Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 October 5

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 5

My Annoying Keyboard Problem...

This happens to me from time to time, and over the years I am suprised I never discovered how this occurs and how to fix it. Basically what happens is: I hit some sort of button combination, and then (among other things) my keyboard's layout changes. Instead of typing " when I hit '+shift, I get ``, and several other annoyances. Also I just noticed now that it appears to be local to the browser. It is happening to me right now in FF24 in another window, but I am typing this on IE9 and it is not effected... so my question is: how do I change it back (without closing everything down, which I already know works), and how do I prevent it from happening again? Thanks! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:14, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

It sounds like you've changed the input language of the keyboard. I do this occasionally too. I don't know of a permanent fix, but the short term one is jsut to change it back. If you are using a windows computer, it should be a little keyboard icon near the clock on the task bar at the bottom. Clicking it would give you a handful of language options. Mingmingla (talk) 03:21, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Ah! That was what it was - it was switched from US to Canadian French (those are the only ones displayed besides "Canadian Multiligual Standard".) And now I'll know for the next time it happens. Thanks! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:47, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

The default keyboard shortcut to switch keyboards is left shift+alt, so you're probably accidentally hitting it. You can change the shortcut by right-clicking the tray icon and picking "Settings...", then going to "Advanced Key Settings". Effovex (talk) 04:44, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Àh! Thàt`s vèry nèàt! Ànd thàt's cèrtàinly whàt wàs hàppèning! Thànks! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 19:09, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Updating Ghost Recon Future Soldier PC

(edit conflict) I have been trying to get this newly installed game working. Won't go into all the gory details yet but I have used at least 1.8 Gb on downloading patches & 'updates' that haven't worked. (from a quick look at the forums it sounds like a common problem that is not going to be fixed! )
The website here says:

"To ensure the best multiplayer experience, please make sure to download and install the following patches for GRFS PC. You won’t be able to play the game without them. " — With links to 6 patches.

• Can anyone tell me what the total file size of all these patches is? (they don't say anything about size on the web page. Typical! ) Or suggest an easy way to find out?
• I'm not at this moment planning to play multilayer anyway, so are these patches required for off-line too?
• Would I be better off asking at the Entertainment desk? --220 of ^Borg 04:33, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

This FF addon: here might be of some help, though I haven't tested it (edit: and now looking at it further, it might only be useful to determine the size of a web page, not what you are downloading off the page...) If you don't get any useful answers in a few days then you could re-ask or transfer the question to /E, but due to the technical nature of the question I don't know if you'd get any better answers there (unless you find a gamer who's been through the same thing.) Sorry I couldn't be more helpful! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 19:16, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Yellow, though I am mostly using Chrome nowadays. I think the files are likely to be pretty big as I accidentally started the first one and it read as 395 Mb. (chrome tells you this). It may be just as easy to start each one in turn and cancel it when the size appears.

If this is the future of gaming then I won't be playing many games. I am absolutely appalled that a game can be published that is essentially unusable. (without huge 'patches'. Nb. I have the same problem with Homefront) From the Ubisoft forums it seems that even if you are lucky enough to get it going, on-line play has been un-available since Sept 13/14, over 3 weeks. --220 of ^Borg 08:48, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Concur with that. I rarely play new games anymore (I went to straight retro games a few years back.) But I always hear gamers complaining about stuff like this. I was going to suggest to look at their forums but it seems as though you already have. Apparently the new GTA is having the same problem because they didn't bother doing high stress tests on it... and now they are paying the price. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:42, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Newspeak: Gamer ≡ Beta Tester --220 of ^Borg 12:40, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

And being a beta tester used to be something people wanted to do... --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 23:00, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Gadgets Problem

ACTUALLY I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MY GADGETS i.e I USE TO CLICK ON THE GADGET I NEED TO GET ON MY LAPTOP DESKTOP BUT IT DO NOT OCCUR COMPLETELY ON MY PC .

• FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN I CLICK ON THE GADGET "CLOCK" ONLY THE CLOCK POINTERS WILL APPEAR ON MY PC,EVEN I COULD NOT FIND THE NUMBERS IN IT .
• WHEN I CLICK ON "CALENDER" IT WILL DOESN'T APPEAR ON MY PC ,but the "CLOSE" BOX AND THE "DRAG GADGET" BOX WILL APPEAR .
• ALSO, IF I CLICK ON "CPU METER" GADGET ONLY A BOX, WHICH DOESN'T SHOW ANY METER INDICATIONS WILL APPEAR.

ACTUALLY ALL THESE GADGETS USED TO WORK PERFECTLY AT THE BEGINNING WHEN I PURCHASED THE PC BUT LATER, ON SOME DAY THE PROBLEM HAS ARRIVED .PLEASE GIVE THE SOLUTION. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.66.146.88 (talk) 05:53, 5 October 2013 (UTC)
♦ Bullets added for clarity 220 of ^Borg

I don't have the answer, but please don't use all caps, it's internet for screaming- and hard on the eyes.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 06:11, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)With the small amount of information given, my best suggestion is to turn the PC off, and then on again and see if that helps.
Regards -ƒ-220 of ^Borg 06:26, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Concur with the above; and also in my experience, gadgets can be pretty finnicky, some of mine dissapeared randomly after four years a few months back... among other anomalies. I'd outright get rid of the toolbar if I wasn't set on getting a replacement for my old laptop by the end of the year! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 19:22, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Meant to mention µSoft no longer supports gadgets in Win 7. Doubt if it's connected to their disappearance (kidnap?;-/ ) --220 of ^Borg 10:18, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Maybe if they upgraded from Vista to 7... though I have never done that so I'm not sure. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:45, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

What just happened?

Today, I log in into my account on my laptop and it was saying preparing the desktop. BTW, I have Windows Vista Home Premium. After that, I check that I have my word processor, spreadsheet and powerpoint programs and Mozilla Firefox. When I check my downloads folder, all my files, whether PDF, music or other files that I downloaded were all gone. I even check my document files, whether spreadsheets, word documents or other fils were also gone and the links that I bookmarked or visited in the history on Mozilla Firefox were all gone. then, a bubble pop up saying about this was temporary account. What just happened? I don't get it. is there website that explains it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.89.40.105 (talk) 15:33, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

For some reason (that Microsoft struggle to adequately explain) Windows very occasionally fails to locate your own profile (your account settings, My documents, etc.) and manufacturers an empty default profile instead. First turn the computer off and try to log in again. If you still get the temporary profile (bizarrely, Windows sometimes decides that this useless profile should be your new one forever) try following their suggestions at this note and this one. It may discourage you to know that this foolishness continues through Windows 7 and into Windows 8 too. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:21, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Long ago (even before XP) this happened to me, and the old profile, along with some important files, got deleted. This shouldn't happen, of course, and the files from the old profile should still be there for you to copy. Let us know if you can't find them. Because of this (fortunately rare) glitch, I always ignore profile locations and create new user folders on a data drive separate from the Windows installation drive, and make these my default save locations. Some people think I'm paranoid to do this, but it does mean that my files are safe from any Windows foolishness, including reinstallation of the operating system. Dbfirs 18:00, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Slightly confused but if you're setting Windows to use a user profile in a different location, isn't there a fair chance Windows will still replace the extant profile in this location when this unknown bug happens? Or when you say "user folder", do you mean this isn't your actual user folder/directory but simply a directory you store stuff in for that user (i.e. as far as Windows is concerned your user profile is still located in the default drive, you simple save data to this new location manually by default). Of course either way this highlights the importance of regular backups (actual backups not simply redundancy or RAID) as storing a single copy in a different drive is still not going to protect you from data loss due to the probably more common points of failure including hard disk deaths (RAID will protect against most but not all death scenarios), malware attacks, partition problems arising from Windows or other programs doing strange stuff and simple user error overwriting important files. Nil Einne (talk) 06:01, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, yes, I meant that I completely ignore Windows user directories and set my own default save folders in each piece of software. And, of course, I have Word & Excel etc set to do automatic backups every ten minutes, and I also back up my folders to a DVD data drive, to a different computer, and to two different external hard drives. (You see why I suspect myself of paranoia!) Dbfirs 07:49, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Don't diss the paranoia. I use Google Drive to backup all my work because the computers at work are ancient (This one still has a floppy drive!!) and i've suspected them to be on their last legs for years now. If they explode, all i have to do is log into Google on a new computer and i can download all my work. There's also spare drives and memory sticks though, but they require more effort. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 14:37, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

I don't use "cloud storage" because I don't have a reliable connection to the Internet, but I agree that it is a useful backup for non-confidential (or encrypted) data. (My paranoia extends to not trusting Google and to believing that the Internet might not always be available.) Dbfirs 16:16, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

We're using BT at work and that's fairly reliable. Should it go off for a period of time (as it does) though, i'll still have my files to use offline. They just won't upload until the internets is back on. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 14:16, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Be paranoid, be Very paranoid.
I have just ≈24 hrs had my laptop 'die' on me. It appears the HDD has crapped out. No backup. Will probably have to restore to factory default & reinstall, re-activate, re-patch, re-update all my many games. Will lose everything I have downloaded over last 2 years and not moved to an external HDD. Also found that an 8” tablet is rather inadequate for editing. --220 of ^Borg 15:16, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

"Be paranoid, be Very paranoid." --220 of Borg, 9 October 2013

^This. Also, which tablet? --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 22:18, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Tablet is Acer Iconia A-810, Android 4.2.2, 1Gb ram, 16 GB flash memory. Is there a query about paranoia there? If I had a little more I would have had a full backup of my laptop HDD! 220 of ^Borg 12:38, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

No just wondering since I'm planning on getting a tablet to replace my aging Satellite of five years. In terms of data backup paranoia, I have two external HDDs: one in my closet and one under my desk... nobody would find them! ;) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 00:06, 11 October 2013 (UTC)