Installing Windows 11 as Guest OS on VMare Workstation Pro

In case you do not want to Encrypt the Virtual Machine, then to bypass the TPM 2.0 requirements while installing Windows 11, Please follow the below steps:

1. While installing Windows 11, if your computer does not meet the hardware requirements, you will see a message stating, "This PC can't run Windows 11." Windows 11 setup blocked due to missing hardware requirements.

2. When you see the above message, press Shift+F10 (Or Shift+fn+F10) on your keyboard at the same time to launch a command prompt. At the command prompt, type regedit and press enter to launch the Windows Registry Editor.

3. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup, Right-click on the Setup key and select New > Key.

4. When prompted to name the key, Type LabConfig and press enter.

5. Now right-click on the LabConfig key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value and create a value named BypassTPMCheck, and set its data to 1.

6. Once you configure the BypassTPMCheck key-value under the LabConfig key, close the Registry Editor, and then type exit in the Command Prompt followed by enter to close the window. You will now be back at the message stating that the PC can't run Windows 11. Click on the back button in the Windows Setup dialog, as shown below. Press the back button in Windows setup

7. You will now be back at the screen prompting you to select the version of Windows 11 you wish to install. You can now continue with the setup, and the hardware requirements will be bypassed, allowing you to install Windows 11.

source: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86207

If you don’t want to use an online account to login to Windows 11, you have to enter a regular username (e.g. poweruser) with a bogus password. The setup wizard will give an error that the account cannot be found/used etc and gives the option to use a traditional (local) account. Just give a username, password and the answer to 3 secret questions (for password recovery purposes in the future), and you’re ready to go.

source: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-create-local-account-windows-11/

Specific Windows DNS Client routing with Powershell

Recently I ran into an issue in regards to accessing internal company websites while using the corporate VPN. Turns out that Windows has its own ideas in regards to network connections (wired/wireless) and VPN’s metrics.

The internal website was only accessible by modifying the metric on the VPN adapter to a lower than 5 value. Reason is that the metric on the ethernet adapter has a lower metric than the VPN.
Modifying the metric setting on the VPN helped, but the VPN confgi is maintained by our IT department, and they (you already guessed it) may change settings and/or reset them back to the intended defaults.

By accident I ran into a more permanent solution by invoking the powers of PowerShell. It turns out that you can manipulate the DNS Client behavior and direct DNS queries for specific hosts an/or domains to specific DNS services.

Start PowerShell with local admin rights.

Add-DnsClientNrptRule -DisplayName "My DNS Override"  -Namespace "<FQDN/domain>" -NameServers "DNSSERVER#1","DNSSERVER#2"

The minimum required number of DNS servers is 1.

This setting will survive reboots, so it’s pretty permanent.

Checking the current DNS Client settings:

Get-DnsClientNrptRule | more

Find the entry with the DisplayName giving while creating the override.
If you want to remove the entry you created you need the Name of the rule. This is represented by a GUID between curly brackets (e.g. {E5FA72F5-5575-4C15-9A2C-5F2D7B59845F}).

Remove-DnsClientNrptRule -Name "{E5FA72F5-5575-4C15-9A2C-5F2D7B59845F}"

Unfortunatelly, you cannot use the DisplayName (which is more user-friendly/readable)

Reset Apple macOS Spotlight

The macOS Spotlight service might loose its touch. E.g. when some applications or documents won't show up when you <CMD><SPACE> them. Reason could be that the service or its database got corrupt for some reason.

The following 4 commands will reset the Spotlight service and database. So after you issue those commands the PC/laptop will be re-indexed (which could take a while).

sudo mdutil -a -i off
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo mdutil -a -i on

Now, wait a bit, and everything should be back to normal.

Happy Spotlighting.

Installing Python Matplotlib On MacOS Sierra

I recently 'upgraded' to MacOS Sierra (Apple's latest Operating System) by doing a clean install. This resulted in a couple of challenges, including some software that could not be installed, and for which I had to find some alternatives.

Another issue I ran into is that some Python3 scripts with matplotlib wouldn't run, because matplotlib wouldn't install correctly.
I could 'pip' all I wanted, but the result was always:

$ pip3 install matplotlib
[...]
The following required packages can not be built: freetype

Some googling pointed me to some articles that freetype is/was a part of the XQuartz (X11) software that's no longer (pre)installed on MacOS Sierra. And in the past I have always upgraded my OS. The times that I did a clean install on this machine.... Must have been ages ago.

After some frustrating hours of trying to get this 'freetype' thing installed, I ran into an article on yantonov.com which solved my issue finally.

First I installed 'homebrew'.

$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

After that I installed pkg-config and freetype:

$ brew install pkg-config
[...]

$ brew install freetype
[...]

And finally, I was able to successfully install matplotlib:

$ pip3 install matplotlib

OSX 10.10 (Yosemite) and Audio Out Changes

Yesterday I ran into a new Yosemite feature that annoyed me a bit. After changing the input on my Dell 27" display from DisplayPort to HDMI, the screen turned black on my 27" iMac, and audio stopped. Forcing a reboot (holding the power button for >4 seconds) was needed to get the iMac's display back.

But from that point on, the audio was greyed-out in the menu bar. Changing the volume on the (Apple) keyboard gave a disabled icon on screen. Also, no audio was playing over my external speakers.

My first thoughts were that the earlier crash had corrupted something on my system, so I did an additional reboot. Nothing. After that a PRAM reset (power off, power-on and hold command-option-P-R until you have heard two start-up 'boings'). The start-up sounds were there, so the actual audio hardware was just fine.

When the desktop loaded still no audio control, until I unplugged my DisplayPort connector on the Dell 27" monitor. Audio (controls) came back instantaneous.

So, with DisplayPort connected to the external monitor: no audio (controls), and without the DisplayPort: audio (controls).

Turns out that with Yosemite, the audio is channelled BY DEFAULT over a DisplayPort connection (to a external monitor). In my case, the Dell also has an audio out connector, and I guess that is 'advertised' over the DisplayPort.

Changing the default behaviour is done in the System Preferences -> Sound

The first image shows the default (at least in my case). Changing the settings to the second image gave me back the audio and volume control.

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I have no idea if this was also possible with Mavericks (or even earlier versions of OSX), but it's definitely a (default) feature that annoyes the hell out of me.

Even though I tackeled the audio problem, the issue with loosing the display when I change the video input on the external monitor still remains. But only if the desktop is extended to the second screen. It doesn't occur when the screen is mirrored.

AirDrop Between iOS and OS X Maverick

I got my new AirDrop-capable phone today.  Not that AirDrop was the reason for getting it, but the feature itself is quite nice; being able to send files between devices. No need to use mail or other communication methods.

This evening I shot a video on my phone and I needed it on my MacBook (with OS X Maverick). Both devices are AirDrop capable, so ..... 

And there is I went wrong. After trying for about 30 minutes to get it to work I found the answer online.... Looks like that AirDrop between different OS is NOT supported by Apple. And not supported does mean that it won't work.  

OS X: Can I use AirDrop with my computer?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4783
iOS: Using AirDrop
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5887 

That is one Epic Fail if you ask me.  

Reset 'Open With' Dialog in Finder

After the upgrade of several programs I found that these programs had multiple entries in the 'Open With' dialog in OS X Finder. The following command (executed in the Terminal app) rebuilds the LaunchService database, and removes the duplicate entries.

Note that the following command is 1 (one) line of code, that you need to copy & past in the terminal window.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

As far as I can tell, it works on OS X Mountain Lion and every earlier version (at least till 10.6).