What to do when a CAPTCHA verification fails

Topic

New Reply

	LANGALIST PLUS What to do when a CAPTCHA verification fails
	By Fred Langa The CAPTCHA “type the words you see” verification boxes sometimes seemingly fail, trapping you in an endless loop. Here’s the fix. Plus: Using Sandboxie to run XP apps in Win8, using TeraByte Unlimited imaging tools on newer operating systems, and incremental versus all-at-once BIOS updates.

---

The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/what-to-do-when-a-captcha-verification-fails/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

Reply | Quote

Replies

For several, seems like many, years I’ve had tons of CAPTCHA problems. I’ve grown to greatly despise this technology, and the companies, or programmers, that rely on it. They have lost a lot of business from me and wasted my time as I’ve often been blocked from buying their products or services. Thanks for the work-around.

Reply | Quote

CAPTCHA has caused me all sorts of issues, but switching browsers does indeed sometimes help.

My Avast needs to be reset to a less-vigilant level to allow some ISO downloads. I also download ISO images directly to my Wndows Desktop, and burn them from there. Less chance of not knowing where the heck my browser put the sillly thing this time.

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

On the BIOS, I’ve seen it vary. While it does indeed reflash the whole thing, the last one I did had instructions to step through 3 major updates.
I’d follow the instructions, even if they’re excessive as you don’t want to brick the machine.

Ironically, CAPTCHa itself was hacked recently, resulting in all kinds of forum spam, etc. It’s a really buggy form of software. I managed to find one recently (Sweet Captcha) that just uses visual recognition, not math problems or typing weird random letters. All you really need to do is add a random required picklist to a form to avoid the bots, unless you’re a very large web site worth hacking.

I had no trouble with the Android instructions (but am very used to downloads), even wrote it up on the blog.

Reply | Quote

On TeraByte Unlimited tools: I still use them on my Vista and Windows 8 systems, and will continue to do so. I do it for one reason primarily: these backups are independent of the operating system. If there is ever something that happens where I need to migrate to a different version of an operating system, I can do so easily. Say that I used Windows 7 backup and then I had a system failure. I would probably purchase a new PC with Windows 8.1. If I did this, I might not be able to restore my Windows 8 backup or even access the files on it. But if I had a TeraByte backup, I know I can access the files using a different version of Windows. Yes, it is a little more involved to do the backup with Image for Linux which is what I use to do a complete disk image backup. But TeraByte provides a WinRE version that I haven’t tried yet, and they say it is compatible with Windows 8 and UEFI.

Reply | Quote

The problem with CAPTCHA is the distorted letters to be copied, increased by the fact that if one is in two minds about a character, and makes the wrong choice, It’s not possible to choose the other on a second attempt, because there is a completely new CAPTCHA to contend with. I have often had 10 or more attempts at a particular site, then given up in disgust.

Next time I will try another browser, but think it’s unlikely that will make the characters easier to read, although after repeated failures the characters sometimes become easier to distinguish.

Reply | Quote

The problem with CAPTCHA is the distorted letters to be copied, increased by the fact that if one is in two minds about a character, and makes the wrong choice, It’s not possible to choose the other on a second attempt, because there is a completely new CAPTCHA to contend with. I have often had 10 or more attempts at a particular site, then given up in disgust.

Next time I will try another browser, but think it’s unlikely that will make the characters easier to read, although after repeated failures the characters sometimes become easier to distinguish.

Reply | Quote

I have a quality scanner that’s incompatible with Win8. Is it likely to work via XP in a virtual PC, or are they only for software applications?

Reply | Quote

I have a quality scanner that’s incompatible with Win8. Is it likely to work via XP in a virtual PC, or are they only for software applications?

Try it in device compatibility mode. That’s different from Software compatibility mode. I got one input device working that way.

Yes, hardware can be used inside a VM. It needs only the drivers for the guest OS in most cases.

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

Try it in device compatibility mode. That’s different from Software compatibility mode. I got one input device working that way.

Yes, hardware can be used inside a VM. It needs only the drivers for the guest OS in most cases.

Thanks Bob. Doesn’t the scanner software have to be installed to use device compatibility mode? The software will not install, saying it’s not compatible with W8, and I was hoping to get round that using a VM.

Reply | Quote

Thanks Bob. Doesn’t the scanner software have to be installed to use device compatibility mode? The software will not install, saying it’s not compatible with W8, and I was hoping to get round that using a VM.

If the software installer is not W8 compatible, even the installer could be run in compatibility mode. It still might not run, but some installers for previous Windows versions have run when I ran the installers in W8 compatibility modes.

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

USB scanner? Does W8 make a noise or acknowledge there is something there when the scanner is attached? If so, capture that USB port with the VM software and install the drivers in XP VM.

Reply | Quote

I also just discovered a way, though it’s unlikely that you actually have a parallel port connected printer on a Win 8 machine, to use the parallel port in a VM, at least in VMWarePlayer version 6. Serial port, SCSI device also. One merely has to add them in the VM software settings for that VM while the VM is not running.

Reply | Quote