Recent Posts

601

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder website under ddos attack this morning

« Last post by Shades on July 27, 2018, 11:30 AM »

Some NL sites I frequently visit were also unreachable a week or so ago. After research from a tech site that got hit, it appears that someone paid about 40 euro's to have a stress test website attack several domains for a day. No questions asked by the stress test website to see if the person paying for the stress test had anything to do with the requested domains...they just take the money and do their thing. The guy who paid for it was eventually caught, because he started to provoke/brag to one of the admins of the tech site through IRC.

602

General Software Discussion / Re: How to REALLY stop ******* Windows Update on Win10?

« Last post by Shades on July 26, 2018, 09:35 AM »

Hello again, i did not found eMail, but a link with similar content to block Microsoft Servers.
Stop Windows 10 spying on you using just Windows Firewall

Hope it helps, take care!

edit
Attention!
Above is not mentioned to be (mis-)used by beginners since it go systemdeep without restore!! You must know what you do!

-KodeZwerg (July 26, 2018, 01:40 AM)

Firewall rules? Those are not "systemdeep" and they can be disabled or removed with a few mouse clicks when you use the standard Windows Firewall interface. There are 3rd party tools that make working with the Windows Firewall even simpler.

Generally speaking, do understand that blocking rules in a firewall can have consequences for some functionality in the operating system. The article in the link above discusses a list of IP addresses and domain names that Microsoft uses for all their telemetry and provides a batch script to create and apply Windows firewall block rules. Not more, not less.

However, Microsoft cycle through their (pretty extensive) list of IP addresses and domains, so this list needs very frequent updates. Because an IP address may block a telemetry server today, but could be blocking access to Cortana or Bing or Windows Update or Skype tomorrow.

That last part causes confusion with lots of users, especially those who are not too familiar with networking/use of firewalls. As it is, these firewall block rules are not that effective as a solution, because of the IP address cycling, but also because because services with a domain name the starts with 'telemetry' can just as well handle (some) traffic from Skype or any other cloud service provided by Microsoft for that matter.

If you are not entrenched in those services and have a local user account on your Windows 10 installation, you can more or less safely use the provided Firewall block rule list, disable those rules once a month for doing Windows updates and when your system is up to date, enable the block rules again.

It would even be better if you have a hardware based dedicated firewall device where you apply these block rules. Than you can be sure those rules are not circumvented by anything Microsoft alters on your Windows system. A simple spare/old PC with at least 2 network cards, in combination with software like 'OPNSense' or 'pfSense' can already be used as a hardware based dedicated firewall device. Both software packages provide much, much more services than just a firewall, but you don't have to use these. Best of all, 'OPNSense' and 'pfSense' are open source and can be used free of charge, have active forums that provide a lot of help and if you require it, offer their support for a fee. 'pfSense' even sells hardware boxes with their software pre-installed and configured.

603

Living Room / Re: Anyone here using a standing desk?

« Last post by Shades on July 25, 2018, 11:29 PM »

You can also get desks that have long legs already. You can sit on a equally for that height adjusted chair. And if you want to use that desk standing, you just get off the chair and move it out of your way.

Much simpler approach for your company perhaps. As a benefit, the drawers in such a desk are also higher up, so you don't need to bend as much down (for those with having problems with their back, while the contents of drawers are still easily accessible when sitting behind such a desk. Easier to clean below such a desk as well.


Here is the best example of such a desk I could find on short notice.

604

N.A.N.Y. 2019 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2019 idea: file modification monitor and alert tool

« Last post by Shades on July 22, 2018, 11:32 AM »

How big is the set of files you want to monitor?  Because in most cases (and with a proper filter) 'Process Monitor' from SysInternals can show you your (set of) monitored file(s), which process has doing the modifying and when the modifying did occurred. It doesn't prevent any modification though.

Perhaps auditing software is more of a fit to your request. A free solution from Netwrix.

In combination with proper ACL settings on the set of files you wish to keep an eye on, auditing software might be the only thing you need. If I remember correctly, 4wd mentioned recently that 'SetACL Studio' could now be used for free. More precisely, the creator of the software provides a license code with which you can register SetACL Studio gratis. An alternative piece of freeware, that also happens to be portable as well, could be: NTFS Permissions Tools (is from China, but has an English interface).

*   edit: added NTFS Permissions Tools link.
* edit2: added SetACL link

605

Living Room / Re: Windows 7 update stuck on constant "need to restart" - end of my tether

« Last post by Shades on July 21, 2018, 01:57 AM »

The Hirens BootCD project is under new management. Well, it is now maintained by volunteers who only use freeware/open-source tools (and some trial versions) for repair from lots and lots of different types of errors that Windows subjects its users to.

You can make a bootable pen drive with the iso they provide. To be prepared for calamities, I created myself such a pendrive and it boots very fast into a Windows 10 PE (x64) environment. Afterwards the 16GByte pendrive was filled with 6 to 7 GByte from my personal PortableApps collection of tools. And I guess about 70% of the added tools works as well. The ones that don't, report that prerequisites are missing, which is to be expected from a PE environment.

Booting takes about 20 to 25 seconds (my pendrive is a USB3 model, but it is slow as hell) when connected to an USB3 port on an APU-based AMD (A10-6800K) system with 8GByte of RAM. Even on a nothing fancy PC, it boots up fast. If push comes to shove, it could even be good enough as a daily driver from the get-go, especially when you just want to browse a bit.

The included repair tools are quite impressive, but it can also do backup and forensic tasks as well. And it is more than likely this PE environment can help you fix your Windows 7 issues.

On another note:
While the interface of Windows 10 is not everyone's cup of tea, it is not that bad in my opinion. Having said that, Google reveals quite a lot of links that can make your Windows 10 installation look and "feel" like Windows 7. In that sense you would have the best of 2 worlds and you could get rid of dual-boot altogether. From Gizmo's Freeware or find your favorite link with this search term: make Windows 10 look and feel like Windows 7

606

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft to buy GitHub in $7.5B all-stock deal

« Last post by Shades on July 15, 2018, 10:17 PM »

It's been a while since I checked out GitLab (but they do both cloud and on-prem, right?)

-f0dder (July 15, 2018, 04:56 PM)

@f0dder:
Yes in both cases. Last Friday I started running a docker image of GitLab (Community Edition) on a test server in my own network, just to see for myself what the fuss is about. So far it leaves a good impression, but you can expect to lose quite some time configuring it. The enterprise edition has more features, so that will be even more "fun".

Although it is more work, I would recommend to do a GitLab installation from the ground up. The Docker solution (or similar software) is decent, but I barely see how Docker is helping me for my particular use-cases.

In any case, GitLab does work on-premise. Documentation is handled well. As far as I have seen it at least. But don't expect it to run on a Windows server any time soon, if at all. It looks like it will be a Linux and MacOS only product. On my Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS computer it works fine. The Docker website indicates that there is a 'Docker for Windows' application available (which doesn't work on Windows Server 2012 R2), but that it not officially supported. And if you do have 'Docker for Windows' running on your system, the GitLab website says that they will not support GitLab with that software anyway. In short, if you want to run GitLab on Windows, you are on your own.
 

607

General Software Discussion / Re: How secure is a private WordPress post from public view?

« Last post by Shades on July 07, 2018, 02:22 PM »

Well, it is possible to configure the web server being used by this private WordPress to only allow access from certain domains or IP addresses. This is not the default setting from any piece of web server software, in my experience.  If the computer that runs the web server software is patched and configured securely, then it will be quite difficult to access the content of this private WordPress instance. A knowledgeable intruder with access to (un)documented back doors on either the web server or WordPress will still find a way in.

Private post on a 3rd party WordPress site, which might or might not have sufficient patches/security in place for that website or the server(s) that site runs on, could be much more quickly compromised than you would expect and therefore should not be considered private under practically any circumstance.

Nowadays I do have the impression that most breaches are made by persons who want to make money of the information they acquire. So if those posts are made on a obscure website with hardly any traffic, than it is likely the case that the financial gain is too low for the amount of effort those persons would have to spent for acquiring your private posts.

The above is valid for anything you couple with the internet, not only WordPress. Applying also fail2ban and 2 factor authentication systems to a web site will improve the chances that your posts stay private considerably. A WordPress website often uses a MySQL database for storing content. If it is an option, storing your private posts sufficiently encrypted (AES256 and/or RSA2048) into such a database will again improve the chance that your posts remain private, even if a breach does occur.

Still, the best thing to do keeping things private is to not post those things on the internet at all.

608

Living Room / Re: Abusing Emoji on your computer filesystem

« Last post by Shades on July 06, 2018, 07:41 AM »

😈

I think it is. FireFox 60.0.2 (32-bit) is showing these emoji's as preview just fine. 

609

General Software Discussion / Re: More Ads in Windows 10

« Last post by Shades on July 06, 2018, 07:37 AM »

And this is part of software that you now have to pay for first?

If the operating system was still free, then I could imagine Microsoft wanting to recuperate their investments by showing ads in their OS and/or apps. Doing the same in software that is paid for, that is adding insult to injury imo. On the other hand, if you have a Windows 10 computer that for any reason is not activated, Microsoft should be showing you ads. Then they would recuperate funds with legal and illegal Windows 10 setups. If they would add the option to pay for getting rid of the ads, I would be much more understanding about this whole ordeal.

Next questions could be: Are these ads only part of Windows 10 Home editions? Are Windows 10 Enterprise editions and/or LTSB/LTSC editions free from this garbage?

610

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: auto api integrating ecommerce sales to automatically update inventory

« Last post by Shades on June 30, 2018, 06:21 PM »

The first time Oracle made their XE offering public, it was Oracle version 10 and it was limited to 4GByte of user-created data (system tables didn't count). While that may seem a lot, it isn't. The web interface of that database was actually very enjoyable. Then a new version of XE came out, same limitations, but now based on Oracle version 11. That was quite a big letdown, compared with the ease of the previous version.

Never looked back at the XE offering anymore. Microsoft made a similar offering with their SQL Server with a much bigger limit of 10GByte of user-created data and as such was (much) more interesting. However, I did follow the link provided by KodeZwerg to see if Oracle based their XE offering on their Oracle version 12 database software (which is also around for quite a while now). Unfortunately that is not the case, but Oracle did increase the limit to 11GByte of user-created data.


 

611

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: auto api integrating ecommerce sales to automatically update inventory

« Last post by Shades on June 30, 2018, 03:22 PM »

You could use 'Floriant POS' for inventory management. It is actually intended to be a complete POS solution for restaurants (so it is also able to predict your inventory, based on the ingredients that make up each item on the menu). Also does time-tracking for employees etc.

Last time I looked, it was open-source and free to use. It is Java based client-server setup, but can be run on one system. And if I remember correctly, you can select between several different databases like MySQL, PostgeSQL, Oracle and MS-SQL Server. The first two you can use without paying.

612

Best E-mail Client / Re: What's with all the blank lines in emails recieved from Outlook users?

« Last post by Shades on June 28, 2018, 10:57 AM »

A solution for Outlook? Nope.

But your second request could be solved by visiting this link. Didn't check if it works with Outlook, I try to prevent installation of that software wherever I can.

613

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Batch file or .vbs script required to move files to my NAS.

« Last post by Shades on June 25, 2018, 11:13 PM »

Then you might be interested in SnapRAID. It has tickled my interest, if I'm honest. It promises practically all the speed advantages of a software RAID setup, but none of the disadvantages.

[rant]
Not a fan of RAID in general though. Mainly because I have inherited a software RAID setup (Linux), that often took so much time to rebuild that it would have been easier/faster to start from scratch from a backup. A few times even 48 hours or thereabout. And during those rebuilds you can't use that setup, so people started to work around it altogether. But the boss drunk from the cool-aid: "but data is much safer, because you can rebuild". So I must keep it alive.

In my view, the only thing RAID is good for: speed   
But when (not if) problems arise, it will take much more effort and money to access data from drives that were part of a RAID setup....and that is if you are lucky. Most of the time content is not salvageable. Granted, that is a bigger problem with hardware RAID solutions than with software RAID solutions. Hardware RAID is practically always faster than a software RAID setup, so such solutions remain preferred by most. Yet those persons/companies forget that they must have a redundant identical hardware setup ready if they take their data serious. Or at least double the amount of (identical!) RAID cards, because if you don't, you easily reduce your already slim chance of getting any data back by 80%.

In short, a heavy price tag to slap on data. Companies that absolutely need all the speed for their systems to be able to do their core business without losing money, should consider RAID. All others can wait a second or two more for their data. Besides, nowadays more and more node-based software is appearing that is very fast from itself and truly excels when the network they are connected on is super fast. No hardware RAID can beat those speeds and these systems only need standard machines with standard OS's that are relatively easy to repair/exchange, without downtime. NoSQL databases like Apache Cassandra are a good example of this.

RAID is a yesteryear mindset. But, if you must, I do think that the concept behind SnapRAID is worthy of consideration.
[/rant]       

614

Find And Run Robot / Re: Allow display of file size

« Last post by Shades on June 23, 2018, 10:35 AM »

It is my guess that FARR takes the file size content of any file from the Windows file system. So you might have to think differently about the solution to your problem. According to my Google-fu, there are many requests for showing the exact file size in Windows Explorer, but not much answers.

Microsoft tells us that there is no way to change this.

A bit of digging revealed: SizeInBytes which is a tool that makes Explorer show the exact file size. While this software is free, it does require you to have a license for it's parent software SmartFTP...which is costly at 79.95 USD (the cheapest edition).

This is a long shot, but you could get a copy of Directory Opus, configure it so that it takes over the function of Windows Explorer and make files show their exact byte size that way. It is also not cheap at 85 AUD (Australian Dollar). There is a lite version of Directory Opus at half that price, but I didn't look if that version can replace Windows Explorer or not.

You might have guessed it, this has been a pet peeve of mine for as long as I use Windows. Microsoft calls this lack of configurability 'simplicity', while I think it should have been a Windows setting from the get-go. In Windows XP you still had an option to show everything in KB, but that has been removed since Windows Vista, which rounds up and down in very weird ways sometimes. Almost all 3rd party file managers show you the file size the way you want it to, but that won't help you with FARR. 

615

General Software Discussion / Re: Wanted: Simple EML viewer

« Last post by Shades on June 22, 2018, 10:18 PM »

Mailstore Home is light nor heavy and looks likely too fancy when you start using it. However, it can import all your .eml messages (and attachments!), from which it creates a database that allows you to search quickly through messages and attachments. Once imported you can view the selected message as they are intended. Copy-paste info, attachments etc.

It is freeware and also available as a PortableApp (but you must have the correct .NET version installed in Windows), if that is your thing. Anyway, searches are fast with more search options than I have seen in any mail client, it can even act as a "mail client", but only for receiving messages from an account on a mail server. Myself, I use it for keeping a mail archive spanning over ten years. Most days I receive over more than 100 messages, often with one or more attachments. Searches still only take a few seconds.

Once you have set it up as you like it, you will quickly wonder how you ever managed without it. No other association than being a happy user.

616

Living Room / Re: The irony of MS trying to trouble shoot internet connection

« Last post by Shades on June 14, 2018, 09:14 PM »

You used the troubleshooter? From Windows? That feature has not helped me once in all the time I have been using Windows. Well, I must add that I don't even bother opening it anymore since Windows XP. It was dreadful then, and from the OP I gather that things haven't improved.

617

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: ZenTao fill up the role of QA tool in Jira

« Last post by Shades on June 12, 2018, 07:45 PM »

We clone an issue in Jira (Clone++) and change the task to 'sub-task' and add reproduction files/documentation to this sub-task (for auditing purposes). By doing this the time tracking is not affected, the intended dev and tester are notified (by mail) about any change and we can keep track of the changes in the code on a per-issue basis (because of the coupling with our Content Versioning System).

Granted, it may not be easy to change a workflow in Jira, but it isn't rocket science either and once you "grok" it, you can bend Jira very much to your will.

Jira does like to sell you their extra services, but still, there is more than enough free and commercially licensed information available that allows you to "grok" workflows in Jira. I can't help but think that you are in some way related to the product you recommend and it may be the best thing since sliced bread, but with a bit of study you can really do a lot(!) within Jira itself.

618

General Software Discussion / Re: IrfanPaint - a painting plug-in for IrfanView

« Last post by Shades on June 09, 2018, 07:55 AM »

As far as I know you don't need a separate plugin anymore with current versions of IrfanView. Just hit the F12 key and the appropriate version of Irfanpaint will appear. Come to think of it, this is already the case for at least 3 years or something like that.

While I am not saying that your problem does not exist, it has been solved by updating your current version of IrfanView to the latest (whether you use the 'installed' or 'portable' version). The oldest version I could find on my own system was 4.20 and IrfanView/IrfanPaint were already intertwined back then.

619

Living Room / Re: Hating on AVG antivirus/firewall (internet security)

« Last post by Shades on June 06, 2018, 10:16 PM »

Funny story.  I have a laptop from my company that they have for me to take home.  They've become more and more restrictive, to the point that to even use webmail you have to connect to to the vpn.

-wraith808 (June 05, 2018, 12:45 PM)

That might have to do with DNS registration and security (through obscurity). When you connect with VPN to your company's network, your system becomes part of that network and features such as webmail do not require to be completely/correctly/properly configured to become accessible for the computers in your company's network. Which makes for (much) less direct attack vectors that people outside your company's network can use to wreak havoc.

Such things suck for legit external use...but as you stated, security trumps productivity, right? 

On the AV topic:
For those that do not want or can use WinDefender, there is BitDefender, which has barely any interface to speak of, but also doesn't bother you much with advertorial pop-ups. Not sure about its consumption of resources, but the lack of nagging is in my book a blessing.   

620

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Shades on June 06, 2018, 08:30 PM »

Yeah, smoke really gets in the way of me playing 'air guitar'... 

On a completely different note: am I contributing to the registered pollution playing 'air guitar'? 

621

Living Room / Re: Hating on AVG antivirus/firewall (internet security)

« Last post by Shades on June 04, 2018, 12:53 PM »

My security measures (for home) are practically similar to what wraith808 applies. The Windows Firewall is good and doesn't demand much resources. It's interface isn't that great, but there are solutions for that as well. Since Windows Vista/7 the Windows firewall has been so good that I never used another one again. Heck, even the one in Windows XP was already half decent.

Windows Defender might not be the best of the absolute best, but it is good and in combination with common sense and a good add-blocker, you are already very secure. Then add MalwareBytes and notice how much faster your computer is, while being protected against the lion's share of culprits on the internet. Keep all of these tools up-to-date and you will have the smoothest Windows experience your computer can provide.

Nowadays the anti-virus software itself is being targeted, because of the amount of low-level access and rights these suites claim and their ability to process every type of file (to see if a file has been infected) on your computer.   

622

Living Room / Re: Windows 10 April 2018 upgrade woes - anyone any ideas?

« Last post by Shades on June 01, 2018, 11:57 PM »

On the TomsHardware site there is a similar thread created that describes the problem of OP almost verbatim. In one of the posts from that thread was a suggestion to leave it on and wait. That person mentioned that after 20 minutes of watching the boot screen, it suddenly continued and booted into Windows. 

In the Lenovo forum a post from 2017 describes all the steps the person took so his system would boot again after experiencing a very similar problem. Scroll to the middle of the page to see the steps. It involves recreating the boot section on the hard disk, which appears to be a good strategy for the solution to the problem of the OP.

More research revealed that it is likely LSE (Lenovo Service Engine) is the culprit. It is part of the boot procedure, has a security vulnerability and Microsoft patched this recently. There is a way to get rid of LSE, see this link.

623

Living Room / Re: Clever simple gadget - usb stick that lights up in color on notifications

« Last post by Shades on June 01, 2018, 11:23 PM »

After buying a memory expansion for my Amiga 500 back in the day, it came with a led, showing me when it was being used. I always enjoyed having such visual indicators. In the early days of Windows and computer cases there were still visual indicators (or 'blinkenlights') but those were already more generalized. Nowadays it seems to me that even these generic indicators are phased out.

Network related equipment still makes use of the 'blinkenlights' but that stuff is usually hidden away in server rooms and relegated to the back of computers. Thanks for bringing these glowing USB lights to my attention. 

624

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for two particular softwares

« Last post by Shades on May 29, 2018, 07:51 PM »

The last request is easily answered: John's Background Switcher. That is a great wallpaper "swapper", but is not made by a DonationCoder. At least, I don't think the creator is a member here. What I am sure of is that it never was a N.A.N.Y. entry.

Is this helpful in answering your first request?

625

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ZOOM Player MAX 14 for FREE 2018-May-23

« Last post by Shades on May 26, 2018, 03:21 PM »

Did the same as a test on an Asus ZenPad (the 10 inch version) they handed to me so I could repair it. On that tablet VLC for Android had no problem to play avi, mp4, mkv files with 1080p content that uses HVEC (x265) encoding. Now I am not a fan of the tablet as a concept and I found the repair job more interesting than the device itself. But if I had to get a tablet, that model I would seriously consider.