Windows Phone Emulator Is Doing A Complete OS Boot
I recently installed the Windows Phone 7 Development Tools on my Acer AspireOne netbook. Visual Studio works pretty well on this machine. But unfortunately when running my app for the first time the emulator started up and then just sat there with a message that said, “Windows Phone Emulator Is Doing A Complete OS Boot”.
After reading some discussion about the problem online it seems that the emulator doesn’t work with some types of hardware virtualization. Apparently the AMD cpu in my netbook isn’t supported and there is no way to turn off the virtualization enhancements in the BIOS.
So I looked around and found the emulator config file. In the file is a setting to turn Hardware Assist off. I set the value to false, started up the emulator and now it works perfectly. It may not work too well if your app is CPU intensive like a game, but for my use it works fine.
Here is how to configure it:
- Open a command window and go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\microsoft\xde
- There will be a file similar to config_*.decfg
- Open the file in notepad and look for a line that looks like this:
<EnableHWAssist Reconfigurable="static" Type="bool">true</EnableHWAssist>
- Change “true” to “false”
- Save the file and start the emulator.
Lapdawg: Search For An Inexpensive Laptop Bed Stand
Summary: Here is the link to the cheap Lapdawg Clone:
As of this writing the price is $49.99 with free shipping, no coupon required. This is less than half the price of the Lapdawg branded version when shipping is included.
I frequently use my laptop while lying down in bed. I’ve tried using assorted pillows to prop up the laptop but that never seemed to work, it was never in the right position.
So I started looking around and found out there is a company that makes a nice looking laptop bed stand called the Lapdawg. The Lapdawg X4 stand looks pretty good from their site, it is very adjustable and it looks high quality. I was interested in buying the Lapdawg X4 until I saw the price of $89 + $16 shipping ($105 total + possible tax), more than I wanted to spend on a laptop stand. They have a coupon field when you purchase, but I looked around and couldn’t find any Lapdawg coupon codes that would reduce the price to something I was willing to pay.
So I started looking around for a laptop stand for a more reasonable price. On Amazon I found a laptop stand that looks exactly like the Lapdawg and has decent reviews. The stand is a clones of the Lapdawg and exactly the same (find the link in the summary at the top of this page). In comparing the pictures from Lapdawg’s site with the pictures on Amazon you can see that it is likely the exact same stand. Look at the hinges on the legs, you can see it has white markings around them to measure the degrees, these are exactly the same on both. It looks like the Lapdawg company rebrands these laptop stands with the Lapdawg name and then they sell them on their own site.
I went ahead and ordered the laptop stand from Amazon since it was significantly less expensive than the Lapdawg and the shipping was free. The laptop stand that I received from Amazon looks exactly like the Lapdawg. It has all the same folding features and has the white degree dials around the hinges. The only difference I can see is that my stand comes with a a cooling fan powered by USB. Personally I don’t bother to use the fans, my laptop stays cool enough, but in case you want them they are there. Luckily I never notice the fans, they are small so they don’t take up any extra space and the cord is detachable so it doesn’t get in the way.
I’ve been using the laptop stand for a month now and it is great (I’m actually using it to type this blog post). The hinge adjustments are kind of a pain because there are six of them. I just leave it in the configuration that I like because it is a hassle to reset all six hinges everytime you want to put it way.
Cheap Amazon Filler Items For Free Shipping
Amazon is a great online store and I order from them all the time. I really like the Free Super Saver Shipping. The problem is that sometimes I’m not buying $25 worth of items to get the free shipping. I searched through Amazon and found some cheap items to add as filler. These items will add filler to your purchase to “fill” it up to the minimum $25 to get free shipping.
These filler items are cheap enough that you can just add multiples of them to get your price above $25. So if you need an extra dollar, just add in 2 58 cent filler items. As soon as you add enough filler items you will get the Amazon free super saver shipping.
Here are the items I found:
$0.33: Screws
$0.70: Paint Brush
If you use Amazon regularly you might want to check out my other page to find out how to install an Amazon search plugin that gives you real time suggestions as you type:
http://patricksheedy.net/blog/amazon-suggestions-search-box-opensearch-plugin/