of screensavers and other useless junk and then in the middle of the night, MSFT left town. It seems the Ultiamate team disbanded, website was gone, and there were in fact no “ultimate extras.” Talk about bait and switch and decpetive marketing. So fast toward two years later, Vista Ultimate users — the people who got shafted the most– in the Vista debacle are being asked to pay over $200 for an upgrade to something less bogged down than Vista. Why is it that Vista Ultimate uers have to subsidize the discounts to the lower tier Windows 7 versions? Effectively, that is what is happening. MSFT doesnt know anything about rewarding loyalty, making good on something done bad to its customers, and continues to engage in deceptice practices. Are there any class action lawyers in the house that want to take MSFT to task? I would like the punishment to be chaining Ballmer and Gates to a Vista PC until they leave the industry or until Apple takes leading market share.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:43:51 +0000

@Lloyd: Coming right up.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:43:30 +0000

@Aroo: Sure.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Lloyd

Lloyd — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:59:42 +0000

I’d love to get a key to try this! Thanks!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Aroo

Aroo — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:43:02 +0000

Would you like to give me a key too?

Comment on My first Windows 7 Theme Pack by Magneziu

Magneziu — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:00:01 +0000

Cool as well. Make some more thempacks!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:52:00 +0000

It’s on the way now.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:51:43 +0000

Sent.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by fogll

fogll — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:43:55 +0000

one for me – one for you – ok?

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Bjørn Tore Hoem

Bjørn Tore Hoem — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:35:25 +0000

I have spent a few days now looking for a program like this. Would you be so kind and share a key with me?
Bjørn Tore

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Dirk

Dirk — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:00:35 +0000

Your post was very very helpful!
My little “ToolBarFolders” tool would only be half as good without this information (but then again – it’s up to others to tell how good my tool is anyway.)
I’ll have to try it on Vista though – maybe I’ll fire up a VM later.

Comment on A few extra details on the HP TouchSmart 2.5 software update by Carolyn Capp

Carolyn Capp — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:18:36 +0000

I would buy a the latest and greatest TS tomorrow if cal ap would seemless sync with google (kids,parents) and outlook (parents)and I could hook up external speakers for family music library play while having a party but not disabling internal speakers for next day. Fingers Crossed.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Toby

Toby — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:01:19 +0000

I installed Vista SP2 RTM and it seems that this problem does persist. It’s really annoying, but I will try out your trick, perhaps it works.

Comment on HP TouchSmart in a Black Eyed Peas video – no way? WAY! by Lynn Marentette

Lynn Marentette — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:14:26 +0000

A good choice for product placement!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:42:07 +0000

It’s on the way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Drew

Drew — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:17:28 +0000

I’d like to test your app as well. Please send a key.

Comment on HP TouchSmart software update: Weather always reverts to the location set before the update by North Carolina

North Carolina — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:07:03 +0000

After four months of trial and error this advice assisted me to correct the weatherbug location within three minutes. (I’m a slow reader

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by kalapret

kalapret — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:10:39 +0000

Thanks Gareth,

Your skype trick works perfectly.

Comment on My experience with offshore outsourcing software development by Offshore software development company india

Offshore software development company india — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:16:14 +0000

Thanks for shearing your experience.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Squid

Squid — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:28:52 +0000

I built my PC and know everything is up to date with correct drivers, however after sleep I also get no sound. I find that logging off and back into Windows sorts this. Annoying as after a sleep I will miss calls as I can’t hear any sound, the odd thing is that the graphic equaliser shows sound is being processed? PC running VISTA Home Premium, ATI Radeon 8070HD. Dual Core 3Ghz Intel. I oringonally suspected the HDMI handshaking procedure as this is a relatively new technology but after reading this, it seems like a joint issue between VISTA and the sound drivers. I may try installing UBUNTU or Linux Mint and see if that is any better.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Craig

Craig — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:39:11 +0000

The quickest “bandaid” I’ve come up with is to open device manager and “Scan for hardware changes” found with right click after a sleep or hybernate waking. Hope they get a fix soon !!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:14:50 +0000

Your key is on the way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Joe

Joe — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:56:15 +0000

I would love to test out the photo tagger — I am especially excited that is a wpf application…

Looking forward to seeing your work

Joe

Comment on Seth Godin: Is marketing evil? by Justin Cooper

Justin Cooper — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:59:36 +0000

Marketers and advertisers are only really ‘evil’ if they tell lies or encourage people to do evil things. Fortunately consumers are getting smarter by the minute, because they are learning to de-code glib and untruthful marketing & media messages. This has forced (or encouraged) the better marketers and advertisers to back up their claims with facts. Oh sure, you can make a lot of arguments stick with dodgy facts, but in an age of nearly instant feedback and networking, the lies are exposed very quickly.
So good marketers (with good consciences) tell great stories based on true facts that inspire their customers to buy goods and services or adopt different behaviours.
This may sound naive, but I encourage marketers to try it (if they haven’t already) as consumers are often a lot smarter than marketers give them credit for.

Comment on Make WordPress MU work in a development environment without a domain by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:14:36 +0000

I don’t have the machine right now, but I believe that it’s anywhere in the wp-config.php file, which I believe (can’t verify right now) is a WordPress file.

Comment on Make WordPress MU work in a development environment without a domain by fishercat

fishercat — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:16:38 +0000

Is this EXACTLY how the line should appear

define(’COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ”);

and where should it go?

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Sorry, it’s not available for download standalone. Since the functionality is tightly linked to the TouchSmart PC, you can only get it with the PC.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by Michael

Michael — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:10:00 +0000

He guys, i am still streaking the internet. I can’t find smartcenter. Is there sombody who can help me?
MM

Comment on A few extra details on the HP TouchSmart 2.5 software update by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:21:55 +0000

The Calendar update is separate from the TS shell (HP TouchSmart.) I have limited insight into its feature set and design goals since I only work on the shell. But let me ask around and see if I can find out more regarding the Calendar app.

Comment on A few extra details on the HP TouchSmart 2.5 software update by Josh B

Josh B — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:09:48 +0000

Thanks for your work!

I’m curious. It appears that the update has added the sync feature with Windows and Google (I don’t think this was fully implemented with the previous version, just the email event notification).

Unfortunately, the sync doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ve entered my Google info, even verified the email address (as required by the TS software) and hit sync only to have nothing show up on the TS Calendar.

So:

1) Is this simply 1 way syncing (TS to Google) so that if you were to enter something on the TS calendar it would sync to your google calendar but not the other way?
2) I have multiple calendars in Google. Maybe this doesn’t work with that?
3) Or, is it just not fully developed?

This feature, I would argue is imperative to have in a computer/software such as this given that so many users now use Google features to manage their lives. There’s no value in having to keep one calendar in TS or a separate calendar elsewhere, which is, as I imagine the developers understand, is the whole point of syncing cals cross platform/software/etc.

Any insight?

Thanks.

Josh B

Comment on A few extra details on the HP TouchSmart 2.5 software update by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:50:23 +0000

Hey Neil! Thanks for your comments. Glad you like the update overall.

The change in browser behavior is by design. You’re supposed to be able to pan the page in that tile using two fingers, a multi-touch gesture.

Comment on A few extra details on the HP TouchSmart 2.5 software update by Neil James

Neil James — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:01:45 +0000

Overall, I do like the new update. The fact that if I have a browser in the top row of tiles the web page isn’t centered anymore. I don’t know if it’s just my machine or a common problem (if that’s what one would call it). Except for this minor flaw, you guys did a good job on improving the Touchsmart software. Other than having to reinstall HP Mediasmart DVD, and I could have done something to cause it not to work, I am still pleased with my TouchSmart. I wouldn’t trade for it.
Thanks for your input & doing what you can @ the community.
NeilJ

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Alan

Alan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:03:57 +0000

Thanks, that’s a bit better as it now has scroll bars to see the missing parts, I think the problem still lies in that the photo does not reduce in size with the window, address that and should work better.
Trying the tagging part now, seems very easy so far.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:49:00 +0000

I’ve updated the program to try to address Alan’s comment from February 12. If anybody else is seeing the same problem, please redownload using the link in this post, unzip and run the setup.exe program. It should update properly to the new version (1.0.8.0)

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:44:32 +0000

That’s good feedback. I’ll need to make some changes to address that. Thanks!

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Alan

Alan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:40:36 +0000

Ok, for some reason, and only your program, I can not see the bottom of the screen, If i drag the corners in to re size it just cuts more off, it doesn’t make the window smaller as it should.
I’m using a laptop with 15.4″ screen, vista, 1280×800 screen size.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:21:34 +0000

There’s a button in the lower left that says “Enter License”.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Raul

Raul — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:17:29 +0000

Sony cr 220e un install your HP device & reinstall through sony downloads it worked for me now 3 weeks no more sound problems

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Alan

Alan — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:20:43 +0000

Where do I enter the key at??

thanks

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:34:43 +0000

Key is on the way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Alan

Alan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:55:53 +0000

Looks good, I’m willing to give this a try and feed back my comments.

Comment on Pictures in my Windows 7 Theme Pack by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:29:37 +0000

Glad you like it. Thanks for the kind words!

Comment on Pictures in my Windows 7 Theme Pack by Roger

Roger — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:42:15 +0000

This theme is amazing. the backgrounds are definitely ones I would want to see rotating on my desktop. GREAT job!

Comment on My first Windows 7 Theme Pack by GeekTieGuy » Pictures in my Windows 7 Theme Pack

GeekTieGuy » Pictures in my Windows 7 Theme Pack — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:29:35 +0000

[...] Simple Photo Tagger « My first Windows 7 Theme Pack [...]

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:12:32 +0000

Yup.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Runar

Runar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:05:04 +0000

Hi.
Can I have a key too?

-Runar

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:59:56 +0000

Certainly. It’ll be arriving shortly.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Craig

Craig — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:46:57 +0000

May I please have a Key to try! Thanks in advance
-Craig

Comment on HP TouchSmart PC product design videos on YouTube by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:20:13 +0000

You can see the file that notes get stored in: %ProgramData%\TouchSmartData\Data\xml\Notes.xml. If you look at that file with a text editor you may be able to figure out how to add video notes by hand-editing it, but there is no import mechanism otherwise.

Comment on HP TouchSmart PC product design videos on YouTube by Lynn Marentette

Lynn Marentette — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:01:08 +0000

I’m watching the first video. Thanks for sharing!

The presenter made a few comments that I think would translate to a high school classroom for small group projects.

Touch makes it fun
It is visually engaging and something you want to share with others, with multiple people..
It encourages young people to network together and share with their friends…

In my district, high school classes are 90 minutes long, which gives the teens plenty of time to use something like the TouchSmart.

I recently learned that Hope Technology School has been using a TouchSmart to support communication skills with students with more severe autism. They are using the TouchSmart Notes program. (You probably know about this.)

Here is the link to the video: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/health/topics/High_Tech_Helps_Autistic_Kids_Communicate_Bay_Area.html

Here’s the link to Hope Technology School – http://www.hopetechschool.org/content/home/index.htm

In addition to a high school, I also serve a program for students who have significant disabilities, including autism. I’m going to bring my TouchSmart to the school on Tuesday and work with some students with the speech and language therapist.

By the way, us is it possible to import video into the notes? TouchSmart Notes looks like it would support video social stories if it had that feature.

Comment on Getting Vista UAC elevation to work for web deployed ClickOnce applications by ServiceController on Vista | keyongtech

ServiceController on Vista | keyongtech — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:26:07 +0000

[...] Vista elevation manifests are not supported for ClickOnce web-deployed apps. See if this helps: http://www.geektieguy.com/2007/08/25…-applications/ — Phil Wilson [MVP Windows Installer] "archimago" wrote in message [...]

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:43:54 +0000

Coming right along.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Jan Mortensen

Jan Mortensen — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:05:40 +0000

I’d also love to try out the photo tagger – can I get a key?

thanks in advance
Jan

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Sergey

Sergey — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:10:41 +0000

Have same problem with my Sony VGN-CR220E laptop: sometimes (not every time) after long sleep there is no sound coming out although all the software (windows, skype, winamp) shows sound is fine (that is sound levels are changing while playing back music).
Simply going back to sleep and waking up right away helps me to get the sound back.

Comment on WIC metadata in .NET: Getting around "Property cannot be found" / System.ArgumentException /"Exception from HRESULT: 0x88982F40" by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:35:52 +0000

Glad it helped you. Thanks for the comment!

Comment on WIC metadata in .NET: Getting around "Property cannot be found" / System.ArgumentException /"Exception from HRESULT: 0x88982F40" by Gnome Rules

Gnome Rules — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:20:05 +0000

Very help in filling in the XPComment used in windows explorer. I usually gotten the Property Not found bit even though it was listed in the Photo Metadata Policy on msdn. I had to do a live search for /xmp/

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:01:23 +0000

It’s on its way.

Comment on Simple Photo Tagger by Emmanuel Huna

Emmanuel Huna — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:12:41 +0000

I’d love to try out the photo tagger – can I get a key?

Thanks,

Emmanuel

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by MVM

MVM — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:21:18 +0000

STILL NO AUDIO on Sony Vaio VGN-SR16GN running Vista Business!
My audio has been gone for about a month, and i finally have had time to try and trouble shoot.
I have tried all the fixes mentioned in the above posts and more as detailed below and I have no audio through speakers or headphone jack.
The following are a some of the fixes i have attempted with no luck:
- Installed latest Audio driver available on Sonyasia.com
- Installed latest driver from Realtek.com
- Installed default windows audio driver
- Disabled / Enabled sound device
- Skype fix attempt to initialise audio device
- Updated all Sony Vaio software through Vaio Update
- Updated all Windows Update software
- Searched archives online everywhere including Sony and Microsoft

All the software thinks the drivers and device are functioning correctly. Microphone works.
But there is still no audio output through speakers or headphone jack.

I suppose its off to Sony I go! They’ll likely reformat and start over! What a hassle!

Any other suggestions welcome please?

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Harris

Harris — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:09:47 +0000

I found a quicker way than restarting the computer. What I did was disable the High Definition Audio under “Playback Devices” then re-enable it. Hope that helps.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Dan

Dan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:53:19 +0000

This is a problem across the board with Vista I have a Dell XPS 420 and have the same problem as everyone above. There is no current fix for this as far as I can tell other then going back to XP.

Comment on HP TouchSmart software update: Touch Optimizer by Dennis

Dennis — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:56:46 +0000

Hello! 32 secs after posting the previous post I struck gold. http://www.touchsmartcommunity.com/article/95/An-HP-TouchSmart-Application-Development-Guidelines-Primer/ is all I need!

Guess that answered my first question…

/Dennis

Comment on HP TouchSmart software update: Touch Optimizer by Dennis

Dennis — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:43:49 +0000

Is there a way to extend the Smart Center software with own WPF apps that runs inside the SmartCenter?

For instance could I build my own calender and make it pop in like a plate just like photos, videos, etc?

/Dennis

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by chris

chris — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:06:06 +0000

I encountered this problem several times already and it seems that there’s no solution to it as of yet. I am already running vista SP1 and even tried installing the mentioned vista “patch” suggested above, but according to the installer, the update wasn’t for my system, when I clearly downloaded the correct installer for my Vista’s version.

I’m using Compaq presario B1200, 3Gig RAM, dual-core 2.0GHz

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Ben

Ben — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:27:47 +0000

This post was a tremendous help. Thank you.

I am seeing similar behavior on Vista Home Premium that Greg reported. In my case, the MsiGetShortcutTarget fails on Office 2007 shortcuts that are in fact installed.

Question, does anyone have further insight on resolving advertised shortcuts on Vista?

Comment on PDC 2008, Day 2 – HP TouchSmart front and center by Lynn Marentettte

Lynn Marentettte — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:59:28 +0000

It must have been a great experience to be at PDC 2008! I’m happy to see all of the TouchSmarts, and I’m excited about the possibility of WPF taking off.

By the way, I love my TouchSmart, even though I’ve always been a Mac person.

(The sensor development kit looks interesting, too.)

Thanks for the post.

Lynn

Comment on PDC 2008, Day 2 – HP TouchSmart front and center by PDC08 Day2 Keynote: Windows7, Office 14, Live Mesh, Using WPF/Silverlight to build great Windows + Web apps - Rob Relyea - XAMLified

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:38:52 +0000

[...] One blog comment about Guthrie’s keynote that I found from GeekTieGuy: [...]

Comment on Quick impressions from PDC 2008, Day 1 by Jay

Jay — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:07:35 +0000

Azure is not hard to pronounce for non-U.S. people, it is just pronounced incorrectly by U.S. people.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:36:52 +0000

Steven,

Wait a few more days. I’ll post something soon.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Steven

Steven — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:21:18 +0000

GeekTieGuy,

Enjoyed your story. I have just purchased an IQ816, looking to buy more if it proves to suit my needs well. Is there any new information about the possibility of a SDK you could pass on?

-Steven

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Jakob

Jakob — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:45:38 +0000

I’m just sitting in an internet café downloading an important 300 MB file. Nearly finished, Windows restarts. Another waiting of 1 hour…

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by BIll

BIll — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 06:08:03 +0000

Is this what you’re looking for?
http://www.nextwindow.com/support/application_notes/api.html

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:37:22 +0000

thaco,

You’d lose quite a bit of functionality if you were to run SmartCenter on non-HP hardware. Also, you’d have to make sure you don’t violate any license agreements.

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Jonathan Pallini

Jonathan Pallini — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:23:27 +0000

I hate the updater, because of what it does where I attend school. We are comissioned laptops, without the administrator accounts, so when the update restart box comes up, we cannot postpone it.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by thac0

thac0 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:31:56 +0000

How tied is the SmartCenter to the actual HP hardware? Would it be possible to run this software on any touchbased PC’s?

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:29:46 +0000

John, I don’t know where or how you would get such drivers, but if you know, you can certainly try. No guarantees it will work, though.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by John

John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:54:45 +0000

Is it possible to instal multitouch capabile drivers on the HP Touch Smart? Something from NextWindow?

Comment on Fix Windows Live Photo Gallery file associations by Jocke

Jocke — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:10:18 +0000

Hi,

thanks, this realy saved my computer… from me!

// jock

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:17:01 +0000

I was having the same trouble with my Dell. The first time it happened, I called tech support, and they had me reload my entire system to factory settings, and said it was the updates corrupting a file. Then it just happened again (my automatic updates are turned off), and I figured out it was from sleep mode. After reading here that somebody just put it into hibernate and took it back out again, that worked, my sound came right back! So try that first as a quick easy fix. I’m disabling hibernate from now on!

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Gilles

Gilles — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:36:09 +0000

I’ve the same issue, but i lose sound when i play, or when i watch a movie… not only after sleep or hibernate…

I think I’ll go back to XP ^^

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Seager

Seager — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:50:51 +0000

I have had the similar problems in the past with my Toshiba laptop and i have found that disabling the sound driver works in device manager, its a bit of a hassle, but its ok when you don’t really want to hibernate your computer.

Hopefully this will work for others too.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Uber Schnoz

Uber Schnoz — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:17:43 +0000

I have a Gateway T-1628 laptop and am having a very similar problem. The difference being that I get squelching and squealing noises after coming out of sleep mode. I think this problem is related to the HD sound cards. The problem didn’t start for me until I installed the 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate. I’m going to try the work-arounds suggested here and will post back if there offer any sort of relief.

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 2 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:39:23 +0000

Glad to be able to help!

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 2 by Ran

Ran — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:31:22 +0000

Thanks for the tip on HDTune and the event log.

A friend who’s computer I recently worked on suddenly begin having issues yesterday with running very slow and displaying ‘missing file’ messages.

Sure enough, a check of the event log revealed a slew of the following messages:

‘ The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D. has a bad block’

guess it’s time to get a new hard drive……

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:22:03 +0000

Not off the top of my head. It’s been a long while since I’ve worked with this, so my only feeble suggestion is to investigate some of the constructions that Blend has for doing certain things only at design time. The details escape me right now, but I think I saw something on the Expression Blog at Microsoft about this several months (perhaps even a year) ago.

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by Chad

Chad — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:25:11 +0000

When I use Application.Current.FindResource, Blend does not render the UI. The app works, but Blend throws an exception error because it cannot find the resource.

Suggestions?

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status by GeekTieGuy » Listen to you hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status - part 2

GeekTieGuy » Listen to you hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status - part 2 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:12:19 +0000

[...] make a long story short: Even though I’ve mentioned in the past that it’s a good idea to monitor your hard drive’s SMART status to detect potentially [...]

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:42:56 +0000

Brewer88,

That’s a bit of a tricky question for me to answer. I’d suggest getting one of those foam-lined aluminum suitcases where you can cut the foam on the inside to fit the thing you want to transport.

Sorry, that’s all I can think of.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Brewer88

Brewer88 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:48:13 +0000

Ok i got a real simple question here, i have the HP Touchsmart IQ506 i bought instead of laptop because i thought i could make more of a portable device but right now i am having difficulty coming up with any sort of good case that would be used to carry the thing, i know that it has a weight to it and needs to be plugged in but i travel for around 2 weeks at a time in one hotel so i just need to keep in case with out scratching the oh so expensive screen

Comment on About by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:42:27 +0000

Lynn,

Yes, the problem may be that the programs you’re trying to install aren’t compatible with 64-bit Vista, although there is a 32-bit compatibility layer present on 64-bit Vista.

If the programs have hardware dependencies you may need to find 64-bit drivers from the manufacturer.

Also, User Account Control can get in the way. You need to be able to provide an administrator password to install new software on Vista. If your user account is already equipped with administrator privileges, you need to watch for a message asking you to confirm that you want to install the software. If you walk away from the computer before this message pops up and you stay away for an extended period of time, the message will silently go away and your software installer will not finish installing anything.

Without more specific information, this is all I can think of to try to help.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:33:52 +0000

Hey Maurizio,

Since you live in Switzerland, how about waiting until around October and then making a trip across the border to Germany? According to this page, the HP TouchSmart should be available sometime in October in Germany: http://h41131.www4.hp.com/de/de/pr/unterhaltung-fuer-fingerfertige.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_DEDE

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Maurizio

Maurizio — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:15:33 +0000

I tried to contact HP to know if they have any plan in distributing the iq506 in Europe (I live in Switzerland)… no answer
So I’m trying to buy it through the use of a parcel forwarding service like bongo and I’ve calculated I will spend around 2000 dollars
Any advice or rumor to share?
Thank you…

Comment on About by Lynn Marentette

Lynn Marentette — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:16:47 +0000

I have a new HP Touchsmart, and I am not able to get applications to install, including Microsoft applications. Is this a problem with Vista, or the fact that it is a 64-bit machine? I can’t find much troubleshooting information about this issue.

By the way, I guess I’m a geek-tie-gal. I wear a lanyard all the time, with two memory sticks, for a total of 5 gigs.

I appreciate your blog.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Jon

Jon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:06:53 +0000

Well, since you want more names to convince HP & all, add me to the list of people who would like to see an SDK & dev group for the TouchSmart interface. I do not own one of these devices just yet, but I am strongly intrigued and moving quickly in that direction. One sticking point is the lack of a strong path to future applications and the ability to build some of my own on this new touch platform.

But, following on Theo’s theme, this may quickly get scooped by an iMac Touch which I am certain is humming away in a lab in Cupertino, wending toward a future release. I suppose that folks in Redmond may want to manage this as a neat follow-on for their touch capabilities in some post-Vista OS, but that is going to be way too late to lead.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Lynn Marentette

Lynn Marentette — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:17:20 +0000

Hi.

I worked on some touch-screen applications for HCI and Ubicom courses last year, and I held off purchasing the HP TouchSmart until last weekend. I’m a school psychologist who who works with special needs students. I think there is much potential for the TouchSmart in education.

I would like to customize the navigation of the TouchSmart screen for the students I work with. Some have severe autism, and others have significant cognitive delays. We have a couple of interactive whiteboards at our school, but we also need something that could be used by two students at the same time, working together, or by a student and a special education teacher or therapist.

I understand that the TouchSmart has capability of handling multi-touch programming. I’d love to transform some of my single-touch applications to multi-touch, and test them on my new TouchSmart.

By the way, I have experimented with WPF and attended a couple of code camps so I could understand the basics.

Any suggestions? I am all for open source. I saw that Java can handle multi-touch now.

Lynn

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Polymath Hacker

Polymath Hacker — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:57:50 +0000

I’d like to hear more about the TouchSmart SDK. Please contact me when time permits.

thanks

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Mioplanet

Mioplanet — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:36:43 +0000

Me again – Here is the web page for a software created for the HP TouchSmart. Finger Draw is a tool to draw and take notes.
http://lab.mioplanet.com/hptouchsmart_fingerdraw.php

Is it possible to add custom icons in the TouchSmart software? We have found how to add entry from the configuration files but the icons seems to be embedded in the binary files.

Comment on Walt Mossberg heaps praises on the HP TouchSmart PC – or maybe not… by Mioplanet

Mioplanet — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:00:38 +0000

The HP TouchSmart is a great platform we was waiting for since years.
This is now our first toy for R&H… You are so close from a fully open system.
One more small step… please allow us to put stuff in the main interface (tile) and give us access to events (release) for the touchscreen… Thanks!

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by Mioplanet

Mioplanet — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:54:09 +0000

“If it were possible to write software that could end up as “tiles” in the TouchSmart software, would that be interesting to you?”

YES – Interesting – What we would need is to be able to create and refresh an HTML file (a web page) displayed in the “tiles”. or at list a bitmap file as interactivity is not required.

And wouldn’t it be possible to send a key code to Windows when some events with the fingers are catched? I mean we could read the keyboard events (as for the mouse) and catch the event when the finger leave the screen for example.

We have many ideas and are already able to do a lot with your touchSmart software. It is intelligent and seems to be open (at least on the track of being more open).

We are working on:
- LiveTV (1000 channels worldwide)
- YouTube integration
- List / To Do
- Finger Drawing (with visual effects)
- Easier import of multimedia libraries
- Customizable home page for the browser
- Games and stress toys
- Musical instruments
- Weather/real time satellite view
- Learning tools for kids

Of course we don’t create all for the HP TouchSmart (UMPC is another target) but we customize at 100% for a perfect integration.

Any help, contacts etc would be great…

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Mioplanet

Mioplanet — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:40:24 +0000

Hi,

We are currently creating a drawing software for the HP TouchSmart. We don’t use any api but we can have our application launch, minimize and restore when needed so the integration is correct.

For a drawing software multi touch support would be fantastic, but at least being capable of detecting when the finger is touching the screen (not just moving) would be a minimum… we are not able to detect when the finger is releasing the screen (we just detect the touch and move events)

Any kind of help would be great.
We can give you the alpha version of the software, and you can have a look here (lab.mioplanet.com) for various samples of what we do.

(currently we just want to create a freeware for the HP touchSmart)

Thank you!

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by JR Benning

JR Benning — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:19:05 +0000

Hello GeekTieGuy,

I was hoping we could talk a little about the API/SDK offline. Please email me when you have a chance.

Best regards,
J.R. Benning

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:04:36 +0000

I highly doubt that. Media Center provides one of the things that Vista has and Mac OS doesn’t: TV recording / time shifting. That’s too big a thing to give up.

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by GeekNoMore

GeekNoMore — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:06:33 +0000

If I could guess. I think MCE itself might go away…

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:38:28 +0000

M, thanks for those comments. They are very encouraging. Just one additional thought: How long did it take Sun to make Java open source? And how much pressure from developers/users did it take?

Luckily the developers have not yet been reassigned to a new project, so hang in there, quite a bit could be done even without going completely open source.

-G

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by miams

miams — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:17:33 +0000

I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this site.

I’ve been looking at the iq506 and look forward to purchasing it in the next couple of weeks to put in my remodeled kitchen.

The touchsmart software and interface is both the computer’s greatest attribute and weakest link. The concern is that the touchsmart software is only developed by a handful of HP developers; who at some point will get reassigned to some new project (if not already.)

I think a terrific business case can be made for making the software open source. It would let the customers and users build on the initial HP work as a springboard. Users could then lead the way, instead of HP trying to anticipate the desires of the marketplace. All the while it would drive more and more sales for leader in touch based computing, HP.

If Sun can make Java open source, surely HP can jump thru whatever hurdles to make SmartCenter open source.

-M

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:08:03 +0000

Caro, yes the 504 has plain vanilla Media Center for vids/photos and all that, but no remote and no recording options. If you have Netflix, you can get a little add-in app (called My Netflix, http://www.anpark.com/Software.aspx) for Media Center that lets you consume their WatchNow catalog.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Christos

Christos — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:29:19 +0000

The thing is that faults like this shouldn’t exist. The KB mentioned are crappy anyway, they cause nothing but trouble.
Anyway, we all should go get a GN/Linux distro and have this crap only for games and photoshop! :p

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by Caro

Caro — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:25:51 +0000

well thank you very much for ur answer hehe. Still u mean as TV tuner the remote control and the recording options right, I mean the IQ504 still has the Vids/photos and how u crop them and stuff right? =[ sorry about my noobie questions =x. Ty for you time.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:11:33 +0000

ElGordo, I’m not sure what your comment means exactly, but if you can get QuarkXPress to run on Vista (64 bit), that might do it. I don’t know of any other software that’s included on the IQ500 series that will let you put photos in a sequence that will stick. Most programs that help you organize photos seem to force some kind of metadata-based sort order on photos (like filename, creation date, etc.). Then again that’s just for browsing through the pictures. I think what you’re after is creation of some physical artifact from digital photos. A word processor or presentation software package might do for that. Or some other photo package that lets you create books or albums and submit them online for printing.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:02:35 +0000

Caro, sure, you can use normal stuff on the desktop. The OS is Vista, and it runs all the normal Vista programs. You probably wouldn’t use those with touch, though. If you want the Media Center TV stuff, make sure you look at the IQ506. The IQ504 does not have a TV tuner and it’s not something that’s available as an upgrade to the IQ504.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by Caro

Caro — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:41:23 +0000

I might just buy one of the IQ500, Ive seen a lot of videos on youtube and the ads as well, never seen someone using msn messenger or simple microsoft office programs… so thats my question, beside the excellent Media Center, u can use normal stuff u use on ur normal desktop right?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Skofo

Skofo — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:08:18 +0000

Awesome. I’ve been looking for something like this..

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Jamel L. Raines

Jamel L. Raines — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:54:52 +0000

Also the Workaround given by drr works great!

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Jamel L. Raines

Jamel L. Raines — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:54:07 +0000

Same problem I have with Sony VAIO VGN-CR190 will give the BIOS update from sony a try.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Joel Dankwa

Joel Dankwa — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:45:37 +0000

I have the same issue on my Sony Vaio CR190. It’s the biggest pain. At least nothing is wrong with the hard drive of my actual vaio and this is simply the fault of the OS. I’ve been looking around, and there have been no signs of a fix as of late.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:03:21 +0000

Theo,

Thanks for voicing your point of view.

The reason I couldn’t answer the question directly is because I can’t make any promises on HP’s behalf on my personal blog. At the point in time when Gordon asked the question, we hadn’t announced the IQ500 series yet, so I had to stay quiet on that. I still can’t talk about any SDK/API plans, but here’s what I can tell you:

Speaking purely for myself (not HP) and speaking as a software developer, I have been advocating within HP for an SDK from the very first version of the TouchSmart PC, even before we were halfway done with the software. Since I can’t talk about internal company details here, let me just say there have been severe constraints on what we’ve been able to do so far. In the future [a few years], perhaps I’ll be able to share some details on the limits we developed the IQ500 series software under. I think it would blow your mind.

In general, it’s all well and good to want to do something, but there are several hurdles one has to go through in a big company to accomplish things: politics, skepticism, limits on people and time, etc.

What really helps (you wouldn’t believe how much) is when people make encouraging comments about wanting to see API/SDK type work done so they can start their own development on gadgets/addins/plugins.

Believe me, we fully realize what needs to be done. We see it quite, quite clearly.

If you personally are interested in developing something, just let me know and we can talk more about that in a less public forum.

-G

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Theo Stauffer

Theo Stauffer — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:14:40 +0000

“Gordon, I can’t really answer that question directly, but I’d like to turn it around: Would you like to see more of this sort of software? If yes, what do you think would be most interesting to see? Do you own a TouchSmart?”

I couldn’t belive I actually read this. It’s no wonder Apple walks all over you guys. Microsoft, HP, Sony, er al all have true innovating ideas on occasion and then proceed to f*ck it up totally by being brain dead on the rest of the process. Here’s a tip: HP could sell a lot more of this class of device if they opened up the SDK/API and allowed developers to write their own apps for them. Presentation software, Virtual DJ/VJ tools, you name it.

I just cannot believe that you people cannot see this yourselves. Maybe that’s why Apple is Apple and HP makes one night wonders….

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Paul Higginbottom

Paul Higginbottom — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:13:19 +0000

Same issue here, no sound after resuming from sleep on a brand new Dell XPS 420. Very frustrating. Dell says it’s a “vista problem”.

I will post back if I find a solution.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeoffM

GeoffM — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:33:17 +0000

I have 2 of the 700 series, (Personally I prefer AMD) I certinally would like to try an Upgrade of the SmartCenter (I’m assuming that SmartCenter is the application on the new 500 series) prehaps I’ll order a 560 recovery CD and try to extract the HP Apps

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeoffM

GeoffM — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:18:44 +0000

I have 2 (IQ770′s) we love em – I do wish that HP would post updates for the SmartCenter as the IQ500 series shows the possibilities the hardware of the 700′s is very much still viable for some years to come

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Gareth

Gareth — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:34:29 +0000

I have the same issue. For some reason when I tried some months back I couldn’t install the hotfix, but randomly found a neat trick to easily resolve it at around the same time so didn’t investigate further.

1. Download Skype.
2. Set up a contact, anyone to call. Not tried it as I use Skype and have a few contacts, but you might be able to set up a fake one.
3. Dial someone who’s offline.
4. For some bizarre reason, the dialling tone for skype resets whatever the issue is with the drivers / sound / whatever, and restores fully functional sound.
5. I think this is only an issue with machines with HD sound, but I may be wrong?

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by El Gordo

El Gordo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:34:40 +0000

I do massive photo sequencing and editing for family histories. I struggle with paperport, picasa, etc, when it comes to SIMPLY GETTING THE PHOTOS INTO A SEQUENCE WHICH WILL STICK. Windows seems to be the enemy. Can this new box/UI do better? Does it overlay paperPort? How does it work with QuarkXPress, too?

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by MingS

MingS — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:55:58 +0000

Thanks NZHelper for your comments. I”m also from NZ and with the same Sony VAIO laptop and same problem! No sound in Vista after hibernate. Anyway, used your suggestion and all is now great – thank you very much. Found I had to search for model number in downloads link (as above) then in the top blue search box use the string [model #] +vista +audio.

Sorry this is no help to people with other brands of laptop. Microsoft are not doing anyone any favours by being helpful, that’s for sure.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by NZHelper

NZHelper — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:30:18 +0000

I had the same problem on my Sony Vaio VGN-CR22G (Black) after I installed Vista SP1. I had no sound from bootup or when trying to play mp3′s. i checked my earphone port, also not working, tried to play an mp3 file on a Live Linux boot Cd, that worked. So it could only be a driver issue.

I downloaded the Vista sound drivers from Sony’s Asian website, don’t know if it’s any different than the US/Euro version, but it WORKED for me. Now I’ve got my sound back again.

Give this a try:

http://www.sony-asia.com/section/downloads

Enter a model closest to yours and search for audio.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:55:15 +0000

No the difference between the old and new software would not make a difference as far as app install goes.

But, as I tried to say before, the application recovery may not work if the HP image is wiped out and a clean Vista is installed.

You can experiment with it by making sure that you burn the system recovery DVDs right after getting to the Windows Desktop for the first time and then verifying that the DVDs work by using them to recover the system immediately after. That way you can always use the DVDs to get back to “clean slate”, including the touch software.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by John

John — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:41:42 +0000

Thanks for your quick response about the vista ultimate issue! It is good to know that an upgrade to vista ultimate would probably be fine except for the tech support part.
But in case of a clean install, would the newer IQ506 be a better choice since (as you mentioned) it uses a standalone WPF application vs the integration with Media Center in the IQ775? Does that architectural change make any difference at all in terms of application installation when doing a clean install of vista ultimate?

As such, given the price point, form factor and cpu, I am definitely inclined towards the new model- the only thing that I like more in the old model is the vertical adjustability of the LCD – and maybe I’d be able to get a good deal when it is discontinued!

Thanks again!

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:04:33 +0000

It shouldn’t be a problem to upgrade to Ultimate and preserve the touch software parts. I’m not sure how the recovery would work if you wanted to restore the entire system after such and upgrade, though (I’m not very familiar with the recovery software.)

If you plan on wiping the HP software image on the hard drive out completely, replace it with a clean Vista Ultimate, and then want to recover individual applications, that might not work properly, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

You should be able to “upgrade” the HP preload of Vista. After that, you’d probably want to plan out when and how to use Ultimate’s complete PC backup feature. Not sure if such an upgrade would be supported by HP. Technically, once you buy a Vista upgrade off the shelf, you’re a Microsoft customer, not an HP customer anymore.

The IQ700 series will be discontinued shortly after the IQ506/IQ504 are in the stores, so if you want the IQ775, better do it quickly. You wouldn’t get the same software experience, though. Also, the IQ506/IQ504 has a much different form factor. Another difference is that the 700 series is AMD based, whereas the 500 series is Intel based.

Let me know if you need other information to make your decision.

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by John

John — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:11:42 +0000

Hi,

It was interesting reading your write-ups. I am thinking of getting an IQ775 or IQ506, but would really want to install Vista Ultimate on it. Is it possible on either the new or the old toucsmart to upgrade to vista ulimate and then install the touch part of the software from the revovery/application disks that might be supplied with the PC. I own a copy of Vista Ultimate and really need some of the features, so if one of these machines is more likely to be better suited for me, I’d go for that. I understand that the final outcome would probably be known only when I actually try it, but I’d like to make a decision based on your input.

Would really appreciate your comment on this, Thanks!

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Alex

Alex — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:35:03 +0000

Well like ussually happen, it’s just about posting and you’ll find the solution a minutes later. For Sony users, sony has released a BIOS update in his website that solves this issue. The problem comes with the instalation of windows vista SP1 and this BIOS updates solves

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Alex

Alex — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:21:51 +0000

I have the same problem with VAIO PCG-5J1P. I have windows vista SP1 installed and the driver version for Realteck High Definition Audio is 6.0.1.5391. When starting up the system I have sound, but if a wait more than let say 30 secs the audio is gone. I have to hybernate and de-hybernate and then the sound comes back. I’ve also found that if I start any playback program (i.e. winamp) immediately after the system starts up, the sound is never gone. But if the song playback ends and there is no new sound after some seconds, the sound is gone again. So the solution I have in the meantime is never to shut down winamp! I think I did not have this problem before updating to SP1
Please if anyone knows a solution, please post it here thanks

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by Richard Morton

Richard Morton — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:08:21 +0000

Congrats on this – I’ve been watching the videos on the HP website and the software looks amazing!
I’ll definately going to be pre-ordering an IQ500 (I have been a happy user of the older Touchsmart PC for over a year).

Now my question:
Watching the videos it shows a limited amount of two fingered ‘multitouch’ action and this is confirmed in your post above.
I know you mentioned that there’s only a limited amount of ‘dual-touch’ because of time constraints. As a WPF developer myself with a passion for touchscreen apps, is there any supported/unsupported ways to get access to the dual-touch stuff on this PC?

Basically, I’m writing a touchscreen app myself with WPF and there are certain areas where having dual/multitouch could enhance my app, so I’m wondering in the IQ500 might be a good testing/debugging machine for basic multitouch, instead of hacking together a projector based setup.
I’d love to know any official (or even unofficial) API’s/hacks/tips etc that might be accessable to developers on the IQ500. (Feel free to email me if you like!)

Either way, I’m definately going to be purchasing one of these and see what I can do with it.
Great job on the software (and the blog – I hadn’t come across this one before and I do keep up with most WPF blogs), it looks fantastic!

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Guy

Guy — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:27:58 +0000

Same problem on Toshiba Satellite 100-106, only it appeared for the first time after installing SP-1…
any solution yet?

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:35:53 +0000

Hey Peter,

It’s been too long. Glad to see you like what we’ve done.

There are no plans for updating the existing TouchSmart software at this point, unfortunately. We’ve taken things out of MediaCenter (now a standalone WPF app), and it would be somewhat difficult to migrate settings.

Thanks for your kind words!

Comment on The cat’s finally out of the bag – The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced by Peter Dampier

Peter Dampier — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:12:02 +0000

Congrats – Its great to see more of your great work out there!! I can’t wait to take a look at one of these systems.

Will you be releasing the software as an update for the original TouchSmart?

Comment on Vista from a developer’s point of view by GeekTieGuy » The cat’s finally out of the bag - The new HP TouchSmart IQ500 has been announced

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:50:18 +0000

[...] were created using WPF. I don’t mean to be a fanboy, but I’ve said it in the past, WPF is powerful stuff. The ability to have separate people working on styling the software while other people work on [...]

Comment on Only a few more days now to the Big Unveiling by Melvin Yuan

Melvin Yuan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:13:47 +0000

Hi there!

Pity you won’t be able to make it

And I hope we give you a solid enough account of what looks like a really exciting event ahead!

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by dilip

dilip — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:17:22 +0000

I want to use this software with my website and i also want to advertise your website at my website so is it that ok .let me know
thanks
reply me at my email id….

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy » Only a few more days now to the Big Unveiling

GeekTieGuy » Only a few more days now to the Big Unveiling — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:45:34 +0000

[...] event in Berlin, Germany where some of the stuff I’ve been working on (since the HP TouchSmart) will be shown to the public for the first time. I hear it’s going to have top billing on [...]

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by drr

drr — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:29:35 +0000

*Correction: “…before updating drivers…”

It seems that disable/enable audio device works.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by drr

drr — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:10:26 +0000

Same problem on a VGNCR305, or even worse. There’s no audio after booting vista sp1 normally (sometimes). Already installed Bios update and Realtek audio driver update. It worked for a while since before updating windows only played initialization sound but then…
M$ and Sony just keep foolishing us.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by zOxta

zOxta — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:24:51 +0000

Same here for a Toshiba Satellite A-100 Notebook , tried hell lots of drivers for the audio card , its the same.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Eddie

Eddie — Sun, 25 May 2008 01:14:50 +0000

I have the same problem on a new Sony Vaio VGN CR220E notebook (the red pretty one). I called Sony and they acted as if they’d never heard of the problem. The best they’ll do is send me a box and have me send it back and wait 7-10 business days (2 weeks!!!) and they’ll just reinstall everything. And *maybe* that will work. Wow. Lose 2 weeks of business and *maybe* starting over will work.

I too had hoped that Service Pack 1 would resolve it, but it hasn’t. Here’s what has worked so far, thanks to a suggestion from another post:

After the problem occurs (usually when I log back in after a long sleep), if the sound doesn’t work, I purposefully go into Hibernate (have to wait 2-3 minutes to make sure the battery indicator stops, to make sure it’s completely hibernated). Then I power back on to resume. Voila! The sound reappears.

It may not make sense, but it’s 3x quicker than shutting all the way down, then restarting all my apps.

Comment on Try this search on Google. I promise you’ll be surprised! by Bill Scarvie

Bill Scarvie — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:43:40 +0000

This is an eye opener. Now let’s take it to scale. Go to the photographer Chris Jordan’s website, http://www.chrisjordan.com, and click on the “By the Numbers” link. Scroll down and you will find an image entitled “Cans, Seurat, 2007″ that depicts the number of soda cans emptied every 30 seconds. Using your calculation of 21.333 cans thrown away equals a gallon of gas, the volume of gas consumed every 30 seconds is 4,969 gallons. I don’t have access to recycling numbers, but let’s say we recycle 50% of all cans consumed. That’s still an astonishing 4,969 gallons a minute, and at nearly $4 a gallon, we’re throwing away nearly $20,000 a minute.
Be sure you spend enough time at Chris’s site to look at all his images. The scale of waste will further blow your mind. I know him well enough to have faith in his research.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:35:52 +0000

No problem. I haven’t seen problems with MS Office 2003 shortcuts myself, but I have seen Office 2007 shortcuts work. Maybe it depends on the install source (admin share, SMS, etc.)?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:41:08 +0000

Thanks for responding! I am, in fact, using the WshShell method after the MsiGetShorcutTarget() returns null from parsing a .lnk file, and it works like a champ. However, it’s weird. It’s the MS Office 2003 advertising shortcuts that are returning null in my case, and I know they’re installed as I use them daily. The weird part is that the return value fromMsiGetShortcutTarget() call is 1603, which is ERROR_INSTALL_FAILED. The WshShell method returns the icon file for these links. Not sure what’s going on here, but I’m going to try it on some other advertising links that I know I have. Thanks for responding and letting me know that it’s not a fundamental Vista issue!

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:25:27 +0000

I’ve got it to work on Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Maybe in your case the shortcuts are for things that are truly advertised and not installed yet, i.e. there is no real target at the time you try to resolve the link? Also, I apply the WshShell method after MsiGetShortcutTarget() returns null (note I didn’t include that code in the downloadable sample). I assume you are doing that too?

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:08:17 +0000

Have you ever gotten this code to work on Vista? The MsiGetShortcutTarget() method is returning nothing for advertised shortcuts on my Vista Business OS.

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by Tim

Tim — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:31:49 +0000

Regarding the issue with the design view and the default language – you can define a RD for your default language in your App.xaml and later optionally add another RD in the described way, the new items will hide the items defined for the default language. BTW for review purposes you could also build an “identity” RD on-the-fly mapping the key value to the key value. With such a auxilary construct you can display your forms showing your keys instead of the values.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by dh

dh — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:16:42 +0000

I have the same prolem with satellite p105-s6147

Comment on About by Varun

Varun — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:08:58 +0000

Hi,

I just bought a touchsmart PC, and in the process of cleaning up the PC, I ran a program called VistaOptimizer, which cleaned up a lot of mis-pointed shortcuts.

Unfortunately, it also blew away your excellent SmartCenter program and SmartCalender. Now, when I run SmartCenter, I just get plain old vanilla MediaCenter without all the smartcenter addons.

Please e-mail me with any help you can provide. My only alternative at the moment is to restore the computer and re-start from scratch and lose hours of work.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:04:37 +0000

Glad to be of help. And thanks for taking the time to comment as well!

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Greg Zelesnik

Greg Zelesnik — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:38:14 +0000

This was incredibly helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time to publish this explanation and example on the web. I have been trying to figure out how to parse advertised shortcuts for many hours, and this was just the ticket. thanks!

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:12:24 +0000

I’ve looked for updated drivers, but so far no luck. And I’m kind of tired of having to keep looking. Maybe Windows Update will bring me one some fine day.

Comment on Maker Faire drowning in success by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:08:51 +0000

I only went once before, two years ago. Compared to that it was a zoo, basically.
Yes. TechCon was exhausting, but so far I’m still alive. It was nice to see Charlie.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by markowe

markowe — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:03:34 +0000

Just to echo that I have this very annoying problem too, on Toshiba Satellite running Vista SP1. There still doesn’t seem to be a definite solution but it MAY be helped by an updated sound driver, since I had a similar issue with an old ATI video driver too, not working after resume. However, my sound drivers ARE up to date in my case…

Comment on Maker Faire drowning in success by Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:57:56 +0000

Wow. Sorry to hear that you didn’t get into the Maker Faire. I was eagerly looking forward to hearing from you how it was. So would you say it’s gotten increasingly crowded from past years?

P. S. Hope you’re surviving TechCon, Charlie mentioned that he ran into you.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 3

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 3 — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:12:51 +0000

[...] « Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 2 Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 [...]

Comment on Remember to unhook those event handlers! by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2 — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:11:47 +0000

[...] issues we had run into. That’s when I learned that there is such a thing as a “managed memory leak“, which can be introduced in WPF without the programmer necessarily realizing it. Towards the [...]

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 2 by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 1

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 1 — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:10:11 +0000

[...] « Tom Chapin – Not on the Test Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 2 [...]

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:00:15 +0000

Gordon, I can’t really answer that question directly, but I’d like to turn it around: Would you like to see more of this sort of software? If yes, what do you think would be most interesting to see? Do you own a TouchSmart?

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 4 by Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:42:43 +0000

So what does the future hold? Will we see more of this sort of software?

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 4

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 4 — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:40:30 +0000

[...] the Engadget leak and the launch plans at CES 2007. If you missed the first three parts, they are here, here and [...]

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 2 by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 3

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 3 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:51:26 +0000

[...] Photography « Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 2 [...]

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Mark Foecking

Mark Foecking — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:45:01 +0000

It is true that on a calorie equivalent basis, that a bicycle gets about 600 mpg. However, since the average American diet takes 10 calories of fossil energy to make 1 calorie of food, cycling get more like 60 mpg. Of course, one would still eat whatever your form of transport, so the advantage is still o the bicycle. I’m just pointing out that bicycle eficiency hinges heavily on the energy inputs of one’s food.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:50:36 +0000

Unfortunately, the software is only available with the purchase of an HP TouchSmart PC. It is not available for standalone download or purchase.

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by Michael

Michael — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:16:07 +0000

Dear sir,

From the start i had eyes on your smartcenter software, i love it! I’m glad that i found the source. In my home i have hung a touchscreen and i use it witch MCE, works fine. But SmartCenter should boost my functionality, it’s perfect. Is it possible to buy or download SmartCenter?

Will you repley?

Met vriendelijke groet, (greeting)
Michiel Mertens
The Netherlands

Comment on CompositionTarget.Rendering can be a CPU hog by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:12:18 +0000

[...] once to get more in-depth training on WPF and Vista, and once to get help with troubleshooting performance issues we had run into. That’s when I learned that there is such a thing as a “managed memory [...]

Comment on Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 by GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2

GeekTieGuy » Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter - Part 2 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:11:15 +0000

[...] Photography « Inside the HP TouchSmart PC software: HP SmartCenter – Part 1 [...]

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:45:52 +0000

I only have one other device that I connect from time to time, and that’s a Wacom digitizer tablet. (Incidentally, when this is plugged in, the laptop won’t wake up from sleep properly. It turns back on, but then doesn’t proceed past whatever the BIOS wants to do before handing control back to Vista.)

I tried various resume from sleep scenarios to see exactly when the problem happens. My conclusion so far is that as long as the laptop doesn’t completely power off while in sleep mode, sound comes back properly.

I specifically made it hibernate and then unplugged the power cord and removed the battery to force it completely “off” while in sleep mode. When it resumed from sleep (hibernate, to be more precise), it had no sound.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by Eric Yun

Eric Yun — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:27:02 +0000

KB937077 is in SP1. Are there many devices connected to your laptop? Will the problem go away if you remove those devices?

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:02:56 +0000

Umm, yes, that’s the hotfix I linked to way at the top of my post. I believe that SP1 supersedes or includes it. It’s still installed on the system I have the problem with, anyway, even after installing SP1.

Any other suggestions are very welcome!

I guess one other detail about the problem is that the computer has more than one user account on it, and sometimes it gets put in hibernation with both users logged on.

Comment on Vista SP1 – still no audio after resume from sleep by John Doe

John Doe — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:15:44 +0000

Did you try applying this patch?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937077/

I found it by doing a google search with query “vista no sound after sleep”.

Hope that helps!

Comment on Windows Live Writer Beta 3 startup problems solved by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:41:20 +0000

Glad it worked for you. Thanks for the comment!

Comment on Can’t install .NET 3.5 on Vista x64? Try uninstalling KB110806. by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:40:20 +0000

That’s a great way to do it too. If you already have early access to SP1, that is. Once it goes public, more people will be able to do the same thing. Thanks for the comment!

Comment on Can’t install .NET 3.5 on Vista x64? Try uninstalling KB110806. by Dirkv

Dirkv — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:14:57 +0000

I had the same problems on Vista x64. I solved it by first upgrading to Vista SP1, downloaded dotNetFx35setup.exe and ran the install (without a problem) …

Comment on Windows Live Writer Beta 3 startup problems solved by TomFromBuenosAires

TomFromBuenosAires — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:11:28 +0000

Yeapp! Man! Thanks a Millions! that fixed the issue, now WLW startup!!

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:24:40 +0000

That would be a good question to ask someone like Charlie Owen on the Media Center Team, I think. http://blog.retrosight.com/

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by Rahul

Rahul — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:31:59 +0000

What ..? XBAP will not be run in MCE..? Then why at start Microsoft allowed to do for MCE.?

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 05:46:00 +0000

I can only give you my personal guess. Since WPF in .NET 3.5 is more or less a collection of new Class Libraries for the 2.0 SP1 CLR, like WPF in .NET 3.0 was, WPF apps for Media Center won’t be possible for future versions of Media Center. But I don’t work for Microsoft, so it really is nothing more than a guess. A half-educated guess, but still a guess.

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by Jason Irwin

Jason Irwin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:55:55 +0000

It specifically states .NET 3.0 XAML and XBAP applications. Is there any chance they are still suupporting .NET 3.5 apps?

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status by GeekTieGuy » Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode

GeekTieGuy » Computer performance puzzle: Hard drive PIO vs. (U)DMA mode — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:06:15 +0000

[...] Photography « Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status [...]

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:59:23 +0000

That’s what I thought too. Apparently it’s changed.

Comment on Microsoft deprecates support for XBAP WPF apps in version 5.3 of the Media Center SDK by Fil Mackay

Fil Mackay — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:27:26 +0000

Seems a bit crazy / short-sighted, I thought WPF would replace MCML (or underly it).

Comment on Windows "7": What will Microsoft learn from Windows Vista? by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:26:34 +0000

In the case of copying files, there’s a very detailed and technical analysis of the changes that were made in Vista SP1 over on Mark Russinovich’s blog: http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2008/02/04/2826167.aspx
I happen to have the impression that the core is plenty fast already. It’s most likely all the stuff that’s been heaped on top of the core that causes some of the issues with performance.

Comment on How to parse "special" .lnk files, aka. MSI shortcuts aka. Windows Installer advertised shortcuts using C# by Parsing those *.lnk type files - VB.NET version | Hodson Report

Parsing those *.lnk type files - VB.NET version | Hodson Report — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:51:57 +0000

[...] sure to drop by his site and grab the rest of the sample code just incase you need more info – even if it is done in [...]

Comment on Windows "7": What will Microsoft learn from Windows Vista? by Patrice

Patrice — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:42:31 +0000

Agreed.

Microsoft should rethink Windows from the core, nah, from the soul.

In 2008, it’s hard to explain that formatting a diskette, printing over a parallele port printer or copying files between two usb drives takes top CPU usage. You don’t see this on a Linux OS. Heck, in 1991+, you didn’t see that CPU usage in Linux on hardware from those years!

The next version of Windows should not add pizazz or gizmos, but be 1) Extremelly stable and 2) Extremelly fast.

And by “fast” I mean; not by adding more optimizing software and tools, but making the core faster.

Pat

Comment on Vista from a developer’s point of view by GeekTieGuy » Windows "7": What will Microsoft learn from Windows Vista?

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:25:27 +0000

[...] a bit of a shame, because there are lots of truly great innovations in Vista (one of which is WPF). Microsoft will probably be more tight-lipped about Windows “7″ as a result. They [...]

Comment on Apple’s new campus in Cupertino is taking shape by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:21:47 +0000

I think they’re taking their time with new buildings. Probably need lots of permits and approvals from the city, etc.

I’ve heard that for now they’re just placing people in some of the old HP building because they don’t have enough room elsewhere.

So – patience. You’ll still want to work there, once the new buildings are up…

Comment on Apple’s new campus in Cupertino is taking shape by Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:26:32 +0000

There using those old ugly HP buildings??? I thought they would tare that down and build a new nice campus. I wanted to work they one day. But not any more. Id tke the old Infinite Loop over this anyday, eeww

Comment on A Lego Christmas by Tech News » Blog Archive » Show Us Your LEGO Christmas Trees

Tech News » Blog Archive » Show Us Your LEGO Christmas Trees — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 06:55:21 +0000

[...] The GeekTieGuy sent us in a picture of his personal LEGO Christmas tree, and it gave us an idea: send us a link to a picture of your own LEGO Christmas tree, and [...]

Comment on Introducing CardSharkV by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:34:24 +0000

In essence that’s what happens behind the scenes when the user drags the file onto the field. The key file gets copied to the location that the program checks on every run. In my experience it would be too complicated a task for some users to have to find the right folder to copy the file to. Granted, drag-and-drop may be too hard for some as well, but at least they have one part (CardSharkV) right in front of them.

Comment on Introducing CardSharkV by Michael Lang

Michael Lang — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:14:37 +0000

On Coding Horror
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001021.html

you mentioned… “I recently implemented a registration key scheme for a tiny digitial image management utility I developed, called CardSharkV. Entering the key is done by dragging and dropping a keyfile onto a field in the application. You can drag the file either from Windows Explorer or an email client (the key is delivered via email). I thought this was a good way of avoiding most of the problems Jeff mentions in this article. ”

Why not just have the user copy the license file into the application folder. Let the application search for a license everytime it is run. For my product I use XHeo which supports this type of licensing (along with others). – http://www.xheo.com

As of this post, my website is still under construction. In a few weeks it should be complete.

Comment on Silicon Valley Code Camp impressions by Kim Greenlee

Kim Greenlee — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:11:46 +0000

It’s great to hear that you got value from my talk. If that recording turned out okay, you’re welcome to post it to the Code Camp wiki.

Kim

Comment on Silicon Valley Code Camp impressions by Peter Kellner

Peter Kellner — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:43:57 +0000

Glad you made it to code camp. It’s inspired people who made the event successful in addition to all the speakers of course. See you next year!

Comment on Silicon Valley Code Camp impressions by Chris Sims

Chris Sims — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:00:43 +0000

Greetings,

I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed my session: What Makes Agile Projects Succeed (or fail)?

Did I mention that I’m offering to come out and do a free onsite workshop? Details here:
http://technicalmanagementinstitute.com/freeclasses.shtml

Cheers,

Chris

Comment on Debugging XBAP applications on Vista using Visual Studio 2005 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:01:09 +0000

Hey Rebecca,

No, I have not run into general breakpoint problems on Vista, however, you need to make sure you have Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 installed as well as the Visual Studio 2005 update for Windows Vista (in that order).

If you’re doing WPF / .NET Framework 3.0 stuff, you need the November 2006 CTP of the WPF extensions for Visual Studio as well. You can find links to all of these in the article by Tim Sneath that I linked to in the post.

Comment on Debugging XBAP applications on Vista using Visual Studio 2005 by Rebecca Cooper

Rebecca Cooper — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:01:48 +0000

I am having problems getting debug breakpoints to work in Visual Studio 2005 ever since I moved to Vista. Is it something with the new framework? Have you found anything else about this?

Thanks,
Rebecca

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:23:45 +0000

Sorry, I haven’t had a need to look into that. So I don’t know.

However, one thing you could try is put default strings into all XAML elements (TextBox, Label, TextBlock, etc.) and then replace them at runtime, for example in the Loaded event (or something that fires earlier.)

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by Rick

Rick — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:51:28 +0000

Any idea how to load default language so that application won’t loop crapy in design view?

Comment on Localizing an XBAP application without using LocBaml by Al

Al — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:51:49 +0000

Hi,

I think this way is way better than localization with Locbaml (at least for strings). The problem we have with Locbaml (as far as I tested) is that if a new localizable (e.g. Window) is added to your project AFTER localization process, you’ll need to regenerate the whole .csv file, so what will happen to all already localized content?

I’ve changed your code to contain fallback to default culture when a culture-specific resource is not found. Here it is :

public static ResourceDictionary LoadExternalResourceDictionary(string xamlFilename, CultureInfo culture)
{
string cultureName = string.Empty;

if (culture != null)
cultureName = string.Concat(“.”, culture.Name);

if(Path.HasExtension(xamlFilename))
{
string ext = Path.GetExtension(xamlFilename);
xamlFilename = xamlFilename.Remove(xamlFilename.Length – ext.Length);
}

try
{
string looseFile = string.Format(“pack://siteoforigin:,,,/{0}{1}.xaml”, xamlFilename, culture != null ? cultureName : string.Empty);
Uri uri = new Uri(looseFile, UriKind.Absolute);

System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader reader = new System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader();
System.Windows.Resources.StreamResourceInfo info = System.Windows.Application.GetRemoteStream(uri);

return reader.LoadAsync(info.Stream) as ResourceDictionary;
}
catch
{
if(culture != null)
{
return LoadExternalResourceDictionary(xamlFilename, null);
}
else
{
throw;
}
}
}

Comment on More on pouring away gas by JohnM

JohnM — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:56:59 +0000

Regarding biking to work, check out How to Ride Your Bike to Work.

http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/08/29/how-to-ride-your-bike-to-work/

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:45:43 +0000

You’re very welcome. It’s a great product. I’m a bit flabbergasted, though, that you found my story. I guess that’s what search engines are for. Neighborhood is a bit of a stretch, but I suppose it’s kind of true.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by Mrinal

Mrinal — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:06:18 +0000

A HUGE thanks from this small team @ CrossLoop for sharing your story for your readers and us – it is very inspirational especially when it comes from someone in a big tech firm. We seem to be in the neighborhood, btw
There is something special about being able to see people help!
Please feel free to contact me for any questions.
Thanks and have a great weekend.

Comment on Troubleshooting ClickOnce deployment issues by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:31:13 +0000

Good question. I can’t speak for Microsoft, so I can only give you my guess. It probably has to do with the complexity of checking timestamps/file contents and whatnot. Checking the version number is a well-defined, relatively reliable, non-ambiguous way of doing things. If you’re using Visual Studio, you can tell it to increment the version number automatically every time you publish your files, so it’s not too much of a headache for me personally. It doesn’t even have to be a major or minor version change, it can be all the way down in the revision group (1.0.0.xyz). I’d ask the question on the Microsoft MSDN forums, if I were you.

Comment on Troubleshooting ClickOnce deployment issues by Howard

Howard — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:47:05 +0000

Hi, maybe this is a newbie question but why does .NET require to increment the version number on everytime an application is deployed via clickonce? This is very annoying especially when I make a test version multiple times; but maybe there is some reasonable explanation. Why can’t .NET recognize the new files and without generating a new version number and filling the cache up?

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:01:47 +0000

Oops! Thanks, LesNes. Fixed it.

Comment on Crossloop, a free remote assistance program that works! by LesNes

LesNes — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:50:18 +0000

Your link is broken should be http://www.crossloop.com

Comment on I hate Windows Update right now. Or Windows Live writer. Take your pick. by Swa

Swa — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:07:09 +0000

With some compassion, I agree and realize that this happens to me once a year with different software as well. Vista has in addition some really annoying ‘features’ which seems to tell us that we are so unaware of security issues that the computer should decide. Maybe developers and IT-people are smarter than the average user, I donno. I takes in any case quite a while to have faith in one’s OS again, isn’t it?

Comment on Try this search on Google. I promise you’ll be surprised! by GeekTieGuy » Blog Archive » Apple’s new iMacs

GeekTieGuy » Blog Archive » Apple’s new iMacs — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:49:17 +0000

[...] previous post for more details on how much energy goes into making aluminum, illustrated by soda [...]

Comment on A truly brilliant description of cloud formation by Eric Lippert

Eric Lippert — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:09:05 +0000

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it.

Comment on Pottermania in Silicon Valley by Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:43:10 +0000

Would love to see pics of the Ginny Weasly costume, either online or next time I see you

Comment on Taking personal action on global warming by Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:37:12 +0000

Hey geek tie guy, this event at Kepler’s on Sunday 8/19 may interest you. They’re going to have some presenters from Al Gore’s Climate Project speaker bureau thingie.

http://www.keplers.com/?sec=programs-events_go-green

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Eli

Eli — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:33:46 +0000

Keesa; Biking on this road is probably quite doable. You just need to learn the rules and get comfortable following them. It is scary and counterintuitive at first but it really works. I recommend reading “Effective Cycling” by John Forester. It was a major revelation for me.

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Peter

Peter — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:59:22 +0000

Thanks for the article. That is very interesting data. Of course, you must realize, that while a bulk of the population of the United States lives in urban areas, many times people can be in the suburbs and the jobs in the downtown area. Not every city has a subway/viable public transportation for bicyclists. Also, let’s not forget that there are many people who live in rural areas, and the road conditions can be all but favorable for bicyclists. I have not been very big into cycling, but recently I’ve had “duh” moments when I realized that bikes can provide so much (fun, efficiency, exercise, et cetera). Thanks again for the post.

Comment on More on pouring away gas by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:50:40 +0000

Keesa,

I’m not sure how you would do that exactly, but maybe going to city hall and raising the issue would be a first step?

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Keesa

Keesa — Thu, 10 May 2007 22:23:10 +0000

Maybe you have some advice for me…where I live, it’s about 6 miles to the grocery store, one way. That’s NOT a huge distance for me to bike. But the only road is a heavily-traveled highway (speed limit 55, not that anyone follows it) with no bike paths. Not safe.

How can I go about making that road bike-able? Surely it’s not a lost cause?

Comment on Tip vs. bottom of iceberg by Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:51:07 +0000

I find that blogging requires not just web access, but also time and inclination. It really is just one of a thousand ways we can choose to spend our time.

This quote from a Heinlein novel captures my personal sentiments about journalling, and I think it applies to blogging to some degree: “People who are busy and happy don’t write diaries; they are too busy living.” (Of course, I just started my own blog a couple months back, right?

I have a philosophy about physical clutter that I suspect may apply to information clutter, too. It’s this: sometimes it’s not good enough just to find new and improved ways of filtering or organizing the clutter. Sometimes you just have to chuck stuff out entirely.

Comment on Is money the only effective behavior modification tool on a societal level? by Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:31:45 +0000

Reluctant as I am to say this, more and more I feel like the answer to your question is yes. Despite all the means of persuasion that we employ as we try to steer our world towards a better future, it may be that money is the one universal motivator.

Taxation is one way this may happen, but it’s not the only way. Good old-fashioned price signals could eventually do the same thing – have you seen the price of a gallon of gas lately?

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Leila

Leila — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:28:16 +0000

Hear, hear!
Now to convince drivers that we bicyclists actually belong on the road, not the sidewalk.
*runs off to ride bike downtown*

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 05:23:29 +0000

Well, that was just a flamebait. I just wanted to make some conversation. I too bike to work and work with Microsoft .NET everyday. Just that Windows Vista has not worked for me. I have tried it on three different machines, and everytime has been a miserable failure. My Dell laptop ran like a dog after Vista. On my Sony Vaio UMPC (UX-280p), the CPU fan was always on after I installed Vista. And don’t get me started with the painful 4 hour installation process. Anyway … glad it works for you

Comment on More on pouring away gas by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 03:30:01 +0000

Thanks for the comment! At the risk of emarrassing myself (and my future self): I’m excited to have someone actually comment on one of these non-tech posts.

Your thoughts sound interesting. Have you actually compared running Linux or OS X versus running Vista? Some data would make a nice case.

I’m not sure that Vista is really all that much more demanding on your processor than previous Windows versions. I have several computers that are over three years old that run Vista just fine. However, one thing I know for a fact is that Vista will use a 3D graphics card much more than its predecessors, simply because the core screen rendering engine is written to take advantage of the GPU on the card if one is found. This is very obvious on laptops that have a Vista Aero compatible graphics card. They tend to have shorter battery life. I’d like to see some numbers on that, though. Do you have any information to refer me to?

A trend that’s going on in the PC industry is more focus on “performance per watt”, in other words making processors more capable while lowering the power consumption. This should benefit all computer users over time.

I personally like Vista quite a bit (indirectly, it puts food on my table, since I write software for it), but I’m using Linux on a server that runs as my gateway/firewall, so I’m certainly not against the idea of using alternative operating systems. At some point I want to give Ubuntu a try. Maybe this would be a good kickoff for doing that.

If you want to get really into the heart of it, we should all just stop using computers completely. They are among the most problematic hazardous substances to get rid of, and they become obsolete so fast it’s really quite a shame. But we all know that’s probably not going to happen.

Comment on More on pouring away gas by Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 01:40:21 +0000

How about the amount of energy wasted by running Windows Vista on computers? With the higher CPU requirements, higher power consumption, I think we are better off using Linux / Mac OS X, anything basically that is not Windows Vista

Comment on About by D. Ryan

D. Ryan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:05:13 +0000

How can I send a post or email to you? I had a question about one of your protected posts?

Comment on About by Chris Baskind

Chris Baskind — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 03:19:00 +0000

Thanks, also, for linking Lighter Footstep.

For the record, I rarely leave the house without a 2 gig memory stick. And — yes — it’s on a lanyard.

Comment on Is money the only effective behavior modification tool on a societal level? by GeekTieGuy » Blog Archive » The enemy of progress on environmental issues

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:39:46 +0000

[...] « Is money the only effective behavior modification tool on a societal level? [...]

Comment on CompositionTarget.Rendering can be a CPU hog by PresentationSource - RSS It All

PresentationSource - RSS It All — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 08:24:19 +0000

[...] By using CompositionTarget, you can do stuffs like this but don’t over-do it cause it’s expensive in performance. CompositionTarget.Rendering is an alternate way to get high fidelity (animation class) rendering. [...]

Comment on A more and more common theme in the blogosphere: Love by Trent

Trent — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:42:43 +0000

What I’ve found useful is to prune my blog reading down to those sites that really help me in some way. Does this site have good ideas on things that I can be doing with my time? Does this site /really/ provoke me to think on a regular basis? If I don’t get some yes’s here, I don’t read the blog. I don’t have time.

Comment on Attempting to buy the Vista Family discount pack fails repeatedly by Nick

Nick — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:42:28 +0000

Soon, its now midway through Feb and it’s still not fixed. I expect it will become available after the 90 days registration time has expired!!!

Comment on About by Matthew Paulson

Matthew Paulson — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:10:23 +0000

Just wanted to say thanks for linking to my site!

Comment on Windows Vista Ultimate Signature Edition unboxed by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:41:03 +0000

The Sharpie is called Digial Image Suite 2006, by the way.

Comment on Windows Vista Ultimate Signature Edition unboxed by Tim Sneath

Tim Sneath — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 07:57:10 +0000

I’m not sure it was a great idea for you to scribble over the product key with a Sharpie – now you won’t be able to install it…

…Oh – I see what you did

Comment on Attempting to buy the Vista Family discount pack fails repeatedly by Ben

Ben — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:42:56 +0000

This is a common occurrence according to the MS Vista newsgroup … hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Comment on A Voluntary Simplicity manifesto by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 04:32:17 +0000

Sure. Go right ahead.

Comment on A Voluntary Simplicity manifesto by Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:24:57 +0000

Groovy. Can I post it on our Yahoo group website?

Comment on I’ve been Scobleized in real-life! by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:57:43 +0000

Thanks Jeremiah.

I’ve seen a few cuts from the PodTech material in the Bloghaus opening day clip already (http://www.podtech.net/ home/technology/1826/bloghaus-opening-day). I wonder if the rest is worth putting up too?

For a reshoot, you’d have to come and see me in Cupertino…

Comment on I’ve been Scobleized in real-life! by Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 04:50:13 +0000

I wouldn’t worry about it my friend, if you didn’t like it, we can reshoot it.

i’m sure in any case it turned out fine.

Comment on Pictures from CES and Bloghaus by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:20:40 +0000

It was fun indeed. Hope to run into you again sometime. Let me know when you’ll be in Silicon Valley some time.

Comment on Pictures from CES and Bloghaus by Graeme Thickins

Graeme Thickins — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:15:34 +0000

Oluf — nice meeting you at BlogHaus… It was big fun, huh?
Congrats on the Last Gadget Left Standing award!

cheers,
Graeme

Comment on So much for IE 7 by GeekTieGuy

GeekTieGuy — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:59:17 +0000

I disabled all add-ons and re-enabled them one by one. So far I’ve enabled all but the IE DOM Explorer and IE Developer toolbar add-ons and things seem to work well.

Thanks for the help. I’ll keep the IE related add-ons disabled for now. IE 7 is back on my box!

Comment on So much for IE 7 by PeterG

PeterG — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:08:32 +0000

Ok, it sounds like there is a problem with the extensions you have on your machine. Can you try adding them back in one at a time to isolate which one is causing the performance problem?

Thanks

Peter Gurevich
Internet Explorer 7 Perfromance PM

Comment on So much for IE 7 by PeterG

PeterG — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 18:09:49 +0000

Can you please tell me more about your experince? Are you running with any browser extensions, or add ins? Have you tried disabling any of your extensions? I really want to help, but I need to better understand what you are experiencing so I can make some recommendations.

Please feel free to contact me. [email address given, deleted for privacy]

Peter Gurevich
Internet Explorer 7 Performance PM

Comment on Boeing shuts down in-flight Internet access division by charris

charris — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:36:28 +0000

I’m not sure it’s fair to compare it to household internet access – you are paying for convenience. Still, I have to believe that more than a handful of people couldn’t put it on their expense accounts for business. This smells like someone didn’t think through how people wanted to use it very well. I’m actually very puzzled as to how this failed so badly!

Comment on Listen to your hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status – part 2 by Max Johnson

Max Johnson — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t for the life of my fathom why Windows (heck, other OS’s probably aren’t much better) doesn’t report perhaps the most serious hardware fault out there – one of the few it can actually detect!
Sure, a dodgy PSU or graphics card might put your PC out of commission until replaced, but for the majority of people with no backup routine and a single HDD, an early warning would be a godsend before they lose their personal data!