-
Windows Tip: How to add an old printer to Windows 10 or 11
A friend wanted help, he has an old HP Laserjet 1018 printer and was unable to get it recognized on his Windows 10 laptop. The printer is an old model, so after connecting by the USB port, Windows was not showing it automatically. The HP.COM drivers download page was unhelpful, it said there are no drivers and suggested we use the drivers that come with the operating system. In Windows, “Add a Printer” wizard there is an option “Add Manually”. That lists only Generic and Microsoft, there were no other manufacturers including HP listed. I remembered, that starting in Windows 10, Microsoft doesn’t pre-download and list the thousands of printers…
-
Windows Tip: Read encrypted files after hard disk upgrade
Recently a friend called & I could sense from his voice the panic. A few days ago, he got his laptop running Windows 10 back from service. The PC was slow, so he had purchased a hardware upgrade, from a (magnetic) hard drive to an SSD (Solid State Drive) at the official service centre. To go for a new SSD is a cost-effective and effective way to improve the performance of old Windows or Mac computers. Last year, I gave new life to a decade-old Core i3 Laptop by putting in a new 128GB SSD & 8GB RAM on the PC, at a nominal cost of INR 3000 (USD 38)…
-
How to maintain your laptop?
இன்றைய மெட்ராஸ் பேப்பர் இதழில் “யானை வாங்குவோர் கவனத்துக்கு” என்கிற தலைப்பில் என்னுடைய கட்டுரை வெளிவந்திருக்கிறது. இந்தக் கட்டுரையை எழுத எனக்கு வாய்ப்பளித்து, எழுதியதை அவரது மோதிரக்கையால் செம்மைப்படுத்திய நண்பர், பிரபல எழுத்தாளர் திரு பா ராகவன் அவர்களுக்கு எனது மனமார்ந்த நன்றிகள். நண்பர்கள் கட்டுரையைப் படித்து விட்டு தங்களது கருத்துக்களைப் பகிரவும். நன்றி. முழுக் கட்டுரையும், இதழில் உள்ள மற்ற பல நல்ல கட்டுரைகளையும் படிக்க சந்தா தேவை, தமிழ் பத்திரிகை உலகில் தரமான எழுத்தியல் வளர உங்கள் சந்தாவும், ஆதரவும் பயனாகவிருக்கும். முதல் சில பத்திகள் கீழே: குசேலன் திரைப்படத்தில் நடிகர் வடிவேலு ரொம்பக் கஷ்டப்பட்டு ரஜினியுடன் ஒரு புகைப்படம் எடுத்துக் கொள்வார். உயிரைப் பணயம் வைத்து எடுத்துக் கொண்ட அந்தப் படம் உள்ள செல்பேசி தொலைந்து போய் விட்டால் எப்படியிருக்கும்? 2008-இல் அந்தத் திரைப்படம் வந்த காலத்தில் இன்றுள்ள அளவுக்குப் பலரிடம் ஸ்மார்ட் போன் கிடையாது. இப்போது நூற்றுக்குத் தொண்ணுாற்றொன்பது சதவீதம் பேரை அதுதான் ஆள்கிறது. வீட்டில் கணினி இருக்கும். கையில்…
-
Present in Teams in PowerPoint
A #PowerPoint Tip. #MicrosoftTeams allows participant(s) to move between individual slides, while a speaker is presenting. As a speaker to enable this, you need to save your slidedeck (PPTX) in #OneDrive or #SharePoint, only then “Present in Teams” will light up in #PowerPoint. More details are at this Microsoft support page.
-
Tamil voice typing now available on Windows 11
Windows 11 now supports five Indian languages for Voice typing: Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi & Telugu. Today, I stumbled on this when I accidentally pressed Windows key + H on my Windows PC. I was about to get rid of the window with a big microphone button that popped up, when I pressed the help (?) button to get a list of supported languages – there I was pleasantly surprised to find Tamil. Next, I gave this feature a spin. I spoke a few sentences in தமிழ் and it got most of what I said correctly (there are a few mistakes, I suppose I can get it to type right…
-
WSLg in Windows 11
Though I had seen demos of this online, using in real a #Linux GUI app (like GIMP) running on Debian on #Windows11 using WSLg feels sublime. Microsoft (with NVIDIA, Linux Community, and partners) have done a phenomenal job in getting all the pieces integrating well. See GIMP running in Windows 11 in the screenshot above. When I posted the above in Facebook, there was a comment on “Why not just run Linux natively and cut out Windows altogether?”. In my case, the answer is simple. I have been using Windows from Windows 3.1 & Windows NT days, and I feel comfortable. I have built muscle memory, acquired deep skills to…
-
Windows 11 – I am loving it!
Couple of months back, when Microsoft announced their new OS, Windows 11 I tried it on a Virtual Machine and wrote a brief review. Today (5th October 2021), Microsoft had released Windows 11 and made it available widely. Get the ISO for Windows 11 If you have a compatible PC, you can go to Windows Update and check (seek) for the availability of Windows 11 for your PC. In my case it didn’t show up, so I downloaded the ISO from the Visual Studio subscriber download page, burned it to a USB drive using RUFUS utility. You may also use the Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool to get the ISO. Irrespective…
-
It is not your parents Windows anymore!
The below article was written for the IEEE Computer Society Region 10’s quarterly magazine, thanks to Mr H R Mohan for the invitation. Windows 11 What does a designer of children’s books and biscuit tins, or a psychology major got to do with Windows, the operating system from Microsoft? The two, Priya Chauhan and Dorothy Feng are from the team that designed the new, signature feature for Windows 11 – the widgets, available next to the start button widgets provide you with a quick glance to information you need to know and care about, without you opening individual apps. Unlike the infamous business metrics like KPI, Chauhan and Feng are…
