The Windows and Windows Software Megathread

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astral: Apr 26, 2004

Relin posted:

is this the place to ask? what 3rd party program do people use for image viewing? from searching online it seems even irfanview official dl links have malware/viruses

Does the old Windows Photo Viewer count as third-party at this point?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2019 02:13

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:44

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Get an SSD.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2019 10:36

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Volguus posted:

Gonna buy a new set of MB+CPU+Memory for my son for christmas and I plan to reuse the existing SSDs. Gonna be very curious how much will MS give a poo poo about the activation. I will deactivate it first and then reactivate it in the "new computer", so hopefully i won't have to call MS.

If your old license is digital, changing the motherboard alone is enough for the hash to no longer be valid. You can probably just call/chat in and say you had to change the motherboard though.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2019 23:27

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Lambert posted:

Browsers in general like RAM, Firefox is no different but performs way worse overall.

Since Firefox Quantum, they've made quite a few leaps and bounds in the speed department. If you haven't tried it recently, I'd definitely recommend giving it another go.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2019 21:55

astral: Apr 26, 2004

henpod posted:

I gotta say, you guys were right. The SSD makes it feel like a new PC. Good call, and well worth the $35 for the upgrade.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2019 10:43

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Right click them and remove them, then set group policy to remove consumer experiences (among other things).

Opt out of hints/tips/suggestions/etc.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2020 01:05

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Last Chance posted:

And then do it again after the next feature update heheh

I've never had any of that stuff appear or reappear with properly configured settings/policy. :shrug:

# ¿ Jan 14, 2020 01:43

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Upgrade it rather than relying on thirdhand information from the same sort of people that hung onto XP for far, far too long.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 22:17

astral: Apr 26, 2004

FRINGE posted:

HR is a notorious route for email based infections. Just wait lol

Naturally, the head of IT security will be in charge of punishing the head of HR when this happens.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2020 00:20

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Windows 7 is EOL, and there've been some really scary vulnerabilities patched lately (and more soon-to-be-patched). Hopefully everyone has moved on.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2020 20:44

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Lazyhound posted:

Is it normal that my Windows Store library is full of app and games I've never bought?

None of these are things I've actually downloaded. The purchase dates start last May.

Go to Settings->Accounts and see if you are who you think you are.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2020 01:18

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Guitarchitect posted:

Any remote desktop experts in the house?
Our work from home situation was going well until our IT consultants enacted some new security measures... DHCP being one of them. Which really messed with Remote Desktop for Mac users because of ARP tables that don't automatically clear. The fix was to put everything back to Static IPs but we have this nagging issue where the remote desktop disconnects and reconnects constantly... for some people it's every 30 minutes, for others it's way more often. They want us to spend a bunch of money to evaluate the actual cabling, but i'm not sure what kind of cabling issue would present this way.

Sounds like all the changing around led to some IP address conflicts.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2020 20:52

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Medullah posted:

Is there a way to tell if a particular key code is still valid? Or, you know, what it's for? I am pruning my "Key Codes" excel sheet and have a Microsoft code but I'm not sure if it's for Windows or Office. =/

Maybe the MS websites where you punch in your key to get a download link might help you figure out what they're for.

You could check the keys in use on your computer in case you already used them.

# ¿ May 8, 2020 18:27

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Tesseraction posted:

Might be a bit of an interesting question to ask here - how can I find out what hardware is sending signals to a specific software?

To clarify, I'm running a specific game (Trails of Azure), and without me pressing anything, the game is inputting up and left on a joystick constantly, from the moment it allows player control. If I open ProceXP it is showing that it's indeed dinput8.dll showing a crapload of CPU cycles on dinput8.dll!GetdfDIJoystick - despite me not pressing anything.

In terms of actually plugged in items, I have an Xbox One wired controller and a third-party graphics tablet (Ugee's knock-off cintiq) plugged in. I thought the latter might be the cause, but unplugging it doesn't change it - I'd rather find out it's definitely the cause before doing something drastic like fully uninstalling it. The Xbox controller inputs into the game but obviously has to fight on menus or world screens with the constant up-left inputs.

Alternatively if you know of a piece of software that can blacklist/whitelist input devices per application, that would also work.

Are you using Steam to manage your controller input at all? What I've found is that lately (last several months) it's started to just randomly choose community controller button layout templates that have a decent rating rather than just using the generic gamepad layout. Started up a game the other day and the cursor just kept floating away from me until I told Steam to use a sane button layout.

Haven't really dug into it yet to see if I can stop Steam from picking these random layouts in the first place, though.

astral fucked around with this message at 19:01 on May 18, 2020

# ¿ May 18, 2020 18:55

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Tesseraction posted:

I'm not using Steam to launch the game, but nevertheless I tried quitting Steam (and making sure the service had stopped) and launching the game but the issue remained. I'm assuming it would try controlling with Steam closed?

Shouldn't be Steam in that case. Have you already tried unplugging/replugging the controller? If you go to Windows' "Set up USB Game Controllers" and hit Properties, does it show the inputs being wacky?

quote:

Edit: I've tried just using a mouse with the controller unplugged and the issue remains.

edit: Yikes. I'd try testing with the mouse only with a full reboot after everything's unplugged just to see what happens.

# ¿ May 18, 2020 19:01

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Thermopyle posted:

Huh, Edge Chromium blocks downloading releases from the clsid MPC-HC fork "because it could harm your device."

I'm too lazy to look into it more.

Digital signature issue, I'd guess.

# ¿ May 23, 2020 23:03

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Thermopyle posted:

Edge Chromium Dev

I hope you disabled data collection 'through controls available in the Previews', but even then I still like the bit about 'privacy and feature settings may not work as intended':

quote:

1.2.1. Data Collection for Previews. Previews may not have included, reduced, or different security, privacy, accessibility, availability and relatability standards relative to commercially provided services and software. For Previews covered under Section 1.2, privacy and feature settings may not work as intended, and the Previews may not work with other Windows privacy settings, including the diagnostic data settings for Windows 10. Data collected from your use of the Previews, including diagnostic, technical, error reports, crash dumps and other related data from your devices running Previews may be used, stored, processed and analyzed to keep Windows and the Previews up to date, secure, and operating properly. It also helps us improve Microsoft products and services and may be used for any other purpose described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement. If you disable data collection through controls available in the Previews, we may continue to collect diagnostic information about the download, the installation and removal of the Previews and �basic� data as described in the Windows Diagnostics section of the Microsoft Privacy Statement. The Microsoft Privacy Statement (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839), and this paragraph, applies to Previews under Section 1.2.

# ¿ May 24, 2020 18:54

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Squashy Nipples posted:

Hey, I didn't see an Office thread, so posting here.
I've never paid for Office in my entire life, but now I'm a small business owner, and I'm about to buy some Dells.

What's the best legitimate way to pay for Office, annual subscription for the traditional purchase?

I'd recommend comparing the licensing costs and whether you'd get additional value out of those extra features FunOne mentioned. If not, there's no sense in paying in perpetuity for software that works well and receives updates for a long time (unless you need support, of course). Standalone versions of Office traditionally have received ten years of extended support: Office 2007 went EOL in 2017 and Office 2010 goes EOL this October.

I'm glad you posted because it reminded me that a family member is still using 2010 and I'll need to let them know they need to upgrade soon in case it doesn't spam them with notifications saying as much. :unsmith:

# ¿ Jun 3, 2020 18:40

astral: Apr 26, 2004

The Lord Bude posted:

Microsoft makes hands down the best email app for iOS (and I'm willing to bet it's considered a contender in the android ecosystem as well).

They bought that one.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 18:32

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Future Son posted:

So my pc is >10years old and still runs on Windows XP. Almost no software runs on it anymore since the world has abandoned my OS, and it has gotten too slow even for opening websites. I don�t think anything is mechanically wrong, but maybe something is dying.

I thought about trying some budget upgrades to the RAM, maybe new video card, but I was going to start by updating to Windows 10. I was trying to load 10, which failed, and then I read the only way to go from XP to 10 would require me to delete all my files which I�m not going to do.

So should I just buy a new pc at this point, and start over?

There was a time when I felt a little tech savvy and could do things for myself but now I�m just feeling very old and confused. My big concern with buying new is i can�t justify the budget to get something very nice since we just had a baby. But if I go cheap I don�t think I�m going to end up much better off than if I�d just upgrade what I have.

Yeah, as you've surmised you need to (a) backup your files, (b) flatten and install something that isn't horribly insecure, and (c) do not run any executables from your backup ever because that computer quite possibly hasn't belonged just to you for a while now.

Reasonable upgrades for your >10 year old PC include buying a cheap SSD instead of whatever old hard drive, seeing if someone has some old RAM you could use, and upgrading your video card. What kind of processor does it have? At that point you could probably buy a new or maybe used computer that's much better than what you have for pretty cheap.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2020 00:53

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Kinda looks like some cloud storage program is syncing your desktop.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2020 00:15

astral: Apr 26, 2004

On a more serious note, it looks like the program shortcuts (.lnk file extension) might have become associated with IE, which you could probably fix in the registry.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2020 00:17

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Have you already tried the simple stuff (f5 on the desktop, reboot computer if that didn't resolve it)?

# ¿ Aug 9, 2020 00:25

astral: Apr 26, 2004

C-Euro posted:

Wife took a screenshot during a video call using Snipping Tool, then her computer crashed before she was able to save it and now she's freaking out that it's lost forever. Where would be the best place to look for any temp files from Snipping Tool (if that application saves things temporarily in the first place)?

Is it definitely snipping tool and not the snip&sketch replacement? The latter leaves a persistent notification in the action center that you can click on to bring it back up, so snip&sketch definitely stores it temporarily.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2020 23:45

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Ghostlight posted:

If it's Snip & Sketch you can recover it only if you already have clipboard history (Windows+V) turned on.

Did you mean Snipping Tool? I have Snip & Sketch and clipboard history is disabled.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 01:32

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Note that newer versions of uBlock Origin want you to double-tap the Control key to get the green rectangles to show up since people were confused and thought they needed to use green when they only needed to use gray.

This is one of the times when you would want to use green instead of gray.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2020 21:33

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Flipperwaldt posted:

I didn't know that. I also couldn't really think of a situation where I'd use gray, but after dipping into the wiki I think it's because I use uMatrix alongside it and the only time I have to interact with the uBlock advanced mode is exactly when it's static filters breaking a website.

Green means it will override all of the network filters, which is generally not something people want to do. They were clicking it when they meant to just no-op a more strict advanced blocking rule, like if they had blocked third-party content.

Even so, if a network filter is causing an issue it's usually better to just write a specific whitelist filter rule for the necessary content than to force-allow all the other junk from that domain.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2020 22:54

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Uthor posted:

Yes, Humble Bundle. I tried looking for Magix, but didn't see it.

I rarely reboot, so I can live with it. Just every time I do, I remember again and look for a solution.

Get Autoruns:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

# ¿ Sep 19, 2020 19:42

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Cardiovorax posted:

I don't know if this is new in the most recently or if I only just noticed it right now, but Firefox now has proper media controls baked into it, so if you're watching a video on Youtube and you have (for example) a Bluetooth headset with media control buttons, you can now use them to control playback and such. It's nice.

New in 81.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2020 02:08

astral: Apr 26, 2004

# ¿ Oct 9, 2020 20:37

astral: Apr 26, 2004

4 Discord
10 MSI Afterburner
13 Battle.net
14 Dropbox?
15 Spotify
18 looks like the Razer logo

edit: fixed numbers (again)

# ¿ Oct 9, 2020 20:40

astral: Apr 26, 2004

AlexDeGruven posted:

All right.

I must be missing a step.

I got a new 2TB drive to replace my 970 Evo, which is great, but only 250GB.

I cloned it through Macrium, expanding the main partition, connected to a PCIe adapter. I then swapped positions so that the new drive is on the MoBo and the Evo is in the PCI. Tt will "boot" to the new drive, as long as the 970 is still attached, but not if I disconnect it.

What step am I missing to make it so that the system sees the new drive as the bootable disk?

Have you already tried: Disconnect Evo. Leave new drive connected. Use the boot repair feature on windows installer media.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2020 23:03

astral: Apr 26, 2004

qsvui posted:

Why does Windows specifically require you to restart in order to install updates? Why not just do it at shut down also?

You can choose "update and shut down".

# ¿ Oct 30, 2020 06:12

astral: Apr 26, 2004

qsvui posted:

Nope. I even just tried shutting down but it didn't seem like it updated.

Haha, what the heck? That sounds like a bug to me.

Is this with something newer than 1909?

# ¿ Oct 30, 2020 06:42

astral: Apr 26, 2004

qsvui posted:

Looks like I'm on 1903

I would recommend update-and-restart-ing to 1909 at this point; 1903 is only supported until December 8.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2020 07:08

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Buy one of those $5 pro keys or whatever and change your edition.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 23:54

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Saukkis posted:

Windows Remote Desktop works prefectly fine even over larger distances

Just don't leave it open to the public; VPN in and then connect.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2020 18:56

astral: Apr 26, 2004

The Wonder Weapon posted:

Sorry in advance if this is a little too tech supporty for this thread, but it is quite specific to Windows, and I'm hoping it's not a complicated question.

I've got three Windows 10 PCs all connected to a simple router. Computer A and C and share with each other, and Computer B and C can share with each other, but Computer A and Computer B can't see each other in the network. I googled and something said to use 'net view' to see what's up. When I use 'net view' from either A or B, I get this error: "You can't connect to the file share because it's not secure. This share requires the obsolete SMB1 protocol, which is unsafe and could expose your system to attack.
Your system requires SMB2 or higher. For more info on resolving this issue, see: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=852747"

Why, if every computer on this network is Windows 10, is it complaining about SMBv1? I just want to copy some files from A to B. What heck.

Do any of them have SMBv1 enabled in "Turn Windows features on or off"? If so, disable SMBv1.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2020 06:56

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Sad Panda posted:

Not sure where to post this, so here it is. Is there anyway to stop Google trying to tell me to change my password? I've changed it 4 times over the last few days because each time I log on it tells me it has detected suspicious activity. It's very annoying. Given my password is randomly generated by 1Password to be 16+ characters/symbols there's no way someone has guessed said password.

Do you have some old device or app that isn't getting the changed password but is repeatedly trying to connect to your account with stored credentials?

# ¿ Dec 9, 2020 21:49

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:44

astral: Apr 26, 2004

PRADA SLUT posted:

Looking for software that monitors a folder and automatically keeps backup "versions" of its contents. Basically Time Machine on Windows.

I've got multiple people playing Cyberpunk and want the save games backed up automatically in case somebody accidentally overwrites another save and doesn't realize it.

Have you tried File History?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2020 08:17

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