Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and computers

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.

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.

How to set a window behind another in windows 7?

dolemite01 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:32:10 -0800

How to have a window in the back while another in the front in Windows 7, much like a mac. I have seen mac users have a window, like Word open and then in the behind it they have firefox and they can scroll through the tiny section of firefox while word is the 'main window'
How can i replicate this in windows?

Thanks in advance!

Why do large file downloads stall (with no error message or any feedback)?

bradn — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:49:42 -0800

Why do large file downloads stall (with no error message or any feedback)? I am not sure how to troubleshoot this.

Pertinent info: Win7 (also had the problem with previous OS, Server 2008), Firewall disabled, Gigabyte motherboard with LAN (Nforce 570 SLI), Asus router with DD-WRT installed behind an AT&T U-verse 2Wire RG.

I can't seem to download a large file. Anything in the single MBs is fine, but larger files stall out in both Firefox and IE. The progress meter remains still, "x minutes remaining -- xx of xx MB (xx KB/sec)" remains still, no error message or timeout of any kind. It will stay this way for days. Incedentally, there is no issue with torrent downloads in Vuse. I am also having trouble with Netflix Watch Instantly (via WDTV Live) giving me "Your internet connection has slowed" errors, and think that it might be related.

I did a few random trials: Foxit Reader (5.1MB) downloaded fine. Batman Arkham Asylum Demo (2.0 GB) currently stalled at 62.9MB, and two attempts at XBMC for Windows (81.1MB) stalled at 25.9 and 26.7.

I tried disabling the firewall and AVG antivirus. I updated the Nforce drivers.

Any other ideas?

Help me update my PC / Windows literacy for the 21st Century

KMH — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:26:02 -0800

I used to feel pretty confident with computers / IT in general (80s child). Now I need a boost to get back up to speed, especially digging around in the OS / filesystem. Recommend me a good book / website / hands-on project? I want to improve my general PC knowledge, focussing on the real "under-the-hood" day-to-day stuff, like managing my Windows configuration, playing around with files, building my own website on my own domain etc.

The background is that back in the day (15 years ago!) I felt I knew more than average about computers; I had an Amiga back when they were more cutting edge and could play around with the set-up, etc. I could learn all I needed from Amiga Format and fellow geeky kids.

At university I did Physics, and we learned C++ and basically built a very, very simple memory unit and so forth, so I'm sure I have the "smarts" for this stuff. Plus I passed ECDL with no problems, I work with IT all the time, just not "under the hood".

It just seems the computer world has moved on a bit, and while I'm sure I could handle the ins and outs of Windows / DOS / etc etc, I feel I've missed the boat and there's way too much detail.

I own a fairly decent Inspiron laptop, but is it my imagination or is Windows just not self explanatory? Where is the manual? PC magazines don't seem to help much either.

Can anyone recommend a couple of books, websites, (cheap/free) online courses or whatever to get me back up to speed with this stuff???

NTFS, I hate you

devilsbrigade — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:18:45 -0800

I have a 300gb SATA drive, NTFS formatted, that has most of my movies & music on it. After a lengthy move and installing a new operating system on a different drive, it's done something I never have seen before: about half the files on the disk point to some random location of the disk, so movie files go to the middle of MP3s, MP3s go to random places in entirely unrelated MP3s, etc. It's a massive mess. I ran the NTFS repair utility (without doing a backup, stupid) and it only had the effect of setting about half of the affected files' sizes to zero. I'm fairly sure at this point it's a lost cause, and I'll save what I can & reformat, but has anyone run into this problem before? Is there some magical way out? What on earth could have caused it?

why does vista commandeer my machine at random times?

ripple — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:34:41 -0800

my computer intermittently becomes nearly unusable. google-fu has failed me. help! So, about a year ago I bought a new pc. I use it mostly for gaming. For the most part, it has been great, runs new games smoothly, etc. However, a few times a week, the machine seems to decide that it needs to do something very important for 1-3 hours. During this time, the hard disk LED is blinking constantly, and my system is anywhere from pokey to so extremely sluggish as to make it unusable. After the system is done doing whatever it does, it goes back to being my nice new powerful machine for a few days at least.

It's definitely not that it's too slow for running Vista, as it's decently powerful machine (HP pavillion, 3 GB RAM, nice nVidia card, good cpu). I've exhausted my google-fu on the issue; turned off superfetch, indexing, auto-defragging, auto-restore points, and it doesn't seem to help. Tried looking at task manager and services while it's thrashing and can't figure anything out. I regularly do virus scans with AVG. Anyone have any ideas?

How to investigate a slow startup process on Windows XP computers on a medium business domain

joshrholloway — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:11:52 -0800

Is there software or some automated method to audit the entire startup process of a Windows XP computer to find why startup is slow? We run a Windows domain here at work with around 300 computers. Recently the startup process on basically every computer has slowed down significantly. We have enabled verbose messages and we see that "Applying computer settings" and "Running startup scripts" are taking a particularly long time.

I know there is software that can audit the startup process after a user logs in, but we are looking for something that can automatically audit the entire startup process from the time that Windows begins booting so we can see exactly what is happening that is causing the slowdown or what is taking so long to finish running. Is there anything out there that can do this effectively? If not, what is the best way to diagnose this issue manually? Just turning off policies and startup scripts one-by-one through trial-and-error?

Thanks!

Why do Windows machines get sluggish over time but Macs don't seem to?

colinmarshall — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:14:46 -0800

What is the specific technical reason Windows machines get gradually more sluggish over time (and without a reformat and reinstall) whereas Macs don't seem to? I don't mean to start some kind of Windows-versus-Mac debate or anything, but this is a question that's burned in my mind for some time. I use both Windows XP (on a Dell Inspiron 700m laptop) and Mac OS X (on a dual-core Mac Mini) and the Windows machine slowly becomes unusably sluggish over the course of every 1.5 years or so, whereas the Mac appears to be performing just as it did on day one. What's the actual, objective difference in the operating system architecture that accounts for this?

How can I tile windows in OS X

creeront — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:42:11 -0800

How can I easily tile my windows in OS X like I do in MS Windows? I want to easily and quickly tile my windows in OS X (especially word documents so I can read them side by side) like I do in MS Windows. In Windows, I use Winsplit Revolution and right clicking on the taskbar and hitting 'tile vertically'. Is there any way to do this?

Windows Search Questions

Rad_Boy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:18:38 -0800

Does the "new" Windows Search installed on XP need to have Indexing Service checked on? I used to use Copernic DTS but found that it wasn't doing a complete job (missed too many results) and that the new Windows Search would work with XP. I recently downloaded it and it works well except for the continuous disk activity I hear. Is this normal? Do I have to allow the Windows Indexing Service to index the disk for fast file searching? Or is this a seperate application? Thanks!

Name that alternative file viewer

Lokheed — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:01:54 -0800

A few years ago I came across an alternative to Windows Explorer that let you browse the contents of your drives by disk space used. The display was a kind of Mondrian grid, with the files and folders taking up the most disk space having the largest area on the display. Can anyone point me to this utility (or something similar)?

automatic back-up solution for someone who doesn't understand computers

conrad101 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:11:02 -0800

I'm helping out an elderly lady who is using a laptop with XP which is showing signs of unreliability. It is now permanently sat on a table so it doesn't get moved around. She is especially concerned about a failure leading to a loss of outlook express e-mails. This person is easily confused by all things computer related so it has to work with minimum intervention and be as simple as possible. I was thinking of using an external drive and Acronis true image 11 home. I would set up True image to mirror on to the external drive. I was also thinking of automatically forwarding all outlook express mails to a web mail account - yahoo mail - as she has a yahoo account already. Being able to read from a webmail account would allow uninteruped service should anything go wrong. Is there anything wrong with this?

Phantom files?

dozo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:43:11 -0800

Windows Server 2003 - Best way to see what files (and their locations) disk quotas are counting against a user? I am running a 30 user 2003 domain using roaming profiles and 2GB disk quotas with XP Pro. All are working well except one user.

For some reason quota entries claim that she has 4GB used in her profile, but I cannot find what the quotas are talking about. Her profile is around 200MB, same on the server. I've searched through the server to find these files (music files from a year ago when the profiles was first started - all were erased from server and station) but I haven't found anything.

My question... What's the best way to list the files quotas are seeing?

There may be something obvious here I'm missing, but I'm a Linux man working with 2003 and nothing I can find online mentions how to list the files attributed to a user in quotas.

How can I see total drive space in my pc?

mrbenn — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:05:36 -0800

Can anyone help with a program to show total drive space in a PC across multiple drives? I would like to be able to see total available and free space across the 5 seperate hard drives in my Windows Vista system. It can obviously be done through My Computer and a calculator but is there a software solution (preferably freeware or open source) that can do the job. All the programs I can find through the usual means show folder sizes, percentage free etc but always for ONLY 1 drive. I

how to re-enable wmp11 combining artists/albums/etc?

lrodman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:32:05 -0800

I checked "Don't ask me again" when dragging one artist into another in WMP11 on vista in order to change all the names from one to another (to combine "the beatles" and "beatles" into one, in this case), expecting it to just do it without asking in the future, but now I've lost this functionality altogether. How can I re-enable it?

Can I upgrade my motherboard and CPU without reinstalling Vista?

adi — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:06:52 -0800

Can I upgrade my motherboard and CPU without reinstalling Vista? I'm using a Pentium 930 (Dual core, 3ghz) and want to move up to a Core 2 Quad, but am hoping to avoid a full reinstall.

I would also like to avoid losing my itunes library, and other such settings if possible (installed software, etc.).

A->B instead of B->A?!?!?

notsnot — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:39:13 -0800

How to recover from sync-ing a RAID 1 the wrong way? So I bought a couple 300G drives a while back, put 'em in RAID 1, and one of them died. Ijust now finally got around to RMAing the defective drive back to Seagate. Mind you, for the last nine months I've been using this single drive as a repository for all my photoshop work (all the RAW files are on another RAID pair).

So last night, I hooked up the fresh drive, turned on RAID in the bios, designated the two drives as a RAID group in the POST ("hit F10...") doohickey, and went to Windows. There, I ran the Nvidia media manager, saw both drives, and told it to sychronize the drives. This morning, I woke up and looked at the drive letter represented by these drives....and it's empty. In fact, Windows sees an unformatted drive. Best I can tell, the Nvidia program synced the drive with all my beautiful data to the empty drive, instead of the other way around.

WTF do I do now? First thing, I shut the machine down, and turned off RAID in the bios, so I can see both drives, both looking to Windows like unformatted drives. I'm unsure what I can do now to save my data! (Yes, I know I should have backed the fuck up. I didn't.)

Other information: ASUS M2n-SLI, Seagate 300G drives, Phenom/8G RAM. I'm not near the computer until this evening, but wanted to get y'alls thoughts.

Is Dell Support lying about downgrading PCs to WinXP?

Fferret — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:04:15 -0800

Is Dell Support lying when they say that their new XPS laptop is not WinXP-compatible? I've just bought a Dell XPS M1330 laptop through Dell Outlet. It has Vista Home Premium on it, and ISTR that Dell and a number of other manufacturers had offerred to 'donwgrade' or provide a CD of XP so you could downgrade. I called Dell Support, seeking to get the CD or DVD so I could begin preparing this laptop for use by my daughter. After a number of calls, during which I am variously told 'No, we don't offer that." I finally get a rep who speaks English without a script who informs me 'We can't do that for that laptop." My next question is , of course, "Why?" She connects me to a "tech", who informs me that the M1330 has components for which there are no XP drivers, only Vista ones. This sounds plausible, but unlikely. I am staying with Vista for now, but is Dell lying to me just to avoid the issue?

Extended computer warranty problems

cedar — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:12:04 -0800

A friend bought an extended service plan (the top level) on an HP computer from Staples. They are now telling her that by wiping the drive before bringing it in for service she voided the warranty. After nearly two years of abuse and 'maintenance' by children and casual users, the OS (Windows XP Pro) was thoroughly trashed and the 160G drive started failing intermittently. One of the fans also needed replacement.

Because of the personal data on the computer we had reservations about entrusting it to a nameless tech so I used a LINUX utility to wipe the drive, entirely removing Windows (including the OEM recovery partition). She did not receive a Windows CD when she purchased the machine and, obviously, the bundled HP Recovery disc is going to be less than useful.

They are now telling me that they are unable to reinstall Windows and will not replace any malfunctioning hardware. It is my contention that since she purchased a Windows license -- this is itemized on the receipt and the original serial sticker on the case is intact -- she is entitled to a functioning copy of XP on her hard drive.

Do I have a leg to stand on?

Looking for utility to list information about files.

KevinSkomsvold — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:26:25 -0800

Is there a utility (freeware or not) that will allow me to specify a directory in Windows XP and monitor that directory for any changes to files (access time, modified time, etc..)? I've tried a few things (Sysinternals utilities) but they seem to be overkill for what I want. Also, within windows you can add a "Date Modfied" field to the detail file listing but it doesn't seem to work. Any ideas would be appreciated.

AHCI gives me a headache...

lou — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:14:59 -0800

Hard Drive Filter: Someone explain to me how SATA and AHCI work. I got some new computer parts. I've been building my own systems for nearly eight years now and it's the best way for me to learn the in's and out's of my system. This is the first time I've had an SATA capable motherboard and an SATA hard drive, and so far it's been nothing but headaches. I *suspect* a lot of the headaches has to do with the fact that I do *not* want to do a fresh install of my operating system (although, if that is all that is needed to take away all my headaches, please confirm). I'm on a copy of WinXP from university a few years back -- not quite sure about all the legal ramifications of using still using their OS, but I'm not interested in that discussion right now. However -- just in case Microsoft disables my computer remotely or whatever is up their sleeves -- I disabled Automatic Updates and don't have Service Pack 1 or 2. That might also make a difference. So. Onto the questions.

1. My new motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (that's this one). If you look on their drivers list, there's a section for SATA RAID drivers, an Intel one for their Northbridge controller and a GSATA one for a second controller (by JMicron?). As I understand it I need to install these drivers for WinXP to recognize SATA drives. Do these drivers work for *ALL* SATA modes, even if it's specifically labeled as RAID? (I'm not looking for a RAID setup.) It looks like I need to install these drivers even if I want to just use the SATA controller in IDE mode -- is this true?

2. I'd like to enable AHCI to make the most of my SATA drives. So far, I know that I'm supposed to do a repair install of WinXP, load up the RAID driver (even if I don't want RAID), and then change the BIOS setting to make the hard drive work in AHCI mode. So I tried that on the GSATA controller and I got WinXP to boot-- huzzah! BUT -- the drives on the IDE controller disappeared! I only see my SATA hard drive, and not my IDE hard drive and CD-DVD drive which is on the IDE controller. Are AHCI and IDE mutually exclusive or incompatible? If a system is on AHCI is IDE disabled? If so, why doesn't this warning exist anywhere? Or did I do something wrong?

3. Do I need to load the SATA drivers *everytime* I do a repair install? Would I be able to install two drivers, one for each controller, on a single install?

Vista Permissions?

heavenstobetsy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:06:58 -0800

What the crap? Vista won't let me delete a folder extracted from a .rar file. K. I hate wasting my weekly question on this!

But.

I pulled a folder (two subfolders about 2.5 GB total) onto my Desktop from a .rar file. Now I'm trying to delete that whole folder and receiving a "Destination Folder Access Denied" error. I'm an Administrator. I have ownership of the folder I'm trying to delete + Full Control permissions-wise. Am I missing something here?

I've googled this for about an hour. All I can find is similar issues with copying shared files between workstations.

Stop-Start Computing

SansPoint — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:39:16 -0800

What would make an old Windows computer stop accepting input for short periods of time (2-3 minutes)? My housemate has an old Compaq PC running Windows XP. Lately, it's started pausing for 2-3 minute intervals, not accepting any input. The keyboard buffer isn't overflowing: it's even mouse input that stops dead. It also seems to just seize up.

I'm going to run Memtest86+ on it, but I can't imagine anything that would cause it to exhibit these symptoms. He has Antivirus and Spyware software, though any Windows worms would hit my Mac mini first, which is the DMZ host.

I'm a bit out of practice with Windows. Help?

Did my new RAM kill my video adapter?

YoungAmerican — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:31:06 -0800

BSODFilter: I tried to install a RAM upgrade in my girlfriend's Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, and got nothing on screen after powerup. So I replaced the old DIMM, and got the BSOD -- the file that was missing was a driver for the Intel video adapter. Long story short, it's still not working. I wiped the HD, reinstalled windows, reinstalled the drivers, and after some installing and re-installing, finally have the computer starting up in XP. But it's giving me the BSOD seemingly randomly every hour or two. This is with everything as it was BEFORE the troubles started.

I spent a number of hours on the line with tech support, they seem completely baffled. In typical tech support fashion, all they want to do is install and reinstall drivers. I've googled my rear off, but to no avail.

Could I somehow have zapped my video adapter when I installed the DIMM? Could they conflict somehow? Would replacing the video adapter fix the problem? Could I replace it myself, as someone who's never done anything more than replace drives and RAM?

If I start up with the new RAM only, I can get it going in safe mode, but with weird purple lines up and down the screen.

I was about to buy a new computer to replace this one, but part of the plan involved getting a few hundred bucks for the oldie-but-goodie, which won't work if it's an oldie-but-baddie. Help me mefites, you're my only hope.