How to Use an Android Device as a Second Monitor for Your PC or Mac

Get some extra screen real estate.

How to Use an Android Device as a Second Monitor for Your PC or Mac

It’s no secret that two monitors can improve your productivity, but not everyone needs a pair of screens all the time. If you find yourself in a situation where a second screen could be beneficial, however, you can easily make your Android device serve double duty.

via howtogeek.com

How to Add and Enable or Disable Group Policy in Windows 7 & Windows 8.1

How to Enable “Group Policy Editor” (gpedit.msc) in Windows vresions that don't have it - gpedit is a tool to manage MS Windows Active Directory Group Policies, Security,  and much much more

http://drudger.deviantart.com/art/Add-GPEDIT-msc-215792914

You can add the Group Policy Editor to Windows editions that normally don't have it, such as Windows 7 Starter Edition, Home, Home Premium, or even Windows 8.1

For Windows x64 Users:
You must go to the SysWOW64 folder and copy the GroupPolicy, GroupPolicyUsers folder and the gpedit.msc file into the System32 folder.

For additional help, or if you get stuck, watch this Youtube video >>

This very handy Windows add-on was apparently compiled by "davehc" on the Windows 7 forums. He says in the forum "There is no copyright on it so feel free to use and distribute!" So feel free to share this - hopefully making it easier for others to find who are in need of it.

www.sevenforums.com

http://www.w7forums.com/

How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour

How to clone your old HDD onto a new HDD and get your entire system back up and running in under an hour; no reinstallation of Windows and all your applications necessary.

"Why would you want to do this?

Unlike popping in some new memory or adding a peripheral, upgrading a hard drive has the potential to be a real pain. Rather than go through the hassle of backing up all your documents and files, pulling your old disk, popping in a new one, formatting it, and reinstalling your OS (along with all your programs) and then tweaking everything to get it back the way it was, you can follow along with us here and have your old disk cloned, your new disk installed, and your machine up and running again in (typically) under an hour...." Read more ...


I can confirm & testify that this howtogeek.com claim is absolutely true, as I have just used the procedure to upgrade from a (faulty) 500 GB Seagate HDD to a brand new Seagate 1TB HDD. Swapped the disks after cloning, and then booted back into windows on the new HDD perfectly as normal,  like nothing had ever even happened... in less than 1 hour!

I love technology!!!

The server {} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

Event Viewer Error:
'The server {BF6C1E47-86EC-4194-9CE5-13C15DCB2001} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.' *

Event Viewer Error:
'The server {1B1F472E-3221-4826-97DB-2C2324D389AE} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.' **

++++++++++++++++++++++++

* Windows Registry Editor reveals that CLSID {BF6C1E47-86EC-4194-9CE5-13C15DCB2001} is: "Automatic Maintenance task to enable SkyDrive file sync to make progress while in Connected Standby", which has LocalServer32 = 'C:\Windows\System32\skydrive.exe'

** Windows Registry Editor also reveals that CLSID {1B1F472E-3221-4826-97DB-2C2324D389AE} is for "SyncEngineCOMServer Class", which has LocalServer32 = 'C:\Windows\System32\skydrive.exe'

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Consequently, if you keep getting errors like these in your Windows System Logs (in the Event Viewer), then here is a possible suggested fix: (to start Windows Task Scheduler, click Start Menu or use shortcut WindowsKey+R and type: taskschd.msc .... then)


"In the Task Scheduler, once you expand Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows, scroll down and click on SkyDrive, you find two scheduled jobs, "Idle Sync Maintenance Task" and "Routine Maintenance Task".  I found that disabling both of these jobs has caused the error message to cease.

I don't think disabling these jobs will be a good solution for everyone, since there may be useful things that these jobs [are supposed to] do, but for me, since I have no interest in SkyDrive, disabling them is fine."


from Noel at answers.microsoft.com:

The server {CLSID guid of component} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

microsoft.com technet support Explanation:

The Component Object Model (COM) infrastructure tried to start the named server; however, the server did not reply within the required timeout period. There might be a deadlock, or the program might not have responded to the server initialization code within the timeout period of two minutes.

GUID: 1B1F472E-3221-4826-97DB-2C2324D389AE and BF6C1E47-86EC-4194-9CE5-13C15DCB2001 - these GUIDs have been determined to be associated with a Microsoft SkyDrive maintenance tasks configured to run at 3:00 am in Microsoft Task Scheduler on a Windows 8.1 Pro workstation. The task says: "Performs OneDrive file sync when the computer is idle." and it shows a failure with Error code 0x80080005. Most probably this issue occurs when there is no SkyDrive enabled account configured on the computer.

User Action:

If the problem continues to occur, contact the program vendor. To determine the program vendor Using Regedit, navigate to the following registry value HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{clsid value}\LocalServer32 The clsid value is the GUID information displayed in the message. In the right pane, double-click Default. The Edit String dialog box is displayed. Leave this dialog box open. Click Start, and then click My Computer. Using the information displayed in the Value data box of the Edit String dialog box, navigate to the program. Right-click the program name, and then click Properties. The Properties dialog box for the program is displayed. To determine who the vendor is for this program, refer to the Version tab.

Additional options:

If you do not need DCOM you can disable it in the following way:
1. Set the EnableDCOM Value Name, a string (REG_SZ) data type, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OLE to N.
2.Shutdown and restart your computer.
3.For Windows XP (or WIN 8) & Windows Server 2003, complete the following additional steps:
  A. Run Dcomcnfg.exe.
  B. Expand Component Services.
  C. Right-click Computer and press Properties. For a remote computer, right-click Computer, press New, press Computer, type the ComputerName, right-click the ComputerName and press Properties.
  D. Select the Default Properties tab.
  E. Clear the Enable Distributed COM on this Computer box.
  F. press Apply to disable DCOM.
  G. Press OK and exit Dcomcnfg.exe.
  H. Shutdown and restart your computer.

How to bring back the old classic system tray clock in Windows 10

This simple Registry tweak will let you re-enable the old classic Windows 8.1 / 7 type Clock and Calendar in Windows 10.

Open your Registry Editor, press Win + R, type regedit and hit Enter. (Before editing the Registry, don’t forget to create a backup of your Registry files.)

After opening Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell

Click on the Immersiveshell folder on your left hand side and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value in your right hand side.

To create a new DWORD Value, right-click on the empty space of your right hand side, select new and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name it UseWin32TrayClockExperience. By default, the value would be 0. You have to set the value to 1. To change the value, double-click on UseWin32TrayClockExperience and enter 1 before saving your change.

Right after setting up the value to 1, your new Windows 10 Clock and Calendar will be changed to Windows 7 style Clock and Calendar.

Enable old classic Windows Clock, Calendar in Windows 10

Windows 10 just can’t be stopped from talking to Microsoft... It's no wonder that privacy activists are up in arms.

Windows 10 sends identifiable data to Microsoft despite privacy settings

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Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft...
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Windows 10 doesn’t offer much privacy by default: Here’s how to fix it