WOW Windows 7 needs to grow up with these silly problems, I’m talking about driver installations dude…

Hellooooooooooooo readers, its been longggggggggggggggg. I know you can go on with your rants about me, here is a tip,save it lol, I will receive it with a smiling face when I’m ready to get hit by tomatoes Yeah I’ve been moving around here and there, and I’ve finally found myself a full time job after my college. Yeah you can go peep into my “About section” if you wanna know more about that. For those who realllly misseddd me, right back at ya baby, well for those who didn’t well *ahem* love ya tooo
So I’ve had a problem recently with configuring IDT audio drivers for my Dell Studio 15. The problem was I have Windows v7 now, and to think driver installation was so easy, think again for audio drivers. To be honest, the same driver had no problems while I installed it in Windows XP whatsoever. So I asked Dell techsupport, they told me to download the latest drivers for my laptop from their site, which wasn’t much of a support lol jk jk. Then I browse in the Internet for hoursssssssss to come up with a good solution but noneeee, everything turned out to be a dead end. Oh and for the readers of this post, if you get an error stating that  “IDT Package didn’t detect the audio hardware” your on the right post, cuz I got the same error. So enough with the description about the problem lets get on the with solution. When you download the latest drivers for your laptop(any brand) they give it to you as an .EXE package or a .ZIP file. In either case, download it, and extract the contents to any place in your harddrive. Once you’ve done that the setup automatically starts, and while starting the audio service in your laptop you should get the above error. Here is another indicator, the audio volume icon thingy on your right corner at the bottom gives a red ‘X” and turns back to normal again, after which you get the pop up error as I’ve stated at the top. At this point don’t be mad, its okkkk. Just cancel the setup(I’m guessing it should cancel itself since the audio service fails to start). Follow the below steps from here and on…

1. In Windows Vista/v7 to access Device Manager, go to  System properties in Control Panel otherwise you can just right click on  My Computer and click on properties. On the screen that pops up, look on the top left where you should find “Device Manager” hyperlink click on it.
2. In the tree hierarchy that shows up, Look for “Sound, video and game controllers” expand the list there you should find 2 entries which says “High Definition Audio Device”. Right click on the first one and click on “Update Driver Software” it should pop up another wizard.
3. You are given with two options, select the second one which says “Browse my computer for driver software” and now in the succeeding menu you have to point to the path where the drivers you extracted in the first place are located. For example if I’ve extracted it into C:\Driver, you should point to the WDM folder inside it like so Search for driver software in this location: C:\Driver\WDM.
4. Check the box which says “Include Sub Folders” then click on Next, wait for the installation to finish and then restart WOLLAAAAA HD Audio at your serviceeeee as simple as that.

Hope this post helped you out, and don’t worry readers from now on I’m doing regular posts, no more heartbreaks Thanks for readinggg so until next time take careeee.

Why in the world would you install Windows Vista/7 first, When dual booting is easier with Windows XP Installed first?

Frustration, thats what struck me, I mean I’ve installed Windows numerous times, infact most of it to my friends and family members etc etc, and there is one lesson I still fail to learn, when I wanna dual boot two Windows versions, its a only logical to install the lower version of Windows first followed by the higher version. In my case, I should have followed this order, FIRST INSTALL WINDOWS XP, AND THEN INSTALL WINDOWS VISTA/7 SO THE VISTA BOOTLOADER WILL MAKE THINGS EASY FOR YOU!!!!

Sorry for the dramatic shouting, I couldn’t help myself for being such a doodoo brain . Anyway I always do this mistake, subconsciously or unconsciously if you must put a word to it, although there are pre-defined ways around the internet, and many bootloader controlling softwares around to make dual booting windows versions, whilst vista/7 installed first, all of those steps are tedious to follow for a rookie user.

So what did I do? I learnt from my mistake and writing this easy solution for you, which will simply help you dual boot, without any time seeking methods or softwares, when you have Windows Vista or v7 pre-installed. Considering you’ve installed Windows XP now, and you can only boot into that, here is what you do.

Steps:

1. Boot into your trusty Windows Vista/7 Installation DVD and Select “Repair My Computer” from the menu that appears.
2. Select “Boot Up Problems” from the following menu. Then follow the on screen instructions to bring back the Vista/v7 bootloader.
3. Once your into your v7 or Vista OS, open up command prompt with administrative rights.
4. Run the following sequence of commands :

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP”

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot

bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Finally exit the command prompt, and your done hope this tip really helped you out. Thanks for reading, so until next time, take care readers

Who in the world visits my blog??? Visitor Maps will answer that ;)

Here is a short tip for all you new wordpress users, if you ever wondered who on earth is visiting your blog everyday, there is something called Cluster maps which has the answer to that. I am gonna make this post less wordy cuz I am in a kind of a hurry well here is how you add a visitor map to your blog’s sidebar or header or footer or wherever

1. First open your browser and head over to http://www.clustermaps.com, this is how it looks like :

2. Type in your blog address and your email address to register for a cluster map, once you succeed they should give you a HTML code, select all of that code and copy it.

3. Now head over to your wordpress account by logging in as administrator, then follow the path Dashboard -> Appearance -> Widgets , now you should be in a place as the below screenshot :

4. Drag a new text widget from the left column to your Sidebar or Footer or Header at the right.

5. Edit the widget’s settings, this is where you paste the HTML code you’ve just copied into the clipboard before. Here is the screenshot:

6. Now save the widget settings, log out of your wordpress account and THAT’S IT !!! , from here and on your blog will the visitor map for your site.

Hope this tip helped out all the new users of WordPress, I mean I know there are numerous posts related to this topic, but I wanted to give a simple explanation to it, and I hope that I did

Cheers.

Missing Windows Boot Files !?!… Oh my can that be devastating ???

Well “not really” is the answer for that question. But sometimes when life goes happy like a fairy tale, we forget to realise the fact that not all fairy tales have happy endings. Its funny that I should bring up that quote here, if one of my friends is seeing this blog he/she would surely be laughing at this inside joke … but whatever….. right?

Anyway the thing is whenever you install Windows and you are having a good time with it, there are some jittery times when you are bound to end up with a corrupt startup configuration….like say…. the boot files going POOF!! WOSH!!! into thin air Now…. considering the OS you are using is Windows Vista or above fixing boot problems is almost automated ( which means when you boot up with your installation dvd of vista or above, you get an option like Repair this computer –> Fix Booting Problems and BAM!!! whatever the problem is , it gets solved ) But what if its Windows XP ??? now there is a pickle, you could use Automated Recovery but it rarely helps in frisky cases, and when I say frisky cases I mean files like hal.dll and/or ntdetect.com or ntldr going POOOF!!!!

So for ppl who are using Windows XP and having problems like missing boot files such hal.dll, ntldr etc, here is how you restore them from Windows XP Installation CD.

For ntldr & ntdetect.com Missing:

1. Boot into your Windows XP Installation CD/DVD ( the blue colored setup thingy ) once it does its routine of checking the connected hardware, you should get a menu to setup a fresh version of windows, below it there is another option which says “Press R to Enter Recovery Console” do what it says then you should enter the console. [Note: Keep the administrator password of your existing Windows Installation handy, cuz you'll need it from here and on]
2. Provide the admin password wherever asked to, finally you should have reached the command prompt. This is where you should type “copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\” [without quotes] and hit Enter.
3. Then type “copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\” [without quotes] and hit Enter.
4. Here the drive letter d: represents your optical drive(CD/DVD drive) letter and the drive letter c: represents the partition in which your previous Windows Installation currently exists. Mind you, this may vary from system to system, be sure of the drive letters before doing the above.
5. If prompted to overwrite, Hit ‘Y’ .
6. Finally type exit and remove the Windows Installation CD/DVD.

For hal.dll Missing:

1. Get into Windows Recovery Console as before.
2. Provide the admin password wherever asked to, finally you should have reached the command prompt. This is where you should type “expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32” [without quotes] and hit Enter.
3. Here the drive letter d: represents your optical drive(CD/DVD drive) letter and the drive letter c: represents the partition in which your previous Windows Installation currently exists. Mind you, this may vary from system to system, be sure of the drive letters before doing the above.
4. If prompted to overwrite, Hit ‘Y’ .
5. Finally type exit and remove the Windows Installation CD/DVD.

For Corrupt or Missing boot.ini:

1. Get into Windows Recovery Console as before.
2. Provide the admin password wherever asked to, finally you should have reached the command prompt. This is where you should type “bootcfg /rebuild” [without quotes] and hit Enter.
3. If prompted to Add Installation to bootlist? , Hit ‘Y’ .
4. The next prompt asks for your Load Identifier where you should enter “Windows XP Professional“ or “Windows XP Home Edition” [without quotes] based on the OS you’ve installed in the first place.
5. The next prompt asks for your load options where you should enter “/fastdetect” [without quotes] and hit Enter.
6. Finally type exit and remove the Windows Installation CD/DVD.

If you have any questions in any of these steps just leave a comment and i’ll get back to you Well… hope this post helped you out. Cheers.

 

 

Regedit , Task Manager , Control Panel DISABLED!!! CALL 911 !!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I am a little hyper today and a bit dramatic :p its just cuz the problem that viruses cause today are not only insane but really gets on your nerves even if your realllllly geeky. Once such problem hit me last week, I have a routine I’ve get hit by a virus, first I try to take my meds, get a good sleep, make a doctor’s appointment if it gets really worse….no WAIT!!! ….what am I doing? thats the wrong routine let me start over. I meant to say that i have a routine when MY COMPUTER gets hit by a virus. Well I am little aware of what common viruses would do today with the help of creating registry keys. I pulled a few strings to learn more about what sort of registry keys would be malicious in my registry, I used to track them down and erase them for good. As far as the task manager is concerned, I use it to track down the culprit virus process that is hiding in the memory and creating the registry keys at every regular bootup. But some smart a$$ virus thinks it can ruin my day by disabling my tools of the trade (regedit & taskmanager) whilst carrying out its dirty work as usual. Well fear no more friends, I am about to put a solution in here for viruses like that which I am sure will make your day when you end up in a situation like I did. Although there are numerous free tools and fixes in the internet to enable regedit , task manager bla bla, I am of the mindset, “you can do anything to make your life easier but never let that stop your geeky side to grow ” . Well lets talk business now shall we?….
I assume that you’ve been infected by a virus that has disabled all the required system tools that can possibly bring it down. So to renable everything follow the steps:

1.Make sure you have administrative privileges to your account.

2.Open command prompt and type the following:

“REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f” [without quotes]

“REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableSR /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f” [without quotes]

“REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableRegistryTools /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f” [without quotes]

“REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisallowRun /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f” [without quotes]

“REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v NoControlPanel /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f” [without quotes]

3.If hypothetically, command prompt is disabled too then you have to open a new text document and create a .reg file. Its content should be as follows, its copy and paste friendly

————————————
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“DisableTaskMgr”=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“NoControlPanel”=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“DisableSR”=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“DisallowRun”=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“DisableRegistryTools”=dword:00000000

————————————-

4.Save the file with a name followed by “.reg” extension and then double click that reg file to add those entries into the registry.

5.Either method gives the same result, so its simply based on the fact whether your command prompt is malfunctioning or not.

6.There its done!! but before I finish, in step two I am using standard dos commands to do the job, which means the /d /t and /f are options to be used whilst the key is being added to the registry.

/v denotes the name of the New value to be added.

/t denotes the type of value to be added , be it BINARY or DWORD etc.

0 denotes the value that the key will hold once it is created. It can be 1 or 0 if its a DWORD key.

/f denotes to forcibly change the value of the key if the registry key already exists(because of the virus, which creates the key and sets the value to 1, where you set it back to 0)

I hope this tip helped you out, so until next time, take care and thanks for reading

Reliance NetConnect Made Easy

Hey hey ppl I hope you are all having a fine day, well mine is going ok, its how do you say “So far so good” or my personal favorite “All izzzz Well ” [If you are wondering where that quote is from, you obviously haven't seen 3 Idiots ] anyway, the huge news is I bought a new USB modem and the brand I am sure its obvious from the title of this posting I have to say of all the USB modems i’ve seen, Reliance is pretty much good for the money, not that I am advertising this for them or I work of them or anything if thats what you are thinking. But imagine this 3.1Mbps for a mere Rs.500 and my download speed zooming up dramatically city wise now thats power which you can’t buy . Most of my class mates and friends own a BSNL data card which is awesome too but the coverage was very poor. This was the same case for my other friend who owns Tata Indicom Photon+. So regardless of speed , Reliance has an awesome coverage area which is what guy’s like me look for So there I was downloading movies and songs and tutors bla bla [if you are still wondering about speed , imagine downloading 4 movies in a mere single hour ] in WINDOWS. If you are a tech geek, you would be smart to know that network connectivity is pretty less resource hungry in Linux than it is in Windows which is to say, Internet is much faster in Linux. So I couldn’t wait to configure my modem in Linux. So I ask my bsnl data card buddies to help me out here, but to my dismay their methods did not apply to Reliance netconnect well atleast not completely [BUMMER!!! i know ] So anyway I had to pull a few strings to finally figure out how to do it properly for my USB modem. So this post would be pretty useful to all you Reliance NetConnect users out there. So enough chitchat, lets talk business now shall we?

Steps:

1. Boot into your Linux distro with your USB modem plugged into your USB port properly. [This step is very important, make sure there are no loose connections]
2. Now all the following steps requires Root level privileges, so make sure once you open the terminal in your linux you type in “su” [without quotes] and enter your     root password before continuing.
3. Once you have root level access, type in “lsusb” [without quotes] and hit enter, you should get the following on screen.

4. As you can see my USB modem is detected correctly as indicated by the first line of the result. Now there are certain numbers after ID which has vendor ID : product ID write down both in a piece of paper.

5. Next thing you have to do is to boot up the drivers and modules for your USB Modem as follows

6. Here in the place of vendor= 0x you should enter your vendor ID [the value before the colon] and in the place of product= 0x you should enter your product ID then hit enter, if all goes well you should have no errors or warnings. If you get a warning saying that “Deprecated modprobe.conf, all modules in the future bla bla” it simply means you have to go to the following path /etc/modprobe.d/ and rename the file blacklist to blacklist.conf and that should fix the warning message. The above warning if it does occur, is mostly on red-hat based linux distros 0_o I wonder why?

7. Now make sure that your Modem’s LED is blinking twice every second, blinking once every second denotes no good configuration 0_o and you have to start over.

8. Now comes the most important step, open the file /etc/wvdial.conf and delete anything thats in there and save the file. Now in your root terminal type in the command “wvdialconf” [without quotes] and hit enter this should fill the wvdial.conf with the configurations based on your USB Modem. Open /etc/wvdial.conf again and you should have something like the following :

9. Remove any extra semicolons in that file and fill in the corresponding details based on your account in place of the <>. Finally save the file.

10. Now in the root terminal type in the command “wvdial” and hit enter . If all goes well your internet should by up and running. A successful connection is indicated when your remote ip, local ip, primary dns address and secondary dns address is displayed in your terminal.  DO NOT CLOSE THE TERMINAL AS LONG AS YOU WANNA STAY CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET.

11. If you wanna disconnect click on the root terminal and press Ctrl+C and thats it. Hope this tip helped you out as much as it did to me .

12. From the next time, just plug in the modem and type in wvdial in the terminal and your done.

AWKWARD SUGGESTION: If you haven’t installed wvdial package in your linux make sure you get the .deb file and install it before getting this over with.

Peeka Boo!! In Your Network

Hey ppl, during most of the times we’d like to share resources between two or more computers in your network. This task is made easy to you by the network neighbourhood.  You can easily access other computers in your network from there, But what if you still want to be able to share folders with some users but you just don’t want everyone on the network to see your computer’s shares? Is there a way to do it instead of just disabling sharing altogether, you ask? Well here is how you do it, perform the below steps in the computer whose resources you wanna make it limited and visible to certain users alone.

Steps:
1.Click Start —> Run.
2.In the Run box, type net config server /hidden:yes
3.Click OK.
Now others who know the UNC path (\\your computer name\share name) can connect to your computer’s shares from the Run box, but it won’t show up in the network browse list. There you go! hope this tip helped you out

Choke SPAM!! as Jerry Chokes Tom !!! ;) — Things you can do to trace back fake emails aka. spam

Hello ppl I am back again, today lets talk about something that has been hurting our necks for a reallllly long time now. SPAM!!! yup, the word makes you flip out, imagine some body mailing you that ” You won $5,000,000!!!! on a lucky draw CONGRATULATIONS !!!!” , and you google about this mail and to your dismay, there are dozen other ppl in the world who get the same mail as you did, and slowly you start to figure it out that the whole thing was just 4 simple letters  S — P — A — M

I know it breaks your heart , when you get fooled by these mail when you could actually use a few bucks for free in your pocket . Today most email services , well actually make that ALL email services give you a folder called SPAM or JUNK which filters out your real emails from the fake ones.  This is far from being an actual solution. What about pay back? what about those batman movies you saw? don’t you want revenge against the evil doers ? *ahem* i am getting carried away I know, but all I am saying is you could actually figure out who actually is spamming you ( I do mean near to exactly who) so you can do something legally about it, or sue them for the least . This is were email clients comes in handy. I am talking about Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express etc. When you maintain your emails through email clients there are plenty of tricks that you can get away with, believe you, me

If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express you can view the headers by right clicking on the message and selecting properties or options.

Below are listed the headers of an actual spam message I received. I’ve changed my email address and the name of my server for obvious reasons. I’ve also double spaced the headers to make them more readable.

Return-Path: <ad4447rre@yahoo.com>

X-Original-To: bingo@example.com

Delivered-To: bingo@example.com

Received: from 21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com (21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com [21.218.172.108])
by mailhost.example.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F9B8511C7
for <bingo@example.com>; Sun, 16 Nov 2003 09:50:37 -0800 (PST)

Received: from (HELO 0udjou) [193.21.169.0] by 21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com with ESMTP id <536806-74276>; Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:42:31 +0200

Message-ID: <n5-l067n7z$46-z$-n@eo2.32574>

From: “DeViLMaN” <ad4447rre@yahoo.com>

Reply-To: “DeViLMaN” <ad4447rre@yahoo.com>

To: bingo@example.com

Subject: STOP-PAYING For Your PAY-PER-VIEW, Movie Channels, Mature Channels…isha

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:42:31 +0200

X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)

X-Priority: 3

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=”MIMEStream=_0+211404_90873633350646_4032088448″

According to the “From” header this message is from DeViLMaN at ad4447rre@yahoo.com. I could just fire off a message to abuse@yahoo.com, but that would be waste of time. This message didn’t come from yahoo’s email service.

The header most likely to be useful in determining the actual source of an email message is the Received header. According to the top-most Received header this message was received from the host 21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com with the ip address of 21.218.172.108 by my server mailhost.example.com. An important item to consider is at what point in the chain does the email system become untrusted? I consider anything beyond my own email server to be an unreliable source of information. Because this header was generated by my email server it is reasonable for me to accept it at face value.

The next Received header (which is chronologically the first) shows the remote email server accepting the message from the host 0udjou with the ip 193.21.169.0. Those of you who know anything about IP will realize that that is not a valid host IP address. In addition, any hostname that ends in client.mchsi.com is unlikely to be an authorized email server. This has every sign of being a cracked client system.

Here’s is where we start digging. By default Windows is somewhat lacking in network diagnostic tools. However, you can use the tools in common linux distros to do your own checking.

possumz@rule:[/home/possum] $whois 21.218.172.108

AT&T WorldNet Services ATT (NET-21-0-0-0-1)
21.0.0.0 – 21.255.255.255
Mediacom Communications Corp MEDIACOMCC-21-218-168-0-FLANDREAU-MN (NET-21-218-168-0-1)
21.218.168.0 – 21.218.175.255

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2003-21-31 19:15
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.

I can also verify the hostname of the remote server by using nslookup, although in this particular instance, my email server has already provided both the IP address and the hostname.

possumz@rule:[/home/possum] $nslookup 21.218.172.108

Server: localhost
Address: 217.0.0.1

Name: 21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com
Address: 21.218.172.108

Ok, whois shows that Mediacom Communications owns that netblock and nslookup confirms the address to hostname mapping of the remote server,21-218-172-108.client.mchsi.com. If I preface a www in front of the domain name portion and plug that into my web browser, http://www.mchsi.com, I get Mediacom’s web site.

There are few things more embarrassing to me than firing off an angry message to someone who is supposedly responsible for a problem, and being wrong. By double checking who owns the remote host’s IP address using two different tools (whois and nslookup) I minimize the chance of making myself look like an idiot.

A quick glance at the web site and it appears they are an ISP. Now if I copy the entire message including the headers into a new email message and send it to abuse@mchsi.com with a short message explaining the situation, they may do something about it.

But what about DeViLMaN? There really is no way to determine who sent a message, the best you can hope for is to find out what host sent it. Even in the case of a PGP signed messages there is no guarantee that one particular person actually pressed the send button. Obviously determining who the actual sender of an email message is much more involved than reading the From header. Once you know the host, you can file a complaint against the whole rather than searching for the actual sender (single person). Heck if you insist on hunting down the real sender it would be just like finding a single chef at a five star hotel. You are better off finding the hotel and complaining them in a whole, for bad service. Know what I mean

Environmental Variables – Same as Abra Ka Dabra?

Hey ppl, its been awhile, as usual I can bore with another interesting excuse to explain why but before that, lets get to know about the neat little things in Windows. Well back in my 7th semester, I had this computer laboratory by the name Component Based Technology(CBT). I wouldn’t say that I had a tough time with it, but I have to admit there were sometimes that I made the silliest mistakes in it. Its basically a java based lab, which I am sure you all know, if you made it to this blog posting . Its like the saying ” Everybody has to be somewhere ” . Anyway, as I was saying, the lab is pretty easy, but there are certain things that I was fed up of. To name a few, I hate the part where while running EJB servers and clients, which was really a pain in the neck. Not cuz of its complexity but of the tedious path setting process to your freshly created java class files. Its not like once you set your path to your JDK bin folder, its all over, not in case of EJB. In this case you will be creating numerous class files for the server as well as the client , time after time. During those times you have to tell the command prompt where your required class files are, in other words you have to “set the path” to the current required class files , so that you can run the server and the client. Trust me you would have enough fun with running EJB servers and clients , rectifying its coding part  etc etc without the path setting process hanging down your neck. So as per the requests from my junior students , I’ve decided to provide a work around for this method. Do you remember how you can access the windows temporary folder , just by typing ” %temp% ” [without quotes]  in the run command ? Well if you don’t that , know it now. You can do that because, the value between the %% is known as the environmental variable. Windows always keeps track of it once the computer is on. So instead of browsing through your documents and settings->Current User-> Local Settings bla bla bla -> temporary folder, you can just go to command prompt and %temp% and your there, right where you want yourself . Another example is %WinDir% which is an environmental variable that points to your windows directory. Use this if you don’t know where the windows partition is, in your pal’s system just before he/she notices. Anyway , the neatest stuff is you can set your own environmental variables , to point to a certain path[the one you use frequently while running , say , an EJB java program] . Once  you do that, instead of typing path=bla bla bla in the command prompt , you can get away with just typing as path=% your environmental variable % wola! its done.

So enough about the debriefing, lets see how its done, the method applies to XP and above.

1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties.

2. Click on Advanced Tab and at the bottom you will find the button “Environmental Variables”, click on it.

4. In the following menu, you will find two segments, one that says User Variables and the other one should say System Variables. Both are self explanatory , or not? well see user environmental variables applies to the current user only[only he/she logged in can use it ] whereas system environmental variables, any user of that computer can use it. Both variables have the same effect though.

5. Click on New -> give a variable name and -> type the path which you are about to frequently use, for example x:\jdk1.xxxx\bin\

6. Now click ok , and then your done, just go to command prompt and type in % your environmental name % and see the tricks it can do. Let your imagination run wild on this one, just make sure you don’t get lazy with setting shortcuts like this just jk.

7.But some people get tired of setting the path for java exes(like javac, javap) every time they need to compile a java file. So for those ppl, follow step 2 and you will find a section for System Variables under which you will find a predefined variable called Path which already contains default values. All you have to do is add a semi-colon after the last default entry followed by the path of your jdk bin folder, like for example consider the below screenshot:

Well I hope this helped you out, especially my juniors, have a great time with your CBT lab exercises. If you need aiders like these, just post a comment, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Cheers , Peace out

Windows & Linux Boot loaders never get along

Hey friends, Its been reallllllllllly a long time, I know What can I say I’ve been busy with work and college. Now is actually the time, when I get to stretch my legs a little . So I thought its best if I do that here.

As you all know, Linux & Windows Battles have been going on for too long now. If you ask me, I don’t care who actually wins in the battle as long as the winner favors the end users(us ) in the most reasonable way. Anyway considering the fact that most of us use two or more OS in our system is the real problem maker.

But a problem in life, is never really gonna stop us from getting what we want . So here is the thing, it makes a big difference depending on which OS you install first and which OS follows it.

Consider a situation in which Windows was your first choice of OS, followed by any Linux Distribution. No matter what Linux Distro you choose, the bootloader in it will be automatically configured to detect your Windows bootloader. So that shouldn’t really be your problem, even if you do have a problem with that, let me know i’ll put it up in my next post.

Now here is situation number 2, in which you choose Linux as your first choice of OS, followed by any version of Windows. When you install linux first, it goes fine, but once when the windows installation follows it, the linux bootloader is erased and is replaced with the freshly installed windows bootloader. Although there are ways to reconfigure the linux bootloader inside Windows, I would suggest an easy way to go into linux itself and reconfiguring its bootloader in such a way that it lists both its own distribution and the new Windows installation.

The above method depends on what version of bootloader you’ve installed in your linux distro. There are two typical scenarios, one with GRUB v1.x installed and the other is with GRUB v2.x installed.

Consider if GRUB v1.x is installed, here is what you should do to reconfigure your grub.

Steps:

1. Use your linux installation CD/DVD to boot into Live CD mode.

2. Once inside the Live Mode, open up the terminal and type in the following commands.

sudo grub

find /boot/grub/stage1

root (x,y)

setup (x)

quit

3. In the above list of commands, the find syntax helps to identify where your previously installed linux partition is located because this is where your previous bootloader resides.

4. Once this is found, the terminal returns you the values of (x,y) which you should substitute in the succeeding steps.

5. Finally you should have your newly configured Linux bootloader up and running.

Now consider if the GRUB v2 is installed, here is how you reconfigure your Linux bootloader.

Steps:

1. Use your linux installation CD/DVD to boot into Live CD mode.

2. Once inside the Live Mode, open up the terminal.

3. To find your normal system partition use the command sudo fdisk -l

4. If your still not sure about your right linux partition use the command df -Th

5. Once you know your correct system partition mount it using the following command sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt

where X is the hard-disk and Y is the partition number in which your linux installation is located.

6. Mount other devices using the command sudo mount –bind /dev/ /mnt/dev

7. Now you have to enter into the Root user mode, which can be done using the following command sudo chroot /mnt

8. Now to re-install the grub in your existing linux partition type in the following command sudo grub-install /dev/sdX

Where X denotes your the hard-disk in which your linux partition is located. Here it is not necessary to specify the partition number.

9. Once this is done you may verify whether the grub installation was successful using the following command sudo grub-install –recheck /dev/sdX

10. Hit Control + D to exit from Root User Mode.

11. Unmount all devices using the command sudo umount /mnt/dev

12. Your’e DONE! , finally reboot the system and you will find that your linux bootloader is primed and ready to go