Windows Preinstallation Environment (aka Windows PE, WinPE) is a lightweight version of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 that is used for the deployment of workstations and servers. It is intended as a 32-bit or 64-bit replacement for MS-DOS during the installation phase of Windows, and can be booted via PXE, CD-ROM, USB flash drive or hard disk. Traditionally used by large corporations and OEMs (to preinstall Windows client operating systems to PCs during manufacturing), it is now widely available free of charge via the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Windows Preinstallation Environment, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

IExpress is a tool provided by Microsoft in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It was also bundled with installations of Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 2000. It can be useful for distributing multiple files to Windows end-users. It makes a self-extracting DPInst installation package or a compressed CAB file. All self-extracting files creating by IExpress use CAB compression algorithms and are compressed using Makecab.exe.

The application is located in the SYSTEM32 folder of Windows installations. It can be started by manually navigating to the directory and opening the executable (IExpress.exe), or by typing IExpress into the Run window in the Start Menu.

IExpress self-extracting packages created on Windows Vista or later Windows releases do not work on Windows 2000 or earlier Windows operating systems.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article IExpress, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Many recent operating systems support multitouch, including Mac OS X, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Ubuntu (since version 7.10), Samsung’s Bada, Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Palm’s webOS, Symbian ^3 OS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry OS 6.0, Xandros and Neprash Technology’s N-Touch Platform.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Multi-touch, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.4 supports the GMA 950, since it was used in previous revisions of the MacBook and 17-inch iMacs. It has been used in all Intel-based Mac minis (until the Mac Mini released on March 3, 2009). Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard contains drivers for the GMA X3100, which were used in a recent revision of the MacBook range.

Late-release versions of Mac OS X 10.4 also support the GMA 900 due to its use in the Apple Developer Transition Kit, which was used in the PowerPC-to-Intel transition. However, special modifications to the kext file must be made to enable Core Image and Quartz Extreme.

Although the new MacBook line no longer uses the X3100, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) ships with drivers supporting it that require no modifications to the kext file. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which includes a new 64-bit kernel in addition to the 32-bit one, does not include 64-bit X3100 drivers. This means that although the MacBooks with the X3100 have 64-bit capable processors and EFI, Mac OS X must load the 32-bit kernel to support the 32-bit X3100 drivers. November 9′s 10.6.2 update ships with 64-bit X3100 drivers.

For a while MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks instead shipped with a far more powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, and the 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro notebooks shipped with an additional GeForce 9600GT supporting hybrid power to switch between GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chipset implemented in Apple Macbooks did not support composite or S-video output.

Current (Mid 2010) Macbook Pro Models have an on-board Intel HD (GMA HD) graphics chip as well as a discrete Nvidia 300M series card that supports hybrid power to switch the output.

FreeBSD

FreeBSD 8.0 supports the following Intel graphic chipsets: G945/GME945/G965/Q965/GM965/GL960/GME965/G31/G33/Q33/Q35/G35/G41/G43/G45/Q43/Q45. GMA3150, to date, is unsupported by version 2.7 of the driver which ships with FreeBSD 8.0, 8.1RCs, and 9.0.

Linux

Intel has had a long history of producing or commissioning open source drivers for its graphics chips, with all chipsets (except the GMA& 500) dating back to the i810 having open 2D and 3D drivers for Linux. Intel is the only major graphics hardware vendor to do so. (For an analysis by company see Graphics hardware and FOSS.)

In August 2006, Intel added support to the open-source X.Org/XFree86 drivers for the latest 965 series that include the GMA (X)3000 core. These drivers were developed for Intel by Tungsten Graphics.

In May 2007, version 2.0 of the driver (xorg-video-intel) was released, which added support for the 965GM chipset. In addition, the 2.0 driver added native video mode programming support for all chipsets from i830 forward. This version added support for automatic video mode detection and selection, monitor hot plug, dynamic extended and merged desktops and per-monitor screen rotation. These features are built in to the X.Org 7.3 X server release and will eventually be supported across most of the open source X.Org video drivers. Version 2.1, released in July 2007, added support for the G33, Q33 and Q35 chipsets. G35 is also supported by the Linux driver.

As is common for X.Org drivers on Linux, the license is a combination of GPL (for the Linux kernel parts) and MIT (for all other parts).

The drivers were mainly developed by Intel and Tungsten Graphics (under contract) since the chipsets’ documentation were not publicly available for a long time. In January 2008, Intel released the complete developer documentation for their, at the time, latest chipsets (965 and G35 chipset), allowing for further external developers’ involvement.

In April 2009, Intel released documentation for their newer G45 graphics (including X4500) chipsets.

In May 2009, Intel employee Eric Anholt stated Intel was “still working on getting docs for [8xx] chipsets out.”

intel_hal.so

The driver source contains references to a currently-unavailable binary named “intel_hal.so”. It is entirely optional, and the advantages are not clear; ostensibly they are increased performance and/or additional features. References in the open source code indicate that it contains or contained (at least) Macrovision support and some minor, optional 3D optimization routines. Calls to the Macrovision code inside the binary were later removed from the 2D driver.

GMA 500 on Linux

GMA 500 support on Linux is not optimal. The driver is developed by Tungsten Graphics, not by Intel, and the graphic core is not an Intel one, but is licensed from PowerVR. This has led to an uncertain mix of open and closed source 3d accelerated drivers, instability and lack of support.

Ubuntu is the Linux distribution that best supports GMA500 (Poulsbo), through the use of the ubuntu-mobile and gma500 repositories on Launchpad. Support is present for 8.04, 8.10, 9.04, 9.10 and in an experimental way for 10.04, but the installation procedure is not as simple as other drivers and can lead to many bugs.

Jolicloud, a Linux based OS optimized for netbooks, has a driver for the GMA500 built in.

[http://www.pixielive.org PixieLive], a GNU/Linux live distribution optimized for GMA500 netbooks, it can boot from USB Pendrive, SD Card or HardDisk.

Intel releases official Linux drivers through the IEGD (Intel Embedded Graphic Driver) supporting some Linux distributions dedicated to the embedded market.

GMA500 is capable of running well in Ubuntu with Compiz visual effects activated.

In November 2009, the Linux Foundation released the details of a new, rewritten Linux driver that would support this chipset and Intel’s other upcoming chipsets. The Direct Rendering Manager and X.org parts would be free software, but the 3D component (using Gallium3D) will still be proprietary.

Solaris

Solaris may possibly have support for these chipsets. Scant information can be found on the Opensolaris DRI page.

Microsoft Windows =

GMA 900 on Windows

The GMA 900 is theoretically capable of running Windows Vista’s Aero interface and is certified as DirectX 9 compliant. However, no WHQL certified WDDM driver has been made available. Presumably this is due to the lack of a “hardware scheduler” in the GPU.

Many owners of GMA900 hardware believed they would be able to run Aero on their systems as early release candidates of Vista permitted XDDM drivers to run Aero. Intel, however, contends that Microsoft’s final specs for Aero/WDDM certification did not permit releasing a WDDM driver for GMA900 (due to issues with the hardware scheduler, as mentioned above), so when the final version of Vista was released, no WDDM driver was released. The last minute pulling of OpenGL capabilities from the GMA drivers for Windows Vista left a large number of GMA based workstations unable to perform basic 3D hardware acceleration with OpenGL and unable to run many Vista Premium applications such as Windows DVD Maker. To get OpenGL acceleration, users must use third party drivers, like the freeware [http://TitaniumGL.tk TitaniumGL].

GMA 950 on Windows

This IGP is capable of displaying the Aero interface for Windows Vista. Drivers have shipped with Windows Vista since beta versions were made available in mid-2006. It can also run Windows 7′s Aero interface since Intel released drivers for Windows 7 in mid-June 2009.

The GMA 950 is integrated into many netbooks, such as the Acer Aspire One, and is able to display a resolution up to 2048×1536 at 75 Hz and up to 224 MB of video memory.

Most of the reviews about this IGP were negative, since many games (such as ”Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory” or ”Oblivion”) need both Pixel Shader 2.0 or higher, which the GMA supports, and Vertex Shader 2.0, which is not supported in hardware on the GMA and is software-driven. Other games such as ”Crysis” will run but may not work at frame rates fast enough to make the game playable.

GMA X3000/X3100 on Windows

T&L and Vertex Shaders 3.0 are supported by Intel’s newest 15.6 drivers for Windows Vista as of September 2, 2007. XP support for VS3 and T&L was introduced on August 10, 2007. Intel announced in March 2007 that beta drivers would be available in June 2007.

On June 1, 2007 “pre-beta” (or Early Beta) drivers were released for Windows XP (but not for Vista). Beta drivers for Vista and XP were released on June 19. Since hardware T&L and vertex shading has been enabled in drivers individual applications can be forced to fall back to software rendering, which raises performance and compatibility in certain cases. Selection is based on testing by Intel and preselected in the driver .inf file.

Intel has released production version drivers for [http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2576&DwnldID=12415&strOSs=163&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*&lang=eng 32-bit] and [http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2576&DwnldID=12417&strOSs=150&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*%2064&lang=eng 64-bit] Windows Vista that enable the Aero graphics.

Intel introduced Direct X 10 for the X3100 and X3500 GPUs in the Vista 15.9 drivers, though any release of DX10 drivers for the X3000 is uncertain. WDDM 1.1 is supported by X3100 but DXVA-HD is not.

OpenGL 2.0 support is available since Vista 15.11 drivers and XP 14.36 drivers.

GMA 500 on Windows

As of Apr 2010, latest available driver revisions from the Intel website for Windows XP, Vista and 7 are:

* Version 6.14.11.1018 for Windows XP.

* Version 7.14.10.1006 for Windows Vista.

* Version 5.0.0.2026 for Windows 7.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Intel GMA, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

NTBackup is the built-in backup application introduced in Windows NT around 1997 and part of all subsequent versions up to and including Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It uses a proprietary backup format (BKF) (also known as “Microsoft Tape Format” or MTF) to back up files. Files can be backed up to tape, ZIP drives, floppy disks, and hard drives. It also features integration with Task Scheduler and has several command line switches for scheduled automated backups.

In Windows Vista and later operating systems, NTBackup was replaced by Windows Backup and Restore Center, which uses the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format, supports backup to modern media such as DVDs and image-based full system backups.

Beginning with Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has replaced NTBackup with Windows Server Backup, which includes the new wbadmin command.. This new backup application, wbadmin, no longer supports tape drives, which means that users have to install third-party applications to backup to tape on these new operating systems (See for example ).

For reading/restoring older backups, Microsoft has made available the NTBackup Restore utility which can only read BKF files. This utility can only be used on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It cannot be used on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 as it depends on ”Removable Storage Manager”, a component removed in these operating systems.

When used with tape drives, NTBackup uses the Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) , which is also used by BackupAssist and Backup Exec and is compatible with BKF .

Adapted from the Wikipedia article NTBackup, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was originally designed to be a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS. NT was the first fully 32-bit version of Windows, whereas its consumer-oriented counterparts, Windows 3.1x and Windows 9x, were 16-bit/32-bit hybrids. Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 are based on Windows NT, although they are not branded as Windows NT.

Although various Microsoft publications, including a 1998 question-and-answer session with Bill Gates, reveal that the letters ‘NT’ were expanded to ‘New Technology’ for marketing purposes, they originally stood for “N-Ten,” the codename of the Intel i860 XR processor for which NT was initially developed. However, they no longer carry any specific meaning.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Windows NT, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

On Microsoft Windows, MTP is supported in Microsoft Windows XP if Windows Media Player 10 or later versions are installed. Windows Vista has MTP built-in. Most MTP-compatible devices do not appear through drive letter assignment in Windows Explorer, instead they will appear as “devices” in Windows Explorer. Additionally, on Windows, MTP-compatible devices support a feature called AutoSync, which lets users configure Windows Media Player to automatically transfer all newly acquired or copied content to devices whenever they are connected. AutoSync is customizable so that the player will transfer only content that meets certain criteria (songs rated four stars or higher, for instance). Changes made to file properties (such as a user rating) on a device can be propagated back to the computer when the device is reconnected. Windows 7′s sensor platform supports sensors built into MTP-compatible devices.

Support for legacy Windows versions

For downlevel operating systems, specifically, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows Me, Microsoft has released the MTP Porting Kit. which contains a MTP device driver for these legacy Windows operating systems.

Some manufacturers, such as Creative Technology, also provide legacy MTP drivers for some of their players; these usually consist of MTP Porting Kit files with a customized INF file describing their specific players.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Media Transfer Protocol, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Windows

Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC Editions, and Windows Vista Ultimate, Enterprise and Business editions come with Microsoft’s Microsoft Management Console, Windows Registry Editor and various command-line utilities that may be used to administrate a remote machine. One form of remote administration is remote desktop software, and Windows includes a Remote Desktop Connection client for this purpose.

Windows XP comes with a built-in remote administration tools called Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop, these are restricted versions of the Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services meant only for helping users and remote administration. With a simple hack/patch (derived from the beta version of Windows XP) it’s possible to “unlock” XP to a fully featured Terminal Server, one good and easy example is [http://www.kood.org/terminal-server-patch/ Sala´s Terminal Server Patch]. With this patch it is possible to make a terminal server out of Windows XP Professional, Multimeda Center, and Tablet PC Edition. Windows XP Home can be made to run a full-featured Terminal Service as well, with additional patching. [http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/13/convert-and-upgrade-windows-xp-home-to-professional-without-reinstalling/] [http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/14/install-and-enable-remote-desktop-in-windows-xp-home-edition/].

Windows Server 2003 comes with built-in remote administration tools, including a web application and a simplified version of Terminal Services designed for Remote administration.

Active Directory and other features found in Microsoft’s Windows NT Domains allow for remote administration of computers that are members of the domain, including editing the registry and modifying system services and access to the system’s “Computer Management” Microsoft Management Console snap-in.

Some third-party remote desktop software programs perform the same job.

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 enables IT administrators to manage roles and features that are installed on remote computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2

Non-Windows

VNC can be used for remote administration of computers, however it is increasingly being used as an equivalent of Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Protocol for multi-user environments.

Back Orifice, whilst commonly used as a Script Kiddie tool, claims to be a remote-administration and system management tool. Critics have previously stated that the capabilities of the software require a very loose definition of what “administration” entails.

Linux, UNIX and BSD support remote administration via remote login, typically via SSH (The use of the Telnet protocol has been phased out due to security concerns). X-server connection forwarding, often tunnelled over SSH for security, allows GUI programs to be used remotely. VNC is also available for these operating systems.

Apple Remote Desktop provides Macintosh users with remote administration capabilities.

Scriptlogic’s Desktop Authority encompasses remote control as a part of remote management. This solution includes: secure web-based access to client machines, real-time diagnostics and troubleshooting, management of the file system, users/groups, registry, virtual memory, reboots and more – without user interaction, interactive remote monitoring and control of the desktop, supports clients running Windows 98 through XP/2003/Vista.

ASA is a commercial product for remote administration.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Remote administration, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 (abbreviated as IE8) is the latest web browser developed by Microsoft in the Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available. It is the successor to Internet Explorer 7, released in 2006, and is the default browser for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems except in Europe. As of June 2010, estimates of IE8′s global market share ranged from 26-28%.

The browser scores a 20/100 on the Acid3 Test. According to Microsoft, security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, Cascading Style Sheets, and Ajax support were its priorities for IE8.

Internet Explorer 8 is the last version of Internet Explorer to be supported on Windows XP; the next version, Internet Explorer 9, is supported only on Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Internet Explorer 8, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.

symbolic link (also ”symlink” or ”soft link”) is a special type of file that contains a reference to another file or directory in the form of an absolute or relative path and that affects pathname resolution. Symbolic links were already present by 1978 in mini-computer operating systems from DEC and Data General’s RDOS. Today they are supported by the POSIX operating-system standard, most Unix-like operating systems such as Mac OS X, and also Windows operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 and to some degree in Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Symbolic links operate transparently for most operations: programs which read or write to files named by a symbolic link will behave as if operating directly on the target file. However, programs that need to handle symbolic links specially (e.g., backup utilities) may identify and manipulate them directly.

A symbolic link merely contains a text string that is interpreted and followed by the operating system as a path to another file or directory. It is a file on its own and can exist independently of its target. If a symbolic link is deleted, its target remains unaffected. If the target is moved, renamed or deleted, any symbolic link that used to point to it continues to exist but now points to a non-existing file. Symbolic links pointing to non-existing files are sometimes called ”broken”, ”orphaned”, ”dead” or ”dangling”.

Symbolic links are different from hard links. Hard links may not normally point to directories, and they cannot link paths on different volumes or file systems. Symbolic links may point to any file or directory irrespective of the volumes on which the source and destination reside.

Whereas hard links always refer to an existing file or directory, symbolic links may contain arbitrary text that doesn’t point to anything.

Some Unix as well as Linux distributions use symbolic links extensively in an effort to reorder the file system hierarchy. This is accomplished with several mechanisms, such as variant and context-dependent symbolic links. This offers the opportunity to create a more intuitive or application-specific directory tree and to reorganize the system without having to redesign the core set of system functions and utilities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Symbolic link, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

No related posts.