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Ancient Geek-Computer myths and facts

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  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Climacus wrote: »
    How far along are you? At this screen?

    I've got as far as the Customize Keyboard box, but I don't have the "Office Menu" option in the Categories box on the left under Specify a Command.

  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    On my version, the Bold option is under the Home tab category. Can you see it under there?
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Got it, thanks! The instructions I found weren't clear that you had to click the Home Tab option first to get the new menu.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    Happy I could help. Happy bolding! :smiley:
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I've found an odd feature on my laptop, in the file explorer. It shows "Documents", split into Public and My Documents. In each of these there are folders labelled "My Music", "My Pictures" and "My Videos". In neither library can I access these. Access is forbidden. I have used the security tab to try and give me access, but that is forbidden as well. I am the administrator and should have administrators rights for access and to alter the permissions, but it just doesn't work. I may have come across this before, as I have alternative folders set up which I can access. They are all dated 14/7/09 at 6.08, which is the same as "Documents and Settings" which I also cannot access. This appears to be the date the system was set up initially, from what shows up in a search.
    I'm probably going to delete the three library folders. But any idea how I can override the blocking?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Penny S wrote: »
    I've found an odd feature on my laptop, in the file explorer. It shows "Documents", split into Public and My Documents. In each of these there are folders labelled "My Music", "My Pictures" and "My Videos". In neither library can I access these. Access is forbidden. I have used the security tab to try and give me access, but that is forbidden as well. I am the administrator and should have administrators rights for access and to alter the permissions, but it just doesn't work. I may have come across this before, as I have alternative folders set up which I can access. They are all dated 14/7/09 at 6.08, which is the same as "Documents and Settings" which I also cannot access. This appears to be the date the system was set up initially, from what shows up in a search.
    I'm probably going to delete the three library folders. But any idea how I can override the blocking?

    I think you're going through the hard links which were put in for XP compatibility. Go in through c:\users\public which is their real path; C:\documents and settings doesn't really exist on Vista or later; it's a hard link to c:\users put there for old XP programs but you can't just click through it.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    I have an old Kindle Paperwhite with a lot of junk on it I'm trying to delete. In particular there are several old versions of the User's Guide and some documents that I emailed to the Kindle in the past. But they refuse to delete. I've tried long tapping but that just brings up the options to Add to Home, Add to Collection or Mark as Unread. I've tried connecting it to my PC and deleting them in File Explorer but that doesn't work either. Any advice please?

  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    I've had a mysterious event on my hybrid, which I believed had two drives, C: and D, though I am now wondering if I was confusing it with another. It's running 8.1.
    Yesterday evening I opened up.with a flash drive connected, which I was surprised to see labelled as D, when it is usually F:.
    It's got all its programs and files, nothing isn't there, but all on one drive.
    Yesterday afternoon, four files and a folder appeared.
    pagefile.sys 851,968 KB
    swapfile.sys 16,384 KB
    hiberfil.sys 1,614,320 KB
    ProgramData
    All dated 23/07/2019 15.36
    At that time I was in a phone call with the local police about something I had reported, and was accessing email in Thunderbird to look at the copy of the report I had sent in to check details. Not altering virtual drives on the memory device in the computer. (I can be sure of that because the phone stores the call list.)
    I am rather puzzled.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    Penny S wrote: »
    I've had a mysterious event on my hybrid, which I believed had two drives, C: and D, though I am now wondering if I was confusing it with another. It's running 8.1.
    Yesterday evening I opened up.with a flash drive connected, which I was surprised to see labelled as D, when it is usually F:.
    It's got all its programs and files, nothing isn't there, but all on one drive.
    Yesterday afternoon, four files and a folder appeared.
    pagefile.sys 851,968 KB
    swapfile.sys 16,384 KB
    hiberfil.sys 1,614,320 KB
    ProgramData
    All dated 23/07/2019 15.36
    At that time I was in a phone call with the local police about something I had reported, and was accessing email in Thunderbird to look at the copy of the report I had sent in to check details. Not altering virtual drives on the memory device in the computer. (I can be sure of that because the phone stores the call list.)
    I am rather puzzled.

    If you previously had a D drive those files might have been on there (they're system files connected to virtual memory and hibernation). Alternatively they might have always been there but they're usually not visible unless you turn on visibility for hidden system files. I suspect the latter because c:\programdata is a hidden folder which is normally present.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    But they wouldn't normally have been dated yesterday afternoon, would they? They are the only files with that date.
    They are in the subdued colouration I would expect of hidden files when made visible.
    I'm currently running a full scan, which isn't finding anything so far - got to 94%
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    The modified dates of those files usually the last bootup time of the computer. If it's been in hibernation those dates may reflect the wake time.

    This doesn't sound symptomatic of any kind of infection to me. If you've currently only got one permanent HDD in the system they'd be expected to be there.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Wrong about the only files. There's stuff at 15.36 in various places, and a lot at 15.37 and up to 15.50. Very busy. At 15.36 (with other stuff) are
    0000000682-0000000000.log 46Kb in MeasuredBoot - This is incomprehensible coding.
    PFRO.log 231 KB in C: - This is a set of paragraphs which start up with PFRO Error, list the name of a program along with other material, and the say that the PFRO process has succeeded.
    I don't see how a drive change could happen without my knowing.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    PFRO is Pending File Rename Operations - happens after installing Windows updates. It looks to me like your computer did a fast restart at that time - W8.1 and 10 can do this to install updates and leave your desktop where it was prior to the restart.

    As for the missing drive - what was previously on D?
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Mostly documents, also some programs I had installed there to avoid crowding the Windows installation. Everything seems to be there. But there isn't much space left. I think D was quite full, from my mental image of the display in File Explorer, while there was space on C.
    Nowhere on the packaging, on the computer itself (physically or electronically), the paper manual or the installed one does it say what the size of the storage is supposed to be, so I don't know if it has disappeared with the partition.
    I've had a number of gripes with the machine, a Toshiba Satellite Click Mini, which were put upable with, but if it's going to start doing stuff like this, I'm looking for something else.

    Oddly, I had a couple of other things yesterday, with another computer not saving a modified file, only the source one, and my Idealist flash drive completely deleting a related entry, while saving the name in the index. Could it be the heat? (Fortunately, backed up in both cases.)
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    Where on C have documents migrated to from D, and where on D were they?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Diskmgmt.msc will show you what physical storage and what size it is is in the machine.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    They were in a documents folder, and they've migrated to a documents folder. It all looks very tidily done!

    But it's basically cooked its goose. It would frequently turn itself off without warning when the battery behind the screen was empty, but there was still plenty of charge in the battery under the keyboard. It would need to be plugged in to restart - no use for use away from home, which is what I got it for. It would also insist on behaving as though the keyboard wasn't connected, and cover half the screen with a virtual version so I couldn't see what I was doing. I put up with it, but whenever anyone came in with their own business device I had a good hard look at it, which is why I have gone for what is in the next paragraph.

    I'll have a look at diskmgmt.msc, anyway, but I have now ordered a Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6 running Windows 10. Not so easy to connect some things to, but reviews suggest it doesn't have the Tosh's problems. It's a pity because it is a nice sturdy device physically.

    It can join the Asus EeePc which I keep for when other things don't work, and which it replaced because of memory problems on my eclipse cruise. The Tosh gave up on the batteries halfway through the aurora cruise - didn't like the ship's power supply, I think, because it was fine when I went to the shop's tech department. I couldn't save my photos as I went along.

    But I am still thinking that changing the partition system ought to be much harder. When I'm sure I've got all the docs off (not that many as I regularly download to a central store), I might try system restore to see what happens.

    I'm not on that machine at the moment, so I need to have another look at what it's done. Program files are all in the program file folder. There seems to be a Recovery folder, which according to the manual should be hidden in the D drive, so I don't know if that will work as it should.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    You can delete partitions on the fly. You can't merge volumes together though. Are you sure the answer doesn't lie in your earlier comment: "which I believed had two drives, C: and D, though I am now wondering if I was confusing it with another"

    I think it's possibly lost a D recovery partition somehow - diskmgmt would show if there's an orphaned partition, but that your stuff was always on c:\. You can't have two documents folders (well, you can create a folder called documents and put it anywhere you like, but you can only have one, plus the public one, which Windows recognises as specifically your Documents folder). Nothing else makes the slightest sense.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Well, the documents folder in D was one I had made myself as far as I recall. I do remember switching between the two. And I do remember seeing the two drives beside each other. I've been looking on the other machine to be sure I have not imagined anything, and transferred memory (mine) from one to the other.

    This is what I found in Disk Management.
    Disk Management reports

    Volume (unlabelled) Simple Layout, Basic Type, no file system, Healthy (EFI System Partition), 100 Mb Capacity, 100% free
    Volume (unlabelled) Simple Layout, Basic Type, no file system, Healthy (Recovery Partition), 4.12 Gb Capacity, 100% free {Doesn't look as though there's anything in there for recovering, does it?}
    Volume T131440500A (C:) Simple Layout, Basic Type, File System NTFS BitLocker Encrypted), Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Wim Boot, Primary Partition) 24.77 Gb Capacity, 3.35 Gb Free space, 14% free.

    Below the line...

    Disk 0, Basic, 29.00 Gb, online

    Otherwise repeats the above information in a different format.

    What you say does puzzle me considerably. It doesn't make sense, does it?
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    It's just done its other irritating thing. With ample battery, it switches off, and then wants date and time re-entered. Bah!
    I also find that lots of other people have had disappearing D drives and posted about it on the internet. How stupid that this happens. But they do seem to have lost access to files.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    And it did the switch off in the middle of copying!!
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Penny S wrote: »
    It's just done its other irritating thing. With ample battery, it switches off, and then wants date and time re-entered. Bah!
    I also find that lots of other people have had disappearing D drives and posted about it on the internet. How stupid that this happens. But they do seem to have lost access to files.

    The CMOS battery (different to the regular battery) is flat.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Didn't think of that - I know its that with my old XP, which I keep connected as much as possible as I can't see where that battery is located for replacing. And there is no way of accessing the inside of the Toshiba computer for me - needs professional attention and very fine screwdrivers. The XP doesn't lose date and time in the middle of work when its connected, bless its little cotton socks.

    The lost D drive seems to have been a bug from Win versions way back up to 10 - I would have thought someone would have written a way to stop it.

    I'm going to have a look in Disk Management again to see if any of the fixes that have been posted about renaming partitions are workable - didn't know what to look for before. Those two unnamed ones might be worth attention.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    That doesn't work - the one volume has all the actions greyed out, and the other one has them absent completely.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    I think it's the recovery partition on disk 0 - you should be able to right-click that and choose assign drive letter.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Right clicking just got a link to Help. And in Actions, unlike C:, no option to change drive letter. Refresh, Rescan, Create VHD, Attach VHD, Help.

    I tried System Restore, but it was greyed out. And when I went into the Recovery option, it turned out that one of the applications which would be removed was the touchpad driver! So I haven't done that. I just expected things I had loaded myself and could easily re-install - or easily once I had found my external DVD drive for the disks. Not worth the risk. There was no separate media with the purchase. All on the machine.

    I shall have to write this off as really weird and to be put up with. And load all the backed up stuff on to the Samsung, which is arriving today. It'll be a bit bigger (physically), but not significantly.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    I think you're right-clicking on the disk on the left instead of the partition on the right. This is in the bit at the bottom of the console
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    No. The partition on the right at the bottom of the console. I checked to see what the other sections did to be sure.
    I am now in dispute with my new Samsung, which arrived with no manual, Win 10 and Cortana. It's as irritating as the paperclip. So I went on line. The manuals have no information about how to connect devices such as card readers to the small USB port through which it is currently charging. None of my leads have small plugs. Are there adapters? I want Maplin back.
    Nor have they any information about the filing system, or how to load legacy programs. Clearly designed for people who have come into computers by a different route.
    Steep learning curve over the past few days.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Penny S wrote: »
    No. The partition on the right at the bottom of the console. I checked to see what the other sections did to be sure.
    I am now in dispute with my new Samsung, which arrived with no manual, Win 10 and Cortana. It's as irritating as the paperclip. So I went on line. The manuals have no information about how to connect devices such as card readers to the small USB port through which it is currently charging. None of my leads have small plugs. Are there adapters? I want Maplin back.
    Nor have they any information about the filing system, or how to load legacy programs. Clearly designed for people who have come into computers by a different route.
    Steep learning curve over the past few days.

    Filing system is the same as previous OS - c:\users\<username>\documents is the default location.

    Legacy programs you install by running their installer, just as before - what are you trying to install that's causing the problems? It rather sounds like you've got a W10 tablet when you need a proper laptop.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I've got a proper laptop*. The small one is for travelling round with in a handbag. And I can do the legacy stuff because I have the installation files on my main storage and I know how. I'm not doing anything big on it. But the manual assumes the user is going to go through the Store and nowhere else.
    No problems so far as its still charging. And I shouldn't have started on it until it was fully charged, but I didn't know that. And it doesn't tell the user how to get to the files. But I'm sure I'll be able to. I dare say they don't want people to know that sort of thing. They might accidentally delete a D drive.
    First job, after installing Stellarium, OpenOffice and the programs that came with my note taking off paper device which means I can sit in meetings without the computer out, but still upload as text, is getting rid of unwanted tiles, and then I can tell my friend how to do it, as his screen is full of unnecessary stuff.
    *And an improper XP one which works the printer when the Wifi doesn't. And a very improper XP netbook because it still works in emergency and I don't get rid of things until they die.
    I can't find female to male, large to small USB adapters except on Amazon. Which I try to avoid. And I have stuff on flash drives which I move around as I work. And the camera SD cards.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Think I've sorted the adapter. And cheaply enough that if it isn't any good it won't break the bank.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    I'm not sure what you mean by "And it doesn't tell the user how to get to the files. " - what files?
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    Whatever is in File Explorer - it doesn't get a mention in the manual. It is in the task bar and is then perfectly normal. I suppose the absence is because it is Windows, not the tablet.
    Out of interest, I went into diskmgmt.msc on the new one, and it is very similar to the other, with unlabelled partitions other than the C: drive, with the same sort of content - none shown - and the same options on right clicking. I was toying with the idea of setting up a D partition while there is free space available. Not sure if it's worth it.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited July 2019
    Penny S wrote: »
    Whatever is in File Explorer - it doesn't get a mention in the manual. It is in the task bar and is then perfectly normal. I suppose the absence is because it is Windows, not the tablet.
    Out of interest, I went into diskmgmt.msc on the new one, and it is very similar to the other, with unlabelled partitions other than the C: drive, with the same sort of content - none shown - and the same options on right clicking. I was toying with the idea of setting up a D partition while there is free space available. Not sure if it's worth it.

    Don't. There'll be the mf's recovery partition and the hidden UEFI boot partition. Don't mess with them. They won't have left empty space to create an additional partition.

    The File Manager icon on the taskbar is the standard windows 10 place for it.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    OK, I won't. And the File Manager position is standard across the range of Windowses, isn't it? I often go in via the start button and "Computer" on the older machines, so that I can have two windows open at once, and I can't see that option.
    Disk Management reports 4 partitions, but only shows three, so that'll be the hidden one. I don't usually tinker with stuff that requires odd routes into it. Not since, as ICT Coordinator, before we had a technician, I managed, in DOS, to delete the root directory on a Research Machines computer. Still don't know how I did it.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    If you right click on the file manager icon you can open another instance.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Thanks - you've been really helpful. Not having anyone to talk to now retired, and the local shop shut, is limiting. I'm on the one with the missing drive at the moment - and it's decided to stop its habit of bringing up the virtual key board at every opportunity. Physically, its a better thing to handle than the Samsung - but I suspect it has always suffered from a weak connection between the screen and the keyboard, hence not recognising the power in the keyboard battery, and bringing up the virtual keyboard. Keeping it clean was never able to rectify anything.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    And the Tosh, in the manner of machines which get to know they are on the way out, has come up with a new one. Having been plugged in all night to charge up, it is reporting that it has 23% power, with the keyboard battery fully charged at 100% (50% of the total) and the screen battery at 0%, not charging.
    And the virtual keyboard is back.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Exorcism?
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I think you may be right! Last night it was fully charged in both batteries when I went to bed. Both have now lost charge without any use!
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Does anyone know if it is possible to re-order the right click menu in File Explorer? I frequently want to rename a file, but when I right click it, the menu has "Rename" right below "Delete" and as I have RSI in my wrists and my hand on the mouse is unsteady, I often find I have deleted the file instead of renaming it. Is there a way of changing the order of the menu?
  • sadly I don't, but I do know that if you single click the file to highlight, pause, and click again, it will allow you to edit.
    Similarly a single click and pressing F2 will give you the same renaming opportunity
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Wet Kipper wrote: »
    sadly I don't, but I do know that if you single click the file to highlight, pause, and click again, it will allow you to edit.
    Similarly a single click and pressing F2 will give you the same renaming opportunity

    Thanks, that is a good way round.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I use GMail. When I am composing an email it offers predictive text in greyish letters, but unlike my phone's predictive text there doesn't seen to be a way/place I can click to accept the suggestion. Am I missing something? (be kind :blush:)
  • Huia wrote: »
    I use GMail. When I am composing an email it offers predictive text in greyish letters, but unlike my phone's predictive text there doesn't seen to be a way/place I can click to accept the suggestion. Am I missing something? (be kind :blush:)

    I think the Tab key autocompletes.
  • Help please! I'm trying to back up the bookmarks on Josphine's Firefox (I stopped using Firefox long ago, and shit like this is why) and can't figure out how to do it.

    The instructions online I found said, "click Library button, then click Bookmarks. Scroll to the bottom and click Show All Bookmarks."

    Guess what there isn't when I scroll to the bottom? If you guessed "Show All Bookmarks" you win. Is there somewhere else to find this elusive "Show All Bookmarks"? Or am I just screwed?

    Have I mentioned why I don't like Firefox?
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    mt--

    I'm running Firefox 68.0.2 (64-bit). It's one of various "forks" off the main FFox, but might be pertinent.

    Go to the menu bar. Click "Bookmarks", then look at the very TOP of the list. On mine, *that's* where "Show all bookmarks" is,

    shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+b

    Once the Bookmarks window comes up, go to "Imports and Backups" in that menu bar, then "Backups". I just did all that, and saved a backup.

    Hope that helps.
  • Ctrl+Shift+B did it. Thank you!
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    I have received notification that Microsoft will soon stop supporting Windows 7. They recommend Windows 10. I remember when Windows 10 was released, a lot of people said negative things about it. Is there any alternative?
  • Moo wrote: »
    I have received notification that Microsoft will soon stop supporting Windows 7. They recommend Windows 10. I remember when Windows 10 was released, a lot of people said negative things about it. Is there any alternative?

    Linux.

    However W10 has matured a lot since 2015; bear in mind it gets a major overhaul every six months.
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