So I’ve started a new job today (will blog about that later) and my new employer has just sent me a brand new Windows laptop. It’s been about 2 years since I last developed using a Windows machine, so am wondering what essential software I should be downloading to install? What handy utilities and applications do you use in your day-to-day work?
Here is a quick link to an even quicker tutorial on How to create icons without text in Windows XP or Vista. The result are icons on your desktop that resemble the icons on the OSX dock.
Ophcrack is an interesting tool for your IT toolbox. It is a live CD that will crack your Windows password. Of course I trust people would only use this for good!
Why doesn’t Linux need defragmenting? is one of the better explanations of the inner workings of the Windows and Linux filesystems. It is a quick but interesting read.
Apple’s Boot Camp has just been updated to version 1.1. This release offers the following killer features:
The Notbook Review has a very thourough review of both Boot Camp or Parallels. The article will surely give you enough information to determing which way is the best way for you to run Windows on an Intel Apple.
From my perspective, I removed BootCamp from my MacBook Pro about a month ago. Parallels is a very impressive piece of virtualizaion software.
The general public can now get their hands on Windows Vista Beta 2! I haven’t really been too excited with this version given all the slips in shipping dates. I will download this and install it under either the free VMWare Server or Parallels to check out what Microsoft’s new OS has to offer. You will need to sign-in using your Live.com or Passport account to recieve a serial number. German and Japanese versions are also available.
If two methods weren’t enough, here is another way to get XP on your Mac. The killer feature with this technique is that both XP and OSX can run at the same time and without virtualization!
Boot Camp is a beta software program that allows you to install Windows XP without moving your Mac data. With Boot Camp you can burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don’t have to seek them out yourself. Once Boot Camp is installed you simply hold down the option key at startup to choose between Mac OS X and Windows. Cool! Dual-boot Macs!
System Rescue CD is a linux system on a bootable cdrom for repairing your system and your data after a crash. It also aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk.
