Install Qwant Search in Browser (Dark Theme, EN-USA Language, No adverts)

A French search engine that does not track you. I ve preconfigured for black theme and EN-USA search results but you can create your own custom URL using the settings

https://www.qwant.com/?r=US&sr=en&l=en_gb&h=0&s=0&a=1&b=0&vt=0&hc=0&smartNews=0&smartSocial=0&theme=1&i=1&donation=0



And here, below, is the configuration for adding it to your search engines list (and even make it your default search engine if you wish to do so). All the info is contained in one URL. The reason it is so long, is because it contains also the little icon for the Qwant search engine.

I used the site "Ready2Search", which allows you to create instalable search engines "on-the-fly":

 

http://ready.to/search/en/?sna=QwantCONFDarkENLiteV2&prf=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.qwant.com%2F%3Fq%3D&suf=%26amp%3Br%3DUS%26amp%3Bsr%3Den%26amp%3Bl%3Den_gb%26amp%3Bh%3D0%26amp%3Bs%3D0%26amp%3Ba%3D1%26amp%3Bb%3D0%26amp%3Bvt%3D0%26amp%3Bhc%3D0%26amp%3BsmartNews%3D0%26amp%3BsmartSocial%3D0%26amp%3Btheme%3D1%26amp%3Bi%3D1%26amp%3Bdonation%3D0&img=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&in=utf&ou=ono&mod=pn



Once installed:

You can customize the Qwant settings to your need:

Or create your own search engines.

CAVEAT: setting an icon is a bit tricky, because you need a 16x16px image and the transparency does not seem to work too well, but I haven't diged much into that.

Useful commands after installing a brand new system

Firewall settings for ICMP (i.e. response to PING requests)

ENABLE via NEW COMMAND
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMPv4" protocol=icmpv4 dir=in action=allow
( REF: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947709 )

ENABLE via OLD COMMAND
netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8
netsh advfirewall firewall set icmpsetting 8
( REF: http://www.petri.co.il/enable-ping-windows-2008-server.htm )

ENABLE via GUI
Start > Administrative Tools > Windows Firewall with Advanced Security




Generic Local Area Networks v2019.10.0
192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0, 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0

Ex-Employee tells about the Microsoft Windows internal testing process [Bookmarks, +TLDR, +FR]

"Why does Microsoft Windows 10 have so many bugs? Ex-Employee tells you why!"
-- by  Barnacules Nerdgasm
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9kn8_oztsA"

TL;DR (FR-version) :

1. 1/ Ils ont licensié un département entier de testeurs quand ils ont fusionné leurs multiples systèmes d'exploitation : Desktop , Phone, etc.
2. 2/ Ils ne testent plus du hardware réel; tout est virtualisé (i.e. les problèmes spécifiques au matériel ne sont pas révélés)
3. 3/ Ils se reposent beaucoup sur le _Windows Insider Program_ et la télémétrie pour avoir des remontée de bugs avant de déployer les mises-à-jour "au plus grand nombre" (mais ce mécanisme a des limitations : les utilisateur du _Windows Insider Program_ ne remontent pas toujours les problèmes, les _mini-dumps_ ne sont pas toujours suffisants pour identifier la source d'un problème, les problèmes sont résolus à tâtons, et dans les pire cas, complètement ratés et les correctifs causent davantage de régressions).

TL;DR (EN-version):

1. 1/ They did a massive lay-off and got rid of a whole testing departement when they merged their multiple Operating System teams : Desktop, Phone, etc.
2. 2/ They don't test real hardware anymore; tests are run in virtual machines (ie. hardware-related corner cases are not tested)
3. 3/ They rely a lot on the _Windows Insider Program_ and telemetry before rolling-out updates to "most people" (but this process has limitations : _Windows Insider Program_ users don't always report bugs, _mini-dumps_ aren't always enough for tracking down a bug, some problèmes are solved by groping and, in the worst cases, even missed entirely and attempts to fix a problème cause further regressions).

Missing a persistent SCITE_USERHOME environment variable ?

PROBLEM / SYMPTOM: The scintilla-based Text Editor does not save sessions, latest files, nor any configuration. At each start the environment is pristine.

CONTEXT / BUG: SciTE was installed using Chocolatey AS AN ADMINISTRATOR, but is used by a standard user.

$ choco install -y autoit --version 3.3.14.5
$ choco install -y scite4autoit3 --version 19.102.1901.001 

Reference

SciTE utilities look for an env variable called SCITE_USERHOME and when that is missing will assume a portable installation of SciTE:

• SciTE Config not saving changes on Windows 8 - AutoIt General Help and Support - AutoIt Forums

Fix, Part 1: Create missing directory

If you are not running as a standard user and have a different account for administration, you might notice that a directory "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\SciTE" was created but not "C:\Users\StandardUser\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\SciTE"... So the first thing to do is to fix that directory:

cmd /c "mkdir "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\SciTE" & pause"

Fix, Part 2: Create user's environment variable

REG_SZ

cmd /c "setx SCITE_USERHOME "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\AutoIt v3\SciTE" & pause"

This command is the correct one, and we could stop right here. But out of curiosity, let's see how we could make a dynamic variable.

REG_EXPAND_SZ

In order to use REG_EXPAND_SZ type variables, we'd have to use the REG.EXE utility. It takes a little bit of escaping to pass the "percent" characters to the command, but this is how it would look:

cmd /c "REG ADD HKCU\Environment /v SCITE_USERHOME /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d ^%UserProfile^% & pause"

Additional information

Missing a persistent environment variable ?

• SetX - Set environment variables - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• Reg - Edit Registry - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• In PowerShell, use the [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable command.

Registry hives and paths

• User Variables: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment
• System Variables: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment 

ALTERNATIVE FIX

Use an Administrator account and give the rights on "C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoIt3\SciTE" for the standard user. This will do if there is only one person needing to use the program.

Introduction to .ignore files syntax and capabilities

------------------

You'll mostly have to look up the documentation of the .ignore files syntax if you want to master this tool and find the right tradeoff/middleground between being specific and being generic about what files you ignore in your project.

------------------

In general, you can either 1/ be specific or 2/ use wildcards or 3/ use negation patterns. For instance you could say ignore all "bin" directories, except a particular one:

```
/**/bin
!/Golum/MyPrecious/bin
```

Notice the exclamation mark at the begining of the second line: it's a negation. It means: DO NOT IGNORE.
=> Those two lines combined, will ignore all "bin" directories, wherever they are in the tree ( double asterix = means any subdirectory ) except that one particular one, named on the next line and prefixed with an exclamation mark.


------------------

But saying this I'm only scratching the surface of the power of the .ignore files, you need to look at the doc to know more. (eg. you can have a generic .ignore file at the root of the solution and, for specific cases, other .ignore file(s) in subdirector.y.ies somewhere too)

------------------

Last but not least, if you're confident with .ignore file, you can even invoke destructive commands such as "clean" and delete everything that is not under source control ( ie. that is ignored )... which is basically a prequel to REBUILD ALL.

```
# WARNING: cleans absolutely everything that is not under source control
    git clean -nfdx # << To preview what would be deleted... -n = NoAction = --dry-run
    git clean -fdx # << The actual cleanup.
```

----------------

"tfignore file - Google Search"
"https://www.google.com/search?q=tfignore+file"

For Fox

"Visual Studio 2015 TFS .tfignore file - Stack Overflow"
"https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36768954/visual-studio-2015-tfs-tfignore-file"


For Seb

Excluding Files From Team Foundation Version Control Using .tfignore Files - Applied Information Sciences
https://www.appliedis.com/excluding-files-from-team-foundation-version-control-using-tfignore-files/

For everybody

"GitHub - sirkirby/tfignore: A Collection of .tfignore Templates"

"https://github.com/sirkirby/tfignore"

"GitHub - github/gitignore: A collection of useful .gitignore templates"

"https://github.com/github/gitignore"

The trend for an "Opt-out"-style philosophy for source control

The old "Opt-in"-style for source control

I remember, when using Microsoft's Team Foundation System and Visual Studio, you'd have two ways to add a file to source control:

• either Visual Studio would take care of that for you when your file was part of a Solution
• or you would have to manually browse the "Source Control Explorer" and add you new files

Things have changed

As far as source control goes, everybody is moving to "opt-out"-style policies, instead of "opt-in"-style ones, ( get used to it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:  , 'cause it's actually much safer and nicer in the long run... even if there is an "up-front" price to pay -- ie. setting up your ".ignore" file)

Now, everything is under source control by default, unless you specify otherwise. This is nice because you typically don't get things happening behind your back without you knowing or forgetting (files added, changed or deleted).

Configuring what is ignored

When using the Git version control system, the critical files for specifying what is not meant to be kept under source control are the famous ".gitignore" files.

Visual Studio and Team Foundation System have a very similar concept, except the file is called ".tfignore".

Talks about WASM and WASI [Bookmarks]

For those who are curious or who want to follow up about WASM and WASI, I recommend two recent videos to help understand it all. But first, some opinion about the topic.

Twitter message

This is an insightful Twitter message from Solomon Hykes is the Founder, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Architect of Docker and the creator of the Docker open source initiative.

Video 1/2

"Rust, WebAssembly, and the future of Serverless by Steve Klabnik"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMB6AlE1QuI

Video 2/2

"Bringing WebAssembly outside the web with WASI by Lin Clark"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh9WXPu0hw8

Picasa photo viewer nostalgia

Picasa 3, the (discontinued) Photo Editor and Viewer was such a great piece of software... There are some replacements (eg. can think of XNView for instance for viewing, and many more for editing...) but none come close to how user friendly Picasa was.

So for those, like me, who want to run this fantastic thing, even if it hasn't been updated in a long time, but still works like a charm, I have an old copy of the installer I am sharing here:

Picasa 3.9

picasa39-setup.exe, 13,0 MB in size

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtfcQZSwyBPCirMfwnluJUBCkLumBg?e=JOwSFj

I bet you can also find it on FileHippo.com, or some other archiving – file sharing service. But here it is anyway. Enjoy! ;-)

---

If using a deprecated software is not something for you but that you still need to browse high volumes of images scattered in directories, a quick and easy fallback back solution (even if it's not as nice) might be XnView:

choco install -y xnview

Using Chocolatey to install your favorite software

This is a follow-up to one of my previous posts:

Chocolatey is like a package manager, but for Windows; a bit like the famous `apt-get` or `aptitude` for some GNU/Linux distros (...) I have created a curated list of my favorite ones; the ones I would install right away on a new computer, whether it is for work or even for home computing.

Therefore, to run any of the commands listed below, you will first need to install Chocolatey itself, which can be easily done with a simple command, so make sure you first check this post:

Install both Chocolatey and OpenSSH with SSHD in one Copy-Paste in Powershell

---

SUBSEQUENT CALLS

---

After completion, you may invoke commands such as:


# there were problems with former 'linkshellextension' installation
# and there was a bit of an overhead when issuing the commands...
#   choco install -y vcredist2015
#   choco install -y --ignore-checksums linkshellextension
# but it seems to work fine now.


choco install -y linkshellextension

choco install -y 7zip
choco install -y imagemagick
choco install -y git --version 2.21.0

choco install -y openvpn

choco install -y keepass

choco install -y notepadplusplus

choco install -y firefox

choco install -y googlechrome

choco install -y cherrytree --version 0.38.8
choco install -y guidgen-console
choco install -y lightshot
choco install -y synctrayzor

choco install -y winmerge

# java runtime environment
choco install -y jre8

# autoit minimum version: 3.3.8.1
# (autoit 3.3.6.1 not available via chocolatey)
choco install -y autoit --version 3.3.14.5

# scite4autoit3 minimum version: 3.5.4
# (scite4autoit3 3.2.0 not available via chocolatey)
choco install -y scite4autoit3 --version 19.102.1901.001

---

UNUSED

---

# git-lfs is already included in the main Git installer
# (this is true as of early 2019)
choco install -y git-lfs

# syncthing is already part of synctrayzor
choco install -y syncthing

# veracrypt competes with BitLocker on Windows, which works fine

choco install -y veracrypt

# As of May 2019, git-credential-manager-for-windows
# does not seem to be automatically added to the path!
# However this might not be a big deal since it seems
# to have been included into the main Git installer.
choco install -y git-credential-manager-for-windows

# the winbtrfs driver does not work for me
# (but that has nothing to do with Chocolatey)

# I might give it another try at some point though...
choco install -y winbtrfs

---

DEFECTS

---

# As of 2019-05-10, choco installs older v18.2.1 of smartgit,
# which causes problems because we are forced to upgrade as
# soon as it is installed
choco install -y smartgit

---

OTHER COMMANDS: "CHOCO SEARCH"

---

If you want to check if an application is included to the Chocolatey distribution service, or if you want to know its exact name, you may use the "choco search" command.

---

OTHER COMMANDS: "CINST"

---

An even faster way to call for an installation of a piece of software is to use "cinst" instead of "choco install".

Also, according to the help instructions, it should be possible to specify multiple application after the "choco install/cinst" command.

So we can therefore condense the previous list of calls into on single command (although I wrote on multiple lines and escaped using the backtick character, we should be able to copy-paste it just like that):

Optional:

choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation;

Default base install v2.0.2010.0:

cinst -y linkshellextension; ` cinst -y notepadplusplus; ` cinst -y winmerge; `  cinst -y 7zip; ` cinst -y git; `  ` cinst -y tightvnc; ` cinst -y openvpn; `  ` cinst -y firefox; `  cinst -y googlechrome; `  ` cinst -y jre8; ` cinst -y --version 3.3.14.5 autoit; ` cinst -y --version 19.102.1901.001 scite4autoit3

REMARK #1: Some (generic) lists may include an install instruction multiple times, usually at the beginning or the end of the script, this is on purpose. Lists like this can have multiple purposes and can be partially copy-pasted if we're only interested in a subset of the list. And running the same install request multiple time will only cause it to be ignored (unless the "--force" parameter was used, which is not the case).

REMARK #2: Also some pieces of software require very specific configuration, such as a VNC server, and we're better off running them separately, or at the very beginning and letting the rest of the automated install to carry on...

- tightvnc


REMARK #3: Some software may not be suitable for being installed on the system disk if it deals with data located on an independent disk of a virtual machine, in which case it's advised to use a portable application which you would install manually:

- synctrayzor

REMARK #4: I personally use my favorite (and most important) software in the form of portable programs, which I update myself, in which case it has to be removed from the default list:

- notepadplusplus, keepass, firefox

Other, ready to paste, multi-line commands such as the one above, can be found at this address:

Choco-based unassisted install