Luke Payne Software

How would you like to see Logon Screen Rotator function on Windows 8?

Luke — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:33:27 +0000

As Windows 8 draws near I plan to adapt Logon Screen Rotator to have new functionality, which will make use of the new customization possibilities in Windows 8. The current version of LSR which works on Windows 7/Vista will still be supported, but the product will do more with Windows 8.

So I put it to you, what functionality would you like to see LSR take on with Windows 8? I wont announce my ideas at this stage as I want to see what the communities response to this question is first. So you can reply to this post, email me directly at luke@lukepaynesoftware.com or connect with us on Facebook www.facebook.com/lukepaynesoftware with your thoughts or comments.

I look forward to reading you responses

Luke.

Logon Screen Rotator v4.1

Luke — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:18:52 +0000

Logon Screen Rotator v4.1 has been released and is now the main download on the LSR page. This version includes mainly bug fixes and there are no major new features.

Head on over to http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/lsrotator/ to download it now, or launch LSR on your PC to check for updates.

Wake On Lan

Luke — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:49:24 +0000

Short version: A new application is available for download that allows you to wake PCs across the LAN using magic packets. You need the LAN IP & MAC address of the target PC, and you need to enable wake by magic packet on the target PC. You can download the application from here.

Wake On Lan is an application I developed that sends a “magic packet” to the sleeping PC in order to wake it up. You can read more about the magic packet/wake on lan technology here.

You will need to ensure that wake by magic packet is enabled on your PC and that the PC does not turn off the network card when it goes to sleep. This can be activated in some cases by the BIOS, in others by the PC, either way I recommend ensuring you have the latest drivers for your network card. It can be a bit fiddly on some setups to configure, and there is no straight forward one size fits all guide; but in cases, like mine, it is worth setting up.I have a media PC that sleeps when it has not been used in X amount of time. When I am on the other side of the house I want to be able to access media without having to go back over the other side to wake the PC and this is where this application comes in. As mentioned you need the LAN IP and MAC address of the target PC, both of these are obtainable on a Windows PC by running “ipconfig /all” from the command line. Once you entered this data into Wake On Lan it will remember it for next time.

Windows 8 – Hiding the Start Button

Luke — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:39:17 +0000

Recently, images from a newly compiled Windows 8 build were posted on a Chinese forum. In these builds the Start Button is hidden by default which was not the behaviour in the Developer Preview. However, after poking around the Developer Preview it is apparent the folks at Microsoft were at least thinking about this behaviour from an early stage, with a registry switch being available.

You can toggle the switch by heading to the registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer, creating the a new DWORD named YouBettaHideYoPearl and setting the value to 1. After restarting Explorer or logging off & on the settings will be enabled, you can undo this by either setting the registry key to 0 or deleting the key.

After enabling this behavior, you can make the Start Button temporarily reappear by hovering your mouse over the bottom left hand corner of the Taskbar, if your into mouse movements.

Before:

After:

Operating System Internals – What is an operating system?

Luke — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:11:55 +0000

“Welcome to the beginning of the Operating System Internals series. This series will begin by introducing the fundamental OS concepts and theories, beginning with the most obvious, what is an operating system? This introduction can be seen as a somewhat of a table of contents for what we will be exploring in future tutorials. This introduction to operating systems will be a light overview, as each major concept here will be written about in much greater detail in future tutorials.”

The first article in the OS Internals series is now up, you can read it here:

http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/operating-system-internals/what-is-an-operating-system/

Website update

Luke — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:54:34 +0000

I have been getting quite a bit of email recently regarding the direction of this website, so here I am going to lay out my plans:

Logon Screen Rotator: I have squashed the bug that made me revoke the previous release and this build is now in testing. Provided everything goes OK, I will have version 4 back up by the end of the week.
StartMenuX: There has been quite a bit of interest around this one. At this stage I am thinking of open sourcing it and allowing others to develop it further. This will occur unless I decide to put substantial effort into it’s development within the next month or so.
Other software: All other software is no longer in active development and is in maintenance mode, eg: I only plan to make bug fixes if issues arise.
Future software: I currently have 4-5 new pieces of software in the pipeline for release in the near future. I will post when new software becomes available.
Operating Systems: A few months ago I started writing about Operating System development, but removed it due to lack of time on my part. I plan to reintroduce this to the website within the next week where it will be actively worked on. I will be writing in-depth articles starting with OS theory and moving through to development.
This website: I am currently tweaking the website to make it easier for tech-heavy articles to reside on the main page, to make the software pages more user friendly and to prepare the site for my technical writings. This will happen gradually, so if you come across anything strange, let me know and I’ll fix it up. (You may need to clear you web browser cache)

That should cover everything for now.

Pixel Ruler

Luke — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:40:55 +0000

I find a “pixel ruler” to be a very useful tool when doing graphics or programming work. In the hope that others may also find it useful, I have tidied up the version I have been using privately and am releasing it here.

Download from here

Logon Screen Rotator v4

Luke — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:48:13 +0000

I am happy to announce and release version 4 of Logon Screen Rotator. There are no major features in this version, but it is well worth the upgrade! There have been a few minor annoyances fixed and the overall layout and flow of the application has been simplified.

Head over to http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/lsrotator/ to download the latest version, or you can initiate the update feature in your current version.

Windows 8 Start Screen Editor

Luke — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:41:55 +0000

I have been working on a start screen (and immersive) editor for Windows 8 that allows all of the various colors, layout and some other aspects to be changed. However, due to a more pressing project that I am excited about, I am yet to finish this. So as to not leave this editor hanging, I am releasing a basic version for the start screen now. This editor allows you to change the background colour and/or image. You can download the current release here.

Here is a (colorful) example of some of the options you will be able to modify in an upcoming release:

Feature suggestions/ideas are welcome! Email me:

Small update for KeyStrokes

Luke — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:50:55 +0000

I have just bumped KeyStrokes up to v1.2. There are no major feature changes or additions here, just a few bug fixes. It is now available for downloading over at the KeyStrokes download page.