The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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AlexDeGruven: Jun 29, 2007; Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box

Exposing RDP over the public internet is a Really Bad Idea™

# ? Feb 2, 2022 22:43

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# ? May 29, 2024 06:38

Fashionable Jorts: Jan 18, 2010; Maybe if I'm busy it could keep me from you

Anyone got some software that lets me type words into a box, then it will output those words using a text-to-speech voice over a voice call?

I have tried probably half a dozen programs, and none of them seem capable of what I want (or I don't know how to set them up). I've got Voicemeeter running, but it cant seem to detect any of the programs I want to use, and if I set it up to just play everything that would normally come through my speakers back into the mic, it'll result in the person I'm chatting with constantly hearing themselves.

Edit: I got a total patchwork mess going right now, it works, but I feel like the moment I restart my computer it'll be lost forever. That being said; is there a program out there that is more of a "chat" TTS, rather than me having to type a sentence, hit play, then delete that sentence before typing a new one? More of a type sentence, press enter, it reads it, and is now blank for a new sentence to type style text field.

Fashionable Jorts fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Feb 2, 2022

# ? Feb 2, 2022 22:49

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

AlexDeGruven posted:

Exposing RDP over the public internet is a Really Bad Idea�

I did this at my college dorm 15 years ago and remoting into my machine from a computer lab was awesome, and fast. And it even worked off campus because they were handing out exposed IPv4 addresses to the dorm Ethernet ports! Sick!

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:03

Slash: Apr 7, 2011

I use anydesk to access my office pc from my phone and it lets you connect without intervention, just throwing another option in the hat.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:08

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Last Chance posted:

I did this at my college dorm 15 years ago and remoting into my machine from a computer lab was awesome, and fast. And it even worked off campus because they were handing out exposed IPv4 addresses to the dorm Ethernet ports! Sick!

I was at a campus with a whole /16 or similar, and no NAT, but they at least understood the concept of ACLs for inbound traffic.

E: I think all the residences were on the same broadcast domain as well, which meant DC++ hub discovery worked a treat.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:10

VelociBacon: Dec 8, 2009

I assumed he'd put the PC behind a VPN but I guess if they're in a facility that's harder. Still if there's a password and you're not sitting on port 3389 I don't think there's much to lose. It's a person who can barely use a PC so they probably don't have anything sensitive on it.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:11

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

OpenVPN Cloud is free for 3 connections and could be set up to be always-on, if you wanted to use straight RDP.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:13

AlexDeGruven: Jun 29, 2007; Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box

Last Chance posted:

I did this at my college dorm 15 years ago and remoting into my machine from a computer lab was awesome, and fast. And it even worked off campus because they were handing out exposed IPv4 addresses to the dorm Ethernet ports! Sick!

When I first worked at the hospital, there was no NAT and every device has a publicly routable IP. This was also true of campus, which is why The University of Michigan had an undernet server for years.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:42

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

Fashionable Jorts posted:

Anyone got some software that lets me type words into a box, then it will output those words using a text-to-speech voice over a voice call?

I have tried probably half a dozen programs, and none of them seem capable of what I want (or I don't know how to set them up). I've got Voicemeeter running, but it cant seem to detect any of the programs I want to use, and if I set it up to just play everything that would normally come through my speakers back into the mic, it'll result in the person I'm chatting with constantly hearing themselves.

Edit: I got a total patchwork mess going right now, it works, but I feel like the moment I restart my computer it'll be lost forever. That being said; is there a program out there that is more of a "chat" TTS, rather than me having to type a sentence, hit play, then delete that sentence before typing a new one? More of a type sentence, press enter, it reads it, and is now blank for a new sentence to type style text field.

It's not the prettiest thing ever, but if you've got Voicemeeter set as your default output device, this ought to work.

PowerShell code:

using namespace System.Speech.Synthesis
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech
$Synthesizer = [SpeechSynthesizer]::new()
while ($true)
{
    $Message = Read-Host -Prompt "TTS"
    $Synthesizer.Speak($Message)
}

Save that as a .ps1 file (Notepad works fine for this), then right-click your desktop (or whatever folder) and click New → Shortcut. In the Create Shortcut wizard, enter the location as

code:

PowerShell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File <Path to the .ps1 file>

(don't include the angle brackets). When you click that shortcut, a PowerShell window will open with a TTS: prompt. Whatever text you enter there should be read by the default voice synthesizer to the default output device, after which a new TTS: prompt will appear on the next line. It'll keep going until you close the window or hit CTRL+C to break the loop (CTRL+C will copy rather than break if there's text highlighted).

It's not the most comprehensive tool, but maybe it'll get the job done for you. It's possible to elaborate the script to allow setting the voice, volume, speaking speed, etc., if it ends up being something you want to use.

Toast Museum fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Feb 3, 2022

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:54

Fashionable Jorts: Jan 18, 2010; Maybe if I'm busy it could keep me from you

Toast Museum posted:

It's not the prettiest thing ever, but if you've got Voicemeeter set as your default output device, this ought to work.
PowerShell code:
using namespace System.Speech.Synthesis
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech
$Synthesizer = [SpeechSynthesizer]::new()
while ($true)
{
    $Message = Read-Host -Prompt "TTS"
    $Synthesizer.Speak($Message)
}
Save that as a .ps1 file (Notepad works fine for this), then right-click your desktop (or whatever folder) and click New → Shortcut. In the Create Shortcut wizard, enter the location as
code:
PowerShell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File <Path to the .ps1 file>
(don't include the angle brackets). When you click that shortcut, a PowerShell window will open with a TTS: prompt. Whatever text you enter there should be read by the default voice synthesizer to the default output device, after which a new TTS: prompt will appear on the next line. It'll keep going until you close the window or hit CTRL+C to break the loop (CTRL+C will copy rather than break if there's text highlighted).

It's not the prettiest or most comprehensive tool, but maybe it'll get the job done for you. It's possible to elaborate the script to allow setting the voice, volume, speaking speed, etc., if it ends up being something you want to use.

I'll give this a shot when I'm back at my pc, I appreciate that it's just some code and not more shady maybe-spyware programs lol. Thanks a bunch!

# ? Feb 3, 2022 00:56

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

Slash posted:

I use anydesk to access my office pc from my phone and it lets you connect without intervention, just throwing another option in the hat.

Anydesk good

# ? Feb 3, 2022 01:25

Ynglaur: Oct 9, 2013; The Malta Conference, anyone?

Thoughts on TeamViewer for remote access? Is there something fundamentally insecure with RDP other than "your password will get brute forced eventually"?

# ? Feb 3, 2022 01:43

Medullah: Aug 14, 2003; FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Ynglaur posted:

Thoughts on TeamViewer for remote access? Is there something fundamentally insecure with RDP other than "your password will get brute forced eventually"?

My biggest warning to using Teamviewer is to make sure your dad knows when you're logging in to install something so you don't see his porn window still open which will scar you for years

# ? Feb 3, 2022 01:48

Hipster_Doofus: Dec 20, 2003; Lovin' every minute of it.

Finally, someone spells out the real risk.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 02:12

AlexDeGruven: Jun 29, 2007; Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box

Is TeamViewer still a lovely company?

# ? Feb 3, 2022 02:13

CatHorse: Jan 5, 2008

AlexDeGruven posted:

Is TeamViewer still a lovely company?

Yes. And unfortunately Anydesk that started as alternative is starting to go that way also.

But for completely unattended access install and configure Chrome Remote Desktop (Chrome doesn't need to be running), and AnyDesk as a backup (with strong password).

# ? Feb 3, 2022 05:47

BonoMan: Feb 20, 2002; Jade Ear Joe

I love Parsec for these kind of things. Once installed, no action needed on her part and miles smoother than Chrome Remote Desktop.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 07:04

Jose Cuervo: Aug 25, 2004

Thank you all for the different recommendations, now I can look into them and see what works best for my situation.

# ? Feb 3, 2022 16:58

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

Anyone know any free (preferably FOSS or GPL) software to transfer music on and off of an iPod? I really don't want iTunes sinking its tentacles into my PC if I can help it

# ? Feb 4, 2022 04:38

Uthor: Jul 9, 2006; Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

I think MediaMonkey can?

# ? Feb 4, 2022 13:00

~Coxy: Dec 9, 2003; R.I.P. Inter-OS Sass - b.2000AD d.2003AD

I think 3uTools can.

And I seem to recall something called iFunBox that could?

# ? Feb 4, 2022 13:10

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Rev. Bleech_ posted:

Anyone know any free (preferably FOSS or GPL) software to transfer music on and off of an iPod? I really don't want iTunes sinking its tentacles into my PC if I can help it

Some linux media library players can do ipod management, and Amarok has a windows port. No idea if the ipod part will work under windows though. But it's open source.

Foobar2000 has an ipod manager plugin that iirc people used to say was quite good & reliable. Foobar isn't open source but the plugin is.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 14:08

Slash: Apr 7, 2011

AlexDeGruven posted:

Is TeamViewer still a lovely company?

I used to use the teamviewer free account(before moving to anydesk), but eventually they decided that I was using it for commercial purposes and shut my account down. No idea what triggered that as I was only using it to occasionally login to my home PC from work/sofa.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 17:48

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.

If any PC on either side is domain joined, TeamViewer tends to shut down free accounts.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 18:05

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Yeah that happened to me too, so stopped using them

# ? Feb 4, 2022 19:31

Medullah: Aug 14, 2003; FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

What are people using for password management? With the amount of various launchers and such I'd like something that adds a right click context that I can paste usernames and passwords with, not just browser level.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 21:14

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Medullah posted:

What are people using for password management? With the amount of various launchers and such I'd like something that adds a right click context that I can paste usernames and passwords with, not just browser level.

Personally I use keepass + gdrive for sync.

I also have experience with Bitwarden: I set this up for my mom and was pretty happy with it. Easy enough for my mom to use, good enough that I could do importing & condensing the mess that was her firefox password vault with low hassle. If I hadn't already had my keepass set up I'd probably be using it.

The other good option is 1Password if you are ok with paying a subscription.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 21:23

nitsuga: Jan 1, 2007

Jose Cuervo posted:

I need to be able to remotely access the desktop of my mother-in-law who lives in an assisted living facility. Ideally I would be able to access her desktop WITHOUT any input from her since she has a lot of trouble following instructions. Are there any solutions for this situation? Both computers are on Windows 10 if it matters.

What about Windows Quick Assist? It requires accepting a prompt, but it�s at least baked in to Windows.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 21:50

Volguus: Mar 3, 2009

I installed bitwarden in a VM and moved to it from keepass. Mainly because I wanted to convince my son and wife to use it (no luck so far). It's ... fine. The biggest headache was to get a Let's Encrypt certificate without the machine accessible from the internet (I'll never expose it), but that was possible as well (a bit of a headache though). And that only because I believe that it would be a bigger headache to make my own CA and issue certificates from that. But it works, I backup the VM regularly so hopefully if the server goes tits up I can still recover it.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 22:22

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

There's also LastPass, an even better option than 1password (which is the one I personally use. 1password is fine, but lacks options for editing which form fields it actually fills)

Microsoft Authenticator also works as a primitive password manager on Android (and Ios, I assume) in conjunction with Edge on Windows.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 22:37

Medullah: Aug 14, 2003; FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

I use LastPass but it's only a browser manager, and has some bad press over the last few years so I've been wanting to dump it.

I used Keepass years ago, but if I recall correctly it doesn't have any type of explorer integration, does it? You still have to copy/paste from the database itself.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 22:42

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Medullah posted:

I used Keepass years ago, but if I recall correctly it doesn't have any type of explorer integration, does it? You still have to copy/paste from the database itself.

Keepass has autotype options, and also a trigger system which can do things like autotype a password into an app. But it's very manual to set up. Also there's a whole lot of plugins for integration. But I can't tell you which ones are good or not myself.

tl;dr if you don't want to go full nerd on setting up your password manager just how you like it, I'd try bitwarden instead. Keepass is the linux of password managers. If you invest the time it's powerful and highly secure, but it's a fair amount of investment.

Fame Douglas posted:

There's also LastPass, an even better option than 1password (which is the one I personally use. 1password is fine, but lacks options for editing which form fields it actually fills)

LastPass has a pretty meh reputation due to past behavior where they got lovely with security researchers bringing flaws to them. When LastPass was free there was at least the "it's better than nothing" defense but now that they charge for multi-device they're really the worst option.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 23:20

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

Klyith posted:

LastPass has a pretty meh reputation due to past behavior where they got lovely with security researchers bringing flaws to them. When LastPass was free there was at least the "it's better than nothing" defense but now that they charge for multi-device they're really the worst option.

LastPass is one of the best in terms of user interface and configurability, I'd say. Also, not sure forums "reputation" is worth anything. These same people never bring up that 1password used to store all metadata unencrypted, for example.

# ? Feb 4, 2022 23:51

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

Fame Douglas posted:

Also, not sure forums "reputation" is worth anything.

hmmmm. but your opinion isn't worthless because...

Fame Douglas posted:

These same people never bring up that 1password used to store all metadata unencrypted, for example.

"Missing the point" for $500, Alex.

It's not about having a security bug or fuckup, it's about the response to it. Every piece of complex software has security flaws. Answering a disclosed flaw with stonewalling and/or incompetent denial was a really bad sign especially for a company ostensibly in the security business. And then they went on to have a string of further flaws and fuckups for the next 3-4 years.

But you do you. I'm sure they're all better now.

# ? Feb 5, 2022 01:21

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

1password very much did the same, though. They said that not encrypting metadata was intentional and good for performance. But they didn't disclose it, beforehand.

Fame Douglas fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Feb 5, 2022

# ? Feb 5, 2022 01:36

Fame Douglas: Nov 20, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

Also, you just recommended BitWarden, which includes two trackers. Better link some garbage The Register article about it!

# ? Feb 5, 2022 01:41

101: Oct 15, 2012; Vault Dweller

Why the hate for The Register?

# ? Feb 5, 2022 01:47

Klyith: Aug 3, 2007; GBS Pledge Week

For the benefit of the crowd:

quote:

The open-source Bitwarden has two for Google Firebase analytics and Microsoft Visual Studio crash reporting.

It would be better if it had none, because including other people's trackers is a potential security weakness. But bitwarden's tracking is not going to marketing and user profiling companies.

Bitwarden posted:

Firebase Cloud Messaging (often mistaken for a tracker) is used only for push notifications related to sync and performs absolutely no tracking functions. Microsoft Visual Studio App Center is used for crash reporting on a range of mobile devices. In the Web Vault, Stripe and PayPal scripts are used for payment processing only on payment pages.

For those who prefer to exclude all 3rd party communication, Firebase and HockeyApp are removed completely from the F-Droid build. Additionally, Turning off push notifications on a self-hosted Bitwarden server will disable using the push relay server.

# ? Feb 5, 2022 01:52

Jose Cuervo: Aug 25, 2004

nitsuga posted:

What about Windows Quick Assist? It requires accepting a prompt, but it�s at least baked in to Windows.

I tried that with her but she had problems following my instructions to locate the program by typing 'quick assist' in the search prompt after pressing the windows button. I set up dwservice on her computer and was able to access it from home, so it looks like it will work perfectly for what I need.

# ? Feb 5, 2022 21:47

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# ? May 29, 2024 06:38

Computer viking: May 30, 2011; Now with less breakage.

101 posted:

Why the hate for The Register?

He's proving how cool and edgy he is.

And FWIW I use bitwarden through the android app and Firefox plugin. It seems unobtrusive and so far I've had zero problems. (Of course, that's not a security review.)

# ? Feb 6, 2022 02:45

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