Backup solutions for normal windows pc/laptop users. ( Not for geeks )

I have done few data recovery jobs for normal personal computer users who couldn't start their computers because of several reasons. Even though it's not a big deal to get your data back when your computer is in good shape and your windows operating system  isn't working.

But it's very hard for some one who doesn't  have the skill of doing it. Also if you go to a technician they will charge you at least  hundred dollars to do these things.  Other than that you'll have to expose your personal data to a third party and they can do some damage if they are not very professional people.

So my advise is its always good to prevent these scenarios before something happened to your windows operating system. If you follow these steps you will be confident enough to format your hard disk and  install a fresh copy of windows operating system.

1. Always make at-least two partitions in your hard disk and use one only for operating system and other one for data.

2. Do not save any sensitive data in your OS drive. If you concern about privacy and security of data use window's default  Bitlocker encryption tool. ( You cant use bitlocker in windows home editions )

3. Use a personal file sharing application like dropbox or google drive and configure it to sync your data automatically.

4. Use external hard disk to backup your data time to time.

5. Make sure you always have your data in at lest two physical locations in case of a disaster. ( Cloud and Your PC will be ok for a basic backup plan )

6. If you want to use an antivirus software please buy a commercial antivirus. Never use a pirate copy of  an antivirus software. ( Simply do not use any pirate copies as there are many opensource alternatives around )

7. Do not use an older versions of antivirus software. This will cause compatibility issues and  will  reduce the speed of your computer.
     

How to load image on webview from ms-appdata:///local

I recently updated my  Visual Studio 2015  apache cordova project to visual studio 2017. I had few problems with working with angular js otherwise everything worked in windows 10 environment.

But what I noticed was images from ms-appdata:///local folder couldn't load  to img tags. I tried many ways like row html, dynamic tag creation and add url as a base64 data url.

In base64 solution it worked. But I want to get the file itself  as my app was supporting iOS and Android as well.

So after trying hundred things solutions was simple.  You have to set img-src  option to All ( *  ) Content-Security-Policy meta tag of the html file.

Please check following screen shot. You need to add the part with the read border to load image resources from any location.

Reference URL  if you need to see more options.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy/default-src

Invalid command line switch for tsc.exe. Visual Studio 2015 - 2017

After I installed visual studio 2017 while I had visual studio 2015 in good working condition my visual studio 2015 cordova Javascript project gave me this error.


Invalid command line switch for tsc.exe


Possible cause for this one is with visual studio 2017, you'll be getting new typescript libraries. So visual studio 2015 is confusing when selecting the highest typescript version automatically.

If your project is javascript based cordova project fix is easy.

1. Open project file in notepad or any editor you using.
2. Edit following section.

* You cant use this fix for typescript based cordova projects.
* If you still see some errors your visual studio 2015 may needs a repair.  Please follow the link bellow regarding repairing vs 2015.

https://guntucomputerhacks.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/current-package-installation-is.html

Write MP3s for old car stereos - ( 2002 to 2010 Cars )

Recently I bought a 2005 Toyota Corolla manual car and it has nice classic car stereo which only support for Digital Audio Compact Discs ( Knows as Audio CD's ) and MP3 discs.

So I burned a mp3 disk with windows media player as a data cd but my car player seems to be not reading it.  When I investigate this windows media player in windows 10 is creating folders automatically based on song's title, artist or language etc. 

There are two ways you can create supported mp3 disc for  old car audios.

1. Create data disc with windows explorer - drag files in to empty disc and burn.
2. Even though 1st one is a good solution but I would recommend using Power ISO as a burner tool. which is almost a free software and working really well is recent windows versions.

https://www.poweriso.com/download.php

Using GeoTag when taking photos through apps you developing - Apache Cordova

If your app need to tag photos with the location you need enable this feature from Cordova's config xml. Some android devices are tagging the photos with the location even if you havent enable this feature from the app. But for iOS it is compulsory to add this line to cordova configuration file to tag photos with the location.

reference. Cordova Documentation
https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/reference/cordova-plugin-camera/

Package downloading problems - Apache Cordova Tools Visual Studio 2015 - "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApacheCordovaTools\packages\vs-tac"

Previous blog post.

https://guntucomputerhacks.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/current-package-installation-is.html



Hi According to bellow post I had to repair vs-tac package in my Cordova Tools for Visual Studio 2015.

But when visual studio was trying to download the package by itself it's giving connection error when connecting npm severs.

You'll see something like this.

request to http://registry.npmjs.org/optimist failed, reason: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:8888


So now lets see the solution.

Solution 1

1. Add C:\Windows\System32 to user's environment variable under "path"  collection.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Uninstall Node JS and install the latest stable version of Node JS.'
4. Go to Tools --> Options --> Tools for Apache Cordova --> Cordova Tools --> Clear Cordova Cache and try to build your project.


If you are able to build your project and deploy the you'll be ok. But if you still getting  following errors then proceed to solution 2.

Error 1 - Current package installation is corrupted. Will cleanup and do a fresh installation. 
Error 2 -  Request to http://registry.npmjs.org/optimist failed, reason: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:8888

Solution 2

1. Open command prompt as administrator.
2. Enter following command. This is to install package manually.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>npm install -g "C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 14.0\COMMON7\IDE\EXTENSIONS\APACHECORDOVATOOLS\packages\vs-tac"


If you are successful that means your visual studio 2015 has some problems. You may try run visual studio as Administrator or Repair your visual studio. If you see following error that means you have some problems with NPM network configuration settings or you are not connected to internet.

* Please check your firewall settings before proceed.

Lets follow bellow steps to fix any configuration issues in NPM.

1.  Open C:\Users\\.npmrc file and remove highlighted line if you have proxy.

2. Check the registry URL as well.  Also you can use command line to reset these URLs 

3.  Try running command in step 2. 

Hope this helps.

Current package installation is corrupted. Will cleanup and do a fresh installation. ( Apache Cordova Tools for Visual Studio 2015 )

Cause - According to my research of the issue. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I had well working apache cordova project with Visual Studio 2015 and it worked without any issue for years. Recently I installed Visual Studio 2017 and did some research of creating a cordova project in higher version. I did not have any issue until I installed Visual Studio 2017 Update pack released on 4th of April 2018. After installing the update pack I had following error message whenever I'm trying to build the project. Even if I create a brand new project I had the same issue.

Current package installation is corrupted. Will cleanup and do a fresh installation. 

So the visual studio tried to repair the tools for cordova. If its successfully did that you will not have any issue. But in my case I had so many updated tools  and Visual Studio 2015 kept giving errors while downloading new npm packages. Specially following package.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\ApacheCordovaTools\packages\vs-tac  

I have put the solution in different blog post as these are two separate problems.

Click on following link.

https://guntucomputerhacks.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/package-downloading-problems-apache.html