Disable Subtitles in MKV Files

Certain MKV video files automatically display subtitles in Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, and Media Player Classic. If you carefully notice, there are actually 2 subtitles being displayed, one large and behind it, another one very small. Procedures to disable the subtitles are below.

Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic: To remove or disable the unwanted subtitles, simply disabling it within the media player does nothing.

Go to the Codec folder Start>All Programs>eg CCCP or K-Lite>Filters

Select VSFilter Configuration

Click on the General tab

Select Do Not Load in the Loading section

Click OK

Go to the Codec folder Start>All Programs>eg CCCP or K-Lite>Filters

Select FFDShow Video Decoder Configuration

Click on the Subtitles box on the left sided menu to uncheck/deselect/disable Subtitles

Click OK

VLC Media Player: Do the 2 above procedures and within VLC Media Player, while playing each MKV video, right click on the video and select Subtitle Track>Disable

Filezilla FTP Client Drag and Drop a Download Gives an Error

Windows XP OS.

After newly installing the freeware Filezilla FTP Client version 3.2.6.1, an error occurs stating, "Could not determine the target of the Drag&Drop operation. Either the shell extension is not installed properly or you didn't drop the files into an Explorer window." While in an FTP server, dragging a file for download directly to the desktop causes the error. The error does not occur if you dragged a file for download into the Filezilla directory on the left half of the application window. I read several solutions. One solution was to run cmd and register the shell extension, the other solution, reboot the computer. After fudging with the cmd lines, and not succeeding because Windows kept giving an error about my command syntax, I decided to reboot the computer and drag and drop worked without an error.

Working solution: Reboot.

Sources:
http://trac.filezilla-project.org/ticket/4385
http://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8607

Outlook Express Spell Check Language is French

There is an oversight of Microsoft and no apparent reaction from them regarding Outlook Express' default language for spell checking apparently being French (France). This is a problem if Office 2007 is installed, particularly if you have a trial version on a new computer. Most users let it expire and use Outlook Express, but having pre-loaded crapware such as Outlook 2007, the updated 2007 dictionaries are incompatible with "outdated" and "neglected" Outlook Express. The fix is to install and older version of the dictionary from and older version of Office. If you never bought one, Microsoft gives you the finger and you are are SOL and better start learning French. Alternative to a Microsoft dictionary is to get a free dictionary for Outlook Express such as Snapfiles.

Procedure to fix the dictionary for Outlook Express are to do a custom install from an older version of Office with the languages needed. Link.

Sources:
http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2006/20061228.htm
http://blogs.chron.com/helpline/archives/2007/04/outlook_express_1.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932974
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spelloe.html

Auto Login into Vista and Windows 7

If you would like to skip the login process in Windows Vista and Windows 7, particularly if you are the only user or your have a Media Center PC that sits in your living room and getting out the keyboard is annoying, do the following:

Click Start
Type in netplwiz
Click on netplwiz
Click on the Account you would like to Auto Login
Uncheck the box above to not require login
Apply
Relogin

Remote Desktop Restart/Shutdown in Vista and Windows 7

Within Windows Remote Desktop on Vista and Windows7, Microsoft has removed the restart and shutdown commands from the Task Manager Window. To shutdown or restart a computer remotely within Remote Desktop, press Alt + F4 and a window will give you choices for logging out, restarting or shutting down.

nVidia Boot Agent Hang Up

After reconfiguring the hard drives on my computer and installing a new motherboard (nVidia nForce 730i/GeForce 9300) and booting up into Windows XP, the nVidia Boot Agent kicked in during the boot up process, showing its MAC ID and searching for a DHCP. After pushing ESC to exit, it gives an error of Insert Disk..... and then restarts itself looking for a DHCP in an endless loop.

Solution: Go into BIOS and reconfigure the Startup Device. Put the Start Up Hard Drive as # 1 in the boot order.

Play Matroska (.mkv) Videos on Windows Media Player 11

To be able to play Matroska Encoded Movie Files (.mkv) you will need to download the codecs to decode the files. The codecs can be downloaded for free. The pack of codecs necessary for Windows Media Player 11 is all included in the K-Lite Codec Pack. CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) is missing several codecs in its pack that Windows Media Player will give error on: Windows Media Player cannot play the file.....

Download and install the K-Lite codec pack at:
http://www.codecguide.com/