Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/30
Just in case I ever need more features than the built-in PDF creator in Windows: PDF24 Creator – Wikipedia
PDF24 is free for commercial use and offers these features that the Windows built-in PDF support lacks:
- Merge multiple PDF into one file
- Rotating, extracting, inserting pages
- Integrated preview for PDF editing
- PDF encryption, decryption and signing
- Change PDF information (author, title, etc.)
- Compress and shrink PDF files
- Add a watermark or stamp a PDF file
- Combine pages with a digital paper
- Convert to and from PDF
- Multiple PDF printers for different purposes since 7.7.0
- Full featured and lightweight PDF reader since version 8.7.0
- Tesseract OCR engine since version 8.8.0
- Blackening of PDF files since version 10.0.0
Via [Wayback/Archive.is] Software-update: doPDF 10.8.127 – Computer – Downloads – Tweakers (which mentions it does not need GhostScript)
–jeroen
Posted in PDF, Power User, Windows, Windows 10 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/26
Vista!
Shutting down or rebooting Windows allowing existing applications to reopen
Windows Vista introduced the /g switch in shutdown.exe and was unchanged in Windows 7:
/g Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
rebooted, restart any registered applications.
I never noticed it until Windows 10 which began actively use it when applying system updates: then suddenly many of the previously running applications would reopen during startup.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/20
Every now and then you revisit old Windows versions. It seems a fact of life.
If course those lack more recent features, one of which is the default View with which Windows Explorer starts.
In Windows 10 you can switch it between “This PC” and “Quick Access”. Not so with Windows 8.1.
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/02
A while ago I wrote about Stop 0x0000007B after converting an existing XP machine to a Virtual Machine (ESXi, Hyper-V, or other).
After this, the machine still had boot issues (a grey or black screen after boot, unless booted via Grub from a rescue CD).
The solution in retrospect was simple, but I only figured out after the fact what the solution had done.
Of course this gave me a facepalm moment, as back in the days, this was exactly the warning I gave everyone when installing Windows XP on ESXi anyway: use a SCSI buslogic based virtual disk, not an IDE or SATA virtual disk.
The reason is that Windows XP does not like the IDE/SATA disk that VMware provides. Windows Vista and up are less of a problem.
This is indeed what my practical solution did:
- VMware Converter 4.x creates a VM with an IDE/SATA disk (as it cannot talk to the more recent ESXi versions at all because of API changes)
- VMware Converter 6.x creates a VM with a buslogic SCSI base disk (and it can create it directly on your ESXi rig, though it will use a directory in the root of your data store, even if you prefer it somewhere deeper in the directory tree)
References:
–jeroen
Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Hardware, Power User, SAS/SATA, SCSI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware Converter, VMware ESXi, Windows, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/04/29
Sometimes machines die without one having had the chance of doing a proper bootable file-system backup instead of a file-by-file-backup.
You can still P2V these machines (convert them from physical to virtual), but it is a lot more pain as you have to try to grab any installation keys for them and create a compatible virtual machine configuration by hand like I did in P2V of an existing XP machine to Hyper-V to have an emergency fallback when retiring old XP physical machines.
The below linked answer (with steps) uses Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (now back in the hands of Veritas again as Backup Exec) to make part of this process towards VMware ESXi less tedious: [Wayback] virtualization – Convert a hard-drive into a VMWare machine – Server Fault (thanks [Wayback] Mark Booth and [Wayback] Dave M)
Doing this might require you to find old Windows XP media. Those are in the Internet Archive (often slower, but has the file hashes too) and The Eye (much faster from where I live in Europe); Internet Archive examples are for English, though other languages are present as well:
Got the Internet Archive tip from [Wayback/Archive.is] Where can I download an official Windows XP ISO? I have a license key if that helps? : windows, found the correct filename there, then downloaded the [Wayback] The Eye.
–jeroen
Posted in Hyper-V, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/04/12
The below links helped me clean the Google Drive of a friend that grew way too large because TomTom HOME decided to put 100 gigabyte of data in the Documents folder instead of the local AppData folder (yup, this is a follow-up of Windows applications: storing your data in the correct place (Roaming, Local, LocalLow, not Documents)).
The trick with extensions to exclude is you have to add exclusions before syncing. Which is a kind of catch-22 or chicken and egg problem.
In case of the friend I helped we made a backup of the TomTom HOME data, then applied the exclusions and restored the data.
For TomTom HOME in order not to fill your Google Drive, but still allow backing up your Documents folder, these are extensions you might want to exclude (roughly in descending order of space) where you have to mind not storing any of these extensions in other subfolders of your Documents folder.:
.zip.cab.toc.tmp.meta.sat.tlv.ttd.dat.vif.chk.bin.rex.lde.gpr.dbl.so.ov2
The problem with this? Google Backup and Sync does not allow that many exclusion extensions.
–jeroen
Posted in Google, GoogleBackupAndSync, GoogleDrive, Power User, Windows, Windows 10 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/04/05
I’ve written about link rot quite a few times (it even has a category on my blog).
Preventing it is important, as it improves user experience.
For most users this is an unconscious thing when it works and becomes consciously annoying when it fails.
Some user groups are vocal enough to force you to fix link rot after the fact, causing brand reputation damage.
One good example was last year: [Wayback] Users condemn Microsoft for removing KB IDs from some bug documentation | Computerworld.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bookmarklet, Development, Internet, link rot, Power User, Software Development, Web Browsers, Web Development, Windows, WWW - the World Wide Web of information | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/04/01
By sheer luck, Jen Gentleman pointed out that winfile.exe still lives on:
The source is at [Wayback/Archive.is] microsoft/winfile: Original Windows File Manager (winfile) with enhancements, and it looks exactly like the Windows 3.x through Windows NT 4.0 days.
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Posted in Apri1st, Fun, Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 3.11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows NT | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/03/30
For my link archive:
If your computer powers up okay, but the Windows XP operating system won’t boot properly, you have some troubleshooting ahead of you. Here’s a look at the likely culprits and what you can do to fix the problem.
[Wayback] 10 things you can do when Windows XP won’t boot – TechRepublic
Via: [Wayback/Archive.is] Product IDs – Lunarsoft Wiki
–jeroen
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/03/29
When virtualising your final physical Windows XP machines (just in case you need to hook up old hardware that is unsupported from newer Windows versions), you need to figure out the kind of license of each physical Windows XP machine in order to stand a chance to keep it licensed.
This answer by [Wayback] Moab [Wayback] windows xp – How to know which license version has an XP installed system – Super User helped me a lot.
I tried to make it a bit easier to read:
- First obtain the “Product ID” from the Windows XP machine. It is derived from the original Windows XP installation product key and displays a few values:
xxxxx-yyy-zzzzzzz-zzzzz
xxxxx: the MCP (Microsoft Product Code) describing which product version, or in case of Windows XP: what language, edition (like “Home” and “Pro”) and often some more information)yyy: the Channel ID (especially important to set apart OEM from other channels; OEM is not allowed to be virtualised, so would need a complete new Windows XP key to be activated as Virtual Machine; Channel IDs being neither OEM nor VLK (volume license key) can often be re-activated, sometimes over the phone to explain the situation; I’ve not tried virtualising a VLK based Windows XP yet.zzzzzzz-zzzzz: semi-random values
[Wayback/Archive.is] Product IDs – Lunarsoft Wiki has quite detailed lists of not just the MCP and Channel ID values for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but also the disk volume labels and setup.ini label values.
Often this is easier to do from the physical machine before virtualising it, but even afterwards you can get it by running Windows in Safe Mode, then use either of these to get the Product ID:
- Run the Windows Contol Panel applet
sysdm.cpl which shows the “Product ID” us under the “Registerd to” information.
- From the console, run
reg query "hklm\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion" /v ProductID
- From another machine or boot CD (like Hiren’s Boot CD or Windows Ultimate Boot CD), mount the hard disk, mount the registry hive, then show the above registry key value
- Download and run NirSoft [Wayback] ProduKey (which usually will give you both the Product ID and Product Key)
- From the product key, determine if you can re-activate Windows, either by phone, or by this link:
[Archive.is] Self Service for Mobile
I got the link from [Wayback] activate windows xp – Microsoft Community via [Wayback] windows xp – How do I activate WindowsXP now that support has ended? – Super User.
Phone (in most countries) and on-line activation should still work; it worked in 2016 (see [Wayback] license – Will I still be able to activate Windows XP after support ends? – Super User) 2019 (see [Wayback] windows xp – How do I activate WindowsXP now that support has ended? – Super User) and 2020 (see [Wayback] XP activation – Windows XP Home and Professional).
- When OEM, try to obtain a legal Windows XP license key that matches the MCP, then change the key using steps in for instance:
- [Wayback] Change the Volume Licensing product key – Windows Server | Microsoft Docs. I think this is what these below links are based on:
- [Wayback] Use OEM Version to Upgrade XP | Petri
- Licensing is a pain; this interesting thread shows how much pain:
-
- [Wayback] Licensing after Virtualizing Windows XP physical machine – MS Licensing – Spiceworks
- [Wayback] Licensing after Virtualizing Windows XP physical machine – MS Licensing – Spiceworks – Page 2
- [Wayback] Licensing after Virtualizing Windows XP physical machine – MS Licensing – Spiceworks – Page 3
- [Wayback] Licensing after Virtualizing Windows XP physical machine – MS Licensing – Spiceworks – Page 4
- [Wayback] Licensing after Virtualizing Windows XP physical machine – MS Licensing – Spiceworks – Page 5
- [Wayback] Licensing Windows 10 with virtualization technologies – How-To – Windows Forum – Spiceworks
I’m not a lawyer, and Microsoft Licensing is a pain (especially for products that are out of support), but it looks like it is about three licenses:
-
- the original OEM license on the physical machine that allowed you to install the original Windows XP on that machine
- the non-OEM license for the Virtual Machine (if I read the thread correctly, it needs to be a Volume License that has Software Assurance) to activate it
- an access license so you can logon to the Virtual Machine or otherwise access it
Alternatively, if you started with a non-OEM license, and you could re-activate it on the virtual machine, it looks like you only need 3 (if you could not reactivate, you’d need 2 and 3)
Chris (Microsoft) had many interesting responses in the thread: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Other interesting bits in the thread: the XP activation servers are still working, but buying new keys for it can be problem and given the right licenses, reinstalling a virtual machine is virtually indistinguishable from cloning the physical machine.
Note that it is no use searching Google for Windows XP License keys: Microsoft did and invalidated them back in the Windows XP SP1, SP2 and SP3 days: Wayback: Error message when you install Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Service Pack 2 (SP2): “The product key used to install Windows is invalid
The 2001 Windows XP Professional License is archived in the Wayback machine as Microsoft Windows XP Professional END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT: Windows%20XP_Professional_English_9e8a2f82-c320-4301-869f-839a853868a1.pdf (via [Wayback] Convert your existing Windows XP system into a virtual machine – TechRepublic).
Note this does not cover OEM or Volume Licenses.
–jeroen
Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Windows, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 