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RTH10260
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#126

Post by RTH10260 »

Foggy wrote: Sat May 20, 2023 7:26 am :snippity:
I love that lady till the day I die, but I don't let her touch my computers, nuh uh. :talktothehand:


Upgrade your Windows
experience. We dare you.. :doh:
Off Topic
I got a hero story about her too, I'll put it in my thread.
their main webpage:
Upgrade your Windows experience. We dare you.

Meet OneLaunch, the desktop integration that will upgrade your Windows 11 experience with all the features you’ve ever wanted—and never had—in your PC.
;)


You may have also been lucky to find this critter in time. It has a 7 day evaluation perdiod and then has a payed up license subscription that might not be easy to kill.
(end user agreement at https://onelaunch.com/eula )

How they also earn money:
DEFAULT SEARCH
OneLaunch default search is powered by select search partners. A portion of advertising revenue generated from default search supports OneLaunch financially. To facilitate this, search requests may redirect through a website owned by OneLaunch or our search partners.
How you grant them officially the right to hijack your computer:
ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSIONS
The Software's installer may prompt Windows User Account Control to request Administrator permissions on behalf of the Software. Administrator permissions are not required to install or use the Software. Administrator permissions may be used by the Software to enable or change secondary functionalities of the Software, including, but not limited to, the display of advertisements. If Administrator permissions are not granted to the Software's installer, installation may continue without enabling or changing secondary functionalities that require such permissions.
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#127

Post by Reality Check »

I finally took the plunge and upgraded an HP desktop at our seasonal location to Windows 11. It is about 4 years old but met the processor requirement for the upgrade. The upgrade went as smoothly as I could have hoped. The first thing I did is move the start buttons and other icons back to the left. Why does Windows want to look like OSx? Really? All my software ran including some old ham radio software that I was concerned might not.

One thing I do not like about Windows 11 is the fat taskbar that you cannot shrink. I have even tried the registry hack that is out there but it cannot be made smaller.

Now I have two PC's on WIndows 11. My laptop and another desktop are too old. I suppose I could follow some of the workarounds for older processors but I am not inclined to do so right now. I have an ancient Dell laptop that is from around 2005 that I might try running Chrome OS. That is a project for the summer.
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#128

Post by Foggy »

Reality Check wrote: Sat May 20, 2023 9:21 pm One thing I do not like about Windows 11 is the fat taskbar that you cannot shrink.
I pay for an app from Stardock called Start11 (no links, but I recommend), you can change your start button to Win 10, Win 8, whatever, change your taskbar settings, plus a lot of other little cool features (like seconds on the taskbar clock). Costs less than a meal for two at the golden arches.
:oldman:
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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#129

Post by qbawl »

Foggy wrote: Sun May 21, 2023 9:33 am
Reality Check wrote: Sat May 20, 2023 9:21 pm One thing I do not like about Windows 11 is the fat taskbar that you cannot shrink.
I pay for an app from Stardock called Start11 (no links, but I recommend), you can change your start button to Win 10, Win 8, whatever, change your taskbar settings, plus a lot of other little cool features (like seconds on the taskbar clock). Costs less than a meal for two at the golden arches.
:oldman:
As a Mac guy I've never used Stardock personally. But I've heard nothing but high praise for the software from PC peeps I know who have it installed.
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#130

Post by RTH10260 »

Bye Bye Photobucket!

No - it is not going under.

It just announced (at least some four months back) that they are closing their free accounts.

I just received the final notice that my free account has been de-activated. :( :( :(

(I hade already removed my pictures last year - I didn't use them since they forbid hotlinking except for paid accounts)

Down memory lane:

I joined Photobucket when it was in the infancy of photo storage services. The then creator of Photobucket started to run it on a HP computer under Windows and the Internet Server. Back in those days I sent him email advice on how to handle a couple of problems and he used them for improvements. About a half year in he had to upgrade his hardware due to the interest into this then new kind of service. He created a community that helped him along. In the second year he accepted an offer over $10 million from an investor to go professional. From then on the service exploded and grew to what it is now.
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#131

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

On Thursday we cut the cord on Xfinity (internet only, we gave up the TV service in 2018) and hooked up to MetroNet fiber after being on the waitlist for a couple of years (last month they finally made it into our subdivision). Hooboy, just the basic 500/500 Mbps is a hella improvement over the nominal 150/whoknowswhat we were getting from the cable.

I do have a slight problem. I have a MoCA system, which allows me to turn the coax in the walls into a wired Ethernet system with Gbps bandwidth. When I had the cable internet, we put the modem up in Dr. Vicklund's office on the second floor with a Nighthawk AX6 WiFi router, and then installed Nighthawk AX8 access points on the first floor and the basement. But now the fiber comes in in the basement, right next to the splitter and old cable entrance. The obvious way to connect up was to add a MoCA adapter at the splitter, but that means the access points are no longer downstream of the router and it's causing issues. So now I have to either add a router in the basement and see if the main WiFi router on the second floor will play nice, or move the main router down to the first floor and run a line from the basement to the router (the coax port for the first floor location is about a foot above the splitter, so I might be able to pull an ethernet cable into the existing outlet and just have to replace the wallplate). The second option would probably be the best route, but successfully fishing that cable through the existing openings will likely be a pain in the ass. But just in case, I'm resetting the devices and maybe that will resolve the issue.
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#132

Post by Mr brolin »

W. Kevin Vicklund wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:23 pm On Thursday we cut the cord on Xfinity (internet only, we gave up the TV service in 2018) and hooked up to MetroNet fiber after being on the waitlist for a couple of years (last month they finally made it into our subdivision). Hooboy, just the basic 500/500 Mbps is a hella improvement over the nominal 150/whoknowswhat we were getting from the cable.

I do have a slight problem. I have a MoCA system, which allows me to turn the coax in the walls into a wired Ethernet system with Gbps bandwidth. When I had the cable internet, we put the modem up in Dr. Vicklund's office on the second floor with a Nighthawk AX6 WiFi router, and then installed Nighthawk AX8 access points on the first floor and the basement. But now the fiber comes in in the basement, right next to the splitter and old cable entrance. The obvious way to connect up was to add a MoCA adapter at the splitter, but that means the access points are no longer downstream of the router and it's causing issues. So now I have to either add a router in the basement and see if the main WiFi router on the second floor will play nice, or move the main router down to the first floor and run a line from the basement to the router (the coax port for the first floor location is about a foot above the splitter, so I might be able to pull an ethernet cable into the existing outlet and just have to replace the wallplate). The second option would probably be the best route, but successfully fishing that cable through the existing openings will likely be a pain in the ass. But just in case, I'm resetting the devices and maybe that will resolve the issue.
Possible work around, use PowerLine system to bridge the gap. Runs effectively Ethernet over the existing mains wiring, Netgear or Devolo are ones I've used before.
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#133

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

Turns out I had not properly set up Smart Connect. Seems to be working now, but I may still rework the system so that it has proper topology.
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#134

Post by Sam the Centipede »

W. Kevin Vicklund wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:19 pm Turns out I had not properly set up Smart Connect. Seems to be working now, but I may still rework the system so that it has proper topology.
Too simple! You should instal a pair of Elmo's Starlink dishes to connect the two ends via satellite!
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#135

Post by W. Kevin Vicklund »

W. Kevin Vicklund wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:19 pm Turns out I had not properly set up Smart Connect. Seems to be working now, but I may still rework the system so that it has proper topology.
Still working 30 hours later. I have had intermittent problems with losing internet access on the first floor WiFi requiring power cycling to fix, could it be as simple as a misconfigured setting? :blackeye:
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#136

Post by MN-Skeptic »

When I visited my sister and her wife in Seattle a couple of years ago, my sister was getting an iPhone for the first time. We played around with things, and ended up setting up the Find My app so that they could see wherever I was and I could see wherever they were. I've mostly used it so I could check to see if they were home before I called.

Since then, I've set it up with my sister-in-law who lives an hour away from me. She'll pick me up for concerts, for example, and it's handy to see if she's nearing my house. And I've set it up with my Michigan sister because I'll pick her up at the airport when she flies to Minnesota.

Anyway, I find it interesting now. My Michigan sister flew to Jerusalem yesterday for a two week visit with friends and Find My shows me where she is in Jerusalem. That's so cool. She's 6,249 miles away.
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#137

Post by Mr brolin »

MN-Skeptic wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 1:54 am When I visited my sister and her wife in Seattle a couple of years ago, my sister was getting an iPhone for the first time. We played around with things, and ended up setting up the Find My app so that they could see wherever I was and I could see wherever they were. I've mostly used it so I could check to see if they were home before I called.

Since then, I've set it up with my sister-in-law who lives an hour away from me. She'll pick me up for concerts, for example, and it's handy to see if she's nearing my house. And I've set it up with my Michigan sister because I'll pick her up at the airport when she flies to Minnesota.

Anyway, I find it interesting now. My Michigan sister flew to Jerusalem yesterday for a two week visit with friends and Find My shows me where she is in Jerusalem. That's so cool. She's 6,249 miles away.
Which alas usually means a wide swathe of wholly unregulated data aggregators have bought access to the location data and will ensure she is kept fully up to date with targeted ads any time she opens her browser and new and exciting spam(ish) email with a jewish/israeli slant amongst other stuff. :sick: :fingerwag: :nope:
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#138

Post by Foggy »

Still, amazingly cool. 8-)
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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#139

Post by Reality Check »

I went through my 3 month old Chinese mini-PC and uninstalled a bunch of Microsoft and other bloatware like Cortana that are installed along with Windows 11. I notice that you cannot uninstall Microsoft Edge from the Apps part of settings. I did some searching and found out you have to resort to using the command line to remove Edge and a registry edit to keep it from reinstalling later. Well at least that would work in Windows 10... I decided just to put up with MS asking me if I want to make Edge my default browser periodically, at least for now. :brickwallsmall:
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#140

Post by Mr brolin »

Reality Check wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 11:23 am I went through my 3 month old Chinese mini-PC and uninstalled a bunch of Microsoft and other bloatware like Cortana that are installed along with Windows 11. I notice that you cannot uninstall Microsoft Edge from the Apps part of settings. I did some searching and found out you have to resort to using the command line to remove Edge and a registry edit to keep it from reinstalling later. Well at least that would work in Windows 10... I decided just to put up with MS asking me if I want to make Edge my default browser periodically, at least for now. :brickwallsmall:
If you are on a Windows platform, on a swathe of independent tests, Edge uses a lot less RAM and is measurably faster from a CPU basis than Chrome. They both use the same Chromium engine, Edge just does it better.
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#141

Post by Reality Check »

Mr brolin wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 2:07 pm :snippity:
If you are on a Windows platform, on a swathe of independent tests, Edge uses a lot less RAM and is measurably faster from a CPU basis than Chrome. They both use the same Chromium engine, Edge just does it better.
I have read that too. I am just used to FIrefox as my browser of choice in Windows. I have Chrome installed too but do no use it very often.
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#142

Post by qbawl »

Mr brolin wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 3:02 am
MN-Skeptic wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 1:54 am When I visited my sister and her wife in Seattle a couple of years ago, my sister was getting an iPhone for the first time. We played around with things, and ended up setting up the Find My app so that they could see wherever I was and I could see wherever they were. I've mostly used it so I could check to see if they were home before I called.

Since then, I've set it up with my sister-in-law who lives an hour away from me. She'll pick me up for concerts, for example, and it's handy to see if she's nearing my house. And I've set it up with my Michigan sister because I'll pick her up at the airport when she flies to Minnesota.

Anyway, I find it interesting now. My Michigan sister flew to Jerusalem yesterday for a two week visit with friends and Find My shows me where she is in Jerusalem. That's so cool. She's 6,249 miles away.
Which alas usually means a wide swathe of wholly unregulated data aggregators have bought access to the location data and will ensure she is kept fully up to date with targeted ads any time she opens her browser and new and exciting spam(ish) email with a jewish/israeli slant amongst other stuff. :sick: :fingerwag: :nope:
That may be true in the Windows and / or Android world. I do not think Apple sells identifiable data of any sort to third party aggregators for marketing purposes.
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#143

Post by pipistrelle »

Location tracking of friends and family is helpful.

I don’t get ads based on it.
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#144

Post by MN-Skeptic »

That was interesting to see... My 19-year old niece is at a five week string quartet camp right now and they are doing online performances on the weekend. I just watched my niece's quartet perform. There are folks who bring out the music for the musicians before they come out and it was interesting to see that three of the four members of my niece's quartet had foot controllers placed in front of their chairs. Three of the four musicians had their music on iPads and used foot controllers to turn the pages. That is just so cool.

By the way, I was with my niece when she bought her latest tablet. She bought a 12.9" iPad Pro which makes sense when you're trying to read music!
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#145

Post by John Thomas8 »

In a weird bit of internet news, Overstock.com bought Bed, Bath and Beyond's web address:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bed ... -100495343
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#146

Post by neonzx »

John Thomas8 wrote: Thu Jun 29, 2023 10:16 pm In a weird bit of internet news, Overstock.com bought Bed, Bath and Beyond's web address:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bed ... -100495343
I don't find that weird at all. Probably the only thing left of value was the brandname after they went under. We've seen it time and again. Another company will buy or license a well known name to market there own wares.

I was visiting an older lady I know last fall and she had a catalog for Montgomery Ward. (Montogomery Ward had been dead for a long time, a major department store). This catalog was setup much like Fingerhut style -- over priced stuff and a "pre-approved" credit line of $xxxx. -- buy now, pay later.

Go see for yourself... www.wards.com
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#147

Post by somerset »

neonzx wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:49 am
John Thomas8 wrote: Thu Jun 29, 2023 10:16 pm In a weird bit of internet news, Overstock.com bought Bed, Bath and Beyond's web address:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bed ... -100495343
I don't find that weird at all. Probably the only thing left of value was the brandname after they went under. We've seen it time and again. Another company will buy or license a well known name to market there own wares.
Remember Packard Bell computers in the late 1980s/early 1990s? Same idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell
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#148

Post by Reality Check »

somerset wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:13 pm :snippity:
Remember Packard Bell computers in the late 1980s/early 1990s? Same idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell
Packard Bell computers bring back bad memories. In the late 90s my neighbor's boy had a Packard Bell with Windows 95 installed. I knew they were junk. Something he installed hosed up the driver for the modem. Since I was the go to guy in the neighborhood for PC and networking issues I told him I would take a look at it. I ended up wiping it and installing a copy of Windows 98 SE that I had on 5-1/4' floppy disks. That got it working and he could dial up his ISP. He was happy but I stayed up until 2 AM to get it working.

Another time my son had a bunch of friends over for a sleep over. They had two gaming systems going in different rooms. I think they were Play Stations. They had an Ethernet port on them. I didn't have a router yet but I had the parts to make up a 25 foot Ethernet crossover cable so they could play some war game from one room to another. I really made some friends with that cable. :thumbsup:
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#149

Post by neonzx »

Reality Check wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:16 pm
somerset wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:13 pm :snippity:
Remember Packard Bell computers in the late 1980s/early 1990s? Same idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell
Packard Bell computers bring back bad memories.
We, in IT, referred to them has Packard HELL.
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#150

Post by Reality Check »

neonzx wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:19 pm We, in IT, referred to them has Packard HELL.
:lol: I remember that nickname. Very appropriate.
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