Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 August 16

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Accessing "restricted" folders on Windows XP

For whatever reason, Windows XP just got completely corrupted on my system. I've installed another copy of XP on another hard drive. Reinstalling XP on my primary hard drive did not exactly work, so I've determined I need to format my primary hard drive. I don't really have a problem with this, except I'd like to save my "My Documents" folder, by copying it over to my second hard drive during the format. Unfortunately, when I try to access or copy that folder, I get a message saying I do not have permission to open it. I presume this is because it is the user folder of an administrator's account. Since I have reinstalled Windows, I can no longer log in under that account, and therefore I cannot access that folder.

How can I copy it/its contents to my secondary hard drive? I don't really use that hard drive, so I'm willing to install DOS on it or whatever if it would help. Is there any way to access the user folder of an administrator on XP?

Thanks in advance for any assistance. -User:Elmer Clark (sorry for the wrongly-done signature, this keyboard lacks tildes).

I would try a booting on linux LiveDistro such as Knoppix or Ubuntu (see List of Live CDs for a full list). Then copy the information you want to a usb key or upload it the internet (a gmail account should work). Jon513 06:18, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had this a while ago when I reinstalled XP. I solved it by restarting in safe mode, then using the administrator account (a new one is available from the 'welcome' screen). This gives complete control to everything, so I changed the permissions of the restricted folder to allow everyone complete access. The files were then accessible to everyone when logging in normally.

Below all the editing stuff is a bunch of helpful symbols, included is four tilda's which you could use to automatically insert your signature.

I hope that's useful to you, let us know how you get on. Icey 16:59, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much Icey, that worked great, and I certainly would never have figured it out myself. Jon, I'm sure your way would have worked too, but it was more effort, so it was the backup plan ;) -Elmer Clark 04:56, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, I'm glad to hear you got it sorted. Icey 07:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

PROCESSORS

Hi, just out of curiosity can an AMD Dual Core 3800+ be the equivalent and out-perform the Intel 3.8GHZ??? THANKS JON

There is a marketing trick used in processors. Because the designs are different, each processor can perform certain functions faster than the other. So, AMD will engineer a "test" that they know ahead of time will greatly favor their chip and then claim they outperformed the Intel. Intel will engineer a "test" that they know will greatly favor their chip and then claim they outperformed the AMD. So, you need to decide what it is you will be doing (playing the latest 3D video game?) and try it on each chip. There used to be online reports showing FPS for things like Quake and Doom. But, since that is mainly the video card now, I don't know what they use as the neutral basis for checking chips. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:06, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forbidden P2P discussion

Why in some chat rooms chatting about p2p is forbidden?

I would think it's becuase most peer to peer emulators are used, almost exclusively, for illegal activities.

"No warez" Warez is such a freaking old term. Who the hell says warez anymore? — [Mac Davis] (talk)

And I imagine that when music and videos displaced software as the chief type of online infringement—and the marketed expanded well beyond computer geeks—the term became increasingly less popular. (I'm just speculating here, no evidence at all) --Fastfission 20:41, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Many chat rooms (especially IRC channels and networks) don't allow p2p discussions to avoid being labelled as supporting copyright infringement, or fear being targetted by organizations like the RIAA. --Farfie 21:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mysql syntax error!

Im trying to backup a database using the mysqldump command. All i get is a message saying that i have an error with my SQL syntax... but i don't!! This is also the case for some other commands. I'm aware that the mysql administrator tool can backup databases for you, but i would like to know how to do this via the command line. Any help would be appretiated!

It might be helpful if you paste the query you're using here. Benbread 12:45, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea. In MySQL Cookbook (O'reilly), it says "To export a table in SQL format to a file, use a command like this: % mysqldump database_name table_name > dump.txt". This is the command im trying to use. The reason im doing this is so that i can import the data from one database into another.

You do know that that is supposed to be typed on the command line, not inside of MySQL - right? --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Im using the MySQL Command Line Client.

That's what's wrong, then, you need to do it from an OS command line. Simply type everything after the % (which represents your prompt) in a plain command prompt.

mysqldump is a seperate application, not an SQL command - that's why the client doesn't understand it. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 13:26, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stop Drag-n-Drop

In KDE or Gnome, is it possible to completely disable drag and drop? If you click, I don't want it to pay any attention to any dragging. Just register it as a click on wherever the mouse was. This is an issue for accessibility. I work in a hospital and people with extremely shaky hands cannot use something as simple as a web browser because every time they try to click on a link, the OS thinks they are trying to drag it around the screen. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about doing it in software, but I'd suggest just using/providing a touchpad or a trackball — anything where the buttons aren't mounted on something which, if shaken, counts as mouse motion. --Tardis 16:23, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to be a problem with no good solution that I can find. All I can offer is links to several other places where other people have also asked, to no avail. Apart from digging into the code and resources, it seems it is not possible to get rid of this annoyance, which bothers many people who have no special accessibility needs as well.

Links to others: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1940.html http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=136193 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=86581 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=164636

The issue also extends into those who have need to turn it off only in certain contexts such as http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=27330 Searching for solutions is confounded slightly by the overlapping terminology with solutions offered to disable the feature from the content side as a form of half-baked copy protection for webpages, which seems to be a popular subject of discussion. (71.233.165.69 17:40, 14 October 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Changing Colour

"when i visit to the web site from the search engine, the links colour change to purple when i come back to search engine, How i change that purple colour back to blue?"--86.62.220.233 16:37, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The purple means you have visited the page. In your web browser's settings, set the color for visited links to blue - or clear your browser's cache so that no pages are visited. I wonder why you'd be worried about someone seeing which pages you've visited. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:45, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New browsers tend to have a privacy setting that you can turn on so that it won't save any information like the purple links when you have "private" turned on. — [Mac Davis] (talk)

In Opera, this can be done through Tools - Preferences - Web Pages. In the browser that is known as Internet Explorer, I recall that it can be done through the Internet Options. Firefox can do it, I'm sure. —D a niel (‽) 18:27, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

stylebook 2000

Hello!, does anyone know how much does a stylebook (those X2's laptops which come in colors) cost aproximately? and is there any webpage where I can buy it? or any other brand of colored laptop for that matter?. I've been googleing it and I didn't find any useful links. oh and also! is there any place I can learn about 'laptop skins'? thank you! XD--Cosmic girl 19:34, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

By "laptop skins" do you mean snap on plastic panels to change the color ? If so, I just have to say "You're such a girl !" ... (most guys would be just fine with a single color laptop). StuRat 04:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, DELL people do customize laptops according to customers tastes and needs, you can order/purchase any colour laptop from them, so I suggest you to visit their website. And Duh StuRat, Cosmic girl is Actually a girl !!! FOZ

I'm saying she's a "girly girl", as opposed to "butch". StuRat 01:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No hard feelings StuRat, it was a joke.FOZ

plz help > ERROR

Hello... I get a error message saying "Azureus did not shutdown tidily. Check C:\Documents and Settings\My name \Datas programa\Azureus\logs\save for diagnostic log files and consider reporting them to the Azureus team if this is the result of an application error. Also check the Wiki (see the Help menu) for 'Azureus Disappears" and Azureus hangs then all I could do is to get Windows Task Manager and end Azureus I have tried reinstalling azeurus and deleting all azureus stuff from my computer but it is no use.

Can any one plz help me solve this error ?????

Thanx in advance

You could try checking the Azureus wiki page like the error message suggests. It has instructions for finding out which dll is causing the problem, and what to do. If that doesn't work, searching the SourceForge forums for "Azureus disappears" turned up 12 pages of results - I'm sure there's some useful info buried in there :) Cadaeib (talk) 00:23, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]