Tag Archives: .exe

fixed : how to unzip downloaded .zip-file that appears as .exe-file ?

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Question :

I have just downloaded some zipped archives from a support website, and even though most of them were .zip-files that were automatically unzipped by macOS, some are .exe-files which I can’t open or run on my Mac…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Sometimes, Windows computers create self-extracting Windows .exe-files instead of .zip-files or .rar-files when creating compressed archives to transport over the internet or using external drives or USB-sticks…

The built-in Unarchive.app in macOS cannot extract these kind of .exe-archives, but various other unzip-apps can.

Just go to the Mac AppStore, find TheUnarchiver.app, download it and use it for FREE ; the .exe-archives will now be extracted as if they were regular .zip-files or .rar-files

enjoy 😉

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fixed : manually update firmware on Samsung SmartTV

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Question :

I have my Samsung SmartTV set to automatically do its software updates (actually, these should be called automatic firmware upgrades), and when I let my TV search for new software updates, it tells me no new updates were found.

However, on the internet I found info that suggests that newer versions of the firmware are available for my Samsung SmartTV, just not in my region for some reason.

Is there any way to get these upgrades anyway ?

 

Answer :

If you want to upgrade the firmware on your Samsung SmartTV manually, do this :

  • turn on your TV
  • press the MENU-button on your remote control
  • in the window that opens, on the left, select Support
  • on the right, scroll down entirely and select Contact Samsung 
  • on the page that opens, at the bottom, the Model Code is displayed : write this down ! ( eg. “UE50JU6400” or “UE32J5200” )
  • then ‘arrow to the left’ on your remote control
  • then, on the left, select Support
  • on the right, select Software Update
  • now, on the right, the Current Version is displayed : write this down ! ( eg. 1530 )
  • now, on your Mac (or PC), go to https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/search/
    • note : for unknown reasons, go to the UK website, not the US website, to find the latest firmware upgrades
  • there, typ your model number in the entry field and press the ENTER-key
  • all available firmware upgrades for your TV will now be displayed
  • if the latest version that is available for download is newer than the version listed at Current Version on you TV, download the latest version from the website
  • when the download is done, macOS will automatically unzip it for you to a folder with the firmware upgrade in it
    • if your download turns out to be a .exe-file, use TheUnarchiver.app (available for FREE on the Mac AppStore) to unzip it
  • your firmware upgrade file should now be a folder named “T-….”, and have a folder named “image” inside it
  • plug an empty USB-stick into your Mac
    • the USB-stick must be FAT32 formatted (as nearly every brand-new USB-stick will be)
  • then, drag&drop the folder with the firmware upgrade onto the USB-stick
  • when the copying is done, select EJECT to disconnect the USB-stick from macOS
  • then, you can safely unplug the USB-stick from your Mac
  • now, you can plug the USB-stick into your TV
  • then, turn on the TV (if it wasn’t already on)
  • wait for about 2 minutes, then press the MENU-button on your remote control
  • in the window that appears, on the bottom left, select Support
  • then, select Software Update from the list
  • in the next window, select Update Now
  • now, a pop-up window should display “Do you want to search the connected USB device for update files?”
  • if so, click YES
    • if not, make sure your USB-stick is properly plugged into your TV (if that still won’t work… go back to your Mac and check if your USB-stick is okay)
  • when the TV finds valid firmware files on the USB-stick, the text “A new software version is available. Update from version **** to version ****?” will be displayed
  • then, click YES to start the firmware upgrade
  • a window with a progress bar will be shown now
    • note : during the upgrade process, do NOT unplug the USB-stick or turn the TV off !
  • when finished, the TV will shut down and restart by itself
  • just to make sure if the firmware upgrade was successful, click the MENU-button on your remote control
  • then, select Settings, then Support, then Software Update
  • check if the version listed at Current Version is newer than the version you previously had

That’s it… you’re done !

enjoy 😉

fixed : play retro Cuphead game on Mac

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Question :

My children have played the ‘ultra-retro Disney’ game Cuphead on their friend’s PC and they love it. So now they want to play it on their own Mac also. Unfortunately there is no Mac version available yet.

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

There are various ways to solve your problem, and they all boil down to trickery to play the Windows game on your Mac : installing Windows (like Bootcamp, Parallels, VM Ware or VirtualBox) or some form of WINE (= the ‘Windows without Windows’-virtualization called “Wine Is Not an Emulator”, like WineBottler, WinOnX or PlayOnMac) or NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming.

It turns out that the simplest way to get the Cuphead game running on your Mac is this :

  • get (buy) the Cuphead game (Windows 10 version) in the Microsoft Store here
  • find the Cuphead.zip or Cuphead.rar in your downloads and unzip/unrar it
  • make sure you have both the setup_cuphead_xxxxxx.bin and the setup_cuphead_xxxxxx.exe files
  • then get the PlayOnMac virtualization-app here
  • download and install the PlayOnMac-app
  • now, right-click on the setup_cuphead_xxxxxx.exe file
  • in the pulldown-menu, choose “Open with PlayOnMac”
  • now the installation (in an app-like container) will start
  • this will take some time, just ignore any error messages
  • when PlayOnMac asks for the location of the setup_cuphead_xxxxxx.bin file, locate it on your Mac and proceed the installation
  • again, ignore any error messages
  • when PlayOnMac asks you to create a Cuphead game-alias on your Desktop, do it
  • when the Cuphead game-alias appears on your Desktop, it might have an icon of a non-runnable application ; ignore that
  • drag&drop the Cuphead game-alias on the Dock (in most cases, the icon will now change to the yellow-squared Cuphead icon)
  • then exit PayOnMac
  • finally open the Cuphead game-alias in the Dock and the Cuphead game will run

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note : depending on your screen-settings, there may be weird looking edges on the top and/or bottom part of the screen while playing the Cuphead game, this is one of the little downsides of using PlayOnMac…

fixed : run DOS commands on your Mac

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Question :

I need to run a firmware update for a hard drive, but there’s no firmware update available for MacOSX, there’s only a firmware .exe-program for MS DOS.

How can I run that on my Mac, since I don’t have a Windows-PC available ?

 

Answer :

MacOSX isn’t able to run DOS commands in the MacOSX Terminal.app…

and running FreeDOS from a USB-stick isn’t an option on your Mac, since your Mac can’t boot from non-EFI volumes…

but there’s a very simple option to run DOS commands in OSX :

– download & install Boxer by drag&dropping the app into your Applications folder

– run the Boxer.app and you will get 3 options, one being “Open a DOS prompt”, that’s the one your looking for

– click on it, and you will have your DOS-prompt

– and just as you can in OSX Terminal.app, you can drag&drop .exe-files (and other files) into the prompt, and the correct path to the file will be automatically inserted into the prompt

– there’s just one small drawback : the Mac’s keyboard layout is not supported… so even though the letters will be what you see on your keyboard, most other characters will not… to get a – [minus], you should type / [slash], and to get ” [brace], you should type @ [at] on your Mac keyboard… (you can figure out the other ones yourself by just trying)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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