It is a known fact that dxomark resource is a complete sellout and very prone to assign fake rankings. And no one in sane condition will use their results as a reference, because of their prepaid nature. dxomark’s cool conclusion of the past that iphone is better then [Nokia PureView 808] in terms of detail, makes me laugh till today. Days go by and it looks like we have another “winner” here – [dpreview] , to be precise.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-04 IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY FIREFOX ADDONS [Part I] Finally I’ve managed to finish this part of the FAQ. Note is a loooong-read, so mistakes can occur » please [report them to me] . One of the most distinctive features of FireFox was customization. With each new version it becomes less customizable, thanks to marketing people at mozilla corp. They do everything to make Firefox look like google chrome.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-21 All batch files are tested under Windows 7 x64. ► SHUTDOWN PUTER shutdown /p /f ► REBOOT PUTER shutdown /r /f /t 0 ► RESTART AUDIO SERVICE net stop "AudioSrv" net start "AudioSrv" ► DISABLE HIBERNATE powercfg -h off ► DISABLE/ENABLE LAN INTERFACES netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" admin=disabled netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" admin=enabled Where: Local Area Connection ◄ the name of your network connection

Some really quick software lists with information on which version of application is a last one to run on Windows 98/2000/XP/7. [Windows 98SE Gold] [Windows 98SE KeX] [Windows 2000 SP4] [Windows XP SP3] As for Windows 7 SP2 ESU i maintain my [personal list of trusted’n’latest software] . Coz Seven is my daily driver system. So Windws 7 list will be constantly updated! Don’t forget about my [dedicated WINDOWS 98/2000/XP/7 support page] Imagery by spacedrone808

And will not sing praises on how cool Linux is. Because I know that it has its own quirks and inconveniences. For testing I almost randomly choose [Manjaro Linux] with lightweight [XFCE desktop] . Manjaro is based upon [Arch distribution] .Yeah, ubuntu is too much pop for me. Key benefits of Manjaro are quite transparent: modern & stable environment and pretty vibrant community. I understand that Linux don’t have all software, which I need and try to find software replacement in a while.

In case you are wondering regarding status and the main purpose of my blog feed. Here is some legal stuff you might want to know. SITE WILL NEVER CONTAIN FOLLOWING THINGS: ADS “TRENDY” NEWS POLITICS COVID NONSENSE ALSO YOU DON’T HAVE TO: SUB PUT LIKES SHARE STUFF WRITE COMMENTS All these boring things you can do in your favorite social-scroll-down-network [if you have such]. But instead of this monotonous stuff I’d rather go for a lil` stroll in a local park.

UPDATED ON: 2024-04-03 NOTE: list will be updated in the future [final renewal is planned somewhere around end of 2024 and beginning of 2025]. List of essential software needed for smooth and hassle free system performance. I use these applications on a daily basis. Selection is really private, but nevertheless of this fact I want to share my knowledge with you. List doesn’t contain any microsoft or adobe products. Sorted by usage frequency.

DON'T EVEN THINK THAT WINDOWS 7 IS DEAD! Official extended support for Windows 7 operating system [ended on January 14, 2020] . Home users can’t extend support for the operating system while business and enterprise customers may extend support by up to three years [till January 14, 2023] , to be precise. This is done by joining the ESU program which is available per machine [business] or per user [enterprise].

Here is a short breakdown of the most frequently used commands, which could be launched from the START menu. [WIN] + R ► START ► RUN ► …. CONTROL PANEL control panel LAN CONNECTIONS ncpa.cpl REMOTE DESKTOP mstsc SYSTEM SERVICES services.msc USER CONTROL PANEL control userpasswords2 MICROSOFT CONFIG TOOL msconfig DIRECTX DIAGNOSTICS TOOL dxdiag SYSTEM INFORMATION msinfo32 REGISTRY EDITOR regedit TASK SCHEDULER taskschd.msc GROUP POLICY EDITOR gpedit.msc Imagery by spacedrone808

UPDATE 2021-10-11: Added Excellent [APKGrabber] ▓ ALTERNATIVE FIRMWARE As for firmware, I recommend to use [LineAgeOS] if your device is supported. Neat FW with minimal tracking and no bloat from big corps. If there is no native LineAgeOS support check [XDA forum threads] for unofficial ports by community enthusiasts. If your device is not supported in both cases I do not recommend to update stock firmware to prevent bloat’n’telemetry installation.

The roots of bench-marking tools come from [Demoscene] .
The most quality products were crafted by Finnish and Russian coders.
Here is a little breakdown of most notable benchmarks just for your convenience.

UPDATED ON: 2023-09-03
NOTE: list will be updated in the future [final renewal will planned somewhere around end of 2024 and beginning of 2025].

Most of the applications can be found on [F-Droid market] .
All of them checked for unneeded permissions by [Exodus] .

UPDATED: 2021-10-05 Some good old-school sites regarding ‘puters and technology. I will update this post when stumble upon something very cool. [Razorback95] ► cool guy doing retro stuff [DXZeff] ► small vintage computer forum, also guy has pretty neat YT channel [Retro revival blog] ► excellent selection of vintage software [Vogons forum] ► the most important place for old school gamers [Old-games.ru portal] ► very vibrant old games Russian community

Software is not perfect. Windows, Linux or any other OS. It doesn’t really matter. In this quick note, I will talk about Windows operating system. For basic deleting of stucked files big chance that you are already using utility like Unlocker or smth. However, some time ago Unlocker was caught in spreading malware, so no trust to this application anymore. As for me, I prefer [Lock Hunter] instead. And what about frozen processes?

Even mighty Windows 7 comes with preinstalled junk. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with Microsoft.
In this posting I’ll point you out some bloated stuff, that don’t need regular home user on normal basis.
All of these should be removed to save your disk space and improve system performance.

Quick breakdown of the most powerful AMD-based cards for legacy operating systems. [X850XT PE] ► WINDOWS 98 [official drivers] / Omega drivers ] [HD 3870 X 2] ► WINDOWS 2000 [official drivers] plus some INF tinkering, will review that one later on [HD 5970] ► WINDOWS 2000 [Blackwingcat hacks] [R9 270X] ► WINDOWS XP [official drivers] [6950XT] ► WINDOWS 7 [official drivers] ◄ currently rocking on that one under Windows 7 wing.

Straight’n’essential advice: do not use google, yahoo, bing, yandex, rambler or mail.ru. More trust goes out to [DuckDuckGo] . However, even they have not so good reputation if we look into the past dealings with Yahoo. Use [StartPage] if you want to get results similar to google, but beware that they are not exactly the same. Startpage removes some stuff and adds some of it’s own. In general, it is proxy to google with so-called de-anonymized search queries.

UPDATED ON: 2024-01-04 Addons, addons, addons!! So many of them! How to choice the right one? Whom to trust to? I will help you with your findings and share my personal experience. Rule of thumb: do not install too much addons, they will slow down your browser noticeably! ░ SECURITY ADDONS [uMatrix] ► best content blocker ever, even better than uBlock [Github archive] [Ublock Origin] ► an efficient blocker. Easy on CPU and memory.

UPDATED ON: 2023-11-23 There are already plenty of excellent articles explaining why [WINDOWS 10] / [WINDOWS 11] IS A COMPLETE SH#T. So, I better be quick not to be pain in the neck or a master of boredom. Essential question: “Why you don’t like modern Windows?” Ah, yeah… one more new link, even better than previous! [A THOUSAND REASONS NOT TO USE WINDOWS 10] ░ DESIGNED BY MARKETING PEOPLE… …not engineers

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-20 Note is totally rewritten to match 2023 reality. Today it is not an easy task to do. There are plenty browsers out there. “So, what is the problem?” you may ask. Most of them are based upon google chrome. This means that all of them are dialing back to google to share your private data. That’s the main problem. Here is my personal list of browsers that I use in a daily workflow on Windows machine: Main surfer: [Iceweasel 110] ► replaced IceCat For visiting geo-restricted sites: [TorBrowser 12.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-12 Added microsoft hosts, fixed errors. If you have any suggestions or I’ve missed something [please drop me a line] . ► SOME PREFACE WORDS THE MOST COMPLETE LIST OF MALWARE UPDATES FROM MICROSOFT GROUPED BY CATEGORIES. List of updates without links to original ms site due to deletion. KB prefix removed. 454826 971033 2922324 2976987 3012973 3014460 3015249 3022345 3068707 3074677 3090045 3102812 4012218 UNINFORMED ABOUT PRIVACY STARTER PACK FUN FACT: microsoft already not only hiding, but deleting important information regarding “bad updates” from search engines like google.

Just a simple list of the most important services of Windows 7.
Whatever happens - don’t disable them.
Services are programs, which are automatically loading into memory of your computer during start-up time.
Services are always hanging around in computer’s RAM in background mode. Alternative name: resident programs.
That is why it is so important to cut most of them to free valuable memory up for your personal applications.

Some time ago, I had a VERY LONG post with detailed comparisons on ugly blogger. But after I was banned and totally de-platformed from g services I’ve lost all text material of the article. Don’t have time to revive all stuff completely. The best thing, which i can do for you is to share archive with all test materials: pictures in RAW & jpg formats.

Since Firefox v3.x the browser is capable of managing color profiles like sRGB & AdobeRGB. When a browser doesn’t support color management or it has been badly implemented, images won’t show up right.

Some important links for those of you who care about online security and privacy.

UPDATED ON: 2024-02-22 For those of you, who are wondering about the future of Windows 7 operating system here is a brief chart showing precise timings. END OF …. Windows 7 SP1 Mainstream Support 2015/1/13 Windows 7 SP1 Extended Support 2020/01/14 Windows Embedded POSReady 7 Support 2021/10/12 Windows 7 SP1 ESU Support 2023/01/10 ► WE ARE APPROXIMATEL1Y HERE ◄ Windows Embedded POSReady 7 ESU Support 2024/10/08 Predicted Die-hard Enthusiast Support

To check system hard drive and fix errors: chkdsk c: /f To check system hard drive, fix errors, locate and mark bad sectors: chkdsk c: /r Very basic command to check integrity of system files: sfc /scannow If sfc can’t help you try DISM. Check system health for any corruption presence: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth Check system health for store corruption presence: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth Finally, repair command:

Just a list of items i’m currently seeking for my Windows DOS/98 SE project. It will be primarily focused on simultaneous AGP and ISA availability. Build is almost complete: ETA time -> 1-2 month! 1. CPU: AMD Athlon Barton 3200+ 2. Mobo: Epox EP-8KTA3 or Abit KT7A [motherboard should have AGP and ISA buses] 3. RAM: PC133, 3 x 128Mb 4. Video card: ATI Radeon X850XT PE / X850XT / 9800XT or 3DFX Voodoo 5500

UPDATED ON: 2022-05-17 Added latest AIDA64 FPU benchmark to show supremacy over 12900K UPDATED ON: 2022-05-04 This is the most powerful configuration, which runs Windows 7 without any issues or side effects. Threadripper 3XXX is possible, but micro freezes and stuttering are present, so it is not a viable option for smooth experience. UPDATED ON: 2021-08-19 Added some benchmarks for more clearness. Internet is swarming with [amateurish articles about “incompatibility”] of modern hardware with legacy Windows 7 operating system.

Just want to make a super quick note on neat browsers for legacy operating systems. There is not so much choice for such vintage OS these days. There are two of last Mohicans. K-Meleon & MyPal.     K-Meleon is way more lightweight and will be good for slow puters. There is even a Windows 98 version. While MyPal will bring up more modern web compatibility, but of course it is tad slower than K-Meleon.