Windows
Beautiful desktop
- https://www.flickr.com/groups/lifehacker-desktop-showandtell/pool/
- http://lifehacker.com/the-low-poly-island-desktop-1683253694
- http://lifehacker.com/the-high-orbit-desktop-1680449151
- Launcher and Docks
- For RK launcher, right click the separator to show the menu. From there, click Settings > Behavior tab. Enable the checkbox to start RK launcher with Windows. The version I am using is 0.4 beta.
License key
- http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1174207-how-many-times-i-can-re-install-windows-8-using-my-key/
- Find your Windows license key. ProduKey from NirSoft.
Libraries in Windows 7
The full path to the hidden Libraries folder is below.
C:\Users\(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries # Or %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
On my Windows 7 machine, the Libraries include
Documents Music Pictures Videos
Note that the Pictures folder in Libraries is not exactly the same as C:\Users\(User-Name)\My Pictures folder. Similarly, the Videos folder in Libraries may not be the same as C:\Users\(User-Name)\My Videos. In fact, each one of folder in Libraries contains more than 1 folder: one is 'My' one and the other is 'Public' one. For example, the Documents folder in Libraries contains My Documents and Public Documents subfolders.
It seems Windows 8 does not have 'Libraries'. On Windows 10, 'Libraries' becomes 'Quick access' and the libraries idea is gone now; for example, the 'Downloads' is actually means the 'Downloads' folder. The 'Quick access' consists of
Desktop Downloads Documents Pictures Music Videos
Testing on <install.sh> shell script. Goal is to use wget to download the file.
- Github: choose 'View Raw' to get the url for the file. The con is the url will be changed whenever the file is updated.
- Google Drive: cannot get the raw file, only the html version.
Log on automatically on Windows 7 or 8
- Click Start, type netplwiz, and then press Enter.
- In the User Accounts dialog box, click the account you want to automatically log on to.If it is available, clear the Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer check box.
- Click OK.
- In the Automatically Log On dialog box, enter the user’s password twice and click OK.
Why You Shouldn’t Automatically Log Into Your Windows PC
http://www.howtogeek.com/220660/why-you-shouldn%E2%80%99t-automatically-log-into-your-windows-pc/
Network discovery
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-network-discovery#1TC=windows-7
- Start -> Control panel
- Network -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change advanced sharing settings.
Convert/Save web pages as ebook format
The ebook device uses e-link. It is friendly to human's eyes. Although these ebook devices are usually small for easy to carry, reading pdf articles are not suitable. However if articles are available online as web pages, we can save these pages and read them on devices.
- For Kindle device, we can use bookmartlet from http://fivefilters.org/. After installing bookmarklet, we can click it and send any webpage to kindle device (we have to enter the Kindle email address and add [email protected] to the approved personal document email list from Amazon Account -> Manage Your Kindle. The saved file is in mobi format and it contains images too. However, pages contains tables may be lost (eg this page, but it may be the website's problem). Note that in order to read the article on my kindle device, I still need to go to http://www.amazon.com website -> Your Account -> Manage Your Kindle -> Click 'Actions' from the corresponding book -> Deliver to my Kindle (select one device). No extra charge over this method. See lifehacker's article.
- For Kobo device, one option is to use dotepub bookmarklet. However, it has a limit on the number of images in an article to save. In fact, the http://filvefilters.org bookmarklet has an option to output in epub format. It will download the epub file immediately. It works perfectly.
Create epub or mobipocket format by using pandoc
- http://puppetlabs.com/blog/automated-ebook-generation-convert-markdown-epub-mobi-pandoc-kindlegen
- http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/epub.html
Convert pdf to ebook format
- pdf4kindle.com - not work well with pdf files from http://magazine.odroid.com/
- Calibre - when I test the pdf files from http://magazine.odroid.com/, the conversion does not recognize the 3-column mode. So the conversed article will mess up.
- k2pdfopt - an article from howtogeek.com. After several tries (command line & GUI), I did not find it particularly useful. The only one case that may be useful to convert an article from multiple-column to a single column.
k2pdfopt xxx.pdf -mode fp -c -col 3
This will generate a new file called <xxx_k2opt.pdf> by converting an article with 3 columns. Note that the new pdf file will have very wide space on two sides.
Trim/Crop pdf using briss
- briss is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and it depends on Java.
- It works great when I use it to crop IRanges package vignette.
java -jar briss-0.9.jar -s [SOURCEFILE] [-d [DESTINATIONFILE]]
Convert PDF to HTML format PdfMasher
- The source code is in Python 3. There is a binary code for Windows (32&64 bit) & Ubuntu 12.04 but not for 14.04.
- http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/pdf-masher-changes-pdf-into-html-optimizes-it-for-e-book-reader/
- http://lifehacker.com/5820487/pdfmasher-turns-pdfs-into-ereader-friendly-html-the-right-way
- http://www.hardcoded.net/pdfmasher/
Convert Kindle azw to other format
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/09/15/how-add-kindle-drm-removal-plugin-calibre/#.U022nHVdWKk
Note: it does not work:(
Install IIS on Windows 7/Vista
Burn Windows 7 ISO to USB
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/create-bootable-windows-7-usb-drive.html
Create a bootable USB
- Launching Hiren's BootCD from USB Flash Drive.
- Uninstall Ubuntu in Windows dual boot environment.
- Create installation media for Windows 8.1 an instruction by Microsoft.com.
Dual boot of Windows and Linux
Uninstall a Linux from dual-boot
Install open-source software
Consider Ninite.
Install ubuntu on my 64GB USB drive
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
$ df -h Filesystem Size Mounted on /cow 3.9G / udev 3.9G /dev tmpfs 1.6G /run /dev/sdb1 61G /cdrom /dev/loop0 672M /rofs tmpfs 3.9G /tmp none 5.0M /run lock none 3.9G /run/shm
If we check the drive's partition table using gpart, we will see the drive has only a fat32 partition.
Internet connection sharing (ICS)
Suppose a laptop can connect to the internt through wireless. We want to use its ethernet port to share internet on another device (e.g. raspberry pi where the device has only ethernet port).
- control panel - network & sharing center
- manage network connection
- right click wireless network connection and select property
- click 'sharing' tab and check 'Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection'. For the home network connection, select 'Local Area Connection'.
- reboot raspberry pi.
When my host machine is xubuntu, the guest machine (raspberry pi) shows eth0 has ip 10.42.0.37 and the host machine shows
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:22:19:ea:10:3d inet addr:10.42.0.1 Bcast:10.42.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::222:19ff:feea:103d/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:284 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:383 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:19038 (19.0 KB) TX bytes:85493 (85.4 KB) Interrupt:43 Base address:0x2000 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:972 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:972 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:90336 (90.3 KB) TX bytes:90336 (90.3 KB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:17:c4:62:a0:35 inet addr:192.168.1.153 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: 2601:a:3780:6a:217:c4ff:fe62:a035/64 Scope:Global inet6 addr: fe80::217:c4ff:fe62:a035/64 Scope:Link inet6 addr: 2601:a:3780:6a:a4b9:d314:4790:a0a1/64 Scope:Global UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:6300 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:4812 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:6042745 (6.0 MB) TX bytes:659980 (659.9 KB) xubuntu@xubuntu:~$
Proxy
Secure web access from anywhere using secure tunnel
http://www.howtogeek.com/68061/setup-ssh-on-your-router-for-secure-web-access-from-anywhere/
Access cloud storage
OneDrive
Mount/map onedrive as a local drive
How to Configure OneDrive to Sync Only Certain Folders in Windows 10
Windows Power Shell
Windows command prompt
- rmdir foldername /s /q to delete a folder
- for %I in (.) do echo %~sI to return a short name for the current folder.
Open control panel
- System properties (including environment variables) - control sysdm.cpl
- See microsoft.com for a complete list.
Keyboard shortcut
Windows 8
Keyboard shortcut.
- Win + C: charm bar
- Win + w: search
VLC
- +/-: faster/slower speed
- Alt + arrow keys: skip 10 seconds by forwarding/backwarding
- Ctrl + arrow keys: skip 1 minute
- Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys: skip 5 minutes
- Ctrl + Up/Down: Volume
- M: mute
- F: full screen
- space bar: toggle play/pause
- A: toggle aspect ratio
Windows 8
- Gestures
- When I installed Windows 8.1 from an iso file, 9GB disk space was taken.
- How to Restrict & Monitor Mobile Data Usage on Windows 8.1
Swapfile, pagefile
Windows 10
- Microsoft quietly woke up update KB 3035583 from hibernation, and thus began a massive effort to get millions of Windows 7 and 8 users to ditch their existing operating system for a free copy of Windows 10. All they have to do is reserve their Windows 10 upgrade within the first year of the OS’s availability, something they can do from the comforts of their desktop via the Get Windows 10 upgrade prompt.
- Media Creation Tool software
Differences with Win 7
Differences with Win 8
Windows 10 Tips
- Tips from maximumpc.
- Express settings vs Customize settings when you install Windows 10.
- Product key myth
- Windows 10 Uses Your Upload Bandwidth to Update Other PCs
- How to Monitor Your Network Usage in Windows 10
- How to Deal With Internet Bandwidth Caps
- Tweak Windows 10 and Fix Its Minor Annoyances
- How to Uninstall and Block Updates and Drivers on Windows 10
- How to Uninstall Windows 10’s Built-in Apps (and How to Reinstall Them)
- Clean installation
- Redirects Windows 10's Bing Web Searches to Google
- Use Google for Cortana web searches (with Firefox or Chrome)
- Make Windows 10 boot faster
- Recovery and roll back
- How to change your default browser in Windows 10
- Disable Windows (auto) update: use metered connection. To set a Wi-Fi network connection as metered: Select Start > Settings > Network & Internet. Select Wi-Fi > Advanced options > Set as metered connection. For this and other methods, see this post from intowindows.com and howtogeek.com.
- Privacy
- Web notes in Edge browser and howtogeek.com
- What is the Windows.old Folder and How Do You Delete It?
- Local disk space 1. 332GB free of 359GB (pro N) 2. 49.7GB free of 57.6GB (home) 3. 53GB free of 74.4GB.
- How Windows 10 Handles Memory Management
- How to make Windows 10 faster
- Gesture on a touchpad
Upgrade to Windows 10 with Windows 7 or 8 + Ubuntu dual boot
Cleanup
- How To: Spring Cleaning for Your Drives by maximumpc.com.
How to Find Out Why Your Windows PC Crashed or Froze
http://www.howtogeek.com/222730/how-to-find-out-why-your-windows-pc-crashed-or-froze/. The article mentions two tools.
- Reliability monitor (built-in)
- Event viewer(built-in)
- BlueScreenView (NirSoft)
Securely transfer files to Linux on Windows command line
PuTTy & PuttyND
Use psftp or pscp with a script.
PuttyND gives a chrome style with multiple tabs for Putty Suite.
Use winscp with script or in command line
See http://winscp.net/eng/docs/feature_index
C:\Program Files\WinSCP\winscp.exe" /console /script=YOUR_SCRIPT_FILENAME
Example from http://winscp.net/eng/docs/scripting#example
# Automatically abort script on errors option batch abort # Disable overwrite confirmations that conflict with the previous option confirm off # Connect using a password # open sftp://user:[email protected] # Connect open sftp://[email protected] # Change remote directory cd /home/user # Force binary mode transfer option transfer binary # Download file to the local directory d:\ get examplefile.txt d:\ # Disconnect close # Connect as a different user open [email protected] # Change the remote directory cd /home/user2 # Upload the file to current working directory put d:\examplefile.txt # Disconnect close # Exit WinSCP exit
See http://wiki.vpslink.com/Automate_Backup_Retrieval_with_WinSCP#Test_WinSCP_Backup_Script for use winscp with Windows scheduler.
Putty with tabs
- Putty nd Works well
- MTPuTTY/Multi-Tabbed Putty Has a problem with cursor
Find public IP address
- http://superuser.com/questions/165986/command-prompt-command-for-external-ip
- http://superuser.com/questions/404926/how-to-get-my-external-ip-address-over-nat-from-the-windows-command-line
Create a VB script text file "ip.cbs" with a content like
Option Explicit Dim http : Set http = CreateObject( "MSXML2.ServerXmlHttp" ) http.Open "GET", "http://icanhazip.com", False http.Send Wscript.Echo http.responseText 'or do whatever you want with it Set http = Nothing
Open a command line and run
cscript ip.vbs
The output will look like
C:\Users\mli>cscript ip.vbs Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 2601:a:3780:5b:b856:6a09:3ea3:5e26
- On windows, open a command prompt. Type 'ipconfig' and look at IPv4 Address. But 'ipconfig' cannot show only one adapter. Another choice is netsh
x <- shell('netsh interface ip show addresses "Local Area Connection"', intern = T) y <- strsplit(x[grep("IP Address", x)], " ")[[1]] y[length(y)] # [1] "xxx.xx.xx.xxx"
PATH copy copy
http://pathcopycopy.codeplex.com/
PATH environment variable
In R, by using strsplit() and shell() functions we can quickly get the information of the PATH environment variable.
> x = shell("PATH", int = TRUE) > strsplit(x, ";") [[1]] [1] "PATH=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\VNI\\imsl\\fnl600\\Intel64\\lib" [2] "C:\\Program files\\MPICH2\\bin" [3] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\VNI\\imsl\\fnl600\\IA64\\lib" [4] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\VNI\\imsl\\fnl600\\IA32\\lib" [5] "C:\\Program files\\MPICH2\\bin" [6] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\intel64\\mkl" [7] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\ia32\\mkl" [8] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\intel64\\mpirt" [9] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\intel64\\compiler" [10] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\ia32\\mpirt" [11] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\redist\\ia32\\compiler" [12] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\ComposerXE-2011\\compiler\\lib" [13] "C:\\Windows\\system32" [14] "C:\\Windows" [15] "C:\\Windows\\System32\\Wbem" [16] "C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\" [17] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\QuickTime\\QTSystem\\" [18] "C:\\Program Files\\cvsnt" [19] "C:\\Program Files\\ActivIdentity\\ActivClient\\" [20] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\ActivIdentity\\ActivClient\\" [21] "C:\\Program Files\\TortoiseSVN\\bin" [22] "C:\\graphviz\\i386\\bin" [23] "C:\\graphviz\\x64\\bin" [24] "C:\\gtk\\bin" [25] "C:\\gtksourceview\\bin" [26] "C:\\libxml2\\bin" [27] "C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\Downloads\\binary" [28] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Miktex\\miktex\\bin\\" [29] "C:\\Pandoc\\bin"
An open source program to edit PATH variable is available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pathtool/
On my computer, I need to open a Windows prompt with admin privilege and then type 'sysdm.cpl' in order to change the PATH variable.
WinCVS
Difference of "P" and "U" when running an update on WinCVS.
It means "Patched", which in effect is exactly the same as "Updated". The only difference is that the server did not send the complete file but only a diff (aka patch).
Notepad++
Font size
How to increase font size? Just hold Ctrl and use scroll wheel. See here. It even save the status when you restart Notepad++.
Theme
Setting > Style Configurator > Select theme dropdown list > Zenburn.
If we download other themes from internet, those themes do not have a support for R languages so the syntax highlight will be lost.
Default language
And for convenience, we can change the default language to R in Notepad++'s Settings.
Proxy
? > Set Updater Proxy.
Visual Studio 2010
- Create simple form using VS C++ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8E4C0zbIHA
Cygwin
For something we cannot find a good Windows version of program; for example, cvs client. See my notes in Linux page.
Youtube
Use desktop client like minitube which can eliminate the ads and allows downloading videos.
Powerful usage of VLC
RealPlayer
Toggle mute sound
- free utility called nircmd http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.zip
- create a shortcut: "C:\Michal\Code\Mute Sounds\nircmd.exe" mutesysvolume 2
- set up shortcut key by right click the shortcut and choose property
Mind mapping software
- Free mind
- Mindmap (web based)
- MindMup (web based). It can export to Freemind .nm format. No registration is required.
MS-Office
Creating macros
Excel print the header row on each page
http://www.guidingtech.com/17822/print-first-row-column-every-excel-page/
- Click page layout tab on the ribbon
- Switch to the tab for Sheet and spot the section for Print titles. It hosts a row and a column option.
- In the 'Rows to repeat at top', enter '$1:$1'.
Done!
How to Print the Gridlines and Row and Column Headings in Excel
http://www.howtogeek.com/220645/how-to-print-the-gridlines-and-row-and-column-headings-in-excel/
How to freeze a row or column in Excel
http://www.howtogeek.com/166326/how-to-freeze-and-unfreeze-rows-and-columns-in-excel-2013/
Hide rows or columns
Avoid change simple quote to smart quote (autoformatting) in Word
Uncheck two options in Options -> Proofing -> Autoformatting. https://www.simple-talk.com/blogs/2011/11/09/how-to-stop-office-2010-changing-and-to-smart-quotes/
Avoid broken hyperlinks from web address containing space
Office Mobile
Free for devices less than 10.1 inch screen on Windows 10.
- https://blogs.office.com/2015/07/29/office-mobile-apps-for-windows-10-are-here/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Mobile
- Caveat Office Mobile只允許使用者儲存為支援Open XML的Office檔案格式,無法儲存成DOC、XLS、PPT格式。
Folder synchronization
cwRsync
https://www.itefix.net/content/cwrsync-free-edition. Just unzip.
rsync from Rtools
- http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/
- http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/Rtools.txt
C:\Program Files\R>where rsync C:\Rtools\bin\rsync.exe
Got an error (tried 3.2 and 3.3)
rsync: Failed to exec ssh: No such file or directory (2) rsync error: error in IPC code (code 14) at /home/lapo/package/rsync-3.0.9-1/src/rsync-3.0.9/pipe.c(84) [Receiver=3.0.9] rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [Receiver] rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at /home/lapo/package/rsync-3.0.9-1/src/rsync-3.0.9/io.c(605) [Receiver=3.0.9]
rsync from cygwin
Got a permission error when the target is a network drive.
Got an error: connection unexpectedly closed.
Windows sync toy
For some reason, it does not find the missing files so it does not copy files from source to target.
Another bad thing is there is no way to uninstall it.
FreeFileSync
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/
For some reason, I cannot download it successfully. If I manually copy it from a linux machine to windows, it just get deleted. Probably there is a security reason.
Unison
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
I download Windows binary version. However, it does not work. It depends on GTK but it still complain it cannot find libgtk-win32-2-0.0.dll even I downloaded/installed/change PATH variable.
DirSync
http://sourceforge.net/projects/directorysync/?source=recommended (NO installer is there)
Internet Tricks
View all steps from instructables
Just add ?ALLSTEPS after the url's forward slash. See here
How to Set Up Your Own Home VPN Server
http://www.howtogeek.com/221001/how-to-set-up-your-own-home-vpn-server/
FreeCommander
Keep tabs open from last session
Settings > Folder Tabs > Tab Management tab, check the box "Keep current tabs if open layout" and uncheck the box "Close all not locked tabs when the program ends."
7zip to open zip files
- http://www.forum.freecommander.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5142. Settings > Archiver plugins. Unfortunately I did not find a source to download the plugin.
Back up to external drive or another computer
Turn off Ipod nano 4th generation completely
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_KprYnP1hA
The steps are
- Center + Menu
- Center + Left
- Sleep, Deep sleep
Hide a Windows program
http://superuser.com/questions/43206/windows-application-to-hide-an-application-from-the-taskbar.
Especially the RBTray program works well. When it was launched, we can use 'right click' on any program's minimize button to minimize it to the tray. To exit the program, just right click on any tray icon created by RBTray and click Exit RBTray in the popup menu. Or run RBTray.exe with the --exit parameter.
Windows XP mode in Windows 7
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5460/our-look-at-xp-mode-in-windows-7/
Screenshot Annotation
Evernote Skitch, Snipit, SnagIt (commercial), hotshot GNU written in C++ & Qt, Jing, Picpick (commercial), Paint.net, szoter online annotation, IrfanView, Open office, Shutter for linux.
Evernote backup
Record screens
This howtogeek.com guide tells how to record you screen on different platforms (windows/mac/linux/android/ios).
Inkscape
- Tutorial basic
- List of tools shown on the left hand side.
- Tutorial from youtube (tutor4u)
- Transparent text
- Select the arrow key when we want to change an object property (eg enlarge).
- The straight line tool is located two above the Text tool. When we draw a line, we can use ENTER key to stop continuation.
- When we want to enlarge an object, we want to hold the CTRL key so the size will be changed proportionally.
- Keyboard shortcut. For example, Ctrl+d to duplicate selection.
Note Taking
- KeepNote: cross platform (pro: tab for different notebook, export to HTML)
- CherryTree: cross platform (pro: still under development, one file only, recent documents)
- Zim: cross platform
X11 server
Check web change
For those web sites without RSS feed, we can use the following methods
- https://www.changedetection.com/
- Page Monitor chrome extension (we can 'Pick' part of a page)
- http://page2rss.com/ (convert page to RSS)
- https://www.followthatpage.com/
Screenshot of a big webpage
Screengrab add-on for Firefox
Reminder
ReminderFox is an add-on for Firefox
Tile of webpages
TileView is an add-on for Firefox
Download Bing wallpaper
- http://www.bing.com/gallery/#
- http://www.ampercent.com/download-high-resolution-bing-wallpapers-bing-homepage/10998/
Audio out recorder
Total Recorder. The standard version ($18) already allows to record by schedule. The Professional version (+$18) allows to capture streaming audio directly without opening another application.
PDF file
- Convert pdf to word Unipdf
- Edit pdf file PDFescape
- Split/Merge pdfs PDF Split&Merge
Windows Movie Media
I got a message Another program is preventing Windows Essentials from installing when I was installing Windows Essentials 2012 on Windows 7 Enterprise w/ Service Pack 1.
Screencast
This article from PCworld.com.
CamStudio
Camstudio works in Virtualbox guest machine too while Screencasting 101 gives me an error. Also the Virtualbox's built-in video capture function does not create videos correctly (I only got a blank/green screen and the video's length is wrong).
Make sure to install Camstudio lossless codec too.
Useful settings:
- Region -> Fix region 1024*720 (screen will create 4 corners when you hit the record button or F8)
- Options -> Video. Camstudio lossless Codec v1.5.
- Options -> Cursor. Highlight cursor.
- Options -> Audio.
- Options -> Program Options -> Keyboard shortcut (F8=record, F9=Stop)
- Toolbar icon -> 6th one is to toggle flv, avi, mp4. Avi is good.
Screenpresso
Camtasia
30 days trial is free to download. It is possible to blue a region with Camtasia. Check out this page or some videos like this.
Linux based software
- An article on techdrivein.com
Kdenlive video editor linux
- https://kdenlive.org/forum/blurring-faces
- https://kdenlive.org/forum/blur-faceslicencens-plateother-parts-video
- http://youtu.be/0QWfhbrTGCY?t=1m36s
Caveat: crash in my test
OpenShot
These 480p and 1080p videos teach how to blur out an object using OpenShot and GIMP.
Create a symbolic link
cd "YourDirectoryContainingSymLink" mklink -d "Foldername" "RealPathToFolderName"
Default location of TurboTax and HRBlock
Documents\TurboTax with a file ext name like .tax2014.
Documents\HRBlock with a file ext name like .T14.
Storage/disk space problem on Windows tablet
Some ideas:
- http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/threads/guide-to-maximizing-disk-space-on-your-dell-venue-8-pro-or-other-windows-8-1-system.60268/
- http://www.umpcportal.com/2014/04/how-to-survive-with-32gb-storage-on-windows-8-1-tablets/
- http://www.howtogeek.com/188072/how-to-make-the-most-of-a-windows-8.1-tablets-limited-storage-space/
- http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-update-1-tip-manage-disk-space
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/free-up-disk-space
- http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/important-disk-cleanup-job-after-upgrading-windows-81.htm
- http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2014/04/11/wimboot/1 WIMBoot
- https://thommck.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/freeing-up-disk-space-on-a-windows-8-tablet/
- http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/maximizing-storage-on-a-windows-tablet-what-are-your-options/
BIOS
Boot from USB on Windows 8
HP stream
- http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Windows-Tablets/Stream-7-Booting-from-USB/td-p/4930389 The Stream tablet has a 32-bit UEFI with no legacy support mode so the boot program must support that. Most Linux distros for instance (even 32-bit) only support 64-bit UEFI's and require tweaking to boot on the Stream so that might be your problem with Acronis True Image. Also disable Secure Boot if you haven't already.
- http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2012157/boot-live-usb-windows.html
- http://boardreader.com/thread/HP_Stream_11_How_to_boot_from_USB_728j6Xrde3.html
Access UEFI Firmware Setting on Windows 8
- http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-access-the-bios-on-a-windows-8-computer/
- http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27102/~/accessing-the-uefi-%28bios%29-setup-on-a-windows-8-system
UEFI and Ubuntu
Convert Fat32 file system to NTFS
It is know Fat32 has a file size limit of 4GB. That means it is impossible to use Fat32 partition to transfer a >4GB virtual machine file (ova) to a fat32 USB drive.
To convert a fat32 partition to NTFS, run the following in the command line prompt (or type help convert to get help).
convert <drive_letter>: /fs:ntfs
External hard drive
Has an advantage about the size than the internal drive. For example, my Dell Precision 3500 can support up to 2TB.
See http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2014566/4tb-hdd-problems.html
See the internal link Linux -> GParted.
Hard disk monitor tools
- HWMonitor (freeware) from CPUID. Need to be run as admin; otherwise it only shows brief info about CPU. It does show temperature from cpu, memory, internal hdd and graphical card. Does not include External hdd.
- SpeedFan (freeware) from Almico.com. This required an installation. It will be installed under C:\Program Files (x86)\SpeedFan. This can detect my ext 4TB hdd (WD4003FZEX). It shows the temperature 40C for this ext hdd (under the Readings tab or more details under the S.M.A.R.T. tab). My other 2 int hdd temperature is 34C and 40C currently.
- Crystal Disk Info (freeware). Support USB connection and RAID. This looks very good too and it only focuses on HDD/SSD. It has both installer & portable versions. The source code is on afterdawn.com.
- smartmontools. Windows can run it through cygwin.
- HMonitor (shareware).
The hdd temperature is OK in the range of 25C to 46C. See http://www.buildcomputers.net/hdd-temperature.html
Miracast
- http://www.pcworld.com/article/2907520/how-to-use-miracast-to-mirror-your-devices-screen-wirelessly-on-your-tv.html
- http://www.pcworld.com/article/2927493/lenovos-cheap-hockey-puck-like-cast-media-streamer-ignores-pesky-walls.html
Intel Boot Agent GE
Logitech M510
Go to http://support.logitech.com/en_us/product/wireless-mouse-m510 and download 64-bit full installer (not smart installer) of SetPoint.
SetPoint software can be used to re-program forward and backward buttons on the mouse. For example, I can set the forward as 'j' and backward as 'k' for feedly.com website.
Amazon digital credit balance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000811661#gc
Note that the credit has a short expire date. So go to the email and search "Your Amazon.com Promotional Credit". Good luck keeping track of them.
Watch web videos without flash
http://www.howtogeek.com/223338/how-to-watch-web-videos-after-uninstalling-flash/
Firefox Developer Edition for private browsing
How to Identify a Song on Any Smartphone, PC, or Tablet
http://www.howtogeek.com/226184/how-to-identify-a-song-on-any-smartphone-pc-or-tablet/