Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with desktop

Ahh, Vista... how I won't miss you.

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:38:14 -0800

Questions about hard drives, enclosures, and other ways to survive a blue screen of death. I have a HP desktop running Vista. I went to do a SP1 upgrade ahead of a potential change to Win7, something went off course, and now I own a desktop that won’t get past a blue screen of death when I try and start up. I’ve tried a handful of things to resolve the issue to no avail, and at this point, I’m just ready to get a new desktop (had been thinking about it anyway, so I figure this is a sign from the computer gods).

99% of my data was backed up ahead of the upgrade. However, I would like to be able to access the data on the old HP just in case. Limited technical knowledge, but a history of reading AskMe questions, leads me to believe that I can remove my HD from the old desktop, place it in an enclosure, and access it like an external drive.

How complicated is this? Is it really that straightforward? Anything I’m not thinking of?

Help me find a Pointcast desktop news client replacement?

randomthoughts — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:17:49 -0800

Help me find a replacement for the great Pointcast desktop news client? Back in the day I used a free desktop news client that offered a scrolling taskbar on the desktop with news and weather reports as well as a screen saver that would display news headlines with pictures and weather forecasts. Best program ever.

I know the Mac as a RSS screensaver but it is nothing like Pointcast? Is it possible that in this day with our current technology in web, that a Pointcast replacement hasn't been created?

Anything like a headline news screensaver or desktop client out there that is worth checking out? Anything out there that will take my Google Reader feeds and put them into a screensaver?

More than one Dell Vostro?

NinaLee — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:17:45 -0800

I'm thinking about replacing my defunct desktop with a laptop. The compactness and portability of laptops are a big plus. Just to be able to get rid of that tangle of cables under my desk seems benefit enough to make the change. I recently bought a Dell Vostro 1520 that I like. It strikes me that buying another Vostro 1520 would have at least the advantage of using compatible a.c. adapters for use in various parts of the house. I would appreciate hearing what the advantages and disadvantage of going with another laptop of the same make and model of the one I already own. One added note: I’m using XP Pro on my Vostro now. The new one would probably have Windows 7.

Meet the new box, same as the old box

mccarty.tim — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:08:23 -0800

What's a good nettop/netbook/cheap desktop/laptop for my mom and younger sister? Previously, a year ago.

My mom and younger sister have very light computing needs. They've used a computer (1 GB ram, 1.8 GHZ Athlon XP) running Windows XP I built five years ago with very few issues and only mild upgrades. This year, I've done a reinstall of XP and reflashed the BIOS (the mobo was acting quirky, by sometimes not booting and sometimes spontaniously turning on the machine), but the machine still has some odd issues (the mouse cursor freezes up, the hard drive is starting to die (it's backed up)). Considering that it's been five years, I think I'd rather they get a newer, smaller machine rather than buy it a new hard drive and continue to cope with a dying mobo.

Since all they need could be done by a Pentium 3, I've been considering an Atom-based computer for size and power usage. My mom is planning on moving in a few years, and she would appreciate if the computer was small and easy to pack. She also wants it to be dockable with the USB mouse and keyboard, and the DVI LCD monitor. I know those are pretty common, but I just wanted to make it clear in case somebody recommended something esoteric. I'd also like it to be able to communicate with a DVD drive, but I found a $30 enclosure that looks good for the job.

My mom is convinced that a netbook would be fragile and hard to fix (she trusts my repair skills over a computer company's tech support, which I find sweet), so this year I'm also considering nettops. If there is a good user-servicable netbook/nettop for cheap (ie replace ram, hard drive with just a screwdriver), I'd like to know about it.

I'm considering building a nettop myself using a board like this one, as it seems like there aren't many nettops/books that come with Nvidia's Ion chipset. Is this a good idea? I've charted out a build that would total out at $400 with tax and shipping, complete with a 500 GB hard drive and 2 GB of ram.

I'm also open to smaller desktops and laptops that are cheap and will dock nicely with the stuff in my office(again, USB and DVI ports).

In summary, I'd like a cheap, small, and energy efficient machine that will connect to my existing equipment and run Windows XP or newer. My budget is around $200-400 (not including OS, which I can get through MSDNAA). I'm open to building/upgrading the computer myself. I'd also like to know if Windows 7 is a good idea for nettops/books or not, since I've heard it will run well, but I haven't seen how well it runs first hand.

My mom is semi-computer litterate (does office work, email, installs her own software, but doesn't fix the machine), and my younger sister is in high school and needs the computer to type and do her homework. She has high functioning autism, so it'd probably be easiest for her to get a full-sized keyboard if we do get a netbook and they take to using it outside the office, so consider the keyboard size a factor.

Why can't I move photos onto my desktop?

Postroad — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:58:16 -0800

As of yesterday, my IMac will not move photos from sites I go to onto my desktop. I had for years been moving pictures onto the desktop, then putting them on my server and giving link from which they were taken. Now, suddenly, no matter which sites I go to, photos do not move away from original place. I am able to get properties of the photos, but I do not want to hotlink.

I have no tech background so I can not begin to imagine why this is happening.

What's cheaper, Windows based MBP-equivalent desktop computer?

niles — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:42:38 -0800

In lieu of buying a tricked-out MacBook pro, I'm thinking about taking the advice in this comment and picking up a mostly equivalent, Windows-based desktop for around $500. Can you give me advice? I'm going to school for Computer Science and minoring in Graphic Design/Media, so (once I have the money) I've been planning to pick up a Mac Book Pro and using Boot Camp and virtualization software for Windows.

I've realized that I can save a lot of money by sticking with my current low end laptop (just picked up a new battery so it doesn't have to plugged in 24/7), and buying a nice desktop.

I really only need to be able to run my IDEs, other development software, and Adobe CS4. My current laptop can only handle the graphic design software in CS4, not the video software such as Premiere and After Effects.

I'm completely comfortable putting a machine together, but I really don't know how to spec out hardware. My main concern is getting something that will run After Effect so I can finally start doing more video work. Will something like this do the trick? I suspect the video card is under powered.
If the HP doesn't cut it, where is it lacking? Do you have any recommendations for what hardware I should get?

I have some sort of cold, so I apologize for any incoherency or wordiness.

I'm in need of a new computer. A desktop, not a laptop. And zoomy.

misanthropicsarah — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:22:21 -0800

I need a new computer--a desktop--but I don't know what kind of expectations to have for a new machine versus my 5-year-old computer. Is whatever's on special gonna impress me? The desktop I have currently is about 5 years old. I use it for work, so generally have Outlook, Access, a bunch of Word docs and a bunch of Excel books open (all 2007 Office), plus Firefox, and maybe iTunes. Yes, this is a lot to have open at once, and my machine is not handling it as well as it used to.

I've been looking at computers online, but I have no idea what is even standard now or what I should be looking for. I have no longer have any computer geek friends to guide me, so I look to you.

Basically, I think I need a lot of RAM and a fast processor, since I want to be able to have all that stuff open and not freeze all the time and not take 2 minutes to open a freaking Word doc. And of course a large hard drive, but storage seems to be super cheap, and I know how much storage I want (really, 500GB is fine).

I guess my question is, if I just buy whatever Dell PC is on special now, will I be satisfied with how it performs versus my current machine? For the stuff I want to do, what type of specs should I be looking at? How much RAM? What processor speed? Anything else I should be particular about when all I really want is an office workhorse?

Yes, I want a PC. Yes, I want a desktop. I'm not particularly concerned with awesome graphics or sound, as I'm not a gamer. We do listen to music through the computer, and stream the occasional movie from Netflix or whatever.

I have neither the skill nor the interest in learning the skill to build my own machine.

Finally, I don't want to spend much more than $800. The monitor I have now is fine, as are all the other peripherals. So I'm just looking for the tower, with all the towery stuff inside.

Virtual Desktop Manager for OS X

namespan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:57:17 -0800

Is there an actively developed virtual desktop manager for OS X that lets you assign windows and documents (rather than applications) to different desktops? Spaces apparently only lets you assign an entire application to a space, which I suppose is OK if all of your different projects break down across application lines, but fails if you might have spreadsheets or textfiles for each activity you're interested in. I've poked at a few others (like VirtueDesktop) but they either seem to not have made it past the trial project phase or seem to have been dropped from active development when Spaces was announced. Is there any competition for Apple here?

Split desktop on two monitors

forwebsites — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:22:17 -0800

Help me setup a dual-monitor XP desktop at work with minimum fuss/cost. We are buying a new Wintel/XP Professional with two monitors at my office (yay for my boss-convincing skills!). It will be assembled (so I can get any specific h/w if required). The two monitors are solely for office use (no heavy graphics/gaming), so VGA inputs are sufficient for me. Mostly I'll have my mail/browser/IM/housekeeping on one monitor and second one for all main work apps.

Obviously, the lesser the cost/freeware the better.

My question is two-part:

On the hardware side:
- can I just use a VGA splitter, like this one, for XP to recognize as two monitors? Or will I need a graphics card with dual monitor support? And even then do I need to make sure that both o/p of that card are VGA or DVI? What is the least costly setup that will work? Because if a graphics card is required I need to know it upfront before our purchase. I will not get budget later to upgrade.

On the software side:
- Since I've previosly never used this kind of setup, I always thought ControlPanel-->Display settings-->"extend my windows onto this monitor" chkbox is the only thing required to support this. But having googled and read some prevs threads, I'm a bit confused with all these ultramon/MMT taskbar/maxivista/citrix and whatnots. Do I need to purchase any of these s/w. I won't mind buying if they are really required. But if they are just fancypants features which I'm never going to use then I'd like not to. Is it ok if I start with XP's barebones support, and use for sometime and see if it matches my expectations and then upgrade to any of these 3rd party desktop managers if reqd later, or is this simply not going to cut it?

Or having a h/w solution like nVidia graphics card (which one?) with nVidia desktop manager, simply eliminates the s/w options?

Thanks.

Can you save remote desktop connections to log in to different user accounts?

Mokusatsu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:36:27 -0800

Is it possible (in Windows Vista Ultimate) to save remote desktop connections to the same computer but for different users? i.e. have icons in my quick launch menu which log me in with a click to user1 or user2? I have a computer which is used for several specific purposes, accessed only by remote desktop (i.e. it sits in a back room and is rarely used in person).

I want to be able to quickly access each of the individual accounts by saving an RDP file and then shortcutting to that from my quick launch bar.

So I enter the credentials for user1 and "save as" the RDP file as username1.rdp and drag it onto the quick launch bar.

Clicking on this RDP logs me in to user1's account.

Then I open remote desktop again, enter the credentials for user2 and save username2.rdp.

When I click on username2.rdp, I get instantly logged in to user2's account.

So far so good.

But if I close that and click on username1.rdp, I get logged into user2. If I manually change the credentials by opening remote desktop and enter the credentials to user 1, username1.rdp will on the next attempt log me into user1's account, as does username2.rdp.

So saving a connection doesn't save the credentials, it possibly saves the computer I'm logging into, but not the user.

Am I doing it wrong or does an RDP file just not contain credentials? Is there some way I can set it up so I can one-click log in via several icons to any one of several accounts?

What computer offers me the best bang for my buck?

jserdula — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:07:51 -0800

I've got $500.00 to spend for a new computer. I want to get the most bang for my buck. My needs are: - Play music - Edit and view photos - Edit and view videos - Create DVDs & Surf the Internet. My past history has been in PCs. I am open to building my own computer. So what should I get?

How do I hook Windows desktop folder clicks?

long — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:38:45 -0800

I'd like to write a program for Windows XP that detects when a folder on the desktop is clicked and switches the desktop location to that folder, instead of the default Explorer behavior of opening the folder in a window. Roughly, the program will behave like this:
1. User left-clicks folder A on the desktop.
2. Program captures the click, changes the appropriate registry keys, and refreshes the desktop view so that folder A's contents are now displayed on the desktop. (Folder A does not open in an explorer window).

I'm competent at programming, but don't have much experience with the Windows API or hooking. From some googling, I gather that a decent approach is to hook WH_MOUSE_LL, but it seems that detecting whether the clicked object is a folder is non-trivial and potentially kludgey.

Can you advise a general approach that (1) accomplishes the described behavior and (2) isn't too hacky?

Thanks so much,
Long

Anything better than VNC for OSX?

jimjam — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:55:59 -0800

UltraVNC on Vista connecting to OSX is very very slow - is there anything faster? I'm connecting a fast Vista box (i7) to a Mac Mini (intel something) via 100mbit ethernet using UltraVNC.

However many things are very slow - dragging windows around, minimizing windows, etc - around 1-2 FPS.

Is there anything faster? I'm used to RDP on windows, which is a different protocol I know, which is blazing fast.

Forwarding X sucks - I need the full desktop. NX doesn't appear to exist for OSX.

Are there any options, or am I stuck with VNC?

Better Visibility of Apple Mail's Flagged Mail

gkhewitt — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:40:01 -0800

Can I get a list of all my flagged e-mails from Apple Mail to appear somewhere more visible? I've been a Mac user for nearly two years now, and one thing has been bugging me for a while now.

I use Apple's Mail client with GMail and if I get an important e-mail that requires attention at some point, I'll flag it. However, depending on the volume of e-mail that I deal with, the flagged stuff can often get lost. And, using GMail, I have to manually go into the 'starred' folder in order to see all the mail that I've flagged.

What would be ideal - a desktop or dashboard widget that can display a list of all e-mail that has been flagged.

Essentially, I just need to be able to have more visibility of the flagged mails, as I can become very forgetful! I've already trawled Google looking for Applescripts and so forth that can do this, with no avail. I'm not an Applescript guru so don't even know if it's possible?

Many thanks for any help!

Does Not Compute

misha — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:17:42 -0800

Please help me find the best laptops for our teens! Specifics inside. We have decided to get new computers for our teens--the younger is entering high school and needs it for school, while the older is really into animation and we want to encourage that interest.

I was originally looking at the Mac mini. We decided on laptops because we like portability and assume they will as well, they want webcams AND their high school prefers the Windows setup to Mac.

I'd still be up for Macs, because I feel they are more secure against viruses and the like, if we could get below $1000 each. The basic white 13" Macbooks at the Apple store are $999 and we're hoping to get under that price. I know we can run Windows programs on them with the right software.

Here's what we want:

Memory--lots of it. Can't get too much of this. Would rather have more than the 4GB the Macbook starts with.

Graphics-- Is the NVIDIA Ge Force 9400M the best choice for animation and gaming? Could we do better?

Preferably under $999 each!

Here's what they want:

High-speed--both love to chat on Google and have complained about speeds with the ancient models we have now (an old desktop and a G3 iBook).

Webcam--yes, we know all about internet safety, thanks!

Incredible sound--the oldest is really into music and his friends are in a band, so he wants the best audio he can get, even if this means peripheral speakers. Would love recommendations for these as well!

Software

If we got a Mac, we'd need to be able to run Windows programs on it as well--what software would we need, and how much is that going to cost?

We do not qualify (damn it) for educational discounts from Apple for the free iPod Touch promotion, as kids have to be accepted into college OR a parent needs to be a full-time teacher.

Thanks so much for your help!

Navigating folders on windows desktop

long — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:59:17 -0800

Is there a way to navigate folders on the Windows XP desktop? That is, I want to be able to click folder A on the desktop and have the desktop switch to displaying folder A's contents.

Help me design my perfect computer workstation setup!

pbh — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:59:17 -0800

Help me design a computer workstation setup for home that incorporates a 30" screen, a Linux compatible video card, a possibly height adjustable desk, and a silent or very quiet desktop machine. For my job, I can work at home, and I'm about to start a project which will likely involve a lot of programming there. Until now, I've gotten by with an 8 year old desktop machine with a relatively small screen. It seems like it's time to upgrade, and I've got a fairly reasonable budget to do it, but I can't figure out how the components fit together or what the best way to do what I want is.

Here's what I'm looking to do:

I would like to have a 30 inch LCD. I've been eyeing something like the Dell 2007wfp or the Samsung 305T, but I'm not sure whether it matters what I choose. I don't need a high refresh rate for gaming or anything, and I'm not particularly concerned about color reproduction accuracy or anything like that.
I would like to have a video card that can drive the 30 inch (I think this means it needs to have dual link DVI, but are there also other requirements, like some amount of video RAM?). It doesn't need to be particularly high powered, though it does need to be Linux compatible, and specifically I would like it to work with Ubuntu. (Ideally, the video card should be from some vendor that has had consistently good support in the past.)
I would like to have the machine be very quiet, since it is probably going to go in my living room, and I don't want it to be a huge distraction when I'm doing other things. I seem oddly attuned to fan noise, for some reason. This seems like it might affect both the desktop and the video card choice. Some fairly average specifications (maybe 4 gigs of RAM, a few cores) would be fine so long as it is quiet, drives the screen, and the hardware has Linux support.
I also need a height adjustable desk for the machine and screen, ideally one that I can adjust easily for standing or sitting (inspired by this, but I'm worried those specific ones are way outside of my budget).

I'm in the US, and my budget for all of this is maybe three thousand dollars (do let me know if any particular requirement seems like it will make things much more expensive). I'm happy to build it myself or use some generic option, so long as it vaguely fits these requirements. A previous askme looked at a similar question, but in a much different price range. That thread also suggested the Ars Technica System Guide, but that guide seems to be orthogonal to the question of quiet and the monitor size that can be driven.

Suggestions on any or all of these components would be great!

slow PC complaint from IBM users

rxbert — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:40:15 -0800

Hi fellow MeFites! You are all Great! Today, I am posing a question that has hounded me for a year or so... at work, we have an IBM workstation environment, with some M50's, M52's, S51's, etc. in the line-up. the issue that I am having is with our/my S51's. no matter what I do, up to and including re-imaging; the user's are always complaining that they are too slow. usually, I remove previous user's profiles, temp files; and after that I will typically upgrade the memory to 1GB. all without any discernable improvement. we, of course cannot dispose of the machines themselves, as they are capital assets, so does someone have some insight into the problem, perhaps some experience of their own to share... thanks in advance for your kind assistance!

Large scale use of Linux on the desktop in organizations?

thewalrus — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:49:38 -0800

I'm looking for a list or reference to press releases/news articles about large corporations or government departments that have switched to Linux as a desktop platform. For example this week it was reported that the French police have 5,000 PCs running Ubuntu. I'd like to compile some kind of list of large organizations that have successfully replaced Win2000/XP on the desktop. Can anyone describe a real world example they have seen first hand?

I've read about significant uptake in Germany and in Brazil, and educational-specific Portuguese language specific versions of Linux. In the English and German speaking worlds I know that Novell and SuSE are making businesses out of this, so I'll check their PR archives as well...

French reference:
http://www.linuxreaders.com/2009/04/27/french-police-switch-from-windows-to-linux/

Low-Power Computer + High-Power Computer = ???

devilsbrigade — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:11:04 -0800

After 5+ years of working remarkably well, my desktop is finally giving out in multiple places, and it's time to move on. I use my desktop as an always-on computer, though, so I'd like to get something low-power. While 90% of the time the desktop is for email, web, music, data processing & light programming, and I could get away with an incredibly low-power system with even a non-x86 embedded processor, once and a while I need to do some major number crunching, play a CPU & GPU intensive game, and or otherwise push the requirements for the system way up. I'm not entirely opposed to having two separate boxes with a KVM and booting up the big guy only when I need it, but it's not terribly elegant. Ideally, there'd be some way to bring a separate graphics card, processor, HD, etc. up when necessary, but have it all contained in one big box.

Short of having two full systems in one box, I have no idea how I would do this, though. I'd be building both systems up from components, so I have no problem getting a bit dirty with the hardware (or hacking up stuff like cases, if necessary), and I have plenty of experience in building up 'simple' systems.

Has something like this been done? Is there a solution? Is it really just not practical on a hardware level? Are there other solutions to the basic problem?

iCal for windows?

Phire — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:48:09 -0800

Offline Calendar application for Windows that is not Sunbird? I find myself without the internet far more often than without my computer, so I would prefer keeping something as vital to my peace of mind as my calendar offline. I've experimented with Mozilla Sunbird, but it's got a bunch of little quirks and flaws that bug me, and I'd like to see what else is out there.

I would essentially like to replicate the features of Sunbird, but perhaps in the form of a more smooth and polished interface. If Google Calendar were available as a standalone desktop application (and perhaps it is, and I'm just not aware of it), I'd be all over that. So far, I use Sunbird to list classes, wildly fluctuating meetings, as well as micromanage and plan out my study schedule - it's as much a to-do list as an events calendar.

So is there a Windows calendar application out there that does what iCal does better than Sunbird?

Keeping things aggregated

Aanidaani — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:00:26 -0800

Is there a website that will allow me to aggregate all my different email accounts and access them from one place? I know that Gmail can import mail from other accounts, but I'd like to have all my accounts separate and use some kind of web service that will interface with all of them. So far I've been using Thunderbird on my desktop at home to do this, but I travel frequently and instead I want to remotely access one site that links all my accounts.

I tried Zenbe but they've since started charging for it and it doesn't even support IMAP. What other options are there?

I needs me a PC

pencroft — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:38:18 -0800

Help me build or buy a desktop PC for under $900.. After mega-frustration at what seems to be the only computer retailer left in Minneapolis , I've decided to expand the search to the internet. But I haven't bought a desktop since the late 90's.

Here's what I'm looking to do:

Video editing with Vegas
Ripping movies
Encoding movies to iPod
Photo editing

I don't intend on doing any hardcore gaming.

Is all this possible for $900 or less?

How to keep Google Desktop gadgets without the search?

inbetweener — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:54:42 -0800

Is there a way to keep Google Desktop without it hijacking Vista's search? I installed Google Desktop on my Vista Home Ultimate PC. I want to keep it installed because I like the gadgets.

However, I really don't like the way it hijacks the windows search (which I much prefer to the Google Desktop Search).

Could anyone suggest a way to keep the gadgets but ditch the Google desktop search - Google helpfully doesn't provide an option...

Laptop and projector need to play together nicely.

wile e — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:02:33 -0800

Managing a projector with a laptop at a different resolution. The short: classroom training sessions with a Dell laptop hooked up to a projector is giving me some issues, looking for advice on how to rectify the situation. Windows Vista Ultimate
Dell Vostro 1400 w/ embedded Intel video card (temporary, my Nvidia motherboard blew up, long story)
2gig Ram
2.0ghz Core 2 duo
VGA output

Half of my time is spent in a classroom training on how to use a particular software. The classroom changes weekly, so cannot give specs on the projector, but all are generic classroom projectors that take a VGA input on them.

When I hook up my laptop to the projector, it takes me out of my 1440x900 default resolution, and kicks me back to 800x600. If I try to change it back to 1440x900 it refuses as the projector cannot handle the resolution, even if I have it set up to not share my desktop. I can get it to work with 1280x768, but since this is not my default resolution, it annoys me to screw up all my settings on my laptop during the session.

So my question is this: Is there a way to better manage all of this, since I spend most of my time dealing with this? Are there programs to aid in this? I have briefly looked into Displayfusion and Ultramon, but they seem to be more aimed at permanent multi monitor setups. Whereas my situation tends to only be during 9-5 every other week or so.

It just seems the management utility that is in my laptop now cannot be the best thing. I would like to have some real control over what happens, not just resolution if possible. Like I would like to share certain windows on my screen with the projector, but not all.

Well anyway, if anybody has some insight into this, I would appreciate the help.

I will be checking this throughout the day, so any info I left out, feel free to ask and I will supply the answer if I have it.