Working with Windows

Over the last few months I have been "forced" (?) to work on(?) with (?) (perhaps despite?) windows. Overall Windows 10 isn't the clunky nightmare that Vista was, and is way better than Windows 7 too. Heck it even has workspaces finally!

Here are a few hacks I had to use to work out some common issues.

1. Machine does not respond to ping
Firewall rule is too strict. To change, go to:

Control Panel> Firewall
Advanced Setting
Inbound Rules:
Enable File and Printer Sharing Rules

2. Remote file access is not possible:
You need to be admin or otherwise have access to C:\ of the machine; then use smb://192.168.X.Y/C$ to access from Nautilus on another machine.

More hacks later. 

Fixing the Native Resolution problem - WindowsXP

I had a hard enough time getting my Intel on-board graphics card to display the right resolution with Ubuntu last month. The problem was that the native resolution of my monitor is 1440 x 900, and the graphics card supports higher and lower resolutions but not this particular mode. I figured it would be easier on Windows XP- especially given the fact that Intel provides drivers for Windows only. But after all on Windows...