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Author: Behzad

How to remove BitLocker encryption in Windows 10

Just recently I had an issue with the webcam on my new Dell XPS 13, 9360. After a couple of times of visit by Dell technicians, it became obvious that the webcam controller on the mainboard is broken, thus the whole mainboard of the system needs to be changed. This was fine, until after the change of the Mainboard while of course keeping my SSD with all my data on it. It was just after the change that both me and the technician realized bitlocker encryption is activated on the SSD when the laptop was shipped to me. Meaning that I can not access my data. After long hours behind customer service of Dell, and long talk with Microsoft support, I have been told that Windows Home 10 does not support bitlocker encryption and I have no other option but to wipe my SSD and install a fresh version on it. Of course this was not an option for me, so I asked for the technician to come back and put my original Mainboard in the laptop, meaning no webcam for a while which I can live with. After a while that I had enough time to search for my problem I found that I can disable encryption in the power shell. This saved me a trouble of losing my valuable data.

To do so:

  1. Open the power shell as administrator, by right clicking on it and choosing “Run as Administrator”.
  2. Check the encryption status of each drive by entering:
      manage-bde -status
      
  3. To disable bitlocker enter (note to put quotations too):
    Disable-BitLocker -MountPoint "<drive letter>:"
    
    • For example:
      Disable-BitLocker -MountPoint "C:"
      
  4. To remove encryption of the desired drive enter:
    manage-bde -off <drive letter>:
    
    • For example:
      manage-bde -off C:
      
  5. Let the decryption continue in the background such that you have fully decrypted status. You may check the status of Encryption while it is running in the background.
  6. Restart the PC.

Configure multibib package with TexStudio in UBUNTU

In the previous post I described how to setup TexStudio with multibib in windows. Recently I moved to Ubuntu 14.04 since it uses much less resources (RAM and CPU) in general use of the PC, thus the experience is much better than windows and the application are just one step away from you by “apt-get” command. One more reason for me was to get my hands on ROS (Robot Operating System). In short, I knew that the first steps to use multibib in TexStudio are the same as the ones described in the previous post, but I just have to update the “Bibtex” script.

Create a shell script file with below contents and put it in your home folder (mine is located at “/home/behzad/bibrun.sh“).

#!/bin/bash

for f in *.aux
do
    echo "Processing $f bib file.."
    bibtex "$f"
done
echo "Finished processing bib files!"

Basically this shell script file will look for all auxiliary bibliography files located in the same folder of the tex file and compile them with BibTex. Then call the shell script file whenever BibTex is supposed to be called. For TexStudio go to “Options > Configure Texstudio > Commands > BibTex” and give the path to the batch.

sh "/home/behzad/bibrun.sh"

That’s all. You can just compile the bibliography using the shortcut “F11” and then compile the master document.

Configure multibib package with TexStudio

Recently I had an issue using the multibib package with my thesis Latex code. I wanted to separate list of my publications from the  cited publication in the thesis and put it in a separate section. Basically multibib does this just by calling the package and introducing new commands for multiple bibliography entries,

\usepackage{multibib}
\newcites{journal,conf}{{Journal articles},{Peer reviewed conferences}}

and then calling the associated bibliography files.

\nocitejournal{*}
\bibliographystylejournal{plainyr-rev}
\bibliographyjournal{mypublicationsJ}
% 'mypublicationsJ' is the name of the bib file
\nociteconf{*}
\bibliographystyleconf{plainyr-rev}
\bibliographyconf{mypublicationsC}
% 'mypublicationsC' is the name of the bib file

The problem is that TexStudio does not compile the extra introduced bib files and just compiles the main bib file. After some searching I found that there is a workaround which might even work with other latex editors. Create a batch file with below contents and put it in the “bin” folder of the miktex (usually located at “C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin“).

@ECHO off
IF (%1)==() GOTO end
FOR %%f in (%1\*.aux) DO bibtex %%f
@ECHO on
:end

Basically this batch file will look for all auxiliary bibliography files and compile them with BibTex. Then call the batch whenever BibTex is supposed to be called. For TexStudio go to “Options > Configure Texstudio > Commands > BibTex” and give the path to the batch file followed by “?a“.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\multibibrun.bat" ?a

That’s all. You can just compile the bibliography using the shortcut “F11” and then compile the master document.

Update: If you are still having difficulties ensure that the path you have your “.tex” file does not include any spaces.

How I enabled third party VOIP on my Thomson router

After I switched my home internet connection from ADSL to Fiber I got a free router from my ISP (Vodafone). It is a Thomson TG784nG784n V3 router but the firmware is kind of locked down and not all the options are available in the web interface. The router comes with two RJ-11 jacks to connect to land line phones. One of the jacks is dedicated to my land line which I receive calls, but the second one is not used at all.  After doing some internet search and getting my hand dirty on the router, I enabled a third party VOIP on the second line of the router. Now I can call any number with cheap rates just by picking up the second phone and dialing, using my preferred third party VOIP provider. You may follow the steps below to do the same for your router since the instructions might work on other models too.
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