By the way, what is it this machine is doing when the mouse and keyboard don't respond but the task manager shows nothing is happening ?
Phoning Home ?
I have wondered that myself... for the GHz inside the Box, Microsoft seem to have found ways to make things very slow.
Cynics say the number after the Windows, is the response time in seconds...
No, the file existed. And there was no reason for it to be hidden. The explorer found it. But it did not want to tell me where it actually was. So I cut and pasted it to a known location.
It's odd, it was ten years ago, or so, people were asking me "Where is my frikken file". Seems nothing has improved in Windows World since then.
Interestingly, when the mouse and keyboard get stuck, hitting Ctl-Alt-Delete instantly brings up the task manager long enough to show me that something is eating all the CPU. But it disappears before I can see what it is. Grrrr.
Interestingly, when the mouse and keyboard get stuck, hitting Ctl-Alt-Delete instantly brings up the task manager long enough to show me that something is eating all the CPU. But it disappears before I can see what it is. Grrrr.
In mine the mouse/kbd never freeze, just everything else does... especially in browsers...
You can leave Task Manager alive in a corner and see what it says...
No, the file existed. And there was no reason for it to be hidden. The explorer found it. But it did not want to tell me where it actually was. So I cut and pasted it to a known location.
Explorer Search should give the path under the file name, but you cannot copy that...
You can then go Properties on the file and under General you can copy the file path, or
under Security you can get the whole path+file name into the clipboard. (Win 8.1)
Maybe Microsoft decided it was far to dangerous to let the great unwashed simply go right-click Copy Full path to Clipboard, having found something. Everyone just double-clicks, don't they ?
If the search tool shows the file, right click on it, the contextual menu should offer the possibility to open the file path. Otherwise copy and paste in a more convenient position..
Massimo
On dual-booted systems I admit to resorting to boot Linux (except for the very few trivial cases where explorer would be sufficient), mount the Windows partition, and find the file with a simple 'find' command. If the resulting path was necessary for something in Windows, then note the path and boot Windows.
On a win-only system I would mostly be frustrated I think.
Pulling up properties on the search result tells me the file is in:
C:\Users\heater
Cool. But it's hard work to find a C:\Users directory anywhere.
But hey, when you do find it. You find it has a ton of stuff in there that the explorer thing does not want to tell you about.
Search for the file, when it appears right click on it, then go down and left click on “Open folder location”. It really shouldn’t be such a PITA, but this is Windows.
In the File Explorer window click on "ThisPC". It is located on the lower left of the window. ThisPC will show all the drives on the system. Click on the C: drive. Locate the Users folder and click on it. Click on the heater folder and your file should be there.
Edit: Re-reading your post it looks like you already found the file. Yes, everything is located under the c:\Users\username directory.
Yep, so the C:\ drive, which is the useful thing you need is at the bottom of the list after all the useless junk like "Quick Access", "OneDrive", ...
If you want to have "This PC" be the default selection when you open a new window, open the Windows Explorer options (accessible through the ribbon bar) and look at the "General" tab. Change the "Open File Explorer To" setting. Also, while you are in there, switch to the "View" tab. I usually show hidden files, system files, and file extensions. Tweak as you see fit.
If you want to remove HomeGroup, click start (or hit the windows key) and type in "services". Start the services control panel app. Find the two services that start with "HomeGroup". For each of them, edit their properties, stop the service (if not already stopped), and set startup to "Disabled".
I open Explorer and I get the last 20 files I've worked on or opened.
When I search for a file, I can use the asterisk and question mark wildcards to allow for multiple characters or a single character.
When the results show up, I can right-click on a file and select "Open file location" and Explorer opens up the folder the file is in, and highlights that file.
Also, if you really need a command prompt, if you're using a touch screen interface, press and hold on the Windows logo on the taskbar, or if you're using a mouse or similar right click on the logo, then select either "Command Prompt" or "Command Prompt (Admin)" depending on which you want.
CMD doesn't care much whether you use a forward or backward slash with path names. Windows NTFS can do either.
And you'd probably have had better luck with "rich" searching for "dir c:\*rich* /s", but may be overwhelmed with the results. If you could include the file type extension, like "dir c:\*rich*.txt /s" would narrow things down.
Brexit was a surprise but not completely unexpected. But @heater using a M$ device, that first is something to tell the grandchildren :-) Welcome home!
Maybe next we can have the MoSQUITo. I wonder how everyone would vote? What would they think? (do they?) .... But MS is all there is, what else is there?
I constantly find Windows drops characters when I type. Extremely frustrating. Happens on multiple laptops ever since XP.
And I am forever launching task manager to see what is happening when it slows down. Amazing this often frees up the machine. Seems ET doesn't like to show that it is phoning your data home???
I constantly find Windows drops characters when I type.
And I am forever launching task manager to see what is happening when it slows down. Amazing this often frees up the machine.
I have a similar problem with the shipping computer at work, which runs the UPS and FedEx software as well as a program I wrote to enter incoming repair items into a distributed system that tracks them as they are worked on. Sometimes my program hangs while trying to connect with the server. We eventually found this almost always happens after someone has used the UPS or FedEx software, and it doesn't happen if you use Ctrl+Alt+Del to pop up Task Manager first. Apparently the machine is low on RAM and has to garbage collect the global heap or something. It's a new machine with a 64-bit CPU and 4 gigs of RAM, not high end but not underpowered for a new OS either by normal standards.
Heater I recently bought a 40 inch 4K TV set to use as a monitor. It only accepts HDMI so it has to be driven at 30 Hz but that doesn't matter if you're programming and not gaming. It was cheaper than the cheapest 4K monitor (USD$380 vs. $450 for a 32-inch monitor) and effectively has the same pixel size as a 20 inch 1080p monitor, only it's four of them. To use a TV set you do have to set the "sharpness" control to lowest/off; that's actually an algorithm to make non-4K moving images look better but it craps up fine static details. You could probably take your Surface to the store and try it out since it's portable.
Heater, in my company we've bought many TVs over the years, replacing projectors. They work well for video conferences too. This seems to be common elsewhere also. Why TVs and not monitors? b/c they're big and relatively cheap. But 32" models exist too.
So getting TVs through a company bookkeeper should be trivial.
No 4K monitor today. It's Juhannus. That's mid-summer weekend. Party time !
I guess a TV would do. 40 inch seems a bit extreme though.
Chip has a nice set up with two 4K monitors stood up portrait style. Which is what started me thinking...
Now, can I actually get the purchase of a TV instead of a monitor past the companies book keeper ?
Perhaps your eyes are better than mine, but after using a laptop with a 1920 x 1080 display for a while I think a 40 inch display for 4K is not unreasonable. For extended sessions I use my 42" TV screen and it is much easier on the eyes.
As for the book keeper, it should be justifiable based on the money saved compared to a smaller monitor. Four times the pixels deserve four times the screen area.
Wow! Three times the price? Must be either taxation, or that the tuner is costly - I don't know what kind of signal standard is used in Finland. In Norway it's a variant of DVB-T I think - I don't have a TV at home anymore so I'm out of the loop. That could also mean that I'm not up to date on pricing anymore either, of course. Btw the company doesn't pay VAT unlike households, which makes it cheaper too of course.
At home I use a 27" monitor for my PC, but I didn't buy 4k - I settled for 2560x1440 (or thereabouts) because that's what the PC supports. So I figured 4k would either be a waste of money, or look worse. But I didn't think the monitor cheap. I looked for a long time until there was one place where they sold it considerably cheaper than normal. Still a different price division than a common HD 24" monitor like the one I have in the office. Those are cheap. Now. Not when I forced the company to buy it, some years ago.. (my vision suffered badly from the smaller monitor I used before that, so I should have done that move earlier. Ack.)
Comments
Phoning Home ?
I have wondered that myself... for the GHz inside the Box, Microsoft seem to have found ways to make things very slow.
Cynics say the number after the Windows, is the response time in seconds...
It's odd, it was ten years ago, or so, people were asking me "Where is my frikken file". Seems nothing has improved in Windows World since then.
Interestingly, when the mouse and keyboard get stuck, hitting Ctl-Alt-Delete instantly brings up the task manager long enough to show me that something is eating all the CPU. But it disappears before I can see what it is. Grrrr.
You can leave Task Manager alive in a corner and see what it says...
Explorer Search should give the path under the file name, but you cannot copy that...
You can then go Properties on the file and under General you can copy the file path, or
under Security you can get the whole path+file name into the clipboard. (Win 8.1)
Maybe Microsoft decided it was far to dangerous to let the great unwashed simply go right-click Copy Full path to Clipboard, having found something. Everyone just double-clicks, don't they ?
Massimo
File explorer search finds the file.
It really does not want to tell me where it is.
Pulling up properties on the search result tells me the file is in:
C:\Users\heater
Cool. But it's hard work to find a C:\Users directory anywhere.
But hey, when you do find it. You find it has a ton of stuff in there that the explorer thing does not want to tell you about.
On a win-only system I would mostly be frustrated I think.
But the first thing I usually do on every Windows machine is install the UNIX utilities and Emacs. After that it's a find and cd command.
In the past I have relied on cygwin to get anything done.
No way am I getting into dual booting here. I gave that up around Win 98.
Except when I have had to bust a Win password occasionally.
Search for the file, when it appears right click on it, then go down and left click on “Open folder location”. It really shouldn’t be such a PITA, but this is Windows.
http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
Edit: Re-reading your post it looks like you already found the file. Yes, everything is located under the c:\Users\username directory.
If you want to have "This PC" be the default selection when you open a new window, open the Windows Explorer options (accessible through the ribbon bar) and look at the "General" tab. Change the "Open File Explorer To" setting. Also, while you are in there, switch to the "View" tab. I usually show hidden files, system files, and file extensions. Tweak as you see fit.
If you want to hide OneDrive in the windows explorer, follow the instructions at this link: lifehacker.com/how-to-get-rid-of-the-onedrive-icon-in-windows-10s-file-1722592615.
If you want to remove HomeGroup, click start (or hit the windows key) and type in "services". Start the services control panel app. Find the two services that start with "HomeGroup". For each of them, edit their properties, stop the service (if not already stopped), and set startup to "Disabled".
When I search for a file, I can use the asterisk and question mark wildcards to allow for multiple characters or a single character.
When the results show up, I can right-click on a file and select "Open file location" and Explorer opens up the folder the file is in, and highlights that file.
Also, if you really need a command prompt, if you're using a touch screen interface, press and hold on the Windows logo on the taskbar, or if you're using a mouse or similar right click on the logo, then select either "Command Prompt" or "Command Prompt (Admin)" depending on which you want.
CMD doesn't care much whether you use a forward or backward slash with path names. Windows NTFS can do either.
And you'd probably have had better luck with "rich" searching for "dir c:\*rich* /s", but may be overwhelmed with the results. If you could include the file type extension, like "dir c:\*rich*.txt /s" would narrow things down.
And I am forever launching task manager to see what is happening when it slows down. Amazing this often frees up the machine. Seems ET doesn't like to show that it is phoning your data home???
Bingo, much easier than Cygwin but gets you 80% of what you need.
I have a similar problem with the shipping computer at work, which runs the UPS and FedEx software as well as a program I wrote to enter incoming repair items into a distributed system that tracks them as they are worked on. Sometimes my program hangs while trying to connect with the server. We eventually found this almost always happens after someone has used the UPS or FedEx software, and it doesn't happen if you use Ctrl+Alt+Del to pop up Task Manager first. Apparently the machine is low on RAM and has to garbage collect the global heap or something. It's a new machine with a 64-bit CPU and 4 gigs of RAM, not high end but not underpowered for a new OS either by normal standards.
I may be stuck in Windows world forever !
Tomorrow I'm off to buy a 4K monitor. Let's see what this Surface puppy can really do.
Cheapest around here is a Samsung U28E590D
Any advice?
Mind you 3D performance on this Surface 4 sucks. For example this webgl demo http://babylonjs.com/Demos/V8/ only runs at 40fps or so.
I guess a TV would do. 40 inch seems a bit extreme though.
Chip has a nice set up with two 4K monitors stood up portrait style. Which is what started me thinking...
Now, can I actually get the purchase of a TV instead of a monitor past the companies book keeper ?
So getting TVs through a company bookkeeper should be trivial.
a) I have never bought a TV in my life. I guess technically if I get the boss to pay then I don't have to break that streak.
b) A quick survey of our local PC/Electronics mega-store web pages shows that TV's are starting at three time the price!
Perhaps your eyes are better than mine, but after using a laptop with a 1920 x 1080 display for a while I think a 40 inch display for 4K is not unreasonable. For extended sessions I use my 42" TV screen and it is much easier on the eyes.
As for the book keeper, it should be justifiable based on the money saved compared to a smaller monitor. Four times the pixels deserve four times the screen area.
At home I use a 27" monitor for my PC, but I didn't buy 4k - I settled for 2560x1440 (or thereabouts) because that's what the PC supports. So I figured 4k would either be a waste of money, or look worse. But I didn't think the monitor cheap. I looked for a long time until there was one place where they sold it considerably cheaper than normal. Still a different price division than a common HD 24" monitor like the one I have in the office. Those are cheap. Now. Not when I forced the company to buy it, some years ago.. (my vision suffered badly from the smaller monitor I used before that, so I should have done that move earlier. Ack.)