Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 March 13

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March 13

Windows file access questions

Hi, is there any way in Windows 7 to control access to files/folders on a per-application basis (i.e. allow one program access but not another)?

Also, has this changed in Windows 8? Do Windows 8 apps have only access to their own files like e.g. Android? What about traditional-style programs, such as MS Office, running on Windows 8? Do they work differently in respect of file access? 86.176.211.90 (talk) 03:01, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

You would probably need to run each application as a separate user, and add an entry to the ACL for every file/folder you didn't want it to access, denying access to that user. Unfortunately, if the apps are actually malicious, you would probably need to run them on separate desktops (e.g. using fast user switching), since there are ways of elevating privileges by sending window messages to other windows on the same desktop (I don't know if any real-world malware does that, though).

Sandboxie would also work, but you'd need to pay for it to isolate more than one application at a time, since the free version doesn't support simultaneously active sandboxes.

I don't know anything about Metro/Modern apps. For normal Windows software I'm sure the security model hasn't changed in Windows 8, because that would break far too much stuff. -- BenRG (talk) 22:10, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Update CSS filters

Please expand the expression-section in this article to include the css calc() feature of CSS3 (http://caniuse.com/calc).84.167.112.54 (talk) 03:13, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

If you have managed to write something here then you know enough to try and edit the page yourself. The talk page for the article is the normal place to discuss changes to an article. Try and find a citation, some web page that isn't a blog would probably be best for this sort of thing. Dmcq (talk) 09:35, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

isolation transformer

i want to know the advantages of isolation transformer .......n what type of insulation is used to protect the isolation transformer ......and what will be the cost of that transformer ...... and also the applications of that transformer

101.63.138.240 (talk) 16:14, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

12/03/2013

See Isolation transformer. Dmcq (talk) 20:11, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Do all Windows OS employees theoretically start from nothing when hired w.r.t. code base knowledge?

Obviously, any new hire would of course only be hired because they had knowledge of operating system concepts and have strong C and C++ skills, but unlike Unix and Linux, where anyone can easily have much experience the actual kernel code in place and could hit the ground running if hired into an OS developer position, since Windows is closed source, do new hires at Microsoft to work in their operating system divisions who have never worked at Microsoft before, have to get internal training to get up to speed on the code base? Is it known if there are formal company classes for the OS code base that , or are such things as unknown to non-employees as the source code itself? 20.137.2.50 (talk) 18:28, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

You can still read windows PE and kernel documentation. 181.50.189.108 (talk) 22:33, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

You can take a look at job requirements for kernel layer software developers at Microsoft's Careers website. (Search, for example, using the single key-word "kernel"). For these sorts of jobs, Microsoft and other companies recruit experienced professionals who know a lot about low-level software; who have industry experience in C and C++, and who are good communicators and excellent programmers. That skill-set is independent of direct experience with a specific representation of low-level software. If you write low-level system software, you will very quickly become operating-system agnostic. Familiarity with APIs might help, but the ramp-up time on an API is usually just a few days to develop effective fluency. It is the problem-solving strategies and the software engineering methodology that requires years to develop; and those skills are portable between platforms. Nimur (talk) 01:47, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Copy pasting without html markup

I find myself often copy/pasting text from/to form fields and websites. It seems that sometimes (always?), even though, both the copied and pasted text looks normal to me, in fact it contains html/css markup. This is quite annoying to me as I only care about the actual text, not about the markup. Is there a way to switch off this feature? I am using firefox and chrome (iceweasel/chromium) most of the time. I noticed that chrome has an option "paste as plain text" which is what I want, but could this be made permanent (e.g. bound to Ctrl-v )? Also, does this only happen with copying from form fields? bamse (talk) 20:42, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

For Firefox, perhaps this addon will help you. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:13, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

What I do, is to copy it to a text editor like notepad, and copy it again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 181.50.189.108 (talk) 22:39, 13 March 2013 (UTC)