Remove driver leftovers with Driver Sweeper!
A long time ago I had DriverCleaner, a tool to remove certain driver leftovers! Lately I've had to battle with some odd issues about my graphic card driver leftovers. They just won't delete. I wanted a clean de-installation because some games started to act up.
So I set out to look for a modern and up-to-date (and possibly free!) alternative to DriverCleaner and I came across Guru 3D's Driver Sweeper. I recommend this application! It's up-to-date (latest 23.07.2009) and deletes everything (as far as I can see, it resolved my issues at least).
Drive Sweeper deletes ATI (Display), NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), Ageia (PhysX), Creative (Sound), MMouse (whatever that is) and Realtek (Sound) drivers. I wanted it to delete my ATI driver leftovers.
According to Guru3D it also runs on any modern Windows system including Win7:
System requirements:
The Guru3D - Driver Sweeper is fully tested on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows & 7 RC. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported.
The absolutely best and sure way to delete anything is first to uninstall it via its official Uninstaller, then reboot your system into Safe Mode and fire up Driver Sweeper. Skiping Safe Mode also works but some files might not get deleted in the process.
Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
Recently I stumbled onto some tips how to speed up ones Firefox. Firefox, since the version 3, uses a SQLite database for various tasks such as storing bookmarks, histories, site specific preferences and backups.
Over time it's get filled up with unnecessary and old info if you want, and there's a simple method to ditch those useless info and speed up your Firefox considerably, or like most of the guides say to "vacuum" it.
Use it once in a while, I've seen an improvement on my Firefox since I used it.
- Go to "Tools" -> "Error Console"
- Paste this in the "Code" text box:
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM"); - Press enter or click "evaluate"
- Your Firefox will freeze for a short time, just wait
- Enjoy your speed up Firefox!
Differences in Windows 7 versions & CPU list supporting Win XP Mode!
I've been looking and looking and looking until I finally found a neat, compact table showing the differences between each Windows 7 version. I think I'll go for Ultimate.
Voilá!
Reading the beta testers reviews and various blogs, Windows 7 seems to be THE true sequel to Windows XP. Vista was a disaster (I'm not going into detail with this one), to be honest. Thank god my friend had the Ultimate and I could borrow and test it before wasting my money. It was absolutely horrible to have Vista running.
The biggest plus for Windows 7 is the so called XP Emulation. Win XP Applications which normally wouldn't run under Vista because they ain't programmed for it, WILL run on Windows 7 even if they are not programmed for Windows 7 because Win 7 will emulate a Win XP Mode. This way you can run you beloved Apps without fear.
The downside is the feature is CPU depended. Meaning old CPU's who don't support it won't be able to run the Win XP Mode. According to Tom's Hardware, those Intel CPUs will be able to run the Win XP Mode. Another downside is its huge resources demand. For the Win XP Virtual Mode 2GB are the minimum.
According to AMD, those CPUs will be able to handle Win XP Mode:
"With the exceptions of Sempron-branded processors and pre-Rev F Athlon branded processors, all of the desktop processors shipped by AMD include AMD-V and therefore support Windows 7 in XP mode."
"Also, all AMD Opteron processors shipped by AMD from Rev F forward include AMD-V."
If you are still not sure and don't believe me, check your CPU by yourself.
Edit: Found another tool, Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool.
Real-Time Screen capturing/recording easily done with VirtualDub and VHScrCap
I've been looking for a way to capture my screen (not screen-shot it, but real-time capture) while on my OS (WinXP). I've found a lot solutions, but all of them involved shelling out money one way or another. Now why would I do that, when in the age of Open Source and Freeware there are free solutions for almost everything?
So I set out to look for an Open Source/Freeware solution, and I've found one! VirtualDub coupled with VH Screen Capture Driver works like a charm!
First you need to download and install VH Screen Capture Driver, then you start up VirtualDub.
In VirtualDub you do the following:
Firefox 3.5 Add-Ons Round-up!
Firefox 3.5 is out already a few days! Get if folks! Ditch your Opera, IE, Chrome and Safari!
I thought I'd share my Add-Ons I pretty much use on daily basis.
Adblock Plus:
Ads, oh how I loathe them. This addons takes care of every ad I came across until today. I'm 100% ad-free! Of course websites who rely on their only income, ads, will suffer from this.
So remember, if you have a favorite site you frequently visit and it relies on ad revenue to keep alive, un-block and support it!
Fasterfox Lite:
Remember the 5 tweaks I posted way back then? Well this Add-On takes care of it automatically. Except this LITE version, which is the only one functioning for 3.5, doesn't have prefetching.
If you don't like to do these manual tweaks this is the Add-On for you.
Edit 25.09.2009: Fasterfox has been updated to run with 3.5 since August 26th 2009. Not the Lite, the normal one!
Flagfox:
Since I sometime need to know about the location of a website or its server, Flagfox gives me their IP, location and ask whois detailed information, if needed to be.
Gmail Notifier:
If you own a single GMail account this is small addon to notify you if you got new mails in the inbox. There's a GMail Manager for those with multiple accounts.
NoScript:
Perhaps the most important Add-On for Firefox. It is, assumed it's correctly configured, what makes Firefox and in turn your computer so resilient to scripts, Keyloggers and viruses.
I can pretty much click any link I come across without fear of somehow installing malicious software, keyloggers or viruses.
This Add-On is constantly being updated to keep up against scripts, keyloggers and viruses who try to circumvent NoScript. 3 cheers to open-source!
PDF Download:
I think the name explains it all. It allows you to choose between downloading a PDF file or opening it up
Skipscreen:
With 1-click-hosters such as Rapidshare, Netload, Megaupload, etc. becoming widely popular this Add-On is pretty much a must have if you want to skip all the unnecessary pages to go directly to download.
Saved me a lot of time, this diamond!
VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]
I often record gameplay clips from video games I'm playing with FRAPS. Usually in 1920x1080 resolution depending on the game and the FPS I get with FRAPS running. For transcoding the raw footage to something bearable to upload I usually use only VirtualDub.
Lately I've experimented with settings, and I think I found some good ones. Good video and sound quality with small file size were my goals. I think roughly 100 mb for a 5 min. clip and about 300mb for the full 10 min. in full 720p HD quality is awesome.
I'm still experimenting with sound compression but I think with 192 kb/s AC-3 ACM I have a good start.
Please bear in mind that the higher your resolution is the bigger your file size will be and vice versa. Those 100 mb respectively 300 mb are based on my 1920x1080 resolution!
This guide is intended for 16:10 and 16:9 resolutions. If you're playing on a 4:3 resolution, do not resize down to 1280*720p without maintaining aspect ratio, because the end-result will otherwise look over-stretched/-squeezed.
My settings for VirtualDub are in the picture below. If you want a very detailed explanation what each option does, check this out!
By the way, you have to have the H.264 codec installed to get it working. Download and install the latest VFW-version build here. PAY attention which version you're downloading, x86 (=32bit) or x86_64 (=64bit).
A warning about the Option "Multithreading" -> "Threads" don't set it higher than [# of your CPU Cores * 1.5] because then your whole system will start chugging. For example a Core 2 Duo would be 2 Cores * 1.5 = 3, a Q9550 would be 4 Cores * 1.5 = 6 and an AMD Phenom II X3 would be 3 Cores * 1.5 = 4.5 4.
This is by no means a guarantee that it will or will not work on your system. Each system, its components and its software are unique. You'll probably have to experiment a bit on your own. But those mentioned numbers are a good start.
It also might be necessary for you to adjust the audio volume to your liking. I have -10 dB, because the sound I record is terribad. My onboard sound sucks, period. Some people also experience asynchronous sound, here's how you can fix it.
On a side note: When you have uploaded your clip on YouTube and YouTube processed it the quality then will be lowered again. There's nothing you or I can do about that, it's up to YouTube.
The whole tutorial is also available on YouTube as a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9XOgnaJ_Hs
A few links to my own HD clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxijbXfIs4A&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yt35f2WFFY&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe4jCQ8zzz0&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNLlobJbrm8&hd=1
Addendum 16.September 2009: Enabling GPU acceleration
Since version 1.9.4 it is possible to use the GPUs processing power (if your GPU supports it, which most modern GPUs do) as part of whole the transcoding process. This way you can speed up the transcoding process significantly (depending on your compression settings!).
On my computer this cut my transcoding time from an average 1h for a 10 min. clip down to some 40-ish minutes. Under "Options" -> "Preferences" enable "3D accel".
Addendum 23.10.2009: Crashes during encoding
There's currently a problem causing VirtualDub 1.9.4/5/6/7/8/9 to crash under Windows 7 while encoding sometimes. The culprit is 3D accel! Turn it off under "Preferences" -> "3D accel" and enjoy VirtualDub once again!
Addendum 16.05.2010: Option "3d accel" slowing down encoding
I've been getting mixed messages. Apparently using "3d accel" causes it to render slower than usual on some systems. I can confirm that. With 3d accel turned on, a 10min video takes about 1 hour 10-20 minutes, while turned off it takes about 1 hour max. You'll have to experiment on your system!
And if you are running on a multicore cpu, don't forget to enable threading via "Option" -> "Preferences" -> set "Threading" to 1!
Update 27.01.2011:
Updated Setting Screenshot
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