MoonPoint Support Weblog

Moving a Filename Magic Pro license from one system to another

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:05:00 -0400

My wife has been using Filename Magic Pro for Windows for many years; she has version 1.00, which still appears to be the latest version. The software "offers robust functionality for batch renaming files within folders. It streamlines the process for organizing large collections of documents, music, or images." I transitioned her desktop PC from Microsoft Windows 11 to Ubuntu Linux 25.10 and installed Wine so that she could run Windows applications that she might want to still use on the Ubuntu system. I was able to install Filename Magic Pro and use it without any problems on the Ubuntu system. If you choose to have the program create a desktop shortcut during the installation, you will see two shortcuts on the desktop, Filename Magic Pro.desktop and Filename Magic Pro.lnk. If you right-click on Filename Magic Pro.desktop and choose Allow Launching, you can then double-click on the shortcut to start the application. You can delete the Filename Magic Pro.lnk by right-clicking on it and choosing Move to Trash.

When you start the program, if it is unregistered, you will see a countdown timer that counts down from 15.

You can wait to the countdown gets to zero or just close the countdown window to proceed, which will then lead to the display of the window below.

There is a "click here to purchase" link, but that no longer works; if you click on it, you will see a HTTP 404 error indicating the page no longer exists. But if you previously purchased a license as we had, you can transfer it from an old system to a new system or, in our case, from Windows to Linux by exporting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\L5 Software Group registry keys, which you can do with the Windows registry editor, RegEdit, or you can download or copy this L5SoftwareGroup.reg file and edit it with a text editor, such as Windows Notepad and replace the AppRegKey Xs with your license key (be sure to save it with just the .reg extension and not a .txt file extension tacked on). You can add the registry keys to the registry used by Wine by opening a Terminal window and running the command wine regedit filename.reg where filename is the name of the .reg file.

jim@Wonderland:~$ wine regedit ~/Downloads/L5SoftwareGroup.reg 
jim@Wonderland:~$

When you then open the program, you won't see the countdown timer and can just click on OK. You can press Alt-Tab afterwards to get to the main Filename Magic Pro window.

Setting the default application to open PDF and EPUB files in Wine

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:51:00 -0400

I installed Wine on an Ubuntu Linux system to be able to run Microsoft Windows applications on it. I installed Sumatra PDF to view PDF and EPUB files. When I double-clicked on EPUB files in the Wine File Explorer window, which you can run by issuing the command wine explorer in a Terminal window, or wine explorer &, if you wish to open it and immediately return to the shell prompt, I saw an Error window which stated "There is no Windows program configured to open this type of file." If I double-clicked on a PDF file, it would open in the GNOME Document Viewer application. I was able to set the default application for opening those files under Wine with the following steps:

From the Bash prompt in a Terminal window, run the Wine registry editor program to modify the Windows Registry with wine regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.epub and set (Default) = epubfile. If you don't see a .epub entry, right-click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and choose New. You can press the F5 key or choose View and Refresh to refresh the display to show the new entry in alphabetical order.
If you then click on the .epub entry, you will see (Default) under Name, REG_SZ under Type, and (value not set) under Data.
Double-click on the entry and then type epubfile in the Value data field and then click on OK.
Then navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\epubfile\shell\open\command, if it exists. If there is no epubfile entry you can create one by right-clicking on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and selecting New and Key giving the new key a name of epubfile. Then double-click on the (Default) entry under the new key and type EPUB Document in the Value data field. Then right-click on the epubfile key and choose New and Key and type shell for the name. Right-click on shell and create a new, open beneath it. Then right-click on open and create a new key, command beneath open.
Then right click on the command key and choose New then String Value.
Double-click on the new (Default) entry under command and then type the location and file name for the application that you wish to use to open .epub files within double quotes followed by a space and then "%1", e.g. "C:\Program Files\SumatraPDF\SumatraPDF.exe" "%1", if you wish to open the files with Sumatra PDF and you installed it so that it is accessible to all users of the system. Or use "C:\users\username\AppData\Local\SumatraPDF\SumatraPDF.exe " "%1", where username is the relevant username, if you chose to install it just for the current user when you installed it.

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Installing MakeMKV on a Ubuntu Linux system

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:58:00 -0400

After trying unsuccessfully to get the Snap package of MakeMKV working on an Ubuntu Linux system (see Installing the MakeMKV Snap Package on a Ubuntu Linux system), I uninstalled the Snap version and installed the software from the source code. Though installing the application from source code involved more steps, I was able to successfully install and then rip a couple of discs in far less time than I spent trying to get the Snap version to work.

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Updating file locations in Book Collector

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:28:00 -0400

Collectorz now appears to be focusing on their mobile and web-based products for managing book collections, but they also provide a desktop Book Collector desktop application for systems running Microsoft Windows, though I don't even see a link for it on the homepage of their website nor do I see one in their sitemap webpage. However, if you are using the desktop product and need to update your Book Collector database if the location of cover images, thumbnails, list item images, templates, and/or local files for entries already in the datbase, you can take the steps below. You can specify the directories for new entries by clicking on Tools, Options, Folders to set the directories Book Collector should use by default.

Inside the Book Collector program, click on Tools then select Update File Links. In the Update File Links window you can "choose the kind of files you would like to repair". I left the default value of All Types, but you can also select Front Cover, Back Cover, Pick List Image, Pick List Template Image, Local File, or Backdrop. When you click on Next Step, you can choose to have the program automatically update the old folder to the new folder or you can choose to do it manually. With the automatic option, you can "Select a base folder and let the program find the missing files automatically" while with the manual option you can "Use a find and replace action to manually fix your file paths". For the "Choose folder where to find files", browse to the appropriate directory where the files are now located. Check the box next to "Include subfolders", if that is appropriate, and then click on Next step. The program will then show a "Finding best matches for missing files" window with a progress bar as it updated links.

At the next step, Step 4, you can see the resulting file paths and click on the Update File Links button to finalize the changes. You will then see the number of file links that will be updated and asked if you are sure to proceed. I saw a window with a message that Book Collector was not responding, but I chose "Wait" several times and it finally completed. When all the links are updated, you should see a window informing you of the number of file links updated. If you updated the location for the images for books already in the database, you should now see the images appear for book entries.

If you just need to update the links for a particular kind of files, e.g., the local files, or the location of those files differs from the location of other files, e.g., if they are on a different drive than the images, etc., at Step 1 where you "choose the kind of files you would like to repair", you can choose that file type instead of "All Types".

I was able to use the above steps when transitioning my wife's desktop computer from Windows to Ubuntu Linux, after I installed Book Collector under Wine, to specify the new location of image and local files.

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Ejecting a Disc with PowerShell

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:39:00 -0400

I needed to eject a optical disc drive tray from a command-line interface (CLI) on a system running Microsoft Windows 11 so that I could insert a DVD in the drive. That can be done using the Powershell command powershell (New-Object -ComObject WMPlayer.OCX.7).cdromCollection.item(0).Eject(), which will eject the tray of the first optical drive found by Windows Media Player's COM object.

PS C:\> powershell (New-Object -ComObject WMPlayer.OCX.7).cdromCollection.item(0).Eject()
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Install the latest PowerShell for new features and improvements! https://aka.ms/PSWindows

PS C:\>

Could not initialise OpenGL support

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:15:00 -0400

I downloaded a YouTube video on a Ubuntu Linux with yt-dlp. When I tried to view the downloaded WebM file with the default video application, Videos, also known as Totem, which is an application for playing videos that is provided with Ubuntu, I saw the message below:

Ⓧ

An error occurred

Could not initialise OpenGL support

When I opened the video with VLC, which I had previously installed, I heard audio, but no video was displayed. I checked to see if the Nvidia driver was up-to-date since the system had an Nvidia graphics card, but they were up-to-date. You can check that by clicking on the Show Apps button at the lower-right-hand corner of the screen Ubuntu desktop. Then type Software Updates in the "Type to search" field. Click on Software & Updates and then click on the Additional Drivers.

To resolve the problem, I added the following line to the /etc/environment file with a text editor:

GDK_GL=gles

When I rebooted the system, I was then able to view the video with the default Videos application, though when I tried playing it in VLC I could hear audio, but did not see video.

No video shown when playing a WebM file in VLC

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:10:00 -0400

When I tried to play a YouTube video I downloaded as a WebM file using yt-dlp on an Ubuntu Linux system in the VLC media player application, I could hear the audio, but no video was shown. I tried opening a few other .webm videos and found I was able to view the video in some, but not others, though I was able to view the video and hear the audio in all the .mp4 and .mkv files. I tried changing the video output setting from "Automatic" to "OpenGL video output" and then "XVideo output (XCB)", which you can do by clicking on Tools, then Preferences, then Video, and then selecting those options from the dropdown list next to Output, but neither of those options resolved the problem, so I reset Output to Automatic. I was able to resolve the problem by taking the following steps, though:

In the VLC program, click on Tools and then select Preferences.
Click on Input/Codecs and change the hardware-accelerated decoding setting by clicking on the downward arrowhead next to Automatic, which will be the setting if the default setting is in effect.
Change the setting to Disable and then click on Save.

When I checked the Codec information for the file where I could not view the video before disabling the hardware-accelerated decoding setting, which you can do by opening an audiovisual (AV) file in VLC and then selecting Tools and Codec Information, I saw the video codec was AOMedia's AV1 Video (av01). When I checked the video codec for another WebM file where the video wasn't visible in VLC, I saw it was also the AOMedia's AV1 Video (av01) codec. Checking the video codec for .webm files where I could view the video, I saw Google/ON2's VP9 Video (VP90) for some and H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) for another.

Note: you can also determine the codecs used in a file using the mediainfo utility, which you can install on an Ubuntu system with sudo apt-get install mediainfo. You can check on whether it is already installed using the command which mediainfo, which would show the location of the mediainfo executable file if the application was installed, or you can use dpkg -s mediainfo, which will show details on the mediainfo package if it is installed.

Concatenating videos with FFmpeg

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:48:00 -0400

The FFmpeg video handling utility can be used to join videos together into one larger video. If the video files are MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG Program Stream (PS) , or Digital Video (DV) files, you can use a Direct Stream copy method, by issuing a command in the form

ffmpeg -i "concat:input1.mpg|input2.mpg" -c copy 
output.mpg

. Using ffmpeg for the concatenation operation ensures that file headers and timestamps are handled correctly, whereas using operating system commands such as cat on a Linux system or copy /b on a Microsoft Windows system may produce payback issues. This method can not be used for MPEG-4 files, however.

Another method that can be used for MP4 files, as well as the above file types is the Concat Demuxer method, if the files use the same codecs and parameters, such as resolution, framerate, etc. If the files have the same characteristics, you can use a command of the form:

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i inputFileList.txt -c copy output.mp4

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Trimming a video with FFmpeg

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:17:00 -0400

FFmpeg provides a suite of command-line interface tools for working with audio and video files. It is free and open-source software that is available for a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS. If you wish to use it on a Microsoft Windows system, you can install it with the Windows Package Manager known as winget by opening a command prompt window and issuing the command winget install "FFmpeg (Essentials Build)".

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.7623]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>winget install "FFmpeg (Essentials Build)"
Found FFmpeg (Essentials Build) [Gyan.FFmpeg.Essentials] Version 8.0.1
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://github.com/GyanD/codexffmpeg/releases/download/8.0.1/ffmpeg-8.0.1-essentials_build.zip
  ██████████████████████████████   101 MB /  101 MB
Successfully verified installer hash
Extracting archive...
Successfully extracted archive
Starting package install...
Command line alias added: "ffmpeg"
Command line alias added: "ffplay"
Command line alias added: "ffprobe"
Path environment variable modified; restart your shell to use the new value.
Successfully installed

C:\Windows\System32>

If you need to trim the beginning of a video file, such as a .mp4 file, you can do so using a command of the form ffmpeg -ss hh:mm:ss -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4 where you specify the point you wish the video to start in the form hh:mm:ss for hours, minutes, and seconds with -ss and input.mp4 is the file you wish to trim and output.mp4 is the name you wish to give to the trimmed file. E.g., if I have a video file, REC-0001-A.mp4, where I wish to discard audio and video up to the 3 minutes and 34 seconds mark in the file, I can use ffmpeg -ss 00:03:34 -i REC-0001-A.mp4 -c copy output1.mp4 to create a new file, output1.mp4, that omits the first 3 minutes and 33 seconds from the input file. Using the -c copy option copies the video/audio streams directly, which is fast but can be less accurate on keyframes.

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Disabling Skye automatic startup

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:30:00 -0500

I found Microsoft's Skype for Business application was automatically staring on a Microsoft Windows system where it was not being used. Microsoft retired the product on May 5, 2025, replacing it with Microsoft Teams, and is no longer providing security updates or bug fixes for the software. Though Microsoft ended official support for Skype for Business Server on October 14, 2025 and is no longer providing cloud service for the product, companies that installed their own servers can still run it locally. If there is a need to retain the software on a system, but no need to have it start automatically when the system boots, one can stop it from starting whenever the system is rebooted by taking the following steps:

Open the program and then click on the gear icon near the top, right side of the window.
Choose Tools and Options.
Uncheck the option for "Automatically start the app when I log on to Windows" under the Personal options to prevent the program from restarting automatically upon a login to the system, then click on OK to apply the change after unchecking that option.