PC Memoirs

SmillaEnlarger is a FREE program that lets you enlarge photos that are too small or parts of larger photos while retaining their original quaility. Such programs are hard to find, and if you do find them, they are usually not free. SmillaEnlarger is open source, which means you can just download it and have your fun with it.

SmillaEnlarger is especially handy when you want to enlarge a portion of the photo so you can recognize faces, or perhaps a number plate on a car, or simply a favorite picture of your partner. The program uses special filters which fill the gaps in the image when it is magnified. This way the photo doesn’t look all fuzzy when you make it bigger.

The program’s interface is easy to use, it supports drag and drop feature and batch processing and it lets you control the zoom area and percentage. All you have to do is adjust the frame size and place it on the image that you want to enlarge. Then simply select the zoom percentage.

SmillaEnlarger is portable, which makes it fast and lightweight. It also lets you control the usual properties such as Sharpness, Flatness, PreSharpen, Dithering, DeNise and FractNoise.

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Do you still use Windows XP and don’t plan to upgrade any time soon, but are tired of the ‘old’ XP look? If yes, maybe you’d like to try something more modern? If you like the way Windows 7 looks, you can apply a Windows 7 theme in your Windows XP system. By installing a free theme such as the one Vishal Gupta offers, you can make your older (but familiar and stable) XP system look like brand new.

All you have to do to make this change is download the Windows 7 theme, install the required files and apply the new theme.

I just tested it and I must say I like how my new Windows XP looks!

To download the free windows 7 theme, please visit this page. There is no quick way to install it, but if you have 10 minutes time and a little patience, you will be rewarded for the effort. The process isn’t very difficult either.

To read detailed instructions, please visit Vishal Gupta’s Web site or this page. Vishal also shows ways to transform Windows Vista into Windows 7.

Have you ever heard of System Mechanic? Until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t. I am always looking for software that speeds up slow computers and cleans the hard drive, and I just found a new one.

System Mechanic is a program that’s designed to clean, fix, speed up and repair your PC. It is created by iolo technologies and it’s quite simple to use. Unfortunately it’s not free, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying out the program. You should download a trial version and do a test run first. And if you like it, you can buy it for $49.95 (Currently on special for $39.95).

I tested System Mechanic on my 5 year old laptop and the results were promising. With one click, it scanned my computer and suggested improvements: It found and fixed some registry errors, it cleaned unnecessary files from my hard drive and suggested which programs I could remove from the start up list. And this even though I clean and maintain my laptop with other software.

System Mechanic works with Windows XP, Vista and 7, and has received over 200 editor’s choice awards.

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I came across a new problem, and this time the subject was a laptop. My mission was to repair an ACER Travelmate 2200 laptop that wouldn’t charge and run on AC power. It would run fine on battery, but when you plug in the AC adapter, it does nothing. It keeps running on battery power.

The problem gets weird when you turn off the laptop. Suddenly it charges the battery. Once the battery is fully charged, you can turn it back on and keep working. However, it would be annoying if you had to do turn off the laptop every time and wait for the battery to recharge.

There is a simple explanation for this, but I didn’t think of it immediately. The AC adapter I was using was not a genuine ACER brand. It was a Toshiba adapter that had the same DC plug. But that’s not the (only) reason why it didn’t work. Even though the adapter supplied the correct voltage of 19V, it didn’t supply the required current. ACER needs 7.1A, and Toshiba only supplies 3.65A, and newer models only 6.1A. For ACER to charge the battery and work on AC power at the same time, you need the exact same current or more. It doesn’t work if the current is less than what’s required. And it’s not recommended to use an adapter from another brand anyway. You should only use genuine parts for your laptop to avoid more problems.

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Not too long ago I wrote a post about the most popular operating systems and browsers on the Internet (read here). I quoted statistics from the w3schools Web site, which gave Firefox the number one spot among all browsers. They collected data for over 5 years and came to this conclusion. Internet Explorer (6, 7 and 8 combined) came at second place with about 35%.

However, I read an interesting article about the funeral for IE6 on the CNN web site, and their source was Netmarketshare.com. According to their browser market share information, Internet Explorer (all versions) leads the way with about 55%, and Firefox (3.0 and 3.5) is far behind with 20%. Now that’s a considerable difference to w3schools stats.

I wonder how those Web sites collect and analyse their information. After all, the difference in Firefox usage is over 30% (46% vs 20%). There is some explanation on the W3schools site:

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