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2376

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

« Last post by tomos on September 10, 2015, 02:55 PM »

Well, looks like my PC is well and truly messed up. I just tried to do my first AOMEI Backupper backup, and if I choose in the settings VSS (Microsoft's backup technique), I get this error message:

Failed to enable VSS. It may be caused because VSS service is disabled or there is no VSS service. Please check and try again.
Information Code:4140
The backup driver works improperly, you could restart the computer to solve the problem.

and if I choose AOMEI's built-in technique instead, I get:

Information Code:4140
The backup driver works improperly, you could restart the computer to solve the problem.

-dr_andus (September 10, 2015, 11:03 AM)

did you try Aomei via their bootable disc?
I suspect that should work. IIRC it's Win PE based. I made one on a USB stick -- didnt use it to create backup, but it worked well for restore. (Think it's a seperate download from thier site.)

2377

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

« Last post by tomos on September 10, 2015, 02:47 PM »

Surely we need some color! 

-mouser (September 10, 2015, 12:35 AM)

I agree.  White is just too... white.  Especially at night.

-wraith808 (September 10, 2015, 08:14 AM)

yeah, I find white background too bright nights as well.
I do like the current colour scheme, but wonder if a slightly lighter grey background would be better for more contrast with the text.

2378

General Software Discussion / Re: Deleting Recovery Partition and Merging to C drive

« Last post by tomos on September 10, 2015, 02:28 PM »

hi Anand,
I did something similar with a Dell laptop recently - but it was Windows 7 (which from what I hear works very differently to the more recent OS's)

More Aomei experiences:
I wanted to delete a partition; incorporate the freed-up space into 'C'; then divide 'C' into three partitions:
[C | Data | Partition-with-space-for-one-backup-image]

Aomei Partition Assistant:
# I created a boot usb-flash-drive (it's Win PE)
# on a laptop with three partitions (one a miniscule one with some Dell tools), I:

• deleted the 12GB 'Recovery' partition
• I then had to *move* (and resize) the 'C partition so as it would take over the now unallocated space (this was slow: I had to use an 'up' arrow to increase the size of 'C')

At this stage I rebooted: everything was fine so I created a new 'System image' using Aomei Backerupper
I then booted again with Aomei Partition and:

• split 'C' into two partitions
• then split the newly made partition into two partitions

This one worked fine too
So all in all a very successful experience with both tools

-tomos (August 02, 2015, 12:20 PM)

Aomei Partition Assistant was fairly intuitive to use. Was not always completely logical (for a novice like me) - if there's free space before a partition (as in 'C' in my quote) you have to move the partition into the free space - I cant remember all the details now, but I did try and record the steps, so could dig those images out.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Dell laptops (& desktops?) have software installed that breaks the default Windows image backup. It's called Dell Backup & Recovery' It wasnt clear to me how dependable the free version was - so I did not use it at all. For creating image backups, I also used Aomei - Backerupper, the free version. I did do a couple of restores - they worked without problems.

With Windows 8 & 10 isnt the BIOS different or something though? (I read about that kind of stuff and immediately forget all the details...)
I guess this is logical, but if you do go for it, be sure and record details of all partitions, do an image of the complete drive if you can.

2379

Found Deals and Discounts / Context Menu Manager (Free)

« Last post by tomos on September 09, 2015, 03:57 AM »

via Shareware on Sale:
"Free Context Menu Manager (100% discount)"



I havent tried it (yet) - probably worth reading the comments at the link above

2380

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

« Last post by tomos on September 09, 2015, 03:24 AM »

Tomos: Did you get an error message when you tried to use the Youtube icon? I did and added a separate link to the video, but kept the original one and it was shown as you see above.

-Arizona Hot (September 08, 2015, 09:28 PM)

embedded videos are playing fine for me - but I do think it's a good idea to add link and the title of the video,
for cases where the embedded wont play for whatever reason, but also to facilitate search.

2381

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

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 04:33 PM »

I've bumped the forum font size up a small but non-trivial amount.  Better?

-mouser (September 08, 2015, 04:23 PM)

yes, that helps quite a bit here 

what is the font btw?

2382

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

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 03:07 PM »

Here's a decent mashup of just about every movie dance club scene ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QajyNRnyPMs

-Deozaan (September 08, 2015, 11:16 AM)

I thought that was pretty brilliant (and had a couple of good laughs too)

2383

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

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 01:41 PM »

^ wondering if screensize makes a difference:
on a smaller screen (FHD 15.6") I do find unbolded thread titles more difficult to read - maybe I'll get used to it though.

I think it's also to do with the fact there is not so much contrast between the default link colour and the grey background - when not bold, then harder (for me) to read.

2384

Living Room / Re: Take the xkcd weird correlation survey

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 01:27 PM »

^ durn,
   what's a body gotta do to be a rebel these days :-/

2385

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

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 10:21 AM »

Just make sure to do at least one full disk image before starting, ... 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 [..]

-4wd (September 07, 2015, 08:09 PM)

did this lately with AOMEI Backupper (free version . created image backup + mounted to recover files). I restored OS partition from image a couple of times as well. Was much relieved that everything worked, as I hadn't done a restore of an image in years.

2386

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

« Last post by tomos on September 08, 2015, 10:02 AM »

Ok I have switched to a default of non-bolded hyperlinks; i still bold them in a few places (like inside posts) to make them more readable, but elsewhere back to non-bolded.
Remember to hit F5 to force a re-load of the css file to see the changes.

Let me know if you folks like this look better or worse.

-mouser (September 08, 2015, 06:08 AM)

I'd vote for the default being bolded - well, for thread titles anyways. I found them easier to read bold.

2387

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Basic Calculator

« Last post by tomos on September 07, 2015, 10:06 AM »

Are you running a nonstandard DPI by chance?

-Stoic Joker (September 06, 2015, 10:27 PM)

that's probalby it - type is @ 125%
New version looks as it should

I'm not having any luck getting the number pad plus/minus/etc. to fail.

-Stoic Joker (September 06, 2015, 10:27 PM)

me neither any more - this one worked straight out of the box
(win 7 x64)

2388

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

« Last post by tomos on September 06, 2015, 03:08 PM »

Re quoting:
previously the quote would be placed where the cursor was in the reply box.
Now it always goes to the end of whatever text is in the reply box.

I can see advantages to both methods, so just pointing it out in case it hasn't been considered

2389

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Basic Calculator

« Last post by tomos on September 06, 2015, 02:57 PM »

Tomos seems to have the same ("wood grain") brown-ish-ness that I do, although he didn't mention if the number pad worked for him.

-Stoic Joker (September 06, 2015, 02:40 PM)

I was only looking at the screenshot above but the real thing looks the same
I had it already downloaded - but hadnt gotten round to actually trying it yet
but now I've given it a quick run:

Re numberpad etc -
the first time I tried it, no keyboard input worked - but once I added a few digits via mouse, and clicked CE a couple of times, then keyboard input was fine, including the numberpad.
On restarting it, keyboard input was immediately fine.

Oh yeah,
the buttons look different here to your screenshot..



PS the plus / minus / etc. keys aren't working here (should they be working?)

2390

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AppSumo presents SitePoint Premium deal of a lifetime

« Last post by tomos on September 06, 2015, 02:24 PM »

Yes, our primary focus is web development & design, and there is very little that would be of use to anyone that wasn't interested in these topics, specifically.

-app103 (September 05, 2015, 10:16 AM)

Our? SitePoint is your employer? Just curious.

-Innuendo (September 06, 2015, 02:13 PM)

below from the OP -
easy enough to miss though ;-)

* Disclaimer: I work for SitePoint but they have not encouraged nor offered me any compensation to make this post.

-app103 (September 01, 2015, 01:08 AM)

2391

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Basic Calculator

« Last post by tomos on September 06, 2015, 01:05 PM »

I wonder what the rest of the world sees it as..

-Stoic Joker (September 06, 2015, 08:11 AM)

here it's brownish wood tone - as intended. But you're always going to get a lot of variation, depending on the screen.

2392

General Software Discussion / Re: urgent free AVG expired request!

« Last post by tomos on September 06, 2015, 05:12 AM »

edit: just found this free AVG for 365 days offer, installed it, and it looks good so far. 

-bit (September 05, 2015, 09:30 PM)

@bit - I dont think the people who replied saw your edit - that should also be posted as a separate post (is now :p)

2393

UrlSnooper / Re: url snooper is showing nothing

« Last post by tomos on September 05, 2015, 11:12 AM »

this is a very old response but still valid AFAIK (edit// I see mouser confirms this above)

A lot of people seem to want to use Url Snooper for downloading YouTube videos.

The ironic thing is that downloading youtubes is simple and URL Snooper is really more useful for much harder cases.

Youtube videos use a special protocol, but it's not hard to download them.  you don't need url snooper.

-mouser (April 09, 2008, 04:46 PM)

if you want to donwload YT videos, there are many addons and dedicated sites which enable that.
(I'm no expert in the topic, but e.g. dirpy.com | clipconverter.cc | or search addons for your browser.)

See also this search:
https://www.donation...oCrzTZfUnJJeAGaZ80Xw..
in case that doesnt work (the forum is being modified at the moment), search this board for youtube

2394

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

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 02:37 PM »

KIDS REACT TO OLD COMPUTERS

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk

-AbteriX (September 03, 2015, 01:44 PM)

that was good fun - I'll add it here:

2395

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder Major Upgrades - Progress Report Thread

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 11:22 AM »

At the moment, work is slowly progressing on the CMS as we bring over all of the current static pages (mousers software pages and such things) - Now that the design stage has been (almost) finalized, that content will be far faster for us to add and the CMS should be here in no time at all!

-Stephen66515 (September 03, 2015, 11:10 AM)

sounds great

One of the aims behind the move to CMS is to make it easier for content writers to be able to upload their articles to the site and have them features in a nice way (Which will also be auto-posted to all the DC Social Network accounts to raise viewership!) so - from my perspective on this...please write as many new articles as you can possibly write!  The more, the merrier! - There are already sections set up in order to accommodate these articles and there will be a help file available for formatting options!

-Stephen66515 (September 03, 2015, 11:10 AM)

do the sections already have titles?
if so what?
I'm curious what, and how broad or specific they are.


EDIT// never mind :-) see below:

But yeah, if anybody wants updates, wants to offer up a feature suggestion - or other questions about the CMS, feel free to ask and one of us will update as often as we can!

-Stephen66515 (September 03, 2015, 11:20 AM)

Yes, except for the fact that it's taking all of our concentration to focus on migrating the current pages, so please refrain from deep discussions about big new features and content until we get the old content migrated.

-mouser (September 03, 2015, 11:22 AM)

2396

Developer's Corner / Re: Hack font v.2

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 07:43 AM »

^ using good tools, in any area, makes work more of a pleasure.
I find that anyways.

2397

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

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 07:34 AM »

^ Ah okay - you had moved the info-center - I thought you were talking about the default setting.

I still wonder if the info-center / active-thread should be on top in the default setting (I guess it would have to be separated from the other info, but dont know really - must try it at the top myself, see how I like it).

2398

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 07:25 AM »

via https://www.wilderss...tes-to-avoid.379151/

-ewemoa (September 03, 2015, 04:19 AM)

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

2399

Living Room / Re: In a world free from ads, one font reigns supreme. COMIC SANS!

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 07:19 AM »

I'm very disappointed - I've tried three browsers with adblockers and see no comic sans -

we want comic sans
we want comic sans
...
just once at least - then I'd add them to my adblocker white list.
I think it's a great fun way of getting the message across that they want us to allow them to show ads.

If I was inflexible about making an adblocker exception, I dont know how I'd feel - but I'd have to see it first, in comic sans I mean - go back to beginning of post and loop ;-)

2400

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

« Last post by tomos on September 03, 2015, 07:05 AM »

In exploring this forum, [...]

-bit (September 03, 2015, 01:29 AM)

are you posting in the wrong thread (or am I just missing your humour )

and I never noticed them before either - maybe they're new...