A Leslie Wong Blog

I’ve been trying several builds of Windows 7 x64 on my Macbook that uses the Intel 945 Express Chipset. Recently, I did a clean install of Windows 7 build 7100. The display driver that is installed is a Prerelease WDDM 1.0 Driver (8.15.10.1620).

When I tried to play a DVD with Windows Media Player, I received the message “Cannot play DVD video.” Microsoft gives several possible reasons for this message:

1. Your video card driver is out-of-date.
2. Your computer is missing a compatible DVD decoder.
3. Your computer hardware is not powerful enough to play DVDs.

Since build 7 is Windows 7 Ultimate, I assumed a decoder was built in to the OS. I was indignant that suggestion 3 was questioning the manhood of my Macintrash.

Then I remembered the OpenGL problem I had with one of my programs. After I installed the Intel Vista 64 bit drivers 7.14.10.1504 for the 945GM Chipset from downloadcenter.intel.com, WMP was able to play DVDs. I’m not sure why the Prerelease WDDM 1.0 Driver didn’t allow the decoding, but the released Vista driver works – just be sure to run the installer in the compatibility mode for Windows Vista.

My Windows Experience Index also went up a tad compared to build 7068; compared to build 7000, the WEI from 2.0 to 3.0. So my computer is getting faster as it ages or Microsoft is improving Windows 7.

My first issue of Mine. came today. It’s Time Inc’s experiment at a personalized magazine.

I had a choice of five titles out of the available eight: Travel & Leisure, Golf, InStyle, Money, Real Simple, Time, Sports Illustrated and Food & Wine.

After I chose Time, Sports Illustrated and Food & Wine, I had to think about my last two choices. I realized I’d be reading them online if I were interested in them.

Time Inc and Lexus got marketing information from me. That Lexus is involved, immediately moves me out of the target audience. I’m old and Mine looks to me to be an old person’s idea. A handful of stories every two weeks? Have they seen RSS?

In my first 36 page issue, I got a helpful article from t+l Journal, “How to Look Out an Airplane Window”. Step number 1, “Choose a Window Seat.”

My RSS feeds are not in danger of being unread. My Google Reader Trends:

“From your 91 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 16,414 items, starred 44 items, shared 79 items, and emailed 6 items.“

I did an upgrade installation of Window 7 build 7068 (x64) over build 7000 that I installed in January on my Macbook (13-inch Late 2006 with an Intel Core2 Duo Mobile Processor T7200, 3GB RAM). Winver gives: 7068.0.amd64fre.winmain.090321-1322

I ran the Windows Experience Index assessment again, and the base score went up from 2.0 (build 7000 64-bit) to 2.8 (build 7068 64-bit).

With build 7000, my Macbook’s low score was because of the 2.0 subscore of the disk data transfer rate of the primary hard disk, a 120 GB Toshiba MK1234GSX. With build 7068, the subscore of disk data transfer rate of the same primary hard disk went up to 4.3.

With build 7000, the Processor and Memory (RAM) subscores were 5.0, while the Graphics and Gaming Graphics subscores were 3.1. With build 7068, the Processor and Memory (RAM) subscores were 4.8, while the Graphics and Gaming Graphics subscore was 3.1. The Desktop Performance for Windows Aero dropped from 3.1 (build 7000) to 2.8 (build 7068).

The main problem I’ve been experiencing with build 7000 is that Windows Explorer will get sluggish or hang after waking from sleep. Trying to switch directories or file copying, even locally, will trigger the problem. Ending the explorer.exe process and restarting the process doesn’t always solve the problem. A reboot does.

There seem to be a lot of lame April Fools jokes on the internets today, but this one wasn’t, when it first came out in 1957. Things were different then.

I may have first seen the Spaghetti Tree when it first aired in 1957; it seemed plausible at the time.