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The recent MD5 post reminded me that of course MD5 is not a cryptographically secure checksum - it can be spoofed. Especially, when getting files from untrusted sources an MD5 checksum is not a proof of a valid file. But it is a fast algorithm that can be used for your own storage and backup needs. A secure algorithm is the SHA256, which can be also calculated on Windows without any additional downloads. A quick sample batch file could look like this: @echo off echo. echo Running certutil... echo. certutil -hashfile [filepath] sha256 echo. echo Should be SHA256: echo BD708C0E71E75BD73C636A957451A0CC2C84D7E587AB8FC549141074EF01AF7D echo. pause A more detailed discussion of pros and cons follows below: MD5 (Message-Digest Algorithm 5) Pros: Speed and Low Overhead: Computes faster than SHA-256, making it lightweight for scanning massive drives or deduplicating huge ...

Markdown is widely used these days. But we still have lots of old documents that once in a while need to be brought into that scope. pandoc [Path to Word document].docx -o [Path to Word document].md

For ages I was using RapidCRC to create checksums. Originally, CRC checksums, but already for a few years MD5 checksums. But alas, as virtual machines took over much of the daily work and they hardly are all well set up for an extended toolset, I step back to what is available on any Windows machine, be it Windows 11 or Windows Server. Get-FileHash "file" -Algorithm MD5

A Windows Server machine connected to a domain must be synced with the domain controller. Otherwise this leads to all kinds of hard to debug issues. If it is out of sync with its actual time zone or the time is incorrectly changed the following steps should get it back on track: Make sure the Windows service "Windows Time" is running. Set the correct time zone, e.g. tzutil /s "W. Europe Standard Time" w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.windows.com /syncfromflags:MANUAL w32tm /config /update

The longer a Windows machine is up and running being years into its lifetime the more frequent inconsistencies can occur. For such a reason modern deployments try to work with an image-based approach - pets vs cattle. If one has to stick on a legacy machine with the pet that is continuously updated the following might help resolve Windows Update issues: If Windows update repeatedly fails to update (e.g. hangs after Downloading 100% or gets stuck in the installation procedure) one can try to install that update "by hand": https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=<KB#> , e.g. https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=kb4589210 If that does not resolve the issue, one quick first step is to use the System File Checker tool: sfc /scannnow It might be necessary to wait a couple of minutes after system bootup, because in the beginning Windows might report a conflict with another process. That usually resolves itself af...

What format is the right one in JSON? "Or best? Is there any sort of standard on this?" "DateTimes in JSON are hard. The problem comes from the JSON spec itself: there is no literal syntax for dates in JSON. The spec has objects, arrays, strings, integers, and floats, but it defines no standard for what a date looks like." A common date/time-format used is ISO 8601. It is also used widely in libraries such as JavaScript's toJSON-method and Json.NET . In principle this turns the DateTime string into: <YYYY-MM-DD>T<HH:MM>[:SS.SSS][[+|-]HH:MM[:SS]|Z] Example: { "lastPlayedDateTime": "2021-12-28T23:30:00+01:00" } What's the Z? Z depicts the shorthand notation for UTC times, e.g. "2009-02-15T00:00Z" . Sources: Serializing Dates in JSON StackOverflow What is the "right" JSON date format? Wikipedia on ISO 8601 toJSON-method JSON spec

"The quick answer is to use the Microsoft “Connect” app that is already installed on Windows 10 devices along with the Project option that shows up in the Windows Notification Center (Win + P)." Sources: How to Use an Additional Computer as a Secondary Display

While there is a lot of buzz on data analysis and understanding data there for applied use of artifical intelligence and machine learning it is less known in the public on what Artifical Intelligence can do regarding generating original content and altering existing content. So called Generative Adversarial Networks can generate or change pictures and can even alter videos. E.g. The website www.ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com gives and interesting and somewhat worrisome examples of that technolgy. The speed at which this technology evolves is as astounding as the results it can give already. The technology can not only be used to generate static content like the pictures of faces, but can also modify videos. There is an example where the same scene filmed by day is recreated to appear at night: Another example illustrates how a video of a horse is transferred to a video of a zebra. As Ian Goodfellow points out the GAN did not only change the brown horse to be white with bla...

Location: FFmpeg can either be installed individually or as part of other applications. E.g. if installed together with Audacity usually the entire contents of the downloaded ZIP file are extracted to a folder anywhere on the computer, then the Libraries Preferences are configured to locate the file "avformat-55.dll". One location could be C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity . Basic Conversion: FFmpeg can be overwhelming with its options. If you only want to encode a larger video to MP4 and do not care much about smaller compression artifacts go for: ffmpeg -i "input.avi" "output.mp4" Basic Trim (Cut) from/to: e.g. from the begin of the file to 45 1/2 seconds. ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -ss 00:00:00 -to 00:00:45.5 -c:v copy -c:a copy "output.mp4" For some stream-to-MP4-rips the audio bitstream filter 'aac_adtstoasc' might be needed as follows: ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -ss 00:00:00 -to 00:00:45.5 -c:v c...

"While most consumers are likely using Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, a number of businesses still rely on Internet Explorer for older web apps that haven’t been modernized." "“Internet Explorer is a compatibility solution,” [..], rather than a browser that businesses should be using day to day for all web browsing activity. “We’re not supporting new web standards for it" Sources: Microsoft really doesn’t want you to use Internet Explorer anymore, The Verge The perils of using Internet Explorer as your default browser, Chris Jackson, Microsoft

Once in a while one has to troubleshoot regarding the platform an EXE was compiled for: 32-bit or 64-bit (x86 or x64 respectively). Sure, there are dedicated tools for this, but also common Windows applications like Task Manager and Notepad can help, as well as the also rather common 7-Zip. Sources: 10 Ways to Determine if Application is Compiled for 32-bit or 64-bit

Bottom line of the linked article is that the permissions should be managed at the NTFS level, while the share should be set to Everyone - Full Control. Sources: Best Practices for Share Permissions in Windows Server 2016

As the post implies that is not something that works out of the box. But the following steps proved to work to create a video recorded on full HD. Out of the box Camtasia 7.1.1 was always producing videos with missing lower right hand-side; Like it was not taking the whole screen, but only 1/2-2/3 of the top-left-most area. Once I figured out a way to force the full HD resolution it would give me an out of memory exception: Camtasia Studio Error: E_OUT_OF_MEMORY has been returned when trying to write the file. This may be caused by the videos with large dimensions on the timeline. Please verify that all videos on ... When selecting screen or manually highlighting the screen area the recording would correctly put the green boxes around the full screen space. Yet, the recording dimension were something around 1500x800, not 1920x1080. So, this needs to be manually edited. After the recording finished, for whatever reason, the resulting capture-1.camrec would have a zomm ...

If your Recycle Bin is missing from the Desktop there are two simple ways to get it back: It might have disappeared for whatever reason from the visible desktop space, but is still in the desktop folder. Open File Explorer Go to "Desktop" Look for "Recycle Bin" (or the respective term in your language There is also a setting to hide/show the recycle bin: Go to Settings Search for "Show or hide common icons on the desktop" Select Recycle Bin If you already did this and still it is missing, you will have to create a shortcut manually. Recycle Bin is a folder on the C:-drive. Manually create a Shortcut to C:\$Recycle.Bin to your desktop Note: Hide protected operating system files must be disabled. To do this In the search box next to Start, type folder options > top left, click File explorer options > click View tab at the top > check "Show hidden files, folders and drives " > UN-check " Hide protected operat...

I am using my one terrabyte free diskspace on OneDrive for Business (ODfB) for all kinds of things, but I do not want nor need that all synchronized to my local hard disk. So, I use a mixture of synchronizing regularily accessed files (that should also be available e.g. on the plane) and files I only need once in a while that are well stored on ODfB and can only be accessed with an active network connection. "First of all, please refer to the troubleshooting tips in the following article before you begin to map the network drive:" Upgrade your IE to the latest version. Add your SharePoint Online sites to the trusted sites Select the Keep me signed in check box when you sign in to your Office 365 account http://portal.office.com After signing to Office 365, get to your OneDrive for Business, and copy the OneDrive for Business URL like https://contoso-my.sharepoint.com/personal/user_domain_com/documents/ Right-click the Computer icon from the desktop, and the...

Step by step introduction with screenshots how to deploy DHCP Failover On Windows 2016. Sources: How to Deploy DHCP Failover on Windows Server 2016 step by step

Running your servers out of your living room exposes you sometimes to unusual issues, like getting a server OS to run on a TV Panel. Problem: The Windows Server 2016's default video adapter (Microsoft Basic Display Adapter) would inappropriately overscale the screen, so that the borders were invisible. Solution: (Obviously) install the correct video adapter drivers (which are only available for Windows 7 64-bit, but WHQL compatible and thus still installable on Windows Server 2016. Note: Running the setup.exe on the driver gave me the (imho incorrect) message that there would be newer drivers already installed on my system for the Intel drivers. I performed the following Steps: Sever Manager / Tools Computer Management Device Manager / Display Adapters / Expand Microsoft Basic Display Adapter / Right-Click / Properties Tab "Driver" / Button "Update Driver..." Browse my computer for driver software Browse for folder / Select the folder you...

"Cold storage tier of Azure Storage is a new tier that is available for Azure Storage for data that needs to be persisted for long time with minimum costs. This tier should be used when data is not accessed frequently." The newly introduced access tiers of hot and cold storage are well explained in the two links below. In short: Availability: Hot tier 99.99% (RA-GRS) vs Cold tier only 99.9% Cost: "HOT storage cost of storage is higher than the Cold one (more than double), but in the same time the transaction cost is almost double for Cold storage." Latency: for both tiers milliseconds Sources: (Part 1) Azure Storage - Cold Tier | Things that we should know (Part 2) Azure Storage - Cold Tier | Business use cases where we could use it

I got so used to getting my office eMails on the phone that I did not know at first how to disable the notifications during my upcoming vacation. But the steps are simple and stored here for later reference (to re-enable the notifications). Settings Notifications Mail eMail Account Vibrations

If you try gpedit.msc or secpol.msc > Security Settings > Account Policies > Password Policy > Maximum password age on a modern Windows Server domain system you will fail: The value (and all the others) are grayed out. The proper way to set the values for Password Policy as a Password Settings Object (PSO): adsiedit.msc Right-click and "Connect to..." and accept defaults ... Note for parameters of type "duration" you may use the so called I8 values or the more easy to read d:hh:mm:ss format. Sources: Configuring Granular Password Settings in Windows Server 2008 Creating a PSO using ADSI Edit Apply or modify password policy