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1001

General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 16, 2016, 10:55 PM »

External drive case looks fine enough. Alignment is what you should check first. For a very brief explanation visit this link.
For a much more detailed explanation, that uses an image to clarify what the aligning problem is, visit this link.

The first link also tells you what you need to do to check and/or fix it with several different pieces of software, including Minitool Partition Wizard. Please, do follow the advice about making a backup of your data before attempting to fix a problem with your hard disk. There is always a (minute) chance something fails and it is better to be prepared. Now that I know you have an SSD hard disk, it is unlikely you will have this problem, but it doesn't hurt to check it anyway.

Depending on how much partitions you are comfortable with, I wouldn't bother too much with basic and dynamic disks. Most, if not all, partition software can deal with basic disks. Although dynamic disks are around for quite some time, there could be a problem finding a freeware piece of software that can help you with fixing a situation in the future. Finding such software for basic disks is much less of a hassle. Speed-wise there won't be too much difference between a basic and dynamic disk.

Dynamic disks can be problematic in laptops, so I really would keep it as simple as possible.

1002

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Shades on January 16, 2016, 04:02 PM »

They likely vote: chicken wing (instead of right/left wing) 

1003

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 10 a trojan?

« Last post by Shades on January 16, 2016, 06:25 AM »

Then I think I misunderstood...sorry about that. 

1004

General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 16, 2016, 06:18 AM »

Yes, HD's power down after a certain threshold of inactivity is reached. Using a portable HD case that comes with its own power supply, this threshold is larger than than with a portable HD that draws power from the USB port it is connected to.

And I don't think it is bad to assume the threshold for each type of portable HD varies when connected to a desktop or a laptop. In principle, a desktop has less problems sustaining the portable HD that draws power from USB than a laptop does. Mainly because the power supply in a desktop is much "beefier" than the power supply of a laptop.

If a portable HD with its own power supply is used with a laptop, it will put much less strain on the laptop and as a result the threshold could be increased.

One more thing to consider: the threshold will also be affected as well by the power saving settings of either the desktop or the laptop.


Prolonging life of a hard disk...that is an interesting subject, invoking much debate.

For me (running servers and desktops 24/7) it is important to keep hard disk in their "comfort zone", meaning: between 35 and 45 degrees Celsius operating temperature, dust free and using philosophies to reduce writing/reading wherever I can. Yes, trusting the NTFS file system to do that for you is...not smart. This is me, being politically correct here. In case you are interested, see other threads here in the forum how I really feel about this subject.

Just know that powering up any hard disk is quite taxing for that device. So you want to prevent that as much as possible. If you are going to turn it off, leave it of for a significant amount of time. If you continuously power down/power up a hard disk you will wear it out much quicker than have it running all the time. All of the above is valid for spinning hard disks...SSD hard disks are a completely different type of beast.

Come to think of it...if you are still running XP on your laptop, you should check with a tool such as Minitool Partition Wizard (free/commercial) to check if the partition(s) on your hard disk are aligned. If that is not the case, I suggest you let that software fix that for your laptop. That is a job that can take all day, depending on the size of your hard disk and the amount of data that is stored on it. It is also essential to keep your laptop connected to reliable power grid for as long as this procedure takes. Afterwards you will notice a 5 to 15% gain of general speed, because writing/reading to your hard disk has been reduced significantly.

Modern version of Windows already take care of aligning the partition(s), but XP and older didn't.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 10 a trojan?

« Last post by Shades on January 16, 2016, 05:20 AM »

Today, after weeks of telling Windows to f*** off because I don't want to reboot for updates, it finally told me to go f*** myself and rebooted in the middle of me doing shit.

Windows 10 is <insert the most vile, inhuman, violent, sick, twisted, evil stuff you can possibly imagine here />.

I just have no words for how horrible this entire lunacy is. (I do have the words, but I'll spare you.)

-Renegade (January 14, 2016, 10:23 PM)

To me it starts to look more and more like this:
Balmer...he came from the age of the standard software license. Although you shouldn't disregard those, you could. And fix those (more or less) at your leisure to get yourself out of trouble.
Nadella...he comes from the early "on-line" age and blatantly pushes for 'in your face' pop-up advertisements the whole time, creating only troubles for you.

Both are problematic, but one is much worse than the other. 2 Years in and Nadella really shows his face!

However, he forgets one thing...or didn't learn from the past. Just like in the early days of the battle between IE and FireFox, the moment pop-ups got blocked automatically by FF, it made a serious dent in the relevance/importance of IE. Granted, that started an arms race between pop-up ads and blockers, but blockers remain on the winning side.

Personally, I cannot wait until such a battle commences and proves the old adage to Nadella: 'Those who do not learn from the past, are doomed to make the same mistakes.'

Group Policy: No Auto Reboot For Logged On Users is your friend.

Gpedit.msc:
Computer Configuration
. Administrative Template
... Windows Components
..... Windows Update

^Do on local machine even in a domain environment (werked 4 me!).

For the Home Version there is a registry based equivalent (I haven't tried):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Stoic Joker (January 15, 2016, 07:09 AM)

The description of this group policy ends with the following (on my computer):
'Note: This policy applies only when Automatic Updates is configured to perform scheduled installations of updates. If the "Configure Automatic Updates" policy is disabled, this policy has no effect.'

The wording of this text does not inspire trust. To me at least.

Wouldn't it be helpful to do the following?

Gpedit.msc:
Computer Configuration
. Windows Settings
... Security Settings
..... Software Restriction Policies
....... Additional Rules

Right-click in the blank area below the two entries to create a new hash and/or path rule that 'Disallow' the execution of the GWX and related files to be executed by Windows (or any other process).

In addition you could also do:
Gpedit.msc:
Computer Configuration
. Windows Settings
... Security Settings
..... Application Control Policies
....... Applocker
......... Executable Rules

Repeat the 'Dissallow' procedure for GWX and related files here too.

1006

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 10 a trojan?

« Last post by Shades on January 14, 2016, 05:16 AM »

Time to install decent routers in any LAN? And adding (a set of) rules to make sure no communication takes place between your Windows computer(s) and "home base"?

Seems to me the best way to beat Microsoft into submission...

Spoiler

I really wanted to say: bitch-slap Microsoft, but that might be too offensive for threads that are not in the Basement.

1007

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 10 a trojan?

« Last post by Shades on January 13, 2016, 06:59 PM »

@40hz:
Signals transported over the 40hz frequency band can go very far...but are prone to interruptions, so don't expect fast communication

Bad joke, I know.

1008

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Shades on January 13, 2016, 06:28 PM »

@Tomos is closing in on 10 digits!  Everybody keep a close eye on him

-Stephen66515 (January 13, 2016, 10:18 AM)

When Tomos hits the 10,000 mark...that is still only 5 digits.

Ten digits mean: 1,000,000 posts (or 9,999,999,999). I'm afraid Tomos would have to pick up the pace a bit

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General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 11, 2016, 05:41 AM »

Portable hard disks (2.5 inch sized ones) would be a good deal for you. Those are available in lots of places, 1TByte and 2TByte models aren't that expensive (think in a 60 to 100 USD range) and usually much faster than a thumb drive, even on USB 2.0 ports. 

Bacula is an extensive (Linux based) backup solution and its "Virtualized tapes" are in essence just big files on a hard disk in my case...which could be spooled to a real tape drive, if I had one of those still.   

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General Software Discussion / Re: System resources monitor overload warning for Windows 10

« Last post by Shades on January 09, 2016, 06:14 AM »

First, I don't know of an existing tool.

But wouldn't you be able to use 'RainMeter' for this purpose?

This software can show whatever statistic of the system (regarding the consumption of resources or otherwise) continuously on the screen.That way your user have immediate feedback and with feedback like that they may actually learn about the errors in their ways. After all, if your words don't convince, better make it (very!) visual... 

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General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 05, 2016, 03:47 PM »

ImgBurn...that used to be my favorite burning software, back in the days I still used CDs/DVDs to store stuff on. Nowadays I only use pen drives and (portable) hard disks (and virtualized" tapes in my Bacula setup, but that is a whole different story). Much more convenient and faster too.

Nero 5.x was the last version of Nero I used for quite a long time actually. Way too much bloat in later versions of Nero steered me towards ImgBurn v2.5.2, which is the embodiment of 'lean and mean' software (3MByte in total). It is freeware and, as a bonus, it works as portable application too. Never looked back or for other burning software since.

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General Software Discussion / Re: is it safe to delete C:\WINDOWS\Installer?

« Last post by Shades on January 03, 2016, 10:49 AM »

Short answer: No.

Long answer: You should not do that, and it depends per application you have installed. Windows .msi installers keep a copy of the installer in this folder. This way it is easier to repair or re-install applications that break (or you consider broken) along the way.

Plus, when you remove an application from Windows, Windows requires to use its installer to remove the software, else Windows won't be able to do this. And it is not a given that a .msi installer is removed from the C:\WINDOWS\Installer folder.

Some (but not all) applications actually require their installer to be in this folder for their maintenance routines. And when those installers are not there, things will go wrong.

To my limited knowledge, .exe installers do not behave this way. As a result you can only install or remove software installations created this type of installers, no repair or maintenance is possible.

Making things worse, Windows and Office updates/patches are also stored in this folder. So you have to be really careful what you can remove from this folder, else you will be in serious trouble very quick. Unfortunately there aren't many tools that can help you identify which files could possibly be removed from the C:\Windows\installer folder.

So, if storage space is an issue on your C: partition, I would move the content from this folder to a folder on a different partition in small sets. This way, when something in your Windows setup breaks, you won't have to wade through lots of files to find the problematic one.

The short answer sounds better by now, doesn't it?

*Edit:
Apparently you can free up space, according to this blog entry of Scott Hanselman.

1013

General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 03, 2016, 08:49 AM »

As I hate track-pads with a passion, you won't see me use a laptop much. But when someone hands me one for repair, I will make sure to have an extra mouse. Even prefer a track-ball, joystick (how else do you call that thing in the center of Thinkpad keyboard) or keyboard navigation over the track-pad.

Hence I am quick with suggestions to disable track-pads in any way or form.    But, whatever works for you...works for you. 

If you didn't do this already, I would still suggest to take a look at the pdf manual from my previous post. It shows you how to disassemble the laptop completely in the correct order and which tools you require. With that manual you should be able to do most, if not all, of the hardware maintenance your laptop requires in its technical lifespan.

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General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on January 02, 2016, 08:26 AM »

If push comes to shove...you could remove its driver and disable the device in the Windows Device Manager. That means though that you will not be able to use the trackpad at all. Be sure to carry a working computer mouse with you the whole time when you decide to go drastic like this.

-Shades (December 28, 2015, 05:17 AM)

I am not sure if I found it but it only allows uninstall, not disable. Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad. "Sample rate 100 reports/second" can be modified. I can't uninstall if I'm not sure that's all that will be affected.

-holt (January 02, 2016, 07:26 AM)

The image above is taken from Windows Server 2012, but Windows XP has a similar window. The link leads you to instructions (from Microsoft itself) on how to access this window in Windows XP. The section you need is called: Device Manager.

In there you can update drivers, remove drivers (Windows XP will try to re-install the next time you reboot) or disable the device (Windows XP won't try to re-install drivers).

But if you want to be absolutely sure, the main board in the laptop provides power to the device and you can disconnect that link. When you do that Windows won't even see the device anymore and you are sure not to be bothered anymore by the track pad. At all.

If you like the last option the most, you will need to find a way to open your laptop in a proper manner, so you can assemble it again. A brisk search revealed this document (pdf) that shows how to properly disassemble your Gateway laptop. Do the steps in reverse to assemble the laptop back into a working state. That manual might also give you an idea about properly mounting the plate that keeps falling off. 

1015

Post New Requests Here / Re: Radio3 -micro link blogging

« Last post by Shades on December 30, 2015, 03:32 AM »

Looks kinda interesting.

Oh, and I get the impression that the keyboard on your phone isn't a great match for your fingers...

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General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on December 29, 2015, 06:33 AM »

It sounds like your computer is more or less falling apart already. Open it further and disconnect the power to the track pad. Even more drastic

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General Software Discussion / Re: backup strategy

« Last post by Shades on December 28, 2015, 06:13 AM »

You still need to charge that pen drive through a USB port. So with which intervals do you need to charge the pan drive? And for how long? And the WiFi on it...how secure is that? (WPA-2 or better?)

Look, it is always the same. Convenience == insecurity. And it always means that the information is not that important after all. Maybe in the mind of the owner, but not in reality. If they are so afraid  about information being lost when the laptop is stolen...the cloud isn't going to help you. Especially when the laptop is your only computer.

After all, how long would it take for the thieves to retrieve passwords to online services? If they set their minds to it, not long. Oh...you used a password manager. How nice for you. The delinquents  have this software on your laptop. How long before the master password is revealed? Again, not long.

If you want to have a backup, you must disconnect that information from the device you create/edit it on. Because if you don't, the backed up information info is just as susceptible to thievery, in-house accidents (water or fire damage), malware and/or viruses as the original information. You might have the impression that you have a backup, but, in reality, you won't. 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but when the occasionally connecting of pen drives is already too inconvenient...don't even bother with backups at all. Maybe a bit harsh, but better this than finding out the really hard way you don't have a backup and lost whatever 'extremely important information' you had. Backups have nothing to do with convenience and much(!) more with discipline and it really would be better if you realize this sooner than later.

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General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on December 28, 2015, 05:17 AM »

If push comes to shove...you could remove its driver and disable the device in the Windows Device Manager. That means though that you will not be able to use the trackpad at all. Be sure to carry a working computer mouse with you the whole time when you decide to go drastic like this.

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General Software Discussion / Re: backup strategy

« Last post by Shades on December 27, 2015, 06:19 AM »

In this part of the world, it is not a given to have internet access, let alone fast internet access. Speed or time it takes to make a backup and retrieve those files from the available cloud solutions is often overlooked.

8GByte pen drives don't cost much, are usually fast in storing and retrieving of data and retain data reliably without someone peeking when such drive(s) are stored in a rented safe/storage box in a bank. You have full control over the amount of encryption you apply to the data on those drives.

Cloud solutions are more convenient, but will be released to law if requested firmly enough by local or international law and always under attack by people who want to gain money and/or power over your data. You have (much) less control over the amount of encryption you apply, depending on the provider of the cloud solution you selected. And, of course, when there is no internet, you cannot make a backup or retrieve data from your cloud solution provider.

The "no internet" part doesn't have to be your fault or the the fault of your cloud solution provider. Connections can be disrupted by something as simple as a construction company accidentally destroying the cable(s) or other infrastructure of your ISP. If you are in a muncipalidad that firmly believes in keeping electricity and communication cables on poles above the ground, your internet connection can be disrupted by (electrical) storms, accidents, a car/truck hauling a load that is a bit too high or plain simple gravity.

In the Netherlands all cabling is put underground (and properly mapped) making any kind of network very reliable. So over there the cloud will be a fast and very reliable solution. Combined with its convenience a no-brainer for most.

However, in Paraguay where I live now every cable is above ground. Even fiber cable connections (especially the last section to the house of the customer) are not put into the ground. This makes internet connections unreliable. Connections are more expensive too and paying even more for a cloud solution provider that might or might not work. No, for me the convenience does not make up for lack of reliability and related costs. Over here, I am much more inclined to use pen drives or a portable hard disk for backups and store/retrieve those physical devices myself either on-site (in a home vault) or off-site.

The whole essence of a backup is to be able to reliably retrieve data from it at the moment it is needed. If that isn't the case, you may delude yourself by calling whatever you have stored in the cloud a backup still, but it really isn't.

You stated that the info you want stored is 'extremely important'. In that case, don't be fooled by the convenience promised by cloud solution providers, but make sure that they, your ISP, the infrastructure and yourself can deliver on that promise. If you have doubts, use a pen drive or portable hard disk for backups.

Either that or reduce the importance of the information, of course.

1020

ProcessTamer / Re: Process Tamer not taming processes under Win10-64

« Last post by Shades on December 26, 2015, 04:37 AM »

The Bingbar might be a process that is started by an background service and as such can be immediately restarted after an instance has been shut down. Any depending process will be restarted as well. When you look with a tool like Process Explorer (part of the SysInternals suite), you will see a different PID number next to any currently active process. Did you verify that the PID number for that particular process remained the same? If that is the case, then ProcessTamer didn't kill the process. But if the PID number changed, the process was immediately restarted after being terminated.

The GoogleCrashHandler.exe and GoogleCrashHandler64.exe are part of the Google process that always remain running in Windows after you installed any Google product on your computer. This software will be immediately restarted after termination. Another part of the SysInternals suite is called AutoRuns, and with that you can control which items/processes/services start at boot time. While this software works fine with other products, disabling or even removing any entry related to a Google product will only result in a double or renewed entry. In this sense, Google products act like a virus would. Which is the reason why I won't install any version of Chrome on any of my computers. This obnoxious behavior actually inspired me to look for portable software packages instead of installers.

Being able to change of the priority of a process depends on how it is started. If a process is started ('Run as Administrator') in a user account and ProcessTamer is started normally in this user account, chances are that Windows won't allow ProcessTamer to alter the priority of the process. While this might work in Windows Vista/Win7/Win2008, don't expect this to work in Windows 8/8.1/Win2012 (i have found this out the hard way). The security model of those operating systems was much more tightened.

Now with the new Windows 10 and soon to be released Win2016, expect even more tightening in the security model Windows applies for running processes. Each new iteration gives you less control and will behave more and more like iOS and OSX already do. At least, that is how the Windows experience starts to look like to me. Just different colors and style of icons, but similar levels of control (or lack thereof).

Enough ranting, holding ProcessTamer responsible for this kind of misbehaving software is a bit harsh in my opinion.

1021

General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on December 24, 2015, 08:14 PM »

Cloning in itself isn't hard to do, there are many pieces of software that can do this (free and commercial) and if you take the time to properly identify which hard disk is which (including reading any message that software presents to you), there isn't much that can go wrong. However, if you do this wrong, you are in real trouble...that is, if you mind losing your data.

Finding someone that still has a mainboard with IDE ports that work will be harder. If you are sure the laptop uses IDE, you can even use the laptop itself, but you might need to take it apart to connect both the master-slave drives. And keep it like that for as long as the cloning procedure will take. If you do find someone with such a mainboard, you might still have a problem. Connecting both drives to the same hard disk controller will reduce the time to do the cloning considerably, so that would be the preferred option.

Connecting an IDE HD from a laptop onto the IDE hard disk controller of a desktop PC, might require you to alter the IDE cable. Had to do this on occasion when connecting laptop HD's to the IDE port of the Amiga home computer. Don't assume blindly that the IDE cable for a desktop PC is immediately usable in a laptop. Some lines in a standard IDE cable are meant to transfer power and it is not a given that those lines are in the same spot. Often I had to remove one of the IDE connectors find the cables for power, loosen them from the rest of the cable, twist that part of the cable and use a connector from the laptop IDE cable to be able to use the laptop HD in a desktop.

It is easier (and neater) to take the hit in cloning speed and use an external USB device to do the cloning. If all you want to do is making a backup, than don't do cloning. There is much more backup software available that is much simpler in use and faster too. Anyway, when you have a computer, it really is a good idea to invest in a portable hard disk to make backups on. Reliable and simple, what is not to like? 

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Living Room / Re: Words fail me - you'll have to read this yourself

« Last post by Shades on December 24, 2015, 07:38 PM »

The code mentioned in both vote boxes is the same. That does not inspire trust...

Anyway, I would have voted to donate it. Mainly because I don't think that anyone should destroy/mistreat art that can inspire future generations. Picasso is definitely not my style, but that shouldn't be a reason to maim his work. After all, the world is full of people that have a different view on the arts.

Honestly, you couldn't accuse me for being artsy fartsy on a good day. If someone made art that cannot stand the test of time on it's own, too bad for that piece of art and/or artist. But for pieces of art that do, keep those in shape for future generations.

We are all standing on the shoulders of giants and art/artists make that anyone enjoys the view.

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T-Clock / Re: Time shift...

« Last post by Shades on December 23, 2015, 06:04 PM »

You didn't specify the northern or southern hemisphere...that equator thingie really makes time behave differently

1024

General Software Discussion / Re: gateway ta6 laptop

« Last post by Shades on December 21, 2015, 06:46 AM »

That is Microsoft's virtual keyboard to help you log in to your system. This keyboard is helpful when you only have your stylus to type in your password. Looks to me like your keyboard isn't detected (fast enough) and that Windows XP is helping you out by activating its virtual keyboard instead.

I don't think your computer has the option in BIOS, but you could try to see in there if there is an option for the BIOS to wait until all USB devices have registered themselves with the BIOS before it continues booting your computer. There will be an option to select if you want to do a slow boot. That could give the keyboard also enough time to register itself properly. By doing this, Windows XP shouldn't show the virtual keyboard anymore to help you log into your Windows account.

Once you logged into Windows, check if you can change this behavior by checking the options of virtual keyboard and the Windows boot routine. The 'Control Panel' should get you access to both.

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DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Calcupy! - your semantic desktop calculator

« Last post by Shades on December 19, 2015, 07:56 PM »

It is always good to see more software from a lot of different developers here at DC. However, in my opinion, a 32MByte download for a calculator is a bit on the "heavy" side. Given the very early stages of the project, there is room for forgiveness and some "trimming of the fat"?