Computer

View The Images in Windows Explorer

June 27, 2018 by A. Cemal Ekin

When browsing the folders with tons of images using Windows File Explorer, do you see application-based icons for different file formats and no preview in the preview window like in the image above? Then, I have a solution for you! And, it is highly affordable. If you could View the images in Windows Explorer, you could maintain the files more easily, you could pick the correct file and drop it on an application to open it and in general be a lot better informed about what is where on your storage drive.

In the earlier incarnations of Windows, Microsoft used to provide a downloadable CODEC pack that would allow viewing a good number of file formats in File Explorer. For some reason, this download is no longer available from Microsoft and I felt the lack of it until I found the solution last year. Many file formats are COded and they need to be DECoded to be viewed. Image files are in this category. The Windows File Explorer can preview some image file formats and show small thumbnails but cannot handle most digital camera formats.

My searches for viewing the images in Windows Explorer lead me to a genuinely useful piece of software, the FastPictureViewer CODEC Pack. It supports a very large number of file formats and there is nothing you need to do after downloading and installing it on your computer. From that point on, you will be able to set the file display as icons in three different sizes and your preview panel, when activated, will display a larger version of the file currently selected. In other words, the opening image which could not display anything but application icons will turn into a screen like the one below.

… to this

From this …

As you can see, the FastPictureViewer CODEC Pack can handle all the image files you can throw at it, there are many formats I have not even heard of that it can handle. Additionally, you can very easily set the icon size to display small, medium, large, and extra large icons on the file display panel. See the images below to get an idea. The first image is showing the large and the others, extra large icons. The last image shows the context menu when you Right-Click on a file name where you can pick the icon size.

You can try out the CODEC Pack if you like, but even the paid version is highly affordable at $9.99 for what it does. Although I could not make heads or tails of their FastPictureViewer, the CODEC Pack is worth the money.

Automated Image Correction

June 22, 2018 by A. Cemal Ekin

Many image editors offer a button “Auto” to quickly adjust your photographs, but most of them generally fail and grossly misadjust the image. The latest version of Lightroom does a pretty good job, but I want to introduce a new piece of software in case you have not heard about it. Automated image correction by PhotoLemur yields surprisingly good results most of the time. I will also mention a few things to watch out for, but it is certainly worth downloading to experience first hand.

The software is small and its user interface is extremely sparse which is a good thing! There is nothing tempting to push or pull except the control slider that lets the user reduce the amount of correction applied. They claim the software uses artificial intelligence to analyze the image content, the time of the day it was taken, and other parameters and decides on the corrections. A “Before/After” slider allows for instant comparison and in case you find the adjustment a little too much there is a slider that will control that. The three images below show you how this one and only adjustment works.

PhotoLemur can handle the images in several different ways:

Drag and drop from Windows Explorer, single or multiple files
Open using its own interface which is called “Import”
Send files from Lightroom or Photoshop using the plugins that come with it

Try PhotoLemur For the First Time

You can either export the image you processed or send it back to where it came from, Lightroom or Photoshop. If you have not tried automated image correction PhotoLemur, I strongly suggest you download the free version and see it for yourself. I suggest you simply drag and drop a file from Windows Explorer (or File Explorer on a Mac I think) to see how fast it works and how good a job it does. It can handle, raw, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, … format files. So try a few different formats just for the heck of it!

After processing the first image, simply click on the X to close it and say you want to start again, then drag another image. This will give you a good idea of automated image correction by PhotoLemur and how well it seems to work. If you like the result you see, you can export the image in a myriad of formats with a selection of settings. You can open more than one image using any of the methods, drag and drop, Lightroom or Photoshop plugin, import using PhotoLemur interface. See the image on the right where I opened four files from Lightroom.

Install the Lightroom and Photoshop Plugins

On top of the PhotoLemur window, you will see its brand name and a drop-down menu indicator. Click on that to reveal the menu and click on Install Plugins. The Lightroom plugin will install without a fuss but Photoshop plugin installation will inform you that it will restart the program running it as an Administrator and then continue. Let it do its thing, it is quick and painless.

Lightroom Plugin

After the plugin installations, start, or restart Lightroom. In the grid view, pick an image in any format you see that you would like to edit. Right-click on the image and look for the options for PhotoLemur. You can either send the original image to PhotoLemur ignoring all the edits you may have done in Lightroom or send a TIFF file including all your Lightroom adjustments. When the automated image correction is finished, click on the button Done and it will send it back to Lightroom which you will see next to the file you started with.

Here are some caveats, I reported one of these during the beta testing period but it has not yet been fixed.

The exported TIFF file will be in ProPhoto RGB color space but in an 8-bit file format which is woefully inadequate to handle this colorspace. I hope they fix this either by giving the user some settings to choose it from or do it automatically in 16-bit file format. Still, you can do some more work on it so long as you do not expect to get the full resiliency of a 16-bit file in ProPhoto RGB color space.
Another anomaly is with a raw file round trip to PhotoLemur. The automated image correction by PhotoLemur returns the file back to Lightroom again in 8-bit format and retains Lightroom’s internal color space, Melissa! The color space is not a problem if you will use the file in Lightroom, but if you open it in another editing software you may get inaccurate color. Also, the 8-bit file format is not suitable for Melissa color space which is a variant of ProPhoto color space with a very rich color gamut. Interestingly, if the images are dropped on PhotoLemur or imported, there is an option to set the bit-depth and color space in different formats. The round trip from Lightroom must use 16-bit ProPhoto RGB files for better workflow.
PhotoLemur UI does not seem to be color-managed and on wide gamut displays, the colors may look far more exaggerated than they will look in Lightroom. I have reported this matter, let’s see if they receive it and fix the problem.
PhotoLemur applies lens corrections which is not a bad thing. But be aware that what you see in Lightroom and its PhotoLemur edited version of a raw file may slightly differ. See the sample comparison files.

[On 6/27/2018 I received an e-mail from PhotoLemur support with responses and questions. Their responses, on issue 1: We’ll fix it on our next update, the original format will be preserved. On issue 2: I reported this issue to our developers. We’ll consider changing that in future. And they had questions on issue 3 and 4; I provided further details with screen captures.]

[On 6/29/2018 I received an e-mail from PhotoLemur support in response to issues 3 and 4. Regarding issue 3: The issue with the preview image being different will be fixed soon. Issue 4: Regarding the lens correction, different software companies use different algorithms to correct lens distortion, that’s why the result may be different. We’ll test Photolemur and Lightroom results to see what we can do. Thank you PhotoLemur development team.]

Photoshop Plugin

Photoshop plugin works a little more smoothly, thanks to the support team fixing the problems that created problems. In order for the plugin to start and complete the round trip to PhotoLemur, it needs a pixel-based layer. If you have an adjustment layer like Curves targeted, the round trip will start but there will be no content to work on. In that case, click on the X to close PhotoLemur and start over.

You can optionally make a copy of the pixel-layer and convert this new layer to a Smart Object before sending it to PhotoLemur. This will give you the option to relaunch it to tweak the adjustment a little if you like.

Things to Remember

While automated image correction by PhotoLemur generally works well, I have observed the following:

It loves skies! You may like what may emerge from a faint sky with no processing artifacts. Keep in mind that it tends to slightly oversaturate the skies for my taste. And, if you send a photograph of just the sky, it can royally botch it up!
Foliage is the other thing it loves and does a good job handling it unless you have some very bright foliage areas
It treats skin tones gently but may unduly increase the contrast on facial features, but you can use the slider adjustment to tame that to some extent.

Now the best part! PhotoLemur is very affordable. A single user license is $35 while a five-user family license is $49. Recently, PhotoLemur was merged with Skylum Software, makers of Luminar. I suspect some automated image correction by PhotoLemur features will eventually enter Luminar.

Enjoy. But remember, the result will reflect how automated processing handles the work which does not necessarily reflect your vision. This software may be a starting point for further editing or a quick way of handling a bunch of snapshots. When you look at the samples below note the differences between my edits and what PhotoLemur does. They range from subtle to very substantial because the automation software does not have a “vision” just pixel-to-pixel analysis. Make sure not to abandon your vision!

Below are some sample photographs. You will see a PhotoLemur processed version and, either my edits, or the original, or both. The original raw files are exported from Lightroom with no edits except for cropping or perspective correction for easy comparison.

Your Display Profile May Be Wrong

March 24, 2016 by A. Cemal Ekin

How is that for a bold statement! But it may very well be true, even if you do it regularly on schedule. Display calibration and profiling is a must for all digital photographers. There is no escaping that if you want to produce an accurate representation of your work not only on your monitor but on the Internet, in competitions, on your friends’ monitors, mobile devices, and so on. Clearly, you cannot control the quality of the displays in front of the millions of users all over the world. But you can do your best and provide accurate information. This becomes particularly important and immediately visible if you print your work, yourself or printed at a lab.

Monitor Calibration

There are many devices in the market, presumably all capable of bringing the colors on your monitor where they are supposed to be. I have been using a calibration device for 18-20 years, starting with Monaco Optix XR, then a ColorMunki Photo, finally an i1Display Pro. They are all in the X-Rite products stable. There are other models and other brands, the prices have come down considerably and there is no excuse for not using one anymore. They all come with their drivers and calibration software which, in a layperson language, display a series of known color values and reads the displayed value. If they differ, the software creates a profile, something like a lookup table, that makes the corrections on the fly. This part is familiar to everyone.

Luminance Setting for Screen

One of the adjustments, in fact, one of the critical choices in this process is the luminance level of the monitor. This is worth looking for in a calibration device before picking one up, make sure it allows different luminance levels for the monitor. If you use a calibration device and do not see this in the interface, try first switching to “Advanced” mode even though this could be a little more involved process. The screen luminance is measured in candela per meter squared (cd/m²). When you find a drop-down selector with this unit next to it, you have found a critical piece of adjustment in your calibration process.

The question is what is the right level of monitor luminance? The definitive answer is: It depends. Depends on your environment, how bright a room you work in, whether there are windows in your view or behind you, the wall colors, etc. I have a post discussing your digital work environment that is worth a look. If your monitor luminance is too bright, a properly exposed image will look too bright and you will make it darker to look correct on the screen. This will make your image project darker in competitions, and produce darker prints. The opposite is also true. If your monitor is too dark, a normally exposed image will look too dark and you will brighten it, resulting in too bright a projection in the competition or lighter than normal prints will result.

Print Viewing Light is Essential Equipment

This adjustment will take a little empirical effort to get it under control. First, make sure that your environment is as controlled as you can make it, shade the windows, use monitor hoods, etc. Then, this is also very critical and often ignored, get yourself a proper viewing light for your prints. There are lights color experts swear by, Solux is one of them. If you are handy you can build a print viewing booth using Solux lights. I have been using several Ottlite daylight balanced lights for quite a few years and, although their spectrum may not be perfect, they are close enough for my purposes. The important things to remember are:

It should be daylight balanced or very close to it
If possible, a dimmer will help
You use this light to view and evaluate ALL your prints

The next hurdle is: how do we compare the screen to a print and make the luminance adjustment on the monitor? By using a standard image, not one of yours. There are many images on the Internet, the Kodak Imagedisc test image is a good one to download and use for this purpose. I downloaded one from Dry Creek Photo Web site, follow this link to download it and unzip the file. You will find a couple of PDF files and a JPEG image file which will be the standard we will use. (The image on the left is reduced for screen display, do not use it for print testing.)

Open the test image in Photoshop or other software you use to edit images. Make sure that there are no adjustments are applied by way of autoprocessing on import or the like. Now, print this image on an 8×10″ paper with proper workflow and color management. When the print is finished take it to your viewing light, if possible next to your monitor while shielding it from the light. Look at the print, look at the monitor. Do they look the same? Is one brighter or darker than the other?

If the print is darker, then your monitor is too bright
If the print is lighter, then your monitor is too dark

Get your calibration device, start the software and look for the luminance adjustment. If you left it at its default and you are using an i1Display Pro, it may be at 120 Candela /m². You may need to adjust this up or down. In the case of #1, lower the luminance by 20-40 units, calibrate the monitor and look at the print again, no need to produce another print. After a couple of iterations, you will get them to look sufficiently similar if not outright identical.

Empirical Luminance Measurement (imprecise but useful)

There are measurement instruments that will give a precise answer to this question, they are not easily accessible. So, I have improvised yet another empirical approach to assess the luminance levels.

Bring your camera out, take a picture of the image displayed on the screen in manual mode. Try ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/60 second exposure, or what your camera indicates while you are in the manual mode. Then, with exactly the same setting photograph the print under the viewing light making sure that the light is at a distance of normal viewing. My viewing light was at about 18″ and at a slight angle and it is not as even as I would like. You can see a little glare on the right side of the print photo, no problem though. Try to set this distance that makes the print look the same as the screen, within reason of course. It will be somewhere between 1-2 feet from the print. These are my results, not bad if I may say so myself!

My viewing light was at about 18″ and at a slight angle and it is not as even as I would like. You can see a little glare on the right side of the print photo, no problem though. Try to set this distance that makes the print look the same as the screen, within reason of course. It will be somewhere between 1-2 feet from the print. These are my results, not bad if I may say so myself!

Now, compare the photographs. Your eyes are extraordinarily adaptable to changing light levels. Using the camera in the manual setting will record different images that you can compare on your screen. Viewing them side by side will allow reading values from the same locations of each to compare. Now, before you jump on my neck that this is imprecise, let me say “this is imprecise” as a measurement. It is only a tool that is at our disposal that removes part of the subjectivity of our eyes because of their huge adaptability. But ultimately you will make a judgment using your eyes every time you make a print, this is only to find the optimum level of luminance for your monitor and editing environment.

Get to work! This will take a little time. But, you will love the results and know that the results of your edits are going to be accurate.

Sweet? No, Sour! HP Spectre x360

January 15, 2016 by A. Cemal Ekin

Summary: HP Spectre x360 Is a Lemon! Details? Read below and in the previous article linked.

(Read the two updates at the end, I added them after HP contacted me.)

I wrote about the problems I had with a new HP Spectre x360, and I thought that was the end. Someone from HP sent me an e-mail after that post to tell me that a new case manager would contact me to resolve my problems. That was a surprise, a welcome one, but still a surprise. Let me state at the outset for those who do not know me, I am a technology person who owned two computer companies, installed large-scale networks, sold many computers, trained many users. So, I am not coming from the novice side of the issues but the expert side. I still have consulting clients and a lot of friends who come to me for computer advice.

Even the knowledgeable people can have difficulties if the companies are intent on creating problems, in more ways than one. Despite their claims that there are no problems like those I reported, if you search the Internet, you will find a large number of questions related to the matters I have been mentioning. For instance “hp spectre x360 screen crash” yields 111,000 results on Google, “hp spectre x360 trackpad issues” 57,000, “hp spectre x360 sound problems” will present a whopping 285,000 hits as of January 14, 2016.

Read on, especially if you are considering an HP product.

The new case manager whom I knew only as Jennifer was a true professional and genuinely interested in helping the customer rather than defending the company and a faulty product. By that time, I had had several conversations with a different case manager, a support person looked at the computer via remote connection, the laptop went to a service center and returned after 11 days the same way. Jennifer understood the difficulties I went through and offered to replace the computer. Since I was going on a three-week vacation we agreed to pick the conversation up upon my return towards the end of November 2015. After my return home, one call to Jennifer was enough to arrange for the replacement computer to be sent with a shipping label for the old one to be mailed back to HP. I was hopeful that the new computer would solve my problems. Alas!

Yet Another Case Manager

The problems continued, sound system would quit, and still does, at random times; the touch pad two-finger scroll would change direction; the WiFi would decide to disconnect; and this one introduced a new problem the Intel HD display driver would crash in the middle of doing something and “recover” with a blank screen. Most of these problems would require rebooting the computer, sometimes even twice.

I called support and after some wait, I was connected to a support staff in India who connected to my computer remotely and updated a slew of drivers, from sound to display to touch pad although the HP Support Assistant, the resident software for tracking such things, did not show any new updates. He offered to call back in 3-4 days and was on time to do so. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the computer continued with the problems and I reported the situation to him. He transferred me to another agent, who in turn brought me in touch with yet another case manager, and I know him only as Christian.

Christian listened to my story, the problems which I have been repeating over and over despite the fact that they were supposed to keep a record of it. After going through the same gyrations I asked if I could return this computer and receive my money back. He indicated that according to the company policies the computer had to be seen by a technician and noticing my unwillingness to ship it once more with all data cleared from it for security and be without a laptop for 10-12 days again, he offered to arrange an authorized HP technician to make a house call. I indicated to Christian that if the technician validated my problems, I would like that to be the end and receive my refund for the computer. Clearly, the starting point is mistrusting the consumer, even after so many calls and problems reported.

Authorized HP Technician Arrives

HP Spectre x360 is a lemon — Technician’s report documenting the problems

At the arranged time, the authorized HP technician arrived and I handed the laptop to him. He was surprised that many things were not functioning, and reported to the person who authorized to open the case that when he arrived “nothing was working.” After obtaining approval from HP on the phone (see the image on the left), he opened the computer and looked at the connections, unplugged a few and plugged them back and restarted the computer.

Spectre Screen Crash — Note the Windows version

During his visit the screen crashed once, the sound was not working, and he observed for a brief moment the trackpad problem. After writing his report and taking a photograph of it for his records he left the original with me and left, the report is on the left. Before he left though, he called Christian and reported to him everything he saw, then put me on to talk with the case manager. I repeated my request to return the computer and receive my money back. He said he would get back to me at a certain time on a certain day.

Another Missed Call by HP and an Offer In Writing With Two Bad Choices

I waited for his call. After about an hour passed I sent an e-mail to him to indicate my disappointment in yet another missed call by HP support. He replied and apologized for not calling and asked if he could call back the following day, I agreed. More yada yada … during that conversation and I asked him to send me in writing his offer on how to refund my money. A few days later I received his “offer” which contained one bad offer and one even worse than that. HP would refund part of my money, $930 of the $1,249 I paid for it because they had to prorate the refund to account for my “use” of the computer. The other offer was an HP gift card for $1,230 with which I could buy another HP product.

I told Christian that making me pay for the faults in their computer was not fair at all and I had spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with not only the computer problems but also dealing with the customer support. Furthermore, prorating the value of anything requires an agreed upon life of the item. Judging by the amount they deducted, 25%, they assumed a two-year or less life for this laptop. My laptops last a good deal longer than that, and perhaps it was telling how much HP trusted their equipment. I told him that I would get back to him with my decision and that neither of the offers was attractive to me.

I Declined The Offer, Reserving My Rights For Legal Action

On January 14, 2016, I wrote an e-mail to Christian and told him that HP’s practice of beating consumers to submission did not amount to customer service. By simply offering bad and even worse choices they rig the system to discourage the consumer from pursuing it further. He called me the same day and I repeated to him that I would decline both offers but retain my rights to pursue legal action if I so chose. He repeated the false claim that “he was there to help me,” and I told him that he may only contact me if HP agreed to pay me the full amount to take the computer back, we parted ways.

This is my second horrendous experience with HP and from now on I will erase it from my evoked set of products if I am in need of something, anything, they produce. I should have trusted my first experience. But, superficial reviewers who tend to write to get traffic to their Web sites rather than truly inform the consumer fooled me. Shame on them too.

A Review Rejected, Surprise!

In the meantime, I wrote a review on HP Web site about this product which they offer to anyone. I read their guidelines and did not use any obscenities, mention any names, did not include any spam, or any links, I stuck to the problems I had with the computer. Yesterday, I heard from the review approval team that my review did not follow their guidelines and therefore could not be published. I replied and asked to see where I violated the guidelines, but I am not holding my breath to hear from them. They essentially want good reviews or reviews that talk about trivial problems. Obviously, they do not want to hear real world problems. Furthermore, they don’t want the real problems to be visible to potential buyers.

A Warning to Those Considering HP, Don’t

So, do you still want to buy an HP? Think twice, thrice, look elsewhere, find something else, … This company does not care about product quality or customer service. They want to push the boxes and then push the customers to ignore the problems they are having through a customer service process that has the wrong premise: Protect the company and call it “I am here to help you” service. I say, this is a push-away type of customer service and this is NOT the type of marketing I taught in my 40+ years of academic career.

There is Lemon Law in Rhode Island which provides some level of protection when products continue to fail after repeated attempts to bring them to the expected and promised levels of standards. Using that, I may file a complaint with the state attorney general and follow the guidelines described for this process. That will make more people aware of these problems at an official level. The amount in dispute is within the limits of the small claims court. I can file a suit and seek legal advice from a lawyer before appearing before the judge. HP has to send at least one lawyer to represent them. I may or may not recover my entire cost back. But, that too will inform a lot of potential customers about the problems that may lie ahead.

You are warned! They produce lemons; you cannot even make lemonade from them.

Note: I replaced the original opening, featured image after the second person commenting reminded me that it was the upcoming 15″ model. I was quite surprised at the speed with which he or she found my post within hours from posting and be so quick to recognize the model mistake. I wonder … ;-)

Update February 5, 2016

On January 27 an HP Americas Executive Manager sent me an e-mail asking to talk to me about my case. The next day we spoke on the phone. I told him that unless HP agreed to refund my money I would not talk with him. He said that HP would pay the entire cost of my purchase and buy back the laptop. With some delay, I received the promised FedEx shipping label and took the box to FedEx. Upon receiving the unit they promised to issue a check within 10-15 days. I am waiting. Interestingly, on the shipping label, the value of the item showed as $100! They must be self-insuring against a problem in shipping.

Update February 23, 2016

Finally! The ordeal is over. I shipped the unit on February 2, 2016, and received a check on February 23, 2016, for the full cost of the computer. It took a little longer than expected but I am VERY glad this is now behind me.

HP Spectre

October 12, 2015 by A. Cemal Ekin

HP Spectre x360, it looks gorgeous, but seriously flawed laptop!

This is a much delayed product review, actually a fair warning to those who may be interested in the very nice looking, and potentially (but not actually) very good 2-in-1 laptop: HP Spectre x360. Over 10 years ago, I had a very poor experience with an HP product and never considered their computers for my personal use or to recommend to clients. After reading some very good reviews of the x360, I went to my local store and looked at it first hand. It looked very nicely designed, had good specs, and the weight was within my range, under 3.5 pounds. The convertible feature added a nice, but not terribly important feature for me. So, I bought one.

After installing my standard set of applications staring at it very nice screen, I noticed that I kept skipping clicks on the touch pad when I simply tapped the surface. Using the two, and three finger gestures on the pad was supposed to make the use simpler, but it was not consistent. In the middle of a two-finger scroll of the screen, it would decide on its own to scroll in the other direction. Then, I started having sound problems which would stop for no reason at all, no sound. Not only that, it would also disable applications that used sound like the media player. The solution for all these problems was a reboot which would fix the issues, albeit temporarily.

I lived with these problems for a while and on 7/21 I posed a question on the HP forum, hoping that someone from the technical department would answer the questions. On 8/2, I added another post asking if the HP staff looked at these forums. Still no answer. My message on this forum on 8/14 I indicated that this was a terrible support option. That day a forum moderator replied and indicated that he had brought my posts to the attention of the support personnel and that they would contact me for more information. Later that day I received an e-mail asking me for some contact information as well as the serial number and the like. The message was from:

Jeff Christopher
Executive Customer Relations
Hewlett-Packard Company
Palo Alto, California

The saga continued for another couple of months and my Spectre x360 still has a very lousy touch pad and the sound is still quirky. So, Jeff, Emma, I would like you to know that you dropped the ball horribly. Emma, you did not even call back as you promised. HP, you will never see me as a customer again. And, if that does not make you shake in your boots I don’t know what will!!

I tried to get a printed copy of the forum correspondence but for some reason everything printed gibberish. I ended up doing it the hard way and cleaned the resulting document as best as I could. Here is a PDF copy in case the forum thread disappears one day.

The verdict: This could have been a very good laptop/convertible. The touch pad is all but useless, I guarantee that you will miss at least 40% of your tap-clicks if not more. During daily use, that is awfully frustrating. If you are willing to use a mouse with it all the time or use the touch screen, you may be happier. My recommendation is to look elsewhere, there are alternatives from Lenovo, Microsoft, Toshiba, Dell, … And the support from HP, terrible! My earlier experience has been reinforced.

Quad HD (QHD) Displays and Photoshop Follow Up

July 21, 2015 by A. Cemal Ekin

A while back, I wrote a post that explained how to make Photoshop CS6 or below to honor the changed screen size elements. Since then I have discovered a critical setting, this is to update the earlier post.

On high-resolution laptop, and even some desktop displays Photoshop CS6, and even some other applications become next to impossible to use because of the size of the interface elements. In Windows there is a setting to change the size of interface elements which will work for most applications. But those that do not get their cues from the OS, the size of the menus and other interface elements remain small and unusable. The fix I offered by way of a link to Dan Antonelli’s blog works like a charm. However, in order for it to work you must not use the smallest setting on the interface. Take a look at the following image:

It allows you to change the size of all items on the Windows interface and you get to this screen by:

Right-Click on empty spot on desktop
Select “Personalize”
Click on “Display”

In order of Dan Antonelli’s wonderful fix to work, the slider must be in the middle or at the right edge of the slider. Essentially, it makes everything on the screen larger which is what we are after. However, some applications, notably Photoshop CS6 and earlier do not honor this screen elements being resized, thus the fix. At some point a week ago, I wanted to run the screen with all the elements at their smallest size on the above slider and noticed that the Antonelli hack stopped working. Then I realized, if nothing is enlarged what could it do? I came back to this screen and changed the slider to the middle position and it started working like magic, essentially passing the enlarged screen items to Photoshop, and other applications that do not play nice.

So, if you think this fix is not working for your application, please check to make sure that you have changed the size of all items to at least the middle position.

Get Windows 10 Free

June 11, 2015 by A. Cemal Ekin

Microsoft is readying to launch its latest version of Windows on July 29, 2015. This time, upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8 systems to Windows 10 will be free. Microsoft will do this for even pirated copies of earlier versions of 7 or 8 although the upgraded version will still be an unauthorized copy. This seems to be a change from their general practice of generating large revenues from each release of Windows.

You may already have received a notice about this, or see a tell-tale sign but have not recognized it yet. If you see in the system tray on the lower right corner a 4-pane window, slightly tilted that tells you that you can reserve your copy of the free upgrade. If you do not see that icon in the system tray, that indicates that there are Windows updates that have not yet been done, so check the updates, here is how:

On Windows 7 systems, click on the Start button, type in the search window at the bottom Windows Update
On Windows 8 systems click on the search icon, a magnifying glass, and type Windows Update in the field
When you see the search results, click on Windows Update
If there are updates, install them, including the optional ones
If there are no updates, click on Check for Updates to get the latest report and install the updates
The particular update that adds the Windows icon in the system tray is KB3035583

When you see the icon, click on it to launch the small application, you will see the window on the left. If you have not made your reservation to get the free upgrade you will see a clickable “Reserve Windows 10”. Click on it and enter your e-mail address.

After that, you should check the state of your computer to assess its readiness for Windows 10. There is a menu icon on the top left corner of Get Windows 10 app you see on the left, when you click on it a panel will slide in and give you links to learn more about the process and show whether your PC is ready for Windows 10 or not. If you see “Check your PC” under “Getting the upgrade” heading there, it will indicate that there are some potential issues. They may be significant or minor. Some features of Windows 7 or 8 will not be available on Windows 10. For instance, if you got and installed Windows Media Center, that will be one of the warnings that it would not be available on Windows 10. For most, this will be a minor issue. I have some issues on my desktop computer but they do not concern me much, see my issues screen on the right. But if you click on the check your PC and notice some display or other system drivers not being compatible you should update your drivers. If necessary, contact the manufacturer for assistance.

After you make your reservation, you can cancel it any time if there are still issues unresolved. Even if you do not cancel your reservation the upgrade will not automatically install without your approval, they say. As it is released, the upgrade watcher will download the necessary file(s) in the background, about 3GB, and when ready it will inform you that it can proceed with the upgrade. When you give the go ahead, it will install the latest version of Windows 10. The upgrade will be to a “like-version”. If you have Windows 7/8 Home, you will get Windows 10 Home, if you have professional you will get professional.

I do not have a first-hand experience with Windows 10. However, what I have read indicates that it is a solid upgrade with new features and will bring an old feature that disappeared on Windows 8, The Start Button! Some features will not be available in all countries, like Cortona the voice controlled assistant.

I reserved my copies on all my computers but will install them one at a time, who knows …

Here are some official pages to get more information from the horse’s mouth so to speak!

Windows 10: Do Great Things

Windows 10 Specifications

Windows 10 FAQ

Forum on WordPress

September 1, 2013 by A. Cemal Ekin

This week several things came together in a very fruitful way. The Photographic Society of Rhode Island (PSRI) had expressed an interest in a members forum at the last board meeting, Packt Publishing contacted me to review a book bbPress Complete by Rhys Wynne, I have found out from the developer of WP eMember plugin that manages membership at PSRI site that it interfaces with bbPress, and I was confined to house rest for a week. So, what else was there to do than to review the book, install bbPress on PSRI, and interface it with our membership system?

While I was still teaching, one of the courses I taught every spring semester was Marketing on the Internet. I started teaching that course before most people knew what Internet connection meant back in 1995. My approach to the course was from a design perspective where students learned how to design and deploy marketing-oriented Web sites. For many years students in these courses learned how to build a site one page at a time using HTML, and later CSS (cascading style sheets). It was a chore, but they acquired knowledge that separated them from their peers.

Around 2004, I started experimenting with WordPress and realizing that content-managed Web sites were the future I changed my teaching paradigm. Instead of teaching HTML and CSS, I started showing them how WordPress can manage their content and allow any kind of styling change when they wanted. This shift made them learn a different kind of knowledge, WordPress installation, and maintenance, and also focus more on the site content. In the early years, finding decent books was not easy; but as WordPress became more and more popular new and better books started emerging. In the last few years I used books published by Packt Publishing and students and I both found the books well written and informative.

When I received the request to review another book by Packt Publishing, bbPress Complete by Rhys Wynne, I wrote to them and indicated that I no longer taught and a medical issue might delay the review of the book. The representative indicated that the completion of the review could be extended to the end of September and extended me an electronic copy of the book. Here I am already finished at the beginning of September ;-)

The book is a short one, around 100 pages, but covers good ground. It is very well written, easy to follow, and full of valuable information. Since bbPress is actually a plugin to WordPress, there is also very valuable information about some aspects of WordPress.

Starting with the concept of bbPress, the author explains the installation process step by step with screen captures. For me, the easiest method of installing the plugin was directly from WordPress Add New Plugin option, and within short order, bbPress was in place. The configuration of the plugin is explained in great detail with default options and what the author recommended, with good reasons, bar one. In the configuration section, The default user role and The auto role sections need a clearer explanation in my opinion. I could not make good sense of the recommendation. But that is probably the only part that I have found confusing.

I was able to follow the instructions with ease and moved on to the plugins for bbPress. That sounds a bit odd, a plugin for a plugin has some kind of recursive nature. But, in any case, there are some useful plugins recommended, their use and configuration are clearly explained. One of the issues I wish bbPress easily allowed was the selection of the page layout. I wanted to simply drop it in on a full-width page but there was no option for it. In the last section, the author explains how to change the default pages, how to use short-codes, and how to modify the look of bbPress installation. I have already found that I could simply add a short-code on a blank page to make the entire forum appear there like magic. Very cool indeed.

I am quite an experienced WordPress user, installer, trainer and you may think that I have found the book easy to follow because of that background. Granted, the parts that were straddling both WordPress and bbPress might have benefited from my experience. However, I have no experience with bbPress at all and I must say everything went swimmingly. Also keep in mind that I have evaluated textbooks for over 40 years for my students’ use and I say that based on my years of teaching and using textbooks this is a well-written, easy to follow book if you want to add forum functionality to your WordPress installation. You will have your forum up and running in no time over your WordPress installation and configure it to your liking.

I must also note how everything fell into place. When I decided to install bbPress on the PSRI Web site I was somewhat concerned how it may interface with a membership plugin I had installed. WP eMember is a very robust membership management plugin for WordPress by Tips and Tricks HQ. I dropped them a note and asked if there was a way to integrate eMember with bbPress. A quick reply presented the third piece of this puzzle, eMember plugin already interfaced with bbPress. If you are in need of a plugin for membership management, shopping cart, a WordPress security take a look at their offering. They produce good code, they are constantly improving their plugins, and they are responsive to user questions.

So, this has been an intertwined review of a couple of products, both deserve your attention.

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