The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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Thermopyle: Jul 1, 2003; ...the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. �Bertrand Russell

Lets gently caress Bro posted:

I want to make every single drat folder in Windows appear as arranged in list form, sorted by type. How do I do this in one fell swoop? Every so often I'll encounter a differently-customized folder for whatever reason and have to do the laborious process of view>list, sort by>type, and folder options>apply to all folders. I just want every folder to look the same, is that so much to ask!

I hear ya. Sometimes it just seems to magically change to something that I don't want.

# ? Feb 24, 2010 05:24

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# ? May 17, 2024 11:55

stedd: Jun 20, 2004; The name's Bullet. Tracer Bullet.

LooseChanj posted:

I hear that, I bought 8 gigs when I built this machine and I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the times it's used over 4.

I can guaranteethat nearly all 8GB is getting "used", either by file system cache or prefetcher. You are seeing a benefit from the extra RAM even if the applications you're running aren't directly using it.

You can verify this by looking at the Memory tab in Resource Monitor and looking at the bar that represents your memory usage. Standby RAM is available to programs, but is storing useful data like the file system cache.

# ? Feb 24, 2010 07:04

peak debt: Mar 11, 2001; b& :(; Nap Ghost

How are you supposed to manually add routes to Windows 7?

In this specific case I have a VPN open to another class c network and I want to make sure that I can connect to the remote IPs.
The default route on this computer is

code:

0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0   192.168.115.10  192.168.115.166     20

routing all traffic that doesn't go to the same subnet to the Internet

Now I want to add the specific route to my VPN and use the old Windows XP commandline

code:

route add 172.23.200.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.1 metric 15

to create a higher priority rule for just this specific subnet to go out through the VPN

But a route print reveals that this

code:

172.23.200.0    255.255.255.0         10.8.0.1         10.8.0.6     45

So Windows 7 has "helpfully" added my desired metric to the automatically determined metric of the network interface instead of taking it as an absolute value. Of course, any ping to a 172 subnet address still takes the default route out to the Internet. In Windows XP this worked exactly the other way around and the new route would have the total metric of 15.

Now I've already cleverly tried this

code:

route add 172.23.200.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.1 metric -15

but that's just downright rejected as a parameter.

# ? Feb 24, 2010 10:40

chippy: Aug 16, 2006; OK I DON'T GET IT

Is there any way of getting Aero Snap to work on both sides of both my monitors? I'm running dual-screens side by side and because it treats it all as one desktop area I can only snap stuff to the left hand side of my left hand monitor or the right hand side of my right.

# ? Feb 24, 2010 11:26

Factor Mystic: Mar 20, 2006; Baby's First Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

Use the keyboard

# ? Feb 24, 2010 15:53

Blind Rasputin: Nov 25, 2002; Farewell, good Hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.

We just got a new netbook with Windows 7 starter and I have noticed some strange things with it. First off, and most annoying, is that when I press the shutdown button, the system goes to shutdown, but then suddenly restarts. I have looked this up a bit, turned off the "automatically restart on system error" and there is no blue screens or error messages and it still restarts.

Is there something strange about starter, or am I missing a setting somewhere? It is quite annoying. Is this possibly caused by some third party Asus program on it?

There have also been a handful of times where we go to shut it down, it does shutdown, but the case lights and power button light still stays on. We have to turn it off completely by holding the power button down.

# ? Feb 24, 2010 16:49

stedd: Jun 20, 2004; The name's Bullet. Tracer Bullet.

peak debt posted:

How are you supposed to manually add routes to Windows 7?

In this specific case I have a VPN open to another class c network and I want to make sure that I can connect to the remote IPs.
The default route on this computer is
code:
0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0   192.168.115.10  192.168.115.166     20
routing all traffic that doesn't go to the same subnet to the Internet

Now I want to add the specific route to my VPN and use the old Windows XP commandline
code:
route add 172.23.200.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.1 metric 15
to create a higher priority rule for just this specific subnet to go out through the VPN

But a route print reveals that this
code:
172.23.200.0    255.255.255.0         10.8.0.1         10.8.0.6     45
So Windows 7 has "helpfully" added my desired metric to the automatically determined metric of the network interface instead of taking it as an absolute value. Of course, any ping to a 172 subnet address still takes the default route out to the Internet. In Windows XP this worked exactly the other way around and the new route would have the total metric of 15.

Now I've already cleverly tried this
code:
route add 172.23.200.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.1 metric -15
but that's just downright rejected as a parameter.

Have you tried using route change to change the metric on the default route to something higher?

# ? Feb 24, 2010 18:22

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Blind Rasputin posted:

We just got a new netbook with Windows 7 starter and I have noticed some strange things with it. First off, and most annoying, is that when I press the shutdown button, the system goes to shutdown, but then suddenly restarts. I have looked this up a bit, turned off the "automatically restart on system error" and there is no blue screens or error messages and it still restarts.

Is there something strange about starter, or am I missing a setting somewhere? It is quite annoying. Is this possibly caused by some third party Asus program on it?

There have also been a handful of times where we go to shut it down, it does shutdown, but the case lights and power button light still stays on. We have to turn it off completely by holding the power button down.

Sounds like your default shutoff is set to restart. There's an option (I think its in the properties menu of the task bar) to make the default a handful of different things: shutdown, restart, sleep, etc. Make sure its set to "shutdown".

As for the case lights and power button thing, that sounds like its being put to sleep instead of completely shutting down. I don't know why it would do that, are you hitting the power button on the laptop to shut it down? Sometimes in BIOS clicking the power button a single time is setup to put it to sleep.

# ? Feb 25, 2010 02:02

hirvox: Sep 8, 2009

Blind Rasputin posted:

There have also been a handful of times where we go to shut it down, it does shutdown, but the case lights and power button light still stays on. We have to turn it off completely by holding the power button down.

There at least one known bug about W7 not shutting down properly, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was an another one.

# ? Feb 25, 2010 07:05

CalvinandHobbes: Aug 5, 2004

msane posted:

Here are public links to the Windows 7 ISOs on Digital River's server. You should try using Free Download Manager (google it) to download the correct version - 64 or 32 bit - for you. FDM will let you resume the download if your connection chokes. I wasn't able to get the download to start on my home internet connection (it would just kill my router, even when I disabled the firewall) but it downloaded fine at work.

You'll then have to delete "ei.cfg" in the "sources" folder of the ISO using UltraISO (or use this tool), save, and burn the modified ISO image. This will give you a prompt after starting the Windows install so you can install the Ultimate version (all versions are on the same DVD). Do a clean install (don't think you can upgrade the RC). Then finally activate it with your product key.

I'm not positive if you can use a Volume License Key with a non-volume disc, but if it doesn't you can email me and I'll try to help. michael dot walz at gmail dot com

Woohoo, thanks a bundle for that link. I downloaded it the the download manager after only 3 disconnects, and got it installed. It appears to be working with the volume key i got from my school. I used windows update which updated without issue.

And the RC is updateable the the cversion hack. All programs but my vpn had no problem with upgrade but thats a quick reinstall.

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

# ? Feb 25, 2010 08:20

chippy: Aug 16, 2006; OK I DON'T GET IT

Can anyone tell me why this has happened to my Firefox shortcut?

It's the same in the Start menu. If I unpin it, it momentarily goes back to the proper Firefox logo, but as soon as I click it to re-pin it it will go back to being broken again. Anyone have a fix?

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Feb 25, 2010 18:08

Essobie: Jan 31, 2003; WHAT? THIS IS MY REGULAR SPEAKING VOICE.
Is this better?

chippy posted:

Can anyone tell me why this has happened to my Firefox shortcut?

It's the same in the Start menu. If I unpin it, it momentarily goes back to the proper Firefox logo, but as soon as I click it to re-pin it it will go back to being broken again. Anyone have a fix?

I've seen a few folks mention this in the thread in the past, but it's many pages back. Quick google turns up this. I haven't yet had this happen, but this might help you: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/how-to-rebuild-the-icon-cache-in-windows-vista/

# ? Feb 25, 2010 18:14

Tap: Apr 12, 2003; Note to self: Do not shove foreign objects in mouth.

Is there a native feature or a program I can download that allows me to snap together windows? Something similar to the monitor snap feature would be nice.

Thanks!

# ? Feb 25, 2010 18:16

msane: Oct 25, 2007; msane in the membrane

CalvinandHobbes posted:

Woohoo, thanks a bundle for that link. I downloaded it the the download manager after only 3 disconnects, and got it installed. It appears to be working with the volume key i got from my school. I used windows update which updated without issue.

And the RC is updateable the the cversion hack. All programs but my vpn had no problem with upgrade but thats a quick reinstall.

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

Glad it worked for you!

# ? Feb 25, 2010 22:06

chippy: Aug 16, 2006; OK I DON'T GET IT

Essobie posted:

I've seen a few folks mention this in the thread in the past, but it's many pages back. Quick google turns up this. I haven't yet had this happen, but this might help you: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/how-to-rebuild-the-icon-cache-in-windows-vista/

That got it, thanks.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 00:21

Eikre: May 2, 2009

I'm trying to fix a box with a myriad of problems, and I'm blowing through the list of potential sources. It has a unique quirk that I haven't seen in anything other than windows 7, though: the glass effects on a window that the user is focused on will blink in and out of transparency and translucency, as though it were blinking in and out of focus. This only occasionally tied to problems with focus, like scrolling or typing. I don't suppose one of you gents have treated this disease?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 01:26

forpush: Jan 6, 2006; We don't like it when the city light start fading
When the city lights fading then we can't get down

I just upgraded from Vista 64 tonight, and I'm really liking the OS so far, but i'm having one fairly big problem, I use ICS on my computer to connect my xbox to live through the ethernet, I'm connected to the internet via a HSDPA modem. In Vista and XP, this worked right away without any problems, however in 7, when the xbox is connected to the ethernet, it comes up as an unidentified public network, I can't change this to a home network, so ICS doesn't work.

I've googled, and there were a few forum posts with similar problems, but very few solutions, none of which worked. When I try to test the connection on the xbox, it says it doesn't have an IP address, but it does. I've tried uninstalling the ethernet drivers, updating them, turning on and off IPv4 and 6 and using both static and

The card i'm using is:
Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)

# ? Feb 26, 2010 01:48

Evil Fluffy: Jul 13, 2009; Scholars are some of the most pompous and pedantic people I've ever had the joy of meeting.

using the startup script that was mentioned earlier doesn't seem to work for real temp. MSN still acts up and just comes up with no username in even when it's saved and set to autologin correctly if i login manually. Did I do something wrong, or do they need to be set to admin to work right ?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 05:13

EQFiddleCastrol: Sep 19, 2002; YO YO YO -- this is a shout-out to my fellow BBB's (Big Booty Bitches). Love you Celestie and Linds :)

I'm sure this has already been brought up but not in the last 5 pages of this thread:

Is it worth it to overwrite the default windows 7 audio drivers with the Realtek HD audio ones? Seems like it might be, as the volume seems kind of low and it reads my headphones as "speakers" (which I can't seem to change).

Also, In XP I liked to open multiple versions of windows explorer at a time from the quick launch toolbar. The "pin to system tray" method doesn't seem to allow you to open more than one instance of any program at a time. Any way around this?

The fact that pinned windows explorer defaults to "libraries" and that there doesn't seem to be an easy way of changing that to the way it worked in XP is also frustrating.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 07:37

subx: Jan 12, 2003; If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

EQFiddleCastrol posted:

Also, In XP I liked to open multiple versions of windows explorer at a time from the quick launch toolbar. The "pin to system tray" method doesn't seem to allow you to open more than one instance of any program at a time. Any way around this?

The fact that pinned windows explorer defaults to "libraries" and that there doesn't seem to be an easy way of changing that to the way it worked in XP is also frustrating.

I don't know about the pinning thing other than just making a quickstart button instead of a pinned program. I just open Explorer windows with Win+E shortcut anyways.

Whenever I use Win+E shortcut it always opens to the "Computer" screen (the one that lists your storage devices), so maybe that would help with both situations?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 07:42

kapinga: Oct 12, 2005; I am not a number

EQFiddleCastrol posted:

Also, In XP I liked to open multiple versions of windows explorer at a time from the quick launch toolbar. The "pin to system tray" method doesn't seem to allow you to open more than one instance of any program at a time. Any way around this?

You can open a second (or more) instance of any program simply by right clicking its icon in the taskbar and choosing the entry with the program's name (in most cases, its the third entry from the bottom).

# ? Feb 26, 2010 07:48

4 Day Weekend: Jan 16, 2009

You can also middle click and it'll open a new instance of a pinned program.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 08:00

Swilo: Jun 2, 2004; ANIME SUCKS HARD

4 Day Weekend posted:

You can also middle click and it'll open a new instance of a pinned program.

Get out

# ? Feb 26, 2010 09:22

Eikre: May 2, 2009

And if you bring up the pane that displays all open windows, you can middle-click on one to close it.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 14:11

EQFiddleCastrol: Sep 19, 2002; YO YO YO -- this is a shout-out to my fellow BBB's (Big Booty Bitches). Love you Celestie and Linds :)

quote:

subx / kapinga / 4 Day Weekend

That's one major problem solved. I didn't even know about the windows key shortcuts. Thanks.

EQFiddleCastrol fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Feb 26, 2010

# ? Feb 26, 2010 19:03

Xenomorph: Jun 13, 2001

EQFiddleCastrol posted:

I'm sure this has already been brought up but not in the last 5 pages of this thread:

Is it worth it to overwrite the default windows 7 audio drivers with the Realtek HD audio ones? Seems like it might be, as the volume seems kind of low and it reads my headphones as "speakers" (which I can't seem to change).

That depends.

How many speakers do you have, how many inputs are you using, and does it seem to work fine already?

The default drivers seemed to work fine for me (Realtek HD), until I wanted to adjust the input volume of some line that I couldn't find at all in the configuration. One of the Inputs wasn't listed or something. I forget which, as I learned with Vista many moons ago to just download the latest drivers from Realtek if I want full functionality.

But if YOU haven't found anything "missing", then the default, built-in Windows drivers should be fine.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 19:42

Lum: Aug 13, 2003

Aren't a lot of people having issues with the Realtek drivers for 7, or is that fixed now.

I know earlier in the thread people were complaining about pops and crackles and poo poo. If I had a realtek I'd probably make a restore point before trying.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 19:46

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

Both my notebook and desktop have on-board realtek stuff, both run 7, and both never gave me any problems.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 19:51

a_pineapple: Dec 23, 2005

Anyone have any suggestions for a wireless PCI card under $60?
Something that can be obtained at a Best Buy or Microcenter would be ideal.

ps. gently caress Windows 7 is really awesome so far. It's the first Microsoft OS I've purchased since XP. (I skipped everything in between!)

# ? Feb 26, 2010 20:21

kri kri: Jul 18, 2007

Can someone repost those microsoft links for the ISOs again? My google fu is weak today.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 20:54

4 Day Weekend: Jan 16, 2009

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/11/10/windows-7-iso-x86-and-x64-official-direct-download-links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/

edit: Apparently the site is a little dodgy, you might want to use a download manager.

Also, what are the differences between english/french/other copies? Would you be able to install Win 7 in english with a different language disc?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 21:10

kri kri: Jul 18, 2007

4 Day Weekend posted:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/11/10/windows-7-iso-x86-and-x64-official-direct-download-links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/

edit: Apparently the site is a little dodgy, you might want to use a download manager.

Also, what are the differences between english/french/other copies? Would you be able to install Win 7 in english with a different language disc?

Thanks. Is fishmech still hosting his copies anyone know?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 21:36

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I'm having weird permission issues. I have a 500 gig IDE secondary drive split in 2 partitions on my computer. I brought it from my old XP machine. It works fine but for some weird reason, it is set to administrator access only and even when I set my user account as the owner of the drive, I still can't change any of the files - even to change some errant ID3 tags on a few mp3s.

How can I force windows 7 to give me full privileges on this drive?

# ? Feb 26, 2010 22:39

Marinmo: Jan 23, 2005; Prisoner #95H522 Augustus Hill

Lum posted:

Aren't a lot of people having issues with the Realtek drivers for 7, or is that fixed now.

I know earlier in the thread people were complaining about pops and crackles and poo poo. If I had a realtek I'd probably make a restore point before trying.

Anecdotal, but my gf's laptop (some HP model) with realtek chipset worked just fine out of the box. Perhaps it's just specific chipsets? I know I had that problem when I first installed Vista x64 (around the time SP1 was released). Never tried it after that, might do soonish.

# ? Feb 26, 2010 22:42

GreenNight: Feb 19, 2006; Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

Anyone have any luck using this:

http://www.divx.com/en/windows-7

To stream mkv files to your 360? I can't get it to work for the life of me.

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:07

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I've found something weird - there is an account unknown listed as the owner for all the files on my extra hard drive. How do I get rid of this account and set my account as the owner?

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:12

Crumbletron: Jul 21, 2006; IT'S YOUR BOY JESUS, MANE

GreenNight posted:

Anyone have any luck using this:

http://www.divx.com/en/windows-7

To stream mkv files to your 360? I can't get it to work for the life of me.

I'm not sure if vanilla Windows 7 codecs let you do this, but with Shark007's Windows 7 codecs I can stream .mkv files just by setting up my shared folders in Media Center and accessing my movies from the 360.

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:14

GreenNight: Feb 19, 2006; Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

Parachute Underwear posted:

I'm not sure if vanilla Windows 7 codecs let you do this, but with Shark007's Windows 7 codecs I can stream .mkv files just by setting up my shared folders in Media Center and accessing my movies from the 360.

Really? I downloaded his general codecs and his x64 addon codecs. I shared the folder but the 360 tells me there are no videos in them.

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:19

Splinter: Jul 4, 2003; Cowabunga!

Any disadvantage to installing the Activation update that was released earlier this week if I have a genuine copy of 7 (any performance hit or unnecessary service that's run as a result)?

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:21

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# ? May 17, 2024 11:55

Crumbletron: Jul 21, 2006; IT'S YOUR BOY JESUS, MANE

GreenNight posted:

Really? I downloaded his general codecs and his x64 addon codecs. I shared the folder but the 360 tells me there are no videos in them.

Have you tried just going through the My Videos folder on the 360's dashboard? I never use the Media Center on it.

# ? Feb 27, 2010 00:22

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

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