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Posts
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By +mram · Posted
That lens of history will burn if you hold it at the right angle... Warn users too late: Shame, Microsoft! That extremely minor update to an obscure Control Panel widget required 2 years of warning. Warn users too early: Shame, Microsoft! We've got better things to do. Pipeline and process be damned, we'll just always be disappointed, eh? -
By Usama Jawad96 · Posted
Microsoft Paint used to be my favorite Windows app as a kid, and it's still pretty good by Usama Jawad I have been using Windows since the early 2000s, when I was around 10 years old or so. I vaguely remember playing around with Windows 98 and Windows 2000, but that may have been on school PCs which had old operating systems installed. My main OS on the home PC, and the one I recall spending most time with, was Windows XP. At that time, I used the home PC to create Word and PowerPoint documents for school, but a lot of the time, I simply used it to play games. My dad would bring game discs which we would try and install on the PC, sometimes unsuccessfully, and sometimes, we would rely on flash games in the browser, like Bubble Trouble on Miniclip. However, the problem with the latter approach was the internet speed. On a good day, our dial-up internet would offer us speeds of 56 kbps, but on most days, it was closer to 33 kbps. This did not facilitate online gaming as I would often have to wait minutes for a game to load or "draw" on the screen, and trying to download pirated games wasn't simple either. I remember getting tired of waiting for online games to load and just downloading simulator games from the Big Fish Games website instead, only to be disappointed after finding out that I was just being given access to trial versions of the title, and I needed to fork out money to pay for the full version. All of this is to say that it wasn't very easy to find entertainment options on the home PC when I was a kid, due to a number of reasons, mostly outside of my control. This situation pushed me towards a rather unconventional ally: Microsoft Paint. Whenever the internet wasn't working as good as I expected, I would simply spin up Paint and draw complete rubbish on the canvas. Of course, that wasn't always the intention, but it usually happened when I messed up drawing a straight line or something, and then I would give up on that particular piece and simply draw a random collection of objects. Microsoft Paint was extremely accessible and easy to use. Even if you weren't an artist, you could quickly understand the tools at your disposal and how to leverage them on a canvas. The absolute breadth on offer ensured that each painting was truly unique, as you could utilize various combinations of tools like the pencil, paint, spray paint, and more to truly personalize your creation. Since I wasn't particularly good at drawing both on digital screen or a physical screen, I remember that my main style of art would be to insert a bunch of randomly intersecting lines and then fill them with random colors through the paint can. I have trying to replicate that art style in the latest version of Paint below, and as you can see, it's truly Pablo Picasso-esque. The human imagination truly knows no bounds Microsoft Paint kept me occupied for hours and was my best friend when video games on the home PC were inaccessible for one reason or the other. There was no academic or professional reason for which I would need to use Paint, but I still loved using it in my personal time, even if what I created wasn't worth being shown to anyone. It was simply fun. Fast-forward to today, and the situation is mostly the same. Now that I am almost 29 years old, and I still have no reason to use Microsoft Paint in a professional capacity. In fact, I don't even use it in a personal capacity, except to dabble with it from time to time, just to see if core functionalities are still intact. And I'm happy to say that I think Microsoft Paint still offers the same accessibility and inviting experience that it did to me a couple of decades ago, even though its UX has been refreshed and it's been integrated with Copilot features. Interestingly, things could have been a lot different, had Microsoft had its way. Microsoft Paint was marked for deprecation with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update in 2017, and even began displaying a product retirement alert, urging customers to shift to Paint 3D instead. Fortunately, after consumer backlash, Microsoft reversed course on this decision, and Paint continues to be a native app inside Windows installations that can also be updated quite frequently through the Microsoft Store. Instead, Paint 3D ended up on the chopping block, which is for the better, I think. I have intermittently played around with Microsoft's refreshed Paint experience in the past few years, and I do think it has received worthwhile upgrades. the UI and the UX has been modernized while retaining core functionality, and the app is still fairly easy to use. It doesn't meet any of my use-cases, but I've never really had any use-cases ever, as described previously. Of course, the elephant in the room is the Copilot integration. Personally, I believe that this is one place where Copilot does make sense, environmental concerns aside. I know that a lot of creatives use AI to generate images, and while some may be using professional alternatives, Paint still offers a decent casual experience, with the power of Copilot. Of course, you do need to have a valid Microsoft 365 Copilot license and available credits to use it, but even if you don't, you still get the big Copilot button in the toolbar, unfortunately. All in all, I am glad that Microsoft Paint continues to be a native feature in Windows 11, and a piece of software that has evolved to meet modern needs without cutting off its own roots. It's just an iconic piece of Windows history that was an essential part of my childhood, and while I don't use it anymore, I'm just glad it is still there. -
By Fiza Ali · Posted
2TB WD_Black SN7100 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD drops to its lowest price in over three months by Fiza Ali Amazon is currently offering the 2TB WD_Black SN7100 internal solid-state drive at its lowest price in over three months, so you may want to check it out, if you have been considering a storage upgrade, before the deal dries up (purchase link is toward the end of the article). Featuring a PCIe Gen 4.0 interface and M.2 2280 form factor, the SN7100 promises to deliver sequential read speeds of up to 7,250MB/s and sequential write speeds reaching 6,900MB/s, offering as much as a 35% improvement in performance compared with the previous generation. It also achieves random read speeds of 1,000,000 IOPS and random write speeds of 1,400,000 IOPS. The drive uses Western Digital’s TLC 3D NAND technology for reliable performance and is further supported by a five-year limited warranty. It also offers strong endurance, rated at up to 1,200TBW, making it suitable for demanding workloads such as gaming, content creation, and high-speed recording. Moreover, its DRAM-less architecture claims to improve power efficiency (the SSD relies on system memory for caching via HMB), while the WD_Black Dashboard software enables users to monitor drive health, install firmware updates, and activate Game Mode for potentially better performance. Finally, it operates within an operating temperature range of 0°C to 85°C, and can withstand storage temperatures from -40°C to 85°C. 2TB WD_Black SN7100 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD: $242.96 (Amazon US) Check this deal out if you want a 4TB option. Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. -
By cork1958 · Posted
Hopefully this will fix the issue of no sound I have since last months stupid, and non-removable, Microsoft Corporation AudioProcessingObject Driver Update (1.0.3.56670) -
By Captain_Eric · Posted
It IS confusing! What channel are you in on each device? I'm guessing your 16GB device is on Experimental (formerly known as Dev) and your 128GB is on Beta.
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Question
Technique
So i've damn near filled my 6TB hard drive and i've still plenty more to do ... that means some videos are going to need compressing (all these files are blu-ray MakeMKV rips).
My computer isn't the fastest at doing this which isn't a major issue because i can just set it up to do the job through the night.
To help advise as best as you can you'll probably need to know what i want to achieve and what i'm going to do with the file. If i miss anything out then just ask...
MY GOAL:
* I want to compress the file down from the original 20GB-40GB that it is. Not to a specific size but smaller without any noticeable loss in image & sound quality.
* I want subtitles to remain in the video file - finally figured out how to do this after some trial & error
* AUDIO - the audio currently comes through my TV speakers. It may well forever stay like that, i don't know. I've been looking in to soundbars for a while now and i hope to get one (but have other issues there - off topic) but it's no certainty. I may well move house in the future and have a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup. The latter two (5.1 & 7.1) are very unlikely but not impossible. The soundbar option is the one that there's actually a good chance of ........ my point is .......... i want to future proof the compressed file so that if i ever do get a soundbar (or indeed 5.1/7.1 setup) I can relax in the knowledge that my movie files can make the most of it rather than being like - damn i wish i'd converted those 300 video files that took me months a little differently.
Problem is ... i don't really understand the audio settings on the audio tab in Handbrake.
* The video files are stored on a specific hard drive on my PC and they are played on my TV in my living room via Plex.
So 3 key things really...
* Image quality - but i think my settings are suitable for my goal? So i'm not particularly worried here. Would just like someone to check.
* Audio quality & future proofing - i honestly don't have a clue.
* Image dimensions (we'll get on to that in a sec)
SUMMARY:
Fairly confident i'm right here. I've selected HQ on the right as a best of both worlds kind of thing - good quality without taking forever and creating a bigger file.
I note the size says 1920x800. More on that on the next screenshot.
DIMENSIONS:
I see the source as 1920x1080 yet the entered numbers by default are less. What is correct here? 1920x1080 or 1920x800?
In this example i actually changed the 800 to 1080 simply based on the reasoning i've heard of 1920x1080 but not 1920x800, that's all.
FILTERS:
I left these as default as i don't really know what they do.
VIDEO:
Now i actually left this as default when i converted my file in this example, however where the red arrow is, i've since read that i should change from Peak Framerate to Constant Framerate.
Correct? Or leave as Peak?
AUDIO:
Here's the problem where i've no clue. I don't really know what to select to achieve my goals. I don't know what codec, what bitrate, what mixdown.
I did a little reading but still don't really understand it. Based on this i changed the mixdown for one of the defaults to 5.1 channels.
Most my movies are English but some are in foreign language (Chinese martial arts movies). So not really sure what to select. I used this as an example since most are total English.
The reason there'll be so many options in that dropdown is because when ripping from MakeMKV i don't know which audio/subs to select as there's often many 'English' options. Based on this i just select them ALL. As a result as you'll know - i sometimes end up with that pointless audio of like the director talking over the movie.
SUBTITLES:
Confident i've got this down now...
So with those options i just mentioned to you (such as changing the image dimensions & not really understanding it) i ended up with this...
ORIGINAL MAKEMKV RIP:
CONVERTED HANDBRAKE FILE with altered 1920x1080 (instead of the default 1920x800):
As you can see, it is a wider file than the original. Leave as 1920x800?
I also noticed though that the audio files are different:
ORIGINAL MAKEMKV RIP:
CONVERTED HANDBRAKE FILE:
Sorry for the long post but wanted to give as much info as possible so that we don't have to play tennis before you're able to advise.
Oh and a final one before i finish. Nothing major but while i'm asking the others i just wondered about this one - on my PC many of the video files have like 'poster thumbnails' for the movie, yet the converted by Handbrake files do not.
Is there a way of changing this so that the converted files have the same thumbnail? If so, how? Like i said, nothing major, just me being picky.
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