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).
TeamViewer has always been a popular tool to remote control or trouble shoot a client’s computer. The platform that this software supports now expands to non-PC arena like Android. This opens up a whole lot of new perspectives on how this tool can be utilized, e.g. controlling your phones from a computer and vice versa controlling your computer from a phone remotely. Try it out and see if these new features make sense and apply to you (free for personal use).
If you have an older scanner that still works but the software does not behave properly in newer versions of Windows, you may want to give NAPS (Not Another PDF Scanner 2) a try. It has a clean user interface and works with most WIA and TWAIN scanners, and it is free.
If you encounter problems when booting an Acer laptop (no posting, no screen, fan is running), you can try the following power drain procedure, it may do the trick.
1. Remove the ram sticks (Clean with a soft lint free cloth while they are out)
2. Remove the power cord and battery
3. Hold the power button for 58 seconds
4. Replace everything.