Windows Recycle Bin does not refresh after being emptied

After emptying the Recycle Bin, you would expect the desktop icon to refresh from a full Recycle Bin to an empty one. However, if your Recycle Bin was ever deleted from the desktop, this simple functionality may no longer work. To resolve this situation...

1. From the Desktop Icon Settings window, click the icon labeled Recycle Bin (full).
2. Click Change Icon.... The Change Icon window will display.
3. Click Browse, and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll.
4. Scroll through the icons and select the empty Recycle Bin then click OK.
5. Back at the Desktop Icon Settings window, you will repeat this same process for the icon labeled Recycle Bin (empty), only this time you will select the full Recycle Bin image. Click: OK once this is done.
6. Click Apply.
7. Now simply reverse the changes you just completed. Click Recycle Bin (full) and change the icon to the full Recycle Bin image. Click Recycle Bin (empty) and change the icon to the empty Recycle Bin image.
8. Click OK to close the Desktop Icon Settings window. The Recycle Bin should now function as you would expect: When full, it will display the full icon. When empty, it will display the empty icon.

Restore missing icons to the desktop

Certain icons (the Recycle Bin or Computer, for example) are always expected to be on the Windows desktop. However, since it is possible to remove these oft used shortcuts, it is important that you know how to restore them.

1. Right-click on an empty space of the desktop then select Personalize.
2. From the left-side menu, select Change desktop icons. The Desktop Icon Settings window will display.
3. Choose the icons you wish to display on the desktop then click OK.

You may notice that after restoring the Recycle Bin, that it no longer changes from the full icon to the empty when it's content are emptied. There is an easy fix for this as well.

Boot Error: vesamenu.c32: Not a COM32R image

When attempting to install Linux, from a USB stick, you receive the following error vesamenu.c32: Not a COM32R image

• Press the Tab key.
• Type: live
• Press Enter.
• If necessary, select Live, then press Enter again to continue the boot/install process.

Sync Firefox Bookmarks using Dropbox

This solution uses a couple of the behind-the-scenes configuration options available in Firefox and the magic of the cloud via Dropbox.

1. Install Dropbox (I am sure other cloud-based sync services will work but this is my preference). Ensure that you note the location of your local Dropbox folder, this will be important later.
2. Navigate to your Dropbox folder and create a new folder titled: FirefoxBookmarks (or whatever, as long as it makes sense to you).
3. Launch Firefox. In the address bar, type about:config then press Enter. If prompted, click: I'll be careful....
4. Scroll to: browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML. This preference is set to false by default. To change this item, simply right-click it then click: Toggle.The value should now say: true. This will ensure that each time you close Firefox (assuming a bookmark change has taken place during that browser session) a bookmarks.html file will be written.
5. You will now need to add a new preference. To do so, simply right-click any of the other preferences then select: New > String.
6. In the field provided, type: browser.bookmarks.file then press: Enter.
7. Double-click: browser.bookmarks.file.
8. In the field provided, type the full path to your FirefoxBookmarks folder (if that is indeed what you named it) followed by: /bookmarks.html. For my installation (Ubuntu), it looks like: /home/mike/Dropbox/FirefoxBookmarks/bookmarks.html
9.  Close Firefox and open your Dropbox folder. You should see the bookmarks.html file. Since any file you save in the Dropbox directory is automatically synchronized to your Dropbox account, you can now access your bookmarks from any Firefox installation by following these same steps. Note: If the bookmarks.html file is not created the first time, it may be due to the fact that no real change actually occurred to your Firefox bookmarks. Fix this by simply adding, deleting, or updating a bookmark from within Firefox (Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks). Close Firefox again and all should go as planned.

Creating a SQL update statement that incorporates an inner join

This example uses both an INNER JOIN (to update the values in Table1 with the corresponding values from Table2) and aliasing for readability.

1. I added the additional parameters in the WHERE for illustrative purposesUPDATE t1
SET t1.Column2 = t2.Column2
FROM dbo.Table1 t1
INNER JOIN dbo.Table2 t2
ON t1.Column1 = t2.Column1
WHERE
AND t1.Column3 = value
AND t2.Column4 = value

Set minimum font size for Chromium browser

While using Ctrl+Shift++ or Ctrl+Shift+- can be used as a workaround for fonts that render either too big or too small it is somewhat problematic because it changes all of the fonts on the page. Additionally, any changes are lost once the browser is closed. A better and more permanent solution is to force a minimum font size.

1. Close any open sessions of Chromium.
2. From the desktop, launch a new terminal session by selecting: Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A new terminal window will display.
3. At the prompt (the blinking cursor), type: gedit ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences then press Enter.
4. Locate the section titled webkit.
5. Within webkit, you will see webprefs. Under webprefs, add the following 2 lines "minimum_font_size": 11,
"minimum_logical_font_size": 11,Be sure to include the trailing comma for both lines.
6. Save your changes and close gedit.
7. Launch Chromium and navigate to a site that would normally have rendered with ridiculously small fonts. You should now be able to actually view the content without glasses. To increase or decrease the minimum font size, simply repeat the first few steps to open Chromium's Preferences in gedit. Replace 11 with your desired font size.

Disable the clicking sound when pages load in Internet Explorer

1. From the keyboard, press Ctrl+R to open the Run window.
2. Type control then press Enter.
3. Double-click: Sound (in Classic view) - or - Hardware and Sound > Sound (in the Control Panel Home or Category view).
4. From the Sounds tab, locate Start Navigation. Left-click Start Navigation to select it.
5. From the Sounds pulldown, click (None).
6. Click OK.