GitHub Desktop
Zachary Reese, Development, Training

Desktop GitHub client for Windows and Mac. Handles all git functions without having to touch the command line.


How to Install the VPN
Alex White, Uncategorized
1. Go to http://www.forticlient.com/downloads and click the “Download” button for your OS.

2. Once the file is downloaded, open it. The install process will begin. Be sure to accept the license agreement so you can continue.

3. Make sure the setup type ONLY has “Security Fabric Agent” and “Secure Remote Access” checked off.

4. Click “Next” until the program finishes installing.

5. Open FortiClient by double-clicking the icon that appeared on your desktop.

6. When the FortiClient window opens, click on the “Remote Access” tab on the left-hand side of the window.

7. Click “Configure VPN”

8. Fill out the text fields with the following information, then click “Apply”.

Connection Name: appcvpn
Description: APPC VPN (optional)
Remote Gateway: vpn.appc.upenn.edu

9. To connect to the VPN, use your Windows login credentials, then click “Connect”.

How to add or remove a printer
Alex White, Uncategorized

Adding a printer

1. Click on the Windows Explorer icon at the start bar.

2. In the address bar, type in “\\appcprint.appc.upenn.edu”.

3. Double click on the printer you want to connect to, or right click and click “Connect”.

Removing a printer

1. In the start menu, type in “Devices and Printers”.

 

2. In the “Devices and Printers” menu, right click on the printer you want to remove and click “Remove device”.

 

3. Click “yes”.


How To Install Windows DVD Player
Alex White, Media Coding
  1. Open Windows Store.
  2. Click on the account icon.
  3. Choose “Add work or school account”.
  4. Use the login info provided in the email that was sent to you (make sure to click “skip for now” when it asks to store login information).
  5. Click “The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania”.
  6. Search for Windows DVD Player.
  7. Click “install”.

Enjoy!


How to send email as your @appc.upenn.edu address from Gmail
Timothy Duff, Uncategorized

In Gmail:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Got to Accounts and Import.
  3. On the Send mail as: row, click Add another email address you own
  4. In the pop-up window, add your @appc.upenn.edu email address, and click Next Step
  5. Change SMTP Server to outlook.office365.com
  6. For Username, enter your entire @appc.upenn.edu email address
  7. Enter your email password used to access appc.upenn.edu email
  8. Click Add Account
  9. Google will send a verification code to your @appc.upenn.edu email address. Type that code to finish.

How to delete a folder which is nested quite deep and to avoid “File name too long”?
Timothy Duff, Uncategorized

To delete the directory tree starting at c:\subdir\more\offending_dir:

The total step-by-step-process is as simple as this:

cd c:\subdir\more to cd into its parent directory.
mkdir empty to create an empty directory.
robocopy empty offending_dir /mir to mirror the empty directory into the offending one.
After some waiting you’re done! Finish it up with:
rmdir offending_dir to get rid of the now empty offending directory and
rmdir empty to get rid of your intermediate empty directory.


How To Edit Your Hosts File
APPC Support, Uncategorized

Windows

Step 1 – Search for Notepad, then right-click on Notepad in the search results list, and choose Run as administrator. If you’re using Windows 10, a shortcut to Notepad is in the Start Menu.

Step 2 – Once NotePad is open, Go to File -> Open… and copy/paste the following file path:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Click open to start editing the hosts file.

Step 3 – Make your desired additions or alterations. Most likely you’ll be pasting something at the bottom of the document.

Tip: Adding a hashtag to the start of a line will disable it. For example, the line
# 128.91.58.195 origin.factcheck.org
won’t have any effect, but it will retain the host assignment for later use.

Step 4 – Go to File -> Save to commit the change that we just made.


macOS

Step 1 – Go to and Open Terminal either by searching for it or by locating it under the Applications folder

Step 2 – Once Terminal is open, copy/paste or type the following command:
sudo nano /etc/hosts
and press enter to execute the command. You’ll be prompted to enter your password to proceed.

Tip: Not seeing anything when you type your password? Don’t panic! That’s intentional. When entering your password through terminal the text is invisible for security purposes.

Step 3 – Make your desired additions or alterations. Most likely you’ll be pasting something at the bottom of the document.

Tip: Adding a hashtag to the start of a line will disable it. For example, the line
# 128.91.58.195 origin.factcheck.org
won’t have any effect, but it will retain the host assignment for later use.

Step 4 – Press ^X (hold the control key and press the X key) to save and exit. You’ll see a prompt at the bottom of the text editor asking you to confirm your changes (press the Y key) as well as the file to save to (just press Enter). You can now safely quit Terminal.


How To Map a Network Drive (PC)
Timothy Duff, Uncategorized

1. Click on the Windows Explorer icon in the start bar.

2. Right click the “Computer” tab, click “Map network drive”.

3. In the resulting pop-up window, select a drive letter (in this case, Y:), and enter the full network address (i.e. example.appc.upenn.edu). Be sure to check the “Reconnect at sign-in” checkbox. Then click Finish.

The folder should be mapped automatically, but if it’s not, use your login credentials for authentication.


How To Remove Moire Patterns from Video or Images
Zachary Reese, Uncategorized

In Adobe After Effects, add an adjustment layer above your asset. Change the blending mode to Color. Add a Median effect to the adjustment layer and adjust the radius to your tastes.

The same technique can be replicated in Adobe Premiere by duplicating the footage layer and substituting it for the adjustment layer in the preceeding instructions.


Robocopy – Reliable incremental backup for Windows
APPC Support, Uncategorized

Robocopy is a Windows console copy command that can be used for recursive conditional backup of files, folders and disks.  It is more efficient than drag/dropping in the UI and capable of copying deeply nested long file names that normal Windows copying will fail on.

EXAMPLE:

robocopy d:myfolder h:backups /e /xo /fft /xd "system volume information" /xd $RECYCLE.BIN /xf "locked.file"

This command will copy the contents of myfolder from volume D to a folder called backups in the H: drive.  If backups doesn’t exist, it will be created automatically.  The flags do the following:

/e – copy empty folders

/xo – exclude older files (ie: only copy newer or non-existant files)

/fft – FAT file system time format (for determining newer/older)

/xd – exclude directory (in this case, the protected file system folders that can’t be copied)

/xf – exclude individual files – files that may be locked or uncopyable.  Also can be used with wildcards to exclude whole classes (e.g.: /xf *.mp4).

 

Comprehensive documentation can be found here:  https://techjourney.net/robocopy-syntax-command-line-switches-and-examples/