Ray Woodcock's Latest

Windows 7: HTML (MHT) Files: Batch Printing/Converting to PDF

2012-01-26T18:22:00.643-05:00

I had a bunch of MHT files in a folder. (MHT was apparently short for mhtml, which was short for MIME html.) I produced these files in Internet Explorer (IE). To do this in a recent version of IE, the approach would be to look at a webpage and hit Ctrl-S > Save as type > Web archive, single file (*.mht). The MHT format would try to build everything on the screen into a single file, unlike the

Windows Seven Forums: Banned!

2012-01-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

I was trying to get an answer to a question about Windows 7. I went to Windows SevenForums.com. When I tried to log in, I got this message: You have been banned for the following reason: spam Date the ban will be lifted: NeverI had gotten that message previously, and had twice asked them why I was getting this. They had never replied. As one comedian put it, "It's funny, I haven't even done

Unlocking PDFs

2012-01-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

I was working with PDF files. For purposes of reading them onscreen, I found it helpful to go into Adobe Acrobat and crop off most of the white space around the text. This would allow Acrobat's page view to show the text in a larger size, making it easier to read. I also sometimes liked to add bookmarks. And for many PDFs, I would add a comment balloon on the first page, citing the URL,

Windows 7: A Batch File to Sort Files

2012-01-21T01:22:00.000-05:00

Since the mid-1980s, I had been using batch files to automate various tasks. While a person could do some fancy things with batch files, mine tended to be very basic. The simple commands that I had learned in DOS had mostly remained useful in Windows 3.1, 95, 98, XP, and 7. Batch files could be run in multiple ways. If the file was already set up and if there was no desire to watch it perform

Adding Bad Clusters to the Bad Clusters File - Second NTFS Boot Sector Is Unwriteable

2012-01-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

I was using Windows 7 and, as such, was using hard drives formatted in NTFS and divided into several partitions. I booted the system with an Acronis True Image Home 11 boot CD, made an image of one partition, and saved it on another. When I rebooted Windows, the folder that I had told Acronis to create (named "2012-01-20 Backup") did not exist. Windows Explorer showed it as being just a file,

Batch Merging Many Scattered JPGs into Many Multipage PDFs - Second Try

2012-01-14T21:35:00.003-05:00

I had previously looked for a way to combine multiple JPG files into a single PDF. As explained in more detail in that previous post, the specific problem was that I might have sets of several JPGs in a single folder that should be merged into several different PDFs, and there might be multiple folders at various places that would have such PDF sets. Hence, if I wanted to automate this project

Combining PDFs with PDFsam: Introductory Syntax

2012-01-14T16:33:00.014-05:00

I was using Windows 7. I had a project that would benefit from automated merging of multiple PDFs into a single PDF. It looked like PDFsam would be useful for this purpose. PDFsam had GUI and Console options. In other words, it could be accessed through a user-friendly interface, like most Windows programs, and it could also be used on the command line. My project had certain complexities,

Windows 7 Cannot Find Acrobat.exe

2012-01-14T01:07:00.000-05:00

I was working in Windows 7. I had installed Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. In Windows Explorer, I selected two PDFs, right-clicked, and chose the option to "Combine supported files in Acrobat." I got an error message: Windows cannot find 'Acrobat.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.I clicked OK to get rid of the dialog. I noticed that I got this error only if Acrobat was

Windows 7: Cannot Create New Folder in Windows Explorer

2012-01-09T13:06:00.004-05:00

I was working along in Windows 7 x64, when suddenly I discovered that I could not create a folder in Windows Explorer. The method I usually used (File > New > Folder) no longer existed: the Folder option was gone from the drop-down menu. A search suggested that I was not the only one who had experienced this. It seemed that suggested solutions had not reliably fixed the problem. One such

Windows 7: BSOD: Memory Dump

2012-01-09T08:10:00.045-05:00

As discussed in another post, I was trying to understand the words that appeared on a blue screen of death (BSOD) -- that is, a crash notice -- in Windows 7. At the bottom of the screen, there was a mention of a "memory dump." This post describes steps I took to learn more about that concept. The general idea seemed to be that Windows had stored information about the current contents of the

Windows 7 x64: Bootable RAM Tester

2012-01-08T08:41:00.087-05:00

I was running 64-bit Windows 7 with 8 gigabytes (8GB) of memory. I wanted to test that RAM. So I looked around for a program that would do the testing. It appeared that Memtest was still limited to 32-bit Windows (hence its full name, Memtest86). Another option was Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic (WMD). It appeared both of these would involve burning the program to a CD, booting the

Converting Scattered WMA Files to MP3

2012-01-03T11:27:00.000-05:00

I had .WMA files scattered around my hard drive. I wanted to convert them to .MP3. I could search for *.WMA, using a file finder or search tool like Everything, thereby seeing that those files were in many different folders. Having already sorted them, I didn't want to move them anywhere for the format conversion. I wanted to convert them right where they were. A command-line tool would do

Warning: System Memory Usage High

2011-12-31T14:25:00.039-05:00

Summary A sudden announcement from my computer speakers appeared to be due to a bug in Rizone Memory Booster (MB). The solution seemed to be to change, rename, or delete the MP3 files in MB's Sounds folder. I used this problem as an opportunity to look at some related freeware. Description I was working along as usual in Windows 7, and suddenly a voice announced from my computer speakers, "

2011: Best Videos of the Year

2011-12-25T13:28:00.019-05:00

These are the best of the videos that I shared with friends on Facebook during 2011. Acid test: I wanted to see them again. As always, comments are welcome. Best Musical Performances Mad Men Theme Song ... With a Twist Emily Luther & Charlie Puth, "Someone Like You" Nina Hagen, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Tom Waits / Cookie Monster Mashup - God's Away on Business Zaz, la toy session : je

Documenting Computer Work Onscreen - Second Try

2011-12-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

I had previously used my Shotshooter.bat batch file to capture screenshots once or more per second, and had combined them into an IrfanView slideshow .exe to display a timelapse account of what I had been doing on the computer during a certain period of time. I preferred to create a regular video file rather than an executable, and I also wanted to be able to add music, narration, or other audio

Thunderbird: The file Mailbox [filename] Cannot Be Found

2011-12-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

I was using Thunderbird 3.1.16 in Windows 7. I had a Hotmail account set up in T-bird, with the usual folders (Inbox, Drafts, etc.), and I also had a folder called E-mail Archive set up under Local Folders. I was in the habit of removing messages from Hotmail's Inbox, when I was done with them, and storing them in the E-mail Archive folder. Then I ran into a problem. I clicked on a message in

Moving Bookmarks to the Start Menu

2011-12-11T09:02:00.000-05:00

I was using Firefox 7.0.1 in Windows 7. I had created a customized Start Menu that contained not only the shortcuts to installed programs, but also the full contents of portable programs. I had saved that Start Menu to a drive other than drive C, so that it would survive if I reinstalled or upgraded Windows. So then my preferred arrangement of shortcuts and programs in my customized Start Menu

Windows 7 CHKDSK /R: Corrupt MFT: False Alarm

2011-12-07T03:19:00.000-05:00

I was using Windows 7. I rebooted with the Windows 7 program DVD, went into the System Recovery Options, and selected Command Prompt. At the prompt, I checked each partition on my drive with CHKDSK /R. There were five partitions. For the first two, no problem. On the third one, CHKDSK ran into problems partway through. I don't remember the exact problem or wording, but as I recall it

Windows 7: Adding Hotmail as Default Email in Firefox 8.0.1

2011-12-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

I was using Firefox 8.0.1 in Windows 7. (Apparently these instructions would also work for Firefox 3.0.) I was looking at a webpage containing an email address. I clicked on the email link and got a dialog saying this: Launch Application This link needs to be opened with an application. Send to: Thunderbird Yahoo! Mail Gmail Choose an Application Hotmail was not on the list. But I wanted

Windows 7: Tweaked Installation: Latest Version

2011-12-01T09:43:00.001-05:00

The time came to reinstall Windows 7. This post copies and pastes text from previous posts on this subject, with additions and corrections as needed. The posts I drew especially from were these: ASUS Eee PC Windows 7 Tweaks A Tweaked Windows 7 Installation: Second Try Windows 7: Additional Tweaks Note: there are quickie Windows 7 installation pages. The focus here is on a tweaked

Win7RegEdit.reg Updated

2011-11-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

I had previously developed a .reg file that would automate a number of registry edits in Windows 7. This post presents a slimmed-down version of that .reg file. The tweaks in this .reg file were part of a Win7 installation that also used Ultimate Windows Tweaker and other tools, as described in another post in this blog. The purpose of the present post is just to display the contents of

Freeware: A Thanksgiving Tradition: First Cut

2011-11-24T11:55:00.675-05:00

Summary I decided that Thanksgiving would be a good time to revisit, annually, the question of what freeware I was using, and what an appropriate contribution would be. I was continuing to develop my customized Start Menu as a repository of links to all of the websites, installed programs, and portables that I used. So a search of the Start Menu, plus a list of Firefox add-ons, seemed to give

Documenting Computer Work with Screenshots and Duplicate Detectors

2011-11-09T00:50:00.000-05:00

I was doing some work in Windows 7. I wanted to log the changes periodically as I went along. I had already developed a batch file, which I called Shotshooter.bat, to take screenshots and save them as .png files periodically. (I think this will work in all versions of Windows.) Having already done the NirCmd setup required to make that batch file work, I slightly revised it to read as follows

Things to Do Before Killing Yourself

2011-11-02T12:49:00.001-04:00

I’ve seen my share of movies involving life insurance fraud and so forth. In fact, I just saw one the other night: Double Indemnity. So I’m aware that sometimes people arrange the murders of insured people, disguise their own suicides, and otherwise take extreme measures to cash in, on behalf of themselves or their family members. Of course, we have also had our suicide bombers and, before

What Is a "Christian"?

2011-10-15T01:57:00.016-04:00

I had someone ask me, today, what a Christian is. I decided to look it up. I started with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED); but when I boiled down its many meanings into those involving religion specifically (as distinct from e.g., a part of the historical titles of kings of France), I wound up with more or less the same list as I could get, from Dictionary.com, without a paid subscription: