Global Protection suggesting Windows VPN Settings...

As a GlobalProtect installation and configuration should usually work quite smoothly I hit by a little roadblock... 

After GlobalProtect is installed I should usually get the dialog to enter the VPN connection settings. Instead I got the following message:

"To establish a VPN connection, select the GlobalProtect VPN configuration from Windows NETWORK & INTERNET VPN Settings." 

So GlobalProtect basically wants me to use the local Windows network settings instead of its own. Initially I couldn't really follow, but I figured that I may went too quickly through the installation.

Once I downloaded the Global protect the installer went straight to the Windows Store and I mistakenly confirmed that following message:

So "accidentally" I installed it the Windows Store version which didn't work in my case as I used a special download before.

Correct would be: "Continue installing from outside the Store".
And then the application worked the way it should...

Just a little thing you easily overlook trying that just before going to bed after a long day...

TheSuperAdmins #008: Home Office Support

Following the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent "lockdowns", many office workers are forced to work from home. Therefore it's important for the admins to set proper VPN connections for everyone..

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With Will residing at his lakehouse watching Netflix, Mike faces several users with wrong VPN settings...

Sony Vegas: How to create a multi-screen channel trailer?

Recently a friend asked me to create a trailer for his Let's Play Gaming Channel. So I got the idea to create a wall of TVs where each screen shows a different game he is playing with the camera moving around from one screen to another...

Even though I'm quite familiar with Sony Vegas, I haven't done something like that before. That's why the whole process was so interesting and the result so satisfying. That's how the final version looks like:

Not too bad, right? So let's go step by step explaining on how to make such a trailer.

1) Creating a TV wall

For doing that you either look for a fitting image online or create your own one. Make sure you can it has about as many screens as video clips you want to use. Once you've chosen a picture you put at the bottom of your project. 2) Put the clips on the screens

I downloaded like 12 videos of different games from my friend's channel. Then I started one by one, putting a video file above the TV wall template and minimized them by clicking on the icon at the edge of the clip in the timeline to open a window. Then you can accurately adapt the size of the clip and move it around to match on one of the TVs of your template.

That step you do with every clip until your TV wall is finished. That wall full of screen may looks like this.

3) Rendering the TV wall video
Following that I rendered like a 30 second clip of that wall. This new file I copied into my project.

4) Let the "virtual camera" run Now you work with your newly created TV wall clip in your project. Click again on the small icon at the bottom of your clip (see first screenshot in Step 1).

At the bottom of that menu you see a timeline where you can set time markers. Now you can decide where to place the "F" window at each second.

You can zoom in, zoom out. Experiment a bit which works the best for you. In my case it worked best not to leave the gaps too big as moved the "F" window slowly from right to left to show the channel logo at the end.

And that way you can create this kind of trailer video. For music I chose to use a fitting track in the YouTube Audio Library.

I hope I could help or inspire you to create a nice channel trailer.

Btw. I also made a tutorial video about it, if you wanna see a deeper explanation:

Sony Vegas: How to Use Speech Bubbles

Is there a proper way to create speech bubbles with Sony Vegas? Not really, but there's a quite simple way doing it in combination with GIMP.

Surely, you can also just download pictures from a Google image search, but if you wanna create a customized speech balloon, I'd recommend using the free GIMP software. So, step by step:

1) Open GIMP, and create a new project with an empty layer. Ensure that the layer is transparent.

2) Use the pencil to draw a speech bubble. Alternately, you can create by using the circle form.

3) Fill the inner part of the bubble with white color

4) Save the file as png to keep the background transparent.

5) Go back to your Sony Vegas project

6) Add the png file into the project

7) Adapt the file to the same ratio as the video you are making (e.g. 16:9)

8) Adjust the speech bubble to the size you need it

9) Add an extra text box with the text for the speech bubble

And that's it. Also check out the corresponding video below:

The annoying KB4532693 patch and temporary profiles

In February 2020 the Windows 10 patch KB4532693 was deployed and caused on some PCs logins on temporary profiles instead of the normal one. Here's something from my experience!

These days I got a request and the client even thought that the computer reinstalled itself which obviously wasn't the case Therefore no data got lost in this case. I read about the patch problem before, so following making some research I tried suggested steps as well:

1) Starting in Safe Mode, reboot in Normal Mode

- Didn't help, same issue

2) Uninstalling KB4532693
- Despite being listed in downloaded updates, it didn't appear in the list "Installed Updates". So to be sure I deleted the update via cmd command:

wusa /uninstall /kb:4532693 /quiet

Following a restart the situation didn't change. The list of temporary profiles gets piled up even more.

As several restarts didn't work either,  I ended up helping myself by creating a new user as admin, logged off and logged in with the new user, copied all the data, configured the profile and restarted a few times to be sure. Additionally I changed some settings in the registry to ensure the new profile logs in automatically.

It was a private laptop anyway with no connection to a domain whatsoever. 

Not the most ideal solution, but seemingly there's yet no official solution for the patch out yet - only the suggestions I mentioned above. Sometimes they help, in my case they didn't, so luckily I could find a workaround by just creating a new user.

TheSuperAdmins #007: Storage Request

We got March and our admins get a quite unusual request from the front desk... 

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So that explains the shortage on toilet paper which we currently witness in several countries...

YouTube Channel name "null" - How to fix it!

Your YouTube channel name is suddenly displayed with the name "null"? Here's how to fix it!

Last month a friend of mine created a new YouTube channel and in the last few days I noticed that instead of his real channel name, "null" is displayed. But why?

As Internet search couldn't give me a proper answer, I figured that the issue only occurs when I use YouTube in English. For example on one of my Japanese devices the name was displayed as usual, and switching to German also shows no problem.

So I thought it there might be an issue with the translation settings. 
And that was THE problem: The settings for the channel name in English were wrong, the channel name was written as "null".
It happens automatically if you try to add a new language but leave the channel name blank. However, this issue seemingly only appears when you make the first translation that you are allowed to leave the channel name blank. When you try later on to change "null" to blank, YouTube won't let you continue.

I could easily reproduce the issue with my English channel by adding a German translation to it.

So here's how to fix it:
1) Click on the upper right drop-down list to switch to the language your YouTube channel was originally created in
2) Select "Customize Channel"
3) Click on the settings wheel on the right
4) Look for "Translate Info" and click on the link "translating channel info"

5) Select "translate into". 
To fix the issue just copy-paste the channel title from the original channel or name it as you wish
6) Select "Save" and the issue should be fixed.

Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if it could help you or if you got something to add on this!

TheSuperAdmins #006: No Computer Virus

With the Coronavirus becoming a big topic in the news, our IT department is also more or less aware of it...

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After a long time I could make another little comic, I hope the next one doesn't take that much time! Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

PS2: Reaction Time Issues while Recording "Burnout Revenge" footage

In the classic PS2 game Burnout Revenge reaction is quite crucial, be it to avoid other cars or making a proper start in the mode "Crash Party". However, when you record footage it may raises the difficulty level in an interesting way...

As a friend and me have our Crash Party battle from time to time, we decided to now finally record it. Also, he started doing "Let's Plays" on Twitch and YouTube, so it would be appropriate footage for his channel.

For doing that, I used my old Sony RDR HX 680 B DVD and HDD recorder. So I connected the PS2 with a SCART cable to the input slot of the recorder and another SCART cable for the output from the recorder to the TV.

YouTube: Tankh

After a recording test we started playing. A Crash Party with 9 rounds and two players. To quickly explain the starting procedure:
You hit the X button once to start the engine, and as the RPM go higher (seen through a line of fire) you have to press X again (to avoid explosion). Then the line goes down again and you have to press X a third time. Depending on how accurately you press X the second and third time determines how good you start is going to be.

However, as the recording device was between the PS2 and the TV, the screen was probably a few milliseconds behind, causing us players being unable to hit X an the right moment, making the cars either explode and stalling the engine.

As we were first surprised on what happened there, it took as a bit the figure out what's the issue. Ultimately we could adapt to the situation and I even got a score of around 10 million for like three times in a row (see video above).

Quite interesting situation, right? Someone seen that before? I guess the issue is either the SCART cable, the device, or both...

Unrelated, but worth to mention:  How about getting the footage to a PC? There's no other way than burning it on a DVD and then convert the files from the DVD on your PC. I usually use HandBrake for that. The audio was recorded separately and later merged together with the video file.