Topic: IT Secrets thread!

[Claire.]

If it boots from the Vista HDD then no need for the bootable ISO. Just run the setup file from Windows Explorer and it will copy all of the install files across, reboot and install.

I tried, it said it can't install from there and to use bootable media or upgrade to I guess win7. It's not gonna beat me.

FAT32 is limited to 4GB and I’m sure the Win10 iso is about 5GB?

it's 4.3 and I checked the install.wim is less than 4gb.

[Claire.]

failed again, 'no boot sector on usb device', wondering whether to put linux on it so it'd at least be usable.

[Graeme]

Does sound to me like it’s an issue with the MBR on the USB drive. I’m like you though I’d absolutely fucking refuse to let it beat me.

[PaulF]

I think we are team don't let it win.
Firstly have you tried leaving it next to the Mac for an hour? I'm sure the goodies of apple will cross the ether and fix the PC in question .

Also I suspect 2008 machine won't have uefi issues. Could be wrong though.

[PaulF]

I guess if you can create a bootable Linux USB you are 80 % there.

--edit-- I guess nobody has dvd drives any more. Let alone bootable ones

[Graeme]

2008 laptops still had DVD drives. Back in 2013/2014 when I was procuring Dell kit for a council they still had the drives on.

[Claire.]

Yeah it's got a dvd drive and more ports than I'd care to name, it's absolutely huge!

Plan of attack today is either getting a win7 iso and doing things baby steps style or dual booting my mac with windows10 to try create the USB.

[Aldo1988]

NERDS!!!!!

Windows logo key + Shift + Left Arrow or Right Arrow

[PaulF]

Yeah it's got a dvd drive and more ports than I'd care to name, it's absolutely huge!

Plan of attack today is either getting a win7 iso and doing things baby steps style or dual booting my mac with windows10 to try create the USB.

I think I may have a Windows 7 iso. Shout if you need.  Which is why I was asking about dvd drive.

[Claire.]

I think I may have a Windows 7 iso. Shout if you need.  Which is why I was asking about dvd drive.

Cheers, I don't know why it's still available being so out of support but I downloaded it from the Microsoft site, now installed win7 and the fucker finally has some working drivers so online! Hoping I can create something bootable or just upgrade to win10 from there. It did not defeat me!

[PaulF]

Nice work!
I've gone 7 to 10 numerous times.
Paid for a license through cdkeys.

[owens_2k]

On my laptop docking station I have a dual monitor setup, with each connected independently via displayport. There is a spare VGA port on the dock which I'd like to use to hook up to a third monitor.

Problem is my monitor does not have a VGA port, only HDMI & displayport. Is there a VGA to displayport or VGA to HDMI cable I can use?

My searches have only found cables where the VGA port has to be at the monitor end. Perhaps what I want isn't possible.

[Graeme]

Yeah it's possible, just need to use something like this which is specifically for a VGA source to a HDMI monitor

[Elmo!]

On my laptop docking station I have a dual monitor setup, with each connected independently via displayport. There is a spare VGA port on the dock which I'd like to use to hook up to a third monitor.

Problem is my monitor does not have a VGA port, only HDMI & displayport. Is there a VGA to displayport or VGA to HDMI cable I can use?

My searches have only found cables where the VGA port has to be at the monitor end. Perhaps what I want isn't possible.

As an alternative that doesn't use crappy VGA, have you checked if either of your existing monitors support Display Port daisy chaining?

[owens_2k]

As an alternative that doesn't use crappy VGA, have you checked if either of your existing monitors support Display Port daisy chaining?

You know what, I didnt even know daisy chaining was possible with monitors in such a way! I don't believe mine are compatible though as they only have 1 displayport each (lg-23EA63V)

[owens_2k]

Yeah it's possible, just need to use something like this which is specifically for a VGA source to a HDMI monitor

Thank you

[PaulF]

Cheers, I don't know why it's still available being so out of support but I downloaded it from the Microsoft site, now installed win7 and the fucker finally has some working drivers so online! Hoping I can create something bootable or just upgrade to win10 from there. It did not defeat me!

Did you beat it into submission?

[Claire.]

Did you beat it into submission?

yep, all good now, doubled it's ram and gave it a clean out and seems happy.

[Egyptian36]

https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io
Just want to share this awesome free project I found. Personally I installed it on my Linux home server using docker and can be installed on Windows or the cloud etc. Basically this software monitor part of a webpage for changes and send you a notification. For example you can watch a product price and if the price drops you get an email or Whatsapp messages. You can get notified when a new listing appear or tickets become available and so on. Basically you can monitor anything you want.


https://github.com/Rongronggg9/RSS-to-Telegram-Bot
Another one is this Telgram bot. I created a Telegram channel only for me and used this bot to subscribe to feeds. Now I don't need to go to Twitter or Instagram or news website. Whenever a Twitter accounts I specified or an Instagram accounts post something or an article appear at websites I follow this bot will send it to me all at one window.

[PaulF]

oooh, can I get whatapp messages for the transfer thread?

joking aside, it'd be good to be able to follow threads without posting. Some are interesting for a while, then clutter up the unread messages forever more..

[Andy @ Allerton!]

https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io
Just want to share this awesome free project I found. Personally I installed it on my Linux home server using docker and can be installed on Windows or the cloud etc. Basically this software monitor part of a webpage for changes and send you a notification. For example you can watch a product price and if the price drops you get an email or Whatsapp messages. You can get notified when a new listing appear or tickets become available and so on. Basically you can monitor anything you want.


https://github.com/Rongronggg9/RSS-to-Telegram-Bot
Another one is this Telgram bot. I created a Telegram channel only for me and used this bot to subscribe to feeds. Now I don't need to go to Twitter or Instagram or news website. Whenever a Twitter accounts I specified or an Instagram accounts post something or an article appear at websites I follow this bot will send it to me all at one window.

Nice

[owens_2k]

Can anyone recommend some screen mirroring software for PC?

My lad has his GCSE's coming up and I want to make sure he's revising. He's a nightmare for blagging that he's doing it but then not. In an ideal world id cut off his PC internet between certain hours so he can focus on revision but you just don't know if they genuinely need a connection for certain revision. Thats his claim anyway

Anyways I just need something so I can easily see his screen(s) on my phone at a quick glance if anyone knows of anything.

[ToneLa]

Splashtop is great though there may be more SECRET ways of doing it

It'll have a taskbar icon

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Can anyone recommend some screen mirroring software for PC?

My lad has his GCSE's coming up and I want to make sure he's revising. He's a nightmare for blagging that he's doing it but then not. In an ideal world id cut off his PC internet between certain hours so he can focus on revision but you just don't know if they genuinely need a connection for certain revision. Thats his claim anyway

Anyways I just need something so I can easily see his screen(s) on my phone at a quick glance if anyone knows of anything.

www.creepydomineeringstalkingweirdo.com

[Elzar]

Anyone use Microsoft forms?

I want to create a form that divides the results into excel, either by sheet or a new document, depending on the first answer

For example "Who do you support?" then every time someone chooses Liverpool it goes into one list, and if you choose Everton it goes into a different list.

Is this possible without Power Automate?

[Red_Irishman]

Anyone use Microsoft forms?

I want to create a form that divides the results into excel, either by sheet or a new document, depending on the first answer

For example "Who do you support?" then every time someone chooses Liverpool it goes into one list, and if you choose Everton it goes into a different list.

Is this possible without Power Automate?

I'm pretty sure there is a feature called branching that facilitates this. Look into it.

[Kashinoda]

What's wrong with using Power Automate for this? I imagine it would be fairly easy.

[TepidT2O]

I'm pretty sure there is a feature called branching that facilitates this. Look into it.

There is….


You just have to find the branching function and use that..  works nicely

[Elzar]

What's wrong with using Power Automate for this? I imagine it would be fairly easy.

Don’t think I can use it without my work company signing up for it.

I'm pretty sure there is a feature called branching that facilitates this. Look into it.

Thanks, will look it up!

[owens_2k]

My sister has a @hotmail.co.uk email address. When I email her (I have an @gmail.com account), I have no issues however when others have emailed her previously - their email has got through but they've have received a postmaster reply from something completely not related to her or her account.

For example when my dad emails her, she receives the email fine, but he gets the following sent back to him:

From: postmaster@outlook.com <postmaster@outlook.com>
Sent: 27 April 2023 15:36
To: General@arvatofs.co <General@arvatofs.co>
Subject: Undeliverable: test
 
Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
General@arvatofs.co
Your message couldn't be delivered. The Domain Name System (DNS) reported that the recipient's domain does not exist.
Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) and ask them to tell their email admin that it appears that their domain isn't properly registered at their domain registrar. Give them the error details shown below. It's likely that the recipient's email admin is the only one who can fix this problem.
For more information and tips to fix this issue see this article: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=389361.

It looks like there is some kind of forwarding service on her email to this other account? Anyone got any ideas?

[Claire.]

that address is a debt management company so that's certainly very weird.

[owens_2k]

that address is a debt management company so that's certainly very weird.

Yeah it is very weird. I've logged in to her email account and sent test emails from different computers and had the same result too. I was testing to see if it was malware on her computer. Seems to be linked to her account somehow

[PaulF]

Is defender on windows good enough antivirus? Is it worth paying for a different product? If so any recommendations?

[Chakan]

Is defender on windows good enough antivirus? Is it worth paying for a different product? If so any recommendations?

Not really, I use Avast. It's free and usually gets mostly everything.

[Elmo!]

Defender is fine, never had an issue.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Is defender on windows good enough antivirus? Is it worth paying for a different product? If so any recommendations?

Norton 360 is good and you can install it on a ton of devices for you and your family.

Offers customised protection and power tools for sorting out common issues in the background as well as backups, anti-virus, VPN, firewalls..

[jonnypb]

Is defender on windows good enough antivirus? Is it worth paying for a different product? If so any recommendations?

Yes it's good enough, definitely no need to pay for one.  Once over when it was first introduced it wasn't great, but over the years it has vastly improved which has reflected in recent evaluations by Independent labs that test AV products.  Can see some of them here

[John C]

Norton 360 is good and you can install it on a ton of devices for you and your family.

We'd advise don't permit all extensions though wouldn't we mate, Norton can dominate and slow the fuck out of everything. I hate it

[PaulF]

Cheers folks. Im going to stick with defender as it's no effort.
Also started to use the Google VPN I get for paying for Google space. I don't see what threat it's protecting me from though.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

We'd advise don't permit all extensions though wouldn't we mate, Norton can dominate and slow the fuck out of everything. I hate it

I hear that, but I have it installed on all my Windows boxes and my Mac boxes and none of them are slowed down. Even on my older machines. Mine includes the Norton Utilities that does the opposite of slowing stuff down.

Maybe the issue is that people have bloatware/crap installed. I turn off most Apple and Windows services and that dramatically improves performance.