Windows 8 - Audio not working

Many have reported this issue with windows 8 lately. The Audio doesn't work with media players like Windows Media Player, VLC or GOM Player.
This could be the result of some Audio enhancement programs installed on your machine. Now a days there are  pre-installed audio softwares coming with your branded Desktops/Laptops. These could be from the PC brands like HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell etc. or it could be from the manufacturer of the audio chip. Either way your audio issue must be resolved by following the steps below. After each step try your audio to see if it works, if so you need not proceed to the next step.

1. Disable Audio Enhancements
• Goto CONTROL PANEL -> SOUND
• In the sound settings window, select your audio device. Then click Properties button.
• In the Speaker Properties windows select the "Disable all enhancements" option.
• Click Apply, then Ok.
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2.  Restart Windows Audio services
• Goto Services Management Console
• Press Windows Key + R
• Type services.msc
• Right Click  "Windows Audio". Select Stop. Once service is stopped Right click select Start.
• Right Click "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder". Select Stop. Once service is stopped Right click select Start.
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Now your audio must be working fine. Enjoy audio.

Sometimes the issue with the settings with your Video/Audio Player. To troubleshoot this we will see it in another post.

Mouse Jumping problem while typing.

This is a very annoying problem especially when you type looking at your keyboard.
You may be very late to realize that you were typing on the wrong lines because your cursor jumped to wrong lines while you were typing.
The issue bugged me for a while on my HP Pavilion dv6. I blamed my laptop for this and always kept the Touchpad disabled to avoid any instance where the line jumping /shifting happened because of the touchpad or if it was super sensitive that the touchpad detected movements without actually touching it. But disabling touchpad didn't help me.
Finally after long experiments, I could figure out the issue was actually windows. The issue was resolved by disabling an option related to mouse in windows mouse settings. Here's how exactly you can do it.

1) Goto Control Panel
2) If your control panel view is in Category mode, select "View devices and printers" under "Hardware and Sound". Right click the mouse from the list and select "Mouse Settings". You will get the "Mouse Properties" window.
Alternatively if your control panel is in detailed list view, select the "Mouse" option. You will get the "Mouse Properties" window.
3) In the "Mouse Properties" windows select the "Pointer Options" tab.
4) As in the screenshot, unselect the "Hide pointer while typing" checkbox.
5) Apply and OK.
My mouse jumping issue was solved.

How to view all unread mails in gmail

For many of us, we have a hard time keeping our mailbox to 0 unread mails.
The worst part is that once is a while if you try to filter by the unread mails, gmail doesn't provide this option out of the box. Because of this you would have some unread mails stuck up from the past which is not easily navagatable by the paging option.

But once you know the command to filter by its an easy task to filter by unread mails and see all the unread mails.

The trick is to search by the label "unread". For this, in the search box type the following:
label:unread
This would filter out all the unread mails in your mailbox. You can also use combination searches; for instance if you want to seach all unread mails from your inbox you can type in the search box as:
in:inbox label:unread

There are many more search options google provide, but not out of the box via the user interface.

Happy cleaning up your gmail mailbox.

What is the difference between Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Pro Pack

To keep it simple, Windows 8 Pro Pack is a subset of Windows 8 Pro.

Windows 8 Pro= Windows 8 + Windows 8 Pro Pack

Windows 8 Pro Pack is actually an add on package which contains softwares like Windows Media Center. It is a separate package because Windows 8 by default doesn't have Media Center. So after installing Windows 8 you will have to download and install Windows 8 Pro Pack to get media Center.
For a limited time (Jan 31 2013), you can download Windows 8 Pro Pack for free from the microsoft site. It si called Feature pack. Here is the link: Download Windows 8 Pro Pack (Feature Pack)

Note: Initially Microsoft had mentioned that Media center would come built in with Windows 8. But later they changed plans because of changes in codec licensing charges and other business scenario changes.

How to convert a Pagemaker file to a pdf file?

Tools used: Pagemaker and Distiller

Install Adobe distilled your computer. Adobe Distiller is a localized part of the standard installation of Pagemaker, allowing users to convert Pagemaker documents to PDF files. You can also install custom Distiller from PageMaker CD or as an add-on downloaded from the Adobe website Once you confirm your purchase of Pagemaker. Once installed, run Distiller along with pagemaker and you can create PDF files within Pagemaker interface.

Export PageMaker file to PDF file
Open a file in PageMaker and then select the "File," -> "Export" ->"Adobe PDF". A pop-up window will open. May you customize the PDF settings based on the options in this window. These settings will vary based on your version of the pagemaker and specifications of your system, but possibilities include HTML and security. Once completed, select "Export". And there is a new pop-up window open prompting you to enter a new file name and location for the PDF. Enter them and click "OK". The new PDF file will open in Adobe Reader.

Notes on Exporting
PageMaker file must be exported again if you make any changes to the document. You can choose to re-save the PDF file or create a new one.

How to convert a .pdc to a .pdf?

Steps:

1) Download LockLizard
Download the latest version of the LockLizard. It is a free program that converts PDC documents to PDF documents. It is available directly from LockLizard.com or from the Download Center at Cnet.com. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen after installation to prepare LockLizard.

2) Open a document
Click "File" menu after opening LockLizard, and select "Open." Locate the file .PDC that you want to convert. Click "open", and the file will appear. Enter the password that was created for the document if prompted.

3) Convert to PDF
Click "File", then choose "Unlock" once on the file. PDC opened. You may be asked to enter your password again. Wait for the program to open the file, and save it as a PDF file regular.

Internet Explorer does not open web pages

Internet Explorer does not open web pages.

Problem:
All the browsers on the system can access internet web pages except Internet Explorer.
This issue can be on IE8 or IE9.

Solution:
A quick resultion for this issue is as follows:

Steps:
Open IE
Goto Tools Menu > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > Restore adanced settings and Reset in Reset Internet Explorer settings section.
Now Restart your Internet Explorer and try to access web pages. It must work now.