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* Posts by FrJackHackett

8 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jan 2015

Microsoft: You own the best software keyboard there is. Please let us buy it

FrJackHackett

Swiftkey is not what it was...

I use Swiftkey and have done for probably 10+ years. A few years back, I started noticing it seemed to be going downhill rather badly. It would randomly delete words I'd just typed and occasionally I'd type a word only to look up and see it was total gibberish e.g. I'd see dsczkudjr instead of the word gibberish! Some of the predictions were miles off what I was looking for. And then, one day, I noticed it no longer said SwiftKey on the space bar; it now said Microsoft Swiftkey. 'Ahhhh!' I thought, 'That explains it!' I've now set my expectations accordingly i.e. at rock bottom.

So be careful what you wish for: if they bring back Swype, you can be sure it will not be the Swype you remember. Nostalgia is not what it used to be, after all.

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Want to check out Windows 11 but don't want to buy a new PC? Here's how to bypass the hardware requirements

FrJackHackett
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Set reg key during setup

Shift+F10 when setup starts and run regedit. Just did it on a 7 year old Dell XPS 12. Installed just fine, running no worse than Windows 10. A few missing drivers that look to have been picked up after install by Windows update; the fact it didn't pick them up during setup when it goes online to check for updates is, well, not entirely surprising.

Only want it installed as I'm selling and I'm hoping the "lure" of shiny new Windows 11 will get me a few more quid for it.

Finally, MS talk about security a lot, but in 2021 you can still answer the security questions with your password when setting up an offline account. I'm only setting up the account to get the laptop ready for selling, so I just answered the 3 questions with the password, but amazed you can actually still do that.

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Like its Windows-noob-stabilisers OS, Zorin's cloudy Grid tool is Linux desktop management for dummies

FrJackHackett
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Re: Why bother with the Windows look ?

Ah, Time... Suppliers of my very first computer and, very shortly thereafter, my second computer as they somehow managed to ship me two of them. Two for the price of one! An expensive mistake at £1300 each. Any wonder they're gone.

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Virtual inanity: Solution to Irish border requires data and tech not yet available, MPs told

FrJackHackett
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Re: FFS

"I'm not sure whether those proposing this are numpties, or they're taking the rest of us for numpties who might fall for this as a solution."

Pretty sure it's both.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X390: A trusty workhorse that means business but it's not without a few flaws

FrJackHackett
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Re: Interesting

"Does Linux work on it?"

Recently had to create a Config Mgr driver package for one of these at work. When I was finished, I put Ubuntu 19.04 on it. Haven't had much time to play with it, but it seems to work just fine and is very nippy.

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Ouch. Reinstalling Windows 10 again? By 2020, a 'cloud download' may be all you need

FrJackHackett
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I've only ever had to reset Windows 10 once...

The only time I've had to reset Windows 10 on my personal laptop, I downloaded an ISO and wrote it to a USB stick.

I booted from that and installed Linux Mint. I've had no problems with Windows 10 since.

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Chrome ad, content blockers beg Google: Don't execute our code! Wait, no, do execute our code – just don't kill us!

FrJackHackett
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Re: Oh great (:

Same here. Keen to get away from Chrome and have tried Firefox a couple of times recently. I first moved to Chrome about 10 years ago from Firefox because Firefox used to gobble up most of my RAM. Unbelievably, on trying it again just this week and last, it still does that. I thought I could live with it using 1.5-2GB of RAM, but on coming into work yesterday and finding it using 3.5GB, that's just not acceptable. I'd use Brave, but can't get the sync feature to work across devices. Very frustrating.

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THREE MILLION Moonpig accounts exposed by flaw

FrJackHackett
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Re: This brings back memories.....

Did you develop it for MoonPig?

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