The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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Rush_shirt: Apr 24, 2007

Did the link to the Useful Windows software site get moved? I'm a long-time Mac OS user that just switched to Windows 7 and other than my limited experience with XP at work (using only specific programs), I don't really know what's out there or recommended nowadays for home users.

Rush_shirt fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jan 15, 2012

# ? Jan 15, 2012 01:30

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 02:45

Noni: Jul 8, 2003; ASK ME ABOUT DEFRAUDING GOONS WITH HOT DOGS AND HOW I BANNED EPIC HAMCAT

Jaros posted:

This may be a dumb question but is there way to quickly create a number of folders all named after individual files? I have a bunch of video files with different names that I'd like to put in seperate folders but it'd be really tiresome to make a folder for each.

Here you go. I haven't used it, so do your research on this before installing:

http://www.thecodeline.com/wp/products/filetofolder

Please let us know if it works, because that seems quite useful.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 08:36

Lord Solitare: Feb 9, 2010; by Ozmaugh

Any good free Firewall programs? I'm not liking Windows Firewall too much.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 12:04

fletcher: Jun 27, 2003; ken park is my favorite movie; Cybernetic Crumb

Lord Solitare posted:

Any good free Firewall programs? I'm not liking Windows Firewall too much.

What do you not like about it?

# ? Jan 15, 2012 12:07

Lord Solitare: Feb 9, 2010; by Ozmaugh

Nevermind, I figured out how to work it :v:

# ? Jan 15, 2012 12:16

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

Jaros posted:

This may be a dumb question but is there way to quickly create a number of folders all named after individual files? I have a bunch of video files with different names that I'd like to put in seperate folders but it'd be really tiresome to make a folder for each.

For those not wanting to install yet another program to do a rather simple thing:

code:

@ECHO OFF
:Loop
IF "%~1"=="" EXIT /b
MKDIR "%~dpn1\"
MOVE "%~1" "%~dpn1\%~n1%~x1"
SHIFT
GOTO Loop

Copy the text above into notepad and save it on your desktop (or pinned to taskbar or wherever's convenient for you) with a filename with the extension .cmd

You can now drop files on top of it and a folder will be made where the dropped file is, with the name of the file (without extension) and the file will be moved into it.

In the case of identical filenames apart from the extension (eg. video file and srt file), both will be copied into the same folder.

You could even add this to explorer's right click menu if you knew how to work the registry, but I'm too lazy to look it up. It doesn't seem worth the clutter.

Tested with a buch of photos with different naming schemes, but it should just work in any folder you have permissions for.

EDIT:
Change

code:

MOVE "%~1" "%~dpn1\%~n1%~x1"

code:

MOVE /Y "%~1" "%~dpn1\%~n1%~x1"

if you want to suppress asking for overwriting already exisiting files.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Jan 15, 2012

# ? Jan 15, 2012 14:16

punch drunk: Nov 12, 2006

Thanks guys, used Flipperwaldt's method and it worked flawlessly.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 19:38

Revol: Aug 1, 2003; EHCIARF EMERC...
EHCIARF EMERC...

I have the Acer Iconia Tab W500. It's a Windows 7 tablet. Not even so much 'Tablet PC', but a tablet in the vein of the iPad. It's my classic video console gaming emulation device.

I'm looking for software that can allow me to use (hopefully multitouch) gestures to send keypresses to the system. I play my emulators with the console controllers, and it works great. But how to I quit the emulator and go back to my launcher? Or how do I execute the quick save/load features? I usually don't use my Bluetooth keyboard. In the past, I had a Bluetooth presentation remote, and then an iPhone app that emulated a PSX controller. I used these methods to execute these commands, thanks to EventGhost. But the remote isn't working anymore, and neither is the app thanks to the iOS 5.0 update.

What would work best is to get it so gestures would do what I need. Swipe a finger up to send an 'Esc' keypress, which will close the emulator. Swipe two fingers left, sending an F1 keypress, which quicksaves, and swiping two right would hit F2 for a quickload.

Edit: Nevermind, I think this feature is built into Windows 7. Not multi-touch, but I have eight gesture directions, using four.

Edit2: Won't work. The gestures don't go when I'm in another full-screen program.

Revol fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jan 15, 2012

# ? Jan 15, 2012 21:49

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

thegloaming posted:

Did the link to the Useful Windows software site get moved? I'm a long-time Mac OS user that just switched to Windows 7 and other than my limited experience with XP at work (using only specific programs), I don't really know what's out there or recommended nowadays for home users.

Check out this oldish thread. Ninite is a common suggestion to easily populate your software list. If for nothing else, it's a good way to avoid installers with toolbars (last time I checked). FreewareGenius is a fairly informative freeware review site if you browse by category (beware of the date posted though, some of the articles are pretty old).

It's certainly advisable to opt for Microsoft Security Essentials as your anti virus program.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Jan 16, 2012

# ? Jan 15, 2012 22:38

Cybernetic Vermin: Apr 18, 2005

Anyone know some piece of software that limits access to the internet on an process-by-process basis temporarily? When I'm out of the country I can usually wrangle up a tiny bit of data to check mail and such, but sooner or later some stupid program decides to auto-update in the background, blowing the entire quote immediately.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 22:53

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

Revol posted:

I'm looking for software that can allow me to use (hopefully multitouch) gestures to send keypresses to the system.

StrokeIt won't support multitouch, but appears to have a keystroke simulating plugin, looking at their wiki.

Disclaimer: no experience with any of it.

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

Anyone know some piece of software that limits access to the internet on an process-by-process basis temporarily? When I'm out of the country I can usually wrangle up a tiny bit of data to check mail and such, but sooner or later some stupid program decides to auto-update in the background, blowing the entire quote immediately.

That's essentially a firewall, isn't it? With default action "block" for all outbound traffic and some exception rules for browser, e-mail software and anti virus. Should be possible with the Windows Firewall advanced settings, I guess.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 23:11

Cybernetic Vermin: Apr 18, 2005

Flipperwaldt posted:

That's essentially a firewall, isn't it? With default action "block" for all outbound traffic and some exception rules for browser, e-mail software and anti virus. Should be possible with the Windows Firewall advanced settings, I guess.

Ideally I would manage to do this without having to trash my firewall settings, but yeah, good thinking. Might be able to install a secondary firewall just for this purpose. Still open for suggestions for a more specialized application if anyone has it though

# ? Jan 15, 2012 23:18

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

Ideally I would manage to do this without having to trash my firewall settings, but yeah, good thinking. Might be able to install a secondary firewall just for this purpose. Still open for suggestions for a more specialized application if anyone has it though

Comodo is decent if you can't figure out how to do the per application thing with Windows firewall. You have to give individual programs permissions and can revoke them. It also notifies you if programs try to access certain resources. It's basically the UAC on steroids, a little overkill for most people.

# ? Jan 15, 2012 23:25

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

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

Ideally I would manage to do this without having to trash my firewall settings, but yeah, good thinking. Might be able to install a secondary firewall just for this purpose. Still open for suggestions for a more specialized application if anyone has it though

Are you on a 32bit Windows edition? Because in that case Windows 7 Firewall Control seems a pretty good option. In that it runs from the Windows Firewall engine (so no need to install a driver) and has a free portable 32bit edition. It seems (in basic testing) to keep its own rules separated from those in the Windows Firewall.

There's a free 64bit version as well, but it isn't portable, which may or may not make it lose its edge over other solutions.

# ? Jan 16, 2012 00:23

Hypnolobster: Apr 12, 2007; What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any.

What's the popular software for mounting .iso files? I've always used MagicDisc but it's sort of clunky and annoying.

# ? Jan 16, 2012 03:54

Rev. Bleech_: Oct 19, 2004; ~OKAY, WE'LL DRINK TO OUR LEGS!~

^^^
VirtualCloneDrive has been good to me

thegloaming posted:

Did the link to the Useful Windows software site get moved? I'm a long-time Mac OS user that just switched to Windows 7 and other than my limited experience with XP at work (using only specific programs), I don't really know what's out there or recommended nowadays for home users.

Here's a list I made for a friend who switched to Windows 7 after 10+ years of Linux:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15279013/Software.pdf

# ? Jan 16, 2012 03:56

m2pt5: May 18, 2005; THAT GOD DAMN MOSQUITO JUST KEEPS COMING BACK

Hypnolobster posted:

What's the popular software for mounting .iso files? I've always used MagicDisc but it's sort of clunky and annoying.

Daemon Tools Lite is free and easy.

Edit to specify Lite.

m2pt5 fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Jan 16, 2012

# ? Jan 16, 2012 04:49

Toast Museum: Dec 3, 2005; 30% Iron Chef

I'll second VirtualCloneDrive for its utter simplicity.

# ? Jan 16, 2012 04:55

syscall girl: Nov 7, 2009; by FactsAreUseless; Fun Shoe

Toast Museum posted:

I'll second VirtualCloneDrive for its utter simplicity.

Third? Fourth? It's stupid simple.

Edit: and I say this after trying a lot of terrible ones.

# ? Jan 16, 2012 05:10

Wicaeed: Feb 8, 2005

PowerISO is another stupid simple mounting program

# ? Jan 16, 2012 05:16

HalloKitty: Sep 30, 2005; Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

JustFrakkingDoIt posted:

Third? Fourth? It's stupid simple.

Edit: and I say this after trying a lot of terrible ones.

Definitely this.

I used to use Daemon Tools, then Daemon Tools Lite, but the fact is, you always have to uncheck all the crap that comes with it, so I thought I would try out something else.

# ? Jan 16, 2012 11:06

Rush_shirt: Apr 24, 2007

Thanks ToastMuseum and Flipperwaldt for the information.

I'm a PC!

# ? Jan 16, 2012 19:16

Fiesty Francis: Apr 7, 2005; At least if I'd studied literature I might be able to spell `feisty'

Does anyone have any recommendations for a download manager that can watch a folder for text files containing links?

Ideally I'm looking for a setup where I can copy links from my phone and either email them, or sync them via Drop Box to my home computer. There the files linked will be automatically downloaded.

Also, these aren't .torrent files, but direct links to zips, rars, from online hosting sites.

Any thoughts?

# ? Jan 17, 2012 03:44

Revol: Aug 1, 2003; EHCIARF EMERC...
EHCIARF EMERC...

Flipperwaldt posted:

StrokeIt won't support multitouch, but appears to have a keystroke simulating plugin, looking at their wiki.

Thanks for the suggestion, but this doesn't work well. It simply doesn't play nice with touchscreen input. I suppose Windows 7 touch tablet input simply isn't handled as a literal mouse.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 04:45

Javid: Oct 21, 2004

Fiesty Francis posted:

Does anyone have any recommendations for a download manager that can watch a folder for text files containing links?

Ideally I'm looking for a setup where I can copy links from my phone and either email them, or sync them via Drop Box to my home computer. There the files linked will be automatically downloaded.

Also, these aren't .torrent files, but direct links to zips, rars, from online hosting sites.

Any thoughts?

My immediate thought is JDownloader + an autohotkey script or batch file or whatever to periodically copy the contexts of a text file to the clipboard + that textfile on dropbox. I'm sure there's a neater solution, but that would work.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 07:15

ZanderZ: Apr 7, 2011; by T. Mascis

How can I make it so I can scroll on any text box, despite weather or not I have the application selected. For instance, I wanna be able to have a browser open and selected, with a .pdf in the background and be able to move the mouse over to the .pdf and scroll down without having to alt + tab.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 15:34

Super Dude: Jan 23, 2005; Do the Jew

I've been having an odd problem lately. I keep my desktop with Windows 7 in my bedroom, and put it to sleep at night. Lately, my computer seems to just decide to wake up in the middle of the night. Normally this wouldn't be a problem because the computer isn't loud enough to wake me, but it has these huge annoying lights on the front fans that light up my whole room. Does anyone know how I can stop my computer from waking up so that I don't have to go buy new fans?

# ? Jan 17, 2012 18:33

hooah: Feb 6, 2006; WTF?

ZanderZ posted:

How can I make it so I can scroll on any text box, despite weather or not I have the application selected. For instance, I wanna be able to have a browser open and selected, with a .pdf in the background and be able to move the mouse over to the .pdf and scroll down without having to alt + tab.

katmouse.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 18:36

ZanderZ: Apr 7, 2011; by T. Mascis

hooah posted:

katmouse.

Perfect! Thanks.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 19:02

TLG James: Jun 5, 2000; Questing ain't easy

Is there a way to "reserve" drive letters? It seems like if I stick a USB drive in while windows is booting, it'll override my USB HDD.

My USB HDD is E.

Thumb drive came up as E, and maybe F (one of those ones with autoboot software on it) and it moved my HDD to K. Easy fix to go in disk management and rename it, but it is still quite annoying.

# ? Jan 17, 2012 19:51

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

TLG James posted:

Is there a way to "reserve" drive letters? It seems like if I stick a USB drive in while windows is booting, it'll override my USB HDD.

My USB HDD is E.

Thumb drive came up as E, and maybe F (one of those ones with autoboot software on it) and it moved my HDD to K. Easy fix to go in disk management and rename it, but it is still quite annoying.

Assigning a letter in device management should generally stick between boots and between unplugging and replugging. However, if a device is slow to announce itself to windows on boot, the letter is still up for grabs on a first come, first serve basis. A USB HDD would generally need time to spin up, in which the thumbdrive has a chance to snag the letter. The HDD then gets the next available letter. If the devices were equally fast in announcing themselves, the drive letters could be different on every boot.

You could 'reserve' drive letters E and F for things not plugged in (semi-)permanently by assigning your USB HDD a letter higher in the alphabet permanently. I used to give my DVD drives the letters X and Y and the USB HDDs O, P, Q and R (room for expansion :downs:

). Z was a network share. Anything plugged in temporarily, even if it was something never plugged in before, would just get the lowest letter available, which in my case was E.

You may not want this, or you could be one of the unlucky ones where drive letters don't stick at all, perhaps because one or more of your devices doesn't identify itself with a valid ~~device id~~ serial number. In that case, you could try USB Drive Letter Manager. I'm convinced I saw it recommended somewhere, but don't take my word for it.

EDIT: reading through the rather confusing documentation, it doesn't really seem user friendly, but at least I verified it should indeed be able to do what you want from it. That and a lot, lot more.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Jan 18, 2012

# ? Jan 18, 2012 00:30

AARP LARPer: Feb 19, 2005; THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENCE BREEDS A WEAPON OF WAR; Buglord

I'm using Outlook 2010 and here's what I need to happen:

When I get an email and 15 minutes has passed without my opening it, I'd like a reminder notice to appear on my desktop.

Is there any way to do this in Outlook or, barring that, is there a plugin that will work with Outlook to do this?

# ? Jan 18, 2012 01:42

EconOutlines: Jul 3, 2004

On the subject of Outlook, is there no way to make Gmail and it(or any desktop email client) work the same way Exchange/Google Sync on iPhone works? Instantly sync all calendars and mail with notifications? Or is IMAP the best that can be done?

# ? Jan 18, 2012 02:31

thrawn86: May 26, 2006; Sure, I got a secret. More than one...

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

I'm using Outlook 2010 and here's what I need to happen:

When I get an email and 15 minutes has passed without my opening it, I'd like a reminder notice to appear on my desktop.

Is there any way to do this in Outlook or, barring that, is there a plugin that will work with Outlook to do this?

not exactly a solution, but I use the "reminder" feature pretty often for emails that I don't want to respond to just yet. Outlook's system of flags and categories is pretty insane, I hate having a list of 10 missed reminders all flashing at me :0

# ? Jan 18, 2012 05:48

Vin BioEthanol: Jan 18, 2002; by Ralp

Is there a way to change something on network routes on an xp machine so that the only ip communication allowed would be to 127.0.0.1, 192.168.1.1 (gw) and also only one external/public ip via the gw (my house) say 76.76.76.76 for example.

I'm wanting to wifi-tether a laptop to a phone but I don't want any comms going through the tethering that my carrier could see. I'm wanting to only see my house from the laptop so I can connect to home with ssh and then anything I need on the laptop will be run through ssh tunnel ports on localhost.

Vin BioEthanol fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jan 18, 2012

# ? Jan 18, 2012 17:28

madsushi: Apr 19, 2009; Baller.
#essereFerrari

Wagonburner posted:

Is there a way to change something on network routes on an xp machine so that the only ip communication allowed would be to 127.0.0.1, 192.168.1.1 (gw) and also only one external/public ip via the gw (my house) say 76.76.76.76 for example.

I'm wanting to wifi-tether a laptop to a phone but I don't want any comms going through the tethering that my carrier could see. I'm wanting to only see my house from the laptop so I can connect to home with ssh and then anything I need on the laptop will be run through ssh tunnel ports on localhost.

You could just not set a default gateway (assign yourself a static IP address, and leave the default gateway blank), which would limit you to your local network (192.168.1.x), so just you and your phone. Then, add a static route to 76.76.76.76 via your gateway. Your computer won't have routes to anything else.

Windows command is something like:

route add 76.76.76.76 MASK 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.1

# ? Jan 18, 2012 17:47

Vin BioEthanol: Jan 18, 2002; by Ralp

madsushi posted:

You could just not set a default gateway (assign yourself a static IP address, and leave the default gateway blank), which would limit you to your local network (192.168.1.x), so just you and your phone. Then, add a static route to 76.76.76.76 via your gateway. Your computer won't have routes to anything else.

Windows command is something like:

route add 76.76.76.76 MASK 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.1

~~Is that mask the mask that would be used on the local 192.168.1.x network? 255.255.255.0 is what I'm getting from dhcp now. Or is that different?~~

never mind, I set static with no gw or dns, did your command letter for letter and it works like a beauty! thanks.

Does this route command survive a reboot? and if i wanted to go back to normal it'd be something like changing adapter tcp/ip back to dhcp and doing "route delete 76.76.76.76"?

Vin BioEthanol fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Jan 18, 2012

# ? Jan 18, 2012 17:53

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

hooah posted:

katmouse.

I've had trouble with katmouse needing to be restarted on occasion, so if you end up with the same problem you might want to check WizMouse out.

# ? Jan 18, 2012 20:10

Armourking: Dec 16, 2004; Step off!
Step off!

Wagonburner posted:

Does this route command survive a reboot? and if i wanted to go back to normal it'd be something like changing adapter tcp/ip back to dhcp and doing "route delete 76.76.76.76"?

route add -p <blah> makes it survive reboots, otherwise without "-p" it will not survive a reboot.
And yeah, route delete <ip> will work. Make them batch scripts if you want to just double click. I'm fairly certain you can set IP settings via command line.

Edit: yup, good old netsh.

code:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

# ? Jan 18, 2012 22:43

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 02:45

stubblyhead: Sep 13, 2007; That is treason, Johnny!; Fun Shoe

Armourking posted:

Edit: yup, good old netsh.

Is there anything it can't do? :allears:

# ? Jan 19, 2012 01:24

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