Test Driving Taiwanese Windows Vista (Chinese Traditional)

Taiwan is being overshadowed by the monstrously growing mainland China today. However, its cultural heritage is as rich as mainland China where it originated. The authenticity of the traditional Chinese scripts used in Taiwan and Singapore should not be overlooked in favor of the simplified Chinese used in the mainland China. If you are studying Chinese or do business with Taiwan or the mainland China, you may sometimes come across Chinese versions of Windows Vista.

I installed Taiwanese Windows Vista to see what it's like. Since I have almost no knowledge of Chinese, it was like guesswork most of the time. Often I had to rely on my experience with English Windows Vista. But as times went on, I learned the meaning of some Chinese characters naturally. It is such an enlightening expererience to use Taiwanese Windows Vista.

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Installing Korean Windows Vista

Due to the Korean cultural expansion and popular k-drama, there's an increasing number of people interested in learning the Korean language and Korean culture. If you are one of those people who study Korean, you may as well try Korean Windows Vista. ISO images of Korean Windows Vista DVD are available on the P2P networks with the filename X12-59647 vista.rtm.kor.iso. Once you download and install it, it's quite adventurous and fun using the Korean version of Windows Vista.

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Surface of a Sphere

Let's derive the formula for the surface of a sphere. A sphere is a revolution of a circle. Let there be a circle whose function is x²+y²=r². Then its center is (0,0) and r is its radius.

When we revolve the circle about the x-axis, we get a sphere. Since we already know the formula for the surface of a revolution, we can find the surface area of a sphere as follows:

Cleaning Up Windows Vista

This post will eventually be a collection of tips on cleaning up and trimming Windows Vista.

Emptying the Recycle Bin

Emptying the recycle bin is the easiest and most common way for people to clean up Windows. Even if you don't, Windows will automatically remove the oldest trash from the recycle bin when it fills up.

Deleting Temporary Files

As you use your computer, Windows and applications save temporary files in the folder dedicated for temporary storage. These temporary folders are given the variable name %TEMP% or %TMP% — in most cases, %TEMP% and %TMP% are identical. Ideally, applications are supposed to remove temporary files after they finish their jobs, but sometimes they forget to remove temporary files. Thus, once in a while, you have to remove temporary files yourself.

To remove temporary files, follow the following steps:

1. Open the Explorer — the default file browser in Windows. You can do so by opening My Computer, My Document, My Pictures or My Music.
   
2. Type in the address bar %TEMP% and press Enter.
   
   
   
3. You'll be taken to the temporary folder, typically C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Temp. Remove any temporary files and folders existing inside that folder.
   
4. If %TEMP% and %TMP% are different, also do the same for %TMP% folder.
   

Cleaning Up VirtualStore

With strict User Access Control (UAC) in effect, Vista places user-generated files in the VirtualStore folder when a program wants to save something in the restricted area of filesystem. Type %APPDATA% in the address bar of the Windows explorer. Then, descend to Local/VirtualStore. Note that not everything there should be deleted as some of them are user settings.

Deleting Windows Updates

Windows updates are necessary to make Windows Vista secure and efficient. However, after updating Windows, some update files are left over and take extra space. The following steps delete these left-over update files.

1. Open the Start menu, right-click Computer and select Manage.
   
2. In the left pane, expand Service and Applications and select Services.
   
3. In the right pane, select Windows update service and stop the serive.
   
4. Open Computer in the explorer and go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
   
5. Go to the DataStore folder and delete all files and folders there.
   
6. Go back and change to the Download folders. Remove all files and folders there.
   
7. Restart the Windows Update service.
   

Using GParted To Create Dual-Boot Vista Partitions

Have you ever wished to have multiple Windows installed on your computer? Having a multi-boot system has many applications, such as:

• Set up one Windows system for your work or school, and set up another Windows system for your family and kids, all in one single computer
  
• Use one Windows installation for your sensitive data, and use another installation for gaming and the Internet
  
• Set up multiple Windows for different languages, for example one for English and another for Spanish
  
• Try different Windows versions, one for Vista, one for XP and another for Windows ME.
  

In order to set up multiple installations of Windows in a single computer, you need to slice your hard drive into several partitions using a partitioning tool such as GParted. Get a GParted live CD and boot your computer with it.

Partitioning Advices

Here's what you need to know about multiple Windows installation:

• One primary partition must be set up with Windows Vista or XP and set active. This partition will be used to boot itself and optionally other Windows partitions, primary or logical.
  
• If multiple primary partitions have Windows installed, then only one of them should be active and the others should be hidden.
  

GParted in Action

Once you booted GParted live CD, launch GParted.

In most case, you'll see a Windows partion (type ntfs) as the first primary partition. If you need to resize it to make space available for the second Windows partition, you can use GParted, but I recommend you to use ntfsresize.

Now hide your existing Windows partition by right-clicking it and choosing Manage Flags.

Clear the boot flag and set the hidden flag. Then click Close.

Click the unallocated area and click New on the toolbar. Create new Partition dialog appears on screen. Set the size in the New Size box, create it as a Primary Partition and make it ntfs. Click Add.

Look at the GParted window and make sure the new hard disk layout is okay. Click Apply on the toolbar.

A confirmation dialog appears. Click Apply.

If everything goes well, a dialog appears saying All operations successfully completed. Click Close.

Right-click the newly created NTFS partition and select Manage Flags from the right-click menu. In the Manage flags window, only set the boot flag and click Close.

Quit GParted. Put your Windows installation DVD into your CD-ROM and reboot.

Resizing a Windows Vista partition with ntfsresize

Well, it's ironic that we need to use a Linux program to resize a Windows partition, but we don't want to spend money on buggy Windows programs. There are many tutorials on the Web that show you how to use the venerable GParted program. But in this tutorial, I'll talk about ntfsresize. Be warned that improperly following this tutorial may result in your computer totally unusable. Before proceeding, be sure to back up your computer. Once you've done that, place a Linux CD into your CD-ROM and reboot. I recommend you to try one of the following:

• Parted Magic
  
• SystemRescueCD
  
• Ubuntu Live/Install CD

GParted vs ntfsresize

The problem with the user-friendly GParted is that after using it, your Vista is unbootable and you need to get the Vista installation DVD to fix it. In most cases, people don't have Windows installation DVD's because they bought PC's preinstalled with Vista. In such a case, ntfsresize is a better alternative although ntfsresize is not as intuitive as GParted. If you use ntfsresize properly, you can just reboot your PC, let Windows self-check the filesystem, and your Vista is fine after the second reboot. Anyway, both GParted and ntfsresize can wreck havoc to your PC if used improperly.

Windows Boot Manager
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Install your Windows installation disk and reboot.
2. Choose your language settings, click Next
3. Choose "Repair your computer"

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.
File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupted

The error above commonly appears when you manipulate you partitions with GParted. To fix the error, read this post: Fixing a Vista Boot Problem.

Why you can't just reboot after using GParted

Every NTFS has a unique serial number (UUID) associated with it. When you resize or move an NTFS filesystem, it is possible that the UUID of the NTFS partition changes. To fix a problem caused by the UUID change, you have to correct the UUID in C:\Boot\BCD.

Displaying the Partition Table

Once you're in Linux, open a console or xterm and type the following command to display the partition table. You may have to replace /dev/sda with /dev/hda or /dev/hdc depending on your hardware configuraton. In general, IDE/ATA hard drives have /dev/hd* names and SATA hard drives have /dev/sd* names.

fdisk -l -u /dev/sda

The fdisk -l command shows you which partition has the Windows. In this example, Windows is in the partition /dev/sda1 which starts at sector 2,048 and ends at sector 78,151,679. Since 1 sector is 512 bytes, /dev/sda1 is 39,074,816 kilobytes (about 40 GB).

Shrinking a Windows Partition

Roughly speaking, to shrink a Windows partition, first use ntfsresize to resize the Windows filesystem, then use fdisk to delete the Windows partition and create a new one that fits the smaller NTFS. Type the following command to find out how small you can resize your partition to:

ntfsresize --info /dev/sda1

The output above says that the NTFS partition can be resized as small as 16,728 MB. For example, to resize from 40GB to 20GB, type the following command.

ntfsresize --size 20G /dev/sda1

A question appears asking your confirmation to proceed. If you type y, ntfsresize will resize your Windows filesystem showing the progress. When ntfsresize finishes resizing the NTFS, the screen looks like this.

Type fdisk -u /dev/sda to change your partition table to accommodate the resized Windows filesystem.

First, delete the existing Windows partition by typing d and then the partition number 1. Now type n to create a new partition, then type p to set it primary, then type 1 to make it the first partition. When you are asked for the starting sector, type the same starting sector as the old deleted partition, in this case 2048. When you're asked for the ending sector, give the approriate number that's slightly larger than the filesystem. Here are my calculations:

20,000,000,000/512=39,062,500

39,062,500/255/63=2,431.528

2,432*255*63=39,070,080

39,070,080-1=39,070,079

Since I resized my Windows partition to 20GB, my new Windows filesystem is 39,062,500 sectors and 2,431.53 cylinders — my hard disk is 255 heads * 63 sectors/track * 9729 cylinders. Round the number up to 2,432 cylinders and convert it to 39,070,080 sectors. Finally, subtract 1 from it and I got 39,070,079. Give it as the ending sector.

Type t, 1, 7 to change the type of the new first partition as NTFS. Type a to make it active. Type p to display the changed partition table to make sure it's correct. Finally, type w to write the new partition table and exit fdisk.

Now, all that's left to do is reboot and see if everything works. Hopefully, you'll see a black-and-white screen for checking filesystem integrity. After that and another reboot, you'll get back to Windows. Hooray!

Enlarging a Windows Partition

Enlarging a Windows partition takes the opposite steps. First delete the Windows partition and create a larger partition beginning at the same sector as the deleted partition. Then use ntfsresize to enlarge the NTFS.

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Setting the Background with xsetbg

This is just my 2 cents on setting the wallpaper on your X Windows desktop. There are many tools for setting the background — technically called the root window. If you use KDE or GNOME, setting up the background is automatic as it is done by the friendly GUI. However, if you are one of those people — including me — who prefer light and minimalist X-Windows environment, you'll put a command in your .xsession file to set your background.

Here, I introduce you to a nice nifty tool called xsetbg. It belongs to a package called xloadimage. I find it attractive just because it doesn't have many dependencies. This is how I use xsetbg in my .xsession file to place my lotus wallpaper on the desktop:

/usr/bin/xsetbg -center -xzoom 115 -yzoom 128 /usr/share/pixmaps/5469_G.jpg

The nice thing about it is that it lets you zoom the width and height separately and center the image at the same time. Pratically, this feature allows you to hide unwanted edges from the screen. For example, the picture below has unnecessary edges around it.

The following command sets this image as the desktop wallpaper without the unwanted edges (assuming your screen is in 800x600 resolution). Change the zoom percentages as necessary for your screen resolution.

xsetbg -center -xzoom 67 -yzoom 85 Sanctuary.jpg

Differential of Arc Length

I was trying to derive the formula for obtaining the surface area of a sphere, but I kept making mistakes whereby I chopped the surface in dx or dy. When you calculate the arc length of a curve or the surface area of a volume, you have to chop it in lengths of the slope, not the width or the height.

To compute the length of an arc of a curve, we need to define the differential of arc length. If we zoom in on a small section of a curve, we find that the length of a curve s is the length of the slope of a right triangle whose base is dx and whose height is dy.

Therefore,

Surfaces of Revolution

Using the differential of arc length, we can find the area of the surface generated by rotating a curve C about the x-axis or y-axis. When a curve of function y=f(x) is rotated about the x-axis, the surface area of the generated solid can be found with the following formula:

When a curve of function y=f(x) is rotated about the y-axis, the surface area of the generated solid can be found with the following formula:

Windows ME (Millenium Edition) Still Lives

Is Windows Vista too slow for your good old computer? Is Windows XP too much for your computer to handle? But you don't want to spend a fortune to buy a new PC. Then get a copy of Windows ME and install it. Surprisingly, there are still copies of Windows ME on the 'Net. Get 'em before they disappear into obvillion!

• Microsoft Windows ME (Millenium Edition).iso
  
• [App - O.S. - ITA] Microsoft Windows Me (Millenium Edition).iso
  
• Windows ME BR.iso
  
• Windows ME Millenium Edition Port - Bootable CD.iso
  
• Windows ME Chinese
  
• Windows ME PT
  

The following keys can be used for RTM versions of Windows ME.

B6BYC-6T7C3-4PXRW-2XKWB-GYV33

FMMMC-G8GQH-BH9MT-YBRH3-CRD6T

Downloading Windows Vista ISO

Microsoft often releases samples of its flagship programs to its MSDN members. Among the software samples released to MSDN members are a series of Windows Vista editions. Some of these copies are leaked to P2P networks like BitTorrent or eDonkey. Below is a list of Windows Vista ISO images including those released to MSDN members:

Language	Filename	32-bit Links	64-bit Links
Chinese Traditional 繁體中文	tw windows vista x86 dvd X12-59649.iso Windows Vista x86 32位元系統繁體中文正式授權製造商裝機版.ISO (2,577,250,304 bytes)	1
English	Windows Vista All-in-One RTM build 6000.16386.061101-2205_x86Fre_Client Lrmcfre_En_DVD.iso (2,678,614,016 bytes)	1, 2
	Windows Vista English Service Pack 2 6002.18005.090410-1830_x86fre_Client_en-us-FRTMCFRE_EN_DVD.iso	1
Korean 한글	Windows Vista X86 DVD X12-59647 vista.rtm.kor.iso (2,591,459,328 bytes)	1

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• Resizing a Windows Vista partition with ntfsresize
  
• Using GParted To Create Dual-Boot Vista Partitions
  
• Installing Korean Windows Vista
  
• Test Driving Taiwanese Windows Vista (Chinese Traditional)