Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How to Install Games That Come With Windows 7

In most of the older versions of Windows, games that come with Windows are installed automatically and playable as soon as the system boots. In some editions of Windows 7, they may not appear by default (as is the case below),

This is easy to fix, simply access Control Panel from the start menu, switch to the small icons view and click on Programs and Features,

Then click "Turn Windows features on or off" and select the Games checkbox,

By default the following games come with Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate:

Chess Titans
FreeCell
Hearts
Internet Backgammon
Internet Checkers
Internet Spades
Mahjong Titans
Minesweeper
Purble Place
Solitaire
Spider Solitaire

After they are enabled, they should appear in the start menu,

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

How to Get Windows XP Pinball in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2

Over the years there have been a number of games released with various versions of Windows. One of the games that disappeared in Windows Vista and Windows 7 was the version of Space Cadet 3D Pinball for Windows.

This game is easy to get back in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. To initially pull the files, you simply require access to an installation of Windows XP (it only needs to be mountable, but I ended up building a Windows XP SP3 virtual machine in Hyper-V). The only directory that needs to be pulled from the XP volume is

c:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball\

This folder contains everything that is needed to run the classic Windows XP Pinball on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2. Have fun!

See also,
How to Create Your Own Free Ringtones
Get HyperTerminal in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2
How To Install Games That Come With Windows 7
How to Get Classic Windows XP Game Versions in Windows 7

Monday, November 28, 2011

Get HyperTerminal in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2

Hyperterminal in Recent Windows Releases

Update: Need HyperTerminal for Windows 8 and windows Server 2012?

Don't Have Windows Xp or Server 2003 anymore? Try these HyperTermoinal Alternatives.

What is Hyperterminal?

Hyperterminal is an application that allows terminal emulation in Windows for some types of devices. Hyperterminal communicates over serial connections (such as RS-232), via a dial up modem, or via the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). For TCP/IP connections and modem connections, the most common target is a telnet daemon set up on a Windows or Linux system in order to give access to a text based application or console.

Hyperterminal Setup

HyperTerminal was not released in any Windows version after Windows XP/Windows Server 2003. Getting HyperTerminal in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 requires access to an installation of Windows XP (I used a recent ISO of Windows XP SP3). Two files are required for Hyperterminal to function in later Windows releases from the Windows XP installation:

c:\Program Files\Windows NT\Hypertrm.exe
c:\Windows\System32\hypertrm.dll

Copy these files to the same directory on the target Windows 7/2008 R2 system and Hyperterminal can easily be launched by running the Hypertrm.exe executable.

Hyperterminal Configuration (USB/RS-232)

HyperTerminal automatically detects COM ports, attempts to communicate over modems, and allows TCP/IP connections to be initiated using the telnet protocol. To access devices (such as Cisco routers and switches) and other devices that use a serial connection, I use a USB-to-Serial converter and use device manager to determine which COM port is emulated by the USB converter.

HyperTerminal automatically detects the COM port and allows the connection settings (speed/data bits/stop bits/parity/flow control) to be set and the connected device to be accessed. For Cisco devices this is typically 9600 bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, and no flow control.

Hyperterminal Configuration (TCP/IP)

In this example, I am going to use Hyperterminal to access a telnet daemon that is running on a Linux virtual machine on my network. I am using a Fedora Core 15 system with the telnet-server package as the telnet server. After installing the telnet-server package with yum, configuring xinetd, and having the iptables firewall allow telnet connections, I was able to test logging in with Hyperterminal.

First, I launch Hyperterminal and specify that I want to use the TCP/IP.

After connecting and authenticating, I now have a successful connection to my Linux VM. Note that this is over a private network (technically one that never leaves the Hyper-V host system). Since this type of telnet is totally unencrypted, it should not be used in most circumstances (rather a telnet secured by kerberos encryption may be more desirable, but is incompatible with Hyperterminal). Unsecure telnet may be used on a totally trusted network or one where other security measures are in place (such as IPSec), but an encrypted solution such as SSH is recommended instead.

HyperTerminal Substitute

If you do not have access to a Windows XP system, Putty can be used instead of Hyperterminal to access serial devices. Additionally, putty supports connections using more protocols than Hyperterminal (including an encrypted alternative, SSH).

Configuring putty as a serial client is as easy as using the serial node in the tree view and specifying serial as the connection type.