Exciting tips

The bootloader that most Linux operating systems go with is known as Grub. It’s a simple tool that can be configured to boot up your Linux distribution, as well as other operating systems all from a menu when your PC starts up.

Grub is a reliable tool compared to other alternative Linux bootloaders, and for this reason, it has remained a favorite in the community. That said, it’s not perfect. For as reliable as it is, errors can happen, and Grub can break.

The best way to prepare for when your Grub bootloader takes a turn for the worst is to back up the Linux bootloader to an external hard drive or USB stick.

BIOS Grub – Backing up MBR

While many Linux users are transitioning to using EFI as the standard, lots of users still use the BIOS version of Grub, because not every computer can run EFI well. If you have a BIOS install of Linux, your Grub bootloader makes use of Master Boot Record. This means that during your Linux OS’s installation, the bootloader was installed in the very first sectors on your hard drive, rather than in a folder, like with Grub EFI varients.

The good thing about MBR is that it’s very easy to make a complete backup of Grub, by copying the MBR sectors of your Linux install to a TXT file. To start the process, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the lsblk command to identify what your primary Linux hard drive is.

lsblk

Look through the printout of the lsblk command in the terminal and find the partition that has “/” under the mount-point. This command should help you find what your hard drive label is. In this example, the drive label will be “/dev/sda.”

In the terminal, use the DD command to create a backup of your Master Boot Record to a TXT file.

Note: you must change /home/username/ in the command below to the username on your Linux PC! Be sure to also change /dev/sda to reflect your actual hard drive’s label.

dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/username/master-boot-record.txt count=1 bs=512

The DD tool will create a backup reasonably fast. When it’s done, you’ll have a file in the home directory (~/) labeled “master-boot-record.txt.” Take it and place it on a USB flash drive or USB external hard drive for safe keeping.

Restore MBR backup

Need to restore your MBR backup? Boot into your broken Linux PC’s system with one of these Grub tools here. Then, open up a terminal, connect your USB device that has the “master-boot-record.txt” file, place the file back into your home directory (~/), and run the following command.

Note: like before, it’s critical that you change /home/username/ and /dev/sda to reflect your username and actual hard drive’s label.

dd if=/home/username/master-boot-record.txt of=/dev/sda count=1 bs=512

Backup Grub configurations

Those using UEFI Grub won’t be able to use the DD tool to back up the Grub bootloader. Thankfully, it’s still possible to create a complete backup of your configuration files, custom boot entries, etc.

Note: if backing up the Grub configuration files isn’t enough, consider reading our tutorial about how to create a backup in Clonezilla. It’ll create a complete system backup, including UEFI Grub, etc.

To create a complete Grub configuration file backup, start by creating a backup folder in your home directory using the mkdir command.

mkdir -p ~/grub-backup

With the backup folder made in your home directory, we can make a copy of the Grub configuration file.

cp /etc/default/grub ~/grub-backup/

This is the Grub configuration file. Next, copy your Grub bootloader entries from the /etc/grub.d/ folder.

sudo cp -R /etc/grub.d/ ~/grub-backup/

From here, plug in a USB flash drive into your Linux PC. After that, drag the “grub-backup” folder to the drive.

Restore the backup

To restore your Grub configurations and entries to your UEFI Linux PC, plug in your USB flash drive. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Open up your Linux file manager, click on the USB flash drive and place the “grub-backup” folder in your home folder (~/).

Step 2: Launch a terminal window on your Linux PC. Then, use the CD command to move into “grub-backup.”

cd grub-backup

Step 3: Restore the “grub” file to /etc/default/ with the mv command.

sudo mv grub /etc/default/

Step 4: Restore your Grub bootloader entries to the /etc/default/grub.d/ folder.

cd ~/grub-backup/grub.d/
sudo mv * /etc/grub.d/

With the files restored, update your Grub system.

Debian/Ubuntu

update-grub

Arch Linux

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

OpenSUSE/Fedora

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Need to encrypt and secure your files on Linux? Want an easier to understand encryption tool? Try FinalCrypt! It uses symmetric one-time-pad file encryption to increase security.

Install FinalCrypt

FinalCrypt is an excellent piece of encryption software, but sadly mainstream Linux distributions are not carrying it in their software sources, so if you want to use FinalCrypt on Linux, you’ll need to download and install it from the official website.

FinalCrypt has versions available for Debian and Ubuntu via a DEB package, as well as an RPM for Fedora, OpenSUSE, CentOS, and RHEL users. Additionally, there’s a standalone, executable TarGZ archive for those not currently using a Linux OS with support for these packaging formats.

To get the software working on your Linux distribution, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T or Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the command-line instructions below to get the app installed.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, FinalCrypt works quite well. Best of all, the package pulls in all of the dependencies it needs to run (like Java,) so you won’t need to worry about installing those manually, after the fact.

To start, move your terminal session into the temporary directory. That way, the FinalCrypt package will be erased next time you reboot, instead of having to do it manually.

cd /tmp

Inside of the temporary directory, use the wget tool to grab the latest FinalCrypt version.

wget http://www.finalcrypt.org/downloads/Linux/FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_Debian_Based.deb

Using the dpkg app, install the package on Ubuntu. Keep in mind that errors may occur during this installation. Don’t panic! Just run sudo apt install -f to fix it.

sudo dpkg -i FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_Debian_Based.deb

Updates can be found here. You will need to download and install new DEB packages with each update manually.

Debian

Installing FinalCrypt on Debian? Lucky for you, the developers of this software haven’t based it around Ubuntu, but Debian Linux, so even some older versions of the OS should handle everything fine!

To start, move your terminal session into the temporary folder. While, ultimately, this isn’t necessary, it’s a good idea to do, as it keeps DEB packages from cluttering your “Downloads” or “Home” directory.

cd /tmp

Inside of the temporary folder, use the wget download the app.  Using the command below, start the download.

wget http://www.finalcrypt.org/downloads/Linux/FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_Debian_Based.deb

The download shouldn’t take too long, as it’s a small package. When wget finishes getting FinalCrypt, use the dpkg command to install it to your Debian system. Be sure to look out for any errors that appear in the prompt during this process, and fix them with sudo apt-get install -f after the package is done installing.

sudo dpkg -i FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_Debian_Based.deb

Updates to FinalCrypt for Debian are located at this page here. You must manually re-download and re-install new DEB package releases to enjoy new FinalCrypt features on Debian.

Arch Linux (and Generic Linux)

FinalCrypt has no love for Arch Linux users, as there isn’t an official package available, nor is there an unofficial AUR build. Instead, if you plan to use this tool on your Arch system, the TarGZ way is the only way.

Note: using an obscure Linux distribution? Install the latest OpenJDK Java runtime and follow along with these instructions to get it working!

The first step in getting the TarGZ version of FinalCrypt working is to download it. To download, go to the terminal session and run wget.

wget http://www.finalcrypt.org/downloads/Linux/FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64.tgz

After the FinalCrypt TarGZ archive is done downloading, use the tar command to extract everything.

tar xvf FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64.tgz

Move your terminal session into the “FinalCrypt” folder with the CD command.

cd FinalCrypt

You’ll be able to run the app with:

./FinalCrypt

Alternatively, open up the Linux file manager in Arch and double-click on the “FinalCrypt” file to start it up.

Fedora

Fedora Linux users have it easy when it comes to FinalCrypt. Since the Dnf package manager can download and install packages directly from the internet, it’s possible to get FinalCrypt up and running with a single command. To get it working on your system, run the dnf command below.

sudo dnf install http://www.finalcrypt.org/downloads/Linux/FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_RPM_Based.rpm -y

OpenSUSE

Using FinalCrypt on OpenSUSE requires downloading the standalone RPM package file. To do this, move your terminal session into the temporary folder using the CD command.

cd /tmp

Once in the temporary folder, wget the RPM package file from the internet.

wget http://www.finalcrypt.org/downloads/Linux/FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_RPM_Based.rpm

Install the RPM package file with Zypper.

sudo zyper install FinalCrypt_Linux_x86_64_RPM_Based.rpm

Encrypting files

Encrypting files with FinalCrypt is a simple process. To start, launch the application and click the “create key” button. Then, use the UI to create a new encryption key labeled “encryptionkey.”

When the encryption key has been created, go to the right-hand panel in the window and use the mouse to select your key. Then, select the file(s) or folder(s) you’d to encrypt with the app.

Encrypt your files with the “Encrypt” button on the bottom left portion of the app. When the encryption is done, you’ll see a “bit” file in the same directory as the source file.

Decrypting files

To decrypt a file, select the encrypted “bit” file on the left side of the window. Then, select your encryption key on the right. When both things are selected, click the “decrypt” button to decrypt everything with FinalCrypt.

There are a lot of great sticky-note apps on the Linux platform that allows users to quickly paste thoughts, lists, and other important information to notes in the form of virtual Post-it notes. But what app is best? Let’s find out in this list of the 5 best Linux sticky-note apps for Linux!

1. Indicator Stickynotes

Indicator Stickynotes is a sticky-note application for Linux that runs in the system tray, as a background service. The app is quite lightweight and can be used to place notes on the desktop of any Linux environment.

The Indicator Sticky-notes app comes with lots of useful features that make it an attractive note-taking application, such as a flat interface, importing and exporting of notes, customizable sticky note colors, and more.

Notable Features – Indicator Stickynotes

• Support for multiple sticky note colors.
• Indicator Stickynotes allows users to import and export notes for safekeeping.
• The flat interface offers up a modern take on sticky-notes.
• “Lock” feature lets users lock certain notes to prevent them from being modified.

Download

Indicator Stickynotes is available to various Linux distributions via the source code. Additionally, Ubuntu users can install the program with ease via a nifty software PPA.

Building the source code for this program isn’t too difficult, so long as the dependencies for it are met. For help on getting Indicator Stickynotes built and ready to go on your Linux PC, check out our in-depth tutorial on it. Or, download the source code yourself directly on GitHub.

2. Xpad

Xpad is a feature-filled sticky note tool for the Linux desktop. Like most sticky note tools on the platform, it runs in the system tray and can create new sticky notes on any Linux desktop environment just by selecting it in the system tray.

The app is very lightweight, but despite this, it is not missing features. Instead, it has a lot of customization options and features (fonts, sticky note colors, size of notes, etc.). Users also can make notes uneditable with the “read-only” feature.

Notable Features – Xpad

• Font, sticky-note size, and note background colors are very customizable, ensuring users can get the most out of their notes.
• Xpad is crash-resistant, and all notes are kept on the user’s hard drive, and not in memory, ensuring nothing is lost if anything goes wrong.
• Xpad toolbar is highly customizable, and users are encouraged to tweak it to suit their needs better.

Download

XPad is one of the oldest sticky-note apps on all of Linux. As a result, this program is in all of the mainstream Linux distribution’s software repositories. If you’re looking to get the Xpad app up and running, open up a terminal window, search for “xpad” and install it how you typically install software on your Linux PC.

This app is pretty widely available. Still, if it’s not in your distribution’s software sources, check out its page on Pkgs.org. Or, download the source code here and compile it yourself.

3. KNotes

KNotes is a highly extensible note-taking application for the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment and is included with KDE Kontact. With it, users can jot down quick notes in sticky-note fashion and instantly upload notes into KDE’s Kmail application.

KNotes is perfect for those using the KDE Plasma desktop who need a sticky-note style app for jotting down quick thoughts, and reminders. However, it also works great on other desktops as well!

Notable Features – KNotes

• KNotes integrates well with the KDE app ecosystem, and notes written in the app are easily shared with emails, and other apps too.
• Users can customize the font and sticky-note background color for each note they make.
• Notes written in KNotes aren’t only digital, and the app has full printing support.

Download

KNotes is part of the KDE Plasma desktop suite, so if you’re using the latest release of Plasma, it’s probably installed on your system already. If the app isn’t set up already, open up a terminal window, search for “knotes” and install it the way you usually install apps.

Can’t figure out how to install KNotes on your Linux PC? Consider heading over to Pkgs.org. They have a vast list of KNote package releases for all major Linux distributions. Alternatively, head over to the official Pkgs.org page for download instructions.

4. Pin ‘Em Up

Pin ‘Em Up is a small sticky-note style app for PCs. It’s platform-independent and only requires the Java runtime environment to run. With it, users can place sticky-notes on the Linux desktop.

The app is Java-based, but don’t let that scare you. Despite being a Java application, it offers up some useful features such as note categories, adjustable font sizes, FTP uploading/downloading of notes, and even note exporting to text files.

Notable Features – Pin ‘Em Up

• Pin Em Up runs on the Java Runtime Environment, which means that the app works on any operating system that has Java support and not just Windows.
• Support for 5 different user-defined note categories to easily organize sticky notes.
• The font size of each note is fully adjustable in Pin ‘Em Up.

Download

The Pin Em’ Up application is Java-based, so installing it through traditional Linux methods is impossible. Instead, to get your hands on the app, install the latest Java Runtime Environment on your PC. Then, once you’ve got the latest Java up and running, open up a terminal window to download the latest Pin ‘Em Up.

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pinemup/pin-em-up-0.5.zip

With the Zip archive file is done downloading, extract everything using the Unzip tool.

unzip pin-em-up-0.5.zip

You’ll then be able to run the app from the desktop by calling the Java VM with the command below.

java -jar pinmeup.jar

Don’t want to use the terminal to get Pin ‘Em Up? Head over to the download page on the official website here.

Conclusion

In this list of the 4 best sticky-note apps for Linux, we covered some truly cool apps. What is your favorite sticky-note app to use on Linux? Tell us about it in the comment section below!

Re-installing packages on new Debian Linux systems is a real pain. It takes time and is tedious to get done. As a result, many users have resorted to writing complex shell scripts that automatically install apps on new systems. If you’re new to Debian, or just tired of having to list out the programs you’d like to re-install manually, there is a better way to create an app install script: using the Debian program installer to generate a script automatically.

Note: though this tutorial covers Debian, it can also work on Debian derivatives. Feel free to follow along with the information outlined below.

Exporting installed packages from Apt

There are several ways to generate a list of packages, and over the years, many different methods have been employed. However, all of these old methods involve piping multiple commands together to strip the description of each app, to make it so that just the package names appear in the list. Those methods are hardly practical so we won’t cover any of them in this tutorial. Instead, we’ll take advantage of the new Apt package manager included on Debian 9 and 10, as it comes with the apt-mark feature

The apt-mark feature is a great aspect of the Apt package manager. With it, users can use it to show a list of automatically installed apps (pre-setup by the system during installation,) as well as a list of packages that the user installed manually after the fact.

Please note that if you plan to use this feature on Debian, you need to be using a version of the operating system that has support for Apt. Apt-get will not work! So, if you’re running Debian 8, you must go through the upgrade process before beginning this guide!

Notice

The apt-mark application doesn’t just generate a list of installed packages of software installed directly from the Debian software repositories. It will also show packages installed via a downloadable DEB, or stuff from third-party software repositories. Keep that in mind, when using this tool.

Generate a list of manually installed packages

If you’re just looking to create a list of manually installed apps from various repositories, rather than generating a gigantic list of every single application that Debian Linux includes by default, the “showmanual” feature in apt-mark is for you.

To generate the list, open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, enter the command-line operation below to generate a list in the terminal prompt.

apt-mark showmanual

Look through the terminal prompt, and you’ll see a list of every package you’ve ever installed on Debian Linux manually. If the list is too long to read at a glance, add the “more” option with the command below.

apt-mark showmanual | more

To save this list for later, pipe it through to a text file. For example, to save all manually installed packages to the “Documents” folder, do:

apt-mark showmanual > ~/Documents/debian-packages-manually-installed.txt

Generate a list of automatically installed packages

Need to generate a list of all of the packages that were automatically installed to your Debian system during the installation? If so, you’ll need to make use of the “showauto” feature in apt-mark.

Open up a terminal window using Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, enter the command-line operation below to get a list of automatically installed packages on Debian.

apt-mark showauto

Take a look at the generated list in the terminal window. Or, if the list of generated packages that apt-mark prints out are too much to read, consider adding the “more” command-line argument to make sorting through them easier.

apt-mark showauto | more

To save automatically installed Debian packages for later, pipe it through to a text file with the command below.

apt-mark showauto > ~/Documents/debian-packages-auto-installed.txt

Reinstalling packages

To re-install the packages on the list saved from a text file, open up a terminal window. Then, follow the instructions below.

Please note that any packages that can not be re-downloaded (AKA were installed via a downloadable DEB) will not install with this method, and the Apt package manager will show an error for ones it is unable to download.

Re-install manually installed packages

To re-install all of the Debian apps on the list of manually installed packages, enter the following command into a terminal window.

sudo apt install $(cat ~/Documents/debian-packages-manually-installed.txt | xargs)

If the packages are already on the system, but you’d like to re-install them anyway, add the “–reinstall” command-line switch.

sudo apt install $(cat ~/Documents/debian-packages-manually-installed.txt | xargs) --reinstall

Re-install automatically installed packages

To re-install all of the Debian apps on the list of automatically installed packages, enter the command below into a terminal window.

sudo apt install $(cat ~/Documents/debian-packages-auto-installed.txt | xargs)

Alternatively, if you’d like to re-install stuff that is already present on the system, add the “–reinstall” command-line switch.

sudo apt install $(cat ~/Documents/debian-packages-auto-installed.txt | xargs) --reinstall

Are you looking for the best calendar experience on Linux? Look no further than MineTime. It’s an advanced calendar application for Linux, Mac, and Windows that offers up robust features, such as time analytics, a built-in assistant, and even the ability to sync multiple calendar services such as Outlook, Google Calendar, NextCloud, and more.

Install MineTime

MineTime is available for all Linux distributions thanks to the developer’s outstanding commitment to the Linux platform. Specifically, they support Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux (unofficially), Fedora, OpenSUSE, and AppImage.

To install the MineTime application on your Linux PC, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the command-line instructions that correspond with your distribution of choice.

Ubuntu

To install the MineTime Calendar on Ubuntu Linux, you’ll need to download a standalone DEB package file. The reason that a downloadable DEB package is required is that the developer of the application doesn’t have direct support for Ubuntu via the official software repositories.

Getting the DEB package can be done with the wget command through the terminal. Using the command-below, start the download process.

cd /tmp

wget https://github.com/marcoancona/MineTime/releases/download/v1.5.1/MineTime_1.5.1_amd64.deb

With the package done downloading, use the dpkg command to load up the package on your Ubuntu PC.

sudo dpkg -i MineTime_1.5.1_amd64.deb

To finish up, run the apt install command. This will ensure that the dependencies are taken care of.

sudo apt install -f

Debian

The developers of MineTime do not have a dedicated Debian software repository available for easy installation. Instead, if you’d like to use the application on Debian, you’ll need to use the wget tool to download a standalone DEB package.

cd /tmp wget https://github.com/marcoancona/MineTime/releases/download/v1.5.1/MineTime_1.5.1_amd64.deb

After the package is done downloading, use the dpkg command to load it up on Debian.

sudo dpkg -i MineTime_1.5.1_amd64.deb

During the installation, you may notice some errors occur in the terminal, causing the package not to install fully. To fix this on Debian, you can run the apt-get install command.

sudo apt-get install -f

Assuming the errors get resolved, MineTime is ready to go on Debian!

Arch Linux

On Arch Linux, MineTime is available for installation in the Arch Linux User Repository. To get started, use the Pacman command to install both the Base-devel and Git packages.

sudo pacman -S base-devel git

With the Git and Base-devel packages are taken care of, it’s time to use the git clone command to download the Trizen AUR helper application. Trizen is essential to install, as it makes installing AUR packages much quicker. It also takes care of dependencies automatically, which is nice.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

Move into the Trizen folder and compile the app using makepkg.

cd trizen makepkg -sri

Finally, after installing Trizen, install MineTime on Arch Linux.

trizen -S minetime

Fedora

The developers of MineTime have an RPM package on their website which is perfect for Fedora Linux. To get your hands on it, you won’t need to use the wget download tool, as the Fedora Linux package manager can install packages directly from the internet. Instead, enter the command below, and it’ll be ready to go.

sudo dnf install https://github.com/marcoancona/MineTime/releases/download/v1.5.1/MineTime-1.5.1.x86_64.rpm -y

OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE users can install MineTime via the RPM package available on the developer’s website. To start the installation, open up a terminal window and download the RPM file to your “/tmp” directory.

cd /tmp

wget https://github.com/marcoancona/MineTime/releases/download/v1.5.1/MineTime-1.5.1.x86_64.rpm

Using the Zypper package manager, install the MineTime RPM package file.

sudo zypper install MineTime-1.5.1.x86_64.rpm

AppImage

Don’t have a mainstream Linux distribution? Download the MineTime AppImage here. Then, once downloaded, double-click on it to instantly use it!

Set up MineTime

Setting up MineTime is quite easy, thanks to its easy to understand interface. To get the calendar working on your Linux PC, open up the app by searching for “minetime” in the app menu, or by writing “minetime” in your quick launcher.

Once the app opens, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get the MineTime calendar set up.

Step 1: Read the MineTime welcome screen, and check the box next to the EULA, to show that you accept the agreement.

Step 2: Look through the list of calendar services and choose the one you’d like to add to MineTime. Choices are: Exchange, Outlook, MS Office, Google, iCloud, and CalDAV.

Step 3: Go through the authorization process for MineTime to allow your calendar account to connect.

Step 4: Check your email and validate your account with MineTime.

When your account is validated with MineTime, the app will start loading in your agenda. From here, you’ll be able to use it to plan your day or week.

How to use the assistant

The coolest feature with MineTime is the assistant. To use it, launch the app and find the “What can I do for you” box.

Start typing in the box to start using it. For example, to create an event for 8:30 PM tomorrow, you’d write:

“Create an event at 8:30 PM tomorrow”

The MineTime assistant responds to human language, so talk to it like a real person and it’ll respond quite well. For more information on the assistant, click here.

Scheduled tasks are often the best way to automatically run scripts if you’re trying to automate something on your Windows 10 PC. The task scheduler may present a somewhat complicated interface but it is pretty easy to set up a basic task with multiple triggers and actions. Once a task is set up, it needs to be enabled manually and if you need to, you can automatically disable a scheduled task from the Triggers tab. Here’s how.

Automatically disable scheduled task

Open Task Scheduler and click Create Task to create a new task or, if you want to automatically  disable a task that’s already been created it, look for it in the tasks’ library and double-click it to edit it.

Regardless if you’re creating a new task or editing an existing one, you need to go the Triggers tab to set when it will be disabled automatically.

The Triggers tab will list all the triggers that you’ve set for the task and they may be more than one. Select a trigger and double-click it to edit it. At the bottom, you will see an option ‘Stop the task if it runs longer than’ and a dropdown next to it. This dropdown is very restricted in its options but go through them to see if they do the job. If not, look a little further below and you will see an ‘Expires’ option.

The Expires option is specific to the trigger that you’re currently editing and it is flexible not just in terms of date but also time. Open the calendar to select when this trigger will expire, and then set a time for it as well. Repeat this for all triggers that you’ve set for the task that you want to disable. Click Ok, and enable the task.

On the selected date & time, the task will no longer run.

How it works

The task is, technically speaking, still enabled. Think of it like this; you’re turned the switch to a light bulb On but you’ve removed the wiring that provides it electricity. The triggers and their expiration date are basically that. Once the triggers expire, the task no longer knows when to run. It isn’t simply going to start executing its actions whenever it likes so this basically disables it.

This method does have a downside; the task will still appear as ‘Ready’ in the Task Scheduler. Its description will automatically include a statement that tells the task has a trigger expiring at a particular date. If you’re vigilant enough to spot it, you will know why a task is no longer running.

If you need to make your cursor more visible on your screen, you can customize it so that it’s larger and a bright color that’s much easier to see on the screen. Unfortunately, this highlight color isn’t always caught in screenshots or screencasts and the size doesn’t show up at all. If you need a more visible cursor highlight on Windows 10, you can add a circle around it. To do this, you need an app called PenAttention.

Add cursor highlight

Download PenAttention and install it. It runs in the system tray where you can access its settings. Right-click it and select Highlight settings. The app adds a circle around your pointer and you can customize every aspect of it.

By default, the color is opaque but you can reduce the opacity and make it translucent. You can also change the color to whatever you. Click inside the color box, and change it to what looks good on your desktop. The ‘Circle’ option lets you change the size of the circle around your pointer. Increase the radius to make it bigger. If you prefer to use a Rectangle, select it and set its size to whatever works for you.

Lastly, enable the ‘Highlight mouse as well as pen’ option so that it works for the mouse cursor.

Those are all the options you need to tinker with to get the app running. You can see how the app works in the screenshot below. In screenshots and in screen recordings, not to mention during presentations, the cursor highlight will show up.

Presentation software normally supports something like this but no other app type does. If you need to share your screen and highlight the cursor, this is a pretty good way to do it.

The app does have a limitation; screen scaling. If your screen is scaled to anything above 100%, the highlight will be detached from the cursor. The app has been built to work on Windows  10 however, it doesn’t play nice with the scaling feature. The scaling feature isn’t new. It’s been a part of Windows 10 from day one and yet the app doesn’t support it.

If you’ve scaled your display, you will have to reduce it back to 100%. There’s no other way to get the app to work correctly. The alternative is to try a different app. There are other, paid apps that do the job like PointerFocus though it costs $12. It has a trial version that you can try out and if it works better than PenAttention, it may be worth the price.

You can rent and pre-order movies on YouTube. The titles that you can rent and/or pre-order include movies from the Marvel franchise, as well as some obscure ones that may not have shown at your local theater. This particular YouTube feature is geographically limited i.e., it’s only available in select countries and even if you were to use a VPN to access the Movies page, you’d still need a credit card to make any purchases. YouTube is now offering free to watch movies. They have ads, of course and they are geographically limited however, if you can access the movies page, you can watch free movies on YouTube.

At present there are 400 titles that are available for free though any movie that you’d call ‘popular’ is going to be old. We’re not talking black& white, square screen, still backdrops, technicolor old but still, relatively old and no Marvel titles are included just yet.

Watch free movies on YouTube

The free to watch movies are available in the US only, so far. What you’re going to need is a VPN service that can reliably change your location. Since you’re streaming video, and a good deal of it, you will need something that is stable enough to play it without it being choppy.

We recommend using ExpressVPN. Not only is it fast, but also secure offering 256-bit AES encryption. AddictiveTips readers can get three months free on an annual subscription.

Once you’ve enabled the VPN service, switch to the US region and then go to YouTube. Expand the navigation column on the left and select Movies & Shows.

On the Movies & Shows channel, you will see a section called Free to watch. These are the titles that you can watch for free however, they do have ads. This is mentioned under every single title that is available to watch for free. Click a title and it will start playing.

There’s no word yet on when the catalog of free movies will be expanded nor is there any word on when the free movies will be available in other countries but it ought to happen eventually. If Movies & Shows is available in your country, you can count on some free titles eventually being available however, licensing rights will play a big role in how soon they arrive.

If you use Netflix, you probably know that the titles it has to offer are geographically restricted as well and most of the good ones only arrive for the US audience.

Files in the Downloads folder tend to build up over time. The same can be said for various other locations e.g., where you save screenshots to. If you can’t be bothered manually cleaning old files, you can use Automator to find and delete files older than X days on macOS.

Delete files older than X days

We’re going to use an Automator workflow to find and delete older files. The workflow can be set to run automatically everyday however, you will need to select all the files that need their lifespan checked. The workflow can be applied to a specific type of files e.g., images or documents, and it can be applied to specific file formats e.g., PNGs or JPEGs.

Open Automator and click New Document. Create a new Folder Actions document type.

We’re going to be adding several actions from the library to this workflow. The first action you want to add is the Ask for Finder Items action. Drag & drop it on to the right pane. Open the ‘Start at’ dropdown and select the folder you want to run the workflow on. You should also enable the ‘Allow Multiple Selection’ option.

Next, look for the ‘Set Value of Variable’ action in the library and add it to the right pane. You can change its name to something that tells you what it’s for.

It’s time to add a third action. Look for an action called ‘Filter Finder Items’ and add it to the right pane. This is where you will set the delete criteria for the files that you want to delete. I set this up so that it would delete images that are ten days old from a folder.

To that end, set the Condition to ‘All’ of the following are true. Open the dropdown next to ‘Kind’ and select the kind of files you want to delete e.g. Images. Next, click the plus button to add a second condition. This time, select Date Created. You can also select date modified or some other type of date.

This workflow will delete files that were created over ten days ago so select ‘Is not in the last’, ’10’, and ‘Days’.

The last action to add is ‘Move Finder items to trash’. Save the workflow and run it. It will delete all files that were created ten days ago. When you run it, you will see Finder open to the folder that the workflow is set to run on. Use the Command+A keyboard shortcut to select all the files and let the workflow do the rest.

To run it automatically, create an event in Calendar and set it as the trigger.

Browsers can integrate with the notifications system of an operating system. Websites can send users notifications via browsers and browsers in turn are able to show them on the desktop by making use of the operating system’s notification system. As such, browsers are normally restricted by the notification settings that a user has set for their desktop. For example, if a user has set notification to be dismissed after 5 seconds, they will be. If you want to disable auto-dismiss for notifications on Firefox, you can do so by modifying one preference.

Disable auto-dismiss for notifications

Open Firefox and in the URL bar, enter about:config and tap enter. You will see a warning telling you that modifying the contents of the about:config page will void your warranty. Accept the warning and proceed to the preferences page.

Use the search bar to look for a preference called;

dom.webnotifications.requireinteraction.enabled

Double-click it and its value will be changed from False to True. For the change to be applied, you have to restart Firefox.

Now when a notification appears on your screen, it will remain visible for at least 20 seconds. In some cases, it will not dismiss until you dismiss it yourself.

Limitations

This preference can’t just work on its own. It’s one part of a more complicated process and there are other factors involved in showing a persistent notification via Firefox. The first is that you must allow your operating system to show you persistent notifications. If your operating system has an option to auto-dismiss notifications after a certain amount of time, you should either set it to the maximum time allowed or switch over to persistent notifications if they’re supported.

The second major requirement is for the websites that are sending the notification to also support the feature.

As you can see from the limitations, showing persistent notifications isn’t something that users can just enable, or that Firefox, or any other browser for that matter, can enforce on to other websites. On Windows 10, you can set notifications to be visible for as long as five minutes before they’re automatically dismissed. You can then access your missed notifications from the Action Center which Firefox supports. If you need a website to show you notifications for more than a few seconds, try changing this setting if you’re on a Windows 10 system.

Persistent notifications, in most cases, are not something users generally ask for. Mobile operating systems give their users an option to set them but they’re not really that popular on desktops.