How to check if the HDD or SSD are 4k aligned

Just type in command prompt as administrator:

wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index

The last column in the output is the offset in bytes for where each partition starts, if this value is divisible by 4096 without a reminder then the partition is aligned. For example:

C:\Windows\system32>wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index

BlockSize  Index  Name                   StartingOffset

512        0      Disk #0, Partition #0  1048576

512        1      Disk #0, Partition #1  105906176

512        0      Disk #1, Partition #0  135266304

512        0      Disk #2, Partition #0  1048576

This shows that all partitions are aligned (under NTFS)

Introduction to scoop

Scoop is a tiny command-line installer for Windows, which helps to organize user's apps in more convenient way. All of them are installed by default in home directory or in selected by the use directory, and of course this is not the only feature: - updating all of them with one command - continuously growing database of supported apps - fully portable between Windows version that support at least PowerShell 5 and .NET Framework 4.5 Those features mean the users finally have a tool similar to Linux package managers like dpkg/apt, yum/dnf, portage (btw very powerful), slackpkg, Homebrew for MacOS and Chocolatey/Ninite/OneGet for Windows. It works like this (assuming the user OS meets the requirements):

1. Open a PowerShell command prompt 

2. Write "scoop search nameofyourapp"

3. If it's found in the buckets (collections of apps in scoop) write "scoop install name-of-your-app"

4. After successful app installation (scoop warns if there are problems during installation procedure and suggests what to do to fix them) the user must open "Start Menu -> All Programs -> Scoop Apps" and click on the corresponding shortcut to start the freshly installed application

There are also limitations: - number of bucketed apps is still less than those in Chocolatey - sometimes changes in app version or small code errors in app manifests block the user from successfully installing or updating desired apps. Usually an update to scoop fixes that because the whole development is on GitHub where every scoop user can report the problems

How to fix '32bit only' guest OS issue in VirtualBox

Recently installed on one of my test machines latest version (5.2.20) of VirtualBox and found that it's not possible to install and run properly a 64bit guest OS, the only option was 32bit. The culprit was 'Hyper-V' enabled feature on Windows 8.1 x64 while Intel's VT-x was enabled in BIOS (AMD-v for AMD cpus). So, to remove this '32bit only' restriction, go to 'Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or off' and uncheck the box in front of 'Hyper-V', click OK and restart the machine. Problem solved