WhatsApp and Discord corrupted QR Codes - Fixed!

Introduction

If your WhatsApp Desktop, WhatsApp Web or Discord app's QR codes are corrupt, like this:

You should temporarily:

• Browser: disable hardware acceleration
• Desktop app: run in compatibility mode

This will fix QR codes, long enough to authenticate you.  Once you have used the code, you can put the browser/app shortcut back as you found it.

Chrome fix

1. Go to Settings / Advanced and toggle "User hardware acceleration when available" to off (see below).
2. Restart Chrome
3. Go to WhatsApp web and use the (now non-corrupt) QR code
4. Go back to settings and re-enable hardware acceleration
5. Restart Chrome
6. Go back to WhatsApp web - you should still be logged in

App shortcut fix

1. Find the WhatsApp/Discord shortcut.  This will probably be in: C:\Users\<YOUR USERNAME HERE>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\<App name>
2. Right click on the file and select properties
3. Click on the "Compatibility" tab.
4. Select the Checkbox and select "Windows 7" in the dropdown
5. Leave the properties open and click Apply
6. Run WhatsApp / Discord.  The QR code should work fine now.
7. As soon as you have scanned the code, uncheck the checkbox in the properties dialog and click OK.
8. Restart the app.

Earth 2

A whole new world

It's been 8 years since the last upgrade ("Earth"), but now the new PC ("Earth 2") is here - thanks Scan!

Keeping notes here, perhaps useful for other people.  I decided to get my own Windows licence, so Scan did not install this for me.   Unfortunately, that meant my first attempt didn't have the right BIOS settings and the Windows 11 install failed.  Having set up for secure boot, I reinstalled and Windows 11 is now in place.

Choco

Basic items

choco install -y steam-client vscode ditto git github-desktop googlechrome firefox 7zip vlc notepadplusplus visualstudio-installer foxitreader zoom paint.net inkscape microsoft-windows-terminal procexp powershell-core audacity postman greenshot docker-desktop sublimetext3 powertoys fiddler whatsapp blender discord.install kitty keepassxc netfx-4.7-devpack elasticsearch kibana logstash anydesk pgadmin4 streamdeck wixtoolset rabbitmq lightworks sql-server-management-studio

Visual Studio Community Preview

choco install -y visualstudio2019community-preview --pre

Postgresql

choco install postgresql13 --params '/Password:<PASSWORD>'

NET SDK

choco install -y dotnet-sdk --version=5.0.201

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is the default shell app for Windows 11.  However, it needs to be set up for PowerLine.

Scott Hanselman to the rescue:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/tutorials/powerline-setup

Visual Studio Extensions

Set Visual Studio up just right!

Extensions

Add all the good Visual Studio Extensions:

• 1-Click Docs
• Add New File
• Bootstrap Snippet Pack
• EditorConfig Language Service
• File Icons
• Generate GUID for Visual Studio 2012-2019
• Git Diff Margin
• Inheritance Margin
• Intellisense Extender 2019
• Markdown Editor
• Match Margin
• NamespaceFixer
• Hgrok Extensions
• Open Command Line
• Roslynator 2019
• Security Code Scan
• Solution Error Visualizer
• SwitchStartupPorject for VS 2019
• Time Stamp Margin
• Trailing Whitespace Visualizer
• Viasfora
• Visual Studio Spell Checker (VS2017 and Later)
• Wix Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension

Settings

• Visible white space
• Enable with Ctrl R, Ctrl-W
• Make less harsh on the eyes by moving the saturation to ~50% of its default value
• Set Cascadia Code to be the default Font
• Move the Solution Explorer back to the left hand side

Data transfer

Data transfer will be fun - there's so much on my old PC, so I have that running at a second desk in case I need something in a hurry.