John Breakwell's dashboard

Hi Samir,

Lots of good discussion topics there.

On the subject of browser choice, Microsoft has introducing the Browser Choice update although only in Europe:

"A Browser Choice update is available in the European Economic Area"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976002

and

http://www.browserchoice.eu

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)

Hi,

I know Microsoft has written a couple of applications for the iPhone, such as Seadragon Mobile and Microsoft Tag, so it is not as if it couldn't happen.

Considering the announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series devices, though, where Chess Titans would be a natural fit, a port to Android or iPhone help would seem low on Microsoft's list of priorities.

Maybe the many Android and iPhone application developers out there will write such an application as there is obviously a market for it.

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)

Hi,

The logout problem is probably due to cookies for the website.
In Internet Explorer you can try the following:

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
In the General tab, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings.
Click View Files.
At the top of the window, click the second column heading, called Internet Address, to bring your cookie files to the top of the list.
Find the cookie file whose name ends with "hotmail.com." If more than one person uses the computer, choose the cookie file that begins with your logon, or sign-in, name.
Click the file to select it and then press Delete. Answer Yes to the question that appears.

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)

Hi

I would call Xbox support (http://www.xbox.com/support) and see what your options are as regards in-warranty repairs. Even if you are out of warranty, the cost of repair should be much less than buying a replacement and gives you a new warranty period.

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)

HI Rhys,

PC World may well be able to advise; they'll have access to your machine so be able to see what you've got installed, how much disk space is free and so on. I expect they will have some best practices to share with you - performance issues are probably a common issue they are asked about.

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)

Hi Rhys,

I take it that you are seeing a performance issue where applications are not responding as quickly as you think they should, yes? And you understand that SIP technically is effectively a non-process. Any conversation that involves using the System Idle Process as a troubleshooting tool or diagnostic is doomed to failure so I suggest we ignore SIP completely and focus on the problem.

People usually talk about the CPU when they have a performance problem because somebody at Microsoft way back in time thought it a bright idea to put CPU Usage in Task Manager. It's now burnt into the psyche that a busy PC MUST have a busy CPU. This is not necessarily the case.

System performance of a computer is related to how busy the CPU, hard disk, memory, network card, network/ISP connection, etc. all are.
Devices like the controller for the hard drive don't require the CPU to get involved much when data is being written to the disk, for example. (Look up "Direct memory access" on Wiki for more background). So you can have data flying around your machine without the CPU breaking into a sweat. But because those devices are busy doing whatever they need to do, your applications are having to wait to get a look-in.

This is where the Resource Monitor (in newer versions of Windows) comes in really handy because it brings all these devices together in one screen. If you don't have Resource Monitor then use something else but, whatever you do, don't use Task Manager unless you understand what it is telling you.

Task Manager can be configured to show a lot of useful data that can help you - choose the Processes tab and have a look at "Select Columns" from the View menu to see what is available - but it does require a reasonable level of technical knowledge.

Cheers
John Breakwell (MSFT)