Daniel B's Tech Blog

An issue I noticed that while working from home during this crazy COVID-19 period was that on my home computer I wasn't presented with the option for Background Blur or Effects. Today I decided to dig deeper to see what's going on.

Clearing cache - no fix.
Log off and Log on - no fix.
Uninstall and reinstall - no fix.

My computer at the office worked fine so it wasn't a tenant setting so what is going on?

CPU Support
It turns out Microsoft Team requires CPUs with Advanced Vector Extension 2 (AVX2) support to perform the Background Blur and Background Effects rendering. Without this support, the features will not be available to you.

AVX2 is supported by PCs that have a post-Haswell chipset on Intel CPUs.

Turns out my computer is too old and only supports AVX[1].



How to find if your CPU supports AVX2?
The easiest method for me was to download and run Speccy.

This is a nice fee utility that give you great detail of your hardware, from CPU, RAM, etc.
Using the CPU informatio…

I recently had to replace a few parts in my PC and thought that my Windows 10 activation through the Microsoft Account would be enough. However it wasn't.



I went through Microsoft Support to get it reactivated. However as the original build was done through the free upgrade, the PC had changed too much to be considered the same computer for a reactivation. When speaking to the engineer they asked me for a Windows 7 key since the original computer was upgraded. Luckily I had a key available.

This command allows you to enter a Windows 7 Product Key to activate Windows 10.
It will work as long as it it is a matching edition of Windows (e.g. Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro).


slui 3
This has worked a couple of times for me now. See if it works for you.

Our work is using Microsoft Teams more and more lately and a new feature that has been turned on was Shifts for Microsoft Teams.


There is a feature (at time of writing) that allows you to Export the Shifts schedule to a Excel spreadsheet.



However, with the current version of Shifts there are some interfaces that are missing or lacking. For example, when you do this Export of the schedule, there are no prompts. None. Nothing to ask when you where to save the file, nor that the export was completed.

So after some digging I have found out that, when you do an export, the Excel file is save to your default Downloads folder.

It should be clearer that this is happening, and hopefully they fix this up and make it more obvious in future versions.

Thanks to this forum thread for the answer.

Only a small issue back it took me a while to figure out what was happening.

While I was playing PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds [PUBG], the back light on the keyboard kept turning off. Any attempt to turn it back on would immediately turn off again.

This appeared to only occur when I had the Logitech Gaming Software utility installed.

Digging around the internet, there didn't seem to be much of a solution but one.

How to disable Illumination Control
Open the Logitech Gaming Software

Go to Settings



Untick "Allow games to control illumination"



Click OK

I couldn't find any better settings in the software to control what the lighting did specifically during each game or in PUBG. Hopefully, Logitech will one day update their software to allow better more customized control for this keyboard.

It is never been easier to get hold of Microsoft software than it is now.

Previously getting access to ISO Disc Images was either part of the TechNet or MSDN subscription. But now anyone can get them for free.



Microsoft Evaluation Center
For the latest of Microsoft software, I highly recommend the Microsoft Evaluation Center. Here you can download all the latest Microsoft Software for Free. All you need is a Microsoft Account.

All software downloaded can be run with no restrictions for a few months. After which you're expected to either activate with a license or turn off.

Software includes:

Windows 10Microsoft ServerOffice 365Microsoft Officeand other products
Go to Microsoft Evaluation Centre

Windows 10
Since the release of Windows 10, people are able to download a ISO file using the Media Creation Tool. This will allow you to download the latest release of Windows 10 to USB, ISO Image file or directly upgrade the computer to are running it from.

Download Here

Windows 8
Most peopl…

Manjaro Linux is a surprisingly older Linux distribution based on the popular distro, Arch. However recently is has shut up in popularity with more recent attention an updates according to DistroWatch.com.



In this tutorial, I will show you how to setup a virtual machine in VMware Workstation 15 and get it up and running.

For this demo, I have downloaded a copy of the GNOME 3 version, however they provide ISO version for other Desktop Environments like KDE and XFCE.

Get Manjaro Here

Creating the Virtual Machine
In VMware Workstation, start by creating a new virtual machine. Select Typical and click Next.


Select Installer Disc Image File (iso).
VMware won't be able to recognise the Linux Distro on the image and error will display. This is ok.
Click Next.


Select Linux from the Guest Operating System type.
Then from the drop down for Version, select "Other Linux 4.x or later Kernel 64-bit"
Click Next



Give the Virtual Machine a name and a location to store the virtual machine f…

For so long I was getting the following error when trying to view Reddit on Chrome on my laptop.

"Sorry, we failed you. Try refreshing!" 
This (for me):

Only occurred on my laptopOnly happened in Google Chrome It bugged me for ages but often didn't have a moment to sit down and work out the problem but tonight had the chance.
I tested and confirmed that it worked fine in Edge, removed AdBlocker and with no signs of a fix.
So I did the most Level 1 Help Desk resolution... cleared the browser cache.
Fixed!
I figured there must have been something in the cache or cookies that was trying to load older versions or authentication of the site that were causing conflicts, resulting in the above error.
Surprisingly, there weren't that many articles about this issue, nor advising of simple things like clearing the cache. I even saw one guy to advise to just change their entire browser preference. A bit extreme I thought.