blog.plee.me About software, technology and random things

7Sep/170

Open PhpStorm From Windows Explorer Context Menu For Directories

Hello!

If you are a bit lazy like me and just want to simply open PhpStorm from the directory that you've currently navigated to in Windows Explorer, you can use this .reg file to add the registry entries for the entry in the context menu.

Warning: This involves messing around a bit with the registry. Please make sure you understand what you are doing!

This .reg file assumes that the path to your PhpStorm installation is C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\PhpStorm 2017\. If it is not, just search and replace every occurrence of the path in the .reg file with the one that applies for you. Remember to escape backslashes with a backslash!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Aphpstorm]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Aphpstorm]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Aphpstorm]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Aphpstorm]
@="Open Directory in PhpStorm"
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Aphpstorm\command]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Aphpstorm]
@="Open Directory in PhpStorm"
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Aphpstorm\command]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Aphpstorm]
@="Open Directory in PhpStorm"
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe"
;"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Aphpstorm\command]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\JetBrains\\PhpStorm 2017\\bin\\phpstorm64.exe \"%V\""

Instructions: Just copy the text into a text file, save it as a file with the .reg extension (e.g. "phpstorm.reg") and execute it via double-click. When asked if you want to continue modifying the registry, confirm with "Yes".

Note: You might wonder why the registry paths contain a segment called "Aphpstorm" instead of "phpstorm" (or anything else). This is so that this entry takes alphabetic precedence over other entries and it is sorted further up. It will not influence the text displayed in the context menu.

Unfortunately I do not know the exact source for this neat little trick because I got this from a colleague at work.

If you wish to revert these changes at some point, just do what the first three instructions in the .reg file do: delete the 3 appropriate keys in the registry.

I hope this is useful to you! It sure is for me.

Thanks for reading!

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7Aug/170

Fixing Low Stereo Out Sound Volume For the Yamaha MG12XU / MG16XU / MG20XU Audio Mixer

Hi!

I recently got my hands on a Yamaha MG12XU audio mixer and dove right into the world of amateur analog audio mixing.

Everything went fine until it came to the USB interface. When trying to record the sound that was output via USB to my computer (basically STEREO OUT without the master stereo fader), it did arrive, but the volume was really, really low. Audacity barely showed any change in the graphs displaying the signal volume (went from a one pixel thick line to an occasionally 2-3 pixel thick line).

Additionally, the audio that went into the mixer via USB (channel 11/12 on the MG12XU) was considerably louder than all my other channels. In fact, if I used the USB attenuator function (press the PROGRAM dial/button 5x, turn the dial to adjust between -24 to 0 dB and confirm by pressing it once more) to set it to -24 dB, the lowest setting, only then was it as loud as all my other channels. That should have been the first indication as to what was wrong.

This was after installing the YAMAHA Steinberg USB driver from the official Yamaha Professional Audio website, which I strongly recommend. The default one that Windows 10 installed when it first detected the mixer somehow resulted in CPU usage skyrocketting due to svchost.exe. Not sure what that was about.

I tried installing the ASIO4ALL driver, but it didn't appear to make any difference, so I called the technical support hotline.

The very friendly and competent person on the other end explained to me that the signal strength the mixer was working with from the input all the way to STEREO OUT was simply too low. I had intentionally kept everything just as low as I could with the channel sliders on the 0 positions because I didn't want the gain settings to distort my signals. Turns out that mixers work best with the highest volume levels possible without distortion or constant peaking which does make sense - if you have more data for the signals, you can do more with them in terms of EQ, FX or anything really. Another clue was the monitor level display on the right side. For normal signals it only went up to a strength of about -25 to -30, which is basically the two bottom indicators of a total of twelve. They should be around the 0 level (5th from the top).

Once I realized that, it was only a matter of increasing the gain levels for the different input channels and lowering the master stereo slider as well as the phones level knob (and the AUX1 level knob in the SEND MASTER section) accordingly because the signal was now very strong. The monitor level now usually filled up to the 4-6 bottom-most lights (-15 to -6).

One test recording confirmed that the STEREO OUT USB signal was now as loud as what I heard on my headphones.

This was loud enough for me (the phones dial being set to 1 / the first "notch"), and translated to a gain level at 8 out of 10 "notches" (3 o'clock position) for all my sound cards (which were set to 100% volume in Windows for input as well as output) as well as my XLR microphone. Luckily, at this point there was no noticeable distortion yet.

Oh, and the volume in the USB input (channel 11/12) was now as loud as the other ones even without any attenuation set.

That's it!

I hope that helps you.

PS: Sorry if that is a bit of an obvious "hint", but as a beginner in the audio space myself, the advice from the Yamaha customer service representative made a light bulb switch on in my head. I thought I would share it in case you are having the same experience.

PPS: Even though I can only speak of the MG12XU, I am pretty certain that this applies to the sister models MG16XU and MG20XU, too, and maybe even the entire range of Yamaha audio mixers.

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2Mar/170

Using Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10

Hi!

If your Windows 10 system is an upgrade from a previous Windows version, you will not have encountered this problem.

This is only relevant for clean, non-upgrade Windows 10 installs.

I noticed that on my clean Windows 10 install the default application for viewing picture files like JPEG or PNG was the Microsoft Photos app. As I prefer the classic Windows Photo Viewer application for viewing images, I tried to select that as the default. Surprisingly enough, it was not in the list of options.

To add the Windows Photo Viewer back to the list of applications for pictures, you have to import missing registry entries. This is due to the fact that Windows Photo Viewer does not come as an executable but as a DLL.

The following explains the process for the whole system (not just the current user). The source article contains an alternative method for just the current user as well as a "sort order fix" solution that takes into account the order in which the files were sorted inside the directory.

  1. Download the "Restore_Windows_Photo_Viewer_ALL_USERS.reg" file from the source article or create a new text file with a ".reg" extension and the following contents: 
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Created by: Shawn Brink
; Created on: August 8th 2015
; Tutorial: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/14312-windows-photo-viewer-restore-windows-10-a.html


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"="@photoviewer.dll,-3043"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap]
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,\
  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,\
  77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,\
  00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,35,00,36,00,00,\
  00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-70"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF]
"EditFlags"=dword:00010000
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,\
  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,\
  77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,\
  00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,35,00,35,00,00,\
  00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-72"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,\
  69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,\
  00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,\
  72,00,5c,00,70,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,76,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,\
  00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,34,00,33,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg]
"EditFlags"=dword:00010000
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,\
  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,\
  77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,\
  00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,35,00,35,00,00,\
  00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-72"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,\
  69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,\
  00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,\
  72,00,5c,00,70,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,76,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,\
  00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,34,00,33,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Gif]
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,\
  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,\
  77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,\
  00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,35,00,37,00,00,\
  00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Gif\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-83"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Gif\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Gif\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Png]
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,\
  00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,\
  77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,\
  00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,35,00,37,00,00,\
  00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Png\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\imageres.dll,-71"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Png\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Png\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp]
"EditFlags"=dword:00010000
"ImageOptionFlags"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp\DefaultIcon]
@="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\wmphoto.dll,-400"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,\
  69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,\
  00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,\
  72,00,5c,00,70,00,68,00,6f,00,74,00,6f,00,76,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,\
  00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,33,00,30,00,34,00,33,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
  6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
  00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
  25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
  00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
  6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
  5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
  00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Capabilities]
"ApplicationDescription"="@%ProgramFiles%\\Windows Photo Viewer\\photoviewer.dll,-3069"
"ApplicationName"="@%ProgramFiles%\\Windows Photo Viewer\\photoviewer.dll,-3009"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Capabilities\FileAssociations]
".jpg"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg"
".wdp"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp"
".jfif"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.JFIF"
".dib"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap"
".png"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Png"
".jxr"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Wdp"
".bmp"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Bitmap"
".jpe"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg"
".jpeg"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Jpeg"
".gif"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Gif"
".tif"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff"
".tiff"="PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff"
  2. If you created the file by hand, it should use Windows line endings (CRLF).
    Also, the original file has UCS-2 LE BOM encoding, but I am not positive if that makes any difference as opposed to standard UTF-8 encoding without a BOM. I checked this with Notepad++.
  3. Run the .reg file.
  4. This should be it! You can now delete the .reg file and try selecting Windows Photo Viewer once again.

I think it is a bit weird that Microsoft would choose to omit these settings for a clean Windows 10 install, but I am happy that I can still use it with just this little tweak.

Source with more information, alternative ways to do this and instructions to revert these changes: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/14312-windows-photo-viewer-restore-windows-10-a.html

Thanks for reading!

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23Feb/170

Getting a Let’s Encrypt Certificate Through DNS Challenge With Cloudflare

Hi!

A couple of days ago one of my subdomains' SSL certificates expired.

Instead of paying for a renewal, I decided to have a first look at getting a free certificate from the Let's Encrypt Certificate Authority.

The ideal way would have been to set up a mechanism that would allow for an automatic certificate renewal, so I would not have to do it myself every 3 months. That is the maximum amount of time Let's Encrypt's certificates are valid for. However, in this case this was more easily said than done. The service I intend to use the certificate with is running on a shared IP and listening on a non-standard HTTPS port because the standard ports for HTTP and HTTPS are already used for something else. This prevented me from utilizing all HTTP / HTTPS based challenges to verify the hostname ownership which is an essential part of the Let's Encrypt certificate signing process.

After some searching I found a great solution that would enable me to do a somewhat half-automated, half-manual approach:

lukas2511's dehydrated ACME client in conjunction with kappataumu's Let's Encrypt Cloudflare hook.

This Shell-based ACME client allows the user to get a Let's Encrypt certificate using the dns-01 challenge. That way, you only have to create a DNS record (containing a generated value) in order to verify your ownership of the hostname instead of uploading content to the webserver. The DNS record can be created and deleted automatically through the Cloudflare hook if that is what you are using for your DNS record management.

The instructions for both the ACME client as well as the hook are pretty straightforward, so I recommend reading those if you are interested in trying this approach.

These are the changes I made in the config file (just as an example):

  • Set "http-01" as the CHALLENGETYPE (explanation below): 
    CHALLENGETYPE="http-01"
  • Set "rsa" as the KEY_ALGO: 
    KEY_ALGO=rsa
  • Add environment variables with config for the Cloudflare hook script at the end: 
    export CF_EMAIL='user@example.org'
export CF_KEY='1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef'
export CF_DEBUG=true

When attempting to execute dehydrated for the first time, it asks you to accept the terms. You can do that by simply entering this command:

$ ./dehydrated --register --accept-terms

Now you might have wondered why I set the CHALLENGETYPE to "http-01" instead of "dns-01"? So that we could accept the terms without any problems; "dns-01" gave me the following error: "ERROR: Challenge type dns-01 needs a hook script for deployment... can not continue."

The command I used to generate the certificates specified the challenge type "dns-01" explicitly anyway:

$ ./dehydrated -c -d hostname.example.org -t dns-01 -k hooks/cloudflare/hook.py

The first challenge attempt failed for me, but the execution went on to retry and ultimately finished successfully.

Afterwards, you can find the certificate files in the subdirectory "certs/hostname.example.org/".

I installed and executed the software in a local Linux virtual machine without any problems and then copied the certificate files over to the destination server manually. Technically I could have just done this on the production system as well, but I did not feel like saving my Cloudflare API credentials on it. It will be interesting to see how annoying the steps are going to get after a couple of repetitions. Maybe in time some other solution will have come around.

Hopefully this was a helpful recommendation for you.

Thanks for reading!

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18Jan/170

PhonerLite With FRITZ!Box

Hello!

If you want to set up your PhonerLite VoIP/SIP client with the FRITZ!Box so you can receive phone calls on your computer as well, of course you should have a look at the official AVM documentation (like the one for the FRITZ!Box 7390).

However, I encountered the following problems:

  • outgoing calls would result in a "480 Temporarily Unavailable" error (even the test number **797)
  • saving the configuration (tab "Configuration" => "Save" button) repeatedly would cause the status bar to alternate between
    • showing a red indicator and the error message "sip:<number>@fritz.box not registered <Connectivity Checks Failed>" every second click
    • showing a green indicator and the message "sip:<number>@fritz.box registered" every other click

I changed the following server / connection settings to fix the problem:

  • Proxy/Registrar: <FRITZ!Box IP address instead of fritz.box, e.g. 192.168.1.1>
  • Domain/Realm: fritz.box

After that, every time I saved the configuration if would show the success indicator and message and telephony just worked in general.

My local network interface uses an external DNS server for hostname resolution and I have added the fritz.box name manually in my hosts file. This might be why this was causing me problems.

I hope this was of any help to you in case you encountered this as well.

Thanks for reading!

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17Dec/160

Installing mod_cloudflare For Apache HTTPd 2.4 On Debian 8 (Jessie) Via Aptitude Repository

Hi!

If you are using the Cloudflare proxy functionality, you will find that your web server will end up only working with Cloudflare's IPs instead of the visitors'. After quite some time I thought that there has to be a better way to go about this, and I found mod_cloudflare, a solution officially developed by Cloudflare themselves.

When I was looking at the official Cloudflare documentation on how to install mod_cloudflare for Apache 2.4 on Debian 8 (Jessie) today, I was disappointed to find that they were only recommending manual ways: installing a .deb package or compiling the module yourself.

Luckily I found a guide on how to accomplish the installation with the standard apt-get / aptitude tool for Debian / Ubuntu.

This is how:

  1. Add the aptitude repository to a new sources list file, e.g. at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflare-main.list - with this content: 
    deb http://pkg.cloudflare.com/ jessie main
  2. Download the Cloudflare repository key and add it to the aptitude known keys: 
    # wget https://pkg.cloudflare.com/pubkey.gpg
# apt-key add pubkey.gpg
# rm pubkey.gpg
  3. Update the aptitude cache: 
    # aptitude update
  4. Look at which packages are available in the new repository: 
    # grep ^Package: /var/lib/apt/lists/pkg.cloudflare.com_dists_jessie_main_binary-amd64_Packages
  5. Install mod_cloudflare: 
    # aptitude install libapache2-mod-cloudflare
  6. Restart the Apache HTTPd service: 
    # service apache2 restart

Hopefully this way of installing will enable everyone to update / maintain it much more easily and with less one-time use packages installed.

Additionally, this could prove even more useful for people who want to install more Cloudflare packages.

I am confident that this method also works for Ubuntu and other versions of Debian - just replace the "jessie" part in the aptitude sources list file with your distribution major release codename (like "wheezy" for Debian 7 or "vivid" for Ubuntu 15.04).

Thanks for reading!

Original source: https://emtunc.org/blog/01/2016/installing-mod_cloudflare-ubuntu-14-04-apache-server/

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7Jun/150

Memory Leaks / Problems with Long-Running Symfony / Doctrine Console Applications

Hi!

I recently built several console applications that have to keep running as daemons as part of a more complex website. As soon as I added Doctrine for its highly comfortable ORM functionality, I noticed a significant increase in the applications' memory usage, which made sense because it would load Doctrine's code in order to use it. The worst part of it, however, was that the processes kept eating up more and more memory the longer they ran and with each Doctrine query they executed. Finally the processes ended up being killed by Linux's OOM Killer due to the high amount of memory that they wanted allocated for them.

Clearing the Doctrine Entity Manager ($entityManager->clear()) and triggering PHP's garbage collection manually did not help at all. So I assumed it had something to do with the data that Doctrine accumulates in the background.

During my research I finally stumbled upon this Stack Overflow question: Memory leaks Symfony2 Doctrine2 / exceed memory limit

Apparently, Doctrine uses an SQL Logger to log each and every query it uses when running in debug mode.

Due to the nature of Symfony console applications starting up in the dev environment by default when launching them from the command line, it also kept enabling the debug mode. That in turn enabled the SQL Logger which gathered more and more data and kept it in memory.

I decided to launch the processes by simply manually disabling the debug flag. Using the dev environment is not a problem for me, so I just did the following:

$ php app/console custom:command --no-debug

You could also set the environment variable SYMFONY_DEBUG to 0 before launching the command without the --no-debug flag, as it also respects its value - refer to app/console's source code.

Alternatively, you could start it in a non-dev environment:

$ php app/console custom:command --env=prod

or

$ php app/console custom:command -e prod

or just set the environment variable SYMFONY_ENV before launching it.

This way, the SQL Logger is not enabled.

My processes have been running at stable memory usage size ever since.

Another way would be to deactivate the SQL Logger in the code by principle, but that would be defeating the purpose of the nice built-in features of enabling/disabling the debugging mode, so I rather chose the first path. It might come in handy sooner or later after all, and reverting those changes just to re-enable the SQL Logger would be an unnecessary pain.

I hope this was helpful to you. It certainly took me some time to get behind it.

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23Nov/140

Using msysgit With PuTTY Pageant & Plink

Hi!

If you have installed msysgit and are planning on using it in combination with Pageant from the PuTTY tool suite, you might run into the problem that it does not attempt to use any of the keys you have already loaded into Pageant. You can fix this by telling msysgit which program to use for the git fetch and pull operations:

  • Open your System window (Windows + Pause or "Start" => Right-click on "Computer" => "Properties")
  • Click on "Advanced system settings" (on the left)
  • Click on "Environment Variables..." (on the bottom)
  • Add a new system variable (or user variable if you just want this setting for the current user): "New..."
  • Variable name: GIT_SSH
    Variable value: (path to plink.exe) for example: C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe (important: just the path, no quotation marks at the beginning or the end!)
  • If you haven't already on this system / user, connect to the server via PuTTY in order to get the SSH server fingerprint prompt and remember it
  • Close any existing Git Bash / msysgit instances and start it up again

This should do it!

I hope this was helpful.

Thanks for reading!

Source: http://www.bitsandpix.com/entry/git-setup-msysgit-install-with-pageantplink-from-putty/

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16Nov/142

Mozilla Thunderbird: Changing the EHLO / HELO Value in the “Received”-Header for Outgoing Mail

Hi!

If you have had a look at your outgoing e-mail headers that you've sent from Mozilla Thunderbird, you might have noticed that Thunderbird uses the IP of the network interface that it uses to connect to the internet with by default. If you are using a router on your network, this is a private IP from your LAN (for example 192.168.1.2) instead of one that might be of actual use.

Example:

Received: from external.sender.host.example.org ([123.123.123.123] helo=[192.168.1.2]) by
 mail.example2.org (incoming-mta-service) with esmtpsa (outgoing-mta-service) id
 0a1b2c-3D4e5F6G7h-0a1B2c for <sender@example.org>; Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:55:41 +0100

where "123.123.123.123" is the publicly facing IP and "external.sender.host.example.org" is its hostname.

If you do not wish to expose this information to every and all recipients of the e-mails you are sending with Thunderbird to (maybe out of security concerns in a business environment), you can set the EHLO / HELO value manually for every outgoing e-mail sent by the Thunderbird client with your current user profile and even for every simple SMTP server individually.

Here's how:

Globally

  • Open your Thunderbird options ("Tools" => "Options")
  • "Advanced" => "Config Editor..."
  • Create (or edit) the entry named "mail.smtpserver.default.hello_argument". If you need to create it, use right-click => "New" => "String".
  • Change the value to the desired IP or hostname (FQDN).

Per SMTP server

  • Open your Thunderbird options ("Tools" => "Options")
  • "Advanced" => "Config Editor..."
  • Create (or edit) the entry named "mail.smtpserver.smtp<number>.hello_argument" where <number> is the ID for the SMTP server you would like to apply the setting to. Type "mail.smtpserver.smtp" to see which ones are available and which ID they have. If you need to create the entry, use right-click => "New" => "String".
  • Change the value to the desired IP or hostname (FQDN).

Technically this value is not relevant for sending/receiving the mail, but because it might be used for spam scoring or simply out of courtesy I would recommend entering a valid IP / hostname.

I myself am using 127.0.0.1.

Thanks for reading!

Sources:

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9Nov/140

Deleting Huge Directories in Windows Via Command Prompt

Hi!

If you'd like to delete a huge folder / directory in Windows with maybe thousands or hundreds of thousands of files inside, doing that via Explorer might cost you a lot more time than via command prompt.

Here's how to do it faster:

  1. Open the command prompt by using "Start" => "cmd" and navigating to the desired path via "cd <path>" or "pushd <path>"
    - OR -
    navigate to the folder in the Explorer and use Shift + right-click and "Open command window here"
    (Note: if deleting the desired folder requires elevated privileges, you will have to start a command prompt in elevated mode and navigate the old-fashioned way)
  2. Use the following command: 
    rmdir /s /q folder

A little explanation about rmdir's flags:

  • /s: removes the directory itself including all the contained files and subdirectories
  • /q: forces deletion and does not ask for approval

Doing this can be very helpful in a coding environment where you can easily end up with thousands of small files.

Thanks for reading!

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/186737/whats-the-fastest-way-to-delete-a-large-folder-in-windows

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