Random Tech Questions you want answered.

Fairly new, definitely less than a year old. We had an old shipping PC that blew out, so I rebuilt this one with better hardware and on an SSD a number of months back. I actually set up a clone SSD that we could swap in in the event something happened so that we'd have a psuedo-backup in the event we had a hardware failure, so I could try swapping that in and rebuilding the database for UPS.

As for group policies, not really. We have one IT guy and he doesn't do Windows, he just handles all of our Apple products (everyone in the company is issued Macbook Pros). This is the only Windows machine in the office, and I'm the only one that's worked on it. I did rule out IT though, but he basically just laughed and said he definitely didn't have anything to do with it.

Can you go into the Advanced Troubleshooting menu by sequential reboots, and set up the detailed logging?

I'd be tempted to set the system clock close to the time it reboots, and disconnect the machine from the network.

So on Reddit-fora a lot of APK / Android emulators are flagged as tiny, hidden cryptocurrency miners - upping your CPU usage while you use it.

I don't have the knowledge to know it this is true or not. But if anyone knows a good apk / android emulator, I woud love to know

Blue Stacks?
Is that one of the ones flagged as a crypto miner? I use that on my laptop to play all sorts of android games on a 15" screen

Any chance you're on Windows 11?

I've found the subsystem for Android works really well.

The downside for me is that at the moment, you can't easily "share" the filesystem or a folder between Windows and the Android VM. That's apparently on the roadmap though!

If you don't need that type of functionality, it's worth a try. I find the apps that work run a lot better than when I've tried an emulator.

Bluestacks isn't just an emulator, it's an Android VM. I use it personally just to use a few android apps on my PC. It works pretty great. Don't know anything about it being a crypto miner, though.

I am on Windows 11 - subsystem sounds promising.

According to the fora on Reddit, Bluestacks is one of the flagged one - but I have no idea how trustworthy the source or that statement is. I was being hacked once, so I have kind of cold feet to install apps I don't really know.

Well I haven't really checked but I think I would notice if Bluestacks was pegging my laptop CPU. *shrugs*

Apparently, back around 2018 or so, a weak-by-design part of the Bluestacks code was used to insert a coin miner. When the team found out, they simply removed that feature entirely. So it's been clean for a while but at one time it did have an issue.

There's several Bluestacks clones. I use Memu because I find the ability to set shared folders with Windows more straightforward with that.

Windows Defender does sometimes flag it, but keeping an eye on my CPU in Task Manager nothing seems amiss. (Defender also regularly flags Isobuster and Daemontools for me, too. Even though all are downloaded directly from the official sites.)

I get the caution, though.

Since you're already on Windows 11, I still think that's a good option to try first. Performance wise things I'm running via WSA seem much snappier.

The only reason I'm using Memu instead for now is because I use Tachiyomi to download manwha/manga, and being able to set a shared folder means I can save those files to an external hard drive easily. Once WSA can easily share folders with the host system, I'll switch over to that instead.

If you do need to have access to files saved via WSA outside of the VM, you can use Syncthing.

The Play Store version of Syncthing doesn't seem to work properly in VMs, but Syncthing-fork seems to work great: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid/

Why can't there just be a good way to get iMessage on my PC? I don't want to type on the phone, I type much faster on the PC.

You're supposed to buy a Mac to run their superior software, DeThroned. Gotta pay to enter the Walled Garden.

Which tools are you guys using to mount ISO's? Daemon Tools Lite seems to be riddled with nagging upgrade notifications and questionable adware, the others I found (Virtual CloneDrive, WinCDEmu) haven't been updated in years. Which I don't mind at all if it works, but I'm wary of potential security risks.

dejanzie wrote:

Which tools are you guys using to mount ISO's? Daemon Tools Lite seems to be riddled with nagging upgrade notifications and questionable adware, the others I found (Virtual CloneDrive, WinCDEmu) haven't been updated in years. Which I don't mind at all if it works, but I'm wary of potential security risks.

Isn't there functionality for this built into windows now? Simply right click on the .iso file and select Mount? (assuming Win10 or later, I guess)

Yeah last time I had to mount an ISO win10 did it

Robear wrote:

Apparently, back around 2018 or so, a weak-by-design part of the Bluestacks code was used to insert a coin miner. When the team found out, they simply removed that feature entirely. So it's been clean for a while but at one time it did have an issue.

Thanks! Installing Bluestacks...

Tyrian wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Which tools are you guys using to mount ISO's? Daemon Tools Lite seems to be riddled with nagging upgrade notifications and questionable adware, the others I found (Virtual CloneDrive, WinCDEmu) haven't been updated in years. Which I don't mind at all if it works, but I'm wary of potential security risks.

Isn't there functionality for this built into windows now? Simply right click on the .iso file and select Mount? (assuming Win10 or later, I guess)

Heh, you're right! I thought Windows only allowed ISO's to be opened for browsing or to burn an ISO to a disk, but not mount it as a separate drive.

TIL...

Anyone using anything other than File Explorer on windows?

I've been trying out:

https://github.com/files-community/Files

It's pretty good!

However, ultimately whenever I try out an alternative file manager, I ultimately end up going back to just File Explorer with registry tweaks to do stuff like force the Recycle bin to display or get rid of the new right-click menu layout.

Files crashes pretty regularly for me. Your mileage on that may vary though!

A couple other sticking points: I don't like how it doesn't expand the tree view for drives/folders in the sidebar tree. I navigate using the sidebar in File Explorer constantly, and not having it bugged me a lot more than I expected. The app doesn't have a ton of settings, and I couldn't find one that changes that behavior, but maybe I missed it.

The second major one: I have a NAS and often use network folders/SAMBA folders. Files is intermittently very, very slow when navigating these for some reason. Like just sitting there watching the spinning icon endlessly slow. This can happen even if you've bookmarked the drive/folder.

There are times in File Explorer that I need to right-click->refresh if it seems like a drive/folder isn't displaying, but (for me) it never just seems to hang without displaying anything at all in the same way Files does.

Otherwise it's pretty neat. Even if I'm not replacing File Explorer, I'm definitely keeping an eye on it for the future.

What's the scoop on win11 these days? I have not been keeping up at all lately.
are we still in wait and see mode or is it worth upgrading from win10 yet?

I just pulled the trigger last week. Seems fine.

I got it on my new work laptop about 6 weeks ago so got to try it out and it seems fine.

I do love the new window restore stuff for external/dual monitors. Since I share monitors for my home/office PC at the house, I can toggle for lunch break gaming, or whatever, and everything is right back where I wanted it after.

I've had it on my new PC for several months, and it's fine. Does what it needs to, doesn't NOT do anything it needs to not do, everything just works. I'm a long damn way from a power-user though.

Hasn't had any issues with any games either, across multiple platforms.

Are the issues with amd cpus still a thing? I'm running a 3700x so solid forbwhat it is but not exactly latest tech.

My mouse is dying, and I am looking for suggestions for a nice, mid-range wifi mouse. Doesn't need to be for gaming, as I game on a XBOX. Looking to spend $40-$50 if possible.

mudbunny wrote:

My mouse is dying, and I am looking for suggestions for a nice, mid-range wifi mouse. Doesn't need to be for gaming, as I game on a XBOX. Looking to spend $40-$50 if possible.

G305, G305, G305.

$30-35 on Amazon.

IMO the G305 should be the default choice for a mouse. If you get something else, it's because you're going higher end than a $30 mouse, and you're choosing with specific features in mind. But if you're just trying to get something better than a Dell e-waste mouse and you don't want to spend $50+, G305 all day long.

2.4ghz wireless, small/light enough to travel with, but big enough to use as a daily driver. More than good enough tracking and latency for gaming (I've played a ton of online MW2 on my living room TV with a G305). Lasts forever on a single AA.

The best mouse bang-for-your-buck by a country mile IMO.

My other main mice are:

* a Razer Orochi V2 as my travel mouse (smaller than the G305, and supports both 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth wireless)

* a G603 on my work machine (also dual-mode wireless, easy toggle for using on 2 different systems, and longer battery life, but heavy for gaming)

* a G Pro X Superlight (my favorite gaming mouse, but it's not $100 better than the G305, not by a long shot)

Tycho the Mad wrote:

Are the issues with amd cpus still a thing? I'm running a 3700x so solid forbwhat it is but not exactly latest tech.

Windows® 11 Performance Variation in Certain Applications on Compatible AMD Processors

Thanks, now to actually decide what to do (:

I'm in need of advice on some troubleshooting. While gaming, my 3060Ti starts running hot leading to a few crashes.

I had the issue a few months back while playing CIV VI, which a NVIDIA driver update and a reinstall of MSI Afterburner fixed. I'm now having the same issue in Old World.

Afterburner tells me that the Temperature slowly rises to the 83C limit, ultimately crashing the system.

I have tried:
- Updating the graphics drivers
- Setting the Fan Speed Curve in Afterburner more aggressively, to avoid the slow temp creep (didn't help)
- Set Old World to fullscreen

What I noticed:
- When I click outside the screen (second monitor) the temperature drops super fast - about 1C per second. I get that less resources are consumed when the game runs idly (but still on the first screen) but that seems too fast?
- The fan rarely runs at 100% in reality, even though Afterburner tells me otherwise. I can hear the difference, but the vacuum sound only occurs a few seconds not the entire time.

What I should still check:
- Run a graphically intensive game like Deathloop and see what happens
- Open up the case and check for dust etc. - but my instincts go towards a software issue

Are you running the games with uncapped frames? I've had vaguely similar issues to that with games that defaulted to uncapped and i forgot to cap it.