The Today I Learned... Thread

[Master Razor]

[Master Razor]

Today I learned:
- before you install the motherboard usb drivers, the usb ports will only supply half or less of the required power to all devices
- printer drivers require better connectivity than printing operations: a 3m USB cable will work for printing but not for driver installation
- you can never uninstall a driver in windows. once it's installed, it's there --nothing you can do will uninstall it
- laser printers cannot print borderless

[Master Razor]

When buying a printer, test with these margins tests. It'll save you a lot of headaches in the long run:
margin-test_letter_portrait.zip

[yoco]

I learned that system restore doesn't bring you deleted files back. Now that I think about it, I should've know this....

[Master Razor]

Today i learned that:

- Windows 10 cannot assign a page file to drives that have the letters A: or B: .
If you try you get the un-intuitive error:
Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer beause of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified.


- Windows installed in a VHD cannot have the page file in that same VHD.

DIE MS!!!

[anon]

- Windows 10 cannot assign a page file to drives that have the letters A: or B: .

And if you want to use the kind of removable storage that would normally be assigned drive letters, you must download and install the driver manually #seriouslymicrosoft

At least that error message gives you a hint. "A device attached to the system is not functioning" is far worse.

[Master Razor]

A Windows OS can only run for about ~80 days without crashing. I used to test this on my torrent servers. It was automated to restart the system every 80 days.
This pic is from 2/27/2017 11:26 , the last day before I took down the servers.

[Master Razor]

Turns out Excel 2013 has 3 formats of CSV files: Windows, Unix, and a REAL csv.
And this very old issue, the infamous SLYK file: Excel CSV import returns an SYLK file format error - Alun Rowe

The key here is: never start a CSV file with the word "ID".

[slikrapid]

A Windows OS can only run for about ~80 days without crashing. I used to test this on my torrent servers.

i used to leave the computer on 24/7 while on win xp, afaik it did work for more than 2 months in one session, with torrents running 24/7 and heavy usage in between - seems with a lower usage it should be able to run much longer than just 80 days in a session.

[anon]

A Windows OS can only run for about ~80 days without crashing.

ufockingwotm8

Here's a screenshot from a Windows Server 2003 machine still running after a thousand days.

[Master Razor]

ufockingwotm8

What does this mean?

Here's a screenshot from a Windows Server 2003 machine still running after a thousand days.

A server is not the same thing as a consumer OS. I was using windows 7 at the time.

i used to leave the computer on 24/7 while on win xp, afaik it did work for more than 2 months in one session, with torrents running 24/7 and heavy usage in between - seems with a lower usage it should be able to run much longer than just 80 days in a session.

I don't think I can get very technical here but I'll try: When you set in windows power settings high-performance, and never shutdown disks, monitors, etc, it only stays up when the os is actually being used. Even though everything stays up, the system over time will get slower and slower and only the most recent performed functions will work. Massive timeouts to system calls and other functions will eventually lead to crashing. I've seen this happen before. Not exactly sure if it's 80 days but that's my safe limit based on my experience.

[slikrapid]

ufockingwotm8

What does this mean?

u-focking-wot-m8, as in 'what did you just say/do, mate?'

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=U%20Wot%20M8

that's my safe limit based on my experience.

ok

[anon]

I can't relate to this, I've ran Windows 7 for months and only noticed glitches at worst (which go away by refreshing or reopening a dialog).

http://68.media.tumblr.com/a7a9cc01c...s4so1_1280.gif

http://68.media.tumblr.com/f74aa8116...s4so1_1280.png

I'm not saying it can't happen, as it obviously does for you, but this may hardware, driver or setup dependent, rather than a problem with Windows per se.

[Master Razor]

Today i learned that a network bridge via software (windows os settings) will slow down copy operations by 80%.
6.000 files/1GB copied in 2 hours
outside of bridge: 2 minutes

I used a USB to ethernet adapter to create the bridge. USB port used was 3.0 and ethernet was 1GB.
the usb adapter works fine, as long as it's not in a bridge.

[anon]

Today I learned that stopping the WLAN Autoconfig service or running the following command can prevent lag spikes on wireless connections, by stopping Windows from managing them. However, that means it won't reassociate on connection loss or see any networks at all, so you'd have to toggle it constantly.

netsh wlan set autoconfig interface="Wi-Fi Adapter Name Here" enabled=no
rem Set "enabled" to yes to undo this

For some adapters you can instead control this behavior from the Device Manager in a less compromising manner. Enable gaming mode/QoS/SmartScan, disable background scanning, and/or set the roaming sensitivity to disabled.