Recent Posts

1651

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 11, 2015, 05:14 AM »

When I tried to use keyboard arrows to navigate the menu, BIOS would go crazy and the cursor would start cycling through the menu items at huge speed and then I would have to hit enter or escape to stop it, at which point it would stop at a seemingly random menu item, but never the one I wanted, so it took me forever even to just cancel operations and get out of there.

-dr_andus (September 11, 2015, 04:41 AM)

Sounds like the keyboard has sticking keys but one thing you could do is change the CMOS battery, (normally a CR2032), it's probably nothing to do with the problem but if you haven't changed it previously, then 5 years is a long time considering there's no knowing what state the battery was in to start with.

1652

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by 4wd on September 10, 2015, 07:37 PM »

Your post prompted me to look into nsupdate.info so I did and I couldn't figure out how to use it.

-Deozaan (September 10, 2015, 05:23 PM)

For future info or anyone else that's interested:

• Create an account
• Go to Overview
• Add a host (eg. fred.nsupdate.info)
• Click on your newly created host name - you can Delete, manually update IP, etc here
• Click on Show Configuration - you'll be taken to a page that will provide HTTPS links for updating either your IPv4 or IPv6, (which you can bookmark to update your IP via browser), plus instructions for various router firmware and/or DDNS clients.

NOTE: Every time you go to the Show Configuration page a new Host Secret, (for update login), is generated rendering the old one invalid.

My router is configured to automatically connect to my Dyn account and update my IP as needed. I don't have to worry about it, and my PC doesn't even have to be running for my IP to update.

My new ISP provided router, (while good), doesn't provide user specified DDNS host editing, just the usual culprits from a drop-down list.  I have a computer that's on 24/7 so it was just as easy to set the PoSh script, plus it sends any IP change to SmartDNS so the geo-unlocking keeps working, (otherwise I'd have to log in to the site and "activate" my new IP).

1653

General Software Discussion / Re: Browsers History Manager (even several browsers at the same time)

« Last post by 4wd on September 10, 2015, 07:14 PM »

I'm stuck at prob 1, why are you/you-plural using multi browsers and then trying to track it!? It feels like a "Work wants X, I want Y, then Z shows up somewhere" type problem but I'm saying we're missing a backstory here.

-TaoPhoenix (September 10, 2015, 12:24 PM)

I could see this being helpful - I use different browsers for different things but only because they're all crap at something or other. Another example: for a while I was using a browser without a Flash plugin, so I had another one I used where Flash was required.

-tomos (September 10, 2015, 03:04 PM)

Same here, Pale Moon is my normal browser but it has anti-everything add-ons that interfere with some websites so rather than stuff around excluding sites/disabling add-ons it's easier to just fire up another browser, eg. K-Meleon, Epic, IE, etc.

Why be stuck with just one browser?

1654

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for White-on-Black or Transparent Menu-Less Text Editor

« Last post by 4wd on September 10, 2015, 08:08 AM »

-- Do you happen to know if the down arrow key can be bound to move the cursor down a line when another program (flight simulator) has the focus?

-CodeTRUCKER (September 10, 2015, 07:12 AM)

I don't think so, you're kind of restricted to what hotkeys you can set (and their purpose) in the Options.

You'd probably need a small AHK script to send captured down keys to Stickies as wheel-down when the FS window has focus - someone knowledgeable in AHK (which I'm not ) should be able to do it easily.

1655

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for White-on-Black or Transparent Menu-Less Text Editor

« Last post by 4wd on September 10, 2015, 06:52 AM »

I give up... how does one "Enable Scrollbars?"

-CodeTRUCKER (September 10, 2015, 03:44 AM)

Right-click on the tray icon, select Options:

1656

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 10, 2015, 06:47 AM »

Worked like a charm! Very cool actually. Thanks

-phitsc (September 10, 2015, 02:41 AM)

You're welcome, nearly finished the next version - you can see what the output looks like above.

Just a couple of typos to murder and work out why global variables don't seem to be 

1657

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for White-on-Black or Transparent Menu-Less Text Editor

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2015, 08:53 PM »

Stickies ?

Enable Scrollbars in Options, write your list then resize the sticky to display one line, you can scroll through each line using the mouse wheel.



Font, background colour, and opacity can be set to whatever you like.  They can be set to be On Top, don't know how it would go with a flight simulator though, (works over normal Windows programs).

1658

General Software Discussion / Re: Browsers History Manager (even several browsers at the same time)

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2015, 08:15 PM »

What exactly do you mean by "manage" ?

Browsing History Viewer

1659

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2015, 06:46 AM »

I thought I had visited the supporters yearbook after the upgrade, but now I can't find it any more.

-phitsc (September 09, 2015, 04:13 AM)

Here: https://www.donation...on=mlist;sa=yearbook

-mouser (September 09, 2015, 05:40 AM)

I think @phitsc means how do you get to it, I can't find a link on the forum to it either.

EDIT: Found it, the supporters link in the fifth paragraph on the About page.  I think it could be buried a little deeper 

1660

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2015, 05:37 AM »

That looks very interesting. Can you also list (or remove) unwanted updates which have already been installed?

-phitsc (September 09, 2015, 05:26 AM)

That's what the script I wrote up here does, although it just goes ahead and uninstalls them, (or at least tries).

But I was thinking of combining it with this one since it can use the same list of unwanted KBs.

1661

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 09, 2015, 05:15 AM »

Hmm...that would involve changing operational procedures   If I'm willing to go that far, perhaps I should look around (or wait) for more options to appear.  At any rate, it seems like keeping an eye out for an alternative approach to updating seems in order.

-ewemoa (September 09, 2015, 02:20 AM)

I've been having a play:

1662

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2015, 08:59 PM »

On a related note, is there a convenient tool to help with preventing the installation of a specific set of updates?

-ewemoa (August 28, 2015, 04:43 AM)

I wonder if it's technically feasible / easy to have a program that scans / parses the appropriate Windows Update window for update identifiers and warns if certain ones look about to be installed.

-ewemoa (September 08, 2015, 06:31 PM)

You could do it with Powershell by using it to do the updates rather than relying on the Windows Update application, so rather than the reactive approach in the script above it would be proactive.

ie. Powershell fetches a list of updates available, compares against a list of unwanted KBs, hides any if found, and then invokes auto-update (which will automatically skip Hidden updates), or does the other updates itself.

So goes the theory.

1663

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2015, 06:35 AM »

Though the irony of my situation is that I will be creating an image of a corrupted Windows installation ...

-dr_andus (September 08, 2015, 06:17 AM)

The idea of the image is to save all the files that you forget about when you do a backup, eg. files on the Desktop, settings for programs (you can usually just copy them back into their AppData folder), etc - all the little things.

Plus it also gives you a baseline, you can always restore it and try some other method that might produce a better result, or restore it to another drive just to copy files off.

But if you can, copy all your Document stuff onto a separate drive which will be easier to restore from if necessary, (rather than mounting a backup image).

According to some of the comments on the www.winhelp.us website this can take several days...

Sheesh, I don't think I've ever done an In Place Upgrade that took more than 3 or 4 hours and most of that was updating Windows after it had re-installed.

It may pay to disconnect from the network before you start so that the Windows installation process doesn't go searching for updates, which can slow it down a lot.

1664

Living Room / Re: Take the xkcd weird correlation survey

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2015, 09:11 PM »

five
random
words
um
one

 

-wraith808 (September 06, 2015, 02:41 PM)

I
am
not
a
number

1665

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: Change (sub) folder(s) date based on newest/oldest file in the folder

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2015, 08:35 PM »

I'm very confused.  I can't get this to do anything at all..  I can't get the context menus to work, ...

-zaaphod (September 07, 2015, 09:54 AM)

If you're only using Windows Explorer, you only need the SetFolDate.exe executable from the archive.

Copy it to a folder somewhere, (eg. D:\SetFolDate\SetFolDate.exe), and run it using Run as Administrator, (required to add the context menu to the system).



When the window opens select Install.  Install (No GUI) adds an extra context menu item that runs it using the last used options so no GUI opens.  The window will close after the installation.



Right-click on a folder and the new menu item(s) should appear.



Selecting it will open the GUI.




The SetFolDateFM version is really only for alternative file managers, (in my case Directory Opus because that's all I normally use), and uses command line args for the parameters, whereas the Windows Explorer version grabs the selected folders from the explorer window.

1666

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2015, 08:09 PM »

The problem is that the rest of Windows is acting up (probably due to the failed System Restore operation). E.g. I can't launch the Control Panel and Programs and Features, which suggests to me that I need to reinstall Windows, right?

-dr_andus (September 07, 2015, 08:39 AM)

Given the nature of your problems, yes I think an In Place Upgrade is going to be the minimum way to recover it short of a full re-installation.  Just make sure to do at least one full disk image before starting, (two onto separate media if possible - test them after), because if you lose any files during the process you should be able to mount the backup images to recover them, (at least with Paragon or AOMEI Backupper, don't know about Macrium Reflect - @Miles ?)

1667

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2015, 07:33 AM »

BTW, I have another PC where I also have had trouble updating the AMD drivers, and the only way the installation was willing to go ahead was when I caved in eventually and selected "AMD Gaming Evolved App"--which I didn't want to do and for which I have no use whatsoever.

-dr_andus (September 07, 2015, 05:42 AM)

Can't say I've ever had that problem, actually I can't say I've ever had a problem with ATI/AMD drivers at all.

If you want to get rid of the Gaming Evolved thing, look for Raptr in Control Panel->Programs and Features and uninstall it, (had to do it yesterday on my parents machine).

1668

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2015, 05:26 AM »

1) If I uninstall the AMD driver (if I can even find it where it is, as most of the Windows utilities and system tools are not functioning), how will I be able to use my computer?

-dr_andus (September 07, 2015, 04:12 AM)

If you completely uninstall the AMD video driver, (and Catalyst, etc), Windows 7 will use a default video driver, (or an earlier compatible version of an AMD driver), that it has in its driver cache.  You might lose all the fancy things associated with manufacturer drivers but you'll normally end up with a minimum of 1024x768 resolution.

If you think about it, how do you get a display when you install Windows for the first time?

That's the driver Windows will fall back to using.

2) I did try to look for the AMD driver without the Catalyst Center installation, but I couldn't find it anywhere. It was my impression that it was not possible to install the driver without Catalyst?

Download the ~220+MB Catalyst suite, when you install it choose Custom.  You'll need to select the Catalyst Install Manager but you should be able to only select the AMD Display Driver.



If you also have audio coming through the HDMI cable to the speakers in your monitor, (if it has any), then you'll need to install the HDMI Audio Driver also.

* Ignore what I've got selected since I'm running the installer on my system which already has the latest update.

1669

General Software Discussion / Re: HELP! AMD Catalyst update broke my PC - How best to reinstall Windows 7?

« Last post by 4wd on September 06, 2015, 11:26 PM »

I'd like to do a Non-destructive reinstall of Windows 7 (as detailed at this link--i.e. an in-place upgrade of Win7 from the original media), so I can keep my existing settings and data. I have never done this before. Is this my best option? Any risks?

-dr_andus (September 06, 2015, 05:05 PM)

I've done a few and it normally works fine, (ie. I haven't had any problem yet).

A couple of suggestions first:

• Use backup software to image your HDD first before you do anything else, (eg. Macrium Reflect, Paragon, etc), preferably using boot media rather than from within Windows.  Check the backup after it's made.
• If you can boot into Safe Mode see if you can remove the AMD Catalyst drivers and your AV program, (to stop it interfering in any other operation - the AV will cease to function after an In Place Upgrade anyway.)  This might allow the system to boot normally and you'd only need to reinstall any necessary drivers and your AV.

And FWIW, I don't use System Restore at all since I've never had it work successfully - it's always been faster to reinstall from scratch than fix the problems and crap it leaves behind.

1670

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 06, 2015, 11:10 PM »

What is it with the green and black letter blocks for your avatars?

-wraith808 (September 06, 2015, 09:56 PM)

Isn't that the new default forum avatar, (first letter) ?

I'm guessing that their old avatar, (if they had one), didn't migrate across.

1671

General Software Discussion / Re: LastPass alternatives with two-factor authentication? (including premium LP)

« Last post by 4wd on September 05, 2015, 10:06 PM »

Pretty cool!  Thanks for sharing!

-wraith808 (September 05, 2015, 09:34 PM)

You're welcome.

I forgot to mention, any user/password for a site that does not have some form of monetary link, (eg. DC, etc), I have Pale Moon store the details and a master password set, (not taken from PasswordCards).

Details for banks, VPNs, online stores, etc (anything to do with CC details, finances, etc) are not saved anywhere - the password may be derived from the cards eventually but the login username/ID is not stored anywhere electronic or physical.

I keep meaning to transition all the Pale Moon stored logins to KeePass but ... procrastination and all that.

1672

General Software Discussion / Re: What online services do you pay for?

« Last post by 4wd on September 05, 2015, 08:06 PM »

• iDrive (Backup)
• VPS (Currently 5 of them but reducing to 2)
• VPN.sh (VPN)
• SmartDNS (Get around geo-locked entertainment sites plus they also have VPN)
• NameCheap (Domain names)

Dyn
I also pay for Dyn.com's Dynamic DNS service (hereafter referred to DynDNS), so I can easily get remote access to my IP for various purposes. It's now $40/year, but I don't think it cost that much when I signed up for it, or even the last time I paid. I may switch to some other service if the price continues to rise like this. That said, I split the cost with someone else, since it allows me up to 30 domains and I only use one for myself. So if anyone else wants in on the service, maybe we could join up on the costs.

-Deozaan (September 05, 2015, 07:50 PM)

FWIW, I currently use the free nsupdate.info service, it's open source so I could grab the code and host it on one of my VPSs if I felt the need.  I have a Powershell script that checks my IP every two hours and updates both nsupdate.info and SmartDNS should the IP have changed.

1673

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by 4wd on September 03, 2015, 09:03 PM »

Personally, I think the Custom Options section should be moved under Look and Layout since that's what those options are affecting.

-4wd (September 03, 2015, 07:55 AM)

good idea, will do.

-mouser (September 03, 2015, 08:24 AM)

Thanks mouser.

1674

Official Announcements / Re: Forum Upgraded August 30, 2015 - Report issues here

« Last post by 4wd on September 03, 2015, 07:55 AM »

This is a great feature, maybe it should be explained someplace prominent, so less frequent or new members also realise that it is possible to move the Info Center to the top by going to: Profile > Forum Profile > and adding "-topinfocenter" in the Custom options box:

-dr_andus (September 03, 2015, 05:24 AM)

Personally, I think the Custom Options section should be moved under Look and Layout since that's what those options are affecting.

It was the first place I looked for them instead of reading where they could actually be found ... yeah, I know, I was being too logical

1675

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by 4wd on September 03, 2015, 07:40 AM »

Might have to tweak my waiting for return code from WUSA, using the list from this post I got the following output:

Edit: I wasn't detecting if a restart was required, (Exit code 3010), should be OK now.

I presume that link is okay (?)
PaleMoon and Firefox give warnings on it

-tomos (September 03, 2015, 07:25 AM)

Yes, it's fine.