Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 August 14

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August 14

How would a website/network know that it's you, even if your IP address is changed?

Sometimes, users are so hellbent on hating you that they'll remember your IP address so that you don't escape their hate just by changing your username.

Then you figure out how to change your IP address.

There are two other methods of users still figuring out who you are, that I know of:

• Having a distinctive writing style and interests shared by no one else on that site/network
• Failing to delete cookies (that have your old login info, etc.)

What are some other, more technical methods of finding out who you were? How commonly are those methods employed, and how do you circumvent said methods? --70.179.163.168 (talk) 00:28, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

MAC address? General Rommel (talk) 00:45, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure any website can see your MAC address. Maybe if you authorized some kind of Java applet? Even then, I don't know. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:42, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

If you are not on the same network (ie: the same switch), your MAC is not visible. Websites tend to use Flash cookies to identify people because they break the "cross-site" security rule and they do not get erased when a user tries to erase all cookies. So, a flash cookie identifies you, regardless of what your IP address is. -- kainaw™ 18:41, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

SecondLife uses MAC addresses, this is interesting in view of recent European privacy legislation. Rich Farmbrough, 20:57, 15 August 2011 (UTC).

SecondLife is a program, not a web page. A program can access information about the computer that a web page cannot. -- kainaw™ 12:50, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

A browser is a program, also. A browser could send MAC addresses; but most modern browsers do not, because the MAC address is not needed for any part of the HTTP protocol implementation. The browser's code, and certain types of browser-plugins, could easily determine the MAC and transmit it to a server. Nimur (talk) 21:13, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Separate from cookies are Local Shared Objects, which hold a lot of info and are not often treated the same as regular cookies. I also recall reading somewhere that User agent strings (because of all the gunk they contain about plugins and browsers and versions and etc.), when combined with simple Javascript-accessible info (screen resolution, for example), often renders an pretty specific match (e.g. a one in few thousand chance that you are the same user). --Mr.98 (talk) 01:42, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a good article series starting here. They list e.g. Flash cookies and sites cooperating (voluntarily or involuntarily) via HTTP referrer and information provided in the URI. The User agent string alone carries on average 10.5 bits of identifying information, and if combined with other information (available fonts, resolution, plugins) can give quite unique fingerprints. I have the Computer Modern fonts installed in my Mac Fontbook (for use in Keynote), and apparently that alone makes me unique among the 1709638 users that participated (so far) in their Panopticlick experiment. There is a scientific paper on the approach here. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:53, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that's what I was thinking of; thanks! --Mr.98 (talk) 12:48, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

People can be quite clever, for instance one can serve slightly different versions of the same javascript which has an identifoier in to different people and depend on the caching, if they delete a cookie then the id can be got from the javascript instead and the cookie reinstated. We could do with some technologies like that on Wikipedia as we get plagued by some very persistent vandals. Individuals though do not normally go to such extremes and you can avoid them by not visiting their websites, so it sounds like the OP is visiting a website and trying to do something there and the website owner does not like it. If this is so then who exactly is hellbent on hating? Dmcq (talk) 09:30, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

disable keyboard on laptop

i got water on my laptop keyboard and the arrow buttons are going crazy and the rest of the keyboard is shot. i have a usb keyboard, but the wild normal laptop overrides it. is there a way to disable it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.181.202.2 (talk) 01:24, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Device Manager? General Rommel (talk) 02:47, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

If it's currently acting like you are hitting the keys, it probably is still wet. I wouldn't use it like that, as water could drip down into the critical bits and destroy the computer. Instead, store it open and upside down (so the keyboard is level) in a dry area until it completely dries out. StuRat (talk) 19:08, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

solution of computer problem

I have a dos base software name 'cross' which is use in retail medicine shop. I have dell inspiron laptop with core i3 processer. in my laptop i install windox xp and the software runnim=ng well I also used a epson dot matrix printer. to print out from printer I use two operation 1. control panel-add hardware-wizard-I have already attached hardware-add new hardware-network adapter-loopback adapter and 2. c:\documents and setting\administrator>net use lpt1 \\computer name\shaired printer name then show ... the command completed successfully but now I install windos 7 ultimate in my laptop, my software running well in my laptop.I want to print out by printer I performed operation 2 before operation 1 and it happens many times e:\user\Supriyo>net use lpt1 \\computer mane\shaired printer name it show ... the command completed sucessfully but I can not get print then I performed operation 1 and then 2 but it show system error 85 occured the local device name is already in use what can I do to get print in windos 7 ultimate.Gonsusona (talk) 02:35, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Are you running the Command Prompt as an administrator? (not just as a Windows administrator account, but specifically right-click the Command Prompt shortcut and "Run as administrator") as under Windows 7 (and likely Vista) you're probably going to need to do that. Then if it still doesn't work, try using lpt2 or lpt3 instead of lpt1. I could be wrong, but I don't think Windows 7 will let you remap an existing port so you have to use a different port number i.e. lpt2 or lpt3. Hope this helps!  ZX81  ^talk 02:40, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

ok I will try it.Gonsusona (talk) 10:33, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I move the above response from Gonsusona here from the thread below as I presume it relates to this thread Nil Einne (talk) 13:41, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Stretch screen resolution

Hello,

I have a laptop with a nVidia 540M graphic card and Windows 7 64 bits. Is it possible to stretch the screen rather than having two huge black bars on each side of the screen when I'm running older games that don't have built-in support for widescreen, nor fan-made hacks? My nVidia control panel only has options for custom settings like AA filtering, even with the latest drivers. Same thing for the Intel graphical drivers thingy. Actually I believe there's an option (It's in French and I'm used to English computing terms, quite ironically) but there's only one choice (something to the effect of center screen (FUUU). I also tried using the «maximize» option of shortcuts. Doesn't work either.

I'm thinking about installing a Windows XP 32 bits partition, because a significant number of older games either don't run or they run very badly (brillant Microsoft engineers decided to dump 16 bits support in Win 7 x64 - despite a lot of early 2000s applications still relying on it to some extent). Will this also fix this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.18.145.160 (talk) 06:38, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I don't think this is simply a decision of 'brillant Microsoft engineers'. In [[X86-64#Long mode|long mode],] x86-64 CPUs (in other words a decision by AMD which Intel and Via later also followed) only provide support for 16-bit protected mode applications. Any applications which require real mode or virtual 8086 mode can't be run. Therefore only certain applications could be run without Microsoft tweaking the Windows on Windows layer to provide more emulation. Given the risk later proven real of continuing to provide so much legacy code, combined with the fact there are already plenty of virtual machines and emulators, it's perhaps not surprising Microsoft chose not to spend time reinventing the wheel updating the WoW and NTVDM layers so they could work in long mode.

If you are using Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate, Windows XP mode is supported which is probably an easier option then installing a secondary OS. Of course if you have an XP licence for the second copy you plan to install, perhaps it also allows you to install it in a VM. If you intention is to run early 2000s games which use 16 bit code, Virtual PC (used by Windows XP mode by default) may be enough. If it isn't, the most likely problem would be the limited 3D support in Virtual PC, in which case VirtualBox and VMware have hardware acceleration support. (If the only problem is 16 bit installers, you may want to see if there's a way to install it in Windows 7 x64.)

If you do want to go down the installing a secondary partition with Windows XP x32 route, be aware companies are dropping support for Windows XP, so you may find difficulty getting your hardware to work with it. And you're probably more likely to encounter problems with a laptop, since generic drivers don't always work if they are available (I believe in the case of Nvidia even Omega drivers don't work for mobile/laptop graphics chipsets). A quick search suggests there are no official (or beta) drivers from Nvidia for your graphics chipset for XP. You may be able to find some unofficial drivers but I wouldn't get my hopes up if you haven't found some.

BTW on desktop cards, the Nvidia control panel has a 'adjust desktop size and position' submenu option under the 'display' menu. For LCD or widescreen (not sure which one) monitors, this usually shows a 'when using a resolution lower than my display's native resolution' for which there is the option to 'use NVIDIA scaling' (the one without 'with fixed-aspect ratio') usually means no black bars. If there is no such option for the mobile drivers and you've tried multiple versions, you may be SOL (well unless your display has such an option, for a built in LCD monitor on a laptop this is unlikely but if you're using a fancy LCD monitor it's possible). I presume you're aware if you stretch it in that way, the aspect ratio will be wrong, so people and objects will appear squashed/fat.

There is a slight possibility the Nvidia or Intel drivers on XP will provide such an option despite it not existing in the Windows 7 drivers, but I doubt it. In fact were it not for you saying the option doesn't exist on Windows 7, I would have expected you'd have been even less likely to have support for such an option on XP then on Windows 7 (particularly considering you have a very recent mobile chipset).

Nil Einne (talk) 13:30, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Another option might be to use an external monitor. If you have a non-wide-screen monitor, then it should fit better. With any luck, you might have a monitor which is taller than the laptop's, and thus gives you a bigger image. StuRat (talk) 17:12, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I did not know about the whole 16 bits thing, sorry. I stand corrected.

Oddly enough, I just unlocked the stretching option in the Intel Graphical Drivers thingy. After fiddling around and pressing the hotkey for enable/disable panel fitting which is CTRL+ALT+F11, My desktop changed to a "center screen" mode (I had the two ugly black bars on my desktop). But under Intel Graphical Device, I now had three options, so I choose to revert to default, which was supposed to stretch in the first place, and I maxed my resolution, as it had been downgraded. Now the games are shown correctly, and there is only one choice under "stretching", like before.

Probably a registry bug or something? This is weird (but cool) Raskolkhan (talk) 18:36, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

How do I install language support without Microsoft Office?

I would like to install IMEs for Hindi, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. However, I'd like to find a way to do so without needing MS office first so that I can type in those languages without it. Thanks. --70.179.163.168 (talk) 08:06, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I think this works. Control Panel→language→check the languages. If you do not have the fonts for the languages. Search free fonts and install them. See also Help:Multilingual support (East Asian). Oda Mari (talk) 09:28, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

My MS office program is now in windows.old folders, but how do I get it to work again?

Dell had me reinstall Windows while saving all my previous files to windows.old. I tried opening MS Office from there but I couldn't. Since it came with the laptop, I asked them to send me a replacement copy but they said I had to pay for another one (if they practically mandated a reinstall, then I ought to get software that originally came with the system replaced for free.) _{Because of this, next year, my next laptop will not be from Dell.}

How do I take the MS office files from the windows.old folders anyhow so that I can get them to work again? Are there other (legal) ways to get MS office to work again for free? --70.179.163.168 (talk) 08:06, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

You don't say what version of Windows or Office or where your original Dell install disks are. Your Office will not work from windows.old because when you reinstalled windows, your registry was wiped clean and now does not contain office registry entries. The only easy way to get these registry settings back is unfortunately an office install. With OEM laptops you either get an ms-office key on a piece of paper without the install disks, which is cheaper for buyers and used for pre-installation , or an OEM install disk. If you don't have this disk, then I presume you can 'borrow' an install disk and use your OEM key legally. Note that windows.old is practically useless except for things like your documents and certain app settings and explorer favourites, so once you retrieve those then you can delete windows.old to save space. Sandman30s (talk) 22:48, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Stopping Firefox from flashing a page and then changing it

I just looked for an article [1] only to realize it was one of those stupid Kluwer abstracts that changes to another page ([2]) if you have JavaScript disabled, or are running NoScript, etc. Normally when I don't have the patience for this I just hit the Stop button as it's loading. But voila, I can't find a stop button on Firefox 5.0, even in the section to customize the menu. Fortunately control-U does work, so I managed to get a look at the source:

<noscript>    
  <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0;url=/_layouts/1033/OAKS.Journals/Error/JavaScript.html" />
</noscript>

Anyway, how do I keep Firefox from doing this when I don't want it, and where did the stop button go? Wnt (talk) 13:48, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

The stop button appears at the right end of the location field while the page is loading. It changes to a reload button once the page is loaded, which is pretty annoying but I guess it saves some space. You can also hit Escape to stop it. NoScript has a helpful option (under the Advanced tab) to "Forbid META redirections inside <NOSCRIPT> elements" for dealing with this kind of website rudeness. Firefox has an option (under Advanced/General) to "Warn me when web sites try to redirect or reload the page", but it will drive you insane if you turn it on all the time. Bobmath (talk) 14:53, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Ah, thanks! Wnt (talk) 05:24, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Is defragmenting pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys worth it?

According to Defraggler, pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys (among some other things, including some supposedly random gibberish under C:\System Volume Information\ - what exactly is that anyway?) make up roughly 22% of the defragmented files on my Windows 7 laptop. Should I just let these files be, or should I go actually take the time to defrag them? 141.153.215.229 (talk) 17:11, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Defragmenting is really only important when you are low on disk space. Is this the case ? StuRat (talk) 17:16, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I suppose so. I mean, I still have some GBs of space available, but not enough to install a large program or something... 141.153.215.229 (talk) 18:13, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

If you have less than 10% of your disk empty, you will probably take a heavy performance hit, since the read/write head has to move a lot to access parts of files stored non-contiguously on the platter. This is especially true for a file used for paging (which is happening if you run out of RAM and the computer starts swapping data in and out). So yes, it makes sense to defragment the page file. It also always makes sense to buy more RAM and more disk. ;-) --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:27, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

\System Volume Information\ stores Shadow Copy data. It's used by System Restore. hiberfil.sys is written/read sequentially when you enter/exit hibernation. Each fragment requires an extra disk seek, and each seek takes a hundredth of a second, more or less, so if the file is in 100 fragments it will take an extra second or so to enter hibernation. pagefile.sys is read/written in mostly random order while the system is paging. Since the accesses are random there's a lot of seeking whether or not the file is fragmented. It may still be useful to defragment it so that it's all in one region of the disk, because seeks across a larger fraction of the disk area take longer. Also, while hiberfil.sys is a fixed size (unless you add RAM), pagefile.sys grows in size as needed, which will probably cause fragmentation. You can avoid that by setting the minimum size to a large value (and possibly setting the maximum size to the same value). To configure the page file, press Win+Pause (or open the System control panel) and choose Advanced system settings → Performance → Advanced → Virtual memory.

If you delete hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys from the Windows Recovery Environment or BartPE or Knoppix, the system will recreate them with minimum fragmentation the next time it starts. (Of course, you should shut down Windows, not hibernate it, before doing this.) -- BenRG (talk) 21:34, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Deleting them is the easiest way to ensure you have a mostly defragmented version on next boot. But you can only do that if you're not in Windows. But if you're defragmenting the drive you don't have much choice about which particular files you're defragmenting do you? Broba (talk) 22:32, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

If you disable hibernation the file should either be deleted or deletable (can't remember which) on next reboot. In Windows 7 and I think Vista this isn't I believe possible from the GUI but there is a command line way to do it. If you disable the page file the file will either disappear or become very small (in the other of a few k) which may mean a small amount of fragmentation when you change the size but not much Nil Einne (talk) 08:13, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Microsoft Word preferences

I find Microsoft Word a frustrating and counterintuitive program, but I am compelled to use it in the office. Is there a way I could set up the particular preferences that I have to make a document remotely readable and apply them to any file I open? Specifically I'm talking about: font, line spacing, point size, indents, page display as Draft, language marked as English (UK) not English (US), page zoom set at 100%, etc.

It seems that I can alter these parameters laboriously, one by one, and save them as default preferences, but that only applies to files I create from scratch. When I open a document created by someone else (which applies to 95 per cent of the documents I have to work with), it retains their settings. Is there an easy (ideally single-step) way to apply my own preferential settings to such documents without having to go through the tiresome process of individually going to the respective pull-down menus and changing the font, line spacing, point size, indents, page display, language, page zoom, etc? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.100.56 (talk) 19:23, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Not exactly a single step, but I imagine you can save it as flat ASCII text, which should remove all the formatting, then cut it and paste it into a document template formatted as you prefer. StuRat (talk) 20:28, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

The best you'll be able to find, IMO, is re-saving as RTF (which is a text format, not binary), and then parse out what you don't like. You can even convert from RTF to something more popular like HTML fairly easily and parse that instead. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:14, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

87.114.100.56: You may be able to write a macro to do all of those steps for you in a single step. I don't know much about writing macros in Word, though. —Bkell (talk) 22:53, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Start with a template. Kittybrewster ☎ 05:39, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

... or just record in your macro the sequence of key strokes to change the font, line spacing, point size, indents, page display, language, page zoom, etc. Save this macro to run on a single keystroke of your choice. The problem is that the macro will be saved in your default template (normal.dot), but will not load with the imported file. Perhaps an expert knows the quickest way to load the macro into the required files? "Tools -> macro -> run macro" seems to work for me on Word 2000, but I don't have imported files to test it on. Dbfirs 07:46, 15 August 2011 (UTC)