Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 July 18

= July 18 =

Finding things on my cluttered desktop
I wanted to know if there was an easy way to find things on my very cluttered desktop. I am not looking for advice telling me to clean it up. I like having my files there and I hate when I download things and they go somewhere in my C drive and I have to hunt for them. I clean it pretty regularly of junk, but there' still many files. What I wanted to know is if there is maybe an equivalent of the find function you can use in your browser, just hit ctrl+F enter in some desk and it highlights what you're looking for lickety-split. The search your computer function is no equivalent. Oh, I guess I should mention: Dell PC running windows XP. Thanks.--162.83.139.249 (talk) 02:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Sure. Click on "Start", "Search". This should bring up the dialog with the stupid dog. Click "All files or folders".   There's a drop-down labeled "Look In" there's an item marked "Desktop".  Choose it and use the search dialog like normal.
 * The other option is to click on the desktop and just start typing the filename. It will select the first/best match as you type. It does this by literally matching the first few letters in the filename, so you have to know that filename exactly. (And if you're looking for "My absolute favorite cat photograph 00003.jpg" but not "My absolute favorite cat photograph 00002.jpg" this method would be pretty tedious.)
 * Finally, you can browse the desktop like any other folder. Which can be handy if you're looking for the largest file by filesize, or the newest. Or if you simply want to see a list in alphabetical order. APL (talk) 05:36, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Aha! I just tried that click on the desktop and start typing—that works great. By the way, I don't think you read my message to the end. I specifically discounted using the computer's search function as not what I was looking for.--162.83.139.249 (talk) 07:46, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Are you aware of the technique where you click on an empty area of your desktop and start typing, and it'll highlight the file whose name you are typing? Sorry to suggest something so basic but from your original post it sounds like you may not know about this.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:35, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * You could also install a cool software utility called Pitaschio (Google it) which, amongst it's very many handy features, allows you to shrink your desktop icons to "list" view size, which should eliminate your desktop clutter problems at once. I find it invaluable. Zunaid 18:55, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * You can also create folders on your desktop - this may help organise things to make it easier to find them. Mitch Ames (talk) 13:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)


 * ... or, even better, create shortcuts on your desktop to folders stored elsewhere. There is a slightly increased risk of loss, and a possible slowing of startup if you save files on the desktop.    D b f i r s   21:35, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

HP C309g-m Photosmart Printer Network
Hello. I usually leave my printer on all day so I do not lose my network settings for my computers that are networked wirelessly. My computers are networked through a modem equipped with a router. Even if I do turn off my printer, it takes a long time for the printer and computer to register to the network. During this waiting time, I cannot print, scan or copy. Is there anything that I can do about this? Thank you very much in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 02:05, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Give your printer a static IP address instead of using DHCP. Most routers allow IP addresses from 1 to 99 to be used statically.  For example, 192.168.1.10 is a static IP address. 192.168.1.123 is one of the DHCP served IP addresses.  Once you program the printer to use a static IP address, set the computers to use that IP address, not a domain name.  They won't have to wait for DHCP resolution to trickle through the network. --  k a i n a w &trade; 02:26, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, keep the final number in the IP address between 2 and 31 (1 is often used by the router). The subnet mask would be 255.255.255.0. PleaseStand (talk) 12:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

infomoneyservice.com pages malware! Somehow Google-related...
I am using Firefox version 3.0.18 on Windows XP. Lately, I have been noticing weird things: first, when I would exit, I would occasionally get a popup asking if I wanted to save before exiting, which I only used to get if I forgot that I had an extra window open; however, I only had the one window open. Second, I would get a popup saying you have chosen to open "blank.php" from infomoneyservice.com. I had never heard of this website and have never gone there, to my knowledge. Third, the most recent thing I discovered, is that this is somehow related to Google -- not necessarily that it is on Google's servers (but who knows?), but certainly it is at least targeting it. I found that a consistent, reproducible technique to see this funny business is: 1) Start up Firefox; 2) Go to google.com (whether by using the bookmark that has been there for years, or by typing it in directly); 3) Click on the History menu and voila! there are all sorts of references to infomoneyservice.com in the history! It seems to be going there by itself (with invisible windows?)!  I haven't seen this happen with any other website so far.  It must be caused either by some malware on my system, or could it possibly be a malicious script on Google's end?!?  It seems to be script-related because I have the NoScript extension; I had had google.com as a trusted site (as I do wikipedia.org) because it is used so much (search, maps), but after I discovered the above technique to reproduce the problem, I removed google.com as trusted, redid the technique, and it stopped happening!

Troubling footnote that mean nothing, or maybe not: I did a search on Google for "infomoneyservice" and didn't find anything notable. Searching for it on bing.com though, and I find an entry that seems to indicate someone else having the same problem (on bleepingcomputer.com)! I hope results aren't somehow being scrubbed from Google by this thing...

Anyone have more info on this? TresÁrboles (talk) 06:51, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * It seems to do with malware. I searched google for the site, and it looked suspicious. So don't go to any banking website etc and clean your system with Malwarebytes anti malware, and if it still plays up, sometimes a Spyboy SD botcheck can resolve it. Or you can refer to the Wikipedia Virus help page(may someone add the internal link?) Sir Stupidity (talk) 08:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * As was written above: I currently favour Avast! as the resident antivirus. There are other things you can have also such as Ccleaner and SpywareBlaster. Good malware on-demand scanners are Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Superantispyware, and Spybot – Search & Destroy. The so-called antivirus FAQ is just someones idiosyncratic and inappropriate approach to dealing with them and should be deleted in my opinion. 92.24.178.184 (talk) 09:10, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, if our virus FAQ is so inappropriate, why don't you improve the section about removing malware in place? It's an important approach that is favored by most people, and the section needs expanding.  The problem is of course that you can never be sure that you removed every scrap of virus from your system.  If you're comfortable with knowing it's likely that you removed the malware, then using all the above is perfectly appropriate.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:34, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Once a machine is compromised it's pretty impossible to assure it's security ever again in the future. That's why companies just reimage the whole thing instead of trying to fix it. I LOVE fixing viruses. It's the best part of my job. But if a computer is in a company building and not in the field then it's getting reimaged. I am expanding the article to include further removal steps. --mboverload @ 20:30, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the replies. I was hoping for more info on the Google angle though.  By the way, I did run both Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Avira AntiVir Personal (both free versions), and they said the system was clean, so they are obviously missing this... unless of course, the thing is indeed solely a script hosted on Google.  P.S.  I think I saw another fishy site pop up: secure-google.com .  Looking at domain info from iwhois.com (for example) leads me to think it's not really from Google, Inc.  (I wanted to send an e-mail to Google to ask them directly about these issues, but had no luck finding their e-mail address.)  TresÁrboles (talk) 07:11, 20 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Some types of malware will specifically intercept and redirect addresses such as google.com. I would either follow the steps in the one thread on bleepingcomputer or start your own on that or one of the other malware help desk forums out there.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  12:37, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I second Bleeping Computer. They're true experts. --mboverload @ 01:12, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Laptop scroll
Hi. Often I accidentally press a certain combination of keys on my laptop computer, and the screen ends up scrolling to the top of bottom endlessly, and I have to close the window and log out to fix the problem. Any ideas on what causes this, and how to fix it without having to close the window? Also, which keys or buttons set forth this effect? Thanks. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 16:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Are you sure it's keys and you're not hitting the touchpad? Dell has some pretty stupid touchpad settings out of the box. Which OS are you using? --mboverload @ 00:04, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
 * It could be a combination of the touchpad and the keyboard mousekeys and/or some other key. The laptop is a Lenovo, on Windows Vista. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 19:38, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Lenovo has extremely in-depth Touchpad settings. Have you looked through all the settings in their software? I think it's called UltraNav. --mboverload @ 06:47, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

java - pass command to OS then return
I know this is absolutely not the point of java, but, is there a way in java to pass a command (eg as a string) to the OS, and have java capture it's return value or string eg a=system.notjava("dir c:/home") or a=system.notjava("notepad.exe") 77.86.59.77 (talk) 17:00, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Use java.lang.Runtime.exec, which yields a java.lang.Process instance by which you communicate with and control the invoked subprocess. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:21, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I wasn't expecting such a thing to exist.77.86.59.77 (talk) 13:14, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

Headphones
When I plug headphones into my computer, the speakers stop producing sound. I would like sound from the headphones and speakers at the same time. How can I do this? The computer is Windows 7 82.43.90.93 (talk) 18:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * The only obvious way I can think of to do it is to get a headphone splitter, and just run both your speakers and the headphones out of the same jack. You would only be able to differentiate the volumes by means of hardware (e.g. volume tuners on the headphones and speakers), because you wouldn't be able to change the software volume output independently. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:09, 18 July 2010 (UTC)


 * If your speakers are inside the computer case, then they are being disconnected by insertion of the headphone jack. It is easy to short out this at the jack socket, but you should be aware of a possible affect on warranty, and a possible (though not likely) overload of the sound output amplifier.    D b f i r s   12:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Whether the speakers are internal or external is irrelevant - the front headphone jack includes a switch that disconnects the speakers or the rear speaker jack. Roger (talk) 12:41, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
 * This is not always a hard switch. On some computers the switch merely notifies the sound drivers and turning off the speakers is done in software.
 * The Creative drivers' control panel has a reasonably obvious switch for this, if I recall correctly. I had to turn that off on my desktop after a headphone plug broke off in the socket! APL (talk) 16:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

For a Realtek HD Audio chip using the Realtek driver, common on newer motherboards (so you probably have it): right-click on orange loudspeaker icon in system tray (may need to click arrow to expand tray). Select "Sound Manager". Click on the folder icon that is below "Device advanced settings" (which is for the "Connector Settings" window). Check the box "Disable front panel jack detection", which causes both outputs to work simultaneously, playing the same audio. As a side note, the Realtek control panel is interesting; the actual "Device advanced settings" window actually allows both output jacks to function as separate output devices to Windows. PleaseStand (talk) 22:09, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes the new HD device with audio jacks designed for HD jacks work fairly different from the older PC 97 or whatever ones which did what the earlier respondeds described (cut off the connection to the other audio jacks when you plug in something). They basically have a switch so when you plug something in it activates the switch (i.e. allows current to flow), this is detected by the motherboard or audio chip and the drivers can do whatever they want. A simple way to know if you have this is to open the audio control panel (Windows or audio chip manufacturer) and if it detects/tells you when something is plugged in you obviously do. Note that if you do have this you can actually usually use the 'mic' and 'earphone' jacks as seperate jacks for either mic or earphones or whatver and have multiple outputs as described above, since the jacks aren't actually any different. Nil Einne (talk) 02:37, 20 July 2010 (UTC)