Computing desk
< January 31	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 2 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 1

IP addresses listed on several anti-spam\open proxy DBs

Well, this has been bugging me for a while, so let's see what you guys think of it. Most of the IP addresses that are dynamically assigned to me by my ISP (*cough CTBC cough*) are blacklisted on several of the spam\open proxy databases. On a survey I've performed on 50 different IPs throughout the week, I found that most (43 out of 50) IPs are listed on average at eight different databases (I've checked through http://www.dnsstuff.com/)

This is very annoying since I am forced to get a new IP address whenever:

I need to connect to some IRC servers that perform open-proxy checking
I need to comment on certain websites that have security systems against spambots
I need to visit certain websites that restrict access to IPs on such databases.

It's always the same crap, and sometimes I have to try DOZENS of different IPs before I get one that works! The worst thing is that the database entries are usually 6 months older, or more! And no, it probably isn't my computer that's infected by some malware, since it's always some old entry on some database that's being pointed out as the issue. I also keep my firewall and anti-virus updated and running, just in case.

So, I believe that my ISP and\or most of its users must be worthless, careless, insecure and abusive, since they have been abused so much to reach this point. Too bad my ISP has a solid monopoly in this city, I guess. I've called tech support and was able, after several minutes (or was that an hour?), to talk to someone about this and they don't seem to have the slightest idea of what I am talking about. It's like they didn't know what an IP address meant!

Given the monstrosity this company is, and the complete control and lack of effort it has towards the city and its customers, I was wondering if there's ANYTHING on my side I could do to avoid these issues in the future. I mean, I always try to ask these databases for a recheck so the number of blacklisted IPs drop, but I'm probably the only subscriber wasting time with this, and it's a tedious, slow and tiresome thing to do.

I was thinking that maybe using Tor or some other low-level onion routing system would work, but giving mankind's taste for misuse of good tools, I'm guessing these have been abused and banned everywhere as well. I could be wrong, and I'll check that eventually... but, any ideas about what I can do about all this? — Kieff | Talk 00:04, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You actually live in uberland?! :o :o You could try using tor but tor exit nodes are banned by pretty much everything. I don't know of any way to resolve your situation other than moving (and who would move FROM uberland?) or maybe seeing if your ISP has a different tier of service that just happens to have a separate IP range. And what do you mean by [[pt:CTBC|CTBC]]? Do you mean DHCP? --⁪froth^T 00:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Eh, I thought Tor would be banned by now... The name of the city is completely misleading, by the way. The 600k habitant city is really pathetic, and the only place for "entertainment" is either the single, small shopping center around called "Center Shopping", the several nasty bars (at least 1 every 2 blocks) or a few nightclubs. The city is moved by silly, shallow hedonistic lifestyles, really. I'm trying to leave it as soon as I can! The place depresses me. Oh, and CTBC is the local phone company. They control every single phone line and are the sole provider of broadband. Needless to say, it charges about 7 times as much as the others everywhere else in the country (yeah, I checked). I'm paying 30 USD/month for 224 kbit/s ADSL and that's all the choice I have! Ah... Uber-land indeed. — Kieff | Talk 00:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You might consider purchasing a dedicated server from a reputable vendor (rackspace comes to mind but $$$) and proxy through that. Droud 01:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have exactly the same problem on the other side of the planet in Australia. I tried to join a forum which kept replying my IP was banned, what I ended up doing was going through a anonymous web proxy, which worked for me, but i don't know if it will be suitable for your purpose. Vespine 02:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows Vista

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows Vista (even though it is a bit self-heavy) but I'm not sure if my computer can handle it, I was looking at my system details on SETI@home in my account, and it said my computer had a 2.6 GHz Processor , 760 MB’s of RAM, and a DirectX 10 (?) and a 3D graphics card. And it says in the article Windows Vista that I need a 1 GB of memory, a 1 GHz Processor so I'm split between recommended requirements and minimum requirements, so is my computer up to it? And if it is, do I have to save all my documents, movies, music etc. to a USB drive or a CD, or is this just a recommended safety precaution?

Thanks! - 210.55.147.228 02:05, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think Windows Vista could probably run on that machine, although it may not be the smoothest. Yes, save your documents and other files in case something goes wrong. Splintercellguy 03:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's a decent computer and it will definitely run Vista, but you might turn off some of the spiffy graphics stuff if it turns out to be slow. And for the second question, you don't have to save your stuff; the upgrade keeps it for you. --Spoon! 04:04, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unless something borks out during the install. Doesn't even have to be caused by the software - what if you have a power outage? It's always a good idea to backup your files before doing such large scale updates, just in case. You never quite know what could go wrong. TERdON 10:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It will run fairly well on 760MB of ram but not with the "glass" themes. You don't have a DX10 graphics card, they don't exist. You should save what you want to another media (another hard drive, a usb memory stick, a cd), then do a clean install over your old Windows which will erase everything. Then copy your stuff back into vista. It will probably ask you if you want to do an "in-place" upgrade which will allow you to keep all of your own files, but it will cost you performance and that's not what you need with those specs. Also, what kind of processor do you have? A pentium 4? If it's dual core (probably Core Duo or Core 2 Duo) then you'll have very good performance and you have absolutely nothing to worry abuot. --⁪froth^T 04:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have a celeron proccessor, will i need to get a Pentium 4 to have the glass "aero" effects, if so how much will it cost in USD? Thanks -- 210.55.148.13 07:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You will need to buy another computer, most likely over $1000, to have those effects and run them decently. I suggest sticking with the computer you have and not upgrading, Vista won't give you anything substantial worth the hassle. --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 08:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't there a link on Microsoft where you can go to and it will examine your machine to determine if it's Vista compatible? Corvus cornix 19:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is indeed. MS provides a neat little software called The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor which will examine your system and see if it is compatible. Oskar 19:34, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

google cache

I'm trying to see if google cached powerpoint notes on the site http://www.geocities.com/hawaugh2002/notes/(dir of notes) Does anyone know if google caches this or how to access it if it does? Thanks. --75.84.49.209 03:18, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No. You can see if google caches a particular file by searching for cache:http://url.com/blah/file.ppt but google doesn't even index any part of your site so nothing to worry about. Archive.org doesn't have it either --⁪froth^T 04:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

UNIX shell programming

explain what the following do in UNIX shell prpogramming

ctrl-w
ls-s/home/camp>>filex
mkdir

Depends on the shell, but: 1) Nix the last word, 2) man ls, 3) man mkdir -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T15:05Z

In other words, 1) Erases the last word (I think), 2) Look a the man page on ls, 3) look at the man page on mkdir --⁪froth^T 19:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the ">> filex" redirects the output of the command "ls ..." to be appended to the file "filex" --Spoon! 00:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ctrl-w deletes the word before the cursor.
ls -s /home/camp >> filex (note the spaces :-) lists all the files in /home/camp. -s probably displays the sizes next to the list, but check the man page. The >> filex sends the output which would go to stdout (the screen) to a file called filex. As it's >> and not > it will append the data to an existing file if a file called filex already exists.
mkdir creates a directory.

--h2g2bob 02:02, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

guys, this sounds like homework. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:45, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Windows Vista ready

Can anyone tell me if these computer specs would be good for installing windows vista home premium

Hard drive 40GB Pentium 4 2.4GHZ Directx9 XP home 512 DDR RAM

--Biggie 09:12, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Stick with XP. Vista will make this machine grind to a halt (or, at best, a very slow crawl). yandman 09:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yep --⁪froth^T 13:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank You--Biggie 18:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The recommended spec that Windows quotes for 'home basic' version is...1ghz, 512mb RAM, 20gb hd (with 15gig available space left), Directx9 and 32mb graphics memory, DVD-rom, Audio Ouput and internet-access. There is absolutely no reason why the spec you mentioned cannot run Windows Vista smoothly enough. It is preferrable to have a faster PC and it may run 'slower' than in store, but when purchasing software you must always make a trade-off between speed/response times and the benefits the application bring. If you believe Vista is worth the upgrade then according to Microsoft's spec recommendationss your computer should be able to run the system fine. ny156uk 23:19, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thats why I love this commercial! It's so true! schyler 23:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not, schyler, and Ny's comment is blatantly incorrect, unless you run Vista at its lowest-level and don't run any powerful applications with it. Your computer most likely has no graphics card at all. Vista will probably not do so well with integrated graphics cards, nor your 512mb of ram or your pentium 4. If you had at least a basic gfx card, I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say "yes you can run it" but with those specs, not only do I not recommend it, I'm not sure if it'll run any faster than what Froth said. --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 23:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So, let me get this right. You say that his computer doesnt need to be upgraded to run Vista, but for it run well at all, he should upgrade it. How the hell is it not right? schyler 23:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, his computer doesn't need to be upgraded if he sticks with XP, but he needs to upgrade at least his graphics card to run Vista at any rate. Your Mac comment is soapboxing. --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 23:53, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You still didn't answer me. How am I not correct in posting that link ad how is the commercial not corect when he has to upgrade? schyler 00:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The advertisement has nothing to do with upgrading Vista... And that computer might be able to run Vista - but it will be painful. I have seen XP run painfully slow and it is no fun at all. x42bn6 Talk 00:14, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What?! The commercial is about PC having to go in and get all his innards upgraded to efficiantly run Vista. And that's exactly what I'm talking about: it will run painfully slow! I know exactly how that is. I was a life-lon Windows user and evrry time Windows came out with a new version, I bought it, of course after I made sure I had the minimum requirments. It always sucked. I always hadto eventually buy a new computer. This was the case with Windows 98, 2000 (professional), XP, and I'm sure it would have happened with Vista. On Mac, it just works. Now I posted my comment about the commercial, because its funny and true. I really didn't want to get in to any argument of sorts, but it seemed to have happened anyways. schyler 00:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry but this is entirely gibberish. The spec as recommended by Windows themselves is met (and surpassed) by this user's computer (save for the graphics card - details of which he has not given). Yes it will run faster on a faster computer...strangely enough...yes advanced features may not be available/useable on a near base-spec machine, but NO there is no reason to believe the computer spec above cannot run the latest operating system. Just like many games can run on base-specs and look half as good as on high-end spec, so will Vista run on low-spec and not look as good/work as well as on high-spec. The user may buy Vista safe in the knowledge that from the spec given nothing he mentions is not above (or equal to) the recommended spec by Windows themselves. It may be beneficial to upgrade parts on your computer to improve performance, but it is not, as suggested above, a necessity. ny156uk 01:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OS X "just works" on old hardware because you only have one bit of color depth per pixel. Only need one; you only have 2 colors, grey and silver :) --⁪froth^T 01:30, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Aside from the OSX vs Vista thing, I really do suggest that the user not buy Vista until at least Service Pack 2 comes out. And about the comment from Froth, I think it's funny some how, but I dont relly understand it. schyler 02:06, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Color depth and 1-bit color --⁪froth^T 19:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, froth, your wrong. You haven't mentioned all of the colours in between gray and silver. :):) --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whoa is that a new feature in Leopard? I might have to switch! :o --⁪froth^T 19:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You want to know my graphics card its a intel extreme graphics one. i am wondering if i should upgrade the card to an nvidia G force.--Biggie 00:59, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Information technology & Information systems

briefly explain an organization functional department,tasks & management levels of that organization and highlight the information technology & information systems ethical decisions they make

Please, always say please, always sign your posts, and make it not look like homework. We have done our fair share of homework in our lifespans and do not want to do it any more. Thank you. --Ouro (blah blah) 12:12, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Searching copyvio

(Question moved from talk page)

Hello. I'm from Russian Wikipedia. Last week we've had a problem: We've found out copyvio in some featured articles. It was very awful. So the question is: Is there any good searh engine that can determine if an article contains some paragraphs or some sentences from other sites? I don't mean Google or other engines - it is good enough, but you must take phrases from every paragraphs to find out copyvio. I also know about http://www.copyscape.com/ - it's a good stuff, but it isn't free (as I see) and it don't work correctly. Thanks for answering. Vinograd19 00:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about Russian, but in/on English, most people use Google or another engine. Generally plagiarized text will contain certain key phrases, series of words, etc. Search for those. If you do use Google, be sure to click "show similar results". Sorry that I don't know of anything specific. 68.39.174.238 14:36, 10 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How to shorten a MPEG movie

I have a Sony P72 Cyber-shot digital camera that also takes MPEG movies besides the normal JPG pictures.
I would like to take an "MPEG movie" that is large in size (i.e. 50 MB) and take out just a small portion of it.
This "nitty-gritty" part (i.e. 1 MB) then I would like to put into a Wikipedia article as a clip showing a short event.
In this process (if possible) does it then end up as another MPEG movie or something else (i.e. movie GIF)?
Is it most proper to insert a GIF movie into a Wikipedia article or a MPEG movie?
Will dial-up people have trouble with short movies (i.e. 1 - 2 MB)?
--Doug ^talk 14:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can't really embed movies on Wikipedia. You can do GIFs, but you should keep them short to avoid forcing people to download a huge image. The preferred media type for uploaded video is probably Theora/Vorbis/OGG. -- mattb @ 2007-02-01T15:45Z

The easiest way to cut out parts of an MPEG movie is to plunk down the $25 or whatever for Quicktime Pro, which makes it very easy. There are some other, free solutions out there, but most of them involve either trying to make complicated editing software do what you want for a very simple job, or converting the file from MPEG into another format (i.e. into AVI) and then using a specialized piece of software for the job (i.e. VirtualDub). My recommendation, in terms of the smallest use of your time, is to get Quicktime Pro, which will take about 5 minutes total (and be useful in the future, perhaps), rather than spending the 5+ hours it will probably take you if you try to do it with semi-functional and semi-documented open source free stuff. (I say this from experience, if you can't tell.) --24.147.86.187 00:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

VLC again :D Use file, wizard and specify a start and stop time. Wikimedia Commons might accept your video, but check the rules before uploading. You could then add a link to the video on commons. --h2g2bob 01:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also note that your P72 saves the video in MPEG-1 format. Transcoding it into, say, MPEG-4 or Theora may reduce the file size significantly, especially if you apply some good noise reduction filters while you're at it. (Of course, doing this badly is a good way of turning your video into unwatchable mush. Tweak the settings in your video editor until it looks good.) Transcoding to Theora is needed anyway if you want to upload your video to Commons. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 16:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NTFS boot sectors...?

Is ther a virus or any software that can render all NTFS boot sectors unwritable? -- Barringa 15:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, though such viruses are probably not limited to NTFS partitions. See boot virus. Splintercellguy 16:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

what? unwritable? how the hell are you meant to do that without damaging the hard drive itself? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:46, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What soundcard do I have?

Hi there. Hopefully this will be a easy question: What soundcard do I have? I have a found a couple of devices, though I got no idea of which it really is:

ASUS TV7134 WDM Capture
ASUS WDM TV/FM Tuner
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)

The brand is HP if it is to any help :). Thanks, I really appriciate your help! Cybesystem 15:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS. Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, to be precise. --Kjoonlee 15:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks! Now I can get the right drivers :)

computer c drive and d drive

What are the differences and why do other computers only have a c drive. Why does my c drive only have 5% used and the d drive 53% used?69.157.42.42 16:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The drive letters refer to different devices (or, even possibly different parts of the same physical device). See drive letter. Friday (talk) 16:25, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If your PC is pre-built, chances are D is a recovery partition, keeping an image of the windows install that is copied over to C when recovery mode is run. Cyraan 18:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Per Friday, the letters refer to two different hard disks, or two different disk partitions. The different levels of use depend on how big each is and what is stored in them. 68.39.174.238 14:39, 10 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can PCI-E bus talk to the USB port of a computer

HI there. Could someone please help me. Will it be technically possible to have a PCI-E bus in a computer talk to something like a USB port on the outisde so that things like graphics cards can be connected at USB without opening the computer case . Just like any other USB device

greetings no I don't think you can do that, and to be honest it's not that hard to install a graphics card, they will only go in one way! ps dont forget to sign comments... Jackacon 16:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not too sure if this is correct, but I believe PCIE has a much faster data rate than USB. There is, however, a mobile graphics card coming out next year that'll plug into a laptop's side port (forget the name of the technology now), that I suppose is similar. --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 18:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

USB (even 2.0) is too slow. What you want is a PCI Express cable, which allows you to extend the PCI Express bus several meters outside the box. --cesarb 19:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And, if you are interested in an external graphics card, see NVIDIA Quadro Plex. --cesarb 19:29, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

CruzerSync

I've had this flash drive for months and I only now took a closer look. It came with three programs, one of them being CruzerSync. It automatically syncs certain files to the flash drive, so you don't have to worry about differences between content on the computer and content on the flash drive. However, it costs something awful for what little it does. Are there any free alternatives anybody knows of?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IIRC, Windows itself has a synchronize function. It may or not be as good as commercial alternatives, but at least it's free. --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 18:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And I can find this...where?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 18:35, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go into windows help and do a search for "Briefcase". It should do most of what you're looking for. --Maelwys 19:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've found my way to it and installed a double briefcase that will either update the computer files or the flash drive files on command. Many thanks, my friends!--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 01:51, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's also SyncToy. kmccoy (talk) 02:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

C++ syntax problem

Hey, I've been trying to get some programming practice at www.topcoder.com , since you aren't allowed to use LISP there I have to use C++ (or C#, java or visual basic, I'm sticking with C++ for now). The problems must have specific method signatures and class names to be submitted, but I'm getting an error (line 13, string[] BinaryCode::decode(String message)) saying expected unqualified-id before '[' token, I have no idea what this means (perhaps I need to specify something about using an array?) but I'm basically in a Catch 22 situation, I must use a specific method signature but that signature is giving me an error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Robin

Posting your code here (or at least the relevant snippet) would greatly improve our chances to help you. TERdON 22:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, just didn't want to take up too much space

class BinaryCode
{

  int main() {
      decode("23210")
      return 0;
      }
//string[] BinaryCode::decode(String message)
string[] decode(String message)
{
	String[] result;
	String answer;
	int previousNum, nextNum, currentNum = 0;
	answer[0] = codedString[0] - previousNum;
	for (i from 1; i < codedString.length; i++) {
		currentNum = convert(codedString[i - 1]);
		previousNum = nextNum;
		nextNum = convert(answer[i - 1]);
		if ( (currentNum - (previousNum + nextNum)) > 1) {
			result[0] = "NONE";
			break; 
			}
		else {
			answer[i] = currentNum -  (previousNum + nextNum);
		}
	}
		if (result[0] != "NONE") {
			result[0] = answer;
			}
			
	previousNum = 1;
	answer[0] = codedString[0] - previousNum;
	for (i from 1; i < codedString.length; i++) {
		currentNum = convert(codedString[i - 1]);
		previousNum = nextNum;
		nextNum = convert(answer[i - 1]);
		if ( (currentNum - (previousNum + nextNum)) > 1) {
			result[1] = "NONE";
			break; 
			}
		else {
			answer[i] = currentNum -  (previousNum + nextNum);
		}
	}
		if (result[1] != "NONE") {
			result[1] = answer;
			}
			
	}
	return result;
} 
int convert(char a){
	  int result = int(a) -48;
	return result;
	}   
} ;

I'm pretty sure that you can't implement your functions within the class declaration. --⁪froth^T 23:23, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can. They are automatically inlined. --Spoon! 23:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot pass or return arrays in C++. You also cannot declare an unitialized array without dimensions like "string[] result;" It looks like your "result" is only going to only contain two strings. You might declare an array of two strings in your "main", and pass it (as the pointer to the first element) into "decode" to use; or you allocate an array of two strings dynamically (using "new" operator) in "decode", and then you can return it (as the pointer to the first element), and remember to free it (with "delete") afterwards. Or you can learn to use a data structure like "vector" instead of an array.

On unrelated notes, you have too many closing braces. Also, in C++ the "main" function of a program exists outside of any classes. Also, the way that you have declared "decode" and "convert", they are instance methods, and you need to have a BinaryCode instance to use them. You could also declare them static (as class methods) and then you would not need an instance. --Spoon! 23:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, your for loop syntax ("i from 1") is wrong. And the "string" class (at least the one in the standard library) should start with a lowercase "s". --Spoon! 01:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

decode("23210") and string[] decode(String message) don't need semicolons? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

expected unqualified-id before '[' token: You have a type declaration with no variable name. You're trying to declare an array of String, but you haven't given it a name. In addition, you need to either specify the number of elements in the array, or provide explicit initialization. One of the other of these should work depending on what you want and what a String object is: String s_array[3]; or String s_array[] = {"s_one", "s_two", "s_three"}; Wake 04:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The "for (i from ..." stuff makes me suspect that you have #defined some clever macros. If that is the case, it will be very difficult for us to spot errors in your code. Be warned that macros are evil. --NorwegianBlue^talk 12:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Vista configuration questions

Help on any of these would be appreciated.

Is there any way to turn off the tasks toolbar in Explorer?
How do I use the full file path instead of the breadcrubs in the address bar?
Is there any way to make Segue UI look decent without using ClearType? It makes Courier New (wikipedia textareas) look painfully blurry.
What's wrong with the start menu? I've moved Administrative Tools into Accessories but windows keeps creating an empty Admin Tools folder directly under all programs. Same with Office 2007. And my custom positions for the accessories keep resorting themselves by name, even though I have Sort Programs By Name unchecked in the options. I want folders at the top, dangit!
Is it possible to manually register games with the Games interface?
What are the filenames of the .cpl control panel applets so I can disable most of them in HKCU/Control Panel?

Thanks --⁪froth^T 23:21, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

and 2. seem to show up in ShellExView, but disabling them does nothing.
Above
Are you turning font smoothing off completely, or just clear type? i.e. go into the window appearance options, then the classic appearance menu, the effects dialog, and finally change font smoothing to Standard. If that doesn't look right, then I don't think there's any other way around it, other than perhaps changing your monospaced font from Courier New .
Beats me. Try just using the search feature; that is, hit the Windows key, type in the start of what you're looking for, and hit enter or click on it. It's much quicker.
Drag the game or a shortcut to it and drop it into the games explorer window. It won't do the advanced things (sys. requirements, last time played), but it does act as a shortcut
They're all in Windows\System32, with fairly self-explanatory file names. vgrd

-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

With #6 you can open the .cpl files with control.exe to see what they are. As Consumed Crustacean said above, they are in %WINDIR%\System32. --h2g2bob 03:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

1 and 2 are both in "View > Folder options" in any normal opened file folder. 68.39.174.238 15:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]