windows - System and Interrupts causing high CPU

Under Process Explorer, I noticed that System -- and occasionally Interrupts -- are taking between 5% and 20% CPU constantly, for hours on end. This is resulting in weird video playback problems. (Audio files have 'gaps' and YouTube videos have pauses in them.)

This problem has been happening for a while. Sometimes, a restart fixes it, IIRC. I also recently upgraded to a 1920x1080 monitor... But this shouldn't have any affect on audio. I also just disabled ReadyBoost (which I also got recently).

I killed PeerBlock and uTorrent, and this still continues to happen; previously, killing them was enough to get my CPU back down to ~0%.

My CPU temperature is ~55 C and my HDD is at <40 C.

---

So it is uTorrent's fault (or PeerBlock or Comodo).

Answer

Look carefully at this picture, what the worst thing that you can spot?

That should be ndis, which stands for network driver interface specification.

Wait, what... Network, that's right:

So it is uTorrent's fault (or PeerBlock or Comodo).

So, hmm, the problem is indeed provoked by network activity. And it does something with the driver interface, that's right because firewalls add class filters to driver interfaces.

So, the correct way to proceed is to get rid of those filters, which has proven to work for me:

1. Get rid of your Comodo firewall, PeerBlock and other network related filters.


2. Get rid of your network card (from device manager) and remove its drivers.


3. Shut down your computer.


4. Remove the network card.


5. Boot your computer.


6. Ensure the network card is gone from the Device Manager, under the options at the top you can select to show hidden devices; remove any hidden network card devices you come across.


7. Shut down your computer.


8. Insert the network card again.


9. Get the newest drivers for your network card, install them.


10. Reboot again to make sure they are cleanly loaded.


11. Test your software again, then consider an alternate firewall.

Been through worse issues, done the above steps to get rid of Comodo.

wireless networking - Providing passwords to multiple users on a wi-fi network

I have a wi-fi network that is being used by more than 400 users. Right now they are given access by a single password which the system administrator types on the individual workstations during the initial login. After that each time they try to connect to the wi-fi,they are automatically provided access. How can this be eliminated by giving each individual user a password that they already use for other applications in the say local network?

windows 7 - "Users" folder shared with everyone

Today I found something strange on my newly installed Windows 7 OS - my "users" folder C:\Users was shared and "Everyone" had full access... I disabled that and now it seems fine, however I'm a bit scared actually, I'd like to know what caused that and if my system is compromised.

Answer

There is a known phenomena that shares the entire users folder, related to public folder sharing. see a description here: http://scottiestech.info/2009/09/25/windows-7-file-sharing-fixing-the-entire-user-directory-shared-problem/

Please note however, that share permissions stack on top of disk permissions, so if your user profile does not allow Everyone Full Control, then the share permissions don't override that. in fact MS recommends that all shares use permissions of Everyone Full Control, and that the folders shared implement actual permissions.

The reason is that backing up a disk or rebuilding your OS preserves file system permissions, but not shares/share permissions, so if you put all your ACL logic in the share, and the share is lost, the permissions are lost with it, and your users will end up with more access than they should.

I know seeing a folder with share permissions of Everyone Full control is scary, but its probably not that bad unless you have opened up the permissions on your account folders.

info on how to configure public folder sharing in win7 here: http://howtech.tv/basics/how-to-do-public-folder-sharing-in-windows-7/

grub2 - Windows 8 changes boot order

I installed Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 on a 3TB GPT disk in UEFI mode.

Both can boot up OK.

Both operating systems created their ntries in the UEFI boot menu, there's an "ubuntu" and a "Windows 8" entry.

The boot order can be altered in the motherboard's UEFI setup.

I'd like to boot "ubuntu" first, because I set up GRUB 2 to be able to boot both systems.

But whenever I boot Windows 8, it changes the boot order so that it boots up first.

How can I prevent this?

Thanks a lot.

-- UPDATE --

I learned that bcdedit.exe can be used to manipulate the Boot Configuration Data in windows.

This is important because Windows synchronizes the BCD with the boot NVRAM, that stores the boot order.

Every time the {fwbootmgr} entry in the BCD is touched, the NVRAM is overwritten.

I modified this entry to load GRUB 2 first, and it did. However, after booting Windows 8, both the NVRAM and the {fwbootmgr} in the BCD reverted to the original order, that is, to boot Windows 8 first.

I'm really puzzled by this.

-- UPDATE 2 --

I managed to kinda fix the problem by creating a startup script at the group policy editor in Windows. The startup script issues a "bcdedit /set {fwbootmgr} DEFAULT {appropriate UUID}" command. This is BIG hack, and definitely NOT the soulution I want. I'd like Windows to feel OK at the second place after GRUB in the NVRAM.

So how can I do that?

Answer

A Microsoft representative answered my question on their official forum. They said that this is indeed the normal behaviour.

I solved the problem by running a .bat file at every system startup. The file does this:

bcdedit /set {fwbootmgr} DEFAULT {appropriate UUID}

Where "appropriate UUID" is the UUID in GRUB, and can be read from the list that "bcedit /enum firmware".

The bat files can be edited by opening the group policy editor (look it up in metro).

I wrote an article on the dual-boot issue at: http://tlfabian.blogspot.hu/2013/01/converting-dual-boot-mbr-partitioned.html

mac - How to crop Screen Recordings under Snow Leopard?

Quicktime Player for Snow Leopard now allows you record the screen. Awesome!
Once you have a movie it will let you trim screen recordings for length.
Is there a way to crop the movie's dimensions, either in QT or using some built-in or free software?

Update: How to crop to an arbitrary size and aspect ratio? iMovie only seems to let you crop to the aspect ratio of the containing project.

Result: Both good answers but since I have QuickTime Player 7 and Photoshop, that's the workflow I choose as the answer. NOTE: If you have Photoshop Extended, you can import a movie, use the crop tool, and Export the cropped movie. Not free or built-in, but convenient.

To summarize the instructions from the video link ricbax posted:

1. Open movie in QuickTime Player 7


2. Copy a frame and Paste it into a new document in Photoshop


3. Draw a rectangular selection around the area to keep and fill with black


4. Invert the selection and fill with white


5. Save as .GIF, with 2 colors


6. Back in QuickTime Player 7, open Movie Properties window


7. Select the Video Track


8. Select the Visual Settings Tab


9. Drag and Drop the 2-color .GIF file onto the Mask drop area (or use choose file button)


10. Export the (now cropped) movie
    DONE

Answer

Checkout the video here:

How to Use Quicktime to Crop Video with Letterbox/Pillarbox

If you upgraded SL from Leopard you can do this via Quicktime 7 otherwise they have cut out all the awesome editing features from QT10. :(

Windows 7 Update Failed on Multiple attempts

I have been unsuccessful in installing Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7. Here are errors for windows update history log.

I also get the following message on failed bootup.

Based on some of the online information I have tried clean boot on windows 7 followed by an attempt to install the Security Monthly Quality Rollup.

As suggest by my online research I have run the windows update troubleshooter. Here is the output from the windows update troubleshooter.

Below is the output from setupact file. There are fair amount of CreateFileW failed entries in the file. Not sure if this is relevant.

2018-05-13 08:06:22, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 09:45:38, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 11:07:48, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 13:24:34, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 14:32:25, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 20:34:18, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-13 23:51:25, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-14 07:34:19, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-14 20:55:03, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002
2018-05-15 06:05:47, Info                  DPX    CreateFileW failed, FileName:\\?\C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\a350a656b9d7be6324a86529cf4b81f0\$dpx$.tmp\job.xml, Error:0x80070002

Below is link to cbs.log file bottom to up.

I am yet to find success

Question: Has anyone on this forum encountered similar issues? If so some guidance on resolve this issue?

[Edited] Resolution: Review CBS log. Rebuilt the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network{4aa6e004-e325-11ce-bfc1-080023410318} tree structure and the config register binary variable

References:

Answer

Adding some context into the CBS and CSI might help seek a solution. Therefore the following insights and suggestion might of help.

Following are some of the services that add entries to CBS log.

• CBS (Component Based Servicing) – Also known as the trusted installer (TRUSTEDINSTALLER.EXE), which works at the package / update level


• CSI (Component Servicing Infrastructure) – Works at the deployment/component level


• DMI (Driver Management and Install) – Advanced driver installation processes


• CMI (Component Management Infrastructure) – Handles the advanced installers


• SMI (Systems Management Infrastructure) – Used to manage registry settings


• Kernel Transaction Manager (KTM) – Enables clients to use the transactional registry and file system

The above are discuss in greater detail in Understanding Component-Based Servicing (Understanding Component-Based Servicing). With the knowledge of the above look errors in the CBS.log

Following is a list of suggested error codes to start from:

0xf0805 CBS_E_INVALID_PACKAGE the update package was not a valid CSI update      
0xf0806 CBS_E_PENDING the operation could not be complete due to locked resources
0xf0807 CBS_E_NOT_INSTALLABLE the component referenced is not separately installable
0xf0808 CBS_E_IMAGE_NOT_ACCESSIBLE the image location specified could not be accessed
0xf0809 CBS_E_ARRAY_ELEMENT_MISSING attempt to get non-existent array element
0xf080A CBS_E_REESTABLISH_SESSION session object updated, must recreate session
0xf080B CBS_E_PROPERTY_NOT_AVAILABLE requested property is not supported
0xf080C CBS_E_UNKNOWN_UPDATE named update not present in package
0xf080D CBS_E_MANIFEST_INVALID_ITEM invalid attribute or element name encountered
0xf080E CBS_E_MANIFEST_VALIDATION_DUPLICATE_ATTRIBUTES multiple attributes have the same name

For additional information take a look at Windows Update error code list

It would be a good idea to sort some of the errors into file and post the errors instead of the complete cbs.log file.

A variant of the following command might be of helpful.

findstr/c: "CBS_E_" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log>cbs_error.txt

In addition consider running Checksur (System Update Readiness) tool that might fix some errors due to corrupted files.

xorg - Setting up X11 forwarding over SSH on Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux?

I have a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ connected to my local network and I can SSH into it with no problems. This does cause some problems though as everything is done on the command line.

What I would really like to do is use X11 forwarding by using the SSH client that comes with Windows Subsystem for Linux. I am running Windows 10 Pro with the 1803 update installed.

I'm just curious about how I might go about using this feature? If it won't work in Windows 10 natively then I can always run a Linux virtual machine to connect to the Raspberry Pi.

Answer

This is definitely possible given your current setup. Note that you also have the option of using Putty but either way, you'll need to have an X server running on the client machine, your Windows Subsystem for Linux — WSL. The client-server model of the X window system is partially what makes X forwarding so easy to pull off. All you need is an X server running on host and client.

Raspberry Pi (Host) Configuration

First, you'll want to make a minor config adjustment to your SSH server on the host machine (your Raspberry Pi). First, find your sshd_config file within the etc directory. You can run these commands by ssh-ing into the Raspberry Pi (with a sudo-capable account), or accessing the Pi directly and then opening a terminal.

Once you're in, run the command:

cd /etc/ssh

Make a backup of your sshd config file:

cp sshd_config sshd_config.ORIG

Now open the original file in a text editor with:

sudo nano sshd_config

You can choose any text editor you're comfortable with (see here for the nano text editor shortcuts). This is the main config file for the ssh server. Find and uncomment the following lines:

X11Forwarding yes
X11UseForwarding yes

Save and exit. Now you'll need to restart your Pi's SSH server with:

sudo systemctl restart sshd

Windows (Client) Setup

You're done with your host. Now all you need to do is install an X server for Windows. There are a few options to choose from but I would go with Cygwin X which you can download here. Install it and once you run it, it should spawn a little window on your client which will be used to display the X program. You can now test that X forwarding is happening by returning to your WSL shell and running the simple command:

xclock

A simple clock should appear in the window spawned by Cygwin. You can terminate the clock by returning to your WSL shell and hitting Ctrl+C. If this command isn't recognized, you may first need to install x11-graphics applications on the host machine with:

sudo apt-get install x11-apps

X forwarding should now be enabled for you and you can now run most if not all of your Raspberry Pi's applications from Windows.

---

Note on XDMCP, FreeNX

You may wish to take things a step further and set things up to run an entire desktop environment from your Pi rather than just app-by-app which is what X forwarding allows. Here are a couple common options available to you:

• XDMCP: This is the easiest to set up but is notoriously insecure and most authorities only recommend you ever run it on a trusted, wired LAN (like your home network). This may be more trouble than it's worth but if you're curious to look into it, see this Rasp Pi thread for the initial setup.


• FreeNX: More secure than XDMCP and probably worth the time to set up if you'll want to do this regularly and possibly from another network entirely. You'll need to install a FreeNX server on the host, then use another piece of software - NoMachine - on your Windows client. See here for a very detailed guide.

Word 2013 - default paste options don't work

No matter what I set the default paste options to in Word 2013, text always pastes with source formatting. I've tried fiddling with everything on that section of the options pane including "smart cut and paste" but nothing seems to make any difference at all.

Has anyone else experienced this? is there something stupid I missed? I'm using 64 bit office BTW but not sure if that makes any difference.

just to be clear, here's exactly what I'm doing.

• click home tab


• click triangle underneath paste button


• click 'set default paste'


• next to "pasting from other programs" select "keep text only"


• click OK


• go to chrome browser window, select some text, press control-c


• return to Word window, paste control-v


• text is pasted with the formatting from chrome, not as plain text.

Note that if I click the small triangle under the paste button and then click the icon to keep text only, it does what I would expect.

Also I'm using office 64 bit which I know is not common so it may be that this is a bug that only appears in the 64 bit version.

linux - Can I steal a vim session from another terminal?

I forgot to start screen before I started working, and now I've SSH'd into my machine from my laptop. ps -a gives me the process ID of the vim process. Can I steal the vim session from my other terminal and attach it to my ssh session?

How do I set the default data type to "text" while importing data from a text file in Excel?

I am working with Excel 2016 on a Windows 7 system. While importing data from a text file (csv, tsv, etc.), in the third step of the data import wizard, the data type for each column can be configured manually. The default data type in that wizard page is "General". How can I change that default to "text" (or to other data type)?

pci express - Will a PCI-E V2.0 Graphics Card work with a PCI-E V1.0 Motherboard?

If I buy a PCI-E v2.0 graphics card (Nvidia Geforce GTX 275) will it work correctly and to the full potential with my PCI-E v1.0 motherboard (Asus P5B-Deluxe) ?

Answer

Yes. PCIe is backwards-compatible, so you can use 1.0 cards in 2.0 motherboards and 2.0 cards in 1.0 motherboards.

As to reaching the full potential of your graphics card, it's true that PCIe 1.0 is half the speed of PCIe 2.0. (So a PCIe 1.0 x16 interface is comparable to PCIe 2.0 x8.) But single graphics cards really don't saturate the bus anyway: if you dig around through older tech articles, you'll find a number of reviews of video cards in the x8 PCIe slots of early SLI/CrossFire motherboards. Invariably, the conclusion was that the slower bus didn't hurt performance noticeably at all.

You'll be just fine.

Photoshop Pixel Accuracy

When I create an image in Photoshop I can't work out how to get it accurate to the pixel if you use the pixel grid that appears when you zoom you end up with a partially transparent border around the outside of the image. I think this is supposed to create a smoother effect, but when I want dead accuracy I can't get it. I've sorted the problem once before, but I can't for the life of me remember how. I also can't find anything on the net.

Answer

Some ways to do it:

• 
  

  Turn off "pixel grid" and get into the preferences, in the Guides and Grid section, and change it to make a "gridline" every 1 pixel, and "subdivision" every 1 pixel as well. Have the grid on, and Snap to Grid set.

  
  


• 
  

  For some of the creation tools like the rectangular and "shapes" tool, look for Snap to Pixel options. This relates to vector objects. See here for more.

  
  


• 
  

  Use pixel-based tool items, like the pencil tool with a 1px size, or the line tool.

  
  


• 
  

  Use Illustrator instead, it is more oriented towards vector objects and pixel by pixel editing, whereas Photoshop is more photo oriented. Set Illustrator to pixel mode.

  
  


• 
  

  Use an Icon Editor, they have nice grids, and work pixel for pixel and do not use any blending on zooming at all.

  
  

_{Side notes: Some of the above things do not work in earlier versions of the programs, if you cannot find "snap to pixels" in CS3 that is because it did not exist then.}

How to get rid of a single entry of the windows explorer context menu that is permanently displayed?

I have a very strange problem. For some hours now a single entry of the windows explorer's context menu (actually the "Copy" entry) is permanently displayed. It's top most in the z Buffer obviously since it overlays all other windows. I killed all running explorer processes but the entry stays visible. Any idea how to get rid of it short from logging out and back in?

Answer

Ok, got it. Had to kill dwm.exe via the task manager. Meh... Sorry to bother.

windows 7 - How can I delete a symbolic link?

I created a symlink using mklink. Now I need to change it but I can't figure out how to delete it so I can recreate it correctly.

Answer

Be very careful.

If you have a symbolic link that is a directory (made with mklink /d) then using del will delete all of the files in the target directory (the directory that the link points to), rather than just the link.

SOLUTION: rmdir on the other hand will only delete the directory link, not what the link points to.

hard drive - Fixing bad sectors on Apple Snow Leopard

I'm running Snow Leopard and have found some bad sectors on my hard drive. Looks like I'm in need of a fix here.

How do I go about fixing these bad sectors? Is there a program or tool that I can use to fix this?

Answer

If you hard drive truly has a bad sector, then try Tech Tool Pro v5. But if you have bad sectors, it typically is a unrepairable issue. Bad sectors should be transparently mapped out using spare sectors on the hard drive.

If you are seeing it at the user level, then your hard drive is dying. Back up your data, and purchase a new hard drive.

Mouse button and keypress counter for Windows

I am trying to kick the habit of using a mouse where I could use keyboard shortcuts, for ergonomic reasons. I believe that if I see some statistics of my use of both input devices, I could reduce my use of mouse clicks. Do you know of any free software I can install on my Windows XP machine that counts keypresses and mouse button presses and displays an hourly/daily report? No fancy GUI is needed - just two summary lines.

Answer

I think this is what you want:

Gabe's TypOmeter

From the site:

"Display system information!"

EditByBSEditor: 1.Mouse Click counter The Mouse Click counter shows the number of mouse clicks you have performed since you started the TypOmeter.

2.Speedometer The Speedometer shows the speed you are typing with. The speed is measured in keystrokes pr minute. The range of the speedometer is from zero to 900 keystrokes pr minute. The speedometer scale has indicators for every 150 keystrokes pr minute.

3.Max Speed indicator The Max Speed indicator shows the the maximum speed you have typed with the last ten seconds. It uses the same scale as the Speedometer. If you concentrate on the typing a while, you can watch this indicator afterwards to check how fast you typed the last couple of sentences.

4.Over All Total counter (x1000) The Over All Total counter shows number of thousands keypress and MouseClicks you have performed ever. (At least as long as you have used the TypOmeter...)

5.Key Press counter The Key Press counter shows the number of keypresses you have performed since you started the TypOmeter.

6.Word Counter The Word Counter shows you how many words you have typed. This feature works best while writing prosa, i.e. like writing a Word-document. Please also see the the Word pr minute indicator.

7.Max Speed Reached indicator This inidcator will get red if your typing speed exeeds 900 keystrokes pr minute, which is the limit of the TypOmeter.

8. Bad Key indicator The red area shows the amount of Backspace and Delete Key-hits you have performed today, in percent of total keypresses. The red area should of course be as small as possible.

And the best part :

License: Freeware Free

partitioning - Windows will not shrink my drive?

My goal is a dual boot Linux/Windows 7 PC. It already has windows 7 on drive C, on a 3Tb drive.

I first defragmented this drive, then shrink the drive c partition to the maximum allowed.

The drive is now 1037.17 Gb, but only 42.9 Gb is used space. I only want to use 120 Gb for windows.

When I try to shrink it, after also defragmenting, the system says:

Size available shrink space in MB: 0

I've made a system backup to an external drive and a DVD repair disk.

Can I just trash this partition and restore it to a newly created 120Gb partition?

windows - How to remove leftover icons from notification area?

The notification area, when I customize it, still shows three programs and their icons. But they can not be seen if I customize to show them. They are not possible to remove from the list.
The programs are uninstalled, the registry cleaned, no leftovers there. So... how to remove these icons from the list for the tray after the programs are removed? Once again, the registry is also clean! Where are those icons/info hiding?

Macbook Pro: disable Win7 discrete GPU with no screen access

Backstory

It's a well-documented problem with Macbook Pro 2011 models that from 2014 onwards, the discrete GPUs that are automatically activated and deactivated (or whatever, I'm not going to pretend I know all the words) have started burning out, dieing and generally being a pain.

Last week it happened to mine, and after learning about the problem and figuring it out, I disabled (i.e. moved to the desktop) the AMD + ATI GPU driver files on my OSX partition, via single user mode, to prevent the discrete GPU from firing up at launch.

Result: my Macbook Pro lives on, powered by the integrated graphics.

The Problem

I now wish to boot up into my Windows 7 (Bootcamp-augmented) system, but when it starts, the screen cuts to black, signalling to me at least that it too is trying to utilise the dead discrete GPU.

Required help

So, without getting to the Win7 desktop, I need to somehow disable/delete/move whatever drivers/settings are allowing Windows 7 to use the discrete GPU, and force it to instead rely ONLY on the integrated graphics.

Is there a way to do this with a Win7 equivalent of Mac's single user/shell mode?

Key details / tl;dr

• Macbook Pro 2011; OS 10.8 and Win7 partitions


• Discrete GPU is bust; OSX relying on integrated graphics, Win7 still trying to use bust GPU


• Black screen on Windows 7 boot; no control


• How do I disable discrete GPU, force win7 to use integrated graphics, with no screen access to system?

linux - How to pipe text from command line to the clipboard

I'd like to do something like

dir *.* > clipboard

ie. get to get the standard output of a command line program copied to the clipboard. Can this be done on a standard XP machine without additional programs?

Answer

I don't believe so - Vista (or NT4) introduced the clip tool, which would do your command as dir | clip - but there's nothing on XP. If you're willing to use 3rd party applications, though, there's this, which works as above, except is called cb, not clip.

drag and drop - Disable ability to pull a tab off of Chrome

I'm so sick of mistakenly pulling my Chrome tabs out of the tab list when i click on it, and having it open in a new window. I'm always pulling them off, then having to drop them back.

Does anyone know of a way to disable this 'feature' of Chrome?

Gmail as default Windows mail program (not same as `mailto:`)

How to set Gmail as the default system mail client on Windows 7?

This is not the same as setting the default client for mailto: hyperlinks. Gmail is my default for mailto links, but when I use Windows Photo Viewer (for example, other programs do the same) and select Email I get the error:

There is no email program associated to perform the requested action. Please install an email program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel.

As noted in a comment by @eselk to Can I make Gmail the default 'send mail to recipient' program in Word 2007? The Google Notifier a.k.a GMail Notifier also doesn't work for this purpose: "GMail notifier only takes over mailto: URLs, it doesn't support "Simple MAPI". What this means ... is that any program that uses simple MAPI to send email (most that send file attachments use MAPI), will not use GMail and will continue to use your default email client. The mailto: URL is pretty much only used by email hyperlinks or typing mailto: in the Windows Run box, not any "send as attachment" options in apps."

The registry solution here How to make Gmail the default handler for email on a Windows PC? does not work on my machine. The same answer references a program called Affixa which does, by report, seem to work. I don't want to resort to installing a program for this unless there really is no other option. What says Super User?

windows - Running chkdsk on a disk partition without a drive letter

I have a hard drive that shows up in Disk Management as having two partitions.

One of the partitions says 69.71GB and that's it. The other says 4.82GB and, underneath that, Healthy (OEM Partition).

I'm trying to do chkdsk on the 69.71GB partition and am unsure of how to do it without a drive letter.

It's an NTFS partition that's gotten corrupted. Linux's ntfsfix spits out a bunch of errors so I'm thinking chkdsk might be better.

Prevent sending of CR/LF in PuTTY

I'm using PuTTY (Windows 7) to send data using a Raw connection. I type in the data I want to send, but I have to press Return to actually have it transmit the data.

However, the problem is that the CR/LF is sent along with the data, which is invalid as far as the server application is concerned.

Is there a way of either having PuTTY not send the actual CR/LF as a result of pressing Return, or another way of sending the data that was just typed in?

Answer

I type in the data I want to send, but I have to press Return to actually have it transmit the data.

That's because you have enabled the Local Line Editing feature in the Terminal menu.

Is there a way of either having PuTTY not send the actual CR/LF as a result of pressing Return, ...

No (although it can send just the CR without the LF).

... or another way of sending the data that was just typed in?

Force that Local Line Editing feature off, and whatever you type will be transmitted immediately. You will not need to type the Enter key unless you actually want to send a CR character.

That also means that if you cannot type as fast the baudrate allows, then the receiving device better not have any constraints (e.g. such as Modbus) on intercharacter timing.
Also any mistakes you type cannot be undone, because the Backspace key will send a control-H (value 0x08) character instead of erasing the previous keystroke.

Note that the Enter key should only generate/transmit a CR character. The generation of the accompanying LF character is configurable.

Copy rectangle selection in firefox

How do I select a rectangular area of text in firefox? My goal is to copy some columns from a html table.

I would like to select only the b and c columns (b1,c1,b2,c2 values) for this table:

|a1|b1|c1|d1
|a2|b2|c2|d2

Answer

If you hold down the CTRL key (or Cmd on a Mac), it lets you make that kind of selection. It doesn't paste into Excel how you'd expect, though, so you'll have to see if that's useful to you.

Windows 7 WannaCrypt Patch/Update

Running Windows 7 Professional. It appears that the proper patch/update for me to protect against the wannacrypt virus is KB4012215.

I reviewed my Windows Update history and see that I tried to install that update on 3/18/17 but the installation "failed."

I right-clicked on it and the Error Code is 80070020.

Questions:

1. 
   

   Is KB4012215 the proper update to guard against wannacrypt?

   
   


2. 
   

   If not, please tell me the proper update and where and how to download and install it.

   
   


3. 
   

   If so, please tell me where and how to download and install it.

   
   

Thank you.

Can a graphics card (Nvidia) be added to a laptop?

My Laptop has Intel integrated graphics. Is it possible to buy an Nvidia graphics card and add it in a laptop? I'm not sure if there will be additional slots in a laptop.

Lenovo - Y410

Answer

Laptops are quite a bit different than desktops in the sense that every laptop motherboards vary in shape and are limited in how much they can be upgraded.

This isn't really going to help much, but the answer is Yes and No. The video processor may not be removable (thus requiring switching out the motherboard, which obviously means you might as well just buy a new laptop).

First it would be good to lookup your model (for example, on Lenovo.com), and find out what the highest graphics processor available to your model is. This is the safest bet as your motherboard should have no problem supporting the upgrade (to the specific graphic processor models available on the manufacturer's model lineup)

However, having had a Lenovo Y530, I believe my video processor was removable. I have a semi-complete tutorial on disassembling a Lenovo Y530. I'll try to dig it up and post up the additional details.

-- So I dug up my photos from my Lenovo Y530 disassembly and I can't confirm whether its removable; however, from the looks of it, it is. I attached (2) images. The black heatsink is where the video processor is while the other image is of the CPU processor (with heatsink)

windows - Terrible font rendering in some applications but not others

I'm not sure what's changed, but all Windows updates are done, and all browsers are fully up to date. Chrome 40, Firefox 35, Opera 27.

This is what my fonts look like at the moment:

I have ClearType turned on, and if I open up Word and write some large type in the same font faces everything looks fine.

I tried changing the website I'm working on to Calibri, and that was still blocky and horrible even though it's a local font that I definitely have, and which Word displays correctly.

I've tried turning it off and on again. This is a recent problem (i.e., something has changed, it is not a problem associated with an initial installation).

Answer

Let's try to build an answer with the full information here...

This is a known issue with Microsoft Update KB3013455, released on the 10th February 2015.

For a quick way to check if you have the update installed, open a DOS command prompt and type:

wmic qfe list brief /format:texttablewsys | find "KB3013455"

If this returns no text at all, the update is not installed; if it is installed, you'll see KB3013455 and more text printed out.

The issue can be resolved by either

1. 
   

   uninstalling the update (but this will leave you with a security vulnerability). A reboot will be required.

   
   


2. 
   

   Installing a subsequent update (the Microsoft official fix, released on the 18th Feb 2015):

   
   

   
   

   To resolve this issue, install update 3037639. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   
   

   3037639 Fix for text quality degradation after security update 3013455 (MS15-010) is installed.

   
   

   
   

   This fix will take you to a page where it seems you're downloading the original KB3013455 all over again. Keep going, when you actually click to download you will get an option to get the fix, KB3037639.

   
   

   A reboot will be required.

   
   

   The fix was later included in Microsoft's automatic updates in March 2015.

   
   

Edit the list below to add affected systems:

• Windows Vista SP2


• Windows Server 2003 SP2


• Windows Server 2008 SP2


• Windows XP (for people on the Custom Support Program that keep receiving patches for XP)


• Windows FLP


• Windows Embedded (WEPOS, POS Ready 2009)

Edit the list below to add affected Fonts (only some font sizes show problems):

• Arial


• Courier New


• Times New Roman


• many others

Description of the problem (from here):

Essentially the small fonts (8-20pt) that normally result in a one-pixel line (think of lowercase "b" or "t" or "d") would now be a random mess between 1 and 2 pixels. Turning on "Clear Type" or font smoothing does "smooth" the garbage and it doesn't look as awful but that doesn't make the text any more readable.

security - Allow one Windows user to only execute 2 applications

I'm using Windows 8 Pro. I'm trying to create a very limited Windows account. The account will only have:

1. 
   

   Remote Desktop Access

   
   


2. 
   

   Shell replaced by our own in-house application

   
   


3. 
   

   Access to the one FTP client (currently FileZilla) that our in-house application will launch for them (sends log-in info on command line)

   
   

I do not want them to be able to run any other applications. I've disabled task manager and replaced the shell, so the only way they can currently run other applications is from inside FileZilla, since it allows you to "open" an EXE (runs it) or other files that open other apps.

I tried Group Policy Editor, and from what I can tell all that does is not allow an admin user to run apps.. but has no effect on non-admin users. I've seen HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun, but I need a white-list, not black, and also I think that only works for processes that Explorer starts, not other apps like FileZilla.

I'd like the blacklist to use the full path of the EXE also, not just the name. Since users will have FTP ability, and ability to rename files (nothing in the system or program files folders though, since this is a limited account).

I also tried going to the root of the C drive and adding a "Deny execute/traverse" permission at the file system level, but I get tons of errors about access denied on lots of folders like c:\windows and even stuff under c:\users. I then started to go to each sub-folder and add that permission, but it was taking forever and I was still getting lots of access denied errors (I was doing this from an admin account).

Update -- with the accepted answer, plus the info I found here, I got what I needed.

Start the MMC (Microsoft Management Console). Type mmc into the Start menu search box or command prompt window or you may use the “Run…” feature.

Select File andchoose Add/Remove Snap-in… from the drop-down menu.

The Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box will appear. On the left-hand pane, highlight Group Policy Object Editor and click Add >;.

The Select Group Policy Object dialog box will now appear. Click the Browse… button. Switch to the Users tab and select Non-Administrators in the list. Click OK.

The Group Policy Object should now display, “Local ComputerNon-Administrators.” Click Finish.

Once I was able to set policies for the one user, using the above steps, I just had to go to "Admin Templates->System->Run only specified Windows applications". I had already tried that, but was missing the part about how to edit policies for only one user, not "admin users only" (which seems like a weird default to me).

Answer

To further eleaborate on what everyone else has said, the "correct" way to do this is through GPO. You may want to look at the package "Group Policy Common Scenarios Using GPMC", it is a set of group policy scripts to lock down workstations for various situations. I believe you are looking for the AppStation script.

The GPMC is not used anymore but the scripts are still really good templates for starting points for doing this.

AppStation

The AppStation scenario is used when you require highly restricted configurations with only a few applications. Use this scenario in “vertical” applications such as marketing, claims and loan processing, and customer-service scenarios.

The AppStation scenario has the following characteristics:

• Allows minimal customization by the user.


• Allows users to access a small number of applications appropriate to their job role.


• Does not allow users to add or remove applications.


• Supports free-seating.


• Provides a simplified desktop and Start menu.


• Users have restricted write access to the local computer and can only write data to their user profile and to redirected folders.


• Is highly secure.

TaskStation

Use the TaskStation scenario when you need the computer dedicated to running a single application, such as on a manufacturing floor, as an entry terminal for orders, or in a call center.

The TaskStation scenario is similar to the AppStation scenario, with the following changes:

• It has only one application installed, which automatically starts when the user logs on.


• No desktop or Start menu is present.

Kiosk

Use this scenario in a public area, such as in an airport where passengers check in and view their flight information. Because the computer is normally unattended, it needs to be highly secure.

The Kiosk scenario has the following characteristics:

• Is a public workstation.


• Runs only one application.


• Uses only one user account and automatically logs on. The system automatically resets to a default state at the start of each session.


• Runs unattended.


• Is highly secure.


• Is simple to operate, with no logon procedure.


• Does not allow users to make changes to the default user or system settings.


• Does not save data to the disk.


• Is always on (the user cannot log off or shut down the computer).

A workstation that uses the Kiosk scenario is similar to a TaskStation, but users are anonymous in that they all share a single user account that automatically logs on at computer startup. This is achieved by modifying the Kiosk machine in a manner described later in this document. No customizations can be made and no user state is preserved.

Although user sessions are usually anonymous, the user can log on to an application-specific account, such as to a Web-based application through Internet Explorer (assuming Internet Explorer is the “kiosk application” launched at startup).

The dedicated application could be a Line of Business (LOB) application, an application hosted in Internet Explorer, or another application, such as one available in Microsoft Office. The default application should not be Windows Explorer or any other shell-like application. Windows Explorer allows more access to the computer than is appropriate for a Kiosk computer. Be sure the command prompt is disabled and Windows Explorer cannot be accessed from any application you use for this purpose.

Applications used for kiosk scenarios should be carefully checked to ensure they do not contain “back doors” that allow users to circumvent system policies. For example, they should not allow users access to applications that access the file system. Ideally, you should only use applications that comply with “The Application Specification for Windows 2000”, are Certified for Windows, and that check for Group Policy settings before giving users access to prohibited features. Older applications will not normally be Group Policy-aware, so try to disable any features that allow users to bypass administrative policy.

The registry entries Run and RunOnce are disabled in the Kiosk scenario through associated policy settings.

Excel - pivot values in one cell (as comma-separated value)

Excel - pivot values in one cell (as comma-separated value)

I have two columns of data:

Supplier1|Product1
Supplier1|Product2
Supplier1|Product4
Supplier1|Product7
Supplier2|Product3
Supplier2|Product5

I want to 'pivot' around Supplier, and give the list of products in one single cell, comma-separated e.g.

Supplier1|Product1,Product2,Product4,Product7
Supplier2|Product3,Product5

There's about 1000 suppliers, and 0 < products <= 10.

My current workaround involves using pivot tables, saving as CSV etc and is very messy. A non-VBA solution would be amazing.

Answer

Here's a non-VBA, non-pivot table solution that only uses a couple of formulas.

1. 
   

   First, I used the "Text-to-columns" to split your data at that "pipe" delimiter (the vertical line) into 2 columns; a "Supplier" column and a "Product" column. Those go in columns A and B, respectively. (It appears in your post that they are combined in one column, so I first split them apart. You won't have to do this.)

   
   


2. 
   

   In column C, which I named as the "Concatenation" column, I used this formula, starting in cell C2 and copying all the way down: =IF(A2=A1,C1&", " & B2,A2&"|"&B2)

   
   


3. 
   

   In column D, which I named as "SupplierChangesAtNextLine?" I used this formula (starting in D2 and copying all the way down): =IF(A2=A3,"","Changed")

   
   


4. 
   

   You should now be able to filter on column D for only the "changed" values.

   
   

Good hunting!

firefox - How can I unload a tab manually?

Firefox has a setting "Don't load tabs until selected" (see How do I make Firefox 13 Load All My Tabs on Startup or when Resuming Reload). I like that behaviour.

I am searching for a way to "deload"/deactivate a tab manually for a session (until I reload it).

It should stop all running JavaScript functions and plugins (like Flash). The whole webpage content may disappear until I reload/re-activate the tab, but that is not a requirement. The title has to be displayed as tab label (like it is the case with the startup setting, too).

---

The workaround would be to restart Firefox and don't switch to the tab I want to be deactivated. This is pretty annoying, of course.

---

EDIT: Here is what I found so far

Answer

In one of the links you referenced at Tab Utilities: Feature Request, there is already an answer from the developer (scroll down to comment no. 4) on how to do this. The answer is to:

• Add the Restart Tab item to the context menu.

Why it's called "Restart Tab" and not "Unload Tab", I don't understand, but he says you can just change it if you want. Set:

• extensions.tabutils.menu.context_restartTab.label to "Unload Tab".

---

By the way, at the moment it only works on tabs that are not selected/focussed. In other words, if you do "Restart Tab" on the currently open tab, it will just reload. You have to switch to another tab, then right-click on the tab you want to unload, and choose "Restart Tab".

Here are the instructions from the developer, I updated them a little:

1. 
   

   Set browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs to 0 in about:config. (BarTab Lite or Load Tabs Progressively extension should also work.) [ the above is outdated, in current versions of Firefox, go to preferences/options for Tabs, and check "Don't load tabs until selected". ]

   
   


2. 
   

   Unload tabs manually with Restart Tab or Restart All Tabs menuitem. [ first you have to make sure the "Restart Tab" item is added to the context menu, in Tab Utilities preferences/options -> Appearance -> Menus -> Tab Context Menu ]

   
   


3. 
   

   Unload tabs automatically after a specified period of inactivity with extensions.tabutils.restartAfter option (minutes).

   
   


4. 
   

   Tag bookmarks with "norestart" to make an auto-unload black list.

   
   

microsoft excel - How to remove duplicate rows based on some columns

I have a excel sheet which contains duplicate rows

I want to remove a row if its A C D E F columns are same (Ignore B while calculating duplicates but remove it while removing a row)

At the moment it ignores B while comparison as well as deletion.

Answer

In Excel 2013

1. Select all Data


2. Select Data Tab -> Remove duplicates


3. Check 'My columns have headers' if your data has column headers.


4. Uncheck all columns you would NOT like to use in comparison


5. Press OK

Done

Excel multiple FIND formula

I am no expert with excel so any help is appreciated!

I am trying to make one cell do multiple searches within another.

I know that to search one cell for a specific word you would use =FIND(Blue,C2)

But I need to find multiple different words in one cell. Heres an example of what im trying to do:

I need to show all the allergens in the ingredients cell eg peanuts, gluten, milk, sesame seeds etc

How do I get the result to list all the allergens?

I know that I can do a single find function in separate cells and then concatenate them, but there must be a more simple way?

Thanks

microsoft office 2016 - Word hyphenation feature is not available

When opening a Document in Word 2016, I always get the following error message

Word hyphenation feature is not available. Run the Microsoft Office Setup program, install this feature an then try again

But there is no such option to add the feature in the Office 2016 Setup?

How can I add this feature to Word in Office 2016?

plugins - how to set default java plug-in version

I can set the jre version from the Control Panel -> Java -> Java Runtime Environment Settings. But I cannot figure out how to change the Java Plug-in Version. I would like to use an earlier java plug-in version, like 1.5.0_12. How can I do that? Thanks

Here is the output in the Java Console:

Java Plug-in 1.6.0_19 Using JRE version 1.5.0_12-b04 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM

How can I see which version/release of Windows 10 is installed on my computer?

My underpowered netbook which came with Windows 10 never managed to succeed in updating itself to the first major upgrade to Windows 10 at about the end of 2015. (My similarly underpowered Windows tablet had no problem with it.)

Now it seems to be installing updates quite often onto itself, so I'm always interested to see if it's managed to update to a newer Windows 10 or only installs the smaller patches, device driver updates, etc.

I thought I could see this info by clicking on the message that tells me "updates were installed", but now I don't see anything there.

I'm quite surprised that by using the "Search the web and Windows" or by Googling I can't find a straightforward way to see the OS version info. Even the System Information page only tells me "Windows 10". What very obvious thing am I missing?

Answer

Go to the start menu, click the settings cog. Click on System, then About in the left column at the bottom.

networking - What can cause this variation in ping?

I have a problem with my internet connection and I don't know what is causing it.

My router is a Linksys E3200 and my computer is equipped with Windows 8 and a WIFI adapter TP-Link WDN3200 (Ralink 5572) with the newest drivers from Ralink.

Using inSSIDer3 I get the following statistics:

I think the gap between my router and my neighbours should be adequate.

When doing a ping test towards my router I get the following statistics:

C:\>ping 192.168.0.1 -n 1000

Pinging 192.168.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1586ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1995ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1993ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2000ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1994ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1995ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1990ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
...

I'm curious to the 2-good-1-bad pattern displayed here and it rarely deviate from this. Occationally I get a Request timed out.

With my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) using WIFI only (data disabled), I get continuously good replies from my router during a ping test.

Using VPN + Remote Desktop for my work is not a good experience and I do seem to get a slow lookup when trying to get access to a website in a browser.

Can anyone guide me to determine what the problem is?

---

Updates:

Using a cabled LAN connection gives me <1ms ping results all the time.

ssh - Can I set up KiTTY to send F7 press instead of bringing up Print dialogue when F7 button is pressed?

Can I set up KiTTY to send F7 press instead of bringing up Print dialogue when I press F7?

I make intense use of Midnight Commander and its editor, which both rely on F7 (to create a directory and to search through text) and I never actually print from a terminal.

Answer

According to http://www.9bis.net/kitty/index.php?action=forum&id=0144 just change print={F7} in the [Shortcuts] section of your config file to something else, e.g. print={SHIFT}{F7}.

display - Should I be worried about calibrating a monitor

I want to buy a new monitor. I'm thinking of something like a Dell U2410 or HP 2475w - a decent size, but not too big. And a decent quality.

This will be mainly for development, web browsing and a bit of photo editing.

I've read that these monitors are "wide gamut" monitors, and might need calibrating properly before use. I've read various articles showing all sorts of fancy graphs about calibration and colour performance. They talk about buying hardware tools to calibrate the monitor properly, or going through manual steps to calibrate - comparing images by sight, etc. All this stuff scares me!

I just want to buy something that is decent quality that will work pretty well out of the box.

Should I be worried about monitor calibration?

Answer

I'd say it depends on how important color accuracy is to you. Dell actually provides a monitor profile for the U2410 (though it looks like it might have a few issues). Assuming a working color profile from the manufacturer, the colors you see in color managed applications might be 'good enough' for your purposes. If not, acquiring a colorimeter and generating a custom profile for your individual monitor (as opposed to the specimen the manufacturer used) might improve the situation.

Keep in mind that on a wide color gamut display, colors in applications with no color management will likely appear 'over-saturated'. In that case, the application is probably assuming all the world is sRGB (which hasn't been that bad of an assumption for most of the last decade). The U2410 does have an sRGB mode that will give you 'normal' colors in this case, though, it too, has issues.

I'm actually looking at a U2410 at the moment using the 'Standard' preset, with the Dell Profile loaded and Firefox doing mode 1 color management. I'm happy with the result. The only place I'm not getting fairly accurate colors is the 'Game' preset. Unfortunately, Direct3D seems to use sRGB internally and I don't think any color correction is occurring anywhere. The sRGB preset on the U2410 incurs a response time penalty, so I don't generally game in that mode. I don't think the colors in most games are realistic to start with, so it doesn't bother me that much. I'm not sure I'd notice anything if I didn't flip between sRGB/Game to compare. I might actually invest in a colorimeter to generate a custom profile for each preset. I think the Dell provided profile is for Standard mode.

Note that the Dell U2410 and HP 2475W are using quite similar panels. The U2410 panel is just a newer revision of the one in the 2475W (though who knows, HP might switch to the new rev at some point). I haven't been able to find out much about sRGB mode on the 2475W so far.

performance - Why have CPU manufacturers stopped increasing the clock speeds of their processors?

I have read that manufacturers stopped concentrating on higher clock speeds and are now working on other things to improve performance.

With

• an old Desktop machine with Intel® Xeon® Processor E3110 with clock speed of 3.0GHz


• and a new server with AMD Opteron(TM) Processor 6272 with clock speed of 2.1GHz

when performed a simple encryption comparison using (single threaded)

 openssl aes256c

the desktop performed far better than the server.

So even with latest optimization, why does the processor with the better clock speed perform better?

Answer

The reason manufacturers have stopped concentrating on increasing clock speed is because we can no longer cool the processors fast enough for this to be viable. The higher the clock speed, the more heat is generated, and we've now hit a stage where it is no longer efficient to increase processor speed due to the amount of energy that goes into cooling it.

Other answer goes into detail on how higher clock speed doesn't mean better performance in all areas.

windows - How can I configure my wireless to be ad-hoc command-line?

In any version of Windows, how can I put my wireless network card in ad-hoc mode through the command prompt?

I want to do this because I want to hide this from the user (ie. I don't want them to have to do by themselves) I'd rather do this using an API or native windows function, but since I found no static approach in any version of Windows, I figured that the CLI is the next best thing.

windows - Good two/multiple-way file synchronization software

Possible Duplicate:
Which is the best application to Sync two folders?

I like to synchronize mostly media files (music, videos, DVD images, etc..) back and forth from my internal computer hard drive to the external disk.

Currently I use Dropbox 2GB to sync my documents, some music and other small files .. but Dropbox uploads the files to the internet.

Since my media files are huge in size, I'd like a Dropbox-like offline solution. Bonus points for being able to sync between multiple locations (eg: internal HD, 2 external HDs .. all in sync).

Does such a software exist for Windows? I am even willing to pay for a good one.

Realtek HD SPDIF Cuts in and Out on Windows 7

I've got an HP retail HTPC that has a Realtek HD onboard sound card and I'm running SPDIF out to my Onkyo reciever. For the longest time, it worked pretty darned well. The only oddity was that flipping a lightswitch or something of the sort would make the sound cut out for about a second (weird, I know. But, it was ignorable).

Now, the sound has started cutting out for longer, and more frequent periods of time. I notice that when this happens, the dolby digital indicator on the receiver blinks off, then back on when it comes back in.

The problem seems to not happen as frequently when I first boot, and later gets more common. And, to make me really feel crazy, the cutting in and out sometimes seems to correspond exactly to when I fiddle with the cable - but sometimes not at all and at many times it just works wonderfully.

I've tried updating to the latest drivers. No lucky.

Anybody have any ideas at all?

printing - Print PDF file without background

Sometimes I need to print a pdf file that has a black background or some heavy background images, and that sucks up a lot of ink. Is there any method to remove the background from PDF files before printing?

Anything that works on Windows or Linux.

vlc media player - VLC 2 Frozen / stuck on first frame of AVI video

Just upgraded from VLC 1.05 to VLC 2.03 (latest).

Problem: Videos (.avi) get stuck on the first frame.

(These same videos used to play just fine in VLC 1.)

Answer

Solution:

Note: a symptom of this problem is seeing debug messages picture is too late to be displayed. (To turn on debug messages in VLC, see the section at the bottom of this posting)

The problem appears to be a bug in the default demuxer.

The solution is to change the default demuxer to the Avformat demuxer.

Here's how:

Menu Tools -> Preferences >

... -> Click radio button to Show Settings = ALL instead of SIMPLE

... -> Input/Codecs > Demuxers >

at very bottom of drop down list:

... -> Avformat Demuxer > Save, exit and restart VLC

This should solve the problem.

---

Credit to Jean-Francois and Lotesdelere on the VideoLan forum. http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=98381&start=80 Unfortunately, their correct solution is buried at the bottom of 5 pages of responses that don't work... hopefully this archives the solution so that it is easier to find in future.

---

Turning on Debug Messages in VLC:

Go to: Tools > Messages > Increase verbosity from 0 to 2

Then play the video.

If there are problems, you should see error descriptions in the Message panel.

macos - Where does OS X Mountain Lion store Notes data?

Any idea about where OS X Mountain Lion stores Notes data? Is there a way that I can recover lost Notes?

Answer

Notes are stored as HTML in an apparently non-standard binary format in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/NotesV1.storedata-wal.

You can grep for known note contents on the command line, or print all notes (stored as HTML):

cat ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/NotesV1.storedata-wal | grep -aio '.*'

---

While I was writing this answer, I also had the problem once that Notes restarted with data reset. The next launch, everything was there again, even though I had created new notes after the reset (so both the old and new notes existed on third launch). Maybe just try quitting and starting Notes again?

windows xp - WinXP: Difference between Log Off and Restart

Other than the obvious..

What's happening behind the scenes when you log off? Why is it necessary to restart the computer for certain configurations to take effect?

Answer

When you log off, it will close all processes and services linked to your profile, while others will remain alive. When you log back in, it restarts everything linked to your profile.

However, as implied, there are services which are running without a logged user (like for example some remote desktop servers), and these ones will remain active, and won't be restarted from log off, log back in.

Also, most things linked to hardware are initialized before log in, and they won't be changed unless you restart the computer. (Take this with caution, I'm very foggy on details, of course some hardware-related things can be changed while a session is opened). However, log off will most likely have no effect on this, for the reasons explained.

windows - Can notepad be replaced with VS code?

Is it possible to replace Microsoft Notepad on Windows 10 as the default editor with VS Code?

This repo (https://github.com/grumpydev/Sublime-Notepad-Replacement) shows how it's possible to replace Notepad with Sublime Text, but I wonder if this is possible with VS Code?

Answer

You can make it so a specific file type will open in a specific application.

Windows 10:

1. On the Start menu, select Settings


2. Select Apps > Default apps.


3. Select which default you want to set, and then choose the app. You can also get new apps in Microsoft Store. Apps need to be installed before you can set them as the default. Choose default apps under Apps in Settings


4. To choose default apps by file type (for example, .pdf files), scroll down and select Choose default apps by file type.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028161/windows-10-change-default-programs

Windows 7

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/18539/windows-7-change-default-programs

How to stop Excel following hyperlinks when I click on them?

In Word I can use Ctrl+Click on the rare occasion that I want to follow a link rather than, you know, do the editing that Word is actually for.

Is there some way to get similar behaviour in Excel 2010, 2003, 2013?

I am sick of accidentally switching to IE or Outlook every time I try and select a cell that has a hyperlink attached.

Results of my prior research here on SuperUser and via popular search engines have not been very fruitful (e.g. http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2011/04/12/hyperlinks-in-excel-hot-or-not.aspx) I am not interested in hearing how I can click and hold to select the cell, or run VBscript or Macros to strip all hyperlinks from a workbook. I want something that conforms with the UI I expect from a non browser application and applies to documents other people have created.

Answer

In Excel 2013, whitespace clicking will select the cell without following the URL, but you have to pay attention. If the icon changes to the hand icon on mouseover, it will follow the URL. If the icon changes to the big white cross, it will select the cell without following the URL. Changing row height or column width can help to increase the amount of whitespace.

Still, I wish that MS had thought to make URL clicks act the same in Excel 2013 as in Word 2013, because it is an annoyance.

"There is no such thing as a foolproof system. Someone will make a better fool, tomorrow." @LoneWolffe

microsoft excel - Count if two criteria match while ignoring duplicates

I have a simple Sheet with 2 cells that I need to countif 2 conditions match and treat duplicates as 1.

Column A    Column B
Male        closed
Female      invalid #
Male        exception
Male        closed
Male        closed
Female      new

I would like a formula that counts Male closed and return 1 result (ignoring duplicates)

Answer

If you just want to count the different order numbers (in column B) that are complete (column A) try this

=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(IF(A$2:A$100="Complete",MATCH(B$2:B$100,B$2:B$100,0)),ROW(B$2:B$100)-ROW(B$2)+1),1))

confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

To add another condition, e.g. assuming status in A and Store Id in B as before but with Sales Reps in column C you can use this version

=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(IF(A$2:A$100="Complete",IF(C$2:C$100="Rep1",MATCH(B$2:B$100,B$2:B$100,0))),ROW(B$2:B$100)-ROW(B$2)+1),1))

of course you can use cells to store the criteria if you wish

encryption - What is a simple, secure way to encrypt files in Windows?

I want a colleague of mine to send me a sensitive Microsoft Word document via e-mail. Since Word's encryption is questionable, I would like to encrypt the file using a passphrase.

Do you know of any encryption method that a novice user can easily use? I wouldn't like to prompt for keys or anything like this - just provide a simple interface for single file encryption.

Answer

I have solved this using Putty Secure Copy, through a Linux box I have on the net. The user downloaded scp to the same directory where the file was, and I have send him the exact scp command by mail.

Kind of reversed the problem - using encrypted connection rather than encrypting the file. Of course, this solution might not fit everyone's needs - it works only if you have a trustworthy server.

But in second thought, one can always install a virtual machine, set the router to port-forward the ports and ask his novice friend to ssh to the virtual machine... But perhaps that's a rather long shot.

UPDATE

winscp works even better. It has simple and nice GUI that every novice user can handle.

Internet Explorer tab for Opera

Is there any way to run Internet Explorer in a tab in Opera? Much of the corporate website where I work is built for Internet Explorer 6 (what is up with that?), so if I want to access it using my default browser, it has to either be Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox with the extension IE Tab. Is there any way to do the same with Opera?

anti virus - Why did my friends get spams from my email?

Recently I got an email with subject like "Delivery Status Notification (Failure)". It had been initially sent to my friend's old email account. The content inside that failed email was obviously one of a spam email. I wonder if some viruses infect my machine but either Kaspersky or AVG (free version) is installed in my two PCs and a notebook and it is doing fine.

My theory is that one of my friends' computers instead got some viruses and they generated such emails from a random email address to the rest of the hacked address book. Is this possible? What are your theories?

UPDATE: All the spam things have stopped since the day I posted this question. Now I wonder if my theory above is technically possible. If so, mine should not be the first and the case must be well-documented somewhere.

Windows 7 backup to 3TB Seagate external drive got 0x8078002A error

I'm using the Windows 7 backup and restore utility to create a system image and personal file backup to an external Seagate GoFlex 3TB disk. I got the following error:

One of the backup files could not be created.
Details: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.
Error code: 0x8078002A

I searched all over the internet and found these two related discussions (discussion 1 and discussion 2). Note the 1st discussion is for a Western Digital drive, which seem to have a solution with the WD Quick Formatter tool. But I downloaded that software and it cannot detect my Seagate drive. The 2nd discussion is directly relevant but it does not offer a solution. I've spent days on this and am at a loss...

Please help if you know what to do to make it work! Thank you!

Answer

Here is the official answer from Seagate support. Hopefully this sheds some light. One word of caution. There are various online complaints about DiscWizard and my experience with it hasn't been very good either (eg. backup has to be on an entire drive/partition, instead of some folder; the included DriveCleanser doesn't actually do anything).

Thank you for contacting Seagate Support. I am sorry for any inconvenience but Windows Backup does not support 4K sectors. All hard drives now use 4K sectors. You will need to use an older model external hard drive or a different image backup program. Seagate has a program from Acronis called DiscWizard that works on 4K sector hard drives.

Here is a link for the software:

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/discwizard/

For additional assistance, feel free to contact us at: http://www.seagate.com/about/contact-us/technical-support/

security - Secure email sending with Thunderbird?

In the Thunderbird 3 SMTP configuration dialog, there's a security section:

If I want to send email without naughty hackers intercepting it, what should I choose? The "Connection security" options are "None", "STARTTLS" and "SSL/TLS" - which is best?

Do I need an authentication method, or is that just for the mail server to know who I am? (if so I don't care about this, since I can already send email without problems.)

Answer

First you need to know if your mail server is capable of or even allows you to send mail through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) modes.

Basically the options break down to this:

• 
  

  None
  No encryption on the outgoing emails. They will be sent as plain as day between you and the server.

  
  


• 
  

  STARTTLS (formerly TLS in Thunderbird 2)
  The mail client will ask the server if it's possible to send through using TLS and if so, use the secure method. If not, silently fail and send through as a normal plain connection.

  
  


• 
  

  SSL/TLS (SSL in Thunderbird 2)
  Similar to above, but it assumes you can already send through using the secure mode and attempts to do so. If you're not allowed, it will fail and not send. This is the most secure method.

  
  

If you're told to use port 465 for outgoing and 995 for incoming then you're likely able to send through SSL.

Headers in Microsoft Word

I'm using Microsoft Word 2013, and I set the footer with a page number on the left for even pages and on the right for odd pages.

Now I want to set the header in the way to write the chapter name on the left for even pages and on the right for odd pages. The problem is that when i write the chapter name in a header all the odd/even pages take that value. How can i set the headers of a single chapter?

Thanks.

Answer

When you want different headers/footers on different pages you need to work with section breaks.

Here is an article from Microsoft explaining. It is also explained here.

The section break allows completely different headers and footers.

And here is an article from HowToGeek explaining "How To Use Multiple Headers and Footers in a Single Document".

BTW. If you are typing the chapter title manually in the header/footer you might want to consider using "dynamic text fields". This is explained here. That way when you change your chapter-name it's automatically changed in the header/footer.

bootloader - How do I create a bootable flash drive running MS-DOS 6.22?

I'm trying to create a bootable USB for MS-DOS 6.22. I can't risk using FreeDOS or any other version of DOS because I'm working with a very niche utility that has the potential to break expensive things if things are wrong.

I'm using the ISO for MS-DOS 6.22 found at AllBootDisks.

So far I've tried this ISO in several versions of Rufus and the latest version of UNetbootin.

I've tested the following versions of Rufus from this link:

• V1.3.0 Beta (w/o FreeDOS)


• V1.2.0 (w/o FreeDOS)


• V1.2.0.183 (w/o FreeDOS)


• V1.1.7 (w/o FreeDOS)

...all of which produce the following error when selecting the ISO:

This version of Rufus only supports bootable ISOs based on 'bootmgr/WinPE' or 'isolinux'. This ISO image doesn't appear to use either.

From the main Rufus page, I've tested versions:

• V2.15


• V2.14

...which both produce the following error when selecting the ISO:

This image is either non-bootable, or it uses a boot or compression method not supported by Rufus.

According to this link, it's not possible at all to use Rufus to create a bootable USB for specific versions of MS-DOS.

By contrast, UNetbootin seems to accept the ISO when creating the bootable USB, but booting into it causes the boot loop described here.

Is it at all possible that the ISO from AllBootDisks is faulty? If it's not the ISO, then how else can I create a bootable flash drive for MS-DOS 6.22?

Answer

Around the time when Windows 98 was mainstream, bootable MS-DOS CDs and USB drives used a 1.44MB floppy disk image as the actual boot target. The CD/USB drive stores the floppy image either visibly on the file system or invisibly outside of a partition, and the computer would boot to a virtual A:\ drive. If access to the CD/USB drive is desired after boot, the appropriate driver must be present on the floppy image and loaded.

At least in some cases, booting from the floppy image requires features implemented in BIOS. (I remember trying to make a rescue disk on a state-of-the-art 32MB USB drive, and there being different instructions for BIOS that support USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD, etc.)

If you don't feel like hunting down period-appropriate documentation and tools, your best bet is probably a MS-DOS floppy image paired with a modern bootloader that supports memdisk features. syslinux/isolinux and GRUB4DOS comes to mind.

Dimensions of Standoffs and Screws for ATX Motherboard

What are the dimensions for the standoffs and screws used for mounting an ATX motherboard to the computer casing? I'm using them to make my own motherboard mounting plate.

Some sources say the standoffs are 6-32 to 6-32 for the threads, some say its 6-32 to M3. However on Grainger/Mcmaster I cant find any M3 tapped standoffs with #6-32 threads, its either 6-32 to 6-32 or M3 to M3.

I bought some 6-32-1/2L male-female hex standoffs from Grainger but they look odd.

In Mcmaster I narrowed down to these Male-Female Threaded Hex Standoffs which are

• Brass


• 6-32 thread size


• 1/4" length

Which should I get?

linux - gparted refuses to resize partition

gparted refuses to resize a partition, reporting the error:

dumpe2fs 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014)
dumpe2fs: Invalid argument while reading journal super block

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for ext4 file system support:  e2fsprogs v1.41+.

The e2fsprogs package is installed (version 1.42.12-2).

---

This is the complete error message:

File system: ext4
Size: 6.52 GiB
Status: Not mounted

Partition
Path: /dev/sda7
Flag: bios_grub


Filesystem volume name:   
Last mounted on:          /
Filesystem UUID:          3821d550-ceaa-4388-8be1-2da5678e0831
Filesystem magic number:  0xEF53
Filesystem revision #:    1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Filesystem flags:         signed_directory_hash 
Default mount options:    user_xattr acl
Filesystem state:         clean
Errors behavior:          Continue
Filesystem OS type:       Linux
Inode count:              9371648
Block count:              37468416
Reserved block count:     1873420
Free blocks:              35413208
Free inodes:              9106611
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
Reserved GDT blocks:      1015
Blocks per group:         32768
Fragments per group:      32768
Inodes per group:         8192
Inode blocks per group:   512
Flex block group size:    16
Filesystem created:       Thu Jan  5 01:03:01 2017
Last mount time:          Thu Jan  5 03:04:52 2017
Last write time:          Thu Jan  5 03:04:52 2017
Mount count:              4
Maximum mount count:      -1
Last checked:             Thu Jan  5 01:03:01 2017
Check interval:           0 ()
Lifetime writes:          13 GB
Reserved blocks uid:      0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid:      0 (group root)
First inode:              11
Inode size:           256
Required extra isize:     28
Desired extra isize:      28
Journal inode:            8
Default directory hash:   half_md4
Directory Hash Seed:      3d766a26-9f5c-442c-9c8e-8e6ff0f5df75
Journal backup:           inode blocks

dumpe2fs 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014)
dumpe2fs: Invalid argument while reading journal super block

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for ext4 file system support:  e2fsprogs v1.41+.

Answer

You have a broken super-block :Unable to read the contents of this file system!

Check your filesystem:

sudo fsck.ext4 -v /dev/sdaX

If your filesystem is corrupted , you should have an output like this :The superblock could not be read....

Run mke2fs command to find out the superblock backups:

sudo mke2fs -n /dev/sdaX

Restore the missing superblock through the e2fsck command:

You should use the first superblock obtained from mke2fs

sudo e2fsck -b put_the_first_block_number_here /dev/sdaX

Reboot your system then run gparted