Category Archives: Windows

More on portable npm scripts

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Steve

Following on from my earlier post on the topic of writing portable npm scripts, here’s a few more useful tips. [UPDATE 2016/03/31: Bash for Windows was announced at Microsoft Build 2016. This exciting feature will allow running of Linux npm … Continue reading →

Posted in development, web, Windows | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Writing portable npm build scripts

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Steve

tl;dr; Developers need to install and build Javascript NPM modules on Windows as well as *nix. With a little care this is possible without using heavyweights tools like Grunt and Gulp . Modern HTML development usually includes a build and deploy process similar … Continue reading →

Posted in development, Windows | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Dealing with Windows text line endings in git

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Steve

Text line endings on Windows: Still painful after all these years Once upon a time, in the days of Microsoft MS-DOS development one of main pain points and source of bugs was the distinction between text and binary files. When … Continue reading →

Posted in development, Windows | Tagged | Leave a comment

On Recovering Windows 8.1 when it goes wrong

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Steve

tl;dr; After a double disaster with my workhorse Windows 8.1 laptop I’ve been exploring the easy ways to create a usable backup image of my system when set up to my liking. The Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) turns out … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Win8, Windows | Leave a comment

I’m liking Microsoft again

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Steve

After watching the key notes and selected sessions from Microsoft #Build2015 over on Channel 9 I’m definitely liking Microsoft again. This new found affection is form largely from the perspective of a HTML developer and to some extent as an … Continue reading →

Posted in a11y, web, Windows | Leave a comment

On Converting a VM from VMWare to VIrtualBox

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Steve

In short, don’t! It’s way too much hassle. It’s so much easier to create a new identical VM in VirtualBox and set it to use the same virtual disk file (.vmdk). I  expect this applies when moving VMs in the … Continue reading →

Posted in opensource, Win8, Windows | Tagged | 14 Comments

Free international SAPI voices from Microsoft

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Steve

Either this is a well kept secret of I’ve been asleep, but I’ve only just found Microsoft provide easy access to the SAPI voices provided with other language versions of Windows. The following is the case in my Windows 8.1 Pro … Continue reading →

Posted in Assistve Technology, Uncategorized, Windows | Leave a comment

Adding a sleep button to Dell XPS 12 convertable ultrabook

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Steve

I’m really happy with the Dell XPS 12 convertable ultrabook I’m now using as my workhorse machine, even after seeing the lighter Lenovo Yoga at the recent Presperity4All project kick-off meeting. One thing has been annoying me,though, and that is the lack of … Continue reading →

Posted in Windows | 2 Comments