Listen to the Podcast
25 Sep 2020 - Podcast #712 - (23:17)
It's Like NPR on the Web
If you find the information TechByter Worldwide provides useful or interesting, please consider a contribution.
If you find the information TechByter Worldwide provides useful or interesting, please consider a contribution.
Have you ever turned your computer on only to find that the icons on the Desktop aren't where you left them? If you're one of those people who prefers the Desktop to the Start Menu, this can be distressing.
Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
It's never been much of a problem for me. Look at the Desktop on my computer and you'd think I'm a neat and organized person. Look at the desktop on which the computer sits and you will reach a different conclusion. I keep frequently used applications in the Task Bar.
<< Icons arranged the way you want them to be.
But it can be a distressing problem. Icons can move around when the user changes the screen's resolution, but they can also move around sometimes just because Windows is Windows. Listener Rick Ballantyne mentioned SoftwareOK's DesktopOK application. It's one of about 50 small programs created by Nenad Hrg, who says that he creates the applications because he has fun when programming small software solutions. He also accepts donations for the work, but there's no charge to download, install or use them.
If the location of Desktop icons is important to you, install DesktopOK, run the app, and click the Save button. This will save the settings with a name that reflects the size of the desktop: 5120x1440, for example, records the icon placement on a dual monitor system with two 2560x1440 screens. You can click the name and change it if you wish.
<< When icons get out of place, use DekstopOK to restore them to their normal locations.
Should the Desktop icons become scrambled, just select the saved settings and click the Restore button, or right-click it and choose Restore. You'll also see "Use this for restore at Windows startup". To use this function, open Options and select "Start DesktopOK with Windows" and then select "Restore on Windows Startup."
There are several other options that will be handy if you routinely add or remove icons from the Desktop, but if the icons are the way you want them to be either having DesktopOK restore their positions when you start Windows or turning off all the automation and using it only when the icons become jumbled will be sufficient.
Or if you like change, occasionally open the application and click "Punch the Icons (random position)" and the Desktop icons will be thrown around with reckless abandon. The process creates an automatic save of the way the Desktop looked before you clicked that option, so getting back to where you were is easy.
Icons that have been deleted from the desktop, not just moved, will not be restored. DesktopOK is technology, after all, not magic.
As you look through the list of more than 50 small apps you may pause, thinking "I've always wished Windows could do that!"
Take Q-Dir for example. Windows has a perfectly good file explorer, but it could be better.
Moving files from one directory to another or comparing directories is clumsy with Windows Explorer because it shows only a single directory at a time. It's possible to open a second instance of Explorer, but why? Q-Dir can show two, three, or four directories simultaneously on one or more drives. Q-Dir also has an excellent Favorites function that can open multiple directories with a single click.
When I'm working on TechByter Worldwide, I often need to see what's in the development directory, which happens to be on drive D, and the production website directory on drive E. So I have a favorite that opens D:\WEBSITES-Dev\TechByter.com\ in the left panel and E:\xampp\htdocs\TechByter.com\ in the right panel.
Some of the SoftwareOK offerings duplicate functions that are available using the command prompt or PowerShell. Traceroute, for example, is a handy tool that can reveal where a problem is if you can't reach a website or the website is slow.
You'll get the same information from a command line or PowerShell command as you will from SoftwareOK's TraceRouteOK, but some users will find it easier to use or easier to read.
TraceRouteOK is one of several apps that don't come with an installer. Just unzip the application, place the executable file in a directory of your choice, and run it as needed. Most of the SoftwareOK apps can be set up in "portable" mode, meaning they don't need to be installed. Q-Dir and DesktopOK can both be used in portable mode, but many users will prefer to install them.
Another handy utility is called FontViewOK. Most font viewers and managers can show only a single window of typefaces, but FontViewOK can show two panels to make comparing one typeface with another easier. You can view either the installed system typefaces or view all of the typefaces that are on the computer, but not installed.
ExperienceIndexOK replicates the user experience analysis that was in earlier versions of Windows, but has been dropped in more recent versions. The Windows Experience Index allowed computer owners to see scores for five major subsystems: the CPU, physical memory, the graphics subsystem, the gaming graphics hardware, and the primary hard disk drive.
Each subsystem test provides a score from 1.0 to 9.9, and the computer's overall score is shown as the lowest of all the subsystem scores. Testing professionals will find this technique ludicrous, but it does quickly and accurately identify the slowest component in the computer. The best possible score (9.9) would require the highest score for each subsystem. If one subsystem scores 8.2, the overall machine score will be 8.2.
Although it's not a full-fledged test, it's sufficient for users to compare a new computer with an older computer to confirm that the newer system is really faster.
The final app I'll mention is TheAeroClock. Somehow "OK" is not part of this one's name and it has retained "Aero", which is what Microsoft once used as a name for the Windows 10 graphical interface.
You can place an analog clock on the Desktop or set it so that it's always on top. "Always on top" means that it will appear above any application you're running. You'll be able to set the size, color, and transparency of the clock as well as to lock its location or make it possible to move it around on the screen.
It's encouraging to see that there are still some one-person software shops that create small, useful applications, distribute them for free, and depend on users to see the value and make contributions.
Visit the website to take a look at SoftwareOK's offerings.
Tablet and convertible computers have a lot of helpful features, and the touch screen is so useful that I find myself reaching out to touch the screen even on computers that don't have touch screens. But these devices have one supremely annoying feature for which there is no clear, easy solution.
Anyone who runs applications in either tablet mode or desktop full screen mode has probably closed an application unintentionally. It's easy to do.
The X that appears in the top right corner of virtually all Windows applications is exactly where my thumb goes when I pick up the Surface Pro, and invariably I close the application that I'm working with. This seems like an obvious candidate for a fix by the developers of the operating system, obvious to everyone but Microsoft management.
Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
I was looking for a way to disable the close button and found an application called NoClose that claims to do exactly that. The good news is that it's free. Even better, it doesn't need to be installed; just run it. Disabling the close button can be temporary or permanent, and it works with some applications.
That's the bad news, though: It works with SOME applications. NoClose doesn't work with either Firefox or Chrome, the two applications that are precisely the ones I'm most likely to close accidentally.
Unfortunately, it also doesn't work with Office365 apps, Spotify, and some Adobe applications -- it works with Lightroom Classic, but not InDesign. It works with the Kindle app and Microsoft's Powershell, Resource Monitor, and Task Manager; but not with Facebook's Messenger or TechyGeek's Ultimate Settings Panel
If you close some apps just by handling your tablet or convertible device, NoClose might be worth a try, but I want to be clear that its operation isn't consistent. If it works, you can temporarily disable the close button by running NoClose, making the application you want to keep open active, and pressing Ctrl-1. To re-enable the close button, click Ctrl-1 (not Ctrl-F1) again. To make the setting permanent, click Ctrl-2 and then either add NoClose to your startup applications or start it whenever you want to disable the close button.
NoClose hasn't been updated since 2006, which is probably the primary reason that it doesn't work with newer applications. It was last tested on the 32-bit version of Windows 7. If you want to give it a try, download it from the developer's website.
If accidentally closing Firefox or Chrome is a problem, you'll need to use a browser-specific approach. Firefox has a useful setting that's built in and there's a clumsy workaround for Chrome.
Type about:config in the address bar, and then press Enter. Unless you've already turned it off, Firefox will display a warning screen. Accept the warning. 
Now whenever more than one tab is open, Firefox will display a warning whenever you click the close button. This also applies when you attempt to close Firefox using any of the usual methods such as Alt-F4.
There's an incredibly clumsy procedure that will work to display a message if you accidentally click the close button in Chrome.
Visit the PreventClose website.
I called this a clumsy procedure because, even though you've pinned the page to the browser and it will open each time you start Chrome, you still need to remember to click somewhere on the page at least once or the procedure won't work.
This is one of the reasons that I switched back to Firefox and away from Chrome about a year ago.
If you don't yet have the new version of Facebook, you will have it soon, and Facebook says there will be no way to go back, but you can improve the way Facebook works. Two applications exist to do this, FB Purity and Social Fixer. The FB in FB Purity stands for Fluff-Busting. If you're not using one of these, Facebook is a lot more frustrating than it needs to be.
Steve Fernandez is the creator of FB Purity and Matt Krause is the Social Fixer developer. I've used both, but always return to Social Fixer. Facebook could kill either of these applications easily and apparently tried at least once with Social Fixer, but irate users won and Facebook tolerates these applications while doing everything they can to defeat them.
It's a Goliath and David type battle: Two lone developers against dozens (or, more likely, hundreds of Facebook developers). Facebook's new look is, at least in part, an attempt to obfuscate the code so much that writing code to control what Facebook displays, and how, is challenging. There's only so much Facebook's developers can do, though. If they make the code impossibly complex, then they will have trouble maintaining it.
Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
For those who detest the new layout, Krause has created OldLayout, and he's been working to update the Social Fixer browser plug-in to deal with the features of the new layout that users find most objectionable.
In a live video presentation for Social Fixer users, Krause recently explained some of the challenges the new layout has thrown at him. He didn't say that Facebook developers are tying to make his job harder or to kill Social Fixer. That's because some of the Facebook changes reduce the amount of code Facebook needs to render a page, and that makes Facebook faster. But he admitted that it probably wouldn't be considered too unfortunate if the changes hobbled Social Fixer.
Because of the Facebook changes, Krause has found it difficult to identify the code that represents a post so that Social Fixer can mark it, or the entire thread, as having been read.
In Facebook's old system, Social Fixer was able to hide sponsored posts. That feature is now generally working in the new version. It was also possible to identify and hide individual items on the page. In the new layout, I'm able to hide (1) the Watch and Marketplace buttons and the (2) screen-hog Stories at the top of the page.
Previously Social Fixer was able to hide component parts of the (3) left column, but currently the only option is to hide the entire column. Few people will find this acceptable because the left column contains items that most users consider to be essential, along with items that they detest. That's one of the things Krause is working on now.
But even without some of the advanced features, Social Fixer still makes Facebook a lot more usable. A couple of examples:
When I'm writing a comment on a post, sometimes I scroll away to see something else on the page and it's not always easy to find the post I'm commenting on. Social Fixer makes it possible to highlight the comment you're working on and you get to choose the color.
The application has several screens of settings designed to allow the user to control Facebook's look and feel. If Zuckerberg and his developer minions were as smart as they think they are, they would implement many of Krause's features in Facebook.
Certainly Facebook developers wouldn't implement the features that allow users to hide sponsored posts, but they would make it possible for users to filter posts depending on words in the post. For me, those words include "does anyone remember", "factory store direct sale", "i think most of you know me", "insurance work", "lawsuit information", "men's health certified", "not sold in stores", "only available for a short time", "roof damage", "take this quiz", "unique personalized gift", and a lot more. Facebook should allow users to filter posts they don't want to see, but it doesn't. Social Fixer does.
There are several configuration pages:
If you're a Facebook user who doesn't like the new interface (or even the old interface) give FB Purity or Social Fixer a try (links go to each application's Facebook page). You'll find links to install both applications in your browser's add-ons page.
Have you ever wanted to re-read, review, or quote something you saw in a book, but can't remember which book it was? So you call your friendly local librarian and say something like "I'm trying to find a book that I read a few years ago. I don't remember who wrote it or what the title was, but the book was blue."
I hope you don't really do that because there's no way any librarian will be able to find that book, but think about what you do know. Colleges have courses in library science and a lot of librarians have masters degrees. Finding a book isn't magic, so it will help if you have some basic information.
You might even be able to find the book for yourself using the library's catalog system, Goodreads and other social resources, and library resources such as WorldCat or Big Book Search. Sometimes even Google can help.
Start by thinking about the subject of the book. Fiction or non-fiction? Recently published or old? Written for adults or young readers? Names of main characters. Locations. If you're looking for a quotation, start with what you remember; even if you remember it wrong, you might be close enough to find the book.
Book Riot has a helpful article by Abby Hargreaves on exactly this subject. Even if you can't find the book on your own, you'll have more information for a librarian to use.
Microsoft has been experimenting with an underwater datacenter since 2014, and the company says the results are encouraging.
One of the objectives is to provide fast service to coastal areas, and a secondary objective is to save money. More than half the world's population lives within 120 miles of a coast. By putting datacenters underwater near coastal cities, data would have a shorter distance to travel, leading to faster data transfer.
The most recent project, the Northern Isles underwater datacenter, spent two years under water at the European Marine Energy Centre, a test site for tidal turbines and wave energy converters. The Northern Isles was gleaming white when deployed, but it had a coat of algae and barnacles, along with cantaloupe-size sea anemones when it was brought to the surface.
The experiment placed 864 servers and their support gear underwater. Researchers say fewer than expected failures occurred, about one-eighth of what would have been expected on land. The team hypothesizes that the atmosphere of nitrogen, which is less corrosive than oxygen, and the absence of people to bump and jostle components, are the primary reasons for the difference. If the analysis proves this correct, the team may be able to translate the findings to datacenters on land.
Read the full account on Microsoft's blog.
We had cell phones that could connect to the internet twenty years ago, but service was far from reliable. I wrote " Computers may be ubiquitous today; in less than a decade, they'll probably be pervasive. Not invasive. Not perverse. Just everywhere. In everything. All the time."
I could rest my case right there and claim to have been all-knowing in 2000, but I didn't really foresee that phones would become cameras with an included internet terminal and web browser that could also make phone calls.