[X] My Assistant

scrawny usb key in a small paper envelope with a blurry label

If it's Windows 10 Home or Pro, I'm pretty sure there isn't any licence/protection material on the hardware anymore, it's all about activating through Internet, so providing a dvd is not useful, besides more and more machines just don't have a drive for that to save space, but they still have usb.
I'm not sure about the Enterprise version, but it's possibly the same.

There was a "Hottest Gadget Sale" going on a few days ago and sellers instead of creating attractive deals, they responded by increasing GPU prices. Dang. Even the prices of old RX580 and used 1660 Ti/Super are bloated. Welp. I can forget about replaying Crysis 2 & 3, or even try the upcoming Crysis Remastered. My RX560 will not do it for max. settings at 1080p. It struggles even for a game like Halo SPV3.

If I ever play crysis it'll be in 10 or 15 years when it's super affordable to get good hardware for and a copy of the game.
Still rocking a 750 ti and playing the Pandemic-made Battlefront and Battlefront II (from 2005 or so at latest) in Wine.

Just noticed my 'seedmins' on here amount to ~3.5 years now. Wow.
And I wish my ratio was as high on other trackers as it is here.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 5 2020, 07:47

Pitfalls of trying to make windows 10 install and be workable:
I got an OEM dvd, after the 2nd try to get one- 1st vendor sent me a usb key in very un-authentic looking packing [a small manila envelope with a very blurry label affixed], and when I took issue to this became the nastiest vendor I've ever dealt with on eBay. After much cursing at me and general harassment, they refunded me and said I could just keep the USB key. I sent it back it back to them anyway just to not give them any ammo and be done with them, reported them to ebay, and sent my best attempt at a strongly worded but polite rebuke of the situation back. So far they've had nothing to say to my reply.

I tried booting it with and without CSM active- I noticed the splash screen for my UEFI BIOS was displayed. Oh great, it soft-locks every time. CHatted with assorted people to try and get help, only useful bit of info I got was "A windows 10 pro key is a windows 10 pro key. Retail or OEM edition doesn't matter." I ended up deciding as a last ditch effort to just let t sit there and see if it did anything, as somebody advised me it may take up to 10 minutes on some machines to invoke the installer itself. I let it sit and came back to it- 'lo it had started the installer. It wasn't soft-locked, but it wasn't rendering the progress wheel or bar it should have, or letting me know it was alive.

Got it installed and booted. First take: "This is a fucking phone OS that's been ported to AMD64. This is just terrible."
Somebody suggested I grab [github.com] this and [github.com] this, and they will greatly clean up the system.
Haven't tried them or connected the box to wifi yet, but now I also need a pile of programs.
List so far is steam client, libreoffice, foxit pdf viewer, palemoon, VLC, cygwin, minecraft, and those two github links.
I still need in windows (and use right now in linux):
antivirus (I don't have one)
image viewer (ristretto)
image editor (pinta, sometimes xpaint)
comic/manga viewer (used to use comix, don't have anything right now and need one for linux)
torrent client (transmission)
scientific calculator (Qalculate! for advanced stuff, mate-calc for basic stuff)
something to give me workspaces again? (inbuilt into XFCE or any decent DE/GUI really)

This post has been edited by Wayward_Vagabond: Jun 6 2020, 18:40

Got it installed and booted. First take: "This is a fucking phone OS that's been ported to AMD64. This is just terrible."
Somebody suggested I grab [github.com] this and [github.com] this, and they will greatly clean up the system.
Haven't tried them or connected the box to wifi yet, but now I also need a pile of programs.
List so far is steam client, libreoffice, foxit pdf viewer, palemoon, VLC, cygwin, minecraft, and those two github links.
I still need in windows (and use right now in linux):
antivirus (I don't have one)
image viewer (ristretto)
image editor (pinta, sometimes xpaint)
comic/manga viewer (used to use comix, don't have anything right now and need one for linux)
torrent client (transmission)
scientific calculator (Qalculate! for advanced stuff, mate-calc for basic stuff)
something to give me workspaces again? (inbuilt into XFCE or any decent DE/GUI really)

I even managed to make Win 8 livable and disabled almost all the "metro" crap and the charms bar.
Probably spent a day at least doing that.
Antivirus is unnecessary
I use mcomix for viewing images. A comix fork. There's also a Python 3/GTK3 version of it out there.
Gimp/Krita
Mcomix is also my comic viewer
Deluge
X48 or tiemu (X48 will work in windows but only under cygwin, I think there's a nice HP-28S emulator for Windows I'd use instead)
All of the above should exist or be buildable for every platform I use except 68K Amiga.
As for workspaces, wipe windows 10 and put on a better and more flexible OS (OK, there is stuff that exists for windows, but just no. I remember MS even made something for it with some special bundle for Windows XP or Vista or something. Similar to the 'Plus! for Windows 95' thing but newer).
Edit: found something but as usual apparently it's hot garbage. [docs.microsoft.com] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinterna...nloads/desktops

Last time I used win32 I also installed Cygwin and its GCC packages as well as its MinGW GCC packages (for programs that don't need POSIX or have Windows native support like MPlayer/FFmpeg). And I built a slightly updated (OpenSSL fixed) XChat in Cygwin because I don't like Hexchat's tweaks to the UI.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 6 2020, 19:27

I still don't get what you mean with OEM dvd of WIN10.

Are you talking about this?
[techcommunity.microsoft.com] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/wind...sed/ba-p/293181

(Edge, OneNote,) and other modern apps that continue to advance with innovative improvements.

I hope marketers fuck off and die.
Chromium and writing with a stylus aren't innovative.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 6 2020, 19:08

In H@H, I only ever see "Connections: 0/500" or "Connections: 1/500".
I might have seen "Connections: 2/500", but I would not swear on it.
I remember a long time ago an issue that appeared on Windows (maybe XP at some version and onward) that limited the number of connections to a really small number (10 I think).
I hope it's not something serious like that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Reinstalling it as BIOS mode, as every time it boots, it tampers with UEFI settings, and password protecting the bios doesn't help.
Nevermind, my fucking graphics card doesn't support bios mode booting. Reinstalling again, nuking it's EFI partition, and seeing if I can make grub invoke it directly. If that doesn't work, at an impasse, unless I can figure out how to make it not break uefi bios every time it's booted. So far, can't get grub to detect win10 directly, only the EFI stub- which breaks stuff when allowed to run.
Edit: It seems the windows disc cannot fix a broken EFI stub, if you break it, you must reinstall. While I can't figure out how to protect my uefi bios from tampering, if seems I can tweak settings from a windows program once it's booted to make it stop breaking stuff. Maybe.

Figures that the current windows version is the least multiboot freindly one to date.

I'd rather some manner of antivirus program, as RVEs etc are a thing. I don't have it on the toughbook, as it stays airgapped from internet and I'm quite selective what software I put on it.
Infranview seems to be recommended as a small viewing only program.
GIMP is bloated pile of bits and user unfriendly. Krita is a bit lighter, but still damned heavy. Turns out pinta has a windows release after all. It's just advanced enough to have a threshold setting on paintbucket, nice for daily mundane type tasks.
Cool, grabbed the win version of mcomix.
Turns out transmission was a win version too, neat. Deluge looks quite promising though.
That desktops thing is worth a shot at least, if I get the sytem workable enough.

This post has been edited by Wayward_Vagabond: Jun 7 2020, 03:17

If it's Windows 10 Home or Pro, I'm pretty sure there isn't any licence/protection material on the hardware anymore, it's all about activating through Internet, so providing a dvd is not useful, besides more and more machines just don't have a drive for that to save space, but they still have usb.
I'm not sure about the Enterprise version, but it's possibly the same.

I still need media to install it with, and so far this machine refuses to boot windows over USB. TBH, I didn't even try (or open the small envelope of) what shady and mad eBay dude sent, as it looked fake and wasn't what I paid for.

I still don't get what you mean with OEM dvd of WIN10.

Are you talking about this?
[techcommunity.microsoft.com] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/wind...sed/ba-p/293181

No. This:
(IMG:[www.computersystemsoftwares.com] http://www.computersystemsoftwares.com/photo/ps14770650-microsoft_windows_10_professional_64_bit_dvd_win10_pro_oem_pack_with_geniune_product_key.jpg)

Reinstalling it as BIOS mode, as every time it boots, it tampers with UEFI settings, and password protecting the bios doesn't help.
Nevermind, my fucking graphics card doesn't support bios mode booting.

LOL.
What card is this? I didn't realize people were already killing off the Option ROM.

Also, try booting Windows and GRUB from rEFInd. When I had that windows 8 POS (which didn't have a CSM bios boot mode) I had to use it. rEFInd was a little bit tricky to set up because I had no background knowledge on how (U)EFI worked prior, but once I had it set up it worked great. I also could suggest throwing an EFI shell on your ESP. You can also compile a kernel with a (U)EFI boot stub baked in, which would theoretically mean you can bypass GRUB entirely. I forget how kernel parameters work in that case though; maybe rEFInd lets you pass them to the kernel-with-EFI-stub directly.
My desktop that I'm currently using seems to let me boot Windows 7 and Debian (and Mac OS and FreeBSD) from GRUB just fine, though.

GIMP is bloated pile of bits and user unfriendly.

You mean it's not Photoshop. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it isn't trying to be a Photoshop lookalike. Just functionally similar.
And that bloat is the reason that it's scriptable so I don't mind much. Still an order of magnitude smaller than Photoshop.
I've been using GIMP since at least 2008. I'm quite comfortable in it and it's getting substantially better all the time.

Krita is a bit lighter, but still damned heavy. Turns out pinta has a windows release after all. It's just advanced enough to have a threshold setting on paintbucket, nice for daily mundane type tasks.

Well, according to "math," Krita is larger than GIMP 2.10. At least in terms of the software's own size. In Windows, with its DLL hell, that might be different because multiple programs might all have their own libpng's for instance.

the '10 k' is just a habit of mine; it makes dc support up to 10 decimal places. It doesn't matter here.

BTW all the programs in my list except that virtual desktop thing are Free/open source and cross-platform. I use mcomix and such in Debian as well. It's quite flexible on the command line, too, which is convenient for making scripts to re-order images.

Irfanview's okay I guess but it's not FLOSS and anyway I find mcomix does everything I needed irfanview for.

If XULRunner were still a thing it'd probably be a cinch to make a simple image viewer in it that supported a ton of formats. Mozilla ruins everything nice.

Cross-posting my picture from the 'post one pic' thread.


This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 7 2020, 04:12

Here's to Xteen years of still taking 5 minutes to find the Windows Sound menu...
Was probably easier before Win10 of course.

Here's to Xteen years of still taking 5 minutes to find the Windows Sound menu...
Was probably easier before Win10 of course.

Get MS to bring back the MIDI mapper

Get MS to bring back the MIDI mapper

Is that for system sounds?
I just wish I could get easy desktop shortcuts for these kinds of menus buried in menus.

Is that for system sounds?

Sort of. It's to control the default MIDI device used to play MIDI notes when programs don't offer a menu to select one. Windows XP was the last to have it, I think; future versions force the built-in software synthesizer if the program in question doesn't explicitly request otherwise. So you can't force all MIDI software to use a dedicated hardware synth anymore (like my MT-32 or a piano keyboard or a VST host).

I just wish I could get easy desktop shortcuts for these kinds of menus buried in menus.

I don't have windows installed on anything new-ish, but try:

CODE

control mmsys.cpl sounds

If you want specifically the 'sounds' tab opened by default I think this might be the only way:

CODE

rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl,,2

Potentially (I have not tested this) I think this might also work:

CODE

control mmsys.cpl sounds,2

I don't have access to (modern) windows source code either, this is all from memory and a couple scripts I still have floating around on my HDD.

In XP, the default sounds tab is:

CODE

control mmsys.cpl,1

And MIDI mapper:

CODE

control mmsys.cpl,2

Just tested in my XP Pro SP3 VM.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 8 2020, 05:01

control mmsys.cpl sounds

Well that was easy. Thanks!

Well that was easy. Thanks!

No problem; haven't really used windows in years but back when I did I was what I guess one would call a 'power user.'
I also spent a load of time trying to "fix" windows 7 (and 8 when forced at work) to make them less annoying so I had lots of things like this set up.
I had one to get the system/user environment variable editing dialogue up quickly.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 8 2020, 11:47

Windows 10 system sounds are the most grating of noises possible. Ran some stuff to unfucky it a bit, but there's still stuff to strip out, and need to tweak the hosts file a bit more to block it from calling home. I might finally connect it to internet later today, but I still want some manner of antivirus and/or firewall. Oh, and there's still some registry keys that need tweaked, as you need to buy enterprise trim level to change them in a menu.

Also, bleh windows installers that need internet. Cygwin's installer is really a downloader, and pinta didn't bundle all the dependencies.

On image prpgrams, based gimp vs krita heaviness on how long it takes to render the image, when opened with it as an argument. I've never used photoshop and wouldn't recognize a screenshot of it.

This post has been edited by Wayward_Vagabond: Jun 8 2020, 15:48

Windows 10 system sounds are the most grating of noises possible. Ran some stuff to unfucky it a bit, but there's still stuff to strip out, and need to tweak the hosts file a bit more to block it from calling home. I might finally connect it to internet later today, but I still want some manner of antivirus and/or firewall. Oh, and there's still some registry keys that need tweaked, as you need to buy enterprise trim level to change them in a menu.

Also, bleh windows installers that need internet. Cygwin's installer is really a downloader, and pinta didn't bundle all the dependencies.

On image prpgrams, based gimp vs krita heaviness on how long it takes to render the image, when opened with it as an argument. I've never used photoshop and wouldn't recognize a screenshot of it.

Tweaking the hosts file isn't enough; it uses some hardcoded IP addresses IIRC
The solution is to kill it with fire or air gaps.

Some stuff you might find useful.


[ninite.com] https://ninite.com/
[www.dependencywalker.com] http://www.dependencywalker.com/
[www.classicshell.net] http://www.classicshell.net/
[explorerplusplus.com] https://explorerplusplus.com/


Not My list.

Everything - File search for your files in your PC, its x1000 faster than windows local file search
Clover - Chinese app that puts tabs in your file explorer window
CCleaner - Cleans your pc from rouge files and registry.
Vlc Player - Video player, plays everything. Steam - Games
Teamviewer/Chrome remote desktop - To control your pc remotely using your smartphone or another computer
Malwarebytes + windows defender - General malware/antivirus protection
Ditto - Clipboard manager (saves everything you copy/paste SUPER useful)
NXZT Cam (or MSI Afterburner) - to check loads and temps on cpu and GPU
dropbox - Every pic i take on my phone gets uploaded automatically (with the app) so i get home and the pics are already there in my Pc.
WinDirStat - To see where are the files that take most space in my drive
Windows Update MiniTool - WAY better than regular windows update, isnt as useful in win10 though.
SHUTUP10 - Essential if you are running win10, eliminates telemetry and other basic crap it comes bundled with.
FoxIt Reader - PDF viewer, there are others, but i like this one
WinRar - Others might recommend 7Zip, but i like winrar better, ive been using it for so long i actually considered buying it.
NetLimiter - to see what program is using your network, how much its using and limiting if needed.
Calibre - For ebook reformating (so i can send epub->mobi it to my kindle 4free)
AIMP3 - Mp3 player, i like its like the old version of winamp, its just a mp3 player no bells and whistles at all.
Freemake video converter - for very basic editing of video files
CheVolume - So i can pick WHAT sounds on different speakers (chrome on tv, music on headphones, vlc on speakers or whatever)
Teracopy - to replace windows file copying system, way more detailed.
f.lux - so the colors get "warmer" as the evening sets so my eyes get less strained when using it at night...
I think this are most of the ones i reinstall as soon as i get a new OS install.

classic shell

Not FLOSS anymore, IIRC. It's a pity, I used to like it.

windirstat

Windirstat is a kdirstat clone which works pretty well in my experience. I used it back when I still ran windows.

Calibre

That's a good one, I use it in *nix

winRAR

Why the fuck do people still recommend WinRAR over 7-zip in 2020.

DependencyWalker

Without actually looking it up I assume that checks what DLL's a program depends upon. I used 'ntldd' for that. I still do use it in wine.

FoxIt Reader

The list you found appears to be at least 70% trash

FreeMake Video Converter

That's what FFmpeg is for

AIMP3 - Mp3 player, i like its like the old version of winamp, its just a mp3 player no bells and whistles at all.

So just use actual WinAmp or QMMP. Or MPlayer.

Teamviewer/Chrome remote desktop - To control your pc remotely using your smartphone or another computer

Windows has RDP built in.

Ninite

Yet another program to trust on an already untrustworthy platform?

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Jun 9 2020, 06:59