Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 September 11

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September 11

Mouse Dragging Not Highlighting Reliably

I have a new Windows 10 computer and am having an annoyance with the mouse. When I drag the mouse across text to select it, it is not reliably selecting the text to support a Ctrl-C or Ctrl-X. I have tried Settings > Devices > Mouse. I can't find any option that controls whether and when the mouse should select text when dragged. I understand that Settings is more or less what Control Panel was with Windows 7 and earlier versions of Windows. I realize that an alternative is to click the beginning, and then Shift-click the end of the passage to be selected. However, is there something that I need to select to make the mouse work the way it previously did (with older computers and Windows 7 and earlier Windows)? Robert McClenon (talk) 01:55, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

One possibility - if it has a battery, check it. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:22, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

It has a battery. The red light in the mouse is working. What are the symptoms of a weak battery? In my experience in the past, battery problems have been binary; the battery is fine and permits everything until it dies (or stops producing enough voltage to do anything). I may go ahead and replace the battery, but I don't think that is it. Robert McClenon (talk) 05:05, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Not my experience, it's particularly the case with keyboards. In fact the buffer can lead to some weird effects. This is more common with wireless transmission problems, but it can occur with low battery as well. (I imagine the boost converters aren't always perfect at the low end, so you can have reduced power with low batteries leading to reduced transmission power. Also if the power is intermitted, you would have the same thing.) Nil Einne (talk) 07:20, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

You say it "is not reliably selecting". Does that mean it is selecting sometimes? Have you tried using a different mouse? In my experience this has been a bad connection in the mouse failing to register the mouse button is pressed. Rojomoke (talk) 05:33, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree it sounds like this is probably a problem with the mouse click not being detected, whether due to a defect in the mouse, or poor transmission or low battery if it's wireless. If it is wireless, I would suggest using a wired mouse when trying to diagnose the problem. Nil Einne (talk) 07:20, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I may not understand or may not have made myself clear. By not selecting, I mean that if I drag the mouse, the text that I drag it over is highlighted briefly, for the time that I am still dragging it, but then it is no longer selected (or something else is selected). The mouse is doing something. It is just that the text that I select doesn't stay selected. (This puts me in mind of a saying about the difference between an honest politician and a dishonest politician, and that is that an honest politician is one who stays bought.) Robert McClenon (talk) 19:39, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I suppose it's possible that when you release the mouse button the software then deselects the text. It's not normally supposed to do this, but perhaps some accessibility option might have that effect. Please try keeping the mouse button held down while you hit <CTRL> C, and see if that works. Obviously, you'd still want a fix, but this should help to diagnose the problem. StuRat (talk) 21:34, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Well, I have a spare wireless mouse. I will try replacing the old mouse with the new one and see if that changes the issues. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:03, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

OK, but wireless mice are known for problems like this, because the battery is low and/or the range is too limited and/or there is interference. StuRat (talk) 19:16, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

OneDrive

In my current Windows 10 setup on a desktop computer, I see in the file browser menu something called OneDrive, which is divided into Documents and Pictures. My question is whether it is on my C: drive, or whether it is in a cloud. I am inferring, rightly or wrongly, that it is in a cloud. This would imply that I should be able to write to it and read from it only when my computer has a connection to the Internet, but would also imply that I should be able also to write to it or read from it from another computer if I am logged on to the other computer (e.g., my laptop at a coffee shop, my laptop in a hotel, the hotel computer at a hotel after they charge me the fee, a public library (free if I live in the county)). Is that correct? Is OneDrive really a cloud storage? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:14, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

A related question has to do with security. I assume that cloud storage is no more secure than Microsoft's or Dell's cloud. (It is Microsoft's or Dell's cloud, isn't it? It isn't the United States Department of Commerce's cloud.) Am I correct that data that is stored on the cloud can be compromised if the cloud is hacked? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:14, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Another possibility is that it stores data locally when offline, then pushes it "to the cloud" when you next go online. StuRat (talk) 19:18, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

OneDrive is from Microsoft. It is a folder on your computer that gets synced with the cloud when you are online and the OneDrive application is running. It is more likely that your computer gets hacked than that OneDrive gets hacked. If OneDrive does get hacked then you are a low value target for hackers, there is much more interesting stuff on there. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 19:30, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

We have an article: OneDrive. The saying goes, "cloud" is just marketing jargon for "someone else's computer". --47.138.161.183 (talk) 07:25, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

I've just started using it for the first time (I routinely supply documentation to my boss, and he's had my coworkers and me start uploading to his OneDrive account via SharePoint), so I can testify that it's possible for a OneDrive account to be set up so that people who aren't the owner can upload to it. All I do is click the link, and I'm in; I can upload, download, and (maybe) even delete an item. However, I've only accessed it from my work computer via our work network; it's possible that it's cookie-authenticated or IP-authenticated or something like that, i.e. if I gave you the link, you wouldn't be able to get in because you're on another network. Or perhaps the link is all you need. I have a Dropbox account that I use for sharing too-big-to-email files with vendors, and once I'd configured everything, all I had to do with that was email the URL to the vendor and he immediately had write access — I wouldn't be surprised if the same were possible with OneDrive. Nyttend (talk) 05:36, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

When a site has an API

How do you normally access it? How much programming do your need to learn for downloading information into an Excel data sheet? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.143.76.90 (talk) 21:58, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Often it is as simple as downloading a webpage. Not much, if you use a language that is easy to learn. If you find someone who is willing to teach you you can learn the basics of a simple language in a couple of days, but it takes dedication and time to become a good programmer. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 23:37, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Loading data into an Excel spreadsheet could be quite easy or quite complex, depending on the quantity and where it is coming from. If it's coming from a database, for example, you may need to know how to do db SELECT statements to extract the data. You also may need to know a programming language to reformat any files into something EXCEL can read, such as a CSV file. But, since you mentioned an API, I am guessing that will be used to write data out to a file which Excel can then read. You will need to know a language the API is available in, or use a "wrapper" to access it from another language.

If you can provide more details of your project, we can provide more info on what is required. StuRat (talk) 02:40, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

There are no general rules and no limits. An Application Programming Interface is simply a set of functions that are written in some language with the goal of making it easier to interface with some application. There is no limit to what those functions are capable of doing, or how complicated they are to use. Looie496 (talk) 19:42, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Putting a text file onto the taskbar

In Windows 10 home version, I cannot pin notepad.txt to the taskbar. If I do, when I click it, it runs notepad.exe and opens a blank page. So, I was thinking of making a teeny openfile.exe to pin to the taskbar that contains:

start C:\notepad.exe notepad.txt (to open the text file)

or maybe just

run open_notes.bat (to run a batch file that I can modify to open multiple txt file.

Would that be a good work-around? Is there another way to get a quick link to a notepad text file? How would I create such an exe file?

Many thanks,

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:35, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Anna Frodesiak - Download, install, and use notepad++ instead. It will do exactly what you're looking for. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:06, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Perfect! Thank you so much Oshwah! You're a genius! :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 07:20, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Anna Frodesiak - You bet. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:21, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

While I agree that Notepad++ is superior to notepad in almost every respect, there's also a simple way to pin a .txt file using vanilla notepad:

1. Right click on your text file, and click 'Create Shortcut'
2. Open up the shortcut's properties and prepend 'notepad' to the target (Ex. "C:\MyFile.txt" becomes "notepad C:\MyFile.txt")
3. 3.Pin the shortcut to the task bar.

(source: https://superuser.com/questions/19745/how-can-i-pin-a-txt-file-to-the-taskbar-in-windows-7)

Caveat: I only tested this on Windows 7, but should work on Windows 10 as well. Regards, decltype (talk) 07:33, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi decltype. That doesn't seem to work with win 10, but thank you just the same. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:17, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

For some reason I don't understand, in Windows 10, if you pin a text file to your start menu, the original file is in the right-click menu of that pinned icon. Not sure why. Perhaps it's so you can "stack" multiple text files on a single task bar icon? ApLundell (talk) 21:55, 13 September 2017 (UTC)