It’s been quite some since one can install Android on Windows-based systems, whether through an emulator or through virtual machines (such as Virtual Box or VMware Workstation).
When running Android on virtual machines, there is one common adjustment which is not readily available through obvious user interface, namely the screen resolution. This web page discusses how this can be done and the settings be saved.
There may be situations that you would like to convert a coloured PDF document to black-and-while (monochrome or greyscale) for whatever reasons. One of the methods that can accomplish this is to use ImageMagick, free command-line software that can perform all sorts of functions related to images. The following examples are commands to convert a PDF in colour to black-and-white. Values in the parameters should be adjusted to suit the particular document in question to obtain optimal results. (Note: Ghostscript needs to be installed for working with PDFs)
“magick -density 600 in.pdf -threshold 60% -type bilevel -compress fax out.pdf”
“magick -density 600 in.pdf -level 10%,90% -type grayscale -depth 8 out.pdf”
I needed for a reliable, fast and non-destructive way to increase gain on a video’s audio track. I found it in using the ffmpeg tool, which is a swiss army knife for dealing with video and audio files. It’s conveniently cross-platform and works wonders.
To increase the volume of the first audio track for 10dB use:
ffmpeg -i inputfile -vcodec copy -af “volume=10dB” outputfile
To decrease the volume of the first audio track for 3dB use:
ffmpeg -i inputfile -vcodec copy -af “volume=-3dB” outputfile
After you upgraded to Windows 10 in VMware environments, the shared folders feature may not work any more. Follow this link to resolve the problem.
When you encounter problems connecting your Android phones/tablets to a PC, the cause could be that Windows is not selecting the proper driver for the device. Normally you would connect your portable device to a PC using Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). You may want to override the driver that Windows chooses if problems occur during installation of default driver, unknown device detected, etc. To override the default driver, simply choose to update the driver, pick your own driver and select ‘MTP USB Device’.
A good read on ‘Android USB Connections Explained: MTP, PTP, and USB Mass Storage’.
If you have a high-resolution display, you’ve probably noticed that some apps have blurry fonts when scaled up. Even stranger: some apps that used to scale well are blurry in Windows 10. Here’s a fix.
When applications are installed and updated on the Windows Operating System a hidden directory “c:\Windows\Installer” is used to store the installer (.msi) files and the patch (.msp) files.
Generally these files are important as during updating, patching or uninstalling software it will use the .msi/.msp files. If you blanketly delete all the files in this folder, you will find yourself needing to rebuild windows.
Over time as your computer is patched and patched again, these installer files become outdated and orphaned. They are no longer required, but they can take up many gigabytes of data…..(click here for more information and download the nice little utility to free up space on the Windows OS Drive).
Changes to OneDrive
Microsoft announces some upcoming changes to OneDrive. On 7/27/2016, the amount of storage that comes with OneDrive will change from 15 GB to 5 GB. Microsoft is also discontinuing the 15 GB camera roll bonus. You can learn more at the FAQ.
Instant messaging service Whatsapp has announced it will encrypt all its users’ communications from Tuesday.
With end-to-end encryption, messages are scrambled as they leave the sender’s device and can only be decrypted by the recipient’s device. It renders messages unreadable if they are intercepted, for example by criminals or law enforcement.
Whatsapp, which has a billion users worldwide, said file transfers and voice calls would be encrypted too. The Facebook-owned company said protecting private communication was one of its “core beliefs…..(read the whole story)
