Ask DACS
October 2013

Moderated and reported by Jim Scheef

AskDACS is a Question and Answer session before the main presentation at the monthly General Meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and then answers from other audience members. My role as moderator is to try to guide the discussion to a likely solution to the problem. The answers below include my own post-meeting research.

Q – I purchased a Lenovo laptop a few months ago from TigerDirect that came with Win7 preinstalled and Windows 8 on the recovery partition. The machine came with 8GB of RAM. I was told that if I upgraded the RAM to 16GB then I would be able to install Win8 to dual-boot. I would like to know if this is accurate.
A – What you describe with Win8 recovery disk images on the machine is probably correct. TigerDirect is a reputable company that stands behind what they sell (from personal experience). If the machine came with licenses for both versions of Windows, there should be no problem. Win7 and Win8 use the same boot loader, so they work well in a dual-boot setup. The extra RAM is not necessary to install Win8, since a dual boot configuration makes no extra demands on RAM as only one operating system can be running at a time.
The first step would be to create a separate partition for Win8. In a dual-boot configuration, the ideal setup is three partitions: one for each of the operating systems and the third for your data. That makes it easy for both OSs to use the same data directories and allows you to reinstall either OS without endangering your data. I have this exact same configuration on my main machine and it works quite well.
Q – I have an iPad 2 and installed the iOS-7 upgrade. Has anyone else done this? With the new OS, my batteries don’t last. Apple suggested doing a clean install but I don’t see how that will solve the problem.
A – This question generated a lot of discussion. Apple support suggested doing a clean install of iOS-7, which will put the device in a known state where Apple can support it. Discussion moved to how had battery life changed under the new OS. This is really difficult to assess without doing repeatable benchmark testing. Gut feel is an unreliable measure as one naturally wants to use the new features in the new OS. Otherwise, why upgrade? Suggestions like reducing screen brightness are not really palatable as they make the device less pleasant to use. Carrying this to the extreme, a really horrible device will have infinite battery life because no one will ever use it.
Q – How can I turn off dynamic device management (DDM) in Windows 7 so my Win7 machine will not lose its keyboard, mouse and printer?
A – No one knew what DDM is. The problem is that when Win7 goes into sleep mode and then reawakens, it polls all the USB devices. Many older USB devices do not support polling in this state and thus fail and become unrecognized. The member’s concern is a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch and a USB parallel port adapter used with an older HP LaserJet printer.. Older laser printers (both HP and other makes) often continue to work because they can use HP PCL (printer control language) and can be installed in Vista and Win7 by telling Windows that the printer is an HP LaserJet V, which in this case may be the truth. So a Win7 device driver is not an issue even for a 15-year old printer. In this case the problem is the adapter needed to connect a printer made before USB to a computer that does not have a “legacy” parallel port.
Various people in the audience related similar KVM experiences when moving to Win7. Most bought new USB-based KVM switches which solved the problem, although one person mentioned problems on bootup. In my own “server farm” I use two entirely manual Cybex PS/2 and VGA 4-port switches. A physical button press switches the physical keyboard, mouse and video monitor between the four sets of ports connected to various machines. The switch makes all four machines believe they are always connected to a keyboard and mouse so the machines boot properly and Windows does not hang when the machine is being “ignored”. KVM devices intended for home use now include sound so your speakers are always connected to the active machine.
When discussion returned to the printer, one member suggested using a network “print server”. These are typically small devices with just enough smarts to listen to the network and direct print jobs from computers on the network to the printer. Office-grade HP LaserJets from this era had a dedicated slot for an HP JetDirect device that served this function. Used JetDirect devices can be found on eBay for as little as $6.75 with “free” shipping. Now a network connection is standard in all but the very cheapest home printers.
Q – I’m having trouble with one computer where my documents want to print on A4 paper rather than standard letter size (8 ½ x 11). I’m forced to change the printer each time I print a document. How can I get the default paper back to letter size and make it stick?
A – We had a hard time understanding this problem at first until the member explained that the machine had been configured for UK English to get the character for British Pounds, etc. Now that the Windows has been set back to US English, documents still want to print on A4 paper. A member in the audience pointed out that Word caches printer configuration information in each document. Thus all documents created while in “UK mode” must be opened and changed in the page layout to letter size paper and resaved. Doing this may change the document formatting slightly as the margins and width of the paper change. If new documents are also defaulting to A4 paper, the “default template” is configured for A4 paper. Microsoft Office stores templates separate from your documents and the exact location varies with the version of Windows and the first version of Office installed. Templates are further distributed between folders for personal templates and common templates. The easiest way to find the default template would be to search for default.dot or default.dotx. If you do not have any custom styles in this template, simply delete default.dotx and Word will make a new one the next time it runs.
Q – I have three machines running different versions of Windows. Application program files seem to be in different folder names. I want to install an old program on the new machine, where should I install it?
A – The answer depends on the “bit-ness” of your version of Windows. To determine if you have 32-bit or 64-bit, open the System Applet in Control Panel. If it does not mention 32- or 64-bit, then it is 32-bit. The default locations are in the table below.

Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8 32-bit programs 64-bit programs
32-bit C:\Program Files Will not install or run
64-bit C:\Program Files (x86) C:\Program Files

Note – There were two questions that I could not make out on the recording. Sorry.
Thanks to John Kin for sending me his recording of Ask DACS this month as it was often intelligible where my recording was not. It is imperative that everyone speak toward the podium; I can always repeat things that people in the back can’t hear. Repeating things ensures these details are on the recording.

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Questions for the upcoming meeting can be emailed to askdacs@dacs.org.

Disclaimer: Ask DACS questions come from members by email or from the audience attending the general meeting. Answers are suggestions offered by meeting attendees and represent a consensus of those responding. DACS offers no warranty as to the correctness of the answers and anyone following these suggestions or answers does so at their own risk. In other words, we could be totally wrong!

 


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