XP Mode Screen Resolution

Image via WikipediaBy The Computer Doctor

One of the complaints that we get when using the Windows 7 XP mode is that the print is too small to read. There are two keys to changing the screen resolution for the XP mode to make it "bigger".

First you must break the integration from the Windows 7 machine.

• Open Virtual PC in windowed mode (normal)
• Click on tools
• Disable integration feature
• Now right click on the XP screen
• Choose properties
• Choose settings
• Change color quality to 32 bit
• Finally change the resolution to something smaller like 1024 X 768

Second you must change the relational size of the Windows 7 screen to something closer to what your wanted the XP mode to be. See illustrations for clarification.

In the first illustration we have a windows size of 2480 x 1530, so the XP mode will originally have a resolution of over 2000 x 1400 which will have tiny print. If you change the resolution down to 1024 x 768 the print will not become larger, but the viewing screen will become smaller and 800 x 600 will be even smaller yet.


In the second illustration we have changed the resolution to something slightly larger than 1024 x 768 (like 1152 x 864) and now the relational size is closer to the targets.


If the icons on the Windows 7 screen are too large now, you will need to go to the desktop personalize settings and change the desktop icons down to medium or small (150% or 100%)

Related articles

• Windows XP Mode For Windows 7 (lockergnome.com)
• Total Annihilation: XP supported, No CD Necessary (brighthub.com)
• When XP Mode Isn't Enough (itexpertvoice.com)

Ubuntu 10.04 hit by major bug on release day

Image by [phil h] via Flickr

by Erez Zukerman

It's the end of April. Spring is here, and so is Ubuntu 10.04. Or at least, that's the plan. Canonical's rigid release schedule is awesome for many reasons -- one of which is the amount of excitement it generates around each new Ubuntu release. However, I don't think this is the kind of excitement Mr. Shuttleworth had in mind when the "fixed schedule" policy was set.

As it turns out, after the final release ISOs were already created (or "spun" in Ubuntu geek-speak), a critical bug came up; and no, I don't mean something like "OMG, we put the window buttons on the wrong side!". I mean something like "once you install Ubuntu, you will not be able to boot your other operating system." Oops. It doesn't kill the other OS, and it's fixable when it happens (it's a problem with the GRUB2 bootloader configuration), but it's certainly not something you want to have happen to people just trying out your OS (or even upgrading from previous versions).

Granted -- it doesn't happen with each and every installation, but it can happen. The Ubuntu team considered a quick-fix, but eventually went for the more responsible (and safer, in terms of PR) option of re-spinning the ISOs. However, re-spinning all ISOs would push the release into May, which would be a PR flop in itself. So they're just re-spinning some of the most popular ones, like the x86 and x64 desktop releases, as well as the Netbook remix. Exciting stuff!

The Fix
The partition(s) of the other operating system(s) are not being destroyed and the menu entries for GRUB can be re-generated using update-grub.

Related articles

• Jono Bacon: Let's Make Ubuntu a Trending Topic (jonobacon.org)
• Announcing the Release Candidate for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (fridge.ubuntu.com)
• new Ubuntu 10.04 Items now available In the Ubuntu Store (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• 5 ways to celebrate Ubuntu 10.04's release (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Update for Broadcom Wireless

Image by Neokrisys via Flickr

This is a follow up article for my original post Bad Karma

After a recent mishap on my PC I decided to update to the 64 bit version of Ubuntu even though I had planned on waiting for 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS (long term service).

Now after running on the 64 bit version for a few weeks my wireless card had started acting funny. That's funny as in strange, not funny as in ha ha. Every time I powered on my computer and the wireless card was on I would not get any available Access Points, but when I turned the power off to the card I would get a list of A.P.'s but no way to connect to them. My temporary solution was to boot up the PC with the card turned off and then power it on after logging into Ubuntu. What a pain!!!

Next solution. In the windows world if something isn't working you just uninstall it and re-install it so that's what I tried. OH NO!!! When I tried to re-install the drivers I ran into problems that I didn't have the first time.

Problem 1. Ubuntu couldn't fetch the CD-ROM
Solution 1. insert the CD-ROM (DVD), go to the terminal and use sudo apt-cdrom add

Problem 2. everything that I had loaded from my previous article was already loaded and when I tried to enable the driver it failed
Solution 2. after making the Disc installable you want to use synaptic to search for and install bcmwl-kernel-source and then reboot.

Now i'm back in business and looking forward to many more happy days on Ubuntu.