The Computer Thread

Not really, Mac's cant into gaming still so theyhave that going agianst them.

On the other hand they are much prettier.

Seriously, who does every thing through a browser?

*raises hand*

Really the main functional difference is finicky user interface stuff. Going between a Windows PC and a Mac PC (Macs are personal computers too.), it takes some adjustment to mentally remap the keyboard shortcuts. After a day on a Mac, I spend most of the evening on my Windows computer pressing Alt when I mean Control because I'm in Command-functions mode.

Also the differences in window manager conventions are annoying, but I've almost gotten to the point where it's seamless.

Modern Macs are quite capable of playing most games, it's just that most developers don't want to dedicate resources to the Mac as a separate platform even if they're already multiplatform (PC, xbox, Playstation) because of the "macs can't even games" stereotype.

Meanwhile, Macs picked up a reputation for being Art machines where Windows focused on being Business machines because they had the first commercial full-color GUI or something, and today you see a lot of design-oriented software that's Mac-only or Mac-preferred.

But there are browser-based apps for Business and Art both now, so you don't really need them unless you're locked into a workflow. Well, I don't know of any good web-based nonlinear video editors, but you can do pretty advanced stuff with your photos.

I think I've given up on putting Windows 10 on my other, other, other, computer. It's half a gig in memory too low as standard, the BIOS won't support the newer memory sticks I tried to put in the motherboard to give it a bit more capacity, even though it's also DDR 2, and thus you'd think would be okay, because I got repeated failures to install when I tried. And I'm not prepared to screw this computer I'm typing with up by trying to finagle putting a hard-drive that's been installed with a Dell OEM version of Windows 7 Professional into this box and trying it that way.

I think I'm just going to finish building the Dell box and use it as a standby, and give my old Compaq SFF to a charity shop of some sort.

Aaaand I had to go and replace my SSD. Luckily, the old one isn't completely dead, and I was able to salvage some data from it, but now I'm taking some precautions to reduce SSD traffic, like moving all documents, pictures, etc. off it.

And the free upgrade period to Windows 10 has ended and my Windows 7 Professional box is still lying on its side with the side-panel off glaring at me to finish rebuilding it. Hmm. I've a spare SATA DVD-RW drive and cables to convert one of my Molex leads from the proprietary Dell PSU to SATA, plus the odd few spare SATA data leads, so it's doable, I suppose...

And I've just upgraded my Compaq SFF thingy to moar memory. Taking it up to the dizzying heights of one, yes ONE, whole gigabyte of DDR RAM.

Yeah, I'm not getting the Windows 10 upgrade option anymore either.

Just as well. I've always had a good feeling about the number seven. :)

Crossposting from the OTC version:

Does anyone have experience with their wireless mouse having inverted axes of movement? My Morrologic Air Shark somehow interprets horizontal movement as vertical movement and vice versa. Rebooting it a lot fixes the problem, but that's rather inconvenient for obvious reasons. Changing ports didn't help, and uninstalling the drivers and rebooting seems to have done nothing.

By the way, I visited a Cash Converters near my college which had a used Razer Deathstalker keyboard on offer for RM 89, or around 22 US dollars. It's a lot more attainable for me than the Asus Strix headset there (RM 419) and more practical than the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS 3 there (would have to buy a PC monitor + required cabling), so what do you folks think of the deal? Granted, at that price point I had better make sure of their return policy, test it in the store or check for grey residue on it...

So I bought a knockoff PS3 controller and bluetooth dongle (actually, thanks to an Amazon glitch, I bought two of each). I went with the PS3 specifically because its wireless is straight Bluetooth, so I could use the adapter with other devices.

The package clearly says "Bluetooth", but neither my computer nor my phone can see either controller. I've tried multiple tools promising to set up a Playstation controller for the PC, but they haven't helped. Moreover, I'm seeing indications that these tools may have to overwrite my bluetooth adapter's driver so that it will only work with the controller? Very unpreferred. The whole point of getting a Bluetooth dongle was to reduce the number of USB ports commandeered by my input devices.

That sounds like something you should be able to sort out in your mouse settings panel, as it could be just your scrolling direction's been toggled to the reverse of what usually happens. I know there is a setting in Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard settings that flips the scroll direction.

As for the Deathstalker keyboard, if you're concerned about nasty... residue, you could carefully unscrew the thing using a teardown guide to help, separate the vulnerable circuitry (motherboard and so on) and give the whole plastics set up a good rinse under the hot tap and scrub it with a soft brush to get rid of all the nasties. It may mean peeling off of labels to access some screws - which is a common "feature" of Microsoft keyboards in particular, but that's doable.

Woah. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is downloading. Light a few candles for me, this may not go well.

edit

Well, it's done and done. Start menu looks odd compared to what it used to be. Too minimalist for the sake of being minimalist, methinks.

edit too

F*&K YOU MICROSOFT! WHY DID YOU F*&K WITH TASK VIEW YOU F*7S? Now whenever Fallout New Vegas crashes, instead of just hitting ctrl-alt-delete, clicking on task view, and moving New Vegas to Desktop 2, which I've been doing ever since Windows 10 launched, I have to log all the way out. Because the faulting program window just f*&king stays there.

edited 5th Aug '16 6:34:29 AM by TamH70

I dont know.

I just wish they would give task manager its super priority back, so that it would force itself on top of EVERY THING, like it used too.

Cross post:

Can anyone help me with the Dxtory program as I have trouble with installing it and it will not complete it.◊

You could try running the actual installer with the Windows Compatibility Assistant - try setting it to Windows 7 or Vista (if you're on Windows 10), or the next lower OS down if you're on something earlier. Regsvr.32 errors seem to be common.

You should also definitely install the ".NET Framework 4.0" package as the program you're trying to work with needs it.

Get that here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17851

So I probably did something with my Windows 8 PC around an month ago. Turned it off and I got the BSOD with error code 0xc0000225. After fiddling around with an few cmd commands I got off the web and getting nowhere, I accesses the UEFI menu and booted it into CSM mode...which was asking for an recovery media. At this point, I figured that I was better off with an new string of cmd prompts that I found off the web, so I rebooted it back to UEFI mode. Now my "Advanced Options" tab is missing, which means that I can't get into the menu that starts the cmd commands. So the only things that I can do with my PC is: Reboot it from an list of 9 options, change the boot path, restart it, access the UEFI menu, an memory scanner, and use an recovery media.

So the only thing that I haven't done yet aside from changing the boot path is the recovery media and I'm looking for an free program that can fix this and fits on an 4GB flash drive.

Do Microsoft Video 1, Microsoft H.263, Microsoft H.241 and Full Frames Uncompressed work as compression codecs? And what can I do reduce the size of a video to prevent it from becoming too big?

Not sure. Did you get Dxtory working?

Anniversary Edition Task View: I've already had multiple incidents in the pre-Anniversary Edition builds where the Task Manager window would remain within the part of the screen blacked out by a malfunctioning application. Even setting it as always on top wouldn't help. So not too much of a difference for me there :/

@Tam H 70

I am going to try an old version but it hasn't worked so far.

Sorry for the late reply, Rabidtanker, but I've had to look an answer up for you and I couldn't remember what I wanted to find. Got it now though.

Try checking this site out:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/

Hiren's CD thingy does work but you need to read everything and do everything it tells you. It's a really powerful software suite and if you skip things, it can go horribly wrong.

How powerful of a PC do you need to run the current Sony Vegas Pro?

Video editing is a notoriously hardware-intensive operation. Especially the final render.

To quote the site:

• Microsoft® Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 (64-bit)
• 2 G Hz processor (multicore or multiprocessor CPU recommended for HD or stereoscopic 3D; 8 cores recommended for 4K)
• 1 GB drive space for program installation
• SSD or high-speed multi-disk RAID for 4K media
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended; 16 GB recommended for 4K)
• OHCI-compatible IEEE-1394DV card (for DV and HDV capture and print-to-tape)
• USB 2.0 connection (for importing from AVCHD, XDCAM EX, NXCAM, or DVD camcorders)
• Windows-compatible sound card
• DVD-ROM drive (for installation from a DVD only)
• Supported CD-recordable drive (for CD burning only)
• Supported DVD-recordable drive (for DVD burning only)
• Supported BD-R/-RE drive (for Blu-ray Disc burning only)
• GPU-accelerated video processing and rendering requires an Open CL™-supported NVIDIA®, AMD/ATI™, or Intel® GPU with 512MB memory; 1 GB for 4K.
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
• Apple® Quick Time® 7.1.6 or later for reading and writing Quick Time files
• Internet Connection (for Gracenote Music ID Service)

Looks like I'll need to invest in a computer or go to a library or university computer that has the program. My laptop could support it but I don't know if it would help.

How did I get this far in local network media streaming without trying UPnP?

I discovered MythTV very early in college, but I never got hands on with it until my father built a family PVR in the living room. I used AirPlay on it a couple of times, but mostly when I had a video I wanted to watch in the living room, I'd put it on a flash drive and copy it into Myth's video folder. I experimented with streaming recordings and live broadcasts to my computer from the PVR, but the wireless G network wasn't fast enough for HD, at least across the length of the house and back (my bedroom was directly over the living room).

I recently got a look at somebody else's Kodi player, and after a long time trying to beat Myth into doing what I want, Kodi just looks amazing and works right out of the box. I've got it installed on my desktop to play with, and tonight I wanted to use it to stream video from my desktop to my tablet while I sat on the porch. I had to quickly set up media sharing, which was UPnP

Well, I don't need a Kodi frontend on my desktop to play on my tablet outside, but you can't close the frontend without closing the server. The Kodi frontend is also a bit clunky for tablet use, and I figured there was a lot of functionality in the app I didn't need to just stream videos over wifi. So when I came back inside, I researched desktop servers and mobile clients. Turns out... Windows has UPnP sharing built in, and VLC has UPnP included. So I didn't need to install anything, I just needed to turn on one setting. It's amazing how easy that was, especially next to SMB file sharing that VLC also offered, which required me to provide my username and password.

I'm not sure if the problem here is UPnP/DLNA or the stuff Windows dumps on top of it, but I have comic files on my computer that I would like to read on my tablet without filling up the hard drive with them (it's full of apps and games already) and I don't want to install a special comics server on my desktop. I specifically looked for a comic reader app that has UPnP support, which it appears there's only one for Android out there.

Connecting to my desktop as a server was easy of course, and I could navigate around folders all day, but my comics were saved in Documents, and that's the one library folder it wasn't making available. Windows' file sharing settings are "on or off", so I can't just add Documents.

Okay, fine, I moved my comics folder to Pictures. Windows serves Pictures. But when I tried to open my comics folder, it timed out and showed me an empty folder. It didn't even show me the subfolder inside.

Especially since Samba works fine (except ugh, having to log in every time), I'm suspecting that Microsoft helpfully decided I didn't have any reason to be sharing anything but music, video, and picture files, and won't serve anything else over UPnP. But it could just be a DLNA thing.