Windows

There’s been a lot going on recently with Google Chrome (and Microsoft Edge) browser extensions.

Things really heated up when new requirements were introduced, dictating how Chrome extensions are built and what they can do – Manifest V3.

Think of Manifest V3 as a blueprint or set of guidelines for extension developers, with a strong focus on boosting security, privacy, and performance.

While the shift to Manifest V3 is a whole other story, the PayPal Honey scandal prompted Google to take a much closer look at how Chrome extensions behave, especially those involved in affiliate marketing.

Recently, I had to put into use a computer that was delivered with Windows 11 Home version by default. Since I need the professional version in the environment where I need to use it, I decided to upgrade it.

Once you have purchased the product key, the easiest method is to go to Settings > System > Activation and enter the Pro version key in the Change product key section.

Unfortunately, although I have used this method before on other computers, this time I received information that the product key provided cannot be used to upgrade the currently installed system.

I decided to check whether I would be able to upgrade Windows 11 from Home to Pro using the method of updating Windows 10 Home to Pro I described earlier.

Microsoft made Windows 11 available to all users worldwide on October 4, 2021. Not everyone was able to try it, especially those with older machines that do not meet requirements such as having a TPM 2.0 chip.

Well, you can install Windows 11 from scratch using an ISO image, but what about updates where we don’t want to lose our settings, programs, and games?

As announced, on October 5, 2021 (to be more precise, at the end of October 4), Microsoft officially presented the final version of Windows 11.

Recently I had the opportunity to transfer data from one computer to another. Since the first one was already running Windows 10 in the latest version and everything worked perfectly (only the hardware was a bit lagging behind), I decided to clone the disk from the first one to the second one.

Using dd as a method (a little slow but effective) I ran the same system on the new hardware, with one difference. The target hardware was licensed with Windows 10 Pro compared to the old hardware with Windows 10 Home.

Therefore, I decided to do an upgrade.

For years, various speed dials or fast dials have been popular among users who wanted to start browsing the internet with something other than the Google search engine.

Trends have changed, along with the browser add-ons people used. Since Chrome became the dominant force on computers, fast dials haven’t evolved enough to fit into society.

Hell has frozen over once again.

I have been using Avast on my Windows computers for years and it has worked wonders. I have not encountered any infections and it has protected me from several threats that I have encountered.

Some time ago on my blog I touched on the topic of storing and managing a collection of photos. With the development of Picasa coming to an end, I decided to use Lightroom.

My adventure with Lightroom lasted for some time, but I always felt insecure when it came to storing photos.

How to download an ISO image directly from Microsoft servers, officially, without risk and unnecessary fiddling.

Recently I have been looking for a simple and easy method to convert ringtone or a song from MP3 to M4R, a ringtone format used widely in iPhones.

The conversion from MP3 to M4A and later change of file extension to M4R is not something difficult for myself, however less experienced users this can be challenging.

Because of that, using various methods I decided to prepare something, that till be working on just dropping MP3 file and double-click on specified file to ret in short moment ready ringtone for use on our phone.

I have prepared couple batch files and used for this purpose FFmpeg converter. This is the final product from my work.