Drive letters are messed up after reformat Every time I reformat Windows, The drive letters of my partitions are "messed up." Why does it happen, how can I fix it permanently, and is it a problem if I do/don't fix it? I have 2 hard drives, one with 2 partitions (a C drive for Windows and a D drive for media files) and another that is one partition (E drive). If I were to reformat, I would have the C drive as the drive for Windows (which is fine), but the drive letters of D and E are switched, which is awkward for my case especially because now it means that C and E drives are partitions that belong to the same drive while D is the partition belonging to another drive. Each time I reformat, I have to manually set back the drive let
Advice from Computer Science majors programming? I am currently 21 years old and a junior and changed my major to computer science. I've taken very basic programming courses before but I don't feel at all confident with even the basics of Java programming--in all honesty, I felt the classes were taught poorly and to be successful, students in those classes needed to be motivated to learn programming on their own time (for example, I took Computer Programming 102 last semester and we were taking quizzes based on powerpoints on general concepts of programming--we never even coded once). I am currently trying to learn Java by myself via Youtube tutorials but often times I feel quite de-motivated as I remember students in high school who were b
Disable Https scanning on Avast? I just installed Firefox Portable and on most https websites on Firefox (Chrome worked fine), I received an error saying "Error code: sec_error_bad_signature." I googled this problem, which has to do with validation of certificates, and could not fix it. On Avast, I disabled HTTPS scanning and now it is fixed. Can I leave this option disabled? If not, how can I fix the Firefox error that I received?
Safe way to close a window? Is Alt + F4 the exact equivalent of closing a window, which is the same process as clicking "X" on the top right window? The reason I ask is because I found that closing/ending a process from the task manager is different than clicking "X" to close a window. If Firefox hangs, for example, and I cannot click "X' to close a window, I can end the process in task manager. Ending a process abruptly would not be a safe/proper way of closing a window, for example, because an application isn't given enough time to terminate properly (ex. Firefox may corrupt the current session and previous tabs will no longer restore). With that said, I am looking for a safe/proper way to close a window using onl
Any way to point the location of a folder to quotitselfquot? I use portable programs a lot, and many of the portable applications that I use on my external hard drive point to another folder on the external hard drive (For instance, if I plug in my hard drive and it is assigned drive E, things downloaded by a portable application would store it in "E: Downloads." What happens if I use it on a computer that has another drive that already being assigned drive E? Another scenario is if I copy the portable application folder from my external HDD to my desktop computer. If the application originally pointed to a download location within the folder of the application, can I have it so that it automatically knows to do the same (pointing
Is there a way to manage thumbnail cache? I have an external hard drive containing all my media, including tons of Youtube videos and pictures. Is there a way to manage thumbnail cache so that the thumbnails can be restored very fast, if not instantaneously? It seems like every time I open to a folder containing many thumbnails (hundreds), Windows takes quite a while (tens of seconds to may be a minute). I'm not sure if this slow process is the result of the hard drive reading things slowly, thumbnail cache being restored, or thumbnail cache being created. Also, I must scroll up and down in Windows Explorer to ensure Windows loads all these thumbnails--otherwise, it would load only as I scroll them, so I would have to wait a while every tim
Want to try Windows 10--is it stable and do I need to backup I read that Windows 10 is fairly stable, with Microsoft claiming it is stable for public use. It would be silly not to take precautions, but what do I actually need to back up? If I install Windows 10 on the C drive and keep all my important files on another partition such as D drive (but on the same physical drive), is that enough of a "back up"? What if my important files were on a different physical internal drive that is always running alongside the other physical internal drive with Windows 10 installed? Would the latter be somehow less safe than just storing my data on an external drive? Also, how likely is it that Windows 10 now is very similar to Windows 10 when
Want to get a pair of Ray Ban -- can I buy lens separately? I wear prescription glasses but they are thin silver frames and expect to switch out for another one every year (as covered by insurance). I want a Ray Ban as they look nice and the thick black-rimmed glasses seem very sturdy and durable (every pair of cheap glasses I have worn become asymmetrical/uneven over time because the sides are bent at uneven angles). Also, black-rimmed glasses seem to be standard stylish in every situation. As a college student who is kind of tight on money, what is the cheapest way to get one and how does insurance work around it (if at all)? How much should I expect to spend? Can I get only the frame and expect it to last for many years to come while I s
Uninstalling programs leave behind their mess--why? Why is it so difficult for applications to keep track of the files they've installed onto a computer so that when it's uninstalled, everything associated with the program gets deleted as well? I've always had this question, but I've decided to just do something about it on the internet (I just came across a corrupt Firefox session, had to manually open sessionstore.bak with a text editor, and spent several hours going through a bunch of scattered text and finding the URL of all the tabs of the session that were lost--I had ~70+ tabs open). Anyway, I decided to uninstall and re-install Firefox because I tinkered with the files in order to try to save the previous session. I found out that M
Internet privacy--what personal information is given out? Everyone treasures their privacy and it is difficult to know what personal information is exposed when you use the internet. I can do a google search on ways to protect my privacy and reduce traces of what I do like clearing cookies, cache, LSOs, etc., but ultimately I want to understand what access companies like Google and internet service providers have and what restrictions are in place in terms of laws that protect Internet users. I have several questions, most of which are frustratingly obvious but I will ask anyway with the hope of clarification so that I know how to appropriately ask follow up questions: 1. What sort of information do ISPs know about you on the sites you visi
Any Linux users? Some basic questions I had an old laptop lying around and decided it would be fun to try to learn Linux as it could be helpful since I recently changed to a comp sci major. I have several questions that I had a hard time finding answers that I am able to understand from googling. 1. Ext4 file system seems to be ideal for Linux. I read that ext4 has a feature that attempts to reduce defragmentation by automatically moving files in the background. If I were to install Linux on a SSD, how do I disable this automatic defragmention? 2. What are the ways to install applications on Linux? I see people typing on the command line "apt-get install ____," use software centers, etc. What is the difference between all these op
Slow browsers--hardware bottleneck? I have 2 browsers always running--Firefox with 60 tabs opened maximum (only ~10 loaded/running tabs at a time based on Firefox's "don't load tab" feature) and Chrome with ~50 tabs opened maximum. Closing/opening/refreshing tabs on Chrome seems to be unaffected by the # of tabs opened and is pretty snappy. Doing the same on Firefox would result in freezes that would last anywhere from 5 seconds to minutes. I haven't checked how much memory total both uses, but I seem to recall Firefox using at least 1.2 GB of RAM (it grew and grew when I loaded/ran all the tabs until the computer was extremely sluggish so I had to close it and load back to only 10 tabs, and even then, it was slightly slower than
Best TrueCrypt alternative? Seems like TrueCrypt development stopped, and although still functions as most users would want, maybe it's time to look for better alternatives. I need an application that can encrypt folders containing large files with comparable security to TrueCrypt's. I like TrueCrypt's ability to mount and dismount encrypted volumes (I think this is what as going on--I haven't used TrueCrypt in so many years), but that is not necessary. Portable version would be even better but I'm not sure if the nature of encryption applications allow for this. Thanks.
How to delete quotPUP.Optional.Babylon.A malwarequot? Normally I wouldn't need to post something like this, but I've googled and tried multiple ways to get rid of this. Every day Malwarebytes would warn me about "PUP.Optional.Babylon.A." I would quarantine it, but it would still detect it again. It is from the location C:UsersNameAppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultPreferences. I know that I got this malware from an "OpenCandy" after I installed an application (SUPER video converter) and was able to delete all other traces (it was removed from AppDataLocalFirefox, etc.), but not Google. Only uninstalling Chrome did Malwarebytes not report anything. As soon as I reinstalled it and made sure my short list of extensions
Best way to manage the contents of my hard drive/SSD? I currently have a: 500 GB hard drive split into 2 partitions -- 1 partition containing the OS and the other containing files that I access on a daily basis and a folder which will pretty much be downloading things 24/7 1.5 TB hard drive that is simply storage that I once in a while transfer files to. I will be getting a SSD soon with only the size necessary to contain the OS. Currently, I think the performance of the PC is hindered by the fact that my 500 GB hard drive is working hard because it is running both the OS and writing all these files that are being downloaded [i]constantly[/i]. My original intent for the 1.5 TB is it have it just be storage so that it is "inactive/sleep
College sophomore lost in life I'm currently a sophomore and intend to major in accounting. I have never worked before and have gotten to the point where I feel depressed because everyone at my age works and I feel that I'm wasting valuable time that could be used to gain experience needed for my first real job. I didn't realize studying business was all about networking, making connections, etc. and I'm really uncomfortable with that. I rather get a job through merits and mainly merits alone, although I don't know if that's realistic. I certainly won't work be able to work at a top firm without networking/connections. I have yet to find a job because I have no idea what to put on a resume. I wasn't a standout student (I do well in school,