what follows is a rant
I must state up front that I love Windows XP. It is the best OS to come out of Redmond ever. But sometimes, you come across things that make you say, “What were they thinking?” Now I know that in the continuous cycle of computer upgrades, some things become obsolete. But I don’t like it when it is forced. For instance, in XP, you can no longer switch to a resolution below 800×600, or a color depth below 16bits (KB286906).
With out giving it too much thought, it sounds reasonable, as pretty much all computers capable of running XP will meet or exceed those limitations. Well, read on, dear reader.
Now I choose the word limitations for a reason; it is. I use my laptop’s S-Video output to plug into my TV to watch movies I’ve ripped to DIVX. Sounds fun right? Well there are catches.
First, I have to unplug my set-top DVD player from the TV, as it also connects to the TV via S-Video and I’ve only got one S-Video. I also have to do the same for the audio cables. But I can live with this. I don’t watch DIVX movies that much, so it is a minor annoyance.
But up until a couple of weeks ago, I was running Windows 2k on the laptop. That was good n all, but XP has some better features, especially with regards mobile computing. So I do an upgrade to XP overtop my 2k install. Now enters my problem. I’m using an old analog TV circa 1999, which requires that I set my output on the laptop to 640×480. Do you see my troubles? Any resolution higher than 640×480 results in only a 640×480 portion of the display shown on the TV.
At first I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t select 640×480. I started blaming the inferior S3 video card in the laptop. I tried multiple drivers for it and for my monitor. Frustrated, I gave up on it until this morning when again my geek curiosity perks up. After doing a well crafted Google search, I come across MS KB286906.
You know it’s funny. It’s kinda a running joke, although not always true, that Microsoft requires users to upgrade their computers every time they put out a new OS. Now, it looks like, they will require us to upgrade everything else as well; especially as everything begins to converge and gadgets and gizmos talk to one another.
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