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Disable Livefyre trackbacks in WordPress

12th May 2013 PCRepairMan

livefyre review

I was quite a big fan of Livefyre for a while. Yes there have been many comments about how Comment Luv or Disqus are better and it seems everyone has their own preference. A while back I noticed that Livefyre had a quirk that meant that even if you turned off trackbacks via WordPress admin, this was only activated for new posts and not existing ones. For reference, in WordPress this is turned off in the Settings > Discussion menu.

This isn’t a fault in Livefyre, more a problem with the lack of easy control of posts that have already been published or are in draft within the WordPress database.

So if your older posts have trackbacks enabled you could see something like this (a screenshot from one of my posts here):

Livefyre trackback removal

Hmm, not doing the article a great deal of favours is it really? From a search engine point of view this article now has duplicate content and more outgoing links. So what can we do to get the older posts to not display trackbacks? Well we could go back in and edit all the posts that we are aware of by unticking the ‘Allow trackbacks’ box. Unfortunately, on larger blogs this is not practical. Time to get our hands dirty with some SQL statements.

Disable Livefyre trackbacks in WordPress using phpMyAdmin and SQL

Login to your control panel and fire up phpMyAdmin. Select your WordPress database and back it up. If you’re not sure how to do this, I wrote a detailed article here:

Backup WordPress MySQL database using phpMyAdmin (opens in a new window).

So now we have a working backup, select your database and click on the SQL tab from the top menu bar. Insert this code into the command box and click on ‘Go’:

UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'post';
UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'page';
UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'draft' AND post_type = 'post';

Note that you need to replace wp_ with your own table prefix if it’s different. You should now have all your old posts that have been published (and any draft posts waiting to be published) disabled for trackbacks.

Backup WordPress database tutorial

11th May 2013 PCRepairMan

wordpress backup

This is a tutorial on how to backup your WordPress database manually using phpMyAdmin and the SQL export method. It may sound difficult for the non-technical but it isn’t really and is something that is essential for the maintenance of any WordPress site. If you have ever lost any data before you’ll know what a huge and time consuming problem this can lead to so let’s get going.

First off, please bookmark this page in your browser, you’ll probably need to refer to it again for the first few backups!

Login to your cPanel. This is where you will see lots of useful tools and the one we shall use is phpMyAdmin shown below.

php myadmin wordpress backup

Click to open it and you will now have to select your database from the left hand side, usually something like mysite_wrdp1. Don’t select the information_schema as this is not the one we want.

Now you look to the right of the screen and you can see tabs relating to functions we can actually run on the database.

We want to select ‘Export’ here. Now for the bit everybody gets wrong…. You should select the ‘Custom export method’ which gives you greater control over the final exported database. For ease of reference, I have compiled a screenshot of the best options to select for the majority of users. Make sure you click to select all tables in your database, I have seen so many people just backup one table within the database and the backup is effectively useless. Here are all the settings you need to have in the latest version of phpMyAdmin:

database backup wordpress phpmyadmin latest

Notice I have removed the prefix from the table names (shown in blue above) as you or a program may have modified this. By default it is wp_ but many security packages rename it. There is nothing to do here, I’m just pointing this out for clarity.

Now you can click on ‘Go’ and you should be able to download a working copy of your database. You can’t really view this file as it requires a database server (although you can connect to it with a few software tools that exist). You can however upload it to a new installation or use it when the poop hits the fan and disaster strikes on your server.

That’s about all you need to do to have a working backup of your database. Remember to FTP into your server and copy all the files over too as many files and folders are necessary to get back up and running as you were. For example, your wp-content/uploads folder is not backed up automatically and this is where most images used on your blog are stored.

Automatic WordPress SQL backups and file copying features

If you want a click-and-forget solution then I would heartily recommend the excellent WP-Twin which you can download here https://wp-twin.com
This neat program not only backs up your database but also ALL of your files on the server, meaning that any special folders outside of WordPress get copied over too. It has an easy reinstall option that takes the pain out of disasters, well worth it if you aren’t too sure how to go about reinstallation.

I hope this helps you to start a decent WordPress backup regime and I’d be happy to know if this helped you, please drop me a comment below or click the social buttons to share with others.

Market Samurai review with current discount code and money off

10th May 2013 PCRepairMan

market-samurai-review Reviewing Market Samurai is difficult without comparing it to similar products. The problem is, there are very few to choose from that are in its class. Most people will barely touch on all the key functions that it has to offer. As a keyword research tool it really excels and if you need to research a market to completely dominate it then there is no better product currently available that does all that Market Samurai achieves.

If you know the power of this tool and arrived here simply to get promo discount codes then their current offer is really quite excellent but well hidden. Download the free trial of Market Samurai from here. Try it free to make sure you like it then purchase the full version immediately and watch the price drop by over $50! That’s a huge 35% off the retail price.

I have been running this tool since the early days of its launch and have seen it grow into a full-featured app. Powered by the very slick Adobe AIR platform, it looks like no other tool out there. I have tested it quite thoroughly, running on these systems: XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003, 2008 and Win 7 and it looks identical and runs smoothly on each. It interfaces seamlessly with Google, even offering Google’s Captcha code in a slick way.

Market Samurai offers:

Keyword Research
Rank Tracker
SEO competition analysis
Domain Research
Monetization
Content Finder
Content Publisher
Backlink Promotion

Market Samurai enables you to find and target profitable niches with incredible accuracy but how does it compare to the competition? Well I have been a long time fan of Micro Niche Finder which is a software tool that does what it says on the tin. Comparing the two it is fair to say that both offer extensive keyword research. Results are far from identical but running the generated keyword lists from one and dropping it into the other gets highly addictive. And highly targeted.

If I had to choose one I’d be happy with either! Give me two and I’ll guarantee to create a niche that works every time. I don’t want to detract from Market Samurai though. The ability to create a new project, run a series of exhaustive tests on keywords finding high traffic ones with relevancy, assess market competition and commerciality all lead to a rounded product with astonishing value for money.

Downsides? Hard to think of any but if I’m pushed I’d say that the average beginner dipping his toes into SEO would need some hand-holding. That said, this side is more than covered with the impeccable support. Ticket systems, knowledgebase, forums, troubleshooter, video tutorials all help to get beginners quickly up to speed.

PCRepairMan’s verdict:

Buy Market Samurai today if you care about ranking your site and researching profitable niche markets.

Can I install OEM software on Mac Boot Camp or Virtual Machine?

10th May 2013 PCRepairMan

Well, it seems there are lots of people asking about this installing OEM Windows software on Mac desktops and laptops. This is a grey area that I’d like to clear up (or make slightly off-white). I’ll present the facts and you can make your own decision.

OEM versions are, in theory, to be used by system builders. It is generally accepted now, although unwritten, that people can readily purchase these and install them. Just look at the plentiful supplies on major ecommerce sites and you’ll see that the OEM software is not just for system builders. Effectively, someone who installs an operating system on a PC is doing the job of a system builder, it’s just the component assembly part they are missing, and many system builders actually buy whole machines now anyway.

The thing to note with OEM software, is that if your computer dials out for licence verification then it needs to be installed on just one piece of hardware to be classed as genuine. That’s the only check. Since Retail versions are much more expensive than OEM, people are naturally drawn to them.

There are a few things to be aware of for OEM installation which I’ll clarify here:

1) Retail versions come with both 32-bit and 64-bit installations as an option. OEM versions are one or the other, so you will want to make sure you’re ordering the right version. For your Mac, check that it is a 64 bit machine and go for this if it is. If you do have 64 bit then choose a product like Windows 7 as it’s stable, well rounded and I have seen Windows 8 splutter and complain a few times. Something like this would be perfect:

Cheap Windows 7 OEM (opens in a new tab)

The differences in 32 and 64 bit operating system software can often be marginal unless you are really pushing the computer hard, but for a small price difference 64 is a better operating system when on full load. Many software programs are 32 bit so they don’t take advantage of the extra ‘word architecture’ but when you run something like Adobe Photoshop 64 bit that is resource-hungry, it can be noticeable.

2) OEM versions are tied to the hardware they are installed on and cannot be moved. This will only be an issue if you are planning on using virtualization software as well as your bootcamp (dual boot) installation, since the virtual machine “hardware” looks different to the real hardware.

3) OEM versions do not come with telephone support from MS, although if you try to talk to a Microsoft representative about issues you are getting on a Mac then you may be fighting a losing battle as they are known to pass them back to you.

To summarise, I would go with an OEM dual-boot installation (64 bit if possible) OR run a virtual machine. You may even be able to run a cheaper XP licence as a virtual machine and this may suffice. If it is to run an older program such as MS Money this could work well as it may run more happily too.

64 bit architecture explained on Wikipedia

Drop me a comment below if this helped you or please click the social buttons to help others save a bit of money too.

WordPress SEO by Yoast – using sitemaps

6th May 2013 PCRepairMan

If you are using the fabulous WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast, you’ll find that it also does the job of creating a sitemap for you. You need to opt in to this within the plugin’s settings field here:
“XML sitemaps” then tick the “Check this box to enable XML sitemap functionality“.

There are a few caveats that this plugin doesn’t make you aware of though and this can affect the whole indexing of your website by the search engines.

1. If you are now making reference to this sitemap elsewhere (such as within W3 Total Cache etc) then you will need to alter the path to your sitemap thus:

https://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

2. You will need to remove any other sitemaps from your root folder. Look for:

sitemap.xml
sitemap.xml.gz

3. Make sure that your robots.txt has this line:

https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Your XML sitemap doesn’t actually exist at this location so don’t think it’s not working if you can’t see this file. Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin places the files in a subfolder of your uploads directory, and using WP Rewrite the URL will resolve to the right sitemap. It also works with Multi Site installs whether domain mapped or not. To check it is functioning, fire up your browser and navigate to the sitemap (as in step 3 above). You should see the file there.

Hope this helps!

Check you have the latest Norton product version

6th May 201320th February 2017 PCRepairMan

Here’s a well kept secret….Symantec offer a way to check you have the latest Norton product on your system and they actually give you a free upgrade if not.

If you are running a Norton product such as Internet Security, Antivirus or 360, click here to check for a free upgrade to other versions of Norton.

Save the file to your desktop and run it, it will prompt for action if you can get a free upgrade.

For cheap prices on Norton renewals, take a look at my software store which currently has huge discounts on Norton products

Notepad++ compare icons explained

27th June 2012 PCRepairMan

Here’s a brief explanation of the Notepad++ compare icons which are surprisingly undocumented:

Green plus symbol = line added
Red minus symbol = line deleted
Yellow exclamation mark symbol = line changed
Blue arrow symbol = line moved

You can access the compare menu from Plugins, Compare, Compare or by simply selecting Alt-D. You need to load the 2 files to compare first and have them as the last 2 on your tabbed list.

We’re sorry Thunderbird had a problem and has crashed

5th January 2012 PCRepairMan

Thunderbird crashes repair fix If you see the error “We’re sorry Thunderbird had a problem and has crashed”, all is not lost. I’ll take you through some fault-finding stages that may help.

Here’s what the window looks like on most computers:

Yikes, not great information there and submitting information to Mozilla doesn’t help you in the short term, although it helps them to develop the software better.

OK, the first step I take is to download and install the excellent free MozBackup from here:

https://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/download.php

Close all open programs and run the tool. Create a backup accepting all the default options (this backs up everything).

Now we can work on the program without risk of losing data. Download the latest version of Thunderbird from here:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all.html

Now we are going to run the installation program and install it to the exact same location your existing one is in. Note, we are not uninstalling the existing version. If you are not sure of the location, accept the defaults. The installation program will not tell you it has detected an existing version but that’s OK.

Thunderbird reinstall after crash

For reference, I have done this countless times and the last was overwriting a version 8 with version 9. If you are running a really old version then there may be a compatibility issue but I haven’t found anything that version 9 can’t successfully overwrite yet.

Restarting Thunderbird after the reinstall

Now we can start Thunderbird. It may prompt to update plugins which you can accept or disable those you don’t use. You should find your data exactly as you had before. In my experience, you only need to fill in your SMTP server details (if at all). If you have anything missing you can run MozBackup to reinstate it.

Install any plugins or add-ons that aren’t there that you previously had such as Spam filtering (via an Internet Security package or other such as SpamFighter etc).

Job’s a good’un and you should now have a fully functioning Mozilla Thunderbird without the “We’re sorry Thunderbird had a problem and has crashed” window!

PC freezes at chkdsk.sys

29th December 2011 PCRepairMan

Fault: PC freezes at chkdsk.sys

This is a common fault that we see in our workshop. It can occur in safe mode and normal mode but with normal mode the PC often fails to load windows and just keeps restarting itself. This happens on desktop PCs and very often on laptops as they suffer knocks and bumps to the hard drive and battery failure.

The problem is the disk itself in 99 percent of cases. Whether it can be fixed is down to a number of factors but, in short, here’s how we go about testing it and repairing the fault. I’ll presume that you wish to recover data (documents, images, emails etc) from the disk as most of our clients do. We have a great success rate in recovering data and getting Windows running again with this method.

First, we set the host PC’s bios to start from CD. If you don’t know how to do this then take a look at my article How to change the boot order of a PC.

Next, we’ll pop over and get a copy of the excellent HDD Regenerator, downloadable here (link opens in a new window). This is the single most useful disk checking tool out there at the moment. It’s not free but it will give you the best chance of data retrieval. Also it’s a tool that is very useful to have in your repair arsenal and you can fix other PCs with it too. I’ve written a full review of HDD regen here. You’ll need to use another PC to create the bootable CD or DVD with but as you’re reading this I’ll presume you have access to one. HDD regenerator can also create a bootable flash drive but for maximum compatibility use the CD.

Next we boot the dead PC with our CD (or Flash drive) and enter the HDD regenerator interface. Tell it to scan the correct hard drive (often there’s only one anyway) and let the program do its stuff, all automatically. Allow an hour or more to scan a drive of about 160GB on a typical Windows XP machine. Newer PCs have better, faster processors and more RAM but they often have bigger drives so a typical scan can take a few hours.

Remember, what the program is doing is a sector-by-sector analysis of your hard drive and moving data from bad areas of the drive to good. This takes time, often we see scans running for several hours, but it will ultimately help you to be able to recover your data and in most cases get Windows restarted. You can also leave the scan running overnight, you don’t need to sit and watch it!

After the chkdsk.sys error repair

With the drive finally scanned, the program reports how many bad sectors it found and you simply press ‘Esc’ to quit the program.

Restart your PC, removing the CD on the initial restart, and make it your first job to backup those files you thought you had lost!

Reference: chkdsk.sys fault when computer starts causes PC to hang or freeze

Notepad PlusPlus search up and down annoyance

28th September 2011 PCRepairMan

With Notepad++ freshly installed, the default behaviour for the search function is to select either “Up” or “Down” directions. This for most programmers is hugely annoying because the document start or end is reached before all instances of the word or phrase are found. Find and replace uses the same functionality too.

Fortunately, there is a fix. You should tick the “Wrap around” checkbox as I have highlighted below. This will then give you the (correct?) full search behaviour.

Hope this helps shave a few minutes off your day and saves some RSI on the wrists!