The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Looking in the OP, theres a couple of posts about XP mode/virtualization.

Googling around the internet it looks like if you have Win 7 Pro, you can run it on up to four VMs on the same machine on the same base licence? Is there anything special I need to do, or can I just load up VirtualBox with some Win7 ISOs and use my existing key and be good?

# ¿ Sep 9, 2012 13:25

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 09:11

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

I added an SSD to my Win7 home machine recently, and also changed the drive order (changed optical drive from G: to H:, made the new SSD G:). Windows warned me that this might screw up some programs due to file path errors. This didn't seem like a problem because I never use my optical drive and my SSD was new/blank.

Somehow my D: drive (the one with Steam/BF3 on it) has gone read only. Windows suggested I run ChkDsk, which I did, but it hasn't had any effect. Any thoughts on how to fix this? Or can someone tell me why this happened?

# ¿ Dec 20, 2012 02:54

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Neurophonic posted:

Does anybody have a suggestion for a Windows app (preferable free or cheap) that can record a line-in input signal directly to MP3 and create a new file at specific times into recording, whilst naming each of the files generated based on an set of variables?

The reason I ask is that normally I'd use a Mac running Audio Hijack Pro (http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/) to record long periods of temporary non-fixed FM/ShoutCast radio broadcast down into hour-long 'shows' to provide to a client, but on this occasion I can't be there and only a Windows machine is available.

The reason I ask for split-MP3 recording functionality is that the broadcast period is 15 hours long and using something basic to do one continuous recording, like Audacity, and editing at the end will absolutely murder any machine when the resulting file is opened up.

Check out Mumble, you should be able to pipe in the audio to that using a virtual audio cable and some clever use of the client/server stuff.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 14:26

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

I tried this in the Home Networking thread and got no response, this thread has a lot more traffic and maybe someone can help;

Is there a good Wake-On-Lan (WOL) utility I should be using?

Is there an automated way for RDC to send a magic packet on connection attempt? I <3 my file server, but I only need it to be awake maybe three hours a day. I feel like RDC should send a magic packet if it can't immediately talk to the machine, but it doesn't.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 23:39

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Boz0r posted:

Two things:

A) My computer takes 5-7 seconds from when I power it on to when it shows me the POST screen. What gives? I'm running an SSD and this pretty much dominates the time it takes to boot.

I have a junky P-55 based Asus motherboard (first gen i5 chipset), it is just slow as all get out to boot even on an SSD. The Intel brand H87 motherboard I bought (current gen i5) boots pretty much instantly even on a rotational drive.

Maybe try installing Windows from EFI instead of BIOS? Or whatever it's called.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2013 11:13

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Winzip has commercial contracts and I know because we have a backwards system that uses it. You're absolutely right that you're not computer literate.

Go download crystal disk mark and see what your drive performance is like. It's not impossible that the drive is just shot and has really slow transfer rates. Also if you have Vista you will need at least 2GB of ram (it will tell you this in task manager) for it to run not completely awful.

http://crystalmark.info/software/index-e.html

A slow disk will cripple a computer and no amount of software will solve that problem. If it truly is vista era (2006) you can pick up an modern 320gb SATA drive for about $40-50 which will be double the speed of the old drive (when new).

Although really you could just pick up a Thinkpad 410 for like, $175 and be done with it. You can't put lipstick on a pig and any amount of money you put in to that POS will be wasted.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2013 01:16

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Gnomedolf posted:

Why are there no good desktop Twitter clients for Windows? The Mac has plenty of good looking apps with tons of features. I can't find anything worth a drat for Windows. I want a nice looking app that shows inline previews and syncs with Tweetmarker. It seems that nothing like that exists.

Every time someone out-innovates Twitter, they pull their API licence. They have a well established record of doing this.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2013 04:59

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

decypher posted:

At work we have a map I built in The Gimp.

We just need to be able to open, reference, make changes as jobs are completed, and correct old/bad marks as needed.

Thank you

Create a new layer(s) on top of the base image, then draw on those?

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 22:19

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Windows 8.1 + classic start = modern PC bliss.

You're getting the modern WS2012 kernel with all the modern supported stuff, plus better support going forward, W7 is 4 years old at this point.

I was nervous about Win8 support after the whole Vista driver problems, but Vista/7/8 all share the same driver model, even Nvidia's 8.1 preview drivers work great. I have been using Win 8.1 for about a month now with zero issues, classic start gives you the win7 start menu, which honestly is better than the start screen if you don't have a touchscreen device.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2013 08:11

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Out of sheer curiosity, why are you dual booting 7/8.1? Some sort of software compatibility issue?

# ¿ Nov 18, 2013 07:06

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Install Windows posted:

What plugins do you actually use? Most people never use any, so there's no reason not to use 64 bit.

Most people. Except the excel wizard in the corner keeping the books straight. Excel is used for all the wrong purposes, except that's what people use so beware...

# ¿ Nov 20, 2013 09:09

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

hooah posted:

I'm thinking of upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.1. Can I do this in-place? I currently have some programs installed on my SSD and others (Steam games mostly) on my HDD. Once Windows is all done, can I re-install Steam and just point it at its old directory? How about programs on the SSD, or other stuff on the HDD?

Basically, I'd like to avoid having to re-install all my crap and accidentally putting some of it in the wrong place and losing settings, etc.

In about 99.99% of situations it is better to do a clean install, yours is not one of the reasons to not do a clean install

Yes you reinstall steam, before you login for the first time you can just move your steam directory from an archive location (e:\horse porn\steambackup\ ) to your normal d:\steam\ folder or whatever

Just reinstall everything else from scratch, use ninite (http://ninite.com/) to get the bulk of it done in one fell swoop

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 07:00

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Windows goes on the C: drive
Ninite stuff goes on the C: drive
Steam installs go on the D: drive
Digital photos, documents, archival data special programs etc go on the E: drive

Now when I do a complete OS reinstall it's a 20 minute ordeal, then run ninite which is another 20 minutes in the background

Actually recently I put my D and E drives on a network file server and upgraded my home network to gig-e. The D and E drives are shared on a mirrored storage space and I'm getting ready to add a 64GB SSD read cache. The network shares are now mounted as my D and E drives. That way I can access everything from any device in the house.

But yeah Ninite programs typically will only take up a few GB

# ¿ Dec 15, 2013 22:36

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Josh Lyman posted:

Vista was released on 1/30/07 and Win7 was released on 10/22/09 for a 2.5 year period of poo poo.

Win8 was released on 10/26/12 and if Win9 releases in April '15, that would also make for about 2.5 years of poo poo.

I don't think I ever installed Vista, making the leap from XP to 7 directly. It appears I should have done the same with Win8.

Win 8.1 Pro with classic shell is 100% usable, in fact I prefer it now over Win 7 Pro, it's a lot more in line with Microsoft's server line, since it's effectively WS2012 R2 with the "desktop role" installed.

Win 8.0 is unmitigated poo poo, I agree.

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Jan 15, 2014

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 17:32

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Bonus points if it's a double sided scanner. I would love to chain my scanner's output in to a crossfeed shredder :allears:

# ¿ Jan 19, 2014 23:24

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

ShaneB posted:

Are there any system monitoring tools that have like a web interface or the ability to monitor remotely? I'd like to be able to check system temps, gpu temps, poo poo like that from anywhere.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trigonesoft.rsm seems like an option but I'm not sure what options there are.

Microsoft's built in tool "resource monitor" (it's a button at the bottom of the performance tab of task manager) can measure/graph CPU temp and other stuff like ram, network, disk usage etc

It's designed to be used in a networked environment and if you have permissions set up correctly you can log in to the machine remotely and monitor it from another windows machine using resource monitor.

If it's anything like Microsoft's server administrator protocol it probably runs over HTTPS and there's probably a third party utility that supports it as well either for unix or android...

# ¿ Jan 25, 2014 19:24

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

You want to do this in powershell

code:

$Count = 30
$Ping = @()
$Computer = "www.somethingawful.com";
While ($Count -gt 0)
{   $Ping += Get-WmiObject Win32_PingStatus -Filter "Address = '$Computer'" | Select @{Label="TimeStamp";Expression={Get-Date}},@{Label="Source";Expression={ $_.__Server }},@{Label="Destination";Expression={ $_.Address }},IPv4Address,@{Label="Status";Expression={ If ($_.StatusCode -ne 0) {"Failed"} Else {""}}},ResponseTime
    $Count --
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
$Ping | Select TimeStamp,Source,Destination,IPv4Address,Status,ResponseTime | ft -AutoSize
$Ping | Select TimeStamp,Source,Destination,IPv4Address,Status,ResponseTime | Export-CSV C:\Users\PPills\Desktop\pinglog.csv -NoTypeInformation

Will output something like

code:

TimeStamp             Source    Destination            IPV4Address   Status Response
                                                                                Time
---------             ------    -----------            -----------   ------ --------
2/13/2014 12:31:51 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              46
2/13/2014 12:31:52 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:31:53 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              47
2/13/2014 12:31:55 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:31:56 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:31:57 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              44
2/13/2014 12:31:58 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              44
2/13/2014 12:31:59 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:00 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              57
2/13/2014 12:32:01 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:02 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              44
2/13/2014 12:32:03 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              59
2/13/2014 12:32:04 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              47
2/13/2014 12:32:05 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              56
2/13/2014 12:32:06 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:07 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:08 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              44
2/13/2014 12:32:09 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              46
2/13/2014 12:32:11 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:12 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              47
2/13/2014 12:32:13 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:14 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:15 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:16 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              46
2/13/2014 12:32:17 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45
2/13/2014 12:32:18 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              46
2/13/2014 12:32:19 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              44
2/13/2014 12:32:20 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              46
2/13/2014 12:32:21 AM STOCKHOLM www.somethingawful.com 198.41.191.79              45

If you start of with param(param1, param2, param3) etc you can pass the computer name(s) as command line arguments, or pass it a list of computers in a text file if you want to get fancy, but that should at least get you started...

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Feb 13, 2014

# ¿ Feb 13, 2014 07:34

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Windows Defender + Windows Update + Chrome + Adblock + Flashblock (youtube is HTML5 now and you can whitelist Pandora)

Oh, and don't install Java unless you have a specific need for it (and then keep it updated).

I can't remember the last time I had an issue with viruses, it was before XP SP3 came out (2008?)

Adblock - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom
Flashblock - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flashcontrol/mfidmkgnfgnkihnjeklbekckimkipmoe
Ghostery (while you're installing useful plugins) - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ghostery/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij

You'll have to whitelist Facebook.com, it doesn't hardly work with Adblock and Ghostery turned on.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2015 02:23

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Microsoft announced they were stopping development of Silverlight about 18 months ago, there was an open source project for it prior to that but the only guy that will touch it with a 10' pole is our CI guy at work.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2015 05:51

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

GreenNight posted:

Silverlight, Flash and anything that needs Java can't go away fast enough.

HTML5 + h.264 effectively killed Silverlight + Flash

It has yet to be seen but the core of the .net "engine" or CLR was open sourced in the last month and has the potential to kill non-graphical Java, as well. Minecraft is supposedly developing their own alternative version of Java and Android finally ditched their Dalvik (java clone) engine for a "mostly java, but without fear of legal repercussions from Oracle" engine. Other than Minecraft I haven't had to install the JRE in a couple of years now.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2015 01:24

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Nintendo Kid posted:

You can also just wait til Windows 10 is out this fall, you'll be able to get a free upgrade for it whether you have Windows 7 or Windows 8 as long as you register by fall 2016.

Is the Win10 Free or Free*

/rampant speculation
More than a few people have suggested that it might be Free* in that XBox Silver is Free but you have to cough up $70/year for XBox Gold which allows you access to all the features. I'm not sure how that would work but I'm willing to be they'll figure out how to work Azure, cloud storage and device sync to sweeten the deal.
/rampant speculation

# ¿ Feb 26, 2015 02:05

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

I setup utorrent to run as a service ( http://jack.ukleja.com/utorrent-service-windows-home-server-2011/ ) and then turned on the web front end, works like a charm. Disabled updates long, long ago.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 02:09

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Whatever Microsoft's latest antivirus is, that is great and should be all you ever need. If you are doing something particularly shady, spin up a Linux VM in virtualbox or something (Hyper-V works fine if you have Win Pro) and do it there.

You should ALWAYS wipe the drive and do a clean install when buying a used PC/Laptop

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 18:04

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Hed posted:

I apparently have $44.50 in promotional credit for the Microsoft Store / Xbox etc. that expires soon. I tried looking around, is there any game or even app worth blowing this on in the Windows 8 app store?

Use it towards a $179 laptop? And then either keep it, or flip it on ebay for $169 for a ~$34 profit

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-EeeBook-X205TA-US01-BL-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.311268400

Or a Stream 7 Win 8.1 tablet for $79 (or $34 after credit)

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/HP-Stream-7-Signature-Edition-Tablet/productID.308781500

# ¿ May 3, 2015 20:55

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Koskinator posted:

I have a 32 bit version of Windows 8.1 running on a 64 bit capable system (don't ask why). I have legit Windows CDs for both 32 and 64 bit, same CD key for both. The 32 bit version is of course installed right now.

My understanding is that I'll need to do a clean install of Windows 8 64 bit. What is the procedure like for this? I'm irrationally paranoid about losing all my important files or bricking my computer. Also, roughly how long does a clean install of 8.1 typically take?

Buy a 256gb SSD and install Windows to that, use the old hard drive as your storage drive is the best option.

You're always going to forget something, but by splitting out your data to another drive (or heck, at least a different partition) you can always just wipe the OS partition down the road without worrying about this problem in the future.

A clean install of 8.1 to a VM on a rotational drive takes less than an hour with all the reboots (8.1 likes to reboot a lot during install). Make sure you have spare copies of your eithernet and video drivers on a USB stick ready to go if needed.

# ¿ May 7, 2015 23:57

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Xander77 posted:

(Sorry if this is the wrong thread, I'd appreciate it if you direct me to the right one)

I managed to set up a homegroup filesharing network between my old and new computer, and copied most everything I needed. Unfortunately, the system only worked when they were both in the same house, connected to the same physical network. Now that one is in Jerusalem and the other at my parents house... not so much. Unfortunately, my google skills fail me, and I can't quite figure how to set up a file sharing network for computers that aren't physically connected.

(Also, what's the right thread to ask in about Internet Explorer issues?)

1) How did that youtube video get linked to the . at the end of your sentence
2) What you're asking, you need a VPN (virtual private network) to do, as was suggested a Google Drive or Dropbox would be about a zillion times easier to configure. Goons seem to really like SpiderOak:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3420383

Edit: Apparently there is the Microsoft offering, OneDrive, as well.

# ¿ May 21, 2015 08:43

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

re: Russian Internet Explorer; are you able to change the display language in Windows? Or is this beyond that? My buddy was teaching himself spanish and would switch between english, spanish and mandarin display languages in Win7/Win8 on a regular basis depending on what he was doing/writing.

For DropBox, I have my mom's windows "My Documents" folder on her desktop and laptop setup to be her DropBox "synch folder"

Everything saved on her desktop to her "My Documents" folder and all of it's subfolders, is automatically synched with DropBox. Then, when she turns on her laptop (maybe once every two months) her laptop synchs up with drop box, and she now has the updated version of every file in her "My Documents" folder on her desktop. Anything saved on her laptop's "My Documents" folder is auto-synched to her DropBox account.

Then when she goes back to her desktop and powers it on, it will again re-synch with her drop box and within a minute or two, she has those files on her laptop, on her desktop again.

You don't have full admin access to the machine attached to dropbox (you can't browse the d:, e: drives, other network shares on the network) but you have access to any subfolders. If you want full network access you have to go VPN, which is a loving PITA to setup. Hours if not days, probably dedicated VPN hardware, etc etc.

If you absolutely can't make dropbox work for your needs I would look at VPN but we're talking a magnitude of order less work to accomplish 99% if not 100% of your goals.

I guess there is also products like "LogMeIn" which let you do VPN type tasks without hardware, you may want to look in to that.

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 10:22 on May 21, 2015

# ¿ May 21, 2015 10:19

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 09:11

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Fart of Presto posted:

It's his special thing that he does all the time. You learn to ignore it.

Thanks, that was honestly bothering me

# ¿ May 25, 2015 08:38

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