05.07.2015

How to find the "thing" causing Windows 7 x64 to loose focus

Tags: Windows 7
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For some time now I have had a huge problem with my Windows 7 x64 installation. Almost making day-to-day work with Windows unbearable!!

For some reason Windows looses focus every 3-5 seconds, making for example drag and drop almost impossible. When I say “loose focus” it is not like “loosing focus completely”, like deactivating the current application. The currently active application is not loosing its application focus. It is more like the mouse is loosing it’s “hold”. The symptomes are typical that the mouse “releases” by itself during drag and drop, and this cause for example:

  • When moving files with drag-and-drop in Explorer, the files may suddenly be dropped somewhere! This is of course extremely irritating, as I have to find out where the files where dropped (thank God for Everything Search, my absolute favorite file-finder in Windows).
  • When moving e-mails from my inbox to any folders, they may get dropped anywhere. As for the scenario above, I have to look up where the e-mails ended up!
  • When moving e-mails into folders, the “auto-release” of the mouse - all by itself - find out that “hey, he is not dragging any e-mails anymore” and instead move the folder currently under the mouse, around within the folders …
  • When working in graphics programs, the selection tool suddenly stops. Either the selection is cancelled right there with the selection still intact, but smaller than I intended, or it is cancelled all together!
  • When dragging any application around on the Windows desktop, the mouse “auto releases”, instantly drop the dragged application, but since the mouse-key still is pressed, it automatically select whatever is under the mouse during the movement ….
  • When selecting text in any editor, the selection was abrouptly cancelled and I started a new selection where the mouse were at failure!

Read on to see how I found the culprit and regained control in Windows!

10.27.2011

Can the 10-year old that wrote Microsoft MSI please step forward

Tags: Microsoft Office Thoughts Windows 7
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Have you ever seen the funny "Error "1310: Error writing to file: C:\Config.Msi..." -message when trying to install an application?

A picture named M2

..."Verify that you have access to that directory." ...

03.31.2010

Has "Windows is checking for solution" ever come up with something sensible?

Tags: Windows 7
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Runing the latest and greatest Windows 7 edition, 64-bit and everything, bluescreens still occurs. Well, ehhh, you don't get to see  the bluescreen, but the machine most definitely crash. After a restart Windows is amazingly honest about the case;

A picture named M2

Clicking on the "Check for solution" button, make Windows search the net for solutions. I have of course seen this behaviour many other times too, but today I wondered; Has the "Windows is checking for solution" ever  come up with a sensible solution?

01.13.2009

Initial Windows 7 impressions ...and... The Microsoft Office-Coffin

Tags: Windows 7 Microsoft Office Thoughts
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My initial impression about Windows 7 is that this Windows-version is what Vista should have been. This is probably the feeling of the programmers in Redmond too, which operates with the internal version number 6.1 on Windows 7. Windows Vista has internal version number 6.0 ...

Microsoft is already pushing Windows 7 very hard, and thus spreading the conception of Vista being a middle-version. This stirs up the customer base, which is currently mostly sitting on the fence, watching Microsoft make up their mind about the Windows future. Here in Norway, many (MANY...) customers still uses Windows XP, and wisely let others "test" Vista for them. They probably won't install Vista at all, but waits until Windows 7 is ready for launch. The lack of Vista-focus and "here we go again with another new OS"-attitude from Microsoft, gives open source projects like Linux, Open Office (and off course our own Lotus Symphony!) bigger momentum for every day Microsoft doesn't deliver a proper OS. Take a look at the latest distributions of Linux such as Ubuntu for example, and pair that with the powerful applications in Open Office. Both the functionality and the look and feel of these packages are now creeping upwards, and making them feasible candidates for both companies and people. Especially when you look at the cost-perspective

In December 2008 we had a major news-case in Norway, where the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Nord RHF)  after a licence-review, had to pay Microsoft approx. 40 million NOK (around 5.5 mill USD) as a response for missing licences. Of course Helse Nord has to pay for their actual licence usage, but it probably shows how easy it is to get lost in the count of licences, and super expensive it can be to fix it
I bet someone is the finance department is thinking real hard on whether the functionality of Open Office and Linux could actually replace Microsoft Windows and Office in the very near future ...

The Office-Coffin
I can't stop feeling that Microsoft is loosing on the Office-part, as the functionality and looks of open source packages comes to par very quickly. An average user only uses minimal features in Word, Excel and Powerpoint anyway, and the counterparts in Open Office can clearly fulfill the ordinary users needs. In the case of Helse Nord, they can obviously save a bunch of money by having most users on Open Office, while only the most techno-savvy users continue to use Office. This is even more clear as Microsoft entered the open source XML world by introducing their document formats as  standards. This forces Microsoft to open up their previously propriotory document formats to the world, and after a while - who will use locked document formats when you can just as easy use open formats? So, perhaps Microsoft got their XML standards approved by slight tricking, but they may not realize that they at the same time hammers down another nail in the Office-coffin.

Seeing the Office-coffin in the horizon must make Microsoft think real hard on the remaining OS-part - at which they haven't decided completely yet My guess is that we don't have to wait until 2010 to see Windows 7. They have to surface it sooner than that!

01.13.2009

Notes 8.5 runs almost fine in Windows 7 Beta (which again runs fine in VMWARE 6.5) ...

Tags: Windows 7 Lotus Notes
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I installed the Windows 7 Beta in a VMWARE 6.5 image yesterday, and are happy to say that the Windows 7 installation was simple and quick. Approx. 30 minutes from starting the installation in the VMWARE til finish. The installation seemed more streamlined than ever, but unfortunately we still have several reboots. Well installed, Windows 7 booted faster than any Windows I've ever seen, and the overall performance feeling is "very quick" (at least quicker than Vista, ha ha). Take into consideration that my VMWARE image only has 1GB allowed too.

A picture named M2

 This morning I tried to install Lotus Notes 8.5 standard client, and the installation went without problem. The Notes client started quick and behaved just like it should. I've had one reproducible crash scenario, and that is when I attempt to view an image attachment (hover over attachment, right click -> Select  View ... booom!)

I am also happy to report that my List Fields and Import Image 2 Lotus Notes products also runs fine on Windows 7 and Notes/Domino 8.

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