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Disable Cortana in Windows 10 AU 2016

10/10/2016

For reasons only known to Microsoft since the AU update you can no longer disable it from the desktop. However you can make the following registry change to work round this.

Press Windows+R and run “regedit” and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

If you don’t see a “Windows Search” below the Windows folder, right-click the Windows folder and select New > Key and name it “Windows Search”. Right-click the “Windows Search” key (folder) and select New >

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MAC Cleanup

06/10/2016

Check hard disk Integrity to rule out disk faults

Boot the computer up in single user terminal. On chime press Command + S and run file system checker and repair

/sbin/fsck -fy

Reboot as follows:

/sbin/mount -uw /
reboot

Repair Permissions

Open Disk Utility and choose your main hard drive from the sidebar (in most Macs there will only be one.) Now click on First Aid and Repair Permissions.

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Windows battery error 94% Plugged in and Not Charging

17/09/2016

To fix battery not charging do the following

  • Open Device Manager
    • Select Batteries > “Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery”, right click and select Uninstall
    • Select Action > “Scan for hardware changes” to auto install the MS battery controller
  • Reboot system (optional but may be necessary in some cases)
  • Unplug battery charger and let the battery charge fall to below 90%
  • Plug in the charger – you should see it charging again and go up to 100%

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Windows 10 Not Updating

02/09/2016

If Windows 10 is not updating automatically then it is most likely due to system file(s) corruption.

To remedy this run SFC from the Adminstrator Command Prompt window as shown below. Once complete reboot and run Check for Updates within Settings, Update & security.

sfc /scannow

If this fails run DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management)

dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

When finished restart PC and Check for Updates again

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Download project folder from GitHub using subversion

26/08/2016

Install Subversion (SVN) as follows:

sudo apt-get install subversion

This command exports the GitHub PROJECT folder and subfolders and to DEST

svn export https://github.com/USER/PROJECT/trunk/PATH DEST

Suffix the PROJECT folder with /trunk and append the folder /PATH you wish to download. If the DEST folder does not exist it is automatically created.

For example the following command copies Tutsplus 30-days-to-jquery/lessons folder to lessons folder on the local drive:

svn export https://github.com/tutsplus/30-days-to-jquery/trunk/lessons lessons

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Linux TCP Flaw Fix

18/08/2016

For those who want to know all the details here is a document which explains how this RFC 5961 flaw can be exploited:

http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~zhiyunq/pub/sec16_TCP_pure_offpath.pdf

The fix itself:

net.ipv4.tcp_challenge_ack_limit = 999999999

which is appended to

/etc/sysctl.conf file using a text editor

and applied with

sysctl -p

Most importantly a command to show if your Linux OS is patched already – I had to trawl quite a bit to find this https://community.centminmod.com/threads/linux-tcp-flaw-cve-2016-5696-allows-hackers-to-hijack-net-traffic-inject-malware-remotely.8304/

sysctl -a | grep ack_limit
net.ipv4.tcp_challenge_ack_limit = 100

As you can see from above it was set to 100 on my desktop running Ubuntu 14.04 with all the updates on 18/08/16.

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Windows 10 No Start Menu

14/07/2016

No Start Menu when you click Start button and right-click not working on Taskbar program launch icons.

Try clicking on on Notifications icon (bottom RH corner) and toggle off Tablet Mode

Windows SP1 Convenience Rollup

02/07/2016

The Windows SP1 Convenience Rollup (WSCR) updates a clean copy of Windows SP1 from  Feb 2011 to May 2016. Further updates are then installed as normal

Steps

  1. Install a clean copy of Windows 7 SP1
  2. Install April 2015 Servicing Stack Update from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3020369 and click the appropriate “Download the package now” link
  3. Go to http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3125574  and click the Install button at the bottom of the page; click Yes and click the Add button for your version of Windows from the 3 choices shown.

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Rename Windows Home Folder

18/06/2016

The examples given change the user’s home folder from Michael to John.

In case of mistakes and recover data you may have missed make an image backup. Additionally create a restore point to backup the registry.

Method 1 – create new user and delete the old one

The recommended approach. It’s a bit sledge-hammer but is reliable and has the benefit of cleaning up the user profile.

  1. Create a new account called John using Control Panel or Windows 10 PC Settings >

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