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The first thing I install on a new computer is Everything File Search from voidtools.com.

The more you use it, the more you use it, especially if you assign it to a hotkey of your liking.

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Chester Peake

Happy to report that today was my first opportunity to use SetUserFTA after the pdf extension had reverted to Edge sometime since yesterday, and it worked perfectly!

I cannot get my HP Probook 650 to start in Safe Mode.  F8 does not work.  I can probably eventually get it into Safe Mode (F9 might be the right key), but even if that allows me to run the reg file, that’s more work than doing it manually.

Thanks for the tips.  There is no “Owner” tab where it should be, so I couldn’t try that approach.

Every time Edge takes pdf’s, I right click a pdf/Open With/Choose Another App/and select Acrobat and check the box for “always use this app….”.  That works, but only until Edge takes it again anywhere from later that day, next week, or the next windows update.  I see this as a bug in Windows 10 introduced a few years ago, and it’s been there ever since.

I rebooted, and ran the reg file, and got exactly the same message.  The reg files contents are below.  I’m currently on Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043 (21H1).  A windows update was done a few days ago.  This reg file won’t run regardless of whether Edge or Acrobat is currently the default.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf\OpenWithProgids]
“Acrobat.Document.11″=hex(0):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf\UserChoice]
“ProgId”=”Acrobat.Document.11”
“Hash”=”Li6F/3jRDzo=”

 

It took a long time, but by using regular Windows Update, I got a Win8 VM updated to 8.1, and then to Win10. There weren’t any hassles over product keys. Win10 seems to be working well enough, except the mouse and keyboard act a little strangely. Sometimes there are two mouse cursors on the screen, and the VM doesn’t want to give control of the mouse and keyboard back to the host as readily as other VM’s. But at least it’s working so I can do what I need to with Win10, which is software testing for compatibility.

Will do. Right now I’m trying to get a Win8 vm updated to the point it will offer to upgrade itself to Win 10.

I don’t know how W10 activation works on clones, but it’s probably similar to W8. Let us know how it goes.

cheers, Paul

Thanks for the suggestion. I have Windows 8 in several vm’s. I will first try to upgrade one of those, and if that doesn’t work I’ll buy a retail copy.

For instance, amazon has “Microsoft Windows 10 Home | USB Flash Drive” for $119. I would want to install and activate it in a baseline vm, and then do my work with clones of that vm.

I’ve used Acrobat for a long time. It has a plugin for Word which I make use of often. At various times I’ve had to upgrade Acrobat so it would work with new Office versions. The free Acrobat 8.x may or may not have the Office plugins, or the plugins may or may not support all versions of Office. This is just something to be aware of if you want to try using the free Acrobat.

I gave my laptop a thorough treatment with a compressed air can. Almost an entire can. Any difference this may have made is negligible judging by the temp’s reported by my SIW utility.

I’ve got Dell’s detailed directions for full disassembly of the laptop, and I don’t intend to go that route myself. At this point the only reason for doing that would be to reseat the i7 chip with new thermal goop. I may have that done sometime later, but for now I’ll keep going with it like it is because all temp’s are a lot lower than when I started.

I have the laptop on a plastic shelf with the back edge elevated so that all the air vents (in and out) have plenty of space.

I live in the sticks. It’ll take me a few days to get into town to get an air can.

There are two air-outs; the user guide says one is at the CPU can, and the other at the GPU fan. The CPU vent is noticeably warmer then the GPU, and that agrees with the reported temp’s which say the CPU is 20-25C warmer than the GPU.

The thing that originally grabbed my attention was the side of the unit where the hard drive come out. It felt really warm, and now it feels much better. The temp’s say it dropped from 50C to 40C.

My docking station is a Dell brand, but I bought it off the used market. I got it specifically because I thought that was the only way to connect two external monitors to the laptop (read on).

I took the computer off the docking station, and running just the internal monitor, temp’s went down about 5C. The docking station does slightly block the pair of air output ports on the back corners of the laptop.

I used a vacuum cleaner to suck whatever would come out the various air-in and air-out ports, and temp’s went down nearly another 10C (undocked).

I switched from the internal monitor to one external monitor connected with an HDMI cable, and temp’s didn’t seem to change. The unit is still not on the docking station. Before this, I wasn’t aware that an external monitor can be connected with HDMI!

One of my external monitors has an HDMI port, and I have it connected directly to the laptop. My other monitor has only DVI and VGA, so I have it connected with a VGA cable. Running this way, temp’s are still lower. SIW is reporting 73C for the i7’s “package” temperature. This a full 20C lower than when I started. The Firepro is 48C, and the SSD is 38C. These are both significantly, lower, too.

So it turns out I don’t need the docking station at all! Doh!! The Dell M4600 has 5 USB ports, so I’ve got plenty of those.

I may still get a compressed air can and blow that through the unit. I also have a nearby computer repair guy who I’m sure can open it and do the work on the innards. But I think I’ll see how it goes for a while of normal use. Most days I use the system nearly all day. It’s been a workhorse for over three years. Battery life is not much more than an hour, but I rarely use it on batteries.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. My computer has 8 GB of ram and a Samsung SSD. The monitors are 23″ Gateway (1920×1080) and Samsung (1680×1050) models. They each run off their own power brick, and one is connected to the docking station with a VGA cable, and one with a DVI cable. So I’m inclined to think that the power draw of the monitors doesn’t affect the laptop. Please let me know if you don’t think that’s a fair assessment.

I have the SIW system utility, and I just used it to check on temperatures with one monitor, and again with two monitors.

With 2 monitors the i7 temperatures which were near 85-90C and went up just a little, a few degrees if at all.

The ATI Firepro graphics temperature went up from 56C to 64C. A more significant increase that the i7’s, but temp’s are much lower than the i7’s. If I can trust these temperatures as being relevant and accurate, the I don’t think the difference between one monitor or two is enough to be too concerned about. Would you conclude the same thing?

The SSD temperature is labeled “air flow” and went up 1 degree.

SIW is supposed to be able to show fan speed, but my version isn’t reporting it.

I was just looking at the M4600 user guide and I just now noticed that it has a VGA port on the back, which I used to use to connect a single monitor, and also something called a DisplayPort connector on the right side. I’m now wondering if I can run two monitors without a docking station. What is a DisplayPort generally used for?

That is indeed a handy way to move a row up or down. It is worth remembering.

The Excel development team must not use Word. Word will do essentially this by pressing Shift+Alt+uparrow and downarrow. This works in a Word table and also in bullited and numbered lists. Once you’ve used these a few times, you see how handy they can be. It’s too bad Excel doesn’t do the same thing.

In Excel these keystrokes do not seem to do anything. So what the heck…..

I used the Excel keyboard actions (given in the earlier post) with the excel 2010 macro recorder turned on, to move a row up one row. The recorder gave me the first macro given below. Using this as a model, I created two versions to move the rows containing the currently selected cells, one for up and one for down. There is also a macro to assign these to the keyboard combos Shift+Alt+Up and Down. The Rows.Count part enables them to move either a single row or a block of rows. These seem to work like a charm, and I have added them to my PERSONAL.XLS file that I keep in the Office14XLSTART folder, so they will be there everytime Excel launches.

Cheers,

Brian
Austin, TX
http://www.xlrotor.com
Sub MoveRowUp()
‘
‘ MoveRowUp Macro
‘
Rows(“6:6”).Select
Selection.Cut
Rows(“5:5”).Select
Selection.Insert Shift:=xlDown
End Sub
Sub myMoveRowUp() ‘this works with one or more rows
If TypeName(Selection) “Range” Then Exit Sub
Selection.EntireRow.Select
Selection.Cut
Selection.Offset(-1, 0).EntireRow.Select
Selection.Insert Shift:=xlDown
End Sub
Sub myMoveRowDown() ‘needed some extra logic to handle multiple rows
If TypeName(Selection) “Range” Then Exit Sub
Selection.EntireRow.Select
Selection.Cut
Selection.Offset(Selection.Rows.Count + 1, 0).EntireRow.Select
Selection.Insert Shift:=xlDown
Selection.Offset(-Selection.Rows.Count, 0).EntireRow.Select
End Sub
Sub Auto_Open() ‘assign SHIFT+ALT+ARROW to run the macros
Application.OnKey “+%{UP}”, “myMoveRowUp”
Application.OnKey “+%{DOWN}”, “myMoveRowDown”
End Sub

I use shift-F5 quite often with a large document I work with almost daily using Word 2010. It usually works great, but about a third of the time it does nothing. I have no idea why.

Brian
Austin, TX

Try the following. Then when you do the paste you will get a picture that should look good and not be linked to the excel file.

Brian in Austin, Texas

If TypeName(ActiveChart) = “Chart” Then
ActiveChart.CopyPicture Appearance:=xlPrinter, Size:=xlScreen, Format:=xlPicture
Else
Selection.CopyPicture Appearance:=xlPrinter, Format:=xlPicture
End If