Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 April 28

= April 28 =

Registry Repair
Is there registry repair freeware out there? Apparently, I have 4442 registry errors. Plasmic Physics (talk) 08:45, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * What persuades you that you have 4442 registry errors? Beware of scam websites that resemble Windows programs which report virus infections and registry corruption, and offer to "fix" it. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 09:32, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

I used the program advocated on Wiki-Errors. Finding the errors is free, but having them fixed is not. Plasmic Physics (talk) 10:31, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Most registry errors are minor. I use CCleaner, other recommendations are at TechSupportAlert.com. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 10:41, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * What counts as a registry error? There is no reason to believe the program, or the website, "wiki-errors.com" - who created that site?  Why do you trust them?  If you have an error in Windows, check the Microsoft TechNet or Windows support forums; check your software-vendor's website; but why would you believe some random website on the internet?
 * The Windows registry is nothing but a large, shared database for Windows programs. I can write a perfectly functioning, perfectly legitimate Windows program that puts anything I want in the registry.  There is no way at all for any "registry error checker" to determine whether my data is valid, corrupted, or erroneous - unless they know what my program does with the data I put in the registry.
 * In short: do not believe the reported number of registry errors. That number is 100.0 % fictional.  If you have an actual error, search the appropriate, authoritative websites (Microsoft support or Microsoft TechNet, or for errors in custom software, check with your software vendor directly).  Nimur (talk) 17:29, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * "wiki-errors.com" is a scam site whose only purpose is to show up in search engines and persuade you to buy useless software. It contains a very large number of nearly identical, machine-generated pages, each one personalized enough to make it seem as though it's somehow related to a specific problem. You linked the page titled "0X80072EFF"; compare the page titled "0X12345678" or the page titled "vclkajsclkjznbclkasdlfqhwleruh". The web is full of sites like this and you will have to learn to recognize them in search results. -- BenRG (talk) 21:52, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

OK, well that's why I came here, because I don't want to spend money on third party sofware for something that microsoft should really offer for free. Anyways, I tried CCleaner, but it doesn't scan for all errors. I tried Wise Registry Cleaner Free, it is a lot more effective, and it solved my initial problem of the 0X80072EFF error. Thanks, Gadget.

I'll be more weary of sites with wiki in the url thanks for the heads up. Plasmic Physics (talk) 11:46, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Such sites are indeed wearying, but you would do better to be wary (or perhaps leery) of them. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:08, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * As mentioned here (my first Google hit for 0x80072EFF), this error code means "Network problems are preventing connection to the Windows Update servers." I doubt that this had anything to do with your registry. It was probably a transient network problem that happened to go away at about the time you ran Wise Registry Cleaner. I realize that the web is full of sites telling you that this error is caused by a registry problem, but as I said above, those sites are scams. All of them are scams. When you hear "registry cleaner", think "patent medicine". In specific, rare cases, you might get some medical benefit from drinking snake oil. Most of the time, not. -- BenRG (talk) 20:14, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Agree with BenRG on this. Also, the official Microsoft KnowledgeBase article: You may encounter temporary connection-related errors when you use Windows Update or Microsoft Update to install updates.  Your error-code is one of many possible error-codes.  Solutions are explained on that page.  Nimur (talk) 20:51, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, the error started right after a windows update. Plasmic Physics (talk) 22:23, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Inabilty to maintain my focus
No, I don't suffer from ADD, I'm talking about my computer. I am happily typing away, looking at the keyboard (I'm not quite a touch typist), then some darn window pops up and steals the computer's focus, causing most of what I typed to disappear into a parallel universe (thus bringing them supreme enlightenment, instead of our universe). Now, I don't object to all pop-up windows, as some of them contain genuinely useful info (I will leave it for the reader to determine whether I consider update notifications or penis enlargement ads to be more useful).

So, I don't want to stop the pop-ups, per se, but rather want to prevent them from stealing focus. This may be complicated by there being different types of pop-ups. For example, one that gives me particular trouble is in Pogo games, where I am typing in the (Flash ?) chat window, when a (Flash ?) pop-up tells me to shut up because I talk too fast (yes, they really have such a message). So, how can I continue to allow the current pop-ups, but globally prevent them from stealing focus ? (I would prefer that the pop-ups still be on top, though.) StuRat (talk) 17:18, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * It's interesting that you mention Adobe Flash in particular. Sadly, there is no way to override the windowing behavior of a flash application.  This is because Adobe Flash is a totally hosted code environment that does not use your operating system's windowing toolkit.  The application programmer therefore has complete and total control over the user interface behaviors and experience.  (Do not use programs designed in Adobe Flash if you do not want to delegate total control of your user-experience to the application programmer).
 * In the general case, it is the role of the operating system window manager to make decisions about when programs may steal focus; on most platforms, you can configure focus behavior in the window management tools and preferences. Are you using Windows?  The TweakUI tool from Microsoft allows you to override default window UI behaviors, including focus settings.  Newer versions of Windows have these preferences built in to the control panel.  Other major operating systems with windowing kits generally do not allow focus-stealing by default; you can configure this behavior in KDE, GNOME, FVWM, or your favorite X11 manager.  On Apple platforms, window focus is explicitly controlled by the operating system; see this discussion forum for some enlightening discourse.  Nimur (talk) 17:53, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

I am using Windows XP SP3. StuRat (talk) 18:28, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Um, first of all congratulations Stu on finally taking the plunge from Windows 98. But, how shall I put this, you might want to sit down for this... 79.122.114.131 (talk) 00:16, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I still have 3 computers running Windows 98, and have no plans to change that. I did decide I needed one on XP, though, but I will be skipping Vista entirely (and hopefully Windows 7, too).  When MS stops making bloatware and makes a lean O/S, then I will upgrade. StuRat (talk) 00:59, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * More generally, it seems like Vista has been getting worse and worse about a really stupid user interface problem: the mouse and the keyboard aren't synchronized.  If you click the mouse somewhere and start typing, the text might come out either where you were before or where you meant to go.  Why can't Windows hit on a user interface where stuff happens in order? Wnt (talk) 02:15, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry, didn't mean to be off topic. I have that issue too. I just thought it was the stupid track pad on my Asus laptop. >_> So I guess it is a Windows wide issue. Need to do more research on that when I have time. Kushal (talk) 01:15, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Configure custom certificate validator declaratively?
Today at work I noticed I had to make a WCF service accept connections from several clients, each with their own certificate. Specifying the accepted certificates directly in the service's client credentials configuration only supports one client certificate, so I found that I have to write a custom certificate validator instead and make it inspect the certificates and see if they're valid or not. This appears to be simply a matter of extending  and implementing a   method, which runs successfully if the certificate is valid or throws an exception if it's not. But how will it know which certificates are supposed to be valid? These should ideally be defined in a configuration file. I found that the certificate validator can be specified in the WCF service's  file like this:      But how can I add my own configuration to this? I would want to do something like this:        But I don't know if such a thing is even supported. J I P &#124; Talk 17:47, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Mp4 player
Does anyone know a good MP4 player that I can download that plays videos well? It also must work on Windows XP, as that is what I'm currently using. 72.235.230.227 (talk) 18:10, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * VLC Media Player plays just about everything. 82.43.89.63 (talk) 18:19, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I've used VLC Media Player to play MP4 files, and it works fine. It comes with its own set of codecs, so it will play files even if the player bundled with your OS (e.g. Windows Media Player) is insufficient. Now whether it will play MP4 files well is determined more by your hardware. Since MP4 files often encapsulate HD video, you'll need a computer that isn't more than 6-7 years old, I'd guess.--el Aprel (facta-facienda) 19:49, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure VLC can dynamically process large video into small video, though obviously you'd have to config it! ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:00, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Free software production
It has been demonstrated that free software can be cost-effective and profitable under circumstances, however it appears that is not the case when it comes to entertainment (console games, little mobile apps, etc). Are there schemes to remedy this? My initial observation is that a hardware vendor has commercial interest in having content available for their platform. Then I can come up with three approaches off the top of my head 1) the vendor requests content and rewards for fulfilling the request, or just hires people to do it 2) developers come to the vendor with their content, and the vendor then somehow decides its value and pays the developers 3) the developers put their content "out there", and the vendor then sends them money as the content gains popularity. Now of course there are a lot of blanks to fill in and the merits differ, but I'd believe somebody has already thought this out. Requesting any links or insights. --62.142.167.134 (talk) 21:00, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * None of those three is something a hardware vendor would do for free software. In case 1, the manager will say "I paid for that content and it's staying on my platform exclusively, because otherwise I am subsidizing all my competitors."  In case 2, same thing.  In case 3, the hardware vendor has no reason to send money to the developers; he has already benefited.  Another issue with games in particular is that, like movies, they tend to be hit-driven and have short shelf lives, replaced in a month by the new hotness; all in a way that is unlike operating systems or applications.  Free software works better with software that has a long lifespan.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:19, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * It's true that there are probably few profitable free software games, but free (or at least open source) software has a significant foothold as part of the technology used to develop commercial games, e.g. Lua, Simple DirectMedia Layer, and FreeType. There are relatively few commercial games for free software platforms (although there are some indie successes like World of Goo and the Humble Indie Bundles), bar the very notable example of the many games for Android. As to how full top-to-bottom free software games could be a commercial success, I don't know. The normal pattern of free software projects (a slow bubble building incrementally into a respectable solution) is at odds with the big-bang model that most commercial games follow. A lot of free software earns its keep where a service (e.g. hosting) is sold, so perhaps an MMORPG where the software is free, and users can contribute their own scripts and assets (a bit like Second Life) while paying for hosting and connectivity might work. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:20, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I mention all those constituent technologies because they're mostly a prerequisite for a free or open source game. A commercial games company typically buys in a graphics engine (e.g. IdTech), a sound engine, a physics engine (e.g. Havok), a video renderer (e.g. Bink), and a bunch of other stuff. These days you can put together a pretty mature tech stack with stuff like OGRE, Ogg (vorbis and theora), Freetype, OpenAL, Bullet, Lua, and SDL, and there are free (libre) music libraries. So all someone needs to do, to create a free or open-source game the like of Torchlight is "just" the game code and its assets. Still a bunch of work, but not starting with a bare OS. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:04, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * There are a couple examples of large, highly-polished free software games: Battle for Wesnoth, and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory come to mind. Another example of a non-free game built mostly on a free stack is Overgrowth.  But, for the most part, the no-cost games that are the most elaborate are intricate games that appeal to a smaller audience: roguelikes, like Dwarf Fortress and Nethack, or simulation games like Vega Strike, OpenTTD and Orbiter.  I suspect that the short shelf life of most polished games is to blame: no one wants to give away something that will only be a brief success.  Shoot-em-ups come and go, but Dwarf Fortress is for life.  Paul (Stansifer) 06:16, 29 April 2011 (UTC)


 * (ec)Actually, most consoles are sold as loss-leaders, and the vendors try to make their profit with games and game licenses. So none of your business models is attractive to them. The reason for this is, of course, that they can lower the entry barrier (the initial system price) and provide a more impressive system at a lower price point. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:21, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * (ec) @Comet Tuttle: If the vendor doesn't make a reliable promise to pay the software won't be created in the first place. On 1) there is the middle road of locking the content on the platform (by licenses or maybe even bad portability), but making it available for others to build on and modify, while reserving a right to sell it to other vendors. Although it won't really be free software then.
 * @Stephan: Great point about the consoles. I guess the console price would be quite unattractive given how expensive the games seem to be. --62.142.167.134 (talk) 22:28, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * @Finlay: I didn't think of that. So the foot is already in the door in the sense that individuals getting paid to maintain e.g. Lua and anybody using it are profiting. --62.142.167.134 (talk) 22:42, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

My computer doesn't understand Google Chrome?
Hi. My preferred browser is Chrome and I recently got a laptop for my birthday with the fingerprint scanning tool. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with Google CHrome; it cant detect logon screens in Chrome and whenever I try to open a previously set logon it just goes to the Chrome new tab page. Any idea on why this might be, or how I can fix this? Thnks. 72.128.95.0 (talk) 23:16, 28 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Your finger print scanner does not work with Google Chrome? If you give details about what brand/model your device is, perhaps someone could help. Cheers! Kushal (talk) 01:07, 30 April 2011 (UTC)


 * While we can confirm/disprove this when knowing your model, there is a liklihood that this isn't even possible. I owned a fingerprint scanner keyboard (microsofts) and it was specifically designed to not work on any browser besides IE.  Knowing the vast array of programs that it did work on made me feel that this may have been intentional.  We need more details to get you the answer, but that answer might be it can't be done. Chris M. (talk) 14:33, 3 May 2011 (UTC)