Microsoft Windows – Henry Poon's Blog

Running LINE Messenger in Ubuntu 14.04

hp — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 22:25:38 +0000

LINE is a messaging program kind of like WhatsApp, but it has a desktop client. However, this desktop client only runs on Windows. On Linux, it has to run under Wine, which allows running Windows programs (some) inside the Linux environment. Caveat: sending stickers does not appear to work.

UPDATE 7. JULY 2015: Since this post, my version of LINE has been updated to 4.0.3.367, and it looks like stickers work now!

UPDATE 31. JULY 2016: Looks like in July 2015, LINE released a Chrome app. Users of Chrome can just use that extension instead of using this method: Link

Running LINE in Ubuntu 14.04

Install Wine

sudo apt-get install wine

Install VC++ 2008 Redistributable

winetricks vcrun2008

Download and install LINE for Windows

Without installing the VC++ 2008 Redistributable, LINE would intermittently crash (even though it was able to start correctly). This worked on my Ubuntu 14.04 x64 system.

LINE Version: 3.9.1.188
Wine Version: 1.6.2

What to do with a window that is trapped off the screen

hp — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:56:51 +0000

Because of my dual monitor setup, sometimes programs don’t really remember what screen appears on which screen and in very rare cases, the window shows up on neither screen. The following key commands should help fix that.

Select the hidden screen (using the taskbar or some other method)
Press ‘Alt+Space’ (a window should pop up with a few options)
Press ‘M’ to enable the move option
Use the arrow keys to bring the hidden window back into view

It works like a charm!

Switching Microsoft Windows and Office to English

hp — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:40:36 +0000

At my workplace, all the computers are in German. I do not read German. I get by by remembering what buttons were where in the Windows version. Luckily, I managed to switch the language to English.

Switching the Language for Windows

To do this, go to the Control Panel and open the Regional and Language Options. This might be hard to do when Windows is in a different language so just look for the icon that has a globe on it. Depending on the version of Windows, switching the language may not be possible. And also, different versions of Windows put these buttons in different places within the Language Options. Click around the tabs, and there should be a drop down box for you to change the language. Once that’s done, restart the computer.

Switching the Language for Office

Hopefully switching the language for Windows worked, because it would really help for this part, although it isn’t necessary. Not every version of Office supports changing languages. It depends on the version that was installed. Go to the Start Menu, find Microsoft Office, and then Microsoft Office Tools. Under there, there should be an icon for Language Settings. The icon has a globe and an A on it under Windows 7. Open it and change the language.

SolidWorks Side-By-Side Configuration Error Fix

hp — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:57:03 +0000

I finally found the fix to the error in SolidWorks 2010 (also reported to work for SW 2011, 2015 and 2016) that prevented me from running the program. The computer uses Windows 7 32-bit (works also for Windows 8 and 10 as pointed out in the comments), and every time I started up the program it would something like:

The application failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool.

I used my Google-fu and found that the cause of this error is due my computer not having the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable. A copy of the setup file for this is in the SolidWorks 2010 disc. It is in the folder (DVD Drive):PreReqsVCRedist. After installing that, the error disappeared and SolidWorks starts properly.

Automatically Logon to Windows 7

hp — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:05:30 +0000

If you ever get annoyed by having to logon to your computer every time you turn it on, just follow the instructions in that link below. The process does not involve removing the password, but rather tells Windows to log on using that specific information every time the computer is turned on.

http://www.windows7news.com/2009/02/01/automatic-logon-into-windows-7/

New Sync Method

hp — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:05:15 +0000

Apparently, my initial set up for syncing my files using symlinks was a little bit reversed. Rather than setting the symlink to be in the Dropbox folder, I’ve now put my originals in the Dropbox folder and have now put the symlinks at where those files used to be. The reason I did this was that my initial setup confused Dropbox. It would only sync my files at program launch. While the program was running it did not know how to follow the symlink to do the automatic syncing.

However, this poses a problem for syncing the desktop folder. I wasn’t going to move everything on my desktop to the dropbox folder because that would mean I wouldn’t be able to see these files on the desktop anymore. Also, if I did put a symlink in my user folder, network shares would be broken since other computers cant follow symlinks when using network access. I couldn’t go back to putting a symlink in the Dropbox directory due to the problem that I just had. So what I did was use LiveMesh. LiveMesh has the ability to follow symlinks while the program is running. Now I put up a symlink for my Desktop in my Documents folder and now the program just syncs that. For some reason, LiveMesh can’t sync the Desktop folder directly.

I might just ditch Dropbox altogether so I can do all my file syncing using LiveMesh.

Helloooo Symlinks

hp — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:58:30 +0000

So apparently Dropbox doesn’t let me share any random folder on my computer. I can only share folders that are WITHIN the “My Dropbox” directory in my documents. My aim was to share my “users/desktop” directory. The only way I could do that is if my Dropbox folder was somehow one level higher than my desktop folder. Doing that would be disastrous seeing that it would share everything else in the same directory level. I tried using Live Mesh, but it refuses to share my desktop.

However, I stumbled upon something called symbolic links (symlinks for short). Basically it is a pointer to another directory. I put a symlink in my Dropbox folder which pointed to my desktop and now inside my Dropbox folder there is a folder called “Desktop”. Well, it’s not exactly a folder. It’s a symbolic link. When the computer follows the link when I double click it, it just leads to the destination directory that I set. So now Dropbox has no problem syncing that directory!

EDIT May 21, 2010: Apparently Dropbox can’t actually follow the symlinks inside the Dropbox directory while its running. The originals have to be inside the Dropbox folder and the symlink has to be put at where you used to access those files before. At the same time, shortcuts can be used in place of symlinks.

More info about symlinks here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

Linking Windows Live ID with Windows 7 User Account

hp — Sun, 09 May 2010 06:31:34 +0000

I don’t know why you would do this (yet), but here it is.

http://www.blogsdna.com/5067/instantly-link-windows-live-id-with-windows-7-user-account.htm

Setup Windows 7 XP Mode

hp — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:48:01 +0000

Requires Intel Virtualization

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8247-windows-xp-mode-install-setup.html

If the applications don’t appear, disable and enable the “Auto-Publish” setting within the VM”s settings

Working with Virtual Applications

By default, applications installed in the Windows XP VM are auto-published to the Windows 7 host. This means that your Windows XP applications appear on Windows 7’s Start menu. You can then launch your XP applications without having to first load the Windows XP VM and then launch them from the virtual Windows XP’s Start menu.

In order for a Windows XP application to be auto-published to the Windows 7 host, the application must be installed in the All Users profile in the Windows XP VM. However, not all applications are installed in the All Users profile by default.

So, what if the application that you want to be able to run from within Windows 7 isn’t auto-published? Or what if an application is auto-published and you really don’t want it to be available from within Windows 7? Fortunately, you can take control of the auto-published using a couple of tips.

If the XP application that you want to be able to run from within Windows 7 isn’t auto-published, you can force it to be so simply by creating a shortcut to the application in the All Users profile in the Windows XP VM. When you do so, the application will be auto-published to the Windows 7 host.

Access the Windows XP VM, right-click the Start button, and select the Open All Users command. When Windows Explorer launches, open the Programs folder. Once there, you can either drag-and-drop the shortcut from Windows XP’s Start menu to the Programs folder or you can launch the Create Shortcut wizard, as shown in Figure A.

Startup Folder

hp — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:31:19 +0000

Anything put in this folder will automatically be executed when the computer starts up.

C:\Users(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup