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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 24 FEBRUARY - 01 MARCH 2025
Hello and Welcome,
Meetings This week
NO MEETINGS
Meeting Next Week
2025/03/04 — 18:00-20:00 — March, Tue — Main Meeting
SPCTUG Zoom Main Meeting
Time: Tuesday 4th March, 2025, 18:00 Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84847835917
Meeting ID: 848 4783 5917
Passcode: SPCTUGMain
Schedule of Current & Upcoming Meetings
First Tuesday 18:00-20:00 — Main Meeting
Third Tuesday 10:00-12:00 — Tuesday Group
Third Saturday 14:00-16:00 — Web Design
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Go to the official Sydney PC Calendar for this month's meeting details.
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ASCCA News:Tech News:
Microsoft still cannot Create New SWAY Documents
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Error creating SWAY
[ THIS SWAY ERROR HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE 2023 UP TO 4 DAYS AGO AS REPORTED IN MICROSOFT's SWAY NEWS BLOG — Ed. ]
See the Microsoft Explanation of the Sway problem.
User impact: Users couldn't create new Sways or copy existing Sways.
Users may have seen an error message: "We're having trouble with creating your Sway. Please check your internet connection and try again." or "There was an error creating a copy of this Sway".
Additionally, users couldn't convert Microsoft Word documents to Sways.
Final status: We've successfully reverted the service to the last known working, unaffected build and confirmed that the impact is remediated.
Scope of impact: Your organization was affected by this event, and some users couldn't create new Sways or copy existing Sways.
Start time: Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 7:30 AM UTC
End time: Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at 1:15 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent update intended to provide general improvement to the Sway service introduced a potential authentication issue affecting Sway creation, resulting in impact.
Thanks,
Neha | Microsoft Community Moderator
PS: So, these bugs are fixed, but then re-introduced? — Ed.
Linux Cheat-Sheet
See the one-page cheat sheet as a PDF from Loggly from 2015/05.
I've made a slightly more readable version here, instead.
So, if you plan to try out Linux, here are a few popular commands.
For more help, ask for the Linux manual information with "man <command>".
— Ed.
Basic commands
| — Pipe (redirect) output
sudo [command] — Run <command> in superuser mode
nohup [command] — Run <command> immune to hangup signal
man [command] — Display help pages of <command>
[command] & — Run <command> and send task to background
>> [fileA] — Append to fileA, preserving existing contents
> [fileA] — Output to fileA, overwriting contents
echo -n — Display a line of text
xargs — Build command line from previous output
1>2& — Redirect stdout to stderr
fg %N — Go to task N
jobs — List task
ctrl-z — Suspend current task
File permission
chmod -c -R — Modify file read, write and execute permission
touch -a -t — Modify (or create) file timestamp
chown -c -R — Change file ownership
chgrp -c -R — Change file group permission
Network
netstat -r -v — Print network information, routing and connections
telnet — User interface to the TELNET protocol
tcpdump — Dump network traffic
ssh -i — OpenSSH client
ping -c — Print routing packet trace to host network
File management
find — Search for a file
ls -a -C -h — List content of directory
rm -r -f — Remove files or directory
locate -i — Find file using updatedb(8) database
cp -a -R -i — Copy files or directory
du -s — Disk usage
file -b -i — Identify the file type
mv -f -i — Move files or directory
grep, egrep, fgrep -i -v — Print lines matching pattern
File compression
tar xvfz — Create or extract .tar or .tgz files
gzip, gunzip, zcat — Create, extract or view .gz files
uuencode, uudecode — Create or extract .Z files
zip, unzip -v — Create or extract .ZIP files
rpm — Create or extract .rpm files
bzip2, bunzip2 — Create or extract .bz2 files
rar — Create or extract .rar files
File editor
ex — Basic editor
vi — Visual editor
nano — Pico clone
view — View file only
emacs — Extensible, customizable editor
sublime — Yet another text editor
sed — Stream editor
pico — Simple editor
Directory Utilities
mkdir — Create a directory
rmdir — Remove a directory
File Utilities
tr -d — Translate or delete character
uniq -c -u — Report or omit repeated lines
split -l — Split file into pieces
wc -w — Print newline, word and byte counts for each file
head -n — Output the first part of files
cut -s — Remove section from file
diff -q — File compare, line by line
join -i — Join lines of two files on a common field
more, less — View file content, one page at a time
sort -n — Sort lines in text file
comm -3 — Compare two sorted files, line by line
cat -s — Concatenate files to the standard output
tail -f — Output last part of the file
Scripting
awk, gawk — Pattern scanning
tsh —Tiny shell
" " — Anything within double quotes is unchanged except \ and $
' ' — Anything within single quotes is unchanged
python — "Object-oriented programming language"
bash — GNU bourne-again SHell
ksh — Korn shell
php — General-purpose scripting language
csh, tcsh — C shell
perl — Practical Extraction and Report Language
source [file] — Load any functions file into the current shell, requires the file to be executable
Memory & Processes
free -m — Display free and used system memory
killall — Stop all processes by name
sensors — CPU temperature
top — Display current processes, real time monitoring
kill -1 -9 — Send signal to process
service — Manage or run sysV init script
[start|stop|restart]
ps aux — Display current processes, snapshot
dmesg -k — Display system messages
Disk Utilities
df -h, -i — File system usage
mkfs -t -V — Create file system
resize2fs — Update a filesystem, after lvextend*
fsck -A -N — File system check & repair
pvcreate — Create physical volume
mount -a -t — Mount a filesystem
fdisk -l — Edit disk partition
lvcreate — Create a logical volume
umount -f -v — Unmount a filesystem
Misc Commands
pwd -P — Print current working directory
bc — High precision calculator
expr — Evaluate expression
cal — Print calendar
export — Assign or remove environment variable
` [command] — Backquote, execute command
date -d — Print formatted date
$[variable] — If set, access the variable
Windows 11 reboots itself — So annoying!
See the Microsoft solution to auto rebooting EVEN IF UPDATES ARE DEFERRED by Hania Mubasher | Independent Advisor.
Windows Rebooting
Have you ever set your computer to perform a lengthy calculation, which might take a day or so, only to return and find a spectacular Desktop photo and Windows waiting for the PIN to be entered?
You KNOW it's been rebooted.
You look at the Update Windows area, and the Update time is still deferred for three weeks. The option says "Resume Updates."
That means, at least, it hasn't rebooted after a "NON requested" Windows Update.
Here's the reason: If Windows discovers the most minor instruction exception in the Kernel, the option deep in Windows is to "Automatically restart". Can you believe it?
Here's the fix:
Hi, I'm an Independent Advisor; I'm here to help you.
Please try to turn off the automatic restart:
1. Launch Settings.
2. Go to System > About.
3. From Related links, select Advanced system settings.
4. In the System Properties window, open the Advanced tab and click Settings below Startup and Recovery.
5. Below System failure, uncheck Automatically restart.
6. Click OK to save your new system settings.
You can also try some of the following methods:
https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-restarting/
I hope it helps; let me know if you need further assistance.
Kind Regards,
Hania
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Standard Disclaimer: The above link is to a non-Microsoft website. The pages appear to provide accurate, safe information.
Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Products).
Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before downloading and installing it.
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Removing and Starting again with WSL
See the SuperUser article by Stack Exchange.
Reinstalling WSL in Windows
The Linux demonstration during the Tuesday Group meeting went slightly off course due to hardware problems with the video card. This caused Windows to freeze and completely blank the screen.
It ended with Ubuntu having an unknown user with an unknown password, thus making effective use of our Linux within Windows useless.
We couldn't install any updates or known Linux programs because you must use the command "sudo apt install <pgm>", which requires entering the password.
So, we searched for a way to uninstall WSL and start Linux again.
This will work:
wsl --uninstall
You will probably have to go back to the Control Panel, choose "Turn on/off Windows features, deselect Windows Subsystem for Linux", and then click "Save."
Then we can start again, selecting a user of our choice (say, spcug with password spcug) and bringing up WSL with Ubuntu.
With good luck.
Windows 11 Start Menu Gets Search Revamp
See the InfoPackets article by John Lister on February 17, 2025, at 04:02 pm EST.
Menu Gets Search Revamp
Microsoft is to label search results in the Windows 11 Start Menu more clearly. It will better highlight which results come from the computer itself and which are from the Internet.
The change will initially apply only to users in the European Economic Area and is a way of complying with new rules on the continent. It's unclear whether Microsoft intends to roll the changes out to all users.
It's all iabout the search feature that appears in the Start Menu itself. The current setup means typing a word or phrase will bring up results that include documents, applications and websites on the computer. Microsoft's own Bing search engine provides the latter.
European Law Behind Change
However, members of the Windows 11 Insider program in Europe have spotted the latest preview release has a different approach. While the same results appear, they are now split into distinct tabs, with "Windows" results on one tab and "Web search from Bing" on the other. This is a tweak to continue Microsoft's changes to comply with the Digital Markets Act. That's a European law designed to promote competition online. Broadly, it affects major companies that dominate a particular area of technology, have many users, or both.
The law limits how companies operating in different markets can use their position in one to favour their operations in another. In this case, it concerns Microsoft's positions in both the operating system and search markets. (Source: techradar.com)
Bing Can Be Replaced
Previously, Microsoft agreed to give users more control over the inclusion and prominence of the Edge browser in Windows 11 and to have the ability to change which search engines are used to deliver results in the Windows Search tools. (Source: mspoweruser.com)
While this move appears to be about compliance, it might be an improvement for users who don't care what search engine is used for this feature and want to be able to search their computer without seeing online search results.
Fun Facts:
Use Linux with the command "Figlet"
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Meeting Location & Disclaimer
Bob Backstrom
~ Newsletter Editor ~
Information for Members and Visitors:
Link to — Sydney PC & Technology User Group
All Meetings, unless explicitly stated above, are held on the
1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.
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