something you never want to do with windows

[ecookman]

i recently bought the game "World In Conflict"....kinda a pig to run.
so i loaded it on to my computer...and my graphics card was lacking some power..aaannnddd i could have used a little more ram.

so running the ultility msconfig....i started to turn off running programs that i didn't need like: setpoint, msn.....ect.
so prom my usual 120some odd processes I was down to around 40. still was having major problems running the game with all and yes i said all of the neat and flashy effects like tree physics shadows water effects explosion effects...


so then it was time to turn off some of the system utilities that i didn't need like fax support and the useless help wizards(yes i was reluctant to do this too)...Computer needed a restart...and then uhuo on the startup after i signed in a "nice" little popup special ordered from windows...



"you need to validate your copy of Windows XP in 3 days"

when i saw this i was all like o sh--

so i didn't know where the disk was...so i asked my father (it was his idea to turn off lots of ultilities) where the disk was...20 min searching later found it...stupid disks


only realizing that we accidentally turned off the port service, sound drivers, and something else to access the internet with on our super secure network (hidden SSID, you are given a fixed port, and i think it is a TIC-WPA...(i think i am wrong..the passcode is more than a WEP key) lots more and if that wasn't enough if your MAC code isn't registered on the router you won't be able to access the network .)sooo anyway...we couldn't register stupid windows.


well one thing left to do ...turn all of the programs and ultitlties back on....well you would think that would work but noooo, not even after a restart.


only thing left to do... a reformat of the C drive T>T not fair



Since i am getting a dell studio 17 with 256 dedicated graphics, 320GB HDD, 3GiG of ram, backlit keyboard, running Crapsta (vista)..my settings aren't compatible with it anyway...sooo not to worried it was going to happen but i have no computer to the 15'th...and not to mention the 1 week reinstalling all of my programs and ISU's to do and Exams to do in 2 weeks...fun



lesson learned: don't screw with windows

[Vertico]

Lesson learned: Don't touch things you don't understand.

[gianni]

So this is related to programming in what way? I'm not even sure there is a point to this post, as many developers "screw with windows" on daily basis for their careers.

This is a just a story about how you changed a bunch of settings and then were unable to understand what happened. There isn't even any advice here...

[DemonWasp]

This just sounds like a cavalcade of fail to me:
1. You have 120 processes running for what reason? I'm running 6 applications at the moment and I'm only at 41 processes. Perhaps you should pare back the amount of crap you leave running on your computer all the time.
2. If you don't know exactly what you're doing with Window's guts, stay the hell away from them. The same applies to the guts of any OS, but Windows is particularly finickity. I've modified mine slightly, but at least I have an idea of what I'm doing.
3. Sweet gods, you "accidentally" turned off your sound drivers, and port service? Those both sound kinda important to your stated goal of being able to play WiC.
4. ...just how far below "Minimum Requirements" were you?
5. Proper use of grammatical constructs, particularly commas and capital letters, helps a lot with both presentation and the delivery of your story.

To be fair, some of the fail is on WiC's end too. Alt-tabbing away from that program is a poor plan...you get back to your desktop in about 2 seconds and do whatever (respond to the instant message...), then you try to alt-tab back. That's when the waiting begins; generally you have about 5-10 minutes to wait for it. The game itself didn't seem particularly worthwhile, sadly.

[ecookman]

Sorry about gramatical errors ... I currentally don't have acomputer, I wrote that in school quickly. personally...I like WIC

[rdrake]

ecookman @ Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:46 am wrote:

Crapsta (vista)

Clever

You have very draconian security on your router.

[andrew.]

All of that for World in Conflict? The game doesn't run very well even on good hardware in the first place. Also, killing a few processes probably won't get you much unless you're killing some useless crap you installed on your computer or some kind of spyware.

[DemonWasp]

Worth noting is that the draconian security measures may not be buying you much. You might stop a really dumb script kiddie, but if someone has the right programs they should be able to see your network just fine.

And, as I recall, there aren't any wireless security schemes that aren't crackable within a few minutes.

[andrew.]

Although you are correct DemonWasp, at least putting some kind of passcode and hiding the SSID will stop a few neighbours from stealing internet.

[Insectoid]

Just code your own security! WEP is crackable in seconds, while WPA can be cracked in under 10 minutes. There are dozens of programs available for every operating system to allow even a beginner to break into a network. If you make your own encryption, all those tools are useless. I keep my network mac-address filtered, personally. But then, where I live, someone would have to by parked in my driveway to connect.

When I like a game that is beyond my hardware, I decide that I'm behind the times and get a new one. That simple. I'd bet you could get a WiC-runnable PC for under $1000.

[Dan]

insectoid @ 6th January 2009, 4:42 pm wrote:

Just code your own security! WEP is crackable in seconds, while WPA can be cracked in under 10 minutes.

Thos times are very very optmistic, and would require a prity impersive cluster of computers. Also WEP and WPA are out of date and the not most mondern security for wifi, WPA2 using AES encryption is considering to be secure (WPA2 is also required for all new wifi devices since some time in 2006 or 2007). Also you should be using a mac filiter on top of that (witch is posible to get around more esialy then WEP and WPA but makes it that much harder).

insectoid wrote:

If you make your own encryption, all those tools are useless. I keep my network mac-address filtered, personally. But then, where I live, someone would have to by parked in my driveway to connect.

If you where to make your own encryption you would have to rewirte the firmware in your router (or AP) and all wifi aptators on your network. Also it would likey be less secure, WPA2 and AES have been studyed and gone threw numerses reasearch papers and peer reviews, even if you could come up with somthing better it would take a long time to prove it. Unless you mean a type of tunneling/VPN in witch case there are allready exsitcing soultions considered to be secure and you would have to be routing all your traffic threw some other network.

[Insectoid]

Meh, that was more of a joke than anything. And if it is taken as something other than a joke, then I meant a personal encryption that you do not share. If only you use it, why would anyone crack it? And yes, I did realize it would be complicated. Assuming you did do it, you would be immune to all the tools that crack these for you, because only you have that encryption.

[Dan]

Normaly in determing the security of an encryption algorithm you assume the attacker has a copy of the code.

Also that is more security through obscurity then anything to do with the encryption.

It would be alot easier to change the frequicey to somthing not noramly standard for norath amarica. Most wifi cards are capable of transmiting on more ferquencyies then the firmware on them are coded to allow so WiFi cards and APs just need diffrent firmware for diffrent countries with diffrent unrelgulated frequeny ranges. For example, most linksys wirless routes can transmit on channel 13 of the 2.4ghz spetume with hacked firmware (when noramly they only allow 1 to 11). This is still not very secure but would make the router harder to find or use. (It's also illgeal as it's out of the allowed channels.)

[Zeroth]

In terms of wireless security the best is a RADIUS Server, for which there are lots of linux live cds to do this

Now to the actual actions in the post. Why didn't you go back to msconfig? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can turn processes back on in there. Theres also a process manager buried in the control panel that can do this too. So you just wiped and reinstalled for... no reason? The most consistent rule with MS is that their config tools will usually let you undo changes you made with them.

However, the point you learned is simple: don't tinker with what you don't understand. Just because you get things to work well usually on Computers and that you have a bit of an idea, doesn't mean you are the Expert on everything. And since your dad didn't know what to do after this, I would say your dad isn't either.

[Dan]

Zeroth @ 7th January 2009, 9:50 am wrote:

However, the point you learned is simple: don't tinker with what you don't understand. Just because you get things to work well usually on Computers and that you have a bit of an idea, doesn't mean you are the Expert on everything. And since your dad didn't know what to do after this, I would say your dad isn't either.

I dissagree, i think tinkering is a great way to learn what the settings do and more about how the OS works. It would be a good idea to also look up what each process does that you are playing with and tyring to just turn one off at a time so you can isloicate the effcect of turning that process off better.

I know when ever i get new software or a game the first thing i allways do is go to the settings and play wiht them for a bit, some times playing with the settings is more fun then the game. Noramly the worst case is you just have to reset everything to defaut (msconfig does have such an option) and you get to learn how to fix a computer once you break. I have locked my self out of my router countless times playing with the settings in there but over the long run it has thought me alot more about how the router works and about networking then just leaving them on default (combined with looking up the desrciption of the setting the routers help manaul too tho).