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Download YouTube Video Using VLC Media Player

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VLC Media Player is a free, open-sourced, video media player and video toolkit available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It will play local video files as well as YouTube video streams.

VLC’s built-in plugins are utilized to stream YouTube videos. Simply drag and drop the video URL from your browser into the VLC Media Player window to start playing the video.

This article will show you how to play YouTube videos within the VLC Media Player on Windows and also how to download those videos as MP4 files. Note, you are only legally allowed to download your own videos and can do so right from the YouTube Studio interface without the need for VLC.

 

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Opening Encrypted DVD’s with HandBrake

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This article covers how to open encrypted DVD’s with HandBrake and libdvdcss for legal and educational purposes only.

Utilizing those two tools will help open DVDs with region codes and CSS encryption. Note, HandBrake with libdvdcss won’t work on DVDs encrypted with Disney X-project DRM, RCE, Sony ArccOS, etc.

 

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Delete Camera Roll, Saved Pictures & Captures folders

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A personal computer is just that… personal. I really wish Microsoft would stop forcing us to utilize folders which we don’t specifically request. I say “we” because I have, and continue, to transfer files for many clients from old to new PC’s. You would be amazed at the number of empty folders (which Microsoft and others have automatically created over the years) which have accumulated and cluttered up client computers.

With Windows 10 and Windows 11, Microsoft has introduced three more folders, the “Camera Roll” and “Saved Pictures” within the Pictures folder and “Captures” within the Videos folder. Any attempts to delete these folders would be futile, they simply reappear the next time you open a photo or video file. The culprits generating these empty folders are the Microsoft Camera and Photo apps. These two apps continuously monitor for and recreate the Camera Roll, Saved Pictures, and Captures folders if they are missing.

In this article I will show you how to permanently remove these Windows 10 and Windows 11 default folders.

 

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Set Google Shared Drive Theme Thumbnail

Free Google Shared Drive Theme Photoshop Template

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This article will provide you with instructions and a free Adobe Photoshop template for correctly creating a Google Shared Drive Theme image.

 

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WPEngine WordPress Web Hosting

Remove WPEngine from WordPress Website

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In this article I will cover how to clean up a migrated website away from WPEngine to a local or new website hosting provider.

While I have no issues with the WPEngine company or hosting service, when trying to migrate a website away from their platform they leave some unnecessary files behind, specifically within your wp-content and mu-plugins directories.

If you choose to migrate away from WP Engine or need to setup a local development environment, you’ll need to follow these steps in order to ensure success.

 

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Enable WordPress SVG Uploads to Media Library

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In this article I will cover how to enable SVG uploads on your WordPress website quickly and easily using a free WordPress plugin.

As of this writing, SVG uploads are not permitted by the WordPress core for security (and for good reason). SVG files are basically XML files, which may include malicious code opening your WordPress website to attack. These include but may not be limited to XML external entity attacks (XXE), bomb nested entities (BNE) and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.

 

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Download New Tab Background Images from Brave

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A fresh install of the Brave internet browser reveals an assortment of stunning photography for its opening page and new tabs. The Brave browser can also display sponsored images which is part of their Brave Rewards program and can actually earn you their BAT cryptocurrency.

From time to time I personally find some of the photography displayed within the Brave browser to be desktop wallpaper worthy. But how do I capture this work of art for use as my desktop wallpaper? In this article I will show you how.

 

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Remove Dashes from Save for Web in Photoshop

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I frequently use Adobe Photoshop to enhance and compress my web related images. When using the “Save for Web & Devices” feature it automagically replaces any spaces, within the filename, with a dash for Unix compatibility purposes. This is not always necessary, so in this article I will show you how to disable the automatic replacement of spaces with dashes when using Save for Web in Photoshop.

Another negative result of this automatic insertion of dashes in place of spaces is when uploading images to WordPress. WordPress pulls the filename and inserts it into the Title field for the uploaded image. For search engine optimization purposes this is okay, but the dashes make it look unsightly when you hover your mouse over the image on the frontend. I then have to manually remove those dashes from the image title and save the changes. Turning the insertion of dashes feature off when using the Save for Web & Devices feature in Photoshop would prevent these additional steps. So lets get into doing so.

 

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How to Open WebP Images in Adobe Photoshop

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Opening .WebP files within older versions of Adobe Photoshop is not native. Meaning you will need a way to instruct Adobe Photoshop on handling such an image file. This article will show you a quick and easy way of doing so. Note that this should work for the following versions of Adobe Photoshop: 7.0, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS6.

 

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New Happy Hour Menu Design for Naples Restaurant

New Happy Hour Menu Design for Naples Restaurant

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We were recently hired to update the Happy Hour menu of a local Naples Italian Restaurant, Rosedale Brick Oven Pizza.

Reviewing their needed changes we felt like we were looking at a diamond in the rough. We asked the restaurant owner if we could propose a new design for the menu to which he agreed. No doubt he felt comforted having worked with us before.

We were pleased to design what you see here as the final product. More importantly, he was happy with it and it looks great posted on the outside of the restaurant’s entrance. Large font makes it easy to read and not a ton of graphics. But if you look close you’ll see a few speckle artifacts that add that extra bit of class to the design. Simple and classic, we are proud of it.

 

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