Hardware

How to Install Windows 98 — Video Tutorial

Nazmus Khandaker MS Windows, Operating Systems, Tips & How-To , , , , , , ,

windows 98 se Large

Need to install Windows 98 on an old PC? Trying to run an old software on a Windows 98 virtual machine? This video demonstrates how to install Windows 98 as well as devices drivers for Windows 98.

I install the OS on a VMware Virtual Machine, but the steps should work on a real PC too. I installed Windows 98 recently on my 13 year old PC, and it went flawlessly.

You need to make sure, however, that you have the drivers for your hardware; otherwise, you may be stuck with a bad experience, such as lack of sound or low color depth and screen resolution. Enjoy the video. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, God Willing. Continue reading →

Tip from How-to-Geek: How to use the Kiosk Mode in Windows 8.1

Link Nazmus Khandaker Tips & How-To , , , , , , , ,

We ran into a How-to=Geek articles that we thought our readers my benefit from. The Article is a tutorial describing how to make use of the new Kiosk Mode feature of Windows 8.1. The tutorial is well-written with descriptive screenshots. If you are interested in the Kiosk Mode feature, do check out this article!

How to Easily Put a Windows PC into Kiosk Mode With Assigned Access

TI-Nspire CX CAS Unboxing

Nazmus Khandaker Hardware & Devices , , , , , , ,

Editor’s Note: this post originally appeared on Techtronica.

TI-Nspire CX CAS Unboxing


In this video, I unbox the latest and greatest calculator from Texas Instruments, the TI-Nspire CX CAS. It is a colored screen, computer algebra system with a user interface designed to be similar to that of the PC.

What is the Perfect Windows 8 Device?

Nazmus Khandaker Hardware & Devices, Techtronica , , , , , ,

This is the week of CES 2012, and some nice new notebook PCs are shown here. Many of these PCs, especially those featuring a touch screen, were loaded with Windows 8 Developer Preview. This brings us the subject of Windows 8 PCs.

Given the fact that Windows 8 now features a touch-first UI along with the tradition Windows UI, we can expect some new forms of Windows devices being more popular in the market, especially those involving a touch screen. But what kind of device would be perfect for Windows 8? Well, the answer to that is difficult actually, given that different people have different needs. However, I believe that one of the two distinct types of device will make for a perfect Windows 8 device, depending on one’s needs.

The iPad’s Direct Competitor: These are the ARM based Windows 8 devices. ARM chips are the ones that power tablets like the iPad and the Kindle Fire. These chips, though not as powerful, do not require a fan, stay cool, and give a long battery life; as such, these chips are one of the big reasons for the iPad’s success. Windows 8 is the first version of the Windows line that will be able to run on ARM chips. However, Windows 8 running on ARM devices will only be able to run the new Windows 8 apps, and not old Windows 7 and earlier desktop apps (aka x86 apps).

These devices, like the iPad, will offer slim design, and long battery life. But, again like the iPad, they will not be able to run complex, traditional, Windows apps like Visual Studio and the full-fledged MS Office. These devices are aimed towards the customers that want a light device on the go and do not want to use them for complex tasks. As such, Windows 8 on ARM are perfect alternatives to Apple’s iPad.

The Full-Fledged Windows Tablets: This is the other type of device that I believe will be perfect for those who are looking for a tablet with more capabilities than the iPad but with the same, fun, touch UI. These tablets will run using the desktop CPUs, like Intel’s and AMD’s. As such, along with featuring a touch-first UI and running the new Windows 8 apps, these devices will also be able to run the traditional Windows applications made for Windows 7 and earlier.

Because these devices will be full-fledged PCs, they will feature slots like USB, SD Cards, and the ability to connect to external monitors. The great thing about this is the fact that we can, then, plug in our external mouse, keyboard, and monitor to our tablets, and, voila, we have a full Desktop machine running Windows. When we would want to have that same device on the go, we would just take off the keyboard, mouse, and monitors, and we have an iPad like tablet! These are great for those who want a tablet for business, those who want to do more with their tablet device, and, of course, those who were longing to play Windows games on their iPad! Of course, battery life will not be as good as ARM devices, but they will be decent, with some going up to 10 hours!

I am also hoping that we will see tablet devices with detachable keyboard/track pad. Then we will have a truly convertible laptop/tablet.

Well there you have it, folks! These are your perfect Windows 8 devices. What Windows 8 device would be a perfect device for you? Let us know via the comments, or send us a tweet!

What’s In Your Server?

Aside Nazmus Khandaker Editorials, Techtronica , , ,

Server LayoutJust last night I put together my server out of parts I had lying around my office. Having almost next to no experience putting a server together but plenty with regular computers, I intrepidly started my endeavor on putting my own server together. The case I used was an actual authentic server unit that was stripped of everything but its monster power supply unit, its floppy drive and the original IDE cables. Now I have a case (an actual server case) to house the hardware I had yet to place in it.

First I tested two different motherboards that both had Socket T462 for the AMD Sempron processor that I was going to add. One of the MB didn’t respond after I set it up and plugged the power switch,various LEDs, etc. to it. I assumed the MB was no good and tried the other one. The second one I tried was new and more advanced. The faulty MB used had two DIMM SDRAM slots. The second MB had three DDR RAM slots. So with that said, I installed the second MB with 768 MB of DDR RAM, two 5.1 surround sound cards, one USB 2.0 unit, and an extra Ethernet card(and of course the processor.) I’ll get into more specs later. Now on to the hard drives.

I started off with two 80GB HDs to see how things would work. I hooked them up to the MB and gave it a shot. Things ran good for the first minute until one of the HDs sparked and caught fire. I immediately cut the power and then the flames doused. I decided to give it a few minutes for the drive to cool down and then take it out. I replaced it with a 40GB drive. Ah…the smell of electric circuits frying. How was that for excitement?

The CD/DVD drives had no problems. There are two CD drives and one DVD drive, but only two of them are hooked up to the MB. All of them are powered by the way. My server is well on its way. The only problems I have now are:

  1. I have no graphics card (it’s an AGP slot by the way),
  2. I need large capacity HDDs and
  3. Due to the type of MB I have,I was unable to plug in all the LEDs and switches.So If there is an error I will not be able to tell by the front LED panel.

Enough of that.

Here are the specs so far:

  • AMD Sempron processor (speed unknown)
  • x1 512 and x1 256 MB of RAM (768MB Total)
  • x2 5.1 Surround Sound Cards
  • x1 USB 2.0 card (2 ports)
  • x1 Backup Ethernet card
  • x2 HDDs (x1 40GB and x1 80=120GB total)
  • x2 CD drives
  • x1 DVD drives I will be sure to update the specs when I get my graphics card and am able to see what this puppy can do.

UPDATE ( 4/10/12) – The server previously discussed has been disassembled and no longer exists. I have a new media server that is in use. The housing is an old IBM ThinkCentre case. The guts are

  • a 3 GHz Pentium 4 processor
  • 512MB of RAM
  • x7 hard drives (6 in use) : x2 80GB, x1 2TB, x1 230GB, x1 500GB, x1 60GB, x1 120GB
  • OS: Windows 7 Ultimate