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There’s a note on the page you linked Trabant that the Thumbelina and/or its successor has a driver included by default in XP. That might work if you’re willing to go digging for it.
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Mar 29, 2022 08:50
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You probably know this, but PS/2 ports aren't hot pluggable like USB, too, so make sure you shut down and plug it in and then boot up and try it if you didn't already. It'll get power from the port but the PC won't be looking at any data from it otherwise.
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Mar 29, 2022 10:41
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Rexxed posted:You probably know this, but PS/2 ports aren't hot pluggable like USB, too, so make sure you shut down and plug it in and then boot up and try it if you didn't already. It'll get power from the port but the PC won't be looking at any data from it otherwise. Reminds me of the BIOS stop code: Keyboard not found, press F1 to continue
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Mar 29, 2022 12:51
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Thank you all for your suggestions about this silly device! In the end it was... this: Rexxed posted:You probably know this, but PS/2 ports aren't hot pluggable like USB, too, so make sure you shut down and plug it in and then boot up and try it if you didn't already. It'll get power from the port but the PC won't be looking at any data from it otherwise. I did know that! And I completely forgot about it for the last... 20 years? Thanks for the reminder 
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Mar 29, 2022 15:27
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Cojawfee posted:Did normal mice back then come with a driver disk? It coming with the driver disk makes me think it does something proprietary. They did. And sometimes they were poo poo. Depending on what book you read, making a graphical application in DOS that would activate and be able to use the mouse could make it unusable. Forever. It's been 30 years and I'm still salty about my first mouse that I killed with a simple C program. I mean ... the book was right, the mouse cursor appeared, I could move it, click on things (didn't implement yet reacting to those clicks), but after I exited the program the mouse never came back. Not in DOS. Not in Windows 3.x. drat brick.
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Mar 29, 2022 16:09
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Trabant posted:Thank you all for your suggestions about this silly device! drat. I had meant to quote Rexxed and say it would be a good chuckle if you didn't know/remember that. Peculiarly, I had a hot plugged keyboard work once or twice, but never a mouse. 
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Mar 29, 2022 18:17
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Volguus posted:They did. And sometimes they were poo poo. Depending on what book you read, making a graphical application in DOS that would activate and be able to use the mouse could make it unusable. Forever. It's been 30 years and I'm still salty about my first mouse that I killed with a simple C program. I mean ... the book was right, the mouse cursor appeared, I could move it, click on things (didn't implement yet reacting to those clicks), but after I exited the program the mouse never came back. Not in DOS. Not in Windows 3.x. drat brick. Well, my interest is piqued. How did this happen? What did you write to brick a mouse?
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Mar 29, 2022 20:36
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Well, my interest is piqued. How did this happen? What did you write to brick a mouse? Copied whatever was in that book (stackoverflow-like, but harder). It was basically call an interrupt (21h maybe? I could be wrong.) with some params. I think that maybe I didn't clean up, maybe I would have needed to call something else to "reset" the mouse on exit. Dunno. And I tried, oh god I tried as that mouse was drat expensive and I begged my mom to buy it for me. It just never came back to life.
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Mar 29, 2022 22:33
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Anyone have any webcam control software they like? Logitech Capture is fine, but I want one with an exposure lock. I have a Logitech C920 if that helps.
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Mar 30, 2022 18:09
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tuyop posted:Anyone have any webcam control software they like? Logitech Capture is fine, but I want one with an exposure lock. I don't know, but I'm curious to hear answers. It's astonishing to me that my C920 cannot ever seem to get exposure right. I even have Logitechs new light thing. I still have to constantly gently caress with the exposure.
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Mar 30, 2022 18:14
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So I just got a prompt about new settings in Microsoft Outlook - Whether or not I want personalised offers and discounts, or just non personalised ones. No option for 'shut the gently caress up and don't talk to me'. So now even Microsoft Office apps are getting in on the whole shady advertising poo poo that Microsoft has started pushing.
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Mar 31, 2022 03:03
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Hey they were testing ads in Windows Explorer so you got that to look forward to as well.
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Mar 31, 2022 03:07
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No I don’t. My Mac Studio arrives in a month and then Microsoft can gently caress off forever. Going to maintain my Office 365 subscription since my dad and my Aunt use it (and they pay for it) but I think I’m going to investigate alternatives for my own personal use. Definitely for Mail at least I’ll be ditching outlook.
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Mar 31, 2022 03:50
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Libre Office seems okay. I just use Writer though because I can't be assed to find my old disc for Word 08 again and my laptop doesn't have an optical drive anyway.
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Mar 31, 2022 03:57
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Hell I’d probably be fine with just pages and numbers. I don’t use office apps in any kind of professional capacity. Just jotting down the occasional recipe, or making a packing list/itinerary for a trip, super basic poo poo for my own use. I’d definitely never have MS office if someone else wasn’t paying for it on my behalf.
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Mar 31, 2022 04:03
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tuyop posted:Anyone have any webcam control software they like? Logitech Capture is fine, but I want one with an exposure lock. So this finally was bothering me enough to look into it. I used Logitech's G Hub - https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/innovation/g-hub.html Once you install it, browse over to your camera and it will have a Camera / Video mode. These settings will be locked until you click on the Camera Mode or Video Mode drop-down and select "New Camera Mode" or "New Video Mode." From there you can adjust Exposure, Brightness, etc. Looks like there is even a setting to prioritize Frame Rate or Exposure as well. Just keep in mind that having this tab of the app open locks your camera, so you'll need to switch away before you try to use whatever app it is you want to use. You should be able to open the app you want to use first, and then that, and still be able to edit settings, just not see the preview. Still amazing to me the auto exposure setting is so bad.  
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Mar 31, 2022 17:01
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A few months ago I moved to Windows 11, and almost at the same time I installed PowerToys. I like both of them, but I suspect one or both are loving up something about the screen capture function. I use Win + Shift + S for screen capturing. Normally, it would darken the whole screen replace the cursor with a "+" which indicates you can drag and drop the area you want to capture. Now it's only darkening about 1/3 of the screen, and I can only initiate the drag and drop capture functionality on the darkened part of the screen (weirdly, I can drag and drop outside the darkened area as long as I initiate from the darkened area). This only happens when I have my desktop Extended to a second monitor. My first guess was Fancy Zones, but I turned that off, and basically anything other than Keyboard Shortcuts, but it still happens. Just wondering if anyone else has run into something like this. Edit: apparently this is a known problem with W11 and happens when you have multiple monitors and the external monitor set to Main Display. Setting the laptop screen as Main Display "fixes" it. dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Mar 31, 2022 |
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Mar 31, 2022 18:55
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What do you use/recommend for security on your home PC? I'm a fan of Windows Defender on my current PC for basic antivirus, supplemented with the occasional Malware Bytes scan. But I used Comodo firewall as well (although honestly it's main value for me is visibility of network activity). Built a new PC and mainly reconsidering if Comodo is still worth the hassle.
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Apr 1, 2022 08:21
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No, just make sure you put ublock origin on every browser you might use and possibly noscript/umatrix/scriptsafe if you want to block a lot of stuff at a higher cost of janitoring your web browser. Banner ads are the main way to get drive by fake popups that claim that your computer has a virus and you need to call some scammer, or to get hit by a zero day that works in a browser because ad companies don't give much thought to what people put in their rotation. This ad goes to sfgfhilauerhierub.xyz? Sounds good! Some folks have taken to whole network adblocking with stuff like a PiHole or an external DNS provider that attempts to block ad sites as well.
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Apr 1, 2022 09:11
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Windows’ AV is the only one recommended these days in a “well it’s maybe not as poo poo as the others but it won’t make a difference if you click on something dumb” kind of way. As for looking at network activity, you should be able to do that via your router. Network stuff is kinda out of my wheelhouse, there are utilities for discovering all the devices on a network and Wireshark for looking more closely at what’s in the traffic but maybe someone else has better advice.
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Apr 1, 2022 09:15
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Rexxed posted:No, just make sure you put ublock origin on every browser you might use and possibly noscript/umatrix/scriptsafe if you want to block a lot of stuff at a higher cost of janitoring your web browser. Minor corrections: 1. Plain ublock origin is all you need as a script-blocker. You just have to check the "advanced user" box and then it shows the UI for script blocking. 2. uMatrix is at this time officially deprecated. It still works, but shouldn't be generally recommended to people who aren't looking for the specific functions it can do over ublock (which is almost nobody).
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Apr 1, 2022 13:54
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ublock origin owns and is by a wide margin the best software performance enhancer for your average PC user, too. don't let your friends and family suffer through The Bad Internet.
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Apr 1, 2022 14:43
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origin is good but it's still too permissive, you gotta add filters just like umatrix had but the interface doesn't make it as convenient to click off stuff you don't want.
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Apr 1, 2022 14:45
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Yeah, these days I take adblockers as a given for security/performance but good info to put out! I have been thinking about giving JS-disabling-toggles another go though, I remember it being a pain when I tried noscript 5+ years ago, but in the age of GDPR popups I think it might be worth it. Good to know Defender's firewall is decent! In terms of networking visibility, I just liked having a tray icon telling me when there was download/upload activity (so you're not waiting on a page to load without realising nothing's coming down the pipe) and being able to see which programs were responsible for them (task manager kind of buries this). There's got to be a lightweight app that could do this...
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Apr 1, 2022 16:36
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I’ve been pretty happy this week with Windows Firewall Control as a stand-alone from MalwareBytes on my Win11 machine. Very simple.
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Apr 1, 2022 17:28
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Internet Explorer posted:So this finally was bothering me enough to look into it. I used Logitech's G Hub - https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/innovation/g-hub.html Wow this is exactly what I wanted, thanks!
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Apr 1, 2022 17:59
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Another happy customer.
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Apr 1, 2022 18:55
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I just got an HP Envy with W11. Is flattening and reinstalling Windows to remove bloatware still a thing? The only real offensive things I've found are McAfee and Alexa built in, other than that there's some HP stuff that's fairly inoffensive. Edit: I know reinstalling isn't the biggest deal, and it's my standard MO, but lately these laptops actually have so many manufacturer specific drivers that reinstalling just means doing a lot driver managing.
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Apr 1, 2022 23:50
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Internet Explorer posted:Another happy customer. Words Internet Explorer could never say 
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Apr 2, 2022 00:22
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Did decrapify get forked? I remember it was so good for bloatware
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Apr 2, 2022 00:49
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dpkg chopra posted:I just got an HP Envy with W11. If there's no bloatware, there's no need? A number of PC OEMs have reduced their bloatware load by quite a bit over the past few years. I guess they noticed they kept getting dinged for it by reviewers and one of them decided to be less bloaty. The only non-bloatware reason I can think of to do a format & reinstall on a new PC would be if someone hated how most OEM installs have the OEM logo on everything that they can stick it on. (ie the boot loading screen, the stock wallpapers, the default user pic, etc.) Some of that stuff can be hard to remove. But that's also totally cosmetic, so no reason to do anything if it doesn't annoy you.
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Apr 2, 2022 02:07
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Klyith posted:If there's no bloatware, there's no need? There is a very simple tool/yt tutorial for changing the boot loading screen (mine has the Tessier-Ashpool logo now). The others are more trivial. I wouldn't  for that.
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Apr 2, 2022 02:56
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I was gifted an old HP Notebook 15 with a i7-6500u. I put 2x8 GB sticks in it and an SSD. Windows 10 is showing 16 GB RAM but it doesn't seem to want to use much of it. Seems to hover between 3-5 GB used, and the responsiveness of the system isn't quite what I thought it would be with a new SSD and more RAM. Is there anything to do with Windows to say "Hey, use more of that delicious available RAM and improve system responsiveness"?
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Apr 2, 2022 03:07
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Hughmoris posted:I was gifted an old HP Notebook 15 with a i7-6500u. I put 2x8 GB sticks in it and an SSD. It uses the ram that it needs, and you're probably being unrealistic with your expectations for what is a very old computer with a pretty low performance CPU. More ram has no benefit to performance if windows doesn't actually need more. Also worth pointing out that SSDs vary wildly in performance and some of the shittier ones are little better than old school hard drives.
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Apr 2, 2022 03:40
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The Lord Bude posted:It uses the ram that it needs, and you're probably being unrealistic with your expectations for what is a very old computer with a pretty low performance CPU. More ram has no benefit to performance if windows doesn't actually need more. Also worth pointing out that SSDs vary wildly in performance and some of the shittier ones are little better than old school hard drives. Thanks, that what I was figuring but was holding out hope.
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Apr 2, 2022 03:42
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Hughmoris posted:I was gifted an old HP Notebook 15 with a i7-6500u. I put 2x8 GB sticks in it and an SSD. It is doing that. If you open task manager, performance tab, and memory, the part of the bar chart that says "standby" is cached data. Once upon a time the cached data would show up as "used", but MS changed the display after people kept yelling about their memory being full. Is there anything in particular that's non-responsive? Also, can you grab a hardware monitor program like speccy or hwinfo64 and look at your CPU temp? On an old used laptop it's possible the thermals are in bad shape.
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Apr 2, 2022 03:43
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Klyith posted:It is doing that. If you open task manager, performance tab, and memory, the part of the bar chart that says "standby" is cached data. I ran crystalmarkinfo for my new Sandisk SSD, and hwinfo for sensors and nothing stood out as abnormal. I think I'm all set, and it's just a 6 year old processor. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't leaving any functionality on the table when I upgraded my RAM. Thanks for the tips!
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Apr 2, 2022 14:27
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BaldDwarfOnPCP posted:There is a very simple tool/yt tutorial for changing the boot loading screen (mine has the Tessier-Ashpool logo now). The others are more trivial. Nothing to add but this made me smile—-my boot screen since XP was a Hosaka or Ono Sendai splash…nobody ever saw it but me, but I read that when I was 10 and it blew my mind.
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Apr 2, 2022 14:43
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Is there an easy built in way to add animated desktops to windows? Everything I’ve googled all talk about using some 3rd party apps.
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Apr 2, 2022 16:42
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Hughmoris posted:I was gifted an old HP Notebook 15 with a i7-6500u. I put 2x8 GB sticks in it and an SSD. Skylake is not slow. Check CPU frequency in task manager. Both on battery and plugged in.
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Apr 2, 2022 22:01
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