Where does Skype save my contact'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 avatars too so I used whitequark's answer to make a little bash script which does just that. Here it is:

#!/bin/bash

if [ \( $# -lt 1 \) ];
then
  echo "Usage: $0 folder";
  echo "Where folder is of the form /home/username/.Skype/username";
  exit;
fi;

for i in `ls $1`;
do
  if [ -f $1/$i ];
  then
    #echo "i: $i";
    filedump=`hexdump -v -e '"" 1/1 "%02x" ""' $1/$i | sed -e 's/ffd8ffe0/\nffd8ffe0/g'`;
    nocc=`echo "$filedump" | wc -l`; # occurences of the \n char. Means that there are nocc-1 occurences of our word
    #echo "nocc: $nocc";
    if [ "$nocc" -ge 2 ];
    then
      k=0;
      old_IFS=$IFS; #field separator
      IFS=$'\n';
      offset=0;
      for j in $filedump;
      do
        w=`echo $j | wc -m`; # gives actually lettercount+1
        w=$[w-1];
        offset=$[offset+w];
        #echo "offset: $offset";
        filename1="${i}_${k}_notclean.jpg";
        filename2="${i}_${k}.jpg";
        dd ibs=1 if=$1/$i of=$filename1 skip=`echo "$offset/2" | bc` status=noxfer;
        if [ `du $filename1 | cut -f1` -gt 0 ];
        then
          convert $filename1 $filename2; #convert is actually only used to remove the data after the image
        fi;
        rm $filename1;
        k=$[k+1];
      done;
      IFS=$old_IFS;
    fi;
  fi;
done

ntfs - Any way to recover a file with bad blocks (CRC error in Windows)?

What I see is this:

• Windows complains when reading a file because the CRC for it mis-matches its calculated CRC.


• This means NTFS has a CRC for the file.


• I expect the offending block/sector can be known, or at least guessed.


• I also expect that "wrong data" can be read from the disk.


• If the bits of "wrong data" were inverted one by one, by brute force we could find the correct data.


• A file could thus be recovered using statistics and brute-forcing bits to match the CRC.

My question is, does any software do this kind of thing? Any way I could do it (I'd be happy enough to get the CRC, the drive's "wrong" data, know which is the offending block/sector there, and write a script to brute it myself, if relevant directions are given).

By the way, this is a mechanical HDD.

Edit: After taking a look with hex editors and such, I noticed that a bad block appears as garbage, such as filled with zeros or a copy of the last block (this seems to depend on the program), so in order to get the "real data" that is corrupted, we'd have to disable some hardware-correction that refuses to read a block which is bad. I believe this is called ECC. Also, I expect that if just a few bits are marking a block as "bad", then some 32-bit checksum from Windows could be used to brute force a match.

So this question may be answered simply with guidance to do this by myself.

Answer

Unfortunately, what I wanted to do is not possible (NTFS does not store a CRC, the hard drive does).

However, I recommend SpinRite, as it is in the process of recovering a hard drive (with a painfully slow speed of some GBs per day, occasionaly I mount the filesystem to see how's the state of the files).

It may or may not work for you, so if the data is worth a few thousand dollars, go to a specialized hard drive recovery place. It's terribly costly but sometimes experts get data out of unlikely situations.

Oh, and one last recommendation: if the data is worth a few thousands, DON'T touch the drive. Don't mount it anymore, don't dare to boot from it, don't run chkdsk, don't do ANYTHING. It might compromise the drive's chance to being recovered.
But if it's a drive with songs, movies, or other non-important content, don't miss the chance to play with it to your heart's content! :)

What exactly is a Linux filesystem?

I am having trouble understanding exactly what a Linux filesystem is.

I understand it is the "directory" of files and folders located on the system: like /bin, /sbin, /etc, /opt, and so on. However, I also hear things like:

"I just need to install the filesystem on this disk."

Is that simply referring to the structure of folders in Linux? How does that tie in with ext2, ext3, ext4 types of filesystems and how are they installed exactly?

How to Move Offline Files Cache in Windows 7?

On Vista systems, I've been using these instructions to relocate the "Offline Files Cache" from its default location of c:\csc. Works great.

However, these instructions do not work on Windows 7. There is small discussion about the issue going on on TechNet but nobody yet has a solution.

The problem is that the Migration Wizard has changed in Windows 7 and no longer provides a mechanism for doing this.

Answer

I've found the following to work well. I would advise to create a restore point prior to doing the following.

1. Create a folder for your offline file cache. Something like D:\Offline.


2. From an elevated command prompt type the following: Takeown /r /f C:\Windows\CSC.


3. Open the Sync Center and go to Manage Offline Files.


4. Click Disable Offline Files and restart the machine.


5. 
   

   From an elevated command prompt issue the following commands:

   
   

   rd /s C:\Windows\CSC
   mklink /J C:\Windows\CSC "D:\Offline"
   

   
   

   (or whatever your folder name is, but be sure to use the quotes if you have space(s) in the name).

   
   


6. 
   

   Reopen the Manage Offline Files window and Enable Offline Files.

   
   


7. Restart the machine.

All files/folders that are made available offline should now be redirected to whichever folder you specified.

windows 7 - Where does Firefox keep cookies?

Where does Firefox store my cookies on a windows 7 home machine? I have looked in AppData but don't see any cookie or cache folder.

Answer

Firefox generally stores cookies here:

C:\Users\User name\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\some random list of characters.default

An easier way to open this:
WIN+R (key combination), and then:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Profiles\Firefox\Profiles\randomstring.default\

(You can select the folders one by one in the run dialog. Just start typing the address.)

networking - Windows 7 drive (P:|)shared with Everyone but not accessible by Windows XP computers on our network

I'm trying to share my P:\ drive on a Windows 7 (Pro) PC with other PCs (WinXP) on my network. I shared it and set permissions to give Everyone Full Control.

Symptoms

• 
  

  Computer XP(different computer on the network) can access \win7\users\ public (and copy files to it and edit files in that folder) but not the \win7\p:\

  
  


• 
  

  Folders I've shared on the Windows 7 PC are visible to the XP computers but just not accessible . From the other WinXP PCs on the LAN accessing the Win7 PC, I get "win7\p not accessible. You might not have permission to use the network resource. " "Access Denied".

  
  

Edit: I've to Advanced Sharing options set to have the following enabled:

• Network Discovery


• File and Printer sharing


• Sharing so anyone can read/write files to public folders.


• 128 bit encryption (perhaps this is an issue? Perhaps it should be set to 40 bit encryption?)


• Allow Windows to manage homegroup.


• XP machines are set to not use Simple File Sharing.

Other Things I've Tried

• Confirmed all computers are in the MSHOME workgroup.


• Turned off the Windows 7 Firewall, briefly. Problem persisted.


• Tried the Windows 7 Network Troubleshooter. Just led me around in a circle saying "found problem...need more information". The links from there led back to the Network Troubleshooter.


• tried disabling the Firewall on the Windows XP machine. No joy.


• Verified the XP machines are both on Win XP SP3 and both have "download updates" turned on.


• Installed IE8 on the XP machine1. (Previously it had IE 6). Still no joy.

Any ideas?

Answer

Try this on the Windows 7 machine:

1. Open Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy.


2. Click on Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment on the left.


3. Double-click "Deny access to this computer from network".


4. Select Guest and click Remove.


5. click OK.


6. EDIT: Ensure in the Permissions for the network share, that Guest is included, since it's no longer part of the Everyone group.


7. Use regedit to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and create or modify the value of LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy (32-bit dword) to 1, so the remote logon token will not be filtered (see here).

linux - How to read ls -l permissions

I've been trying to understand Linux permissions. I know that I could download one file via CyberDuck from a remote Linux machine and the other one I was not able to. Here is the output of ls -l:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5360 Jul 26 17:31 coworking1.crt
-rw------- 1 root root 1704 Jul 26 17:31 coworking1.key

^{(image of output of ls -l)}

Please tell me:

1. How can I read the line -rw-r--r-- 1 root root?


2. Besides permissions duplication via chmod --reference:file1 file2, how could I set the permissions of coworking1.key to be the same as coworking1.crt via a bash command?

Answer

In the line -rw-r--r-- 1 root root, the first dash character indicates a file without any special permissions on it. The next 3 characters "rw-" indicate that the owner of the file can read and write to the file, but the file is not executable. I.e., it isn't a program that you could run. If it was also executable, you would see "rwx" rather than "rw-".

The next 3 characters, "r--" indicate that any other accounts in the group for this file, which is "root", only have read access; since there are dashes where the "w" and "x" could appear, that indicates those permissions aren't granted to the file for the group. The following "r--" indicates that "others", i.e., accounts that aren't the owner and which aren't in the group that has access to this file have only read access. When you see "root root", The first "root" is the account that owns the file. The second "root" shows the group that applies to the file. The group doesn't necessarily have to be the same as the owner; they could be different. E.g., there could be a group named "test" that has root and the account jdoe in it. But in this case, the root account is likely the only account in the root group. You can see the groups on the system by issuing the command cat /etc/group You could set the permissions for coworking1.key to be the same as coworking1.crt with chmod 644 coworking1.key or chmod g+r,o+r coworking1.key. In the latter example you are adding read access for the group and read access for others.

For references, see Understanding Linux File Permissions and Linux Tutorial - 8. Permissions, which will explain why chmod 644 coworking1.key also works. But, basically you can think of the 3 positions in each grouping having a numeric value of 4 for the first position, 2 for the second position and 1 for the third position. So, if the permission is "rw-", you would have a total of 6. If it is "r--" you have a value of 4. If it was "rwx", you would have a total of 7. Those numbers apply to each grouping. So using 644 means that you have 6 for the owner (rw-), 4 for the group (r--) and 4 for all other accounts on the system (r--). But you can always use the chmod g+r,o+r coworking1.key format and not worry about how to set permissions numerically. For that format, using a plus sign adds the permission and using a minus sign removes the permission.

firefox - Where is this error coming from

I work for a video hosting and delivery company. We supply our clients an iframe to embed our player (Flash or HTML5 based on detection) in their sites.

I have a customer with issues and I can not get to the bottom of an issue he is having. When his browser (Chrome/FF/IE) renders this page:

I sometimes see this error (which is not from us) in place of our player:

The misspelling leads me to wonder if he has some malware is preventing our Flash player from loading. The attempts to load the player all fail with ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Any ideas?

printing - How can I print Excel spreadsheet files automatically?

My company has computer-generated reports that come out as Excel spreadsheets which are emailed to the Billing Department. They would like these reports to be automatically printed as they are received.

I already found a program that will automatically download email attachments, called Mail Attachment Downloader.

Now ideally, I would want a program which will:

1. Scan a chosen folder for new XLS spreadsheets that are downloaded.


2. Print them out.


3. Get rid of them (preferably by moving them to a different folder).

I know I can just write a batch file to take care of #3; and #1 isn't really necessary. I could just have a program run at a certain time to automatically print out any files it sees, then follow it with a batch file to move the files somewhere else. But finding a program that will automatically print Excel spreadsheets has proven to be difficult.

I have seen some Excel macros that automatically print a spreadsheet, but I want it to automatically open them and print them all by itself.

One of the challenges I'm up against is the Billing Department doesn't have Microsoft Excel yet. In the very near future, they will have a computer with Excel 2010, but for now it just has LibreOffice.

Answer

I used AutoIt to make a script that opens Excel, opens the only file (which begins with "elec") in a specified folder (which begins with "viat"), prints it, closes Excel, then runs a batch file to archive the file it just printed.

Here is the code of the AutoIt script file. I was banging my head on this for a while until I discovered that I needed the Sleep commands to make it work properly.

Run("C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\Excel.exe")
WinWaitActive("Microsoft Excel")
Send("^o")
WinWaitActive("Open")
ControlClick("Open", "", 1148)
Send("c:\viat{DOWN}{ENTER}")
Sleep(1000)
Send("elec")
Sleep(1000)
Send("{DOWN}{ENTER}")
WinWaitActive("Microsoft Excel")
Send("^p")
Sleep(1000)
Send("{ENTER}")
Sleep(1000)
WinClose("Microsoft Excel")
Sleep(1000)
Run(""C:\Users\Chris\Documents\ViaTrack Archives\archiver.bat"")

And here is the code of archiver.bat:

move "C:\ViaTrack Reports\*.*" "C:\Users\Chris\Documents\ViaTrack Archives"

It's extremely simplistic coding, but it gets the job done. The main drawback of this script is that it will cause Excel to throw an error if the file does not exist in the folder. However, it is scheduled to run about an hour after the file is normally emailed to me, to allow for any unexpected delays.

The file is normally emailed at 5:40 AM every weekday. Historically, it's never arrived later than 5:45. Mail Attachment Downloader is set up to check for new attachments every 15 minutes.

It worked just fine this morning. The Billing Department Manager was happy to come in and find that her report was waiting for her on the printer, and she didn't have to print it out herself.

worksheet function - Excel Table lookup on Column/Row and rounding values up

in the example below I want to be able to type the width and drop in the two relevant fields and have the price value returned in the Price box. I have tried various combinations of VLOOKUP, INDEX and MATCH with some success provided the width and height value match exactly. But I can't seem to get it working correctly when the width and drop entries are arbitrary. I need both these values to round up to the next value in the table if they don't match exactly what is in the table. Can anyone help with the correct formula please?

Answer

MATCH will return where the value greater than or equal and less then the next. You want the other way around. You will need an array formula:

=INDEX($B$2:$P$22,MATCH(MIN(IF($A$2:$A$22>=$T$2,$A$2:$A$22)),$A$2:$A$22,0),MATCH(MIN(IF($B$1:$P$1>=$S$2,$B$1:$P$1)),$B$1:$P$1,0))

Being an array formula it must be confirmed with Ctrl-Shift-Enter, Instead of Enter when exiting edit mode.

It will now find the location where each of the two values are greater than or equal to the values provided.

filenames - How to configure folder name case sensitivity in Windows 7?

I need to create files named abc.txt and ABC.txt. By default, Windows 7 will not allow this. Somebody please help me to solve.

NB: nfsadmin is not working in my system.

microsoft excel - Summing multiple cells that match row AND column criteria?

I've been given a file with 2 years worth of dates as column headers and sales info below. There's also a column that contains Year data. I'm trying to sort by both Year and Day of the Week. I'm about 4 hours in, and can't seem to solve this one, so any help would be greatly appreciated! I know I could filter by year, sum the columns, and HLOOKUP each day of the week -- I just figured there's a way to do this with an array formula that would simplify things.

Answer

You can usually use SUMPRODUCT for this - I'm not quite clear on the criteria for you but generically you can use this setup

=SUMPRODUCT((A2:A10=Z1)*(B1:J1=Z2),B2:J10)

where A2:A10 are the row labels, B1:J1 column headers and B2:J10 the data. Note the data range must be the same width as the column headers and same height as the row labels

Z1 and Z2 contain the criteria - you can use cell refs or put the criteria directly in the formula

If you can't adjust that then post back with more details

context menu - Windows 7 'All Programs' folders self-close on right-click

Odd issue on my Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) system.

If I click on the Start 'orb' then navigate to 'All Programs', then navigate to any of the folders that appear at the bottom of the list (like Accessories) and left-click, the folder contents expand with no issue. If I right-click, the context menu appears for half-a-second or so, then the popup goes away and the entire start menu dismisses.

I'm not sure how to debug this issue - I'm considering using Autoruns to try and disable things hooked into the shell one-by-one. Is there a way to use a tool like Process Explorer to narrow down the process that's actually dismissing the menus?

audio - Windows 7 laptop's volume with headphones way too loud

I have two headphones, neither has any amps or volume control, and both have the same problem with this computer. I normally have the volume on 10%, and that is optimal. I'm still very afraid that someday it will be at 100% and i'll accidentally have my headphones on.

I tested how loud it is at maximum volume -- it's earsplittingly loud! In fact, it's so loud that if I lay the headphones down on the table, I can listen to a song perfectly clearly from meters away.

Is there any way to make the volume control more safe for the ears?

mac - Triple boot (OS X/Win/Linux) via rEFIt doesn't work - Linux not visible in rEFIt

Today I installed Mac OS X Lion alongside with Linux (mint) and Windows 7.

To be able to boot into Linux, i've downloaded rEFIt. It opens, I see the Mac and the Windows partition in it, but not the Linux partition. I've reinstalled Linux several times, but it just wont work.

I checked out the partition app from rEFIt, and got these results:

Current GPT partition table:
 #      Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1             40       409639  EFI System (FAT)
 2         409640    854536479  Mac OS X HFS+
 3      854536584    916425255  Basic Data
 4      916425256    917694791  Mac OS X HFS+
 5      968960634    976773118  Linux Swap
 6      917694792    968960417  Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
 # A    Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1              1       409639  ee  EFI Protective
 2         409640    854536479  af  Mac OS X HFS+
 3 *    854536584    916425255  07  NTFS/HPFS
 4      916425256    917694791  af  Mac OS X HFS+

MBR contents:
 Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
 Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
 File System: FAT32
 Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
 Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 854536584:
 Boot Code: Windows BOOTMGR (Vista)
 File System: NTFS
 Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
 Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 07  NTFS/HPFS, active

Partition at LBA 916425256:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Mac OS X HFS+
 Listed in MBR as partition 4, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 968960634:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: Unknown
 Listed in GPT as partition 5, type Linux Swap

Partition at LBA 917694792:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: ext4
 Listed in GPT as partition 6, type Basic Data

I also learnt that MBR has a "capacity" of 3+1 (EFI) partitions. The Win/Mac partitions are on the MBR list, but the Mac recovery partition probably blocks the Linux partition?

How can I make the MBR contain the EFI, Mac, Win and Linux NOT the Recovery partition?

Also, doing google searches about this issue, I read a lot about "Grub", though I can't figure out what it is.

Answer

Here's what I've come across on my findings on doing something similar.

GRUB is a bootloader, it mainly accompanies Linux Distributions

In order to install Windows on the same drive you will need to make sure the partition mapping is MBR, as Windows can only be installed on that Partition Layout, this gives you a further problem, as Mac OS X can only be installed on a GUID Partition, Lion (10.7) checks for this upon Installation.

I would install Mac OS X, then BootCamp Windows 7, after this I would Install Linux with the Bootloader Installed on it's own partition.

You can then modify the Windows 7 bootloader to include GRUB detection on your partition so you can have a listing for Linux on your Windows Bootloader using EasyBCD. This will obviously create further work as you will need to boot your Mac then press the bootcamp boot key at the EFI boot screen, then choose Linux in the Windows Bootloader and then Linux in the Grub Bootloader. But this usually keeps everything separate, something I like.

I know you have already installed the other operating systems and are having trouble with Linux, but this is just my way to go around it.

No more icons on the Windows 7 Desktop

I'm visiting my father-in-law, and he asked me to solve a problem he has with his Windows 7. Since 1 or 2 weeks, all the icons that were present on his desktop disappeared (even the trash, or computer icon). He was not able to say what happened that may explain this behavior (software installation, problem...).

After several tests, investigations, here is what I found:

First, on the explorer, I see all the content of the desktop in the Favoris > Bureau (i.e. Favorites > Desktop) it's maybe important to say that the Windows 7 runs in french. When I right-click on this Bureau link, then properties, it says that the target directory is C:\Users\xxx\Desktop. However, if I browse the disk, I can go to the C:\Utilisateurs\xxx\Bureau (the french version of the same directory), but this directory is empty.

Another strange thing is that I tried to use RogueKiller application (an application that detects malwares). The prescan completes, then when I run the scan, the icons reappears on the Desktop (but C:\Users\xxx\Desktop is still empty). Unfortunately, after a reboot, everything is gone again (but reappears if I run the scan again).

Do you have any idea to solve this problem?

Answer

Maybe its a dumb question by me but: Is this option checked?

networking - Port forwarding my router

I am trying run a web server on my static IP address but when I open my IP address its opening my DSL router how can I assign that IP to my computer

any ideas?

windows - How the computer could be used by two users at the same time

Running windows 7 64, Is there any application that allows me to connect an additional keeyboard and mice and monitor, so that this can be used by other user at the samee time while I use the main computer, There is an application called cpnmouse but it doesnt work on win7, betwin crashes before win7 start up, teamplayer is too expensive

Has anyone figured out this functionality maybe with virtual machinees or something, i've tried team player in a virtual machine but it crashes I have 3 monitors one of theem is a Tv, i would like that my girlfried uses it as a terminal without me loosing the focus cause she uses the mice There is a linux software called userful, but it's linux and doesnt work for me, and windows multipoint server needs a clean installation and also that's not a valid choice

Answer

The short answer, as far as I'm aware, is "No".

Windows 7 (Vista, XP, et. al.) is a "Workstation" OS, meaning it is only intended to serve one console at a time. Even with Remote Desktop, the workstation's local display gets locked while the remote user takes control.

Your suggestion of virtualization is an intersting one, however it will not likely be cost-effective. First, you would have to have an additional OS license for the VM. Second, you would have to have an additional computer from which to remotely connect to the VM. Third, the remote user still would not be directly interfacing with the Host computer, thereby defeating the purpose of this exercise. At this point, the remote user may as well just use their own computer for their own purposes.

If you want multiple users to have simultaneous access to one Windows system, the only solution is to buy a Server OS. Again however, this would still require the remote user(s) to have their own workstations from which they can connect to the Server. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, you may just rather let everyone use their own computer (and host a file share on the "server" system) instead of divvying up resources on one system that wasn't designed for it.

windows - Hosts File not working correctly

I'm having some issues with my hosts file.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 whatever
127.0.0.1 sub.localhost
127.0.0.1 example.com

localhost and whatever both work. However the others have weird behaviour.

Ping sub.localhost

c:\>ping sub.localhost
Pinging sub.localhost [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

Ping example.com

C:\>ping example.com
Pinging example.com [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

All seems ok, but browsing example.com will open the correct example.com page @ 192.0.32.10 which is not the expected behaviour... (obviously sub.localhost wont work at all)

Any ideas why this happens?

UPDATE 1: Removing Proxy Configuration from browser solved it for sub.localhost. example.com however still not working...

UPDATE 2: Some more info...

C:\Documents and Settings\amatos>ping example.com
Pinging example.com [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

C:\Documents and Settings\amatos>ping www.example.com
Pinging www.example.com [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

C:\Documents and Settings\amatos>nslookup example.com
Server:   ac1.-------.pt  (# suppose this is the router address...)
Address:  192.168.202.2

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    example.com
Address:  192.0.32.10

Thanks to all that have tried to help so far!

Answer

Is your Web browser using a proxy?

Mine is (I am at work) and when I connect to a Web site it seems to use the address the proxy server thinks, not the address my computer thinks.

How can I query an NTP server under Windows?

I am not interested in synchronizing my local clock with the remote server. I only want to query it and print the result.

I would have assumed that there is a port of ntpq for Windows, but was unable to find any.

All other NTP clients I could find, they always want to install themselves as a service or make it otherwise clear that they want to synchronize my local time.

Answer

C:\> w32tm /stripchart /computer:foo
Tracking foo [1.2.3.4].
The current time is 19/07/2012 17:39:48 (local time).
17:39:48 d:-00.0000840s o:-25.3004160s  [@                          |                           ]
17:39:50 d:-00.0000680s o:-25.3070080s  [@                          |                           ]
17:39:52 d:-00.0000690s o:-25.2987405s  [@                          |                           ]
17:39:54 d:-00.0000680s o:-25.3071530s  [@                          |                           ]
17:39:56 d:-00.0000690s o:-25.2993985s  [@                          |                           ]
17:39:58 d:-00.0000680s o:-25.3070270s  [@                          |                           ]

Wireshark shows NTP packets being generated by this. Some versions of w32tm have a /query option

C:\>w32tm /stripchart /computer:us.pool.ntp.org /dataonly /samples:5
Tracking us.pool.ntp.org [208.87.221.228:123].
Collecting 5 samples.
The current time is 19/07/2012 18:36:32.
18:36:32, +03.3575094s
18:36:34, +03.3573679s
18:36:37, +03.3572986s
18:36:39, +03.3570290s
18:36:41, +03.3565357s

windows 7 - Hiding files/folders which begin with a full stop (period)

Windows does not use the dot-file convention for hidden files. However, many Windows applications (mostly opensource/cross-platform) use files and folders with this convention. How can I make Windows Explorer automatically hide these dot-files?

Answer

ATTRIB +H /s /d C:\.* is the command to hide anything, directories included that start with a dot

This won't list the files (as stated below), but will hit every file it can access, and apply the Hidden attribute.

Once this is done, you can make sure that the Folder Options are set to hide hidden files. Click on Start, type folder options and press Enter. Click on the View tab, then choose Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives under Files and Folders \ Hidden files and folders. Hit Apply, then OK (or just OK).

windows xp - How to fix Notepad++ icons not showing?

I like to develop in Notepad++, but ever since I installed MS Office 2010, even after setting it as the default editor for all html/php/js files, I still get the XML Editor's icon in the file browser, and not Notepad++'s.

I also would like to get rid of that XML Editor entirely, so if anyone can tell me what to change in Add/Remove programs to wash it off my system, I'd love to hear about it.

Answer

If the file association is set correctly and only the icon needs to be changed, you can use something like FileTypesMan to accomplish this.

1. 
   

   Select the file type/extension you want to edit from the top pane:

   
   

   

   
   


2. 
   

   Next edit the selected file type (via right-click/context menu or F2) and ensure the Default Icon field is set to properly point to Notepad++'s executable (or whichever file contains the icons; perhaps a .DLL):

   
   

   

   
   


3. 
   

   Exit FileTypesMan, log off and log back in or reboot as required, then test your changes

   
   

Of course you can do all this from the registry as well, but this utility just makes it easier (and likely safer too). :)

Regarding removal of the Office XML Editor, I didn't find a separate entry under Add/Remove Programs for it, neither could I spot it when I chose to modify the Office 2010 installation and Add/Remove Features. Perhaps I somehow missed it. Anyway, no harm in it being there as long as it's no longer associated in any way with the .XML extension, which is what you want.)

---

Edit: The Notepad++ File Association utility might also be able to help, otherwise I would recommend trying again via the program itself, or reinstalling so that the installer can set all default file associations properly.

windows 7 - Wireless adapter won't enable

I bought a d-link dwa-125, plugged it in and windows recognized it right away and said everything was good to go. But there were no connection options. When I open up the network control panel and have it show me the adapters... the wireless adapter is greyed out and says it is disabled. So I tell it to enable. It says is it enabling, then says it is enabled... but the adapter stayed greyed out saying disabled. I am running 7 x64.

I have reinstalled drivers, connected it via lan and had it update drivers.. same problem. It works just fine on any other computer in the house, just not this one.

macos - Disable Discord dock badge

I'm using the Discord app for Mac. The app icon in the dock has a red badge on it at all times.

The badge looks like the ones that indicate new messages on apps like Mail, Messages, etc, only instead of a number, it displays just a dot.

There are no new/unread messages or notifications for me in Discord, as far as I can tell. When I receive new messages, the badge doesn't change. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with voice recording or push-to-talk either.

I've searched the app settings, but the only notification-related item I could find was toggling the desktop notifications on/off.

What is the meaning of this badge, and how can I turn it off?

Answer

Discord also doesn't show up for me in System Preferences -> Notifications, however there are two places where Discord notification settings are, both accessible from the app.

From the top ribbon, click Discord > Preferences and there's a Notifications menu. From there you can disable Desktop notifications.

Additionally, if you right click each channel you're in you can see the per-channel notification settings.

Finally, in order to actually clear the badge after I turned notifications off, I right clicked each channel and clicked "Mark as read".

windows - How to Controll The Internet Usage For Each Application

I am using windows 8.1. in my pc so many apps use internet automatically when I am conected to the internet. I want to controll the application which can connect and which cannot. How to achieve this solution.

Windows Update error 80070003

I am getting this error while running Windows Update for following updates

Update for Microsoft Excel 2013 (KB2752087) 32-Bit Edition

I have already tried solution at Microsoft

Config:

• Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32bit Build 7601


• MS Office 2013

Answer

There is a KB for this, which may resolve it for you

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910336

Windows Update error "0x80070002" or "0x80070003"

This troubleshooter: "Automatically diagnose and fix common problems with Windows Update" may automatically fix your problem.

This troubleshooter fixes many different problems.

Does a wireless-N (802.11n) network have poor performance when in b/g "mixed" mode?

It seems to be an "old" wives tale that, when using a wireless-N router in "mixed mode" to support legacy 802.11b or 802.11g devices, the performance of 802.11n clients will suffer.

---

Some places claim that when running in mixed-mode, all (some?) N clients run at G speeds. Others make the same claim, but say it only happens when a G client is connected.

Other places say N clients run faster, but still run about 30% slower than if the router were in N-only mode, even if there are no legacy B/G clients connected.

Still others claim there is no speed drop for N clients when running on a mixed-mode network. They say the only issue is that overall network throughput will be lower, because only one client can be transmitting at any time, so some of that transmission time must be shared with the legacy B/G clients running at lower speeds, reducing the overall throughput from what it would be if there were only N clients connected.

---

So, which is it? Will running in mixed-mode slow down my network, even if there are no B/G clients? If I'm running N, will having another client connected at B/G slow me down substantially vs. if they were running N?

Answer

From Beginners Guide To Networks :

A: YES This is of course already well known, although the exact implications are often misunderstood. The presence of an 802.11B device on an G or N network causes the newer devices to have to resort to some kludgy behavior to make sure that the B devices don't transmit when the G/N devices are using the airwaves, and to make sure that both the B and G/N devices can see things like beacon packets.

The exact impact on throughput is hard to estimate generally, but it will NOT "slow the whole network to 802.11B" as is often stated. There is however a significant slowdown imposed by the mere presence of a B device, even when it is not active. We (Slim) did some testing of this a couple years ago and found that usually the throughput between the G devices dropped by 30-50% (eg from 20Mbps to 10Mbps), but not nearly as low as the speed of a B-only network (5Mbps in the same environment). The theoretical maximum throughput on 802.11g is 23 Mbps without any B devices associated, and 14Mbps with.

A: NO, except insofar as the air-time that they take when active will be at the G throughput level as opposed to the N level. I.e. the devices still each communicate at their optimal rate in each time slice.

Unlike in the 802.11B backward compatibility mode, G devices do not impose any performance-degrading behavior on N devices in order for them to be backward compatible. 802.11g devices are able to recognize the 802.11n preamble, and they play nicely in terms of knowing when one or the other is trying to transmit. The preamble tells which modulation scheme will be used, so the N devices can speak N, while G devices can speak G. They don't have to resort to "Esperanto" as with B in order to cooperate.

This means that when the G device is associated but not active, it has no impact at all. When the G devices are active they will consume air time roughly in proportion to the amount of data being transferred. This air time would of course be at the G rate as opposed to the N rate, so in the event that the airwaves are fully saturated (eg by a local file transfer), there would be some reduction in the total Mbps achievable by all devices collectively, but there is no penalty for having the G devices associated.

Confusingly, this appears to conflict with what is stated elsewhere - eg

• "Running a mix of draft 11n and 11b/g clients on the same draft 11n router will reduce speed somewhat for the draft 11n client but reduce the speed of the 11g clients by more than half." at SmallNetBuilder


• "In mixed mode, HT protection requires that 802.11n devices send a legacy preamble, followed by an HT preamble ... These HT protection mechanisms significantly reduce an 802.11n WLAN's throughput, but they are necessary to avoid collisions between older 802.11a/b/g devices and newer 802.11n devices." at TechTarget ANZ

A: YES, primarily because 802.11N radios have the benefit of more sophisticated multipath reception capability. They can thereby extend the range and throughput available to G devices to some degree.

ubuntu - 7-Zip for Linux

7-Zip for Linux, does such a thing exist?

I mean actually 7-Zip or a port, not another compression tool or command.

Answer

If you use Debian or Ubuntu it is in the standard repositories (http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/p7zip), so you can install it with as little as:

aptitude install p7zip

Or for the full version that includes archive creation and other format support (http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/p7zip-full):

aptitude install p7zip-full

There are no doubt packages for it in the official repositories for most other distributions too, probably with the same package names.

macos - Fast Ways of Cd'ing on *nix?

I find myself constantly typing (using tab, of course) absurd paths like

cd path/to/the/thing\ that\ I\ need/python/proj/eraseme

Aside from doing an ln -s (or some other type of ln?), is there any other way to get around faster? Also, if the solution is to use ln, is there some standard way/place to put the links so a not to clutter my ~ directory?

I'm not asking for shortcuts only: any solution that helps with the problem of "how to get around" would help.

Answer

In bash, the $CDPATH environment variable contains a list of paths to be searched for directories when using cd.

CDPATH=".:~/long path to my projects"
cd eraseme

address bar - How can I ban sites from Chrome's omnibar?

I've set up a couple of servers on my network, which are named simply after the service they are providing (i.e. http://git/, http://jenkins/, etc.). For simplicity, those are accessible by their short name, i.e. http://git instead of http://git.my.local.domain. Unfortunately, this interferes severely with searching from Chrome's omnibar: if I wanted to search for "git do something I want", I'd type gitspace and the Omnibar would instantly assume I want to search inside http://git, which is obviously wrong.

Is there any way I can either disable this functionality for certain sites or at least change it somehow to be activated only on tab, but not on space?

email filter - Is there an alternative to Outlook rules?

I have asked a number of questions around Outlook rules and no matter how small I make the names and how efficient I make the rules, I ultimately still hit the 32 limit at about 40 rules.

Is there any alternative to do this job since Outlook rules just doesn't seem scalable to keep up with the way people are emailing over the past 10 years.

Answer

If you don't mind a commercial add-in product: http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook/Incoming-Mail-Organizer.asp

There are other options as well, such as addins that allow you to organize and search your email much more efficiently, reducing the need for a lot of rules:

http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/

http://www.techhit.com/SimplyFile

windows xp - how to set path environment variable

I want to compile a code in software which is needed to call visual c++;My Os is windows cp professional; I've installed visual studio professional v10.but it still shows an error message indicating "check if bin directory of your visual c++ is included in the path environment variable", where this action must be done?

---

I added that Path but now it says " Check that Visual C++ has been installed correctly" how I gotta check? I executed a program in Visual C++ and it s working nicely.

Answer

Go to

System Properties (press windows key + pause/break)
Advanced
Environment Variables
System variables

Add the required path there

ubuntu - Use host CUDA from VirtualBox?

Problem

I would like to use my host dGPU to train some neural networks using its CUDA cores via my Ubuntu 16.04 guest in Oracle VM VirtualBox version 5.2.22. Would it be possible to do this?

Host setup:

Windows 10.0.17763.195 (1809) Pro x64
Intel i7-6700HQ (Intel HD Graphics 530)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (CUDA Cores 640) via PCI Express x16 Gen3, DirectX v12.0 (FL 11.0)
Virtualization is Supported, Enabled via UFEI and OS

Guest setup:

Ubuntu 16.04
Chipset PIIX3 with Enabled I/O APIC
Processor has enabled PAE/NX
VT-X and AMD-V are Supported, Enabled
Nested Paging, Enabled
3D Acceleration Enabled
Extension Pack is installed

Note: A previous question asked about using the windows 7 host's Nvidia GPU inside VirtualBox for gaming. This question is about a different setup, and purpose and is too old to be useful today. Another question asks about using a graphics card in VirtualBox but this is also an old question.

Answer

Upon much digging this is currently possible but only with limited configurations, specific host OSes, and the use of enterprise software.

Windows Server 2016 and above but with Hyper-V

• This is only possible with Windows Server as the host and Hypervisor. It is not available with windows 10 pro as the host as stated in the question above.

Ubuntu 18.04 and above with Virtualbox

• The guest and host have to both have a Linux kernel that has been compiled with IOMMU support, including DMA remapping, according to the virtualbox documentation. This is done by default in the latest version of Ubuntu.


• The command find /sys | grep dmar and dmesg | grep IOMMU will tell you if the kernal has been compiled with IOMMU support. DMAR: IOMMU enabled is what you are looking for.

Windows 10 Pro but with VMware Workstation Pro 15 or VMware ESXi

• VMware allows for a couple of ways for GPU passthrough or sharing with the guest VM systems. Again, VT-d or AMD IOMMU has to be enabled on the host.

filename too long error windows 7 64bit

OK, I need some super help please on 2 things:

1. 
   

   Trying to rename a folder on my desktop from "New Folder" to VBA I am getting an error stating the the folder or destination name would be to long etc.

   
   


2. 
   

   Which I feel may be related, I am trying to install Command and Conquer Red Alert 1 from origin's ultimate 17 year collection and getting an error say westwoodchat.msi was not installed correctly setup cannot continue (1603). I have tried installing the package separately but get the same error when trying to install as above I have been round in circles with both ea and Microsoft getting very very frustrated please if you know the solution to these problems please let me know I will thank you and inform you if the steps provided have already been test I am going to attach my dx diag so you get all the info you need on my system.

   
   

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 9/30/2014, 13:21:16
       Machine name: D1-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: BIOSTAR Group
       System Model: N61PB-M2S
               BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4094MB RAM
          Page File: 1846MB used, 6340MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------

windows 7 - Brightness adjuster not found in control panel

I cant seem to find the brightness adjuster in my laptop after I reformatted it with windows 7 ROG Rampage(64 bit). My laptop is HP Pavilion dm4-1209tx. I also checked with the HP website and my drivers are all up to date. I also tried installing HP Quick Launch but was unable to do so probably because it is not supported by my OS. I've run out of ideas anymore. Any advice? Thanks!

How to rename files using F2 on Windows XP, without the extension being selected?

On Windows Vista & 7, when you select a file and press F2, only the file name is automatically selected without spanning the extension. Then you can write the new file name and hit enter. It is a useful feature as you don't have to select the file name apart from the extension by hand. On the other hand, Windows XP behaves old fashioned by selecting both file name and extension. Is it possible to do this by tweaking the registry of XP?

Note: Please do not propose to hide extensions for known file types.

Answer

AutoHotkey is of course again a possible answer to this question :-) .

LifeHacker had an article about exactly this issue: Mimic Vista's File Rename Feature in XP

It's available as the AutoHotkey source script or as a compiled executable name "Better Rename".

Dropbox sync: deleting files locally and not from dropbox

I assume that if I select for a specific folder not to be synced with my computer anymore I will be able to delete that folder from my dropbox folder(on my computer) without worry of it being deleted from my dropbox account?

Answer

In Dropbox tray icon > Preferences > Advanced > Selective Sync, you can choose which folders to be synced. All non-sync folders can be safely removed.

firewall - With Linux iptables, is it possible to log the process/command name that initiates an outbound connection?

I would like to keep track of the processes that initiate outbound connections on a Linux desktop. The best I can come up with is this:

iptables -A OUTPUT -m state --state NEW -j LOG --log-uid

This logs the uid/gid that initiates the connection, but not the process/command name or even the pid. If I could just get the pid, I could probably whip up a script that pulls the process name when the log is written, but it seems like that is not even possible.

Ideally I'd also like to log the processes that accept incoming connections too.

Any ideas how this might be possible with iptables [or anything else] on a Linux box?

Answer

You could write a program to monitor /proc/net/tcp, whose output looks like this:

obi-wan ~ # cat /proc/net/tcp
  sl  local_address rem_address   st tx_queue rx_queue tr tm->when retrnsmt   uid  timeout inode
   0: 00000000:0050 00000000:0000 0A 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000     0        0 4847458 1 e6060560 300 0 0 2 -1
   1: 00000000:04D2 00000000:0000 0A 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000     0        0 4847477 1 f2e64da0 300 0 0 2 -1
   2: 00000000:0016 00000000:0000 0A 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000     0        0 7109 1 f2e65ac0 300 0 0 2 -1
   3: 0100007F:177A 00000000:0000 0A 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000  1000        0 4864457 1 d2726540 300 0 0 2 -1
   4: 00000000:01BB 00000000:0000 0A 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000     0        0 4847462 1 e60609c0 300 0 0 2 -1
   5: 6B00A8C0:0016 30F4B5CA:C3AB 01 00000044:00000000 01:00000031 00000000     0        0 4982752 3 f2e64940 55 4 0 2 -1
   6: 0100007F:B143 0100007F:BC5E 01 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000  1000        0 2130283 1 d59cce40 21 4 1 2 -1
   7: 0100007F:BC5E 0100007F:B143 01 00000000:00000000 00:00000000 00000000  1000        0 2130285 1 d59cd2a0 21 4 0 2 -1
   8: 6B00A8C0:0016 3276C35B:8E11 01 00000000:00000000 02:000ADAB1 00000000     0        0 4982629 2 d2727260 40 4 8 2 2
   9: 6B00A8C0:0016 6500A8C0:DD5D 01 00000538:00000000 01:00000029 00000000     0        0 4864416 5 e6061b40 42 12 27 3 -1

You can then relate opened ports to inodes, which can be related back to processes and file descriptors by doing readlink on the file descriptors listed for each process:

obi-wan ~ # readlink /proc/28850/fd/3
socket:[4847458]

See here that inode 4847458 corresponds to the first tcp socket in the list above. The output of netstat -tapn verifies this for me (and recall that 0x50 == 80):

obi-wan ~ # netstat -tapn
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:80              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN     28850/cherokee-work

When the monitor program notices a change in /proc/net/tcp, parse the data and determine if the change is a newly opened socket. Then you could just enumerate all the file descriptors for each process listed in /proc, doing readlink on each on to find the matching inode. Once you find that, you have the owning pid, from which you can get anything else you might want, particularly if you have process accounting on.

If you don't need your notification to be instantaneous, then your monitor program could use a slow poll (perhaps a period of 50ms or 100ms, or even 1000ms).

macos - Restore MacBook Pro to factory settings without disc

Is there a way of restoring a MacBook Pro to it's factory settings without a disc? I want all files deleted and it to basically be like I just received it from Apple.

I know you can do it with Dell machines - surely you can with Apple machines?

Answer

You won't be able to get it back to 100% pre-used state without the discs. The best you can do is delete user accounts & home folders and remove any Applications that didn't come with it by default, but chances are you're going to leave behind some traces in your system Library folder at least.

I would:

1. Backup your data (no-brainer).


2. Create a new temporary user account with Admin privs & delete all of your old ones including the home folders.


3. Use an app deleting utility such as TrashMe to catch as many of the app's preferences as you trash them. There won't be many because most are user specific.


4. Use a system cleaning utility such as OnyX to clean up as many system settings as you can.


5. Look through the Library folders in folders such as Application Support and Receipts. You might also see application specific folders in /Library. This is where it can get tricky because some depend on others for startup functionality, etc so if you don't delete them all the right way, you might have problems.


6. There may also be some driver specific kexts added by 3rd party utilities in your Systems folder. Up to you to figure out which ones these are.


7. When you're satisfied with what you've done, create another generic account with admin privileges, then delete the temporary account. Don't do anything in the generic account other than delete the temp account.

To someone not familiar with OS X, this can be very intimidating. I would suggest going by the Apple store and talking to a Genius to see what your options are. They may sympathize with you and either re-load it for you or give you replacement disks. Tell them yours were damaged.

Crysis on Windows 8.1 triggers low-memory warning

A more specific case of "How do I make the Windows low memory warning less sensitive?". Please don't migrate this post to Arqade; I was directed to post this question here from Arqade.

---

I just got a new top-of-the-line Sager/Clevo laptop running Windows 8.1 Pro, and it passes the Crysis (2007) benchmark maxed out with flying colors. However, I'm getting low-memory warnings from Windows:

Close programs to prevent information loss

Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs:

Crysis.exe

Crysis is definitely not using an inordinate amount of memory. According to the Task Manager, the system has 8 GB of RAM of which less than 3 GB are in use, with Crysis having allocated only 218 MB of memory. Obviously, this warning is not justified. Why is Windows giving this warning, and what can I do?

The specifications of the Dragon as follows:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4800MQ, 4 cores (8 threads), 2.7 GHz


• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, 4GB GDDR5


• Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz (2x4GB)


• Storage: 750 GB 7200 RPM hard drive


• OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

Answer

From http://www.overclock.net/t/1409290/windows-8-can-i-disable-the-memory-warning:

1. 
   

   Click Start, click in the Start Search box, type gpedit.msc, and then press Enter. MMC will start with the Local Group Policy Editor open.

   
   


2. 
   

   In the navigation tree, expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand System, expand Troubleshooting and Diagnostics, and click Windows Resource Exhaustion Detection and Resolution.

   
   


3. 
   

   In the console pane, right-click Configure Scenario Execution Level, and then click Properties.

   
   


4. 
   

   On the Setting tab, select Disabled, and then click OK.

   
   

windows - How to close all notepad instances in a single close operation

I use notepad and often open multiple instances of it. Is there a way to close all instances of it in a single click ?

Closing them one at a is a real pain.

( I do not like to use notepad++ )

Answer

You can create a shortcut with command

taskkill.exe /im notepad.exe

linux - What's the difference between "uname -r" and "uname -v"?

I am using CentOS 6.2. In the man page of uname (i.e., man uname), it says:

 -r, --kernel-release
              print the kernel release

 -v, --kernel-version
              print the kernel version

While trying the command, it shows

[max@localhost ~]$ uname -r

2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.i686

[max@localhost ~]$ uname -v

#1 SMP Tue May 15 22:09:39 BST 2012

-v should show the version, right? But where is it showing the version? -r is showing the version detail.

Why is this so?

Can I transfer Windows 10 Pro license to another computer?

I have bought a windows 10 pro license for my laptop that I no longer need and wanted to transfer to my desktop. I wouldn't like to buy a new license for my desktop since I won't use laptop anymore....

is this doable under microsoft license?

I tried to search this for quite a while but couldn't figure out. I sent e-mail to microsoft support but got some stupid generic help talking about subject that I didn't even asked...

please help

Transferring Microsoft Office 2010 to a new computer

I recently bought a new computer, and would like to transfer Microsoft Office (Home and Student) 2010 to my new computer. I Googled it, but couldn't find anything useful (except for apologies that this could not be done without an activation code).
My old computer has Windows 7 Starter, my new computer has Windows 8.1 (if that matters).
I still have the activation code product key, and I also have Office Home and Student installed on two other computers, so I can't use the '3-for-1' deal.

How can I transfer Office to my new computer?

Answer

I called Microsoft (actually, just requested a callback from the AnswerDesk here), and had the issue resolved in 35 minutes.

We just installed Office on my new computer, and put in the product key, and it now works!

How can I get FireFox to automatically fill in an entire form?

Firefox remembers individual fields but I can't seem to just fill in the form with a single click (this is a form I have filled in a number of times before). A long time ago there was a FireFox plugin that did this, but it doesn't work anymore.

Answer

You could try the Autofill forms add-on.

Network not working after Windows 10 Upgrade

I recently installed Windows 10 on my Lenovo G500 laptop, but after that i found that none of the wireless network and the local area connection is working. Any suggestions where i can start ?

Windows 7 doesn't start after installing a game with StarForce protection

I installed a game, which uses the StarForce protection under Windows 7 (64-bit).

After game installation, StarForce displayed a message, asking for a reboot. Since the reboot, Windows 7 doesn't start properly. It shows a text mode dialog (Recovery or Start Windows normally). Selecting any option leads to graphic mode rescue dialog (that with many different options). Sadly, I have to system images.

Is there a way to recover Windows 7 by deleting some files?
(By using GParted or something...)

Answer

From StarForce – the ultimate evil :

No big deal, boot up in safe mode and delete the problematic drivers, right? No such luck, StarForce had even managed to install these broken drivers in safe mode.

Next stop, the Vista installation disk, which has a repair feature. The repair went as expected, showed success, but when I tried to reboot, the problem was still there.

Luckily I had a Knoppix Live-CD lying around from some old experiments, and this was able to boot the machine into linux. A couple of driver downloads later I was able to access the files on the main hard drive, and delete the offending StarForce drivers by hand, which fixed the problem.

List of drivers from How can I get rid of Starforce? :

Unofficial way to remove Starforce

1. 
   

   Remove these files:
   %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfsync03.sys
   %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfhlp02.sys
   %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\sfdrv01.sys

   
   


2. 
   

   Remove these registry keys:
   HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfsync03
   HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfhlp02
   HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\sfdrv01

   
   

What does "This port is for data transfer only" mean in relation to USB-C graphics output?

According to the technical specifications for the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UN, and the manual, they all say this about the USB-C 3.1 port:

This port is for data transfer only.

General question: What are they trying to say it won't do?

Specific question: This laptop comes with a dedicated graphics card capable of 4K, and I'm looking to get a type of pseudo-docking station via USB-C, which would provide 4K Video/Audio and USB for HIDs. Is this possible, or is the dedicated graphics card not connected to USB-C in that way?

colors - 48-bit colours?

Quite often, especially in X11-related things (X resources, Roxterm themes, etc) I see colours specified as 48-bit numbers: #2e2e34343636, #cccc00000000 instead of the usual 24-bit #2e3436 and #cc0000. What are the extra bits used for?

Answer

I found the answer in Xlib documentation under "Color strings". It seems that Xlib actually uses 16 bit RGB values for colors:

RGB Device String Specification

[...] an older syntax for RGB Device is supported, but its continued use is not encouraged. The syntax is an initial sharp sign character followed by a numeric specification, in one of the following formats:

#RGB          (4 bits each)
#RRGGBB       (8 bits each)
#RRRGGGBBB    (12 bits each)
#RRRRGGGGBBBB (16 bits each)

The R, G, and B represent single hexadecimal digits. When fewer than 16 bits each are specified, they represent the most significant bits of the value (unlike the “rgb:” syntax, in which values are scaled). For example, the string “#3a7” is the same as “#3000a0007000”.

microsoft office - Using Outlook XP and Outlook 2007/2010 side by side on the same PC

I think there are a few questions around whether Office 2000/XP vs. Office 2007/2010 can be installed side by side on the same Windows (XP).

My case currently uses Outlook/Office XP and I am investigating if it would be possible to additionally install Outlook/Office 2010 on the same machine and then (for a short period) use Outlook 2010 alongside Outlook XP.

Would there be any specific complications using two versions of Outlook on the same machine? (Emails are retrieved via IMAP, no Exchange or pop3 here, so I do not expect any problems on the email protocol side.)

Answer

This Microsoft article discusses this same issue:
Information about using 2007 Office suites and programs on a computer that is running another version of Office.

In general, Office 2007 can coexist with earlier versions, but Oulook apparently cannot :

Multiple versions of Outlook

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 cannot coexist with any earlier version of Microsoft Outlook. When you install Outlook 2007, the Setup program removes Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Microsoft Outlook 2002, and Microsoft Outlook 2000. The Setup program removes these versions of Outlook even if you click to select the Keep these programs check box in the Removing Previous Versions dialog box.

package management - Why does apt-get sometimes asks for confirmation?

Sometimes it does this:

After this operation, 713kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

And sometimes not, and just assumes 'yes' and downloads automatically (I can't paste the actual output because I don't know how to reproduce it).

Why?

Answer

The confirmation dialog will not only appear when you would install packages you didn't ask for, but also in the following cases:

• Installing packages that you didn't specifically want to install


• Removal of essential packages


• Changing a held package _{(a held package is one you want to keep in the version currently installed)}

You can override it with one of the following switches:

• -y


• -yes


• --assume-yes

Which acts as if you answered yes to all those questions. However, prompts for essential packages will still be displayed for safety reasons.

Essential packages:

Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality that must be available and usable on the system at all times, even when packages are in an unconfigured (but unpacked) state.

Thanks to @Liori for pointing that out.

Windows 8 language settings don't change the language everywhere

I just bought a new computer with windows 8 on it from Germany, so when it shipped over everything was in German. I was able to get around that and download the English language pack but I noticed that some of the tags were still in German. Among these are some of the default group names for the apps and some things on the login screen like in the password bar it says "Kennwort". Is it possible to permanently chance the operating language to English?

(I even tried deleting the German language profile but that didn't change anything.

Answer

On Windows 8 hit Win+W and type in the search Region, click on the Region and go to the Administrative Tab and click on the copy settings and make the languages changes system wide.

thinkpad - Virtual PC on Windows 7 - Hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled

I am running a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor. When I run Virtual PC in Windows 7, I get the following error:

Unable to start Windows Virtual PC because hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled.

When running the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool from Microsoft says:

Hardware-assited virtualization is not enabled on this computer.

Now, in the BIOS, I do have virtualization enabled and according to Intel this processor supports Intel-VT. What am I missing here?

Answer

Enabling Intel-VT requires a cold restart. Try going back into the BIOS, turn it off, and turn off the computer (don't just reboot). Then start up, go in the BIOS and enable it, then once again turn the PC off. Make sure you save your changes in the BIOS.

Boot up and start VPC, check the options and ensure it is enabled:

partitioning - dd - just copy partitions

I have a SanDisk Extreme SD card contaning my Homeserver runing on the RaspberryPI. I want to move this sytsem to another 4GB SD card using dd. But unfortunaltely when I make an image via dd it has the size of the entire SanDisk (16GB) althought just ca. 13.5 of them are partitioned. The Server SD consists of 2 partitions one small 50MB and a second 3 GB. I expected that dd makes an image of the size of the sum of the two partitions. Is there a way to make an image that contains just the really used disk space?

Answer

If the SD card is (for example) sdb, don't ask dd to read sdb, you could ask it to copy just the partitions by specifying (for example) sdb1 or sdb2. You'll have to partition the target device with equal sized partitions first and specify those as the targets.

Unix/GNU-Linux systems have a variety of tools for copying data

• dd


• cpio


• dump


• tar

It can be worthwhile reading a bit about each of them (e.g. the man pages but I suggest googling for an overview)

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Also, dd has a count option so you can tell it to copy the first 4GB only.

How to force Excel to open CSV files with data arranged in columns

I generate a CSV file with an extension .csv in which every piece of data in one line is separated with a comma:

1,2,3,4
1,2,3,4

The file is sent via email and I want that when a customer opens it she sees data arranged into columns.

Is such thing possible?

PS: I may freely change the delimeter.

Answer

Use tab instead of comma. And if that doesn't work, give your tab-delimited file an xls extension.

macos - What are the technical obstacles that doesn't allow OSX to be installed in a PC?

Before starting: lets forget about the EULA and any other legal regulation. I'm not interested in those. Also, since this is a grey line about what I'm going to ask, Ask Different may not be the place to ask:

Installing or using Apple operating systems on non-Apple hardware (and most other explicitly unlicensed use of product)

Continue reading.

---

Everyone knows that until some years prior OSX (or Mac OS) only could be run in PowerPC CPU's, but that changed when Apple adopted Intel CPU's opening the possibilities of installing OSX in PC's (again lets forget about legalese I'm going for factual and technical references) that users started experimenting until it's is possible. So, anyone knows why is the reason that OSX wouldn't work in normal folks PC? Some piece of hardware that is made custom tailored for OSX that only Mac's has? Or is just Apple folks making users life difficult at technical level?

The question is a mere curiosity of mine, inspired in an very debated answer of mine about installing Mac OS X in a Dell PC.

TL;DR: How they make it so difficult?

References (can be used in answers ;) ):

Answer

Oddly enough? Apple systems check for a specific chip and refuse to run or install without it - this is called the system management controller, and in effect is a glorified fan controller amongst other things. Practically speaking this is the reason, outside of some other specific things that might be different - such as video card firmware for video cards and OS X specific drivers for various things (sound cards come to mind) that you can't 'just' boot a vanilla copy of OS X right on your beige box pc. Of course, this isn't that hard to get around, which is why your average OS X hosted VM host can run OS X VMs, and there's hackintosh distros floating around.

Most Hackintosh install methods these days use variations of boot132, a bootloader that was provided when apple was transitioning from PPC to intel with some modifications. The original bootloader was open source, and built with some changes for darwin. As an aside, there have been some attempts to repackage darwin as an open source OS.

Apple supports a limited range of hardware you know will work. Otherwise, you're going to have to scrounge up tested hardware or hack hardware into working. This is what makes running OS X on commodity hardware difficult. The SMC is relatively trivial to get around.Getting your unsupported sound chip (nothing like having your mic stuck at maximum volume on a laptop to ruin your day), video adaptor and other hardware is the tricky part. If you have an AMD processor, for example, the stock kernel will take one look at it and panic like a mouse ran up its pants. In many cases, the solution ends up being building a new kernel, with patches off Darwin source (which is FOSS) and using that.

In short, the big problem isn't the magic chip, its OS X needing to play nice with the entire system

linux - Why would an incorrect password attempt take a lot longer to process than a correct one?

The most prominent place I've noticed this is when SSH-ing at work, but I feel like I've observed this behaviour elsewhere too.

When I try to log into Linux servers from my Windows desktop at work, I've noticed that if I mis-type my password, it takes a good 5 seconds or so before I get "Access Denied" back. Then when I type my password correctly, the login (along with welcome messages etc) is virtually instant.

Is there any logical reason for this, or would it be down to some odd configuration that's specific to the machines here at work?

Answer

There's probably an artificial timeout built-in to make it harder for a brute force attack to succeed.

You will see this on many login prompts that involve secure authentication...

headphones - What are good noise reducing earphones for use with a PC?

I need a pair of noise reducing earphones (you know, the small ones, that you put inside your ear) what will work with my PC and that I can carry around with me to work and back.

Answer

I use Audio-Technica (these). We went through a major expansion last year with brick chiseling, hammering, drilling and who knows what else, and never had a problem. Just as good (if not better) than their Bose counterparts, and a lot less in price.

I have also used these earbuds , not so much at work, but are very nice mowing the lawn as they also double as ear plugs.

I should note, both I can listen to at my normal volumes and feel like I am in a quiet room.

ms dos - Is there a similar command like COLOR in MS-DOS?

MS-DOS 6.22 is running. Who needs Windows 10?

I know that upon starting there is a possibility to change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS environment.

But is this also possible when MS-DOS is already running?

My case is, that I want to run a .BAT file, that then switching the color whether it throws an error or is ok.

GeForce GTX 980 Ti reverts to single monitor on wake up

I'm running an up to date NVIDIA version 8.1.790.0, on Windows 10, with an EVGA GTX 980 Ti driving two ASUS 4k monitors through DisplayPort.

All works well until the system goes to power save if I have left the monitors on - then I move the mouse or touch a key and the system wakes, but only with one monitor. In graphics properties, only one monitor is available.

I can then go back into NVIDIA control panel, Set up multiple displays and I get the option to check the box for the 2nd monitor, and when I hit Apply changes, the 2nd monitor is enabled, and as long as I move something onto that monitor it remains on until the next time the system sleeps - if I don't move a window onto that monitor it sleeps again after 30 seconds or so.

I have googled for solutions, and looked on the NVIDIA forums but had no joy.

I have also seen this question but the top answers refer to AMD or Quadro cards (with different functionality)

Answer

DisplayPort support in Windows is somewhat problematic. As it acts as a PNP device, powering it off may disconnect it from the computer as if it was removed and Windows may forget this device, until it is turned on again and is "discovered".

The problem is that Windows expects a PNP monitor to answer with its EDID at all times, and forgets it when the monitor does not answer. This process is also called Auto Detection.

The solution is to set the monitor's EDID for Windows as constant, so Windows will not try to contact the monitor.

If one has an NVIDIA Quatro display card, this can be done via the NVIDIA control panel.

One can also use a utility that creates a custom EDID profile, as these utilities set up a permanent profile in Windows so it does not contact the monitor.

Here are a couple of utilities :

• Custom Resolution Utility


• PowerStrip (shareware) was the best of its kind, but is not updated since 2012. It is still available for download (but no idea how long it will keep on working).

linux - Why should the size of the swap partition be double of the RAM size?

Why is it recommended that the swap partition size be double that of the RAM size?

Specifically, why would I need to store data stored in the RAM twice??

Answer

Swap partition having double the memory size is just a general guideline, not a hard and fast rule. You'll need minimum 1 X your memory size if you suspend-to-disk (hibernation), and add enough spare for usage of 'swapped' memory which goes beyond your physical one. Hence the recommended 1.5 to 2 times.

I would think it also depends on the nature of your application usage and size of your physical memory etc. If you have anything beyond 2GB RAM and using non-memory intensive applications most of the time, you might not need swap partition at all, not big one anyway.

Having a big swap file and slow harddisk can be really punishing for your system too.

Here are a few useful reads:

Ubuntu SwapFAQ
SUperuser - Swap partition size for 4GB RAM
Do I Need a Swap Partition and If So, How Big?

command line - Setting or modifying a (system wide) environment variable in cmd.exe

I am looking for a convenient way to add and/or modify and/or delete an environment variable from the command line. Particularly, I find myself at times in situations when I have to add a few variables in cmd.exe.

I'd be grateful if someone showed me a non-GUI way to modify (that is: to add a new directory to) the %PATH% variable.

The change should be be permanent, not just for duration of the cmd session.

Answer

The Old School method of directly manipulating registry variables with the reg command was on the money. Here's how you do it:

reg add HKCU\Environment /v PATH /d "%addonpath%;%path%" /f

Throw that into a one line script called apath.bat that looks like this:

@echo off
reg add HKCU\Environment /v PATH /d "%~dp0;%path%" /f

Then, all you need to provide is the path of the new directory you're adding when calling the script and you're dialed in:

e.g: apath.bat %addonpath%

Although Hinch is right. The best way to do it if you're using Vista or above is to use the SETX command which is designed to allow us to propagate environment variables without the risk of directly manipulating the registry with with the reg command that could save you your machine if you manipulate ENV variables enough to use it on the fly.

networking - Windows 10 Update 1511 Breaks Hyper-V Switches

After upgrading to windows 10 v1511, the Hyper-V switch I had has gone all over the place.

Aside from being disabled, and not being able to start, the network connections manager shows the switch with a different name "Ethernet 2" (description says it is a hyper-v switch). When I try to remove the switch via the Hyper-V manager I get the Error:

Failed while removing virtual Ethernet switch. Internal miniport delete  failed, internal NIC = 'somenicidthatstoolong': Invalid parameter (0x80041008)". The switches name is "vEthernet".

Since that does not work, I tried removing the vmswitch through PowerShell.

remove-vmswitch -Name "vEthernet" -force
remove-vmswitch -Name "Ethernet 2" -force

Both of these grant me another error:

remove-vmswitch : Hyper-V was unable to find a virtual switch with name "vEthernet".
remove-vmswitch : Hyper-V was unable to find a virtual switch with name "Ethernet 2".

Since none of these are working, I tried to list all of the VMSwitches using get-vmswitch...which returned nothing.

So in the end we are left with a nonexistant vmswitch, that exists in the hyper-v manager still, and also in Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections with a different name.

How do I remove these entries so I can create a new VMSwitch?

Answer

Alright, so for anyone else who has this issue here is the solution.

DISCLAIMER: YOU WILL MOST LIKELY LOSE NETWORK CONNECTIVITY ON THE HOST PC/SERVER UNTIL THE FINAL STEP

Since you cannot remove/uninstall the Hyper-V switch through

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections

The only choice left is to open the device manager.

Device Manager > Your PC > Network adapters

In this list you will find the Hyper-V Switch, but it will most likely NOT have the name you gave it. Determine which network switch is the Hyper-V Switch, right click and uninstall it. This is where network connectivity will be lost.

After uninstalling the switch from the device manager, the record will still be left in your Hyper-V Manager's Virtual Switch Manager. However, rejoice, as now that the device has been manually removed you can now remove the virtual switch from the Virtual Switch Manager without error.

Now, when configuring a Hyper-V Switch, the actual physical adapter is set as a Hyper-V Extensible Switch. Since we manually removed the adapter, the Virtual Switch Manager did NOT restore the switch to its original settings. Go back to

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections

and right click on your primary network adapter, hit properties, and uncheck the "Hyper-V Extensible Virtual Switch". After doing so, you should see the other checkboxes populate automatically, if it doesn't for some reason, go through them and check what you need.

Hit OK, confirm the notice that will say you may experience network interruption, and you are back to having internet on your PC/Server and are now able to Re-create your Virtual Switch for your Hyper-V Virtual Machines.