The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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ol qwerty bastard: Dec 13, 2005; If you want something done, do it yourself!

I'm looking for some basic photo scanning software that I can just set to "4x6" and a desired DPI and then feed photos in one after the other and have it take care of saving them in some folder automatically. I have a bunch of old pictures I want to scan and it's tedious doing it the preview -> set size -> set DPI -> scan -> save manually way.

Ideally I'm looking for something free or at least something that costs less than taking all the pictures to some print shop and getting them to do it.

# ? Aug 24, 2013 17:04

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 20:57

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

I had to buy VueScan because of the included drivers, because my scanner hasn't had drivers since XP and it was cheaper than getting of new scanner of a decent quality, and it has this sort of batch mode. It's not the most fantastic piece of software in terms of gui, but it works fine.

I'll throw that out there in case no free alternatives pop up.

# ? Aug 24, 2013 18:59

Gromit: Aug 15, 2000; I am an oppressed White Male, Asian women wont serve me! Save me Campbell Newman!!!!!!!

Almost every image viewer I've used has had a basic interface for scanning, so maybe look at IRfanview or ImageStone or ACDSee etc?

# ? Aug 25, 2013 00:31

barnold: Dec 16, 2011; what do u do when yuo're born to play fps? guess there's nothing left to do but play fps. boom headshot

I just installed a Luna theme onto my Windows 7 computer. It really is such a clean and nice to look at style, nevermind the fact that it works well on Win7.

# ? Aug 25, 2013 06:15

Read: Dec 21, 2010

FFStudios posted:

I just installed a Luna theme onto my Windows 7 computer. It really is such a clean and nice to look at style, nevermind the fact that it works well on Win7.

Be wary, the interface customization rabbit hole goes deep!

# ? Aug 25, 2013 08:31

ol qwerty bastard: Dec 13, 2005; If you want something done, do it yourself!

Gromit posted:

Almost every image viewer I've used has had a basic interface for scanning, so maybe look at IRfanview or ImageStone or ACDSee etc?

I tried out Irfanview, but it wasn't quite what I wanted either.

I'm looking for something that lets me bypass this interface entirely:

So that for each picture I literally just have to load it into the scanner and press a button. Even in Irfanview's "batch scanning mode" (which is admittedly handy for automatically saving the photos to a specified folder), it still makes me preview the image, set the size, and set the DPI every time.

# ? Aug 25, 2013 15:32

Boz0r: Sep 7, 2006; The Rocketship in action.

Is there some fancy way to be able to use Winamp when my computer is locked. I don't want people to fiddle with my computer when I'm having a party or something.

# ? Aug 25, 2013 18:35

Bieeanshee: Aug 21, 2000; Not keen on keening.; Grimey Drawer

Flipperwaldt posted:

I had to buy VueScan because of the included drivers, because my scanner hasn't had drivers since XP and it was cheaper than getting of new scanner of a decent quality, and it has this sort of batch mode. It's not the most fantastic piece of software in terms of gui, but it works fine.

Does it always pop up the 'About' pane when it starts for you, too? I know it's only a click to close it, but it annoys the heck out of me sometimes.

# ? Aug 25, 2013 19:06

Namlemez: Jul 9, 2003

ol qwerty bastard posted:

I tried out Irfanview, but it wasn't quite what I wanted either.

I'm looking for something that lets me bypass this interface entirely:

So that for each picture I literally just have to load it into the scanner and press a button. Even in Irfanview's "batch scanning mode" (which is admittedly handy for automatically saving the photos to a specified folder), it still makes me preview the image, set the size, and set the DPI every time.

I think on some scanners that's what the TWAIN driver looks like, so regardless of application you get the same thing in the end. You may need a scanner better suited for bulk scanning.

# ? Aug 25, 2013 19:19

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Bieeardo posted:

Does it always pop up the 'About' pane when it starts for you, too?

It does not. But I haven't used it in a long while (over a year), so it may not be up to date or something.

Namlemez posted:

I think on some scanners that's what the TWAIN driver looks like, so regardless of application you get the same thing in the end. You may need a scanner better suited for bulk scanning.

Most programs will just address the Twain driver, so this is true. What's pictured in the screenshot is the generic Microsoft Scan and Fax wizard, so maybe check if the scanner manufacturer's drivers offer something better (they might at least remember the dpi setting).

Alternatively, apparently Vuescan has a sort of trial version with limited options, so give it a shot. If anything has a chance of being able to bypass the standard dialog, it's this, I think. Though I'll have to add I don't even know if it only works with the built in drivers or if it has some generic scanner support on board.

Boz0r posted:

Is there some fancy way to be able to use Winamp when my computer is locked. I don't want people to fiddle with my computer when I'm having a party or something.

I don't know if you perhaps can operate it from a smartphone app. Then you could just disconnect mouse and keyboard from the computer (unless it's a laptop, I guess).

I know MediaMonkey has a 'party mode' for which you can set some permissions or limitations. Haven't really tried it myself though, so I don't exactly know if it would prevent people from accessing other progams for example.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Aug 25, 2013

# ? Aug 25, 2013 23:13

barnold: Dec 16, 2011; what do u do when yuo're born to play fps? guess there's nothing left to do but play fps. boom headshot

Read posted:

Be wary, the interface customization rabbit hole goes deep!

I've already fallen; I went through at least 5 or 6 different themes before I decided that I really loved Luna. Yesterday I was sitting thinking about how I could bring XP functionality back to Windows 7 because I had completely forgotten about custom themes, but now I've got everything I could possibly want back. Mostly Explorer navigation trees and the nice square Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 00:29

Lazlo Nibble: Jan 9, 2004; It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

ol qwerty bastard posted:

I'm looking for something that lets me bypass this interface entirely:

You want VueScan then. It remembers all your settings, even across sessions, and doesn't require you to do preview if you don't want to. The trial version has all the features enabled, it just heavily watermarks your scans, so you can make sure it behaves the way you want it to before spending any money.

(It also works with drat near everything. I'm using it to drive an ancient Epson large-format professional SCSI scanner on Win7x64 and the only driver I had to install was for my equally-ancient SCSI card.)

# ? Aug 26, 2013 04:47

ol qwerty bastard: Dec 13, 2005; If you want something done, do it yourself!

Awesome, I'll give that a try. Thanks.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 16:43

Ariza: Feb 8, 2006

Is there any free, working way to convert a Powerpoint with audio narration to a video? I see Office 2010 can do it within the software, but I'm still using Office 2007. Searching for freeware on Google for conversion things (so much lovely freeware out there) is always hit or miss and the terribly worded software I've tried has not worked at all for me. One of my professors loves to make 45 minute long 9 slide powerpoints and I'd like the convenience of watching them on my TV.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 17:51

Im_Special: Jan 2, 2011; Look At This!!! WOW!
It's F*cking Nothing.

Can anyone recommend me a program that can rename files in bulk, I need something that can delete things I have in brackets like Filename(delete).txt, and have them end up looking like Filename.txt. I've looked on Google and there are hundreds of batch renamers but are any of them good?

# ? Aug 26, 2013 18:52

Ariza: Feb 8, 2006

Im_Special posted:

Can anyone recommend me a program that can rename files in bulk, I need something that can delete things I have in brackets like Filename(delete).txt, and have them end up looking like Filename.txt. I've looked on Google and there are hundreds of batch renamers but are any of them good?

I've always used Bulk Rename Utility. It's ugly as sin but very easy to use once you get over the madness. It's old and totally free.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 20:04

Naffer: Oct 26, 2004; Not a good chemist

Im_Special posted:

Can anyone recommend me a program that can rename files in bulk, I need something that can delete things I have in brackets like Filename(delete).txt, and have them end up looking like Filename.txt. I've looked on Google and there are hundreds of batch renamers but are any of them good?

Strangely enough, irfanview can do this. Files don't have to be readable images to use the bulk rename feature that's built in.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 21:03

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Filerenamer is easy to use and pretty powerful:

http://www.sherrodcomputers.com/products_filerenamer.cfm

(the basic version is free).

# ? Aug 26, 2013 21:37

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Eh. den4b ReNamer

# ? Aug 26, 2013 23:17

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

In Word 2010, how do you format your page numbers such that they're in varying styles throughout the document? I'm putting the finishing touches on my Master's thesis and the university has kind of an obnoxious way they want the page numbers:

-The title page is "page 1", but has no actual page number, so the first numbered page is the one immediately after the title page and it has the number 2.
-The front matter (abstract, table of contents etc.) is denoted by Roman numerals, with the page right after the title page being numbered ii.
-The first page of the writing itself is numbered 1, and the document stays on Arabic numerals the rest of the way.

So far I've figured out the first part, but I seemingly can't edit the contents of one footer without editing them all. Any help? Is there a proper MS Office thread elsewhere?

# ? Aug 27, 2013 04:49

Mrit: Sep 26, 2007; by exmarx; Grimey Drawer

Is there a way to remotely (preferably using group policy) to either delete or overwrite a particular driver from the driver store?
Let me explain:
My customer installed a printer driver on their network, with the default profile. Afterwards, they decided they wanted an option turned on that involved editing the driver. Attempting into install this edited driver is unsuccessful as Windows sees that it already has the driver, so it says that it is successful but keeps the original settings. My only workaround is to uninstall the printer, remove the driver from the driver store, and reinstall. Not an ideal solution to a customer that has 500+ workstations.
Any ideas?

# ? Aug 27, 2013 05:39

SSGT Anime: Apr 21, 2012

Is there any real benefit of attaching a windows account to my profile in general, and is there a way to use the Windows 8 calendar app without singing in with a windows account? If not, what's the best calendar app out there?

# ? Aug 27, 2013 07:51

GigaFuzz: Aug 10, 2009

C-Euro posted:

In Word 2010, how do you format your page numbers such that they're in varying styles throughout the document? I'm putting the finishing touches on my Master's thesis and the university has kind of an obnoxious way they want the page numbers:

-The title page is "page 1", but has no actual page number, so the first numbered page is the one immediately after the title page and it has the number 2.
-The front matter (abstract, table of contents etc.) is denoted by Roman numerals, with the page right after the title page being numbered ii.
-The first page of the writing itself is numbered 1, and the document stays on Arabic numerals the rest of the way.

So far I've figured out the first part, but I seemingly can't edit the contents of one footer without editing them all. Any help? Is there a proper MS Office thread elsewhere?

Put a section break (Page Layout ribbon > Page Setup section > Breaks > Section Breaks > Next Page) before the first page of your actual writing (Chapter 1, for example). You can then edit the page numbers for section 1 (Title, Abstract etc) separately from section 2. You may have already figured it out, but for section 1 you want to check the 'Different First Page' on the Design ribbon with the footer selected, and remove the page number from the first page. Format that section's page number to use roman numerals (Page Number > Format Page Numbers on the Design ribbon), then in section 2's footer, use Format Page Numbers to change the numbering style and start the numbering at 1.

GigaFuzz fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Aug 27, 2013

# ? Aug 27, 2013 12:20

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

SSGT Anime posted:

Is there any real benefit of attaching a windows account to my profile in general, and is there a way to use the Windows 8 calendar app without singing in with a windows account? If not, what's the best calendar app out there?

Using a Windows account syncs some of your settings over multiple Windows 8 machines.

Microsoft kind of hopes you also have a Windows 8 phone, tablet, laptop and Xbox.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 13:29

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Is there a way to force internet traffic to a different IP address?

Let's say I have a computer who's making a connection to 1.2.3.4, but that server isn't up any longer, and it's beyond my control. So I want to set some kind of route or rule where the connection goes to 1.2.3.6 instead.

Maybe I need to just do this in my firewall....

There's an ISP that hosts a customer account that has 6 mail servers, and 2 of them don't work, so I want to force it to not connect. I tried making HOSTS entries for failedserver1.isp.com and failedserver2.isp.com but that doesn't work. I think iMail is rejecting those.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 13:30

Im_Special: Jan 2, 2011; Look At This!!! WOW!
It's F*cking Nothing.

Flipperwaldt posted:

Eh. den4b ReNamer

I just wanted to say that this little program is all anyone could ever need for a batch renamer, my god once you wrap your brain around all the rules one can do with this, there is probably nothing it can't do, it's also so drat simple and clean. A+ would recommend again to anyone.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 15:10

TomWaitsForNoMan: May 28, 2003; By Any Means Necessary

Read posted:

Be wary, the interface customization rabbit hole goes deep!

How did you do this?

# ? Aug 27, 2013 17:50

Read: Dec 21, 2010

TomWaitsForNoMan posted:

How did you do this?

Taskbar is auto-hiding on the left side of the screen and the rest is Rainmeter. The top and side transparent bars, calendar, run button, trash icon, weather, music player, email and cpu stats are all from the Enigma skin. The date on the top left is Chronophage from the Aperture Laboratories skin. The launch icons at the top are from the Animus Whiteroom skin. The clock at the bottom is from the Encoded skin, under headers.

You can download Rainmeter here: http://rainmeter.net/cms/

You can find all the skins either on the Rainmeter site, Deviantart or through google.

The general layout is cribbed from a screenshot someone posted.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 20:51

TomWaitsForNoMan: May 28, 2003; By Any Means Necessary

Read posted:

Taskbar is auto-hiding on the left side of the screen and the rest is Rainmeter. The top and side transparent bars, calendar, run button, trash icon, weather, music player, email and cpu stats are all from the Enigma skin. The date on the top left is Chronophage from the Aperture Laboratories skin. The launch icons at the top are from the Animus Whiteroom skin. The clock at the bottom is from the Encoded skin, under headers.

You can download Rainmeter here: http://rainmeter.net/cms/

You can find all the skins either on the Rainmeter site, Deviantart or through google.

The general layout is cribbed from a screenshot someone posted.

That's great, thank you

# ? Aug 27, 2013 22:29

Grawl: Aug 28, 2008; Do the D.A.N.C.E
1234, fight!
Stick to the B.E.A.T
Get ready to ignite
You were such a P.Y.T
Catching all the lights
Just easy as A.B.C
That's how we make it right

Bob Morales posted:

There's an ISP that hosts a customer account that has 6 mail servers, and 2 of them don't work, so I want to force it to not connect. I tried making HOSTS entries for failedserver1.isp.com and failedserver2.isp.com but that doesn't work. I think iMail is rejecting those.

So what does your HOSTS-file look like? Can't you just do something like?;

failedserver1.isp.com workingserver1.isp.com
failedserver2.isp.com workingserver2.isp.com

Otherwise try to figure out the IP addresses and make it look something like (where 1.1.1.1 and 2.2.2.2 are the servers that don't work);

1.1.1.1 workingserver1.isp.com
2.2.2.2 workingserver2.isp.com

Heck, perhaps it's even easier to just make them go through localhost, so it will time out faster;

failedserver1.isp.com 127.0.0.1

Just some ideas.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 22:49

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

Anyone had weird volume issues with iTunes 11.0.5.5? Ever since I've updated I'll be listening to something, and the volume will just randomly drop like 25-50%.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 23:00

Bob Morales: Aug 18, 2006; ~~Just wear the fucking mask, Bob~~

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Grawl posted:

So what does your HOSTS-file look like? Can't you just do something like?;

failedserver1.isp.com workingserver1.isp.com
failedserver2.isp.com workingserver2.isp.com

Otherwise try to figure out the IP addresses and make it look something like (where 1.1.1.1 and 2.2.2.2 are the servers that don't work);

1.1.1.1 workingserver1.isp.com
2.2.2.2 workingserver2.isp.com

Heck, perhaps it's even easier to just make them go through localhost, so it will time out faster;

failedserver1.isp.com 127.0.0.1

Just some ideas.

I ended up just replacing mailhost.megahost.com and theirdomain.com with the IP of workingserver.isp.com

I think since it was returning any of 6 servers for the MX record it wasn't always catching the server name. Hasn't failed yet today.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 00:00

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

GigaFuzz posted:

Put a section break (Page Layout ribbon > Page Setup section > Breaks > Section Breaks > Next Page) before the first page of your actual writing (Chapter 1, for example). You can then edit the page numbers for section 1 (Title, Abstract etc) separately from section 2. You may have already figured it out, but for section 1 you want to check the 'Different First Page' on the Design ribbon with the footer selected, and remove the page number from the first page. Format that section's page number to use roman numerals (Page Number > Format Page Numbers on the Design ribbon), then in section 2's footer, use Format Page Numbers to change the numbering style and start the numbering at 1.

Cool, thank you.

E: Actually, another weird question- is there anyway to add an entire separate document to the end of a given document? The university also wants me to include a copy of my resume to the end of the document, yet my resume is formatted nicely so I want to just (electronically) staple it on as-is, rather than C&P and then having to figure out what formatting information didn't make it over. It would be like, if I was turning in a hardcopy of this document I would print out my actual document and then just print my resume separately and slide it in on the end, that's what I want to do in Word.

C-Euro fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Aug 28, 2013

# ? Aug 28, 2013 00:26

Bohemian Cowabunga: Mar 24, 2008

Is it possible/legal to share an Office 365 home premium subscription with the immediate family even though we do not live in the same location?
Technically I personally own all the computers it would be installed on, but they are in use on different addresses in the same town.

I tried searching around the internet for an answer, but I have not found other references than http://readwrite.com/2013/01/29/will-microsoft-close-office-365s-household-loophole addressing it with:

Microsoft Rep. posted:

At this point, Microsoft's Office 365 package charges one fee per household, but it's not exactly clear what the definition of "household" is. Since the Office 365 license covers five devices, it's unclear whether Microsoft will treat a "household" as a single IP, or cover extended family such as parents and adult children who may move out of the home.

Microsoft representatives couldn't supply an answer. "I don't believe any one has asked me that question before," said Oliver Roll, a general manager at Microsoft.

Is anyone doing something similar, do I risk getting hit by IP blocks etc?

Apologies if this has already been addressed, but did not find an answer searching the thread.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 04:22

GigaFuzz: Aug 10, 2009

C-Euro posted:

Cool, thank you.

E: Actually, another weird question- is there anyway to add an entire separate document to the end of a given document? The university also wants me to include a copy of my resume to the end of the document, yet my resume is formatted nicely so I want to just (electronically) staple it on as-is, rather than C&P and then having to figure out what formatting information didn't make it over. It would be like, if I was turning in a hardcopy of this document I would print out my actual document and then just print my resume separately and slide it in on the end, that's what I want to do in Word.

If you can submit in PDF, you could combine your documents into one file, but if it has to be a Word file, then I think it's a case of inserting a new section break and copy/pasting (with the 'Keep Source Formatting' option). It's not perfect but hopefully doesn't mess up the formatting too much.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 10:11

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

Bohemian Cowabunga posted:

Is it possible/legal to share an Office 365 home premium subscription with the immediate family even though we do not live in the same location?
Technically I personally own all the computers it would be installed on, but they are in use on different addresses in the same town.

I tried searching around the internet for an answer, but I have not found other references than http://readwrite.com/2013/01/29/will-microsoft-close-office-365s-household-loophole addressing it with:

Is anyone doing something similar, do I risk getting hit by IP blocks etc?

Apologies if this has already been addressed, but did not find an answer searching the thread.

I haven't heard of anything, I don't believe there's any technical thing in place here enforcing the "househould" rule.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 15:43

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

GigaFuzz posted:

If you can submit in PDF, you could combine your documents into one file, but if it has to be a Word file, then I think it's a case of inserting a new section break and copy/pasting (with the 'Keep Source Formatting' option). It's not perfect but hopefully doesn't mess up the formatting too much.

Doing a page break was my first guess, but I have a Word-defined References section at the end which prohibits me from adding a page break after it. Can I tell Word "OK, my References section ends after this line"?

# ? Aug 28, 2013 19:32

GigaFuzz: Aug 10, 2009

C-Euro posted:

Doing a page break was my first guess, but I have a Word-defined References section at the end which prohibits me from adding a page break after it. Can I tell Word "OK, my References section ends after this line"?

You should be able to insert after the References section. Can't you just hit Ctrl + End, then insert a section break? I don't have a long document with references in it, but I just created a short dummy one and it worked fine.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 01:58

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

GigaFuzz posted:

You should be able to insert after the References section. Can't you just hit Ctrl + End, then insert a section break? I don't have a long document with references in it, but I just created a short dummy one and it worked fine.

Nope, that just pushes my actual list of references to a new page. They're endnotes specifically rather than just reference entries, I'll bet that makes a difference.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 02:16

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 20:57

Bohemian Cowabunga: Mar 24, 2008

Maneki Neko posted:

I haven't heard of anything, I don't believe there's any technical thing in place here enforcing the "househould" rule.

Yeah it seems that way otherwise I guess it would be easier to find people complaining about it online. Gonna give it a go.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 03:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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