Windows 10

[Pyrrho]

That's OK. It works in the admin account, but I didn't think of tweaking my everyday one from there, or the exe. I'll see what can be done (if anything).

Maybe this?

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix- ... windows-10

[Witness]

Nope, it's the UAC, not Defender, so there's no "Unblock" checkbox.

[Pyrrho]

I can only boot into Safe Mode...and I have to hit the power button 3 times to do that.

Logs indicate impending hard drive failure, so I will hie myself to Best Buy and get me a new one.

Mansplain me what brand I should get.

[Witness]

Traditional or SSD?

Perhaps this will help: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaz ... s-q1-2020/

[Pyrrho]

So what happened was that I kept getting a black screen every time I started the system, except in repair mode and Safe Mode. Restored to system restore point, ran sfc /scannow, chkdsk, Dsim...sfc did find a couple of things and fixed them, which is good...but the real problem was that I share one of my two monitors with my work laptop, which was running at the time and which was displaying on the second monitor...so when I started up my home system, it, too, was extended to that same monitor. Laptop took precedence, so all I got on my other monitor was a black screen for the home system.

[Rob Lister]

Try the freezer

[Witness]

DirectX creator Engstrom dies aged 55, leaving behind a game-changing legacy

DirectX creator Eric Engstrom has sadly passed away at the age of 55, following a career which helped to shape the gaming industry as we know it.

Engstrom created the DirectX gaming APIs in 1994 – alongside Alex St. John and Craig Eisler – to simplify Windows game development and make it the stellar platform it remains today.

The APIs were originally developed for Windows 95. Game developers at the time were reporting they preferred MS-DOS for its low overhead and found Windows 3.1 too difficult to develop games for—hence why DirectX was born (originally called the Manhattan Project, in relation to the WWII effort of the same name.)

Microsoft’s management almost ditched the project and wrote off Windows as a gaming platform. Fortunately, they were convinced otherwise.

Engstrom and his team presented the first DirectX APIs at the 1995 Game Developers Conference before they were released in September that year as the Windows Games SDK.

Then came Doom…

Microsoft approached id Software’s John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 free-of-charge from MS-DOS to Windows 95. id Software would even retain all publishing rights—a difficult offer to refuse.

Doom 95 was subsequently released in 1996 as the first published DirectX game. The rest, as they say, is history.

DirectX went on to pave the way for Xbox to become yet another successful gaming platform; despite the fierce competition from Sony which Microsoft never really faced in desktop gaming from its main rival.

Few people have been more influential in the gaming and wider development space than Engstrom. DirectX continues to be developed and remains a key gaming technology today, even with newer low-level competition from the likes of Vulkan and Metal.

Engstrom died on December 1 from complications following a recent injury. Despite his death, his game-changing legacy will remain.

https://developer-tech.com/news/2020/de ... ng-legacy/

[Witness]

↑ A strange death:

His death came from medical complications related to an accident in the lab, after he dropped a monitor on his foot.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/07/frie ... x-console/

Reminds me of Lully's death:

Lully died from gangrene, having struck his foot with his long conducting staff during a performance of his Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIV's recovery from surgery.

[Witness]

https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinter ... ows_sound/

[gnome]

Here's an odd quirk annoying me.

There are two home user versions of skype: the windows store app, and skype for desktop.

For some reason Windows 10 has a hard-on for having the "app" version installed instead of the "desktop" -- to the point where if I install the "desktop" version it will run fine, but the next day it will be automatically uninstalled. The problem is that the "desktop" version has more features, and I want to use some of the features missing from the "app" version.

Numerous threads online acknowledge the issue but nobody seems to have a solution. On microsoft's support page they give lip service to concern, but each thread trails off without solution.

[Pyrrho]

Tech support on those Microsoft support pages is on the level of "reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows."

[Witness]

Have you tried: open Microsft Store app > three-dots menu > settings > disable app updates ? Just in case.

Another way could be to redirect via your HOSTS file. The site seems to be something like get.skype.com (?) and you'll send it to the usual 127.0.0.1. (A firewall manager will tell you where it phones home exactly during an update.)

And there is some Microsoft tool to block updates, but I'm not sure if it's global (i. e. all updates) or more granular.

[gnome]

That second one seems interesting as a solution.

[Pyrrho]

Here is the answer

https://github.com/felixrieseberg/macintosh.js/

Mac OS8 emulator written in JavaScript.

[Witness]

↑ Cool!

Meanwhile I noticed that William Barriers has silently installed a lot of crapola apps on my machine. And they can't be uninstalled directly, so I'll have to run a Powershell script.

[Pyrrho]

Why do you hate the Candy Crush series?

[Witness]

Exterminated. While doing that I got a message:

[Rob Lister]

Edge is an enigma to me; I don't really know it's place in the world other than it coming free with Windows and windows forcing you to have it (would a browser worth its salt force you?). I'm sure it is fine as a browser I just see no reason to prefer it over Firefox or Chrome. But even if it is the worst browser in the world, it is still hands down better than anything Adobe puts out; pollutes is a better word. And not that Adobe doesn't have value in the shop world, I just don't like such a fucking thick client that won't uninstall (easily) on force of my will. Power shells be damned, I will fight that fervor with all my manly firmness.

What is your opinion of my opinion.

[Pyrrho]

Can't find it but someone on social media posted about how they had been using a few of Adobe's Creative Cloud apps and when the person decided to cancel their Creative Cloud subscription, Adobe billed them for remaining unused subscription time, so my opinion of your opinion is that your opinion is a good opinion. I have to use Adobe CC at work but that's an Enterprise license. At home I use Inkscape and GIMP. Am considering buying Affinity apps but not sure.

[gnome]

I use adobe alternatives like Foxit reader etc for viewing (or marking up) existing PDFs.

For creating them I just use the print-to-pdf functions. The Windows one is fine.

[Pyrrho]

I spent half an hour trying to get the wired network connection to work. WiFi was working fine. No light on the network box for ethernet. Tried everything I could think of.

Spoiler:

The cable was unplugged.

[Witness]

Brace yourselves:

Microsoft CEO says the 'next generation' of Windows is coming soon

At his keynote speech for Microsoft's Build conference on Tuesday, CEO Satya Nadella talked about a major update in the works for Windows. Nadella didn't offer details, but he did refer to the update as the "next generation of Windows," not just Windows 10. That makes it sound likely that whatever Nadella is talking about will be the most significant update for the operating system since it debuted in 2015.

"Soon we will share one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators," Nadella said in his keynote. "I've been self-hosting it over the past several months and I'm incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows. Our promise to you is this: We will create more opportunity for every Windows developer today and welcome every creator who is looking for the most innovative, new, open platform to build and distribute and monetize applications. We look forward to sharing more very soon."

Build is a developer conference, so Nadella was speaking to a specific audience there. But the "next generation" of Windows will be a big deal for PC gamers as well. This update has been in the works for some time under the codename Sun Valley, and the bits of detail that have leaked out and relevant job postings point to it being a significant overhaul of the look and feel of Windows. With the six year anniversary of Windows 10 coming up in July, summer seems a likely timeframe for a reveal event.

And if I had to guess, Microsoft's going to go with a new name, dropping the "10" and simply calling its new operating system… Windows.

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-ceo-s ... ming-soon/

Great, new UI gimmicks to learn.

[Pyrrho]

No doubt with more "phone home" garbage embedded in the OS.

[gnome]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

[xouper]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

I'm not getting your point?

[Witness]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

I'm not getting your point?

[xouper]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

I'm not getting your point?

Unlike you, I was being polite and asking for clarification.

[gnome]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

I'm not getting your point?

Just straight up being sarcastic. It seems like the updates are for the benefit of anyone wanting to make more money from the users, when they put it that way.

[xouper]

to unlock greater economic opportunity for developers and creators

Now there's a phrase that makes me thrilled as a user. I can't wait to see how this improves the OS experience for me.

I'm not getting your point?

Just straight up being sarcastic. It seems like the updates are for the benefit of anyone wanting to make more money from the users, when they put it that way.

I'm still not getting your point.

Is that bad?

Why would any user give money to developers/creators if the user were not getting something of value in return?

[gnome]

There are lots of ways to monetize users without adding value for them. Just ask Facebook.

[xouper]

There are lots of ways to monetize users without adding value for them. Just ask Facebook.

Agreed. Are you claiming that's what Windows 10 will be doing?

[Witness]

Latest update installed a news thingy/icon on my taskbar. Great! Now I have to look for a purge.

[Pyrrho]

Prune juice should help.

Yeah I got that taskbar garbage and what you do is right-click to open the menu and then another submenu to find the options to disable.



I don't get that crap on the Mac, though...

[Witness]

Yeah, figured it out. Posted just after updating and before shutting down, thought it was something Microsoft-style you'd have to remove with forceps…