How To Install Windows 8 From a USB Drive

Installing Windows 8 from a USB Drive is way more faster than installing it using a DVD. Recently a new Windows 8 M1 7850 build has been released. A pretty good number of utilities are available that will help you make bootable usb drive to install windows 7 which also works for the new windows 8 build. Here is a small guide that will help you create a bootable USB / Pen drive to install Windows 8 operating system.

Requirements

# 1) Windows 8 Setup DVD or ISO File.

# 2) USB Drive with more that 4 GB Space available.

# 3) You must be using Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system while following this guide.

# 4) Utility to mount iso files (if you are proceeding with the ISO file)
Installing Windows 8 From USB Drive

1) Connect your pendrive / usb drive to your pc and backup the data inside it.

2) Click the Start button and type CMD inside the search box. Right Click the cmd.exe icon and click on Run as Administrator. Windows command prompt will now open up.





3) Now inside the command prompt window type DISKPART and hit enter.







4)After seeing the following message (above) type LIST DISK and press enter. The command will help you find out the disk number of your plugged in usb drive.



5)The Below image shows the usb drive being labelled as Disk 2 with the size shown as 14GB. It is actually my 16GB pendrive. This might be different in your case.



6)Now execute the following commands one by one. In the SELECT DISK 2 command the disk number is obtained from step 5.

SELECT DISK 2

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

ASSIGN

EXIT

The Format option might take some time to finish depending on the size of the flash drive.



7)Minimize the command prompt windows after the format process has been complete.

8)Next we need to update the USB drive with the bootmgr code for this, either Mount the Windows 8 ISO file using a virtual disc utility (MagicDisc is a good one) or Insert the Widows 8 setup DVD and note down the drive letter.

9)Bring up the command prompt window and type I:>CD BOOT (I is the DVD drive / virtual drive in my case).

10)Now finally execute I:boot>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 K:




11)Close the Windows command prompt window and copy all the contents from widows 8 DVD or mounted virtual drive to the USB drive.

Note: For booting from your pendrive you need to enter the BIOS setup and enable the boot from Removable drive option (you may refer to the Mother board manual and check how to change the boot device priority).

After enabling the option to boot from removable drive, just plug in your USB drive and proceed with the windows 8 installation.

How to Make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR

Winrar is a popular archive management software that can be used to open or create archive (rar,zip etc) files.There are lot of freeware softwares like Axcrypt,Disguise Folders that can encrypt your files and password protect them.If you have winrar installed in your pc then you can use its inbuilt password protection feature
How To make Password Protected ZIP Files using WinRAR:-

• Right click on the folder/file which has to be  Password Protected and select ADD to Archive option.

• From the pop up window select the Advanced Tab.
• Now click on the Set Password.

• Enter and Verify your Password (Use both Alphabets and Numeric words to make a strong Password).

• Now a new compressed file will be generated at the same location of your original file

Now whenever somebody will try to open or extract the files in archive it will ask for the password.

Windows XP Secrets

Notepad Secrets

Create a log Open Notepad On the very first line, type in ".LOG" (without quotes) then press Enter for a new line Now you can type in some text if you want, then save the file. Next time when you open the file, notice its contents. Notepad automatically adds a time/date log everytime you open the file. Text becomes unreadable Open Notepad On the very first line, type in "dont eat the donut" (without quotes) then save and close the file. Note: the file should have only one line of the text above. Now, open the same file. You'll notice the text becomes unreadable squares. (try this with different text with the same format and length).

Paint Secrets

Create a trail image Open Paint, then open an image. Right-click on the image and select "Select All" Now hold the "Shift" key and move the image around. The image will be drawn with trail. 10x Zoom Open Paint, then open a small image. Select the zoom "Magnifier" tool. Windows Paint lists out the zoom options from 1x to 8x, but there is a 10x... After selecting the Magnifier tool, point the mouse right at the border line right under "8x" and left-click. There you go.. the hidden 10x.

Other Secrets

Where is the relaxing music that you've heard during Windows XP Installation? The file is in: C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma

Game Secrets

Solitaire: Instant Win Press Alt + Shift + 2 to instantly win Solitaire: Draw only 1 card (instead of 3) Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift then click on unopen cards to draw. FreeCell: Instant Win Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 while playing, then click Abort. Now move one card. FreeCell: Hidden Game Modes Go to "Game" menu choose "Select Game" Here you can choose from game mode 1 to 1,000,000. But -1 and -2 will also work (hidden modes) Hearts: Show All Card Warning! this requires a modification on your registry. Be sure you follow the steps carefully. Damage your registry might damage your Windows. Open the "Registry Editor" by: "Start" >> "Run" then type "regedit" and press Enter Expand to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Hearts Right-click on the right panel and create a new String value with the name "ZB" Double-click to open this key "ZB" to edit its value. Then enter "42" and close the Registry Editor. Start Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show all the cards Minesweeper: Stop The Timer When you start to play a new game, the timer is ticking... Press Windows Key + D to show desktop. Now come back to the game by selecting it from the taskbar. The timer is stopped. Pinball Unlimited Balls: Type bmax at a new game to get unlimited balls (no notification). Extra Balls: Type 1max at a new game to get extra balls. Gravity Well: Type gmax at a new game to activate Gravity Well. Promotion: Type rmax at a new game or while playing to get instant promotion and raising rank. Extra points with partial shots: Partially shot the ball just to pass the yellow light bars. There are 6 bars. With the first bar, you'll get 15,000 points, 2nd: 30,000,... Extra points with partial shots: Partially shot the ball just to pass the yellow light bars. There are 6 bars. With the first bar, you'll get 15,000 points, 2nd: 30,000,... Test Mode: Type hidden test with a new ball or new game. Now you can use your mouse to drag and move the ball where you want.

Microsoft Internet Explorer Shortcut Keys

The followings are short-cuts for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some keys are version specific
Use at your own risk.
Mouse shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
Double-click (On a word)	Select the word.
Triple-click	Select entire line.
Wheel click	Activate the Smooth scrolling
Hold Ctrl + Scroll Wheel forward	Increase font size
Hold Ctrl + Scroll Wheel backward	Decrease font size
Click one point then hold Shift & click another	Create a selection from the two points

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
F1	Help.
F3	Toggle on/off search panel.
F4	Pull down address bar.
F5	Refresh current page.
F6	Move focus to address bar.
F11	Toggle on/off full-screen mode
Alt + (Left Arrow)	Go back on history. Same pas Backspace
Alt + (Right Arrow)	Go forward on history.
Ctrl + A	Select All.
Ctrl + B	Favorites.
Ctrl + C	Copy Selected.
Ctrl + E	Search panel.
Ctrl + F	Find (on page).
Ctrl + H	Toggle History panel.
Ctrl + I	Toggle Favorites panel.
Ctrl + L	Open File. Same as Ctrl + O
Ctrl + N	Open New browser window.
Ctrl + P	Print current page / frame.
Ctrl + R	Refresh. Same as F5
Esc	Stop (while page is loading).
Ctrl + Enter	Auto complete a url address. For example, type thecomputricks in the address bar and press CTRL + ENTER to get http://www.thecomputricks.com.
Ctrl + D	Add the current page to favorite.

Internet Connection Sharing on Windows XP

This trick shows you how to share your internet connections on multiple computers within a workgroup with Windows XP. Windows XP has a built-in feature that called "Internet Connection Sharing" (ICS) that allows home users to share their internet connections on multiple computers.
If you are not familiar with the network configurations, the easiest way to share your internet connection is to purchase a router or hub. Use this trick only if you don't have a router, or don't want to use a router, or if you just want to try out the feature.
A simple way to understand this feature is, you are making your host computer (the computer directly connects to the internet) functioning as a router for other computers.

What do you need?

• A "Host" computer that running Windows XP. This computer must have at least TWO (2) network adapters. One adapter - let's call it "Adapter #1" - connects to the internet and another, "Adapter #2", connects to a hub or directly to other computers.
• Client computer(s), which run any version of Windows. A client computer can be connected to the host computer directly by a cross-over cable or indirectly through a hub.
• This trick assumes that the host computer is connected to the internet and you are able to access the internet on this computer.

Configure the Host Computer

1. Logon the host computer as Administrator.
2. Click Start >> Control Panel.
3. Click Network and Internet Connections.
4. Click Network Connections.
5. Right-click the connection that you use to connect to the internet (the connection with Adapter #1). This connection can be either a high-speed internet connection or a dial-up connection.
6. Click Properties.
7. Click Advanced tab.
8. Under Internet Connection Sharing, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
9. If you are sharing a dial-up Internet connection, select the Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box if you want to permit your computer to automatically connect to the Internet.
10. Click OK. You'll reieve the following message:
    When Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, your LAN adapter will be set to use IP address 192.168.0.1. Your computer may lose connectivity with other computers on your network. If these other computers have static IP addresses, it is a good idea to set them to obtain their IP addresses automatically. Are you sure you want to enable Internet Connection Sharing?
11. Click Yes.

Configure the Client Computer(s)
To use the shared connection from the Host computer, a client computer must be configured with "Automatic IP address". The main configurations are:

1. Configure TCP/IP Automatic IP
2. Configure Internet Connection

The steps for the above two configurations are vary on different versions of Windows.
The following procedures are for Windows XP client computers.

1. Log on to the client computer as Administrator or as Owner.
2. Click Start >> Control Panel.
3. Click Network and Internet Connections.
4. Click Network Connections.
5. Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties.
6. Click the General tab, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the This connection uses the following items list, and then click Properties.
7. In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, click Obtain an IP address automatically (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
   
   
   
8. Click Start >> Control Panel
9. Click Network and Internet Connections.
10. Click Internet Options.
11. In the Internet Properties dialog box, click the Connections tab.
12. Click the Setup button. The New Connection Wizard starts.
13. On the Welcome to the New Connection Wizard page, click Next.
14. Click Connect to the Internet, and then click Next.
15. Click Set up my connection manually, and then click Next.
16. Click Connect using a broadband connection that is always on, and then click Next.
17. On the Completing the New Connection Wizard page, click Finish.
18. Exit Control Panel and test the internet. You might need to restart the computer.

Browser Shaking

This is a fun little trick that can create a shaking screen on your web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, etc..)
The trick is simply a small Java Script that causes your browser window to move to different positions, causing a shake of your entire screen. It's kind of cool to watch and see what Java Script can do! Try it out..
Use this trick at your own risk.
Here's how:
Copy this entire line and paste it onto your address box, then press Enter:

javascript:function Shw(n) {if (self.moveBy) {for (i = 35; i > 0; i--) {for (j = n; j > 0; j--) {self.moveBy(1,i);self.moveBy(i,0);self.moveBy(0,-i);self.moveBy(-i,0); } } }} Shw(6)

Turn ON/OFF Num Lock on Startup

Most of standard keyboards come with a small numeric keypad which identified by the numbers from 0 to 9. However, this numeric keypad is also served for some other functions such as "Page Up", "Page Down", "End", "Home", etc... depending on which mode of the "Num Lock" is being used. Many Windows users find this numeric keypad useful to type the numbers faster. But oopps... after hitting a several keys on the numeric keypad, you recognize the outcomes are not what you expected. Then you recognize the "Num Lock" mode is "OFF", so you just need to switch it on, and... start over your typing! The bad news is, by default, Windows turns the Num Lock off; however, the good news is, you can configure Windows to turn this Num Lock ON so that whenever you mean "number", you really get a number.
Read on, you'll get the details how to set Windows to keep the Num Lock status "ON" as default. In fact, you will need to make a small change on your Windows Registry to turn the Num Lock ON everytime Windows starts up.
IMPORTANT This article will guide to some steps to modify your Windows Registry. Stop if you're not familiar with the Windows Registry. Making a wrong change on the Windows Registry could cause critical problems to your computer.
Proceed at your own risks
This tip modifies the Windows Registry. So be aware and careful when following the steps. Damage the Windows Registry might damage your Windows.

1. Open the "Registry Editor" ("Start" >> "Run", then type "regedit" and Enter).
2. Expand to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\
3. Within the keyboard folder, you should have a string value named "InitialKeyboardIndicators" with a value of 0, 1, or 2.
4. Double-click on this string value "InitialKeyboardIndicators" and edit the value to what you want. Below is the explaination of the values:
   0: Num Lock is turned OFF on startup
   1: Disable Num Lock
   2: Num Lock is turned ON on startup
   

"Send to" Shortcut for Notepad

This trick shows you how create a "Send To" shortcut called "Notepad".
A "Send To" shortcut is one that when you right-click on a file or folder, you'll see an option called "Send To". This provides you a quick way to open files/folders or perform an action with the selected file/folder.
Many times, you have a text file or any other file which you know exactly contains just plain text. And the file can be viewed just by notepad - The most simple Windows Text Editor, available on any Windows machine. If you are in this situation often, you might have found that it is painful that you'll have to launch Notepad everytime and browse to the file to open it. A simple shortcut would be very helpful.


Here's what you'll get

Use this trick at your own risk.

Here's how

1. Point your mouse to the "Start" button and right-click. This will bring up a shortcut menu as follow:
   
   
   
2. Select "Explore" to open the "Windows Explore". Once the "Windows Explore" is opened, the default path is your own profile "Start Menu".
   
   
   
3. Select "SendTo" right above the "Start Menu". The right panel should display the current Send To shortcuts.
   
   
   
4. Right-click on the right panel, and select "New" then select "Shortcut".
   
   
   
5. On the "Create Shortcut" window, type in "notepad.exe" for the box "Type the location of the item", then click "Next".
   
   
   
6. On the next window, type in "Notepad" for the box "Type a name for this shortcut", then click "Finish".
   
   
   
7. Done! try this new thing out by selecting a text file, right-click on it and select "Send To". You'll see the option "Notepad

Resize a Hard Drive Partition with Easeus

Are you looking for the information how to resize your hard drive partition? Look no further. This page right here will show you the step-by-step how to re-partition your hard drive in an easy way.
And the best of all: It's all free! Thanks to Easeus for the free tool EASEUS Partition Master. Although, you may find serveral different editions from the Easeus homepage for the same purpose, the free Home Edition will take care of your re-partition need just fine.
While many people are well familiar with the term "re-partition", some others may wonder what it actually means, so here's a quick overview....
On many computers, especially pre-configured desktops and laptops, the hard drive is setup and configured with an operating system ("O/S") such as Windows, and it is allocated as one single partition (so called the "System drive" or "C drive"). However, many people find this setup inconvenient because of various reasons. One of them, and probably the most common reason is: They prefer to keep their user data separately, away from the operating system so that they don't loose all the user data when the system partition or Windows crash.
On the other hand, some other people just want to manage and configure their drives the way they like.
Re-partition the hard drive seems to be the right solution where users can resize their hard disks and create additional partitions even though an operating system has already been installed.
Some later versions of Windows such as Windows Vista and 7 come with a built-in feature called "Shrink Volume". You can try this out by going to Disk Management and right click on a drive, then select Shrink Volume. We are not going to discuss the details about this built-in feature here; however, one thing to note: As you try it out, you might find it very disappointed because of the limited "maxiumum" size you can shrink, it'll just kill your hope.
Note: - Supported Operating Systems for EASEUS Partition Master v8: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 SP1 (32 bit & 64 bit)
Important: You will be altering your system drive and the operating system (Windows) by following the steps below. Proceed at your own risks.

To get started, first download a copy of EASEUS Partition Master v8.0.1 Home Edition (Free) here Or here.

1. Install the Easeus tool then open it up the same way as you open any other program.
   
2. On the main screen of the program, the bottom panel shows a list of available physical disks. The top panel displays the current partitions of the selected disk.
   
   
   
   
3. Click to select the disk which you want to re-partition. As you click, the top panel will refresh showing the availble partitions for this drive.
   
4. Right click on the partition which you want to resize. (You can right-click on the partition on either panel). Then select "Resize/Move Partition"
   
   
   
   
5. At the Resize/Move Partition screen, double-check once again that you picked the right partition to resize. Then, adjust the "Partition Size" to change its size.
   As you're adjusting this number, the partition shown at the bottom is also changing its size and a new Unallocated partition is created.
   
   
   
   
6. Once you're happy with the new size, click "OK".
7. Now exit the program. Upon the attempt to exit, you'll get a prompt to apply the changes and another prompt asking to reboot to execute the operation. Click "Yes" on both prompts. Windows will now restart.
8. At this time, you just need to sit back and wait. However, if you watch the screen, you'll notice that during Windows reboot, Easeus Partition tool will kick on and perform the changes. Once it's done, it will need to reboot a second time and then bring you back the normal Windows desktop. (At this time, you can either use Easeus or the Windows Disk Management tool to create a new partition for the new unallocated space you just made.)
   

Disable Media Sensing

What is "Media Sensing"?
"Media Sensing" is a new feature in recent versions of Microsoft Windows that not many people aware of. In a Windows machine with Tcp/ip protocols, this feature automatically detects whether the network media are in a "link" state. Ethernet network adapters and hubs typically have a "link" light that indicates the connection status. Whenever Windows detects a "down" state, for example, cable unplugged, it automatically removes the bound protocols from that adapter until the adapter appears to be back up again.
Why disable?
In some situations, this feature also introduces issues. And again, because not many people aware of this feature, it is hard to find out what it really is and how to change it.
For example, some Windows users might have network card(s) with unstable link light. In this case, the link light on the network adapter is not reporting the status correctly even though the network card is still functioning. Windows would detect the changes of network status every once in a while, causing random and un-necessary protocol changes.
Another example, on some computers with multiple network adapters and multiple networks, and the users or administrators want to keep the networks completely seperate; Howerver, once an adapter goes down, Windows detects the failure and re-configure the protocols and might forward the network traffic to other adapters.
Little more?
This "Media Sense" feature basically updates the routing table depending on the new status of network adapters. With this, it is very much impossible to manually manage the network traffic since Windows keeps changing the routes automatically. Either you're in one of the above situations or you want to manage the network manually, follow the below procedures to disable this feature.
Use this trick at your own risk.
Here's how to disable the Media Sensing:

Open Registry Editor (Start >> Run >> type in "regedit" and press Enter)

Expand to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

On the right panel, right-click and select "New" >> "DWORD Value"

Rename the new value to "DisableDHCPMediaSense"

Double-click on the new value "DisableDHCPMediaSense" and edit the "Value Data" to "1"

Click OK and exit the registry editor, then restart Windows

Burn a CD/DVD on Windows 7 or Vista without using software

CD/DVD burning capability has been added to Windows Operating System since the release of Windows XP. However, the steps to burn CD/DVD on Windows Vista and Windows 7 are a bit different (and somewhat simpler) comparing to Windows XP.
For details on how to burn CD/DVD on Windows XP, click here

You can use this built-in feature to create a data CD/DVD or an audio CD. The steps below will guide you through the procedures. Although the steps below are based on Windows 7, they are very much similar to Windows Vista.
If you're using a Re-Writable CD (CD-RW) or DVD (DVD-RW, DVD+RW), make sure the disc is blank (or "formatted"). You might need to erase (or "format") it before using. For information how to erase a rewritable CD/DVD on Windows Vista or Windows 7 without using a third-party software, see this article.

1. Insert a blank recordable/rewritable CD (CD-R) or DVD (DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW) disc into the CD burner drive.
2. With a new blank disc, Windows might pop up a prompt asking you which format you want to use (as shown on the image below).
   As explained on the popup, the option "Like a USB Flash Drive" is more convenient if you want to use the disc as an external storage, which you can add or delete (rewritable disc) files on the fly; however, once the disc is formatted with this option, it can only be read on computers with Windows XP or later. On the other hand, the option "With a CD/DVD Player" is the traditional format of CD/DVD disc and is compatible with a wider range of Windows versions as well as other devices, but requires to burn the disc (or erase the entire disc) all at once.
   
   
   
   
3. To keep it simple, we will follow the steps to create traditional CD/DVD, so select "With a CD/DVD Player". Don't forget to change the "Disc title" to something descriptive for your disc, then click "Next".
   
   
4. Navigate to the folders or files which you want to burn to the disc, then select (highlight) the folders/files and click "Burn" (located above the file browsing panels)
   
   
5. A new window is now created similar to the following image, showing the selected files and folders added to the queue to burn to disc. Click "Burn to disc".
   
   
   
   
6. On the next popup "Burn to Disc", verify the disc title and select the maximum burning speed, then click "Next".
   
   
   
   
7. If you have selected audio files (i.e. MP3), you will be asked to burn the disc as data or audio as shown in the following image. For details on the differences between data and audio discs, please prefer to this article.
   
   
   
   
8. The burning wizard will start writing data to the disc and will close and eject the CD/DVD when finish.

Show/Hide System Files and Folder using Windows Registry

This is an alternate method to show/hide system files and folders on a Windows PC. Most likely, you should use this simple method to do the same thing if you don't want to take risks modifying your registry.
IMPORTANT This article will guide to some steps to modify your Windows Registry. Stop if you're not familiar with the Windows Registry. Making a wrong change on the Windows Registry could cause critical problems to your computer.
Proceed at your own risks

1. Open the "Registry Editor" ("Start" >> "Run", then type "regedit" and Enter).
2. Expand to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. If the value "SuperHidden" exists, double-click on it to edit its value to (0 = show hidden, 1 = do not show)
4. If the value "SuperHidden" does not exist, create it as follows
   Name: SuperHidden
   Type: DWORD
   Value: 0
   (0: show hidden, 1: do not show)
   

How to Operate Mouse Pointer Without Mouse (Magic)

This trick is a user contributed. The information might have been copied and pasted exactly as what user posted.
Proceed at your own risks.


You have Mouse Problem ?? No Problem

I will give you suggestion

Press Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock Button + Ok

with the help of Numeric Keypad e.g ( Press and Hold the following Keys )

7   8    9

4        6

1   2    3

For Normal Click Press 5

Default
Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock

Hide Files or Folders Using Command Prompt

Trick to hide files and folders using Command Prompt
The most important thing is that, once hidden with this method, the files/folders cannot be viewed by any search options even if you click "Show All Hidden Files and Folders".

Hiding the most wanted files and folders is very important nowadays and it's really a tedious job too. In order to make this tedious job an easy one, i'm going to deliver you a the trick now.

For Example: You have a folder named "collegephotos" and this folder is stored in (Disk Drive E). You think that it should not be seen by strangers who use your PC.

For that you need to follow the following instructions

1. Press windowkey+R: Run command dialog box appears.
2. Now type "cmd" and hit enter. A command prompt window displays.
3. Now type "attrib +s +h E:\collegephotos" and hit enter.
4. The folder "collegephotos" will be hidden (Note: It cannot be viewed by any search options)
   
   (To view this folder again, use the same command but replace '+' with '-' on both flags 's' and 'h')

Find Product Key for Windows and Office

If you are looking for a way to retrieve the product keys of your MS Windows or MS Office, you are on the right page!
The following is a tool to detect the product keys of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office installed on your machine. This tool is free to download at Magical Jelly Bean.
Here's a screenshot


The tool also provides some nice features let you change your Windows product key, or detect the key remotely to another computer.

To download a copy of this tool. Click Here.

Create Ghost Bootable SD Card or USB Flash Drive

It's a good practice to create an image of your hard drive before you start using it. Especially when you had to build that computer from scratch and spent hours installing the operating system and all of your favorite apps...

As Symantec Ghost becomes more user friendly, people start to recognize this idea. The idea also works well when you need to clean your PC from viruses. In case anything goes wrong with the operating system, you just need to restore the image using the Symantec bootable CD.

However, the problem comes when we deal with the new version of those small laptops: The netbooks! which usually don't come with a built-in CD-ROM drive to bootup the PC.
The most simple solution would be buying an external CD-ROM drive, which costs you money. And in some cases, you just want to bootup the Symantec Ghost.... with whatever available!




The good news: Almost every recent laptop/netbook comes with a card reader, and even if you wasn't lucky enough, your laptop/netbook should have a USB port!

This guide will tell you how to create a bootable SD card or a USB flash drive with Symantec Norton Ghost.
This task can be done with several different versions of Symantec Ghost; however, the steps from this articles are based on Symantec Ghost 14.


What you need?

• Symantec Ghost 14 bootable CD. (Some other versions might also work)
• A PC with bootable CD/DVD drive.
• An SD card (either SD or SDHC), or a USB thumb drive. The size can be as minimum as 1 GB. You can also pick a large SD card if you want to store your hard drive image to the card as well.
• An SD slot or a card reader (for SD card) or a USB slot (for thumb drive)

Follow the steps in order. Use this guide at your own risks.

1. First, check to make sure your CD/DVD drive is bootable. (See your BIOS manual or PC user guide for details since this is out of the scope of this article).
2. - For SD card: Make sure the SD slot or the card reader is available. if it's a card reader, connect it to the PC. Also insert the card.
   - For USB thumb drive: Make sure the drive is inserted into one of the USB slots.
3. Bootup the computer using the Symantec Ghost CD (Details vary on different computers). On Windows XP, during the startup, you should see the prompt "Press any key to boot from CD...".
4. Once the Symantec Recovery startup is complete, you should see the main screen of Symantec Ghost 14 Recovery similar to this image:
   
   
   
   
5. Select "Analyze" from the left menu.
   
   
   
6. Then click on "Open Command Shell Window". A command prompt window will display.
   
   
7. At this command prompt window, type: "diskpart" (one word, without quotes) and hit enter. The prompt now changed to "DISKPART>"
   
   
8. Now type "list disk" and hit enter. You should now see a list of all available disks. Base on the size of each disk listed, find the one that matching your SD card (or thumb drive) and note its disk number under "Disk ###". If you don't see your SD card (or flash drive) listed, verify if it is inserted or plugged in (you might need to restart the computer and try again).
   
   
9. Type "select disk <n>" (replace <n> with the disk # noted from the previous step) then hit enter.
   Important!! Besure to select the correct disk (your SD card or thumb drive) as you will be erasing the drive.
   Sample image with a 4-GB SD selected:
   
   
   
   
10. Create a primary partition for the the disk by executing the following sequence of commands:
    clean
    create partition primary
    select partition 1
    
    
11. Set the primary partition active, type: "active" and hit enter
    
    
12. Perform a quick format with the following command:
    format fs=fat32 quick
    
    
13. Then type:
    assign
    exit
    
    
14. Your SD card (or the flash drive) is now bootable and will act similar to a local hard drive. In order to boot this card with Symantect Ghost Recovery, copy all contents from the Symantec Ghost disc to the SD card (or the flash drive). Besure to copy everything including any hidden files/folders.
    
    The SD card or flash drive is now bootable and will boot your laptop/netbook to Symantec Ghost Recovery utilities exactly the same way as of the CD (To boot with the card on your laptop/netbook, don't forget to set your bios to search for the SD card or USB external devices in the boot sequence).

Create a bootable CD or DVD with or without floppy

With the CD-ROM available on almost every computer nowaday, floppy drives become a history. However, for those who find computers a hobby, might run into a situation when they need to create a bootable CD that works just like the old floppy disk. Unfortunately, to do this, you still need a floppy drive to read your bootup floppy disk. Wait, the good news is, you can just down load a bootable ISO image and burn it to a CD. And even better, we have a copy of an ISO image right here. You can download this image and follow the instructions below, or you can do a web search for more options.
The information on this article will guide you step-by-step how to create a bootable CD/DVD, either using a bootup floppy disk or a boot image file. You will end up having a bootable CD or DVD, with CD-ROM driver supported, that could startup your PC and bring up the command prompt. This is going to be a good starting point, then you can run other utilities such as hard drive ghost, etc..
Many current CD/DVD burning software support the bootable feature. If you already have your favorite burning software, look around to find the bootable option. For this article, I will use the steps and sample screen-shots with the burning tool called Nero.
You will need a boot disk (floppy) or a bootable ISO image to start. If you don't have one, you can download an ISO image here. This boot image is Windows-98 based, which means it uses the Windows 98 bootup sequence, which should do what we need. You can also download different boot disk images from the internet. I've found bootdisk.com has a very good collection.
I assume that you already have Nero installed. Also, it is highly recommended to use a rewritable disc so you can redo the process if you have to.

1. Launch Nero Burning ROM
2. At the New Compilation Window, select "CD" from the drop-down menu and select "CD-ROM (Boot)" for CD, (or select "DVD" and "DVD-ROM (Boot)" for DVD)
   
   
   
   
   
3. If you use a bootup floppy disk, insert the floppy disk and select "Bootable logical drive..."
   
   
   
4. If you use an image file, select "Image File" then click "Browse" to browse to the image.
   
   At the "Open" Window, browse to the location where you saved the boot image and choose the image you wish to use and click "Open" (you might need to change the "Files of type" to "All Files" in order to see files with different extensions.)
   
   
   
5. Click "New" at the New Compilation Window.
6. Nero New Compilation Window disappears and Nero brings up its main screen where you can add more files to the CD/DVD if you wish. For example, adding a "ghost" folder with the file "ghost.exe" as follows.
   Once you're done adding all the files you wish to, click on the "Burn" icon.
   
   
   
   
7. At the "Burn Compilation" Window, select "Burn"!

Create a boot image from a floppy boot disk

With the CD-ROM available on almost every computer nowaday, more and more computers don't have a floppy drive... What if you have some bootup floppy disks and you just want to keep a copy of them, just in case? Well, you rather not to put the disks in the storage and expecting a few years later, you'd find them and they still work just fine! If you haven't noticed, the quality of floppy disks isn't that good. You don't want to trust your floppy disks.
The solution is simple: make a copy of your floppy disk and save it as a file (an ISO image) on your computer. Then, when you need it, you can either make a new floppy disk or even a CD out of it.
If you need the information to create a bootable CD/DVD with a bootup floppy disk or a bootup ISO image, see this article.

Requirements: Floppy drive, of course!
The following instructions are based on an image utility called MagicISO. You can choose to use a different "image" software, whichever supports this option. MagicISO is not a freeware, but a trial version will still what you need.

The Steps:

1. If you don't already have MagicISO installed, download it here and install it.
2. Launch the MagicISO, if you're using the trial version, click on "Try it"
3. Insert a bootup floppy disk that you want to create an image from.
4. Select "Tools" from the top menu of MagicISO, then select "Make Boot Image from Floppy Disk"
   
   
   
   
5. At the Save As dialog box, browse to the location you wish to save the image file.
6. Enter the name of the image file under "File name" (i.e. "bootimg.iso") then press "Enter"
   
   
   
   
7. The image creation progress starts to read the floppy disk and write to the image file.

Powered by Translate Convert Numbers from Different Bases

This is a quick tool to convert numbers from different bases.
As working on numbers, you might have experienced with different bases of numbers, such as "Hexadecimal", "Decimal", "Octal", and "Binary". This tool provide a quick converter between the bases based on your input.
If you're unable to convert the number you've input, it's probably you have a protection feature from your browser blocking the script. Look on the top of the page to see if you have a yellow bar telling you some contents have been blocked. If so, right-click on it and select "Allow Blocked Contents"

	Number bases:	Hexadecimal (base 16)	Decimal (base 10)	Octal (base 8)	Binary (base 2)

Convert Any Document or Web Page to PDF

Somebody just told you that you need to have Adobe Acrobat (Writer) to create a PDF file? Guess what, you can get away from that pricey piece of software if you just need to convert some documents to pdf, without a need of fancy editing the pdf document.
Here's how. Thanks to the BullZip, who provides a Free Pdf printer. With this free tool, you can simply "print out" your document or webpage to a pdf file, just about the same way as you print it out to a printer.

You can visit BullZip.com for more information about the software.
Here the direct link to BullZip downloads page: Downloads

1. To get started, first follow the link above and download Free Pdf Printer from BullZip, then install it to your computer.
2. Once you're done, you might need to close the program (or the web browser) which you're currently viewing the document. This helps refreshing the list of available printers on your computer.
3. Once you get back to the document you want to convert, perform the same steps are you print out the document, i.e. File > Print ...
4. When you see the Print window pop-up, select "Bullzip PDF Printer" under "Printers", then click "OK".
5. BullZip PDF Printer will then start to analyze your document and display a new pop-up window, where you can direct it to the location you want to save the pdf file.
6. Follow the pop-up windows and.. hola! The PDF document is created! 

Configure Default Numlock Mode

Quick Overview:
The Numlock key on most standard keyboards toggles the numeric keypad between two different modes: (1) The Numeric Mode and (2) The Function Mode.

When the Numlock is turned "ON", the numeric keys on the keypad generate numbers, from 0 to 9. On the other hand, when Numlock is set to "OFF", these numeric keys generate other keystroke events such as "Home", "Page Up", "Page Down", etc...
Many versions of Windows by default, set Numlock key to "OFF", and this turns to be a bit annoying if you use that keypad regularly for numeric purposes. The good news is, you can always change this default behavior and set the Numlock key ON as default.
IMPORTANT This article will guide to some steps of modifying your Windows Registry. Stop if you're not familiar with the Windows Registry. Making an inappropriate change to the Windows Registry could cause critical problems to your computer.
Proceed at your own risks

1. Open the "Registry Editor" ("Start" >> "Run", then type "regedit" and Enter).
2. Expand to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard
3. Here you should see a string value named "InitialKeyboardIndicators"
4. Double-click on this name to popup the edit window
5. Enter a desired numeric value under "Value Data" then click "Ok". Valid values are:
   0: Numlock is OFF on startup
   1: Disable Numlock Key
   2: Numlock is ON on startup
   

Command Prompt on Right-Click

Many computer users, specially the programmers, need to launch a command prompt window every once in a while to execute some dos/shell commands. The problem is, when a command prompt window launched, the default path is normally the system path or the user profile's path. The users will then have to do all the "cd" commands to change the directories to the path he/she wants.
This trick shows you how to add an option called "Command Prompt" when you right-click on a folder in Windows. With this option, a Command Prompt Window will launch and its current directory will be the path to the folder you've selected.
Use this trick at your own risk.
Here's what you'll get:






The Solution
You can either edit your registry OR download the registry file and apply it on your computer.
Method I. Manually edit the registry:

1. Start > Run
2. Enter "regedit" and hit Enter
3. Expand to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell"
4. Right-click on "shell" and select New > Key
5. Make sure a new key is created under "shell". Change the name of this key to "Command Prompt"
6. Right-click on this new key "Command Prompt" and select New > Key
7. Change the name of this key to "command"
   
   
8. Here's what we should have:
   
   
9. Double-click on the "(Default)" text on the right window to bring up the edit box
10. Enter this text into the Value Data field:
    cmd.exe "%1"
11. Click OK and close the registry.

Method II. Download and apply the registry file:

1. Download this registry file Here
2. Unzip it to a temp folder, then double-click on the .reg file to add the registry data.

Basic Shortcut Keys

The followings are some basic PC shortcut keys that are supported in most IBM compatible computers. They are also supported in most application software.
Use at your own risk.

Shortcut Keys	Supported Window Versions	Description
Alt + e	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Pull down the top Edit menu.
Alt + f	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Pull down the top File menu
Ctrl + a	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Select all text.
Ctrl + c	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Copy selected item(s) (to clipboard).
Ctrl + f	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Find.
Ctrl + v	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Paste copied item(s) from clipboard
Ctrl + x	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Cut.
Ctrl + Ins	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Same as Ctrl + c
Ctrl + (left arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Move one word to the left at a time.
Ctrl + (right arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Move one word to the right at a time.
Shift + Ins	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Same as Ctrl + v
Shift + Delelte (or Del)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Cut. Or permanently delete selected item(s) on Windows Explorer.
F1	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Help.
Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the beginning of the line or page.
Ctrl + Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the beginning of the document or page.
End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the end of the line or page.
Ctrl + End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	ump to the end of the document or page.
Shift + Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to beginning of the line or page.
Shift + End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to end of the line or page.
Shift + (left arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the left, one character at a time.
Shift + (right arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the right, one character at a time.
Shift + (down arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the next line down.
Shift + (up arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the next line up.

Audio CD versus MP3 CD

Audio CD
While some people are very knowledge about the different types of CD and DVD, some others are still very confused on the different formats. Although more and more people want to enjoy the MP3 technology by making their own MP3 discs for their cars, portable mp3 players, etc... many of them are not sure how to create a MP3 CD and how it is different comparing to a regular audio CD.
To make it simple, an audio CD (Compact Disc Digital Audio) is one that you buy from stores and contains only audio tracks. Audio CDs are compatible with most of current CD-drives, including your CD/DVD drive on your computer, and your car CD player. For little more details, this standard of Audio CDs is called the "Red Book", which was first released in 1980 by Philips and Sony.
The audio tracks are uncompressed digital data (essentially WAV). This explains why you can't fit 100 songs in an audio CD like an MP3 CD because the size of each track is big. Try to plug an audio CD into your computer CD/DVD drive, what you'd see are some files with the names similar to "track01.cda". These are audio tracks, and you can't just open them with your computer like any other computer file. A CDA file simply points to the location of the audio track on the CD. Also, you cannot copy these CDA files to another location with your computer. Why? because they contain no audio data, they are just the "pointer" files. The actual audio data is stored on the CD sectors and cannot be viewable on your computers.
An audio CD normally can hold up to 74 or 80 minutes of audio. So when you create an audio CD from some MP3 files, no matter how big or small your mp3 files are, the CD can only fit in up to 80 minutes of audio.
- Pro: Compatibility. Audio CDs can be played on most CD players/drives.
- Con: Size limit. You can't fit many songs into an audio CD.
Audio Spec

• The frequency response: from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
  
• Bit rate = 44100 samples/s × 16 bit/sample × 2 channels = 1411.2 kbit/s (more than 10 MB per minute)
• Sample values: range from -32768 to +32767.
• On the disc, the data are stored in sectors of 2352 bytes each, read at 75 sectors/s.

MP3 CD
MP3 (or "MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3") is an encoding format for audio data. Not to be confused with "MPEG-3", which is a video standard. MP3 is an audio-specific standard that was introduced in 1991.
Late 1990s, the internet users started to encode more and more audio files using the MP3 format and spread them over the internet. This lead to the creations of many MP3 player software such as WinAmp, Nullsoft, etc... The MP3 format became the most popular audio format for computer because of the advantages of it.
An MP3 file is a compressed audio file. This brings the biggest advantage of the MP3 format: the small size. Although the size of each MP3 file is vary, depending on many factors, an average size of an MP3 file for a music track doesn't go more than 7 MB.
MP3 files are just like any other computer files. You can move them from place to place on your computer, or you can open them using different application software. Once it comes to the idea of making a CD out of these files, it can be a little confusing. Why? apparently, many people think that they're creating an audio CD instead, just because they are expecting a "CD with audio" at the end. In fact, an MP3 CD is not like an audio CD but like an any other computer discs: it contains data files, not audio tracks.
So what makes it a big deal? Many CD-copy software have different selections for "Audio" and "Data". The "Audio" option is for creating a standard CD with audio tracks, while the "Data" option can be used to copy either computer data or MP3 files. Remember MP3 files are just like computer data files!
Now the term "bitrate" might come up while you're playing with MP3, so what is it? Bitrate is the number of bits that are processed per unit of time. Simpler, it defines the compress ratio on the MP3 files. A lower bit-rate would give you a smaller MP3 file, but also.. less quality.

- Pro: Size! A CD with MP3 files can hold up to 700 MB of data/mp3 files. So with an average of 4-5 MB each MP3, you can store up to 160 songs on a CD, that's about 10 times of an Audio CD.
- Con: Compatibility. Although more and more players are compatible with MP3 standard, there are still some that only play audio CDs.


How to create an Audio CD.
How to create (rip) Mp3 files from an audio CD.

Table of ASCII Characters

This table lists the ASCII characters and their decimal, octal and hexadecimal numbers. Characters which appear as names in parentheses (e.g., (nl)) are non-printing characters. A table of the common non-printing characters appears after this table.

Char  Dec  Oct  Hex | Char  Dec  Oct  Hex | Char  Dec  Oct  Hex | Char Dec  Oct   Hex
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(nul)   0 0000 0x00 | (sp)   32 0040 0x20 | @      64 0100 0x40 | `      96 0140 0x60
(soh)   1 0001 0x01 | !      33 0041 0x21 | A      65 0101 0x41 | a      97 0141 0x61
(stx)   2 0002 0x02 | "      34 0042 0x22 | B      66 0102 0x42 | b      98 0142 0x62
(etx)   3 0003 0x03 | #      35 0043 0x23 | C      67 0103 0x43 | c      99 0143 0x63
(eot)   4 0004 0x04 | $      36 0044 0x24 | D      68 0104 0x44 | d     100 0144 0x64
(enq)   5 0005 0x05 | %      37 0045 0x25 | E      69 0105 0x45 | e     101 0145 0x65
(ack)   6 0006 0x06 | &      38 0046 0x26 | F      70 0106 0x46 | f     102 0146 0x66
(bel)   7 0007 0x07 | '      39 0047 0x27 | G      71 0107 0x47 | g     103 0147 0x67
(bs)    8 0010 0x08 | (      40 0050 0x28 | H      72 0110 0x48 | h     104 0150 0x68
(ht)    9 0011 0x09 | )      41 0051 0x29 | I      73 0111 0x49 | i     105 0151 0x69
(nl)   10 0012 0x0a | *      42 0052 0x2a | J      74 0112 0x4a | j     106 0152 0x6a
(vt)   11 0013 0x0b | +      43 0053 0x2b | K      75 0113 0x4b | k     107 0153 0x6b
(np)   12 0014 0x0c | ,      44 0054 0x2c | L      76 0114 0x4c | l     108 0154 0x6c
(cr)   13 0015 0x0d | -      45 0055 0x2d | M      77 0115 0x4d | m     109 0155 0x6d
(so)   14 0016 0x0e | .      46 0056 0x2e | N      78 0116 0x4e | n     110 0156 0x6e
(si)   15 0017 0x0f | /      47 0057 0x2f | O      79 0117 0x4f | o     111 0157 0x6f
(dle)  16 0020 0x10 | 0      48 0060 0x30 | P      80 0120 0x50 | p     112 0160 0x70
(dc1)  17 0021 0x11 | 1      49 0061 0x31 | Q      81 0121 0x51 | q     113 0161 0x71
(dc2)  18 0022 0x12 | 2      50 0062 0x32 | R      82 0122 0x52 | r     114 0162 0x72
(dc3)  19 0023 0x13 | 3      51 0063 0x33 | S      83 0123 0x53 | s     115 0163 0x73
(dc4)  20 0024 0x14 | 4      52 0064 0x34 | T      84 0124 0x54 | t     116 0164 0x74
(nak)  21 0025 0x15 | 5      53 0065 0x35 | U      85 0125 0x55 | u     117 0165 0x75
(syn)  22 0026 0x16 | 6      54 0066 0x36 | V      86 0126 0x56 | v     118 0166 0x76
(etb)  23 0027 0x17 | 7      55 0067 0x37 | W      87 0127 0x57 | w     119 0167 0x77
(can)  24 0030 0x18 | 8      56 0070 0x38 | X      88 0130 0x58 | x     120 0170 0x78
(em)   25 0031 0x19 | 9      57 0071 0x39 | Y      89 0131 0x59 | y     121 0171 0x79
(sub)  26 0032 0x1a | :      58 0072 0x3a | Z      90 0132 0x5a | z     122 0172 0x7a
(esc)  27 0033 0x1b | ;      59 0073 0x3b | [      91 0133 0x5b | {     123 0173 0x7b
(fs)   28 0034 0x1c | <      60 0074 0x3c | \      92 0134 0x5c | |     124 0174 0x7c
(gs)   29 0035 0x1d | =      61 0075 0x3d | ]      93 0135 0x5d | }     125 0175 0x7d
(rs)   30 0036 0x1e | >      62 0076 0x3e | ^      94 0136 0x5e | ~     126 0176 0x7e
(us)   31 0037 0x1f | ?      63 0077 0x3f | _      95 0137 0x5f | (del) 127 0177 0x7f

ASCII Name	Description	C Escape Sequence
nul	null byte
bel	bell character	\a
bs	backspace	\b
ht	horizontal tab	\t
np	formfeed	\f
nl	newline	\n
cr	carriage return	\r
vt	vertical tab
esc	escape
sp	space

Any Folder as a Photo Folder

This tricks shows you how to setup any folder to display its contents as a photo folder. In many cases, you save your images/photos in a folder different than "My Pictures" (under "My Documents"). Since this folder you choose is just like any other normal folders, its contents displayed as a listing of files. You can temporary change it by just right-click and select "View" >> "Thumbnails". But if you want to change the folder so that everytime you come back, the folder itself, as well as all its subfolders, display the contents as photo thumbnails.
Here's How

Right-click on the folder you choose and select "Properties"

Select "Customize" Tab. Then under "Use this folder type as a template", select "Pictures (best for many files)"

Check on "Also apply this template to all subfolders" to apply the setting to subfoders as well

Click OK to exit

Name The Volcanoes

You need: Windows 98 or Windows 98 Second Edition

Do the following :

1. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel and launch Display.
2. Choose the Screen Saver tab.
3. Select 3D Text in the Screen Saver drop-down list and click Settings.
4. In the Display Text box, type volcano.

5. Now, Preview the screensaver , you will see the names of various volcanos displayed !