Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2016

Windows Explorer crashes whenever opening a USB or network drive

This applies to Windows 7, 64-bit, all Service Packs have been installed. Since ~3 months, Windows Exlorer always crashes when I'm connecting to a network drive, or when I'm opening an USB drive. After the crash, it takes ~30 seconds to recover, and then it is stable. I did some research, and many people say the problem might be connected to shell extension DLLs which automatically are scanning the files on the drive. But how to detect the faulty DLL and how to disable it? I found something like regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll , but this works only on XP, not on Windows 7. Answer Ok, the Google Drive Tool is the cause: APPLICATION_VERIFIER_HEAPS_DOUBLE_FREE (7) Heap block already freed. This situation happens if the block is freed twice. Freed blocks are marked in a special way and are kept around for a while in a delayed free queue. If a buggy program tries to free the block again this will be caught assuming the block was not dequeued from delayed free queue and its memory reused f

authentication - How do I tell if a Windows 8.1 Product Keys is an OEM key?

My system has been upgraded multiple times. Latest was upgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro with media center. I would like to move the license. But I am not sure if I have still have an OEM Licensed Product Key (Product Id). Is there a way to tell? Answer Open a command prompt and enter the command: slmgr.vbs /dli Next to the name of the operating system it will tell you a "channel". There is no single one for OEM licenses but afaik all of those that are OEM also start with OEM. In contrast the most common non OEM license would probably be "RETAIL Channel".

router - DHCP Reservation vs Mac address filtering. Are they the same security?

I am able to give an ip address to a wired/wireless device based on the mac address. Other automatic DHCP is turned off. Is this as effective as a security measure as MAC filtering? It just seems to be an extra step on MAC filtering. I dont know why the interfaces are not merged as one. Hence the question to make sure I do not make a security mistake. Answer No, using DHCP reservations will not be as effective; while your router won't assign a DHCP address to a device whose MAC address it doesn't know, this does nothing to prevent an attacker simply assigning himself a static IP address in your range, and the router will happily communicate with him.

security - How can I add a certificate exception for an HSTS-protected site in Firefox?

I'm extremely irritated with Firefox's constantly blocking lastpass.com . It is a well known website that stores all my passwords. I need that website to access hundreds of websites. Side note: Please don't reply back with "you should save your passwords offline" because I decide how I want to manage my passwords. Life is extremely stressful already. Don't add to my stress by giving me crummy advice of storing my passwords offline. It's not practical. I can't carry my notebook everywhere. Services like lastpass are there for a reason. Here is a screenshot of what I'm seeing: If the above image is not large enough please right click on image and choose "open image in new tab". Can someone please tell me how to bypass this problem so that I can get on with my work? Ideally I would like to disable this cough retarded cough feature in Firefox itself. If that's not possible then I would like to somehow ignore this exception so that lastp

How can I change the amount and size of Linux ramdisks (/dev/ram0 - /dev/ram15)?

Using Linux, when I boot I automatically have 16 16MB ramdisks, however, I would like to create one really large ramdisk to test some software. I found that I can adjust the size of the ramdisks already on the system with the kernel boot parameter ramdisk_size however, this makes all 16 ramdisks (/dev/ram0 - /dev/ram15) the size that is specified. So if I want to create a 1GB ramdisk, I would need 16GB of memory. Basically, I want to create one 10GB ramdisk which would be /dev/ram0. How would I go about doing that? I assume there is a kernel boot parameter, but I just haven't found it. Answer There are two kernel configuration options that you can set in your .config file: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=1 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=10485760 This configured my kernel to create one ramdisk that is 10G at boot time. Notes: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE is in KB. Don't specify more memory than you actually have RAM in your computer. In menuconfig look under Device Drivers->Block Devices.

git - How do you upload a file on gitlab via the web interface?

I'm on gitlab 7.13 and it says 7.9 has the drag and drop feature already. But I can't seem to figure out where it is. Some sites its on the drop down when you add a file, but I dont see anything. Am I missing something? Answer You must select Upload file not New file from the drop down menu of the '+' icon

Dropbox selective sync - is it possible to have new folders created on other devices NOT be automatically added to sync folders on current device?

For example: I have the following folders in my Dropbox: Folder1 Folder2 Folder3 On PC1 , I have only the following folders selected in selective sync: Folder1 Folder2 Folder3 does does not sync to this PC as it is omitted in selective sync. Now on PC2 , I create a new folder, Folder4 . Dropbox automatically adds the folder to the selected sync folders on PC1 So I now have on PC1 : Folder1 Folder2 Folder4 (added automatically to selective sync folders) Is there a way to set up Dropbox so that Folder4 is not synced to PC1 until I explicitly select it in selective sync? Answer You could do this, but only with subfolders: Dropbox --> PC1 --> Folder1 --> Folder2 --> PC2 --> Folder3 --> Folder4 --> All PCs --> Folder5 So PC1 has selective sync setup to sync PC1 and All PCs , PC2 has selective sync setup to sync PC2 and All PCs . Therefore if PC2 creates PC2 --> Folder6 it will not be synced t

virus - Redirect pop-up to wonderlandsads.com malware for webbrowsers

My PC has been infected with a malware that opens pop-up to some ads, mostly in my native language (Persian) but from (wonderlandads.com), when I click on a link or in an input box in StackExchange websites. Interestingly, it just occurs for these websites and no other website! It occurs in both Firefox and IE I scanned my computer with NOD32 7.0.2 , and some freeware malware scanner (kaspersky tools,...), but they couldn't find it. I reinstalled the Firefox and disabled startups but couldn't fix it. What is the cause? and what can I do? How it can hide itself from powerful antiviruses and anti-malware? ============== Update It seems I could handle it by killing running processes and refreshing the firefox.

home webserver with blah.com domain

i did the webserver on my laptop (IIS7, vista), it running on port 81, i'm using dns service of everydns.com to point mydomain.com to my webserver, everything was fine, my friends can access my website throw url http://mydomain.com:81 , but i can not (i access website on the same machine which running webserver), web browser always say unable to connect. What happened?

windows 7 - Is reducing maximum processor usage in Power Options safe?

My PC has: Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM ATI 5450 Radeon graphics Windows 7 64-bit I want to reduce maximum CPU usage in Power Options in the Control Panel to avoid overheating. Is this safe, or can reducing the maximum CPU usage damage hardware (hard disk, CPU, etc.)?⠀⠀⠀ Answer The option in question is not under-clocking; Windows does not manipulate the CPU or motherboard or multipliers or FSB or anything. The option you are inquiring about is simply a factor that is used during task-scheduling . When processes run, the Windows task-scheduler allocates a specific number of CPU cycles to different processes and switches back and forth to enable preemptive multitasking . Normally, it assigns as many CPU cycles as are available in order to run everything as fast as possible. If there are free cycles, it lets the program run, if not, it puts the process in a queue and checks to see if there is another program which has used up its allotment for the current “quantum” (or “time-slice”) and sh

Lynx how to change blue background color

As you can see my lynx's bottom part is hard to read. How can I change the color? I use Solarized Dark on iTerm2.

email - Mail-inbox shows a mail sent from its own mail-address without having sent it

I just signed up for a seminar on a website I usually can trust. I filled out some information for this, also containing my iCloud-mailadress. I did that on a MBP running OS 10.11 in Safari. After sending the web-form, I soon got a confirmation-mail, looking all normal, repeating the information I typed in and giving me some additional information. The problem about this is, that the mail came from my mail-address, which I previously stated on the website. But I can't see how this worked, my MB didn't send a mail, I would've heard that, the mail isn't in the sent-folder of my mail-app and no-one logged into my account from the web, iCloud would then sent a mail to another mail-address, which has another password. It definitely is my mail-address and not the mail of a mail-distributor stating my mail, because my mail-app recognizes the address as the contact-information "Me" with acc-image and phone-information. I use the built-in mail-app of OS X. example@iclo

windows - Robocopied files show in CMD but not in Explorer

I'm helping a friend to setup a back drive on his W7 machine. I installed a new hard drive internally to serve as a backup. I then wrote a simple script.bat that lives in his home folder, to be executed as a task. From memory, I don't have the machine in front of me: robocopy /S C:\Documents M:\Backup The task is a running as administrator. This didn't work until I set a password on the admin account. The task is run every logon. The backup copy works correctly and I can see new and newly modified Word files in M:\Backup via cmd . I cannot however see them in Explorer. I can see the drive, M: , but no folders or files. ** I suspected permissions. I thus took ownership of the whole drive and changed permissions to allow everything ( not what I really want in the end, just read would be best ). Still can see via cmd but not in Explorer. For my friend that is not helpful. I do not have the machine in front of me now so It's difficult to recall all details. I'll try

Windows 10 Start Menu Critical Error

I upgraded my 8.1 laptop to windows 10. I was able to use my laptop for three weeks with no problem. However, when I open my windows 10 laptop while ago and press win logo in keyboard. This message display in my screen. "Critical error start menu. We'll fix it next time you sign in." So, I sign out for 3x but same message display in my screen whenever I press start menu. How would I fix it? Answer You could resolve it by following these steps : Press Win + R Type Powershell and ensure you have checked "create this task with administrator privileges" Type the following code: Get-appxpackage -all *shellexperience* -packagetype bundle |% {add-appxpackage -register -disabledevelopmentmode ($_.installlocation + “\appxmetadata\appxbundlemanifest.xml”)} The above command will reinstall start menu Once Powershell gets completed reboot your machine

64 bit - Why can't Windows 7 x64 use all installed memory?

I'm running Windows 7 x64 RTM on a Dell Latitude D520 w/ 4gb memory. The system control panel reports: System type: 64-bit Operating System Installed memory: 4.00 GB (3.24 usable) Why isn't all the memory usable? Since I'm running 64-bit, is this a dell limitation? Edit: It's given me more questions: If the system reports that I can use 3.24GB, does that mean that 760MB is being used by the video card? That seems like a lot, and the specs on this page state it will use up to 128MB) If 760MB isn't being used by video, is it being wasted? Does running 64-bit windows help me at all? If not, are there other advantages to 64-bit windows? Answer Either you do what Post#1 suggests, or your motherboard simply doesn't support the memory address mapping, which means: No 4GB for you with this hardware.

scaling - Are there any tools to scale/magnify a given window or application?

I recently purchased a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, which sports a high-dpi 13" screen with a resolution of 3200x1800, running under Win8.1. The issue I sometimes face is that some applications will not scale properly and will look tiny on screen, making them almost unusable. I'm aware of the scaling options for Win8 and of the magnifier tool (that you can call using the and + or - keys), but it will magnify parts of the screen only and its use is cumbersome since it is indiscriminate. Ideally, what I would need is a utility that can automatically resize the windows of a given application or at least a selected window. I'm sure this is an issue that will become more common as high-dpi screens become more mainstream for Windows machines.

Is there a quick way to create a hyperlink to open microsoft office document in an existing email chain?

I often find that I am working on a Microsoft Office document (spreadsheet, slideshow, word document, etc) while I have an email chain open in Outlook and I want to create a hyperlink in the email to the document that is open. What I do now is open Windows Explorer, navigate to the saved document and right-click drag into the email chain where I select "Create Hyperlink Here". Is there a way to accomplish this without having to open Windows Explorer and navigate to the containing folder? (Maybe something similar to the way proxy icons work on the Mac?) Answer One can configure the quick access toolbar to show the path and filename of the current file, like so: Instructions to do this at http://www.howtogeek.com/161002/how-to-display-the-location-of-a-file-on-the-quick-access-toolbar-in-office-2013/ . With that info it is a simple copy/paste in to the email.

How to make Firefox open all links in private tabs except those whitelisted?

In the last Firefox versions the possibility to open private tabs was introduced. Is there some way to open any link by default in a private tab except links from a whitelist? My goal is to prevent untrusted sites from reading my cookies and remove anything left after this site's private tab is closed if I accidentally accepted some cookies from it (by default all cookies are rejected, unfortunately some sites do not work without enabling cookies). Browsing history doesn't matter, as I don't use it anyway. Answer Two options that I know of: Use an add-on like Private Tab . While this doesn't use a whitelist it does make it a lot easier to open links in new private tabs (there is an "Open in new Private tab" option from the pop-up menu) or even switch a current tab to private mode. Customize the privacy settings in Firefox. You can enable Private browsing mode all the time and you can configure which sites you want to accept cookies from. Simply go to the Opt

How do you remove old Windows Vista Backups?

I've been backing up my Vista box using Complete PC backup for quite a while now, and I was just wondering how it is that you remove old backups when your backup drive is to full for another backup. I recently received the following error: The backup did not complete successfully. An error occurred. The following information might help you resolve the error: There is not enough space to save the backup files. Free up disk space or change your backup settings. (0x81000005) I don't see anything in the settings for the backup to change this. Do I have to mount the backup to delete an old backup? If so where is that file located? Update Posted my question here Answer Well that was dumb. Pretty strait forward that. On your backup drive look for a folder with the name of your computer (Start->Computer->Right click select properties) Inside this directory here will be directories with a name format similar to: Backup Set YYYY-MM-DD <6 digits> Additionally on the drive,

windows 10 - Incoming dial-up connection compatibility?

I have a windows 10 machine, a windows xp machine and a mac. All three of them have working dial-up modems. I set up my windows 10 pc as an incoming dial up connection server, and the xp machine was successfully able to dial into it and connect. I also set up the xp machine as a dial in server and the mac was able to dial into it successfully. My issue here is the mac will not dial into the windows 10 machine successfully... is there some kind of compatibility issue here? I have my doubts that much would have changed between windows 10 and xp for incoming dialup connections right? In a nutshell, my question is how can I get my mac to successfully connect to my windows 10 pc? Any answers are much appreciated. Answer Answer from external site copy and pasted here: For those out there experiencing problems with this, trying to connect a Mac running any OS X version to a Windows Server running RRAS, I have some info that may be of help. I noted online that Mac's prefer to use standa

keyboard - Solution to Capslock / Shift every key?

I would like every key to be equivalent to "Shift + " when caps lock is turn on. Currently caps lock only capitalizes letters, not other keys. So if I press: '/", then it should be " rather than ' 1/!, then it should be ! rather than 1 This may be out of scope, but does AHK work for remapping keys in other programs? In other words, where does AHK sit in the execution from the actual hardware to the OS to the application receiving the keypress event? Anyway to trace this flow?

64 bit - Can I run 64-bit executables on a 32-bit Linux?

If yes, how? OS: 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.4 (Tikanga) Answer Not directly. You need to be running a 64-bit kernel to run 64-bit apps. You may be able to do it via virtualisation though. VMware supports running 64 bit VMs on a 32 bit host if the CPU(s) have support for the required features (not all 64-bit processors do), and I presume some other virtualisation platforms can do this too. You could try install a 64-bit variant of Linux in a VM on running on top of your existing machine's 32-bit OS and run the 64-bit app in there. This might not be at all convenient though, depending on what you are trying to do with the application.

windows 7 - Why does Chrome has so many processes running, when I have just opened the application?

I recently noticed Chrome is running multiple processes, immediately after launch, before I even open a new tab or start browsing. Why is this happening? And obviously it is consuming lot of resources, any way to limit this? OS: Windows 7 (32-bit) Chrome version: 58.0.3029.81 Answer That's Chrome's sandbox in action. Chrome runs some of its components as separate processes. There's one main process, a GPU renderer process and then (roughly) a single process for every tab, extension and plugin. (Actually, a few tabs can be run in a single process under certain circumstances.) It's how Chrome's sandbox works. Sandboxing is a technique used to increase program's immunity against malicious actions of untrusted code (such as code of websites you're visiting). Running independent pieces of code in separate processes makes these pieces of code unable to affect Chrome's core, which is the most privileged part. Extra processes don't necessarily use that mu

networking - Microsoft Remote Desktop Bandwidth Usage

I am wondering how much bandwidth in terms of bytes sent/received is consumed by a typical remote desktop session. I need to know this because our ISP enforces a cap on monthly bandwidth usage (i.e. the total amount data in GB that can sent or received in a month). So just wondering like how much KBs or MBs are transferred per hour in an average RDP session. Answer With the recent advancements to the Task Manager, incorporating Resource Monitor, you can easily see the bandwidth usage from Terminal Services. In short, it all depends on the settings you have used and what you're doing in the remote session . More actions require more repaints. Below are two shots I've taken while in an RDP session to a Windows 2008 R2 server. The first screenshot, only Resource Monitor open (~3.6KBps): The second, a YouTube video streaming (~951KBps): Hourly bandwidth consumption at rates like these can vary from ~12M to 3.4G+. Unless you are watching video over RDP, the higher end of the ladd

git - What should I do if I accidentally put sensitive data onto Github?

Our team accidentally pushed some personal information onto Github in the form of a H2 database file. Is there any way to remove a file cleanly and completely from the server? Simply doing git rm xxx.db does not seem to be the answer because one can easily git reset --hard to the head which contains the user data. On the other hand, git reset --hard [the head before the db file was committed] is also not our preference because there have been more than 10 commits since the database was committed. What should we do to remove that database file? Answer Read the GitHub help on removing sensitive data . Run the following to delete the reference to the file in the entire repository – this won't delete the actual file itself: git filter-branch --force --index-filter \ 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch ' \ --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all (Make sure to replace with the path to the file you want removed.) Add the file to your .gitignore , then git add and git

boot - How to fix UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME (0x000000ED) on my Windows XP Dell laptop?

I have a Dell Latitude D410. Running Windows XP. I am receiving the STOP: 0x000000ED (0X899CF030,0XC0000185,0X00000000,0X00000000) blue screen. Initially, I tried everything specified with the Microsoft KB articles. At this time, I was able to boot into the general safemode. I pulled the hard drive and was able to run chkdsk on it – it noted that it had fixed some errors, but I was still unable to boot. I put a brand new hard drive into the laptop. Windows XP installation worked up until the reboot, at which time the exact same error message came back up. What I have tried (all since the new hard drive was installed): chkdsk /R All suggested solutions in Microsoft KB articles Reseating RAM Opened laptop, reseated all connectors, looked for signs of damage (saw none) Reset BIOS options to default Ran the basic Dell diagnostics Ran MEMTEST86+ V4.10 for 15 passes (overnight). 0 Errors I have looked at the current entry: How can I boot XP after receiving stop error 0x000000ED - I am curre

router - If you connect directly to your modem how does the IP address get assigned?

From my understanding your ISP will assign (sometimes dynamically) an IP address to your router. (Or is it assigned to the modem? [I'm starting to think it is.]) If it is assigned to the router , then this question follows: What if I plug my PC directly into the modem via an Ethernet cable. Does my computer have hardware that interprets the IP being assigned by the ISP the same way the router does? If anyone can offer up some details on how this work that'd be great. Thanks! Answer The automatic assignment of IP addresses happens via a standard known as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. When a computer connects to the network, the DHCP client, generally a component of the operating system sends out a DHCP request and recieves an offer from a DHCP server. The offer generally contains: An IP Address A subnet mask for that IP address A gateway that should be used for off-network requests (like those going via the internet) One or more DNS server addresses so the computer

linux - How to close all background processes in unix?

I have something like: cd project && python manage.py runserver & cd utilities && ./coffee_auto_compiler.py And I want both of them to close on Ctrl-C (or some other command). How can I accomplish that? EDIT : I tried using jobs -x kill and kill ``jobs -p , but it doesn't seem to kill what I need. Here is what I mean: moon 8119 0.0 0.0 7556 3008 pts/0 S 13:17 0:00 /bin/bash moon 8120 6.8 0.4 24568 18928 pts/0 S 13:17 0:00 python manage.py runserver jobs -p give me just process 8119, but I also need to close 8120, since it's the thing that the first command opened. If it helps, the commands are actually in a Makefile, and I want it to run two daemons at the same time (and somehow close them at the same time). And yes, I'm using ubuntu, with bash Answer easiest way? since i dont know which distro you are using, ill assume its ubuntu. system>preferences>keyboard shortcuts. click add, name it, paste in your comman

What must I do to preserve all settings before uninstalling and upgrading Microsoft Office?

Originally I asked about upgrading 2016 x86 to 2019 x64. But I couldn't wait longer for an adequate answer and upgraded to 2019 x86. So I changed this question for the next version that I'll call 202_. Must I do anything to keep all my settings under File > Options (e.g. in Excel, Word, etc.. 2016), before I uninstall 2019 x86 and install 202_ x64?

download - How to show file in browser instead of downloading?

I'm using Owncloud (behind Nginx) to share a file. When I generate a share link, the link points me to the download page or if I append "&download", it immediately starts downloading the file. My need is, as Github's "Raw file" option, serve a text file in the browser so I may use that file as an input to an another service (like draw.io) This should be an owncloud property as this person asks for , but I thought I may work around of this problem with Nginx. May I change some headers or something in order to make a browser show the file's contents instead of downloading by appending /my-raw-command to the url? For example, if the original download url is this: www.example.com/myfile.txt&download , I want it to be shown in the browser if I type www.example.com/myfile.txt&download/my-raw-command Would somebody give me any tips to start from? Answer I understand that I needed to remove Content-Disposition: ... line from the response headers.

networking - Vagrant - share host VPN with guest

So I have an interface for a VPN connection ( jnc0 ), and also a vagrant guest which talks to my machine through another separate interface ( vboxnet1 ). My host OS is OS X Mountain Lion, and the Vagrant (VM) guest OS is CentOS 6.3. How can I set something up so that the CentOS guest will be able to talk to hosts on the other side of the VPN through my OS X host?

unix - How to find which Tmux session a process belongs to?

Case in point is editing a configuration file in vim and inadvertently leaving it open. Then you go about your business, switch around in different Tmux sessions, eventually edit the same file from another session and vim will tell you a .swp file already exists. Now, how do you find which Tmux session the other vim holding the file open is in? Findw seems to only search through active session windows. Answer lsof /path/to/.file.swp will show the process ID of the offending vim process. If you want to write a script, use pid=$(lsof -Fp "$swp_file"); pid=${pid#p} to get just the process ID. Then ps 12345 where 12345 is the process ID will show some information about the process, in particular what tty it's running on ( ps -o tty= -p $pid in a script). The tty uniquely identifies a tmux window (assuming the process is running inside tmux), but I don't know how to go from the tty name to the tmux session. What would give you the tmux session is the value of the TMU

Windows SSH Servers?

I was wondering what people use as an SSHd server on Windows? I've decided that I want to be able to log in using SSH on my Windows computers but I don't want to use Linux full-time. What are my options, besides Cygwin (which I know of)? I've looked into some other server software but I don't know which are reliable and it's not easy to find reviews of some of them. Thanks!

usb storage - Share external USB hard drive over USB between multiple computers

I want to connect 3 Windows computers (2 Windows XP, 1 Windows Server 2003) to an external USB hard drive via USB. I would like each computer to be able to directly read and write to the HD as if it were directly connected to each computer. Using special file transfer software isn't a viable solution. Sharing the HD over the network also won't work for me. Is this possible? Thanks for any advice!

Control startup window size of a program

There is a particular program that I use that whenever it starts up, its window is always too big. I always have to resize it to make it smaller. Is there a way I can control the size of the window when it starts up? Answer Sometimes holding the Ctrl or Ctrl+Alt keys down when you close a window (X) will keep the size and position of the window next time it opens, it may take several tries. Or buy this utility http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2339650,00.asp .

linux - How to build freetype on Cent OS 6.5?

I am trying to build the freetype library I got from here: http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.5.3.tar.gz But I am really failing to do so. I am using Cent OS 6.5, and the compiler is g++ 4.8.2. I need the library to be release, static and 64 bit. Is there anyone who can explain this in simple steps, please?

virtualbox - Performance considerations for a Windows 7 guest on a Ubuntu Natty x64 host: bitness (32-bit vs. 64-bit), guest settings and file access

I want to setup a virtual machine running Windows 7, for compilation and development of a native C++ application using Visual Studio. I have 8 GB RAM on the host with an Intel T9600 Dual-Core CPU, running Ubuntu Natty x64. I wish I had a more recent i7, but I don't -- so I need to get the best out of my hardware. The main bottleneck is the compilation of my C++ application. I am switching from a real Windows 7 installation, the compilation just got slower by about an order of magnitude. 1) Would it improve the compilation times if I used a 64-bit Windows as guest -- at the obvious expense of increased RAM usage? Can anyone point me to a performance evaluation? 2) Are there any settings in the guest that can affect CPU performance? 3) What is faster -- local disk I/O in the guest or networked to the host via Samba? These three questions are related , but don't answer my question. Answer Simply installing a 64-bit W7 will not use more RAM. Also if your app is 32-bits, install

partitioning - Multiple partitions for an external USB hard drive used by Linux and Windows

I want to split a large external USB hard drive into at least 2 partitions. I've heard that multiple partitions on a USB drive involves problems not associated with partitioning a regular IDE/SATA hard drive, especially with Windows. But I can't find specific information about it. What are those specific problems, and how are they avoided or worked around? Do journaling file systems like ext3, ext4, xfs present special concerns for a USB drive? What are the particular problems Windows has with a partitioned USB drive that don't exist with regular internal drives? I plan to use Linux (most likely GParted) to do the partitioning. I also plan to use Truecrypt's whole-partition encryption on the partitions, so a thief doesn't have easy access to the data. Answer Normally Windows does not support multiple partitions on USB, but Linux has no problems with it. Windows has no trouble seeing the other partitions, it just will not let you assign them drive-letters. One solu

windows xp - XP disk check runs every time I boot

Every time I boot my computer XP checks my backup partition (it is NTFS) for errors, this has become really annoying because my computer is old-ish (5+ years) and I don't leave it on like I used to. Is there any way I can disable the disk check, or solve the problem? Answer Try this from the command line (I'm assuming drive C; adjust as appropriate): chkntfs /x c: /X Excludes a drive from the default boot-time check. Excluded drives are not accumulated between command invocations. Use this to see if a drive needs to be checked or is configured to be checked on next boot: chkntfs c:

wireless networking - Can two devices with the same MAC address be on the same network?

What happens if there is a device already connected to a wifi network, and subsequently another device tries to join the wifi network using the exact same MAC address as the original? Answer A MAC address is supposed to be unique. If someone sabotages that then two devices on the network will claim to be the same unique NIC. That simply does not work. Just how it breaks depends on the card and possibly on the driver. Imagine two people in the same building. Both claiming to be employee number 1. The left employee #1 shouts 'may I have some coffee?' Someone fetches coffee and shouts 'Coffee for employee #1 is ready'. That person now gets two replies, one 'thanks!' and 'Hey, I did not order coffee'. And just which of the Employee #1's answers first might depend on how busy that person is, adding some more chaos to it. So briefly: things break.

mouse - Where do I configure the default text selection behavior in Windows?

(eg. mouse click selects entire word vs. mouse click inserts an active cursor) I find the mouse click behavior of Windows XP and Windows 7 annoying and intrusive. I don't remember Windows NT being quite this bad, or MacOS 7 - 10 which I used in the nineties. When I'm using a browser and I click on a text field - for example, the address bar, or a search box - the first thing which happens is the entire field is selected.Subsequent clicks seem to select parts of words, often deciding arbitrarily to exclude or include adjacent punctuation. The same in Excel and other apps, and when trying to rename files, so I'm assuming this behavior comes from a system-wide text handling routine. I frequently want to edit text, cut out or replace odd parts of the insides of words or chunks of sentences, and often find that to get a simple cursor to insert I have to click the mouse up to 4 times in succession. I've had to do a lot of this recently and it has been driving me insane. Is th

bash - Find out if user name exists

How can I find out, in a shell script, whether a given user name exists on the current system? /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow are incomplete. Consider OS X's Directory Services, or Linux with Likewise Active Directory integration. Answer One of the most basic tools to be used for that is probably id . #!/bin/bash if id "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "user exists" else echo "user does not exist" fi Which produces $ ./userexists root user exists $ ./userexists alice user does not exist $ ./userexists user does not exist

livecd - How to create a live CD with your own applications?

I've been looking for creating my own live CD to restore backups and perhaps have some useful applications for example to rescue data in case of a virus or some system crash. I've been experimenting with WinPE en BartPE , but I was guessing there were more advanced versions by now. I also found the VistaPE version, since I think WinPE is based on Windows. But now I need to find out where I can find how to add applications to these CDs or perhaps there is a way to make my own Linux Live CD. Any suggestions? Answer For linux, try Reconstructor to create your own Ubuntu live CD with programs of your choice: Reconstructor is a Live CD creator for Ubuntu Linux. It uses the Ubuntu Linux Live CD as a base, and then allows customization of boot screens (usplash), gnome settings, and software (you can also use the chroot environment to make other changes before creating the live cd). Reconstructor uses the solid Ubuntu foundation, and allows for extensive customization. For example

macos - How to disable Mac OS X from using swap when there still is "Inactive" memory?

A common phenomena in my day to day usage (and several other's according to various posts throughout the internet) of OS X, the system seems to become slow whenever there is no more "Free" memory available. Supposedly, this is due to swapping, since heavy disk activity is apparent and that vm_stat reports many pageouts. (Correct me from wrong) However, the amount of "Inactive" ram is typically around 12.5%-25% of all available memory (^1.) when swapping starts/occurs/ends. According to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342 : Inactive memory This information in memory is not actively being used, but was recently used. For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. This Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory. However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is co

macos - How to store Movies on a separate volume from the iTunes media folder?

I have a rather enormous Music collection. The music itself is approaching the 1TB mark. I am storing that on an external drive already. My iTunes library files are in their default location (/Users/me/Music/iTunes). My iTunes media folder is on an external drive /Volumes/iTunes/iTunes Music This has been working as expected. Now I would like to store just the contents of the Movies folder in the iTunes media folder on a separate drive. Apparently, iTunes doesn't like aliases or symlinks. I saw somewhere that one could mount a volume in a different directory than the default /Volumes. I would like to permanently mount my new Movies volume in the directory /Volumes/iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies. I know there is a command to do this, but how does one configure Mac OS 10.6.4 to always automatically mount that volume in this directory? I hope someone can enlighten me... If I find a solution, I can finally import all my movies into iTunes and be able to search them and stuff - it would be

linux - What is the difference between systemd's user and system services?

I'm trying to understand a little better systemd by writing some services. I have difficulties in understanding the differences between those 2 services for instance, well I'd like to be sure I understand them correctly would be more appropriate. So for instance I got rtorrent service, defined as rt as a system service, that I can enable for user X,Y,Z, with sudo systemctl enable rt@userX.service ➜ ~ cat /etc/systemd/system/rt@.service [Unit] Description=rTorrent Requires=network.target local-fs.target [Service] Type=forking KillMode=none User=%I ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -s rt -n rtorrent -d rtorrent ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux send-keys -t rt:rtorrent C-q WorkingDirectory=/home/%I/ Restart=on-failure [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target and I got dropbox defined that way : ➜ ~ cat /etc/systemd/user/dropbox@.service [Service] ExecStart=/bin/sh %h/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target If I understand well, the dr

Conditional Formatting: 3 color scale showing text relevance in Excel for Mac

Is there a way to use conditional formatting in the following manner in Excel? (For those who are curious, I am using Excel 2010 for Mac) I want Cell B2 to be green when A2 says "John likes green apples" and B2 also says "John likes green apples", yellow if A2 says "John likes green apples" and B2 says "Bill likes blue apples", and red if A2 says "John likes green apples" and B2 says "Bill hates red oranges". I am just wondering if there is a way to something to that effect. Thanks

Proxy that is NOT web based?

We have a problem with a service we connect to being dropped somewhere along the trace route. I am looking for a proxy server that is NOT web based so that I can change the ip we're trying to access to something else. I say NOT web based because I need to be able to put the ip address (alternative) into sql connection strings and other similar usages. Does anyone know of a (preferably free, and/or preferably trustworthy) proxy server that will enable me to do this? Answer You can use Vidalia / Onion TOR to pass all traffic through proxy on your PC and get to public internet from random place on the planet (another TOR node). It will allow you to point any application to local port to route the traffic. Any application that allows proxy configuration of course.

debian - autofs mounts in parent directory

For many years I have a problem with autofs, now. I thought there was a bug in the autofs version in my repository. Unfortunately, even after several system as well as distribution upgrades covering several major kernel as well as autofs releases I still have the following unexpected behavior. First, let's mount manually and successfully my NFS share: $ mount sarabi:/export/public_html /tmp/mnt $ ls -al /tmp/mnt drwxr-sr-x+ 3 root www-data 4096 Apr 21 19:18 . drwxrwxrwt 10 root root 4096 Apr 22 15:39 .. drwxr-s---+ 2 markus www-data 4096 Apr 21 19:18 markus After checking that my share works, we will try to automate it via autofs. $ cat /etc/auto.master +dir:/etc/auto.master.d +auto.master /mnt/ /etc/auto.mnt --timeout=1800 --ghost $ cat /etc/auto.mnt public_html sarabi:/export/public_html $ ls -al /mnt # as expected drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Apr 22 15:48 . drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Apr 22 14:27 .. dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 22 15:48 public_h

wireless networking - Which routers do you prefer for DD-WRT or OpenWRT?

I'm aware of the giant Supported Devices list . I'm wondering which ones you all prefer (e.g., support for Mega install, cheap, reliable hardware, USB port, etc.) I've used an ASUS WL-500G Premium for 1.5 years, but I've been eyeballing the WL-520gU recently. Answer I've had great success with the WRT54GL v1.1 devices, as they have plenty of power for all of DD-WRT's advanced functions, and from what I've seen, run rock-solid for years on end. They require a mini (or micro) version of DD-WRT to first raise the allowed firmware size, followed by the full DD-WRT flash. While they can be a little pricier than other routers by a few dollars, the excellent performance and stability they afford can't be beat.

storage - Is the lock mechanism on an SD card hardware, firmware, or software (driver,OS) enforced?

Where is the lock to read-only mode enforced with SD cards? Is this done inside the card itself physically, in the firmware of readers, or in the OS? (Some other place?) Answer If you read the SD Specifications Part 1 Physical Layer Simplified Specification , section 4.3.6 "Write Protect Management" says Three write protect methods are supported in the SD Memory Card as follows: - Mechanical write protect switch (Host responsibility only) - Card internal write protect (Card's responsibility) - Password protection card lock operation. Mechanical Write Protect Switch A mechanical sliding tablet on the side of the card (refer to the Part 1 Mechanical Addenda) will be used by the user to indicate that a given card is write protected or not. If the sliding tablet is positioned in such a way that the window is open it means that the card is write protected. If the window is close the card is not write-protected. A proper, matched, switch on the socket side will indicate to t