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- Ways to Activate Windows XP
- Cloning a Windows 7 VirtualBox VM - Avoiding Activation Problems
- Using a Car Battery to Recharge a Laptop
- Attempting to Customize the Start Menu in Linux Mint 18
- Replacing HDD and Adding SSD, mSATA, and RAM to an Acer Aspire V3-772G-9829 Laptop
- Disk Management: Unable to Start or Connect to Virtual Disk Service
- An Unspecified Error Occurred During CHKDSK
- YUMI Multiboot USB Drive: Adding an Unlisted IMG (not ISO)
- Ways to Securely Erase a Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Unable to Terminate Process - The Operation Could Not Be Completed
Author Archives: Ray Woodcock
Explorer AWOL: File Does Not Have a Program Associated, etc.
I was using Windows 10, though I’m not sure the specific operating system (OS) mattered. I was also using Q-Dir, a replacement for Windows Explorer (or File Explorer, as it was known in Win10). Q-Dir gave me the option of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Explorer++, file, folder, manager, registry, This file does not have a program associated, Windows
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Why Is SuperUser Designed to Be Hostile to Outsiders?
This post contains the text of a question that I originally planned to post on SuperUser, a StackExchange website. By the time I finished it, however, I realized that its style and substance would draw hostility at SuperUser. So I … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged abuse, abusive, discourage, hostile, negative, newbies, newcomers, outsiders, rude, StackExchange, StackOverflow, SuperUser
1 Comment
Choosing an M.2 SSD: Data Rot, PCIe, NVMe, and Other Issues
As detailed in another post, I wanted to add a solid state drive (SSD) to the M.2 slot in my laptop. The laptop already had a hard disk drive (HDD) in its standard 2.5″ drive bay, so there was a … Continue reading
Adding Light to a Non-Backlit Laptop Keyboard
I had an Acer Aspire 5 A515-51-563W Core i5-7200U laptop. Its keyboard was not backlit — that is, there were no lights in its letters, to help me put my fingers on the right keys in dark conditions. This post … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged backlighting, backlit, bright, clip, external, gooseneck, headlamp, keyboard, keys, LED, letters, light, night, portable, replacement, stickers, USB, visible
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A Better Heat Index Chart
The Heat Index (HI) is a familiar concept, often encountered in the media on hot summer days. The popular understanding of this concept is simply that humidity, not just temperature, affects a person’s experience of heat. The U.S. National Weather … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged dew point, dewpoint, Excel, heat index, lookup, national, NOAA, NWS, oceanic, relative humidity, spreadsheet, table, weather, worksheet
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Using a Car Battery to Power Laptop and Desktop Computers
In a previous post, I explored the possibility of using a car battery to recharge a laptop computer. This post summarizes several answers to the question of how to keep a desktop or laptop computer running when the lights go out. The … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged backup, batteries, battery, car, charger, computer, desktop, DIY, do it yourself, marine, power, supply, uninterruptible, UPS
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Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM CPU & RAM Upgrade Options
I was thinking about buying an Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM laptop. I decided not to. Initially, I was attracted by its low price tag for great features and a high rating on Amazon. But as I dug into users’ comments, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Acer, Aspire, battery, consumption, CPU, E 15, E5-575-33BM, laptop, memory, power, ram, speed, upgrade
2 Comments
Capturing a Long Webpage as a Single Image via ImageMagick
I had a long webpage that I wanted to save as a single image (e.g., JPG or PNG). This post describes the steps I took to achieve that, using ImageMagick. (Note: I wrote this post because I was finding that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged capture, complete, convert, entire, HTM, HTML, image, ImageMagick, long, screenshot, webpage, wkHTMLtoIMAGE, wkHTMLtoPDF
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Audio Editing: Changing the Sound of a Voice
In the course of my video editing on Windows 7, I had seen two sorts of instances where I might want to change something about a person’s voice. First, it seemed I might want to modify someone’s voice so that it … Continue reading
Making or Avoiding the Unwanted Transition from Windows 7 to 10
This post continues a previous discussion, with the benefit of another year’s insights and experiences. Why We Are in This Situation: The Microsoft Monopoly In a post dated March 18, 2016, after an extensive review of relevant matters (e.g., Microsoft’s … Continue reading
Capturing a Long Webpage: Merging Hundreds of Screenshots
At times, I wanted to capture an entire discussion thread, or other long webpage, in a single image or document. This post discusses what I learned about achieving that. Contents Summary PDF Solutions Capturing a Long Webpage in Screenshots Choosing … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Autostitch, Hugin, Image Composite Editor, merge, panorama, Photoshop, PhotoStitcher, PTGui, stitch
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Using ImageMagick to Append One Image to Another
As described in another post, I wanted to combine two images to produce a third image. These two images were composites of multiple screenshots of a webpage. The composites were produced by Microsoft’s free Image Composite Editor (ICE). Each of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged append, combine, composite, concatenate, convert, file, files, image, ImageMagick, images, jpg, merge, montage, PNG
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Comparing IrfanView and FastStone to Resize JPGs
As described in another post, I was looking for ways to archive thousands of unimportant images in a space-saving way, without simply discarding them. Space was a concern because I was trying to decide whether it would work to combine … Continue reading
Finding Unplayable MP3s: Using MP3 Diags, MP3val, and Others
I had a set of old MP3s, bearing the same names as files in my current set. For instance, both sets might have a copy of “Dead Kennedys–Take This Job and Shove It.mp3.” But DoubleKiller said they were not byte-for-byte identical. Did … Continue reading
Getting Duration (Playing Length) from Many MP3s
As part of a larger effort to check the validity of many MP3 files, I arrived at the question of whether the duration of these MP3s had changed. This post summarizes a few inquiries I made along those lines. (I … Continue reading
MP3 Diags Error Codes
As described in another post, I was trying to understand and use MP3 Diags 1.2.03, for purposes of testing a number of MP3 files. To assist in that effort, I examined the diagnostic codes, or notes, that MP3 Diags used … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged check, code, codes, diagnostic, error, errors, MP3, MP3 Diags, note, notes, test, verify, warning
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Wiping SSD Free Space Without Wiping the Whole Drive
Introduction I had installed Windows 7 on a solid state drive (SSD). I was using VeraCrypt to secure my data drives, but had decided not to use VeraCrypt on the Windows system drive (C:). I had also learned that programs … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged DBAN, empty, erase, Eraser, files, free, Recuva, solid state drive, space, SSD, SSDs, unused, wipe
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Fighting an Unwanted Windows 10 Upgrade at Reboot
Summary Windows 10 inserted itself into my system, so that the Win10 logo and Setup screen were among the first things I saw upon booting my system. I spent two days trying to figure out how it got there. Although … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aggressive, BIOS, boot, bootup, control, install, invasive, ISO, reboot, unwanted, upgrade, USB, Win10, Windows 10
2 Comments
Secure Compressed Archiving on Optical Disc (e.g., DVD, Blu-Ray)
I had some files I wanted to archive on offline plastic discs. This post discusses why and how I proceeded in that task. The “why” is simple enough. An offline backup in an unwriteable format (i.e., a burn-once ROM disc) offers … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 7-Zip, archive, archiving, BD-R, Blu-ray, Bluray, compress, compressed, data, DVD, optical disc, secure, securely, WinRAR
4 Comments
Comparing 7-Zip and WinRAR (with RAR and RAR5) Archive Compression
I was searching for optimal compression. In that search, I decided to compare WinRAR x64 5.40 against 7-Zip x64 16.02. This post describes that comparison. This discussion includes references to WinRAR’s settings. In a recent version of WinRAR, I found relevant settings by … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 7-Zip, 7zip, archive, benchmarks, compared, comparison, compress, compression, rar, rar5, WinRAR, zip
5 Comments
Using Beyond Compare and DoubleKiller for Cautious Backup
During my 30+ years of computing, I had managed to lose data in many creative and exciting ways. I had discovered that files could contain nothing when Windows said they contained something; I had found that one disk drive was … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged backup, Beyond Compare, bit rot, cautious, compare, comparison, data, DoubleKiller, file, files, folder, folders, Windows
1 Comment
Installing Google Earth in a Linux Mint 18 x64 Virtual Machine
As described in another post, I was installing programs in a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM) running Linux Mint MATE (LMM) 18. Google Earth (GE) was not cooperating. This post describes the steps I took to troubleshoot it. The Recap at the end provides … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 64-bit, Compiz, compositing, download, Google Earth, install, installation, installing, Linux Mint, support architecture i386, version, virtual machine, VirtualBox, VM, x64
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Installing and Configuring VirtualBox in Linux Mint
I was configuring a Linux Mint Cinnamon (LMC) 18 system to serve as host to virtual machines (VMs) via Oracle VirtualBox. This post describes the steps that I took to install and configure VirtualBox, so that I could start using … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged best, Cinnamon, Extension Pack, Guest Additions, install, installation, installing, Linux Mint, MATE, Running in software rendering mode, virtual machine, VirtualBox, VM
4 Comments
Configuring a Basic Xubuntu 16.04 System (aborted)
I had decided to try setting up a Linux system that would serve primarily as a workspace in which I would run virtual machines (VMs), within my dual-boot system with Windows 7. Previous posts describe abortive efforts to use Linux Mint … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 16.04, basic, configure, file manager, install, installation, Linux, nemo, setup, thunar, tweaks, Xubuntu
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Opera in Linux: “W: Target Packages . . . is configured multiple times”
As described in another post, I was working in a new Xubuntu installation. I had just installed Synaptic, gedit, and the Opera browser. When I clicked Reload in Synaptic, I got an error message: An error occurred The following details are … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged configured multiple times, error, Linux, non-free, Opera, opera-stable.list, packages, sources.list, Target Packages
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Configuring a Basic Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon System
I had decided to install a dual-boot system, Windows 7 and Linux. It seemed that, among the various flavors of Linux Mint, Cinnamon was the most stable. As indicated in a previous post, I planned to use it for the basic … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 17.3, Cinnamon, hardware, issues, Linux, Mint, networking, printer, problems, system, unavailable, wi-fi, wifi
1 Comment
Installing a Brother DCP-7065DN Printer in Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3
I had a Brother DCP-7065DN multifunction machine. I wanted to use it with a new Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 installation. This post describes the steps I took to get it to work. The following points convey my interpretation of advice found … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Brother, Cinnamon, DCP-7065DN, driver, drivers, install, Linux, Mint, multifunction, printer, scanner
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Configuring a Basic Linux Mint 17.3 Xfce System (aborted)
A previous post describes how I installed Xfce on an old 32-bit laptop. This post describes another installation, on a 64-bit desktop. The previous post contains information not repeated here (on e.g., the initial installation process). Other posts cited below … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged basic, bugs, install, installation, issues, Linux, Mint, problems, simple, Xfce
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The Purpose of Linux: A Windows Power User’s Perspective
In spring 2016, after reviewing the reasons for Microsoft’s aggressive efforts to make Windows 7 users switch to Windows 10, I decided it was time to switch back to Linux. I spent several months working through that transition. Along the … Continue reading
Connecting Linux on an External Drive: USB? eSATA? Firewire? SSD?
As described in another post, I was thinking about running Linux, and a Windows 7 virtual machine (VM), from an external drive. I knew that an internal solid state drive (SSD) would be faster than an internal hard disk drive … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cable, connect, drive, eSATA, external, Firewire, hard, II, III, Linux, solid state, SSD, USB
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Windows 7 Apps in Linux: Wine; Cameyo/ThinApp; VM vs. Native
I was in the process of transitioning from Windows 7 to Linux. I had identified a substantial number of Windows programs for which I would be seeking Linux alternatives. As described in a separate post, I did not find good … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Acrobat, Adobe, Cameyo, compare, comparison, Linux, Microsoft, Office, Premiere, ThinApp, virtual machine, VM, Windows, Wine
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Cloning a Windows 7 VirtualBox VM – Avoiding Activation Problems
Background As described in another post, I was developing a Windows 7 64-bit virtual machine (VM) in VirtualBox. I had completed the first phase in this project: setting up a minimal machine with no antivirus software installed and no working … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged activate, activation, clone, cloning, MAC address, reactivate, reinitialize, script, virtual machine, VirtualBox, VM, Windows
3 Comments
Using VMware’s ThinApp Trial Version to Virtualize Windows 7 Programs
As detailed in another post, I had made efforts to produce portable versions of a handful of Windows programs using Cameyo. There were some successes, among those programs, when I ran the Cameyo packages in Windows, but virtually no successes … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Cameyo, free, package, portable, program, software, ThinApp, trial, virtual, virtualization, virtualize, VMware
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Creating a Clean, Basic Windows XP VM in VirtualBox – Overview
A previous post offers a detailed description of the process of creating a clean Windows XP virtual machine (VM) in VirtualBox. This post summarizes the steps in that process. Readers are encouraged to consult that other post for additional detail. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged basic, Cameyo, clean, install, installation, minimal, virtual machine, VirtualBox, virtualization, VM, Windows XP, WinXP
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Ways to Activate Windows XP
I had just installed Windows XP x32 SP3 in a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM), so as to run WinXP on Linux. Now I had to activate it. This turned out to be more complicated than I had expected. It took … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged activate, activation, alternative, approaches, ID, key, methods, product, register, registration, techniques, Windows XP, WinXP
18 Comments
Creating a Portable Version of Microsoft Office 2003 with Cameyo
This post describes an unsuccessful effort to virtualize Office 2003 using Cameyo. The details are here for anyone making a similar attempt, and also to invite suggestions. Introduction As part of my project to transition from Windows 7 to Linux, … Continue reading
Experiences with Linux Mint Alternatives to Windows Programs
I was refining a new Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon x64 installation. In several previous posts, I described how I identified my primary Windows 7 programs, looked for Linux alternatives to those programs, installed those alternatives, and — where no suitable … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged alternatives, browser, convert, editor, Explorer++, file, image, Linux, PDF, player, programs, scan, video, Windows
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Using IrfanView in Linux via Wine – With and Without Cameyo
Introduction IrfanView was a well-known free multipurpose media tool in Windows. The WineHQ Applications Database indicated that several people had good luck when using Wine to run IrfanView in various versions of Linux. Since I had used IrfanView frequently in … Continue reading
Installing Linux Alternatives to Windows Programs
I was in the process of transitioning from Windows to Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon x64. Obviously, programs were an important part of this transition. As described in another post, I had identified Linux programs (a/k/a packages) that seemed capable of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged deb, install, installation, Linux Mint, packages, programs, repositories, Synaptic, Windows, Wine
3 Comments
Win7RegEdit-x64.reg – A Reduced Version for Virtual Machines
I had previously worked up a registry edit (.reg) file called Win7RegEdit-x64.reg. That .reg file contained a number of registry tweaks that I used to customize my Windows 7 installations. Now, as described in another post, I was customizing a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged customize, edit, editing, edits, install, installation, registry, setup, tweak, tweaks, Windows 7
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