video files Archives

Winsage

April 8, 2025

HOW TO: Find Large Files on Your Windows Laptop

Running low on storage space on a Windows PC can slow down the system. File Explorer has search filters to help identify large files. To find large files, open File Explorer (Windows + E), select a folder or drive, and use search terms like size:gigantic for files over 4GB, size:huge for files between 1-4GB, or size:large for files from 128MB to 1GB. You can combine filters for specific file types, such as .mov size:>300MB or .exe size:>100MB. To delete files, right-click and select delete, which sends them to the recycle bin.

AppWizard

March 31, 2025

Download TubeMate YouTube Downloader for Windows and Android, APK

TubeMate is a tool for curating a library of video files, allowing users to add video URLs via drag-and-drop or by pasting links. It features a user-friendly interface with three tabs: Download, Convert, and Tasks, enabling users to manage downloads and convert files. TubeMate can download entire playlists with a single link and uses multi-threaded connections for efficient downloading, supporting various video qualities up to 8K and formats including MP4, MP3, AVI, WAV, and WMV. Users can extract audio, trim videos, and preview quality during downloads with its built-in media player. The software includes organizational tools for managing content and is regularly updated for compatibility with evolving streaming technologies. TubeMate is available for Windows and Android devices.

AppWizard

March 9, 2025

New Android Spyware Warning—Do Not Play This Video

A new malware targeting Android users on Telegram has been discovered, involving videos that conceal malicious code activated upon download. The malware, named EvilLoader, exploits how Telegram processes media files, misclassifying '.htm' files as videos, which allows HTML code to execute in a browser. This malware can lead to credential theft, private data loss, and the installation of banking trojans. It can bypass security measures by redirecting users to their browsers or prompting them to open files as HTML documents, executing malicious JavaScript that sends IP information to attackers. EvilLoader has evolved to check for sandbox environments and generate fake security warnings. Users are advised to update their Telegram app and be cautious with unfamiliar video files. Telegram has stated that the exploit does not indicate a flaw in their platform and has implemented a server-side fix for enhanced protection.

Winsage

March 7, 2025

Best Windows apps this week

This week's highlights include the updated Copilot app from Microsoft, which has transitioned from a progressive web app to a fully native application available for Insiders in the Microsoft Store. Users should expect improved performance and usability, though it will gradually reach the stable release channel. Notable discounts are available this week, with some apps enjoying extended offers. New or improved apps include: - Intel Graphics Software (Beta): A management hub for Intel graphic cards, offering features like graphics settings and performance monitoring, requiring .NET Runtime 8 or newer. - PowerToys 0.89: An update introducing a new feature in the Advanced Paste tool that allows users to transcode audio and video files to mp3 or mp4 formats using a shortcut. - PreventSleep: A utility that keeps Windows systems awake by preventing sleep mode, screen dimming, or screensaver activation.

Winsage

February 14, 2025

Microsoft to make app downloads faster on Windows 11 with Winget PowerToys plugin

Windows 11 is set to integrate Winget into PowerToys Run, allowing users to download applications directly through a keyboard shortcut. This feature will enable users to search for apps hosted on Winget within PowerToys Run, similar to macOS Spotlight. Users can enter the package name after pressing Alt + Space, avoiding the need to navigate the Microsoft Store. PowerToys will also introduce a built-in transcoding feature for audio and video files, allowing users to convert file formats and extract audio from videos while maintaining original quality. This feature will utilize natural language processing, enabling users to type commands like “transcode this file into .mp3.”

Winsage

February 8, 2025

Best tips I use to boost search efficiency on File Explorer for Windows 11

Searching for files on Windows 11 can be optimized using File Explorer's search feature, which includes advanced search filters, boolean operators, wildcards, and indexing settings. To search efficiently, open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and use the following filters: - Basic filters: - kind: Searches for file types (e.g., kind:document, kind:image). - ext: Searches by file extension (e.g., ext:.pdf). - date: Searches by modification date (e.g., date:today). - size: Searches by file size (e.g., size:>100MB). - Boolean operators: - AND: Finds files containing both terms. - OR: Finds files containing either term. - NOT: Excludes files with a specific term. - Wildcards: - asterisk (): Represents any sequence of characters (e.g., .txt). - question mark (?): Represents a single character (e.g., file?.txt). - File properties: Search by metadata (e.g., author:John, tag:important). - Advanced query syntax: Use specific syntaxes to refine searches (e.g., datemodified:last week). - Search options: Access additional filters through the "Search options" menu in File Explorer. - Save query: Save frequent searches for easy access. - Enhanced Indexing: Enable this option to broaden search capabilities across the entire system. - AI integration: Microsoft is incorporating AI features for natural language searches, currently available on Copilot+ PCs.

Winsage

February 3, 2025

Windows 11’s new feature converts audio and videos for you via PowerToys

PowerToys is enhancing its Advanced Paste feature with a file transcoding capability that allows users to convert media files into mp3 and mp4 formats. The new options, Transcode to .mp3 and Transcode to .mp4 (H.264/AAC), will include custom keyboard shortcuts and aim to simplify the conversion process for media files copied to the clipboard. Users will see a progress bar during transcoding and can customize which options appear in Advanced Paste. The feature supports extracting audio from files to save as .mp3 and converting video files to .mp4 while preserving quality settings and metadata. It utilizes the Windows.Media.Transcoding API for these conversions.

Winsage

December 19, 2024

I used the command prompt to convert my media files on Windows, here’s how you can too

Windows Command Prompt can be used to convert media files into various formats using FFmpeg, an open-source multimedia framework. To set up FFmpeg on a Windows system, users must download it from the official FFmpeg website, extract the files, and create a folder for FFmpeg. The path to the FFmpeg "bin" folder must then be added to the system's Environment Variables to allow global access from the Command Prompt. To convert files, users can navigate to the folder containing the media files and use specific commands: - For images: ffmpeg -i Image.OriginalFormat Image.NewFormat - For audio: ffmpeg -i Audio.OriginalFormat Audio.NewFormat - For video: ffmpeg -i Video.OriginalFormat Video.NewFormat - To extract audio from a video: ffmpeg -i Video.OriginalFormat Audio.NewFormat FFmpeg supports various formats: - Image Formats: JPG/JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, WebP, ICO, PPM, PGM, PBM, TGA - Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AC3, ALAC, WMA, AMR, AIFF, Opus, MP2, PCM, M4A, DTS - Video Formats: MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, FLV, WebM, MPEG, OGG, 3GP, RM, TS, M2TS, VOB, DIVX, HEVC If the error "ffmpeg is not recognized as an internal or external command" occurs, it usually indicates a problem with the path configuration in the Environment Variables.

Winsage

December 6, 2024

Best Windows apps this week

Microsoft has reiterated its non-negotiable requirement for TPM 2.0 for Windows 11, which poses challenges for Windows 10 users with unsupported devices. The Microsoft Store has been enhanced for a better user experience, now offering improved organization and support for Win32 applications. New or notably improved Windows apps include Handbrake 1.9.0, which adds support for lossless VP9 encoding and Intel QSV VVC video decoding; Media Squeeze, which optimizes storage through compression of image and video files; and PixTidy, a free app for photo organization that helps create folders based on location and time, and identifies redundant photos and videos.

Winsage

November 8, 2024

Paint is the latest app to further ruin Windows 11’s controversial context menus

Microsoft introduced a redesigned context menu with Windows 11 three years ago to enhance user experience by bringing commonly used file actions closer to the cursor. However, the context menu has become cluttered with redundant options, including new "Edit with" choices integrated into the main menu instead of expanding the "Open with" submenu. The latest update for Paint, announced on November 7 for Windows Insiders, added an "Edit with Paint" option for image files, while users can remove this option by modifying the Windows Registry. The new Paint version also includes features like generative fill and generative erase.