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General Software Discussion / Which idiot came up with Windows Defender * UAC

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 21, 2009, 04:56 AM »

Is anyone REALLY frustrated  (like me) about the behaviour of Windows Defender?

Having been using Windows Vista on my laptop for a while now I had not noticed any particular issues so I decided to give Windows Defender another try on my office desktop running Windows XP Pro.

Everytime I start up Windows stupid Defender blocks a number of applications from starting - including business software supplied to me by my Bank (and written by one of the better known business software companies) - until I give permission for it to run.

There appears to be no mechanism to add the applications to the allowed list so I am faced by a set of tasks every time I switch on my computer!

I looked online and the only way to add anything to the allowed list is to respond to a popup but these blocked apps don't produce the required pop up duing startup (and if I exit them and start them manually they work fine).

Windows Defender has gone from my system now - but why on earth would anyone write such a stupid piece of security software.

I haven't looked - does anyone know if you can disable this behaviour in Windows Vista (and 7 when it emerges)?

Also UAC stops the simple seach tool "Everything" from being run at startup in Vista  !!! The only way I could get it to start with the computer was to set up a scheduled task that runs at logon with full admin rights - how stupid is that ... again no 'allowed' or 'exceptions' list.

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Living Room / Re: Should I switch from xp to vista?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 21, 2009, 04:32 AM »

I just bought a laptop with 32 bit OS. Does that mean I will be unable to run windows 7 on it when it comes out? Will a 64 bit OS run on a machine with 32 bit? Is it the chip that makes it a 32/64 bit machine or the programs?

-Kimitwo (April 21, 2009, 02:03 AM)

Any machine that runs Vista should be able to run Windows 7 (that's Microsoft's stated goal).

Windows 7 will have both 32-bit and 64-bit support (just like Vista).  Also, even though you're currently running a 32-bit OS, it's quite possible that your machine can run a 64-bit OS. x64 machines can be set up with either a 32-bit or a 64-bit OS (but there are definitely machines that are only capable of running a 32-bit OS).

-mwb1100 (April 21, 2009, 04:22 AM)

If that machine came with Vista pre-installed then it will almost certainly allow the choice of 32 or 64 bit operating system. Whether you want to use 64 bit is another matter (at least in the short term).

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Living Room / Re: Should I switch from xp to vista?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 21, 2009, 04:30 AM »

Windows 7 is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours (I have them both installed on a test machine - not that I have spent that much time with them).

If you want to use a 64 bit I don't see it makes much difference whether you use XP or Vista at the moment as there isn't a huge amount of support out there for native 64 software.

Personally I still use 32 bit XP as my workhorse (and I have finally moved to Vista on my laptop because I need to be familiar with Vista for work). AIUI there are few performance gains moving from 32 to 64 bit (in some cases it appears they are slower than 32 bit - which is ludicrous) the only advantage of 64 bit is being able to add more memory and if you have 4Gb you will probably get to use 3.5Gb of it (depending on your graphics card) so to me it isn't really worth the effort.

MS are hinting that Windows 7 will be released in the late summer so I wouldn't spend another penny on upgrading or changing windows for the time being - having said that I personally avoid every version of Windows until Service Pack 1 is released as there are normally loads of compatibility issues and bugs with new operating systems. Having said that Windows 7 should really be called Vista SP3 so it shouldn't be too much of a problem from the off in terms of compatibility.

I guess MS want to move to 64 bit only but they are currently stuffed by 32-bit legacy software issues (including many users with MS's own earlier products that don't work well in 64 bit) and the fact that many companies are still aiming at the 32 bit only market because that is where the sales are and the vast majority of end users.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Website design recommendations for a small business site?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 21, 2009, 04:13 AM »

I am just getting into using Joomla and finding it a fantastic tool. There are loads of free templates out there (e.g. JoomlaShack) but if you want to personalise them you can use the commercial product Artisteer (www.artisteer.com) to produce your own template. It works VERY simply by suggesting a rough template design (click until you get one you like) and then you can customise just about everything you want (graphics, colours, layouts) by working along a tabbed interface and tweaking settings that you want to change. Artisteer produces templates for Joomla, Wordpress and Drupal (amongst others including plain HTML).

Joomla can take a little getting used to but I found some excellent videos to get you started at http://www.buildajoomlawebsite.com/ (they aren't free but only cost $10).

Here is my first attempt using Artisteer and Joomla (I am porting it from WordPress and it isn't quie complete yet): www.friendsofgovi.org.uk

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Living Room / Re: copying files over a school network

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2009, 06:37 PM »

That sounds very good Carol but I am not very good with batch files.  but where does the list of recipients come from or stored at?

-techidave (April 19, 2009, 04:56 PM)

You could create a batch file for each bunch of recipients so you have lines like:

COPY %1 \\Server\Student1\

etc.

Perhaps a better alternative would be to use a Sync tool - that way you could set it to sync one way only from one folder to multiple destinations - then just drop the files you want to copy into the source folder and click Sync.

There are numerous free file sync tools out there or if you want to buy a good one try SyncBack - see http://www.2brightsparks.com/ (look under Download Freeware for a free version) or you could try SyncToy from Microsoft (one of the free Windows PowerTools) - see http://www.microsoft...ads/synctoybeta.aspx

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Living Room / Re: copying files over a school network

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 19, 2009, 04:48 PM »

How about writing a batch file to distribute to a list of recipients and then the teach just has to drop a file on the icon?

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Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 17, 2009, 06:55 PM »

I have one of the BenQ monitors too (and am pleased you are happy since I recommended them). I love mine - it is brilliantly clear and bright.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 16, 2009, 04:18 PM »

There is truth in Josh's comment but there is also truth in other comments. Procuts that have been discussed in this (and other threads) include:

• Breeze Browser - this simply changed its name by adding Pro and (AFAICS) added no functionality at all (at least not at the point they did it)
• FruityLoops - SOLD lifetime upgrades as an add-on product and THEN changed the name of the product and no longer support the product they SOLD lifetime upgrades to. They now SELL lifetime upgrades to the 'new' product - but every version they release comes with extra features in the form of trial plugins which are additional cost if you want to use them. AFAICS the core application changes very little from version to version.
• Collectorz editions - used lifetime upgrade guarantees to sell their products and changed the model but carried on supporting the 'lifetime' customers with new version. That was fair enough but they are now shifting ground towards subscription use of the only data base they continue to support in order to get around the issue with users who are entitled to those free upgrades.

All three of these examples used fraudulent practices to market their products dishonestly and they need to be shown up for it.

I don't agree that Slysoft did the same thing at all. AnyDVD is still an active product that gets regular free updates, AnyDVD HD is a different product that shares some common functions and has required a lot of different expenditure in terms of time and effort to produce that does not benefit the market who originally purchased AnyDVD. I suppose they could have produced AnyDVD and AnyHD as completely separate non-overlapping products and sold them separately - and in terms of marketing perhaps it would have made more sense to have done that. The people who benefit from the current situation are the ones who buy the HD version - the normal DVD version users really don't have any right to complain (IMHO).

It is ironic that the only company behaving ethically in this list produce a product that can put their customers into jail for just owning it (at least in the UK)!!!

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Living Room / Re: XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 15, 2009, 12:48 PM »

Cost very little to shove in a USB2.0 PCI card (literally a few dollars - probably under 10 if you look around) - worth doing even for a second computer.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 15, 2009, 08:29 AM »

Ditto - I used BreezeBrowser and dropped it for the same reason.

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Living Room / Re: XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 14, 2009, 08:28 PM »

EDIT:  One other thing I found really useful to do on any image - make a txt file that lists everything on it at that point and put it on the desktop just before creating the image!  That way when you wonder if you installed this or that, you can just reference that file after you restore it.  It also provides a simple list that you can add to any metafile data you have for that file.

-steeladept (April 14, 2009, 05:12 PM)

I use SnagIt to take a snapshot of my Start menu which also works well.

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Living Room / Re: XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 14, 2009, 11:24 AM »

Sounds like USB 1.1 to me - theoretically USB2 should be able to move about 60MB/sec (about 3.5GB/min)

In practice it is much slower than this with USB thumb drives because they can't reach that speed themselves but 1Gb per minute seems a bit too slow for USB 2.

Try using Windows Update to see if there are any hardware updates for your USB drivers (version 2.0 drivers should be included with XP SP2 onwards).

Silly question - do you have USB2 ports?

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Living Room / Re: XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 13, 2009, 12:35 PM »

Now I do wonder how to determine for sure that my drivers are USB 2.0, although they came with the system and the Precision 380 is supposed to be 2.0.  I have some special pages to read on that .. apparently in that area the vendors are a little slack in giving clear info.

-Steven Avery (April 13, 2009, 12:09 PM)

Simple solution is to plug in a USB 2 device (a thumb drive?). If it isn't USB 2.0 windows should complain and say that you could run it faster with a USB 2 port.

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Living Room / Re: XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 12, 2009, 08:27 PM »

If you use a generic XP ISO you will need to enter a license code and activate it. There should be an XP code on the case but they don't always work.

You can always use a utility to backup the current activation state of your XP (and read the current registration code - which won't be the one on the outside of the case).

There is a link in these forums for the official ISO files of Windows XP SP3 (both Home and Pro editions) from the MS website. I don't know if they still work.

Here is the link I was looking for: Download XP SP3 ISO files. Not all the links work now (but some do).

If the links don't work there you can download an XP ISO from http://www.majorgeek...k_3_Final_d4323.html (click on 'The  Author's Site' link near the top)

Unfortunately I am not sure if that one is Home or Pro.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft planning to 'push' upgrades to IE8

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 12, 2009, 01:29 PM »

I haven't used IE8 that much (as I mostly use Firefox) but I haven't noticed any strange behaviour.

One thing is if you want to hide a toolbar you must deactivate the addin that is responsible for the toolbar. I suppose it makes sense but seems a bit unnecessary.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Sysinternals PageDefrag: Good, Bad?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 10, 2009, 10:15 AM »

No - the Vista approach would cause more fragmentation.

You are assuming that there are large contiguous free spaces on your hard disk.

If you have 3Gb of memory then Vista will create a 3Gb page file initially - and there is absolutely no guarantee that there will be 3Gb of contiguous free space - and contiguous free space is not a requirement for the creation of a page file.

By setting a fixed page file size and then defragging it you will get a single page file that will be used every time you start Windows and so it shouldn't ever need to be defragged again as the same space will be used every time.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Sysinternals PageDefrag: Good, Bad?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 10, 2009, 03:36 AM »

Excellent tool but if you want to avoid fragmentation before you use it set your page file to a fixed size. By default Windows XP sets page file to have minumum and maximum values.

In WIndows Vista the default is 'let windows manage it' and there are no details of size. The good and the bad are that in Vista by default page file is deleted when Windows is shutdown or restarted which can lead to a lot of fragmentation (and means that page file defragmentation doesn't work because there is no page file to defragment. Change the page file to fixed size and then defrag it.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 08, 2009, 05:11 PM »

I have installed 3 times -  no problems, no BSODS.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 08, 2009, 04:32 AM »

The point is that the the defragger doesn't even know where the partition is on the disc surface - if you have partitioned your disc into 4 partitions it is still going to be putting the fastest access files on the 'outer rim' and claiming a 400% increase - if the partition is only 10Gb on a 500Gb disc and the fourth created it is in the last 2% of the disc surface and there won't be any smart placement benefits at all.

Also unless the technology they use actually uses low level code to access the disc surface directly (in which case they would have to pretty much produce their own file system and break all the windows design criteria - not to mention get below even kernel mode and have different code for every drive manufacturer and model) there is no way for an app to know where the Windows API is putting the files physically.

I agree it is probably true that if Windows API is moving the files to a faster part of the disc then this is probably true in reality but the abstraction layer deliberately built into windows is there precisely so that vendors don't work at hardware level and therefore they can have no idea what the API is actually doing in reality.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: For mac user, Macheist 3. more than 10 apps for $39 only

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 07, 2009, 08:34 AM »

Yes - but I have removed the affiliate bit

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Living Room / Re: Please help me build my new computer, DC!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 05, 2009, 06:53 PM »

Lots of depressed looking photos - surely you smiled at your new toys 

That case is E N O R M O U S ---- you'll never be homeless!

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 05, 2009, 06:46 PM »

Perfect Disk works fine for me - I have even defragged a disk with less than 1% free without problem.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 05, 2009, 04:54 PM »

Thanks - it is downloadble but to be honest I am pretty happy with Perfect Disk 10

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Total Defrag 2009 For Free - Powerful but controversial

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 05, 2009, 12:48 PM »

Ultimat Defrag looks very nice and seems to give a lot of control. However there are a couple of thoughts/questions I have:

How does it actually perform the defrag? Perfect Disk and DiskKeeper both us the MS API and if UD uses the MS API to achieve this (and hopefully it does for the sake of security and consistency) then how can they argue where they place files since the API only gives a virtual view of the hardware and doesn't let software where to physically place specific files on the hardware. A number of years ago I had a long conversation with a tech from Perfect Disk where I had it explained that actual physical placement is not possible through the API only logical placement within the API view. Logically contiguous files are really pysically contiguous but the software cannot guarantee which physical blocks on the hardware are used.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2003 - PST file corruption. Is it X1 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on April 04, 2009, 04:58 AM »

a caveat, when you DO convert an ost to pst it seems to automatically insert the contents into your current pst. Thus, when I opened Outlook on my computer after running the tool, the five items from my wife's ost file showed up as new items in my inbox!

-Darwin (April 01, 2009, 11:37 AM)

The contacts appeared in your Inbox ???? Doesn't sound like a good recovery tool if they don't manage to place contacts into a contacts folder.

If I have misunderstood there is a simple solution to your problem - go to Control Panel / Mail and create a new local profile for Outlook. This creates a new empty PST file and you can extract stuff to that profile instead. You should then end up with a complete self contained PST file.