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agilews:

If you are a 1Password user who also works with Windows have I got some good news for you!

I’m happy to announce the first public beta of 1Password for Windows! 

1Password for Windows is available in the Windows forum.

Yay time to uninstall LastPass (it sucks).

UPDATE: Windows 7 just works with external displays. No need for tweaks or hacks.

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Last night I stayed up late tinkering with my late 2008 15” MacBook Pro’s Windows XP install again in hopes of getting my games to run on my 40” 1080p Samsung TV, for reasons that should be obvious. I managed to successfully accomplish what I had set out to do, and it’s quite easy.

This is also a way to get the latest Windows Nvidia driver updates for your Mac (Boot Camp drivers are very old).

First you should uninstall your old Nvidia display driver from the add/remove control panel, (also a good idea to disable antivirus before doing this). DO NOT UN-INSTALL ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER ONLY; if you do remove the other Nvidia drivers too you will have to reinstall the Boot Camp drivers from your Mac OS X install disc and start this process over. You will likely need to reboot after uninstalling.

Download the latest Nvidia drivers for your OS and run the EXE. Do not run the installer just yet even if it pops-up. The EXE by default puts the driver in the C:\NVIDIA\ folder where you can get to it later.

Now to enable the option to make your external display the primary display you need a modified INF file to for the driver installer. You can generate this file on the following link: laptopvideo2go.com/enhancer

Pick the correct driver version number (for the driver you just downloaded) then scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Enable” Primary for Dual Display. Download the INF file.

The last step is to put the INF file into the C:\NVIDIA\your os version\driver version\IS\Display\ folder replacing the existing file. Once this is done just run the installer Setup in the C:\NVIDIA\your os version\driver version\IS\ folder (make sure your antivirus is off) and then reboot when finished.

Your MacBook Pro’s Windows install should now allow you to use an external display as primary and even disable the internal display. I found I had to disable my internal display before the game I tested F.E.A.R. 2 would launch on my TV’s screen. You may need to re-adjust your games’ resolution settings, and also tweak the color gamma through the Nvidia control panel before you play.

Also noteworthy: I found that the Windows XP text rendering looks like pixelated poop on my TV; barely readable… I’m not sure why, but all other graphics seem to be displayed at native resolution perfectly sharp on my TV. I may look further into this text issue.

UPDATE: The above issue was caused by my TV’s sharpness settings being nearly at full and was easily fixed by lowering the sharpness. The TV’s brightness and contrast also should be checked, don’t rely on your computer’s settings.

See all my Windows Gaming on Mac posts

I’ve been running Windows XP on my 15” MacBook Pro for the past 2 months now to play PC games. Overall it’s been great fun to be able to play Windows only games, and my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro is more than capable of playing the latest PC games.

The only issue I’ve run into is that the BootCamp installed graphics drivers are very old and perhaps not ideal for running the latest games… As Mac users this is one of the headaches we don’t normally have to worry about.

I’ve experimented with several drivers including 3rd party drivers before settling on the latest official driver from NVIDIA. The only hitch is that the NVIDIA installer “doesn’t support” Apple hardware, so here’s an easy work around you can use.

UPDATED 05-06-13

Most Macs should now be supported by Nvidia’s official drivers without the below work-around. Download the latest drivers from: geforce.com I also recommend downloading the GeForce Experience tool for keeping your drivers up-to-date and your game settings optimized.

If Nvidia’s auto detection tool doesn’t work try manually selecting the correct driver that matches your Mac’s specs: geforce.com/drivers

If you still have issues installing the driver see the below workaround.

UPDATED 04-27-09 Thanks to the comments below from HJ.

Disclaimer: the described steps below worked for me, however I do not take responsibility for any damage done to your computer as a result of following my advice.

First you should uninstall your old Nvidia display driver from the add/remove control panel, (also a good idea to disable antivirus before doing this). DO NOT UN-INSTALL ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER ONLY; if you do remove the other Nvidia drivers too you will have to reinstall the Boot Camp drivers from your Mac OS X install disc and start this process over. You will likely need to reboot after uninstalling.

1. Check to see what graphics card you have; either in the Mac OS X “System Profiler” application under “Graphics/Displays”. My MacBook Pro has a GeForce 9600M GT (and the power saver 9400M).
2. Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your graphics card. (At the time of this post the latest driver for my 9600M GT is 179.48). Note: If the installer auto runs cancel because we aren’t ready to install yet.
3. Download the latest NVIDIA PhysX System Software (should now be included with the driver). Note: Don’t install yet.
4. To make the NVIDIA driver allow you to install it on your Apple hardware you need a modified INF file. Find the matching driver number on laptopvideo2go.com/enhancer. (Example: my driver 179.48). You are also able to modify driver settings on this page (see my external display post). Once finished this will download a file called NVAC.INF.
5. Turn off all Antivirus software you are running after you scan the downloaded files. The antivirus may keep the driver install from correctly installing.
6. Install the NVIDIA PhysX System Software. This should be quick and painless.
7. Extract the NVIDIA driver you downloaded earlier to a new folder on your desktop or C:\NVIDIA.
8. Locate the “Display” folder inside of the extracted NVIDIA driver folder and copy the NVAC.INF file into the ”Display” folder. It will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing file, press Yes.
9. Run the Setup in the extracted NVIDIA driver folder. If it asks you if you want to overwrite files during the install press Yes.
10. You should be done, restart and test your games.

Update: This should be a non-issue now. I actually recommend SpeedFan (Win) now for keeping for Mac cool while playing games. On a side note you may want to checkout smcFanControl to make sure your Mac doesn’t overheat while running intense games. With this app you set your fans to a faster speed inside Mac OS before booting into Windows.

I went with the Logitech G5 that I had posted about the other day. It’s the highest rated and well regarded gaming mouse I’ve seen around the web, plus it’s only a little more expensive than the other mice I was looking at.

I also ordered a mouse pad because with a laptop you never know what kind of surface you’ll be dealing with. I happened to find a low priced “gaming” mouse pad the SteelSeries QcK Mini. I went with it because it’s thin and flexible for portability, plus it’s supposedly ideal for gaming.

I’ll post a quick review after they arrive.