Vista 64-bit - Tested application

64-bit process:

1. Vista Battery Saver 1.0 (download)
   
2. 7-Zip 4.57 (download)

32-bit process:

1. McAfee Security Center 8
   
2. WinAmp 5.531
3. Yahoo! Messenger 8.1.0.421
4. ICQ 6.0.6059
5. Google Talk 1.0.0.104
6. Firefox 2.0.0.14 & 3.0
   
7. Limewire 4.16.7
8. Monitor switch 1.0
9. Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Preview (download)
10. Power Monitor Off 3.0
11. SyncToy 2.0 Beta
12. ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 (download)
13. BitDefender Internet Security 2008
14. Fifa 2008
    

Dell XPS M1530 - openSUSE 64-bit - Configure Desktop Effects (compiz/xgl)

openSUSE 10.3

1. Download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run here
2. Go to " init 3 "
3. Install downloaded driver. " ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run -aqsN "
4. Run " sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia ". Configure display settings
5. Run " gnome-xgl-switch --enable-xgl "
6. Run " init 5 ; exit ", and configure Desktop Effects

openSUSE 11.1

1. Download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.14-pkg2.run here
2. Go to " init 3 "
3. Install downloaded driver. " ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.14-pkg2.run -aqsN "
4. Enable 'composite' in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
   

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "on"
EndSection

get gnome-fusion here --> http://en.opensuse.org/Compiz_Fusion

Firefox - How to set Firefox as Yahoo! Messenger's default browser?

1. Click Start Menu
2. Click Default Programs
3. Click Set Program Access and Computer Defaults
4. Drop down Custom
5. Select Mozilla Firefox
6. Hit OK

Firefox - Tips & Tricks

01) Speed up Firefox. If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

• Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
• Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
• Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
• Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
• Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

02) Limit RAM usage. If Firefox takes up too much memory on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM it is allowed to us. Again, go to about:config, filter “browser.cache” and select “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. It’s set to 50000, but you can lower it, depending on how much memory you have. Try 15000 if you have between 512MB and 1GB ram.

03) Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized. This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.

04) Move or remove the close tab button. Do you accidentally click on the close button of Firefox’s tabs? You can move them or remove them, again through about:config. Edit the preference for “browser.tabs.closeButtons”. Here are the meanings of each value:

• 0: Display a close button on the active tab only
• 1:(Default) Display close buttons on all tabs
• 2:Don’t display any close buttons
• 3:Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x behavior)

05) Keyboard shortcuts. This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

• Spacebar (page down)
• Shift-Spacebar (page up)
• Ctrl+F (find)
• Alt-N (find next)
• Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
• Ctrl+T (new tab)
• Ctrl+K (go to search box)
• Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
• Ctrl+= (increase text size)
• Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
• Ctrl-W (close tab)
• F5 (reload)
• Alt-Home (go to home page)

06) Tab navigation. Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

• Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
• Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
• Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

07) Move the tab bar from top to bottom. Edit userChrome.css. This should be found in your Firefox’s profile folder which can be found in the following locations:

• Windows Vista/XP/2000 - %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ .default\
  NOTE: Browse C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ on Windows XP/2000 or C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ on Windows Vista.
• Windows 95/98/ME - C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ .default\
• Linux - ~/.mozilla/firefox/ .default/
• Mac OS X - ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/ .default/

The thing is, the file doesn’t exist by default. However, in the profile folder, there’s a file named userChrome-example.css. You can just rename it (by taking out -example) to get your userChrome.css.

• In userChrome.css, add the following code:
  /* Display the Tab bar at the bottom */ #content > tabbox { -moz-box-direction: reverse; }
• Save and restart Firefox

Firefox - How to recover deleted bookmarks

1. Open Firefox
2. Select Bookmarks --> Organize Bookmarks...
3. In Bookmarks Manager, select File --> Import
4. In Import Wizard, select From File, hit Next
5. In File name:, enter %APPDATA%, hit Open
6. Open Mozilla --> Firefox --> Profile --> *.default --> bookmarkbackups
7. Select your Bookmarks restore point

~ base on Firefox 2.0.0.13 & Vista 64-bit ~

Vista 64-bit - Xdrive & Vista 64-bit

Still trying, yet to success....

Dell XPS M1530 - New A08 BIOS now support Intel VT (Virtualization)!!

Download new A08 BIOS here.

1. Open BIOS setting (hit F2 during system boot up)
2. Goto POST Behavior
3. Select Virtualization
4. Select Enable
5. Save your settings ;-)

Linux - HowTo - Vi - Displaying Line Numbers

To display the line numbers in the left margin of a vi document, type :set nu. To turn them off again, type :set nonu.

If you want vi to display line numbers by default, you need to set the EXINIT to set nu.

You can set this in your .login or your shell start-up files.

1. Open your editor to edit your .login or your shell start-up file. Add the following lines:

For C-Shell:

setenv EXINIT "set nu"

For Bourne or Korn Shell:

EXINIT="set nu"; export EXINIT

For Korn Shell Only (alternate method):

typeset -x EXINIT="set nu"

2. Either log-out and log back in or "source" your shell start-up file.

Vista 64-bit - Forum

http://www.vistax64.com

Dell XPS M1530 - Official forum @ Lowyat.NET

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/580287

Windows Vista - WiFi tips

Sometime (or every time?), wireless device won't be available if it has been turned off during Vista start-up. Keep 'playing' with the On/Off WiFi switch beside the XPS will just wasting time. After following the steps provided, I managed to 'power on' the device even without turning it on during Vista boot-up.

1. Open Device Manager
2. Drop down Network adapters
3. Double clicks on Intel (R) PRO/Wireless bla..bla..bla
4. Go to Advanced tab
5. Enable 'Throughput Enhancement'
   
6. Hit OK.

Dell XPS M1530 - Vista 64-bit drivers

Dell MediaDirect updates

1. Follow steps in Dell XPS M1530 - Prepare your XPS with Dell MediaDirect (thanks to Safar) to install Vista 64-bit
2. Install Media Direct 3.3 patch 1 - Shutdown & test your MediaDirect button
   
3. Install Media Direct 3.3 patch 2 - Shutdown & test your MediaDirect button

Drivers (not in sequence, except no 1)

1. Install NIC driver <-- install 1st for you to access the net ;-) .
2. Install WiFi driver
   
3. Install touchpad driver
   
4. Install MMC driver
   
5. Install audio driver
6. Install quickset driver *updated*
   
7. Install fingerprint reader driver/application
8. Install BT driver. Extract the file, and go to Win64 sub-folder. Run Inst program. At the end of the installation, just cancel if you don't want to configure any BT device yet
9. Install nVidia 174.70 modded driver (or what ever version you prefer). Extract .7z file somewhere and replace nv_disp (modded) in extracted folder. Run setup. If asked by Windows Security, just select 'Install this driver software anyway'.
   
10. Modem driver (not yet tested - not use)
11. SATA driver (use Vista 64-bit default pre-loaded driver)
12. WebCam driver/application (use Dell provided install CD)
13. McAfee application (use Dell provided install CD)

Update your windows through windowsupdate, and you may skip/hide the updated nVidia driver provided on the site.

I don't have issue so far with the driver provided above. If someone got a better/latest driver/application, please pass me the link ;-)

Dell XPS M1530 - Prepare your XPS with Dell MediaDirect (thanks to Safar)

Before you can reinstall the Dell MediaDirect software, you must prepare your hard drive for the Reinstallation using the utilities on the "Reinstallation Media", this will erase all data and create drive partitions.
Once you have prepared your hard drive, you can reinstall your Microsoft® Windows® Vista operating system, hardware drivers, and software programs.
Please note the "Primary Partition" that is created during the preparation of the hard drive should be used when installing the Microsoft® Windows® Vista operating system. Once the operating system is fully reinstalled, follow the instructions in "Reinstalling the Dell MediaDirect Software" to reinstall your Dell MediaDirect software.

Step 1 - Preparing the Hard Drive for the Dell MediaDirect Reinstallation

Before you begin installing your Microsoft® Windows® Vista operating system, you must prepare your hard drive using the software provided on the reinstallation media.

To prepare your hard drive:

1. Turn on your computer.
2. Insert the reinstallation media into the CD/DVD drive, and then restart your computer
3. If your computer is already configured to boot from the CD/DVD drive, you will be prompted to press a key to boot from the CD/DVD drive. If the "Media Direct Reinstallation" does not automatically start, restart your computer and when the Dell logo appears, press immediately. This will take you to the boot menu where you need to select CD/DVD drive
4. When the Media Direct Reinstallation menu appears, select the option to partition the hard drive

• Select "Option 1" from the menu if you wish to use all of the hard drive for your operating system installation. This is the most common selection and is how your computer was originally shipped to you, unless you specified an operating system partition size at the time you ordered your computer
• Select "Option 2" if you wish to designate a size for your operating system and have a data partition. This will allow you to specify a size for the operating system partition, leaving the remainder of the hard drive configured as a "data" partition (D:)

1. Once you have prepared the drive and you have returned to the main recovery menu, remove the reinstallation media and replace it with the operating system reinstallation CD. Select the option to reboot your computer
2. If your computer does not automatically start the media, press to access the Boot Menu and select the CD/DVD boot option
3. Install your Microsoft® Windows® Vista operating system (for help refer to the Windows installation guide), selecting the "Primary Partition" when prompted. If you have two hard drives, select the "Primary Partition" on the same disk where the MediaDirect partition resides. Once you have completed the installation of the operating system, you can begin reinstallation of the Dell MediaDirect software.
   

Step 2. Reinstalling the Dell MediaDirect Software

Note: You must follow the instructions in "Step 1. Preparing the Hard Drive for the Dell MediaDirect Reinstallation" prior to reinstalling the Dell MediaDirect. Dell MediaDirect requires a special partition which is automatically created under the hard drive preparation process.

To reinstall the Dell MediaDirect software:

1. At the Windows desktop, close all open applications.
2. Insert the reinstallation media into the CD/DVD drive. The Dell MediaDirect™ Powered by Cyberlink window opens automatically.
3. Press to reinstall Dell MediaDirect. When the reinstallation process is complete, a message will be displayed.
4. Press to exit the reinstallation window, and then remove the reinstallation media from the DVD drive.
5. Shut down the computer through the Start menu.
6. Once your computer has completely turned off, press the Dell MediaDirect button on your computer to launch MediaDirect.