Computer problems and/or advice-2015 to 2017

[johnralphcarpenter]

I suddenly stopped getting emails from the Forum, and found that all my notification had been cleared. Hopefully I have reset them all, but why would this happen? Anyone else experience this?

[ian mcdonald]

I keep getting a message from the webpage which says  Failed on loading skin name. The file "shell.css" is required in your "sscommon/skins/....../css" directory. To fix this problem, please check the skin name in your config file or re-install the application. I have looked ion the search box and can,t find any reference to shell.css or skin name. Not being a 7 year old I have no idea what I am supposed to do. Does anyone know what the message means?

[johnralphcarpenter]

...and I'm still not getting emails: notifications gone again.

[brianw]

I disabled my win 7 auto update a few months back, as it caught me out with a 45 minutes wait just when I wanted to leave for an AGS meeting and was using my laptop for a presentation. Now updated I find my laptop function keys have gone haywire. They sort of work but I have no display to tell me what is happening. Not sure but it seems I have wifi or Bluetooth but have lost the display to tell me what and when. Similarly screen brightness, audio volume, numlock etc. All the on screen displays have gone. After Googling this seems an ongoing problem over the years.
Is this a last attempt to get me to win 10? It's an Acer laptop.

[Alan_b]

Does anyone know what the message means?

it's probably your web browser malfunctioning.  Is it Firefox?

[admin]

I suddenly stopped getting emails from the Forum, and found that all my notification had been cleared. Hopefully I have reset them all, but why would this happen? Anyone else experience this?

There have been notification issues for those who use hotmail, live.com and other throw away email addresses from Microsoft. If you use any of these you should change you email address.  No idea why your notifications  were cleared though. 

[admin]

I keep getting a message from the webpage which says  Failed on loading skin name. The file "shell.css" is required in your "sscommon/skins/....../css" directory. To fix this problem, please check the skin name in your config file or re-install the application. I have looked ion the search box and can,t find any reference to shell.css or skin name. Not being a 7 year old I have no idea what I am supposed to do. Does anyone know what the message means?

Sounds like it may be a browser / cache issue. Try flushing your browser cash, deleting all cookies or using another browser.

[johnralphcarpenter]

There have been notification issues for those who use hotmail, live.com and other throw away email addresses from Microsoft. If you use any of these you should change you email address.  No idea why your notifications  were cleared though.

I'm using googlemail. Never a problem until now.

[ian mcdonald]

I,m using google chrome at the moment. I switched from internet explorer due to problems with that. I keep getting a message to say that google chrome no longer provides updates for windows vista. I,ll try the admin suggestion next, thanks.

[Maggi Young]

It appears that a regular Forum update ( - by SMF the providers, not SRGC ) has resulted in a clearing of  all notifications previously requested by forumists, myself included.

If you do not wish to  re-enter all the topics for which you previously received notice then I suggest  that the use of either the options available on any page - such as from the top left of any page  : Show unread posts since last visit. or from the foot of any page under this heading : Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum - Info Center  - Forum Stats - you will find the option to see :View the most recent posts on the forum.[/b]

[johnralphcarpenter]

Not just me then.

[Maggi Young]

No John -  I must say it took me a while to realise that it was the notification facility that had been reset.   

There may still be an issue with delivery of personal messages  to certain providers, though., as Fred said.

[David Nicholson]

For reasons I don't understand, now when I download images from my camera to my computer they come up in Windows Photo Viewer whereas previously they always came up in Irfanview which I have set to do all my photo related stuff. I suppose it's not a big deal as when I move the images into a picture file I have set up they show in Irfanview again. It's really me who doesn't like something I don't appear to have choice about. When I look at my list of default programmes Windows photo viewer is showing as the default for jpeg files and as this 'greyed' out it's not possible to change it. Anyone else find this happening, and can I do anything about it?

[Palustris]

You can change the default program in Default Program: Associate file type.
Find jpeg and click on Change program and select irfanview from the list (if it is there).

[David Nicholson]

Ah, there's the rub Eric. I have had Irfanview set as default for all photo-related stuff ever since I got this computer. When the problem about Windows Photo Viewer came up a few weeks ago I checked Control Panel-Default Progs-Set Your Default Progs and indeed Irfanview is set as default for all the programmes it can handle. When I look at Windows Photo Viewer by the same route all of the programmes listed to it are showing Irfanview as default, bar 1. The 1 is something called jfif with the description shown as jpeg image. This shows Windows Photo Viewer as default. The ticked box against that is 'greyed out' and can't be changed.

For what it's worth and since it has only been a problem for a few weeks, my theory is that an unwanted and unrequested change has taken place through a recent Windows update.