Evernote - We had a good run

I used Evernote since 2012 and the app has been really useful to me throughout the years, but recently developments force me find other ways.

Crazy to think about that I started using the app already 12 years ago. The appealing point was that I could create things like personal To-do lists on either phone or PC and keep them synchronized. Was ideal for planning travels or just keeping personal notes for things you shouldn't forget. I even used it sometimes for longer texts such as fanfiction stories.

All good, but I think it was earlier this year things became more difficult for free users as the amount of notes was reduced to around 20 I think. Was still fine with me. There were only a few notes which I would regularly update. So I exported old ones into html files and just kept using occasional notes. The pop-ups all the time were quite annoying, but was still fine for the time being.

Maybe I was too optimistic while others already smelled the fire. A recent change now only allows only one free device per user. And that made the app no longer useful for me. I will now go with a very simple and free alternative: GoogleDocs.

It does everything I need and it's not justifiable to have a monthly subscription for synchronizing a few KB of text files. A shame, but there were are. Will the paid model work in the long-term? Time will tell, but I won't be a part of it.

Extend your Japan Visa online, but don't use Gmail!

With having finally the option to extend my Japan visa online, I thought I'd give it a go this year. But I ran into some interesting roadblocks...

First off all, a MyNumber card (マイナンバーカード) is required which I already got last. 

Then you need a card reader for your PC which can read the MyNumber card. In my case I got the 接触型ICカードリーダー from Goppa. 

Once everything's connected you need to install the JPKI利用者ソフト, and also add the browser plugin (such as from Google Chrome).

Some little font issue...

To ensure that the card reader works, I connected my card and opened the JPKI software to check. Interestingly, despite my PC having been set to Japanese language, sometimes letters could not be properly displayed.

Solution: In "Control Panel > Region > Administrative > Change system locale..." the language needs to be set to Japanese with ""Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" to be unchecked.

Following that things like my visa expiration date could be read from the MyNumber card properly. Everything can only be read after entering your PIN(s) of course.

Then it was time to go to that immigration website and create an account (登録).

During that process you fill out basic information such as where you live.
After the final screen (Step 3) the screen displays a message that I should receive an email to continue - and which should also allow me to create a password for the account.

I'd also recommend making a screenshot or writing down the 認証 ID. Especially considering what happened next...

The Mail to Change your Password...

I waited a few days to the next weekend where I still didn't receive an email. So I tried to use the "Change Password" option to trigger the email to be resent. As expected nothing happened.

Following that I emailed the support email address which is mentioned on that site. About 24 hours later I got the answer that it's not recommended using so-called フリーメール (free email services) such as Google, Hotmail or iCloud.

As that Immigration website uses a system which restricts access to overseas IP addresses.

Wow. That wasn't mentioned anywhere on that website.

At that point I wondered which email provider I could actually use. So I started researching online, but since that system is quite new, it was hard to find any information regarding that topic. 

Luckily I found an article on spouse-visa.jp explaining the whole process (which was luckily just posted the day before), where it's mentioned that Yahoo email addresses (assuming ending with co.jp) can actually be used.

Luckily I created a Yahoo address at some point before, so I rechecked whether I could actually log in again.

Following that I called my local immigration office as recommended in the previous email in order to change the email address of my already registered account.

However I got advised to call the number of that other company doing the support of that site. So I called there as well, but they actually cannot change the email address and told me to call the Immigration office again.

So I coincidentally ended up with the same guy as before again, but after explaining the situation I got send to another co-worker.

Here I finally got the chance to change my email address, but that person advised me that it's not recommend to use any free mail service, even Yahoo would not be possible.

Mail services coming from a phone provider such as Softbank should rather be used.
However I insisted on using a Yahoo address for now and in case it still wouldn't work, I could call again. The guy on the other side then kindly changed my email address as requested to my Yahoo one.

He said it could take around 30 minutes to a few hours for the changes to take effect.
I was quite hopeful that it would work, but you never know, so I went for a walk, came back and in fact after a bit more than an hour even a confirmation email for the "email address change" had arrived on my Yahoo address. 

I tried the password reset and even that email arrived immediately.

From here on onwards I could continue to fill out the forms and upload all the documents I had prepared. Also here I kept using my Yahoo address as further mails regarding my visa would go there as well (keep checking there occasionally or forward it).

Such as the final confirmation mail which came the day later.

Now my new residents card should be on its way soon.

Canon IJ Scan Utility settings get overwritten by default settings - Fix

The Canon IJ Scan Utility is a common tool to receive documents from a scanner on your PC - which I use for quite some years already. You can set it up in a way that for example PDFs are getting automatically attached to a new email. But how can you prevent that your settings get overwritten?

I set up this tool for my parents before, since they only use the scanner to be able to send certain documents via email. However occasionally these settings seemingly get overwritten by the default settings. Not sure whether they accidentally hit the "Default" button or something else is causing it... 

However, after fixing it a few times manually I starting looking for an permanent solution. As I could find nothing via online search I got an interesting (old-school) idea myself.

I had to find out where there the settings are actually saved and it's here:

C:\Users\Andy\AppData\Roaming\Canon\IJ Scan Utility

In this folder there are two files:

UICOM.dat
UIVER.dat

And if you apply changes within the software the time of the "last change" affects these two files. Which led me to the following plan:

1) Set up the Canon IJ Scan Utility settings in the way it should be permanently used

2) Close the application

3) Navigate to the folder mentioned above

4) Go to the Properties of each file and mark "Read-Only"

5) Confirm for both files

6) Now you can test it:
- Open the Canon IJ Scan Utility
- Go to settings, reset settings to default
(Note that the settings initially indeed get reset to default, but...)
- Close the software
- Reopen it
- The default settings are gone, you previously "Read-Only" settings are applied (as the software only reads from these files when it opens)

Hope this can help you! In my case it did! :) 

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...

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.

"Microsoft Excel can't insert new cells" - Cannot add new column

You are working in an Excel file and you need to a new row and suddenly an error message blocks you from doing it. What could be the issue here?

Especially in a case where the document has been used for a while, you quickly check the end of the row and don't see any issue. The error message looks like this:

"Microsoft Excel can't insert new cells because it would push non-empty cells off the end of the worksheet. These cells might appear empty but have blank values, some formatting, or a formula. Delete enough rows or columns to make room for what you want to insert and then try again."

So generally there must be somewhere an issue where the last row is filled with something and therefore cannot be moved. The thing is, it can be even by coloring.

As a first step I would go the last columns, mark the last few and look for the "Clear" tool in the ribbon bar. Use "Clear Formats" first and try to add a column.

In my case, around row 100 cells were colored and blocked the whole sheet from adding another row. So there are also ways to find it manually if you know how to look for.

MS Paint: Change line spacing settings

As the automatic line break in MS Paint is set to double spacing and the GUI doesn't seem to give you a chance to change that, another way had to be found...

As in WordPad and probably many other Microsoft applications the spacing after a line-break can also be changed via shortcuts.

There are three settings:
Ctrl + 1 - normal single line spacing
Ctrl + 2 - double line spacing (default setting)
Ctrl + 5 - 1.5 line spacing (a value in-between)

As I wanted to quickly edit a manga and couldn't find a setting in Paint, I figured that these shortcuts also work here.

Clearing up old Windows versions

If your space is getting less and less there are many ways to clear up some free disk space...

On way is definitely clearing up temporary browser data or the Windows-TEMP folder (C:\Windows\Temp).

Another way is using a tool like TreeSizeFree to narrow down the areas where some big files are hidden. Sometimes there are big video files or downloads you are not aware of anymore.

But, also important is checking if your computer was reinstalled in a way to keep the old version active. You see that, by checking the C drive, if there's a Windows.old folder. If so, you can proceed as it follows:

For Windows 10, go to Settings/Storage and check for Change how we free up space automatically. Scroll down and you can check for cleaning up old Windows versions. It takes a while, but once that's done you can make up a lot of space. In my case more than 30 GB.

Lenovo G70 touchpad reacting slow and on its own

From time to time the touchpad mouse can have some weird issues, recently it was reacting automatically and slow at the same time making it difficult to use at all.

It came all of the sudden: After booting my Lenovo G70 one day the above described things happened. The touchpad mouse reacted weird and unfortunately I did not have another external mouse to test.

The settings in control panel still seemed normal.

I know this laptop had some mouse issues sometimes such as that the mouse suddenly froze and needed to be reactivated again.

This time it was something else, so I rebooted and it didn't change at all. So I got to use an old trick:

• turning off
• removing the battery for a few minutes
• pressing the power button for 30 seconds
• waiting little bit
• putting back the battery
• turning on again

And then the issue was gone. Easy and efficient!

When does the Windows calendar end?

In previous Windows versions the calendar often ended at the at of the current century, but recently I noticed a different pattern...

Right, in previous Windows versions the  31/12/2099 was the last date in the calendar. But not only for Windows, also for older Sony PlayStation or Nintendo consoles. Check out this Wikipedia article for that.

In Windows 10 you see something different: If you scroll through the calendar you can always go until exactly 100 years in the future. But if you want to change the system time entirely the final date looks different:

Last date is the 31/12/2047. And I'm still talking about a 64 bit Windows version here. Speaking about 32 bit, there was another limit: 19th January 2038. Read more here: The year 2038 problem.

In short: The counter for 32 bit integer system runs out at this very date. It can cause issues in databases and file system. It needs to be changed to a format using 64 bit, which is going to have a time span for almost 300 billion years. But all that could run into an issue for software being programmed in 32 bit, even though all OS and CPU would support 64 bit by then.

At some point the issue is going to be addressed and solved...

To sum up 64 bit system allowed a wider range in future OS versions. There won't be an end - there's always a solution...

Free YouTube to MP3 Converter no longer free?

As I got asked on why the Free YouTube to MP3 Converter got so slow and is filled with Premium requests... I had to check myself and indeed: The free version is no longer as it was before.

I actually did not notice it myself since I was still using version 4.1.28 and the current version with that big change is 4.1.60 or even older. The included mp4 download is still free and working, but any other format needs now a premium version or is slowed down - no matter if you use the Free YouTube to MP3 Converter or the Free YouTube Downloader.

For years DVDVideoSoft offered these features for free and recently they changed the way of the usage of premium features.

In their forum this very question was asked and the answer is that this step was necessary in order to maintain the quality of the software. Surely understandable, but it will definitely shrink the numbers of users.

For now there's still a way out: Remove the latest version and look for an older version like I had before with 4.1.28. After the test I no longer had a proper installation file of that, but but found 4.1.1 which is still enough for me.

As long as the update does not run automatically (and if, you need to stop it) it seems that you can still continue using the older version - for now...

Chinese Tencent Software Removal

Suddenly you see a Chinese software popped up in your taskbar. But what is it and how do you get rid of it?

The user who contacted me previously tried to install a certain software by using a crack which seemingly failed and installed this 'tool' instead.

It caused lots of unnecessary pop ups in the browser and slows down the system in general. 

But the good news is that you can get rid of it. The bad news is, it's all in Chinese and if you don't know that language it could be difficult.

For me, knowing a bit of Japanese, helped to figure out a few characters. Like 出 means something like 'leave', 'go out' helped to close the software in the taskbar.

Once it's closed, you can proceed with uninstalling the software.

Once it's closed you need to go to the folder as seen in the screenshot above and scroll down to find a file called uninst.exe.
In the next step you need to be cautious in what you select:

• Seeing the next window, select the left option (not the green one!)
• At the next orange window you see three checkboxes - select the last one and proceed with clicking on the red button
• A last checkbox appears and there you should select the left button to complete the uninstall process

After a reboot it should all be fine again, but better check in the control panel under 'Programs & Features' if there's anything left (mostly at the bottom of the list written in Chinese). Try to uninstall other possible software like this as well.

Moreover, I also would suggest to scan the device for some possible malware remnants - my recommendation is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

So, try to stay free of certain software in the future!

WiFi solutions in New Zealands hostels

In the past few years I made it to several hostels around the planet and the supply of WiFi most went into the same direction, but in in New Zealand I got to see something different...

I've been to several hostels in Europe, US and Asia and the WiFi has always been free and even the password was often visible written on the wall. If that's a safe solution is another topic, but in New Zealand I faced another situation: In three hostels I've already been had always solutions for paid WiFi - only free in certain scenarios:

1) Only paid + extra free WiFi for certain hours on one floor
Exactly, no free WiFi in the dorms, just in the floor of the reception - but not in the evening. Interestingly the access code for that password was changed every few days (some sort of safety at least). You could pay for WiFi either per day or per week. 

2) 2GB per day / per device
A free WiFi solution - but with limited data. Everyday you had to go to the reception and ask for a voucher with a password - valid for 24h after the first login. And it's only for one device at a time.


3) 30 minutes per day / per device
The first solution with unlimited download - if you are quick enough. But after thirty minutes you need to pay if you want to continue. You could cheat around it by changing the MAC address of your device, but still not ideal...

Generally speaking NZ seems to be a bit behind in comparison to other countries. I'm not the only one surprised by this as a talked to other travelers coming here. On the other hand there are still diners, buses or even public spots within cities with free WiFi...
Maybe the solution to pay for extra WiFi still works well for the accommodation owners...

Top 5 excuses: How to tell that you cannot solve the issue

Being in IT support you often end up sending tickets to other groups if the issue goes beyond your responsibilities and/or your permissions. And it unfortunately happens that you get the ticket back with an excuse...

5: 'Login on another computer'
If the basic troubleshooting goes nowhere (uninstalling software, clearing software profile like for MS Office software, repair mode,...) you need get the suggestion to check it with a login from another colleagues computer...

4: 'Please create a new profile'
If it works, it could make sense to recreate the Windows profile on the involved computer. The issue could disappear if it's caused by something wrong in your profile. 

3: 'Please explain the user he has to reinstall (Zero Touch Installation)'
This is the solution if the actual solution is either to tough or tedious to find. Unfortunately the bigger the company or the IT environment is the less affordable is it to spend hours and hours of attempting to find a solution. 

From the view of a technician it's kind of frustrating for not being able or allowed to investigate for a proper solution. Instead of that you`re are just telling the user that`s a quicker and safer to reinstall.

2: 'Please send it to a group who can solve the issue'
That one is actually really funny. The group which received a ticket where they are expected to be responsible for sent the ticket back telling to send it to a group who can solve it.

It´s a really amusing way to tell that you are no idea yourself. But on the other hand you can sure put the whole structure in questions since now it can take a while for a ticket to end up at the correct team... (=> 'ping pong ticket').

1: 'Out of scope'

That's basically the same than the previous one, except this sounds more professional saying something like 'We are not responsible for this (and we don`t know who is...)'.

Conclusion:
Personally, such big companies with big structures cause this kind of ticket handling and solving of issues. Sometimes it's probably better to have a smaller environment to overlook where you can handle stuff right away instead of looking for who is responsible or avoiding further investigation...

Sony Bravia KDL-32D3000 and HDMI

It did not work initially but you need to check a few things and then you can connect your Sony Bravia TV with HDMI with your computer...

If you go to External Devices you see several AV channels (AV1-AV6), but no HDMI in the selection - and then somewhere in the menu I found HDMI settings and but 'no device could be found', despite being connected to the laptop.

I checked online and most forum threads someone asking about the same issue did not even get an answer. Is the cable too new for this 10 year old Sony TV from 2017? Is the port damaged?

I changed the resolution settings on two laptops - did not help.

It actually was way easier:

AV4 is the upper HD port and 
AV5 the lower one

(glad I found this somewhere !!!)

It did not work initially, but after turn the HD settings off and on - it worked as it should be.

After restarting the Sony Bravia KDL-32D3000 TV the settings were saved. Just selecting AV4 (in that case) and the screen from the laptop screen was visible on TV.

Open pst files with Linux

Is it possible to open pst files with Linux? Yes. There's a way and I will give you a information how it worked last time for me.

It was a client who used Linux Mint and wanted to use his under Windows created pst backup to be used under his Linux operating system.

This way worked: Install the email client called 'Evolution' + install the pst add-in with which how can you import the pst file.

Copy the pst file to your Linux and start the importing process...

No more audio in taskbar?!

What to do if there's no more volume icon in the taskbar when you see that it's greyed out in the system notifications list?

In my recent case the following solution worked:

• stop the service 'Windows Audio'
• kill explorer.exe
• reopen explorer.exe 

And then the volume icon reappeared on the taskbar again.

I read other cases where reapplying the group polices through

gpupdate /force

within a domain controller based environment also helped to solve the issue. So anyway, there's at least one way...

Files on USB drive damaged through BitLocker

I recently got a case that a user put in a USB drive while starting the BitLocker of the hard encryption...
and put it out while the encryption was running and caused in interesting scenario...

Some folders were untouched, but other folders turned into files without appendix. BitLocker created now recovery key for these folders as I checked.

I gave it one attempt with TestDisk to recover these files, interestingly, the drive was splitted in three partitions - the user had only time for checking one - but as a result several chk files were visible. But looking at the file sizes it did not seemed like the files I was looking for.

Following that I found a tool called deCHK to convert these chk files into the correct files they were supposed to be. However the tool only find 2 txt files - not worth to mention.

The user gave up further attempts, but out of curiosity: Would it have been possible to recover such files? Or rather difficult? An extra BitLocker recovery tool needed? 

In case of certain experiences with similar cases, just let me know how your cases turned out. Would be interesting to know.

My TOP 5 MSDOS games

There were times where computer games were much simpler and still very fun to play. At these times you had MSDOS or the Windows versions 95 or 98. Let's take a look back at which games I played back then...

5. Cawado
It's a fun German game where you give your character text commands to get him or her through the day. From waking up, preparing for school, an after-school job at a gas station and ending the evening in a bar. You can get extra points for appropriate behavior. In general it's kind of fun to have such a game where you can control your character like this.

4. GO310
That game is kind of easy to explain: You have to fill a space with boxes and gain more than 56% while a weird object is flying around. Each time you hit that object you lose a live - so you are game over as soon as you go from 0 to -1. If you the fill the space enough you get to the next level, the object is getting faster each time and afterwards there are even more - plus you will have some mines you need to avoid. Caution: You can get addicted ;)



3. Riptide
A quite fun submarine game which full name was 'In Search of Dr. Riptide'. In the game you take control of the agent Nick who is in control of one bigger and a small submarine. You need to avoid getting damaged by weapons and sea animals, open gates to get to another level. You need to figure out how to open door which are locked by a key or by a button you should find somewhere around...

2. Heroes
Heroes (or it's full name: Heroes 1/4: The Tantalizing Trio) is a fun Jump'n'Run game where you are in control of three characters which have different abilities. It includes multiple level and you need to be cautious about the health of the characters. Once one of the 'heroes' is defeated he ends up in a bubble and can be collected by the next character in order to be saved to get to the next level. 

1. GPCGA 
That was the first Formula One game I have ever played! It covered the 1988 season with eight tracks and three cars to select (Ferrari, Williams, McLaren). As it was back in these days the track looked more or less the same, just the layouts were different. Even Monaco had no guardrails, but interestingly a tunnel where you could crash into. The background also changed a bit from track to track. In Suzuka they even included the Fujiyama!

As nowadays there were different difficulty settings - even with shifting included where you could blow your engine up if you forget it! Else a quite easy game which I played quite often back then, but now - oh dear!

How to solve Internet Explorer issues - Basic Troubleshooting

Having problems with running webpages and other web applications running with Internet Explorer? Here´s a basic troubleshooting which IT supporters could face on a daily level - depending on the position of course...

Doing 1st-Level IT tasks sometimes feels like running in a circle and doing the same things over and over again. One of these tickets can be solved by are clearing the Internet Explorer´s temporary data... Here´s how:

1. Clearing the browser cache
Close the browser, go to Internet options, General and "Delete"

Select all the checkboxes (except the first one doesn´t really matter) and confirm with "Delete".

2. Remove the SSL state
Select another tab, this time "Content" and select "Remove SSL state".

3. Clear credentials
For that step, go to in Control Panel to the Credential Manager and remove all entries.

Once that´s done you can try to open the Internet Explorer again. If there´s still a problem with the website which only involves your browser I would recommend to do an Internet Explorer reset (in Internet Options => Advanced Options).

And the other solution is: Just use Google Chrome ;)