How To Archives

The main subject of this site: how to get something done, further divided by tags.

How to copy Windows.old to an external drive

by

After a recent Windows 10 Refresh, I found myself with most of my data missing from my installation – a bit of a surprise, having done Windows refreshes before and seeing that I selected the option to “keep all my data”. Ah well…

However, Windows was kind enough to preserve much of my previous configuration in an folder called Windows.old. As such, I could at least go back to some of the system data that I needed. Thank you, Windows 🙂

Before moving on with major re-installation work, I thought it would be wise to preserve the Windows.old folder on an external drive and make some room on my main SSD. I thought it’s just a simple matter of dragging the folder over – but that was not the case. When I tried, only perhaps 1GB of the total 30GB the folder contained was copied over.

What’s going on here? Why is this happening? My user name is exactly the same as before, why can I not create an exact replica of the whole folder somewhere else?

Read more

How to find your Twitch Stream Key (2019)

by

The Twitch web interface changes what feels like every two months, which means I can never find my Twitch streaming key (granted, we only needed when setting up a new package). So for February 2019, here’s how to find it: Login to Twitch.tv and head over to the top right corner and click on your … Read more

How to download videos from YouTube in 1080p

by

When I do live streams on YouTube, I frequently forget to record my programme locally. I guess there’s just so many buttons to press in the heat of the moment.

Hence I was looking for a way to extract full 1080p HD footage from YouTube, ideally both for my own files as well as those from other users.

Right now (February 2019), YouTube only allows me to download a 720p version of my own clips, and a YouTube Premium subscription is required to download other users’ footage. Either way, my desktop streams are usually 1080p, and that’s what I’d like to download for local archiving. 

I hunted around for a solution, and doing a quick Google search presented several contenders – many of which no longer work since YouTube have once again re-jigged some aspect of their operation. Most solutions, online and offline, can handle 720p for free, but again that’s not what I was looking for.

Thankfully I found a Firefox Add-On by a developer named Dishita, called Easy YouTube Downloader. It’s available for free from the Firefox Add-Ons repository.

Easy YouTube Downloader in action

Read more

How to tell Twitch which game you’re streaming

by

I was wondering how Twitch.tv knew which game people were streaming. I had seen such an option in YouTube, and when I broadcast something from my PS4 console the game gets set automatically – but when I use OBS, I’m in total control of the meta data. Would Twitch figure this out automatically? That would … Read more

How to install the British Spell Checker in Firefox

by

I admit my language needs are a little bit less “normal” than those of most people:

I live in the US, I write things in English most of my time, but I’m used to writing with British spelling and grammar – and occasionally I write in German too. So that makes managing languages on the myriad of devices I’m using sightly tricky.

In this article I’ll show you how to change your language settings in Firefox.

Read more

Creating a Podcast Feed with WordPress and PowerPress – Part 2

by

In this episode I’ll show you how to configure our Podcast Category with the relevant settings that are necessary for the feed to have meaningful content. I’ll talk about every single tab, including the Feed Description, specific Apple iTunes and Google Settings, how to add artwork and how to preview the feed. https://wpguru.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Podcast-2.mp3 Podcast: Download … Read more