I’m often in other time zones for business or pleasure. It’s convenient to have a clock showing the local time on my Windows 10 Pro based laptop, while at the same time having a separate clock showing the time back home. Adding a second clock Windows 10 is not as intuitive as one would hope. Here’s a brief post on how to do it.
To add additional clock in Windows 10 right-click on the time displayed in the lower left corner of the task bar and select “Adjust date/time”. Now chose “Add clocks for different time zones”. Another window will appear allowing you to change the date and time settings. Select the “Additional Clocks” tab. Check the box next to “Show this clock”, then select a time zone from the drop list. Finally, enter a name that will be displayed adjacent to this additional clock. In this example we’ll use the name “Home”. When complete select “OK” (See Figure 1).
Figure 1
That’s it. Now hover your mouse pointer over the time displayed on the task bar and it will show two clocks: one showing the local time, the other showing the time associated with the time zone and name you’ve chosen.
Back in 2011 I added the Google +1 button to this site as method to give you an easy way to recommend the content you’ve read to people who can use it. However, it appears that Google has recently decided to shutdown down Google+, the social network platform that that the Google +1 button was linked to. Consequently I have removed the Google +1 button from this site.
I recently purchased and installed the retail version of Windows Pro on my primary desktop machine. The installation media came on a USB flash drive. I like to keep backup copies of the Windows installation media, preferable at on offsite location in case I need to reinstall the operating system and the original media is unavailable for some reason. This post described how to clone this USB flash drive. Software versions used in this post were as follows:
Windows 10 Pro (x64)
ImageUSB, version 1.3.1004
So let’s get started…
To clone the Windows 10 installation media we’re going to use ImageUSB. ImageUSB is a free utility from PassMark software which lets you create on image file from a USB flash drive and then write that image to one or more USB flash drives.
Begin by downloading ImageUSB, then unzip and copy the files to a location of your choice. Insert the Windows 10 USB flash drive into an available USB port then double-click on the file imageUSB.exe. Select the Windows 10 USB flash drive that appears under “step 1”, then select the option to “Create the image from USB drive” under “step 2”. Under the “Available Options” section ensure that the “Post Image Verification” option is selected so that ImageUSB can verify the integrity of the image after it writes it. ImageUSB needs a location and file name to write to; select both under “step 3”. In this example, we’ll write the image to C:/Users/iceflatline/Desktop/win10-image.bin. Now select “Write” under “step 4” and ImageUSB will write the image file (See Figure 1).
Figure 1
Once ImageUSB completes writing your image remove the Windows 10 USB flash drive and insert the USB flash drive you want to write win10-image.bin to into an available USB port. Note that this drive must be formatted with suitable file system (e.g., exFAT or NTFS) and have sufficient space available to contain the Windows 10 image (~16 GB). This space will be inaccessible on the USB flash drive after the writing process; however, any remaining space will be accessible.
Select “Refresh Drives” in ImageUSB, and select the USB flash drive under “step 1”, then select the option to “Write the image to USB drive” under “step 2”. Again, ensure that “Post Image Verification” is enabled. Select “Browse” in “step 3” and navigate to C:/Users/iceflatline/Desktop/win10-image.bin. Now select “Write” under “step 4” and ImageUSB will write the win10-image.bin to the USB flash drive (See Figure 2).
Figure2
Verify that your computer can boot to the backup copy of the Windows 10 installation media and then store the USB flash drive in safe location. Note that ImageUSB can only write *.bin files created with ImageUSB.
Conclusion
ImageUSB is great tool for creating exact bit-level copies of USB flash drives, including those containing Windows 10 installation media.
iceflatline decided to build a new gaming PC. iceflatline was also in the middle of several Steam-based games on his current gaming PC. iceflatline really wanted play those games on his new PC, not his old PC. This post describes how iceflatline transferred those Steam games from his old PC to his new PC without losing any game play progress.
Software versions used in this post were as follows:
Windows 10 Pro, version 1709
Steam client application, build 20171215
So let’s get started…
On your old PC navigate to your Steam directory and copy the steamapps subdirectory and all of its contents somewhere you can access from the new PC. The Steam directory is typically located in C:\Program files (x86)\Steam.
On your old PC copy your games’ saved game directories (e.g., C:\Users\your-user-name\Documents\My Games\some-game\) and all of their contents to somewhere you can access them from the new PC.
On your new PC, install Steam and launch it once, then exit.
On your new PC, navigate to the Steam directory and delete everything in it except the file Steam.exe.
Copy and paste the steamapps directory you backed up from the old PC to the Steam directory in the new PC and launch Steam. After a brief self update Steam should show your games as installed in the Steam library.
Launch one of the games and verify it works. You likely won’t see your characters, saved games, etc – that’s okay. Quit the game.
Copy and paste the saved game directories and files you backed up from the old PC to the same locations on the new PC (e.g., C:\Users\your-user-name\Documents\My Games\some-game\).
Right-click on one of the games in the Steam library, select properties, then select the Local Files tab. Now select Verify Integrity of Game Files (See Figure 1). Let that process run to completion. Now start the game again and your characters, saved games, etc should be there. Rinse and repeat for each game you’ve installed.
Folding@home is a distributed computing project started by Stanford University to help understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases. The project uses the idle processing resources of thousands of personal computers belonging to people that have installed the Folding@home software on their systems. In this post I will describe how to install and configure the Folding@home client software on Ubuntu server. All steps assume that the Apache http server on Ubuntu server is installed and operating correctly.
Software versions used in this post were as follows:
Ubuntu server 16.04.3 LTS
fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb
So let’s get started…
Download and Install
First, update your package list:
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sudo apt-get update
Then download and install the latest 64-bit version of the Debian-based Folding@home client to a location of your choice. In this example we’ll use the user’s home directory:
Note that fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb was the most current version of the client at the time this post was published. You may need to update the file name in this command in order to fetch the most recent version of the software.
The installer will request you to enter a Folding@home donor name, team number, passkey (optional), whether the client should be automatically started at system boot, and how much of your system resources should be used (See Figures 1-5, repectively).
If you have an existing Folding@home donor name enter that name here, else enter a new donor name:
Figure 1
If you’re joining an existing Folding@home team, enter that team number here, else simply enter 0 for no team:
Figure 2
The Folding@home passkey is a unique identifier that ties your Folding@home contributions directly to you (not just those with your username). The passkey uniquely identifies you as an individual donor and is associated with the results that you have completed. If you have an Folding@home passkey and would like to use it enter it here. If you don’t have a passkey and would like one, you can request one from Folding@home. Else simply select “Ok” here to move to the next screen:
Figure 3
Choose whether or not you want the Folding@home client to startup automatically when the Ubuntu server boots:
Figure 4
Finally, you can select how aggressively the client uses your system’s CPU resources:
Figure 5
The installer will finish and automatically start the Folding@home client. You can verify that the client is running using the following command:
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2
sudo/etc/init.d/FAHClient status
fahclient isrunning with PID30562
You can now delete the installation Folding@home package fahclient_7.4.4_amd64.deb from your home directory, if desired.
Configure
Now that the Folding@home client has been installed it’s time to configure Web Control, Folding@home’s graphical interface. Web Control is the default control program for monitoring your Folding@home client via an easy to use web page.
First, stop your running Folding@home client:
1
sudo/etc/init.d/FAHClient stop
Then use sudo and your favorite editor to append the following lines to /etc/fahclient/config.xml, which will grant access to the Web Control dashboard to a specific IP address. Unfortunately Web Control can only grant access to a single IP address. In this example we’ve chosen to grant access to the host with the IP address 192.168.10.100:
1
2
3
<!--Grant remote web access tothe following IP-->
<allow>192.168.10.100</allow>
<web-allow>192.168.10.100</web-allow>
Finally, restart the Folding@home client:
1
sudo/etc/init.d/FAHClient start
You should now be able to access the Folding@home Web Control dash board at http://your-ubuntu-server-IP-address:7396/ (See Figure 6)
Figure 6
Conclusion
There you have it. A few minutes of your time and you can easily have Folding@home up and running on your Ubuntu server. I think Folding@Home is a great cause and have created my own Folding@Home team to contribute some of my spare CPU cycles. How about you? If you have a few cycles to spare how about dedicating some to Folding@home’s efforts? You’re also welcome to join join my team. To join, simply enter the team number 78746 when you install folding@home.
