The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

This change actually happened in Vista, but because I'm dealing with it after upgrading from XP to Windows 7, I'll post this here:

Since DirectDraw is now emulated in software, this means any emulators that still use it look pixelated if they scale the image to fit the screen. With most emulators, I can welcome myself to the modern age and switch to Direct3D or OpenGL instead, but there are still a small handful of emulators that I can't seem to get to use graphics modes other than DirectDraw. The result is this (but much more severe at 1680x1050 than it looks here):

I could have sworn the Linux and Mac versions of ZSNES used OpenGL. Is there any way to get the Windows version to do the same?

# ¿ Nov 18, 2009 01:24

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 14:17

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

PaulC posted:

I don't get it. I used ZSNES on XP and now on 7 and I don't see any difference whatsoever. Those games naturally look pixelated because they are running at much, much higher resolutions than they did on the SNES. Enable a graphics filter.

You don't notice the really sloppy-looking filtering in the screenshot? It should look like this. Mine looks like this.

My screenshot is showing 2xSai and filtered GUI enabled. Keep in mind software filters like HQ2x, 2xSai, and others only scale the source 2x or 3x. This means the base 256x224 gets scaled up to 512x448, then the video card has to do it the rest of the way. That's where my problem is. Scaling from 512x448 to whatever my target resolution is done using point filtering.

I also noticed huge performance issues just now where it only runs around 30 fps no matter what the resolution, so something is definitely hosed. I'm on a Core 2 Duo 3.2 GHz machine with an 8800 GTS, so I would hope I could run emulators as well as I did ten years ago. Disabling desktop composition seems to remedy this.

I had the exact same problem on a laptop with a 6150. Are you using an ATI or other non-NVidia card, by any chance? I have to wonder how my MSI Wind's GMA950 would handle DDraw in Windows 7.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Nov 18, 2009

# ¿ Nov 18, 2009 02:30

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

PaulC posted:

I am running an ATI card, yeah.

Looking around, your best bet may be switching emulators or waiting for the zsnes 2.0 release.

I just now found BSNES. I thought it was also having performance problems despite hardware scaling (dropped frames, occasional sound stuttering), but I found out Aero was affecting it too. I'll probably be using that.

Edit: tried out ZSNES on a laptop I'm refurbishing that is running Vista and has an Intel 965--looked and ran fine. Tsk, tsk, NVIDIA.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Nov 18, 2009

# ¿ Nov 18, 2009 02:54

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Hung Yuri posted:

Same with nvidia scaling instead of monitor scaling. Any way to force this?

Are you trying to use 800x600 in a game or something? I had to add that resolution in the NVIDIA Control Panel to get it to use monitor scaling.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2009 01:39

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Now that I look at mine again, I meant 640x480. Maybe it's being buggy, because I stopped having problems with scaling in games that used 800x600 and 1024x768 after that. I can't imagine the results would be duplicated for you, but who knows?

Oops, you want hardware scaling, not display scaling. Thought it was the other way around. So the "Adjust desktop size and position" panel is totally broken on yours?

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Nov 19, 2009

# ¿ Nov 19, 2009 01:49

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Psyker posted:

Is it possible to display two different backgrounds on two different monitors in Windows 7? And, if possible, extend a background across both monitors?

Either use a graphics editor to join them or use UltraMon (if it's compatible with 7)

# ¿ Nov 22, 2009 02:04

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

jeeves posted:

I've been having a bizarre small icon problem with random start menu icons in Win7 across various installs of it on different computers-- so it is not just a specific problem.

Sometimes programs lose their customized individual icons in the start menu, it is bizarre. And its specific programs, not random ones:

If I drag the icon out of the start menu and onto desktop, the icon works. But obviously it is not just missing a small icon as different sizes of the icon in the start menu do not work.

And the shortcuts are not broken, if I click on them the program opens.

Any ideas?

This happens to me when I move an icon from my profile's start menu folder to the system-wide start menu folder (because lots of programs such as CCleaner still only add shortcuts for the current user, which is mildly irritating). Opening the shortcut's properties and reapplying the appropriate icon fixes it for me.

If those are the original Office shortcuts, you probably won't be able to do this though since they link to some mysterious non-human-readable resource instead of the program EXE. I can't say I have a decent solution for these special types of shortcuts that doesn't involve concessions like recreating them from scratch.

Edit: ok, maybe this. Icon caching in Windows 7 is apparently less than perfect.

On a related note, what is it with Microsoft and forgetting to update relics from 15 years ago? Ideally, this should match the icon of the selected EXE, but it probably wouldn't bug me at all if it were just the true color, alpha blended version of the generic program icon.

This happens if you click on just about any EXE anywhere on the drive. "Known bug, should be fixed in 7048" haha

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 08:00 on Nov 25, 2009

# ¿ Nov 25, 2009 07:43

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Casao posted:

Both.

RALink is the chip maker, Linksys is the card maker. You can use RALink drivers on cards with the RALink chip, but Linksys is specific. Generally they're all compatible anyway.

Which chip it uses seems to change on each hardware revision. I have a Linksys WMP54G with whatever version uses the Ralink RT2500 and I had a hell of a time finding a driver for it. I finally had to run an ethernet cable to my laptop and bridge the WiFi on it to let Windows Update find one instead.

I'm running 32-bit, but my WiFi is as bulletproof as it was under XP. I wonder what type and revision of Linksys adapter w3rd is running.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2009 20:58

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Sprat Sandwich posted:

Virtual CloneDrive - http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

Not sure how long DAEMON Tools was broken in Windows 7, but it was working again by the time I started using it.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2009 17:56

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

beuges posted:

Has anyone noticed anything weird with laptop screen dimming? For the past 2 or 3 days, when my screen dims after being unplugged, it doesn't brighten up again when it's plugged back in. Strangely enough, if I unplug again, the screen brightens but then dims again when I plug it in. And once it's dimmed, I can't use the Fn keys to adjust the brightness. Rebooting or sleep/resume gets it right again, but this is quite annoying. The only updates installed in the past few days have been Office patches, a Visual Studio update, and a Windows 7 update for time zone and daylight savings time issues... nothing seemingly power/core-OS related.

Anyone else noticing weird dimming behaviour on laptops recently?

On my MSI Wind, things like display standby and brightness support were broken in Windows 7 and it required upgrading to the latest BIOS. You might try that on yours.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2009 19:39

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Tap posted:

Can anyone recommend me a wireless card compatible with Windows 7? I went out and bought a Netgear WG311v3 and I can't get it to work.

Did yours not come with Vista drivers? They should be compatible.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2009 21:24

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Binary posted:

So I'll just use the built in firewall and download MSE? I'm coming from XP, which was not known for having the best built in security, I take it that Microsoft has improved since then?

Even with XP, the best choices were Microsoft Security Essentials and the built-in firewall. As of XP Service Pack 2, the built-in firewall worked pretty much the same as it does in Windows 7 with the exception of network location support.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Nov 30, 2009

# ¿ Nov 30, 2009 02:33

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Jam2 posted:

I am purchasing a netbook for my 7 year old sister and will need to have good parental control so she doesn't lose her innocence on the internet. How does Windows 7 run on netbooks? How effective is the Parental Control in Windows 7?

Windows 7 is pretty fast on netbooks, except for file browsing. That's pretty sluggish compared to XP. I'm not sure whether to attribute that to a lack of optimization or frickin' huge icons.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2009 01:31

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Horseface posted:

I just upgraded to 7, reinstalled my nvidia drivers, blah blah blah...only now when I go into the nvidia control panel the digital vibrance slider is greyed out and untouchable. Without that tweak my system looks like dull petrified poo poo so I'd really like to fix it. Any ideas?

It's a GeForce 7600 GT if it matters.

Can you adjust colors through your monitor? You've probably been clipping out bright colors by adjusting them through the digital vibrance slider in the past.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2009 17:16

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Yeah, I don't get how we've gotten this far, yet Explorer still hangs and crashes whenever a host isn't responsive.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2009 21:26

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Lum posted:

What's a good program to resize partitions that will work with (I'm guessing) NTFS 6.1 I made my OS partition too big and my data partition too small. Last time I did this I was using a DOS version of Partition Tragic, so probably not such a good idea.

I'm currently moving all my data from some elderly linux boxes onto my new Win7 machine, so I do have backups in place, but it turns out that I didn't need 80GB for the OS partition.

Why even set up separate partitions at all? If you ever have to reinstall, the Windows 7 installer can forgo formatting the drive and just move your old folders into Windows.old before installing the new OS. That pretty much eliminates the only reasonable justification I've ever heard for breaking up a drive into multiple partitions.

I've never had problems with GParted, but as with pretty much any partition management software in existence, get ready for somebody to come in and tell you how it completely ruined their life's work.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2010 21:04

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

kri kri posted:

How can I convert a 80gb drive to FAT32? I need to use it with my PS3.

If the Disk Management MMC won't let you choose FAT32, try checking out diskpart, which has come with Windows since Vista. It's pretty much the tool recommended when the GUI tools refuse to do what you want to do. I've needed it for things like reformatting a former HFS drive or for preparing bootable flash drives. Its usage isn't very intuitive, so you may need to look up a step-by-step guide to do what you want to do. The list of commands will probably look like this:

code:

list disk
select disk <# of your disk>
list partition
select partition 1
format fs=fat32 quick
exit

# ¿ Jan 11, 2010 03:09

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

raezr posted:

Here's a little thing that's been bugging me. I downloaded a few mp3 albums from Amazon, and sometimes Windows shows a thumbnail of the album art in the folder icon and sometimes it doesn't. What can I do to make Windows display the album art in all of them? Some possibly useful information: I'm using a "artist/album/track.mp3" folder setup. So far it always displays the album art for the album folder, but only sometimes for the artist folder. Amazon only downloads MP3s with embedded album art, no cover.jpgs or anything.

I didn't see this answered in the last page. I think you have to name the image folder.jpg to get Explorer to display the icon with your desired single image inside the folder instead of a heterogeneous set of files. I have no idea if this works consistently two or more folder levels up though.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2010 18:04

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Why even use separate partitions anymore? Since Vista, the Windows installer will move your old stuff to Windows.old if you choose not to format before installing. This makes things just as convenient as having two partitions once you need to move your files over to your new install.

With that in mind, here's a couple ideas:
http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/05/how-to-change-user-profile-default-location-in-windows-7/
http://www.tips5.com/how-to-relocate-user-profile-folder-to-other-drive-in-windows-7

I kind of like the second idea for ease of configuration.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2010 18:41

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

raezr posted:

I turned on viewing hidden and system files just to check, and both album folders have folder.jpg and albumartsmall.jpg as created by Windows. I can't find any differences between the two. I've kind of stopped worrying about it since it's not a big deal, but I'm still curious if anyone has any random tips.

Sometimes Windows Media Player will dump image files all over the place without asking you. I only use folder.jpg, but I will see AlbumArtSmall.jpg and some others pop up at random and I believe they are usually created based on what was in folder.jpg or the first MP3 in the folder with embedded art (which will screw up what I had intended for foobar2000 to display).

In your case, I've actually had the same issue once or twice. For me, Explorer plain just didn't like some images and I had to re-save them in an image editor before they would show up in the thumbnail.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2010 23:50

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Mensur posted:

I have a set of of files on my win7 desktop that's about 50gb and when I copy them to my 2.5" usb drive they sometimes are not completely intact. Is there any sort of file copy program out there that will automagically verify md5/sha1 hashes?

Just to rule this out: you're ejecting the drive properly when you're finished, right?

# ¿ Jan 18, 2010 05:03

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

That doesn't make any sense. If the target framerate is 60 fps, why is 125 Hz not enough?

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 00:18

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

giZm posted:

Standard USB polling rate is 125hz, which means the position of your mouse cursor is updated every 8 ms. That's a noticeable delay for a lot of people, so setting the polling rate to 1000 hz makes it 1 ms.

drat, I want one of those 1000 Hz monitors.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 21:26

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

edit: very much beaten. I must have had the thread open longer than I thought. I'll just cover the one thing that hasn't been responded too in much detail then:

Mannequin posted:

Also, there is no "Up" folder to go back up to the previous directory when you're inside a folder. I guess you have to use the green arrow.

The "Up" toolbar button has effectively been replaced by the buttonized address bar. Click on the parent folder in the path and it will take you up one level. Backspace still seems to work for going up a level too.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Jan 23, 2010

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 21:58

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

raezr posted:

I don't completely get all the hate about the new Office interface. 2007 had some quirks but the 2010 beta is really intuitive and easy to use, at least it's way better than 2003 was.

My only gripes with it are the fact they had to abandon their UI standards and skin it heavily to achieve that look and that it's much, much slower than Office 2003 was for no reason at all.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 22:07

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Mannequin posted:

Anyone get any ideas yet on how to right-click and create a new text file like I'm a modern human being who knows how to use a computer, instead of a complete loving newbie?

How has right-clicking an area and going to New -> Text Document changed from previous Windows versions? How were you doing it before?

Mannequin posted:

Also, how do I move the goddamn SHOW DESKTOP icon that used to be on the left, near the start bar, for 10 years back OVER to the left? It is now tucked away in the right and I loving hate it there.

With the Quick Launch area phased out in favor of the Superbar, there was nowhere to put a "Show Desktop" link that made sense except on the far right. Maybe this will help you get it back:

http://windows7center.com/tutorials/how-to-really-pin-the-show-desktop-to-taskbar-in-windows-7

Mannequin posted:

~~Edit: gently caress, and now that I've ungrouped things, the quick launch bar disappeared. Why is Microsoft ruining my pleasant afternoon?~~

I found a shortcut around this using the "Links" toolbar. gently caress me. Seriously.

Like I mentioned before, the Quick Launch bar no longer exists in Windows 7. Did you just want it for the "Show Desktop" link, or for other things as well?

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jan 23, 2010

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 22:26

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

I wonder if not being able to create anything but folders in Explorer outside of your profile is just some artificial limitation or if there is an actual concern with escalating privileges to create certain filetypes in locations you may not want.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2010 22:38

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

magimix posted:

But surely there is more to it than that? As I noted in a previous post, I get the 'New Folder' treatment when right-clicking in the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer, but when right-clicking in the right-hand pane *of the same Folder* I get the full 'New' sub-menu.

I get Folder and Briefcase in the left pane :smug:

# ¿ Jan 24, 2010 01:47

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Daric posted:

You could be like me, using 7 on a netbook whose graphics card can't support Aero.

What kind of netbook doesn't support Aero? I have an MSI Wind, one of the earliest Atom netbooks and it does just fine with its GMA950.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2010 03:45

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Sir Unimaginative posted:

The early Eee PCs (like back when they had names like 2G Surf) had 800x480 screens (no biggie) powered by a GMA 900 (well there's your problem).

Yeah, but if he has one, you'd have to ask what he's doing in this thread.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2010 04:42

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

giZm posted:

You seem to be confused. This has nothing to do with monitors. It's about the internal polling rate of the USB port the mouse is connected to.

...which affects what is displayed on your screen, usually a cursor. Why raise mouse refresh if it only updates itself on the screen 60 times per second?

# ¿ Jan 24, 2010 17:34

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Thermopyle posted:

No, I hate it as well.

[timg]http://www.contriving.net/ftpd/forums/ffox_aero[thumb].jpg[/timg]

Is the "tabs on top" appearance just a userChrome.css addition on top of Glasser or is it an entirely different solution from what rolleyes is doing?

edit: looks like you're using the Strata40 theme + StrataBuddy

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Feb 14, 2010

# ¿ Feb 14, 2010 01:45

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

big mean giraffe posted:

You could just use Chrome and not have to mess with any of that poo poo Chrome users were already in the Aero support club.

Hey look, Google Chrome no longer looks like a Taiwanese motherboard overclocking utility :smug:

All it needs now is ~~Firebug~~ (covered by "Inspect element", though it's not nearly as good) and an HTML validation plugin and I'd consider switching.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Feb 14, 2010

# ¿ Feb 14, 2010 04:34

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Antigen v2.0 posted:

You will want to install the Nvidia drivers, also the nvidia control panel isn't at all bloated anymore it's pretty useful.

Really? Relative to everything else, the NVIDIA Control Panel is slow as poo poo. It takes 3-4 seconds to start and switching between pages takes 1-2 seconds when both should be nearly instant. It runs like it was written in Python wrapped in Java.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2010 21:59

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Rekkit posted:

Windows says it's not genuine. It was genuine right up until a couple of days ago. What's going on?

Sometimes perfectly legitimate copies of Vista/7 refuse to activate over the internet or lose their activation after a couple days in my experience. Try using the automated phone system.

The phone system will ask you to say numbers out loud, but a touchtone phone will also work. It's also faster and won't annoy those around you. I think "1" is repeat and "2" is continue.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 16:08 on May 26, 2010

# ¿ May 26, 2010 16:05

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

surrender posted:

Is there a way to restore the Windows 7 MBR without the install CDs, a la "fdisk /mbr" in older versions? I want to remove Ubuntu from the other partition and go back to Windows alone, but I left my CD at the apartment in my college town

This guide looks like the answer. It shows how to do it from the install DVD, which was precisely what you wanted to avoid, but the instructions should work just the same from a Command Prompt inside Windows.

Edit: ok, I don't know where the bootsect or bootrec tools are in a Windows install as opposed to where they are on the install DVD, sorry.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Jun 12, 2010

# ¿ Jun 12, 2010 01:04

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Lediur posted:

Does anyone know how to make libraries show their contents without folder segregation?

Basically, disable this:

It doesn't do this for the Documents or Videos folder

Right click -> Group by -> (None)

# ¿ Jun 13, 2010 01:18

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Goldwarf posted:

Does anyone know if there is a way to permanently disable the prompt that asks if I want to switch the desktop color scheme to Windows Basic to improve performance? It constantly pops up when I'm in the middle of a game, sending me back to the desktop and usually causing that game to crash. Choosing the option to not ask me again never works, and sometimes it will even pop up again in the same game session. Plus, in my experience, the performance benefit from disabling Aero is negligible.

Is this only happening on a small range of titles (or even just one)? Some games just suck at handling themselves and an accelerated desktop at the same time. I would disable desktop composition under Compatibility settings for each affected game. That will preemptively disable Aero when the game starts and turn it back on when you quit.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2010 00:18

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

MMD3 posted:

now to figure out why it takes a full minute to wake up from sleep when it only takes 30 seconds to boot Windows.

anybody have any tips on speeding up waking from sleep?

This seems to happen with hybrid sleep enabled. I think the idea is that, in addition to going to sleep, it also transfers the contents of RAM to disk in case power is interrupted. In my experience, it seems to want to restore from the disk instead of properly detecting that the contents of RAM are intact. This process takes a long time, especially if you have a lot of RAM.

Try turning off hybrid sleep under advanced power options and see what happens.

Zorilla fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jun 25, 2010

# ¿ Jun 25, 2010 19:19

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 14:17

Zorilla: Mar 23, 2005; GOING APE SPIT

Vykk.Draygo posted:

Before I reinstalled Windows, I had a desktop gadget that displayed how full my hard drives were, how my wifi signal was, and possibly RAM and CPU information even though I already have All CPU Meter. For the life of me, I can't find it on the MS gadget website. Anybody know what I'm talking about.

It used to be called the Wireless Network Meter, but it looks like the author finally got some sense and merged this with his other gadget, Wired Network Meter and just called it Network Meter 6.0.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2010 13:32

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

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