Topics

26

General Software Discussion / Outlook add-in to force all hidden URL's to "unhide" in Outlook 2016

« on: October 12, 2016, 06:39 PM »

Due to a recent spate of Phishing hacks I would like to know if there is a utility out there which can accomplish the same thing as hovering the cursor over an image to briefly display the hidden URL inside it.  I would like to see the results of having ALL hidden URL's displayed on every email and see just how annoying that might be.
As an alternative, if there is a way to get the hidden URL's to stay visible longer or even create an optional display of a list of all hidden URL's in a given email.

One recent Phishing hack created an extremely bad issue and I am just looking for whatever options i can find that would help with people who never bother to check anything.  The ones that try to do the "hover to display option" cant seem to hold the cursor steady for long enough to read what they see.

'KUTOOLS' makes a package called ExtendOffice (I think) which does have such an option that you can select to have Outlook display all hidden URL's but for some reason it does not appear to work on Outlook 2016.  It was the only product I could find with this option. 

I am also afraid that if i get what i am asking for it will look similar to what is seen by setting Outlook security to read all email as plain text.  On most emails that results in so much gibberish that it is not worth the results to catch the one bad email in the 20,000 good ones.

If there was an alternative for showing the URL by hovering but being able to make the displayed link stay visible for a longer time so users can read it even if they can't hold the cursor steady on the spot.

Or perhaps a hotkey that would temporarily change the view of an email to plain-text.  Maybe CTRL+SHIFT+P as long as depressed the email view would be plain-text rather than html?

Failing all of that, is there a product that can scan emails for hidden links that are on an updated list of phishing links?  Something like an antivirus that scans instead for misdirected URL's?  One example recently was an email that showed  the CHASE Bank logo where the link went to a URL that started out http://www.chasee.... 
Obviously a fake and not all of them are so easy to catch.

Any advice along these lines would be appreciated.

27

General Software Discussion / Sentence Generator using some form of AI to recombine sentences

« on: October 05, 2016, 02:09 AM »

This is something that i believe already exists if i knew what "name" to look for.  I will try to give a good description of what is needed and hope that someone has seen or heard of such a program.

(Please excuse my order of presentation.  I had to add things as they came to mind.  I can conceptualize the end result but explaining how I am getting there is not so easy)

The starting premise is this:  I need a way to assist a shift manager in writing short nightly reports for what was done each day on their shift.

Let's say I start with 200 different historical "event reports".  These are just short descriptions of what the person on duty that night wrote down to explain how their shift passed.
Each of them is similar but each was written from the viewpoint of whoever was on that shift that night.  To take this to an extreme example, lets say a shift manager at a restaurant has to write up the events of the final shift at closing every day.  Or any other job that would require a descriptive written statement about happenings during a given period of time.

After a few months or years if you read back over these events you can see that with very few changes, they are all extremely similar.  I would like to see if there is a way to use a computer program to create a generic "scripted report"" based on the ones written in the hundreds of previous reports.  The intent is to assist the person who is writing the new ones by providing a sort of guideline to work with.  Of course, there would always be may differences and it isn't meant to replace a real written report for that day.

But it would provide a framework of what COULD have happened and help the person on duty more clearly remember what really did happen on their shift.
 
I had thought about just pulling up random complete reports and providing one in a side-box to help jar the memory of the person on duty that night.  To give them a way to "think".  If they see what others said in the past, it will help them visualize what happened during their own shift that occurred at the same place doing the same job but was written up by another person maybe years in the past.  But i don't want to risk giving someone a "Play by Play" that they might be inclined to copy outright.

After writing these shift reports for every single day for a couple off years, eventually, anyone doing it will run out of ways to say things.  Simple Writers Block!   Seeing how another person viewed that particular shift from another point in time I am hoping would give them new ways of thinking about things.  Maybe see things from a different perspective.  This has become a major issue for this company and the shift managers dread that nightly report which should only take them 5 minutes to write if they could approach the task with some minor coaching in how to say the same things they wrote the day before and all the days before that.   Having a "Real Report" written by someone they probably never met but who had to deal with all the same responsibilities and be able to see how That Person wrote about those same events, i believe this would help build new insights and broaden the vocabularies of those who do it. 

Additionally, if i could find the right software.  One with enough AI components that could reconfigure the previous reports in such a way as to intelligently interchange some of the phrases and other statements, it would at the least create enough unusual errors to possibly cause some real creative thinking.

By the way, this is an "Actual Problem" that I am looking for an "Actual Creative Solution" to.  The people involved always eventually get to where they say they just cant think of anything "New" to say that they haven't already said a thousand times before.  My idea may be a total flop but i would be willing to take the time to enter a few hundred of these reports and see if maybe being able to see the way their predecessors saw things a year or two ago could be, if nothing else, a way to broaden their viewpoint and vocabulary.

This would all be done in text.  No "voice to text" capacity involved.  The reports are never more than a couple of short paragraphs and to be honest, YES, they ARE very boring .  There are only so many ways to say "Nothing eventful happened".  But there is always something that does happen no matter how small.  And Corporate requires them to write these things even if no one ever reads them.  I feel that by offering a view on how others saw things and how they wrote them up might be worth a try.

It would work like a "Daily Quote".  Only one "report template" would be presented each night.  I am hoping that this in itself would create enough of a "puzzle" for someone to try to see how the random report from years back or even better , a report that would be created by the system from combining several of those on file,  would make a stimulating challenge out of what is now a dreaded task.

If anyone has any ideas of how this could be accomplished i would appreciate the replies.

28

General Software Discussion / How can i force Windows 10 to ALWAYS go to the login screen on Boot

« on: October 04, 2016, 12:13 PM »

This is a "Real Question" though it may not sound like one.

I have a User whose Surface Pro has two user accounts. One is her Microsoft Account, one is a "local account".
The purpose for the local account is to provide her with a way to open Windows in the event she cannot get her normal Microsoft account to open. This usually happens due to password problems, (she forgets what it currently is). So I gave her a local account with no password so she could access the Web to contact me for help with accessing her Microsoft Account when needed.

I have seen plenty of of methods for "By Passing" the login screen but in her case I need the opposite. When the Login screen is bypassed, Windows opens to her Local Account y default since it has no password. 

The 'fix' for this (once it happens) is to Right click START, Choose "Sign out", which takes her to the normal Sign In screen where she can choose her Microsoft Account.  Te problem with that is she cant handle "right click" very well.  The other "fix" would be to give the local account a "password" but she would forget it since she seldom ever uses it but when she need to, it must work.

The Best "fix" would be a way to get Windows 10 to always display the Login Screen at Start even if her Local Account has no password?  Today. she probably accidentally logged in as "Local" and afterward it became the default login. Is there a key somewhere in the registry or setting in SecPol to make the login screen appear every time the system starts even if the previous user was one with no password?
The option for turning on CTRL+ALT+DEL on every boot wont help for this because the same thing happens.  Once she ends up in the "Local/no pw account", it becomes the default on every reboot until hse goes to the login screen and choose her normal MS account.

I think one of Murphy's Corollaries states that "The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions" . Having that local account has saved her in the past when she forgot her Microsoft password many times but now it has become a problem in its own right. Giving a password to that Local Account would defeat the usefulness as she simply cannot remember it no matter what I make it.

PS: As a possible partial help, is there a one-step command that would take her directly to the login screen from desktop without having to use right click on Start?. I could make a Desktop Shortcut for it f so which would solve the issues with her figuring out Right click as opposed to Left click on START?

29

Living Room / Guides or tools to help with adding GMAIL to Desktop Outlook 2016 in Windows 10

« on: September 24, 2016, 12:16 AM »

In the past, I thought having multiple provider accounts such as Yahoo, AOL , Gmail etc. all working in a desktop copy of Outlook or Outlook Express was not that uncommon.  But when I asked about doing it now, I usually get a lot of comments that say while it is still possible, it is not easy and requires a lot of tweaks in the Gmail config as well as in Outlook.

I had a coworker ask me if I could get it to work for them so I read through a number of "How To" sheets to see what has changed.  The more i read, the less it seemed that any of the current setups agreed on the proper method of doing it.   Even Google has spread out their "Fact-Sheets" to show multiple methods and all of them were much more difficult than just entering the correct mail-server, port numbers , encryption methods etc.

What this person wants is to be able to open their Outlook 2016 (a component of Office 365 for Business) and be able to switch between viewing and replying to their normal business account email and their Personal Gmail account while still inside their Desktop Outlook software as they would prefer to work with the tool-set provided within Outlook.

Any advice, tips, links, etc. on how to best accomplish this would be appreciated.  Even if it means getting a new "personal" account from a provider other than Gmail in order to achieve a dependable working solution inside the User's 'Outlook for Business 2016' desktop software.  They want to make 'Outlook 2016' their one-stop shopping for all their emailed communications both business and personal.

 

30

General Software Discussion / Trigger the Send function in a new email from command line

« on: September 03, 2016, 07:38 PM »

This is either so simple and right in front of me that i can;t see it or doesn't exist as needed.

In a batch script that uses the Outlook.exe ipm.note parameter, once the email is loaded and ready to send, how can i trigger the send function from within the script.  Everything works perfectly except for that last item.

I have a vbs version that CAN trigger the send (but so far cannot add the zipped attachment properly) which makes me think that there must be some method of activating SEND from the command line.  Currently, the completed email sits there waiting for me to press the Send button 

This was a handy "feature" during testing so I could see and correct errors and configurations But now that it works as desired I want it to immediately "Send" like the VBS version does.
Could I call a "SEND_EMAIL.VBS" script from inside the batch as a final command ? 

I am still trying to rewrite the whole thing as VBS but ran into issues getting the correct zip file attached to the pre-addressed email.  I have not given up on that yet though and it may be the best way.

31

General Software Discussion / Desktop tool for programmatically removing URL's from PDF files

« on: August 24, 2016, 05:53 PM »

Is anyone aware of a tool that can be run against a system full of stored pdf's to achieve this action?
I have seen several online sites that offer this and while they do work, there is no way i could manage to upload, scan, then download and rename thousands of files.

The problems are being caused by what are likely 'spoofed' URLs in the first place.  The written TEXT may say www.google.com but the embedded URL's take you to www.goggles.com or some other.  Normally, not a big deal, but our AV program is marking hundreds of these files every day as being possibly 'malicious' and quarantining them due to links associated with Malware of one type or another.  The pdf files are safe but the links are blacklisted.  And I have to assume that the embedded URL's "Might" really be misdirecting people to real malicious sites.

Either way, I ran a few of them through an online URL remover and the resulting document scans as clean which is all I need.  Even though all the written text for every URL's is still in place and can still be clicked as Adobe automatically links the written URL's anyway.  At least the files can be accessed.  When quarantined, they are not available to anyone

While I found a lot of advice on how to manually do this one file at a time using Acrobat, I have not found a single tool either for sale or free that can be run against an archive storage containing thousands of pdf files which is what must be done. 

If anyone has ever seen such a tool or know where i could check, the info would be appreciated.  Preferably this would be a tool that could be run at a desktop level without having to invoke Acrobat

 

32

General Software Discussion / Script or tool to create HTML Signature for Outlook email

« on: August 19, 2016, 09:15 AM »

Has anyone ever run across a script that is made to create a "Business" HTML signature for Outlook with a company logo included?

I have looked for such a tool but not been able to find one that works as expected though that could be due to looking in all the wrong places.  One of the original problems was to get the company logo to a higher quality image that was provided when using cut and paste into the Outlook Signature box.   By taking my own and rewriting is line by ine using html and pulling the logo from the company website the result was a big improvement.

What I would like to find now is a way to let each person use a template to fill in things like their phone numbers, position titles, and so on into a template that would use this information to create the complete HTML code to use for the Outlook Signature.  I thought I would ask how others accomplish the same or if anyone knew of a ready made tool for doing this.

33

General Software Discussion / A way to add indexing for mapped network drives to Windows 10 Home

« on: August 03, 2016, 04:42 PM »

This is probably one of those "can't be done" things but I have to ask.
I know there are multiple utilities like Master-seeker and Everything and Ultrasearch just to name a few that are excellent at this but none of them works native to windows in such a way that when a User needs to open a file stored on a mapped drive letter using a Windows program (Word, or most anything that offer so search for files to open) the "search" are "browse" function uses Windows Indexing and is so slow that the progress-bar looks like pouring Syrup on a Winter Morning.

I can use many utilities to find the same file almost instantaneous but the programs being used apparently can only deal with Native Indexing in Windows.

I need this to work on some systems that only have Windows 10 HOME.  No Sync/Offline file functions are not available (unless there is a patch I have not yet found).  I had read that adding the mapped drive to a library can force it be indexed but that option is not available for network drives.

If there is a utility that can make windows treat the mapped drive like a local drive that is the only thing I can think of to get the Windows index to include it.  The Mapped drive has many thousand documents on it that have to be used in various programs.  Currently, unless the user navigates to the 3rd sub-level where the file they want is located before they begin the search it can take up to 3-4 minutes or even longer to search for a specific filename to pop-up

34

General Software Discussion / Two color outline text-font or style for Windows

« on: July 15, 2016, 11:08 AM »

Is there such a typeface or font style or even a font itself that would have the ability to be used as a regular typing font with a way to display as each letter outlined in a second color?  I am sure this option is available on high end graphics programs such as Corel but I was looking for a Windows-based font that could be installed and used by any Windows software while typing large sections of text.

35

General Software Discussion / How to increase the "hang time" for secondary menu pop-outs

« on: July 12, 2016, 01:02 AM »

Is there a specific setting for the time-delay to keep the secondary pop-out menu in focus.  The one that opens when you chose a selection from the the primary right-click option menu?  This is more of an annoyance than a real problem.  But it seems it used to be more "forgiving" of a wandering cursor. 

As an example,  when I right click desktop, select New, get the pop-put menu for "new what?":  Before I can move the pointer to File or folder or whatever I want, the secondary menu closes.  I have tried a firm Click on New as well as directly sliding across with no click to the pop-out menu but either way, I almost always end up with the pop-out window closing before i can make it to my choice.  So I have to go back and click NEW again often several times to beat the closing pop-out menu to choose which "new item" I want. 

This is just an example of one optio (New) but every secondary menu like that seems to close far to soon, much faster than it used to.  Or else "I" am getting much slower <also a good possibility>

I just wondered if there was a setting somewhere that controlled the time allowed to click the final option in the secondary pop-out menus.  I am tempted to try the settings under mouse in control panel but thought there might be a more specific timer somewhere?  I seem to have the same problem regardless of which system I am using but most of them have all the same software and OS. Windows 10 X64

36

General Software Discussion / Does this exist and if not can someone write it up?

« on: June 29, 2016, 04:00 PM »

This is a simple concept and there are a large number of people who would be grateful to have it.  But  PLEASE, I don't need to get "flamed" by everyone for not wanting everything to be as secure as Ft Knox.
What I am describing is the same thing already used in many new Online Programs but would work for any software whether it had that "All Seeing Eyeball" at the end of the password box or not.

What is needed is a way to activate a small on-screen text-box that would display characters as they are typed by capturing the keystrokes from the keyboard.  It would have no record keeping ability, just a line-typed display that would appear on the screen preferably near the password box but anywhere visible would do.

The function would be activated by a hotkey and only be there if the user wanted it and have a times display for 30 seconds or less would probably be plenty.

The purpose is to give "Humans" a chance of knowing what they just typed into their password field before they click <Enter> and get that "Incorrect password only 1 try left" message. 

After seeing the same message 3 previous attempts no matter how certain you are that you are typing the same password you have always typed (You can't 'argue with asterisks',  the "dots win" every time!) many people are one step short of a blown fuse.  I just dealt with another such person here.

This is not meant for being a "password hack".  It is simply a way to give a fighting chance to people using older software that does not offer the "All Seeing Eyeball Icon".  I still see newer MS programs that do not give anyone a way of knowing if they are mistyping or if there is really a reason their OLD password is no longer working.

This information COULD point toward the fact that SOMEONE must have changed it and if it wasn't You?  Then WHO?  I would considered that to be a major Security HELP!  If you don't know what is being entered behind those dots, you can't say.  Maybe someone else DID change your password.

AsterisKey and other like it are considered the tools of trade for a malicious hackers and are sometimes blocked by AV software. What I am proposing is simply a way to allow a person to see what they typed in a password field (or anywhere else) AS THEY TYPE IT.  Kind of like adding the All Seeing Eyeball for programs that don't have it and never will.

37

General Software Discussion / Where is the registry function for left clicking the desktop?

« on: June 25, 2016, 11:59 PM »

Right click the desktop is easy enough to find.  As well as left clicking an icon for an application or file.  If you are already in a file like word, outlook etc, left click functions are documented.  But I cant locate anything for left clicking on an empty spot on Windows desktop?  Does a registry function exist for that option and if not could one be added?

I can draw a "box" (that disappears unless I drag it over to hit some icons) so there must be some way to capture that initial action of a left click on the empty desktop and use it to initiate an action just like right clicking the same spot.

38

General Software Discussion / Commandline method of downloading a webpage

« on: June 19, 2016, 04:37 PM »

I need a way to be able to download a webpage through use of a script.  I can get to the page with no problem in batch, vbs etc.   Use of Ctrl+S in Chrome for example allows me to download and save it to MHTML (Once the correct flags options were set) and the resulting MHTML file is perfect.  It opens locally and ll the contents work exactly as they would have if I were on that site.  Including all images, links, and other visual html design.

I need to be able to do the same as ctrl+S(ave) to MHTML in a script that can be run on demand to create this document as needed. 

Using Wget I end up with a variety of results depending on how I word the statement but none of them is even close to the same as the ctrl+S to get the MHTML version.  If there is a command-line version of SAVE AS for Chrome I have not yet found it.  It seems that something so simple in GUI surely must have some way to accomplish the same results in what should be one line in a script.

39

General Software Discussion / Using script to copy multiple image files to a page

« on: May 24, 2016, 09:13 PM »

I am trying to find the best way to perform a 'copy/paste' action on certain images in a group of folders so they end up displayed stacked over the next in a Word document or pdf file.  The script is used to gather various pieces of information from a group of folders and one item that needs to be added is an image file in each folder set named invite.png (or jpg).   This image is about 5"W x 2.5"H  (750x350p approx) and I can get close to 4 on a page doing copy/paste manually. 

But every variation I have tried in the looping script ends up with a list of 'file path names" in a list instead of a stack of images where the image file is copied as a picture not a file-path. 
I have tried various functions from Image Magick and Graphics Magick but nothing has worked so far.  Any advice appreciated.

40

General Software Discussion / Adding the ability to zip files from multiple locations to a vbs script

« on: May 11, 2016, 10:32 PM »

There may not be a way to do this.  I have seen a few comments about VBS and zip not being compatible. 
The current working VBS script is used to automate adding multiple attachments to an Outlook pre-addressed email and sending it out all at once.  As written, the files can be selected from anywhere on the system by using Ctrl+click to select them and copy/paste or drag-drop to get them to the script which then does the rest.  They all get attached regardless of where they are located once selected. I have never tried to add more than about 10 but I think the only limit is the file-size allowed by Outlook for an attachment.

Most file types can only be attached to an email by first adding them to a zip or other 'protective' shell and adding all the collected files to a single zip when they come from multiple locations is the problem.  There seems to be no way to do this within the bounds of the VBS script and also no way to do it externally and then bring the results back into the script for completion.

If anyone can supply the missing "zip from anywhere" lines to the script it would be appreciated.

Somewhere after this line is where I presume it needs to be added.   
..       Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments 'gets paths of selected files   ..
Once the selected paths are set, those files need to be either zipped separately or added to a single larger zip before they are added to the email as attachments so Outlook will process it without choking up.  This works as-is as long as all files are .txt or other allowed file types.

Code: Visual Basic [Select]

1. Option Explicit
2. Dim objArgs, OutApp, oNameSpace, oInbox, oEmailItem, olMailItem
3. Dim a, oAttachments, subjectStr, olFormatHTML
4. olMailItem = 0
5. olFormatHTML = 2
6. Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments 'gets paths of selected files
7. Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") 'opens Outlook
8. Set oEmailItem = OutApp.CreateItem(olMailItem) 'opens new email
9. oEmailItem.To = " "
10. oEmailItem.cc = " "
11. For a = 0 to objArgs.Count - 1
12. Set oAttachments = oEmailItem.Attachments.Add(objArgs(a))
13. subjectStr = subjectStr & Right(objArgs(a),Len(objArgs(a))-(InStrRev(objArgs(a),"\"))) & ", " 'recreates the default Subject e.g. Emailing: file1.doc, file2.xls
14. Next
15. If subjectStr = "" then subjectStr = "No Subject "
16. oEmailItem.Subject = "" & Left(subjectStr, (Len(subjectStr)-2))
17. oEmailItem.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML
18. oEmailItem.Display
19. oEmailItem.Send

If there is another method of accomplishing the same goals in another language that would be OK as well. :thmbsup:

Note:  Giving credit where credit is due:  This code is originally from the 'Slipstick Outlook Forum' and named 'Joseph's Script Method'
It works extremely well for what it was originally written to do.

41

General Software Discussion / Script to edit registry setting all network profiles to private

« on: April 29, 2016, 03:14 PM »

I know in a general way what I need to do but not exactly how to get there and do it

Code: Text [Select]

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles
2. if possible locate the wireless profile currently in use
3. if not check each profile for a key called category
4. if there is one set the value 1 for Private
5. if one does not exist create it and set it to 1
6. If it was possible to find and set only the active WiFi profile then exit now
7. if that was not possible continue to the next profile until all are set to Private

Unless their is a reason that this could be problematic, it will definitely fix something instantly untili canget to the User to do a better job.

This is a situation that has begun to appear often in Windows 10, usually on older systems that were upgraded but sometimes on new Windows 10 laptops.  When it happens, I need to be able to tell the user to click a .bat or .reg file that would set everything to PRIVATE until I can get to their station to do it right and find out what caused the problem in the first place.  When they are shown using a PUBLIC connection they are blocked from most office networked items like Printers etc.

I won't know the exact profile name to use for their system and if a way can be added to make this change occur only on the WiFi profile currently in use, that would be best.
The wired profiles automatically say Private but on these same systems, connecting their Wired connection does not release the WiFi as it should.  Worse, many new laptops no longer provide for a wired network at all.

42

General Software Discussion / Utility to convert embedded hyperlinks to displayed text

« on: April 20, 2016, 04:58 PM »

I am trying to find a tool that can scan a document *(usually a pdf file) and do an 'in place' replacement changing any words or images with embedded hyperlinks so that the active link is replaced by the text it contains.

This may end up with some ugly documents when done but for now it is something I need to find a way to accomplish.

My original idea was to simply remove the link and leave the text but I found too often that people have been typing in a short part of the link and either embedding the link or Adobe etc is chopping it off to an acceptable length.

Most Antivirus software is flagging a lot of these as contain malware.  I found out that while the PDF or DOC itself is clean, it may contain "hyperlinks' to sites that are currently Blacklisted.  90% or more of the time, they end up being false positives but I cannot risk telling people to ignore them because of the 10% that are not.

No one here goes to these sites but they do have to post these documents so that they are available to others and that is where the problem occurs.  The people they send them to don't understand the full implications of the warnings.  Either they toss the email and the attachments due to the warnings or they open them and maybe end up getting malware from a site we sent them the link to.

I would like to find a way to remove the ACTIVE part of the hyperlink replacing it with the text it contains.  I have been told that if a site really is malware,  that presumably the viewers own 'web-shield' would protect them from going there but at least the 90% "False positives" would not pop up on every PDF.  Anyone who want to go there can copy the text and paste it to a browser or highlight and click to get google to do it for them.  Most of the time, "no One" goes there , it is just provided as a reference.


I am sure there are tools that can do this but I have not yet found one other than maybe in the full Adobe Acrobat package.

43

General Software Discussion / Right click selected text and jump to location in regedit (or similar)

« on: April 16, 2016, 02:43 PM »

I have been looking for this program all over Google and I am sure it is there.  There may even be more than one.  I have so many of these tools gathered over the years I may already even have it.

The way it worked was that if you selected a lines of text that was a registry key (HKCU or HkeyCurrent User etc )  then right clicked your selection, you had the option to open reg-edit or another registry editor at the location of the text you had highlighted.  It seems it may have even worked to the level of searching for words or text wherever it appeared it int registry but the best part was being able to jump right to the key that needed to be edited without having to scroll for it.

I used it to clean up a few systems several years back where a virus had made specific changes to several registry keys and with this kind of search ability it was easy to locate the keys I knew of as well as find those that I did not yet know about as they all had similar changes made to them.  I could either search for the key or search for the change and it was extremely fast.

UPDATE:  I located this from searching DC history.  Have not yet read the whole thread and it may lead me to the answer.

https://www.donation....msg359829#msg359829

Apparently,  back in 2014 I had already been on DC looking for this same tool.
Further update:  Apparently not.    This was on a similar but different topic.

44

General Software Discussion / MYSQL code editor for woRking with a template file

« on: April 14, 2016, 06:06 PM »

I am either asking the wrong question or looking for something the wrong way through Google.
I have a MySQL template file (or that is what I would call it) that is used as the basis for creating the necessary fields and values to start a new MySQL DB for each new project.
I need to toss in a few more folders that came with package.  As well as edit the contents and values of a few others.

Navicat , and Db Forge Studio all want to work with *.sql files that are already loaded (or so it appears) but what i need to edit is the "layout" for a db that is not yet installed. 
I can edit it just fine in Notepad++ but the results are not exactly what I expected.  I was hoping to find a tool that would allow me to load the "starter".sql file, make the necessary changes and then see what they would look like IF they were installed.

Since I seldom read instruction manuals   and have never edited a MySQL file structure anyway, it is quite likely one of these will already do this but i am not using the correct function to load the file.  I am just asking for opinions on whatever program might be best suited for this task.

And of course, it has to work without reading a manual

45

General Software Discussion / desktop shortcut to do a Simple task

« on: April 13, 2016, 07:12 AM »

This is something that was requested by a friend that I don't see a simpler way to handle.  They want me to create  desktop shortcut to do the equivalent of pressing Ctrl+0 <is a Zero>.  She only has one Ctrl button on far left with zero on far right on her Surface pro.
 
This combination is the one to revert all ZOOMED screens back to standard size and I saw her problem as it occurred but IMHO while an icon might be nice, i think it would be better to create a different hotkey.  When her screen is ZOOMED to 500% she cant see the X to get out and that is what she keeps trying to do.  An icon would also be covered up.  But that is what she asked for. 

Still, if there is an alternative way to make a different combination of keys do the same thing?  Maybe as a backup in case she cannot see the desktop icons at all?

Maybe Ctrl+Fnc+Winkey which are all next to each other on her system.
If possible, i need to do this without adding any additional software like AHK etc.

46

General Software Discussion / Software to allow Local testing of a website code while monitoring activity

« on: April 04, 2016, 07:00 PM »

This is a tool that I once had years ago but cannot find now.  It was not much more than a "web-host in a box" kind of thing that supported php and mysql and it was small enough to run from a flash-drive (and back then flash drives were pretty small  . 

I am trying to trace the links from a users click on an object through each step as the item clicked on is added to a download queue.  We are looking for the correct location to insert the necessary code for it to display on-site using Flex-paper or similar and keep getting something wrong in the sequencing (at least on Chrome IE 11 is a little better).  It has to work for all browsers so I am trying to find a way to test each step locally rather than having to load the whole thing on a full Web Server.

The setup I had was maybe 5 years ago though and may not even be relevant any more.  But it would allow you to run the site on a split-screen and watch the various components as they operated in real-time and made it easy to locate all the specific modules in action when any activity was performed on the site such as mouse clicks on specific items etc.  I must be asking for it in the wrong way because i cannot get Google to come up with anything similar.  The one I had was based on a version of WAMP or XAMPP to get the site up but the part that displayed the "code-in-action" i have no idea what it was called.

If anyone happens to know of it or know of something similar, i would rather not have to build a VM just to run a small portion of a website locally for testing. 

47

General Software Discussion / Web accessible Virtual Windows Environment for Collaborative testing of code

« on: April 02, 2016, 02:06 PM »

Not sure where the best place to look for this would be.  Maybe AZURE or maybe Google? 

Does anyone know of a not too expensive setup that would offer a web accessed VM running a Windows environment for testing code snippets that can accessed by more than one person simultaneously for collaboration on the project?  I have found a few applications that appear to offer such for commercial development but nothing that seems to be a small and affordable setup for 'personal use'.

This is for an alternative to simply allowing all the users to simply connect via Interviewer or other to a single host system.  Which is the first thing I thought of and may be the only viable option.

 

48

General Software Discussion / Registry Key Locator and Access tool

« on: March 31, 2016, 12:32 PM »

I am trying to find a utility to create an active virtual link for Windows registry keys that would work to get  any text that refers to a registry key to display and work like an Internet Hyperlink but instead link to that location in the local registry

Maybe display the written text colored and underlined to emphasize it being an active local link which when clicked would open to the local Windows registry at that location (or the nearest possible if it does not yet exist).  I think this would require an indexing of the keys in the windows registry and performing a real-time search of displayed text to add the necessary links.

This would be a useful tool for making registry edits or for comparing a users own registry data to what is shown in the text they are reading.

I have seen a few tools that come close and there very possibly may already exists such a thing.  If so, could someone please point me to it.
Or if anyone has their own favorite tool for working with registry keys, I would appreciate any new tools I could try.

49

General Software Discussion / Are any of the "coders for hire" sites legit? Is anyone honest any more?

« on: March 20, 2016, 12:54 AM »

I have tried to do this myself but simply do not have the time to learn the necessary skill set.  When I searched for Website Coding piecework I found the market is flooded with such sites but for every one touting a sure-fix site, there were 5 more saying STAY AWAY!  in Bold print and full of scary stories about being ripped off. 

It is a sad state the world has come to.  'Caveat Emptor' was always the byword for anything sold on the web but it seems it is now the "RULE" rather than the exception.
 
What I need it so minor I was hoping to find someone I could pay by the minute to jump in and tweak the necessary spots  by remote and run and instant test as it is done.  The coding is really not that hard if you know what you are doing.   I found several that offered exactly that... But the first one wanted a credit card number before they would even say "Hello".  And many of the others seem to be owned by the same "syndicate".

Can anyone recommend a site that does piece-meal jobs for immediate pay?

I don't mind showing my "good faith" for ability and willingness to pay but it seems a price could be discussed without a credit card number being passed.  How do honest people do business these days.

50

General Software Discussion / server-side configuration Open to View PDFs in browser not download them

« on: March 03, 2016, 12:59 AM »

This is a pretty urgent need and i would be willing to looks at any alternatives.
In the past years, this was not really problem and I am not sure when the rules changes nor with what software.
On a site we host there are hundreds of pdf files in various library's. 

The Intent is for a User to be able to Open and view the files as much as necessary but other than making a screenshot, they should not be able to download and save the original PDF from the site.

This is a standard Apache Website using a PHP/MySQl setup to manage the documents.  I have tried inserting a few suggested code snippet with no results.  The same sites never acted this way before but i am unable to determine when this new "Download first/Open 2nd" ability became the default.

People visiting the website DO need to be able to view the files but I am beginning to believe it would be best (IF Possible) to find a way to
allow them to view it using a viewer hosted on the Web Server as the only way to accomplish what is needed

And there are so many other PDF viewers out there that I am sure attempts to prevent this after the file is already in their temporary internet files would be a waste

Any Advice Apprciated