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JOSEPH 'RICK' REINCKENS ꞏ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2019

Below are some technical tips I've learned about Windows over the years. Most of these are
not routinely mentioned in tech blogs, etc., so I figured I'll post them here. They are not in
any particular order.

Most of these will require some tech knowledge.

ITEM ONE
Delete stubborn files by using a Live Linux disk.

Sometimes, the Windows OS puts all sorts of permission restrictions on a file or folder and
simply refuses to allow deletion. If possible, the first approach should be to put the disk into
another machine as a second disk or use an adapter to add it as an external USB drive and
use that machine's Windows to delete the file or folder.

If that doesn't work or isn't practical (e.g., tearing apart a relative's laptop when they don't
have a desktop available), use a Live Linux CD. For someone not familiar with Linux, Linux
Mint is the closest to Windows. The second closest is Ubuntu. (Mint is actually based on
Ubuntu but uses a custom Gnome user interface.) You can boot from the CD without making
ANY changes to the computer, and then use the Linux utilities to access the Windows disks.

ITEM TWO
Use junctions to move things to other disks.

Like most power users, I have a lot of applications -- usually a minimum of 3 of any
particular type of application. I have MS Office and WordPerfect Office and LibreOffice.
For PDF's, Acrobat Standard and Nuance PDF Converter Pro (and PowerPDF, although I
haven't installed it yet). For images, Photoshop Elements and Corel PaintShop Pro and
several freebies.

A lot of programs such as commercial image editors and office suites come with a huge
number of sample and template files, e.g., dozens of fonts, borders, backgrounds, etc. Those
can take up a huge amount of space -- and often they could be used "cross-
programmatically", i.e., sample backgrounds from Photoshop Elements are just as useful in
PaintShop Pro and vice versa.

Most such programs load all those "extras" either in subfolders under C:\Program Files\
{application} or they put them in C:\ProgramData\{etc.}. If you're using a fairly small SSD,

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that can be a problem -- and it makes it pretty much impossible to use the "extras" cross-
programmatically.

An easy way to "offload" those to make space is with junctions. Junctions are like "invisible
shortcuts". They redirect to somewhere else but are totally transparent to programs.

What I do is:

1) Set up the target folder on another drive, e.g., S:\Program_Data\Corel

\PaintShop_Pro_X8

2) At the source, rename the folder by prefixing a hyphen. So, e.g., \X8\Templates becomes
X8\-Templates

3) In the source folder's parent (here \X8) add a junction with the original folder's name,
e.g., \X8\Templates. That Junction will point to the target.

4) Move all the contents of the original (hyphen) folder to the junction. You can just
drop and drag on the source drive. The data will actually be stored in the target folder on
the target drive, but if you Explore the junction folder, everything will seem to still be on
the source drive.

5) In both the junction folder's parent (here \X8 ) and the target folder I put a file called
JUNCTION LIST.txt that says:

C:\Program Files\Corel\PaintShop Pro\X8\Templates was replaced with a junction to:

S:\Program_Data\Corel\PaintShop_Pro_X8

mklink /j Templates "S:\Program_Data\Corel\PaintShop_Pro_X8"

(Note: I use TCC/LE to make the junctions, so the syntax may be a bit different if you use a
different tool to create the junction, such as Link Shell Extension.)

CAUTIONS: Before you actually move anything, make sure your software actually
created a junction, not a hard link or soft link or symlink. Each has different properties
and functions.

You cannot rename the target! If you do, it breaks the junction. If you rename the
target, you must delete the junction and create a new one that points to the new target
name.

ITEM THREE
SUBST still works.

Over the years, the idea of using DOS commands has developed very negative connotations.

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The old DOS command SUBST.EXE still works reliably. Even the most recent programs still
see "drives" created with SUBST as valid drives.

Although you can't SUBST to a network folder, you still can use it to access something on
your local machine. This can be very helpful when the data you want is buried way down in
subfolders, such as C:\users\{username}\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\{etc.}\

From a command prompt just SUBST V: "C:\users\{username}\Appdata\Roaming

\Microsoft\{etc.}\"

Then just look for the data on drive V:\

SUSBST drives can't be set as persistent, so if you want to keep the substitution across
reboots you'll need to put it as a batch file with a shortcut in your Start folder.

ITEM FOUR
Learn to use the mouse left-handed.

When computer mice came out, for about the first 18 months I didn't use one.

When I finally started using one I thought, "Hmm, I'm right-handed. If I use the mouse with
my right hand, every time I want to write something I have to put down the mouse, pick up
the pen, write, put down the pen, go back to the mouse, etc., etc. Plus, the mouse and the
pencil and the paper will constantly be in the way of each other."

So instead I learned to use the mouse left-handed and still primarily do.

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That being said, I did find that I eventually still had to learn to use the mouse right-handed
too. As the one power user in the office, every time somebody has a computer problem, I'm
the one they ask for help, and everybody else's computer has the mouse on the right side.

ITEM FIVE
Secure Linux - Air Force Lightweight Portable
Security

Awhile back the Air Force developed and distributed a secure Linux version called
Lightweight Portable Security. It can be used on any computer that allows booting from a
flash drive or CD. It loads a slim Linux version that doesn't mount the hard disk. Therefore,
nothing is written to the hard disk and nothing on the computer can affect the running Linux
OS.

Note that this is not the same as the SELinux (Security Enhanced) layer developed by the
NSA, the source code for which, thanks to Linux's license terms, NSA had to make available

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to the public.

http://www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm

ITEM SIX
Removing a printer doesn't remove the driver.

This one's a "beaut" that can really drive you crazy! ...

Removing a printer in Devices and Printers does not uninstall the printer driver.

Frequently, when a printer stops working, eventually the troubleshooting reaches the point,
"Well, let's try uninstalling and reinstalling the printer." However, if the driver is not also
uninstalled, uninstalling and reinstalling the printer is almost the same as just turning it off
and turning it back on.

1) In Devices and Printers, click on the device you want to remove.

2) Clicking on that device will cause additional options to appear in the "Add a device" bar.
Click Remove Device.

3) Click on any other printer. The "bar" options will reappear.

4) Click on Print server properties, Drivers tab.

5) Select the driver for the printer you deleted, then click Remove.

If you need to do a reinstall, you can now do a full reinstall, including a reinstall of the
driver, which may correct the problem.

ITEM SEVEN
Edit secured PDF's

Often it is necessary to edit a PDF that has security, e.g., to extract 3 pages out of a 150 page
document, or to add hilighting, etc.

This technique requires either Adobe Acrobat or, preferably, PowerPDF or PDF Converter
Pro (older version) from Nuance. The Nuance products are preferable simply because
they're a lot cheaper and can do pretty much everything Acrobat can do. Also, Nuance's
OCR is a lot more accurate than Acrobat's, especially on poor quality images or small fonts.

Basically, from the secure PDF document print to a PDF virtual printer. In other words,
from Acrobat print to an Adobe document. That document will probably be an image. (Or
you might have to use the "print as image" setting.) But it will not have the security.

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Then run OCR on the new PDF you just created.

ITEM EIGHT
Add searchable invisible text to a PDF

This requires either Adobe Acrobat or PowerPDF or PDF Converter Pro (older version) from
Nuance. The goal is to add searchable invisible text to a PDF document. For instance, I
had a bunch of high school yearbook senior photos where the editors got "artsy" and used
screwed-up color combinations and text layouts that made using OCR impossible. I wanted
to have the students' names searchable without ruining the images.

From the PDF format perspective, what this really involves is creating an invisible
comment.

1) Create a text box with no border and no background color.

2) Make the first line of the text area just a single (invisible) space followed by a carriage
return.
3) Add as much text as you like.
4) Reduce the size of the text box so only the first line "shows". (Remember -- it's a "space"
with no color.)

The text will still show up in searches but only the "invisible" tiny box will "show".

Caveats:

1) It's a good idea to put a note somewhere indicating what you did! That may mean adding
an extra page in the front or back. Otherwise, people might think the document text is
searchable and do something that removes all comments -- not realizing that they'll be
deleting the searchable text.

2) It's a good idea to always put the comment in the same spot, in case you need to change it
-- you can't tell just from looking at the PDF where you put the box on the page.

ITEM NINE
Delete undeletable PDF content

You have a PDF where you need to delete some content, but it's not editable (perhaps a logo,
etc.)

If you can "blend with the background", just create a text box with no border and set the
background color to match the background of the area that will be covered. Size the box and
save.

A PDF text box is just one kind of comment.

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However ... there may be searchable content you don't want seen. A search could show the
content and reveal that it is covered by a text box. Or the user might use "hide all
comments".

How to get around that? In addition to the text box, position a water mark over the same
area. Water marks can be images -- including just a solid color rectangle of the appropriate
size -- and the user can't hide water marks.

ITEM TEN
'Fake' hiliting in PDF's

Task: You need to hilite an area in a PDF that is not "standard" text.

Example: An image contains a person's name in text and a signature on top of the same
area. With Adobe Acrobat, Nuance Power PDF or a similar program you run OCR (optical
character recognition). However, when you try to us the PDF hilite feature it hilites both the
text and parts of the signature.

Solution:

1) Using the Comments feature, place a text box on top of the area you want hilited. (You
may need more than one.)

2) Right-click on the text box and click Properties.

3) Set (border) Style to None.

4) Click Fill Color and set it to the desired color. (You don't have to hilite in yellow only!)

5) Set Opacity to around 20-30%.

ITEM ELEVEN
Ribbon shortcuts

Microsoft Office has MANY keyboard shortcuts. The trick is that, with the Ribbon showing,
press Alt and a letter of the TAB you want. In Word, start with Alt-h. The various boxes that
will appear show the key combinations. For instance, in Word 2007, Alt-h, a, c will center
text.

If, like me, you prefer drop-down menus, there are commercial third-party add-ons
reasonably priced.

ITEM TWELVE
Piecemeal reinstall or upgrade

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I developed this when I had to do a full-blown reinstall of XP because it got very slow, but it
works for major upgrades too. (This is not the same as "upgrade and don't upgrade",
described in the next Item.) This assumes the computer is basically working, not trashed.

Buy or dig up a second hard disk large enough to hold the full reinstall. If you're a techno-
geek, you probably have one sitting around. If not, you can get a 1TB 7,200 RPM name-
brand SATA 3 drive for $40, or a 128GB SSD for $20-30.

Remove the current OS disk, put in the new disk and do a basic install to that. Do installs
of whatever you absolutely have to have up front.

Shut down and reinstall the old disk as an additional disk.

Now switch between the old disk and the new disk by going into setup during a boot and
selecting the boot disk.

Just to be clear -- this does not require selecting the boot disk at every boot. You only need
to go into setup when you want to change to the other disk.

The old disk should work as it did before. When you have time, switch to the new disk and
do some additional installs, changing menu contents, etc. If you can't remember particular
layouts, custom icon bar settings, etc. -- just reboot to the old disk. I guarantee that even
when you think you've copied everything to the new disk, you will find out that there's a
program you use a few times a year that you forgot.

Eventually you'll reach the point where you pretty much never boot to the old drive. At that
point either remove it or make a couple of good backups from the new drive and make
sure you can mount them (to read that one program you totally forgot about and don't have
the install media for ...) and then you can re-purpose the drive.

One last point on this -- it's not unusual that there will be a few programs that you just
can't reinstall. Either you can't find the install media, or the program requires on-line
activation and the vendor is out of business or shut down the server, or the program says it
has been installed too many times and the vendor can't or won't reset the number of
activations or give you a new serial number, etc. In those cases, if you need the program --
leave in the old disk and just reboot when you need it.

ITEM THIRTEEN
Upgrade and don’t Upgrade.

Most tech-oriented users will have a few hard disks lying around and if you don't you can get
a brand-new name-brand 1TB SATA 3, 7,200 rpm 3.5" drive for $40 (and a name-brand
128GB SSD for $20-30).

Basically, how much would consider your (personal) time worth per hour if you had to put a
price on it?

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What "upgrade and don't upgrade" involves is simply cloning the OS disk, swapping disks,
and making sure the clone boots, etc. (When you boot from the clone, Windows might install
some new drivers specifically for the HDD/SSD.)

Then either put back the original disk or leave the clone (either way, doesn't matter ...) and
then do the upgrade.

What if worse comes to worst and the upgrade totally trashes the install? Swap drives and
you should be good to go! -- You didn't even have to waste time making multiple backups
and hoping you could do a full restore.

Same thing if the update will take a lot of time and will require reinstalling or reactivating a
lot of programs (for instance, because when you go to run them they realize a lot has
changed and they require reactivation, etc.)

Also, you'll find that some programs must be deactivated or uninstalled before they can
be activated on a different install. What if you did backups, ran the complete upgrade,
and then two weeks later you try to run one of those programs and it won't open? Are you
going to blow away the upgrade, reinstall the pre-upgrade backup, uninstall or deactivate the
program, and restore the upgrade from the backup, just so you can run that program to
activate it? It would be a lot easier to just swap in the old disk, boot, deactive/uninstall, and
put back the upgraded disk.

In the "didn't crash" scenario you have two choices:

1) You can physically swap back the pre-upgrade drive until you have some free time to
continue the upgrade (not recommended, because each physical swap risks problems such as
poor connections); or

2) add the pre-upgrade drive as an additional drive. You can then boot to either drive by
rebooting the machine, going into Setup during the boot process, and selecting the drive you
want to boot from. The drive you select will remain the boot drive until you change it again
in Setup.

ITEM FOURTEEN
"Could not reconnect all network drives" error

This one took me a long time to find out and there are loads of "this worked for me"
"solutions" that actually don't work.

The problem occurs at boot-up, resulting in a "Could not reconnect all network drives" error.

The problem is that one of the things Windows does early on in the boot sequence is try to
connect to network drives. It only tries for a very short time. If it can't make a connection it
shows the failure. There is no setting in Windows that can correct the problem
and updating drivers, etc., doesn't matter.

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The free MapDrive.exe from Zorn Software is the only approach that actually fixes
the problem. What it does is keep trying to make the connection until it does. (When I say
"keeps trying", it's a few hundred milliseconds.) Often you will still get the error message.
But if you open Explorer you'll see that the drive is connected. Just set up a shortcut to run it
and then put the shortcut in your Start menu folder.

This does work with Win 8.1 and Win 10 ver 1809 (October 2018) and earlier.

http://zornsoftware.codenature.info/blog/windows-7-disconnected-network-drives.html

This is the download page: http://zornsoftware.codenature.info/free-downloads?did=5

ITEM FIFTEEN
Make Windows look and act YOUR way.

One of the huge complaints about Windows from Vista on is too much "gotta do it the latest
MicroSoftie geek way" -- change the interface, change the terminology, change the layout
again and again.

Three free and incredibly useful programs for making Windows look and act the way you
want it to. I had/have various computers running Window 7 Pro, Windows 7 Home
Premium, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro -- and the interfaces
look and act almost identical. Because one computer dual boots and I use a KVM (Keyboard-
Video-Mouse) switch that lets me run four computers from a single keyboard, monitor and
mouse, I had to use a different background theme on each to tell them apart.

1) Classic Shell Menu www.ClassicShell.net -- I like the Win 9x "fly-out" menu style best.
You can emulate anything from Win 9x through Win 7 and change a lot of other settings too.

2) Windows Tweaker www.TheWindowsTweaker.com

3) XYplorer www.xyplorer.com -- A modern interface Explorer substitute with tabbed

browsing and extensive settings for searching

(I prefer PowerDesk Pro 9 from Avanquest, but that costs $40.)

Some other useful free utilities, though they don't change the appearance, etc., of Windows:

4) TCC/LE www.JPSoft.com -- This started life as NDOS/4DOS with Norton Utilities. If

Microsoft had continued active development of COMMAND.COM for the past 25 years, this
is what it would look like. (The paid version has things like user-defined functions and array
variables, an Integrated Development Environment with a full debugger, tabbed windows,
etc., but even the free version kicks butt.)

5) TCC-RT www.JPSoft.com -- This is a free runtime version of the paid version--it lacks a
command-line interface, GUI, IDE, and other tools. If you don’t know what those mean you

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won’t need this.

6) Bulk Rename Utility www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk

7) Nirsoft www.Nirsoft.com -- loads of troubleshooting, system information, and many

other types of utilities. Definitely download the launcher and the full utilities pack. And
there is also a SysInternals launcher.

8) SysInternals www.SysInternals.com -- heavy-duty utilities by a Microsoft insider PhD in

Computer Sciences.

ITEM SIXTEEN
Don't use smart quotes!

Most wordprocessors and other programs now routinely use "smart" quotes and similar
punctuation -- the ones that are nice and “curly” rather than straight, not to be confused with
curly braces: { } .

Since most people who send written documents use Microsoft Office for both
wordprocessing and email, it's likely both the sender and recipient are using the same non-
standard fonts. So everything will look fine.

And then you send an email or post a blog entry, etc., that doesn't use Microsoft's custom
"standards". And the recipient sees upside-down question marks, capital A's with umlauts, or
other weird non-standard symbols.

Most programs that can create text now have a "Format as you type" feature and it
automatically changes double-quotes and single-quotes to "smart" equivalents. That feature
can be turned off in options. The resulting text doesn't look as pretty, but I never have
problems of weird symbols showing up in the middle of words, etc.

ITEM SEVENTEEN
Pick a standard keyboard layout -- and stick with it.

I learned this the hard way back in the 80's when "cheap" keyboards were over $50 each. We
were computerizing an office and we bought two keyboards with the "inverted T" layout
commonly used for cursor keys, and one with a "+" layout. Hey, no big deal, right? It's one
key different ...

No one would use that keyboard. We'd set it up for them, they'd be typing and ... HUH ?!?
WHERE THE HECK DID MY CURSOR GO ??? They would eventually realize they had hit
the "down arrow" key of an inverted T, only on that keyboard it was the "home" key. After
that happened about 3 times in 10 minutes they would insist on the other keyboard.

The same goes for a few other keys, like narrow (one key width) Shift keys and backspace

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keys and backslash keys that can be in several places.

One other problem is keyboards that have a row of buttons between the cursor keys and the
traditional Insert, Delete, etc., group. And that row does things like put the computer in sleep
mode. You unconsciously rest your hand in the usual "space" separating those two ... and
accidentally shut down your computer!

Pick a common layout and stick with it. When you buy new keyboards, make sure they have
the same layout. It's worth the extra few minutes. The only one that's a real problem is the
backslash key. It is common in one of two places, so often you just can't get it in the place
you want.

-------------------------------------
A related precaution is that if the keyboard you're getting is fairly cheap ... buy a few extra. It
puts off the problem of matching and for maybe an additional $10-25 it's worth the extra
money up front.

ITEM EIGHTEEN
Put data on a separate partition.

This can particularly be a problem with a laptop with only one hard disk or SSD. However, in
most cases Windows can reduce the size of a partition, leaving space for a second partition.
It might be necessary to temporarily put the disk in another computer and boot from that
computer to do the partition resizing.

In cases where there are problems with the operating system that require restoring from a
backup or using system restore, there is less chance of losing data if it's on a separate
partition.

ITEM NINETEEN
Keep your Windows and program install media
forever.

This doesn't mean just Windows, it includes all versions of all program installers.

Often there will be compatibility problems installing or reinstalling the latest version of a
program or getting it to work, but an earlier version will install and work. You might have to
go back several versions, to find one that will install.

This is particularly helpful when an activation server is no longer on-line, the current version
says it has been installed too many times, a company no longer supports your most recent
version, etc. Often, older versions don't "phone home" for license verification, maximum
number of installs, etc.

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Keep in mind--even if you never need it again, there will be other people who probably
do--"HELP! Does anybody know what program can open a .DTF file and where I can get a
copy??"

Yes--it's a database program Symantec tried to market in the late 1980's-early '90s that
never caught on. They "orphaned" (abandoned) the program in 1995. And yet in 2019 there
are some companies that still use it--even though it's a DOS program intended for simply
hobby-level tasks back then, such as maintaining a small club membership list.

ITEM TWENTY
Before discarding duplicate hardware, test what
you'll keep.

I had two 5-1/2" floppy drives and figured I'll just keep one. It turned out the one I kept
doesn't work--and there's a disk with information I could use, but I can't read it.

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