Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/25
Often I need to generate passwords or uuids (on some systems called guids). I usually try to do that in a relatively platform agnostic way as I use MacOS, Windows and Linux in various mixes for many reasons (for instance that I have had developed quite hefty RSI in the early 1990s of the and the best keyboard/pointing-device combination for is the MacBook built in keyboard/touchpad combination so basically MacBooks are my window to all other operating systems).
Generating randomly with a good random number generator them makes sense as for most usage, it is important that both passwords and uuids are hard to guess which means having an entropy that is as high as possible.
A cool thing about OpenSSL is that:
- most of not all systems have it installed (it was no coincidence I published Installing OpenSSL on Windows a few days ago)
- it has a very good pseudo-random number generator and as of [Wayback/Archive] OpenSSL version 1.1.1 first released in 2018 has solved the problem around [Wayback/Archive] Random fork-safety – OpenSSLWiki, see [Wayback/Archive] Our Review of the OpenSSL 1.1.1 Random Number Generation Update – OSTIF.org.
- it supports various useful output formats
hex (hexadecimal) and base64 (next to the default of octet – or by today’s naming convention byte – output)
The easiest to generate are passwords. Yes I know that password managers can do this too, but there are some systems I cannot use them on or sync between them (don’t you love the corporate world) so my aim is to use a random password generator in a platform agnostic way which usage is easy to remember. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Apple, base64, bash, bash, Batch-Files, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Encoding, Event, HEX encoding, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, OpenSSL, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/24
I needed to document how to install sed on Windows (which I did a long time ago after writing Plastic SCM: show the current changeset abstract (without files) on the commandline) and recently for some more scripting work(which I will blog on that later this week).
At the time of writing it was [Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | GNU sed 4.8, but this Chocolatey command will install or upgrade to the most recent available version:
choco upgrade --yes sed
Of course, like yesterday’s post Installing OpenSSL on Windows, you could use winget or scoop for this as well. Finding out the commands is left as an exercise to the reader (;
Query: [Wayback/Archive] chocolatey sed – Google Search
–jeroen
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Chocolatey, Development, Power User, Scoop, Scripting, sed, Software Development, Windows, Windows Development, winget | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/13
On my list of tools to play around with: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – glotlabs/gdrive: Google Drive CLI Client
With a warning though from the documentation (emphasis mine):
Gdrive saves your account credentials and tokens under $HOME/.config/gdrive3/. You don’t usually need to use these files directly, but if someone gets access to them, they will also be able to access your Google Drive. Keep them safe.
and from the gdrive2 prior version more elaborate documentation [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – prasmussen/gdrive: Google Drive CLI Client:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Apple, Console (command prompt window), Google, GoogleDrive, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Terminal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/11
A while ago I bumped into [Wayback/Archive] Quick Accent steals the WordPress classic editor space after a hyphen-minus sign or asterisk · Issue #24623 · microsoft/PowerToys.
In the WordPress Classic Editor, the * or - combinations quickly generate an empty bulleted list:
When enabling the PowerToys Quick Accent (formerly [Wayback/Archive] PowerAccent) with their default settings this fails (but it does work in the WordPress Gutenberg editor, Word and some other tools I tested).
The easiest way to work around this is to switch from the default “Activation Keys” setting “Left, Right or Space” to “Left/Right Arrow”.
Hopefully besides the workaround there will also be a full fix.
The related C++ and C# source files:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in .NET, C#, C++, Classic editor, Development, Gutenberg editor, Power User, PowerToys, SocialMedia, Software Development, Windows, WordPress | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/04
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, History, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Development, Windows XP, XML, XML/XSD | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/29
I totally agree with the first comment of [Wayback/Archive] Naming Files and Directories the Right Way – YouTube as it holds not just for file management, but for naming anything including software development:
I’ve watched many videos on file management, but this one explains naming very clearly.
- 0:31 Rule 1: No Spaces
- 2:40 Rule 2: Avoid Special Characters
- 3:43 Rule 3: Be Descriptively Concise
- 4:24 Rule 4: Case Sensitivity
- 5:00 Rule 5: Dates and Sorting
- 6:40 Rule 6: Be Consistent!
--jeroen
Posted in *nix, Apple, BSD, Development, Linux, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/23
Reminder: only do this over a trusted network (use VPN!)
Apple uses very different terminology than Microsoft, and even they went from Microsoft Terminal Services (and its client mstsc.exe) via Remote Desktop Services (often abbreviated to RDP) and since 2024 – from non-Windows clients – “Windows App“.
For Apple, there are various terms:
So below are some links so I have an overview somewhere.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Power User, Remote Desktop Protocol/MSTSC/Terminal Services, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/23
For my link archive: [Wayback/Archive] Identify virtual NICs in Hyper-V virtual machines – 4sysops
There are three simple steps to follow to make your VM’s NICs easy to identify. Here is an overview, before we discuss each step in more detail.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Hyper-V, Power User, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/07
Often connections are TCP based, but sometimes UDP is all you have to test with, so I was quite surprised that testing that was quite forward. The solutions by [Wayback/Archive] How to Do a UDP Ping in Linux works on any platform where you can have nmap or netcat on installed (which by now is almost all platforms including Windows):
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Apple, BSD, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, netcat, nmap, Power User, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/29
I totally agree with [Wayback/Archive] Dustin (BusySignal) on Twitter: “when did the disk utility rufus become so awesome?” as Rufus 3.20 has added these Windows User Experience features when creating bootable Windows installation media:
- Remove requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0
- Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account
- Disable data collection (Skip privacy questions)
- Set a local account using the same name as this user’s
- Set regional options using the same values as this user’s
So below are some links explaining more about this feature (and how it is implemented).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Power User, Rufus, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 8.1 | Tagged: 1779, 1971 | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 