Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Alastar]

Windows 8 is a very compromised design, meant to work on different form factors without altering the desktop experience too much and keeping duplication between the interfaces somewhat in check.

Things that suck (more)now:
Stylistically out of place fondleslab UI elements (start screen, charms bar)
Ergonomically out of place fondleslab UI elements (same)
Leftover bling on the desktop that clashes with the new aesthetic
Even more duplication in settings screens.
Weird locations for basic functions. Weirder than "click Start to shut down".
Even more overactive services that are a pain to get rid of if you'd like your OS to PLEASE STOP TRYING TO HELP.

Things that still suck:
Icons: Every historic Windows UI style is represented.
Settings layout: You can enable feature x here, but to disable it you have to go somewhere else.
Settings hierarchy: Click on something completely unrelated on the way (at least searching usually works now)
Font rendering (harsh and distorted is justifiable - this allows things to at least be very sharp. Inconsistent rendering between different font formats isn't)

Things that don't suck but tick many people off:
Overall aesthetic is simpler and cleaner, signage rather than faux glass. I like it better - less fancy but more honest and utilitarian.
Start screen instead of the classic Start menu - fullscreen so more disruptive and makes some concessions to touch devices, but has some advantages even for pure desktop users (like much better keyboard interaction).
Focus on the touch-friendly UI and the Windows Store make some people nervous that the platform will become less open and that the desktop is going to become a second class citizen.

Things that suck less than they used to:
Performance and stability. They cheat on startup (default "shutdown" is a partial hibernate), most other things one would notice have genuinely improved.
Indexing and search-based launching/system administration have become much, much better. Since Windows settings screens seem to have been designed by hateful bureaucrats in all versions, the latter is very important to me and alone offsets all the design niggles above.

*

If you want to use Windows, I'd recommend Windows 8. Many little details are tacky, but most are superficial and can be dealt with if they bother you.

Personally, I prefer Linux and definitely recommend giving it a try. It's a little different (more technical and modular, focused on Free and Open Source Software). Whether it is a good choice depends a little on your needs. While you can run much Windows-Only software through a compatibility layer, there are often some rough edges. If free alternatives are an option (e.g. LibreOffice, a TeX solution,  GnuCash), things become much more pleasant - you get your software through your distribution's own repositories, with patches to make things work more consistently, and they're kept up to date along with your OS.

Since most popular versions can be downloaded for free and give one access to a decent application suite straight off a CD or flash drive, it's good to have one lying around and know the basics. Useful for troubleshooting/data recovery if something goes wrong with one's primary OS.

If you want to make a full switch, one of the biggest initial hurdles can be overwhelming choice:
You can choose your own GUI, as minimalistic or sophisticated as you wish. I've tried over a dozen and stuck with a fairly obscure one.
There are a good half dozen major distributions which vary slightly in their priorities: Ubuntu is accessible and consumer-friendly,  Debian is rock solid and sensible, Arch and Gentoo revel in nerdy details... most people start off with a less technical one like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

[Vespulan]

Ubuntu is accessible and consumer-friendly,  Debian is rock solid and sensible, Arch and Gentoo revel in nerdy details... most people start off with a less technical one like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

No love for Xubuntu?   How does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage?  I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start...  I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.   

[Alastar]

No love for Xubuntu?

Well, that's just Ubuntu with a more conservative default interface. User-friendly and sensible, but in my opinion a little boring as a first introduction.
Certainly better suited than my favourite (Arch Linux is a pain to set up if you aren't familiar with Linux already, FVWM is a ridiculously flexible interface but the defaults seem unchanged from 1993).

How does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage?  I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start...  I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.

Sure it's a fault of the operating system rather than, say, removable drives having priority in BIOS settings?
Driver situation with Windows 8 is quite good - as should be expected since under the hood little has changed since Vista. Not perfect though, automatically installed drivers may be suboptimal (seems Microsoft isn't overly enthusiastic to support cross-platform OpenGL rather than their proprietary API... what a surprise)

[Vespulan]

No love for Xubuntu?

How does Windows 8 deal with Flash-Memory storage?  I remember my brother's friend plugging an 8GB USB into a Windows 7 machine and the BIOS then refusing to start...  I was assuming both Drivers and Memory issues would just get worse in Windows 8.

Sure it's a fault of the operating system rather than, say, removable drives having priority in BIOS settings?
Driver situation with Windows 8 is quite good - as should be expected since under the hood little has changed since Vista. Not perfect though, automatically installed drivers may be suboptimal (seems Microsoft isn't overly enthusiastic to support cross-platform OpenGL rather than their proprietary API... what a surprise)

Well we tested it afterwards and if I remember correctly it turned out the RAM was trying to use the USB Drive to do basically everything, and they ended up blowing that by opening all the desktop icons at the same time...  Eurgh, I remember having to uninstall all of my OpenGL versions manually because Windows installed them all to the wrong place after my Brother (Same one^^^) ran a 3D water-shader on my computer in OpenGL...

[Kicior]

I don't know if it fits into "generic advice" but...
Close combat 2 (a bridge too far) "can't find one or more registry keys" when installed on Windows 7 but works just fine on Vista after running this registry script

Code: [Select]

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat\2.00]
"PID"="00000-000-0000000-00000"
"ScreenX"="800"
"ScreenY"="600"
"Version"="2.0"
"IType"=hex:01,00,00,00
"GameSpeed"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowDSAlert"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowQuickHelp"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlaySounds"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayMusic"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayVideos"=hex:00,00,00,00
"FCopy"=hex:00,00,00,00
"SMethod"=hex:00,00,00,00
"Save"=hex:00,00,00,00
"ShowTrees"=hex:01,00,00,00
"StaticFPS"=hex:0a,00,00,00
"InstalledFrom"=".\\"
"Launched"="1"
"VersionType"="RetailVersion"
Halp?

[Aklyon]

Have you tried running said script on Win7? Not always, but things that fix things on Vista tend to fix things in Win7.

[Kicior]

Yep, I've also compared the registry keys. The only difference I've noticed is the absence of one key (I think it was InstalledTo) but adding it did nothing.

[foil]

This might be a bit complex but will show you where the app is tripping up.

Download procmon from Microsoft, run it then run the game and let it record what it does.  After it crashes or exits, go to procmon and stop recording/capturing and filter the results by the game exe name.  Just look at the last few events for reg access and it will tell you where it was looking for things and what it couldnt find.

[Tellemurius]

I don't know if it fits into "generic advice" but...
Close combat 2 (a bridge too far) "can't find one or more registry keys" when installed on Windows 7 but works just fine on Vista after running this registry script

Code: [Select]

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Close Combat\2.00]
"PID"="00000-000-0000000-00000"
"ScreenX"="800"
"ScreenY"="600"
"Version"="2.0"
"IType"=hex:01,00,00,00
"GameSpeed"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowDSAlert"=hex:01,00,00,00
"ShowQuickHelp"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlaySounds"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayMusic"=hex:01,00,00,00
"PlayVideos"=hex:00,00,00,00
"FCopy"=hex:00,00,00,00
"SMethod"=hex:00,00,00,00
"Save"=hex:00,00,00,00
"ShowTrees"=hex:01,00,00,00
"StaticFPS"=hex:0a,00,00,00
"InstalledFrom"=".\\"
"Launched"="1"
"VersionType"="RetailVersion"
Halp?

change REGEDIT4 to Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[Bdthemag]

So, I consider myself rather acquainted with computers, but I'm absolutely clueless on things regarding the actual insides of the computer. But basically, I've had a laptop for a good year and a half which is a dell inspirion. Now, I've been playing a variety of low-requirement games ever since I've got it, but in the past few months the performance in these games has dropped quite drastically. I'm thinking it might be a problem with my CPU, seeing as the games I play are usually not very graphics intensive but CPU intensive (Such as grand strategy games.) Could this mean my CPU is finally dying on me? I sort of suspect it because this thing used to heat up like crazy when everything was working fine, and I have a feeling that could of damaged it (Although again, this is just an assumption since I know only the basics.)

Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?

[Tellemurius]

So, I consider myself rather acquainted with computers, but I'm absolutely clueless on things regarding the actual insides of the computer. But basically, I've had a laptop for a good year and a half which is a dell inspirion. Now, I've been playing a variety of low-requirement games ever since I've got it, but in the past few months the performance in these games has dropped quite drastically. I'm thinking it might be a problem with my CPU, seeing as the games I play are usually not very graphics intensive but CPU intensive (Such as grand strategy games.) Could this mean my CPU is finally dying on me? I sort of suspect it because this thing used to heat up like crazy when everything was working fine, and I have a feeling that could of damaged it (Although again, this is just an assumption since I know only the basics.)

Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?

mobile cpus are design to throttle themselves when theres too much heat which is where you can see alot of performance drops. Circulation is key to any lifetime of a laptop and a clogged cooling port spells death, blow it out with a air duster.

[Bdthemag]

So, I consider myself rather acquainted with computers, but I'm absolutely clueless on things regarding the actual insides of the computer. But basically, I've had a laptop for a good year and a half which is a dell inspirion. Now, I've been playing a variety of low-requirement games ever since I've got it, but in the past few months the performance in these games has dropped quite drastically. I'm thinking it might be a problem with my CPU, seeing as the games I play are usually not very graphics intensive but CPU intensive (Such as grand strategy games.) Could this mean my CPU is finally dying on me? I sort of suspect it because this thing used to heat up like crazy when everything was working fine, and I have a feeling that could of damaged it (Although again, this is just an assumption since I know only the basics.)

Being rather poor, I'm unable to buy a new computer. So tell me, am I absolutely fucked in terms of my CPU? Or could it potentially be something else?

mobile cpus are design to throttle themselves when theres too much heat which is where you can see alot of performance drops. Circulation is key to any lifetime of a laptop and a clogged cooling port spells death, blow it out with a air duster.

Yeah, I was sort of thinking that might of been the problem since it'll shut off once it starts getting more active. I'll open it up later today and see if that improves it, which it probably will because I'm an idiot and haven't cleaned it out in a year and a half.

[noppa354]

Apparently windows explorer is now allergic to my keyboard, crashing whenever I press any key when viewing a folder or the start menu. This is... odd.
Pls halp Please help me fix this.

[Tarran]

Apparently someone fixed it before: http://superuser.com/questions/147659/windows-7-explorer-hangs-on-key-press

Might be something worth trying.

[Lightningfalcon]

Anyone know a good place to download an IDA, a good binary exploitation tutorial, and a good script exploitation tutorial?