Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 June 12

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June 12

Microsoft Access educational resources

I am trying to find online websites/webpages which would have assignments that are scientifically based rather than business based. For example, it would be great to have a table/database of star names and locations, rather than suppliers and product names. Are there any resources such as these?68.148.186.93 (talk) 08:14, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

I am not 100% sure what you mean, but maybe this file is helpful to you. I found it here. Another database of starnames and locations can be found here. If you google "database of star names and locations" you'll find many more. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 06:36, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Each of the assignments here asks the student to manipulate customer, supplier, or product information if i am not mistaken. Are there assignments that are not business or supply chain related?68.148.186.93 (talk) 09:53, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

That website seems to be down at the moment. I used downforeveryoneorjustme.com/atticacsd.org and it says they cannot access this website either. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 17:51, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

It works for me. Try clicking on the link or copypasting it. i use chrome68.148.186.93 (talk) 19:00, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Unfortunately I am unable to access that page, but via Google's cache I can see that the webpage contains 3 Microsoft Word documents. Are you able to download those files and upload them elsewhere so I can see them? (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 08:24, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't have a public space which I could upload the documents. Have you tried downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.atticacsd.org? the link you gave me missed "www.". I could make an account and email you documents if that works.68.148.186.93 (talk) 22:17, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, I tried the http and https and www and non-www versions, but none of them work for me. It seems to be some kind of DNS error or something. Anyway, can you upload the files to WeTransfer (https://www.wetransfer.com/) and post the link here? That is probably the easiest way to transfer them. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 03:19, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

Free Zip Password Recovery

I’m using the entitled software for days now, I’m wondering if it’s worth the time and energy, and electric bill. What are the chances of the software’s success?

Notes (The following appears on the software window):

Recovery type: Brute-force

Charset: – I’ve ticked them all excluding the box Custom (user defined)

Status:

Processed: [length: 5]

Average speed: something around 1500-2000psw/sec

Apostle (talk) 18:33, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

The chances of the software's succes are probably close to 100%... if you have an infinite amount of time!

A password like "AA" or "10" can be bruteforced very quickly. But it will take a very very long amount of time to bruteforce a password like "&%&^%*&&(*&()SDHISUH#&*(^$*&^*Y*89739487930847&*^^%^%%^SU(((&&^((^^!!@@@@".

Because we do not know what the password is it is very difficult to estimate the amount of time required to bruteforce it (although we do know that most passwords are quite short). If you created the ZIP file then you probably know what characters are likely to appear in it. For example, in my native language diacritics are rare compared to some other languages, and I never use them in passwords. But in Germany it is far more likely to see a password that contains a ü (U-umlaut).

Because you have chosen all charsets it may take very very long; OTOH if you select (for example) alphanumeric only then the software cannot find the password if it contains a character that isn't alphanumeric. If you created the file then you probably know which characters you've most likely used in the password. If you downloaded the file from the internet then I would recommend Googling the filename. Another option is to try if the URL of the site you downloaded it from is the password (which is common on certain download sites). If you want to learn more about password cracking then I would recommend downloading Extreme GPU Bruteforcer by InsidePro. Unfortunately I don't think it works on ZIP files, but it may be interesting to you nonetheless. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 05:54, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

I agree this question is only answerable by the OP. Notably, for many people whether or not it's worth it is going to depend significantly on the content. If it's your only copy of certain highly prized photos of you deceased parent/child/spouse, people are going to be wiling to spend a lot more effort than they would if it's some warez who's password you couldn't find and for all you know it's not even what you believe it do be. Yet even within these, people's value judgements are going to vary. In addition, any info you know about the password should inform your password cracking solutions and judgements.

IMO the best thing to do would be to calculate the amount of time it would take for password of various lengths for various logical combinations (e.g. all low caps alphanumeric) and set a cut of point which you feel fits your requirements. While cut off points at character limits are often no more arbitary than another random point (unless you have some reason to think it will be that many characters), they're a simple point. Give the rate of increase by adding a character, it shouldn't really be that hard to decide. E.g. maybe 5 days is resonable but 4 months is not and these could easily be one character difference. (Of course if these are maximum times and your certain the password is under that length your average time would be half that.) It may make sense to choose different combinations e.g. all low caps alphanumeric, only numeric depending on precisely what you think you know about the password.

Nil Einne (talk) 09:22, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

P.S. Another alternative would be to define a cut off point in time, e.g. give up after 4 weeks. But two issues I can see with this are that you may not make the best decisions about which passwords to try in that time, and also I think some people would have a tendency to leave it since maybe it'll be next and you stopped just at the wrong time (and so on and so on). While there isn't intrisicly wrong with keeping going, ultimately if it isn't worth it trying forever you've got to stop at some stage. And which this could happen even if you plan to stop at a certain number of characters, when you're thinking of it in terms of doing all those characters and so the contrast in time is very high, you're probably less likely to just keep going since it could be next. Nil Einne (talk) 13:23, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Noted. Thank you both. Love you guys -- Apostle (talk) 19:27, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

See the article about Password cracking. How does a general-purpose brute force ZIP password search program detect when it has found the correct password ? AllBestFaith (talk) 21:55, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

If checking all of the "charset" boxes makes it try all 95 ASCII characters, then at 2000 passwords/second it will take 95ⁿ/2000 seconds to check all passwords of length n. That's 45 days for length 5, 4254 days for length 6, 404130 days for length 7, and so on, increasing by a factor of 95 each time.

You would be much more likely to find the password if you used a program that ordered passwords by some more sophisticated measure of plausibility than length. For example, a good password cracker would try "password123" before "!JU$". See if the program you're using has a dictionary cracking mode, and try that instead.

2000 passwords per second is very slow. This program allegedly manages 36,500 p/s on a high-end CPU from 2009, or 1,150,000 p/s on a high-end GPU from 2009. It's commercial, but you can probably find free software with similar CPU performance (maybe not GPU).

It may be worth pointing out that the original zip encryption was weak and could be cracked by a known-plaintext attack (and possibly still faster than brute force even without known plaintext, but I'm not sure). The Info-ZIP utility that is widely used on *ix systems never implemented modern (AES) encryption and doesn't even warn about the weak encryption, so it's possible that this zip file might be vulnerable to attack even if it was made recently. -- BenRG (talk) 00:58, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

Noted. -- Apostle (talk) 18:58, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

”Right” click mouse button features

How do I insert files and folders (options of choice) inside the “new” and “send to” feature? -- Apostle (talk) 18:33, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

I very nearly pasted your exact question into Google and got this. Please try to search first. You might find what you're looking for much faster than anyone here could read and reply to your question. Dismas|^(talk) 20:43, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Check out FileMenuTools. Unfortunately the installer comes bundled with crapware (OpenCandy if I remember correctly). Make sure you disable updating, every time it gets updated it tries again to install crapware. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:56, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Access denied guys. -- Apostle (talk) 18:54, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

lopesoft.com or http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/filemenu_tools.html (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 17:55, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

Okay thanks. -- Apostle (talk) 18:37, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

Stopwatch and Timer software sought

What is highly praised? I sought a:

stopwatch that can do lots of stopwatch timing with lapsing option available for each.

timer that can do “lots of timing.

Can someone help me please?

Apostle (talk) 18:33, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Try Free Countdown Timer and Stopwatch Timer at [ https://sourceforge.net/projects/countdowntimer/ ]. --Guy Macon (talk) 19:07, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Standard. I'm desiring something alike the smart phone's alarm clock. -- Apostle (talk) 19:45, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Help sought

Most things I install and or uninstall adds its information at my ‘‘recovery’’ point, what I’m not happy about because my last successful ‘‘recovery’’ point will disappear. It occurred before… Sometimes it just disappears anyway if it becomes many months…

1) I sought a software, portable if possible, that helps mitigating this issue? – Say it saves/installs everything on the software rather than Programs option available on the Control Panel - Any other guidance would be helpful.

2) How do I go back to day one, before I used the first ‘‘recovery’’ point, rather than uninstalling and reinstalling Win7?

Apostle (talk) 18:33, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Install a large hard disk for holding backups, and run Windows 7 backup regularly, and especially right before making a change like installing new software. [ http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/ ] --Guy Macon (talk) 19:24, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Noted. Thanks. -- Apostle (talk) 19:49, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Software

Peeps, I'm searching for a software that will actually allow me to create such listed designs/themes manually. Can someone help me please? -- Apostle (talk) 19:50, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

User Apostle, you do not create such sophisticated apparels just manually (unless you want with it a very huge pile of advertisory distractions added to it by your provider) --Askedonty (talk) 20:19, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Well allright, let's say you do. --Askedonty (talk) 20:31, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

You can use SkinStudio for WindowBlinds, see here. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 06:12, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Hope this works. Thanks Mr. Potato. Is this you? -- Apostle (talk) 19:27, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Unfortunately I am not that sexy. I know this is a huge disappointment and I apologize. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 00:29, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/24609/create-a-windows-7-theme-pack-from-scratch/ The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:47, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb773190.aspx The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:54, 13 June 2016 (UTC)