LEMON BLOG

Let's face it — Windows 10 and 11 can be a bit… much. Between bloatware, hidden settings, and features buried deep in the system, it's easy to feel like you're not really in control of your own PC. That's where a new open-source tool called WinScript comes in to save the day.

macOS Ventura, or Mac OS 13, brought a fresh wave of features and a polished user experience when it debuted in 2022. Apple introduced some smart upgrades that made this release more than just a cosmetic update. From a redesigned System Settings layout to new multitasking tools, Ventura made macOS smarter and more intuitive. One standout feature was Stage Manager, a productivity booster that lets users organize open windows neatly. Another fan favorite was Continuity Camera, which allowed users to use their iPhone as a webcam—perfect for video calls and streaming setups.

Ah, Windows 11—the sleek, modern, and frustratingly different upgrade we didn't ask for but got anyway. One of the biggest UI changes Microsoft decided to throw at us is the new right-click menu in File Explorer. It's clean, minimal, and honestly, looks nice. But let's be real—it's also a nightmare if you actually want to get things done.

In 2018, a significant network infrastructure project was undertaken at one of the hospitals in Johor. The project, titled "Structured Cabling System (SCS)," was a collaborative effort between our in-house team and an outsourced cabling company. The objective was to restructure and modernize the network cabling system, ensuring compliance with industry standards and improving overall connectivity within the hospital.

Microsoft PowerPoint's "Design Ideas" feature is a powerful tool that provides users with automatic slide design suggestions to enhance their presentations. However, if this feature isn't appearing on your other computer, several factors could be at play. Differences in Office versions, feature availability, or settings could prevent the suggestions from showing up. Understanding these potential issues can help you quickly resolve the problem and get back to creating visually appealing slides.

Windows 10 and 11 optimize the startup sequence to ensure a balance between performance and usability, leveraging a combination of software and hardware advancements. Both operating systems use a prioritized approach to load essential system processes, services, and user applications efficiently. They utilize the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) for faster initialization of hardware components, while Fast Startup, a hybrid of shutdown and hibernation, allows quicker boot times by saving a system state to disk. Additionally, Windows employs a feature called Startup Impact Assessment, which categorizes applications into "High," "Medium," or "Low" impact to delay non-critical processes until after the desktop is usable. Tools like Task Manager and Startup Settings let users control which programs launch at boot, helping to streamline performance further. These mechanisms collectively ensure that the system is ready for use quickly while preserving user control over startup priorities.

Creating native Windows applications tailored to specific requirements can significantly improve user experiences and productivity. I recently developed a simple yet effective VB application designed to streamline the Windows startup process, enhance system usability, and address a few personal annoyances. Here's a detailed overview of its features, design philosophy, and some code snippets.

Notepad++ is a popular free text editor for Windows that includes many features essential for viewing and editing code, creating and modifying macros, and working with multiple documents simultaneously. Many Notepad++ users prefer to use the app instead of the default Notepad that ships with Windows.Rather than manually changing the default application for multiple file types, there's an easier way that allows Notepad++ to completely replace standard Notepad. Here's how it works.

Within a company, you usually want to control the signatures that users are using when sending mail outside of the company. Most companies want to include at least a "disclaimer" text, others want to control the amount of contact details as well and still others want to control the entire look and feel of the signature. Outlook offers no direct means to do this since the Signature feature in Outlook is a client side feature and thus users can create and modify their own signature. You can lock down the access to the Signature feature by using Group Policies but that still doesn't take away the issue of creating/generating a standard signature in the first place and deploying it to the users.This guide discusses the features that Exchange offers to create and manage signatures at server level. Also, additional methods are being discussed to manage it without an Exchange server. Finally, an overview of 3rd party solutions is provided for alternative solutions.

Several days ago in my current working company, we've faced with a network intermittent downtime issue affecting the whole office. Without proper network/server monitoring tools, it is tough to identify to pinpoint where was the fault or cause of the issue as we had to isolate floor by floor to identify the issue where in the end we managed to found network looping issue in one of the network switches causing broadcast storm throughout the entire network. I strongly believe having a network monitoring tool is vital as it greatly helps our team in my office to quickly identify the cause of the issue. Refer below for some of the commonly used network/server monitoring tools which can implemented to greatly assists the team in identifying any issues within your network.

Starting Office 2016, whenever you install Microsoft Office 2016 you won't have the option to select which office application to install and not to install. This is actually quite bad especially those who are having small hard disk space on the C:. This happened to me as well. I really don't need all unnecessary things like Skype for Business, Lync, Onenote, Access and more. But the default installation will actually install them all irregardless whether i want it or not. On top of that, there isnt't any option also to specify the install location. Default installation path is at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\*.*". Why Microsoft? Seriously Why remove this option?? But the good news is, there is a Microsoft Office Deployment Tool where it is being used mostly by Desktop engineers for big companies where they can customize the installation folder and selecting which Office apps is needed to be install. 

I really hate it when from time to time, Windows 10 automatically deletes the thumbnail for my pictures. I have thousands of pictures and all have been cached so that every time i open the folder, the images thumbnails will be instantly load up. After the latest Windows 10 - Fall Creators Update, Windows has add one special setting to automatically clear the cache from time time. I understand the logic behind this as thumbnail cache should be cleared off from time to time and if not removed, it will built up size taking a lot of hard disk space, especially most people nowadays uses SSD hard drives as storage is relatively very small. But i really do hope they can have an option or setting to set ON/OFF for this.

​Recently, i decided to reinstall back Android partitions to my Teclast X98 Plus tablet. Previously, i have removed all partitions and do a clean installation of Windows 10 in a single partition on the hard disk. I did clear off all other unused partitions including the EFI Boot partition which is required for the dual booting options for this tablet.