Wednesday, 28 February 2018

linux - Why have 3 external HDDs failed after a few hours of use?


I have purchased 3 HDDs in the past month and every time after copying about 1.5TB of data on to them they fail. The first 2 HDDs were Samsung 4TB drives and the third one is a Seagate Expansion 4TB.



  • The model number of the most recent drive (Seagate) is: STEA4000400

  • The first 2 drives (Samsung) were: HX-M401TCB/G

  • My computer is a Thinkpad Yoga 12

  • All drives are powered by the USB port; no external power supply.


What I do is buy the HDD I need then plug it into my computer (running Linux) and transfer the data (about 2TB) from my old HDD (also a 4TB portable Samsung drive). After a few hours of copying the transfer speed slows down alot and then the drive fails and won't mount on either my machine or any other machine, and it makes a very faint ticking sound when connected. I have tried reformatting the drives (sometimes I am able to mount the drive long enough to reformat) but it does not help.



Answer



I'd suspect, that those drives haven't failed at all - they were just running out of their specs and should be fine when plugged into a different computer.


Let me explain:


You use the USB ports of your Yoga for two purpouses:



  • As a data connection, all fine with that

  • As a power source for the drives, and that might be the problem.


Now the Yogas are notorious for providing less-than-promised current on their USB ports - this results in the disks being always close to starving for power, as writing to a 4TB drive typically comes quite close to the design limits of power draw.


You could use a (quality!) powered USB hub to overcome this - in such a pattern the juice for the drive would be provided by the hub's power supply, not the Yoga.


Windows 7 Context Menu for Folders - *IF* folder contains certain filetypes

I would like to add an entry to the context menu for folders, but only have it show in the context menu IF the folder in question contains files of a certain type (in this case, only if the folder contains .avi files). Is this possible?


I'm sure I've seen at least one program which only had its context menu entry shown in certain folders - though I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

windows 7 - Homegroup sharing problems



  1. I can see other people in my homegroup and their folders, but when I click on those folders, I cannot see the contents (no error message, just nothing happens).

  2. The other people in the Homegroup can see me just fine, and my files

  3. In addition, I am unable to access any network computers, even my own.


In addition, I cannot see the files that they have under the network tab, though they can all see each others stuff.


What could be the issue?


The homegroup has already be created and recreated numerous times.


Perhaps unrelated, but I am unable to turn off password protected sharing.


EDIT: The error that I get is the network provider name is invalid.



Answer



Verify that the Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks is installed on your adapter.


If this client is not installed, you can install it using the following steps: Click Add. Click Client, and then click Add. Click Microsoft, click Client For Microsoft Networks, and then click OK. Click OK. When you are prompted to restart your computer, do so.


command line - What's the quickest way to count the number of each character in a file?

I want to count the A's T's C's G's N's and "-" characters in a file, or every letter if needed, is there a quick Unix command to do this?

firefox - Only 360p on Youtube with HTML5


I recently read that Firefox improved it's HTML5 video support, so I thought I gave it a go again, because I am not a fan of Flash. It works fairly well, but unfortunately the videos are limited to 360p only.


Are there any settings to be made or is this it?



Answer



Ok, a friend was also experiencing the same issue and this apparently helped:




  1. Go to https://www.youtube.com/html5




  2. Ensure MSE i.e. Media Source Extensions (required for MPEG-DASH i.e. adaptive streaming) and H.264/WebM are supported by your browser ( see below for more). Also if you right click any video and select Stats for nerds you can see whether DASH is supported or not:


    1




  3. Click the Request the HTML5 player button:


    2




  4. Now you should see this and can try viewing videos at resolutions above 360p:


    3




To enable MSE in Firefox go to about:config and ensure all of the following are set to True:


media.mediasource.enabled
media.mediasource.youtubeonly
media.mediasource.mp4.enabled
media.mediasource.webm.enabled
media.fragmented-mp4.exposed
media.fragmented-mp4.ffmpeg.enabled


(Actually even if either MP4 or WEBM is enabled that should suffice, but if one doesn't work try enabling the other.)


macos - How do I get a bridge network to work for VirtualBox with Linux guest on a Mac OS X host


Does anybody have the step by step configuration process that would allow VirtualBox running a Linux/Ubuntu guest on a Mac OS X host use the bridge type network using Ethernet and wireless? I have read that it does work and it doesn't work, trying to find a definite answer. I want the guest environment to look like a separate box.


Thanks



Answer



I have a bridge network working on OSX with a Ubuntu guest VM. You need a network connection for this to work. I have my nic configured via DHCP in OSX and then I statically assigned the guest eth0 an IP on the same subnet.


With this set up I could SSH to my Ubuntu guest; with entries in /etc/hosts on OSX I was able to access internal domains I'd set up in apache on the Ubuntu guest.


I simply installed Ubuntu, in the VM settings, set the adapter to a bridge connection. Boot Ubuntu and be sure to configure /etc/network/interfaces


Mine looks like this:


auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.20
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1

OSX would pick up an IP address on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.0.102), I could see the guest from the host just fine.


ssh 192.168.0.20

Hope this helps.


I'm struggling to get host-only networking set up so I can communicate with the guest VM without an active internet connection.


windows 8 - Using Metro style in Internet Explorer 10


Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to use the IE10 App without making Internet Explorer the default browser?



I'm using Windows 8 Pro with Internet Explorer 10 on, and I downloaded Google Chrome, setting it the default browser. After that I saw that when I click on the Internet Explorer shortcut on the Start screen it opened me IE10 in the Desktop. Now I want to ask: can I use the IE10 App in Metro Style without making her the default browser?

linux - Why does this script fail when run from cron, but works when run manually?


I have a relatively simple bash script that works great when invoked directly, but fails when run by cron. Why does this fail and how can I make it work via cron?


#!/bin/bash
apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade -y
apt-get install boinc-client -y

Once cron has attempted to run it, a manual invocation will result in this error:


dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.


But as long as it is executed the first time manually, it works just fine.



Answer



Managed to solve it with barely any understanding of what was going on. Turned out that even though I was running from root crontab, the apt-get commands still needed a sudo in front of them. Logically I had expected that not to be needed since the script was already executing "as root", but once I added sudo... everything worked exactly as expected.


Remote control Linux keyboard/mouse


I have a unique need but I was hoping it isn't that unique.


I have an Ubuntu desktop that is connected to a TV in another room. There's no remote that would work over the distance and walls, so my immediate solution is VNC with a laptop in the TV room.


That works ok, but screen refresh and accuracy is an issue (even with the lowest color depth on VNC), and since I'm already seeing the desktop on the TV, I don't really need to see it on my laptop.


So, is there a program that will allow me to remotely control the keyboard (and even the mouse if possible)?


Maybe something that receives the input on the laptop and sends the keys with xdotool or something like that.



Answer



I would set up Synergy. It allows you to control multiple computers from a single keyboard. Simply move the mouse off the screen in the direction you choose and the input switches to that computer. I use it to control my Linux desktop and a Windows test box I have and it works great.


In your situation it would allow you to seamlessly control both the laptop and the desktop. This would make it great for surfing on the laptop while managing the media center on the TV.


The tool QuickSynergy will make setup as easy as typing in an IP address.


How to get Chrome favicons to appear in Windows 10 start menu?

I use Chrome's More tools > Add to desktop... feature a lot to pin webapp shortcuts to my desktop and taskbar and have them open in a separate chromeless window.


This works great, but when I pin the shortcut to the start menu, I get Chrome's default icon instead of the favicon.


The favicon is displayed fine on the desktop shortcut and on the task bar.


How do I get the favicon to appear on the start menu, too?


Should be a SharePoint icon

installation - Can't install Windows 8 Developer Preview


I've burnt the Windows 8 Developer Preview DVD and inserted it into my laptop. Setup starts and looks good, but it then prompts me for a DVD driver. Saying it is missing.


I can't progress further than this. There is no dedicated DVD driver to download for my laptop.


Is this normal?



Answer



Please be aware that it is pre-release software, there will be problems with drivers. As an alternative, try using the USB installation method


laptop - Processor noise


I have a Acer Laptop (Aspire E 17 E5-773G-715H if that matters) with an Intel Core i7-6500U and an NVIDIA GeForce 940M running Win 10 and I'm annoyed by processor noise made by that notebook.


The noise appears when the laptop is in "idle" state and disappears when I drag a window around or hold down a key while in a textfield.


I already checked everything and can say for sure that the noise does not come from the HDD (Because there is an SSD in it) and neither from the fan. It seems to come from the speaker.


I've recorded audio of the noise in a quiet environment: https://vocaroo.com/i/s0xpEOnqtJ8L (The noise isn't very loud, so you should turn up your volume. Yes, it's safe to listen to it in high volumes on Headphones, etc. No loud noises were made.)


I also already saw this question, which an approved answere were given, saying that it could be the power supply, which here isn't the case.


EDIT: I also tried to disable the main sound device to see if it would make a difference, which it sadly didn't.


Any possible workaround (or maybe even solution) to make it stop is highly appreciated.


Suggestions are also welcome, as they may lead to the solution afterwards.



Answer



Noise can come from a wide variety of components in a computer.


You say it is not a power supply but even in a laptop you do have power switching and regulating circuits that all can create physical and electronic noise. You need something to convert the battery voltage into the various voltages used by the system.


Chances are that under "idle" load one of switching regulators is switching down to a lower frequency and one of its harmonics is creating noise in the speaker wires.


Alternatively it could be something known as "coil whine" where an inductor in the switching regulator is vibrating at an audible frequency. The fact you can hear it is for the same reasons as the noise from the speaker, but is created by a different mechanism.


There isn't really much that you, as a user, can do about this. It is either a design issue or a sign of age though it is not a problem in the long term.


You might be able to go into the power plan options and raise the minimum CPU power level to prevent the CPU from entering its lowest power state which might in turn stop the audible whine, but obviously this would waste at least some small amount more power and thus reduce battery life slightly.


Windows 10 does not see second CPU


I have Dell Precision T5400 workstation with two Intel Xeon processors. One a x5450 (quad core) and a e5450 (quad core). Both CPUs are recognised in the BIOS


My BIOS where you can see CPUs
click to enlarge


I can not even install Windows with 2 processors installed. First I have to pull out one of them, then install windows. If I put the second processor back in I get error 'Multi processor not supported'.


I can work around that by booting with a single CPU and in System configuration -> Boot advanced options select the checkbox 'Number of processors' and set it to four (4 because that is about processor cores).


After that I can start windows and it wil use a single CPU.


Note that Device manager see 8 cores (2 CPUs).
Task manager see just 4 cores (in performance tab).


My system data
click to enlarge


I installed Windows 10 Pro (updated from 8.1 Pro), and OS see just one processor.


Does anyone knows what is the problem?



Answer



The problem was been that I had 2 different CPUs, one is X5450 and another is E5450. When I changed one of them, to be the same, problem is fixed.


google chrome - Chromium: prevent unpacking tar.gz


The latest Chrome and Chromium seems to unpack .tar.gz files automatically for me on OS X and Linux. When using wget with the same URL, it shows:


$ wget http://mydomain/dir/file.tar.gz
...
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: ... [application/octet-stream]
...

Verifying the file type:


$ file file.tar.gz
file.tar.gz: gzip compressed data, from FAT filesystem (MS-DOS, OS/2, NT)

When doing the same for the file downloaded with Chrome or Chromium:


$ file file.tar.gz
file.tar.gz: POSIX tar archive

Note, that Chrome/Chromium obviously kept the file name, but expanded it (the file size is ~4 times bigger than from the wget-downloaded file).


As website administrator how can I prevent Chrome/Chromium from unpacking the file?


Update:


According to curl -I http://mydomain/dir/file.tar.gz our Apache/Tomcat combo responds with


Content-Encoding: x-gzip

Tried .tar.gz files from other websites are not unpacked by chrome and don't report the Content-Encoding: x-gzip header, so there seems to be a relation.



Answer



According to our hosting provider the header Content-Encoding: x-gzip was caused by the Apache in front of our Tomcat. Removing following line:


LoadModule deflate_module               modules/mod_deflate.so

from its configuration solved the problem.


mp3 - Auto Music Tagging Software



Is there any software out there that will completely and automatically clean and organize a music library? I have tried MediaMonkey, Songbird, Foobar, iTunes, TuneUp and various other programs I have heard of but nothing quite does the job, or just makes things way worse.


There are a few programs out there I can't remember the name of that analyze the song and look up the tags, but even these seem limited in overall functionality or still require a ton of user involvement.


Basically a program that will automatically tag, regroup, rename, find albumn art and remove duplicates with as little user involvement as possible. Doesn't have to be free, I'd probably pay quite a bit for a program that could do all of this reliably.


Here is a start...


http://lifehacker.com/5266613/six-best-mp3-tagging-tools



Answer



You want MusicBrainz Picard.


Any music tagging software will require some user involvement to function 100% reliably. This is just due to the messy nature of music distribution. But the actual amount of involvement is up to you. If you really want to take the risk, you can just click "ok" in Picard (or any other tool) and let it decide everything for you. It will probably work fine, but there's a chance it will choose non-ideal tags for an album or two. Any software you find that seems like it doesn't require any user involvement has the same risk.


windows xp - Log of installations in XP?

Does XP keep a log of application installations with version numbers of the installations?


I would like to know when MSI based installations took place and what versions were installed.

Windows audio being recorded as if "stereo mix" was enabled

My problem: windows sound (for instance, playing a youtbue video, or a videogame sound output) gets sent to the "recording channel", causing unwanted side effects, like:



  • While playing online and using VOIP, my game audio is sent to teammates

  • While recording my voice, any windows sound that plays is also recorded


This should happen only when "Stereo Mix" is enabled, but in my case it happens all the time.


To rule out some potential crap I did a fresh install of Windows 10 LTSB 2016 edition, but the problem did not go away.


I just installed motherboard chipset and audio drivers. The MOBO is an MSI GAMING 150A Pro.


The problem manifests when I use a headset with two jacks (audio and mic). If I plug in 2 different separate devices, for instance the audio plug of a headset and the mic plug of a different headset the problem does not manifest.


I have tried with 3 different headsets just to be sure not to have a defective one. The problem manifested with all 3 of them when both jacks of the same headset are used, and never manifested by mixing the jacks.


I also tried using both rear audio connectors on my MOBO and the front ones. Same results.


As of now I don't have the slightest idea what could possibly be wrong. Windows installation is fresh, tried multiple headsets.


Any clue would be appreciated.


Thanks.

Tuesday, 27 February 2018

charts - Drawing a line graph in Excel with a numeric x-axis


In Microsoft Excel 2010, I'm trying to draw a line graph with three different lines. I've got the graph looking the way I want, with one exception: Excel is treating my X-axis column like text labels, rather than data points along the X-axis. As a result, the gap between 0-85, 100-120, and 300-750 are all the same. How can I get Excel to treat these as numbers and space them accordingly along the X-axis?


Here is what I have so far:


enter image description here


In the Format Axis dialog box for the Horizontal Axis, I've got the format selected as "Number" with 0 decimal places:


enter image description here


And in the Axis Options tab, I've got the "Interval between labels" selected as "Automatic," and the "Axis Type" selected as "Automatically select based on data":


enter image description here



Answer



Make sure you have a scatter chart in Excel


Chart


Here is the difference:


Line Chart


Scatter Chart


How to scroll up in terminal window while new input is generated without beeing thrown back to the bottom (Linux)


In Ubuntu, I want to scroll up while a command is running in my terminal window and generates new output (actually the command running is rspec). I can scroll up, but each time rspec generates a new line of console output it throws me back down to the bottom. Is there a way to scroll all up? I'm using terminator on Linux Mint/Ubuntu 12.04 LTS


UPDATE


I found a possible workaround Terminator homepage says that with


stty ixon

you can turn on "XON/XOFF flow control for terminal output. Being able to pause output by typing ^S and resume it by typing ^Q [...]"


This it not totally what I wanted though, without having to pause the output (and maybe wondering when forgetting to turn it on again), I thought there might be a simple modifier key like shft-alt with mouse wheel scroll-up.. Any better solutions?



Answer



Although I'm a bit late, I'm posting this here so that anyone who comes here gets a solution. For me, the solution to the same problem was:


Terminator preferences -> Profiles Tab -> Scrolling [sub]tab -> Uncheck 'Scroll on output' option.


The good thing about this option, is that it will still scroll on output when you are at the very bottom of the output, but as soon as you scroll up, it will stop and won't bother you even if output content is still being generated.


I hope this helps


windows - Tool to mount a zip/rar/* archive as a Win drive and be able to read/write as a normal device?

I'm looking for some tool that, given a zip/rar/tar/* archive file, mounts it as a new Windows drive. Some tools are WinMount or WinArchive, but I need one that allows me to write/create/delete files as well as read. That is, just as if it were a USB stick or something like that. The file doesn't need to be compressed, just archived is fine. Thanks a lot!

linux - a safer no password sudo?

Ok, here's my problem - Please don't yell at me for being insecure! :) This is on my host machine. I'm the only one using it so it's fairly safe, but I have a very complex password that is hard to type over and over. I use the console for moving files around and executing arbitrary commands a LOT, and I switch terminals, so sudo remembering for the console isn't enough (AND I still have to type in my terrible password at least once!) In the past I have used the NOPASSWD trick in sudoers but I've decided to be more secure. Is there any sort of compromise besides allowing no password access to certain apps? (which can still be insecure) Something that will stop malware and remote logins from sudo rm -rf /-ing me, but in my terminals I can type happily away? Can I have this per terminal, perhaps, so just random commands won't make it through? I've tried running the terminal emulations as sudo, but that puts me as root.

editing - MS Word: How do I format all change tracked text at once?

For document revisions/reviews my company insists on using tracked changes and manually making changed text blue. You may be wondering why we don’t just use the settings to make that text appear blue. I am wondering that myself. A PDF won’t work either, it should be in MS Word format so reviewers can reply with comments.


So how do I change all the text to blue at once?


(I am using MS Word 2013.)

cpu - How does Intel Turbo Boost Technology improve performance on the new Core i5, i7 series of chips?


I'm curious about the new innovations in Intel's Core i5 and i7 series of chips, in particular the Turbo Boost Technology. (Doesn't turbo boost remind you of Knight Rider?)


What are the details on how it works? Is it a marketing gimmick or are there some serious and impressive performance numbers behind Turbo Boost Technology?


Are we likely to need better power supplies and even bigger heat sinks and fans with these new chips?



Answer




Turbo Boost can increase the clock speed of each core individually to get more performance out of the chip.


Basically, if the current application workload isn't keeping all four cores fully busy and pushing right up against the chip's TDP (Thermal Design Power) limit, Turbo Boost can increase the clock speed of each core individually to get more performance out of the chip.


Example: For the Core i7-920XM, that maximum speed bin is 3.2GHz, not the 2GHz value which is marked on the part. In principle, the 920XM could run all of its cores at 3.2GHz all the time if enough power was available and if the heat sink could keep the chip cool. (This is why Turbo Boost isn't like consumer overclocking: the chip is operating within its design specifications at all times.)



Read the full article:


Explaining Intel's Turbo Boost technology



Are we likely to need better power supplies and even bigger heat sinks and fans with these new chips?



I suppose, if you improve cooling you can push the limits further with Turbo Boost, as it is linked to the thermal design specifications.


Always run a given program as an administrator in Windows 8.1 without prompt


I have set up a program to always run as an administrator using the Compatability setting in Properties, which is necessary as the program always require administrator rights. Is there a way to make so that the User Account Control prompt does not always pop up and require me to confirm that I want to run this as an administrator? I am on an administrator account. I know I can simply turn off all User Account Control notifications, but I would rather not do this for security purposes; rather, I just want UAC settings to remember the choice I made regarding running the program as an administrator but not prompt me to confirm it.


This is an example of what I want, but that was made for Windows 7 and I'm not sure how well it work in 8.1.



Answer



The Task Scheduler trick you mention still works fine in Windows 8.x. I use it daily. You can use it without any issues.


Jupyter notebook loses directory tree periodically

After a time of inactive (1-2 days) jupyter notebook display nothing in directory tree (http://localhost/tree).


How I can refresh directory tree without restart server? I don't want restart server because the data in memory. Notebooks works well by direct link to *.ipynb (http://localhost/tree/my_code/untitled.ipynb). Jupyter started on Windows Server 2012.

partitioning - How to reinstall Windows 10 on new hard disk


I've been using Windows 10 for a couple of month now (joined the Insider Preview).


Now my hard drive started ticking so I've bought a new SSD and I want to move the windows installation to the new hard drive, which has been connected to the computer (unpartitioned). I don't mind and I even prefer reinstalling it over again.



  • Since I have the free version of Windows 10 pro, can I still reinstall it anew?

  • Does the windows 10 installation offer disk management and partition like the older Windows installations used to?

  • How should I reinstall Winodws 10 x64 the easiest but still remain on free mode?



Answer




Since I have the free version of Windows 10 pro, can I still reinstall it a new?



Just download the Windows 10 .ISO and when prompted for a product key, skip it that step, once installed Windows 10 will automatically activate because of the original digital entitlement you received when you performed the upgrade. Windows 10 for this purpose, considers the same motherboard, the same machine.



Does the windows 10 installation offer disk management and partition like the older Windows installations used to?



It uses the exact same tool. If it didn't contain the tool it wouldn't be able to create partitions automatically.



How should I reinstall Windows 10 x64 the easiest but still remain on free mode?



There isn't a "free" mode. Once you perform the upgrade once, you have a permanent license to Windows 10, which can be installed on the same number of devices, as the previous version you upgraded from. I have previously answered the question about how the upgrade works here.


There is absolutely no difference between the version of Windows 10 you receive if you purchase Windows 10 from a retailer or accept the upgrade when prompted while running an eligible installation of Windows. The only difference is that you won't receive a unique Windows 10 license key. User who upgrade to Windows 10, through an eligible installation of Windows, are activated through a digital entitlement system. Users who purchase a retail license from Microsoft actually receive a Windows 10 license.


Starting with the Threshold 2 update, Windows 10 will both accept an eligible Windows license key at installation and activate with an eligible Windows license key. Windows 10 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) does not have this capability.


windows 7 - How to disable autocorrect in IE10?




Possible Duplicate:
Disable spell checking in Internet Explorer 10 (Windows 8)



I installed the IE10 beta on Windows 7. It has an annoying autocorrect feature like the one in MS Word that messes up everything I write. How do I disable it?



Answer




  • Open IE10, then go to Tools » Internet Options » Programs.

  • Click on the Manage add-ons button

  • Select Spelling Correction

  • At the bottom of the screen, Uncheck Enable spelling correction

  • Click on the Close button to close the Manage add-ons screen

  • Click on the OK button to close the "Internet Options" screen.


Now you can type without being bothered by auto-correction!


windows 8.1 - Why does Hyper-V affect in task manager?

enter image description here


If you look at image you can see that in Task Manager CPU tab.




  1. Why when Hyper-V enable Speed and Max Speed same and it does not change the way it change when Hyper-V disable ?




  2. Why this apply to only Core I5 machine and Not Core I7 ? I have Core I7 but it display same if hyper-V enable or not ?




Below is the image of Core I7 with Hyper-V enable.


enter image description here


Please provide detail on this.

macos - Which version of Emacs makes the best use of the Mac GUI?



On Windows and Ubuntu I use GNU Emacs, but FSF doesn't provide binaries for the Mac


I have a decent version that came with Snow Leopard, but just running in the bash terminal. Is there a version that runs in a standalone window and is more Mac friendly?


I downloaded Emacs Cocoa from Macports, but it didn't compile.



Answer



I tried Aquamacs, but found that it tried too hard to be Mac-like. This is probably good if you're a Mac user who is new to Emacs.


If you're an Emacs user new to Macs (like I was a couple years ago), you'll probably be more comfortable with Mac specific builds of standard Emacs. I get mine from Emacs for Mac OS X. Try the standard build on the home page, or click on the "Other Versions" button for more options. I've been using the latest pretest version for 6-12 months without problems.




If you really want to be studly and build your own copy, look at the hints on the Emacs wiki page for Mac OS X. Note, in particular, that you want to build with options for nextstep and not cocoa or carbon:


./configure --with-ns
make
make install

windows 8.1 - Change volume by one instead of two

When you turn the volume up or down in Windows using a keyboard/mouse shortcut, it increases by two instead of one. Is it possible to set this to one?

troubleshooting - Windows XP doesn't actually recursively change attributes


This should probably go into the question about Windows Annoyances, but can anyone explain why this happens, and how to fix it?


I right-click on a folder, select properties, and uncheck the Read-only. Click on OK. I get a confirmation with the option to apply changes to this folder only, or include subfolders and files. I select the latter, and click OK.


Go back to properties, and it's still showing up as Read only. Why? I can't see any files that are still read-only



Answer



This issue is described in KB326549: You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, or in Windows Vista


The solution given there is to simply use the command-line attrib command to remove the attributes, like so:


attrib -r -s "c:\somepath\my readonly folder"

How do I get rid of the background window ahead of the Windows 10 lock screen?


I don't want to get the of the lock screen. If I hit Windows+L I want it to go directly to the lock screen. Instead, it goes to a background screen that I have to click or otherwise interact with to get to the lock screen - I can't just start typing my password! The same thing happens if I power up my computer out of sleep.


I have looked under Settings -> Lock Screen and I can see where I can change the picture for this background, but not how to skip this screen entirely.


I don't know what this extra background screen is called, but I want to get rid of it! How do I do this? I used to have it configured this way, but when I applied the Windows Anniversary Update yesterday it reverted to putting this annoying extra screen in the way.



Answer



There is a workaround to disable the Lock Screen in Anniversary Update builds, in any edition of Windows.


Create a Scheduled Task that runs the following command-line, or a batch/script that runs the following command:


reg.exe add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\SessionData /t REG_DWORD /v AllowLockScreen /d 0 /f

The idea is to reset the AllowLockScreen value data to 0 on these two trigger events:



  • Log on

  • Workstation unlock.


So you need to use multiple triggers for that task.


(or)


Download the Task XML from here: How to Disable the Lock Screen in Windows 10 Anniversary Update (1607)?


And use the Import Task option in Scheduler to create/import the task automatically.


Lock the workstation and unlock it. From the 2nd time onwards you shouldn't see the lock screen.


Monday, 26 February 2018

networking - how to troubleshoot asymmetric speed PPTP VPN speed? (downlink to client is slow, the server bandwidth up, and there is no encryption overhead)

I hope I have a general question motivated by my specific problem: I have acceptable upload speeds and unacceptable download speeds on my VPN while I think both endpoints have quite some bandwidth in both directions.


I have a PPTP VPN between a DD-wrt router as server (recent build) and Mac OS 10.8.2 as client, without encryption.


Though the server is on a residential ISP (promising 30 Mb/s down, 10 Mb/s up) a continent away, I still have a link from client to server of 500-1500 Kb/s, and even worse, tragic, appalling 30-70 Kb/s link from server to client.


Bottlenecks on my side cannot be the problem.


Though the router is underpowered, I don't expect that much overhead without encryption.


What is there to hope or do, before I simply blame the DD-WRT build again?

keyboard - How do you type Unicode characters using hexadecimal codes?


This is in Windows, but answers for other operating systems can be handy to others.


Most guides say something to the effect of "hold down the Alt key and type in the code on the keypad". This works fine for decimal codes (like 65 for 'A'), but not for hexadecimal codes (like U+0041 for 'A').


Some applicatons provide other facilities that will allow hexadecimal Unicode character codes to be typed and then transformed. Word allows you to type the code (such as 200f) and then convert it to Unicode by typing Alt-X.


I'm looking for a general method of doing this that will work with the standard input.



Answer



harrymc's answer is good, providing you're able/allowed to change the registry settings.


If not, you can use the Windows Calculator Accessory to convert from hexadecimal to decimal. The default mode won't do this: XP and Vista have a "Scientific mode, whereas Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 have a "Programmer" mode.


Select Hex base, and then type in your hexadecimal number. Then change to Dec base to see the equivalent value in decimal. That's the number you need to type into your numeric keypad while holding down the Alt key.


This might depend on the input language, and you might need to prefix a zero to the decimal value.


Repair Ubuntu installation


I accidently uninstalled (apt-get purge) lots of important system stuff, including gnome dekstop and whatever-is-responsible-for-internet-connetion, among other things. Is there any way to repair it? Without complete reinstall?


I can access it via command line (terminal) more or less normally. move, copy files, etc., just no apt-get install due to no internet connection. So I guess repairing internet would be first priority... Any way to check why it doesnt work and what needs to be done?


I do have LiveCD I can boot from. So I can manually copy neccessary files from it, if any.


Thanks in advance for your help


Edit: after I boot from my LiveCD I can use internet, however, as soon as I chroot into real filesystem, I cannot use internet from there. Guess it's how expected to work...


Edit 2: how I fixed it: with the help of people here, I finally did it. I booted from liveCD, copied /etc/resolv.conf to real installation, chrooted there, apt-get install ubuntu-desktop. While installation failed due to many errors, files got downloaded into real installation nevertheless. So I rebooted machine from live cd into real ubuntu, and this time while I still had no internet, apt-get had ubuntu-desktop cached. So I installed ubuntu-desktop and rebooted with GUI this time. After some minor manual fixes (ifupdown managed) I got wireless working too, now it's only a matter of auto-updates etc., with synaptic. Phew.... thanks again everybody :) Special thanks to ~quack who didnt provide any "formal" answer I could formally accept, but was the most helpfull with comments :)



Answer



if you can run the ifconfig utility (as root), and have a single ethernet adapter which can use DHCP to access the network:


sudo ifconfig eth0 up
sudo dhclient eth0 &

That should activate your first ethernet adapter and run dhclient to get it an address via DHCP. If that works successfully, you might be able to do repair your installation by running:


sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

That command will install the packages which are included in a base Ubuntu install. (you can substitute "kubuntu-desktop" if you use KDE or "xubuntu-desktop" if you use XFCE.


If you cannot get networking at all, the best bet is as Justin suggested above, use apt-cdrom to install the ubuntu-desktop package from your CD.


windows 7 - Is it possible to decrypt multiple truecrypt drives at FDE boot?


I have a Windows 7 Machine with the OS disk using TrueCrypt full disk encryption. I've got an additional 4 other drives plugged into the same machine for storage (Via SATA storage) that I would like to encrypt as well.


I would like to be able to encrypt all the drives using the same password I use at boot time and when it is entered at the boot stage, to have it decrypt all the drives at the same time (therefore not requiring me to separately mount the drives every time I reboot the machine).


If anyone knows how to do this or if it is indeed possible, that would be much appreciated.


Edit: If it matters 2x Drives are identical Segate drives and 2x Drives are identical WD drives These drives are all plugged direct into the motherboard via SATA II not external USB.



Answer



I doubt this will work for you as I'm sure your drives are different makes and models- but if they were identical you could get the 4 external drives to auto-mount using the same password as each other. I don't believe you can have the FDE password unlock your external drives, so the best case scenario would be to enter the password twice (FDE, and once again for all the external drives).


We had the same problem a few months ago and solved it completely by accident.


One of our external backup drives failed, so we replaced them all with the same model (WD Elements 1TB).


As soon as we started using the same model drive, we stopped getting prompted for the second drive- it authenticates using the password from the first (until TrueCrypt or the server restarts). Now, when I update the server and do a reboot at the weekend, I can remote in, and enter the TrueCrypt password for whichever backup drive happens to be connected. Then, when the staff switch the backup drives over later on, the password prompt does not appear again with other drives (as it used to do).


There is no loss of security, just a big improvement in convenience and reliability of our backup system now- all it seems to need is identical model external drives.


I am reasonably confident that this is the best solution to your problem. I wrestled with this for hours when we first started using TrueCrypt on multiple drives, and initially admitted defeat. The fact it does what we want now is due to the fact the drives are identical, rather than some setting I could use in the application to produce the desired behaviour.


No one in the office could believe that the solution didn't lie in the TrueCrypt configuration settings!


enter image description here


windows 7 - Add Local group restrictions with cmd


How I could add Additional Rules in Software Restriction Policies with cmd using a script that'll work with both Windows 7 and Windows Vista.


I would like to create some path rules with security level set to "Disallowed".


Below are a few lines I'd like to incorporate into this script:


C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Chrome.exe
chrome_installer.exe
Gears-chrome-opt.msi
GoogleUpdate.exe

Answer



So you need to way to disallow certain executable files from being run for each user signed onto a PC for Windows 7 and/or Windows Vista, and you need to implement it via CMD fashion to apply locally at the machine level.




Instructions and Detail


See How to Block an Application or .EXE from Running in Windows and from some information as listed there, I've created the below batch script that can be run to "Disallow" these executables from being executed from that user account.


If you need to scale this CMD method to add further executable file names than the four you provided, you simply move up sequentially to the next number and then plug in the executable name as in the below example for instance:


ECHO "3"="Gears-chrome-opt.msi"              >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "4"="GoogleUpdate.exe" >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "5"="App5toBlock.exe" >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "6"="App6toBlock.msi" >> "%TmpRegFile%"

See How to Block an Application or .EXE from Running in Windows for further explanation.




You might consider testing and replacing HKEY_CURRENT_USER with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the below script to lock down disallowing these executable files from being run at the entire PC level rather than the user account that's signed on when the script is run.


You may also need to run the batch script as an administrator as well or the REG IMPORT command could get an access denied message when it tries to update the registry. You can copy and paste all of the below into CMD directly as well but don't paste in the last line of EXIT /B so the screen buffer text stays up.




Batch Script


I used TASKKILL commands in the below script to forcefully kill all instances of the same executable file names to disallow with the registry import. If any are running in memory on the machine when this runs then they will be killed; scale applicable logic as needed to add further processes to kill.


The Windows Explorer Shell needs to be killed and restarted in memory before these settings become effective. Doing a complete power cycle of the machine would do the trick, and potentially logging on and right back on may work. I used WMIC to refresh Windows Explorer with a WHERE clause and CALLing TERMINATE as it restarts it.


@ECHO OFF

SET TmpRegFile=%temp%\~DisallowExe.reg
IF EXIST "%TmpRegFile%" DEL /Q /F "%TmpRegFile%"

ECHO Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO. >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "DisallowRun"=dword:00000001 >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun] >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "1"="Chrome.exe" >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "2"="chrome_installer.exe" >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "3"="Gears-chrome-opt.msi" >> "%TmpRegFile%"
ECHO "4"="GoogleUpdate.exe" >> "%TmpRegFile%"

TASKKILL /F /IM "Chrome.exe"
TASKKILL /F /IM "chrome_installer.exe"
TASKKILL /F /IM "Gears-chrome-opt.msi"
TASKKILL /F /IM "GoogleUpdate.exe"

REG IMPORT "%TmpRegFile%"
PING -n 05 127.0.0.1 > nil
WMIC PROCESS WHERE "Caption = 'explorer.exe'" CALL TERMINATE

EXIT /B



Further Resources



windows server 2008 - NTP sync... doesn't


Following the instructions here, I've manually configured the Windows Time service to use an external time source.


As I noticed the server's clock drifts very fast (1s per 40min), I set the SpecialPollInterval registry parameter to 60sec so that it'll sync often thus neutralizing the drift.


The minute I executed net stop w32time && net start w32time the error dropped to 8ms and I was happy. Alas no more than 20min have passed and it is back up to 300ms.


How come?
How can I fix this?


Notes:



  • It's a VPS

  • Windows Server 2008

  • Using the following time sync sources: 0.pool.ntp.org, 1.pool.ntp.org, 2.pool.ntp.org

  • Using this to measure the drift

  • Measured minute by minute , the drift is almost linear



Answer



I would comment here, but compare your settings to the following server, which I know works. I have to add them as screenshots. I might also consider using the time.windows.com server. It may be farther than the ones you chose, but I have seen issues with other NTP servers. It will still get you close enough time-wise.


enter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description here


linux - What is causing all these "declare -x …" lines when I open a terminal?


When I open a terminal on my Fedora machine (or ssh into it), I get a bunch of lines like this before the prompt:


declare -x CVS_RSH="ssh"
declare -x DISPLAY="localhost:10.0"
declare -x G_BROKEN_FILENAMES="1"
declare -x HISTSIZE="1000"


What is causing this? This may have occurred after I edited my .bashrc, but I believe all I changed was to add another directory path to "PATH=".


Update (responding to heavyd's answer): I grep'ed ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile and /etc/bashrc for "declare" and found nothing.


I looked at /etc/bashrc because ~/.bashrc contains the following:


if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi

I don't see anything in the ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile scripts except the above code, "PATH=…", "export …" and "alias …".


When I run my .bashrc script (using "bash ~/.bashrc") or .bash_profile script I see the list of "declares", but no error messages. (I see nothing if I run /etc/bashrc.)


~./bash_profile is very simple:


# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

export PATH

Solved: Thanks andrew.n, your suggestion helped me track it down. It turns out all those "declare -x …" lines are output if one runs export (by itself), and I had accidentally inserted a CR in between "export" and "PATH=…" in my .bashrc.



Answer



Run


env - HOME="$HOME" /bin/bash --login -xv 2>&1 | tee foo


to startup bash in verbose mode. This will print every line of initialization file as it is read, and every line of initialization file as it is executed, copying the output to a file called foo. Then you can look in foo to see what’s causing declare -x to be called.


How do I find out which programs have registered global hotkeys in Windows 10?


My media hotkeys (play, pause, next, etc.) have been stolen by an unknown process. How do I find a list of which global hotkeys are registered to which program in Windows 10? There are a few programs out there that do this but they only work up to Windows 7 and screw up on Windows 8+.



Answer



Hotkeys and multimedia keys may be overridden by hardware or drivers(unlikely), by a running program, or by system setting.


These three are distinct, and need different ways to check and solve.


Hardware


Your keyboard may have different modes, usually selectable with FN key combination. Some smart keyboards are configurable through a windows utility. See your keyboard documentation.


Running programs


Although this approach is a bit brutal, I suggest launching the task manager and terminating all processes except system ones like: svchost, lsass, csrss, smss, services, userinit, dwm, winlogon, explorer.


If that helped, reboot and try terminating them one by one to see which one causes problems. You can disable startup of offending process through msconfig or SysInternals autoruns programs.


System settings


Press windows Start button, type 'regedit' and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer


Delete registry key ("folder") named AppKey if it exists.


Now browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey and do not delete it.


There are few subkeys (subfolders) that define which program is started when a multimedia key is pressed.


Below are the defaults for windows 7, yours should be similar:


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\15]
"Association"="mailto"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\16]
"Association"=".cda"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\17]
"ShellExecute"="::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\18]
"ShellExecute"="calc.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\7]
"Association"="http"

To assign a key to a program of your choice, delete any values under appropriate registry key, and create a new string (REG_SZ) value named ShellExecute and a full path to a program of your choice as a value, such as c:\vlc\vlc.exe


If there is no key with the number you need (see below), just create one.


Here is a list of known multimedia keys and their corresponding numbers under Appkey\


1   Back (Internet browser) 
2 Forward (Internet browser)
3 Refresh (Internet browser)
4 Stop (Internet browser)
5 Search
6 Favourites
7 Web Home
8 Mute volume
15 Mail
16 Media
17 My Computer
18 Calculator
24 Mute microphone
25 Lower microphone volume
26 Raise microphone volume
27 Help
28 Find
29 New
30 Open
31 Close
32 Save
33 Print
34 Undo
35 Redo
36 Copy
37 Cut
38 Paste
39 Reply
40 Forward (mail)
41 Send
42 Spelling checker
43 Toggle dictation and command/control
44 Toggle microphone
45 Corrections

(Aforementioned list was copied from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/microsoft.public.fr.windowsxp/zZolgM6PC4o/sRJv2NtrB-8J (in French) )


The settings should work after reboot.


Desktop shortcuts


It may be possible to assign the hotkeys you need to a shortcut on windows desktop, start menu, quick launch panel, or pinned to the task bar.


Searching through those could be a pain, instead you may want to copy following text in a new text file, replace c:\ in first line with your user home directory path such as c:\Users\jwhite\, save under a name Script.vbs and run it.


Const rootdir = "c:\"

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set wshell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

logname="test.txt"
Set logfile = fso.CreateTextFile(logname,True)
logfile.Write "Searching for shortcuts with hotkeys" & vbCrLf

recursedirs( fso.GetFolder(rootdir) )

logfile.Write "Done searching" & vbCrLf
logfile.Close

Sub recursedirs(dir)
If trylistdir(dir) Then
For Each subdir In dir.SubFolders
recursedirs subdir
Next

For Each file In dir.Files
extn = fso.GetExtensionName(file.Path)
if LCase(extn) = "lnk" Then
check(file.Path)
end if
Next
End If
End Sub

Function trylistdir(dir)
On Error Resume Next
trylistdir = (dir.SubFolders.Count + dir.Files.Count >= 0)
End Function

Sub check(fname)

Set lnk = wshell.CreateShortcut(fname)
hk = lnk.Hotkey
if (hk<>"") then
logfile.Write fname & " : " & hk & vbCrLf
end if

End Sub

After a few minutes it should create a file named test.txt in the same folder as script itself with contents such as:


Searching for shortcuts with hotkeys
C:\test\test01.lnk : Alt+Ctrl+Z
C:\test\test02.lnk : Alt+Ctrl+Shift+E
Done searching

Software


AFAIK, Windows Hotkey Explorer software worked by pressing every hotkey it could, and then attempting to intercept whatever got called as a result. I believe as of Windows 8 and higher it is not possible to intercept hotkeys that way anymore, therefore this method no longer works, so there may be no such a software possible.


I believe asking for software recommendation may not be appropriate for SuperUser.com anyway, instead you may want to upvote following question on website dedicated for that: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/33669/tool-to-list-all-current-windows-hotkeys


After installing Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018 Update), screen freezes


I have a strange situation. I had recent fresh install of Windows 10 version 1803 and I also tried to upgrade some of my drivers with new releases from the official website. I always disable Automatic Update and never use them.


I am noticing a strange issue since then. While working sometime on high load, screen stops working. I can move my mouse (movement is visible), I can keep talking to other person on Skype,.. but screen doesn't change at all. I can even open apps using keyboard shortcut. They are opened but not shown on screen


I have physical power button mapped to Hibernate. It works too. When I restore from hibernate, screen start working normally.


I'm unable to diagnose the issue correctly. Turning monitor on/off doesn't fix it, but hibernate does though.


I have tried stress test on CPU, GPU, both of the disks, and nothing happens. But sometime out of nowhere it freezes even if I just open a tab.


How do I diagnose the issue and find the culprit? I really don't want to install Windows once again.



Answer



Many people who have proactively installed Windows 10 version 1803 have reported similar issues. Microsoft is releasing a fix within the Patch Tuesday update tomorrow (8 May 2018):



Yesterday, we reported that several users were experiencing Windows 10 intermittently freezing after installing the April 2018 Update while using certain software such as Google Chrome. While an official fix is not yet available, it now appears that Microsoft is aware of the problem and will be releasing a solution on May 8.


The issue in question randomly popped up during normal workflow when using Chrome, causing Windows 10 to "freeze" and not respond to any keystrokes or mouse clicks. The only workarounds, that myself and other people experiencing the problem found, were to either close the machine's lid and reopen it, or attempt the Windows key sequence (Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B) to wake the screen. While some also reported that turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome seemed to solve the problem, the workaround did not work for me.


Now, Microsoft has officially acknowledged the issue, saying that Windows 10 does indeed freeze for some users while using software such as Cortana and Chrome. The company has posted the same workarounds already discovered by users, but has also noted that it is developing a fix "with the goal of including it in the next regular monthly update".


The next regular monthly update refers to May 8, which is the Patch Tuesday for the current month. While the exact scope and root cause of the problem is still unknown, it's good to know that Microsoft is actively working on a fix.



Source: Microsoft is working on a fix for the Windows 10 freezing issue affecting Chrome




Update 1


Microsoft's official release notes regarding this patch are as follows:



Improvements and fixes




This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update. Key changes include:



  • Addresses an issue with the April 2018 Windows Servicing update that causes App-V Scripts (User Scripts) to stop working.

  • Addresses an issue that may cause some devices to stop responding or working when using applications, such as Cortana or Chrome, after installing the Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

  • Addresses an issue that prevents certain VPN apps from working on builds of Windows 10, version 1803. These apps were developed using an SDK version that precedes Windows 10, version 1803, and use the public RasSetEntryProperties API.

  • Addresses additional issues with updated time zone information.

  • Addresses an issue that may cause an error when connecting to a Remote Desktop server. For more information, see CredSSP updates for CVE-2018-0886.

  • Security updates to Windows Server, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Microsoft scripting engine, Windows app platform and frameworks, Windows kernel, Microsoft Graphics Component, Windows storage and filesystems, HTML help, and Windows Hyper-V.


If you installed earlier updates, only the new fixes in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.


For more information about the resolved security vulnerabilities, see the Security Update Guide.


Known issues in this update




Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.


How to get this update




This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update. To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.



Source: May 8, 2018—KB4103721 (OS Build 17134.48)




Update 2


Microsoft just released another cumulative update to Windows 10 version 1803 that addresses this issue again, and the official release notes are as follows:



Improvements and fixes




This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update. Key changes include:



  • Addresses an issue that causes the Video Settings HDR streaming calibration slider to stop working. This is caused by a conflict with the panel brightness intensity settings configured by certain OEMs.

  • Addresses streaming compatibility issues with certain live TV streaming content providers.

  • Addresses an issue where media content previously generated by Media Center doesn't play after installing the Windows 10 April 2018 update.

  • Addresses an issue in which SmartHeap didn't work with UCRT.

  • Addresses performance regression in App-V, which slows many actions in Windows 10.

  • Addresses an issue that causes Appmonitor to stop working at logoff if the Settingstoragepath is set incorrectly.

  • Addresses an issue that causes Appmonitor to stop working at logoff, and user settings are not saved.

  • Addresses an issue where client applications running in a container image don't conform to the dynamic port range.

  • Addresses an issue where the DNS server might stop working when using DNS Query Resolution Policies with a "Not Equal" (NE) condition.

  • Addresses an issue with T1 and T2 custom values after configuring DHCP failover.

  • Addresses an issue that causes the latest versions of Google Chrome (67.0.3396.79+) to stop working on some devices.

  • Addresses issues with the Remote Desktop client in which pop-up windows and drop-down menus don't appear and right-clicking doesn't work properly. These issues occur when using remote applications.

  • Addresses an issue that causes a connection failure when a Remote Desktop connection doesn’t read the bypass list for a proxy that has multiple entries.

  • Addresses an issue that may cause Microsoft Edge to stop working when it initializes the download of a font from a malformed (not RFC compliant) URL.

  • Addresses an issue where some users may receive an error when accessing files or running programs from a shared folder using the SMBv1 protocol. The error is "An invalid argument was supplied".

  • Addresses an issue that causes Task Scheduler tasks configured with an S4U logon to fail with the error "ERROR_NO_SUCH_LOGON_SESSION/STATUS_NO_TRUST_SAM_ACCOUNT".

  • Addresses a performance issue with Windows Mixed Reality on some laptops with hybrid graphics adapters, such as Surface Book 2.


If you installed earlier updates, only the new fixes in this package will be downloaded and installed on your device.


Known issues in this update




Microsoft is not currently aware of any issues with this update.


How to get this update




This update will be downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update. To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.



Source: June 26, 2018—KB4284848 (OS Build 17134.137)


How do I reset autonumber field in access 2003?

How do I reset autonumber field in access 2003?

vps - CentOs localhost only work when connected to internet


I have been trying to solve this problem (on and off) for three months, but still can't get it to work or even understand it why it happens.


THE SCENARIO:


I have a VirtualBox installed in my {HP 32bit, Windows 7} Laptop


In this VB, I've installed CentOs 6.5 minimal, Nginx, PHP-FPM with no problems.


In short, everything works well.


The PROBLEM


The problem is I can only access locahost if I am connected to the Internet.


While connected to the Internet, If I go to http://192.168.1.100/ everything works, I can see my files like index.html just fine, but as soon as I am go offline, I get nothing, as if I was trying to access Google without being connected to the Internet.


This is a screen shot of my Vbox settings:


enter image description here


Also here is the config for /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:


enter image description here


I have done the following various times.



Tried with iptables disabled/enabled
Tried with Host Only, NAT Bridged Adapters
Tried with Static IP, and DHCP..
refreshed networks several times



I am sure the answer is somewhere, because I still don't have the perfect setup configs, but mixing many things as I go, so still can't get it to work.



Answer



In the VirtualBox Network settings, you have the CentOS machine 'bridged' onto your WiFi network, with a static IP address.


Your laptop won't have a fixed IP address on its WiFi connection; when you are not connected to WiFi, Windows has no network connection up and running and doesn't know how to get to the CentOS server. When you connect to WiFi your router gives Windows an address on the same network and then it can get to the CentOS server.


They are running on the same computer, but they are separate and can't automatically talk between each other. The fix is to change the networking setup somehow, and how you change it depends on what you want to do.


The easiest way might be to go to Windows Control Panel, Network Connections, then find your wired network adapter (assuming your laptop has one and you don't use it), and go to the properties and set a TCP/IP network address of 192.168.1.101, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, no gateway.


This will pretend your computer is always on the same network as the CentOS machine and can always get to it, yet should still allow the WiFi connection to take over and be your internet connection when you use it, and still allow CentOS to get out to the internet when WiFi is connected, and still allow other computers to connect in to CentOS, and still allow your computer to work on other WiFi networks, but it will stop your wired connection from working in as many places.


There are other approaches you could take, but they will all affect one or more of these use cases, and require more work to put right afterwards.


[Edit: I am ignoring where you say "can't access localhost". That might be important. You should describe exactly what your test is - which computer are you using, what software are you loading, where are you typing localhost?]


Edit: New suggested configuration


This involves having a separate, two-computer network just for Windows to talk to CentOS.




  1. In Windows, in the image you showed here http://i.imgur.com/xiLaUst.jpg?1 - go to the properties of the VirtualBox Host-Only Network adapter, into Internet Protocol TCP/IP v4 properties, and set an IP address of 192.168.250.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, leave the other settings empty, and OK out of it.




  2. In the CentOS Virtual Machine settings (with it powered off), go to the Network settings and set Adapter 1 to "Host Only Adapter".




  3. Power on the CentOS machine. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and set IP address 192.168.250.2 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Have no gateway, no DNS servers. Restart the networking or restart the CentOS machine.




You should now have this new, separate network of 192.168.250.1 -- 192.168.250.2 to talk between them. Run your NGinX so it listens on the 192.168.250.2 address, and visit http://192.168.250.2/ in Windows to get to it.


This should work with or without WiFi. The only problem is that CentOS cannot get to the internet to do updates or installs. If this is a problem:




  1. Power off the CentOS machine and go to the VirtualBox settings for it, in Network. Choose the Adapter 2 tab, enable it, set it to Bridged Adapter.




  2. Power on the CentOS machine, and configure an eth1 interface. Configure this to get an IP address dynamically / by DHCP. I use system-config-network-tui but I had to install it. You might be able to copy /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 Restart the networking make sure it comes up.




It should have a network connection joined to your WiFi like the original one that only works when WiFi is connected, but CentOS can use it to get to the internet.


Sunday, 25 February 2018

Ctrl+F5 vs Ctrl+R (On Browsers)


is there a difference between these two shortcuts on most browsers?



Answer



Ctrl+F5 does indeed do a force cache purge for that page, while Ctrl+R does not.


How to know which port is busy or free on Windows 7?




Possible Duplicate:
How can I see all active connections?



I have some conflict of ports and my WampServer didn't work, so I have to know which port is used.


Is there a command line command ? or any program to monitor the ports ?



Answer



To list open ports and listening services, then from within command prompt, type


netstat -a

or


netstat -an

For more details, in command prompt type


netstat ?

linux - How to backup history in Firefox?


Firefox currently has a history page limit. In about:config:


places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 10322

I want to retain it completely. There are lot of useful information in that data. Is there a setting or extension that allows me to save old history automatically to my hard drive?



Answer



What does the places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages preference do in Firefox? According to this Mozilla: Places Expiration article:



places.history.expiration.max_pages: The maximum number of pages that may be retained in the database before starting to expire.





  • Steps: As the question is with Linux, the following procedure is focused on Linux environment. But the procedure is same for Windows or MacOS but the Firefox installation path is different. Use any file manager or text editor to create and edit files. These steps are with command line.



    • Find the Firefox executable. Type this command to find firefox executable: which firefox. The usual installation path will be /usr/bin/firefox.

    • Change directory to /usr/lib/firefox.

    • Create autoconfig.js file: touch ./defaults/pref/autoconfig.js. The file name is constant, don't use any other name. Add these lines in that file:




  //comments
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
//END//

The mozilla.cfg file name can be any other name but it should be match with the very next step. * Create mozilla.cfg file: touch /usr/lib/firefox/mozilla.cfg. Add these lines in that file and change that value as you want:


  // IMPORTANT: Start your code on the 2nd line
lockPref("places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages", 999999);


  • Notes: The folder structure will be like this (other files are omitted):


/usr/lib/firefox
|
+-- mozilla.cfg
|
+-- defaults/pref
|
+-- autoconfig.js

Always remember to change those file permission with chmod 644 aka. -rw-r--r--. Kill all Firefox processes to make effect the changes. The mozilla.cfg file should have a comment at first line. lockPerf can be changed as following:



  • pref(prefName, value) – If the user has changed the value, it will get reset every time the browser is started.

  • defaultPref(prefName, value) – It can be permanently changed by the user.

  • lockPref(prefName, value) – Locking a preference prevents a user from changing it.


See more options and details in this article: Customizing Firefox Using AutoConfig


ubuntu - "cannot read the Linux header." New install, old machine


This could be a hardware problem. I hope not. I have an old Compaq Evo laptop and I have completed the install of lubuntu from here: http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/11.10/release/. There were no complaints during setup which was a complete wipe of the 250 GB HD. I get a boot menu when booting from the HD but it has never got past the error message:


error: cannot read the Linux header.
error: you need to load the kernel first.

I am now in rescue mode and I can execute a shell in /dev/sda1. When I do fdisk -l I see just three partitions:



  • /dev/sda1 (id:83), real big

  • /dev/sda2 (id:5), extended

  • /dev/sda5 (id:82), swap


I can see files in /boot and in my home directory. What to do next? (and by the way you're not allowed say "bring laptop to recycling centre").


Here are the errors from my RESULTS.txt


unlzma: Decoder error
awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in

I wonder is it because the boot files are in a part of the disk that is inaccessible to the BIOS?



Answer



Figured it out. The single large partition for / was causing a problem. I assume because of the old BIOS. I solved it by manually partitioning as follows:


40 GB  / 
2 GB /boot
1 GB /swap

There she boots.


windows xp - How do I prepare my system for cloning, before using CloneZilla?


Part 1 is here if anyone is interested: Clone or Image a PC



I've got 100 PC's to setup. Is it possible to set up 1 of these PC's with software, drivers, settings, configs, licenses etc, then clone/image exactly the same setup onto the other computers where each computer would have a different computer name, different user name for each application etc?



Basically, I found that I cannot use sysprep to prepare the system for cloning with CloneZilla. This is because sysprep pulls the OEM key out of the image from Dell computers. We have Dell computers.


So, as all the 100 computers are identical, how do I prepare the system for cloning, before using CloneZilla?



Answer



If you're using a VLK, it will be fine... If you're using an OEM key, you can't do this, as the OEM key is a pre-activated key (assuming you're talking about the key it comes with, not the one on the computer case itself). You will need to make sure it was set up properly (i.e. doing the Ctrl+Shift+F3 on the first screen of the OOBE when first turning it on) before doing the sysprep yourself. If you already screwed up, I'd recommend restoring from the Dell image, then re-doing this step on the Welcome screen. This will log you in as the Administrator account.


Now, make your changes: Install extra programs/drivers, remove crapware, set policies and join the domain, etc. Once this is done, run sysprep, choose Generalize, and Shutdown. Once you confirm this and Windows is shut down, THEN clone the drive


Another reference: Windows 7 images in Audit mode


windows 7 - Cygwin fatal error unable to remap.. What does it mean?


When running python in cygwin, I get the following error:


    0 [main] python 6140 C:\cygwin\bin\python.exe: *** fatal error - unable to remap \\?\C:\cygwin\lib\python2.6\lib-dynload\time.dll to same address as parent: 0x2B0000 != 0x360000
Stack trace:
Frame Function Args
00288E68 6102749B (00288E68, 00000000, 00000000, 00000000)
00289158 6102749B (61177B80, 00008000, 00000000, 61179977)
0028A188 61004AFB (611A136C, 6124112C, 002B0000, 00360000)
End of stack trace
0 [main] python 9048 fork: child 6140 - died waiting for dll loading, errno 11
abort: Resource temporarily unavailable

What does it mean, and what should I do to fix it?



Answer



You need to run the rebaseall command from the rebase package to fix the problem.



  1. Install the rebase package using the Cygwin setup.exe utility

  2. Close everything running that uses the cygwin1.dll

  3. Open a Cygwin shell

  4. Type rebaseall at the prompt


Rebasing is usually only required when installed packages are installed that modify libraries that are dynamically loaded. I'll admit a bad habit of always running rebaseall after installing or upgrading packages in a Cygwin install rather than waiting for that error you hit to show up.


As for why you got that error and how rebasing solves the problem, this post has this to say about it:



You have it backwards. Forking doesn't break the relocation. Relocation breaks forking. cygwin1.dll needs to have a very special memory layout to implement the fork semantics in Win32. If this memory layout is disrupted, fork breaks. Relocating cygwin1.dll disrupts the required memory layout. 'rebaseall' does its best to locate all Cygwin DLLs that it knows of into a layout that avoids collisions. This maintains the required memory layout so fork can do its job.



schtasks in windows XP


I am trying to use schtasks to create a scheduled task. While I have no problem using this utility on my Windows 8 machine (or Windows 7 for that matter), I find that XP machines don't have this exe installed.
Is this correct or am I doing something wrong ? (when I type schtasks in the command line of XP machines I get 'schtasks is not recognized...').
According to the MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb736357(v=vs.85).aspx) docs this is supposed to be supported by XP and up. If not, is it possible to run this as a standalone program (meaning, to copy the process myself to the target machine and execute it) ?


Thanks !



Answer



It is possible that you don't have %SystemRoot%\system32 in your PATH variable. Does it work when you call it with the full path like %SystemRoot%\system32\schtasks.exe?


This utility should be present in every version of Windows XP but Home an Starter as @Sriniv's answer indicates.


If you're using XP Home/Starter you can safely copy the utility to %SystemRoot%\system32. I've checked it with Dependency Walker and it doesn't seem to have any external dependencies apart from WinAPI.


You should be wary of licensing issues though, the Product Name of this utility is Microsoft® Windows® Operating System so it probably counts as a part of Windows XP edition you're taking it from and might have to be licensed. I'm not an expert in licensing though so this might be incorrect.


microsoft word - Turning active hyperlinks back to blue

I selected all the text in a document and colored it all black (which is what I wanted to do). I didn't realize that the document had some hyperlinks in it (several pages in, in a very long document), so now I can't tell where the hyperlinks are, although I know it's working. Since there are many links, how can I turn the links back to underlined blue (as they should be) without having to go to each one and turning it blue?

USB 2.0 high-speed on all ports


Is there a USB 3.0 host that is capable of providing USB 2.0 high speed connections on multiple ports simultaneously?


TO BE CLEAR, I'm asking if a USB 3.0 host can split it's 5 Gb/s over multiple fully saturated USB 2.0 high-speed devices?



Answer



This is a misconception. Nobody "splits" or "re-distributes" anything in USB3 architecture. USB2 signals go through USB2 D+/D- channel exclusively, USB3 signals go through Tx/Rx pairs. I guess this misconception comes from the older and different USB2 architecture, where full and low-speed (FS and LS) transactions can be really "split" between multiple FS/LS connections. In USB2, this function was implemented via so-called "Transaction Translator" (TT) block built into each hub. And the HS bandwidth could be "split" between FS devices only if multiple TT (MTT) are designed into the hub. This kind of translation architecture is not implemented nor specified in Super-Speed USB3 architecture.


If you connect four USB2 HDD to a hub, all FOUR will get an aggregate of 35-40MB/s per HOST, or 8-10MB/s sustainable throughput per each drive. Higher USB3 "bandwidth" has nothing to do with USB2 transactions, absolutely nothing (except that the xHCI USB3.0 controller architecture might be somewhat more efficient in handling protocol overhead).


USB3.0 hubs have essentially two hubs inside, a USB3, and a legacy USB2. They function independently, they just redirect (mux) downstream ports to one hub controller or another if a device is attached, or just work in parallel if hubs are in the segment.


Same goes for USB3.0 hosts, the architecture is the same, and they are called the same, except that it is "root" hub. If you get the USBview.exe utility, you will see that the root xHCI controller branches into TWO ROOT HUBS, one SS USB3, and another USB2. If you plug a USB3.0 device into mainboard USB port, it goes into the USB3 section, and logical port number will be, say "1". If you plug a USB2 device into the same physical port, it will be directed to USB 2 branch, and its logical port will be something like "5", so the total bandwidth will be defined by corresponding root hub section. No one shares the super-speed bandwidth with high-speed devices, they are nearly independent.


So the answer to OP question is "NO".


linux - How to delete all files in a directory except some?


I need to delete all files in a directory, but exclude some of them. For example, in a directory with the files a b c ... z, I need to delete all except for u and p. Is there an easy way to do this?



Answer



What I do in those cases is to type


rm *

Then I press Ctrl+X,* to expand * into all visible file names.


Then I can just remove the two files I like to keep from the list and finally execute the command line.


macos - Are there any extensions or tricks to reopen several closed tabs in Safari

I know Safari 5 (on OSX) allows undoing of a recently closed tab with Cmd-Z. However, that works only for the very last closed tab. That is, I cannot press CmdZ twice to reopen the last two closed tabs.


Except for searching my history for the last few tabs, does anyone know of a trick (or extension) in Safari that allows me to reopen last several closed tabs?


Chrome and Firefox offer this simple feature by default: I can press CmdShiftT twice to reopen the last two closed tabs.

Awesome Window Manager - Rule assigning programs to tags


I have a set of tags 'main', 'www', and 3:


-- {{{ Tags
tags = {
names = {"main", "www", 3},
for s = 1, screen.count() do
tags[s] = awful.tag(tags.names, s, tags.layout)
end
}
-- }}}

I want Firefox to open in tag "www". I've tried the following rule:


-- {{{ Rules
awful.rules.rules = {
{ rule = {class = "Firefox" },
properties = { tag = tags[1]["www"] }},
}
-- }}}

However, if I hit Super+R then type 'firefox' or run 'firefox &' from a terminal, Firefox opens in whatever tag I'm viewing.


I've tried {class = "firefox"} and properties = { tag = tags[1][2] } but those modified rules did not work either.


What is the correct way to set up a rule to make firefox always open in a particular tag?



Answer



I'm just going to paste my excerpts here. These are confirmed working as of 3.4.10+.


...
62 -- {{{ Tags
63 -- Define a tag table which will hold all screen tags.
64 tags = {
65 names = { "1www", "2 @ ", "3trm", "4off", "5msg", "6vmr", 7, "8tom", "9log" },
66 layout = { layouts[1], layouts[2], layouts[3], layouts[2], layouts[3],
67 layouts[3], layouts[3], layouts[3], layouts[3] }
68 }
69 for s = 1, screen.count() do
70 -- Each screen has its own tag table.
71 tags[s] = awful.tag(tags.names, s, tags.layout)
72 end
73 -- }}}
...
408 -- {{{ Rules
409 awful.rules.rules = {
410 -- All clients will match this rule.
411 { rule = { },
412 properties = { border_width = beautiful.border_width,
413 border_color = beautiful.border_normal,
414 focus = true,
415 keys = clientkeys,
416 buttons = clientbuttons } },
417 -- Set Firefox to always map on tags number 1 of screen 1.
418 { rule = { class = "Firefox" },
419 properties = { tag = tags[1][1] } },
420 { rule = { class = "Gvim" },
421 properties = { size_hints_honor = false } },
422 { rule = { class = "KeePass.exe" },
423 properties = { maximized_vertical = true, maximized_horizontal = true } },
424 { rule = { class = "Mirage" },
425 properties = { maximized_vertical = true, maximized_horizontal = true } },
426 { rule = { class = "Navigator" },
427 properties = { tag = tags[1][1], maximized_vertical = true, maximized_horizontal = true } },
428 { rule = { class = "pinentry" },
429 properties = { floating = true } },
430 { rule = { class = "Skype" },
431 properties = { tag = tags[1][5] } },
432 { rule = { class = "Thunderbird" },
433 properties = { tag = tags[1][2] } },
434 { rule = { class = "Tomboy" },
435 properties = { tag = tags[1][8] } },
436 { rule = { class = "URxvt" },
437 properties = { size_hints_honor = false } },
438 { rule = { class = "Vncviewer" },
439 properties = { maximized_vertical = true, maximized_horizontal = true } },
440 { rule = { class = "XMind" },
441 properties = { maximized_vertical = true, maximized_horizontal = true } },
442 { rule = { class = "XTerm" },
443 properties = { size_hints_honor = false } },
444 { rule = { instance = "XTerm-logs" },
445 properties = { tag = tags[1][9] } },
446 }
447 -- }}}

I have no idea how Lua deals with whitespace, I do notice your curly braces and whitespaces are inconsistent.


Where does Skype save my contact&#39;s avatars in Linux?

I'm using Skype on Linux. Where can I find images cached by skype of my contact's avatars? Answer I wanted to get those Skype avat...