Turn off Firefox “This connection is not secure”

Firefox is looking out for us but the “This connection is not secure. Logins entered here could be compromised.” message on logins annoys me so I looked up how to turn it off. Do so at your own risk.

In the address bar type: about:config and hit enter.

Read the warning message!

In the search box type: security.insecure_field_warning.contextual.enabled
Change the setting from true to false. Again do so at your own risk.

Clonezilla – Mismatched GPT and MBR error


While trying to clone a hard drive (a SSD drive in this case) I kept getting an error that stated “this disk contains mismatched gpt and mbr”.
I found the following instructions which fixed the problem for me.
Be careful with these instructions. They are messing with the partition table and you could make your system not able to boot.
From the Clonezilla command prompt (on the second screen select enter_shell).

# sudo gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.7.2

Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present

Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?
1 – MBR
2 – GPT
3 – Create blank GPT

Your answer: 1
Command (? for help): x

Expert command (? for help): z
About to wipe out GPT on /dev/sda. Proceed? (Y/N): y
GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
other utilities.
Blank out MBR? (Y/N): n <— do NOT choose Y!
MBR is unchanged. You may need to delete an EFI GPT (0xEE) partition
with fdisk or another tool.

Synaptics Touchpad – Making three finger swipe control back and forward in browsers

For some reason the only three finger swipe gesture that shows up in the Synaptics driver is for switching apps.
I want three finger swipe to be forward and back in browsers.

I found the following instructions:

Open Regedit and Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
SOFTWARE
Synatics
SynTP
Touchpadxxxxx
3FingerGestures

For making back and forward swiping work in browsers:
ActionID1 = 5c
ActionID3 = 1c
ActionID5 = 5d
ActionID7 = 1c

Reboot.  The driver will still show “Switching Apps” as the three finger gesture but it forward and back start working.

Remove Creative Cloud Files from Windows Explorer


I’ve used Photoshop for years and have been using Lightroom.  Both are great products but lately Adobe has been including a link to Creative Cloud Files in Windows Explorer.  I’m not even sure what use it is. Maybe it’s useful for some people but I find it annoying.  Here’s how you remove the link in Windows Explorer.
Run regedit
Find “Creative Cloud Files”
Look for System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree

It’s value is most likely set to 1.  Change it to 0.
Close and re-open Windows Explorer. Creative Cloud Files should be gone.
You might have to reboot.

 

Install prompt on Windows Server 2008 remote desktop launching Outlook 2013

Office-2013-please-wait-while-windows-configures-microsoft-office-64-bit-components-2013

Every time Outlook 2013 is launched on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server through remote desktop this installation screen pops up. I tried uninstalling Office and re-installing it to no avail. After some poking around forums and web searches I ran across a suggestion to install Windows Search under the File services role. This fixed the issue. Open Server Manager and right click File Services under Roles, select add role services and check the Windows Search Service.

Windows 10 disable the lock screen

Windows_10_Logo.svg

I love Windows 10. From the time it was released I’ve felt it was what Windows 8 should have been (and I actually liked Windows 8). There is one feature that’s driven me crazy though. That’s the lock screen. It never stays on what I set it to. You can set it to Windows Spotlight, a single image or slideshow and no matter what machine I use or which of the three settings I pick it changes. Apart from this I never really understood the need for the lock screen.  It just seemed like a way to make you have to push the space button more than needed. So here’s how to turn it off.

Run Regedit
Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Make a new key and call it Personalization
Make a new DWord 32 Bit Value
Name it NoLockScreen and set it to 1
Reboot

No more wearing out your space bar and no more pictures that don’t stay on what you want them to stay on.

PS. to turn it back on change the value to 0.
Alternatively you can download this text file and rename it to .reg and run it. But if you are like me and don’t trust the internet just do it the manual way above.

Based off instructions found here.