Jan 28
Microsoft have finally released the Update for Windows XP as Service Pack 3. Its the first Release Candidate (RC1) for Windows XP Service Pack 3.
It includes all the updates released till date and has a few new functionality, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.
Supported Operating Systems are:
Windows XP; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Starter Edition; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
You can download it right from Microsoft’s Download Center or from HERE.
Its a direct link from Microsoft’s Download Center. The File Size is 336.10MB. No Validation Required.
Dec 11
ACDSee is an image viewer that’s been well known since the days of IrfanView. ACDSee had quite a few followers for its superior features back then, but IrfanView was generally known more for being freeware. ACDSee 2 Pro has moved from being just an image viewer. This new version boats of great photo handling features for the professional photographer.
The first thing ACDSee 2 Pro does is catalogue all your images when you first run it. The interface is surrounded by sidebars, leaving only a small area to actually view images and thumbnails.
Photos are shorted by time and can be viewed through the calender view. The other useful filtering feature is the Organised sidebar, which allowes you to display photos from only a particular camera.
A quick preview appears when you hover the pointer over an image. You can enter image editing mode by double clicking on any of the photos. ACDSee 2 Pro even loads videos; you can not only view them, but also convert them using the codecs on your machine.
Images and videos can even be burnt onto CD and DVD. Wizerds are available to create Video CDs as well. Other than that, you can even export your photos as HTML albums, PDF, or PowerPoint presentations.
Memory consumption was well under 30MB while browsing images, and only spiked by a few (5 to 10) MB while opening images.
Other than its clumsy interface, ACDSee 2 Pro seems a nice software, untill you get to knowabout the price tag - $129.99. It’s still much cheaper than Adobe Lightroom, which is more than twice its price. It has quite a few features that can be compared to those of Lightroom, but it doesn’t match its simplicity.
People looking for image viewers can stick to free ones like IrfanView, as ACDSee 2 Pro has gone far beyond that. Users can’t afford Lightroom might want to consider ACDSee 2 Pro.
Dec 06
Media Player Classic might look like the old Microsoft Windows Media Player 6, but is in fact one of the most used media players around.
At around a megabyte in size, the player is much more compact than VLC or any of the others.
Lets look at some of the most important and useful features that also make Media Player Classic the player of choice for many.
Make it a default player:
View > Options. Click on Formats and then chose the formats you want the MPC to be the default player.
Fixing Audio Delay:
View > Options Click on Internal Filters > Audio Switchers. Enter a value Audio Shift in milliseconds.
Enter a positive value to have a audio delayed or a Negetive Value to have the video delayed.
Boosting Audio:
View > Options Click on Internal Filters > Audio Switchers. Now drag the slider to desired position. This may cause drastic audio if you slide it way too high.
Saving Screenshots:
Pause at your desired frame and then File > Save Image. If you want thumbnails from entire video clip, click on File > Save Thumbnails. Enter a file name and the number of rows and columns you want, click Save. An Image Sheet with the thumbnails and information on the video file will be saved.
Subtitles:
Media Player Classic has supported subtitles for quite a while now. However, there are a few changes to the renderer that need to be done before you can actually view them. Click on View > Options. Choose DirectShow VMR7 or VMR9 (renderless). Click OK and restart Media Player Classic. Now open the movie you want to watch, click on File > Load Subtitle and point to the subtitle file you have. You can customize the way of subtitles are rendered. Go to View > Options > Subtitles > Default Style. Here you can set the subtitles settings such as position, font, color, transparency etc.
Quick Shortcuts:
Play/Pause : Space Bar
Stop : .
Volume Up : Up Arrow
Volume Down : Down Arrow
Full Screen : Alt + Enter
Mute : Ctrl + M
Boss Key : B
Zoom In : Numpad 9 (Page UP)
Zoom Out : Numpad 1 (End)
Increase Width : Numpad 6
Decrease Width : Numpad 4
Increase Height : Numpad 8
Decrease Height : Numpad 2
Center View : Ctrl + Numpad 5
