Tag: command

Windows Vista automatically shutdown at a certain time

October 21, 2008 by Jason

Right now, I am actually looking for some instructions on how to automatically shutdown the computer by using only the built-in components of Windows Vista, without any additional “shutdown computer” applications (oh boy, there are thousands or even billions of those). I am thinking about using Task scheduler in Windows to set up a computer shutdown command in some way. Any other ideas?

I try to always use built-in functions in Windows to do a task before I use “other” software. Using little applications to perform tasks opens the door to bugs and crashes. Most of the times there are built in functions to perform most tasks. Most people just don’t know about or how to use them. Read More»

Speed Up Firefox by Running It In RAM

October 20, 2008 by Jason

Normally, Mozilla Firefox operates from your hard drive, but it’s possible to run it completely in your system’s memory (RAM). It speeds up your browsing because computers can read and write from RAM much faster than it can read and write from the hard drive. The following instructions will walk your through a configuration with Windows.

Steps

1. Download and save Portable Firefox onto your Desktop (see Things You’ll Need below). Double-click on the ZIP file and extract the contents of the archive to the folder “C:\PortableFirefox”. You can use a different directory, but you will have to adapt the rest of this article to that directory.

2. Download RAMDisk and save it to the same location as the ZIP file (see Things You’ll Need below). Double-click RAMDisk.exe. This is a self-extracting archive. When asked where to save the extracted files, save them on your Desktop. This creates a directory called RAMDisk. Read More»

How to Change a Computer Password Using Command Prompt

October 10, 2008 by Jason

Ever thought of becoming an actual “hacker”? This article shows how to change a computer password and do other things using a command prompt. A command prompt is a command using the special built-in program that comes with every computer which allows you to do almost anything on a computer.

1. Open Command Prompt. If you don’t know how, open the Start menu, go to Programs (or on Windows 2000 and up, all programs), go to Accessories, then you’ll see Command Prompt, click it.

2. You’ll see a black screen pop up.

3. Type in: “Net User”

4. It will then show you a detailed little chart of all the User Accounts on the computer.

5. Choose which account you want to hack.

6. Say it says the user accounts are: Owner, Administrator, John, Alice, Christopher, and Guest. Read More»

Fix Common Computer Network Issues

October 05, 2008 by Jason

Are you experiencing problems with your computer network? Are these error messages appearing?:

  • Unable to clear the DNS cache
  • Unable to renew your IP address
  • An operation was performed on something that is not a socket
  • Unable to clear the ARP cache

If so, here are some potential solutions for Windows XP/Vista.

1. Check to make sure your computer is on and is connected to a network.

2. Be aware that Windows has a built in function to repair a network connection. This function can give valuable information in the form of an error message if you know what you are looking for. Some common error messages given are:

  • Unable to clear the DNS cache
  • Unable to renew your IP address
  • Unable to clear the ARP cache Read More»

How to create a USB drive you can install Windows Vista

September 29, 2008 by Jason

Get your hands on a USB drive that’s at least 3GB in size. You’ll also need a Windows Vista installation disk.

Format the USB Drive

1. Insert the USB drive into your computer.

2. Right-click Computer in the Start menu and then select Manage.

3. Select Disk Management under Storage in the left column of the Computer Management window.

4. Right-click the USB drive in the bottom center section of the Computer Management window and select Format. Warning: Make sure you select the right disk to format. Formatting a disk will erase all data on it.

5. Change the file system to NTFS and then click OK to format the USB drive.

6. Wait for the USB drive to be formatted. The formatting progress will be shown in the Computer Management window. Read More»

Install Windows Vista Lite from your Flash Drive

September 29, 2008 by Jason

Open up an administrator mode command prompt by right-clicking on the shortcut and choosing Run as Administrator, then type in diskpart to load up the disk partitioning command line tool.

The most important step is to run the following command, which will give you the numbers of the disks, so you can use it in the next command (and not accidentally remove a partition on another drive).

list disk

Now that you know the correct number for the disk, you can use the select disk command, substituting the number 1 for whatever number your flash drive is set to: Read More»

Print Folder List

September 28, 2008 by Jason

Here’s a nifty little trick for creating a text file listing of the contents of a folder, without using any extra software. Step one is to note down the path and name of the folder concerned; if it’s a long one, click on the folder icon in Windows Explorer so that it’s displayed in the address box, then right-click on it and select Copy. Now open a command window by going to Run (XP) or Search (Vista) on the Start menu and type ‘cmd’

A DOS like window opens and at the flashing prompt type cd then a space and type in the path and name of the folder – in my example the folder is called ‘Pix’, so the first line looks like this:

cd C:\Pix

If you used the Copy trick simply right-click on the flashing prompt and select Paste.

Now press Enter and the cd (change directory) command changes the display to show the path and name of your folder, thus: Read More»

PC Heaven

September 20, 2008 by Jason

Save energy
Leaving your PC on wastes both energy and cash: running it overnight could cost you more than £100 a year. It’s time to stop sinning and make some savings.

Step1: Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Power Options. If your system uses the High Performance power plan then you can save a little energy by selecting Balanced.

Step2: Selecting Very low power delivers a real energy cut, but mainly by limiting the work your CPU can do, so it’s best used on laptops or PCs that aren’t running anything too intensive.

Step3: Click Change plan settings for your plan. Windows Vista normally turns the display off after 20 minutes of inactivity; cut this to 10, perhaps set the PC to sleep after 20 minutes or so.

Save power – disable Windows Aero at will

Run REGEDIT and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\Shell. Right-click the Shell part, select New > Key and call it Aero On. Read More»

Set your Vista 64 to a faster boot

September 18, 2008 by Jason

If you use a 64-bit version of Windows Vista on a computer with multiple processors or on a multi-core (dual-core, quad-core) processor (which is quite usual), you can use a simple setting to accelerate booting of the computer (OS).

Depending on the configuration of your computer, this setting may result in a smaller or substantial improving of the Windows booting time. Please be aware that this setting is not intended for novice users and it can cause booting problems on incompatible (mostly “noname”) computers.

By default, Vista detects and switches to a multi-processor core only after the basic functions of Windows are loaded – for actual booting it uses only a single core (logical processor). With the following setting you will enable using of all available cores/processors also for booting.

Run the MSCONFIG command (Start > Run) and go to the “Boot” tab. There click the “Advanced options” button. In the “BOOT advance options” dialog check the “Number of processors” option and set the number of processor cores you have available in your PC. Exit the command with OK. The following restart should be faster. Read More»

Five iPhone tips

September 14, 2008 by Jason

Some quick tips to get your iPhone skills slicker than the guy or girl next door. To rearrange the icons on the home page, tap and hold any icon until all the icons start to giggle. Now you can drag icons about, including on and off the Dock or between pages. Click the Home button to lock the icons again. The Dock is limited to four icons but, if you set the Home button’s double-click to call up your Contact favourites, you can remove the Phone icon from the Dock.

If you manage to crash your iPhone 3G playing with third-party apps, hold both the power and home buttons for 10 seconds to reboot the phone. Recalcitrant apps can be uninstalled using Installer.

Apple originally charged for custom ringtones but now you can create your own in GarageBand, while Windows users can follow the video tutorial at . SendSong supposedly lets you add any track in your iPod playlist to the custom ringtone list under Settings/Sounds/Ringtone, but we couldn’t get any love from it. Read More»