Attention Windows Users - Especially of my Custom Releases

[ralgith]

I've heard complaints, and seen first hand when testing in a virtual machine, that Windows is very slow unzipping releases. Especially my custom ones due to their very large size.

Here are some things you can do to speed this up:
1. Trash Windoze's built in zip utilities by installing 7zip so that it overrides everything. It is much much faster and supports more archive types.
2. Don't do anything else while it is unzipping. Anything else that accesses the disk will slow the unzipping down.
3. If it's gonna take 5 minutes (for 7zip, my latest MHQ took 17 to unzip in my VM using the Windoze built in crap) get up and do something away from the computer like get a snack, take a piss, etc... this helps with #2 because you're away from temptation.
4. Finally, if you've done all of the above, you'll either have to deal with any further slowness or switch to Linux. On my laptop running Fedora Linux 20 with around 30-50 other things open and me doing other things the latest MHQ takes < 3min to unzip.

EDIT: Do not use WinZip instead of 7zip. For one, WinZip is paid and 7zip is free. For another, WinZip is (lately) almost as slow as Winblows' built in compression utils.

[scJazz]

 O0

Attention Linux users... us Windows users, in other words the overwhelming planetary population, almost always use 7Zip because despite using Windows we aren't actually stupid  :P

Those of us who don't are called Newbs by both us Windows users and Linux users.

k?

BTW: Here is the link for 7zip. Which after AVAST AV is my 2nd app installed on new machines.

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

[ralgith]

Attention Linux users... us Windows users, in other words the overwhelming planetary population, almost always use 7Zip because despite using Windows we aren't actually stupid  :P

Smartass :P

You wouldn't believe how many people aren't smart enough to use anything beyond Micro$uck's built in compression crap. Oh, and I wouldn't say overwhelming of the planetary population, just of North America and certain parts of Europe. There are at least three countries who use Linux extensively, if not almost exclusively: China, Brazil, and... crap I forget which European country. Also, everyone on Windoze should download all of the following:
VirtualBox
VirtualBox Extension Pack
Linux Mint 64 bit or Linux Mint 32 bit

Then install VBox, add the Extension Pack to it, Create a new Linux 2.6/3.x VM, and finally install Linux Mint into that VM. Play. Test. Enjoy. :P

At least then, when someone like me touts Linux as a solution, you can say you've tried it :P

[TS_Hawk]

And I use 7-zip as well.

[ralgith]

And I use 7-zip as well.

Good, then you have ~5-6 minute unzips instead of ~15-20 with Wincrap Compression Utilities  >:D

[TS_Hawk]

I didn't have any real problems with WinZip either its just that when I got a new pc with winblows 8 on it I decided to get another file extractor.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Smartass :P

You wouldn't believe how many people aren't smart enough to use anything beyond Micro$uck's built in compression crap. Oh, and I wouldn't say overwhelming of the planetary population, just of North America and certain parts of Europe.

7zip is nice from the standpoint of the number of compression formats it supports.  I still hate its interface, and would rather use the built-in Windows compression tools when I can.

There are at least three countries who use Linux extensively, if not almost exclusively: China, Brazil, and... crap I forget which European country. Also, everyone on Windoze should download all of the following:
VirtualBox
VirtualBox Extension Pack
Linux Mint 64 bit or Linux Mint 32 bit

Then install VBox, add the Extension Pack to it, Create a new Linux 2.6/3.x VM, and finally install Linux Mint into that VM. Play. Test. Enjoy. :P

At least then, when someone like me touts Linux as a solution, you can say you've tried it :P

I'll leave aside discussion of Mint, 'cause it's not as awful as some distros I've seen, but Virtualbox? Any particular reason for that over vmWare Player or, if the host OS is Win 8/8.1 Pro, Hyper-V v3?

[scJazz]

There are at least three countries who use Linux extensively, if not almost exclusively: China, Brazil, and... crap I forget which European country.

LOL Linus Torvald comes from where? You know the guy who starting Linux? >:D

[pheonixstorm]

I only use 7zip and Winrar, haven't installed winzip in years.

I also run Win XP, Win 7, and Ubuntu as my three boot options. Used to run a custom stage 1 Gentoo install for the longest.

And ralgith, its Microshaft with builtin Excrement Exploder.

[scJazz]

Meh it is none of these... Just another OS.

The only OS not running in my house is MacOS or any derivative.

But I never fuss with the Ubuntu at all since it is just a laptop w/storage sitting on my Bookshelf. Installed setup, from time to time I reboot it. All it does is store my book collection and act as a backup server.

[ralgith]

LOL Linus Torvald comes from where? You know the guy who starting Linux? >:D

Is it Finland? Actually, now that I think about it more I want to say both Finland and Sweden use Linux heavily...

[Dohon]

Normally, I use Winrar to do my unzipping needs and that does the job splendidly. But WinRar just couldn't handle the megamek .zip's, each time bumming out during extraction. Something to do with long file names or files missing. I switched over to 7-zip a few weeks back and it works like a charm! Plus, it's completely free.

So, yeah, go with 7-zip.

[Arkaris]

I use WinRar... but I can unzip MekHQ customs in 45 seconds or so.

[ralgith]

I suppose I should have given general specs of the VM I was testing in so ya'll would know why it's so slow :P

Single 1.8GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM. So it's a very minimal bit of resources. The host machine is an oct-core 1.8GHz i7 with 12GB of RAM, but I limit my VMs quite strictly.

[TS_Hawk]

now if you can just write the code for tablets its great :P KIDDING

[scJazz]

now if you can just write the code for tablets its great :P KIDDING

Yeah ummm, I'm only a Java Beginner but it isn't even remotely close to a simple change of Libraries. It would be a stupendous pain in the butt. Try to remember the base of this code is literally over a decade old. Poorly commented... and honestly archaic.

[Thomasmarik]

I didn't even know windows had a zip program built in.  I went and found 7zip thinking I needed it to use zip files.

I'm not sure if that makes me a windows newb or not.

[TS_Hawk]

Yeah ummm, I'm only a Java Beginner but it isn't even remotely close to a simple change of Libraries. It would be a stupendous pain in the butt. Try to remember the base of this code is literally over a decade old. Poorly commented... and honestly archaic.

WOW really? lets not go there with that then shall we?  And there was a thread a on here about MM being done for tablets but hey I mean the comment wasn't directed at you Jazz ok

[scJazz]

WOW really? lets not go there with that then shall we?  And there was a thread a on here about MM being done for tablets but hey I mean the comment wasn't directed at you Jazz ok

Yeah I've been learning Java... I'd rather kill myself than make that transition along with all the strange. +Knowledge = -1 Tablet

[ralgith]

WOW really? lets not go there with that then shall we?  And there was a thread a on here about MM being done for tablets but hey I mean the comment wasn't directed at you Jazz ok

I'm still working on the Android UI. It's just not getting much attention because I have too many other irons in the fire.

[TS_Hawk]

I'm still working on the Android UI. It's just not getting much attention because I have too many other irons in the fire.

I was teasing you about it anyways Ral. I would like for MekHq to be more bug free before anything gets done for Androids or tablets. But its good to know you are working on it. 

[Netzilla]

I wouldn't try to modify the existing client to run on a tablet (and I don't Think you can in the case of an iPad).  Better to wite a whole new client specifically for that platform.  Still not a small project.

[SteveRestless]

See, I avoid this by downloading the "linux" client even on windows. and that opens in winrar for me.

[Stormforge]

You mean there are still other programs out there besides 7z?  :o

[Jayof9s]

I've heard complaints, and seen first hand when testing in a virtual machine, that Windows is very slow unzipping releases. Especially my custom ones due to their very large size.

Of course this is all subjective based on your computer I suppose. It takes me less than a minute to unzip on windows using 7zip and was always nearly as fast when I used winrar in the past.

The only person I've known to have significant issues with unzipping MHQ later found that his install of 7zip was corrupt and was that slow with everything until he reinstalled it.

[Felime]

I guess I noticed it the one time I tried to copy paste out of the folder, but 7zip unzips it in well less than a minute, and that's integrated into rightclick, so it's not like it's an actual issue for me at least. Being able to navigate and manipulate zip archives like folders is kinda nice, but yeah, windows is really slow about handling big ones.

[SteveRestless]

Of course this is all subjective based on your computer I suppose. It takes me less than a minute to unzip on windows using 7zip and was always nearly as fast when I used winrar in the past.

The only person I've known to have significant issues with unzipping MHQ later found that his install of 7zip was corrupt and was that slow with everything until he reinstalled it.

Likewise, the only case I know of, is where a friend's computer just dragged rear on ANY unzipping task for whatever reason.