Boot loaders and EasyBCD v1.7.2

Tweaking boot loaders on our PCs is a real rare venture, really. Tinkering your boot loader is not a good idea, unless, however required you don’t have to do it. What I am after here is merely informational and to flash before you some ideas that we can use when confronted with unexpected events such as managing boot loaders. As always, I recommend twiddling PCs be done by those who know what they are doing (experts in computers, of course, not Love Gurus) and if you are planning to do the twiddling, then this would mean that you should start learning and become an expert yourself — with the twiddling or fiddling thing. As a descendant of the old-fashioned IT guys that came from Cybertron, I am a firm believer of “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” idea. Just a little caveat there.

Touching the boot loader is not like installing Winrar or Winzip. The boot  loader is in charge of loading your operating system and at that it is very much critical to the operation of your PC. Before our favorite OSs can be loaded, it is the bootloader that does its job first so the OS can step in. Boot loaders are sometimes referred to as boot strap loader or bootstrap. This small program is most of the time unheard, meek and silent despite its huge importance. There are a lot of boot loaders that are on our PCs today.  There is GNU GRUB (i.e. Ubuntu), BOOTMGR, LILO and NTLDR (i.e. Windows Xp/Server 2003). If you have a dual-boot system (like Ubuntu and Windows Vista together) you will see the boot loader in action when you start-up your computer. Usually, when you arrive at the screen where options on what OS to load, Ubuntu or Vista  for example, are posted. You can expect boot loader tweaking if you are dual-booting, making some OS tests or debugging your OS kernel.

So why we need EasyBCD and what is it for? Allow me to show you why and for what.

Reason 1:  Just the simple task of displaying the content of your boot loader.

Reason 2: If you want to change your boot settings.

Reason 3: Add/Remove entries from your existing boot loader.

Reason 4:  Manage your boot loader with user selectable options.

Reason 5: In-buit boot loader diagnostics and boot loader recovery.

Reason 6: GUI-drivenboot loader management (Microsoft only provides the command-line bcdedit.exe tool only for bootloader management)

I have used EasyBCD on rare occasions, usually when I turn a little crazy and mess much around on my dual-boot PC configuration. Honestly, I was contented with what the software have allowed me see and do. I use a dual-boot WindowsVista Business and Ubuntu Jaunty on my Intel Centrino Vpro notebook. They seem to go together well. I am just starting to use Linux, a friend of mine tossed the idea to me. When I miss my next, next, finish life in Windows, I just switch right back. That is the beauty of dual-booting, like having two wives, one being virus-free but harder to handle, while other one beautiful and nice but faints in blue most of the time, bug-ridden and loves viruses more than me.

Try to read more on boot loaders, Wikipedia is one hot resource, actually you can go directly here.

EasyBCD comes from NeoSmart Technologies, they have been quite around for sometime and has been offering the software for free. I have added a download link of EasyBCD at the download page, if you want to try it, but please, be extra careful.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are most welcome.

Firefox v3.5.1Pre – startup bug update

Image via CrunchBase

First, I would like it to be noted that this bug does not exist in Linux, particularly on Ubuntu 9.04-Jaunty Jackalope (as discussed with AY -see comments at sidebar). This bug appear to affect Windows Operating Systems only (Vista and XP, don’t know if the older Windows OSs also have this issue).  The tests I have made on my Ubuntu proves that its not affected with this bug. Start-up speed was fast, amazingly faster than on my Vista box.

Workarounds, temporary fixes are currently circulated online (here, here and here), just to ease this problem a bit.

The bug has already been reported and tracked at bugzilla.mozilla.com with Bug 501605 as code (see here). Patch is already underway posted on the same bug report (see comment 131 at bugzilla), where there is also a try-out version of the software containing the patch — this patch is deemed to produce Firefox 3.5.1. If you are bold and daring enough, you may download the Firefox v3.5.1Pre from the download links page of this blog. Be sure to back up your profile, just to make sure everything is safe.

My experience with Firefox 3.5.1Pre? After downloading the zip file and extracting, I removed my Firefox v3.0.11 on my Vista. The download seems to be a portable version, you just extract and click firefox.exe and you’re up and running. My early observation is — it’s fast. The lag seems to have been fixed. I also have noticed that this try-out version is codenamed: Shiretoko. Sounds good for a patched try-out version that also works good. As I have said, if you are brave enough, try it out and see the difference. I think you’ll like it.

Additionally, let me post a quote from blurnot.blogspot.com saying,

A quick google will reveal you are not alone, Mozilla has acknowledged the flaw and hoping that their developer will be able to fix it. Ambiguity is not something that the end-users are looking forward to hearing. With the launch of Internet Explorer 8 and newer versions of the Chrome, Mozilla has got to fix its slow startup speed in Firefox 3.5 lest they lose their lead in the browser war.

I really hope that people won’t ditch Firefox 3.5 only for this problem. If this problem is wrecking your nerves, reverting back to Firefox 3.0.11 would be a welcome, short-term, bail-out solution (link added at download links page).

Stay tuned for more updates.

VLC Media Player 1.0.0 released!

Image via Wikipedia

The venerable VLC Media Player finally reaches version 1.0.0.  VideoLAN is a free and open source multimedia player capable to crunch almost any media type, at the cost of nothing. It is a totally free software. The new version is also capable of acting as a server to stream media in unicast and multicast IPv4 and Ipv6 high-speed/hi-bandwith networks.

Its features, really, is a long list. Most notable among which is its wide support for video/audio formats and can also double as a media converter. The application also supports a lot of operating systems, from Windows, Linux, BeOS and a lot more. If you are looking for a multimedia player that can do many stunts, sure VLC is for you. Playing your CDs, DVDs and other media will be a breeze with VLC so grab your copy at their website after all it’s free. Just the way we like it.