Windows XP True Transparency - Look like Windows Vista - But It's Still XP - Download TrueTransparency

Windows Vista user interface, Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open) is intended to be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than previous Windows versions, including window animations, eye candyand glass-like transparencies.

Today you can make Windows XP tranparent just like Windows Vista :)

TrueTransparency is a freeware that changes the windows border adding png support and so true transparency. visit TrueTransparency site here or here


UPDATE 1:
Download True Transparency
Version : 0.9.4
(Download)

UPDATE 2:
Download TrueTransparency
Version : 1.0
(Download)




UPDATE 3:
Download TrueTransparency
Version : 1.1
(Download)



UPDATE 4:
Download TrueTransparency
Version : 1.2
(Download)

click on picture to enlarge

Don't afraid it will eat your memory... see this picture :


by the way.. I prefer Aero2 than Aero1 :

Why AHCI ?

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a hardware mechanism that allows software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices such as host bus adapters which are designed to offer features not offered by Parallel ATA (PATA) controllers besides higher speeds, such as hot-plugging and native command queuing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI

AHCI stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface. One of the main reasons for switching to AHCI-mode is to take advantage of the NCQ-Feature of your SATA harddrive. NCQ (Native Command Queuing) allows ATA drives to accept more than one command at a time and dynamically reorder the commands for maximum efficiency. NCQ, when used in conjunction with a hard drive that supports NCQ, can increase storage performance on random workloads.
forum.msi.com.tw



Native Command QueuingNative Command Queuing (NCQ) is a technology designed to increase performance of SATA hard disks under certain situations by allowing the individual hard disk to internally optimize the order in which received read and write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of unnecessary going back-and-forth on the drive's heads, resulting in increased performance (and slightly decreased wear of the drive) for workloads where multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occurring in server-type applications. However, the current technology actually slows down HD access in certain applications (but not always) like games and sequential reads & writes, because of the added latency induced by NCQ logic. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Command_Queuing

AHCI is fully supported in Microsoft Windows Vista and the Linux operating system from kernel 2.6.19. Older operating systems like Windows XP require drivers written by the host bus adapter vendor in order to support AHCI. Windows XP requires the installation of a vendor-specific driver even if AHCI is present on the host bus adapter because Windows XP was released before Serial ATA was invented.

Links :

Switch AHCI to IDE from BIOS Guide

Windows XP support AHCI

Enable AHCI Without reinstalling Windows XP (link)

UPDATE :
Install Enable AHCI Without reinstalling Windows XP (link)


Error message when you start a computer Windows Vista after having modified mode SATA of the reader of starting: "STOP 0X0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE" (link)

Acer Aspire 4310 and 3DMark03

Acer Aspire 4310

A few days ago I wrote about Acer Aspire 4710 and 3DMark03 and today I will show about Acer Aspire 4310 and 3DMark03 ....

As you know that Acer Aspire 4310 is similiar with Aspire 4710... but not the hardware.




Acer Aspire 4310-300508

Intel® Celeron® M processor 520 (1MB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB), supporting Intel® 64 architecture

• Mobile Intel® 943GML Express Chipset
• 512MB DDR2 Memory
• Mobile Intel® 943GML Express Chipset with integrated 3D graphics, featuring Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 with up to 224 MB of shared system memory, supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 9, PCI Express® more ...

settings :

• Intel GMA 950 -> 224 Mb
• 3DMark03 run in default setting
• CPU Speed -> Max (from Acer Empowering Technology)

Aspire 4310 3DMark Score :

3Dmark03 result

Click on picture to enlarge

Aspire 4520 ? soon... :)

Acer Aspire 4710 3DMark03 Score

After I write a post about Acer Aspire 4170 (Intel) Vs Acer Aspire 4520 (AMD) Zahris (read his comment here) ask me to try not only 3DMark2001 but also 3DMark03. Ok here we go ... :)





Acer Aspire 4710-4A0512
Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile processor technology, featuring:
• Intel® Core™ Duo mobile processor T2450 (2MB L2 cache, 2.0GHz, 533MHz FSB)
• Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (dual-band tri-mode 802.11a/b/g) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® network connection, supporting Acer SignalUp™ wireless technology

• Intel GMA 950 -> 224 Mb
• 3DMark03 run in default setting
• CPU Speed -> Max (from Acer Empowering Technology)
  
  Acer Aspire 4710 running 3DMark03

Aspire 4710 3DMark03 Score :

Aspire 4710 3DMark03 Score

Acer Aspire 4710 fullscreen

Ok... you can see that I have a lot of application installed on my laptop, maybe if I run 3DMark03 on fresh Windows XP (just before reinstall) the result will different ;p

Acer 4310 ? 4520 ? soon....

Problem Solved : Keyboard and touchpad not responding on Aspire 4310 and 4710

First I would like to thank F.Torres9 for his comment on this post, it's really helpful. If you don't understand what I'm talking about please read this post. My problem on Acer Aspire 4710 (and 4310) finally solved. 

Now keyboard and touchpad still work and responding well after sleep (stand by). Like F.Torres9 said, when you install windows do not install camera driver, just install the application for the camera, not the driver. You can use default driver from windows. You may have to reinstall windows, it will not work if you just uninstall the device from device manager.

UPDATE :
You may try to use Roll Back Driver feature, Open Device Manager > double click on CrystalEye > click "driver" tab > click Rool Back Driver
 

Tested and working! :) I hope future release of the camera driver will solve the problem. But I think I don't need this driver, there's no difference (image quality) between camera driver from Acer and the default camera driver from Windows.

How to make Our Acer Laptop Boot and Shutdown Faster

Are Acer laptop take a long time for boot and (or) shutdown? No… It’s just like other laptop, boot and shutdown time is depends how much services and program in startup.

There are many ways to make our laptop (or PC) boot and shutdown faster, you can do this from registry, msconfig, services.msc, and other tools ... Does this need to be explained? Hmm... you can search it on google by yourself ;) I just want to tell you an acer empowering technology feature that make it easier to do. No registry editing... just a few clicks.

Open Acer ePerformance Management >



Select Speed >

Select All ;) then click Apply >
Feel faster ? ...