Introduction to Windows 10

We heard it first at the Microsoft’s BUILD conference in April 2014. The new version of Windows is the seventeenth version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system, and the ninth version of the business-focused NT kernel. And, it is not named Windows 9. Instead, they choose an even number to surprise and stir the interest of a questioning clientele.

Windows 8 and even Windows 8.1 were not the best favorites of consumers who loved Windows XP and Windows 7 because of its focus on touch-friendly user interface. Some desktop users need to have some getting used to moments before they could full enjoy the system, especially those who are used to the friendly START button of the previous releases.

In the business arena, most companies skipped the route to Windows 8 and 8.1. Large businesses stayed with Windows 7 or upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows XP during the launch of Windows 8. This follows the pattern of waiting for the second release before upgrading, such as what happened to Windows Vista.

Windows XP plus Windows 7 = Windows 10?

Windows Vista and Windows 8 are both major updates to the Microsoft OS but they share the same problem, it is not just appealing to users who are loyal fans of the speed, usability, and reliability of their previous versions.

Vista was perceived be slow and resource-hungry compared to Windows XP, and Windows 8 was seen to be a struggle for those who are used to the desktop environment.

With Windows 10, it is not just the problem of Windows 8 but trying to improve Windows in general, looking at the way people love it in XP and 7. Microsoft looked closely in detail at what people liked most about Windows XP and Windows 7 and will use that to bring back or preserve the experience they have been enjoying with Windows. With any company who made a great success on their products, retaining the sellable stuff will always be a good path to take.

Why Windows 10 not 9?

Why not Windows 9? People are intrigued with the jump from 8.1 to 10. This new operating system is a major update and is anticipated to the last major version of the Windows OS. This doesn’t mean it will only stay for quite some time, but rather, like Apple did with their OS X desktop operating system, there will be no major updates after this.

For such a major release, and for the final major release of Windows, the number 9 just didn’t sound major enough, and, frankly, it would have been an odd number to finish on.

Glimpse on its Specification

Minimum hardware specification is the first thing people will look on to judge the usability and efficiency of an OS. It simply means when an OS could run with low system requirements, it is efficient enough. The usual 1GHz, 1GB RAM for 32-bit and 2GB RAM for 64-bit versions, 16GB free storage space, and graphics that supports DirectX 9 is the least hardware you can run Windows 10 with. However, you need to keep an eye on your processor. It should support PAE, NX, and SSE2 standards. This means you need a slightly modern one.

Cross-Platform

While Windows 8 is best for tablets and phones with touch-screen technology, Windows 10 is friendly with all platforms. It could run on desktops, laptops, and tablets down to phones, the Xbox One, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and upwards to their new Surface Hub and Holographic headset, HoloLens. We also heard that it could run on a Raspberry Pi.

How to Test it?

Consumer version will be out on July 2015 but for now you can have the Technical Preview release.

How to install Zentyal, configure, manage and set up backups for a gateway server

There’s no shortage of enterprise-grade open source applications for setting up everything from firewalls and web servers to creating virtual private networks. But setting up and configuring gateway servers requires time and effort, which is where Linux distro Zentyal comes into play. Unlike a regular desktop distro, Zentyal is designed as a one-stop server for small/home office users. You can roll it out as a unified threat manager, office server, communication server and more, thanks to the fact the distro bundles some of the best open source server tools, including a directory server, DNS server, IM Server, groupware, VoIP and content control management. That's a good package for you.

It also has a great collection of custom management tools for setting up, controlling and monitoring the various components. Although configuring these network services does require a certain level of familiarity with networking, Zentyal does its best to ease you through the process.

Install Zentyal

A good server distro must be easy to deploy, set up and manage, which is why Zentyal releases are based on the Ubuntu Server Long Term Support (LTS) releases. The current stable release, Zentyal 4.0, is based on Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS. Thanks to its Ubuntu underpinnings, installing it is simple – it’s almost completely automated, as the distro is designed to take over the entire disk. However, you can do an Expert installation to manually partition the disk. You can also install the Zentyal server and its components on top of an existing Ubuntu server installation. Head to www.zentyal. org/server, [or the LXFDVD]download the free community edition and burn the ISO image to a disc. Boot from the disc and select the default installation, unless you have a server with RAID or want to define your partitioning layout – in which case select Expert mode (see image 1).

During installation, you’ll only be prompted for basic requirements, such as your location and keyboard layout. When prompted to select a network card, choose the one connected to the internet, not your internal network. Also enter the login details of the admin user. The installer will transfer the core modules to your hard disk. When it reboots, the system automatically launches a desktop session with a browser to configure the server.

Initial configuration

When the distro boots for the first time, it will install some core packages by downloading them from the internet, so make sure it’s connected. You’ll be logged into Zentyal’s sparse desktop, which has an open browser window to Zentyal’s web-based administration console. Log into the administration section with the admin details you created during installation.

Zentyal will then fire up a configuration wizard. From here you can install various servers and services, such as DHCP Server, Firewall, Domain Controller and Jabber. The server will automatically resolve any dependencies, inform you about the additional components it will install and then fetch them all from the internet. You can skip this step and install them later if you prefer.

One important part of this initial configuration wizard is the networking step. Typically, a Zentyal server will have multiple network interfaces – one pointing to the internet and the other pointed towards the internal intranet. In this step Zentyal shows you all the available network interfaces on your server and asks you to configure them. You’ll first have to mark all available interfaces as either External (connected to the internet) or Internal (connected to the intranet). This will impact several settings, such as the default policies for the firewall, and sets up the default listen interfaces for other modules. Next, you’ll get the option to configure these interfaces by manually specifying an IP address or asking the server to use DHCP.

The closing steps in this initial configuration wizard will vary depending on the servers you selected, e.g. if you select the Domain Controller and File Sharing server, Zentyal will prompt you to select the type of server as well as the domain name of the server. Similarly, if you’ve selected the Mail and Groupware server you’ll be asked to specify the domain name for your mail account. Again, you can skip configuring these servers for now and set them up later.

Accessing the dashboard

When you’ve finished with the initial configuration wizard, Zentyal will take you to the Dashboard. You can administer and monitor the Zentyal installation from here. In addition to Zentyal’s minimalistic LXDE-based desktop environment, you can also access this Dashboard remotely from any computer on the same network as the Zentyal server. To access it, simply enter the Zentyal server’s IP address followed by the port it’s running on, so for example https://192.168.2.5:8443. Dashboard can only be accessed through SecureHTTP and runs on port 8443 by default. Also note that since the administration portal is served via the HTTPS protocol, your browser will initially ask you to add a security exception (which you should), as the server lacks a signed certificate.

From the Dashboard you can watch various server components, such as the CPU load, plus the status of all the installed components. From here you can also install any available updates to the underlying core Zentyal distro. The navigation bar on the left of the Dashboard will list the various installed modules, as you add them.

Set up a jabber IM server

You’ll want to keep communications under your control, so to configure an instant messaging server, make sure you’ve installed the Jabber component. Head to Software Management > Zentyal Components and click the View basic mode link. Select Jabber under the Additional services page, scroll down and click the Install button. Zentyal will show you a list of additional dependency modules that need to be installed. Click Continue to install them all.

Next, head to Module Status, tick the Jabber box to enable the Jabber module and click the Save button to activate it. To configure the service, go to Jabber in the left-hand menu and set the parameters for the server. Make sure you enter a Jabber domain – you’ll then have to pass this on to your users so they can connect to this server. Feel free to enable/disable the other settings on this page. It’s advisable to use the Allow SSL option to make sure the chats are encrypted.

Head to Users and Computers > Manage, which displays a list of Groups and Users on the Zentyal server. Click the [+] button to add a new user. You can similarly add Groups and associate users with them. Click a username, scroll down to the Modules configuration section and use the pull-down menu to Enable Jabber for this user. You can also tick the box to give this user admin privileges if you want to.

That’s all there is to it – but before your users can begin chatting with each other they’ll need to configure their Jabber client. Head to https://xmpp.org for a list of supported Jabber clients. The exact configuration steps vary for each client. Make sure you select Jabber or XMPP as the protocol. Then enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes, along with the domain name you specified when you were installing Zentyal.

All users will have to follow the same process. Once they’ve authenticated with the Jabber server, they can add each other and start communicating. Users can also change their password and other details. The admin user gets some special powers and can see which users are connected to the server, set the message of the day, and broadcast a notice to all connected users.

Keeping your server ship-shape

You can monitor the health of the server from the main screen of the Dashboard. From here you can get general information about the server, such as its load average, uptime and number of connected users. Other sections give you details about the running status of the enabled modules and visualise network traffic. Head to the Logs section to configure and view detailed reports about all the enabled modules.

To share your duties with another user, head to System > General and click the Add New button inside the Administrator Accounts section. On the following page you can define the login credentials of the new admin user. Other settings include changing the hostname and domain name of the server, as well as changing the default port for the dashboard from 8443 to something else.

Zentyal can also save your server’s configuration. Head to System > Configuration Backup, which enables you to save the settings either on Zentyal’s cloud server or on your PC. For cloud backup, enter an email address and a password. Once set up, Zentyal automatically backs up settings daily. To restore them, browse the list of backups and use the Restore button adjacent to the configuration you wish to restore.

It’s also important to keep your system updated. The Dashboard lists the number of system and security updates available under the General Information section. Click the number listed there or head to Software Management > System Updates for more details. Security updates have a red shield in the component name. To update them all, scroll down the page and tick the Update all packages option–and there you have it, your gateway server is up and rolling.

Thermaltake Commander FT Review and Test

If you’re like most builders and gamers, it’s a safe bet that you spend more time picking components based on price and performance than determining how each one will impact your system’s overall cooling profile. And that’s okay, as long as you eventually take an active role in managing your temperatures. One of the best ways to do so is to install a fan controller, and Thermaltake’s Commander FT is an option with tons of extras. 

The Commander FT fits into a single 5.25-inch drive bay and features a unique 5.5-inch touchscreen surrounded by a narrow black plastic bezel. The backlit display features blue, green, and red illumination, which manages to convey a lot of information without looking busy or gaudy. It’s also very intuitive to operate. For instance, in manual mode, press one of the numbers on the right to select the desired channel, and that channel number appears in the Commander FT’s central hub, after which you can move your finger across the fan speed slider on the left to lock in your desired speed on a zero to 100% scale.

Touch the Auto icon to let the fan controller rely on temperature data gathered from the included thermal probe. There are two icons below the fan speed slider that look like a trio of dip switches in the off and on positions. These correspond to silent (fans running at their lowest speed) and performance (fans running full tilt) operating modes. Each of the channels supports up to 10 watts per fan. Although the five fan connectors support 4-pin fans, the PWM function isn’t supported on this controller; the Commander FT relies instead on temperature control or your manually input settings.

When you select any given channel using the numbers on the right, you’ll also see that fan’s current RPM as well as the temperature being registered by the thermal probe. The Commander FT also has a temperature warning, which you can adjust, to help you balance temperatures and noise output. Other features include built-in short circuit protection and support for temperature display in either Celsius or Fahrenheit.

If you’re looking for an affordable, attractive 5-channel fan speed controller, then the Commander FT is a solid choice. The touchscreen also adds a coolness factor that few other fan controllers can touch (pun not intended).

Aerocool DS200 Window Edition Review and Test

Aerocool certainly knows its way around PC tower cases, but even for a company that has as many hits on its hands as this one does (see also the GT-S, the Strike-X Air, the XPredator X3 and XPredator Cube, et al.), the DS200 is a fantastic enclosure. 

For starters, the DS200 Window Edition (we received the black variant for this review) is swathed in the soft-touch material that feels like some kind of space-age rubber/leather hybrid. The stuff coats the top, front, and bottom. It frames the sides, as well; only the removable side panels are solely made of steel and acrylic. The one drawback to this material is that it tends to be pretty eager to show fingerprints, but the counterpoint is that it’s easy to wipe the case down and quickly make them disappear.

The exterior also looks pretty smooth, thanks to clean, fluid lines and a front panel that eschews the usual mesh ventilation in favor of a recessed, slotted vent strip that runs along the sides and around the bottom. This is a unique design element, and the effect on the DS200’s overall look is profound. To top it all off, Aerocool built a round LED temperature display and fan control unit into the center of the top panel near the front. The display shows the temp of whatever component you’ve attached the included sensor to (usually the CPU) in either Celsius or Fahrenheit, and the three-channel fan controller’s buttons let you select one of four settings for all connected fans. (The first setting is Off.) Builders who are serious about getting all lights to match will appreciate that the readout can display your info in one of seven colors: red, green, yellow, blue, purple, light blue, or white. You can also turn it off if you prefer a PC that’s not seen and not heard.

Another nice feature related to the DS200’s top panel is that removing it reveals enough space above the inner metal frame to mount a 240mm or 280mm radiator. (The case also comes with an alternate steel mesh top panel for those who like to maximize airflow.) This is cool because you can mount the push/exhaust fans just beneath the frame, but the radiator itself doesn’t cramp the case’s interior, which by the way comes with one 140mm intake fan behind the front panel and a single 120mm unit to push hot air out the back. You can add a second 140mm or 120mm fan behind the front panel to increase overall airflow.

A look around the rest of the interior reveals all of the amenities you’d expect, including multiple tool-less internal drive bays (some of which are removable), space for graphics cards up to 11.4 inches long (or 16.1 inches with the middle drive cage removed), a motherboard tray that’s ready for cable management and convenient CPU cooler installation, a PSU mount with rubber pads to reduce vibration, and so on.

If you like the look of the DS200 but think it needs a little more spice, you’re in luck: As you can guess from the pictures above, Aerocool also offers the case in red. The red version has the same soft-touch coating, the same side panel window, and the same price tag as the black one that we reviewed. Regardless of which color you choose, the Aerocool DS200 will provide you with an attractive, builder-friendly home for your next build.

How to Build an arcade cabinet with Raspberry Pi 2

In the 1980s and 90s there was an explosion of gaming consoles and home computers. Computer users of a certain age will have fond memories of machines such as the ZX80, BBC Micro and Megadrive/Genesis. These machines are now quite rare and this is where emulation plays a big part in helping re-live those glory days. 

The Raspberry Pi is a popular choice for emulation because it’s powerful enough to run emulators from Atari to upright arcade cabinets using MAME. The release of the Raspberry Pi 2 has also meant we now have an even more powerful processor that will enable emulators for later consoles, such as the PlayStation One, to run more smoothly. We shall be using the RetroPie emulator (http://bit.ly/ RetroPieProject). You’ll need to copy the downloaded image to a blank high capacity SD card, the larger the better, and you’ll need to use the dd terminal command to copy the image to an SD card.

With Retropie on your SD card connect all of your peripherals, including any USB gamepads that you wish to use, to your Raspberry Pi and power up. On first boot RetroPie will ask if you would like to configure your joypad to work with the user interface. Note: There’s a separate configuration for each of the emulators due to their differing joypad layouts. If you have a wired Xbox 360 controller there’s a great guide on the RetroPie GitHub (http://bit.ly/ RetroPieXbox360SetUp) for helping set it up.

RetroPie uses the popular Emulation Station as its user interface and by default there are a number of systems that can be emulated out of the box. These systems are identifiable by being active on the user interface. For each system there’s a games library beneath it and this is created by inserting a USB drive into your Pi. A script creates the necessary file structure on the drive. Insert this drive into your PC and copy the ROMs from your computer into their corresponding folder on the USB drive. Now return the stick to your Raspberry Pi and RetroPie will automatically copy the contents to your install. By copying ROMs in this way their corresponding emulator is enabled in the Emulation Station user interface.

At this point, we need to advise you that ROMs are copyright material and remain the property of their owners. Their use in emulation is a grey area and many games are now so old that they are no longer commercially available; however, this doesn’t mean that they are out of copyright.

With your ROMs installed go back to the user interface and select which system you would like to play. RetroPie will now ask if you would like to catalogue your games, before accepting, ensure that your Pi is connected via Ethernet to your router. RetroPie will search the internet for your games and download any box art and information about each title. Where there’s a conflict it will ask you to choose which is correct, or if nothing is found it will ask you to manually enter the names of the games. RetroPie can emulate a number of systems, such as the Commodore Amiga, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, and on the Pi 2 there’s no need to overclock the system as it runs six times faster than its predecessor. If you are using an original Raspberry Pi then you can streamline your setup using the Advanced Configuration steps on the RetroPie wiki.

NOTE:

There were many different games consoles and computers from the 1970s to early 2000s. Companies such as Commodore, Sinclair, Acorn, Dragon, Sega, Atari all competed for home computing dominance. This drove the rise of bedroom programmers; people who learnt to code from magazines of the time.

In each magazine there would be pages of BASIC code to type into your computer and learn coding via experience. This lead to a boom in the number of games being produced in the UK, and fuelled a generation of coders who are now hoping to reignite that spark with the Raspberry Pi. David Braben, for example, co-wrote the iconic Elite game in the 1980s. Elite was an entire galaxy full of planets, space stations and pirates in only 32Kb of memory. David Braben also happens to be one of the co-founders of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and is very keen to see children creating and learning with computers, rather than simply consuming content.

Build a SmartTV using your Raspberry Pi 2

We have many ways to consume media these days but our main method is still through our TV (even it might be via streaming technology). The Raspberry Pi is well suited to displaying media and since the day of its release users around the world have been creating media centers based on the Pi. In this project, we’ll show you how to do it for yourself. 

We start this project by copying the operating system to the SD card. For this we’ll need to extract the contents of the file downloaded from the OpenELEC website. This will extract an image file, which we need to copy to the SD card. To copy the image to our SD card follow the guidance at their website. Note: For whatever version of Raspberry Pi that you use, ensure that you have the correct image file as Pi 1 and 2 images are currently not compatible.

With the image copied to the SD card, insert it into your Raspberry Pi along with your wireless keyboard and mouse and other connections, such as Ethernet and HDMI to your TV. The last connection to make is the power which will boot your Raspberry Pi.

On your first boot up OpenELEC will lead you through a series of screens that will set up your media center. Once complete you’ll be returned to the main menu which is split into sections to catalogue your pictures, videos and music. With any of these categories you can easily import content from a variety of sources and the following steps are repeatable for all types of media that you wish to import. If you haven’t already inserted a USB hard drive, with movies copied on it, into your Raspberry Pi and then navigate to the Videos menu and then to Files. From here a new dialog box will appear and you’ll be able to browse to the USB drive and the movies contained therein. Your movies will appear in the Videos library and you can select and play them from the list. Content can also be stored on network drives, such as a NAS, and OpenELEC can connect via many standards such as SSH, NFS and Samba, enabling content to be centralized in your home and available to multiple media devices.

OpenELEC also comes with a series of add-ons that can enhance the experience and you can find a selection of these in the Add-on menu for each category, eg a great video addon is the Revision3 channel that broadcasts lots of maker and hacker-based shows. You can easily install the add-on by finding it in the list and clicking Install, and OpenELEC will handle everything from there on. For those of us in the UK, you can also install BBC iPlayer functionality thanks to Kodi.

Controlling OpenELEC using a wireless keyboard and mouse is the default method, but there are other stylish and consumer-friendly ways of doing things. First, there’s FLIRC, (available from the PiHut store) which is an infrared receiver that can be programmed to use your existing remote to control OpenELEC.

Alternatively, if you have a spare Android tablet knocking about there’s a free app called Yatse that turns your tablet into a multimedia controller. This app can show your media catalogue on the tablet screen, and enable you to browse and select media which is then played on your television.

NOTE:

Media centers were one of the first projects to emerge for the Raspberry Pi on launch and they have gone on to become increasingly popular. In fact, they are so popular that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has invested in their development. Speaking to Eben Upton recently, he said that he’s a keen user of OpenELEC and is extremely happy with the performance of the latest version on the Raspberry Pi 2 with it. While the Raspberry Pi 1 and 2 both share the same Videocore IV GPU, which means that they both can easily work with large 1080p video files. The OpenELEC user interface is also quite a CPU-intensive process and it was common for users of the original Raspberry Pi to overclock their Pis to coax out every last ounce of performance. For Raspberry Pi 2 this isn’t the case, because of the immense improvements made to the CPU and RAM, and means that Raspberry Pi 2 is clearly the stable base that you need to build your media center upon.