Free Windows 10 Upgrade

As I guessed in my post last year, the next version of Windows is a free upgrade to consumer of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. I love it.

Should Microsoft Windows Free?

Few days ago, I read this article "Microsoft should get used to giving Windows away for free" written by  Tony Bradley on TechRepublic. I like that idea. If Microsoft can not make Windows free as Ubuntu Linux, at least it should be free upgrade or low cost like Mac OS/X 10.7

Using ODBC 32-bit on 64-bit Operating System

Which ODBC driver should we install on 64-bit machine using Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, or Windows 8? It would depend. When I installed MySQL ODBC 64-bit driver on Windows 8.1 Preview, it worked when I added a new DSN. But, it did not work when Microsoft Access 2007 application made ODBC call to MySQL server.

What wrong? It took me couple hours to figure out. Microsoft Access 2007 may not work with other 64-bit driver or program yet. Installed MySQL ODBC 32-bit solve the problem.

On Windows 8.1, there are two ODBC Administrors under Control Panel – Administrative Tools. One for ODBC Datasources 32-bit and one for ODBC Datasources 64-bit. On Windows Server 2008 R2, there is only one reference to ODBC Administrator. This is 64-bit. Where is 32-bit? To add or manage DSN for ODBC 32-bit, you need to call program odbcad32.exe in C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

Hope this help.

How to access Wamp Server running on Windows 2008 from other computer?

The firewall rules on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 or later version may not allow you access to your web site running by WampServer from other computer. To fix this problem:

Step 1: Update httpd.conf to add this line
Allow from 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 # for LAN
#or
Allow from all # for any computer in the world
Remember to restart Apache server after change the httpd.conf

Step 2: Check Windows Firewall.

• Is the port 80 open?
• Is the Apache Web Server (\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin\httpd.exe allow to receive the request from other?

Install Windows 8.1 Preview on VirtualBox

When I installed Windows 8.1 Preview on VirtualBox 4.2.14 hosted on Mac OS/X machine, I got this error:
“Your PC need to restart, Please hold down the power button Error Code : 0x000000C4”.

Here is a solution I found at https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10792:
Open terminal windows and execute this command:
VBoxManage setextradata [vmname] VBoxInternal/CPUM/CMPXCHG16B 1
where [vmname] is your Windows 8.1 virtual machine name.

Here is my screenshot: Install Visual Studio 2013 Preview on Windows 8.1 Preview

Update on July 10: You need to the Oracle VirtualBox 4.2.16 or later to install VirtualBox Addition in order to make the full screen, shared folder and other features.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

The latest version of a great Linux distribution, Ubuntu 12.10 code name Quantal Quetzal, release today. You should receive the notification of this new release on Update Manager. If not:

1. Go to Settings on Update Manager and change 'Notify me of a new Ubuntu version' to 'For any new version''
2. Check again. You will see a notification 'New Ubuntu release 12.10 is available'. 
3. Click the 'Upgrade' button to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10

Windows 8 Preview on VirtualBox

Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview or Enterprise Preview will run perfectly on VirtualBox virtual machine. However, after I installed VirtualBox Guest Additions, Microsoft Windows 8 Preview did not run correctly. I could not open my email client or desktop. So, I wiped out the virtual machine and start over without install Guest Addition.