Windows 10 running slow 100% Disk

 My wife's computer runs slow and here is a fix. 

Try 5 first.

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/100-disk-usage-windows-10-fixed/#b 

What operating system is taking over the world?

I am a Linux fan so this article interested me.

A number of people responded in the comments including this comment by a fellow named Bryan Mills:

It would be correct to say that OS's using unix-clone kernels have taken over, but not Linux. Linux has most of the cloud and server market, but little of the mobile device and desktop markets. Android has a linux kernel but is otherwise not a Linux distro like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. iOS and MacOS are both based on the XNU kernel, which is based on the BSD unix variant. Windows still has the corporate desktop market and virtually all of the home PC market except for Mac. It's impossible to know the exact numbers because nobody is counting Linux installations with any degree of accuracy. All of the articles comparing mobile sales numbers to desktop sales are bogus, because mobile devices are mostly cheap disposable devices getting maybe 1 year of use.

My response to this comment is as follows:

The trouble I see with many tech site predictions about which devices will rule the future is the focus on the OS or the type of device versus the function. The world market for computing function is still growing, and most of that growth is not happening on Windows or Mac OS. Most of the function growth and a lot of the existing computing functions is coming to or moving to other platforms that are powered by the Linux kernel and cloud servers. For example, my son's school just handed out Chromebooks to all the kids the other day, because the vast majority of classroom computing function can be done on Chrome OS / Google classroom.

Most of my computing function can be done on my Android phone or Amazon Fire HDX tablet because I use software that allows me to work from multiple devices (Evernote for example). I still use my 7-year-old Macbook as my main work computer, but it no longer travels with me because I don't need it to do most things. When I do need it from a distance, I can simply Remote Desktop into it.

My house with 6 people has about 20 internet connected devices and one uses Windows and the other uses Mac OS. My 4 kids almost never use a Windows or Mac OS, and yet they use computing devices all the time. They use Amazon Fires, an iPod, Android phones, an Amazon Echo, a PS3, a Chromecast, a Chromebox (hooked to my TV), and a couple of older laptops resurrected with Linux distros on them. Even on the old laptops, the functionality they use is almost exclusively web based so they don't really even need the full Linux OS for that either.

I as the IT guy of the family and my wife as the business manager still need to use some of the functionality of the full OS (we use Quicken for finances), but even for us, 90% of what we do could be done on multiple platforms.

In the very near future, the point will not be the OS, but the functionality. Hardware and operating systems will need to be able to handle the functions we want to do.

It does not matter that most phones are disposable after a year, because the work product remains and a simple log into your accounts repopulates your new phone with all your old data and functions, plus whatever new things the new phone can do. Even the corporate model is going the way of taking the computing function to the cloud, making devices and OS's simply workstations rather than servers.

Therefore the whole OS argument is quickly becoming moot as we move to function and cloud-driven computing.

Easy Google Play Store for Kindle Fire 7 5th Generation

I bought several of the cheap 5th Gen Kindle Fire 7's on Black Friday.

For one of my family members, I need Google Apps, so I needed to find a way to get them onto my machine. In this case, I did not care if it was rooted or not.

Here is the method that worked for me.

First you need to make sure you can work with your Kindle with as an ADB device. I used a Windows machine in this case, but the instructions here also seem to give advice for how to use a Mac as well.

Once that is done then go to these instructions to get a really simple little batch file that runs and puts the Google Playstore on your device.

If the Playstore does not work, you may have to have to go here, and run some of the ADB commands to get it working.

Hope this helps.

Setting up Google Apps on my Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9

I just bought a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 3rd Generation. Amazon does not want you to use native Google apps, so that make it difficult to get the apps to run on your Kindle Fire, but since I use Google Drive/Docs/Sheets and have some games that link to Google Play, I needed it to work on my tablet.

Here are some instructions on how I got Google Apps to work on my Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 third generation. I was able to do this without rooting the fire but it does take work around and I had to go on a Windows PC to make it work.

Initial, I followed the instruction here, but that did not completely do the trick so instead I went to these instructions which are a little more complicated, but worked well for me. This second site also had a lot of other instructions on some extra things that you might need to do, and the instructions were quite clear.

This involved downloading a separate program on my Windows computer and connecting the Fire as an Android device. This is not for novice computer users, but if you can follow instructions and have a general knowledge of computing devices you can probably do it.

So once you have downloaded 1Mobile Market and installed it by sideloading it on your Kindle you can get most of the apps right there, but do not trust it with Google Play Services. It updated this to the wrong structure for my Kindle, so all my Google apps stopped working and it came up with an error message, something like, "Wrong architecture for you device." It said the apk was for the x86 structure, but this device needed the armeabi-v7a structure.

So instead go to this link, so that you can download the proper apk for your device. Here are the instructions that help you pick the right apk for your device.  I think this site may have all the apks that you need for Google apps you need, so if 1Mobile Market app does not work, perhaps you could download them from here and sideload them. 

Uploader's notes:

To figure out the right version of Google Play services for your Android device, go to Settings -> Apps -> Google Play services, and look at the last 3 numbers in the parentheses. You'll see something like -XYZ where:

* X defines Android version:

0 for Android <5.0
4 and 7 for Android >=5.0
8 for Android TV


* Y defines CPU architecture:

1 for armeabi
3 for armeabi-v7a
4 for arm64-v8a
7 for x86


* Z defines DPI:

0 for universal
2 for 160
4 for 240
6 for 320
8 for 480

Notes:
It seems that -7YZ builds became -4YZ with Google Play services 6.5. If you were on -7YZ before, you should now install -4YZ.
Looks like -8YZ builds are for Android TV.

Examples:
-014 for Android <5.0 armeabi CPU 240 DPI device
-438 for Android 5.0+ armeabi-v7a CPU 480 DPI device
-876 for Android TV x86 CPU 320 DPI device

• With these instructions I picked the right apk (one that ended in 034), and my google apps started working again. I will also use this site to update my google play services as necessary rather than trust 1Mobile Market for this one.

Purpose

I am a tech hobbiest and so I dabble in lots of different tech. In my household, I have almost every major operating system from Windows to Apple MacOS to IOS to Android to ChromeOS and even a few Linux Distros. I am not a programmer, but I like trying new things.

I have in the past run my own home tech business to help people clean up and fix their computers and small electronics. I have also helped to manage computers and networks in all of my small churches. So hopefully what I have learned will help someone else.

So when I try something new and have to problem solve, I will use this blog as a way to pass along the information that I learned to help someone else make an informed decision. It is also a way for me to remember how I did that thing in the past.