TechLifeWeb

A few years ago I used Picasa as my photo managing software. Then with Windows 7 I started using Windows Live Photo Gallery (WLPG).
A lot of my decision was based around the ability to use nested tags. That is, I tag things like Events/Family Vacation/Seattle and Places/WA/Seattle. These tags are used in Windows Media Center and make it worth the effort. Additionally and more importantly, WLPG saves the values you enter into the actual EXIF data that moves with the photo. Picasa uses a separate method and it can be a giant pain.

Anyway, now that I’m using Google+ more and more, it would be nice to be able to share photos right from within WLPG. On install, the default plugins let you share on Facebook, Flickr, SkyDrive and Windows Live Groups. Fortunately there are other plugins available, including one for Picasa Web.  Here is how to get that set up:

• Go to this page http://www.mlsteeves.com/picasapublisher/index.html and download the Picasa Publisher.
• Close WLPG if you have it open and run the install.

Now when you have some photos you want to share, you’ll see the Picasa logo a the sharing box at the top of the screen. Select your photos and click that logo.  You’ll get a dialog to enter the username and password for your Picasa Web account.  Enter your details and click Login.

You’ll then see a dialog showing you your current albums to add to as well as the opportunity to create a whole new album. Click Create new Album and name it something relevant.

You will then see the dialog box showing your photos uploading. After the upload you’ll get a box showing success and a button to view. Clicking View takes you online and to the album you just created. Here, if you are using Google+ you can share your album with your Circles by clicking the Share button on the right.

That’s it. A little effort up front will make it easier down the road to share your photos right from Windows Live Photo Gallery to Picasa Web and your friends on Google+.

The Windows 7 and Win2k8 R2 SP1 upgrade process leaves behind up to 3.5GB of roll back data.
If you are OK with not being able to roll back to non-SP1, you can remove this data. You just need open an elevated command prompt and then execute a simple command.

Click the Start Orb
Type CMD to bring up a link to the command line
Right click on the CMD icon and choose Run as Administrator
Type the following in the command window:
dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

The process take a few minutes depending on your system’s speed.

I wrote a post a little while ago about How-to use the HD-PVR with Windows Media Center. A lot of people, including me, have experienced slow channel changes with the internal HD-PVR IR blaster. One of the options with the native Hauppauge drivers is to use an external IR blaster. We’ve been using the IR Server Suite which is very powerful but the documentation is a little thin. Especially since it was designed initially for other software. Below are the steps I went through to get it set up on my system. Hopefully it will help others.

Before you get started, If you also have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1850 or WinTV-HVR-2250 installed, use the Hauppauge Windows Media Center remote control receiver/blaster configuration utility (Hcwcirconfig_tool_1.2.28165.exe) to enable or disable the built-in IR receiver/blaster hardware. Download it from the Hauppauge Support site (Accessories tab).

How to set up the IR Server Suite

• Download IR Server Suite – Test Build 1.4.2.3281.zip
• Run setup
• Under tools, leave everything selected and ALSO check IR File Tool and CommandLine Tools
• Click Next
• Leave IR Server as Service selected
• Click Next
• Click Install
• Leave ‘Run IR Server Configuration’ checked and click Finish
• Deselect everything except Microsoft MCE (you should see both boxes checked next to the Configure button)
• Click the Configure button next Microsoft MCE
• On the Basic tab, deselect ‘Disable Windows Media Center services’
• Click OK to close the config dialog
• Click OK
• Click OK to restart the IR Server
• Go to C:\ProgramData\IR Server Suite
• Look in the Set Top Boxes folder and see if one of the boxes is the one you have.
• If there is one, open its folder and copy all the *.ir files to C:\ProgramData\IR Server Suite\IR Commands
• Then right-click on the IR Server icon in your task tray and click Configuration
• Then click OK and OK again to restart the IR Server
• If your Set Top Box is not one of the ones listed, you’ll need to have Server Suite Learn the commands
• Click the Windows Start orb and go to IR Server Suite
• Find the IR File tool and click it to run
• Under Server at the top, click Connect
• You should then be connected to the server
• Get your Set Top Remote and get it positioned near (maybe an inch or 2 away) and pointed at your IR receiver device
• Click File – New
• Click Learn IR and press the button on your remote (start with the 1 button). Press the button but don’t hold it down.
• You’ll see a bunch of numbers and at the bottom ‘Learned IR Successfully’. If you don’t get it right away, try holding your remote a little closer or a little further away.
• Then click File – Save As and save it to C:\ProgramData\IR Server Suite\IR Commands as the key.IR. So, if you just programmed the 1 key it would be 1.IR
• Continue with the steps above for all the numbers 0 to 9 and the Select button (label it SEL.IR) I created one called E.IR that is just a duplicate of SEL.IR.
• Close the IR File Tool
• Then right-click on the IR Server icon in your task tray and click Configuration
• Then click OK and OK again to restart the IR Server

Next, you have to go into your Registry and enable the HD-PVR drivers to use your new IR Server Suite. Be careful editing your registry as you could screw up your computer.

• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\PSWTuner\HCW49SWT\Blaster
• Set “ActiveBlaster”=dword:00000002
• Set “ExtAppName” to the path C:\Program Files\IR Server Suite\IRBlast-NoWindow.exe
• Set “ExtAppArgs” to -host localhost -delay 250 -channel %c “E.IR”

If you are interested, Wolfe explains more about these external arguments in his post on The Green Button.

Here is an export from my registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\PSWTuner\HCW49SWT\Blaster]
“ActiveBlaster”=dword:00000002
“ExtAppArgs”=”-host localhost -delay 250 -channel %c \”E.IR\”"
“ExtAppName”=”C:\\Program Files\\IR Server Suite\\IRBlast-NoWindow.exe”

Hopefully these instructions will be helpful to you.  Now, go enjoy some HD.

UPDATE: 06JUNE2012: Here is a screen shot of the new settings for use with the latest HD-PVR software.

App Path is:
C:\Program Files\IR Server Suite\IRBlast-NoWindow.exe

App args is:
-host localhost -delay 250 -channel %c “E.IR”
or try this one:
-host localhost -pad 3 -channel %c “E.IR”

I tend to pick a static image for my Windows Desktop. One of the main reasons for this is that I can never decide on which one I like the best. Now, with Windows 7, you can have background images pulled in via RSS. With some Yahoo Pipes magic I have built a feed to pull in Flickr photos that are tagged ‘landscape’.  This works great…mostly. The process works but you are at the mercy of people tagging their photos correctly. Sometimes you get an image that isn’t all that exciting such as someone’s aunt Ethel sitting on a rock in Yosemite. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to delete these images.

Download: FlickrLandscapes.zip

Unzip the file and double-click on the file named “Flickr Landscapes.themepack”. When the dialog box pops up, click “download attachments.”

You Windows theme is now my Flickr Landscape theme. If that is all you do, the desktop will start off black and images will start to be pulled in within a few minutes.  The theme is set to rotate images every 30 minutes. With new content coming in all the time, I like the frequent rotation.

By default, the feed will pull in every image it finds and keep them. I like to limit this to the most recent 25 images and make sure they download once a day. Because it is RSS, these settings are managed through Internet Explorer. Start Internet Explorer and click Tools – Explorer Bars – Feeds (ctrl+shift+j).

When the Feeds panel opens, you should see my Yahoo Pipes feed. There may be other feeds if you use Internet Explore for other RSS feeds. Right-click on my Pipes feed and select Properties.

Select Custom Schedule and set it to 1 Day. Also, select Keep the most recent items only and set it to 25 or a number you think will be reasonable.

That’s it. Now, every half hour you should get a nice new landscape photo from Flickr. Most are pretty cool but lets face it, not everyone who uploads to Flickr is a master photographer. With these settings, the images will just rotate out eventually but sometimes they are so annoying you just want to delete them. This is easy but carries a caveat.

To manage the photos in this theme, right click on your desktop and choose Personalize. When the control panel opens up, click Desktop Background. You’ll see a box with all of the photos in it. Select the offending photo and press delete. Confirm you want to delete the photo by clicking Yes on the dialog that opens. Now for the important part: before you close this dialog box, select all the photos. This step keeps them in rotation.

This is one of my favorite features in Windows 7. Let me know if you try it out and how it is working for you.

This evening at the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) trade show, Microsoft’s big announce was support for CableCARD in non-OEM Windows 7 systems. This is big news for enthusiasts as the only way to get it before was through a new purchase or a hack that wasn’t quite on the up and up.

Microsoft now supports Switched Digital Video (SDV) in Windows Media Center for Windows 7. In conjunction with a device known as a tuning adapter, supplied by a customer’s cable provider, Windows Media Center and a digital cable tuner with CableCARD will be able to tune to SDV channels. Customers can enjoy SDV broadcasts on PCs running Windows Media Center in Windows 7 and a digital cable tuner with CableCARD.

A new tool will be provided by Microsoft that assesses the a Windows 7 PC’s ability to support CableCARD. This tool will analyze the PC and enable digital cable support if the PC meets requirements, opening digital cable options to Windows Media Center customers across the country.

The other interesting thing announced was a technology preview of the new Multi-Channel Cable TV Card from Ceton Corp., which enables PCs with Windows Media Center to play or record multiple live channels of premium HDTV at once, and stream live HD channels or recordings to multiple TV sets throughout the home, all with a single CableCARD.  One card recording up to 6 HD channels simultaneously. Seems like huge news to me!

Still on the hunt for extender news but none announced.

Whether you are a spreadsheet jockey, a gamer or somewhere in between, Windows 7 is for you. I’ve been using it as my sole OS on my laptop and have even gone as far as deploying the beta as my family’s Media Center server. We get all of our TV, Music and Video content via Windows 7 and you can’t make me go back. Truth be told, I wasn’t a Vista hater. People had issues but for some reason they never surfaced for me the way they did for others.

Are you going to make the upgrade? If you are still on the fence, Maximum PC has a great run down and side-by-side-by-side comparison between XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Recommended reading.

Via: Maximum PC.

If you are running Windows 7 on a release older than the Release Candidate (build 7100), upgrade it to the RC now.

Starting July 1st, the Beta will start to reboot every 2 hrs and expire Aug 1st.

You have been warned.

via The Windows Blog.

Microsoft unveiled the pricing structure for Windows 7 this morning:

The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Good news though is that you will be able to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99.

This program begins tomorrow (26 June) in the U.S., Canada and Japan. The offer ends July 11th in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5th for Japan or while supplies last.

Special pricing will be available through Amazon.

Via The Windows Blog

MaximumPC has posted a nice review of all the new features in the Windows 7 version of Media Center. I have been using Windows 7 Media Center (or 7MC) as my sole means of providing media to my TV since the release candidate and it has many improvements over the Vista version.

In Windows 7, Windows Media Center is a more useful tool than ever before for working with audio and visual media. While at first glance, Windows 7′s version of WMC doesn’t look a whole lot different than its predecessor, it includes many improvements. In this article, we’ll focus on improvements in WMC’s TV setup process, support for digital broadcast TV, the program guide, Internet TV, WMC access from the desktop, RAW file support for photos, picture and music playback and sports.

Head over to MaximumPC for the whole article. It is worth the read.

via Windows 7 Feature Focus: Windows Media Center | Maximum PC.