Ben Hutchison Aldaviva

Problem

In May 2025, Microsoft once again changed (for like the 5^th time) how they show ads for Microsoft Store apps in the Windows 11 Start Menu. These ads appear in search results under the Store heading, and they cannot be blocked by any previous techniques such as web search in Start (DisableSearchBoxSuggestions) or Store ads in Start Recommended (Start_IrisRecommendations).

Solution

Download DB Browser for SQLite (the x64 .zip file is sufficient)
Run DB Browser for SQLite.exe
Open the SQLite database file

Problem

Assembly loading priority is greedy (probably for performance) and always prefers to use bundled libraries, even if the runtime already provides a better version.

This makes older .NET apps that should roll forward not actually be forward compatible. Newer runtime-provided libraries will be forced to load the app's old bundled dependencies (like System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource), which will crash the runtime that requires a newer version with a FileNotFoundException.

Example

For example, consider a typical non-self-contained, single-file app that targets .NET 8 Runtime or greater. When .NET 10 was released, users should have been able to upgrade from .NET 8 Runtime to .NET 10 Runtime without breaking, retargeting, upgrading dependencies in, or recompiling this app. With normal dependencies, such as Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting 9.0.11, this will crash on launch with a FileNotFoundException because the app transitively depends on and bundles packages such as `System.Diagnostics.Diagn

Fish (setup)
PowerShell

Create a new keypair

gpg --full-generate-key
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

Caution

For signing Git commits on GitHub, you must use the exact same email address to generate the GPG keypair that your GitHub account uses. Otherwise, your commit signatures will be invalid, and you will need to create another keypair with the correct email address.

Export keys

Import TOTP from Google Authenticator into Keepass

Export a QR code from Google Authenticator
1. Open the Google Authenticator Android app
2. Tap ☰ › Transfer accounts › Export accounts
3. Laboriously deselect all accounts except the one you want to export
4. Tap Next
Decode the otpauth-migration URI from the QR code
1. Take a screenshot of the QR code on the screen by holding Power+Volume Down
Open the screenshot in Google Photos or another app that can decode QR codes

SSL Cipher Suite Order

📃 Edit using gpedit.msc › Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates › Network > SSL Configuration Settings > SSL Cipher Suite Order.

🅰 These cipher suites will grant you an A+ ranking on Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test and testssl.sh.

⚡ Changes require a reboot to take effect.

⚠️ Using the Server 2019 cipher suite order on Server 2022 will result in Windows Update failures with the error message "we couldn't connect to the update service." Before upgrading from Server 2019 to Server 2022, make sure to disable this policy or set its value to the Server 2022 value below.

🍦 Default cipher suite orders are listed on Microsoft Learn for Server 2019, [Server 2022](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthn/tls-cipher-suites-in-wi

	/*
	* Features:
	* - Hide the Get Started tab, Fiddler Orchestra Beta tab, and Composer history pane, which don't remember their visibility across Fiddler restarts
	* - Change Composer default URL from "http://www.example.com/", which is useless and you always have to delete, to "http://localhost:" which is always what you want and allows easy port and path appending
	* Installation: Add these members to the Handlers class in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Fiddler2\Scripts\CustomRules.js
	*/
	class Handlers {

	// If you already have an OnBoot() method, you'll want to combine it with this, or rename this and call it from yours.
	static function OnBoot() {

	sudo apt install fish
	# sudo dnf install fish

	chsh -s $(which fish) $(whoami)
	fish

	set -U fish_greeting
	set -Ux EDITOR (which emacs)
	set --show EDITOR
	# you'll probably need to log out for these to take effect; until then they will be shadowed by other values like nano

	sudo mkdir -p /mnt/aegir
	sudo mount -t cifs -o username=ben,uid=ben //aegir.aldaviva.com/Ben /mnt/aegir