How to recover GRUB in Ubuntu after installing other distributions

You know what the curse of the distrohopper is, right? In essence, you install Ubuntu or some simple derivative, you spend a lot of time with it without major mishaps, you get bored, you decide to install other distros on disks or partitions apart ... and they put their own GRUB, which you will not want in the long run because either you installed those other distros out of passing curiosity, or if you did it to move seriously you discover that what you were using works perfectly for you, or that it is better to reinstall from scratch.

When access to the system you want to keep is difficult, it is normal to use some live media to boot from it and repair the GRUB with the tools it provides, and for these cases there are those who are prepared specifically to perform this task. I refer to distributions like SystemRescueCd and even more specific ones, like Super Grub2 Disk 2. However, if you can continue logging in - for example, choosing a specific partition from the BIOS - it is more feasible to fix it from within.

To make sure where the GRUB was installed, the command will help you:

sudo debconf-show grub-pc

The line you have to pay attention to is usually the first one, "grub-pc / install_devices", which will indicate the disk drive on which it was first installed. Anyway, this is just a procedure, because if something good has the GRUB is that "remember" where it was installed. The only convenient thing is to know - and you should know, if it is your device - if you installed it with a normal BIOS or in UEFI.

Depending on the case, you can recover the GRUB with one of these two commands:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64

It should be noted that this simple method is aimed only at those who installed the system on a regular basis, without changing the location of the boot loader. Of course, the GRUB can be installed wherever you want, including a specific partition, but it will be easier for problems to arise.

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How to activate and deactivate the dark mode in WhatsApp Web

The fact that our society has evolved to live constantly attached to a screen seems to be an immovable reality. That is why many users are beginning to choose to reduce the impact they cause on our health, largely demanding adaptation to the dark mode of some of the most recurring applications such as WhatsApp.

However, in the specific case of this messaging service, there are many who not only use it through the phone, but also have it present on our computers with WhatsApp Web. That is why this time we want to offer this simple and quick tutorial to activate the dark mode in this application.

How to activate the dark mode in WhatsApp Web

Before starting, we must clarify that there are two methods and differentiated results depending on whether we use the black mode function only for the application itself, or if we use any of the tools or extensions that force in dark mode for the entire browser.

In fact, unlike the already announced and imminent arrival of the dark mode function, in this case we will also use an extension within Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Stylus, but that will allow us to limit its use exclusively to this chat .

Thus, its installation will be as simple as downloading the extension in our browser (only available for Chrome or Firefox), and installing it. After this, we must download the dark theme to apply, this time a version of WhatsApp Web, and install it.

WhatsApp Web Dark Theme

Once this is done, we will just have to close and reopen the web application to see the changes applied. In addition, in the case of not being satisfied or wanting to return to the classic mode, we will only have to access the options of our browser and deactivate or delete this extension.

Finally, remind you that we are dealing with unofficial extensions and tools, so all responsibility for its use rests with ourselves. Similarly, although it is one of the best solutions we can find today, there is a possibility that we will find some faults during use.

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How to remove the background of any image online?

Trace is a new Sticker Mule service that automatically removes the background of any photo. You just have to enter the web, log in by creating an account or using your Google credentials and upload the image in question.

The process is extremely simple and works with almost any photo as long as the background and the subject you want to isolate are seen relatively in different planes.

Remove the background of almost any photo automatically

The tool is completely free and allows you to download the resulting image in high resolution and without any watermark. In addition to this, Tracer offers some additional options:

For example, in addition to eliminating the fund instantly, it offers you the possibility of replacing the fund with other things. The integrated editor has several options for images and background colors that you can add in one click.

Trace is a new Sticker Mule 

In the color section you can choose between a preset palette, or enter a hexadecimal color in the wheel. The available background images are not very varied, but surely someone will help.

Either way, it is a useful, easy-to-use, free tool that deserves a place in your browser's bookmarks to have on hand at a time of need.

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How to activate the quick start in Windows 10

Each time they are the users who, instead of turning off their computers, prefer to leave them always on or use intermediate methods such as Hibernation to avoid having to close and lose many of the programs they have open. However, this can lead to a certain "abuse" for our equipment, even shortening the useful life of some of its components.

That is why we want to offer you this tutorial with which we will learn to activate the option of fast start for Windows 10, optimizing the time of start of our team.

First of all, we must warn you that if you have installed another operating system or some configuration for Dual Boot, we recommend you avoid activating this option and even deactivate it, since you might experience some problems in the boot.

How to activate the quick start in Windows 10

1. The quickest way to access the configuration of our battery will be by typing the word "energy" in the Windows search bar, and selecting "Edit Energy Plan" (or right click on the battery icon in the bar) of tools, and select "Energy Options").
2. Once the pop-up window is open, we will look for the option "Choose the behavior of the start / stop buttons", located in the left side panel.
3. In the event that our user does not have administrator's permissions, we must click on the highlighted phrase "Change the configuration currently not available" (where in some cases the system will ask us to confirm our username and password).
4. Once you have unlocked the options, you only have to check the box «Activate quick start», and save the changes before closing the window.

But what is this quick start really good for? 

Unlike other modes such as the suspension or hibernation of the computer, instead of saving the current state of the computer and open applications, this option will allow us to accelerate the fast start of the operating system when we turn on our computer from scratch (although it will not affect the speed of restart), thus being able to allow the computer a greater rest and increasing the useful life of some components such as the battery or RAM.

And is that when we turn off the computer with the quick start activated, instead of deleting all the information from the RAM, Windows keeps a small copy with part of the Kernel and the drivers on the hard drive. So, when we turn on the computer again, instead of loading the entire operating system from scratch, our PC will load from the hibernated system, and may take up to a tenth of the normal boot time.

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How to install and run Photoshop CC on Ubuntu

Photoshop is still the undisputed leader in terms of photo editing programs. It has been exported officially to multiple operating systems but, even today, Linux is not one of them. This has an easy solution thanks to tools like PlayOnLinux, which allow us to run Windows platforms programs natively within a Linux environment.

If restarting your computer to start a Windows environment or run the program under a virtualized environment are not solutions that satisfy you, this guide will show you how to install and run Photoshop CC in Ubuntu.

The execution environment under which the following steps are carried out is MATE, which should not vary from others with regard to the content thereof but only the graphic aspect. In addition, the version of Photoshop CC on which we work is the 32-bit of 2014, since the one that appeared in 2015 is not yet compatible with Linux. Since Adobe has removed the previous version from its website, you will have to search for it if you do not have any previous ones to work on.

Installing Adobe Photoshop CC

The first step we must take is to install the PlayOnLinux tool. We can do it through the software manager of our system (Ubuntu Software Center) or through its own website where the entire installation process is described manually.

Next, we will execute the PlayOnLinux application and select the Wine version from the tools menu. We must choose the version of Wine 1.7.41-PhotoshopBrushes and then install it.

Once the process is complete, we will return to the main PlayOnLinux window and click on the Install> Install an unlisted program button (located in the left corner).

Then, in the next screen, we will click on the Next button and choose the option Install a program in a new virtual unit.

The next step is to give a name to the Photoshop CC application, which in our case is PhotoshopCC.

Then, make sure that you use another version of Wine than the system, configure it and install the necessary libraries.

In our guide we will select the version of Wine "1.7.41-PhotoshopBrushes" (if it does not appear in the list, go back over the previous steps and install it).

The following window will allow you to select the 32-bit version that will run under the Windows environment. Be sure to select Windows 7 and not Windows XP, which is the option that is checked by default.

Then comes the most complex (if it can be considered as such), since it involves selecting which libraries we want to include for Photoshop CC to run correctly. We will select the boxes that refer to the following libraries:

1. POL_Install_atmlib
2. POL_Install_corefonts
3. POL_Install_FontsSmoothRGB
4. POL_Install_gdiplus
5. POL_Install_msxml3
6. POL_Install_msxml6
7. POL_Install_tahoma2
8. POL_Install_vcrun2008
9. POL_Install_vcrun2010
10. POL_Install_vcrun2012

Once this is done, we will click on the Next button. Then we will have to navigate to the location where our Photoshop CC installation program is and start its execution.

Running Photoshop CC

Once the installation of Photoshop CC is finished, if we do not proceed to register our copy of the program we will be running a 30-day trial version. In this case it will be necessary to disconnect the computer network to continue. We will click on Enroll and wait for the system to return an error message, when we will proceed to press Enter later.

Some users will notice that the installation bar disappears before it reaches the end of it, and an error message appears instead. You should not worry about this situation since the program continues to run in the background. So, stay a few minutes more attentive to the process and click on the Next button.

Finally, you can assign a link in PlayOnLinux for Photoshop CC that will create an icon automatically on your desktop.

One last note from the author, if any tool such as the Liquify utility does not work correctly, go to Preferences> Performance and uncheck the option "Use the graphics processor".

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