I just installed Windows 7 64 Bit on my work laptop yesterday. Everything has been working great. However when I pulled up my system information (right click on Computer from the start menu, the left click on Properties). I noticed some funny stuff. You can see in my screenshot above that the number for Dell support is “1-800-Call-India”. I hate to burst your bubble, but it isn’t. How did that get there? Hah! I found a registry hack to change this info. Very easy to do.
In Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft made it very easy for OEM system builders to display support information and logos. Deep in the Windows system registry there are some settings for this information. You don’t have to retain the current OEM logo. You can change the information to whatever you might like. In my case I thought a little humor was in order. Where is this info?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation
If your install is a retail version, you may need to add some keys to OEMInformation. Logo (path of logo file), Manufacturer, Model, SupportURL, SupportHours and SupportPhone are the keys that you can use. All keys are strings. Note on the logo, you are limited to 120 x 120 pixel size imagine and it must be in 24bit bitmap format (bmp). Edit the registry at your own risk!
Have you ever gotten excited about a new PC game coming out? You ran right out and bought it as soon at it hit store shelves? Did the excitement wear off as soon as you found out your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements? Sad, I know. I’ve bought games before without paying close attention to the hardware requirements before. It’s one of the last things you expect.
Well life got a little easier with a free utility that can tell you if your machine is up to snuff for the latest games. It’s called “Can You Run It?” Very simple to use. Just go to the “Can You Run It?” website and select the game you want to check for. The application will then inspect your hardware and give you a report of it’s findings. You may find that you just need to upgrade your video card or add ram. However some games tend to overrate the requirements.
New games come out every few weeks. It is amazing how much push there is for new hardware. What’s hot today is not tomorrow. Gaming is not the cheapest hobby out there. But it can be a lot of fun. As they say at the end of every GI Joe cartoon “Now you know and knowing is half the battle.”
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com
Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day! The one day a year that a computer system administrator (SA) gets the respect he or she deserves! Tell your system administrator how much you appreciate them! Give them a strong pat on the back. After all we’re humans too! We like to be told that we’re valuable. Besides who’s there to work long hours and weekends to insure your systems are always up and ready?
Our IT Department is celebrating today at lunch with a little pizza from Toni Roma’s! I’m sure we’ll all sit around and talk about the time the servers and phones went down, how we all pitched in and saved the day. Not to mention the weekends spent upgrading software and service packs on all the machines. Let’s not forget all the other stuff that can’t be done during the day! Endless miles of cabling at our locations and server rooms. Ah, the joy of being a System Administrator.
Usually celebrated the last Friday in July. You can learn more about one of my favorite geek holidays at http://www.sysadminday.com/! It’s right up there with Pi (3/14) day! They’re celebrating their tenth year. You can also see some funny pictures of system administrators in action, check out some cool gift ideas and more!
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