Computing desk
< February 14	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 16 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 15

How do I programmatically determine whether a Wikipedia article is disputed?

To help preserve my own sanity, I've created some JavaScript[1] (called from my monobook.js) that blocks myself from viewing any Wikipedia article with a content dispute (such as NPOV, OR, etc.). While researching the various content dispute templates, I noticed that every template used the same set of 10 or so images. So rather than parse through the article text to find the template, my script searches the images to see if there's a match. It's kind of a kludge but it appears to work.

JavaScript function

function IsDisputed()
{
    var images = new Array(
                            "Accessories-text-editor.png", 
                            "Ambox_content.png", 
                            "Ambox_question.png", 
                            "Ambox_scales.svg", 
                            "Ambox_warning_orange.png", 
                            "Consensus_icon.png", 
                            "Edit-clear.png", 
                            "Question_book-new.png",
                            "Text_document_with_red_question_mark.png",
                            "Text_document_with_red_question_mark.svg",
                            "Unbalanced_scales.svg",
                            "Question_book-new.svg",
                            "Edit-clear.svg"
                           );
 
    var isDisputed = false;
    for (x=0; x<document.images.length; x++)
    {
        for (y=0; y <images.length; y++)
        {
            if (document.images[x].src.indexOf(images[y], 0) > -1)
            {
                isDisputed = true;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return isDisputed;
}//end function

Nevertheless, it's the one part of my code that I'm a bit uncomfortable with. Is there a better way to do this? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:55, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Both

Template:Original Research and Template:POV calls Template:Ambox with the type set as content. That generates <table class="metadata plainlinks ambox ambox-content" style=""> so you can look for that instead? The body tag in an offending page, <body class="mediawiki ltr ns-10 ns-subject page-Template_POV skin-vector" dir="ltr">, also has the exact template (in this case, POV) as part of the class, so even a simple CSS .page-Template_POV {display: none} can stop yourself from viewing tagged pages. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:33, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

Just a comment regarding your current code: If you have n symbols to look for, given a page with m images, you have to do n x m comparisons if there are no maintenance templates. This could've been improved by storing the images to look for in a

set-like data structure with faster lookup, reducing the number to, say, log(n) x m comparisons. But from what I can tell, JavaScript doesn't have such a data structure. decltype (talk) 04:28, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

Spell check problem in google chrome.

Hi all,

The problem is, chrome automatically spell checks the data I enter in any forms like username field in gmail. I need to tell chrome not to do so. Any idea?

It does the auto spell check only in my home PC( Windows XP).

Thanks.ManoharTR (talk) 09:02, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Suggest report it to google via the 'report bug or broken website' option in the google chrome options - As I remember it didn't use to do this, but started doing it with a recent update - (I have also reported this bug) - the same update also introduced other problems such as drag and drop of selected text within the wikipedia edit window doesn't work. (this also used to be ok) - if you really need a fix immediately I'm fairly sure that the last version of chrome that didn't have extensions was ok.

It's a bug - not a feature ! :)

87.102.67.84 (talk) 12:14, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95604 says what you can do to change spell checking options - right clicking on the input box and selecting 'temporarily turn off spell checking works' - but is only temporary.87.102.67.84 (talk) 12:34, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the response. :)--ManoharTR (talk) 13:12, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

IIRC, there's a spellcheck setting somewhere in the Google settings accessible from gmail. Astronaut (talk) 18:07, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Inbox privacy

Hi

Please excuse me for being a complete goof when it comes to computers.

1. When Outlook is open, is there a way to prevent people from from viewing your INBOX and SENT MESSAGES without having to lock your PC or close OUTLOOK everytime you leave your desk?

2. Can't your normal cd drive/optical drive read a clean disk? I've tried to put some pics on cd, but I keep getting the same window that says, "please insert disc". I've tried other pc's here at work as well, but with the same results.

41.193.16.234 (talk) 10:01, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

1. No, there's no official way to lock the Outlook messages except lock your PC. That doesn't mean there isn't an unofficial addon to do what you're asking, but I've never heard of one and considering that you can just lock your PC I don't see why anyone would make one. Can I ask why you don't want to just lock your PC? (since you're obviously requiring some sort of password to be able to view your Outlook).

2. It might be that your work computer don't allow access to the optical drives (I know I personally lock our work ones down to the IT team only and I wouldn't be surprised if most big corporations didn't do similar). ZX81 ^talk 10:20, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

Thanks for the quick response.

I do data capturing and a lot of times I have to go out on the floor and in the warehouses or go to people to double check stuff and so it's a lot of in and out of the office. We work with production codes and sometimes some folks would just (when they're on the go) find the nearest pc and punch in a code to find information about a particular product. This is not a problem though, the problem is that some folks tend to scratch where there is no itch. Meaning that when you're not looking or not there they maximise Outlook when it was minimized and casually view your inbox and stuff like that. Now to prevent this I have to lock my pc each and everytime I leave my desk and a few times it's happened that I typed my password incorrectly (like any normal person) and before I know it I'd be locked out. I'm getting tired and scared (of the guys at I.T.) of passwords.

Thanks, NirocFX 41.193.16.234 (talk) 11:08, 15 February 2010 (UTC —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.193.16.234 (talk)

What would be the reason for locking the optical drive?

Thanks,

NirocFX

41.193.16.234 (talk) 11:27, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The main reason for locking down optical drives (and USB flash drives etc) is literally to stop unauthorised software/files from being copied onto the computer. This is from both a legal viewpoint (unlicenced software) and to try and stop the risk of viruses or other system problems that may cause problems for the IT Staff. Another reason (although this more relates to the write part of the optical drive rather than read) is also to protect company data from being copied in bulk to CDs/DVDs. ZX81 ^talk 12:16, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks ZX81,

Having said that...

I have music on the pc that has been copied via Windows Media player's "Copy from CD" feature. -I understand the virus scare stuff, but how come I was able to copy music from two cd's so far?

Thanks,

NirocFX

41.193.16.234 (talk) 14:29, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Although we haven't actually confirmed that there is software locking down your optical drive, to me this still sounds the most likely. The CD Audio (Red Book) format isn't actually "data" in the same way that a disc of files is and it's actually your CD software that is reading the music and creating files. If you browse the CD Audio disc from "My Computer" (if you can) all you'll see a file for each track, but with a tiny filesize for each one, this aren't real files, just Windows trying to be helpful and creating links to the individual tracks (playable via Media Player). Sorry I'm probably not explaining this very well, but what I'm trying to say is CD Audio doesn't use a filesystem like a CD-R disc does. There's some more information on the various formats on our Rainbow Books article. ZX81 ^talk 14:59, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How did you put pictures on the CD? Quite possibly that disc has not been finalized. --LarryMac | Talk 15:53, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

To lock the computer quickly, hit the Windows Key and the L key at the same time. This is how we stop people browsing our PCs in public. --Phil Holmes (talk) 16:08, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can set an automatic lock in the screensaver. If you trim the screensaver timeout to a minute or two, it will still get locked even if you forget.

As for remembering the password, consider using the same easy to remember key phrase each time with a numeric prefix or suffix. For example: using "P455w0rd" ("Password" with numbers replacing letters where appropriate) as the key phrase and the month and year as a prefix, this month it might be "0210P455w0rd", then next month "0310P455w0rd" and so on; you only have to remember the month you last changed it. It goes without saying, never tell anyone the key phrase, not even the I.T. guys. If I.T. change your password for you, immediately change it back to the next password using your key phrase. Astronaut (talk) 17:26, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A few companies sell a system where you wear an

RFID tag when using your computer; when you walk out of range the computer auto-locks (and auto-unlocks when you're back). A Google search found these guys, although that's not a recommendation as I've never used it. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:45, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

Thanks guys,

To ZX81: When you say "...your CD software that is reading the music and creating files". Do you mean files that can't play without the cd, because it does play without the cd, and if I'm off the point would you be so kind as to correct me please.

To LarryMac: ☻ No I haven't been able to put my pics on cd yet. What do you mean the disc hasn't been finalized yet?

I misunderstood your question and thought you'd already put some pics on CD and were just having trouble reading that disc. As far as "finalized", I linked that word to a Wikipedia article in my previous reply, but I no longer think that applies. --15:29, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

To Finlay McWalter: Unfortunately I don't think they'll go for that, I can try, but then I'll probably get the following response... "Well we can, but unfortunately due to the fact that you're a nothing we have no choice but to shoot all of your ideas down... As well as those in the distant future, should you have the nerve to try your luck again". "So is that a no?"

Thanks, NirocFX 41.193.16.234 (talk) 11:44, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I knew I wasn't explaining that one very well. What I was trying to say (and I'm probably going to fail again) is that although a music CD and a CD full of files/pictures physically looks the same, they're both in completely different formats and the music format probably isn't locked out (I know the software we use doesn't lock that out, only when there are files/software on a CD/DVD. The staff can still listen to their music CDs without a problem. Hope that explains better. ZX81 ^talk 14:17, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks ZX81

So files/software on a cd/dvd is more harmful to the network then music? -If so why is that?

Is there a way for me to change my windows password?

Thanks, NirocFX 41.193.16.234 (talk) 11:26, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes they're potentially more dangerous. Music CDs for the large part just sound, but files/software have the potentially to be able to install extra things on the computer, change the configuration of the system or worse still could contain a virus that could not only cause issues and infect that computer, but replicate round the internal network as well. To answer your second question, to change your password on most business Windows system just press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and one of the options that comes up should be "Change password". If you don't get this and only get task manager than your system is running more as a home system and in which case you'll need to go into Control Panel and User Accounts. ZX81 ^talk 17:03, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok,

Once again THANKS ZX81 and to all the other guys who've helped and tried to simplify things for me. I've always wanted to know more about computers and how they operate so I hope it's not a problem if I come round a bit more regularly to ask (maybe even later today) more of the basic beginner stuff.

Thank you, NirocFX 41.193.16.234 (talk) 04:59, 19 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

screen-recorded theora wikipedia tutorials

Hi guys, I'm working on some video tutorials on using Wikipedia; haven't completed anything yet and still exploring the software I'm using for the screen recording, Adobe Captivate. I suppose I have four main questions (sorry!):

I plan to output in .avi and convert to theora (that way it can be uploaded here). Will there be a noticeable difference in quality/sharpness/resolution? I'm unfamiliar with both formats, having only ever watched stuff with those file extensions from time to time. My research led me to believe that the quality is comparable between the two, but I've since heard otherwise.
Captivate can record at different resolutions, and I'm left wondering which option is the best to go for. I'm conscious that not everyone will have a monitor of a similar size to mine, and obviously want this to be as usable as possible for everyone. Generally, is it better to record at a lower resolution or a higher resolution; which is more scalable at the user-end? I recorded at a high resolution, and upon viewing the .avi, thought that all of the text looked slightly soft. Is this resolution or quality related? Can I avoid it?
As I'll have to license these tutorials cc-by-sa, do I somehow have to cover up the Wikipedia icon, top left? If so, does anyone know a quick and dirty way to do this?
When I examine certain edits as part of the tutorial, should I request permission from the authors of the edits? Or at least let them know that they're mentioned in the video? I'm half-inclined to say it would be the nice thing to do, and the other half of me says it's being a bit anal about it (and would hugely impact on my ability to produce the videos).

Apologies if not all of these questions are computing related, but I was hoping that someone with media experience would have a clue about the last two questions also! Thanks very much for your help, :-)

talk 10:03, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

(theora) - Theora should be fine (it'd be better if you could record directly to theora rather than have to reformat later, but I appreciate your tool may not do that); make sure the avi has a higher quality than the final theora you're going to make.
(resolution) - personally I'd recommend going at a smaller screen size, so that the video fits on almost everyone's screen, and also to keep the file size down. The softening of the text is an artefact of compression - increase the quality (and maybe experiment with other settings too)
(wikipedia logo) - this would be a reasonable case for fair-use of the Wikipedia logo (it's used in many otherwise-gfdl screenshots inside Wikipedia). If you really want to suppress it then that can be done fairly easily inside your user skin by hiding it with CSS. Tell me which skin (vector, classic, monobook) that you intend to use and I'll figure out the CSS for you. Personally I think you should go with Beta (Vector), so that the tutorial doesn't look outdated in a few months (when, presumably, vector becomes the default skin).
(permission) - it's a matter of courtesy, like you say; if you're dwelling on a specific edit for a while then getting the input of the contributor in question might be worthwhile. BLP applies (if you're uploading the tutorial here) and common decency applies elsewhere (allegedly), so I'd be reserved about how you describe edits you disagree with and particularly careful about how and to whom you ascribe words like "vandalism".

Please drop me a note when you've uploaded the first one ; I'm keen to see how you get on. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 11:12, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The fair-use discussion goes, I guess, for all images in the article - so it'd be better if you targetted your videos at pages that don't have any fair-use content in them at all. In practice no copyright owner is likely to be upset (or have much of a case), as low-resolution blocky images that flicker past in passing can't really be shown to cause them any actual loss or harm - but there's no reason to go there if you don't need to. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 11:15, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I appreciate your comments! May I dig a little deeper?

(theora) .avi or flash output are my two options. I'll fiddle with the settings and attempt a few conversions.
(resolution) I have a modest (though probably standard) monitor size of 17" and resolution of 1280 x 1024; would your advice be the same, knowing that?
(logo) The vector suggestion was invaluable, whew! I would have done the recording with the monobook skin that I'm using and, yep, probably would have dated videos fairly quickly. I'll switch to vector for the demonstration account; can I be greedy and have the CSS for monobook and vector, please?
(permission) I'll be careful about which edits I select and examine, but your agreement that it would be considerate to inform editors of their upcoming appearance on a tutorial means I probably will. Hopefully there will be few objections.
(fair use) Also a good suggestion, thank you. I'll try to avoid fair use (though I agree that it's unlikely to be an issue). And one more question!:
(length) What are maximum and minimum reasonable lengths for each tutorial? I say "each" because I've come up with ideas for a whole series, but I don't want to make them too short nor too long. I'm thinking around 20 minutes is ideal, but then I'm fairly good at concentrating and doubt that I'm a good judge.

Actually, if you're amenable, perhaps I could send you a draft before uploading to Wikipedia; no use embarrassing myself publicly if you are willing to provide feedback first! I need guinea pigs, :)

talk 12:16, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

(resolution) I'd go with 800x600, which is enough for almost everything to work (bar a few wide tables on some pages); that should be clear enough for everyone to see, but won't make for too huge a filesize

(logo) on Vector you'd add

           #p-logo a {background:none !important}   /* for an empty space */

or

           #p-logo a {background-image: url('http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/mediawiki/b/bc/Wiki.png') !important} /* for the PD Mediawiki logo */

(length) I have a low threshold of boredom, so I'd make it 5 minutes

I'd be happy to look at your draft, although I'd recommend you post a link to it on the Village Pump somewhere, to benefit from a diversity of views. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:33, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's the same CSS in Monobook too. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:38, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much! Works perfectly.

talk 20:24, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

XP bootable system image

I'd like to create a bootable (boot loader) (via USB) (no 3.5 drive) image of my computer as it currently is. (I've already got an utility that creates a bootable reinstall disk on usb but this resets everything to day one - removing files etc - and re-adding various bloat pre-installed).

Is there an easy way to do this - (preferably a point and shoot solution) ? 87.102.67.84 (talk) 14:17, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think you want

List of disk cloning software. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:34, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

Yes I think it is (Thanks) - any suggestions (from personal experience) - I'm looking at acronis backup which sounds fine - anyone got any horror stories (or personal recommendations?)87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:04, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I used to swear by

Ubuntu Linux livecd and dd (which is great if you know enough about dd and Linux device names, but can be dangerous if you don't). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:36, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

I, too, have liked Ghost in the past. I had a bad experience with ~~FileZilla~~ Clonezilla the one time I tried it. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:44, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

perhaps you mean Clonezilla? -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:41, 15 February 2010 (UTC) [reply]

Gahhhh! Fixed, thank you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:07, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Second Apple Problem

In an AppleWorks template I was able to put in a date that was automatically updated on the next opening of the template. How can I do that with the new 'Pages' programme please? Thanks in anticipation.--88.110.52.18 (talk) 15:29, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

From the user guide: To add and format the date and time, place the insertion point where you want the

value to appear, and then choose Insert > Date & Time. To change the date and time format, Control-click the date and time value, choose Edit Date & Time, and then choose a date and time format from the pop-up menu. If you want the document to always show the current date and time, select “Automatically update on open.” --Mr.98 (talk) 03:51, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again Mr 98 for your interest. However, Ctrl clicking the the date and time value does not produce a pop-up menu that includes "edit", so no access to the "automatically update option. Any more ideas please?--85.210.170.13 (talk) 08:49, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

CORRECTION TO ABOVE. I have managed to do what you have suggested. Only tomorrow will tell if I (we) have been successful. I will tell you then. Thanks again.--85.210.170.13 (talk) 08:55, 17 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry Mr 98 but no it did not work for the past two days. Any further ideas please?--85.210.15.168 (talk) 07

36, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Automatically chown setuid programs named a.out

Is it possible to set Linux up so that when I compile a program with gcc under my own username and name it a.out, it will be chowned to a different user and have setuid enabled? I figure, combined with suitable limits.conf settings, this would be a good way to avoid bringing my system down with an accidental resource leak or fork bomb, without creating problems for production software from a source package (where I'd have to sudo make install anyway). Neon Merlin 16:37, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I guess you could have a root cron job which runs find to find a.outs and do the chown/chmod accordingly - but you'd realistically only run that every few minutes (lest it slow your machine down). Failing that you could write a wrapper around gcc that checks for an a.out after gcc has completed; realistically that wrapper would itself have to be setuid-root (eek). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:07, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You could make a bash script called "runsafe" (or something) thats fiddles with the a.out in the current directory and then runs it, but this would require remembering to type "runsafe" instead of "./a.out". As a bonus, you could skip the creating a new user thing, and just have the bash script run ulimit before executing the local a.out file. Paul Stansifer 20:18, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Advanced exercise: Hack bash (or whatever shell you use) to automatically chown (or, easier, limit!) newly generated binaries. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:23, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You're talking about code you wrote yourself? Have you actually had problems like that? They don't occur that often. I'd say just set reasonable ulimits and run normally. Another thing you can do is intercept the system library calls for things like fork, if you're forking a lot of processes for some reason and are concerned they might get out of control. Web searching "intercept libc" finds some pages on how to do that. If you're talking about potentially hostile code, you want to run in a chroot jail, under emulation so you completely control the VM the thing is running under, but even then you have to expect it to get loose, so run it on a machine that you can completely trash and re-initialize. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 08:57, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'd just do the chown/chmod as the last step of your

Makefile. (If you're not using make yet to compile your code, this may be the time to learn. IMHO, it's a better use of your time than the hack you're proposing.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:06, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply

]

You should be able to make a bash script which is the code: chown otheruser "$1";. Mark this as executable by yourself only and writeable by root only. You can then use setcap on that script to give that script superuser access for a specific capability only (see man 7 capabilities for the full list of capabilities). I think you'll want to give the script CAP_CHOWN so it can change the owner of files. Then add running this script as a makefile target. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:16, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Or you could just add ulimits for yourself: it'll prevent you accidentally forkbombing yourself! --h2g2bob (talk) 22:25, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

@66.127.55.192: While I haven't had an accidental fork bomb yet, that may just be because I haven't used fork() yet. I did have a resource leak issue once where I didn't call mpz_clear() (from <gmp.h>). IIRC the program had malloced over 3 GB when I finally got htop open. Neon Merlin 10:27, 18 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Removing very large white margins from a PDF

I have someone's peculiar home-made PDF, where each photocopy-like page is a small barely readable image surrounded by a white margin several times the size. The "photocopy" part is less than 10% of the whole page. I've already tried some software which removes images from PDFs, but it did not find any in that PDF.

What would be the easiest quickest free way of removing the huge white margins please? 78.149.185.159 (talk) 20:30, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on whether the margin is part of the the image in the PDF, or just "margin". But you should be able to use any software with PDF-editing capability to cut out sections you want manually. On MacOS-X, both Preview and Skim can do it. I suspect some Adobe product will also allow this. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:41, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Acrobat Professional allows you to crop with impunity. Reader does not (which is pretty annoying). --Mr.98 (talk) 22:44, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's kinda in the name though; reader, reads - I agree though, it'd be nice if it did some basic editing, but they want you to buy the full product (and I suppose they couldn't call it reader if it did more than read). ZX81 ^talk 23:19, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sure they could—Preview manages it, even though it allows you to take notes and crop things (more than just "preview"). These functions are not exactly what I consider under the heading of "Professional," anyway. One should not have to shell out $450 just to crop things so that they are readable/printable. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:53, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen some programs that actually examine the pdf contents to identify the margins for the purpose of removing them for n-up printing at the largest possible type size. I don't have a url handy but I remember finding something like that with a web search. 66.127.55.192 (talk) 07:29, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The real issue is whether the images would be readable if the margins were removed. I would start by simply magnifying the PDF viewer window and checking whether there is readable text there - if there isn't, you're not going to produce readasble text by removing the margins. --Phil Holmes (talk) 10:30, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I installed the free Sun PDF Import Extension into OpenOffice, and that did what I wanted. The resulting file was much smaller than the original. Problem solved. 89.243.72.5 (talk) 15:05, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Got valid XP on a hard drive, but motherboard kaput, use in another computer?

I had a rather old computer whose motherboard died due to me fitting an graphics card which turned out to be incompatible, despite the internet suggesting otherwise. The old HD now works fine in an external case. It still has a valid copy of Windows XP on it. I have another old computer that is similar to the aforementioned computer, except its operating system is Windows2000.

If I put the WinXP drive into the second computer, is Microsoft likely to accept it as valid and allow updates?

If it is any help I also have got a Dell WinXP instalation disk (no registration number), and a copy of a WinXPPro instalation disk that someone gave me. Both acquired in case I needed an installation disk to do a repair. Neither of the computers are Dell machines.

I'm inclined to install Ubuntu on the Win2000 computer, but I'd like to know if it would be possible to get a fully working WinXP computer from what I've got. 78.149.185.159 (talk) 20:58, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As long as it's a retail (or small-system-builder) XP licence, then you can (probably) get it working; you'll have to revalidate (but it mostly does that itself); they might insist that you phone them, in which case you just tell them what you did, and they'll probably be okay with it. If, however, it's a big-OEM licence (like a Packard Bell or an HP or an Acer or whatever) then the licence is for a specific machine, and plugins to the licence manager will check hardware specifics. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:19, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

From my experience, using an installed XP on a different computer results in a blue screen of death during start up with a message complaining about recent hardware changes. There obviously isn't any technical reason why XP shouldn't work on another computer, but I believe microsoft deliberately disallow using multiple hardware configurations due to piracy issues. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 09:52, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's wrong. The BSOD you get when you change the motherboard is because Windows is trying to load the wrong drivers (if you change to the same motherboard family that uses the same drivers it'll usually be fine). There are plenty of ways to enable a successful change of motherboard on XP even with a rather diverse change (e.g. a P4 i865 mobo to a Phenom II with 785G mobo) as a simple search will find and I've done it before myself [2] [3]. It's easier if you get it ready before hand (which I guess isn't possible now). If your installation media allows you do to a repair install that's also another easy option. This relates solely to starting up the existing Windows installation without a BSOD, I can't comment on the activation issue, it will depend on the XP license at hand and whether Microsoft allows the change you carried out. Nil Einne (talk) 17:45, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah my mistake, thanks for correcting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 19:37, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanksd. Looks like I shall erase the operating system and use it as a second HD in another computer. 89.242.101.230 (talk) 20:01, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

adobe illustrator

I'm trying to install adobe illustrator from the adobe creative suite 4 master collection, but it keeps telling me "system requirements not satisfied for this product". Other options like photoshop etc can be installed, but I don't want them, I only want illustrator. What is the problem? I have enough ram and hdd space, and it said my system met the requirements when it first started up. Is there any way to bypass this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 22:43, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What version of Windows are you running? I appreciate you said you have enough RAM, but just to clarify, how much do you have? ZX81 ^talk 23:18, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Windows 7 with 4GB ram. The program said it only needed 2GB, and I closed all other programs while installing to free up all the ram except for that which Windows uses (about 1GB) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.27 (talk) 23:41, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(I'm guessing you do but just incase) do you have Directx 9? I know it's only a requirement for some features but it could be causing the issue? ny156uk (talk) 23:43, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The requirements are here http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/systemreqs/ or http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/406/kb406240.html which I guess you already know - I looks unlikely that you don't have them (less than 2GHz processor with more than 1 core?) - I'd suggest using adobe support for this one as first choice http://www.adobe.com/support/illustrator/ 87.102.67.84 (talk) 00:12, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to remember a similar issue with some Adobe product once for some silly reason although can't remember what it was. Could have been the screen resolution or something. I seem to recall however that it provided more info. Have you looked carefully in the window to see there's nothing to click to find more info on the problem? If not, perhaps try this [4] Nil Einne (talk) 17:32, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]