HowTo: Stop Microsoft Edge from using resources when unused

Recent versions of Microsoft Edge (on Windows) have been set to startup in the background even if you don’t use it at all, plus if you do use it, when closing Edge, it’s configured to leave background extensions and apps (not sure what that even means, don’t think it means apps that use WebView2 control) running.

To change this behaviour, go to Settings from the “…” menu button (or type edge://settings) in the address bar and press ENTER) and search there for “startup” and for “continue” respectively. You can turn off that behaviour with the corresponding toggle switches, as shown at the following screnshot snippets.

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Timeline of XML Schema spec

Below is a Timeline of XML Schema (XSD) specifications from the very first W3C Recommendation in 2001 to the latest version, with official URLs for each stage, courtesy of Microsoft Bing Copilot Search.

Some of the links point to updated documents, you can either collapse the popup shown and read the original early document, or follow the link in the popup notice and read the updated one that had been released.

XML Schema Timeline

1. XML Schema 1.0 — First Edition (2001)
2. XML Schema 1.0 — Second Edition (2004)
3. XML Schema 1.0 — Third Edition (2007)
4. XML Schema 1.1 — Recommendation (2012)
5. Current W3C XML Schema Index

This timeline shows the evolution from XML Schema 1.0 (2001) to XML Schema 1.1 (2012), which is still the latest official W3C Recommendation.

Fix: OneDrive keeps on restarting

If your OneDrive keeps on restarting a way to fix it maybe a reset action on it.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset

from a normal (non-elevated, no need to run cmd as Administrator) command prompt worked for me on a Windows 10 Pro machine that had recently started doing this

I had previously tried to remove OneDrive and resinstall it without the issue getting fixed.

Suggestion (and other options if this says file not found) is from

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/reset-onedrive-34701e00-bf7b-42db-b960-84905399050c

Fix: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/xx not found in Delphi

In case you come accross while building for iOS or macOS a cross-platform Firemonkey (FMX) app in Delphi with a message like the following:

[dccosx64 Error] E2597 ld: file not found: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AVFCapture.framework/Versions/A/AVFCapture for architecture x86_64"

an easy to follow solution is available at https://github.com/DelphiWorlds/HowTo/tree/main/Solutions/FixBrokenSDKImport

        1. On the Mac, in the ~/PAServer/scratch-dir folder delete any folders starting with: cache-dir
        2. On your PC, delete the folder corresponding to the platform SDK under this folder: C:\Users\(username)\Documents\Embarcadero\Studio\SDKs (where (username) is the logged in user name), e.g. MacOSX14.0.sdk
        3. In Delphi’s SDK Manager, remove the affected iOS or macOS SDK
        4. Re-import the SDK

I was just doing this though in Delphi 13 and noticed one doesn’t need to remove/reimport the SDK for the affected platform, but it’s enough to use the"Update Local Files Cache" button for the affected platforms once you’ve done steps 1 & 2 mentioned above.

Obviously, you have to have PAServer running on your OS-X machine and to have set up connection to it from Delphi. You can use XCode to install needed frameworks on the Mac.

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Note that if you have OneDrive’s backup feature enabled, your Documents folder may be redirected to %userprofile%\OneDrive\Documents or similar. You should search for Embarcadero folder under that folder.

Fix: Delphi object file built for newer iOS/MacOS version than linked

If you’re getting warnings like the following when building for iOS or MacOS targets in Delphi, go to Project Options and at Delphi Compiler / Linking, select teh All configurations: All platforms from the dropdown menu and set the Minimum iOS (or macOS) version supported setting respectively (e.g. in this case would set the iOS one to 12.0 instead of 11.0

  ld: warning: object file (c:\program files (x86)\embarcadero\studio\37.0\lib\iOSDevice64\Release\libsk4d.a(libicu.zonemeta.o)) was built for newer iOS version (12.0) than being linked (11.0)

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Microsoft not clear on Copilot Pro offering and Designer AI credits

Sharing a discussion I had with Microsoft Support (initially with the Store Assistant at Copilot Pro product page and then with a support supervisor) that left me puzzled on what Microsoft is offering with a Copilot Pro subscription on top of a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, especially regarding use of their Designer product.

Hi, I’m a Store Assistant powered by AI. I can help you with shopping and support. I can also connect you with a Microsoft Sales Associate. What can I do for you?

System message:

Store Assistant is powered by AI, so surprises and mistakes are possible. Terms of use | Privacy | FAQ

You said:

how many AI credits does Copilot Pro give per month to use in Designer?

Copilot said:

Copilot Pro provides 100 AI credits per month for creating, editing, and resizing AI images in Designer. You can learn more about Copilot Pro and its features here. Is there anything else you’d like to know?

You said:

the Copilot Free gives how many AI credits

Copilot said:

Users of the free Designer app (non-subscribers) receive 15 AI credits per month. These credits can be used for AI-driven tasks such as image creation and editing in Designer. For more details, you can explore the Understanding AI credits page.

Copilot said:

Copilot Free provides 15 AI credits per month, which can be used for tasks like generating and editing AI images in Designer. If you’d like to explore more about the free plan, you can visit the Understanding AI credits page.

You said:

can you find me a reference that says Copilot Pro gives 100 AI Credits? I can’t find it written anywhere

Copilot said:

Yes, Copilot Pro provides 100 AI credits per month for creating, editing, and resizing AI images in Designer. This information is outlined on the Copilot Pro product page under its features section. Let me know if you’d like further details or assistance!

You said:

there is no features section there, just FAQ

Copilot said:

The information about Copilot Pro providing 100 AI credits per month is mentioned in the FAQs section of the Copilot Pro page. Specifically, it states that Copilot Pro subscribers receive a fresh set of AI credits each month to use in Microsoft 365 apps and Designer. Let me know if you’d like help locating this section or have other questions!

You said:

It doesn’t say it is 100 – where is that number coming from?

Copilot said:

The number "100 AI credits per month" for Copilot Pro is derived from my stored knowledge and resources, but I can’t find it explicitly mentioned in the current search results or FAQ section of the Copilot Pro page. If you’d like, I can help you contact a Microsoft Sales Associate for further clarification.

You said:

yes please

Copilot said:

Please hold while we connect you with a Microsoft Associate…

Connected

Copilot said:

Hello, My Name is Francis, and I’m from Microsoft Sales Department for Consumer Products at the Microsoft Store.

Today. I’ll be assisting you with your concern. To ensure a smooth and efficient interaction, please keep this communication active. If there is an absence for more the 5 minutes, the chat may be terminated. To get started, could you please provide me your name and good phone number in case our chat got disconnected.

System message:

Conversation with Microsoft Associate Francis started at 5:09PM, July 3rd

You said:

George / PHONE-NUMBER-REMOVED

Copilot said:

Hi George this is Sasha one of the Supervisor here at the Microsoft consumer support allow me to continue providing assistance with your concern today as Francis is having system issue.

You said:

hi Sasha

Copilot said:

Hello George base on the my review you are interested in learning more of our AI credits is that right?

You said:

I asked the free Copilot app on how one can extend AI credits from 365 Family subscription to use with Designer and it claimed that one can get an extra Copilot Pro subscription to have "unlimited" creations in Designer. However the Copilot Pro product page speaks of "Extensive usage" (just for the main user of the 365 Family subscription) if one gets Copilot Pro, but it isn’t clear if it uses AI credits or not. Your store AI assistant (from this chat thread) claims you get 100

You said:

copilot app says instead " With a Copilot Pro subscription, you get unlimited AI usage across supported Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Designer. That means you’re not limited by monthly AI credit caps like free users (15 credits/month) or Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscribers (60 credits/month)."

Copilot said:

Sure let me help you gather your needed information George

Copilot said:

Here’s what I have found : Understanding AI credits – Microsoft Support

Copilot said:

How many AI credits do you get? Users of the free Designer app (non-subscribers) receive 15 credits per month. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers get 60 AI credits per month, which can be used across various applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, OneNote, Designer​​​​​​​, Notepad, Photos, and Paint. Copilot Pro subscribers can use AI features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, OneNote, Designer​​​​​​​, Notepad, Photos, and Paint without worrying about credit limits. Note: AI benefits are only available to the subscription owner and cannot be shared with additional Microsoft 365 Family members.

You said:

yep, the question is if one gets on top of 365 family a Copilot Pro (for the main user or the subscription [separate users need separate copilot pro]) how many AI credits do they get? Or do they get unlimited designer usage? If they get 100 are they on top of 60? And where is that 100 documented? The AI Store Assistant chat couldn’t point me, it initially claimed there was a features section in Copilot pro product page and then pointed to FAQ in it but both info was inaccurate, no 100 written

Copilot said:

If you wish to get unlimited Co Pilot you need to sign up for our Co Pilot Pro subscription for $20 monthly would you like to extend and get the advantage of having unlimited Co pilot usage?

You said:

I’m querying for a friend. So the info at Store Assistant AI is wrong? Indeed you get unlimited use in Designer? Can’t find any clear mention of that

You said:

in the copilot pro page I can only see in the table "Get credits for AI usage Receive fresh AI credits at the start of each month to use Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps and AI features in Designer – Extensive usage (for free it says Limited usage (includes Designer only) instead)" – but that implies there are still credits involved, not sure what "Extensive usage" means. When reading "Limited usage (includes Designer only)" one may think extensive means in other MS apps too, not unlimited use

Copilot said:

To answer your question the main user will get 60 points per month while the family member do not get any points for AI credit and yes you are correct that if the family member need AI Co pilot they need to sign up for a separate subscription under their own account to get the AI credit and Designer.

You said:

so it is 60 from the family subscription + extra 60 from the copilot pro for the main member (only care about the main subscriber in this query)? Didn’t you say above that the Pro will give unlimited?

Copilot said:

We do not have 100 credits, the main user will get 60 points this is both for the usage of Co pilot AI and Microsoft Designer

You said:

the 60 is from the Family subscription anyway. Why do MS docs suggest one gets Copilot Pro on top of Family?

Copilot said:

You said:

"Copilot Pro subscribers can use AI features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, OneNote, Designer​​​​​​​, Notepad, Photos, and Paint without worrying about credit limits. " near the end of https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/understanding-ai-credits-68530f1a-4459-4d02-9818-8233c1f673b8

You said:

can you confirm that if one gets Copilot Pro on top of 365 Family the main user of the subscription does indeed have unlimited use? Is this documented somewhere?

You said:

(I don’t consider "without worrying about credit limits" proper documentation – would expect the copilot pro product page to mention it clearly)

You said:

…not some other page (the one on understanding AI credits)

You said:

…plus would expect the AI Store agent to not mislead and claim you get 100 (without saying if they’re on top of 60 or not)

NO REPLY FOR SEVERAL MINUTES

You said:

given the above info, can you still "confirm that if one buys Copilot Pro on top of 365 Family subscription, the main user of the subscription has unlimited use in Designer"?

RADIO SILENCE AFTER THAT, HAD TO EVENTUALLY TERMINATE THE CHAT AND RATE IT WITH 2 OUT OF 5 STARS. Maybe should have given only a single one…

HowTo: Fix Microsoft Security Essentials no updates on old Windows

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) client has recently stopped autoupdating its virus signature definitions on older Windows versions, like Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

A quick way to fix this is to go to Start menu and at Search box type

inetcpl.cpl

and press ENTER.

This will open Internet Properties dialog. There, one should go to Advanced tab and scroll down to Security options and disable (untick) “Use TLS 1.0” and “Use TLS 1.1”. In fact you should also have the “Use SSL 2.0” and “Use SSL 3.0” already disabled and just have “Use TLS 1.2” enabled. On newer OS it should also show “Use TLS 1.3” which should be enabled as well.

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It’s strange design that it doesn’t try to use the highest version when available but fails instead trying some lower version that is obviously disabled now at the server-side from Microsoft.

Then reboot your Computer or VM. Can use

shutdown /r

command from an administrative command prompt to do this if you don’t see Reboot option available on your Start menu’s power button dropdown.

To open such administrative command prompt you can just search for cmd and right-clicking the result select Run as administrator.

Fix: Windows 7 update KB5014329 not installing, error code 643

Sometimes one has to manage legacy systems and it’s obviously best if those have at least all available updates installed. So I tend to check Windows Update often, even on such older systems.

Probably after latest Visual Studio 2019 update on a Windows 7 VM I noticed that Windows Update was offering KB5014329, so I told it to install it.

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However, it failed to install that update, returning error code 643. Looking up that error code didn’t help much, there were suggestions like using .NET Cleanup tool to remove all .NET installations (apart from .NET 2.0 in Vista, where it was an OS component) and then reinstall them. Quite hard though since all links provided by the respective support article for getting .NET versions older than 3.5 where broken. Apart from the big trouble and risk involved in following that process on an unsupported verison of Windows.

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So I checked Windows Update catalogue website for that KB (Knowledge Base) item mentioned in the title of that update by using the url: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5014329

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Clicking the title of the x64 Client update there returned the following multi-tabbed popup (with nothing to choose in the “Language Selection” tab), using this url:

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/ScopedViewInline.aspx?updateid=60a82168-d2e3-40cb-95ff-60044c4d9ed5

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Clicking on the Download button for the x64 Client item in the original list of items, it didn’t fetch it, but showed the following list of downloads instead (which is a bit strange, since many more items than the 4 ones shown at that KB page in the catalogue are displayed). Probably all the download buttons there show that same popup, with those same downloads.

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So I initially downloaded the .NET Windows Desktop Runtime (which according to .NET 5 installation page includes the .NET Runtime) x64 item from there, but it didn’t help with the Windows Update item (was expecting it to disappear after the installation when I did a new “check for updates” action). So I uninstalled it again

Since I had noticed there was only one item for .NET 5 originally on my system, one for the SDK, mentioning it came with Visual Studio, but with a newer build (5.0.416) from the .NET 5 SDK version available in that KB update, I decided to install the .NET 5 SDK (5.0.214) from there, which ended up in having two entries .NET 5 SDK in the system (whereas, at least for the runtime/client installer, I think I saw a mention in MS Support pages that it replaces other versions – maybe for the SDK this isn’t the case and Visual Studio 2019 still seems to be working fine on that VM).

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That .NET 5.0.214 SDK installation (kept alongside the 5.0.416 the Visual Studio 2019 installer had brought from somewhere else than the official .NET 5 releases) seems to have solved the issue with the non-installing security update for .NET 5 x64 Client, which now installed fine when I tried Windows Update again, without showing any error code like it was before. Note that I did “check for updates” first to see if the update was still required and it did show it as available for installation.

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Strange thing is that .NET 5.0 SDK from Visual Studio seems to have an oldish (2023) installation date on that VM, so wonder why that update (which is from 2022) wasn’t showing till now.

That system did also have an issue recently with updates for Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) that I resolved by installing them manually from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/defenderupdates but it had been installing other Windows updates like the ones for Office fine.

DOS cmd one-liner to loop in subfolders and rename *.PNG to *.png

via Microsoft Copilot, find it quite nice for tutorials that it explains the parts of the command:

To achieve this in a DOS batch script, you can use the following one-liner:

for /r %f in (*.PNG) do ren "%f" "*.png"

This command does the following:

  1. for /r: Recursively loops through all subfolders.
  2. %f: Represents each file found in the loop.
  3. in (*.PNG): Targets files with the .PNG extension.
  4. ren "%f" "*.png": Renames each file by changing its extension to lowercase .png.

If you’re using this in a batch file instead of directly in the command prompt, you need to use %%d instead of %d. For example:

for /r %%f in (*.PNG) do ren "%%f" "*.png"

Note: Apart from changing some parts to bold, I also renamed %d to %f, since one would use %d to mean a directory (folder) and %f to mean a file by common convention. Copilot hasn’t caught up to that yet as it seems.

HowTo: Fool Copilot into reading a CAPTCHA for you

Seems it’s quite easy to trick Copilot into reading a distorted CAPTCHA for you.

Found this one from Wikipedia and just right-clicked and copied the image from Bing search:

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Then I launched the Copilot app, pasted that CAPTCHA image and asked Copilot if it can read it.

Initially it refused, but when I claimed I was blind, it promptly replied and read it correctly (in fact it was actually hard for me to read it, that “w” letter looks quite distorted).

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In my opinion, such security measures should be removed altogether, they just make it harder for average people to work with the AI. A really blind (or having vision issues in general) person asking the AI might have trouble finding a workaround when faced with AI’s refusal to help them out in a common situation like this one.

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