Calculator Not Very Functional

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I am using Windows 8.1. This is in my office, and the machines are buttoned down pretty tight.

I need a calculator about once a week.

The Windows 8.1 calculator is … silly.

I still use calc.exe, which is buried in C:windowssystem32. It also seems to be hard-coded into the old Dell keyboard that I like to use.

The thing is, it does not display properly. Everything is there, but the “text box” in which the digits appear is not tall enough to show the digits well. I have attached a screen capture.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

FWIW: I am open to portable software suggestions, as long as it has basic and scientific functions. I can code and stats or graphing I need. I’m just looking for something midway between using Google and opening Excel. Ideally, it would also be something I could associate with the Dell keyboard.

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Bob, could it be as a result of the display resolution being set to something other than 100% for text?

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Bob, could it be as a result of the display resolution being set to something other than 100% for text?

I am in 8.1, so all I get under display is a slider. I am currently set to the smallest level. So unless it makes the calculator window itself smaller while leaving the calculator’s number “display” the same size, this does not seem like it is the problem.

N.B. There is a tip in that part of the Control Panel that some attributes will not change until a reboot. I will do that, but I wrote this out first. I do not hold out much hope, but you never know.

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I’ll bet you can find what you are looking for here. There are two free, portable, scientific calculator programs listed, plus other options. I haven’t used any of these, but the scientific ones look like exactly what you have described.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I’ll bet you can find what you are looking for here. There are two free, portable, scientific calculator programs listed, plus other options. I haven’t used any of these, but the scientific ones look like exactly what you have described.

No offense … but I have already seen pages like this … I was looking more along the lines of a suggestion from someone who already is running an alternative under 8.1.

If I was at home, and could try out anything I want, I would do this. But I’m in the office, and have “controllers of IT” who keep my PC locked down fairly tightly … so freeware can open up new conflicts.

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You might try running calc.exe in compatibility mode, I’d try Windows 7 mode first.

--Joe

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You might try running calc.exe in compatibility mode, I’d try Windows 7 mode first.

My gut feeling was that this suggestion was the best one …

Weirdness. If I right click on the calc.exe file, there is no compatibility tab under Properties. Nor is there anything on the context menu about about the compatibility troubleshooter.

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Text scaling %, it should be under Advanced or similar on the main Screen resolution Display page with the slider.

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Text scaling %, it should be under Advanced or similar on the main Screen resolution Display page with the slider.

Yes, you’d think that. But I’ve looked. All I have is a slider.

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This is calculator on my 8.1 box, so I’d be looking at updating the video driver / scaling.

cheers, Paul
46167-Capture

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This is calculator on my 8.1 box, so I’d be looking at updating the video driver / scaling.

cheers, Paul
46167-Capture

Interesting. You have an expanded view in scientific view. There are 4 views, and I do get this expanded view, but only if I choose the statistics view.

But that’s kind of useless since it doesn’t have keys for basic arithmetic (like I said above, I’d use anything BUT a calculator for statistics).

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I’d be looking at updating the video driver / scaling.

I will talk to our IT people about taking care of that.

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Is the Win 8 calculator different to the Win 10 one? I wouldn’t have said the 10 one was silly…..

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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None of the above worked for me.

But here is a workaround.

I could always use some freeware calculator. FreeCalc from MoffSoft works just fine for my occasional uses. Your mileage may vary.

The next problem is how to remap my keyboard’s calculator key. This required a registry edit. The directions at this site were helpful. Just substitute the full path to your alternative calculator (in double quotes) for calc.exe in step f of Ratandeep’s “Most Helpful Reply”.

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