Add a NAS folder to a Music Library - Windows 8

 

To add a network folder that isn't indexed to a library

Windows 8 includes the Xbox Music app that can utilise the Music library. If you use a separate NAS (Network Attached Storage device.) you can not link a Music share on the NAS to the Music library as the share can not be indexed.

 

The easiest way to do this is to make the folder available offline first. Then add the offline folder to a library by following the steps earlier in this topic. You're done. (This may require a great deal of local storage.) 

 

If you don't want to make the folder available offline because you don't want to keep the folder contents on your PC, follow these steps to add the folder to a library. Note that doing this will make searching, sorting, and filtering in the whole library slow. For best results, it is recommend creating a new library for the network folder alone.

1. Tap or click to open Computer.
2. Create a folder on your hard drive for your network folders, for example c:\share.
3. Create another folder within that folder, for example c:\share\music.
4. Select the subfolder you just created, tap or click the Home tab, tap or click Easy access, choose Include in library, and then select the library to which you want to add the folder.
5. Delete the folder.
6. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
   (If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, then click Search.).
7. Enter cmd in the search box, and then tap or click Apps.
8. Press and hold or right-click Command Prompt in the search results, and then tap or click Run as administrator.
9. Enter mklink /d, and then enter the path of the folder you just deleted and the path of the network folder. For example, mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music. This creates what is called a symbolic link.
10. Start Media Player and ensure the Music Library contains the list of music files on the NAS.

3rd party application Win7 Library Tool that gets over the problem off remote location  thatcan’t be indexed.

Using PowerShell to manage Office 365 security groups

To display a list of groups available in Office 365 

In PowerShell type - Get-MSOLGroup 

This will display a list of groups and the group type i.e. Security or Distribution 

Add individual users to a security group 

$studentsGroup = Get-MsolGroup | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "students-security"} 

$user = Get-MsolUser | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "Jane Mcburney" } 

Add-MsolGroupMember -GroupObjectId $studentsGroup.ObjectId -GroupMemberObjectId $user.ObjectId -GroupMemberType "User" 

Add CSV user list to a security group 

1. Export a list of UPN names using PowerShell to csv. 

Get-MSOLUser | Select UserPrincipalName|Export-Csv c:\tools\user.csv 

2. Edit the user.csv so that it contains only accounts you want to add to the security group. 
3. Import the users.csv containing the UPN and export a new csv user2.csv with the users objectId. 

$sub = Import-Csv C:\tools\users.csv 

$sub | Foreach {Get-Msoluser -UserPrincipalName $_.Userprincipalname | select Objectid } | Export-csv C:\tools\Users2.csv 

4. Display  the security group objectid 

Get-MSOLGroup 

5. Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to add users to. 
6. Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will import the users2.csv containing the users objectid and add to the security group. 

$sub2 = Import-Csv C:\tools\users2.csv 

$sub2 | Foreach {Add-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid ‘xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx’ -GroupMemberObjectId $_.ObjectId -GroupMemberType User} 

List members of a security group 

1. Display  the security group objectid 

Get-MSOLGroup 

2. Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to check members. 
3. Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will export members of a security group members to csv. 

Get-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' | Select DisplayName,EmailAddress,GroupMemberType | Export-csv C:\tools\security-group-members.csv 

Windows 8 - reminders

This blog post will be a working document to remind me about the features and processes that come with Microsoft Windows 8.

Apps side by side

In order to snap Apps you will need a resolution of at least 1366x768.

It might be useful to have two apps on the display at once. Windows 8 handles this as part of the OS, and the way it works is revolutionary. With one app on the display, you simply swipe in from the side and "pull" the other app onto the screen from the left. You can drag it until the app display is as big as desired, and "drop" it alongside the original app. You are then free to reference material in one app while working in the other.

Example:
So you could have Internet Explorer open and Bing which was previously opened dragged in from the left side.The searches in Bing auotmatically get displayed in Internet Explorer.

Key Stokes
Cycling through open Windows back to the "Modern" UI can be achived by pressing the Windows Key.


Applications

Defender: Windows 8 includes a version of Security Essentials (Microsofts Antivirus and Anti-malware product) but now includes it under the application name of Defender.

Hyper-V: To run Hyper-V, a PC must not only run the 64-bit version of Windows 8, its CPU must also support a virtualization technology called Second Level Address Translation (aka SLAT) which, is present in the current generation of 64-bit processors by Intel and AMD, along with at least 4GB of RAM.

You can check the status of your CPUs by downloading the latest version of Mark Russinovich’s coreinfo.exe utility from the Microsoft Sysinternals Web pages, then launching the utility from a command line launched with administrative privileges.

run coreinfo -v

The key entries in this display are the EPT (Extended Page Tables) for Intel processors, and a value in the AMD processor output that may appear as NPT (Nested Page Tables) or RVI (Rapid Virtualization Indexing). Simply put, one of these values must be enabled for Windows 8 Hyper-V to work.

To enable audio in the Hyper-V guest - you will need to connect using RDP (Assuming the host RDP computer has an audio card.) - remember to enable Remote Desktop on the guest and ensure the firewall allows RDP traffic.

Sky fails to record from TV guide

My Sky +HD box recently updated to the new version, following this update though it would not record from the TV guide. When I pressed the remote's record button for a program it was just ignored.

If I started to watch a channel I could then record a program on that channel just not though the TV guide.

Searching the internet I found a solution that fixed my problem - rebuild the planner.


This process will stop all recordings in process and reboot the box. If there is a recording underway, consider waiting until it is completed. Rebuilding the planner will not delete any existing recordings. 

1. Press services on your Sky remote control and you will see the main menu with Options highlighted.
2. Highlight the Settings menu using the right arrow button and press select.
3. Press 0 (zero), 1 then select to access the Installer Setup menu (this menu is not listed on the Settings menu options).
4. Use the left/right arrows to highlight Rebuild (this will change to Sky+ Rebuild when reached) and press select.
5. The on-screen message "This will take a few minutes to complete. The rebuild will stop all recordings and reboot your Sky+" will appear. Press select to continue.
6. The on-screen message "Housekeeping please wait" will appear and take up to two minutes to clear. If your Sky+HD box continues to display this message for longer than two minutes please carry out a power reset (below) with the viewing card removed.
7. Once complete your Sky+HD box will switch itself off and then back on automatically displaying the red standby light.
8. Ensure the red standby light on the box has re-appeared, then wait for 3 minutes.
9. Press sky your remote control and the light on your Sky+HD box will turn green. 

http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/tv/sky-plus-hd/recording/guide-to-performing-a-planner-rebuild/index.html

Picasa public album redirects to Google+ Login

Following changes to Google, with integrating Picasa photo albums into Google+ all my web-page links to my public Picasa albums redirected people to the Google+ login box, instead of just showing the album.


As a temporary fix I have added  "?noredirect=1" to my Picasa Web gallery URL?

For example:
https://picasaweb.google.com/number/albumname?noredirect=1

This skips the redirect to Google+



If you are using an authkey in the URL, then you have to use "&noredirect=1" ( & instead of ?)

For example:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103124484697486858492authkey=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&noredirect=1

NOTE: If the URL ended in a # remove it. (I did also add / at the end though not sure this is necessary.)