The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Thermopyle posted:

Has anyone here using Synergy run into the bug where it prevents the screensaver from starting and found a way around it?

Are both Server/Client both in Windows? I've used Synergy for a few years, and though I haven't recently, it worked with 7 and OSX and Linux for screensaver 'syncing'. If I recall, there are some radio boxes you have to check for it to allow/disallow it.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 17:29

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 01:08

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

What's wrong with the integrated, Remote Desktop? Or does Win 7 Home not have that useability, and if that's the case, that's pretty inexcusable.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2012 23:34

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Tapedump posted:

Not what's being discussed. He's having weird UI troubles when using Win7(whichever) as an RDP client to control Server 2012 and other tools are failing him, too.

Pretty sure you're confusing it with Ragingsheep's earlier (and applicable to your answer) question.

He was responding to my post. The brief time I was crossplatform, I used TightVNC server for my stuff. Worked find and integrated well into mobile apps, and Linux/OSX VNC clients also.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 04:19

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

No, I'm just being an idiot, don't mind me. Just passing through!

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 04:53

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

TomWaitsForNoMan posted:

I don't know if you can do it with Right Click > Context Button, but I know you can set up Auto HotKey to do that sort of thing. I have a couple scripts at work to handle file transfers.

code:

!+r::FileMove, C:\stuff\stuff1\stuff*, C:\stuff\stuff1\

Pretty sure you could hunt around to grab the file name and send it to a folder of that same name, etc.

Ninja Edit: Add a batch script, or a VB script to that and you can do that also.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2012 22:15

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Pilsner posted:

Make a bootable CD with DBAN is what I normally do. Just do one pass.

DBAN is the equivalent of a steel wool and ajax shower after you've watched 'Human Centipede'. Run as many passes as will make you feel better, but the images will always be there no matter how hard you scrub...

# ¿ Nov 8, 2012 18:12

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Gromit posted:

Either
a. I've no idea what you are talking about, or
b. Oh, really?

DBAN aka Darik's Boot and Nuke
It's a bootable image that you can put on a disc or USB drive and wipe out hard drives. I'm more just making a humour joke and making you guys feel :tinfoil:

about your HDD's, one wipe is fine.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2012 09:31

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Im_Special posted:

So this is a little problem I've been having with Winamp lately, I can't seem to use it's auto tag feature anymore, not sure why I did use it fine a few months back. I was hoping someone here could either tell me how to fix it or recommend another free program that can get the job done, portable a plus.

I may give Foobar2000 another shot too since I hear it can tag songs, but it always bugged me having a few formats it didn't support unless I associated archived files to it which is dumb.

It's not hard to add one of the many, many, components to FB2k, and I prefer it even out of the box to Winamp. The only thing I miss is being able to have Milkdrop run out of the box.
Here's the thread for that if you're interested.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 00:33

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

The Dark One posted:

I don't have an SSD. Fragmentation measurably impacts my performance.

Yeah... Platters for poors!

On that note, do you use a fancy defragger?

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 00:43

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Im_Special posted:

I know about the plugin, but for example there is no way to get RSN files to become associated to Foobar the way Winamp can, well not without some plugin hex editing which is a little over my head. I know RSN files are just archived SPC files but I'd not change all those file types to zip's. But maybe I'll head over to that Foobar thread and ask if there is a solution, because I wanted to use Foobar like a year ago as my media player solution but if it can't play all the formats I need to, I'd rather just stick with Winamp instead of relying on multiple players having split jobs.

iirc, Foobar can handle archives fine, and from the little bit of understanding I have about RSN files, they're just archives of SPC files? Which should be supported out of the box if I'm reading this correctly.

The .spc files should be useable with this component

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 01:17

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Well, if you are so inclined, give it a whirl. From what I'm reading, you don't need to 'Do the .RAR trick to rename the archive' so I'm assuming it works.

Honestly I'd be shocked if it didn't given the nature of the music ~~you're listening~~ typically found in .SPC files and the general usership of FB2k, but I've been wrong in the past.

Edited to not sound like an rear end in a top hat.

Illuminado fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Dec 4, 2012

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 01:32

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

A bit late to the party, but CamStudio is a ~Free~ option to CamTasia, and you can try it and see if you like it before pulling out your wallet. Also seconding HandBrake for batch and single file compression.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2013 18:31

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Aphrodite posted:

Using one of those laptops, make an image of the disc then use something like http://www.isotousb.com/

Windows actually has an ISO to USB utility that works incredibly well.
Along with a Digital Download of a Win 7 ISO which is completely legal under Win 7's new terms.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 19:15

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Splinter posted:

Is there a free video/media player that can change playback speed and setup loops on the fly easily? I'm trying to learn a dance from a video and want to be able to slow things down and only work on a few seconds at a time. If possible, I'd prefer something that isn't a full fledged video editing program.

VLC should be able to handle that, though you're going to notice a lot more blurring in low quality / low framerate vids.

A-B Repeat in VLC.

Slow-Mo in VLC: Under Playback you can choose .5 / .25 / etc.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 22:20

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Check the Sharing option and make sure that sharing is turned on.

Then you should be able to share that fine.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 00:25

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

IT BURNS posted:

Still lamenting the loss of DVD maker from Windows 7. What's a decent paid alternative for 8.1? I'm looking for something with lots of templates (none of the free options seem to have a wide enough library).

I'm not sure what features were included in DVD Maker, but this is what I recommend to everyone who asks:

DVD Flick

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 20:16

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

midnightclimax posted:

What's a good app for virtual desktops?

Also, is there some kind of "seamless zoom" app similar to the compiz zoom function on Linux? (Basically zoom the screen with the mousewheel. The win7 zoom is not really great)

Why not just use Windows RDP and the magnifier utility, do you just want to have it bound to your mousewheel? Honestly I haven't seen any 3rd party applications that have worked nearly as well as RDP.

Of all the applications I've used so far, I think that Splashtop probably has the best performance and latency, but I'm not sure about their zoom functionality specifically.

You can probably modify these hotkeys using AutoHotkey or a Registry Hack to get what you want:

quote:

Magnifier keyboard shortcuts

Windows logo key + Plus Sign or Minus Sign Zoom in or out
Ctrl+Alt+Spacebar Preview the desktop in full-screen mode
Ctrl+Alt+F Switch to full-screen mode
Ctrl+Alt+L Switch to lens mode
Ctrl+Alt+D Switch to docked mode
Ctrl+Alt+I Invert colors
Ctrl+Alt+arrow keys Pan in the direction of the arrow keys
Ctrl+Alt+R Resize the lens
Windows logo key + Esc Exit Magnifier

If you want to use AHK just add this to your script for Win+Mousewheel functionality:

code:

#WheelUp::Send {LWinDown}{+}
#WheelDown::Send {LWinDown}{-}

Edit: You can set both Magnifier and AHK to ALWAYS be on, it's not like this functionality is going to get in the way.

By Virtual Desktop you probably meant a Virtual Machine and not Remote Desktop?

If so, then the big 2 are:
VMWare Server (Login Required Freeware Version of VMWare Desktop)
or
Virtual Box

Illuminado fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Dec 23, 2013

# ¿ Dec 23, 2013 18:37

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

midnightclimax posted:

Windows RDP? No, I'm talking about this

basically having multiple desktops on the same machine, allowing me to drag and drop applications between them.

Oh man, you just want to compiz out a Windows desktop.

I used this for a while, it was pretty bad back in 2009(?)
Yod'm 3d

They went payware after THAT release as Deskspace. Try out the trial and report back with your findings.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2013 18:54

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

I've got an interesting issue that may or may not be a Windows issue.

I use an amplifier for powering desktop speakers and headphones connected by an optical cable, but I find that if there isn't any sound playing, the sound is muted, and whenever say a system sound plays, it will take a fraction of a second to start up again, causing the first little bit to be cut out.

I'm not sure if this is an audio driver issue or a Windows issue, or even a 'feature' on the amp. Just looking for a place to start with this. Thanks.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 20:02

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Ynglaur posted:

What has been people's experience with Windows Insider Previews? I want to get the old-is-new-again version of OneDrive so that I can see my entire file structure locally again, but the Fall Creator's Update isn't going to begin rolling out until 17 Oct. Are the preview builds at all stable for daily use?

I had a bad experience with them this past year.

Wouldn't install the latest update, then shot me the "this build will expire in... days."

Was a huge hassle, had to completely reimage to solve it.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2017 01:42

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

The Lord Bude posted:

My dad wants to be able to save documents he creates in PDF form, sort the documents into a given order; then collate those PDFs into a single document in that order. Is this something that windows 10 can do out of the box, and if not, can anyone recommend reputable software that can do this. Bonus points if it's free software, but he doesn't mind paying if he needs to.

Word or GoogleDocs can export to full OCR PDF, and for the last part, I'd recommend PDF SAM (Split and Merge). I've had to use it a lot doing typical administrative office duties, and it's great for that.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2017 18:07

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

codo27 posted:

Someone gave me a work laptop, apparently the company paid half on it years ago and they were allowed to keep it, and the company has recently gave them new ones, so he wants to make a home PC out of this one. Its a Vista machine thats been upgraded to Win7 Pro, I wanna go ahead and put 10 on it for him. It wants me to login to their domain, I can login locally but I dont know what any of the local accounts are. I tried booting into safe mode with command prompt but it restarts as soon as I click other user, built in defense on their part? I dunno. What can I try to get around this so I can move forward? Again its a Vista machine, and even if I could read the key on the bottom of it, its useless.

You're trying to just get the Win Key off of it? Hope I'm understanding your question.

If that's so, you can do a reg hack or use some software.
Link to Methods

Edit: Oh, I think I get it. Maybe you could run that command from a Win 7 recovery disc to retrieve the key? Or mount it to another system and glean it, is the drive encrypted?

Illuminado fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Nov 14, 2017

# ¿ Nov 14, 2017 18:20

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Rexxed posted:

Windows 10 licensing tends to license the hardware profile; so in that case you wouldn't be upgrading the keys so much as giving those VMs valid windows 10 activation. Whether or not you could use the keys to activate windows 10 in the future seems to generally be a no, or an "associate the activated machine with a microsoft account and then when you try to activate a new machine with it because you replaced the old one you have to call them up and explain that it's not working." Right now they're being generous about activation because they want everyone on windows 10, but their attitude may change in one month.

You can still get around that with a manual process, but I mean... if you have 7 you're trying to manually register, they might groan a bit. I just had to do a VOIP activation on my Win 10 license after I couldn't produce the Win 7 key that I upgraded from, but they still did it after a bit of hemming and hawing.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2017 20:28

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Music Bee has been recommended in here before. I use Foobar over it personally, but maybe it's up your alley?

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 20:42

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

NZAmoeba posted:

I haven't really touched Excel in a decade, and now I have a big report to build and manage.

I'm recording events on a monthly basis, with a new sheet each month, and probably a new file each year. My data is mostly text, and I'll be making charts/graphs from those text entries, probably on a per-month, and overall yearly basis.

However I just had to have a friend explain what pivot charts even were so I could get a simple pie chart from a column that was all Yes's and No's. Clearly I'm a tad out of my depth here, and I'm wondering what would be a good tutorial for this sort of thing? Ideally I'd have it so once I had the data entered, making the charts would be a case of just hitting a button and applying last month's charts to this month's. I'm building from scratch and don't know what I'm doing, so I'm worried some early choices I make will paint myself into a corner later, but I have no idea what those mistakes even are yet.

So yeah, I learn by doing, any good tutorial for what I'm hoping to achieve?

Put your data in a pivot table and add a Data Slicer and select the date field. Then you can use that to select specific date ranges. From there, you can just tune your data to the specific time and then copy/paste your selected data (paste values) and generate a pivot chart (don't use a pie chart) for your data values.

You can add the additional data as it comes in and change your slider to match. Then you can do long term analysis without changing your spreadsheet too much to boot.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2017 03:59

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Josh Lyman posted:

What's a good PDF editor?

How do you want to edit a pdf?

PDFsam is great if you want to exclusively split and/or merge a pdf.

If you want to mark up a pdf, run OCR, highlight, redact, etc. your options are more limited.

Adobe Professional is the industry standard, but is expensive and the GUI is geared towards your technophobic great-aunt.

Google Drive has PDF support and OCR, so at least you can dump the text into a word processor and get some value out of it.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2018 20:50

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Alpha Mayo posted:

What's the cheapest way to get a legit copy of Office? Are the cheap keys you see on ebay legit? I don't get where they are sourced from.

All I need is word and excel

Have you / are you open to trying Libre Office?
You can configure the files to default to MS formats, and can interact with most other MS files, save a few more advanced spreadsheets with crazy VBA.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 23:05

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 01:08

Illuminado: Mar 26, 2008; The Path Ahead is Dark

Alpha Mayo posted:

I want to work on a resume and cover letters so need Word, don't want to send a document created in LibreOffice that comes out weird when opened in Word. Usually PDF is fine but sometimes people want Word.

You can save it as a .docx file and view it for free and make sure before sending it out in a Word Viewer app, (or unactivated version of office, or Google Docs to check) first if you're really worried, but unless your doing your resume really crazy, it should be fine. LibreOffice last I checked is a LOT better than it was a few years ago. But if you've already sprung for 365, I suppose the point is moot. It doesn't hurt to try, and the worst you'll have to do is Ctrl+C > Ctrl+V as raw text and format again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 19:49

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