Articles marked as "time savers" :

Associate File Extensions With Specific Languages in Notepad++
[ 29 July 2009 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

If you use Notepad++ often, you may notice that it recognizes the type of file you open and provides nice synatx style for the language of the file. For example, it knows .js is a JavaScript file and .css is a CSS file. Each file type has its own unique style settings. There are a lot of these predefined file types, but what if Notepad++ doens’t support a file type you open often? If you want to make a custom file type use the same style of another type, just use the Style Configurator to define your own extensions.

Add Custom User Extensions

In Notepad++ navigate to Settings > Style Configurator…

Choose a language on the left side that you want your own extension to match (i.e. if I want .config files to style like XML then I’d choose XML). In the User ext. field near the bottom, enter in your custom user extension without the dot in front of it (e.g. config for *.config files). Now restart Notepad++ and it will map that new extension to the style you’ve chosen.

Avoid Transferring SVN/CVS Folders in FileZilla
[ 20 July 2009 ]
Marked under network, security, time savers.

If you use FileZilla as an FTP client and you use version control such as SVN or CVS, you may notice that you actually FTP those meta folders (”.svn” and “cvs”) along with your real data files. Those version control folders are not meant to be tranferred over with your real data and it can be a pain to delete all of them on the remote server. Not to mention, depending on who has access to the server, those files can give the user access to the repository and therefore they pose a security risk. FileZilla offers a really nice option to ignore those folder so you no longer even see them nor do you transfer them over with your files.

Directory Listing Filters

The key to fixing this issue is to go to View > Filename filters…

Just check the CVS and SVN directories option and FileZilla will no longer display those.

Copy Files at Blazing Speeds with TeraCopy
[ 15 July 2009 ]
Marked under multimedia, storage, time savers, windows.

Have you ever had the tedious task of copying a friends music library or moving the entire contents of one hard drive to another? In pretty much any situation where you need to move or copy a lot of data you are burdened with a fair amount of wait time. Using Windows Explorer to move files around is quite a task and doing it on an OS like Vista can really use up your time.

Do yourself a favor and immediately download a copy of free TeraCopy. Get yourself the portable verison so you have this time saver anywhere you go. TeraCopy will move or copy files for you but at a much faster rate than Windows Explorer and it has many other additional features. TeraCopy integrates into the Explorer shell and even has a pause/resume copying feature.

Drag and Drop files to Copy

Choose a Destinaion Location

That’s all there is to it — TeraCopy will copy the files to your destination and show a progress meter.

Force Windows Explorer to Retain Folder Customizations
[ 13 July 2009 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

Have you ever customized the sort order, view style (e.g. List, Small Icons) or windows size of a folder and had those settings vanish? Then you have to go back in and change them again only to have them randomly disappear in the near future.

This is a common problem I have with the sort order of my music folder. Sometimes I like the music to be sorted alphabetically (default); but sometimes I like to see the newest music and sort by Date modified. Unfortunately, just about every time I un-mount and re-mount my hard drive, my custom sort its gone. This is easily fixed by a simple little registry trick, so roll up your sleeves and open regedit (Start > Run > “regedit”).

Update the Registry

Once you’re in the Registry Editor navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

Right-click on the right panel and choose New > DWORD Value

Give the new value the name BagMRU Size

Hit enter to save the name then double-click it and choose the Base as Decimal set the value to 10000.

HOWTO: Quickly Change the Desktop Icon Size in Windows
[ 14 February 2009 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

There are a lot of customizations people go through after re-installing / re-formatting Windows. One of those things is making their Desktop appear and behave to their liking. I always add My Computer (or Computer on Vista), relocate the Recycle Bin, and adjust the icons. In Vista, I like smaller icons than the default size. There’s an easy way to do this, and a hard way:

Easy: Change Icon Size On-The-Fly

To change your icon size, go to the Desktop, hold down Ctrl and scroll your mouse middle scroller up or down. This will increase and decrease the icon sizes respectively:

Ctrl +

Hard: The Tedious Method in Vista

The other way to change the icon size is a bit harder. In Vista: Right-click the Desktop > Personalize > Windows Color and Appearance > Open classic appearance properties for more color options > Avanced… > under Item choose Icon. Now adjust the size property. Isn’t that tedious?

HOWTO: Get Free Text Reminders
[ 5 January 2009 ]
Marked under mobile, time savers.

Reader Joe recently sent in a tip for a free cell phone text alert service called Text Reminders. Simply enter in your reminder message, a date and time for it to be sent, and you’re all set to be alerted via text message. The service is provided via a free sign-up and supports all of the major carriers out there (over 20 carriers supported). If you’re not looking to get alerts, but want to send texts on the cheap, check out HOWTO: Send Free Text Messages Through Email.

Text Reminders

HOWTO: Edit the HOSTS File in Vista
[ 11 September 2008 ]
Marked under network, security, time savers, windows.

Recently a reader asked how to save their HOSTS file in Vista, because it wasn’t letting them save their changes. Vista is a bit different from previous versions of Windows. Vista introduced the new User Account Control (UAC) to help protect common users from malicious activities. In doing so, UAC has also hindered productivity. Not only does it ask you to confirm everything you want to do, it blocks your access to edit the HOSTS file. Let’s fix this so you can have complete control of it.

There are two methods to get around this problem:

1. Turn UAC Off

Go to Start > Control Panel. In the top right search box, enter UAC. The search will return 1 result which will let you toggle UAC on or off. Click on the result and uncheck Use UAC… This will require a reboot, but it will save you time in the future.

2. Copy, then overwrite the HOSTS file

Navigate to the etc folder located @ c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\. Copy the HOSTS file to your Desktop and edit it accordingly. Make sure it’s named hosts, not hosts - Copy. Drag it into the etc folder and when you’re asked to overwrite the existing file, say yes.

HOWTO: Run IIS and Apache on Windows
[ 30 August 2008 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

For you web developers out there using Windows, you might not know that you can run both IIS (for .NET) and Apache (typically on Linux) side-by-side on Windows. IIS comes with XP Pro and Vista, but a lot of people don’t know that you can still leverage Apache as a web server. I personally use it for PHP and MySQL, so… alas, WAMP: Windows, Apache MySQL, PHP.

1. Download & Install WampServer 2

First, download Wamp. Now install; a good spot is c:\wamp.

2. Configure Apache to run on an alternate port

By default, a web server runs on port 80. If you’re running IIS, it’s probably running on port 80 and Apache tries to as well. Let’s change it so Apache runs on port 8080.

You’ll see the icon for WAMP is yellow (), meaning not all services are running. That’s because Apache is trying to use port 80, but it’s conflicting with IIS. Click on the WAMP icon and go to Apache > httpd.conf

Scroll down and change Listen 80 to Listen 8080. Scroll down even further and change ServerName localhost:80 to ServerName localhost:8080. Those two changes will tell Apache to use port 8080. To restart WAMP, click the WAMP icon and choose Restart All Services. The icon should now look like

That’s all you really need to get things started. Don’t forget to restart the services every time you change the httpd.conf file.

3. Additional Customizations

Make your websites visible to others

To allow other people on your network to see your sites running on Apache, all you need to do is it clikc the WAMP icon in the systray and click Put Online. It will restart the services and make your sites visible to others. This setting is necessary if you’re on an actual live server environment.

Run multiple sites using different ports

It’s possible to run multiple sites in Apache, you just need to dish out different ports to access them. Below are two blocks of config lines necessary to make two websites run on different ports:


NameVirtualHost *:8080
<VirtualHost *:8080>
ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/site1/"
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/site1/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>



NameVirtualHost *:8081
<VirtualHost *:8081>
ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/site2/"
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/site2/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


And that’s about it. Do you have any more tips? Leave them in the comments.

HOWTO: Map a Folder to a Drive Letter
[ 20 July 2008 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

Typically, you may map a network share to a drive letter on your machine for easy access. It usually comes in handy, but wouldn’t it be nice to do it on any folder, rather than just a network folder? You can actually do it with the subst command.

Use the following command in the command prompt:

subst letter: c:\folder\path

Replace “letter:” with an available drive letter. Here’s an example of mapping my music folder to the M:\ drive:

subst m: C:\Users\Mark\Music

Now, if you want to remove the drive letter mapping, issue the following command on the drive letter:

subst letter: /d

For example, to remove the mapping for my M:\ drive, I would do:

subst m: /d

HOWTO: Still Access Firefox 2 Download
[ 18 June 2008 ]
Marked under mozilla, time savers.

As just about everyone knows, yesterday Mozilla released their third major version of the Firefox browser. Though this release comes with an overwhelming amount of improvements, some people may still want to use Firefox 2. As a web developer, my company doesn’t officially support version 3 yet (even though support for it seems trivial), so I’m using Firefox 3 Portable for QA with my full Firefox 2 install still intact.

The new design of the Firefox download page doesn’t indicate older versions can be downloaded, so to get them, browse to:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

From there you can choose a version, your platform and language. For en-US Windows users, here’s a direct link to the latest FF2: Firefox 2.0.0.20 [updated 27 January 2009].

HOWTO: Restore the Shut Down Button in Vista
[ 22 May 2008 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

By default, Windows Vista doesn’t have the standard Shut Down button in the Start menu. In order to shut down, you need to click the right arrow and choose Shut Down. This is a bit inconvenient, however, we can easily restore the Shut Down button in place of the default Sleep/Hibernate button.

Let’s get rid of this one:

Navigate to your Control Panel and choose Power Options.

Under your current power setting, click the Change plan settings link:

In the plan settings menu, click the Change advanced power settings link:

Scroll down to Power buttons and lid. In the Start menu power button, choose the Shut down option:

Apply these changes and your standard Shut Down button should be in place of the previous sleep button:

HOWTO: Send Text Messages via AIM
[ 13 May 2008 ]
Marked under mobile, multimedia, time savers.

As similar method to my previous post on sending free text messages through email, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) supports sending text messages to mobile phones. It’s a great way to send messages without paying an outgoing fee from your own phone provider. Just add a full 10-digit phone number with a + sign in front of it to your buddy list (e.g. +16175551234). All you have to do is send an IM to that “phone number buddy” and the mobile # will get a text message of that IM. Be careful though, don’t send too many.

Oh Don’t Forget: Text Message and Reminder Service
[ 3 January 2008 ]
Marked under mobile, time savers.

Service site Oh Don’t Forget (ohdontforget.com) provides an excellent way to send FREE text messages either now or in the future. You can set up reminders that will text your phone in the future so you won’t forget to do something. The extremely easy-to-use interface makes it one of the best free simple and useful service sites out there.

Sending free text messages has been covered in the past, but this site has an edge since you can schedule future texts to be sent. Check it out if you need a way to send free text messages or if you’re always forgetting things.

Oh Don’t Forget

HOWTO: Update WordPress with Minimal Downtime
[ 26 November 2007 ]
Marked under time savers.

All Things Marked runs on the WordPress blogging platform. Honestly, what blog doesn’t? WordPress often has updates to the code, which involves completely updating files that run the site. Many blogs need to take their sites down for a bit to deal with the update process, however, this process can be completely done within 5 minutes. I’ll give you some tips on how to systematically update WordPress while keeping a professional look to the site. Let’s get at it so you can use this method for your next update.

1. Create a “We’ll be right back” landing page

The first thing you need to do is to create a landing page for visitors to see when you are in the update process. This should be a very simple page that says something like, “[site name] is updating right now and will be back in a flash.”

I’ve created such a page at allthingsmarked.com/updatingwp.html

It’s simple and to the point. One thing that I’ve done which I recommend is to add a refresh meta tag that will refresh the site in 5 minutes. The whole update process should take 5 minutes or less, so if you auto-refresh the page for your visitor after 5 minutes, they will see the site back in action. To do this, just add the following meta tag:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="300;url=http://www.allthingsmarked.com" />

Obviously you need to change the domain. The 300 is the time in seconds, which means 5 minutes.

2. Create alias commands (if you have shell access)

If you have shell access to your server, SSH in and open up your aliases file. I’m not a linux guru, but I believe this file varies for each distro. My file is the .aliases file in my home folder. Open it up and add two new aliases, one to swap in the landing page, the other to revert to the original home page.

We want to rename the live site’s index to a backup of it and then rename the landing page to index. This will “take the site down” by making all requests go to this new home page. Don’t worry though, you still have the backed up live site index. At this point, you would then transfer your update files. Once your done with the update, you want to undo the renaming of files. Here are the two commands you need:

alias startwpu 'mv ~/site_path/index.php ~/site_path/index-backup.php && mv ~/site_path/updatingwp.html ~/site_path/index.html'

alias stopwpu 'mv ~/site_path/index.html ~/site_path/updatingwp.html && mv ~/site_path/index-backup.php ~/site_path/index.php'

The startwpu command you are creating will rename the real index file to another name, then it will rename the landing page to the index. The stopwpu will do the opposite: rename the index to the landing page then rename the backed up index to index.

3. Upgrade WordPress

Once you have the landing page set up and the appropriate aliases, you can update your site.

1. On the command line run the new startwpu command.
2. Transfer all of the files in the new version of WordPress EXCEPT index.php (save that till the end!)
3. Once all files except index.php are transfered, run stopwpu — this will bring back the real index.php
4. Now, transfer the new index.php from the upgrade files and it will overwrite the “old” one
5. Go to your-site.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php and finish the process
6. At this point, 5 minutes should not have passed, unless you have a slower connection

Your visitors in that 5 minutes while have the landing paging standing by to redirect them. Feel free to adjust the refresh rate based on your typical backup time length.

HOWTO: Use Gmail Through IMAP
[ 24 October 2007 ]
Marked under time savers.

Gmail just started to roll out its new IMAP compatibility feature. It’s simple to setup, so here’s how to do it.

First, in Gmail, find the IMAP settings by navigating to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Next, enable it:

Now you just need to configure your email client with a new IMAP account. See Google’s guide for client settings.

HOWTO: Always Stay Logged Into Facebook
[ 25 September 2007 ]
Marked under security, time savers.

Facebook just rolled out a long-needed feature that we usually see at the infancy of every service that requires a login: Remember Me.

1. Enter your email address
2. Enter your password
3. Check the Remember Me box.

HOWTO: Run Firefox with Multiple Profiles
[ 31 August 2007 ]
Marked under mozilla, time savers.

Firefox has a ton of built-in features that kill the competition (*cough* IE sucks *cough*). One nice feature is the ability to use multiple profiles. You may wonder, “what’s a profile?” A profile is everything that makes up your customized Firefox experience. That includes your theme, add-ons and extensions, customized menus, bookmarks, etc. By default, you use a default profile (not surprising huh?). You can create other profiles though to have different experiences. You may wonder why you’d want to use different profiles.

Examples of Multiple Profiles

If multiple people use the same account on a computer, you can launch your own version of Firefox with your own extensions, bookmarks, etc. For example, you can create a Firefox shortcut on your Desktop for each specific user of the computer. That way each user can have their own custom Firefox experience. Your parents may just want the basic browser while you may want to add on a bunch of extensions. And… you will have your own set of bookmarks, separate from everyone else’s.

If you are a web developer, you probably use a ton of WebDev add-ons to make work easier. You can create your own development profile with all that extra baggage. You can then save your default profile to be lightweight and for personal use. This way, you won’t have all of those extensions and add-ons for webdev in the way when you just want to check the Red Sox score. And, it will keep your bookmarks organized. You can have a personal set and a set for development sites.

Do you watch lots of videos on YouTube, and all those crazy sites (CollegeHumor, Break, etc.)? All of those nice extensions for rich media can get in the way. You can create a video profile for your media viewing purposes only.

There are many other uses for multiple profile. For example, a profile just for testing out add-ons and extensions. A profile souped up for contacting people, fully loaded with gTalk in the sidebar, Gmail Manager checking your inbox and meebo open for chat.

Create the Firefox Shortcut

Let’s create a new profile now. Create a new shortcut to Firefox. Right-click it > Properties. Go to the end of the string in the Target field and add the following after that end quote:

-p PROFILENAME -no-remote

Replace PROFILENAME with a new unique name for your new profile.

The -no-remote flag, according to Firefox documentation “[e]nables Firefox to run with multiple profiles; used with -P. Firefox 2 and later.”

Here’s the example I used: -p development -no-remote

Profile Manager

Double-click on the new shortcut. The first time you try it, the new profile won’t exist, so it will open the Profile Manager. From here, click Create Profile and give it the same name of the one you used in the shortcut. NOTE: it’s case-sensitive.

Make sure you choose Don’t Ask at Startup. This will prevent the Profile Manager from opening next time and will launch the profile in the shortcut.

Now that you have the profile created, launch the shortcut and your new profile will open up. Customize it as you want.

HOWTO: Make the Volume Control Always Show in the System Tray
[ 29 August 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

Recently I reformatted my computer so I could write an article about partitioning a hard for the OS and data. After installing my fresh copy of XP (yeah, I’m not downgrading to Vista), I noticed my Volume Control icon in the system tray wasn’t showing. This reminded me of a past experience with this issue. It turns out that some people doesn’t see the icon in the system tray, even if the option to show it is in fact enabled in the control panel:

(click image to enlarge)

There’s an easy solution to this problem. The Volume Control icon is controlled by systray.exe, so you just need to add that program to your registry startup folder. Note: do not make a shortcut to systray and put it in your Start Menu startup folder; it won’t help.

Download the .reg file

Download the .reg file and run it to automatically add the key to your registry.

…or…

Manual Method

If you want to manually modify the registry, here’s how. Open regedit (Start > Run > regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Right-click in the right-side and choose New > String Value.

Give it a simple name, like Systray. For the value, enter “C:\WINDOWS\system32\systray.exe”

HOWTO: Sort a Folder by Date Created
[ 27 August 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

I often find myself browsing through my external hard drive through my music. I always looks for the latest songs I’ve downloaded but I tend to forget what’s new. I find the easiest way to find my new stuff is to sort by Date Created, however, the right-click Arrange Icons By menu doesn’t offer Date Created by default:

It’s easy to add this to the menu though. Just go to View > Choose Details … and check Date Created:

Now when you right-click in the folder, you can choose Arrange Icons By > Created:

Firefox Quick Search: Google-to-Peer Free Music
[ 22 August 2007 ]
Marked under mozilla, multimedia, time savers.

G2P.org offers an easy way to search Google for music. It’s been around for a while. If you have Firefox though, skip going to g2p and just make a Quick Search to find the music you want. It makes it much easier and faster to get your free music.

Go ahead and create a new Quick Search bookmark. Make the location:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=intitle%3Aindex.of+%2B%E2%80%9Dlast+modified%E2%80%9D+%2B%E2%80%9Dparent+directory%E2%80%9D+%2B%28mp3%7Cwma%7Cogg%29+%2B%22%s%22+-htm+-html+-php+-asp&btnG=Search

HOWTO: Map a Folder to a Drive Letter
[ 20 August 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

If you’ve used TrueCrypt before, you know you mount encrypted volumes as drive letters. Ever wonder how to mount just a regular folder as it’s own virtual drive? You can issue the subst command in the command prompt to do this.

subst <drive letter> <path>

Just make sure the drive letter isn’t being used. If you ever need to delete a virtual drive, just issue the following command:

subst <drive letter> /D

Here are some examples:

subst M: C:\Documents and Settings\Mark\My Documents\My Music

subst W: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot

subst F: C:\Inetpub\ftproot

If you want to get this job done using a GUI, go ahead and grab Visual Subst.

HOWTO: Never Lose Personal Data When Reinstalling Your OS
[ 23 July 2007 ]
Marked under storage, time savers.

Need to reformat your computer? Is your OS having problems which results in you having to reinstall? If so, I bet you’re about to do some major file backups, huh? It’s common practice for people to use CDs, DVDs, Flash drives, and external hard drives to back up their data. This common method isn’t necessarily the quickest and simplest way of doing things. I introduce you to the “Poor Man’s Backup Method.” I guess one could also just call it a simple backup method. Unfortunately, you can’t start using this method immediately; you actually do need to reformat to begin using this method.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of how to [re]format a hard drive, create partitions, and install your OS of choice.

1. The Clean Slate

Before you do anything, make sure you back up ALL of your data. You can use the common methods for this: CDs, DVDs, other hard drives, Flash drives, email, etc. You need a clean slate, so once you have ALL of your important data backed up, format your hard drive completely.

2. Splitting the Atom

Now, here comes the trick. Create two partitions. You can make them of equal size or you can opt for different sizes. Just make sure there’s enough space on one to install your OS.
Conversion reminder: Take the total number of megabytes of your drive and divide by 1024 to get the number of gigabytes.

3. Installing the OS & Secondary Drive Creation

Now, install the OS like you normally would on your C: drive. This part is no different than if you did a full reformat without making two partitions.

Now you need to format that extra partition into a usable drive. Right-click My Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management.

Right-click on the unpartitioned area next to the C: drive and click “Format…” and format the partition accordingly. This might take some time, but when it’s done, you will now have another usable drive. Feel free to change the drive letter if you want.

(click image to enlarge)

4. Data Migration

Once you have the OS set up, move you data from your backup media to the OTHER drive on your computer. Don’t put this data on the C:\ drive which is for your OS. The reason you created that second partition was for storing your data.

5. Putting It To Use

Now, say you run into major problems with your OS. Maybe it has a virus or it’s going very slow. Now you just need to wipe your C: drive and reinstall the OS there. You data is all intact on your other partition.

HOWTO: Combine Word Docs Into One Doc
[ 11 July 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

I recently ran into a slight dilemma. I downloaded some printable calendar months as Word docs, but they were each their own document by month. I wanted to put them all into one document and a simple copy-and-paste would normally have been fine. It did not work because they contained highly formatted tables and they just didn’t copy over correctly. Fortunately, Word can easily add files together.

First, click on the line you want the other Word doc to be pasted to. Then, go to Insert > File and select your other Word doc. That’s it. It will be inserted into the doc you’re in at the spot where you left the cursor.

HOWTO: Fast File Tranfers On Your Home Network with FTP
[ 7 June 2007 ]
Marked under multimedia, storage, time savers, windows.

We’ve all done it… we’ve had to transfer some files to a computer just feet away, but we’ve had to do extra work to get the job done. There are plenty of ways to get stuff to another computer on your network - email, external media (thumb drives, external HDDs), web space, direct connections (like in IM), etc. Many of those methods are really great, but by using FTP, we can take advantage of local transfers over our own network.

Note: This requires Windows XP Professional

In a nutshell: install the FTP service in Windows on at least one of the computers (best if all have it); make anonymous FTP connections allowed; FTP to your internal IP address from one computer to the other. And….done.

In detail:

1. Install the FTP server

You need your Windows XP Pro installation CD to install this extra Windows component, so load up the CD and go to the Control Panel in Windows. Open Add or Remove Programs and select Add/Remove Windows Components from the left side.

(click to enlarge image)

Put a check mark next to Internet Information Services (IIS) and click the Details… button.

(click to enlarge image)

Put a check mark next to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service. Common Files and the Snap-In will automatically become selected. Click OK and Next and finish up the installation.

(click to enlarge image)

2. Set up anonymous FTP and an ftproot

Open up Administrative Services (can be found in the Control Panel). From there, open up IIS. Expand FTP Sites and right-click on Default FTP Site, and hit Properties.

(click to enlarge image)

Under the Security Accounts tab, make sure Allow Anonymous Connections is checked.

(click to enlarge image)

Under the Home Directory tab, make sure Read and Write are both checked. At the top, choose a path to your ftproot, or keep the default (C:\Inetpub\ftproot). Mine is set to C:\dropbox\.

(click to enlarge image)

3. Transfer files in an FTP client

Load up your favorite FTP client and connect to your local IP address of the computer your sending data to. For example, say my local IP is 192.168.1.4 and the computer I want to send data to is 192.168.1.7. In my FTP client, I would enter 192.168.1.7 for the server and connect. The file transfer should be really quick since you’re on the same network. The data is not going over the Internet but is actually just going through your router from one connected client to another. So, the real bottleneck of the transfer is the router itself.

4. Q & A

Q: Why do you only need one (of two) computers to transfer files?
A: Say you want to transfer files to and from two computers. You have PC1 and PC2. If you set up the FTP server on PC2, it’s possible to transfer data in both directions - to and from PC1. To send data to PC2, connect to its IP from PC1 and send your files over. Easy. Say you want something from PC2 to go to PC1. Just copy the file(s) into the ftproot on PC2, and when you connect from PC1, just drag the files from PC2 to your own local file system.

Q: Can I set up the FTP service using Windows XP Home?
A: No. However, you might be able to get it to work. Read these instructions.

Q: Can I make FTP access NOT anonymous?
A: Yes, just make sure the Allow Anonymous Connections option is not checked. You can manage permissions below it.

HOWTO: Defrag Files, Folders, or Drives Very Fast
[ 28 May 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

WARNING: Tested on XP only

I’ve written about a Sysinternals program in the past, and this time I’m going to introduce you to Contig. Contig is a simple program that can defragment files very quickly. The only drawback is that it’s a command-line program. Well…say welcome to Power Defragmenter GUI. PDG is a GUI wrapper for the Contig program.

1. Download

Go ahead and download Power Defragmenter GUI from Softpedia. Installation is just a matter of unzipping the folder to some location you want (I’d put it in C:\Program Files\Power Defragmenter GUI\).

2. Run

Now, run the program (Power Defragmenter, not Contig).

Select what you want to defrag, like a single file, a folder, or an entire disk:

3. Wait

Now just wait some time for the program to defrag your files. You’ll see the Contig running in a command prompt. It will be really fast, so don’t get a seizure.

Do you have any tips for defragging?

HOWTO: Keep Your Desktop Clean yet Maintain Quick Access to Programs
[ 21 May 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

More often than not, I see Desktops litered with shortcuts to programs, folders, documents and files. Honestly, do you really use each of those programs on your Desktop every time you’re on your computer? You can actually clean up your Desktop yet still have really quick access to your programs and files. I’m taking about the Toolbar feature of Windows Taskbar.

1. Create a holding folder

I created my folder called Utilities in My Documents. Then, I placed my Desktop shortcuts in this folder. Feel free to create sub-folders of categories, like, Multimedia, Networking, etc.

2. Create a toolbar

Right-click on the Taskbar, go to Toolbars > New Toolbar …

Browse to your newly created holding folder and click OK at the end. Now, just click the arrows next to the folder name on the right side of the Taskbar and your folder will expand to its contents of billions of programs you have shortcuts to but never seem to use (at least often enough).

HOWTO: Share Files Among Computers with Tubes
[ 3 May 2007 ]
Marked under multimedia, storage, time savers.

Tubes is a free service for sharing files among computers. The application is a desktop program that allows the user to create a “tube” that he can place files in. Other users - friends, family, co-worker, other PCs - can subscribe to the tube and can get updated files added to the tube. You can choose to autosync a tube which will automatically get new files when they’re added to a tube. Think of it as instantly sending files to an aggregate group of people using your tube. This is a walk-through on how to get started using Tubes to share files.

1. Register and download

First, go to www.tubesnow.com. Click the download button. It will take you to a register page. Register for a free account (which gives you 2 Gb of space) or pay $4.99/month for Premium (5 Gb, more features) and download Tubes.

2. Add a tube

The first time you use Tubes, it will connect you to two tubes on its own, Help and What’s New.

Click the + sign to create a new tube. Name the tube and choose additional options from the details menu.

(click image to enlarge)

Your tube will get processed and created.

Double-click on your tube and a tube explorer window will open up.

(click image to enlarge)

You can start dragging some files into this tube. As you can see in the image below, I am using the free account which offer 2 gigabytes of storage.

(click image to enlarge)

In the Tubes Navigator, your tube will show how many files you have in your tube.

3. Invite people to your tube

If you right-click your tube, you can send out invites to other people to use your tube so you can share files

Stay tuned for updates as I’ll be posting some more screenshots of other tubes receiving files.

HOWTO: Get Instant Access to the HOSTS file
[ 1 May 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

The HOSTS file is a file used to map IP addresses to domains. There are many uses for it — my favorite it to block ad servers. The HOSTS file has no extension, so you can’t associate a program with it automatically to open it all the time. Instead, you can create a shortcut that calls a text editor of your choice to open it.

Create a desktop shortcut with the following program path to open the HOSTS file in Notepad:

notepad "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

Create a desktop shortcut with the following program path to open the HOSTS file in WordPad:

"c:\program files\windows nt\accessories\wordpad.exe" "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

If you want to auto-open it in any other editor, just change the first path to the program editor’s main executable.

Once you have your shorcut, rename it to hosts and drop it in C:\windows\ so you can run it from the Run box by entering in hosts and hitting enter.

Watch a screen cast of it right now:

Utility Center: 4 New Additions
[ 9 April 2007 ]
Marked under general, mobile, multimedia, time savers, windows.

Here are a few new additions to the new Utility Center.

IrfanView - this program goes back to my days with Windows 95. This is an excellent image viewer…a perfect replacement to the default view in Windows. You can open plenty of different image formats as well as play audio formats. This program has been written about before for ability to take great screenshots.

FileZilla - this is a very reliable FTP program — and it’s completely free. I highly recommend it for any FTP use. It has n account manager that lets you save passwords and addresses.

CleanUp! - this program has been mentioned in the past as a good way to clean up your hard drive. It can scan though a lot of common areas looking for temporary files, cached files and other junk. This is definitely a good program to have.

BitPim - this program is a great one for cell phones. If you are able to connect your phone to your computer (either hard wire or wireless), you can use the bad boy to transfer media over to the phone. It’s been mentioned in the past in a detailed tutorial on putting MP3s on the LG Chocolate as ringtones.

HOWTO: Change the Administrator password in Windows XP
[ 21 March 2007 ]
Marked under security, time savers, windows.

You should probably know that it’s quite important to create a password for the “Administrator” account in Windows. By default, this user does not have a password. To keep your PC safe, you should add a password to this account. Through the normal setup process though, you will probably create your own user account first, which will probably be an Administrator itself. Now, rather than figuring out how to get into the main ‘Administrator’ account*, why not just change the password from your own account? There are two very easy ways to do this… if you’re a loyal reader, you will know the second one.
1. User Accounts Panel

Go to the Run box and enter control userpasswords2 (make sure there’s a 2 at the end). At the bottom, click Reset Password… under the Administrator section. Enter a new password twice. Dunskie.

…OR…

2. ‘net user’ command

You can refer to an old post to get the details for this one. Just enter net user Administrator <your new password here> in the command prompt. Voila.

* To get into the Administrator account, reboot your machine and boot into Safe Mode. On the user account selection screen, you should see the Administrator account listed.

HOWTO: Manage Multiple Gmail accounts in Firefox
[ 12 March 2007 ]
Marked under mozilla, time savers.

Let’s face it, Gmail has redefined free webmail. Pretty much everyone has at least used Gmail. Many people, like myself, have multiple Gmail accounts. I have my personal account, which I use to manage my domain email acounts, as well as my “junk” account. So, for those of you with multiple accounts, I’ll walk you through a way to manage them. This method uses a Firefox extension called Gmail Manager.

1. Download & Install

First, download Gmail Manager from the Firefox Add-ons site. Don’t forget to install it the fast way. Once you have it installed, a Gmail icon will appear in the bottom right corner of Firefox.

2. Setup

Right-click on the Gmail icon and click Preferences. At the top, click the Add button and enter your Gmail address and password. If you don’t share the computer with someone else, you can select save the password and login to the account automatically. This makes account management extremely helpful.

Now, click the Toolbar tab.

Under Selected account:
“Hide unread count…” will hide the number of unread emails you have in that account. I prefer to do this to save space.
“Hide alias from…” will hide the Gmail address from being displayed. I prefer to hide this as well.
I feel the color the Gmail icon is enough to determine if you have new mail or not, so the two above options are both checked for me.

Under Tooltip:
“Show labels with…” will show only the labels with new mail.
“Show new mail snippets…” will actually show a little snippet of your new mail in the tooltip. This is an excellent option.

Under Unread count:
This section is obvious. I prefer only to select the Inbox.

The Notifications tab offers additional options, such as the update time… which is set to 15 minutes by default.

3. Use it

Now you can add as many other Gmail accounts as you want. To switch between/among accounts, right-click the Gmail icon and select the account. To open your Gmail Inbox for that account, just click on the icon.

HOWTO: Enable/Disable the HOSTS File On-The-Fly
[ 1 March 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

If you use my previosuly featured method of blocking websites using the HOSTS file, then you probably know it’s annoying to navigate to that file to disable it. Why would you want to disable it you may ask? Well, let’s say you go to a website numerous times and you’re unable to reach it. Other people can see it, but you claim the site is down. Maybe you’re blocking it in the HOSTS file. Well, disabling it is one way to find out. Instead of finding the file and renaming it to disable the blocking, you can run this simple script I wrote. It will enable/disable the HOSTS file and tell you what state the file is in. Toss it in your system32 directory and you can run it from the Run box. The script renames hosts to hosts1 and vice versa

You can download the file (hosts.bat) or you can just copy the script below:

@echo off
cls

cd C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

if exist hosts goto two

:one
ren hosts1 hosts
echo.
echo hosts ENABLED
echo.
goto end

:two
ren hosts hosts1
echo.
echo hosts DISABLED
echo.
goto end

:end
pause

Disable/Enable via the Run box.

HOWTO: Free Up Precious Space in Windows
[ 20 February 2007 ]
Marked under storage, time savers, windows.

Notice your hard drive getting pretty full? Isn’t it a hassle to go through the whole workflow of deleting Temporary Internet Files, clearing your Cache, removing unnecessary backup files, etc.? We’ll, luckily there’s an excellent program out there for you. To top things off, it’s completely free. CleanUp! is an excellent program to free up some space on your hard drive. It works by scanning your drive and deleting the common space-takers, like your Firefox Cache, IE’s Temporary Internet Files, your cookie text files, as well as standard temp files and even your prefetch files *. It’s just a simple download and install and you’re on your way to more free space.

Once CleanUp! is installed, you will notice two CleanUp! shortcuts, the normal version and the demo mode:

Running the demo will scan your drive and pretend to clean it up, but it won’t actually remove any files. This is good to see how much space it might save you without doing it permanently. Try this is you are wary of removing so many files; you can always check out the log to see what files were deleted:

(click image to enlarge)

Once you run the normal mode of CleanUp!, you can choose some options to customize the scan. Just select the Options menu:

(click image to enlarge)

As you can see above, after 6 scans, I’ve cleared up 956 MBs.

In the options menu, you can select what you want to be removed from your machine. I prefer the Standard settings, but you can customize it to your liking. If you are ever unsure, just run it in demo mode.

Go ahead and download CleanUp! now to start freeing up some space.

Turn your speakers on too before you run the scan — it’s pretty amusing.

* - After reading the comment below and doing some research, it appears the Prefetcher caps itself to a limit so the .pf files don’t take up a lot of space. Not to mention that fact that these files are just re-created anyways, so it’s just a waste of time to remove them.

HOWTO: Quickly Shut Down or Restart in Windows XP
[ 12 February 2007 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

If you ever want to quickly Shut Down or Restart Windows XP, you can use Alt + F4 do get the job done. Alt + F4 is usually the “Exit” keyboard shortcut to exit the current program. However, if you’re on your Desktop, hitting Alt + F4 will actually prompt you to Stand By, Turn Off, or Restart your computer. Say, you have a program running and want to Restart, just hit the Windows Key + D (to go to the Desktop), then hit Alt + F4 to launch the prompt.

HOWTO: Quickly search an entire domain
[ 18 January 2007 ]
Marked under time savers.

Sometimes you may need to search a particular domain for a specific subject or page that you know exists. This search process may result in frustration, especially when you know a page exists but cannot find it. Introduce trusty Google to get the job done. Just enter in your search terms into the Google search box and add “site:domain” to the search string.

Example:
vista contest site:lifehacker.com

That search will search for vista contest as a regular Google search, but it will filter the search to just the lifehacker.com domain.

Explore an entire domain
You can also use this method to find secret pages and parts to web sites. Just enter “site:domain” into a search and explore the listing of all of the pages on the site.

Example:
site:allthingsmarked.com
More than Google

I stated above to use Google search to explore or filter results by a domain. The truth is that most search engines have this feature, so give them all a try.

HOWTO: Search faster using Firefox’s Smart Keywords
[ 30 December 2006 ]
Marked under mozilla, time savers.

Firefox — the next generation browser you either use yourself, know someone that does, or have heard of. Firefox is such a popular browser these days because its so flexible to the common user. Wait, it doesn’t have that feature you want? Well…chances are, there’s an extension for it. Just find a user-written extension, install it…and ugh, that’s it. Nextel. Done. Firefox has some really nice built-in features that sometimes go overlooked, unseen, or just not understood. Firefox’s QuickSearch feature (a.k.a. Smart Keywords) is one of my favorites.

Say you like to look everything up using Wikipedia. You can go to www.wikipedia.org, enter a search term, and click Search. If you have a Smart Keyword set up, you can find something simply by clicking on the address bar (or hit Ctrl + L), type in your keyword, a space, and your search terms. Hit Enter, see results. Done.

Set up your own Smart Keywords

It’s easy to add a new Smart Keyword. In fact, Firefox has some built in. I store mine in the folder Bookmarks > Firefox & Mozilla Information > Quick Searches.

Go to a web page that you want to create a Smart Keyword (QuickSearch) for. My example below is for Wikipedia. Right click on the search field and click “Add a Keyword for this Search…” as shown below.

Enter a Name for the Smart Keyword. Enter a special Keyword to use as a trigger for this search. Select the Create in folder to determine where this is stored. Mine is in the folder I mentioned above.

Click OK and try it out. In the address bar, just enter the keyword, a space, and your search terms.

You’re all done. You can also customize the searches available in the search box, but I will cover that another time.

I use Smart Keywords myself all the time. Here are some keywords I use:

ud    Urban Dictionary
wp    Wikipedia
imdb  IMDb
def   Dictionary lookup
jdoc  Java Docs
php   PHP function search


How do you use Smart Keywords? Let me know in the comments.

HOWTO: Look at AIM profiles without being signed on
[ 14 December 2006 ]
Marked under time savers.

Did you know you are able to look at the AIM profile of a screenname without being signed on? Usually you need to right click your Buddy List, and click Get Buddy Info. If you’re not signed on to chat, just go to http://www.aimpages.com/SCREENNAME/profile.html where SCREENNAME is the particular screenname you want to lookup. You can view a profile, away messages and other stats.

HOWTO: Find the right video codec
[ 18 November 2006 ]
Marked under multimedia, time savers.

If you have ever had an AVI movie file on your computer and you wanted to watch it, you’ve probably had a problem with figuring out how to watch it. To watch videos and listen to audio, you need specific codecs. A codec (short for compressor/decompressor), is a way to compress a given file, then decompress it upon use. There are so many codecs out there, it’s hard to keep track of what your machine supports. I recommend the use of AVIcodec, which will examine a video file and tell you what specific codec(s) you need to watch and listen to it.

It’s very easy to use, and there are actually two ways to analyze files:

1. Open the AVIcodec program and either drag a file into the program area, or click the Select button and manually add a file.

(click image to enlarge)
or

2. Right-click a video file > click “AVIcodec : detailed information”

The program will tell you what video codec you need and what website you can go to download it. It will also analyze the audio portion of the movie, so if you need a codec for that as well, you can get it.

Download the latest version (1.2.110) here.

HOWTO: Instantly change your MAC address
[ 22 October 2006 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

NOTICE: Windows XP ONLY

There’s a C++ command-line utility called Macshift that allows Windows XP users to change their MAC address to any other valid address. I’ve written about how to use it and how to create shortcuts to change your MAC address on-the-fly. I’ll first explain how to use Macshift for any MAC change, then I’ll show you how to make Windows shortcuts using the command-line options. I’ve also made a small script to make it easier to use, but the script isn’t necessary.
Macshift usage

Macshift is a command-only utility, so you need to learn the options to use it.

-i [adapter name] tells what adapter in Network Cnnections to change
-r tells the program to use a random MAC
-d restores the original MAC
--help shows the Help menu

Example usage:
macshift -i "Wireless Network Connection" 001122334455
This would change your wireless MAC to the one above. Your adapter will be disconnected and reset immediately.

macshift -i "Wireless Network Connection" -d
This would restore your MAC address to the original.

The adapter name must appear exactly as it does in your Network Connections. By default, a wired connection should be “Local Area Connection” and wireless should be “Wireless Network Connection” — you can rename these to make it easier.

Create Windows shortcuts

The first thing you should do is find a permanent place to keep Macshift. Make a folder in Program Files or just throw it in the Windows directory. Right-click it and choose Send to -> Desktop to make a shortcut. Now, just use the command options in the path field of the shortcut. Create as many shortcuts to the Macshift exe as you want. Below are some shortcut examples.

Generates a random MAC.

Restores the original MAC.

As you can see, I have macshift.exe in my C:\WINDOWS\ folder. All I did was add some options to the end of the path to tell it what to do. You can manually tell it what MAC to use also. Instead of using the -r option, you can put a valid MAC at the end like:
macshift -i "Local Area Connection" 001143641222

Use a script to specify a MAC
I’ve written a simple script to ask you for the MAC you want to change to. Just run the script, enter your desired MAC and adapter, then hit enter. It’s pretty simple. Here it is:

set /P newmac="Enter your desired MAC: "
set /P adapter="Enter the adapter name: "
macshift -i %adapter% %newmac%

If you use this script, you need to place the macshift.exe program in a PATH folder (i.e. a folder that can be run from the command line; see the PATH variable in Environmental Variables). If you’re not sure waht that means, put macshift.exe in either C:\WINDOWS\ or C:\WINDOWS\system32. The script is very unnecessary, but if you want to use it, go for it.

Why would you want to change your MAC address?

You tell me. People change their MAC addresses for a number of reasons. Why do you? Let me know in the comments or by email.

Easily get rid of change, 10 coins at a time
[ 18 October 2006 ]
Marked under general, time savers.

Everyone has coins they want to get rid of. I randomly thought of an easy way to carry change and always have enough change for a purchase. For the sake of this article, I consider change to be less than $1 of coins. To be able to make any change combination, you need to carry $0.99 of change through 10 coins:

3 quarters
1 dime
2 nickles
4 pennies

These amounts will add up to $0.99 of coins. Given any “change” value, you can come up with that amount with these coins.

$0.55 = 2 q + 1 n
Left over = 1 q + 1 d + 1 n + 4 p

$0.79 = 3 q + 4 p
Left over = 1 d + 2 n

No matter what change value you need, you can come up with it. So, if you want to start using up your coins, just carry these 10 coins with you. Say you buy breakfast every morning and pay with cash. You will always be able to give exact change for the change part of your order, even if you buy different stuff each day. This method obviously only works per transaction, meaning once you use some coins, you can’t guarantee you will have exact change for another transaction.

You no longer need to carry a handfull of change when you want to get rid of it — just carry 10.

I tried to come up with an even smaller amount of change but I don’t think one exists. If you figure one out, let me know.

UPDATE: It seems as though my intentions for this are being misunderstood. This is just a simple, but usable way to get rid of some change. If you prefer to just keep change in a jar (as I do), then fine. All I am saying here is if you are going to go buy something and you have change you want to get rid of, you can do this. You can also just grab a handful of change — that’s fine, your decision. You can also just never use change and always break bills. Fine. I am in college, thus…I don’t want to waste bills of a few cents, so if I know I’m going to buy something with cash, I can bring change.

DIY: Open Command Window Here
[ 9 October 2006 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

Many people that use Windows also use the Command Prompt / Command Window / DOS Prompt (or whatever you choose to call it). I use the prompt often myself (as you can see from previous posts), so it’s important to be able to navigate through folders via the prompt. I could choose to open a prompt and use cd all the time to navigate directories, or I could use a program to open a prompt already at the folder I’m in. To go even further, I could download the Microsoft PowerToy “Open Command Window Here,” or I could write it myself. I think I’ll write it myself, seeing that it takes about two lines of Registry code.

You have three choices: (1) make your own Registry script using the given code, (2) manually enter keys into the Registry the long way (a good way to learn though), and (3) download and run the script I already made for you.

(1) The .reg code view

Make your own Registry file (a .reg extension) with the following code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\cmd]
@="Open Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\cmd\command]
@="cmd.exe /k pushd %L"

(2) Manual Registry instructions

1. Start > Run > “regedit” [Enter]
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/shell/
3. Right-click on Shell > New > Key
4. Name it Command Prompt (or anything you think is descriptive for yourself)
5. In the right frame, for the default value, of the Command Prompt key you just made, enter whatever text you want to appear in the context menu (e.g. Open Command Prompt Here -or- Commaaaaaannnd!)
6. Back in the left frame, right-click Command Prompt (or whatever you called it) > New > Key
7. Name this sub-key: command [Note: it must be named command to work]
8. In the right frame of command, set the default value to cmd.exe /k pushd %L

Screenshots of what your registry should look similar to (click images to enlarge):

(3) The lazy way: download and run the .reg

If you don’t want to do anything yourself, just download the registry file (.reg) and say OK to the warning. It will add the code to your registry for you.

About the Registry script

I’ve only tested this script on Windows XP Pro for my own use. Your experience may differ, so I hold no responsibility if you screw something up in your registry. This article was revisited from a previous comment of mine on Lifehacker.

The script in a nutshell:

The first line makes a registry key for the Windows Explorer shell. This name appears on the right-click context menu when you right-click a folder. The second line places the code that gets executed when you click the menu item. This line of code launches the command prompt (cmd.exe) in interactive mode using the /k switch. The pushd command stores the name of the current directory, and %L places that stored name into the variable spot.

HOWTO: Securely open TrueCrypt volumes in one click (Redux)
[ 30 September 2006 ]
Marked under security, time savers, windows.

In the past, I wrote an article about a very easy way to mount and explore a TrueCrypt volume in one step. Some security issues came up about keeping the volume password in the batch file used to mount. This new article take that into account. The [almost] same script is used to mount the volume, but the password is taken out and you are instead required to enter the password at a prompt. The beginning steps are the same as the previous article, so if you just want to see the new feature, skip down to the “Create a script to mount” section.

Create your volume

Create any size TrueCrypt volume using your encryption algorithm of choice. My computer runs the Blowfish algorithm the fastest, so that’s my typical choice. Make sure you assign a good, long, hard-to-break password to it. The only way to reveal the contents of the volume is the password. We’re talking encryption standards the government uses here. So no one’s going to break in another way — you need a good password and you must remember it.

Copy TrueCrypt stand-alone files

TrueCrypt comes in an installable version and an stand-alone version. You can use the stand-alone command-only version for the batch script. The stand-alone files are inside the “Setup Files” folder inside the TrueCrypt folder. First, rename truecrypt.sys to tc.sys and truecrypt-x64.sys to tc-x64.sys. This will make it more simple for us. Go ahead and copy tc.sys and tc-x64.sys to C:\WINDOWS\. This will allow us to call the TrueCrypt program in the batch script.

Create a script to mount (NEW stuff here)

You may download the new batch script I wrote to mount a volume. Make sure you fill in the appropriate part specific to you — the path to your volume. Place this script in C:\WINDOWS\ so you can call it from the Run box. Here’s the main line in the script which has been slightly changed from the previous version:

tc /v <path to file> /l x /p %thepass% /q

As I said, make sure you fill in the correct path to your file. The changed piece is the pulling of the password and the addition of the %thepass%. That will require you to enter a password through a prompt when you run the script. Your password will no longer be in the file for anyone to see.

You may notice, I use various flags in the call. The /v flag will make TC mount a volume; then /l x will mount it as the letter X:\ (like it’s a drive); /p means the password follows it — where in this case, it causes a prompt. Finally, /q will quit the program when done. After the mounting takes place, we call explorer on the X:\ drive to open it.

Create a script to unmount

Following the previous script’s example, I’ve also written a script to unmount your volume. Fill in the necessary changes. Place this script in C:\WINDOWS\ so you can call it from the Run box. The only new flag I use is /dx which will dismount the X:\ drive.

Test it out

Time to test it all out. Hit WinKey + R > type in mount2 (or you can rename my new script to mount.bat or whatever you want) and hit Enter. Your volume should mount and should open in Windows Explorer. Now, to unmount it, in the Run box, type in unmount (or whatever you may want to rename it to) and hit Enter. Nextel. Done.

HOWTO: Safely Eject Hardware (if Windows doesn’t let you)
[ 11 September 2006 ]
Marked under security, time savers, windows.

If you’ve ever plugged a USB device into your computer, you’ve probably experienced the need to properly disable it. When you are done with the device, you are supposed to safely stop the device before you shut it down. This is to make sure nothing is accessing the device at the time of shutdown.

Let’s say you have an external hard-drive that you want to turn off. If you don’t properly stop it, Windows may be accessing some files at the time of shutdown, and this may cause data corruption. Sometimes when you try to shut it down though, you get an error saying the device is in use. This may happen even if you know nothing is using the device. All explorer windows are closed, and you know no programs are using it.

(click to enlarge)

If this happens, you can use freeware Process Explorer to hunt down the thread accessing the device. Just open Process Explorer, hit Ctrl + F to open the Search menu, and enter the drive, in my case, “E:\”.

Now I can see a hidden instance of explorer is actually accessing the E: drive, so I just need to click on the result to see the thread. Now, right-click the thread, and close the handle.

Now that the hidden instance of explorer is closed, we can go about stopping the device the right way and avoid possible data corruption.

In my experience, this happens often when I access an external drive a lot and keep opening and closing exlorer windows. Occasionally, an instance will be remain open even though I’ve closed all windows. This method is also good for other USB devices that may annoy you. Just search for the drive letter and close all handles accessing the drive.

HOWTO: Mount and explore TrueCrypt volumes in one step
[ 6 September 2006 ]
Marked under security, time savers, windows.

This article will show you how to use the power of a Windows batch script to mount a TrueCrypt volume and explore the contents as a hard drive in just one step. For those of you that don’t know, TrueCrypt is free software that you can use to encrypt files. You can create a container file (named anything you want) and mount it as a drive using the TrueCrypt software. Unmounted, it looks just like a regular file.

Create your volume

Create any size TrueCrypt volume using your encryption algorithm of choice. My computer runs the Blowfish algorithm the fastest, so that’s my typical choice. Make sure you assign a good, long, hard-to-break password to it. The only way to reveal the contents of the volume is the password. We’re talking encryption standards the government uses here. So no one’s going to break in another way — you need a good password and you must remember it.

Copy TrueCrypt stand-alone files

TrueCrypt comes in an installable version and an stand-alone version. You can use the stand-alone command-only version for the batch script. The stand-alone files are inside the “Setup Files” folder inside the TrueCrypt folder. Go ahead and copy truecrypt.sys and truecrypt-x64.sys to C:\WINDOWS\. This will allow us to call the TrueCrypt program in the batch script.

Create a script to mount

You may download a batch script I wrote to mount a volume. Make sure you fill in the appropriate parts specific to you. These parts are capitalized to stand out. Place this script in C:\WINDOWS\ so you can call it from the Run box. Here’s the main line in the script:

tc /v <path to file> /l x /p <your password> /q

Make sure you fill in the correct path to your file, and the appripriate password you’ve chosen. You may notice, I use various flags in the call. The /v flag will make TC mount a volume; then /l x will mount it as the letter X:\ (like it’s a drive); /p means the password follows it. Finally, /q will quit the program. After the mounting takes place, we call explorer on the X:\ drive to open it.

Create a script to unmount

Following the previous script’s example, I’ve also written a script to unmount your volume. Fill in the necessary changes. Place this script in C:\WINDOWS\ so you can call it from the Run box. The only new flag I use is /dx which will dismount the X:\ drive.

Test it out

Time to test it all out. Hit WinKey + R > type in mount and hit Enter. Your volume should mount and should open in Windows Explorer. Now, to unmount it, in the Run box, type in unmount and hit Enter. Nextel. Done.

Also, you can rename the batch scripts to something only you will know, so it’s not easy to mount on your computer. For example, change mount.bat and unmount.bat to something like xy33.bat and sysz.bat. Only you will know.

HOWTO: Send free text messages through email
[ 4 September 2006 ]
Marked under general, time savers.

NOTE: Messages still incur the cost to the receiver who will always have to pay for an incoming message. This method makes sending free.

If you ever need to text someone on their phone and you’re at a computer you can actually send one through your email account. Just send an email to their address below based on their phone service:

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

Remember, they will receive this message as a txt, so keep it short and basic.

Info was from Gmail: Help Center

HOWTO: Change hard-drive letters and paths
[ 31 August 2006 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

I have two external hard-drives in enclosures for storage. One is my “E: drive” and the other is my “F: drive.” They get their drive letters based on when they’re mounted, so occasionally, they may show up in opposite order. This annoys me when I have a program that refers to E:\ when in that case, it’s the F:\ drive. To change the drive letters of your drive, follow these steps:

Right click My Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management > right-click your drive > Change Drive Letter and Paths… > Change

Now you can change it to something else. Pretty simple if you ask me, but not many people know the actual place to do this.

(click image to enlarge)

RSS: explained
[ 30 August 2006 ]
Marked under general, mozilla, time savers.

These days, there are so many websites out there that have little orange boxes on their sites that say RSS, Atom, or XML. Many people get confused by them and wonder what they’re used for. It’s a fairly new form of technology to keep up-to-date with website content. RSS and Atom are two separate forms of “feeds” built on XML technology. The earliest form of RSS stood for RDF Site Summary. The n, it stood for Rich Site Summary. The latest version of RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. When a website updates — for example, this blog — the XML-based feed file gets updated with the new content of the site. This file contains the date and time of the update, the title of the topic and the actual content. It is all stored in an XML file. RSS and Atom are just two different types of this technology, but both are very similar and are an extension of XML.

So what’s it good for?

Feeds are good for keeping up-to-date with frequently read websites. Websites that provide content feeds have a special feed URL. You can enter this into a “feed reader” or “aggregator” which will pull in the content and display it to you. Feed readers are good beause you can read the content of a bunch of different websites in one central place. I use a homepage portal, Netvibes, to read feeds from my favorite websites. Below is a picture of two feeds from my homepage.

(click image to enlarge)
The above screenshot shows two different feeds, TechCrunch and Slashdot. The bold entries are new, unread entries. The number next to the feed name indicates the number of new entries on the respective website. As you can see, feeds are a great way to get a lot of content in one central location. Now you don’t have to visit a bunch of sites to see if they have any updates. Now the updates come to you, and you can actually read the updates right there.

Browsers like Mozilla Firefox and the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 have feed-reading capabilities built into them. In the latest version of Firefox (currently 1.5), if a website provides a feed, it will have a little orange box in the top right corner that looks like:

If you click that box, you can add the feed to your bookmarks. Once you do that, you can navigate to it in your bookmarks and the feed will expand and list the topics like such:

(click image to enlarge)

Now that you understand RSS, you can subscribe to my RSS feed to stay in-tune with my blog.

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More information on RSS/Atom/XML:

Wikipedia RSS entry
mezzoblue explanation
XML.com: What Is RSS

My most commonly used basic Windows features
[ 29 August 2006 ]
Marked under time savers, windows.

Instant permenant delete

Instead of hitting the Delete button on something, then emptying the Recycle Bin after, hold shift while you delete. Shift + Delete will instantly delete the item while bypassing the Recycle Bin.

The Almighty Windows Key

One of the best keyboard keys is the Windows Key. Combine this with a variety of letters, and you can do many basic things. My two most commonly used combos are WinKey + R to open the Run box, and WinKey + L to Lock the workstation.

Here’s a list of other combos:

WinKey + D             Minimizes windows and shows the Desktop
WinKey + E             Open an Explorer window
WinKey + F             Opens the Find feature
WinKey + L             Locks the workstation
WinKey + M             Minimizes all windows
WinKey + Shift + M     Undo minimization of windows
WinKey + R             Opens the Run box
WinKey + U             Opens the Utility Manager
WinKey + F1            Opens Help for Windows
WinKey + Pause/Break   Opens the system properties window
WinKey + Tab           Cycles through programs in the taskbar