Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 July 13

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July 13

Will Windows 10 automatically update drivers?

Will Windows 10 automatically update drivers? I keep getting offers from WinZip for some software that updates drivers on Windows 7 and 8. Will that still be useful after Windows 10 is installed? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:28, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

For many years now Microsoft has been working with hardware manufacturers to make drivers available automatically through Windows Update. Some manufacturers make use of that facility; others offer their driver updates (and sometimes their own automatic updater tools) via their own websites. Many do both. In Windows 10 Microsoft will certainly continue working with hardware manufacturers to try and increase the number of automatic driver updates available. I wouldn't expect any dramatic increase in the number of drivers available from Windows Update when Windows 10 is released; rather, if Microsoft has their way, a gradual increase over time.

Third-party software that offers to update your drivers is almost certainly ad-supported or similar. It might even be thoroughly malicious. I would avoid it. —Noiratsi (talk) 07:28, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

An update: I have done some research into WinZip's "Driver Updater" software, which is presumably what you're referring to. It sounds like they offer a free version which (this may be an exaggeration) tells you all your drivers are out of date and asks you to buy the paid version in order to update them. One user (a blog post from June 2014) reports that WinZip's utility told him all his drivers were out of date but several other utilities found no problems at all. I'm sure you can do more research of your own if you want to know more. —Noiratsi (talk) 07:47, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

That is the one I'm talking about. I tried the free version and it listed several drivers that it said were out of date, but you had to get the paid version to actually update them. I didn't do it, and it sounds like it would not be worth it. Thanks. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:05, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Is my Realtek NIC fried?

I'm worried and anxious about the internal NIC on my ASUS motherboard being potentially damaged recently. It all happened when, for some reason, my wireless extender box gave up on me not too long ago. At first I thought it was just the router itself, but I connected the DSL modem to my rig and while it initially worked and was able to acquire a DNS address, unplugging the cable and reconnecting it again resulted in this on the terminal upon keying in the ipconfig /all and nslookup commands:

Address: fec0:0:0:ffff::1

I was thus unable to browse the web from that point on; releasing and renewing the lease does the trick, and changes the address back to 192.168.1.1, and I am able to get back online by forcing a different DNS server as well. It just irks and worries me that reproducing the problem doesn't yield the same issue with another PC i.e. plug it in on the ethernet jack, wait for a few minutes, unplug it and then replug it again. I tried reinstalling the driver to no avail, and went so far as to downloading and running SystemRescueCD to check if it's just Windows being bonkers, but the symptoms seem to persist regardless. I am running out of options right now, and I'm not that arsed to tell my folks about having the board RMA'd either. Blake Gripling (talk) 11:21, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Maybe the RTL WLAN or used Transceivers with it did not earn my full trust on reliability, but this may not be caused by Realtek. Until the device is soldered into a retail product, there are several steps neccessary to make the whole product work. With the RTL ethernet chips, I do not know any single failure of hardware. The only things happened, longer time ago, software certificates was stolen from Realtek to sign malware with it and recent drivers or branded driver software labeled to other manufacturers names using realtek devices in their hardware have had some problems. I guess You have a problem with network configuration, beginning from damaged or cheap cables, sometimes failed connection due special lenght in combination with the used pulse transformers in the ethernet devices which make You solve the problem by using another network cable, followd by malware, bad driver versions, man in the middle attacks, cracked and pwnd router. As You described to work with other DNS server configuration to solve such problems, note somebody might route all Your internet traffic to and over another place! I suggest You to net drivers for the NIC from http://www.realtek.com.tw/ only. If this does not solve the problem, backup all your data, reinstall Your computer in an unaffected internet connection with all devices free of malware, immediately install operatingsystems security updates and antivirus software, get a the recent firmware update for Your router, flash it and reconfigute it. Note there are vulnerabilities like the USB stack used in the routers kernel. Your Devices in the LAN gets the DNS resolved by the router. If somebody changes the DNS server settings in the router, all Your devices in the LAN are affected by that change, retrieving these pages stored in the DNS server the router is set to with not change on Your computer at this time. But when downloading, it comes from the page the DNS server resolves to. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 21:24, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm slightly confused what the problem is. Are you saying that the adapter stops receiving an IPv4 address after a while and only has an IPv6 address or what? Nil Einne (talk) 16:06, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Microsoft’s Metro

What really is Metro? Is it a programming language? Or a markup language? Where can I learn it? --Biolongvistul (talk) 15:41, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

It is a design language. That is similar to a markup language, but unlike a markup language, it is aimed at designers, not display engines. 199.15.144.250 (talk) 15:47, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

I think it might be very confusing to suggest that a design language is like a markup language. A markup language is a system for annotating text. It has a formal syntax. It tells the computer how to interpret documents or data. A design language, on the other hand, is not a 'language' in the same sense at all. It might be better described by its alternative name "design vocabulary". It's just a set of visual ideas that a designer may make use of. —Noiratsi (talk) 16:43, 13 July 2015 (UTC)