Modify Windows 8 boot options with Boot UI Tuner

By Martin Brinkmann on January 2, 2013 - Tags:Windows 8

Microsoft has optimized the boot cycle of the Windows 8 operating system so that long-used features such as hitting F8 for the advanced boot menu no longer work properly. While the feature is still there, it has become a lot harder to use it directly by hitting the key as the window in which the key needs to be send to the computer has been reduced to less than a second.

To load the advanced boot options, you now need to configure that you want the operating system to do so in Windows itself. That's not convenient as you need to boot into Windows, make the change, reboot again to get into the options. This quickly becomes a problem if the operating system does not boot properly anymore.

To configure the advanced startup in Windows 8, you need to open the PC Settings after your computer has booted into the operating system. Press Windows-C on your keyboard and select Settings > Change PC Settings from the context menu.

PC Settings open up in full screen on your computer. Click on General on the left here and navigate all the way down until you see Advanced Startup. Click on the Restart Now button to display the advanced startup menu on boot.

Customize the Windows 8 boot process

Boot UI Tuner is a lightweight program for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows 8 operating system (not Windows RT) that you can use to configure the PC's boot options. To use the program download it to your system and unpack it afterwards. To run it, select the right sub-folder - 32-bit or 64-bit - and launch the program. It displays a basic interface where you can check and uncheck options in.

The following options are available:

• Enable advanced options of boot menu - This, when enabled, displays the Windows 8 advanced boot menu on every start of the system, and not only when you select it in the PC settings.
• Enable editing of boot options at startup - This displays a screen where you can type in advanced boot parameters that you want the operating system to use on startup.
• Enable Windows logo - Can be used to disable the animated Windows logo on boot.
• Enable messages - You can disable system messages here. This includes information about updates, scans and so on. Not recommended.
• Enable loading circle - Disable the loading circle animation
• Enable legacy boot menu - Lets you boot into the boot menu known from Windows 7 and earlier versions of the operating system.

Here is a - silent - video that demonstrates the program's functionality:

The program can be useful if you prefer to boot into the old legacy menu on start, if you want the advanced boot options to be displayed on every start of the system, or if you want to make cosmetic changes to the boot process. You can theoretically use the program to quickly enable the advanced boot startup whenever it is needed, and disable it again on next start. The main advantage here is that you can continue working and do not need to restart immediately.

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How to remove previous Windows versions from your PC

By Martin Brinkmann on January 2, 2013 - Tags:Windows software

Installing multiple versions of Windows on a single PC may be useful for a number of purposes. From taking an operating system for an extended test ride to software testing or running legacy applications on a system that do not run on newer versions of Windows.

Sometimes you may make the decision to uninstall one version of Windows from your PC. While you can do that manually, by editing the boot loader so that the operating system won't be displayed anymore during start of the system and by deleting the files and folders so that it does not take up disk space either anymore. The problem is that it is not often that easy to do so, especially not if you are an inexperienced user.

NanWick Windows Uninstaller has been designed to provide users of all experience levels with an easy to use program to remove installed versions of Windows from the PC.

To get started download the program from the developer's website and run it afterwards on your system that you want to keep.

Click on the scan button to have the program scan the PC for additional versions of Windows installed on it. The program displays the drive letters that Windows is installed on and asks you to pick the one that you want to remove from the system.

The program performs a series of operations then that remove the version of the system from the PC.  The program author explains what is happening in the background then. The program takes ownership of directories and files belonging to the selected version of Windows so that they can be deleted. It removes the entry from the boot manager in addition so that the system is no longer listed when you boot the computer.

You can use the instructions on the author's homepage instead if you prefer to run the operation manually.

Please note that the program is only able to detect and remove Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 and not older versions of Windows such as Windows XP. Experienced users likely prefer the manual option, that is deleting the partition for instance and editing the boot menu afterwards manually as well.

Ubuntu for phones announced

By Martin Brinkmann on January 3, 2013 - Tags:ubuntu

The mobile phone market is an ever changing place and companies that were once on top may find themselves at the bottom of the food chain after short periods of time. It happened to Nokia which was steamrolled by Apple and Google, and also Blackberry. While both companies are still in the business, they have a hard time winning back lost market share.

Ubuntu, the company responsible for the popular Linux distribution of the same name, has justannounced Ubuntu for Phones which will be unveiled for the first time on this year's CES in Las Vegas from January 7-11, 2013.

The phone comes in two main flavors, first as an entry level Ubuntu smartphone and then as a Ubuntu superphone which not only includes everything the entry level provides but also with desktop convergence capabilities. What this means? You can connect the phone to a computer monitor to use it as a thin client.

Check out the system requirements below:

System requirements for smartphones	Entry level Ubuntu smartphone	High-end Ubuntu "superphone"
Processor architecture	1Ghz Cortex A9	Quad-core A9 or Intel Atom
Memory	512MB – 1GB	Min 1GB
Flash storage	4-8GB eMMC + SD	Min 32GB eMMC + SD
Multi-touch	yes	yes
Desktop convergence	no	yes

Not many phones of today are supported by the superphone when you take the requirements into account. While 1 Gigabyte of memory should not be that of an issue, the 32 Gigabyte minimum Flash storage space certainly is.

And this is how it looks like:

Prefer moving pictures? Here you go the official announcement trailer:

And here a 21 minute long announcement by Ubuntu's founder Mark Shuttleworth.

Information provided are rare at the moment. The phone seems to support all the latest technologies including HTML5 and apps can be created not only for the phone but also for the desktop at the same time.

The phone supports a couple of new design choices and options that sets it apart from other smartphones. A short swipe from the left for instance displays a small bar of favorite apps and the developers promise that you will switch faster between apps than on any other phone. A swipe from the right takes you back to the last application you have used, and swiping from the bottom reveals app controls.

The option to use the phone as a thin client is very interesting and should have lots of appeal with tech savvy users, especially those who already work with Ubuntu systems. Will it be enough to snag away market share from Google or Apple? Or will it compete with Mozilla's Firefox OS instead?

A truly open phone, one that you can hack and modify the way you want to without having to root it first, would surely be something of interest. It is not clear how and if contents and features are locked in the Ubuntu phone, guess we will find out more about that during this year's CES.

According to The Verge, first phones powered by Ubuntu for phones will come out in early 2014 or the last quarter of 2013. Ars Technica reports that Ubuntu 14.04 will be the first image that works across all devices, be it desktop PCs, tablets or smartphones.

Would you run an Ubuntu phone?

Download all photos a Twitter user has posted

By Martin Brinkmann on January 3, 2013 - Tags:twitter

I have to admit that I'm still not using Twitter actively, do not have the time for it and while that is certainly an oversight as it is an excellent platform to network and communicate, it is just not working out for me at this point in time. If you are a regular on Twitter, tweeting away with business partners, friends, family or complete strangers, you may be interested in a software that helps you download all public photos a Twitter user has posted in recent time. To be precise, it only retrieves photos posted in the last 200 tweets of the user you select, but that is better than nothing I suppose.

The program is as bare bones as it can be. Download it to your system and run it afterwards. While not explicitly stated, it seems to require the Microsoft .Net Framework to run. Enter the Twitter username of the person you want to download the images from and click on the download button afterwards.

It takes some time before thumbnails are shown in the program interface, and they look as if the color profile has been heavily reduced. That on the other hand is only the case for the thumbnail preview images and not the actual photos the program downloads to your PC.

The program saves the photos into a directory named after the Twitter user's screen name, so make sure you have enough storage space on the hard drive you run the program from as you can't modify the save directory or any of the other parameters.

I would like to see the 200 message limit increased if that is possible and not artificially limited by Twitter in the service's APIs.

The developer has designed the program as a response to Twitter's removal of the photo grid view feature. While designed for that, you can use it to download photos quite easily from all Twitter accounts. If you have a celebrity you are fond of, you can download all the photos he or she posts on Twitter regularly to keep up to date with what's happening in the celebrities cloud castle for instance.

If you prefer to just get back the photo grid feature on Twitter you can alternatively install the Google Chrome extension  Please bring back photo grid view ! which does that. (via)