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APC and its readers can be one giant helpdesk. If you have a technical problem, chances are one of us can solve it.
SOFTWARE REMOVE UNWANTED PHOTO METADATA
What’s the quickest way to remove all the metadata from a large collection of photos so I can burn a DVD slideshow? Trevor Hawker Metadata (or data that gives information about other data) can be found in a number of different file types including photos. You might want to remove such data for privacy reasons (it may contain personal information, for example). Windows includes a metadata removal tool.
Access removal tool: Browse to a folder using File Explorer, then select all of the files that share the same file type (such as JPG). Right-click them and then choose Properties. Now switch to the Details tab and click ‘Remove Properties and Personal Information’.
Remove all metadata: You can also create separate copies of the files with all the metadata removed from them — useful if you’re sharing with others or uploading to social media, for example. Simply leave ‘Create a copy with all possible properties removed’ and click OK.
Selectively remove: Alternatively, you can choose ‘Remove the following properties from this file’ if you want to wipe the data from the original files. Click ‘Select All’ to remove all metadata, or selectively tick the fields that you wish to remove. Click OK to wipe them.
Select from multiple folders: Want to select multiple files of the same type from different folders? Browse to the top-most folder in File Explorer, then type the name of the file type (such as .doc) into the Search box. Hit Enter to quickly generate a list of relevant files. Nick Peers
IOS STOP iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY FROM STEALING STORAGE
I’d avoided iCloud until recently, when I wanted to show photos from my iPad 2 on a TV. I put them into my iCloud Photo Library using my Mac, and they duly showed up on the iPad. However, they appear in the iPad’s Photos app even when the device’s Wi-Fi is turned off. I don’t want hundreds of pictures cluttering up the device. How can I only collect them from the cloud when I need them? iCloud Photo Library stores all of your pictures in iCloud, but doesn’t necessarily lumber all the devices you’ve connected to your iCloud account with the whole library. Control its behaviour by going to ‘Settings > iCloud > Photos’. When you enable iCloud Photo Library on that page, your iPad will inevitably keep indexes and thumbnail images for your whole library. Below that, though, you have an option of choosing either ‘Optimise iPad Storage’ or ‘Download and Keep Originals’; inevitably, the latter of those uses more storage space, but tap the former and your iPad will manage its use of local storage as efficiently as possible. If your iPad has ample free storage, it may well still keep copies of your most commonly used photos and videos locally on the iPad. However, when the iPad is more pushed for free space, it’ll leave the full-size originals in the cloud, downloading them only as needed. You can tell how much local storage iCloud Photo Library is using by going to ‘Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage’ (under the Storage heading, not iCloud). Scroll down the list to find the total used by Photos & Camera, tap that, and you can confirm how much local space your photo library is using. You could turn on iCloud Photo Library only when you need it, but you’ll need to be happy waiting for it to sync each time. Ian Sleightholm
“On my desktop screen, I see lovely solid colours (as selected) for each event, but when I try to print out a copy of my calendar, all I get is a box and no solid colour.”
WINDOWS CALENDAR DOESN’T PRINT MY WAY
I am using the latest version of Windows 10, but I am having a problem with the Calendar app. On my desktop screen, I see lovely solid colours (as selected) for each event, but when I try to print out a copy of my calendar, all I get is a box and no solid colour. Can you please help? Tony Lawrence This sounds like you’re referring to the built-in Calendar app, Tony. Sadly, it’s very much deliberate behaviour on the part of the app — presumably to save toner and ink and provide clarity. There’s no setting to switch this off, so you’ll need to hunt for an alternative Calendar app that gives you control over the printout.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a freebie that offered this level of customisation. eM Client ( www. emclient.com) pulls the same trick as Calendar, while Thunderbird ( mzl. la/2tbUH7j) prints in a different way. Instead, search the Windows Store for ‘One Calendar’, which recently added printing support, and which prints using solid colours as you require. You can try it for free, but printing requires upgrading to the Pro version for $7.45 Nick Odantzis
LINUX ONE TRUE PATH
I need to permanently add /usr/local/xds /bin to the PATH. Currently, there is an existing PATH in .bash_ profile, like this: PATH=$ PATH:$ HOME/bin export PATH However, I’m not sure exactly where and how to add the extra path. Dave Pritchard The PATH variable contains the directories searched for commands when they are given without an explicit path. By default this is only / bin and usr/ bin for a normal user, the superuser also has /sbin and /usr/ sbin included. You can see the current search path by running: $ echo $ PATH The PATH variable contains a list of directories that are separated by colons and you can modify this in the same way as any other environment variable. You may find PATH already contains more than the two default paths, some may have been added in /etc/profile while others in your local profile file; .bash_ profile for the bash shell. Setting a variable replaces the contents with the new information, so it’s usual to include the existing path in the assignment in order to add to it. The line in .bash_ profile: PATH=$ PATH:$ HOME/bin ...does just this. The shell expands the original PATH variable first and substitutes its contents in its place. So if PATH previously contained /usr/ bin:/ bin, the actual assignment being run would be:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/home/ dave/bin
See how both the $PATH and $HOME variables are replaced with their contents. It is normal practice to have a ~/ bin directory in your path, where users can store their own scripts. You could modify this line to include the path you want or you could add a separate line to make things clearer: PATH=$ PATH:/usr/local/xds/bin. You will need to put this line before the export PATH line. The export command makes the modified PATH available to the shell and any commands that it runs, otherwise it would be local to .bash_ profile. Doing this will only add
the path for your user, if you want to make this path available to all system users, you will need to put in either /etc/profile or a new file in /etc/ profile.d. The latter is a better choice if your particular distro uses it as it will not be overwritten by an update, while /etc/profile may. The order of the paths is important, the paths are searched from left to right. If the existing . bash_ profile line reads: PATH=$ HOME/bin:$ PATH ...your ~/ bin directory would be searched first, so if an intruder placed a script in here with the same name as a system command that script would be run first. That’s why it’s safer to add new paths to the end. If you really want to override the behaviour of an existing command, consider using an alias instead. APC team
MAC BLACK SCREEN iMAC LOCKOUT
At seemingly random times, the display of my iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) goes completely black, and the system is then unusable, so I have to perform a forced shutdown using its power button. This iMac has a Radeon HD 6770M graphics card. Why is this happening? Bob Pringle Given its vintage, a dying graphics card or other hardware could be to blame. Several models of graphics cards have suffered premature failure, probably because of the introduction of leadfree solder, and some have had their warranties extended as a result. Before you take the Mac in for repair, check its logs in Console. After this next happens and the Mac has restarted, open Console and search for BOOT_TIME, which should take you back to the last startup. The entries right before that may give a better idea as to what went wrong at the time of the black screen. Otherwise, run Apple Hardware Test or Diagnostics; if that reports a hardware fault, you’ll need to take the Mac for repair. If the hardware checks out OK, the Mac could still have a graphics card problem, which may only be possible to fully diagnose by Apple’s in-house tools. The Mac may be inadvertently trying to enter Target Display Mode (as when you press ‘Command-@’). You might stop that by temporarily restarting in safe mode, or by checking the settings in the Displays preferences pane. Ian Sleightholm
SOFTWARE ARE THESE FILES SAFE FOR ME TO DELETE?
I recently used IObit Uninstaller to uninstall the F-Secure security programs because my free subscription expired. Despite it claiming to have removed everything after running a powerful scan, I’ve discovered a F-Secure folder remains in Program Files, and it’s 489MB in size. Is it safe to right-click and delete this folder? Lesley Bate Our instinct is to say yes, but we erred on the side of caution and directed Lesley to the official F-Secure uninstall tool, which you can download from bit.ly/2tc0slA. Sure enough, on running this tool, the folder was removed. Lesley also had a follow-up question about whether it was safe to remove seemingly redundant versions of Microsoft Visual C++. This time, however, the recommended advice is to leave well alone — different programs rely on different versions of Visual C++, so removing one may prevent another from working, forcing you to run a repair install to replace the missing version of Visual C++. Nick Peers
LINUX MINT PASSWORD RESET
I have acquired a Dell laptop with Linux Mint installed. I tried to update the OS and install software but it asks me for a password, which I don’t have. How do I find the password? Ed Scott Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu Linux and uses the ‘sudo’ command to run programs that need superuser permissions. This means you use your normal user password, the one you use to log in when you boot. However, that piece of advice isn’t going to be much help if the computer was set up to automatically login to the desktop when it starts up. If this is the case, you need to boot from a live CD and reset your user password. Most live CDs will do the job, although we prefer System Rescue Cd ( system-rescue-cd.org). This boots to a console by default, but that is
fine as the reset process uses console commands. Before you do this, find the device holding your root partition in Mint. You can do this from Mint by opening a terminal and typing $ df . The ‘df’ command actually reports free space, but helpfully also includes the device name as the first item on a line; it will be something like /dev/sda1. You also need your username, which you can usually see in the menu bar or you can view in the terminal by running
$ echo $ USER
Now boot into the live CD, open a terminal if not already at a console and run: $ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mint $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ mint
$ sudo chroot /mnt/mint The first two commands create a directory and mount your Mint disk on it. The chroot command changes the working environment to that directory. Now you are effectively logged into your Mint system as the root user, so change the password for your user with $ passwd
youruser . It will prompt you for the new password twice. When all is done, press ‘Ctrl-D’ to exit the chroot, safely unmount the Mint disk with $ sudo
umount /mnt/mint and reboot. This procedure should work with just about any live CD, but if you have the Rescatux rescue disc ( www.supergrub
disk.org/rescatux) available, there’s a graphical alternative. After booting from the Rescatux CD, you will find a button labelled ‘Change Gnu/Linux Password’. Press this, read the instructions then follow the steps to reset the password. Rescatux first scans your disc for suitable distros then asks you to pick one — there should be only one in your case. Then it lists all the users on that system, your user should be near the end of the list. Make sure you get the right user, then give the new password when prompted.
Whichever method you use, it’s advisable to change the password again once you are booted into the system, just to make sure everything is consistent. To do this, simply open a terminal and run $ passwd . It will ask for your current password, which is why we could not do it this way in the first place and will prompt you for a new one. APC team
WINDOWS FREE UP SPACE ON A TABLET
I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my Windows tablet’s 32GB SSD drive from filling up, including moving user folders, apps and programs to a secondary drive (the latter using Steam Mover as recommended by yourselves). But I’m still struggling for space — is there anything else I can attempt to shift off the drive to my 64GB microSD card? Luca Kaestner Before looking for any additional folders to move, first run Disk Clean-up (or a trusted clean-up tool such as CCleaner) to see if there’s any obvious detritus hanging about — for example, if you’ve recently installed the Creators Update you may be able to free up a significant chunk of space. If you’ve enabled System Restore on the drive, consider switching it off, but only if you’re taking a full drive image using a tool like Macrium Reflect Free. We’ll assume any cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and so on) is already saving to your microSD card, but also consider selectively syncing only a subset of the folders available or — in the case of OneDrive — removing the sync completely and relying on the OneDrive Windows Store app to selectively access files directly from the cloud as and when required. If you regularly fill your drive with temporary files, then go to ‘Start > Settings > System > Storage’ and make sure ‘Storage sense’ is switched on, clicking ‘Change how we free up space’ to configure automatic deletion of temporary files and files that have been left in the Recycle bin. Or move the temp files off your drive completely: type “environment” into the Search box and click ‘Edit environment variables for your account’ before editing both the TEMP and TMP variables, so that they point to your microSD card. Nick Peers