Rethinking Technology

I was asked to provide feedback about the Windows Feedback app. I submit a lot of content on there, however I have never received any response from Microsoft. I'm not sure if they actually see my feedback. Make it more feature-full for browsing and finding reports, editing, updating, and removing files from reports, sharing reports with strangers who don't have Windows Feedback installed....

Windows Feedback Center Review - Ryan Johnson I was asked to provide feedback about the Windows Feedback app. I submit a lot of content on there, however I have never received any response from Microsoft. I’m not sure if they actually se…

I have used OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio for about 10 years for streaming and recording desktop videos. It has never impressed me with its usability. In that time, they've introduced almost no new features. It took them many years just to copy a subset of features from StreamLabs OBS, a free mod of their software that is provided by a company that charges for themes and some other addons for OBS....

Time to ditch OBS for PRISM - Ryan Johnson I have used OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio for about 10 years for streaming and recording desktop videos. It has never impressed me with its usability. In that time, they’ve introduce…

If you want to ever see how much CPU or GPU a particular process is using over time, use Sysinternals Process Explorer (procexp) and find the process, open up its properties, and have a look at the Performance Graph and GPU Graph. This is a feature I didn't know existed in Procexp, but I have used Procexp in the past to kill tasks that were difficult to identify (chrome.exe, anyone?)....

Performance profiling your app with Procexp - Ryan Johnson If you want to ever see how much CPU or GPU a particular process is using over time, use Sysinternals Process Explorer (procexp) and find the process, open up its properties, and have a look at the…

Updated Feb 2025 Maintaining a system has always been a pain point, especially on Windows, where getting your OS back up to speed after a fresh reinstall requires manually searching, downloading, installing, and configuring about a hundred apps and individual mods for Windows. As of the past few years, the maintenance story has changed dramatically on Windows. Windows now has various tools for maintaining and reinstalling a Windows machine that do not require creating customized Windows installer images and using confusing industrial IT tools....

The Best Way to Maintain Windows 11 - Ryan Johnson Updated Feb 2025 Maintaining a system has always been a pain point, especially on Windows, where getting your OS back up to speed after a fresh reinstall requires manually searching, downloading, i…

A few years ago, Microsoft, under Sundar Pichai's leadership, changed its stance on open source and started to embrace Linux habits. The package manager was one of them. For a long time, Windows did not have a package manager. Some people made a 3rd party one called Chocolatey, but it often contained outdated packages and broken install scripts, and its website was confusing....

How to use Winget package manager - Ryan Johnson A few years ago, Microsoft, under Sundar Pichai’s leadership, changed its stance on open source and started to embrace Linux habits. The package manager was one of them. For a long time, Wind…

Updated 2025-02-13. Windows 11 has a confusing mess of options for how to back-up your computer, with the most useful and powerful ones being hidden in the older Windows 7 Control Panel locations. This article should present all of the options and more or less de-complicate finding them and knowing when to use them. List is ordered by abstraction level. Highest level (least comprehensive, and least destructive) at the top....

Windows PC Recovery Sources - Ryan Johnson Updated 2025-02-13. Windows 11 has a confusing mess of options for how to back-up your computer, with the most useful and powerful ones being hidden in the older Windows 7 Control Panel locations. …

Yesterday, I did some research about what it might take to make a collision resistant hash-based file system. As is my usual bad habit, my mind went on a tangent thinking about other aspects of the file system I want to build, including how to maximize space efficiency for large collections of files. It stands to reason that any given collection of files and data would have a lot of similar patterns in them....

What is a Prime File? - Ryan Johnson Yesterday, I did some research about what it might take to make a collision resistant hash-based file system. As is my usual bad habit, my mind went on a tangent thinking about other aspects of the…

So, as you may know, I am ardently pursuing a new file system architecture that incorporates a few key strategies for organizing files. One of these strategies is using unique ID's, generated by a hash function, for each file so that they can be requested by an app without relying on a namespace (folder structure). The reasoning for this is outlined in some of my previous posts....

Practical concerns for a Hash-based filesystem - Ryan Johnson So, as you may know, I am ardently pursuing a new file system architecture that incorporates a few key strategies for organizing files. One of these strategies is using unique ID’s, generated…

Why does my computer break so much? As I work on more coding projects, I use more tools, which come with limitations, so I have to restructure my folder hierarchies. Sometimes, these necessary changes break things. Today I wanted make a QR code for some links, but did not want to use one of the many websites that already exist to do it, because they all want you to sign up, or they don't let you copy the image directly from the web page (they make you download the PNG or SVG file)....

Dear System, stop breaking my workflow - Ryan Johnson Why does my computer break so much? As I work on more coding projects, I use more tools, which come with limitations, so I have to restructure my folder hierarchies. Sometimes, these necessary chan…

Recently, I decided to create a Windows application that would automatically switch between light and dark themes based on sunrise and sunset times. Instead of tackling this project alone, I worked with Claude 3.5 Sonnet as my pair programming partner. Here's how that experience went. The Initial Concept My goal was simple: create a Windows app that would switch my system's theme based on the time of day....

Developing a Windows Theme Auto-Switcher with Claude: An AI Pair Programming Journey - Ryan Johnson Recently, I decided to create a Windows application that would automatically switch between light and dark themes based on sunrise and sunset times. Instead of tackling this project alone, I worked…

As someone who’s no stranger to the intricacies of Windows and NTFS, I thought I had seen it all—until I encountered a folder on my external drive that refused to be deleted. What should have been a straightforward task turned into a head-scratching journey through NTFS permissions, hidden attributes, and the peculiarities of Windows itself. Here’s what happened, how I fixed it, and what I learned along the way....

The Mystery of the Indestructible Folder: A Windows NTFS Experience - Ryan Johnson As someone who’s no stranger to the intricacies of Windows and NTFS, I thought I had seen it all—until I encountered a folder on my external drive that refused to be deleted. What should have been …