Games, microsoft, Microsoft Flight Sim 2020, Operating Systems, tech, Windows 10

Windows 10 Wont enter sleep mode with Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick plugged in

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Windows 10 Wont enter sleep mode with Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick plugged in.

I ran into this problem a while back as no matter what i did my PC would enter sleep mode.  i tried everything;

  • bios settings
  • windows power saver settings
  • driver updates

Turns out it was due to having the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick plugged in which i might add is a superb Joystick for Flight Simulator 2020.

Geforce Experience Bug:

Turned out, there is a bug in nVIDIA experience, down in the Windows driver level that would prevent the system from being idle, if you have a joystick plugged in (the article goes a bit deeper into details, it is very interesting if you are a software development related kind of person).

TL:DR , if you have nVIDIA GPU + nVIDIA GeForce Experience installed + have any kind of joystick plugged into the system , Windows won’t be able to sleep/turn screen off automatically until either:

  1. You turn off nVIDIA GeForce Experience in-game overlay.

  2. You unplug ALL joysticks off your system.

PSA: if GeForce Experience is enabled and joysticks are plugged in, Windows can’t automatically turn off screen / go to sleep. This is critical if you are using an OLED screen for your simpit. from flightsim

tech, tutorials

create your own search engine using searxng and linux

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The excellent network chuck on youtube made a video the other day about making your own search engine with searxng so i thought id put the steps involved on doing in locally in Linux.

Update our linux installation

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

install docker;

sudo apt install docker.io

install docker compose tool:

sudo apt install docker-compose

navigate to dir where you want to keep searxng, in this example well put it in “/usr/local/”

cd /usr/local

download searxng;

git clone https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker.git
cd searxng-docker

create secret key;

sudo sed -i "s|ultrasecretkey|$(openssl rand -hex 32)|g" searxng/settings.yml

start up docker containers

sudo docker-compose up

point your browser to;

localhost:8080

Tweaks and settings;

See here for how to change things;

https://docs.searxng.org/admin/engines/settings.html#use-default-settings

refs;
https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker

tech

Fix performance problems with Virtualbox and Vmware on Windows 10

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If Virtualbox & VmWare is causing massive problems with just getting a Virtual machine running in windows 10 its probably because you have Hyper-V enabled.  I learned the hard way that having Hyper-V enabled and running Virtualbox is a nightmare.  I kept getting the error;

MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC

Disable Hyper-V if its enabled in windows 10 by going to “Turn windows features on or off” and un select “Hyper-V”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also make sure that its disabled in bcdedit by making sure that you run the command;

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Reboot your System and Virtualbox and Vmware will now work much better.

refs;

The Ultimate Guide to Uninstalling or Disabling Hyper-V in Windows 10

software, tech

How to remove the Bitdefender context menu from Windows 10

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Bitdefender is a great piece of software with a huge range of security features but doesnt give an option to remove the annoying menu option that pops up when you right click on a file., of course there is a way to remove it.

Download a program that makes this easy called “ShellxView” from https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html#DownloadLinks

Load it up and look for an entry called “BdShlExt” (see below) and right click and select disable.

Windows 10

Windows 10 send to menu Tweak

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The send to menu is located below in windows explorer. Press Windows Key + R to get to the Run dialog Window and enter “shell:sendto”

You can add shortcuts to folders to this location by placing them inside this folder;

C:\Users\<your windows username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

Removing the list of Drives from the sendto menu requires a Registry tweak;

This is one of the most annoying things aboutr the sendto menu as it will list the drives on your system which most of the time isnt needed.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDrivesInSendToMenu"=dword:00000001

Credit to tenforums;

Games, Microsoft Flight Sim 2020

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020’s August update gives huge performance boost!

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The game which has been out for over a year has been a pain to get a decent performance out off.   With random stutters and freezes and inconsistent framerates its been well a huge disappointment personally.  So much so that I had given up on ever playing it again due to state of the Graphic’s Card market (With Sky-high prices) and the only way to get it running anywhere decent would be a graphics card upgrade.

The August update/Xbox release Patch :
Ever since the august patch/Xbox Release (world update 5) there were reports that this latest patch would give a huge performance increase.  Some outlets reported a 50% increase in performance which I doubted most of these outlets have access to newer Graphics cards.

The august update give the game at least a 50% increase in performance amazing! The game which would never let me fly over high-populated areas like NewYork and London would finally and my god my first trip over New York was stunning.  Looking down below at streets and cars moving along while seeing buildings for miles was incredible.

Videos:

 

Programming

Dam dem node_modules!

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If you’ve ever had to create a new project with the node package manager you’ll have seen it install a load of “dependencies” installed onto your simple project.  After a while you’ll end up with multiple projects and multiple folders of “node_modules”. No problem you say, but it will be when you start running out of space!

You can always reinstall them back with a;

npm install

Deletion:
Deleting one of these folders can take a few minutes so imagine having more than one project and “node_modules” for each project.  This can take up to many gigs of space depending on the project.

Solution npkill
this great util will allow you to delete multiple node_modules folders across different projects;

Source:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42950501/delete-node-modules-folder-recursively-from-a-specified-path-using-command-line

Simply running this command in the dir where you have many projects with node_modules will allow you to choose which projects you want to remove the installed dependancies from;

npx npkill
VR

Oculus Rift-S setup nightmare

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So a few months ago i seen Amazon had a sale on the VR headset ive followed for years the Oculus Rift. It was cheaper than i had ever seen before so i ordered one.

Excitement for Flying in PC VR with Flight Simulator 2020:
I cant begin to describe how excited i was to connect it to my PC in order to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, my entire reason for buying it. I had a PC capable of VR and Graphics card well up for the task.

Problems:
When you connect the Oculus to your PC it does a check to see if everything is ok. You need to plug 1 cable into a USB 3.0 port (no problem I thought, I have loads!  Then you plug the other cable into your Graphics card. The software checks to see if all is good.

The Test:
I spent days searching for the problem and hoping there was a simple fix. I read post after post but nothing. i tried everything i read;

    • reinstall Oculus software
    • reinstall USB drivers
    • Motherboard driver
    • Update BIOS/settings
    • chipset drivers

USB 3 Ports:
The motherboard i have has 4 USB 3 ports some of them 3.2 gen and above, shouldn’t be any problems!

The Fucking Red-Green Headset Sensor Check nightmare:
Those two green checkmarks you get are great until they go red and you pull the cable out and reinsert and you get it green or red. This plug in and out bullshit fucking killed my interest in the headset.

All is good! Above is the all good signal your Headset is good to go!

 

Sensor cant track headset:Stuff of nightmares

Researching the problem:
I knew or thought i did that somebody must know the reason for this because Oculus didnt. All the help they give is to disconnect the headset for 10 seconds and reconnect it.  The number of times i did that.

The solution:
There’s no way id have ever figured this out without reading a reddit post saying to buy a USB 3 self powered hub from amazon.  it sounds so simple, I cant even remember how or why i found the post i did but if i remember right the person said they had the same problem i was mentioning.

The solution came from a comment on the reddit; https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/f75f3y/oculus_rift_s_turns_off_mid_play_along_with_all/

 

Last chance saloon:
So i thought nothing else has worked and chanced ordering this from amazon and it worked!

The USB 3 Hub i ordered:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZKSK6MB?ref=em_1p_0_ti&ref_=pe_4028881_605832111