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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Windows 10’ Category

Installing WhatsApp Desktop from the Console

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/09

Related to WhatsApp Desktop for Mac or PC cannot only chat but also voice and video call: installing WhatsApp from the command-line.

That was easy to do via winget:

c:\temp>winget install -e --id WhatsApp.WhatsApp
Found WhatsApp [WhatsApp.WhatsApp] Version 2.2222.12
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://web.whatsapp.com/desktop/windows/release/x64/WhatsAppSetup.exe
  ██████████████████████████████   145 MB /  145 MB
Successfully verified installer hash
Starting package install...
Successfully installed

This was a while ago, so the version number by now is dated, but it is about the command winget install -e --id WhatsApp.WhatsApp

Via:

–jeroen

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, winget | Leave a Comment »

Script alternatives to the Windows-L keyboard shortcut (SwitchUser / LockWorkstation)

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/05/23

More than a decade ago I wrote about Programmatic alternatives to Windows-L keyboard shortcut (SwitchUser / LockWorkstation).

Still, I see many scripts invoke rundll32.exe or  to call the [Wayback/Archive] LockWorkStation function (winuser.h) inside user32.dll. Don’t!

The BOOL LockWorkStation()function has a calling convention that is incompatible with rundll32.exe () which will corrupt the call stack likely will lead to random problems as after two decades, this post from Raymond Chen still holds: [Wayback/Archive] What can go wrong when you mismatch the calling convention? – The Old New Thing

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Posted in .NET, Batch-Files, C#, CommandLine, Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Security, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2016 | Leave a Comment »

Windows: DoubleKiller – find and remove duplicate files (Big Bang enterprises)

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/05/03

The build is from 2007, but still works fine on Windows 10 and 11 and perfectly fitted my needs for finding some ~2500 duplicate files that Google Drive made with their “upgrade” from Google Backup and Sync to Google Drive File Sync (where syncing from shared content is sort of possible and impossible at the same time).

Via [Wayback/Archive] Which duplicate files and folders finders exist for Windows? – Super User (thanks [Wayback/Archive] Chris Driver for answering and [Wayback/Archive] Andrija for asking) where I commented [Wayback/Archive]:

Thanks: still works fine in 2022. Download from is a simple ZIP file which you can extract and just run the executable. No need for complicated installers or admin rights. Matches on (combinations of) name/size/date/CRC32, then intuitive GUI to select the files you don’t want any more, then either delete or move those selected files.

Via

–jeroen

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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »

My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal – Scott Hanselman’s Blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/03/21

Via [Archive.is] Kevin on Twitter: “Gotta say this looks amazing and I actually didn’t know you can customize the command line on Windows this far. Read this blogpost by @shanselman , highly recommended. 👇 “

For my link archive: [Wayback] My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal – Scott Hanselman’s Blog

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Posted in CommandLine, Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »

PRANK: Windows XP Updates

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/25

This one is cool: [Wayback/Archive] PRANK: Windows XP Updates.

Note that unlike the screenshot below, the actual prank does count the percentage. The actual page does.

You can start this one and various other OSes plus Windows versions and other pranks via [Wayback/Archive] FakeUpdate.net – Windows Update Prank by fediaFedia (at the time of writing Windows 98 install, Windows Vista update, Windows 8 update, Windows 7 update, Mac OS boot, Windows 10 install, Windows 10 update, steam and “fake ransomware”).

It is a cool and relatively harmless way of teaching people to use their lock screen when away from their machine (Windows: Win+L, Mac OS: Ctrl+Shift+Power).

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Posted in Awareness, Fun, Power User, Security, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 9, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

PowerToys Keyboard Manager utility for Windows | Microsoft Docs

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/19

It looks like after decades, ReMapKey (from the Windows 2000 and 20023 Resource Kits, see If you miss having the Caps Lock button on your #Chromebook… (via: Google Chrome – Google+)) got a successor:

[Wayback/Archive] PowerToys Keyboard Manager utility for Windows | Microsoft Docs:

The PowerToys Keyboard Manager enables you to redefine keys on your keyboard.

For example, you can exchange the letter A for the letter B on your keyboard. When you press the A key, a B will display.

You can also exchange shortcut key combinations. For example: The shortcut key Ctrl+C will copy text in Microsoft Word. With PowerToys Keyboard Manager utility, you can exchange that shortcut for ⊞ Win+C. Now, ⊞ Win+C will copy text. If you do not specify a targeted application in PowerToys Keyboard Manager, the shortcut exchange will be applied globally across Windows.

PowerToys Keyboard Manager must be enabled (with PowerToys running in the background) for remapped keys and shortcuts to be applied. If PowerToys is not running, key remapping will no longer be applied.

The real kicker however, is that the new PowerToys Keyboard Manager can be application specific:

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Posted in Power User, PowerToys, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | Leave a Comment »

⊞ Win+? shortcut: PowerToys Shortcut Guide utility for Windows | Microsoft Docs

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/15

About a year and a half ago, JenMsft (Jen Gentleman) pointed me to the cool “Shortcut Guide” part of the Windows PowerToys: [Wayback/Archive] microsoft/PowerToys: Windows system utilities to maximize productivity.

The PowerToys install is an all or nothing approach which will elevate you as admin during installation:

winget install Microsoft.PowerToys --source winget

From the [Wayback/Archive] PowerToys Shortcut Guide utility for Windows | Microsoft Docs:

Open the shortcut guide with the shortcut key combination: ⊞ Win+Shift+/ (or as we like to think, ⊞ Win+?) or hold down the ⊞ Win for the time as set in the Settings. An overlay will appear showing keyboard shortcuts that use the Windows key, including:

  • common Windows shortcuts
  • shortcuts for changing the position of the active window
  • taskbar shortcuts

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Posted in Power User, PowerToys, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | Leave a Comment »

Firefox shift right-click forces context menu (via Frederik Braun). It reminds me of Windows 11 using this to show the full Windows 10 context menu

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/12/11

[Wayback/Archive] Frederik Braun �: “Annoyed that a website is doin…” – security.plumbing

Annoyed that a website is doing something custom on right-click?
Did you expect the browser’s context menu (Back, Reload, Save Page As, View Source etc.)?

Just hold the ⇧Shift key while clicking and Firefox will show the built-in context menu.

It reminded me of Windows 11 first crippling the context menu, then allowing shift right-click to show the Windows 10 context menu:

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Posted in Firefox, Power User, Web Browsers, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | Leave a Comment »

Avoid VirtualBox; use Hyper-V or VMware in stead

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/11/10

A while ago, Jilles found out why not to use VirtualBox: [Wayback/Archive] Jilles🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter: “@jpluimers Ik wil op basis van wat de Arch community schreeuwt; “Virtualbox is stom, als je geen hyper-v gebruikt vraag je om problemen”, HYPER-V maar gaan proberen.” / Twitter

The biggest problem is that VirtualBox seems to be developed ant tested for the happy path, not the failing path.

Which means that when you use it for less common scenarios, it will often fail in mysterious ways.

Back in Running ArchiveTeam Warrior version 3.2 on ESXi, I already mentioned this:

Totally agreeing with Kristian Kohntopp, I do not understand why people use VirtualBox at all: I just run in too much issues like [Archive.is] Kristian Köhntopp on Twitter: “Hint: Wenn die Installation einer Linux-Distro in Virtualbox mit wechselnden, unbekannten Fehlern scheitert, hilft es, stattdessen einmal VMware Workstation oder kvm zu probieren. In meinem Fall hat es dann *jedes* *einzelne* *Mal* mit *demselben* Iso geklappt.”.

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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ArchiveTeamWarrior, Hyper-V, InternetArchive, Linux, Power User, VirtualBox, Virtualization, VMware, WayBack machine, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | 1 Comment »

Formatting a USB stick larger than 32 gigabyte with FAT32 on Windows 10

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/11/03

Formatting USB sticks in Fat32 on Windows 10 can be a pain, especially when they are larger than 32 gigabyte.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.1081]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\bin>format D: /FS:FAT32
Insert new disk for drive D:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is EXFAT.
The new file system is FAT32.
Verifying 239.0 GB
The volume is too big for FAT32.
Format failed.

C:\bin>

This works:

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Posted in FAT (8-bitFAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32), Power User, Windows, Windows 10 | Leave a Comment »