Mac Users: Post Your Dashboard
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Lifecrafter
Member # 6700
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 08:22
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Ah, Norton, the Anti-Virus that thinks that an OS is a virus... The only reason why I use it is because I am required to have an auto-updating anti-virus software to use my school's network, and they supply Norton for free. Yes, this is the same nationally high-ranked in stability network that currently disallows me from joining AIM chats and thinks that Steam is spyware. -------------------- The Silent Assassin once told me a funny joke. I know, it's Ironic. -------------------- -Lenar Labs What's Your Destiny? Ushmushmeifa: Lenar's power is almighty and ineffable. All hail lord Noric, god of... well, something important, I'm sure. Posts: 735 | Registered: Monday, January 16 2006 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 08:42
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Avast! works pretty well. You can find it here. And it does update regularly. -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1934
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 10:09
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Most school networks require you to have nationally credited anti-virus software, i.e Norton, McAffe, Spysweeper(iffy). Avast! may work well, but that doesn't mean that the school will accept it. -------------------- You acquire an item: Radio Free Foil Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 11:42
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I've also found that I can almost never "force quit" anything in XP. Inevitably, I have to do a cold reboot, which kinda sucks. This regularly happens while using Microsoft Word, and sometimes with IE. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 11:48
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By 'force quit', do you mean by alt-F4 or by Task Manager? -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 12:06
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Task Manager. I've only ever used alt-F4 to get out of fullscreen programs that lock. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 12:25
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Which do you use in Task Manager? 'End Task' or 'End Process'? Because in severe situations, you can use 'end process' to do an instant shut down of almost anything on your computer. That said, End process has saved me a lot of headaches when the BoA 3D editor and Windows XP decide to clash. IMPORTANT NOTE: Use End Process with extreme caution, as it has been known to cause severe system instability. ONLY USE THIS ON PROGRAMS YOU CAN RECOGNIZE, AND ONLY IF YOU ACTUALLY NEED IT AND HAVE SOME IDEA OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING! DISCLAIMER: I will not be held liable if you start randomly shutting down processes and wind up wrecking your computer. [ Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:35: Message edited by: Ghouloca ] -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 13:51
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"Close Application" is a joke. Apparently, it nicely asks the application to please quit one of these days whenever it feels like it (and if it doesn't react to the normal methods, that can take a few minutes). The only useful way to kill a task immediately is to close the process. Where the problem lies in figuring out what the process is called. It's usually something really obvious - "photoshop.exe", "notepad.exe". But some programmers seem to have fun coming up with cryptic names for their processes. Most other processes are essential. It's possible to freeze up the computer, lose the taskbar/desktop icons, and force a reboot by closing the task manager. There are several online resources that can tell you what a particular Windows process (like "svchost.exe", which you mus never, ever close) is. So if you don't know what you're doing, Ghouloca is right - stay off them. Thank goodness that people who don't know computers are usually scared off by bold capitalized exclamations. :P ---------------- Here's a screenshot of all the gadgets and the sidebar opened:  ---------------- Oh, and I made a small addition to the Spiderweb RSS feed. If you add "condense=topic" as in http://feeds.ermarian.net/spiderweb.rss?forum=1&condense=topic you now get shown only a single digest item for each topic. This reduces the clutter of items a lot - but you no longer get alerted to each new post. It's optional. Edit: URL was wrong. Fixed. [ Wednesday, October 18, 2006 02:55: Message edited by: Robert Daniel Oliver ] -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 14:49
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Actually, if the taskbar/desktop items go missing, it means the explorer process has somehow been shut down. If this happens, simply go to the application tab, click on new task, and enter "explorer.exe" into the field provided. It will bring all of that stuff back up and running. Useful in case you decided to try out end process and ended up without a taskbar. I remember when I tried to shut down as many processes as possible. I got down to 14 processes, and the next one on the list was "svchost", and... well, let's just say it wasn't pretty. -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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Dollop of Whipped Cream
Member # 391
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 15:25
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Yeah, ending svchost is not a good idea. Do you guys remember in Windows 98 when it was just the processes you could shut down, and shutting everything but explorer and systray still kept your computer stable? [ Tuesday, October 17, 2006 16:32: Message edited by: Tyranicus. ] -------------------- "Tyranicus is about the only one that still posts in the Nethergate Forum." —Randomizer Spiderweb Chat Room Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 562 | Registered: Friday, December 14 2001 08:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 19:03
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I still have a Windows 95 CD because it was the last stable OS before 2kPro. I only wish I had my 3.11 floppies, or WfW. Those were good times... good times. -------------------- quote: Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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Dollop of Whipped Cream
Member # 391
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 19:15
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Windows 95 was stable?! *Laughs uproariously* -------------------- "Tyranicus is about the only one that still posts in the Nethergate Forum." —Randomizer Spiderweb Chat Room Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 562 | Registered: Friday, December 14 2001 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1934
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 21:28
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That has to be a joke. Windows 95? Stable? It reminds me of a joke. Short Version Bill Gates dies and goes to hell. Saten says "You have been a model for us all. So, to repay you, I'll let you pick where you want to spend the rest of eternity." Gates agrees. Saten shows him the first room. It is full of burning people. The next room is full of freezing people. The last room contains a computer running Windows 95. Gates says "I'll take the last room." As Saten leaves, a demon approches him and asks why it's evil to keep Bill Gates in a room with a computer. Saten replies "The keyboard is missing three keys. CTRL, ALT, and DEL." Badump-chish! -------------------- You acquire an item: Radio Free Foil Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Tuesday, October 17 2006 22:04
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My favorite Windows... "feature"... was one I discovered while working at a library this summer. Somehow, one of the printer spooling processes can end up eating the processor for long periods of time. It involves sending stuff-to-be-printed to the non-functional Microsoft Image Writer. It was fun... had to Google up the solution, and Microsoft basically says, "Yeah, it's a problem, and we know this, but don't touch it, 'cause it's important." Right. It's important, and it doesn't work. Wonderful. -------------------- Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 02:53
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quote:Or as stable as Windows 95/98 ever was. It's not that bad once you get used to it, and have made sure you have a strait-jacket handy. ("I'm in my happy place! I'm in my happy place! REBOOT! Hahaha!") But what I was going to say is that you could shut down Systray as well. It just did funny stuff to your taskbar, as I remember. My suspicion is that this was less because Windows 98 didn't run that many processes, and rather because they kept the really important ones invisible, while XP won't. Although given how badly XP wants to hide the system from the users, that doesn't make much sense. -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 04:47
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Unfortunately, I can't cut and paste my process list, but I reckon it would be pretty interesting to see what everyone had up. Unfortunately, my education in computer literacy stopped in 2000, so a lot of it is beyond me, but it bugs the crap out of me that I have 52 processes running, of which 5 are listed as "svchost.exe". It seems it would be real easy for someone to slip a virus or spyware in there without my knowledge. :( Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1934
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 07:10
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When I was using Win98, I knew what all the proccesses were doing. At least half of them were viruses. I used to shut down everything that wasn't important and the system was usually very stable after that. And I agree Drew, a virus could easily be running and no one would ever know. -------------------- You acquire an item: Radio Free Foil Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 07:16
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I have 28 processes, and I know what most of them do. Just in case someone else out there is running XP and wants to know what they are: taskmgr.exe: Task manager, which apparently can end itself! pn.exe: Programmers Notepad. EditPad.exe: Editpad Lite. svchost.exe: This mainly deals with your modem and internet. DO NOT SHUT DOWN! IAM.exe: Don't know. It showed up recently and never does anything. gcasDtServ.exe: Some sort of back-up version of explorer.exe. If explorer.exe ever gets shut down, the amount of processor time it's using will suddenly increase untill explorer.exe is brought back up. It also is probably the reason you can run programs if explorer.exe isn't running. scheduleTV.exe: The scheduler for my TV-R. 878RMT.exe: Converts signals from the TV-R remote into input the computer understands. ashDisp.exe: I'm sure this is my anti-virus scanner Avast!, although I'm not sure why it's called 'ash'. 878RMTMon.exe: Moniters the reciever for a signal from the remote. IEXPLORE.EXE: My browser, Internet Explorer. ashServ.exe: My anti-virus again. explorer.exe: This is a strange one. When first activated, it brings up your taskbar, desktop items, etc., but when activated a second time, it brings up windows explorer. Confusing, eh? aswUpdSv.exe: Anti-virus again. spoolsv.exe: I... have absolutely no idea. svchost.exe: Another version of svchost. Smc.exe: Fully clueless. svchost.exe: Yet another version of svchost. svchost.exe: Will the svchost brigade ever end? lsass.exe: Something connected to gcasDtServ.exe. I refuse to make a joke about the last three letters. services.exe: No idea. winlogon.exe: The login/logout system. Pretty much self-explainitory. csrss.exe: Don't really know... smss.exe: ...and don't honestly care. ashMaiSv.exe: Anti-virus again... ashWebSv.exe: ...and again... System.exe: This one speaks for itself. System Idle Process: The precentage of your CPU that is idling. Whew! Imagine handling each an every one of these processes millions of times per hour. -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 07:20
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Win95 was very stable, at least the build I had access to. It would run for days, nonstop, without any problems. Of course it had been tweaked a little by the nerd squad at my employers. If one of the three largest hospitals in the world could trust '95, I could as well. -------------------- quote: Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 08:06
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quote:Ha. 6 here. Actually, a few of them can apparently be killed without shutting down the computer. But they're all named the same, so good luck picking one out. It's a bit like Russian Roulette. :) -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 08:12
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Hm. I've got 10 system processes running, only one of which I had to look up to identify, 8 applications, 7 widgets, and one piece of malware called Microsoft AutoUpdate. —Alorael, who can only wonder why some applications get icons and some don't in the process list. Sure, some companies might not adhere to standards, but couldn't Apple properly label iTunes? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 08:23
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quote:Double ha! Only 3 on my machine. It is several years old though. Maybe there isn't enough space for more? -------------------- quote: Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 09:29
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I remember lsass.exe used to be something about license authority or some such. It would periodically go berserk and start consuming RAM rapidly, and I'd have to reboot. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 7472
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 09:45
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I know what that's like. I had a problem with a program not too long ago, can't remember it's name, but all of a sudden, I notice that my whole computer is slowing down. (I'm using this term loosely; my computer can't get much slower.) I open task manager, only to find out that this program had already drained 100 MB of memory and was STILL burning up more memory. I had 5 MB of free RAM when I finally managed to shut the thing down. That said, I never under-estimated the power of virtual memory again. -------------------- I tried to think of something witty to put here. Needless to say, I failed. Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Wednesday, October 18 2006 10:23
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quote:Ah, that's the printer spooler that tried to kill my library's computers. Microsoft says not to kill it, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything. -------------------- Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |