Skype stopped working on Windows 10

My desktop Skype decided to stop working for no apparent reason. A quick search showed that Skype is now a core part of Windows 10.

Skype started to work again after uninstalling the desktop client and several reboots.

Maybe it’s a matter of getting used to but the new Skype seems less friendly for those of us working mainly in desktop mode. Time will tell I guess.

Windows 10, monitors lose signal and PC freezes

My pc began to lose signals to monitors and freeze following a power cut. The issue got progressively worse over time. Tried a few of following to no avail:

1. Updated graphics card drivers

2. Removed graphics card from device manager and reinstalled

3. Physically removed graphics card, cleaned and reinstalled

In desperation, I tried a fix from answers.microsoft.com that was suggested for what seemed to be a different issue and the fix for the old Vista windows release.

Quote

“ Problem: a thing called TDR checker monitors the computers hardware, particularly the GPU, is say the GPU stops responding with the computer for 2 seconds TDR checker restarts the driver. The TDR checker was good on paper but did not work in the real world. as a gpu can stop responding when it is working hard. “

The first fix of setting TdrDelay to 8 seconds worked beautifully for me as the system has been stable for the last 72 hours. Hopefully I will never have to try the 2nd fix.

I have copied the fix here in case the thread ever gets removed:

Quote

Here is the solution
Exit all Windows based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Search box, and then double-click regedit.exe from the results above. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
Browse to and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002 (sometimes called ControlSet001) \Control\GraphicsDrivers

That completely turns off Tdr checker, so now windows 7/vista/8 now works more like windows XP

Posted to answers.windows.com  by Raymond Javier

Cannot connect to Synology NAS via quick connect

For some reason I cannot access my Synology NAS remotely using quickconnect. It used to work.

Occurred when I went from cable to NBN

Telstra changed my DSM DNS servers

FIXED

Set DSM dns to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 respectively

Temporarily disable DSM Firewall and check access

Enable DSM Firewall and check access again

Telstra NBN mygateway user and password

Telstra NBN provides us with the mygateway GUI to manage the supplied Telstra router. The default user and password for this is usually admin/admin or admin/password.

Security is not really an issue in this case as your Telstra service login and password is the the username you provided when applying for the service (usually  your telstra email address) and the assigned password or password that you reset it to for your account.

The gateway can only be access from a PC that is connected to your LAN and is not accessible remotely.

WordPress: “<< previous entries" link not working

I recently changed my site from a static homepage to point to the latest post. In doing so, clicking the previous page link at the bottom of the blog returned a page not found error.

Google searches presented various options including changing the number of posts displayed in settings etc, none of which worked.

As a static home page site, I use Filosofo’s Home-Page Control plugin. The problem was resolved by changing the home page setting in the plugin from WordPress default to Blog.

NinjaTrader: Unable to restore from backup, cannot find central directory

I recently encountered what initially appeared to be a NinjaTrader (NT) issue when trying to restore from NT’s propriety backup. The procedure gave me the following error:

“NinjaTrader was unable to restore the selected backup archive file. Cannot find central directory.”

This was odd as I have successfully restored from the same file onto a couple of machines that I use for back testing strategies.

After trawling Google and the NT support forums, I stumbled across an article in GitHub indicating that the issue may be a corrupt zip file.

The issue was resolved by overwriting the corrupt zip.

How to prevent Skype for locking your taskbar.

Since the buy over, the Microsoft team has been trying to integrate Skype into the Microsoft ecosystem.

One very annoying recent change has been to lock the windows taskbar if you have an unread message or notification. While this might seem to be a useful change, it also negates all the screen burn benefits of screen savers i.e. the taskbar is displayed 24×7 until you have read and discarded the notification.

Luckily, Skype allows you to remove its icon from the taskbar when you close the Skype window (Skype still runs in the background allowing you to receive messages etc).

1. Go to Skype
2. Click Tools
3. Click Options
4. Select Advanced on left menu
5. Uncheck “Keep Skype in taskbar while I am signed in“
6. Click Save

Now all you have to remember to do is to close our Skype window.

Missing Command Prompt in Windows Power User Menu (Win+X)

The Windows Power User Menu (Win-X)  has been a welcomed addition since Windows 8 that gives you access to a subset of advanced Windows features.

Recent updates have however replaced the familiar Command Prompt with PowerShell. For those of us who are not yet ready to move on to PowerShell, the Windows 10 team has kindly provided us with  an easy way for us to revert back to the old faithful.

Steps

1. Open the Power User or Win-X Menu.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Personalisation.
4. Select TaskBar in the left menu
5. Scroll down and set the Replace Command Prompt with PowerShell switch to Off

How to get rid of “Updates are available” message in Windows 10?

Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has deemed it necessary to include an annoying “Updates Are Available ” reminder that forces you to stop what your are doing and view the message despite you having set the necessary flags to ignore certain updates.

This is what you will get plastered over your monitor preventing you from any further work until you have viewed  and discarded the message.

I recently found an article on SuperUser explaining how to disable this.

1. Open the elevated command window (Command Prompt (Admin) via the Win-X menu (you must have admin privileges to do this) and run the following commands:

   cd /d "%Windir%\System32"
   takeown /F MusNotification.exe
   icacls MusNotification.exe /deny Everyone:(X)
   takeown /F MusNotificationUx.exe
   icacls MusNotificationUx.exe /deny Everyone:(X)

2. Run the following to undo this:

   cd /d "%Windir%\System32"
   icacls MusNotification.exe /remove:d Everyone
   icacls MusNotification.exe /grant Everyone:F
   icacls MusNotification.exe /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller"
   icacls MusNotification.exe /remove:g Everyone
   icacls MusNotificationUx.exe /remove:d Everyone
   icacls MusNotificationUx.exe /grant Everyone:F
   icacls MusNotificationUx.exe /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller"
   icacls MusNotificationUx.exe /remove:g Everyone

   NB: if you only see PowerShell (Admin) instead of Command Prompt Admin, you can switch off  the Replace Command Prompt with PowerShell in TaskBar settings,

C#: How to determine if a number is odd or even.

A popular way is to use the modulus operator: