▒▓█ Tweaks

MOVE SWAP FILE AND TEMPORARY FOLDER INTO RAMDISK TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

MOVE SWAP FILE AND TEMPORARY FOLDER INTO RAMDISK TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

So you have tweaked every possible thing and want to squeeze more performance from your workstation? I’ll tell you how to do this if you have plenty of spare RAM and don’t know what to do with all those memory chips. Placing swap file and temporary folder into RAM is a quite good decision after all. Ram disk is already old idea to improve speed of disk input/output operations. Some time ago even [GPURamDrive] was introduced to masses, although it doesn’t receive popularity because of slow speed in comparison to generic DDR3/4 memory.
HOW TO FIX "UNABLE TO RENDER ERROR" 0x80131501 IN VEGAS PRO 21

HOW TO FIX "UNABLE TO RENDER ERROR" 0x80131501 IN VEGAS PRO 21

Vegas video montage software is widely known as pretty glitchy application especially if we are speaking about latest versions. Newest Vegas 21 Pro is no exception. I run into problems almost instantly. Right after i’ve decided to render video clip. Upon export attempt application showed me error: 0x80131501 How typical! To fix things up i just took DLL library [RenderAsDialog.dll, which is responsible for export dialog] from previous Vegas Pro 18 [sub-version 284 to be precise] and substituted original file with above mentioned.
DO YOU REALLY KNOW ALL WINDOWS 7 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS THAT GOOD?

DO YOU REALLY KNOW ALL WINDOWS 7 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS THAT GOOD?

Ass a die-hard Windows 7 addict i’m surely know all inside-outs of the system. That is why today i’d like to share some hotkeys knowledge with all of you. Keyboard shortcuts are one of the most important things in professional workflow. Some of hotkeys are quite generic and you can find them in official manual, but other are rather obscure and can be completely unknown. Hope that everyone of you’ll find something useful here.
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE ON HOW TO REMOVE TELEMETRY FROM NVIDIA DRIVERS

COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE ON HOW TO REMOVE TELEMETRY FROM NVIDIA DRIVERS

Following instructions successfully tested with [Geforce RTX 3090Ti] on recent [474.66 driver] [October 2023]. In newer operating systems things could be entirely different. It’s been a fair amount of time since I’ve written about privacy related stuff. In early days ~2017 nvidia was not so obsessed with telemetry. Everything you should do to block their efforts is to run [Disable Nvidia Telemetry] . As time goes on things changed dramatically.
MDGX ▀ ENORMOUS TWEAKING SITE SINCE 1993

MDGX ▀ ENORMOUS TWEAKING SITE SINCE 1993

Surfing web regarding Windows 7 news i’ve stumbled upon [MDGX] site. This chaotic gold mine of various knowledge, especially regarding vintage operating systems! Immediately bookmarked it and will surely study in a closer inspection later on. Huge section [dedicated to Windows 7 tweaks] and [plain text file] is also available. Hope that you’ll find something previously unknown. Imagery by spacedrone808
SOLVING CREDENTIALS AND CERTIFICATE ISSUES WHILE UPLOADING TO GITHUB

SOLVING CREDENTIALS AND CERTIFICATE ISSUES WHILE UPLOADING TO GITHUB

For me things never work as they should. Github is not an exception. After my first try to submit things to repo i run into: ... Author identity unknown. *** Please tell me who you are. PROBLEM CAN BE SOLVED BY THESE COMMANDS: git config --global user.email "YOUR_EMAIL" git config --global user.name "YOUR_LOGIN" After that certificate issue occurred: ... self-signed certificate in certificate chain and another error right after the previous one:
VS CODE KEYBOARD HACKS WILL BE POSTED HERE

VS CODE KEYBOARD HACKS WILL BE POSTED HERE

UPDATED ON: 2024-04-05 All keyboard hacks and tweaks will be posted here. Stay tuned for more goodies! THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS LITTLE ACCUMULATION IS TO REMOVE MOUSE FROM CODING WORKFLOW. Remember to separate rules with comas. Like this: [ { "key": "alt+numpad_subtract", "command": "workbench.action.decreaseViewSize" }, { "key": "alt+numpad_add", "command": "workbench.action.increaseViewSize" }, { "key": "ctrl+shift+b", "command": "workbench.action.toggleActivityBarVisibility" } ] Last rule-set do not contain coma symbol in the end.
FIXING SLOW STARTUP OF APPLICATIONS IN MANJARO XFCE

FIXING SLOW STARTUP OF APPLICATIONS IN MANJARO XFCE

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 Imagery by spacedrone808
HOW TO COMPLETELY DISABLE TELEMETRY SERVICES WHICH DIAL BACK TO THIRD-PARTIES IN FIREFOX

HOW TO COMPLETELY DISABLE TELEMETRY SERVICES WHICH DIAL BACK TO THIRD-PARTIES IN FIREFOX

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.
HOW TO MINIMIZE LAPTOP POWER CONSUMPTION

HOW TO MINIMIZE LAPTOP POWER CONSUMPTION

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.
HOW TO EXPAND LIST OF SUPPORTED ADDONS IN ANDROID FIREFOX

HOW TO EXPAND LIST OF SUPPORTED ADDONS IN ANDROID FIREFOX

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-31 Not long ago i’ve already mentioned about privacy-hardened [Mull browser] . Very nice Android browser, but have one serious downside: limited amount of supported addons. Yes, i like desktop convenience on the go! To enable additional addons in mobile Firefox browser you’ll need to sideload custom addon collection tied to mozilla account. It’s astonishing fact how they like to implement overcomplicated stuff! To create your own collection you’ll need Firefox account, but i’ll not bother to spent time on such dumb efforts.
NORTON COMMANDER COLOR SCHEME FOR FAR MANAGER

NORTON COMMANDER COLOR SCHEME FOR FAR MANAGER

FAR Manger is orthodox file manager written in C++. I am using it as file management tool from early childhood. Application is impressively fast in terms of speed due to it’s text-based nature and highly optimized routines. File operations like copy and move are waaaay faster than default windows explorer can deliver. Advanced batch processing and automation tools make file management a breath. Think that software have some similarities with text editor [Vim] .
INCREASE PRIVACY OF YOUR HUGO-BASED WEBSITE

INCREASE PRIVACY OF YOUR HUGO-BASED WEBSITE

I think that any sane person would like to break free from dependencies of big corps and … No-no-no, no political rant will happen here today, so stay cool. It’s just a small guide on how to make your Hugo-based site to load faster and do as little external queries as possible. Here is a classic situation when you load badly designed site. Output of [uMatrix] plugin just for better representation.
INTERNET SURFING ON OBSOLETE SYSTEMS [2023]

INTERNET SURFING ON OBSOLETE SYSTEMS [2023]

UPDATED ON: 2023-04-07 No chitter here, just plain breakdown of the most important stuff. ► WINDOWS 7 FIREWALL▼ [Outpost Firewall Pro] ◄ very advanced and lightweight firewall with host-based intrusion-prevention and anti-leak systems. Review is [here] . BROWSERS▼ [IceWeasel] ◄ my personal choice to surf web [mozilla crap ripped off] [LibreWolf] ◄ debloated in terms of privacy Firefox with pre-installed uBlock Origin [PaleMoon] ◄ the most mozilla-independent fork of Firefox [but slowly degrading] [Tor Browser] ◄ handy to overcome geo restrictions and other artificial limitations of obsolescent governments Warning: some telemetry is present!
VERY ADVANCED SETTINGS FOR CLASSIC FALLOUT

VERY ADVANCED SETTINGS FOR CLASSIC FALLOUT

UPDATED ON: 2023-06-29 There are three main configuration files, which are controlling Fallout engine. ddraw.ini ◄ main configuration file f2_res.ini ◄ settings for high resolution patch fallout2.cfg ◄ classic settings file from 90s [preserved for compatibility almost depricated for now] Here i’ll mention the most important setttings, which can come in handy for almost every Fallout player out there. Provided tweaks will be useful not only for essential [Fallout 2 Restoration Project] , but for other Fallout like games like [Nevada] , [Sonora] and [Olympus 2207] .
HOW TO BRING BACK CLASSIC SQUARE TABS IN RECENT FIREFOX

HOW TO BRING BACK CLASSIC SQUARE TABS IN RECENT FIREFOX

Tired of round shaped chrome-like tabs? These tweaks attempt to recreate the feel of Quantum with its squared tabs and menus, but in the Proton UI. As of FF91, the about:config option to disable proton has been deprecated, leaving CSS as the main way to revert the UI. Want to bring back minimalistic strict lines and make things more serious? [Firefox-Proton-Square] tweak will help ya. INSTALLATION PROCESS Enable userChrome.css support Go to about:config toolkit.
OPTIMAL SETTINGS FOR CHARGING SMARTPHONE BATTERY

OPTIMAL SETTINGS FOR CHARGING SMARTPHONE BATTERY

UPDATED ON: 2023-04-18 To keep battery of newly acquired devices safe do the following: 3-4 100% charges to warm up new battery after that do not charge battery above 78-80% do not discharge below 14-15% lower minimimum 20-25% upper maximum 78-80% at least twice a year do a 100% charge keep spare batteries in the fridge at 30% charge state. Storage temperature around +5 Celsius. All you need is one simple tool: [Battery Charge Limit] .
HOW TO SPEED UP MAP RENDERING IN ANDROID OPEN STREET MAPS APPLICATION

HOW TO SPEED UP MAP RENDERING IN ANDROID OPEN STREET MAPS APPLICATION

UPDATED ON: 2023-03-31 To speed up map rendering a bit turn on [OpenGL] acceleration in software settings. In version 4.3 new OpenGL renderer was transferred from hidden settings to generic ones. Now option can be found here: ≡ Settings ► OsmAnd settings ► Map rendering engine ► Version 2 (OpenGL) It looks like that as of version 4.3.12 all compatibility and performance issues were solved. So, i advice you to install 4.
COMPREHENSIVE WINDOWS 7 FAQ PLUS CATALOG OF PREVIOUS LINKS RELATED TO TWEAKING

COMPREHENSIVE WINDOWS 7 FAQ PLUS CATALOG OF PREVIOUS LINKS RELATED TO TWEAKING

I’m very satisfied that I covered such a large topic and pretty sure that it is the most complete Windows 7 tweaking guide ever. But due to the lack of spare time it is still in unfinished state, so consider it as a stack of knowledge. Document contain all information [posted here] plus loads of more detailed stuff. [DOWNLOAD DOCX VERSION] Maybe, if i have more free time, i’ll return back to the topic to clean things up someday.
COMPLETE TWEAKING GUIDE FOR WINDOWS 7 SP2+ ESU

COMPLETE TWEAKING GUIDE FOR WINDOWS 7 SP2+ ESU

UPDATED ON: 2023-11-23 ¶ ESSENTIAL INTRODUCTION Finally I get up all one’s courage to compile and publish essential stuff regarding Windows 7 optimization. Note that full version of the guide will be released somewhere around early 2023. Check the warm place to stay on the edge. And now….Let’s dive into the tweaking process! All console commands should be executed from command line with with administrative privileges. Most of mentioned tweaks could be done via control panel, to enter it in a fast way just type in command line or execute Start Run:
CORRECT BIOS SETTINGS TO INSTALL WINDOWS 7 ON X570 PLATFORM

CORRECT BIOS SETTINGS TO INSTALL WINDOWS 7 ON X570 PLATFORM

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-15 Secure Boot now supported [officially] ! ▒ HARDWARE Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra BIOS: F34 [F35b breaks compatibility with Windows 7] I think that guide will be useful due to nightmarish non-ergonomic structure of Gigabyte’s BIOS menus. ▒ UEFI vs MBR Windows 7 supports UEFI only partially, there is no native handling of this modern tech. I don’t see any reason to use UEFI, only if you want to boot from drive which is larger than 2TB.
SONY XZ1 COMPACT ▀ STRIPPING DOWN BLOATWARE + SOME PRIVACY TWEAKS

SONY XZ1 COMPACT ▀ STRIPPING DOWN BLOATWARE + SOME PRIVACY TWEAKS

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-06 v1.0b: please [contact me] if you find errors or inaccuracies. In this guide i will quickly show my system configuration tweaked for privacy. I’m using essential stuff like 3G/4G/WiFi & BT. Additional pleasantries are blocked. █ ANDROID 8: OS WITH MINIMAL TELEMETRY Operating System: Android 8.0 [Android 8.1 ain’t good, coz it brought support of neural networks to do effective data mining] Security patch: 1st September 2018 FW Version: 47.
IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY ▀ TWEAKS [PART II]

IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY ▀ TWEAKS [PART II]

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-04 IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY FIREFOX ADDONS [Part I] Finally I’ve managed to finish this part of the FAQ. Note is a loooong-read, so mistakes can occur » please [report them to me] . One of the most distinctive features of FireFox was customization. With each new version it becomes less customizable, thanks to marketing people at mozilla corp. They do everything to make Firefox look like google chrome.
HOW TO GET RID OF ANNOYING NIK COLLECTION UPDATE NOTIFICATION

HOW TO GET RID OF ANNOYING NIK COLLECTION UPDATE NOTIFICATION

[Nik Collection] is a great graphical effects plugin pack to work with your favorite raster editor [mine is [Affinity Photo] in case you are interested]. Everything is fine, except annoying update popup, which is opening right after every plugin initialization. Such stuff completely breaks workflow if you don’t want to update for some reason. And there is no way to turn it off from GUI using normal methods. However, you can shut update checks off from configuration file, which is located here:
WINDOWS 7 TO WINDOWS VISTA GUI TRANSFORMATION

WINDOWS 7 TO WINDOWS VISTA GUI TRANSFORMATION

Note: Don’t worry, your eye sight is ok. I’m just testing CRT-emulation mode via CSS-magic. To remove FX click on any other page. Back in Pentium 66Mhz days I was a follower of minimal design and always turned off all fancy graphical beauties, for the sake of performance of course. However, today we are not limited to 8Megs of RAM anymore. Therefore, I have decided to transform my Windows 7 installation into Windows Vista.
IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY ▀ ADDONS [PART I]

IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY ▀ ADDONS [PART I]

UPDATED ON: 2024-01-04 Addons, addons, addons!! So many of them! How to choice the right one? Whom to trust to? I will help you with your findings and share my personal experience. Rule of thumb: do not install too much addons, they will slow down your browser noticeably! ░ SECURITY ADDONS [uMatrix] ► best content blocker ever, even better than uBlock [Github archive] [Ublock Origin] ► an efficient blocker. Easy on CPU and memory.
REMOVE TELEMETRY & SPYING UPDATES ON WINDOWS 7

REMOVE TELEMETRY & SPYING UPDATES ON WINDOWS 7

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-12 Added microsoft hosts, fixed errors. If you have any suggestions or I’ve missed something [please drop me a line] . ► SOME PREFACE WORDS THE MOST COMPLETE LIST OF MALWARE UPDATES FROM MICROSOFT GROUPED BY CATEGORIES. List of updates without links to original ms site due to deletion. KB prefix removed. 454826 971033 2922324 2976987 3012973 3014460 3015249 3022345 3068707 3074677 3090045 3102812 4012218 UNINFORMED ABOUT PRIVACY STARTER PACK FUN FACT: microsoft already not only hiding, but deleting important information regarding “bad updates” from search engines like google.

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