Switching input language in Windows 10 is not always instant

I use CTRL+SHIFT on both Linux and Windows to switch between input languages.
Under Linux the switch is always instantaneous, meaning a quick and light touch of the CTRL+SHIFT combo suffices - I don't have to hold the key combo down or to press it several times until finally the switch successfully occurs. This is regardless of what applications I am running at the moment.

This is not the case in Windows. I often find myself having to press the CTRL+SHIFT combo several times or to hold it down until the input language is actually switched. While I cannot always reproduce the issue, I have noticed that for example it often happens when I am using a browser - maybe because I then switch the languages more frequently, for example due to chatting with different people in facebook or similar. Also, I am pretty sure that I don't have a stuck key on my keyboard.

I had this problem in Windows 7 as well but never looked into it. I believe I was able at some point to figure out how to fix this in Windows 10, but after some 'quality updates' (that probably reset some stuff in Windows 10 anyway) I cannot pinpoint the relevant settings. My guess is that it has something to do with how Windows treats sticky keys and key combos, which itself has probably changed since.

Personally, I find that latency unnecessary and even annoying.

Current OS: Windows 10 x64 (1803)

Does anyone know how to remove or reduce the delay of switching between input languages in Windows 10?

Feel free to add more relevant tags.

EDIT: Sticky keys and Filter keys are off in the Settings panel.

Answer

Go to Settings->Time&Language->Region&language->Advanced keyboard settings->Language bar options->Advanced Key Settings->Change Key Sequence.

Change the shortcut below Switch Input Language to see if this issue still occurs.

Nowadays,the default shortcut to switch input language of computers running Windows 10 is so strange. Some are left Alt+Shift, some are Ctrl+Space, and some are even Windows+Space. Then, some shortcut keys work fine, and some shortcut keys have a high delay. And I am not very clear about what caused this.

Also, switching the input language will have high latency when the memory is too high (of course you might have considered this).

hard drive - SSD vs. HDD reliability in a rack cabinet

I need to buy a pair of 2.5" disks for the root partition of a file server. These disks would essentially only contain the OS, so there will be practically no writing on them. Therefore, no SSD wear out should be an issue and the only thing I need is for the drive to keep responding to read requests.

In this setting, from what should I expect more reliability, an SSD or a HDD? I've heard of SSDs going bad because of the controller getting fried. Where should I put my money? Should I be looking at a pair of 2.5" HDDs or a pair of e.g. 60GB Intel SSDs?

Some executables refuse to download on Windows 8

I'm setting up a new Windows 8.1 computer. It refuses to download certain files -- they'll download the first few hundred KB, but then stall. This happens on IE, Chrome, and Firefox.

Every non-executable file I've tried to download works fine. The executable downloads that don't work include AVG from their site and Avast from cnet. Executable downloads that do work include Start Menu 8 from cnet and the Spotify installer. (Yes, one download from a certain site works and another from the same site doesn't).

I've disabled QoS packet scheduling. I've disabled TCP window scaling. I tried disabling Windows Firewall. I removed McAfee and any other crapware that came with the computer that seemed like it might cause a problem. I made sure the account has write access to the Downloads folder, and tried downloading to other folders. I made sure downloads are enabled in Internet Options. I restarted more than once. I made sure the date and time are synced. I'm completely out of ideas.

Windows 10 file explorer won't rename any New folder created

There is a very similar post here that was closed. The answer was not working.
There is also this post that I just found documenting the issue
"Unable to rename folders through Explorer in Windows 8.1"

The issue happens for any New folder created (a sub-folder in any location).

---

Window's error1:

---

Title: "Rename folder"

Text:

"Can't find the specified file."

"Make sure you specify the correct path and file name."

"New folder"

"Date created: dd/mm/yyyy  hh:mm"

Box: "Try Again" or "Cancel"

---

If I click 'Try Again'

---

Window's error2:

---

Title: "Rename"

"Text:"
"warning sign"

"The file or folder does not exist."

Box: OK

---

Context: A W7 clean install followed by a W10 "clean option" upgrade (24 July 2016), so one year after W10 launch.
Still, another of my PC with a "dirty" W10 upgrade from W7 gives the same symptoms. I fixed it but don't remember how.
Particularity: logical drives/folders on both PCs manually set for the Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos folders at different locations than Windows default. Whether relevant or not, I don't know. It is a common characteristic / difference from standard for these 2 PCs.

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/er...rs-windows-10/ gives a solution but I am not 100% sure it is the right one, and it implies also modifying the registry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-jsZ7HvfA gives a solution that could be similar to the reg fix in the 1st link. I identified that some keys are the same, but not all.

I can rename the "New folder" using an old "dos" type command opening a cmd window. That works fine. (e.g. in cmd, type H: (if H: is the logical drive on which it happens); cd "your folder_name" (reiterate if required); dir (to know if your "New folder" is there); ren "New folder" test1 (to rename your new folder to 'test1'); exit (and scream hallelujah))

Before touching the registry, would anyone with W10 insight know if these registry fixes make sense. I don't know the rationale which makes me uneasy; I am a mere user. Yes I could make backups & try but, even if it works now, I could still find out later that these fixes are damaging something else.

Thanks

acontrario

Brussels

hardware failure - cannot format bad hard disk

I think I have a problem with my hard drive.

I tried to boot the system, and it was taking a long time. After a while it said that the drive was not bootable.

I tried running check disk, but it was unable to complete.

I then tried to remove it from the laptop to see if I can recover the files, but the drive does not appear to be formatted. When I tried to format the drive, I received a message that said that the formatting was not successful.

A S.M.A.R.T test returned a read failure.

The annoying thing is that when I try to format just a part of the drive, it works fine.

EDIT : Here is the log file output:

184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 001 001 001 Old_age Always FAILING_NOW 1927

What does this mean?

EDIT 2: The machine that I have the drive plugged into is running windows 7 sp1, the driver is connected via usb (sata to usb) and the model of the hard driver is MK1652GSX and the model of laptop is Presario CQ60.

-----The full output of smartctl-----

smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [i686-w64-mingw32-win7(64)-sp1] (sf-win32-5.41-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Toshiba 2.5" HDD MK..52GSX
Device Model:     TOSHIBA MK1652GSX
Serial Number:    Z8OGFLOVS
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000039 176f05fb8
Firmware Version: LV011C
User Capacity:    160.041.885.696 bytes [160 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Thu Feb 09 21:03:59 2012 GTB
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
See vendor-specific Attribute list for marginal Attributes.
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      ( 121) The previous self-test completed having
                    the read element of the test failed.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:        (  120) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    No Auto Offline data collection support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (  57) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0x0033) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   099   099   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0007   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   100   100   002    Pre-fail  Always       -       1082
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5383
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   037   037   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       1292
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   091   091   000    Old_age   Always       -       3949
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   207   100   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5085
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   001   001   001    Old_age   Always   FAILING_NOW 1927
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       1927
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   096   000    Old_age   Always       -       28
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   001    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   074   031   045    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 26 (Min/Max 21/27)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       106
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       24969597
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   094   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       63745
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       26 (Min/Max 13/69)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       257
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       35
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
220 Disk_Shift              0x0002   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       148
222 Loaded_Hours            0x0032   093   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       3023
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
224 Load_Friction           0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
226 Load-in_Time            0x0026   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       328
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0001   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2536 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
    CR = Command Register [HEX]
    FR = Features Register [HEX]
    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
    CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
    CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
    DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
    DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
    ER = Error register [HEX]
    ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2536 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3948 hours (164 days + 12 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 08 00 d0 8c 41  Error: UNC 8 sectors at LBA = 0x018cd000 = 26005504
  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  25 03 08 00 d0 8c 40 00      00:09:32.132  READ DMA EXT
  25 03 80 80 ac 8a 40 00      00:09:32.130  READ DMA EXT
  35 03 80 80 ac 8a 40 00      00:09:32.127  WRITE DMA EXT
  25 03 80 00 ac 8a 40 00      00:09:32.125  READ DMA EXT
  35 03 80 00 ac 8a 40 00      00:09:32.123  WRITE DMA EXT
Error 2535 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3948 hours (164 days + 12 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 06 12 08 60 40  Error: UNC 6 sectors at LBA = 0x00600812 = 6293522
  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  25 03 08 10 08 60 40 00      00:01:21.041  READ DMA EXT
  25 03 08 60 09 00 40 00      00:01:21.040  READ DMA EXT
  35 03 08 60 09 00 40 00      00:01:21.040  WRITE DMA EXT
  25 03 08 60 09 00 40 00      00:01:21.039  READ DMA EXT
  25 03 08 08 08 60 40 00      00:01:21.038  READ DMA EXT
Error 2534 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3948 hours (164 days + 12 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 0a 05 08 60 60  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00600805 = 6293509
  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:34.113  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:34.113  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
  aa aa aa aa aa aa aa ff      00:13:34.079  [RESERVED]
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:28.247  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:28.247  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
Error 2533 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3948 hours (164 days + 12 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 0a 03 08 60 60  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00600803 = 6293507
  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:28.247  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:28.247  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
  aa aa aa aa aa aa aa ff      00:13:28.223  [RESERVED]
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:23.677  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:23.676  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
Error 2532 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3948 hours (164 days + 12 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 0a 03 08 60 60  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00600803 = 6293507
  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:23.677  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:23.676  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
  aa aa aa aa aa aa aa ff      00:13:23.656  [RESERVED]
  60 08 08 00 08 60 40 00      00:13:18.232  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 02 00 00 00 00 00 00      00:13:18.232  SET FEATURES [Enable write cache]
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      3949         163251
# 2  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      3947         6293501
# 3  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      3946         6293501
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

windows 7 - Printing more than one page per sheet

I have a printer (Dell v305), and it can't print more than one page per sheet.

How can I print to this printer so that it will print, say, 60 pages with 15 sheets of paper? (double sided is 30, and two per page is 15)

Answer

You are asking two questions here:

1. How can I print two pages per sheet of paper?


2. How can I print on both sides of the paper?

The second question is easily answered and is valid for all printers (not just the v305):

Double sided printing is only possible by either having a printer which supports it in hardware (it needs the rolls and wheels to manually turn the paper over and print it again on the other side), or by manually turning the paper and feeding it back into the paper.

The manual part can be optimised by first printing half of the pages (e.g. all even pages) and then manually putting the paper back in (reversed) and printing the remaining (odd) pages. There is not need to do this for every sheet of paper, but you will need to it once per print job.

The first question is a bit harder and it also has two answers:

• Either your printer driver supports it and you can enable it there. This will vary per printer driver, but Dell seems to use this for a few printer, so your might look similar.

• Or you need to massage your print job.
  E.g. create a PDF with two side by side pages on a single page, then print that page.
  You can combine that with the manual duplex printing, though you would need to take care to print pages 1,2, 5,6, 9,10, ... and then turning the paper over and printing 3,4, 7,8, 11,12, ...

The easiest way to massage your output might be to print the PDF to a PDF printer. That seems redundant but you can use that to change some settings. An alternative is to use ghostscript (for postscript printers).

hard drive - Does this mean that Tor saves private information?

I was going through my pagefile.sys system file (as I usually do) and found a few things of note. For example:

-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----

MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCWNR3PfJy6YRwA6fUCfF7TlcP0
Bz+PI0aeayOQmm1uyx/wB/MB0zweBwEvgLnbmgYzE8PUpBNtaFaY3essSMHsWko2
SYkCVujKPdWhN9k8tqX/tMPn7TVUm7XAZ9A4mbgoYfX669qpguMn5QXkFEt0OFYK
Qo4DHJY86AJh3qawkQIDAQAB
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY--------

followed by

ntor-onion-key 4BeCRL/99541u3jcjdkwkmjhbutujjeroj34jkkjj542jqpwkag9jkf9=

I am a user of the Tor browser. I run it on its most default settings (i.e disabled disk writes, on Windows 10, latest version of Firefox, etc.)

Does this mean that Tor has failed in its objective to not write data to disk?