Category Archives: Technologies

Technologies

How to Install Only Outlook from Microsoft 365 Suite

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Problem:

  • You already have Office 2007 with license key. However Office 365 email service does not work with Outlook 2007.
  • You have to use Outlook 365 to connect to Office 365 email service.
  • However you still want to use Word, Excel and Power Point 2007 because you do not have to log in Office 365 account for activation and you want to avoid accidential uploading files to your Office 365 account.
  • You also still want to use Word, Excel and Power Point 2007 because of their speed and the ability to paste an image to center of a slide.
  • In summary, you wish to install Outlook 365 only.

Solution:

  1. Download Office Deployment Tool.
  2. Extract the exe file to C:\Users\admin\Downloads\O365. (Replace admin with your Windows username.)
  3. Copy configuration-Office365-x64.xml to outlook.xml.
  4. Modify the content of the outlook.xml file as below. 
    <Configuration>

  <Add SourcePath="C:\Users\admin\Downloads\O365" OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Current">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Bing" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Excel" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
      <!--  <ExcludeApp ID="Outlook" /> -->
      <ExcludeApp ID="PowerPoint" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Word" />
    </Product>
  </Add>

  <!--  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" Channel="Current" /> -->

  <!--  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />  -->

  <!--  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />  -->

</Configuration>
  5. Open Command Prompt (Admin).
  6. Execute the commands below. 
    cd C:\Users\admin\Downloads\O365
setup.exe /download outlook.xml
setup.exe /configure outlook.xml
  7. If you have any issues with the steps then recheck Microsoft guide.
  8. You may also use online Office Customization Tool to to create a configuration file and download it for using with the Office Deployment Tool.

Increasing Classic Outlook font size:

  1. On the File tab, choose Options > Mail.
  2. Under Compose messages, choose Stationery and Fonts.
  3. On the Personal Stationery tab, under New mail messages or Replying or forwarding messages, choose Font.
  4. Refer to Microsoft guide for more information.

Creating Classic Outlook signatures:

  1. On the File tab, choose Options > Mail.
  2. Under Compose messages, choose Signature.

 

Technologies

How to Log in Windows Safe Mode

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Motivation:

  • You get a blank screen after installing graphic driver on Windows 11 (e.g. Intel HD Graphics 520 graphic driver).
  • So you want to log in Windows safe mode to remove or disable the installed graphic driver.

Solution:

  1. Turn on your computer.
  2. When you see the Windows logo and circle progress, press the Power button and hold it for 10 seconds. You computer will be turned off.
  3. Turn on your computer again.
  4. When you see the Windows logo, if you do not see Preparing Automatic Repair or Please Wait message then press the Power button and hold it for 10 seconds again.
  5. Repeat the 3rd and 4th step until you see Preparing Automatic Repair or Please Wait message.
  6. Click Advanced options button.
  7. Click Troubleshoot button.
  8. Click Advanced options button.
  9. Click Startup Settings button.
  10. Click Restart button.
  11. Press number 4 or number 5 to enter Windows safe mode.

Solution for solving graphic driver issue:

This solution is useful when you want to use your computer as a server without proper Intel HD Graphics 520 graphic driver and control your computer via remote desktop connection.

  1. Log in Windows safe mode without networking. If you want to avoid logging into safe mode then you may log in your machine via remote desktop connection.
  2. Install the latest graphic driver.
  3. Open Device Manager.
  4. Disable graphic driver.
  5. Log in Windows normal mode.
  6. Open Device Manager.
  7. Right click your display adapter and select Update driver.
  8. Select Browse my computer for drivers option.
  9. Select Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer option.
  10. Select Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.
  11. Enable graphic driver.
  12. Restart your machine.

 

    Technologies

    How to Combine an Image and Audio File to Video File

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    Motivation:

    • You have a JPG and WAV file. You want to combine them to a FLV file in order to upload it to YouTube without losing audio quality.
    • You have a JPG and MP3 file. You want to combine them to a MP4 file in order to upload it to YouTube.

    Combining JPG and WAV to FLV:

    1. Download ffmpeg.
    2. Unzip the downloaded package to C:\Users\admin\Downloads\ffmpeg-7.0.1-essentials_build folder.
    3. Copy your image.jpg and audio.wav file to C:\Users\admin\Downloads\ffmpeg-7.0.1-essentials_build/bin folder.
    4. Open Command Prompt.
    5. Execute the commands below. 
      cd C:\Users\admin\Downloads\ffmpeg-7.0.1-essentials_build\bin
ffmpeg -r 1 -loop 1 -i image.jpg -i audio.wav -acodec copy -r 1 -shortest -vf scale=1280:720 output.flv
    6. Open output.flv file to verify result.
    7. Upload ouput.flv file to YouTube.

    Combining JPG and MP3 to MP4:

    1. Download ffmpeg.
    2. Unzip the downloaded package to C:\Users\admin\Downloads\ffmpeg-7.0.1-essentials_build folder.
    3. Copy your image.jpg and audio.mp3 file to C:\Users\admin\Downloads\ffmpeg-7.0.1-essentials_build/bin folder.
    4. Open Command Prompt.
    5. Execute the commands below. 
      ffmpeg -loop 1 -framerate 1 -i image.jpg -i audio.mp3 -map 0 -map 1:a -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -tune stillimage -vf fps=10,format=yuv420p -c:a copy -shortest output.mp4
    6. Open output.mp4 file to verify result.
    7. Upload output.mp4 file to YouTube.

     

     

     

    Technologies

    How to Fix EPUB Processing Failure on Google Play Books

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    Problem:

    You uploaded EPUB file to Google Play Books but received Processing Failed error message.

    Solution 1:
    1. Open https://ebook.online-convert.com/convert-to-epub.
    2. Click Choose File and select EPUB file.
    3. Wait for the uload to be complete.
    4. Click the Start button.
    5. Download the new EPUB file.
    6. Upload the new EPUB file to Google Play Books.
    7. If this solution does not fix the issue, please try solution 2 below.
    Solution 2:
    1. Open https://www.zamzar.com.
    2. Click Choose Files and select EPUB file.
    3. Click Convert To and select azw3.
    4. Click Convert Now button.
    5. Download the azw3 file.
    6. Return to https://www.zamzar.com.
    7. Click Choose Files and select azw3 file.
    8. Click Convert To and select EPUB.
    9. Click Convert Now button.
    10. Download the EPUB file.
    11. Upload the EPUB file to Google Play Books.

    Note: https://www.zamzar.com offers only 2 free daily conversions.

     

     

    Technologies

    How to Automatically Create a Subtitle for a Video

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    Motivation:

    You have MP4 video file.
    You want to create a subtitle to understand the video content.

    Solution:
    1. Split MP4 file to 9-minutes files (please refer to https://huybien.com/how-to-trim-or-cut-mp4-files-without-re-encoding/ for details).
    2. Log in https://www.veed.io
    3. Click the “+” icon.
    4. Upload a 9-minutes MP4 file.
    5. Click the “Subtitles” tab.
    6. Click the “Auto Translate” button. Select the language for the subtitle.
    7. Click the “Start” button. Wait for the process to be complete.
    8. Click the “Export” button.
    9. Ensure that the “Burn Subtitle” option is selected.
    10. Click the “Export Video” button. Wait for the process on the left to be complete.
    11. Click the “Download MP4” link.

     

    Technologies

    How to Convert M4A to WAV File on macOS

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    Motivation:

    You have downloaded some M4A audio files.

    You want to extract convert them to WAV files to listen to them in other devices that do not support playing M4A files.

    Procedure:

    • In the Music app on your Mac, choose Music > Preferences, then click Files.
    • Copy the path of Music Media folder location. (An example path is Macintosh HD/Users/admin/Music/Music/Media.)
    • Click the Import Settings… button.
    • In the Import Using pop-up menu, set Import Using = Wav Encoder, then click OK to save the settings.
    • Drag M4A files to the Music app.
    • Select songs in your library, then click File > Convert > Create WAV Version.
    • Go to your library folder (i.e. the Music Media folder location) and copy the WAV files to other devices.
    • Delete the M4A files from your library.
    Technologies

    How to Move Outlook Data to a New Computer

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    Motivation:

    You need to move Outlook data and settings from an old computer to a new computer.

    Solution:

    1. On the destination (new) computer:

      • Type Control Panel in Search box.
      • Click on Control Panel.
      • Select Large icons for View by.
      • Click Mail (32-bit).
      • Click Add. Set Profile Name = Outlook.
      • Follow the instructions to setup an account.

    2. On the source (old) computer:

      • Open Outlook.
      • On the File menu, click Data File Management.
      • Click the data file that you want to compact, and then click Settings.
      • Click Compact Now.
      • Close Outlook.

    3. Copy and overwrite all the contents of %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook to the destination computer. Create the Outlook folder if it does not exist.

    4. Open Outlook in the destination computer.

    Note: If you are using POP3 protocol then all the messages will be re-downloaded again once. If this is true for you then

      • Let Outlook finish downloading the messages, then
      • Click on Unread Mail folder below the Search Folders,
      • Select all the messages,
      • Press Shift, right click and click Delete to permanently delete them all.

     

    Tech Devices, Technologies

    How to Install a Clean iOS

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    Motivation:

    You want to sell or give away your iPhone. You want to ensure that the new owner will not access any of your data.

    You may also need to give your iPhone to a technician to fix the broken display of your iPhone. You want to ensure that the technician cannot access any of your data.

    You may also have so many buggy applications on your iPhone and want to increase stability and performance of your iOS.

    Procedure:

    • Import your Photos to a MacBook.
    • Create a backup of data. It is best to let your iPhone synchronize everything with iCloud, including Photos and Contacts.
    • Turn off Find My iPhone.
    • Plug your iPhone to a MacBook.
    • Open Finder. Click on your iPhone on the left panel.
    • Click Restore iPhone… button.
    • Click Backup button.
    • Click Restore and Update button. Click Next button. Click Agree button.
    • Follow the instructions to install a clean iOS to your iPhone.

    Post Installation Configuration:

    • Setup your iPhone.
    • Activate your iPhone.
    • Setup Face ID.
    • Restore your Apps & Data from iCloud backup.
    • Synchronize music to your iPhone.
    • Go to Settings > Generals > Software Update > Automatic Updates. Turn off Automatic Updates.
    • Go to Settings > Generals > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Drag the slider to the right to increase text size.
    • Go to Settings > Messages. Enable iMessage.