Free video editors...free and no watermarks

 When I had to do a little project that involved some video editing I found two entirely programs useful. Entirely free means just that....no payment needed for its use and no conditions like limitation on size and watermarks if using the free version.

For simple cutting and or trimming video clips I used the Windows Video Editor that comes with Windows 10. If you did not know that this existed....well it does. You can add text to the video, trim the sections that you don't want and do lots of basic stuff. I found the video trimmer of this built in program very useful and easy to use. To find this program you scroll down the apps list which pops up when you right click the windows icon at the extreme left of the windows screen. You can also access this editor using the Photo app that comes with Windows. 

I also needed to remove the audio track from one of my video clips and the Windows 10 Video Editor could not do this, but Avidemux could do it. All I had to do was the deselect the audio track and save the clip. 

Both programs have their limitations but if your video editing requirements are simple like mine, these two completely free editing programs will do nicely.

Problem with Windows 10 Activation

 I had a problem with activating Windows ). This cropped up some time after I purchased my China assembled PC box. It came with Windows 10 installed and it was activated automatically during the initial set up. About a year later, there was some notification saying that Windows was expiring and I needed to take some action, This I ignored because i believed that Windows did not expire. Then there appeared a permanent watermark on my screen that said that I needed to activate Windows. The watermark persisted and I looked for a solution. To cut a long story short -- I found the solution at KMSpico's official website here https://www.getkmspico.com/download. I took note of the zip file password and followed the first link to their mirror site which was  at https://file.fan/3fdd2a62a046a120/getkmspico.com-KMSpico_setup.zip?pt=TVdOcGVEVkhaR3hSWVhaUlZYaEtTSE5KTWs1bVFUMDlPbWF4RWcxYlJYZHlvb0JQaExuN210UT0%3D

I downloaded the zip file and installed the activator. But I had to disable Windows Defender temporarily. When it was installed i ran it and pressed the red button for activation and it worked. Whether this is a permanent solution to activation I do not know. I hope it is.

What I read was that when there is an activation problem, the activation  trouble shooter will try to link to the organisation that purchased the Windows license  for for some kind of verification. I guess the Chinese company that installed this version  of Windows is now not in business and  their servers could not be contacted. I think that organisations that have bulk licenses have sets of keys for verification....but if the Windows troubleshooter cannot connect to these servers, then you might have a problem like mine.

Good uninstaller -- IObit

I installed Youtube Download (not to be confused with youtube downloader which I mentioned in an earlier post and which is still serving me well) and after finding that it had limitations in its free version, I decided to uninstall it. But it would not uninstall  -- even after several attempts.

Searched the net for a solution and came across iobit uninstaller. This worked like magic. It identified all files associated with the unwanted program and uninstalled it in no time. Worth a try if you have difficulty with a program that just will not uninstall.

Convert PDF to Word

I did a comparison using three free online PDF to Word converters using a 60 page pdf file. The best of the three was  the one at this site http://convertonlinefree.com/. It was fast and it could handle this very large file.

The other two took too long to upload the files and when they did the conversion it was incomplete because there was a limit to the amount of pages for their free version.

How accurate was the conversion? I would say 100%. None of the characters were lost. All the graphics and tables of the the original file was faithfully reproduced. Editing the Word file was a breeze.

So if you are having difficulty with your conversions, try this site.

Windows 10 Trouble Shooting Links

Safe Mode:   https://www.winhelp.us/safe-mode-in-windows.html

Screen Resolution:    http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-change-screen-resolution-in-windows-10/

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1756964/windows-display-fit-monitor-screen.html

Flipped Screen: http://www.technipages.com/screen-flipped-upside-down

Recovery:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-sg/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Epson Photosmart 1660 Scanner for Windows 10 32 bit

Photosmart 1660 Scanner for 32 bit Windows is not supported and an alternative Epson driver has to be used.

To get this download drivers for Expression 1680 for Windows 10 32bit.

https://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?oid=27543&infoType=Downloads&platform=OSF_M_8

Unzip the files in a directory where you can find it easily.
Windows 10 will recognise your 1660 scanner when you plug it in but will not run it since it cannot find the driver for it.
Got to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound>Devices and Printers and you should see the icon for the scanner there.
Click on the scanner icon, select Properties>Hardware>Properties>Drivers.
Select update driver or install driver.
Then install the 1600 driver from the unzipped directory. (you can try the 1680 driver if you want but I used the 1600 driver and it worked,)
When the driver is installed, the Epson 1660 Photosmart scanner should work.
The software will not work as the original did but with a little experimentation you should be able to get the same results.

Two Routers compared

A comparison between the TP-link TL-WR40N

and the D-Link DIR 645 Smart Beam

Both routers are of about the same age (not brand new, but each about 2 years old.)

The wifi strength of both routers is equally weak in the furthest room in my apartment and the smart beam feature of the D-Link is not an advantage, perhaps because of the particular layout of the apartment with its many concrete walls. I use a repeater to get over this problem.