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Install Google Play Store, Services, Framework on Amazon Fire 7″ 2015 without Root

In order to follow the steps in this guide you will need to first make sure you have turned on USB debugging (see bottom of guide) and have installed the PC ADB drivers (troubles? see bottom of guide).

  1. Download this file containing all the necessary files needed.
  2. Extract the files from the zip file.
  3. Open the folder location you extracted the contents to.
  4. Run the file named “1-install-Play-Store.bat” and simply follow the instructions.
  5. When completed, reboot the device and you will now have all the necessary Google apps.

Enjoy!

Questions and Help?

Continue Reading…

Remove Lock Screen Ads from Amazon Fire 7″ 2015 without Root

First you need to enable Developer Options if you haven’t already, you can do this by going to Settings > Device Options and then tap on Serial Number several times. Then once they have been enabled, go into Developer Options and enable USB debugging by checking “Enable ADB.”

Second you need to make sure you have installed ADB and PC ADB drivers on your computer, you can install them by downloading them from here. If you have problems installing those, then install this alternative set instead from here.

Once that is installed, connect your Fire to your computer and open up Command Prompt to use the following ADB commands and type in the following:

adb shell
pm hide com.amazon.kindle.kso
exit
adb reboot

That’s it. You should no longer see anymore ads on your lock screen.

Disable Windows 10 Tracking

This app called DisableWinTracking will give you different options to disable OR remove the types of tracking or apps that Windows 10 comes with, especially the possibly most controversial Windows Telemetry and Data Collection Service.

Everything is straight forward and easy to understand for anyone. You don’t necessary have to use every option either, especially getting rid of the apps but that’s all entirely up to you.

Here are the options I disable (not remove) on every system with Windows 10:

  • Services
  • Telemetry
  • Block tracking domains
  • Block tracking IP addresses
  • Stop Defender/Wifisense Data Collection

My Recommended Chrome Extensions

Here are essential Chrome Extensions that I believe most types of users should have installed, rather it be to enhance their experience or for security/privacy/etc reasons.

Windows 10 ntoskrnl.exe memory leak fixes

Here are 3 possible fixes for the ntoskrnl.exe memory leak on Windows 10.

  1. Update your Network Drivers.
  2. Go into your registry via regedit and navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ndu” and edit DWORD “Start” and change the value from 2 to 4.
  3. Disable “Show me tips about Windows” under Settings > System > Notifications & actions.

Any of these changes will require a system restart afterwards to come into effect.

Hopefully you see the problem has been fixed or a drop in its memory usage.

Windows 10 Move Details to Bottom Pane

If you are looking for a way to get your “Details” moved back to the bottom pane then use this safe tool that doesn’t modify any system files and is easy to install and uninstall.

It comes with a few other features as well that may or may not be useful to you.

The tool is called OldNewExplorer and can be used for Windows 10, 8.1 or 8. It’s a shell extension / tweaker which can undo “improvements” to file browsing made in newer Windows version. Everything is optional for your liking.

Download it here (and more details/features): OldNewExplorer

How to root an RCA 7″ Voyager RCT6773W22

This root method should work with similar RCA tablets and other alike tablets that were released over Black Friday 2014.

The main method to root is with a tool called Kingo Root, available to download from http://kingoapp.com. Here is a mirror for this file is ever necessary: android_root.exe

  • Step 1: Download and Install Kingo Root
  • Step 2: Turn on USB Debugging on your RCA or like tablet.
    • In order to do this you need to turn on Developer Options by going into the Settings Menu and going down to “About phone”. After that, scroll down until you find “Build number” and tap this seven times in a row until you get a dialog telling you that Developer Options have been turned on.
  • Step 3: Plug in your RCA or like tablet via USB into your computer.
    • You might need to install the USB drivers at this point for your device to be recognized. It should auto install after plugging in your RCA or like tablet.
  • Step 4: Open Kingo Root and follow the instructions to root the device.
  • Step 5: Profit! You are now rooted. If you’re not sure what to do with root or what you can, you can start by improving your battery life by installing Xposed Framework with Amplify and Greenify.

Streaming Media from a Drobo FS to Xbox 360, PS3, Android or other devices

There are not a lot of solutions in streaming your content straight from your Drobo FS using DroboApps.

I find this to be the best, easiest and most up-to-date solution to stream your content straight from the Drobo FS including support for Xbox 360 consoles (and possibly other devices) which MediaTomb (another solution) does not offer and it being a dead project for over 3 years now.

If you come across FUPPES or are already using it, drop it now as it is a dead project and not just myself but others recommend moving to MiniDLNA.

You can skip this all together if you prefer to use other ways to stream content such as using TVersity, Serviio, Mezzmo, Plex and many more other programs out there which rely on having to use your desktop (or laptop) to stream content which would of course require it be always on and running in order to do so. Unless this is not a problem and/or only yourself to watch or view the content.

Downloading and Installing:

You can download the latest MiniDLNA 1.0.25 (July 13th 2012) from DroboPorts.com

There are many ways to install DroboApps, below is the easiest and least technical. You first need to make sure you have DroboApps enabled which you can do by opening Drobo Dashboard then select your Drobo and go to Drobo Settings > Admin > Enabled DroboApps under DroboApps.

Then once that is taken care of, you will drag and drop the minidlna.tgz file into the DroboApps folder and then restart the Drobo FS from Drobo Dashboard. Once the Drobo FS restarts, you will notice the minidlna.tgz gone and a new folder “minidlna.” Everything should now be installed and working properly, now you just need to barely edit the config file.

Configuring and Adding Folders to MiniDLNA:

The configuration file; minidlna.conf, will be found in the DroboApps\minidlna\etc folder.

You can add folders by editing the media_dir line, this is how I have mine.

media_dir=V,/mnt/DroboFS/Shares/Public/Media

You can simply do the same to make it extremely easy and organized, and just add sub-folders to the Media folder such as “Movies”, “Shows”, “Music” and so forth to your needs. This makes getting and viewing content much easier on the Xbox 360 and other devices.

As noted in the configuration file, you can have multiple media_dir= lines, and restrict content to Video, Audio and Images if you wish.

You can rename what the device shows as on your Xbox 360, PS3 or any other compatible device by changing the following line:

friendly_name=DroboFS DLNA Server

The rest of the configuration file can normally remain unchanged and are all self explanatory too.

Can I play MKV files on Xbox 360 with MiniDLNA?

MiniDLNA will NOT play or transcode MKV files to play on Xbox 360 until they decide to support it. You can still play MKV files on other devices though that support it. I suggest using TVersity in this case to play MKV files on your Xbox 360.

That being said, there is a new project started in late 2012 called MiniDLNA-transcode and here is the original announcement thread. I have not given this a try yet or seen if it can be done, which I think it can be. I hopefully will be trying soon though.

Are there any problems using MiniDLNA on Xbox 360?

The only on-going problem I ever run into frequently is while streaming video content to an Xbox 360 when the video is Xvid and encoded differently than other Xvid files. What happens is after a short period of time, normally between every 5 and 15 minutes, the video will basically halt requiring you to back out of the video (on Xbox 360) and resume play again till the next time it happens again (randomly).

It can be quite a nuisance but from what I have found out, from viewing the files in GSpot, I still think it has to be with Xvid encoded videos and how it was encoded. I have not had a problem with that I can recall of this happening with any x264/mp4 files. It is also 100% not related to a networking problem either.

How can stream my media to Android Phones?

First install BubbleUPnP on your Android Phone and on your Desktop as well. Then install either VPlayer (the best imho) or any alternative video player software such as MX Player on your Android to play the content.

You would then select the source of the files to be from your Drobo FS and either to play the files locally (on the phone) or control and send them to a specific device if listed and supported.

You also have the option to stream the content over the internet with this, so if you wanted to watch media on your Android on the go, you can. You can also use your Android Phone as a controller and send content to play and pause on support devices, the Xbox 360 does work with this.

Linksys WUSB600N v2 on a Hackintosh

I recently just put a cheap, but also great hackintosh system together while also dual-booting with Windows 7. It is my first hackintosh, however, not my first Mac.

This post will explain how to get the Linksys WUSB600N v2 to work with your Hackintosh build. There is just 1 minor problem that exists with this wireless usb device, and that you will have to replug it in each and everytime you either restart/boot or awake from sleep. Otherwise, I’ve had absolutely no other issues and no disconnects or slow speeds.

Real quick, here is my build specs for the hackintosh running Snow Leopard 10.6.6:
GIGABYTE GA-H55M-S2V Motherboard
Intel Core i3-550 Clarkdale 3.2GHz Processor
XFX nVidia GT240 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card
G.SKILL 4GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB Hard Drive

Now you will first need to install the Mac drivers for an Ralink RT2870, which is what is inside of the Linksys WUSB600N v1 and v2 (version 2). You can grab those from downloading them at Ralink’s website.

Now as of this post, I am using driver version 3.0.3.0. These work great, I’ve heard of success with earlier drivers as well though I never tried those nor did I ever obtain links to them. If you are having any issues with later drivers after 3.0.3.0 then please contact me, I will be able to provide you with driver version 3.0.3.0 if you are unable to find them.

Once you have these installed, restart OS X.

Once you have restarted OS X, open Terminal. Follow and type the following commands correctly and then press the enter key after each line listed below.

cd /System/Library/Extensions

chmod -R 755 RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext

chown -R 0:0 RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext

cd

cd /System/Library/Extensions/RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext/contents/

sudo nano info.plist

At this point, you will be asked your administrative password, type it in and continue the following:
Look for the following line below, you will find it faster by using the page down shortcut ctrl+v.

Linksys – RT2870 – 2

Then right under this key, find this line (integer)

<integer>113<integer>

Then change the value of 113 to 121.

<integer>121<integer>

That will be the only line you need to edit and touch in this. Now press the following keys to save what you just did.

ctrl + o

Make sure to use the exact same file name, info.plist, as it will already say. Then ctrl+x to exit out.
There are just 2 more fine steps and you will be able to use a wireless connection!

cd

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

Now restart your computer, as I said earlier, you will more than likely have to unplug and plug back in the Linksys WUSB600N device as well as each time you restart/boot or awake from sleep.

You will use Ralink’s Wireless Utility to connect to your network. Save a profile so you do not have to constantly keep typing your security key as well. You may close Wireless Utility once you are connected, you do not need to leave it open.

Special Thanks go out to aldeem over at InsanelyMac for most of this guide, and then myself for the rest of it and additional information.

How to get ALC888b audio working on Gigabyte H55M-S2V

The hardest part of my hackintosh build was to get the audio working. It was probably the most annoying and tedious process I had to do, and hope to never do again. You can find my specs below, but this is how to get audio working on your Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2V motherboard, with an ALC888b audio chip or another motherboard that has ALC888b.

If you have not read any of my other posts related to my hackintosh build, then these are my specs:

  • GIGABYTE GA-H55M-S2V Motherboard
  • Intel Core i3-550 Clarkdale 3.2GHz Processor
  • XFX nVidia GT240 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card
  • G.SKILL 4GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
  • Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB Hard Drive

Before proceeding, I take no responsibility if you end up messing up your hackintosh setup. So proceed with caution, this is the process I did to get it working with my exact setup and more specifically, Gigabyte motherboard.

You might want to either search around more if you have this same ALC888b audio chip, or if you do but it is not the same motherboard, it will still likely work but you could also search around either tonymacx86 or insanelymac forums for a solution to that exact motherboard, if there is one. Otherwise, use this as a reference in order to help yourself out into getting it working out on your own. Good luck!

First you will need to download this file.

Then copy the “GigabyteALC888b.kext” from the downloaded zip file, Gigabyte_ALC888b.zip, above to /Extra/Extensions. Afterwards copy HDAEnabler.kext and place it on your desktop and install it using Applications you can download such as KextBeast or Kext Helper.

Once you are finished with that, you will need to manually delete “AppleHDA.kext” from /System/Library/Extensions/.

Now run “MultiBeast” with just specifically the only following options you select.

  • System Utilities
  • Audio: Realtek ALC8xx + AppleHDA Rollback

Make sure not to select the “ALC88xHDA.kext option. Just select the AppleHDA Rollback (to replace the AppleHDA.kext you deleted above with an older version) and System Utilities (to fix permissions and rebuild your kext caches).

Finally just restart your computer and your audio should be working again.

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