Bootstrap file to synchronize your Dogecoin Core wallet faster

Update February 28, 2021: Dogecoin Core 1.14.3 has been released and significantly improves the synchronization speed. The method described in the original post below is no longer be necessary.

This article assumes that you have backed up your wallet and updated to the most recent version of Dogecoin Core (currently 1.14.2).

At the time of writing, you can get a torrent here which contains blocks until January 29, 2021. Note that it is not a single Bootstrap.dat file, instead it contains the blocks and chainstate directory.

You can find further information on the Dogecoin Discord (in the FAQ section), the Dogecoin Core GitHub and the Dogecoin subreddit.

Once synchronized, consider forwarding port 22556 to help the network. This should give you over a hundred connections instead of the usual 8:

Dogecoin Core Connections

This will, of course, create significant network activity as can be seen in Dogecoin Core under Help > Debug window > Network traffic. This is my traffic from just two days:

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Edit: My Dogecoin wallet on a PC that was running 24/7 still went out of sync multiple times:

Dogecoin wallet going out of sync again

Let’s not forget that Dogecoin was created as a joke.

Edit 2: I do not recommend using the full node wallet (version 1.14.2) if you’re just getting started with Dogecoin. Consider using a simple mobile wallet like Trust Wallet.

How to browse through all images from different subfolders

The problem: You want to display all images from different subfolders (subdirectories) in a flat view (instead of having to navigate to each folder).

One solution using IrfanView

  1. Download, install and run IrfanView.
  2. Drag and drop the parent folder from Windows Explorer into the IrfanView window, which opens IrfanView Thumbnails.
  3. Right-click on the parent directory and select “Load thumbs from all subfolders”:
IrfanView Thumbnail browser

After a few moments, thumbnails for all images from all subfolders will be displayed:

IrfanView Thumbnails view

How to log out from Facebook when the menu doesn’t load

The problem: The menu on the Facebook website does not load, making it impossible to log out

Facebook menu not loading

Simple solution

Open Facebook’s mobile website or the basic version of the mobile website. Find the log out link (in the hamburger menu on the mobile website or at the very bottom of the basic website) and click on it:

Facebook mobile basic footer

Windows applications: User interface controls too small on high DPI displays

The problem: Controls are too small

You’re running an application on a PC with a high DPI display and some (or all) of the controls are too small. You do not want to change the system-wide scaling settings just to make this application more usable.

The solution: Change the app’s high DPI setting

Windows 10 allows you to change the high DPI settings for each application.

  1. Open the application.
  2. Right-click on the app icon in the taskbar.
  3. Right-click on the app’s name.
  4. Select Properties:
Opening app properties window from the taskbar

If this method does not work, locate the application’s folder and right-click on the application file (.exe), then select Properties.

  1. Select the Compatibility tab.
  2. Click on Change high DPI settings:
Change high DPI settings
  1. Check the Override high DPI scaling behavior checkbox and select a new setting from the drop-down list:
High DPI setting
  1. Confirm both open dialogs with OK.

“System” should solve the issue of some controls being smaller than others), though the app will look a bit blurry. “System (enhanced)” will try to make everything look more crisp. You might want to try out all settings (and you may have to restart the app to see any changes).

You can find further information on the settings in this Windows Blog article under “End-user DPI-scaling improvements”.