Enable Presentation Mode and Mobility Center on a desktop computer

Presentation Mode is something I am trying out with Windows 10 desktops that are permanently connected to a projector. Microsoft don't seem to have got their head around the idea that people will use a desktop to do presentations, and so these capabilities are disabled by default on a desktop. But they can be enabled by adding some registry keys. Put the following lines into a .reg file and then double click to add it to the current user's registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MobilePC]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MobilePC\AdaptableSettings]

"SkipBatteryCheck"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MobilePC\MobilityCenter]

"RunOnDesktop"=dword:00000001

It would be advisable to add these to the default user profile on a computer which can have a lot of users via a domain login. 

Once you have these then Mobility Center can be run from the start menu.

You can also run presentationsettings.exe directly with the /start or /stop switch to turn presentation mode on or off.

The reason I am interested in presentation mode is to see if it will stop the Windows Updates nag screens on Windows 10. We don't want those popping up all the time in the middle of a presentation.

UPDATE: Unfortunately this has not stopped the update nags so back to the drawing board, or in this case, a Windows Updates server is the next thing to try.

Mislabelled ADATA Pen Drives

So another ripoff by the look of it.

I have two Adata pen drives that are reported at less than the labelled size. Even if we understand that there are two different ways of defining what a gigabyte is (one uses 10^3 as the multiplier and the other uses 2^10), the size of these devices is being reported as less than would be expected.

An older model Adata drive in my possession reports as 8 GB while a modern one shows as 7.5 or 7.0 GB.

An enquiry has been made with a wholesaler to see if any recourse can be obtained.

Another Intel rip off - Core CPUs

One of the annoying things about Intel is how much they mix and match features on their CPUs to try to screw you into paying more money. It gets that you have to drill right down into the specs of individual CPUs to make sure you are getting the features you need, for example virtualisation support.

It turns out this is still the case on the Core i3/5/7 CPUs and in a major way. A lot of people probably used the table below for a long time:

• Pentium G - 2 cores, no hyperthreading
• Core i3 - 2 cores, hyperthreading
• Core i5 - 4 cores, no hyperthreading
• Core i7 - 4 cores, hyperthreading.

It was therefore a shock to me to discover some Core i5 and i7 chips out there have only 2 cores. It turns out this has, in fact, been the case almost since the beginning of the Core series. At first, though, it was only mobile series processors that had reduced numbers of cores. However, starting with Sandy Bridge, there has been a desktop model Core i5 in each architecture with only 2 cores.

This situation emphasises that a significant amount of the price you pay for a CPU is based on marketing hype and as I may have said previously, for my personal use the lower spec Pentium G dual core chip is more than good enough and does not command an exorbitant price. And Intel really loves all the billions they are creaming from us every year.