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All Posts (530)

• Published on

  2024-03-05 4:44 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windowswindowsupdate

  How to fix annoying mouse/touch device input lag on Windows 11?

  A couple of weeks ago I posted about a really annoying issue - persistent mouse/touch device input lag on Windows 10. It was driving me crazy for an afternoon before I found the right Windows Update package to uninstall, purge, cleanse in hellfire, ship right back to Microsoft (with an angry letter attached to it), and finally block said update from ever getting installed again.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-02-27 4:51 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  microsoft-teams

  How to install the Classic Teams for Business client?

  This article explains briefly and straightforwardly (and in a frustrated tone, the reasons of which you might already know) how to install the Classic Microsoft Teams for Business client, instead of the "new" client. I doubt the method will work for very long, but we'll see. Background The new Microsoft Teams client is great. It's shiny. It has some of the bells and whistles of the old one. And it's faster (most of the time). You should probably use it, unless it doesn't work for you.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-02-20 6:39 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  regeditwindows

  This simple registry key will make your Windows computer 11.5% faster!

  A'ight, it's a clickbait title, but it's also almost true. See, if you're like me, you're also sick and tired of Windows shoving Edge and Bing down your throat every time you search for something on your PC or click a system link? Do you want to find your files and apps (and only YOUR files and apps, not someone else's stuff) without having to wait for Windows to load a bunch of irrelevant web results and MSN news stories?

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• 

  Published on

  2024-02-18 11:57 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  sharepoint

  How to remove files in a SharePoint library?

  This article explains how you can remove a big batch of files from a library using either the UI or PnP PowerShell. And when I say "big", I mean, roughly, "as many as possible", without removing the library or touching the folders in it. I'm not trying to speedrun SharePoint, here, I'm just trying to get rid of some files without resorting to shortcuts. Please join me on this adventure!

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• 

  Published on

  2024-02-06 6:33 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  npmtslibtypescript

  How to solve "error TS2354: This syntax requires an imported helper but module 'tslib' cannot be found." when running npm build scripts?

  This article explains a solution to another dumb issue I ran into when checking out someone else's repository and trying to build and run the solution. I'm calling the issue "dumb" because it's not like I'm practicing rocket surgery here. And the solution isn't particularly high-flying either. Then again, neither am I - I'm just trying to add a couple of null checks to a widget that keeps crashing. But let's get to it.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-01-30 6:18 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  googlecolabpythonstablediffusion

  How to solve 'Mountpoint must either be a directory or not exist' in Google Colab workbook?

  This article is about how to fix a common error in Google Colab notebooks when trying to mount a Google Drive, and you just get an error along the lines of 'Mountpoint must either be a directory or not exist'. I'll explain the reason for the error, and provide several solutions ranging from stupidly simple to normally simple. Yeah - no space surgery available in this article.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-01-23 2:37 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  delldriver-issuessdiowindowsupdate

  How to fix catastrophic mouse/touch device input lag on Windows 10?

  Did you start experiencing weird input lag on your Windows 10 PC starting some time early 2024? This lag would take 1-6 seconds, during which your mouse and/or touch devices (touch screen or touch pad) would be completely unresponsive. Keyboard would work, though. Good. That means I wasn't the only one. 😅 Don't get me wrong! I'm sorry you have issues with your computer.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-01-16 5:01 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  dockerds423plushomeassistantsynology

  How to update RAM on Synology DS423+?

  Time for something completely different: Hardware stuff. In this article, I'll explain how to upgrade Synology DS423+ NAS's RAM memory, which super-cheap RAM memory I used, and a little bit about how I ended up with this device in the first place. Anyway. Let's get to it. Background A while back, I realized I need to update the machine hosting my Home Assistant Docker container.

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• Published on

  2024-01-15 10:00 a.m.

  Authors

  demo

  Tags

  expandablecomponentstest

  Testing the ExpandableContent Component

  Testing the ExpandableContent Component This blog post demonstrates the new ExpandableContent component in action within a real blog post context. Introduction Sometimes in blog posts, you want to provide additional information that doesn't need to be immediately visible to all readers. This is where the ExpandableContent component comes in handy.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-01-09 7:55 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  dockerwsl

  How to work around Docker failing to access WSL on Windows?

  So, I'm an occasional developer (and a frequent scripter), so I occasionally need to, well, develop stuff. And quite often I need Docker for packaging whatever I'm trying to push out there, or possibly to run someone else's containers on my machine. But sometimes, Docker is more pain than gain. And this, dear reader, was definitely one of those times. So, what was wrong? Problem Alright, so my Docker was having some trouble with WSL.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-01-02 7:46 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  russiaukrainewaryearreview

  2023 Year Review

  I've made it a tradition to post something about the last year just after the New Year's, so here's another look back at the last 12 months. Next Tuesday, we'll be back to the regularly scheduled programming! In 2021 I promised a new article every Tuesday. In 2022 I managed that, and in 2023 too (although just about), but I have to admit I've pretty much used up my backlog of unfinished articles at this point...

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• 

  Published on

  2023-12-26 2:09 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azuredevopsyaml

  How to make sure your pipelines run as scheduled in Azure DevOps?

  This article explains in very brief terms - it is Christmas and I'm enjoying my 2-week-long European vacation, after all 😉 - how to make sure your Azure DevOps (YAML) pipelines fire on schedule. Because by default, they won't. And I'll explain to you why that (kind of) makes sense! Problem I've mentioned it before, but my employer is a pretty heavy user of Azure DevOps. You wouldn't believe the amount of plumbing a global SaaS product like Omnia requires - but let me tell you, it's a lot.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-12-19 6:15 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  homeassistanthomeautomationyaml

  How to pick the cheapest hours of electricity using Home Assistant?

  Time to write about Home Assistant for a change! I've been using the home automation platform for a couple of years now and while it's immensely powerful, you also run into all kinds of issues. I could rant in length about one weather station or how difficult it is to get some stuff working on Docker on Windows (and maybe I already have!), but overall it's incredible how many complex things you can do just like that.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-12-12 4:45 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershellwinget

  How to fix "The term 'winget' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program." in Windows?

  This article explains how I fixed Terminal / PowerShell being unable to locate my winget when I was trying to install something with it. This was quite unexpected as I knew for sure I had installed winget, and I had also used it before successfully. But alas, things break down and need fixing. And here's how to fix this particular issue. Problem Let's take a quick look at the actual problem first.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-12-05 2:58 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azuredevops

  Azure DevOps suddenly not letting you manage Environments ? Sorry, it's for your own security!

  This article explains how to get around new security limitations (did I say "limitations"? I meant "features") in Azure DevOps to make it tolerable to configure your Azure DevOps Deployment Environments. Because the recent changes to Azure DevOps have made it, quite frankly, intolerable. But - let's take a step back before we take the required 15 steps forward (or sidestep the whole issue - now that's what I call a proper shortcut, and I'll share it with you too).

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• 

  Published on

  2023-11-28 6:31 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windowsupdate

  How to manually install Windows updates?

  This article explains how to install Windows Update whenever your Windows Update service is broken. Which seems to occasionally happen. And while you can run a ton of scripts to fix it (and a lot of guides online just tell you to click "Check for updates" manually, which is kind of funny to me, but ok), the actual thing that worked for me was way simpler. Read on to find out more and possibly laugh at me. Anyway. Background I have a Windows PC that I don't use often.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-11-21 6:00 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  trello

  How to restore an old version of a Trello card?

  This article explains how to easily(?) restore the description (or any other field) of a Trello card. This might come in handy, and the UI for this isn't exactly obvious (read: it's nonexistent). Background If you're like me, you're a heavy (if a bit reluctant) Trello user. Using it all day long, you will before or later run into a situation where you mistakenly (or due to a technical glitch or stupid design) remove the contents of a card and are unable to restore them.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-11-14 8:30 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershellwinget

  How to fix winget when it's throwing a "0x8a15000f : Data required by the source is missing"?

  This article offers a couple of different ways to fix the "0x8a15000f" error that winget might throw at you in seemingly random situations. It's a great tool especially for headless scenarios on Windows, but this was an odd one - and required an odd solution. AI-powered summary: Winget Error “0x8a15000f” Solutions Encounter the winget “0x8a15000f” error? This guide offers solutions.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-11-07 9:19 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  hacktoberfest

  Hacktoberfest 2023 - another year, another Hacktoberfest

  This article is a quick one about my annual tradition - participating in Hacktoberfest, the "month-long celebration of open-source projects, their maintainers, and the entire community of contributors.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-10-31 5:44 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azurepowershell

  How to selectively remove items from an Azure blob storage container?

  In this article, I'll share a simple script for a simple use case: removing blobs from a virtual directory structure in a container in an Azure blob storage account. This should be useful for a case like ours; removing certain directories and subdirectories but not the whole container. But let's not get ahead of ourselves! What was the problem we had?

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• 

  Published on

  2023-10-24 12:29 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azcliazurelog4shellpowershell

  How to update application settings for (all of your) App Services and Azure Functions on Azure using az cli?

  Anyone still remember Log4Shell? The incredibly easy-to-exploit, zero-day vulnerability in Log4j, a popular Java logging framework, that made arbitrary code execution extremely simple and straightforward. The vulnerability had existed unnoticed since 2013 and was simply a side effect of a nifty new feature implemented way back when. But that's enough of that. How serious was it? Well - Apache gave Log4Shell a CVSS severity rating of 10, the highest available score .

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• 

  Published on

  2023-10-17 3:18 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureblazorswa

  swa emulator throwing "✖ Could not connect to "http://localhost:7071". Is the server up and running?"?

  This article explains how to get around a weird quirk in Azure Static Web Apps local development story. Well - one of the quirks anyway. A real showstopper issue I ran into. One, that isn't even that serious - it's just that the error message doesn't help you at all. But let's take a step back - what was the issue we ran into, again? Problem When you're running your project in Visual Studio Code, it fails to start and you have output somewhat like below in the console:

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• 

  Published on

  2023-10-10 7:42 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azureappservicecertificatecertificatespowershell

  How to export an App Service Certificate from Azure?

  Azure offers this great offering that is in my mind underutilized still - managed certificates that they'll renew for you. While the offering is called Azure App Service Certificates , they are not only limited to being used in App Services. Their biggest strengths lie in their ease of use, automation, and integration with different Azure services. These certs are automatically renewed, eliminating the need for manual certificate management.

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• 

  Published on

  2023-10-03 6:51 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  certificatesopenssl

  How to export a certificate and a private key from a .pfx using OpenSSL?

  Alright, so let's make this a quick one. I've had to google this multiple times, since I have to do this a couple of times per year, which is NOT often enough for me to remember it by heart, or even for my Terminal to remember the commands properly. So, long story short - here's how to export a PEM-formatted .cer -file and your private key (and optionally decrypt it as well!) from a .pfx -file containing both!

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• 

  Published on

  2023-09-26 2:16 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  azuredevopsdocker

  How to find out dependency versions in your .csproj files using PowerShell?

  This article explains our solution to a very particular use case. We needed to go through .csproj files, find certain dependencies from them, and then figure out their versions. And all of this needed to happen in an Azure DevOps pipeline. But when would this be helpful? Well, hear me out, because boy do I have a case to describe! Background We wanted to have automatic versioning for our builds in Azure DevOps. We use the standard and boring semver model - i.e. Major.Minor.

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