Corsair Voyager Mini

In order to make Windows installation faster, I decided to buy this USB. While I have great experience with my current USB, I decided against buying same one. Distinguishing between them would probably cause wrong one getting deleted all the time.

Since I did own both Corsair Voyager and Voyager GT before, I decided to check their Voyager mini. It seemed like nice USB drive. It was cap-less (I hate those) and it’s look and size ensured were quite appealing to me.

I will start with one good thing and that is speed. This little guy is fast. It is not as fast as his big brothers (especially GT family), but you will be satisfied. Windows installation just flies on this one. Unfortunately, this is first and last thing I liked.

Most common operation with USB drive is inserting it in USB socket and this is where this drive fails miserably.

In order to insert it into USB, you need to grasp it “just right”. If you grasp it too high it will just retract back. While this is not problem if your computer is on desk, it is quite annoying if you need to plug it in laptop. Only way you can do it every time is to raise laptop (2700 grams) in order to plug Voyager mini (5 grams).

To make things worse, you can insert it up-side-down without any problem. This will not break anything (there are no short-circuiting issues) but it is quite annoying when you don’t notice it. Those computers with vertical connectors are most annoying ones since you are never sure and there is nothing to block you if you insert it wrong way.

While this drive looks like Voyager, it is not. As much as I am satisfied them, I am dissatisfied with this one. I can only find fortune in fact that, since I use it only for installs, it is not used much. I do wonder whether guarantee covers burning…

XP Mode Is Done

Only days separate us from being able to download final release of Windows XP mode. As of yesterday, it has hit RTM milestone.

Those that already have RC installed should not see big difference and hopefully seamless upgrade will be possible.

QText 2.20

QText is small “notepadish” program for taking quick notes. In order to avoid data loss, it auto-saves everything you type.

For new version, changes are:

• Fix: Window restoring via shortcut.
• Fix: Clipboard bug (Requested Clipboard operation did not succeed).
• Added Find option.

And last change is finally attaching a license to program. I opted for MIT license if anybody cares.

Download it here.

Security Essentials Are Out There

Few months ago there was limited beta. Curtain is finally lifted and there is final version available for download.

It looks good, it works good and it is free.

Wireless in Windows Server 2008 R2

If you use/test Windows Server 2008 R2 on your laptop, you will notice that your wireless adapter is disabled by default. And you will also notice that you cannot enable it no matter how many times you try. Problem is that wireless connection requires Wireless Zero Configuration service running and that one is not installed by default.

Only step that is required is adding “Wireless LAN Service” feature. Just go to “Server Manager”, select “Features” and after you click on “Add Feature”, you will get list with quite few features to select from. Only one that we need is “Wireless LAN Service”.

After quick installation (no reboot is required), your wireless is available once more.