UPDATED ON: 2024-04-03 Page will be updated in the future, so check back later on
Here are some handy online tools and various mandatory links for front end developer. This is a fine selection from me, which i accumulated during last month of web investigations. Hope that you will find in this list what you are looking for. If you have suggestions or any commentaries to following breakdown, [drop me a line]
please.
If you are really serious about webdev and care about loading times of your projects you should take a look on following image optimizers.
[Pinga]
► excellent PNG/JPG compressor
[Gif Optimizer]
► solid GIF optimizer, animated GIF are supported also
spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
Sufficient amount of small bloggers/vloggers complain about [shadow-banning problem]
on large platforms lke yt, tik-tok an so on. Some of them are trying to investigate the root cause of the issue, some of them just give up, even such legends as [High Treason]
.
Despite the fact that my yt channel was deleted without any explanations a couple of years ago and yes i run into shadow ban issue on tik-tok, when suddenly all your >200 people auditory just stop leaving comments, drop any activities for a week or so and view counters are showing zero i just don’t think that discussed thing is so important in the end of the day.
UPDATED ON: 2024-06-26 VirtualBox 7 can be [freely used on Windows 7]
machines!
For virtual emulation in most cases i use VMWare Workstation 15.5.7 dated back to 2020, which works awesomely fine. Recently i run into VirtualBox on my primary job and have to run Linux Debian on Windows 7 Enterprise.
As per official Oracle documentation all [6.x VirtualBox releases]
are compatible with Windows 7. Unfortunately it is not so true.
Surfing through meaningless tier lists on YT dedicated to various Unix graphical user interfaces by home-made experts without even showing them in a proper way and doin’ subjective ratings, i’ve stumbled upon on “obsolete” [CDE]
environment and was interested in it’s 90’ish looks, despite the fact that “expert” narrated that it is in a “yuck” category and not worth even touching.
After jogging through comments i’ve noticed that some wise man mentioned about modern reincarnation of CDE project named [nsCDE]
.
A couple of weeks ago i run into problem related to out-of sync time clock. Tried almost all imaginable solutions, like time service restarting, checking that internet time-sync option is turned on and so on and so forth. Of course to no avail at all. How typical! My Windows 7 installation dates back to early 2019 and i’ve plethora of software installed, and more over system is heavily customized so plain reinstall of operating system is not an option in my case.
As you may know [Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact]
is my main web surfing phone on the go. I’m fully satisfied with it’s capabilities even in 2023. Except one little problem, related to GPS and speed of satellites detection.
Issue showed up couple of months ago and it seems that i finally found an easy way to fix it. After some investigations i conclude that device has a hardware based problem, and to eliminate it completely you need to open phone casing and pull up antenna so it will have tighter surface touching with in-case metallic plate.
New form of retro art is here. Enjoy peacefull upgrading with chill backdrop music. Brought to you by [NTDEV]
YT channel.
Updating Windows Vista to Service Pack 2+ with ESU updates from Windows Server 2008 R2 spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
Say you would like to extend life cycle of your hardware power button and want to turn off/restart your device without touching mechanics. Unfortunately most of smartphones don’t offer such functionality out of the box. However there is an easy way to make things rollin'.
Problem can be solved by installing [Power Menu]
, very small application. It is a simple tool which just works, do expected thing and moreover contains no bloat at all.
Recently i had [some frustrations]
with Manjaro Linux. Most notable for me were:
not so good compatibility with Windows 7 [dual booting is working, but after Manjaro updated, Windows 7 stopped working for some reason]. some problems with Nvidia drivers strange power management system not properly working keyboard backlit on Dell laptop So, i went to [DistroWatch]
and instantly noticed [EndeavourOS]
, which was already among popular distributions and rapidly climbing to the top.
Right after installing [Manjaro Linux]
i run into weird issue. Most of needed applications like Firefox and Thunderbird take around 10 seconds or so just to startup.
Such behavior on NVME drive is unacceptable at all. Problem was in a serious [bug in gnome desktop]
, despite the fact that i’m running XFCE desk.
Workaround for GTK-based desktops is to run following commmands in terminal:
sudo pacman -Rdd xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
sudo pacman -S xdg-desktop-portal-gtk spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
Recently, I’ve decided to install Linux for web development to make sure that i’m not missing something in terms of modern features and technologies. I chose [Manjaro]
with [XFCE]
desktop.
However, all multimedia works are staying on Windows 7. I still can’t find proper replacement for Vegas Pro and many other tools i use in my daily workflow. [Modern web is working]
, [security is updated]
, so i don’t see any reason to ditch it in favor of something more fancy.
UPDATED ON: 2024-04-05
Here is a small list of mandatory keystrokes, which significantly speed up working process!
NOTE! ++[KEY] ► means that you must release previously pressed keys upon pressing it
NAVIGATION
[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[N] ► new editor instance
[CTRL]+[K]+[CTRL]+[O] ► open folder
[CTRL]+[K]++[F] ► close folder
[ALT]+[L]+[ALT]+[O] ► open in browser
[CTRL]+[W] ► close current tab
[CTRL]+[K]++[W] ► close all tabs
[ALT]+[1]/[2]/[3] ► fast-switch to diffrenet tabs
[CTRL]+[1]/[2] ► fast-switch between panels
UPDATED ON: 2023-09-20 Version: 0.5
Considered Renoise version is 3.4.x.
Just a small collection of important things to remember. Will be nice if stash come in handy to someone.
▒ GENERAL SETTINGS [-] GUI effects and animation [+] More compatible GFX updates [48] Limit frame rate [-] View multiple patterns continuously [+] Single click to create new points [hold Shift to select] [-8dB] Track headroom
▲ BACK TO TOP
UPDATED ON: 2024-11-28
Fastest Windows 7 laptops are still on the edge. Dell & Lenovo have made some enhancements to address recent security vulnerabilities.
[Dell Precision 7520]
► Firmware version 1.38 [November 2024] [direct link] [Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen5]
► Firmware version 1.63 [September 2024] [direct link] Nice to see that such older platforms are still maintained.
spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
UPDATED ON: 2023-09-20
List of shortcuts, which i frequently use in my work-flow. Text version for offline surfing can be grabbed [here]
. Official list of shortcuts can be found [on Renoise site]
.
▒ MODIFICATORS [SHIFT] ► track [ALT] ► block [selection] [CTRL]+[SHIFT] ► column [ALT]+[SHIFT] ► group [CTRL] ► pattern
▒ GENERAL [ALT]+[ENTER] ► toggle real fullscreen [CTRL]+[N] ► new song [CTRL]+[S] ► save song [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[S] ► save track as [CTRL]+[O] ► open song [CTRL]+[,] ► open preferences
Information confirmed by [author]
of [hacked modern USB3 AMD drivers]
.
Please, take a note, that: ASRock boards is not compatible at all, due to removed proper CSM module in latest BIOS revisions. Asus mobos are acceptable, but have some issues here and there. Gigabyte is just ok. So, consider MSI to get yourself out of unneeded troubles.
spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
UPDATED ON: 2023-09-06 Some new parameters were added.
Note that by default all [Nightly versions]
of Firefox are sending back telemetry to third-parties in extensive manner. So, to disable such malicious actions besides turning off telemetry settings via standard GUI options:
about:preferences#privacy You’ll need to use good old:
about:config To change to:
FALSE …or create following parameters in software registry:
toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.unified
toolkit.telemetry.unifiedIsOptIn
toolkit.telemetry.bhrPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.firstShutdownPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.hybridContent.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.newProfilePing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.reportingpolicy.firstRun toolkit.
I often get asked regarding Windows 7 safety especially in 2023.
"Is it safe to use such old operating system?" "What about security?" "How about modern viruses?"
.... …. and many other similar questions.
Funny thing that people who are asking about security don’t give a damn about privacy. Yeah, that’s quite different definitions for sure, but from my point of view they always come together hand in hand.
The main and the most important security police officer is your head.
Looking back to previous couple of years and taking into perspective generic non-computer life it is quite amazing what people are capable of. I’m talking about amount of rave and chaotic mess they can produce. Artificial difficulties, overcomplicated situations, meaningless and moronic wars, you name it.
Taking into account above mentioned things it’s really easy to handle such “problem” as running Windows 7 in modern age. Despite the fact that there are plenty of people around who are mumbling about Windows 7 obsolescense and bla-bla-bla.
If you are a long term reader/visitor of my site you may already know that i am using following keyboards:
Japanese [Topre Realforce RGB]
[rubber-dome capacitive key switches] Chinese [Vortex Race III]
[clicky blue Cherry-MX key switches] Chinese [Vortex Tab90M]
[clicky blue Cherry-MX key switches] Thailand [IBM KB-8926]
[quite good rubber-dome key switches] Note: board from 1996 in mind condition, using it on my job. And now i’ve decided to give a shot to top end keyboard of Keychron brand.
UPDATED ON: 2023-08-23
Despite [previous statement]
regarding Windows 7 EOL status after version 115 current nightly alpha binary [v117] works just fine. Installer threw generic mambo-jambo that program can’t work in Windows 7 environment and then artificially blocks installation. How generic & dumb. Workaround is just unzip exe-package with [7-zip]
and execute browser from unpacked Core folder.
FIREFOX 117 ABOUT WINDOW Right after installation software immediately begins to whine about inability to update.
This can be done by changing application’s language locale to English. But what if you have only one non-English language in GUI preferences?
The solution is surprisingly simple.
Close Photoshop if it is already running
Find following file:
tw10428.dat Standard location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop YOUR-VERSION\Locales\YOUR-LANGUAGE\Support Files\ In case of Photoshop 2020 file is named:
tw10428_Photoshop_ru_RU.dat Rename it into something like: tw10428.dat.bak Ta-da! Start software and enjoy! spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
I bet most of Firefox oldschool users hated the recent “changes” in terms of overall browser design. Rounded childish like-chrome corners, foolish restriction on what can be configured and so on. And now they crippled the look of browser tabs: to waste your workspace and spoil the design, just take a look at this:
MODERN “NORMAL” STYLE LEGACY NORMAL STYLE SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON I suppose that such “changes” were made in favor to touchscreen devices.
Say you need to run on a laptop battery vintage or simply non-demanding applications for an extremely long time. Here is a little breakdown of mandatory things to do:
turn off in BIOS unneeded devices like camera, sd-card reader, fingerprint scanner, gsm-modem, wifi, bt or whatever you are not using turn on power saving features like various C-power states turn off hyper-threading and hi-core count [if you have such ability] lower screen brightness to acceptable level check my [quick]
and [comprehensive]
optimization FAQs get rid of [unneeded services and bloat applications]
Also you can use core parking utility [Park Control]
, but in this mini-guide i’ll show you how to set power related things up via internal Windows 7 tools.
UPDATED ON: 2023-12-02
The main reason i’ve decided to write this note is indistinct default color mappings and inability to solve issue simply using GUI of software.
In main configuration file:
settings.json add following lines:
"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"editorCursor.foreground": "#ff0000",
"terminalCursor.foreground": "#02ED3D",
"editorLineNumber.activeForeground": "#ff0000",
"editor.lineHighlightBackground": "#016119",
"editor.lineHighlightBorder": "#02ED3D",
"terminal.foreground": "#02ed3d" }, To set custom color for GREY comments drop in these lines:
"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
"conmments": "#ff006f"
} To fast access configuration file press:
UPDATED ON: 2024-07-05 v1.81.1 is a more recent version, which can be executed without any efforts v1.89 is a hacked [FINAL version] for Windows 7 x64 So, Windows 7 users are pretty safe at this point despite artificial restrictions of big corps.
Usually i’m not feeling so delightful regarding microsoft modern programs, but this one is pretty good. And of course they tried to artificially cripple it under “obsolete” Windows 7.
Extended kernel project allows you to run some Windows 8+ applications on Windows 7.
LATEST ALPHA BUILDS
Click right mouse button to select executable properties and then switch to VxKex tab: Then cross your fingers and try to launch desired application.
Warning! Software is in very early alpha stage, so miracles almost never happen. However very basic applications can be executed.
spacedrone808 @Adobe spacedrone808 @Freepik
UPDATED ON: 2024-08-29
Node.js dropped Windows 7 “support” rigth after [version number 13]
.What a load of sh#t. Today i’ll tell you how to overcome this nonsense and run latest LTS version [Node.JS 18.x]
without any problems. More newer versions may work also. I’ll leave you some room for experiments. Recently i found excellent already [patched installer of NodeJS 18]
First of all you need to download zipped version of software, not msi one.