Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Windows

Help me fix a hard drive that fails at 86%

patrad — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:54:46 -0800

How can I recover anything off this hard drive that fails low level scans at 86%? I'm fixing a friend's computer. He has a SATA 160gb Maxtor drive. First, the XP registry went and would BSOD on boot and recovery. After chkdsk failed a couple times and I could not fix or restore the registry, I installed Win7 on a new SATA drive. Once installed, it started to recognize the other drive and I managed to copy a couple folders over.

Then Win7 stopped recognizing the drive. Rebooted, and the BIOS sees the drive but Win7 does not. I can boot into PE and run drive diagnostics.

SeaTools just stops at 86%.
MHDD scans fine until 86.3% at which point it shows about 49 UNC (Uncorrectable Errors) and 27 AMNF (address mark not found)

Clearly something is failing at that point on the platter. At this point I'm stuck. What tool is best to be able to copy the 86% of the drive over to the new one and start file recovery if possible?

Cheap Windows 7?

tucsongal — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:37:16 -0800

What is the absolute cheapest way to get Windows 7? I would like to get a copy of Windows 7 and I'd like to pay the minimal amount (of money) possible. However, I am willing to whore anything else out (like my personal info to Microsoft) or things along those lines to get the price as close to zero as possible.

I am the director of IT for a software consulting shop and I personally have a small consulting company on the side.

What kind of deals from MSFT do I qualify for?

Which OS for my Netbook?

lemonfridge — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:08:52 -0800

What OS for my Samsung NC20? I'm receiving a Samsung NC20 for xmas, which will become my primary PC for web-browsing, iTunes, Picasa etc.

I've already ordered myself a CD/DVD drive to use with it, and a 2Gb RAM upgrade.

Which OS should I install on it? It comes with XP Home, but I have the option of putting Windows 7 on instead (Ultimate 64bit version).

Should I go for 7, XP, or something else entirely (not keen on Linux, but maybe a dual boot?)

Looking for good system monitoring / task scheduling software

Nothing — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:09:28 -0800

Looking for good system monitoring / task scheduling software to run on Windows for server monitoring as well as running custom scripts for keeping track application specific metrics. Right now I am using a hand-rolled solution which runs scripts and updates logs / sends emails on output. It's nice because it is easy to add new custom tasks and metrics, but I am looking to migrate the functionality into something a little more robust, possibly with the ability to keep track of tasks running on multiple machines, etc.

Delicious for pdfs?

furious — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:55:40 -0800

How can I organize offline pdfs on windows so that they're easy to find offline using a standard browser? In a perfect world, it would be like delicious, but for pdfs. Tags, sortable by tags, compact display. Endnote and Wordpress are the available tools. This is on Windows. There is an offline wordpress blog. There are a bunch of pdfs in folders on a shared drive. I wish I could have something like delicious, where anybody who has access to the shared drive could look for the pdfs by putting in tags. The listings brought up would be linked to the pdf files.

So with Endnote, Wordpress and a bunch of pdf files, how can I create an index that allows the pdfs to be searched for easily, by subject, tag, author, etc using a standard browser? A single page could be created on the wordpress blog with a list of all the pdfs, with keywords. A control+f search could be used to locate useful pdfs. But that would not be sortable. The wordpress blog already has entries, so entering each pdf as a separate entry would not work - tags would give you things other than links to the pdf files. An additional wordpress blog solely for the pdfs is not an option.

Example: person x says "I wonder about salamanders' tongues." Uses Internet Explorer or Firefox to go to the page. Tag search-animals. Nothing. Tag search amphibians. Tag search amphibians+anatomy. Brings up 5 locally linked pdfs. Person x wants more- tag search for salamander brings up 30 results. To get just recent results, tag search salamander+2009.

If there were some way to get some code from delicious, put it into a single page on the wordpress blog and have it mimic delicious, that would be perfect.

Any ideas? The process of entering in all the information will be arduous and time consuming, so I want the final product to be worth it.

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

Sun Type 6 Keyboard in Windows

gzimmer — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:35:11 -0800

I came into possession of a Sun type 6 keyboard and want to see how much use I can get out of it in Windows. Having dedicated cut,copy,paste keys is just awesome. After exhaustive googling, i've seen others asking about drivers come up empty. There was a half english half japanese website that I found that tried but only got about halfway.

Is there any software that I can use to see what keys windows is even seeing as a first step to using them in macros or such?

An app for Windows for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of files?

Unhyper — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:30:29 -0800

Is there an app for Windows that you know of for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of the same files? Let's say I have a 1TB drive (I do) full of junk (I do) and much of that junk has duplicates, triplicates, and octuplicates of the same files in miscellaneous folders.

I'd like to find a program that I could leave running and it would scan the drive for these multiple copies and perhaps erase them for me, or at least allow me to do that later.

Know of any?

Out, Out, damn sound!

GJSchaller — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:17:20 -0800

Why can't I get Digital Out (5.1) from my PC to work with my Sony receiver? I have an Alienware Aurora 5500 "shuttle" PC I inherited from the previous owner, and am attempting to hook it up to my Sony STR-DA4300DS receiver. The receiver works fine for other sources, like a PS3, Apple TV, and HD TV from our Verizon FiOS box. When we attempt to connect the Alienware (running WinXP), we get sound only from the R & L speakers, and nothing from the Center, or the rear two speakers, even when we configure everything for 5.1 sound. (The sound tests indicate it should be playing to those speakers, by the silence they produce matching the visual cues on the screen, and we can hear them when the visual cue is for the R&L speakers.)

At first, we tried a TOSlink fiber cable to connect the on-board system to the receiver, with the above results. We then tried a Digital Coaxial cable, also from the on-board sound card, with the same results. I then dropped in a spare Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, and used the Digital Out on it (3.5mm to Coaxial), but am STILL getting the same results, even with the new sound card.

The receiver is indicating it is only picking up 2 channels. If we force the player (VLC, in this case) to use 5.1 or direct SPDIF / Digital throughput, the receiver then shows 5.1 speakers, and stutters horribly as if it cannot decode the audio (This receiver has all the fixin's, including THX, Dolby, DTS, True HD, etc.).

I'm not sure at this point if it's the PC (OS?), or the Receiver, that is the issue - any advice, or something simple I'm missing? Googling hasn't been able to turn up the results I am looking for.

Dual monitor weirdness?

k8t — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:24:35 -0800

Dual monitors with a DVI splitter in XP but they're acting screwy. For a friend. He has 2 monitors and wants to use them both. His graphics card has both a VGA and a DVI port. He can't use them both at once - trust me, we tried. He bought a DVI splitter and it works, but here's the problem:

When the main monitor is on and the second one is on, both work fine. But when the main monitor is on and the second one is connected, but not on at the screen switch, the main monitor has wavering streaks. When the main monitor is on and the second one is connected, but the electrical plug is taken out of the monitor, the main monitor works fine.

Any ideas? I told him to play around with the refresh rate, but this sounds like a power issue to me.

Maybe he needs to tell Windows not to extend his monitor before turning off the 2nd monitor?

Thanks! I hope that this works versus buying a second graphics card. (And yes, I already suggested that a new computer would make things easier...)

Sharing Is Caring?

murtagh — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:54:25 -0800

Sharing a printer between an iMac (with printer driver installed) and a Windows laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop: can it be done? I have an iMac running OS X Leopard. My sister is using her work laptop. Unfortunately, her company has disallowed (blocked) installation of any new software on the laptop, which includes printer drivers. We need to share the printer between the iMac and the laptop. The iMac, to which the printer is connected, has the printer drivers installed.

Can the printer be shared between the iMac and the laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop?

The printer is a Canon Pixma MP145.

Please tell me this is possible (or any possible alternatives). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MouseTrapped! How can I make my mouse load faster in Win 7?

newfers — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:12:13 -0800

Why is my USB mouse the last item to load when Windows 7 is finished booting up? Sometimes I have to wait while it recognizes external USB drives, and in the meantime, I have no control over my mouse. Is there a way to change the order which my USB devices load? I suppose I could just haphazardly unplug and re-plug my USB devices to see if it changes the load order, but I suspect there must be a software solution to give my mouse priority over all my other USB devices. You would think it wouldn't make much of a difference, but it does. It makes me feel like my system has crashed for that 30 seconds or so when I see my desktop but have no mouse control.

I have a key; which lock does it fit?

flabdablet — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:54:55 -0800

Is there a tool available that will tell me which version of Windows the product key on this sticker is for? This second-hand laptop came with a completely erased hard drive (it looks DBAN'd). There's the remains of a Windows OEM sticker of some sort on the bottom. The 25-character product key itself is still perfectly legible, but the part of the sticker identifying the Windows version is ripped (looks like another label was put over it and then removed, taking half the Windows sticker with it).

I'd like to put Windows back on it, but the XP Home OEM installer I guessed at won't accept this product key. Before I go down the path of trial-installing every conceivable version of Windows one at a time, does anyone know of a tool (either online or downloadable) that will tell me which version my product key matches?

Please help me make Christmas memories for my boys

FunkyHelix — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:04:55 -0800

Children and Christmas in NYC - where are all the good windows? Where should we eat dinner? And what else should we check out? Next Friday I'll be taking my 6 and 11 year old boys into NYC via train for some Christmas site-seeing. It's something my mom did and it was always a bright holiday memory. So I really want to pass it along to my two.

We're going to swing by the big tree in the morning and possibly try the ice skating. From there we want to check out the fancy Christmas windows. Which ones would you suggest visiting as being awesome/interesting/etc?

We're going to street cart it for lunch and then look for somewhere interesting for dinner. We need somewhere moderately priced, not overly kitschy, touristy, or crowded and with a patient waitstaff (6 yo is ADHD and autistic.) Not looking for something like MacDonalds. It's a sin to be in a place as awesome as NYC and then eat at a franchise fast food place. Any suggestions?

We're going to try walking past the tree light up for night time on the way back to the train station. Anywhere to get hot chocolate and decent coffee that isn't a Starbucks that you'd suggest?

Finally? Besides the tree and the windows, I'd love any other suggestion for things to check out that are kid-friendly.

Thanks ahead of time!

Why does fullscreen make old programs look funny on my Windows 7 computer?

Pope Guilty — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:37:52 -0800

When I run some programs in full screen under Windows 7, they either crash or have odd colour effects. When I run Diablo 1 on Windows 7, some of the colours in the game are replaced by bright, flourescent oranges and greens and cyans and the like- and not in any apparent order, just big jumbles of them. The same thing happens when I play Alone in the Dark under DOSBox, though only at full screen- when I play at the default window size, the colors look fine. FCE Ultra, the NES emulator, simply crashes, which it didn't in XP. Messing about with compatibility settings doesn't seem to fix it. The really fucked thing is that when I take screen shots, everything looks proper and normal.

I'm on a Dell Inspiron 1545- 1366x768 screen, dual-core 2.0GHz processor, 3GB RAM.

Need a text search program like a browser URL bar.

inthe80s — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:49:40 -0800

Is there a utility for Windows that will take a text file, and let you enter words into a field and remove entries from the list as you type in more words? Something like typing in the address bar of a browser, where as you type, the entries that no longer match are removed. I have a text file with entries of performer/song titles, one to a line. I generally just use the search function of a text editor to find all the matching lines for a keyword. However if there was something that would remove entries the more I typed, I wouldn't spend as much time typing out full performer names or song titles.

Winamp does this with the "Jump to file" box in it's playlist. I need something for text files however.

Does my hard drive have permanent issues?

R a c h e l — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:05:00 -0800

Can I remove a partition and use my hard disk as normal? Rather long explanation... So, my original problem would be best explained by this older question I asked.

Basically, my vista partition stopped booting one day, with a couple error messages when I attempted startup recovery, the most significant (I think) being "system volume on disk is corrupt". Does this mean there is a part of my hard drive that has been messed up? I've never been too gentle with my laptop, and I have dropped it 3-4ish feet onto carpet more than once (yes, I know how terrible that it. I'm completely aware).

I'm determined to use this until it refuses to turn on, though. I mean, I also cracked the screen and am losing real estate all over at a fairly constant rate. An external monitor helps with that, though. At any rate, I'd like to install a copy of windows 7 that I just bought (I've been using the beta, which I've had since March, and likes to tell me it's counterfeit frequently. This was installed on a different partition from Vista, and has worked fine since Vista stopped.)

So, in installing the copy of Windows 7, I would like to give it a bit more room than the current Windows 7 partition of 20gb. Vista has 200gb, and everything I need on there has been backed up. I know fairly well how to erase the vista partition, grow the Windows 7 partition, etc.

My question is, will I run into problems because of whatever caused the Vista failure? Is there a bad sector or something that will give me grief? Is there some sort of formatting I can do before installing windows 7 to sort of start over with the disk? (There is absolutely nothing on this computer that is not backed up that I need.)

I'm sorry for the long explanation, with probably plenty of extraneous information. Thanks very much for your help!

Back to the basics

jfricke — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:36:15 -0800

I really like the idea of text-based programs like WriteRoom (Mac) or DarkRoom (Windows). Are there similar applications for other purposes? I am looking for any software that is more or less text-based, is not a game and runs with Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. Examples would be a text based email-client, text based to-do list or a text based diary.

Google Earth looks great. The menu text, not so much.

thecjm — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:56:34 -0800

When I use Google Earth the menu text (not text in the map screen, but on the top and left side) is ugly and unreadable. What can I do to fix it? You can see a screen shot here.
I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and the latest version of Google Earth. I suspect that there's some 3D-rendering happening to Windows' text renderer that is making a mess. I've got an ATI HD4800 with the latest drivers installed as well. I've messed with both Google Earth's graphics settings and those for my Catalyst drivers but nothing seems to fix this.
Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?

Antique window needed

shesaysgo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:44:00 -0800

Where can I find an old, 6-paned window? Online or Chicago-area I need a on, 6-paned window frame for a project for a class. I looked on craigslist, but the search was fruitless. Does anyone know of some good spots to look for that kind of thing? Would anyone happen to be selling one? Since I am a college student, I'd rather keep this inexpensive.

Here are some reference pictures
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/images/uploads/at45b4c004e5cb01.61175577.jpg
http://bahmdemolition.com/images/antiques/AntiqueWindow.jpg

It doesn't necessarily have to be 6 paned, but I'd like to keep it around that size.

ThinkPad T42 wireless connection problem

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:40:00 -0800

Windows XP Home network connection issues. My son's girlfriend has an IBM ThinkPad T42. In the last couple of days its network connectivity has gone haywire. It has an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter and an Intel Pro/1000MT wired connection, and the laptop is running XP Home, Service Pack 3. Here's what it does:

As soon as I enable the wireless adapter and connect to a network (either secured or unsecured) the connection bounces from disconnected to connected and back again, over and over ad infinitum.

I can't enable the wired adapter at all (it just stays disabled while the "Local Area Connection - Enabling" message shows, after which it disappears with the connection still disabled), which is what makes me think this is a software problem rather than a hardware problem. I have tried all of the following (not necessarily in this order):

1) reset the TCP/IP stack ("netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt")

2) Uninstalled and reinstalled TCP/IP

3) removed and reinstalled the network adapter drivers

4) system restore to earlier restore point

5) installed a PCMCIA wireless card (same result - connected/disconnected over and over)

6) run Malwarebytes (no malware detected)

At this point I am ready to throw in the towel and reinstall Windows unless someone has any better ideas. I don't really mind doing this, but it always irritates me to resort to a reinstall when it seems like there really should be a simpler fix.

Any ideas?

This disc was made for bootin'

CodeMonkey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:10:19 -0800

I would like to make a custom boot disc that is very simple to the user. All it would do is restore an image from 6 DVDs to a hard drive. The only options I would like the user to see is: 1) format drive 2) restore drive 3) exit I would like to create this menu and all sub menus that I see fit. I have seen UBCD but it is too complicated for the people I know. I would like to use Driveimage XML and have it read the discs one at a time to restore the drive. Any suggestions?

Simplistic front end for Windows?

jorlando — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:16:17 -0800

Is there an ultra-simple and bullet proof front end for MS Windows thats suitable for elderly folks? My dad is 87 and uses his computer for very basic things like Skype, email, and limited web browsing. He's always messing up his desktop or losing icons because of uncoordinated and impatient mousing. Sometimes he opens applications by accident or gets confused by notifications and solicitations that pop up. He hasn't been scammed but probably is at risk no matter how much I warn him.

He lives alone so the computer is an important lifeline for him. I've been able to help somewhat by remoting with VNC but sometimes he kills his connection and cant get the computer online

I'd like to install some kind of Windows shell for him that enables only those features that he needs and isolates him from everything else. It will turn off drag and drop and the need to double-click anything. A one-button mouse would be good too.

It doesn't even need to be Windows based if it supports Skype and web browsing

Any ideas?

Thanks

Dual Booting For Dummies

mannequito — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:14:17 -0800

Two-part question regarding a potential XP/Ubuntu dual-boot setup: a)Do I still worry about viruses if I'm not accessing the internet from the XP half? b) From reading online it seems that I'll be able to access files from the XP half while in Ubuntu, but will the opposite be true? I've actually never owned a Windows machine so apologies if I seem over paranoid about viruses. I'm just finally considering this in order to be able to record music and use my computer for djing.

And, in case the second question is confusing, what I mean is that as I understand it, anything I put on the computer in Windows will be accessible on the other operating system. But since I would be using Ubuntu for any downloading I'd like to know if that will be readily accessible in XP or if it would require copying it to an external harddrive, booting into Windows, and recopying it?

thanks everyone.

Law-abiding civilian wants to kinda remove personal info from a laptop

salvia — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:41:33 -0800

What are the basic steps to remove personal information off of a hard drive? (XP Home, SP3) I'm trading up a work computer for a newer one. I'd like to make sure to erase things like my frequent flier password, browsing history and downloaded docs, emailed files, and documents I created myself.

I realize many people would find it easiest just to reformat the hard drive, but I'd rather not do that myself, as I don't know what I'm doing or have the disks, plus that'd look more suspicious than leaving behind a few non-work files. I'm not concerned anyone is going to run file recovery software or investigate me, and I don't have any confidential client data that I need to protect. I don't use this for much besides work, and I never save bank passwords, and they're probably going to reformat the computer right away, so I'm not that worried.

I just don't want someone to open a folder and accidentally stumble across some doc I forgot about ("FindingANewJob.doc") or some cached NSFW pic or pdf download that I clicked on in Metafilter, or some embarrassing google search term, or a personal essay a friend emailed me on Outlook that I edited over the weekend. I'm looking for a middle ground between the Department of Defense seven-wipe wiping standard and/or total reformat, and just leaving behind entire folders full of potentially-personal things.

What's a reasonable way for me to clean files and browsing history off of the computer? Is there a good checklist of folders to empty out? Is there a way to know which folders have exclusively system files and which have user-created documents? If you delete a file, then empty the Recycling Bin, is that pretty good or is there one step further you need to take to keep someone from accidentally encountering TMI?

If it matters, I am one of three users on the machine, and I don't know if I have full admin privileges, but I can add and remove programs.

I realize this is a pretty common question, and I've found some decent eHow articles, but I trust AskMe more than my googling skills. Thanks a bunch for any advice you can offer.