Category: Software

The soul of personal computing, the omega of hardware

Vintage software updates and new entries from Interesting DOS Programs

News, Software

That is not dead which can live forever, and DOS will certainly never die. At least as long as there are enthusiasts like Dev Anand Teelucksingh, who for years has maintained one of the most useful curated lists of software for MS-DOS and compatible operating systems on the Web. Interesting DOS Programs (IDP) collects links to various DOS programs and other DOS-related sites. Unlike most of the aforementioned lists, IDP is updated with some regularity, always offering new ideas to a vintage computer stuff enthusiast like yours truly.

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VLC 3.0.18, an update to “Vetinari” you cannot miss

News, Software

A couple of weeks ago, non-profit organization VideoLAN released yet another update for the 3.0 branch (also known as Vetinari) of its very popular multimedia player. Far from being just a plain iterative update, however, VLC media player 3.0.18 brings some very interesting changes for an increasingly mature and full-featured software. One of these changes, as far as I’m concerned, can be easily defined as revolutionary.

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Windows 11: Microsoft’s ongoing mission of supremely fucking with PC users

In Depth, Software
Windows 11

A new ghost roams the technology world since June 24 2021, the date Microsoft introduced its new operating system known as Windows 11. In that fateful day, the Redmond corporation substantiated the rumors of the previous weeks by confirming that no, Windows 10 will not be the last version of Windows to arrive on the market. Unfortunately for the vast majority of people using the PC or other devices in a completely personal way, with Windows 11 Microsoft has decided to push the accelerator on the worst market trends of recent years with an aborted operating system distinctly prone to be a pain in the ass since day one.

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Microsoft fixes the drive-corrupting bug. Windows has now 10 more bugs

News, Software

Windows 10 is an operating system that’s unable to offer security even for the most fundamental stuff like storage drives management, and a simple input from the command line is enough to unleash chaos. Microsoft, which frankly doesn’t give a shit about Windows and its users anymore except as potential buyers of one of the company’s cloud subscriptions, didn’t rush things at all and just now they have finally solved the aforementioned issue with NTFS drives. Monthly updates for Windows 10 have however followed the same script for years: for a bug that gets fixed, new ones are always showing up that can, if possible, make the OS even more unstable and unusable than before.

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Windows 10 disaster: bugs corrupting drives and crashing the system

News, Software

Windows 10 is an operating system only serving the needs of Microsoft, a platform that burns bridges with the past and parts with internal betatesters by relying on mercy (or more often stupidity) of amateur testers of the Insider program. In brief, Windows 10 is a disaster that provides always new reasons for concern for PC users. Windows tendency for disaster recently took a turn that’s even more disturbing than usual, highlighting a potential risk for data and storage units of the aforementioned users.

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Prince of Persia and the strange case of the “Key.exe” file

In Depth, Software

Some time ago I bumped into a strange case of computer serendipity, namely I was searching for something and then I found a completely different thing. A bizarre, in some ways surprising thing, the source of which will likely remain a mystery yet it’s worth sharing on the blog. Inspired by this thread on VOGONS, my original aim was to identify the date of the files in my ancient pirated copy of Prince of Persia, a game that I have already purchased almost 10 times through all my life but that in the aforementioned version still is an integral part of my small virtual hard disk for DOSBox. The files list shown by Explorer, or maybe the file list shown by the prompt of the x86 emulator, have conversely highlighted the presence of a mysterious executable file I never noticed before.

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Three different ways to change the color combination of the Command Prompt

Guides & Reviews, Software

For those who, like me, cut their teeth on DOS, back in the days of the text shell and cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens, the Command Prompt still is an absolutely necessary tool on Windows as well. Nowadays the Prompt is named cmd.exe yet it has the same task, ie making simple and straightforward what is needlessly complex and slow to achieve on the graphical shell. After discovering the wonders of ANSI escape codes, at the time of the aforementioned DOS, many (myself included) discovered a world of customizations never imagined before. Today like in the Nineties, the first, fundamental customization of every textual shell of mine concerns the color combination to choose for the text and the background of the prompt windows.

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