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Jim, I did not realize that, so really good news.
Thank you very much.

Graham

Graham: You can still participate in the Lounge, even though you aren’t a subscriber to the newsletter.

Well, it seems that if I am to follow all the rules, this is the only thread where I can comment.
If anyone really cared about our opinion, at least we would have been allocated a temporary (or permanent) Forum where we could at least start new threads to keep issues together.

I have been as troubled as many over the recent changes since Penton acquired Windows Secret. I sure hope that this brought some benefit to all at Windows Secret columnists and employess who worked so hard over the years to provide us with reliable, generally unbiased information with which to support our windows machines.
But, despite the issues, I had planned on renewing my subscription at the new base price. Fred and Susan’s columns are worth it, and even though quality and quantity has declined, there are often other worthwhile articles.

So, today I received my first renewal notice, clicked on the link and was taken to the renewal options. What first caught my attention was the “free” software that is included in the higher priced alternatives. I had never heard of these specific products, so I did a little research. All are from the same company, and none at least that I could find have ever made the recommended list on Windows Secrets. Why would these be seen as a value to those of us who have been following Fred since the Langa List’s independent days?

I almost decided to overlook this when I suddenly accepted the fact that things have changed in the past 15-20 years and we need to be cautious even on familiar territory such as Windows Secrets. I should read the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy before renewing.

The Terms of Service are as long or longer than Google’s and the Privacy Policy follows suit…. The Terms of Service essentially have you give up all your rights and ideas to Penton for their perpetual use and misuse with or without attribution. They are way to full of legalese but otherwise not a lot different from many other “free” service providers. Oh, but this is no longer a free service. Now we have the privilege of paying to provide Penton with information and ideas and they have the full right to profit from it as they see fit.
I didn’t like this any more than some of the other changes, but I rarely post and my ideas have no monetary value so I could live with that even though it is patently wrong.

Then I read the entire Privacy Policy and I suggest you all do the same.
I am attaching a image made up with text from two screens on this website: On the left is the “New” Windows Secrets and on the right is an existing remnant from better days.
43831-WindowsSecretsPrivacy

Oh, and Google who make billions by reselling our information obtained by offering superb free services do NOT provide IDENTIFIABLE information to third parties without our explicit consent.
Unless I am assured that this is another “misunderstanding,” my 15++ years of benefitting from Fred and later Susan Bradley’s wisdom and experience are over when my current subscription expires. I probably should just cancel my subscription now but I will need the next month to follow all the links in the Terms of Service and The Privacy Policy to do my best to get information removed before I can leave.

Thank you to all the Window’s Secret’s columnists and lounge members who have contributed so much over the years. I wish you well.

Graham

I have a similar drive. I also encounter the same issue but I think it is because the drive is sleeping and must wake up as part of the Win shutdown. If so, you either must live with it or change the sleep parameters on the drive.
As an aside, I cannot eject the drive either. On my system, it is due to a couple of Acronis TrueImage services keeping track of the drive.
Graham

I had a similar problem with a Toshiba Netbook. It would connect to most networks, most of the time, but not all.

One night in a hotel when my Thinkpad and Android phone connected, and the Netbook would not, I decided to fix it once and for all. I don’t remember the troubleshooting path that led me to the solution, however, the problem was that the Netbook had a blank Mac ID.

In Device Manager, adapter properties, advanced, I added a MAC ID I believe it was labeled ‘Physical Address’ and have had no problem since. This property is not available for editing with all adapters, but it is worth checking.

Graham

As a long time user of Oracle’s VirtualBox, I read this article with interest. I was disappointed to find that it is just an advertisement for VMWare.

From what I know, VMWare is a good product and I am sure there are reasons to prefer it for some applications, but I believe that all the specific features and benefits mentioned in this article are also available in VirtualBox. I have been running virtual machines with Ubuntu, XP Pro 64bit, XP Pro 32, and even one with WindowsME(Don’t ask!) All but the WindowsME can run in the “seamless” mode similar to the VMWare Unity mode but built into the free VirtualBox product.

I am not here to support VirtualBox or even to claim it is better but an article under a banner of “Best Practices” should at least have provided equal information on similar or equal alternatives … especially when it did mention two products with fewer features: XP Mode and DosBox.

Graham