Case Studies – Page 2 – PC Doctor Godalming

Mount Microsoft System Image Backup in Linux

26/12/2023 by James

Mount Microsoft Windows 7 System Image Backup Virtual Hard Disk – VHD file(s) in Linux using Guestmount

Example to open a System Image Backup VHD file stored on a USB backup drive (D:)

sudo mkdir /mnt/vhdmp
sudo guestmount --add /media/mike/New\ Volume/WindowsImageBackup/DESKTOP-86333F0/Backup\ 2023-11-28\ 145005/3300c520-45e9-48f0-aaca-5b5a0b380b77.vhdx --inspector --ro /mnt/vhdmp

Once mounted use Krusader (Admin mode) or Nautilus to open the mount point directory (\mnt\vhdmp) to browse contents

Mounted in Read-Only mode

To mount in Read-Write mode replace -ro with –rw.

Exclude Loop devices from fdisk -l

20/07/2023 by James

sudo fdisk -l

Use SED script in command line to strip lines containing “Disk /dev/loop” pattern and delete following 5 lines including stripped line

sudo fdisk -l | sed -e '/Disk \/dev\/loop/,+5d'

~/.bashrc: alias shorthand to make it easier to remember

alias fdsk="sudo fdisk -l | sed -e '/Disk \/dev\/loop/,+5d'"

Then simply type fdsk in the command line and enter your password when prompted.

Credit remove dev loops

Remove Bing and Chat Icons from Windows 11 Start Menu Search Results

25/05/2023 by James

Using Regedit navigate to

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\

Click on Windows and add new key called Explorer

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Click on Explorer and add 32-bit DWORD DisableSearchBoxSuggestions = 1

Restart

Find Windows Version from File System using Linux

18/02/2023 by James

Example using bootable Live Mint 10.2 USB

Boot Mint USB
Install hivexget – contained within libhivex which is a self-contained library for reading and writing Windows Registry “hive” binary files

$ sudo apt install libhivex-bin
$ hivexget /media/mint/WINDOWS/Windows/System32/config/software 'Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' \ | egrep 'BuildLab|ProductName|Version"|"ProductId'

Filtered output

"BuildLab"="19041.vb_release.191206-1406"
"BuildLabEx"="19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406"
"CurrentVersion"="6.3"
"EditionSubVersion"=""
"ProductName"="Windows 10 Pro"
"ProductId"="00330-80000-00000-AA669"
"DisplayVersion"="21H1"

Credit Superuser.com Post 11

Lenovo C50-30 AIO Windows 10 No Sleep Mode

26/09/2022 by James

If not installed already install the Intel HD Graphics 5500 drivers either through Settings > Update & Security > Optional Updates > Drivers or download directly from Intel Support Download web page.

Malware and Adult content Blocking DNS Servers

11/05/2022 by James

Router centralised malware and adult content blocking

Choose Cloudflare 1.1.1.2/1.0.0.2 and 1.1.1.3/1.0.0.3 DNS servers to entrust them to block malware and adult content sites.

Choose Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 primary and secondary DNS servers for Open unrestricted access.

Alternative public Open DNS servers:

Google: 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4
OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222/208.67.220.220
Quad9: 9.9.9.9/149.112.112.112
Comodo: 8.26.56.26/8.20.247.20

For public DNS Servers by country see https://public-dns.info/

Notes:
Cloudflare promises that it won’t use your browsing data to serve ads and commits to never writing the your querying IP address to disk.

Can’t run Virtualbox VM

05/05/2022 by James

Windows 10

Virtualbox v6.1

When trying to run newly created VM the following Virtualbox error is generated:

WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is FALSE! Make sure you have enabled the 'Windows Hypervisor Platform' feature. (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).
VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

To fix ensure the following Window Features are disabled and VT-x is enabled in the BIOS:

Hyper-V
Virtual Machine Platform
Windows Hypervisor platform
Containers

Finally run the following Command Prompt command:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Restart the computer

Note: When VT-x is first enabled the PC should be powered off and on again

Install Windows 11 without Internet

17/04/2022 by James

When you reach the “Let’s Connect You To A Network” page, press Shift+F10 to bring up the Command window and enter following command:

taskkill /F /IM oobenetworkconnectionflow.exe

Return to the Windows 11 setup and enter local account information

Updraftplus plugin can’t read .directory file warnings

31/03/2022 by James

Unfortunately its not possible to exclude special Dolphin .directory files using Updraftplus settings. It ignores the setting exclusion and continues to report “…can’t read .directory” file warnings in the log file during backup.

To work around this add the following PHP code to your Functions file

//
// Updraftplus Backup filter
// Prevent attempts to backup .directory files and generate annoying warnings 
add_filter('updraftplus_exclude_file', 'my_updraftplus_exclude_file', 10, 2);
function my_updraftplus_exclude_file($filter, $file) {
return (basename($file) == '.directory') ? true : $filter;
}

Fix Lost Dolphin File Copy Progress Notification

23/03/2022 by James

System: Kubuntu 18.04

Problem: No longer able to see file copy progress, e.g. Dolphin so you can’t monitor the progress and have no idea when it will complete

Solution edit the Plasma configuration file as follows:

Run Terminal and stop Plasma

kquitaap5 plasma

Edit

nano /home/[user]/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc

Add the following

[AppletGlobals][plasma_applet_systemtray]
ShowJobs=false
ShowNotifications=false

Start Plasma again

kstart plasmashell

Credit: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=70502

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