Todd Boss

Jul 1

How to get Transport Tycoon Deluxe to Run in Windows 7

Update 16 FEB 2010: I’ve noticed that this post ranks very highly on Google for “Transport Tycoon Deluxe Windows 7” so I decided to write a new post detailing how I actually play Transport Tycoon these days: with the excellent open-source remake OpenTTD, which runs on Windows and Linux. My new post is available here.

If you’re trying to run the classic simulation game “Transport Tycoon Deluxe” in Windows 7, you may get an error upon startup when the game can’t find dplay.dll. Here’s what you need to do:

Go to C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-directx-directplay4_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7100.0_none_e80363be14f8ec68 (substitute your Windows installation path for C:\Windows if necessary).
Copy dplayx.dll to your Transport Tycoon installation folder.
Rename the new copy of the file to dplay.dll.

Jun 18

VirtualBox 3.0 Beta Adds Gaming-Level Graphics

Sweet. Now I won’t have to boot into Windows to play my old PC games. Too bad I just installed Simcity 4 on Windows 7 last night.

Jun 17

Windows 7 Creates New Folders With a Hotkey

Ctrl+Shift+N=New Folder.

FINALLY! Call me a geek if you want, but I’m excited about this. If you’re stuck on Windows, stuff like this is why the Windows 7 upgrade will be worth it (as opposed to Vista, which featured eyecandy and slower performance as its main selling points).

Jun 15

Why Windows is not yet ready for the Desktop

Seriously, have you ever seen a non-geek user try to actually operate it? It’s no wonder people think they hate computers. What they actually hate is Windows.

Apr 12

WIndows Tip: Verbose Boot Mode

If Windows is taking its time to start up or shut down, there might be a problem. To find out what’s going on, go to ‘HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System’, create a DWORD value called ‘verbosestatus’ and set it to 1. Restart your PC and Windows will tell you what it’s getting up to.

(via 20 Registry Hacks to Make Your PC More Awesome)

Mar 5

Microsoft lets users yank IE8 from Windows 7

In the newest (leaked) build of Windows 7, you are finally allowed to uninstall Internet Explorer. Geeks around the world are rejoicing at the prospect of removing IE from Mom and Dad’s PC and reducing spyware removal visits from monthly to annual.

Feb 26

Windows Tip: How to Associate Notepad to Open Files with No Extension

Save this code as noExt.reg (substitute a better text editor for Notepad.exe if you prefer):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.\shell\open\command]
@="Notepad.exe %1"

Double-click on noExt.reg.
Click “Yes”
Click “OK”

Now you can double-click on any extensionless file and it will open up without that nasty “Choose an application from a list” dialog.

Jan 28

Fake sysaudio.sys Causes Search Engine Hijack

I had a coworker whose Google search results were hijacked in both Firefox and IE. I ran the antivirus and antispyware utilities to no avail, and then checked all the obvious stuff like the HOSTS file and DNS settings. Nothing. After quite a bit of searching, I found that there is an exploit where a fake sysaudio.sys or wdmaud.sys file is used to hijack search results for popular search engines. If you hover over the offending file, you should see the description “Miekiemoes Rules!”. Click the link above for the uninstallation procedure.

This is why I use Linux.

Jan 26

Hands on: testing the KDE 4.2 release candidate on Windows

Yes, you heard that right. KDE. On Windows.