Technical Tips

Some technical software issues, solutions, tips

By Reza Ganjavi



BEST MOBILE PHONE 2025

I looked for a new phone based on two criteria:  excellent camera - excellent speakers. iPhone 16 models stood out but they're a different world than Andoird and I don't have the bandwidth to learn iOS, and I read enough negative reviews from power users, who switched from android and found it very frustrating because of some key missing features. I evaluated several phones, including Xiami which has a 1 inch sensor but it's a cheap Chinese junk and the retailer told me that they get a lot of returns because of software errors on these phones.  ASUS ROG is geared towards gaming. I have no time for e-gaming and never do it. Samsung camera is inferior to Goole Pixel and iPhone. Sony and iPhone have best camera and spearkers but Sony is too narrow (Xperia 1 vi) and 1 V is good but default camera settings are not good and you need to tweak with a lot of settings like aperture, etc. which I don't wanna mess with. Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL Great cameras, but the sound is not good - inferior to iPhone and Sony. Pixel 9 Pro's screen is smaller than eight. I like a bigger screen, but too big gets heavy as I like to hang it around my neck so I don't lose it. so Pixel 9 Pro XL is too heavy as is iPhone 16 Pro Max. Pixel 8 Pro is perfect: bigger than 9 Pro but not as heavy as XL and sound is better than 9 Pro and back camera is the same - everything I could dream of in a phone. Stock Android misses some features of Samsung but it's fine - I got it to work perfectly. You can't have folders in the app screen and can't move tiles but it's ok. I made folders on home screen. Search bar below home is non removable but it's fine. I love the Pixel 8 Pro. The camera is incredible and sound is great and better than 9 Pro. 


CHROME BUG 

Chrome always restarts after quitting with command-Q - IT IS A CHROME BUG

Chrome always restarts after quitting with command-Q. macOS latest version. Regardless of if there is any open tabs or not, when quitting chrome with a command Q, it always restarts. But it does quit after once restarting. 

I even tried uninstalling chrome and deleting the chrome folder in library application data and reinstalling, and it still happens. I did import my bookmarks and extensions after reinstallation. Any tips?

It happens even after I deleted all extensions. 

Now again I did a clean reinstall -- didn't import bookmarks -- didn't login -- and it STILL happens.  So I'd say this is a Chrome bug.

Apple Calendar on Mac (was known as Ical) Deleted Repeating Events Still Show Up In Search

Very annoying bug. The Calendar.sqlitedb-wal file contains the deleted even series. In Calendar it doesn't show, but in search it shows.  Deleting one item at a time does not solve the issue.

Solution: 

Select all the items in the series that show up under search -- and delete all future events -- and then try again if it didn't work and say delete all these instances. 

This solves this bug! 


Connect Google Pixel To Mac 


See notification on Pixel after connecting cable. I use OpenMTP software which is great.  Click on a notification: "Charging this device via USB". "USB controlled by" select "This device". "Use USB for", select "File transfer / Android Auto". Done!


Thunderbird 102 onwards is a disaster

I use Thunderbird extensively and love it. Upgrade to 102 was a big redesign that was not comfortable. I just want my email system to work and I don't need a new UI, having to get used to it, and features I never use. But I tolerated it. Then came 115 "with AI" which was a disaster, and BUGGY, e.g. when you change the sorting on a folder, some results disappear!! 

After some struggle and maneuvers I downgraded to version 91, the last of the classic, bug free TB. 

To do so:

I pulled TB app from Timemachine from a couple of months ago. Replaced it in the Applications folder. 

Pulled the profile contents from backup, except two big folders (had to do selective copying). And it worked. 

Easier said than done. First I tried to go to 112 from 115 and used the profile manager etc etc -- so I had to maneuver around that and ended up with a new TB profile folder (essentials copied from backup) but it all worked out at the end. 

To turn off automatic updating: 

Save this JSON file: https://www.companionlink.com/files/special/beta/policies.json

which has the lines:


policies


DisableAppUpdate true

DisableFeedbackCommands true

DisableSystemAddonUpdate true

DisableTelemetry true

ExtensionUpdate false


Create a folder called distribution under TB Profile folder and put the file in there.

Hide Calendar List - Left Sidebar Panel - Mac Calendar

Click on View / Hide Calendar List  -- sometimes that's not visible so tap on small calendar icon next to the red yellow green buttons on top left.

Location of Mac calendar files

/usr/you/Library/Calendars/

RECOVER FROM BACKUP : replace only calendar* and extras* 

MACOS “Put hard disks to sleep when possible?”

Keep it as OFF. If it's on it's too much wear/tear for the hard disks.

If you only have SSDs then it doesn't apply.

MACOS Low Power Mode

It results in screen brightness dropping and the OS tells all processes

to reduce energy usage which might disable some background processes but

shouldn't affect overall behavior.

Mac - Copy Path Name

[Option + Right click] and "copy as path name"

CHANGE TIME ZONE MAC VENTURA

user can type name of city in the time zone field but it's not intuitive from drop down that a name can be typed.

ADD ON FOR FIREFOX TO DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE SHORTS

Great add on for Firefox to make it download Youtube Shorts as normal

Youtube videos so it can be downloaded :-)

https://addons.mozilla.org/af/firefox/addon/redirect-shorts-to-youtube/

APPLE MACOS VENTURA - SET DATE AND TIME AND TIMEZONE HAS A BIG UIDEFICIENCY

City name can be typed in the field but it's not apparent from the UI which is a drop down limited to cities in current timezone. So just type it in.

DO NOT TRUST WHATSAPP'S FILE MANAGEMENT

Whatsapp is 

How to see all my comments on Youtube

https://myactivity.google.com/page?hl=en&utm_medium=web&utm_source=youtube&pli=1&page=youtube_comments&otzr=1

MDS_STORES HOGGING THE CPU

if mds_stores hogging the CPU on Mac, restart the spotlight. On Terminal:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

then

sudo mdutil -a -i on


WHATSAPP CALL NOT RINGING ON COMPUTER 

Turn off Do Not Disturb:  press and hold the Option key while clicking the date and time in the menu bar.

Go to system settings / notifications / whatsapp and enable.

Word Normal Template

word normal template - click open - then search top of volume for Normal.dotm

UTF-8 special characters in URL 

copy url from browser address bar keep original language UTF-8 URL like Persian : solution: add a space at the end of the address and copy will work fine.  -- or copy it without the http:// for example. --- or select a part of the url 

Android news feed panel

To remove the Google News feed panel from the left side of your Samsung Android home screen, you can disable Google Discover:    Touch and hold a blank area on your home screen     Swipe right to the Google Discover page     Tap the switch at the top to turn off Google Discover     


MacOS list of latest modified files 

This should list the files modified in the last 24 hours:  find / -mtime -1

Shortcut to jump to next endnote in WORD on Mac 

next footnote in word mac shortcut - go to tools / customize keyboard / all commands / endnote - and assign shortcut key

Android Data Transfer 

to transfer data from backup of same or other device - Android - Google Drive - Gmail - Samsung S24 - go through the steps and the catch is you have to click on CAN'T USE OLD DEVICE? (under USE YOUR OLD DEVICE) ---- and then it searches on gdrive for backup. Very unintuitive and took me hours to figure it out. 


MAC PREVIEW DELETE TEXT

Mac preview erase text by selecting the text and clicking delete. Saves it as ping.


SEARCH AN INSTAGRAM PAGE WITH BROWSER

type: 

site:instagram.com/reza.ganjavi.mba searchstring

THUNDERBIRD NEBULA IS A DISASTER  -  REVERT BACK TO OLD VERSION OF TB DESPITE PROFILE CHANGE

I was running 91.13.1 for the longest time and upgraded to 128 (Nebula) which is a disaster. So many bugs. I kept saying they ruined a great software. E.g., search was totally broken: take forever and doesn't work. Resizing columns is a pain but I realized 115 was the same way.

Challenge: profile gets upgraded too and can't downgrade. But I pulled out backup of 

a) program

b) profile 

from backup. 

Replaced everything except the Mail (and its subfolder Local Folders)

Replaced the program to 91.13.1 

Worked like a champ

~~

upgraded to 115.12.2 - terrible - nicer UI e.g. resizing but same issues as Nebula described above (with columns, search etc.).

~~

downgraded back to 91 - got the profile back

upgraded to 102.13.0 Jul 2023:   https://thunderbird.en.uptodown.com/mac/download/104978201

(downloaded from: https://thunderbird.en.uptodown.com/mac/versions) 

~~~

The designers of this great software broke the UI after 115. 

Happy to be back at 102.13.0 and won't upgrade for a loooong time, if ever.

~~~

You've broken a great tool.  I reverted back to 102.13 - Nebula and anything since 115 has major flaws and shows poor analysis

Rule of thumb in IT / UI design: KEEP IT SIMPLE - just because some developers like to look, and feel of some thing because it technologically advanced, it doesn't mean the users will like it.

You've broken a great tool. TB is a great piece of software which has been ruined. It's full of bugs. Column width change is a nightmare.  Search function is very buggy. Search criteria selection is very slow.  The old WINDOW   MAIL & ADR BOOK  menu item has turned into an inconsistent buggy mombo jumbo which sometimes shows up and other times not (very poor analysis since the old feature which I now again have in 123.13 is extremely useful).

Font change in 115+ is nice but the rest if a pain in the ass to use.

In on MacOS by the way. The real OS not like Windows which is a patch work.


Don't need wildcard in Mac Finder 

e.g. to find all files that wrere created today you might not know where to start since finder search box if empty returns no value. the trick is to do command-F and bring up lower criteria - select it - and it automatically assumes the main criteria is *.* 



How to change the "Visited" state of a hyperlink color ...

Microsoft Community

https://answers.microsoft.com › msoffice › forum › all

Nov 20, 2013 — The fastest way to locate it is to click in the list then type the letter f -- FollowedHyperlink should be selected automatically. It also 

WORD DIFFERENT FOOTERS IN DIFFERENT SECTIONS

To add different footer in WORD to different pages, go to Layout / Next

Page to add a new section starting with next page. Then add footer and

in new section footer turn off LINK TO PREVIOUS in the H/F Tools menu.

For footer I like to select first option (blank footer) -- after adding it, close it, and add page number to whole document.


HEAL CORRUPTED SPOTLIGHT SYSTEM ON MAC

It took me hours to figure this out because of the new OS protection of the Spotlight folders using xattr which is tighter in security but unfortunately it makes it difficult to get rid of corrupted folders (rm commands don't work).


To heal a corrupted Spotlight system:

Stop Spotlight on all volumes: sudo mdutil -a -i off

Then run MD util on the corrupted volume - these commands in sequence:

sudo mdutil -d "/Volumes/vol-name"

sudo mdutil -X "/Volumes/vol-name"

Then restart Spotlight: sudo mdutil -a -i on

Voila!

~~~

Show status of spotlight on all devices:

mdutil -avs

Rebuild spotlight with terminal

sudo mdutil -i on /

sudo mdutil -E /


MACOS GUID PARTITION

It's recommended to select GUID Partition Map as the scheme and exFAT as the format if you want to use the drive on both macOS and Windows. 

Mac System preference search not working

under user library folder go to Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist and move it out and restart 

Macos can't eject external disk locked by program

Solution: Activity Monitor / Disk tab / search for QuicklookUI / stop those processes. 


Editing Custom Dictionary On Mac

If you accidentally add a work to Whatsapp Web for Mac or another

application that offers "add to dictionary" to remove it, go to Finder |

Go to folder | ~/Library/Spelling  | and edit LocalDictionary

You have to reboot.

Here's a catch: Whatsapp for web for Mac keeps its own dictionary as

well as updating Mac dictionary so you also have to edit: <user> /

library / app support / whatsapp (look for dictionary - there may be

more than file to be edited).


BEWARE OF MAC COPY/MERGE /  BUG / DESIGN FLAW

MERGE OVERWRITES ANY FILE WITH THE SAME NAME. 

MERGE ONLY MEANS IF TWO FOLDERS HAVE THE SAME NAME, CONTENTS ARE MERGED AND IF A FILE HAS THE SAME NAME IT'S OVERWRITTEN

FINDER STILL FINDS FILE THAT WAS MOVED TO A DIFFERENT LOCATION

Only solution I found was to go to Spotlight in preferences and drop the folder in the Privacy tab to exclude it from indexing then remove it from there and now Finder works! 


Merge two folders with the same name

On your Mac, press and hold the Option key, then drag one folder to the location that contains a folder with the same name. In the dialog that appears, click Merge. The Merge option appears only if one of the folders contains items that are not in the other folder.


MS WORD ON MAC DISK ACCESS ISSUE

All of a sudden MS Word on Mac says "additional permissions are required to access the following files"

I gave full disk permission to Word and Excel and problem went away. 

>System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy

TO FIND TEXT WITH A SPECIFIC COLOR IN MICROSOFT WORD

Go to Advanced Find; Find what: *; Enable "Use wildcards" checkbox; 

The click on Format / Font -- and on the next page select the text color.

Then you use "Find Next" or exit the setup control and in the document can do a command G (or Control G in Windows) to jump to the next text with that color.

If there are big chunks of red color for example, it's easier to move past them to find the next section by scrilling and clicking to put the curser after that section to search for the next red. 

When done, clear the criteria. 


FIREFOX DOWNLOAD POPUP

Since Firefox 100, the download popup button behaviour seemed to have changed. I want to keep the download icon but don’t want it to popup which is very inconvenient esp. when you close a tab and the popup remains – very annoying. At same time, I don’t want to turn off the download shortcut because it would mean having to go to download page everytime to check status.  SOLUTION:  To keep the popup from appearing, go to about:config and set browser.download.alwaysOpen. A UI context menu on button will be added in Firefox 102 for this preference.

HOW TO REMOVE COM.CISCO.ANYCONNECT.MACOS.ACSOCKEXT FROM PROCESSES?

launch recovery mode and disable SPI via terminal: csrutil disable.

Reboot into normal mode, delete the file:

launchctl remove

sudo launchctl remove

or via the task manager delete  com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext process

reboot into recovery -- terminal command: csrutil enable

_________________________________________________________

ANDROIDX GBOARD (GOOGLE KEYBOARD) OFFLINE VOICE RECOGNITION IS NOT WORKING.

Solution:

- Go to Apps / Google / Settings for Google apps / Search assistant & voice / voice / offline speech recognition and make sure you have language pack

- Go to settings / general management / keyboard list and default / enable google voice typing / 

mac / library / systemextensions

272A8C8A-CC6C-4A7D-9179-63189D875A7C 

com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext.systemextension

mac HD / Library / SystemExtensions

csrutil disable or enable


IDENTIFY WHICH PROCESS HAS EXTERNAL DRIVE LOCKED AND PREVENTS EJECTION

sudo lsof | grep hard drivename 

get PID

then

sudo kill -9 pid

or kill the process in task manager


MANUALLY SYNC GOOGLE CONTACTS ON ANDROID 


To manually sync, you can:

Open your device settings

Tap Google

Tap All services

Tap Settings for Google apps

Tap Google Contacts sync

Tap Status

Turn Google Contacts sync on or off 


MAC STARTUP REBOOT DIAGNOSTIC

Turn off firmware password on mac by rebooting with Comand-R. Then

reboot with Option-D for diagnostic. It has an online option but for

that you need to be connected to internet and firmware password needs to

be disabled. Don't forget to reenable the password otherwise your system

can get hacked.


HOW TO CHANGE NAME ON TELEGRAM

to change name on telegram go to settings, then click 3 dots on top

right - there is the option to change name.


GOOGLE FORMS BUG


Can't delete email addresses from Google Forms reminder list ("waiting for responses from" list).


It's a bug that Google has igored. The only workaround is messy: copy form but that doesn't copy the questions, and you'd have to be careful to handle linkages. So I decided to just put up with the couple of emails in that list (both of which were test emails).

HOW TO COPY ITEMS FROM GOOGLE SITES FOOTER 

 

Use the Edit footer link that appears when you hover your mouse over the footer area.

Use your web browser copy function to take a copy of the section you want to move out (see Duplicate Sections for more detail).

 

 

MAC TOUCHBAR STUCK

 

To stop the touchbar - touch bar - go to activity monitor and stop the "Control Strip" process.


MAC, MICROSOFT EXCEL AUTO-RECOVERY OF NEW, UNNAMED WORKSHEET -- SEPTEMBER 2022

VERY IMPORTANT DISCOVERY ON HOW EXCEL AUTO RECOVER FILES ARE MANAGED FOR FILES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN SAVED BEFORE (NO FILE NAME IS ASSIGNED). Nowhere on the internet I saw this documented. I went through a long and difficult investigation to figure this out. The mystery was WHERE DOES EXCEL SAVE AUTO RECOVER INFO ON A NEW FILE THAT'S NEVER BEEN SAVED BEFORE (HAS NO NAME).


[VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: COM.MICROSOFT.EXCEL doesn't show in finder but you can do a go to folder and MICROSOFT.EXCEL is opened under Containers. Or go straight to microsoft.excel and the rest applies.]


RESULT:

EXCEL AUTOSAVE (NEW)

NOVEMBER 2024

/Users/<name>/Library/Containers/Microsoft Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/   somewhere in there (sort by modify date)


Sep 2022:

Book1.xlsx was autosaved in:

/Users/<name>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Book1309848733274476592

AS FILE: 

Book1((Autorecovered-309849112065529344)).xlsb

++++++++++++++++++

unsaved excel is auto saved in: 

/Users/<name>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

as file:

~ar4C4B.xar

This compressed xar file has contents that describe the contents of the file - for example each image in the file is stored in an images folder, etc. etc. -- CONCLUSION: for an unnamed, unsaved Excel file there is no single autorecovery file but a database. 

There is no easy way to open the xar with excel (convert the package contents to one spreadsheet) -- main chance is to have excel detect it on startup and convert it as recovered file.

This xar file is renamed constantly as each autosave kicks in (if the unsaved file is changed).

next name was:

~arAD43.xar

--- 

if excel is aborted on restart prompt it gives user recovery option - if cancel is selected then the temp file is deleted.

---

you cannot drop xar files from a backup into excel's current folder and expect excel to consider them as recovery options. it must have other internal record keeping that tells it things unknown to us. 


Macbook Pro 2021

Sucks! The 16 inch is WAY too thick. And it has only 1 ONE usbc port!


Mac vs. Windows 

It's the difference between a kid's bicycle (PC/Windows) and a Ferrari (Mac). Incomparable. 

You're talking to a computer scientist Gary. MacOS makes Windows look like a cheap toy. It's a fact. Want to share notes on features? I'm just comparing OS's. Cost of horsepower is a different topic. Macs are more expensive but well worth it if you want a real operating system and not a hack job that started in Bill Gates' garage and evolved from there on a very cheap bad foundation. Windows is a lousy patch work.


VOX Player


VOX Player: play one track at a time. Stop after playing a track. Don't play next song automatically. Solution: Settings / Audio / Autopause (uncheck)


Gmail doesn't send 


Gmail doesn't send - emails are stuck in queued status in outbox. Solution: Go to gmail setting / select email account / under the data usage / uncheck synch. mail / restart phone / turn synch. on / you're good to go.


MAC TIMEMACHINE TAKES LONG TIME TO RESIZE

Disk Utility resizing time meachine takes forever. Forget it. Erase and redefine TM partition and take another backup on expanded partition.


MAC DELETE IMMEDIATELY

Option+Command+Delete to bypass copy to trash.


FIREFOX NOTIFICATIONS

Undo, stop, remove notifications.

Firefox Preferences > Privacy & Security > Permissions, and under Notifications click on Settings. From there you can see the sites you have blocked. Can click on "Block new requests”. I wiped everything from the list and just enabled block new request. It worked like a champ. No more annoying notification requests from various sites.


MAC OS: CHANGE SAVE LOCATION OF SCREENSHOTS

save location of screen print screenprint Press Command + Shift + 5. Click on Options

change location of mac screenshots: in terminal type: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/screenshots

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/


MAC OS: THUNDERBIRD MAKE FONTS BIGGER

If you use Thunderbird and want to make all fonts bigger can do: Use the config editor under preferences/advanced/general -- and set layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to 2.7or whatever -- default is -1 (tiny).


MAC OS: CALENDAR LOCATION / RESTORE

Calendar data for Mac OS X is stored in the Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Calendars folder.  MUST REBOOT AFTER RESTORE


GOOGLE MAPS ANDROID

Turn off Driver Mode to make keyboard work while driving: Maps / Settings / Navigation / Google Assistant. 


MAC OS: REINSTALL / KEEP APPLICATIONS

Command option R -- to reinstall the operating system -- applications stay untouched.

Then turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘)-R


MAC OS: REVEAL / COPY The Path Of a File


MAC OS: Chrome not saving passwords.

Go to ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome ---------- and go into the directory called Default --------- Delete the files "Login Data" and "Login Data-journal".

Anyway I don't recommend storing passwords in Chrome because Google has access to them.


RECOVERY SOFTWARE FOR MAC

I tried various recovery software for Mac. I found Disk Drill to be the best. And Stellar to be the worst (crashed multiple times, poor user interface...). Stellar seems Indian. EaseUS is also pretty bad — didn't like the interface and how it organizes the files. EaseUS is Chinese. 

Both Stellar dn EaseUS have a misleading banner that says no risk money back guaranteed but they put you through hell to get you a refund. I had to threatend both with legal action and credit card dispute if they don't live up to the expectation they set.

Both proposed refund 1/2 blah blah — I said no — I need a full refund — I did not find their software useful and had uninstalled it. 


GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

How to Index Your URL’s With the New Version of Google Search Console / How to Request Indexing a Website or URL With the New Version of Google Search Console

http://www.demandgenerationpro.com/how-to-request-website-url-indexing-with-new-google-search-console/

New page are taken from Site Map. If there's issue can delete and resubmit the site map"

e.g. www.rezamusic.com/sitemap.xml


Remove outdated content from Google Search CACHE

https://search.google.com/search-console/remove-outdated-content



MS OFFICE RECOVERY FROM TIME MACHINE 

MAC-HD / LIBRARY / 

/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.OneDriveUpdaterDaemon.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.teams.TeamsUpdaterDaemon.plist

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist    -- didn't exist in backup. DELETE IT 

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.com.microsoft.oneauth

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.ms

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office.Excel.WidgetExtension

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OfficeOneDriveSyncIntegration

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.OneDriveStandaloneSuite

delete these: 

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.errorreporting

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint

/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word


replaced with these two: 

/Volumes/.timemachine/270FCB9E-5CBA-4073-8AC6-7B8676E7C551/2024-11-07-105133.backup/2024-11-07-105133.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.onenote.mac.shareextension

/Volumes/.timemachine/270FCB9E-5CBA-4073-8AC6-7B8676E7C551/2024-11-07-105133.backup/2024-11-07-105133.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook.CalendarWidget

can come back to reza/library

=== 

REPLACED IN TOP/APPLICATIONS WITH: 


/Volumes/.timemachine/270FCB9E-5CBA-4073-8AC6-7B8676E7C551/2024-11-07-105133.backup/2024-11-07-105133.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app


/Volumes/.timemachine/270FCB9E-5CBA-4073-8AC6-7B8676E7C551/2024-11-07-105133.backup/2024-11-07-105133.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications/Microsoft PowerPoint.app


/Volumes/.timemachine/270FCB9E-5CBA-4073-8AC6-7B8676E7C551/2024-11-07-105133.backup/2024-11-07-105133.backup/Macintosh HD - Data/Applications/Microsoft Word.app


THEN ADD THESE TO LULU


MAC OS: How to Change File Dates / How to fix grayed out folder after partial copy

[Some pages say this requires XCODE to be running but I did it without XCODE]

METHOD FOR CHANGING DATE which is the solution when a partial copy fails and the folder is grayed out:

- Go to Terminal.

- Type: SetFile -d 01/01/2021 [or any date you want]

- drag and drop the folder from finder into the terminal command [e.g.: "/Volumes/disk1/\folder1"

- press return

Voila!!


METHOD FOR CHANGING FULL DATE / TIME

touch –t YYYMMDDhhmm.ss

Type the year in place of “YYYY,” the month in place of “MM,” the day in place of “DD”, the hour in place of “hh”, minutes in place of “mm” and seconds in place of “ss.” If you leave off the seconds, the time will default to zero seconds. For example, type “touch-t 201202101510.23” to change a file’s date to February 10, 2012 at 3:10:23. Type a single space following the command, but do not press the "Enter" key.

Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/change-file-date-mac-finder-46835.html


MAC OS: FORCE EMPTY TRASH

Terminal. Type cd ~/.Trash and press Return. Then, type sudo rm -R followed by a space (don’t leave out the space character—it’s essential). Don’t press Return yet. Next, click the Trash icon in your Dock to open a window displaying the contents of the Trash. Select everything in that window and drag it into the Terminal window.

sudo rm -R [paste items from trash here to force delete]

There are keyboard shortcuts you can use force your Mac to empty the trash that you should try first. You can Control-click on an item in the trash and select Delete Immediately, or you can try holding down the Option key while emptying the trash. Enter the following command into terminal without hitting Enter afterward. sudo rm –R Please note that there is a space after R. Drag the files from trash into the Terminal window. Hit Enter. Enter your administrator password. You will not see the password being typed into Terminal. It will look like nothing has changed. Hit Enter again.

cd /Volumes/(backup drive name)/.Trashes/ for example cd /Volumes/orange/.Trashes/ ------------ or just "sudo rm -rf /Volumes/BackupDriveName/.Trashes/*"


YOLA: INSERT PDF

https://forum.yola.com/yola/topics/can_i_insert_a_pdf_document


GMAIL / THUNDERBIRD 

Thunderbird doesn’t accept username password of gmail. Solution:  https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

BUT, new TB has different requirement:  If you have 2FA enabled (and you should), this enabling less secured app doesn't work - you have to go to: 

https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords

for TB on mac select MAIL on MAC


GENERATED APP PASSWORD

How to use it

Just like your normal password, this app password grants complete access to your Google Account. You won't need to remember it, so don't write it down or share it with anyone.


MAC:


MAC FINDER MOVE FILES DRAG 

Mac - files copy instead of move, on the same drive. This is when Finder gets drunk. Kill finder and restart it. 

To move files to another drive instead of copy, hold down command key.


VARIOUS

to stop mac dictionary from being stuck on downloading, run this in terminal: pkill -9 DictionaryServiceHelper

~~~

Show status of spotlight on all devices:

mdutil -avs


Rebuild spotlight with terminal

sudo mdutil -i on /

sudo mdutil -E /


~~~

How to Flush DNS on Mac

Go to Terminal, run:    sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

~~~
Additional permissions are required to access the files (Word for Mac)

Solution:

quit and relaunch Word.

~~~

Past phone number Android

How to paste number in Android to dial phone? Press and hold long right above the phone keypad and it allows pasting.

~~~

Mac

files duplicating in the photo booth library in mac.

solution: run photo library / settings / disable “Importing: Copy items to the Photos library”

~~~

Mac - to ping a website to find the IP address go to Terminal, type ping followed by the domain name.

Mac - to stop terminal command, good old Control C 

~~~

MSWord

Double spacing / spacing --- go to DESIGN / Paragraph Spacing. I like "Open".

~~~

MS Word - top and bottom margins missing, point to top or bottom a page until the pointer becomes a double-pointed arrow, then click.

~~~

Macos can't eject external disk locked by program. Solution: Activity Monitor / Disk tab / search for QuicklookUI / stop those processes.

~~~

How to Flush DNS on Mac

Go to Terminal, run:    sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

~~~

Additional permissions are required to access the files (Word for Mac)

Solution:

quit and relaunch Word.

~~~

This is why I don't trust the Cloud or any online storage of my data

After examining all of this leaked data, a large number of the records contained within were stolen in past breaches. These are the companies with the most exposed data:

    Tencent - 1.5 billion

    Weibo - 504 million

    MySpace - 360 million

    Twitter - 281 million

    Wattpad - 271 million

    NetEase - 261 million

    Deezer - 258 million

    LinkedIn - 251 million

    AdultFriendFinder - 220 million

    Zynga - 217 million

    Luxottica - 206 million

    Evite - 179 million

    Zing - 164 million

    Adobe - 153 million

    MyFitnessPal - 151 million

    Canva - 143 million

    JD.com - 142 million

    Badoo - 127 million

~~~

Past phone number Android

How to paste number in Android to dial phone? Press and hold long right above the phone keypad and it allows pasting. 

~~~

Mac

files duplicating in the photo booth library in mac.

solution: run photo library / settings / disable “Importing: Copy items to the Photos library”

~~~

Mac - to ping a website to find the IP address go to Terminal, type ping followed by the domain name.

Mac - to stop terminal command, good old Control C 

~~~

Android Offline Language Pack Voice Offline Input

Settings / General Management / Voice Input

~~~

Android - to get rid of / delete the sliding edge panel : settings/display/ turn off edge panel 

~~~

Telegram Export Mac

To export chats in Telegram on Mac download this version of the program: Tdesktop (https://telegram.org/dl/desktop/mac) and not the native (https://macos.telegram.org/). There, each chat has export option (.../export)

~~~

Android - how to get rid of (disable) left side news screen (Google app news feed)

Run Google app, click on name icon, Settings, General -- then DISABLE DISCOVER option. But that just empties the feed. To get rid of it, if there's no disable left swipe option, go to Apps, Google, Disable Google, then re-enable it, and the feed is GONE! 

~~~

VOX Player: play one track at a time. Stop after playing a track. Don't play next song automatically. Solution: Settings / Audio / Autopause (uncheck) 

~~~

It took me hours to figure this out because of the new OS protection of the Spotlight folders using xattr which is tighter in security but unfortunately it makes it difficult to get rid of corrupted folders (rm commands don't work).


To heal a corrupted Spotlight system:

Stop Spotlight on all volumes: sudo mdutil -a -i off

Then run MD util on the corrupted volume - these commands in sequence:

sudo mdutil -d "/Volumes/vol-name"

sudo mdutil -X "/Volumes/vol-name"

Then restart Spotlight: sudo mdutil -a -i on

Voila!

~~~

It took me hours to figure this out because of the new OS protection of the Spotlight folders using xattr which is tighter in security but unfortunately it makes it difficult to get rid of corrupted folders (rm commands don't work).

To heal a corrupted Spotlight system:

Stop Spotlight on all volumes: sudo mdutil -a -i off

Then run MD util on the corrupted volume - these commands in sequence:

sudo mdutil -d "/Volumes/vol-name"

sudo mdutil -X "/Volumes/vol-name"

Then restart Spotlight: sudo mdutil -a -i on

Voila!

~~~

mac System preference search not working: under user library folder go to Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist and move it out and restart 

~~~

Csrutil

disable command= preferences/keyboard/shortcuts/app shortcuts/ under finder make new called Find by Name... -- for command=

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

sudo mdutil -ai on (enables spotlight)

sudo mdutil -E (erases spotlight)

sudo mdutil -ai on ------- a = all volumes ----- i = on/off

sudo mdutil -Ei on /Volumes/2_ExFAT --------- E = erase and rebuild ----- i = on/off

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/4_ExFAT -------- turn on indexing on volume

sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/2_ExFAT --------- gives you status if enabled or not

sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/1_ExFAT

to recover outlook - go to /Users/<name>/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles -------- and replace the For365 folder from backup:

to mark up photos for website : use panorama DoubleTake.app --------- use %DemoPro best for straight lines --------- ^Q for red line -- then save screen -- then ^X to erase

cmd option escape ------- to exit time machine

Alias: option command

Chrome: control shift plus

adobe: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist set true to false: =onOSstartup=false -- then it won't start up creative cloud

spotlight1 Mac Spotlight can't find search content of WORD files (Docx) -- solution: remove Microsoft Office.mdimporter from /Library/Spotlight.

spotlight2 force reindexing of spotlight - sudo mdutil -i on /

spotlight3 El Capitan works the same as Yosemite, FYI. Click the Spotlight icon to display the search term entry window, then type something, anything. The Indexing… progress bar appears

Disabled Dr. Cleaner's auto start and problem was solved. Then added Dr. Cleaner to login programs and everything works. So don't use Dr. C's internal auto start at startup.


~~~


It's recommended to select GUID Partition Map as the scheme and exFAT as the format if you want to use the drive on both macOS and Windows. 


INSTAGRAM 

Instagram story not showing up in archive. Well it's a bug but you can sort of partially fix it by reinstalling the app. Or first try to disable story archiving via menu/archive/settings.

YOLA: INSERT PDF

https://forum.yola.com/yola/topics/can_i_insert_a_pdf_document


CHROME RESTART BUG ON MAC OS

Chrome always restarts after quitting with command-Q

Chrome always restarts after quitting with command-Q. macOS latest version. Regardless of if there is any open tabs or not, when quitting chrome with a command Q, it always restarts. But it does quit after once restarting. 

I even tried uninstalling chrome and deleting the chrome folder in library application data and reinstalling, and it still happens. I did import my bookmarks and extensions after reinstallation. Any tips?

It happens even after I deleted all extensions. 


MAC OS: THUNDERBIRD SET DISABLE NOTIFICATIONS

Since OS X 10.8, display of notifications - alert banners/dialogs, badges, and notification sounds - are now the responsibility of the operating system, not the application. The simple fix for this bug then, is to disable and remove all notification sound options from Thunderbird, on OS X 10.8 and above, and let Notification Center deal with it. For the majority of users, and according to Apple, that is the correct solution. 


GMAIL: To never send message to Spam

add new filter - nothing in from, to, sub. has the words: type:  "is:spam" - then click continue and select: "Never send it to Spam"

Matches: is:spam

Do this: Never send it to Spam


MAC OS: Sleep shortcut Mac Keyboard

In the “Keyboard” window, select the “Shortcuts” tab, followed by clicking the “App Shortcuts” and finally clicking the “+” button.

First we need to make sure the field “Application” is set to “All Applications” – after all, we’d want the sleep function to kick in, no matter what application we have open.

The field “Menu Title” is the one that is trickier. It should be the name as it appears in any menu.

So in my case I will use the word “Sleep” (English MacOS), which we found in the Apple Menu. You did write that one down if you’re using a different language – right? So in Dutch “Sluimeren” and in German it’s “Ruhezustand”. Double check the word if needed.

Finally we have to enter the desired keyboard shortcut. Click the field next to the text “Keyboard Shortcut:“, and press the key combination you’d like to use. If you mistyped, simply press a new combination again.


THUNDERBIRD DARK MODE COMPOSE WINDOW NEEDS WHITE TEXT

Lots of threads about this online. I found an easy fix to the black on black in replies:

PREFERENCES/COMPOSITION/HTML STYLE - turn off "USE READER'S DEFAULT COLORS" not replies show as black on white while keeping TB's dark theme.


 

How to resume multiple unfinished copying files in Finder

 

Answer:

 

Find out which file or folders have been partially copied (look at the size).

Delete the rest.

Select all files/folders you want to copy including the partially copied ones on the source location.

Copy them all.

System prompts if you want to resume partially copied.

Say yes. It copies all the items including resuming the partial copy, which is what we wanted to achieve.

There's no way to select all partials on destination to resume all, except this method.


ANDROID GMAIL BUG : FALSE SUGGESTED EMAILS

Problem: Android Gmail continues to suggest recipient when character is typed, which is not even in the contacts any more. Clearing contacts' cache didn't help. Useless threats but they explain the problem (no solution):   

- https://support.google.com/mail/thread/101071803/not-solved-old-deleted-gmail-contact-addresses-still-appearing-when-composing-a-new-gmail-message?hl=en

CONCLUSION: IT'S A GMAIL BUY - LIVE WITH IT 

But at least it moved down in the priority list and name of the contact was removed (after I removed it from the contacts) but the email still shows up out of some esoteric ghosty memory :-) because it doesn't even have an "r" in it but showed up when I pressed r !!


TRIM YOUTUBE VIDEO

Open the video editor 

Open the video editor to trim or remove a section of your video.

Sign in to YouTube Studio. https://studio.youtube.com/

From the left menu, select Content.

Click the title or thumbnail of the video you’d like to edit.

From the left menu, select Editor.

Select Trim & cut , then click NEW CUT. A red box will appear in the editor.

Drag the sides of the red box. Stop when the red box is covering the portion of the video that you’d like to remove. Anything not in the red box will remain in  the video.

To confirm your edits, select Cut .

Click Save.

If you want to trim or cut your video at a specific time, you can enter the time into the box. To review your edits, select Preview. To undo a cut for that section, click UNDO. You can click DISCARD CHANGES at any time to cancel your changes.


TELEGRAM STORE EXTERNAL SD CARD  & DELETION OF CLOUD

Trick is you have to change the Telegram storage on Android in the App settings at the OS level and then within the app itself. 

And on SD card it's no longer under the Telegram folder at root but under  /Android/Data/org.telegram.messanger

The advantage of shifting the storage to external are  a) more space  b) can recover if a chat is deleted, with recovery software which needs a rooted device and rooting usually wipes out the internal storage (not recommended). Best is to get Telegram for deskptop and easily export messages from time to time.

~~~

Telegram stores all your chats on their cloud. Not a very cool thing!! But they do so, reportedly, until you manually delete a chat -- then it's also gone from their servers.

Note that CLEAR LOCAL DATABASE -- and -- CLEAR TELEGRAM CACHE -- do NOT delete the cloud version. 


TURN OFF AUTOPLAY VIDEO ON BROWSER (CHROME, FIREFOX)

Using browser settings doesn't work on nasty video autoplays like on Stocktwits which hogs resource. Solution:  "Disable HTML5 Autoplay" Addon! It works.


MAC OS: Hiding icons from dock while keeping the application open...

</dict>

</plist>

<key>LSUIElement</key>

<true/>


ANDROID SCREENSHOT 

Press the Power and Volume down buttons at the same time.


MAC OS: Error: “Disk Not Ejected Properly” Alert after computer goes to sleep

Solution I found was to use Jettison -- that ejects them prior to sleep and remounts. Works most of the time.


Finder Shows Incorrect Folder Sizes and zero bite folders on a large folder 

"Simply renaming a large directory (in the finder using the normal select->edit text mode then paste the new name UI flow) containing large subdirectories (photos libraries) INSTANTANEUOUSLY causes this problem for me with some or all of the subdirectories (photos app libraries) themselves as well as the enclosing renamed directory reporting 0KB or less than the correct sizes immediately. These never seem to fully correct by just waiting without actively doing something like copying everything to a new location or multiple reboots/days transpire etc. Restarting the finder is definitely not enough, nor is toggling the finders calculate all folder sizes for any of the problem items or containers thereof... Problem occurring on MacOS 10.14.6 HFS+ external hard drive, macOS is on internal APFS SSD of course."

Solution: just wait... 

Someone else wrote: "I had the same issue and got here after a search. I used the Terminal and did a `du -h --max-depth 1` which gave me the correct sizes and fixed the size in the Finder as well" 


SAVE FILE LIST

to save list of files in a text file, copy and paste finder window. macos rocks !


CHANGE FILE DATE/TIME

To change the Modified timestamp to the current date and time, type "touch -m" in Terminal, followed by one space. Then drag the file from Finder into Terminal and press "Enter."

To change the Modified timestamp to any other date and time, use the following format to specify the year, month, day, hour and minute:

touch -t YYYYMMDDhhmm

Your Mac uses a 24-hour clock, so if you want to change the timestamp to January 15, 2021, at 11:50 pm, you type: touch -t 202101152350

Enter a space after the time and drag the file into the Terminal window. Press "Enter" to make the change. To change the timestamps on multiple files to the same date, select them all and drag them all into the Terminal window at the same time.

If you want to change the Created timestamp to one date and the Modified timestamp to another, use the -t attribute twice. For example, suppose you want to change the Created timestamp from January 2020 to 2019, but you want the Modified timestamp to stay as January 2020. Use the -t attribute to change both to 2019 and then use it again for 2020. The Modified timestamp is updated, leaving the Created timestamp at 2019.


EXCEL GOLDEN TIP 

Excel - add column for list of filename extensions:

add this next to the column of filenames: =REPLACE(RIGHT(A2,5),1,SEARCH(".",RIGHT(A2,5)),"") 

https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/2270-excel-sort-by-file-extension.html


STOP SAVING IMAGE FILES AS WEBP 

stop saving image files as webp  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1329624

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/dont-accept-webp/ -- strips the signal that Firefox handles WebP format to discourage recompression (doesn't break any sites)

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/save-webp-as-png-or-jpeg/ -- uses a canvas to offer different formats for saving an image

 

This is what I use and it works great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dont-accept-webp/ Don't "Accept" image/webp


GOOGLE MEET Change background

Must use Chrome and go to settings / enable hardware acceleration.


MAC DICTATION

Go to System Preferences / Keyboard / Dictation - Usualy key: Fn Fn

--- 

DICTATE OFFLINE

To dictate on Mac offline, go to Accessability / voice control / enable it and select UK English to download the pack (US English uses Siri and only works online).

~~~ UPDATE - DECEMBER 2021: MOTEREY: off-line dictation is working with American English also so you can say PERIOD instead of FULL STOP :-)


MAC OS: HIDE ALL ICONS

Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false

relaunch finder from task manager (activity monitor - or apple icon) or in terminal: killall Finder

To enable all icons:

Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true   ----- and relaunch finder


MAC OS: NO SOUND AFTER SLEEP

Haven't found a solution. Workaround: Go to system preferences / sound / output / select another device and then select main output again. This enables sound.


MAC OS: Default background on restart

Open Terminal and type open /Library. The Library will open and you will see 58 folders. Open the one labelled Desktop Pictures and add the wallpapers you want to it. Then choose the wallpaper. Trust me, it works. 🙂


How to Change the Default Browser in Thunderbird

 

Also check in options /files and attachments / http / change browser or delete so you're asked next time (or each time)


Get rid of horizontal line in word

Place the cursor immediately above the horizontal line. Click No Border.


KEEPING THE TOUCH BAR AWAKE ON MACBOOK PRO

Forget it. It's probably bad for the touch bar lighting system, and the option to continually send a command to it to keep it awake requires compromising kernet security, so forget it. On Big Sur, the power button puts the system to sleep (stupid feature). So just have to relearn to awaken the touchbar by touching it!


MAC OS: DISKUTIL/ TERMINAL / UNIX COMMANDS

diskutil core storage list

cd /Volumes/name  

ls /volumes   (to get a list of mounted volumes, e.g. external drives).

ls -l /Volumes sudo diskutil unmount force /Volumes/name

diskutil unmountdisk force /Volumes/name

diskutil unmountdisk force /Volumes/name

Instead of typing out the path to the volume, you can drag the volume into Terminal, and the pathname will be added to the command. 

cd /Volumes --------   sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/name --------- sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/name ------------- sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/1_ExFAT

STATUS OF ENCRYPTION: diskutil cs list | grep -e Conversion -e diskname


GOOGLE CONTACTS / GOOGLE VOICE

Google Voice does recognize Google Contacts however the contacts file has to be very clean. Export it. Put in Excel. Clean up. Save as CSV. Import.

Format for the field headers have to be exactly these:

Name Given Name Additional Name Family Name Yomi Name Given Name Yomi Additional Name Yomi Family Name Yomi Name Prefix Name Suffix Initials Nickname Short Name Maiden Name Birthday Gender Location Billing Information Directory Server Mileage Occupation Hobby Sensitivity Priority Subject Notes Language Photo Group Membership E-mail 1 - Type E-mail 1 - Value E-mail 2 - Type E-mail 2 - Value E-mail 3 - Type E-mail 3 - Value Phone 1 - Type Phone 1 - Value Phone 2 - Type Phone 2 - Value Address 1 - Type Address 1 - Formatted Address 1 - Street Address 1 - City Address 1 - PO Box Address 1 - Region Address 1 - Postal Code Address 1 - Country Address 1 - Extended Address Organization 1 - Type Organization 1 - Name Organization 1 - Yomi Name Organization 1 - Title Organization 1 - Department Organization 1 - Symbol Organization 1 - Location Organization 1 - Job Description Custom Field 1 - Type Custom Field 1 - Value Custom Field 2 - Type Custom Field 2 - Value Custom Field 3 - Type Custom Field 3 - Value

I have everything loaded in:

Family Name

Phone 1 - Value

Custom Field 1 - Type            set as: E mail 1 Value

Custom Field 1 - Value           set as the email adr.

(that's just the way it was exported)

Then delete existing contacts and import the csv.


FORCE DELETING ERASING BRUTEFORCE CORRUPT TIMEMACHINE VOLUME, DISKUTIL

Timemachine can get corrupted and no way to unmount erase etc. - even in Terminal many diskutil brute force commands don't work. Answer: In terminal do:

diskutil list

get the vol name - e.g. /dev/disk2

may have to unmount each sub disk e.g. 

diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk2s5

what finally worked was:

sudo diskutil eraseDisk  ms-dos FOO  disk2

This resets the whole disk then can format it properly in DU.

more here: https://www.rezamusic.com/various/technical-tips


MAC OS: REMOVE ACCESS TO CALENDAR


LIST PROCESSING


MAC OS: SPOTLIGHT

FOR THE INTERNAL DRIVE: sudo mdutil -i on /

FOR EXTERNAL DRIVE: sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/name

WORKS BETTER TO ERASE AND REBUILD -- sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/name

Reveal the Spotlight Result’s Location in Finder: Simply highlight the desired result in Spotlight, hold the Command key, and press Return

in Spotlight - to see files created today etc.: "created:01/30/2017" --- OR created:01/30/2017-05/30/2017 --- OR modified:01/30/2017-05/30/2017

sudo mdutil -i on / -------- sudo mdutil -E /


MAC OS: THUNDERBIRD

- Turn off Thunderbird and do not compact

- Locate the file containing the message (same name as the folder in Thunderbird, no extension) in your profile In this case the file name would be "Drafts".

- Delete the file with the same name and the extension .msf

- Open the file without extension with Notepad (or another text editor)

- Locate the messages (I hope you remember something like subject or sender)

- Change the status (X-Status) to all zero

- Save that file

- Restart Thunderbird


PERMANENT ERASE IN FINDER CONTEXT MENU

http://www.edenwaith.com/products/permanent%20eraser/

Instructions

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/securely-delete-files-mac/

No way to bring it to main context menu from services but can bring all services up (all or none)


MAC OS: Pascal

Fpc in terminal to compile

https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12 ------------ Xcode 5+ compatibility (OS X 10.9 and later; for OS X 10.8, see below) -------------- FPC 3.0.4 is qualified for use with Mac OS X 10.4 till OS X 10.11, and with macOS 10.12 and 10.13. Xcode 5 and later however no longer install the command line tools by default, which are required by FPC. To install them manually, open "/Applications/Utilities/Terminal", execute xcode-select --install and choose "Install". Afterwards, FPC will function correctly.


MAC OS: Delete .ds_store

mac - delete all .ds_store everywhere sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \; -------------------- I don’t know if related to that defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true


MAC OS: QUICKTIME

directory saved ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/


MAC OS: OUTLOOK

to recover outlook - go to /Users/NAME/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles and replace the For365 folder from backup

file location:  /Users/name/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office


MAC OS: FILEVAULT KEY CHANGE

mac - change file vault recovery key sudo fdesetup changerecovery -personal

test validate file vault filevault recovery keysudo fdesetup validaterecovery


MAC OS: TRASH CONTENTS

to see content of trash sudo sh -c 'ls -al /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*/'


MAC OS: FIREFOX PROFILE, BOOKMARKS ETC.

FIREFOX SESSION RESTORE: move one of the files in sessinostore-backup folder and rename to: sessionstore.jsonlz4. in the top folder

change location of firefox profile:  terminal:  /Applications/Utilities/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -P ----------- create new profile - choose from new location of profile -- same with TB thunderbird . ------ /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/thunderbird-bin -profilemanager

Firefox profile location: Help/Troubleshooting/Profile folder 

Firefox restore bookmarks: Click the Library button icon on toolbar. Restore from there. 


MAC OS: ACCESS RIGHTS

change all subdirectories / files permissions to read write :   cd /Volumes  —————— chmod -R +rw 1_Main⁨Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨Users⁩ ▸ ⁨<name> ▸ ⁨Desktop⁩ ▸ ⁨Documents⁩ ▸ ⁨Firefox Profile⁩ ▸ ⁨nn2456hj.default-release⁩


MAC OS: ABORT TERMINAL

to abort terminal process Control-C


MAC OS: CHROME

How do I stop Google Chrome from signing me out?To find this new option, click menu > Settings in Chrome. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page and click “Advanced.” Toggle the “Allow Chrome Sign-in” option here off.

Reopen closed tab chrome comman-shift-t

To restore mac chrome session : replace this from backup /Users/rezaganjavi/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome

chrome profile folder: Mac OS X El Capitan: Users/<username>/Library/Application


WORD SINGLE SPACING

MS Word Single Spacing doesn't work. Solution: Set Paragraph Spacing before and after to 0 (under Layout).


LOCATION OF DOWNLOAD FOLDER ON GOOGLE PODCASTS FOR ANDROID

Android/Data/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/files and just follow the folders from there.


MAC OS: SAFARI

disable safari exit prompt browser default:

in terminal type in one go both

defaults write com.apple.Safari DefaultBrowserDateOfLastPrompt -date '2050-01-01T00:00:00Z'

defaults write com.apple.Safari DefaultBrowserPromptingState -int 2


MAC OS: PREVIEW & QUICKTIME DISABLE RESUME

Terminal commands to disable Resume in Preview and QuickTime Player X:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false


MAC OS: SPOTLIGHT


add to mdutil section / make new section

 

spotlight gives "Error: Unknown Indexing State"

 

SOLUTION:

 

delete  .spotlight-v100 (from all volumes one by one -- shift-command-. to see hidden files)

 

disable all indexing on all volumes

sudo mdutil -a -i off

 

enable all indexing on all volumes

sudo mdutil -a -i on

 

This rebuilds spotlight on all volumes which are not excluded in exception list. The error may still show up when getting status: spotlight gives "Error: Unknown Indexing State" doing command sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/[diskname] -- but it's irrelevant. if you click on spotlight you see it says indexing and test confirmed files that weren't found before are now found.


MAC OS: FINDER / COPY

Enable the Hidden "Keep Both" Button When Copying Files in OS X ======== press option button


To view hidden files and folders: 

press Command+Shift+Period 


EXCEL

delete multiple cells excel -- press function and delete

Now press Ctrl + Plus on the numerical pad. - excel select row - press control plus to insert row


RELATIVE & ABSOLUTE CELL REFERENCES IN EXCEL

Place a "$" before the column letter if you want that to always stay the same. Place a "$" before a row number if you want that to always stay the same. For example, "$C$3" refers to cell C3, and "$C$3" will work exactly the same as "C3", expect when you copy the formula.


THUNDERBIRD

- Gmail POP will only download once, but you can used the recent command to get the last 30 days emails. For all other POP clients, replace 'username@gmail.com' in your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com

- add recent: in front of gmail account "recent:X@X.com" and it re pop downloads inbox and sent items off web


WORD


MAC OS: MS OFFICE AUTO RECOVERY

in terminal type "open $TMPDIR"

then open com.microsoft.word for temp files. ------------- same with excel AUTO RECOVERY AUTORECOVERY EXCEL XLS AUTOSAVE

my excel auto recovery is: /Users/name/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences

2020: - excel autorecover recover excel xls -- ‎⁨/Users/name/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft

location of excel autosave aug 2020: Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨Users⁩ ▸ ⁨name⁩ ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Containers⁩ ▸ ⁨com.microsoft.Excel⁩ ▸ ⁨Data⁩ ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Application Support⁩ ▸ ⁨Microsoft⁩

- Auto recovery - Go to Finder, then click “Go”, and then Go to Folder and then type in the following: ~/Library/Containers/microsoft word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery


MAC OS:FIND LOG MESSAGES AND ACTIVITIES IN CONSOLE

use Console app


MAC OS: VARIOUS



MAC OS: Show or hide filename extensionc

For one file: Use "Hide Extension" from command-i panel.

For all files: Finder preferences: “Show all filename extensions.”


VARIOUS

PDF Expert 2.4.20.608 --- select whole document -- command shift f9 -- removes all cross reference hyperlinks  -- word calls it "unlink fields"    (control shift f9 on windows) 

---

To unlock all subfolders/files: go to top folder - select all - press option command right-arrow. Select all. Press option command i - click lock till it's clear. 

Changing File/Folder Permissions and Privileges in OS X  --- GET INFO / unlock / set / click on apply to all subitems 

----

to change permission on group of files in a folder, select them all - then command option i -- then unlock if it lets you - either way, checkmark locked - then uncheckmark locked (not lock icon but locked attribute).

Go / Go To Folder  --- then type /Volumes ---- this is where it shows you other names of volumes without a "1" that caused the system to make ones with "1" as suffix. Delete the zero bite old names. Change names. Reboot.

To clean up Mac Volumes / external disk list from a "1" attached tot he name: Go to MacHD / Volumes (hidden file so do a SHIT-COMMAND-dot (.) --- or go to Go To Folder and type /Volumes/ -- and delete zero bite folders with "1" suffix.  And reboot.

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/8_Lacie\ 1      -- turn on spotlight indexing on disk called    8_Lacie\ 1   

sudo mdutil -E on /Volumes/8_Lacie\ 1      -- erase spotlight indexing on disk called    8_Lacie\ 1   

Mac drag icon or a calendar item for example with three fingers: go to accessibility / pointer control/trackpad options/ enable dragging / three finger drag

tory and rename the folder to chrome.

Place the chrome folder inside your Thunderbird profile directory. To find your profile directory, you can do the following from within Thunderbird:

Help > Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics section > Profile Folder > Show in Finder

(Optional) To change the background and text area of the message composition pages, you can dd the following lines to your user.js file within the profile directory (this w

Libre office Calc: To search all sheets you must use the “Find and Replace” pop-up dialog instead of just the simple find box at the bottom of a sheet. 


Firefox TAB SESSION MANAGER

To restore sesssions, get this file from backup and replace it. Tab-Session-Manager1@sienori.xpi   -- it's in firefox profil folder in extensions folder.

Best to take backup of sessions by exporting, and restore.

~~~

Tab session manager suppresses sessionstore.jsonlz4 --- disable tab session manager, copy backup of session from sessionstore-backups - rename it - copy to profile folder. 


HOW TO FIX AUDIO VIDEO SYNC ON MAC

VLC: Use the shortcut keys on the MAC for the same and can get rid of all the troubles related to syncing of Audio with Video. Using some handy keys in the form of the F key and G Key are some keys to adjusting the audio according to the video.

Elmedia: select Decrease Audio Delay. Delay option in the Audio menu or ‘⇧⌘[‘

VARIOUS 

How to remove table in MS Word while retaining the text inside of it? https://www.wyzant.com/resources/answers/689710/how-to-remove-table-in-ms-word-while-retaining-the-text-inside-of-it

How to add Title for my Home Page separately so that it won't get repeated for other pages? https://support.google.com/sites/thread/10293231/how-to-add-title-for-my-home-page-separately-so-that-it-won-t-get-repeated-for-other-pages?hl=en

offline dictation not working: System preferences->Accessibility->Voice Control and click "Allow". 

--- 

Burn CD on Mac: Go to MUSIC application. Create a new playlist. Drop songs into it. File/burn


MAC OS: CLICKING ON DOCK ICON DOES NOT BRING WINDOW ON TOP

Answer:  System preferences / Mission control /  SELECT / when switching


MAC OS: MULTI-DISPLAY ANNOYING WINDOWS JUMPING RANDOMLY

Answer:  System preferences / Mission control /  DESELECT: automatically rearrange....


MAC OS: Screenshots

Part of a screen: Shift, Command, 4 / select.

Whole current window or menu:  Shift, Command, 4, and Space bar.  click the camera.

Shift Command 3 makes an image file from each of your displays.

Same as above but add a control key to it and it saves it in paste buffer!

 

 MAC OS: REVEAL PATH / HIDDEN... 


The Go to Folder feature


The Finder has its Go to Folder feature, which can be used for accessing hidden directories, but similar to the Terminal, you can drag a file or folder here to reveal its full path.

 

To do this, open a new Finder window by pressing Command-N, and then press Shift-Command-G to reveal the Go to Folder panel for the new window. Then drag a target file from another window to the Go to Folder text field, where it will be converted to a full text path that you can select and copy. Unfortunately you cannot drag a file from the same window once the Go to Folder panel is open, but you can drag from the desktop or another Finder window.

 

MAC OS: HIDE / UNHIDE ALL ICONS

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false

killall Finder

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true

killall Finder


MAC OS: FINDER: EXPAND ALL SUBFOLDERS

CMD-ALT-Click on the arrows expands all levels of the structure


MAC OS: LIST ALL APPLICATIONS

sudo find / -iname *.app


MAC OS: CHANGE PERMISSION ON ALL SUB-FOLDERS

chmod -R +rw mydir


VARIOUS

Thunderbird - Phantom mail from 1/01/1970 11:00 AM or 12/31/1969 keeps reappearing in my inbox, often related to junk or deleting a message. I think this is probably msf corruption of some sorts. Removing the msf solved it.

 

~~~

 

To change icon in Mac of Microsoft office etc. – e.g. get info on excel – tap top image – paste new image.

 

~~~

 

MICROSOFT OFFICE UPDATE MAC

 

To turn off Excel's prompting for office update, go to Help / turn off automatic update - the annoying prompt will go away when you do not want to update office because you like your current version.

 

To keep up-to-date with security updates, fixes, and improvements, choose check for updates -- go to top level library/ app support / msft / then delete MAU in its entirety.

 

"To address your requirement, you won't see this message if you remove the Microsoft AutoUpdate application found in "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0" folder. In other words, you could uninstall MAU application if it's necessary to disable this notification."

 

~~~

 

Add a language on Gboard through Android settings

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Settings app.

Tap System. Languages & input.

Under "Keyboards," tap Virtual keyboard.

Tap Gboard. Languages.

Pick a language.

Turn on the layout you want to use.

Tap Done.

 

Type in a different language - Android - Gboard Help - Google ...

 

~~~

 

Firefox go to about:support, and hit the "Refresh Firefox..." button, from the upper right corner. Hope this helps.

 

~~~

 

TO CONVERT AIFF to MP3 on Mac Monterey and above, iTunes (Music) app, import (can drag drop), settings, type MP3, then File/ConvertMP3. 

You can select the output folder to your desire folder in settings for Music app on Mac,

 

~~~

 

to convert webm to mp3 use vlc / file / convert

 

~~~

 

Monterey 12.3.1 if copy is not complete e.g. for lack of space, it can be resumed and it copies the rest. very nice feature.

 

~~~

 

MAKE FIREFOX DOWNLOAD POPUP NOT APPEAR

If you don't want the popup to appear at all, you can set the pref (browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel in about:config) to make it not appear. We're adding UI (context menu on the button) for this pref in Firefox 102.


This was related to an issue I had - Download toolbar icon doesn't close if pressing accel-w to close a tab. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1769729

 


FIREFOX DOWNGRADED TO V82

Here's the instructions for the Mac

Migrated FF to old version  – migrating profiles was not easy.

To migrate to old version:

Rename existing profile to save it. Also make copy on external drive as backup.

Delete old FF program (83)

Install FF v82.

In Terminal run: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -P

Delete all existing profiles

Create profile

Name the new profile the final name you want.

Finalize creating the profile

Run FF from profile manager

Exit FF

Delete the profile manually

Rename old profile as the name you gave profile manager

Run FF 82. You’re good to go with old bookmarks, sessions, open tabs etc.


UPDATE:

This subject is more complicated... Firefox updates itself automatically even if you have the flag set in preferences to not do it.

So I tried the process again and then I got an error saying it can't be downgraded and you have to create new profile or quit.

Using an older version of Firefox can corrupt bookmarks and browsing history already saved to an existing Firefox profile. To protect your information, create a new profile for this installation of Firefox.

WORKAROUND:

You're good to go.

Good discussion but it doesn't solve it completely. The above experiment I did worked.

https://www.askvg.com/fix-all-bookmarks-add-ons-and-settings-lost-in-mozilla-firefox/#:~:text=Using%20an%20older%20version%20of,for%20this%20installation%20of%20Firefox.&text=If%20you%20create%20new%20profile,to%20use%20Firefox%20from%20scratch.


VARIOUS:


MAC OS: Sign out of Mac App Store:

Once in the App Store, look for the Store menu next Edit in the Mac menu bar. Click on Store then select Sign Out. As a warning, once logged out of the App Store any apps purchased via your App Store account may no longer function.


Protect MAC Against Hacking

For additional security and making sure your Mac can't get hacked, set a firmware password. Reboot with Command R - then go to Utilities from menu and set firmware password - a long, strong password. Also make sure you have FileVault password set, your disks are encrypted and have a good Mac OS password.


MAC OS: RIGHT CLICK TO CREATE NEW FILE ON MAC OS X

Utilities available to add this feature.


VARIOUS - ADDED MAY 2022

Mac: Missing finder progress window for copy. Solution: finder/window/show progress window


option+ click on folder name to expand all its sub folders

 

 

Battery->Battery optimisation-> Select "Don't optimize" for Whatsapp --- Then RESTART. I tried it first without restarting, it didn't work. Only after restarting did it work. This might be because your background app refresh is turned of for whatsapp. You can easily turn it on by going to settings app -> general ->background app refresh. Then u can turn on that feature.

 

Also maybe u might have turned off notifications on your lockscreen for that go to   setting -> notification centre-> scroll down and come to whatsapp and turn on "show on lockscreen"

  

 

Open settings on your phone

Go to the Battery section

Find the section “More battery settings”

You will see the option that interests us: “Stay connected when device is in sleep mode”. Activate this option to prevent WhatsApp from disconnecting when we lock the phone.


_________________________________________________________

 

Is your web page mobile-friendly? https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly -- but don’t trust Google in that. According to one of their experts, Mobile Usability warning on Google Sites - Page Not Mobile Friendly – can be safely ignored as the tool frequently gives false positives.

 

command option arrow to move between firefox tabs with keyboard

 

it only stores unreceived msgs – and can’t read them since decripting happens on client – ALSO ABOUT BACKUPS


************************************************************************************************************************


THE FOLLOWING IS AN OLD FILE I HAD...   Not written in it are a million things that make the Mac far superior to Windows.Some of it is XP related as I used WindowsXP for a long time. Windows 7 is a disaster, as is Windows 8, 10... a nightmare for power user. So I basically jumped from Windows XP when it was no longer good idea to use (far after support expired) to MacOS and never looked back. I do own a Windows7 system too which I only use for micky mouse stuff (watching video and apps that only run on Windows).

SEP 2016 -- DOWNGRADED FROM SIERRA TO EL CAPITAN MAC OS

[Update: I upgraded from Mojave to Big Sur - no problem since most of the 32 bit apps I no longer need]

New Mac OS, Sierra: DO NOT Upgrade.  [UPDATE: ON TO UPGRADE UNTIL MOJAVE BUT NOT HIGHER SINCE 32BIT APPS DON'T RUN ON IT.

I should have known better not to go to a newly released OS. Many applications don't work under Sierra and there are loads of problems with it. It took me hours to downgrade back to El Capitan which is a solid OS. Given my setup I'll avoid going to Sierra as long as possible.

There are many online guides on how to downgrade but some of them are buggy. This is how I did it:

1. Download El Capitan from the Mac Store (it's free). Create a bootable flash drive. My drive is called RED in this Terminal command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/RED --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

2. Take a full backup (not using Time Machine).

3. You better have a TimeMachine backup of your system or another Image backup before the upgrade.

4. Erase Sierra by restarting while holding Command-R. This puts you in a boot menu with access to DiskUtility which you can use to format your main drive where the OS is on.

5. Reboot using the flash drive you created above. Do this by starting the system while holding the Option key. It puts you in another boot menu where you tell the system to boot from the flash drive.

6. When booted you have a clean OS (El Capitan).

7. Use the TimeMachine backup to restore your system fully.

8. Use the backup of files before downgrade to bring it up to date.

It worked beautifully. TimeMachine is great. MacOS in general rocks and makes Windows look like a toy.

Good luck.


DEC  2015 -- WINDOWS 10

Vicious adware on browsers (firefox, IE, etc.) where you click a link, an ad window opens. Only program that got rid of it was Adware Cleaner:

Windows 7 image back up does not work for many people. You can back up but can't restore. HP backup before reimage also doesn't work - can back up but restore fails.

Windows 10 is better than Windows 7 but it's still a DOS patch work.


DEC  2015 -- WINDOWS 10 - NASTY PERMISSION ISSUE (TYPICAL OF WINDOWS HACK JOB)

"you require permission from"  "to make changes to this folder"

You require permission from administrators to make changes to this folder. I'm an administrator on my pc but I can't delete files and it keeps on saying you need permission.

I am an Administrator, but I keep getting errors like, "You require permission from Administrators to make changes to this file."


BEST SOLUTION

There are many ideas out there but this is the most simple and best solution, thanks to takeownership people.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

http://cdn9.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/TakeOwnership.zip


DEC  2015 -- THUNDERBIRD HUNG SENDING MESSAGE "ATTACHING"

Solution: Delete any images from the sender's mail you're replying to.


DEC  2015 -- CLASSIC XP SEARCH FOR WINDOWS 10

filesearchex BY goffconcepts.com -- very nice software.


DEC  2015 -- VIDEO EDITING ON MAC

iMovie is too amateur -- Corel VideoStudio or Adobe Premiere Pro are better.


DEC  2015 -- STUDIO ONE VS. LOGIC PRO - DAW REVIEW

Seems like Presonus Studio One is very cool and some people prefer it to Logic Pro.

I'm trying to decide to stick with Protools or not

Salesman: Protools: old school, new pricing: $100 gets up to to P12 and can stay there.


NOV   2015 -- ADWARE REMOVAL 

Vicious adware on browsers (firefox, IE, etc.) where you click a link, an ad window opens. Only program that got rid of it was Adware Cleaner:

https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/  adwcleaner_5.022.exe

But sometimes it's a nasty one like on Windows 10's Chrome there's a popup adware that's hard to kill -- e.g. Reimage Repair pop-up ad.

Solution is to run aadware cleaner first adwcleaner

and then run malwarebytes anti-malware.


DEC   2015 -- ADWARE REMOVAL 

Remove unwanted RunDLL popup such as "there was a problem starting c:\users etc.etc   KitLogo.dll -- or     dvp.dll -- best is to download a wonderful software called AUTORUNS by SYSINTERNALS -- and click to run it as administrator -- and it'll show kiklogo and get rid of it.


NOV   2015 -- FACEBOOK LIKES

Folks, chill out... correct me if I'm wrong but if you like a post the person who posted it controls who can see it. Am I correct to assume if a friend shared a public post and set the privacy to friends only, if you click like, only that friend's friends will see your like and not your own friends (unless they're a mutual friend). It's simple.

If you don't want people to see your like of PUBLIC posts, don't "like" it. Public posts means everyone sees your likes including your friends.

Judie Green : If you make a comment or like something on someone else's post or photo then that person who originally made the post is in control of who is able to view it and all of the comments and likes.


OCT  2015 -- MS PROJECT 

How to stop MS project from displaying welcome screen? Options/General/Disable Display Help On Startup

Thunderbird 38.2.0 has a bug: it goes offline after standby. Went into to toosl/options/advanced/network/offline/remember previous online status -- still didn't help.

SEP  2015 -- FACEBOOK YOUTUBE

Facebook has old description of youtube video. Can run facebook debug script but my still not seem to work – but if you click POST FB fetches the updated description


AUG  2015 -- Thunderbird 38.2.0 bug 

Thunderbird 38.2.0 has a bug: it goes offline after standby. Went into to toosl/options/advanced/network/offline/remember previous online status -- still didn't help.

 When resume from standby, TB is always in offline mode. Only happens in latet version of TB (38.2.0) - I'm reverting to old version.

Just reverted to http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/38.1.0/win32/en-US/

and it does NOT have that problem. So this is definitely a 38.2 bug.


JUL  2015 -- AUDACITY ECHOES

Audacity echoes on recording.

Solution: edit/preferences/recording turn off "Play Through"


MAR  2015 -- Can't download quicktime

Firefox has problem downloading Quicktime. Try another browser.


MAR  2015 -- Post Facebook (or other url) on Yahoo

facebook.

c*m/

rganjavi/

posts/

1629666333919452


MAR  2015 -- Recover Audacity .AU files

http://mesw.de/audacity/recovery/


MAR  2015 -- Make Youtube Video Play Continuously

youtuberepeat.com/watch/?v=EZfdmWylQP8

where EZfdmWylQP8 is the video number


FEB  2015 -- Compare directories (folders) to see what files are missing from one of the other and much more...

great utilitiy:  http://winmerge.org/

WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

WinMerge is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions. WinMerge can be used as an external differencing/merging tool or as a standalone application.


FEB  2015 - MAC sucks in so many ways...

Mac’s restart is not really a restart. 

I used my powerful Mac for a few weeks when the other big computer was in the shop. I tried hard to like it. I do like Macs enough to have spent thousands buying a top of the line for music -- but for everyday office use Mac is a drag. 


FEB  2015 - MAC control tab switch windows in same application 

Windows has a nice feature to let you choose to group all of an app's windows or not and can switch with control tab. MAC doesn't allow that. Instead (not as good) in Mac within an app can hit Command  plus the key above tab (~ key).


FEB  2015 -  FACEBOOK doesn't show linked website thumbnail 

Make sure if using domain routing it's done via HTTP and not FRAME so the destination domain name is not locked and is dynamic. This way Facebook can pick up the image.

And run the domain through Facebook Debug to reset FB internal database.

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

THIS IS A QUICK & DIRTY PAGE I PUT TOGETHER. I UPDATE THIS WHENEVER I HAVE TECH ISSUES. SO IT SERVES AS MY OWN REFERENCE WHEN THE ISSUES OCCUR AGAIN.


To remove Firefox addons

enter about:plugins into the location bar, there should be a full file-path be shown next to the outdated adcrobat addon

use windows explorer to navigate to that path & delete the appropriate file.


Audacity

Audacity: make space key "play/stop and set cursor" (instead of just play/stop and set curser at the beginning of where playback started.

Preferences / keyboard

find Space. Below it is X. Click on that. click space bar and click set. Now instead of X, spacebar does that job. I set space to be the Play/Stop which space bar used to do by default.


Google’s blue arrows HOW TO MAKE GOOGLE NOT JUMP SEARCH RESULTS SCROLL How to Enable Smooth Scrolling Feature in Google

turn off instant search and you get rid of that nightmarish blue arrow forever 1. go to www.google.com

2. from the google bar on the top right, select settings, then search settings

3. At the Google Instant option, select 'Do not use google Instant'


XP TASK BAR MENU DISAPPEARED

The menu bar and tabs may not be visible in Task Manager.

To switch Task Manager to its typical display mode, double-click the top border of the window.


TO CHANGE AUDOCITY DEFAULT EXPORT DIRECTORY EDIT THE CONFIG FILE:

  Windows 98/ME: Windows\Application Data\Audacity

Windows 2000/XP: Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Audacity

Windows Vista and 7: Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity

OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity

Linux: ~/.audacity-data


Vertical line on Cannon ADF scans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=488739PiGvc

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/516365/lines+in+adf+scanned+document


Oct  2014 -  Delete All Gmail Contacts more than 250 at a time

download: 

Easy-Contacts-Delete-setup.exe

It works great.


Aug  2014 -  Netzero Free Dialup 

To disable internet explorer iexplore.exe can't be deleted but  the rest of the stuff in that and subfolders can be deleted and IE is finally dead thank god.


Oct  2014 -  Have windows remember window locations

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/40916-shellfolderfix-manage-folder-window-positions-size.html

Windows 7 won't remember my desktop folder locations

http://dl2.sevenforums.com/dl/ShellFolderFix64.zip

http://dl2.sevenforums.com/dl/ShellFolderFixSetup.exe

http://dl2.sevenforums.com/dl/ShellFolderFix32.zip


Aug  2014 -  Export Youtube Tags

How to export tags from a youtube video – copy youtube tags

Go to the last dag – after it there’s empty slot for next tax. Control A – control C – you got it made!


Aug  2014 -  Android

Google Play Services won't update

Solution: delete and re-add your google account


Aug  2014 -  THUNDERBIRD NEW MESSAGE FLAG (ICON) FALSE

The "Local Folders has 1 new message" icon shows up in the tray along with the system sound for "New Mail Notification" but there are no new messages.

A STRAMGE FIX THAT WORKS:

Tools>account settings under server settings make sure automatically download new messages is checked. Do this for each account.


Aug  2014 -  Superstart addon for Firefox 

I'm going crazy trying to figure out how to ungroup or delete a group

“please click a group, then drag the links out for the group, wait for a while and it will be placed out of the group, when there is only one link in a group, the group will become a normal icon.” 

SuperStart: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/super-start/


Aug  2014 -  Remove SIM on a Galaxy

To take out a SIM card out of a Samsung Galaxy (or Note) use an eraser and gently push it on the SIM.


May  2014 -  Security 

Suggestion made to uninstall "file and printer sharing for Microsoft networks" from wireless properties. 


May  2014 -  Go back to old google maps 

new google maps is a disaster.

Go back more permanently

To switch to classic Maps for longer than a single session, follow the steps below.

Go to the new Google Maps.

Click the Help button in the bottom right corner.

Click Return to classic Google Maps.

Click Yes in the notification bar that appears.

On the landing page that appears, follow the instructions to opt out permanently. Any feedback you could provide as to why you wanted to opt out will be valuable in improving the product for you in the future.


May  2014 -  Switch Firefox from Beta to Prod (Release) 


May  2014 -  Avoiding Last XP Update 

Got rid of a bunch of Firefox extensions.

SESSION MANAGER

OMNIBAR PLUS

CUSTOM TAB WIDTH

DUPLICATE TAB CLOSER

ETC.

And added

TAB MIX PLUS which includes session manager


April  2014 -  Avoiding Last XP Update 

I don't trust MS not messing up my system with the last XP update. I experienced speed issues and got message about end-of-life of XP. Promptly removed the last update.

As a poweruser I like XP -- it still sucks as an OS compared to better ones but in itself from a poweruser standpoint is FAR SUPERIOR to Win7 or Win8 both of which suck bigtime. I'd go full in Mac before I buy another Win7 or Win8 machine. No way in hell I'm going to Win8.

Bottom line is I'm staying on XP indefinitely -- probably for long time to come :) and MS can't do sugar about it.

Me and millions of others will never migrate away from XP because both Windows 7 and 8 suck big time (see below). I even removed my latest update because I don't trust MS. My system was sluggish after the last upgrade. Not that I love XP but it works. It's a lousy OS anyway compared to much better OS's but FAR better than 7 and 8 for a power user like me. Of course those OS's are better in some ways but XP overall including POWER USER experience beats its rivals hands down. My next OS will be MAC on all my my systems if I'm forced to dump XP.

I look for a lot more than not crashing in an OS. XP never crashes on me -- I love the stability.

For more on why 7 absolutely sucks (while internally it may be good)  see

http://home.datacomm.ch/rezamusic/technical_tips.html


Mar 2014 -  Avast Grime

Uninstall Avast Grime by going into control panel / programs / choose avast and click on change and uncheck Grime Fighter

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/reader-comments.html?baseDocId=SB10001424052702304157204579473821528178710&headline=Windows%20XP%3A%20Old%20Platforms%20Die%20Hard%2C%20Security%20Risks%20Live%20On&cb=logged0.44582123816577135


Mar 2014 -  VPN

I have lots of email accounts and when I travel gmail security check etc are painful to deal with so I looked for a VPN but decided not to use it.

I did some research on various VPN's.  Hotspotshield sends the real IP as part of a header probably (maybe just to https sites)  (not good).

PureVPN is out of Hong Kong. They have some new servers not yet in reference tables so locations are not up to date (not good).

Hidemyass is a solid software. Their openVPN + Autopath is supposed to be compareable to pptp speed but it doesn’t work because their autopath doesn't work (bombed every time with support on phone both on XP and WIN7. Furthermore their virtual servers don't download gmail (not good). Support is alright but they take a trial and error approach and are not very informed or scientific so it wasted a lot of my time. 

Another issue is if you use a VPN many sites don't like the connection. So I decided not to use it.


Jan 2014 -  Mac Pain

Try to change the rate (speed) of screen saver image change.  It's like pulling teeth. Esoteric as hell. 


Jan 2014 -  InDesign Text Wrapping Around Photos

Control Alt W.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/visual-design/getting-started-08-wrapping-text-around-a-graphic/


Jan 2014 - Audacity default MP3 storage folder

Set

Path=D:\\....

C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\audacity.cfg


Dec 2013 -  Put Firefox out of full screen

F11


Oct 2013 -  Shift display from vertical to horizontal etc.

Control + Alt + arrow keys


Oct 2013 -  Firefox > Chrome

Dumped firefox for chrome on HP after hours wasted on sound issues on one of the systems -- Firefox seems like an old clunker compared to Chrome but still using it on my main laptop.


Aug  2013 -  Paste Youtube Tags

enter all tags in WORD with commas in between and paste into Youtube tags !


Oct  2013 -  Firefox session management SUCKS -- solution: Session Manager addon -- but it's still unreliable so best to manually save session to ensure recovery

10/20/2013 2:07 AM

Wated hours trying to figure out how to make sense of corrupted sessionstore.js file – most articles are on restoring sesseionstore.bak but that’s not my problem.

Nothing worked until I came across this:

“My sessionstore got corrupted so I'm doing this manually (the other solutions I found didn't work - I think sessionstore.js got corrupted which was why FF didn't load it in the first place)

I replaced all instances of "url":" with "^p^p"url":"" (2 new paragraphs).

And then I search for lines with ""title":" as there're many nonsense lines going to Facebook/Twitter/about:blank/Google+ pages

Hope this helps others

I need to use a Session Manager to save my last few sessions...”

Voila !! the title search puts me to all the urls for my open tabs before the crash.

Because of repeat issue with session problems I am thinking of dumping firefox altogether but only if Chrome passes my test. I used session manager before but it had too much overhead. We’ll see.

Since I don’t have the bandwidth to switch browsers I’ll give firefox a last chance but will use session manager.

[spoke too early -- title is 680 of them................... impossible to go through.............. back to square one


Sep  2013 -  Mozilla best speed dial new tab 

go to

TOOLS / ADDONS / GET ADDONS

put in there

SUPER START

and then restart when it asks you

new tab speed dial is now set up

just add the sites you want by clicking + button

I tried different new tab speeddials and this one is the best and fastest (others slow down a new tab opening, etc.)


Aug  2013 -  XFAT

lessson: XFAT sucks - consumes far too much space. Only use for Mac portability not for archives.

You probably know that you can enter all tags in one hit if you copy them from WORD with each tag separated by a comma.


Sep  2013 -  Firefox  sessionstore.js

I hate the way firefox handles sessions and doesn't have native way of saving a session like Opera does.  Using addons adds extra overhead and sometimes produces errors and lack of integrity of auto saved session.

sessionstore.js can get corrupted and deciphering through a corrupt java script file is no fun

solution I found was to move it to system with firefox which has session manager add on installed and that guy can read the corrupted sessionstore.js file ! Bingo!


Sep  2013 -  Change drive letter (not recommended)

change OS drive letter windows xp

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".

Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.


May  2013 - Recover emptied trash bin of Thunderbird

To recover empties thunderbird trashcan:

If you haven't compacted folders, exit TB, copy the trashcan file itself (under TB folder).

Then download and run the reset mailbox utility: http://apveening.a61.nl/software/tbrststs.zip

Then download and install the import/export tool: https://freeshell.de//~kaosmos/ImportExportTools-2.8.0.2.xpi

(https://freeshell.de//~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html)

and it imports the output of the reset program as the recovered folder.


Jul  2013 - Control Tab Mac

Richard 06/29/2010 02:52 PM PDT

Here is an easier work around than getting a third party app, which I discovered by accident. I quit minimizing windows when I figured this one out. Instead of minimizing windows, hide them with command-h. Then to bring with back, use command-tab and highlight the hidden app and all its windows will reappear on your desktop. This is so much better than having to use finger gymnastics to add the option key, which is hard to use when you already have a finger on the command key.

Command-Tab to minimized windows


May  2013 - Turn off beep of wireless connection

Intel ProSet Wireless - open wifi connection utility -- then press control-P -- uncheck the 'Show Information Notifications' box..


Apr  2013 - Firefox  duplicate Open New Tab button 

put the existing open new tab button on another toolbar.

Then created a userChrome.css file in

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\k3t9u98e.default-1352740564937\chrome

and put this code in it:

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");

#new-tab-button { visibility: visible !important; }

.tabs-newtab-button { visibility: visible !important; }

Then restarted firefox and brought the open new tab back to the tab toolbar - now I have a duplicate (second) open new tab button -- one on each side of tabs -- it's VERY useful.


Apr  2013 - Firefox Global Close Tab button

1. Type "about:config" in the address bar.

2. Search for "browser.tabs.closeButtons"

3. Change the value to 3.


Jul  2013 - Mozilla

Mozilla profile folder on Mac

Library folder.  Open the "Application Support" folder, then open the "Firefox" folder, and then the "Profiles" folder.


Apr  2013 - Google doesn't work in Opera 

Reason: corrupted profile folder - get one off backup or delete and reinstall.

search engine adr of amazon in opera http://redir.opera.com/amazon/?q=%s


Apr  2013 - Turn off automatic update in Opera 

From the menu, go to Opera > Preferences > Advanced Preferences > Security.


Apr  2013 - Best Opera version 

I downgraded from Opera 12.15 to 11.52 -- 11.52 is much faster and is stable and doesn't have all the hangups of newer version. I think 11.52 is the best version of opera. It can be downloaded from  http://www.oldapps.com/opera.php?app=5E15E57C17A0BB7564B626BC7BF07904


Apr  2013 - Opera tab bar

Opera Tab Bar below menu bar

opera:config#Show%20Menu

enable show menu


Mar 2013 -  New Gmail Account; POP3; Thunderbird can't delete Application Data folder on desktop:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\

profile was: lozu6adz.default

solution : find your prefs.js file -- in Drive:\Thunderbird

edit it and delete every line that has reference to that profile name (in this case "lozu6adz")


Mar 2013 -  Gmail bundling mails into threads

you can turn off Conversation View:

so gmail behaves like you expect it and if you have new mail it doesn't bundle it up into a thread and just up the counter (hard to see / keep track).

To do so go to SETTINGS (top right of gmail screen there's wheel.

then in the GENERAL tab

set

Conversation View to Conversation view off


Feb  2013 -  Load Thunderbird Address Book From Excel or other file.

Time to time my adr book shoots up north of 14000 -- time to clean up -- load up personal list of about 1000 addresses quickly from Excel.

I Built up a text file using WORD replace function to inset before and after the email adr in the following order

The import attributes are, in order:

First Name, Last Name, Display Name, Nickname, Primary Email, Secondary Email, Work Phone, Home Phone, Fax Number, Pager Number, Mobile Number, Home Address, Home Address2, Home City, Home State, Home Zipcode, Home Country, Work Address, Work Address2, Work City, Work State, Work Zip, Work Country, Job Title, Department, Organization, Web Page 1, Web Page 2, Birth Year, Birth Month, Birth Day, Custom 1, Custom 2, Custom 3, Custom 4, Notes

each record is for example:

FIRST NAME, LAST NAME, DISPLAY NAME, NICKNAME, dse@cen.cz, SL, WE, HNE, FR, PAGER,  BER, HOESS, HOMSS2, HOME CITY, HOME STATE, HOME ODE, COUNTRY, WORK ADDRESS, WORK ADDRESS2, WORK CITY, WORK STATE, P, Y, JE, DEPAT, OZATION, WEB PAGE 1, WEB PAGE 2, BIRTH YEAR, BI, BIRY, CU 1, F2, CU3, CU4, NES

Import as text - works like a champ


Feb  2013 -  Word URL doesn't work in PDF

Solution: use www.freepdfconvert.com


Jan  2013 -  Delete Thunderbird Tab -- even the main tab

www.freepdfconvert.com

Thanks a lot to this very valuable tip I gained a lot of realestate:

Hide tabs when there is only 1. Go to Tools --> Options --> Advanced --> General (tab) and click the "Config Editor..." button. If a cautionary dialog box pops up then click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button. Start typing in the filter line of the small window that opens. Type "mail.tabs.autoHide". You will see a seeting with this preference name in the list below. Double click it to change it to "true".


Jan  2013 -  Outlook 2003 missing subject field in search

Field Chooser - frequenty used fields - missing subject - it's not missing - it's displayed but probably hidden among many other fields - if it's not on the frequenty used fields it's displayed - look and it's there.


Jan  2013 -  Windows XP service pack 3 download

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-XP-SP3-Download-90001.html

http://www.softpedia.com/dyn-postdownload.php?p=90001&t=0&i=1


Jan  2013 -  Thunderbird forward or reply sent message doesn't use default account.

Solution: set identity of non default account to default account (when non def is used only for receiving).


Jan  2013 -  FREE OCR

http://www.paperfile.net/download.html


Jan  2013 -  google search in title bar returns a 302 error?

 3xx codes are all redirect codes - you'll generally see them if you've (deliberately or accidentally) disabled automatic redirection. Go to  <Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Network > Enable automatic redirection</em>.


Jan  2013 -  Problem: Intel Pro Wireless  prompts for "device ownership password".

Click on start and choose Control Panel->add or remove programs-> Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless Software -> Modify -> Uncheck WI-FI PROTECTED SETUP

 

Jan  2013 -  MISC

setup cannot copy the file ncprov.mf_

cleaned the CD and it worked.


DELL

error number 0x80240036

installed

http://www.wiki-errors.com/download.php

errorend


Jan  2013 - Remove items from windows startup

Run “msconfig”


Dec 2012 -  Corel Video Studio Change Language To English

Corel Video Studio change language to English

find

u32comm.ini

find

LocaleID

remove the semicolon

set it to

LocaleID=0409

there are 2 occurrences - change both


Nov 2012 -  Some Cool Free Software

Free OCR: http://www.paperfile.net/download.html


Nov 2012 -  XP -  Admin account missing

XP Administrator account missing. Solution: log out. Log back in. Type Administrator and system will enable that account and create folders for it etc.


Nov 2012 -  XP -  Delete Admin user

to delete an admin user go to computer management / local users / users. It can't be deleted from control panel / users


Nov 2012 -  XP -  Annoying .NET Framework Assistant 

Remove .NET Framework Assistant from Firefox

delete registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions


Nov 2012 -  XP -  to add hibernate to shutdown menu

run regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Make or modify key called System

Add key Shutdown

Add New DWORD

Value # 1 box, type ShowHibernateButton

Right-click ShowHibernateButton - set value to 1.


Nov 2012 -  Opera lost history

Opera prompts for new version install. Tabes / history / last session gets lost.

Only history that remains is

C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\profile\typed_history.xml


Nov 2012 -  Speed up XP

Set properties on C drive to no indexing.

Start / Run / "services.msc" / turn off indexing service


Oct 2012 -  Kaspersky

http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/kavremover.exe

NDIS Miniport Driver

kaspersky anti-virus ndis miniport


Oct 2012 -  Acronis restore image fails with message "operation has completed with errors"

Solution: put the image on another disk which the OS has an easier time reading. No idea why but LaCie is easier to read than Hitachi and the restore works off LaCie not Hitachi.


Oct 2012 -  Open Office

open office 3.3 is way to go - doesn't have those ugly features of Office 2010


Oct 2012 -  Opera migration 

Windows 7's stupid "appdata/roaming" folder can be deleted.

Copy all files from xp's programfiles/opera to 7's programfiles(x86)/opera and it works.


Sep 2012 -  Google.xx change to Google.com - make Google.com default search engine

(VERY ESOTERIC)

Edit  c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add this at the end of the file (xx being the country you want Google NOT to default to)

74.125.127.100 www.google.xx

-------

Also: [THIS IS THE BEST SOLUTION]

google.com/ncr always goes to google.com


Sep 2012 -  Various

popup:  Avast! has detected a secure connection from your mail shield... solution: go to email client and for each account disable SLL

Kompozer bug changes count.cgi |dd=31 -- solution is to go in settings /advanced and make DTD to transitional and turn on both special characters options. I have no idea why these make it work but it does!

<img src="http://cgi.datacomm.ch/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=reza.dat|dd=31"></font></font>

<p></p>

Check the box 'Don't encode special characters in attribute values' and the other one

Make Windows7 look like / behave like XP:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/latest/download

Problem

 When installing Firefox you get a dialog box stating:

You may not have the necessary permissions to use all the features of the program you are about to run. You may run this program as a different user or continue to run the program as the current user.

Solution: Click on Start

In the Start Search box, type UAC.

Click on Change User Account Control Settings

If it is currently set to Default, try setting it to Never Notify (drag the slider to the bottom) and click OK.

If it is currently set to Never Notify, try setting it to Default.

You can also try setting it to Never Notify, clicking OK then going back into it and changing it back to Default.

Install Firefox again.


Sep 2012 - Windows 7 Sucks

Try making a new folder in a window which is not that big and full of files. On XP just click anywhere and boom -- on the frikin 7 piece of crap you can't -- you also can't click on a new folder icon because it's not there and you can't right click on address bar where you can drop files on and so you have to maximiz the flillin window and go to bottom where maybe there are no files and then right click

windows7 explorer sucks bigtime.

can use instead: http://www.explorerplusplus.com/  

I hate windows 7 because

the native explorer is a crap. you search for something then open the folder of result and that frikin search criteria is still there and you can't get a streight path (I didnt feel like spending 2 hours on it but think it's not even possible. 

You can't avoid the frikin promopt: you need a admin priv to delete despite your account being admin

A simple properties on a file in a folder with lots of files is a nightmare to get right -- the sucker gives properties of the folder sometimes...

the taskbar is a disaster mixing the progs on it with open processes. 

the start menu is pathetic. downloaded an xp mimick

thank god they provide a classic view (retro) vs. that piece of shit called win 7 interface.

Unable to create image: 0x8078002A -- The fix is to have the destination drive formatted such that it can't be used with XP (unbelievable). It's a bug in Win7 utility, end of story!

Just some basic things are so incredibly dumb and frustrating. Make a mistake of using Windows7 native search command in a folder. Brings up results. No option to open in destination folder. So you click on the result (a folder) -- the goal is to knew where the flock that is within this shit of an operating  system -- search bar now changes to search results blah blah -- you know what? after a few times trying different things I'll just go back to FileSearchEx (which mimicks XP) instead of dealing with this shit opeirating system's commands -- with 2 clicks I did what I wanted while Windows 7 was just not capable of doing it. --- and now try to clear the "search results" from address bar ---------- forget it........ close the window and open a new one. 

Open folder and click I to go to the first item with I in it - it's sorted by name - this piece of shit of an OS puts the cursor on the first FILE though folders are listed first. Jeez!!

Broken shortcuts are deleted from the desktop in Windows 7 !!!!!!!!!!!!

Pain in the ass trying to put desktop in a frikin folder view -- I open a folder on the desktop - on XP I'd just hit up arrow -- on this piece of shit OS (Windows 7) it's like pulling teeth ---


June 2012 - Tired of losing data from Notepad’s lack of autosave?

Download Notepad++

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.1.3.html

Download autosave plugin:  

https://sites.google.com/site/fstellari/nppplugins

 

May 2012 - Insert signature in PDF

Very simple, scan the signature. Save it as a PDF. The copy paste from open PDF into target PDF.


Apr  2012 - WinXP Startup

to turn off auto start programs in win-xp start/run/msconfig


Apr  2012 - Bad Sector

"having read a report from Google about the failure rate in some 100,000 Hard Disk Drives which they analysed in detail. ... One of the conclusions of that report was that a Hard Disk Drive marking off bad sectors is 40x more likely to fail in the near future (2 months)."


Apr  2012 - Delete Kaspersky Cache  

Kaspersky cache can only be deleted if "self defense" is turned off. Even if program doesn't start with system its files are locked (good thing) but to remove them for disk cleanup / defrag optimization must disable self defense in options menu / advances.


Apr  2012 - Set Thunderbird as default email client in browser

Program:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

Parameter:

mailto:%t?subject=%s&body=%m&cc=%c&bcc=%b


Mar  2012 -  Simulate key stroke to prevent screensaver from enabling

Caffeine

If you have problems with your PC locking or going to sleep, caffeine will keep it awake. It works by simulating a keypress once every 59 seconds, so your machine thinks you're still working at the keyboard, so won't lock the screen or activate the screensaver.

Freeware: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/index.html#download


Mar  2012 -  Truecrypt

Bought a 2 TB Lacie drive. Inside the box it's a 500 GB disk ! The OS only sees 500 GB. You have to format it using the software they give you to see 2 TB (strange!)

Western Digital  Elements has to be the worst hard disk ever made. So many people report the same type of crash. Shame the company is even selling it.

Truecrypt is a great tool but making an encrypted volume is a mistake -- it makes recovery much harder.


Mar  2012 -  Flashing (reinstalling) a sony k750i

Tips: don't do it - the flight mode not worth it.

Some instructions here http://www.topsony.com/forum/tutorials-guides-f22/flashing-k750-w800-style-t49.html

to reverse it back to k750i OS have to download the firmware from www.topsony.com

forget wotanserver.com

pain -- it took hours to figure it out - flash it to flight mode, find orig firmware and reinstall.


27 Jan  2012 -  Turn off instant search in Google and make it work in Opera

To turn off Google's annoying "instant search" login, go to settings (top right wheel) and turn off instant search.

In opera - go to google.com then >> Menu >>> Settings >>> quick preferences >>> edit site preference >>> network tab >>> browser identification >>> identify as Firefox

Sony Ericsson k750i doesn't work with 4GB card but does work with 2 GB card.


28 Dec  2011 -  Block Site

To block access to a site, add the name of the site to the \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file, and set its IP address to 127.0.0.1.


28 Dec  2011 -  Opera Restore Search

&google

http://www.google.com/search?q=%s&num=%i&sourceid=opera


26 Dec  2011 -  Private Video Youtube

I had a private video forgot which of my chanmels it was on and forgot which video it was. All I had was the video ID.

Can look inside it as follows:

(replace VIDEO_ID with the ID)

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/0.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/0.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/0.jpg


18 Dec  2011 -  Disk crash due to low power

Error 2000-0142 unmountable_boot_volume and other ugly messages (0F00-065D IDE Device  failed - self-test failed read portion of the test - smart short self-test failed)

Immadiate solution can get the disk to book again (after this do a full disk check and replace if hardware is faulty).

Steps:

- use recovery CD. Do a windows XP repair (R).

- chkdsk /r

that can take hours.

but afterwards system booted fine. Magic!!


18 Dec  2011 -  Using both Excel 2010 Excel 2003 

It's possible to have both Excel 2010 and Excel 2003 on the same XP-Professional OS. Key difference is Excel 2010 can handle unlimited number of rows whereas 2003 is limited to 65535.

To have .xls programs open with 2003 by default run these commands:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /unregserver

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\EXCEL.EXE" /unregserver

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\EXCEL.EXE" /regserver

the last command brings up an install screen but let it do its thing. It works like a champ. Can then have a shortcut to the 2010 version.


16 Nov  2011 -  MS Office / Windows 7 Disaster

I hate Windows 7, and in fact ever version of Windows eccept XP Professional. Windows 7 does all this weired things in the background even in simple things like folder navigation. And it is still too unstable for my taste. Office 2010 - it's a disaster - Microsoft has made every package much more complicated and less usable and more difficult to use.  Word Excel Powerpoint - all went downhill bigtime with the Office 2010. MS project too. User has to click more buttons than before.


16 Nov  2011 -  MS Project Bug

MS Project 2010 Professional - TimeScale Issue - Tier Size Mismatch An upper tier has less time per tick. This bug puts the program in an infinite loop and there's no getting out  of it. Make sure autosave is on so you don't lose your work.


24 SEP  2011 -  HOW TO REBUILD THUNDERBIRD .MSF FILES 

An easy way (and only way I know of without going through one by one) to rebuild all Thunderbird .msf files is to run the find-duplicate addon. It goes through all folders and rebuilds the index for each.

Thunderbird inbox can get corrupted. Solution: Delete .msf file and restart TB.


2 SEP  2011 -  FORMAT USB FLASH DRIVE NTFS

To format a USB Drive to NTFS go to device manager, select hard drives, right click on the flash drive, go to plicies, select "optimize for performance" and then do quick format in NTFS. Without the steps above the default is FAT32 and the only option that shows up under Format.


10 JULY 2011 -  JAVA VERSION

How to tell installed Java version:

Open a DOS prompt and enter the following command:

java –version


28 JUNE 2011 -  DOWNLOAD GMAIL MAIL AGAIN

Gmail POP will only download once, but you can used the recent command to get the last 30 days emails. For all other POP clients, replace 'username@gmail.com' in your POP client settings with 'recent:username@gmail.com'


03 JUNE 2011 -  KASPERSKY FORCED REMOVAL

internal error 2753. avpinst.dll when installing or removing or upgrading Kaspersky Antivirus

solution:

http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208279463

download zip file : http://support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/kavremover.zip

run


03 JUNE 2011 -  SEARCH COMPANION BLANK - WINDOWS XP PRO

solution:

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regsvr32 jscript.dll, and then click OK.

Click OK.


10 MARCH 2011 -  EXCEL TIP

to anchor a cell press f4. it keeps it the same in formulas in moving rows or columns...


10 MARCH 2011 -  EXPANDING SIZE OF TRUECRYPT ARCHIVE

Expand a TrueCrypt volume on the fly without reformatting. All kind of volumes (container files, disks and partitions) formatted with the NTFS file system are supported

http://sourceforge.net/projects/extcv/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/extcv/files/extcv-0.6-binary.zip/download


09 MARCH 2011 - 

- LW L M S image size on Canon Camcorder HG-10. L M S is for large medium small. LW is for wide (16:9) aspect ratio. I select L. And Superfine.

- HG-10 records high def in all settings LP SP XP etc...


02 FEB 2011 - 

- "unsent messages" file (folder) in Thunderbird is just the draft folder so if draft is empty, it can be deleted.

- When Canon digital camcorder "initialize HDD" command doesn't respond, restart and it should then work.

- Fat 32 can be read by both PC and Mac. To format an external disk using FAT32 or FAT 16, it can only be done with Windows XP command line (windows itself only formats NTFS).

CMD:

format / FS:FAT32 drivename

it will prompt for volume name which you should have.

Voila!

- "Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool" formats a external disk that was formatted on Mac so PC can access the disk and format it.


10 JAN 2011 -  FORCE UNINSTALL TURBOTAX

To force uninstall Turbotax 2009 run the installation package to extract the setup.exe (in a folder under Temp with ckz_ prefix). Move to c:\x The start/run c:\x\setup.exe /f to "flush". Then abort the reinstall and run uninstall and it works. Painful way to clean up after itself but it works.


25 NOV 2010 -  ENCRYPTION STATISTICS

from a blog:

Howdy Says: hmm, i would like to create a word file for a 20 character password consisting of upper and lower case letters. how would i do that?

scg Says on blog: Howdy: Do you have 500 million quadrillion terabytes free on your hard drive? Assuming you already have a supercomputer available that can test 1 million passwords / second, are you willing to wait 47 billion times the current age of the universe to test the entire list? If not, a list of every upper/lower case password of length 20 is not going to be helpful since there will be (2*26)^20 = 2 * 10^34 combinations! If you wrote all of the passwords of length 8 to a file it would still be 400 TB. Testing those combinations would take over a year at 1 million tests/sec, which would require a cluster of many, many computers.


21 NOV 2010 - FIREFOX DOESN'T SUPPORT OPENING MULTIPLE FILES    

Can't get that to work, can't find any references. Drag&drop doesn't work; open doesn't work; just one file at a time. Primitive!!


21 NOV 2010 - OPEN MULTIPLE LINKS WITH ONE CLICK IN FIREFOX

A very cool Firefox extension (dream come true) :

Multi Links lets you open, copy or bookmark multiple links at the same time rather than having to do them all individually.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13494/contribute/roadblock/?src=addondetail&version=2.0.0.17

You can simply draw a box around a group of links by clicking and holding the right mouse button. You then drag the box around the links you want to open and let go of the right mouse button to open them using the default action.

Good job: http://www.grizzlyape.com/


21 NOV 2010 - MS OFFICE SPEECH TOOLBAR DOESN'T APPEAR IN WORD

In Excel it works but text-to-speech in Word doesn't work. I'm not the only one having this problem and haven't seen any solutions out there. 


21 NOV 2010 - FIREFOX CAN OPEN .MHT FILES:

Mozilla Firefox requires an extension be installed to read and write MHT files: Mozilla Archive Format: http://maf.mozdev.org/


21 NOV 2010 - FIREFOX VOICE (OPERA VOICE DOESN'T WORK)

I read that Opera has fixed the voice problem in their latest release but since Opera beyond 10.1 is a dog, I looked for an addon for Firefox. A nice easy one is here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/91405/contribute/roadblock/?src=addondetail&version=1.05

Download, install, right click on text and you can do other things while it reads to you.


20 NOV 2010 - OUTLOOK IS A DOG

The simple task of changing the location of a data file took me way too long. I tried all the intuitive things and they all failed. Check out these instructions from microsoft:

Method 2: Microsoft Office Outlook 2002

Open Outlook.

On the Tools menu, click Options.

On the Mail Setup tab, click the E-mail accounts button, even if you do not have an e-mail account specified.   [I don't even use Outlook for email and I had to go through these steps]

Click to select the View or change existing e-mail accounts check box, and then click Next.

Click the New Outlook Data File button.

Under Types of storage, click Personal Folders file (.pst), and then click OK.

Browse through the folders to the new location for your .pst file, and then click OK twice.

Under the Deliver new e-mail to the following location list, click the Personal Folders file that was just added, and then click Finish.

If this is your default e-mail delivery location, you will receive the following message:

You have changed the default deliver location for your e-mail. This will change the location of your Inbox, Calendar, and other folders. These changes will take effect the next time you start Outlook.

Click OK.

On the Mail Setup tab, click the Data Files button.

Click to select the .pst file that was identified in step 4 in the "How to Identify the Name and Location of Your Personal Folder File" section of this article, and then click Remove to remove the local .pst file from your profile.

Click Close, and then click OK to close all dialog boxes.

On the File menu, click Exit.

Restart Outlook.


20 NOV 2010 - THUNDERBIRD [TECHNICAL]

Moving Thunderbird profile location is tricky. The profile folder contains all emails etc. If you're the only user keep it simple and just use the default profile. But I like to have its location under my user area so my backups are simplified.

Here's the easy solution:

Close Thunderbird.

Copy the data files to the new location (e.g. L:\newfolder\Thunderbird)

Edit...\Application Data\Thunderbird\profiles.ini very carefully. At the end it has to read exactly like this (in my case:)

[General]

StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]

Name=default

IsRelative=0

Path= L:\newfolder\Thunderbird

Default=1

Solution 2: edit profile.ini in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Thunderbird and change the path


20 NOV 2010 - TRUECRYPT [TECHNICAL]

Truecrypt is really a great program. Congratulations to the developers.

To automatically mount Truecrypt favorite volumes upon startup of Windows XP:

control panel/Administrative tools/Computer management/local users&groups/users/ right click on your user (in this case Administrator)/properties/profile/ and enter "Administrator.bat" for Logon script.

create Administrator.bat file and folder under: "C:\WINDOWS\System32\repl\import\scripts\ containing one line: "@ C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe" /auto favorites /quit" without the double quotes.

run regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and create a new key: RunLogonScriptSync, add DWORD and set value to 1.

Voila!


NOV 2010 - DOS IS A DOG

DOS should be called DOG. You can't remove a particular file from all subdirectories with a native DOS command.


7 NOV 2010 - USING THUNDERBIRD TEMPLATES FOR AUTO REPLY 

Here's how:

Here's a catch:

An autoreply with template is account specific, meaning, if you set a template for "local folders" the drop down for selecting list of templates is blank, meaning it doesn't work for local folders but only for an account, so the filter you create must be for an account not for local folders in order for autoreply to work.

It works like a champ. Another nice feature of this great tool: the best and most powerful email program out there: Thunderbird!


11 SEP 2010 - THUNDERBIRD

Thunderbird Error: "Sending of Message Failed, Unable to open the temporary file /tmp/nsmail.tmp, Check your 'Temporary Directory' Setting."

The solution is to delete C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\nsmai*.*

OUTGOING IS 465

Thunderbird Message filter template auto reply "sending of message failed" envelope icon

Envelop icon with lock on it means the connection is secure (SSL). If an account uses insecure connection it doesn't have that lock on the icon and in this case auto-reply does not work. Make it secure and it will work. For Thunderbird the SMTP port if SSL enabled is 465 and for POP is 995


28 AUG 2010 - COREL 

- Corel Video Studio capture error reading import AVCHD ok grayed out AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM BDMV STREAM.

Solution is that the index file is missing. Add the index file to the AVCHD folder and the ok button will work. But it has to be the right index of the contents of the STREAM folder else can't import.


23 AUG 2010 - COREL 

- Got email from mailpkr@fedex.com -- it had an attachment FEDEXInvoiceEE949707OP.zip -- I knew it was malware -- Kaspersky didn't catch it. An anti-malware program also didn't catch it. It contains FEDEXInvoiceEE776129.zip -- the trailer numbers are random to mislead. It installs Adware Doctor, a bogus program that wants you to pay. Easiest cleanup is manual - to stop the process, remove registry keys and delete files. Upon startup, Rundll error loading yise.ero can be fixed by removing all instances of yise.ero from the registry (regedit).

- Easy way to disable Dell Quickset is to remove HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


MAY 2010 - OPERA NEW TAB BUTTON ON BOTH SIDES

- The new tab button on right side of tabs on tab bar disappeared. How do I add it? It's there on left side but I like it on both side. Note path to [URL=opera:config#Toolbar Configuration]Toolbar Configuration[/URL] file, open it, close Opera and add the following, save 7 start Opera.[Pagebar Floating.content]

Button, SI_NEW_PAGE_BUTTON_TEXT=New page,1


25 MARCH 2010 - OPERA 10.51 IS A DISASTER

Opera 10.51 is a terrible step back for Opera which has been my favorite browser till now. They seem like a bunch of geeks sitting around with nothing to do but to break an already great product. The tab control button is gone, the page search is totally lame, the file/edit bar is hidden in the default installation, and a lot of other annoying changes. The lady who answered the phone said there are many unhappy users and guided me to the useless forum which they heavy handedly control.

Opera 10.51 sucks. I am back to 10.10 and have turned off automatic updates until I find a better browser.

---------

but I like Opera 11.62 +

it behaves much better than v10.5

good addon:

https://addons.opera.com/en/addons/extensions/details/snap-links/1.7/