Srikanth Technical Updates

View details of Graphics/Video card installed in your Computer/Laptop

2012-03-30T16:30:00.000+05:30

A graphics card or a video card is a piece of hardware installed in a computer that is responsible for rendering the image on the computer’s monitor or display screen. Graphics cards come in many varieties with varying features that allow for a price range that extends from about $20 to $1,800 USD or more.

All the computers and laptops contains at least a graphic card built-in in the main board. This is usually called integrated graphics or on-board graphics, and is low-performance and undesirable for those wishing to run 3D applications. You can also have a separate graphic card in your computer or laptop to provide support for accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, etc.

You can find the details of graphic card in your computer or laptop by using following steps:

Step-1: Open the "Command Prompt" ("Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt") and type "dxdiag" and hit Enter button which will open the "DirectX Diagnostic Tool".

Step-2: In the "DirectX Diagnostic Tool" window, select the "Display" which will show you the details of graphic card installed in you computer/laptop:

How to Reinstall Windows Without Having to Reactivate

2011-10-24T17:23:00.002+05:30

Every time you format and reinstall your PC, you have to activate Windows again, which can sometimes be a pain once you’ve done it too many times. Here’s how to backup and then restore the activation status.

Note: we aren’t going to cover how to reinstall Windows, since you should know how to do that already. This article just covers backing up and restoring your activation.

Introduction

Advanced Token Manager easily allows you to back up all the information that Windows uses to check the validity of you copy of Windows. Collectively called a Token, this information can be backed up to an external storage medium. Once you have formatted you can import the Token and your Windows will be genuine again.

Backing Up

Once you have grabbed your copy of Advanced Token Manager from here, you can extract the zip file and then run the executable file.

When the advanced token manager launches, you will see the BIG Backup Activation button. Click it to begin backing up your token. All the “BBB” characters are just masking the real product key, don’t worry that is not your real product key.

Once you click the Backup Activation button, we expect that 99% of you will be prompted with this message. Unless some of you are ultra geeky and using KMS at home, you will get this message. You can just click yes to continue.

Once activation is finished being backed up, you will see a folder called “Windows Activation Backup” in the same folder that you launched the token manager from, this contains the backup.

Now we have reloaded Windows on the same PC, as you can see it is not activated.

Now I can run the advanced token manager, this time it will say Restore instead of Backup.

Once you click Restore you will be prompted to make sure you want to do this, click the next button to start the restoration.

Once it has completed a success message will appear.

If you go check your validity in the System Settings, you should have the genuine badge back.

The advanced token manager can also support Office Activation and works on all versions of Windows 7.

Easily Backup & Import Your Wireless Network Settings in Windows 7

2011-10-18T16:16:00.000+05:30

One of the biggest annoyances when setting up wireless networks is remembering the security key and typing it correctly so that you can connect all laptops and netbooks to it. Windows 7 makes it easy to export your wireless settings from one machine to another.

The backup of the wireless networks settings can be easily done from Windows 7, and the settings can be saved to a USB stick, and then the settings can be imported on laptops & netbooks running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

How to Save Your Wireless Network Settings

First, open the Network and Sharing Center. You can do this by clicking on the wireless network symbol from the taskbar and clicking on ‘Open Network and Sharing Center’. An alternative would be to go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center.

On the left side of the Network and Sharing Center window, click on the ‘Manage wireless networks’ link.

In the Manage Wireless Networks window you will see a list with all wireless networks to which you have connected in the past. Double click on the one which interests you.

Now you will see a window with all its properties. In order to save them on a flash drive, click on the bottom link which says ‘Copy this network profile to a USD flash drive’.

The Copy Network Settings wizard will now start. Insert the USB flash drive, wait until it is detected and the Next button is no longer gray.

The copying process will take only a few seconds. When done, click on Close.

If you will look on your USB flash drive you will see a setupSNK.exe file and a SMRTNTKY folder. Make sure you don’t delete them from the memory stick.

How to Import Your Wireless Network Settings

First, plug in the USB flash drive in the laptop where you want to import the settings and run the setupSNK.exe file. When the Wireless Network Setup Wizard launches, click on Yes.

The settings will be imported in seconds and when receiving the notification below, click on OK and start using the wireless network.

This procedure is very helpful for both public and hidden wireless networks. Instead of typing long authentication keys, it is easier to plug in an USB memory stick and run a setup file. If you have other useful tricks like this one, don’t hesitate to share them using the comments form below.

Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista

2011-10-18T15:37:00.003+05:30

Just about everybody knows about the hidden administrator C$ share that is always built into Windows file sharing, but you might have wondered why you can’t use that in Windows 7 or Vista.

The reason this doesn’t work is because of UAC (User Account Control) that Vista is (in)famous for. By default Vista doesn’t allow UAC elevation over the network with a local user account.

There’s a registry key that we can use to change this behavior to work the same as Windows XP. This will make your computer less secure, and I can’t recommend that you do this… but it’s also good to understand how Windows works.

Manual Registry Hack

Open regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key, creating a new key if it doesn’t exist.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

On the right-hand side, add a new 32-bit DWORD value named LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set the value to 1.

To remove this tweak you can set the value to 0 or just delete the key.

At this point you can map to the C$ share and also perform some other administrative tasks remotely. Note that you will need to enable file sharing in the network and sharing center, and make sure that your firewall settings will allow sharing.

How to Remotely Use A PC’s DVD Drive Across Your Network

2011-10-18T15:35:00.000+05:30

If you own a netbook you will know what we mean when we say sacrificing a DVD drive can sometimes be a pain. Net burner sets out to solve this problem by letting you use the drive on another pc remotely.

Note: Keep in mind that you will have to install Net Burner on both the PC that hosts the drive, as well as the PC that you are connecting from.

Head over to the paragon website, and fill out a some quick information so that you can receive your download link via email.

Soon after you hit the submit button, you will receive an email with your details to log into the paragon download section. Follow the instructions in the email to quickly download your free copy of Net Burner.

The installation process is a next, next, finish matter and should take no longer than 30 Seconds to complete. When you get to the installation type the machine that has the optical drive only needs the Server components.

The PC that you are connecting from only requires the client components.

Once it is open the program on the PC with no drive, it should search your network for available drives.

Click next and that’s all there is to it. As you can see it will add the drive as if it is locally attached.

This will work on Windows XP, 7 and 8 as well as Server 2008

How to Make a Windows 7 or Vista Repair Disk If You Don’t Have One

2011-10-17T16:31:00.000+05:30

How to Make a Windows 7 or Vista Repair Disk If You Don’t Have One

If you bought your computer with Windows 7 or Vista pre-installed, you most likely don’t

have a regular Windows repair disc. What you do have is some crappy disc from the

manufacturer that totally wipes your computer back to factory settings. What if you just

want to run Startup repair off the install cd without losing all your settings?

Windows 7 Users: Click Here to Learn How to Create a System Repair Disc for Free

It turns out that Microsoft is going to let you create your own Windows 7 or Vista repair

disc when Service Pack 1 comes out in a month or so. If you can’t wait that long, the nice

people over at Neosmart have created their own Windows 7 or Vista Repair Disc

available for download. Update: it looks like the discs are no longer free.

The file is an ISO image file… if you are familiar then skip to the link, otherwise we’ve also got instructions on how to create a CD from the ISO file.

Burn Windows 7 or Vista Recovery Disc ISO to CD

You may already have a tool to do this such as Nero, but the best tool available for burning

ISOs is ImgBurn, a freeware utility that does nothing else but burn ISO images, and it does it well.

Open up ImgBurn, and then click on the “Browse for a file” button, selecting the file you

downloaded from Neosmart.

Put a blank CD into the drive, and then click the big Write button.

That’s about all there is to it… you now have your very own Vista Recovery CD.

Download ImgBurn from imgburn.com

Download Windows 7 or Vista Recovery Disc from neosmart.net

How to Create a System Image in Windows 7

2011-10-17T16:22:00.001+05:30

The new backup utilities in Windows 7 are actually pretty impressive and creating an image will be possible in all versions. Today we take a look at creating a backup image of your machine without the need for a third party utility like Ghost or True Image.

You just just finished installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 on your computer and have it set up to your liking. One of the first things you should do now is create an image of the disc so in the event of a crash you will be able to restore it to its current state. An image is an exact copy of everything on the drive and will restore it back to its current state. It’s probably best to create an image when everything is clean and organized on your system. This will make the image file smaller and allows you to restore the system with a smooth running set up.

Creating an Image in Windows 7

Click on Start go to Getting Started and then select Back up your files.

Next click on the Create a system image hyperlink.

Decide where you want to save the image. You can choose an external drive, burn to multiple DVD’s, or store it on a network location.

You can include other drives if you want as well but remember that will add to the size of the final image.

At the confirmation screen notice the amount of space the image may take. If something doesn’t look right you can still go back from this point and make adjustments.

A progress meter is displayed while the images is created and backed up. In this example a disk of about 15GB in size took under 20 minutes backed up to an external drive. Times will vary depending on your system and where you’re backing it up to.

After the process is complete you get the option to create a system repair disc which you should do and make sure to save it in a secure location.

When it comes time to restore the image, you will be able to use the System Recovery Options to get the system back.

Image in Windows Vista

Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise allow you to create an image, but Vista Home and Home Premium users do not have the option. The process is similar in Vista, type backup into the search bar and click on Backup and Restore Center.

Then click on Back up computer and the wizard will guide you through the process.

Conclusion

This is a extremely handy feature and it actually works well. It is also nice that the feature will be available in each edition of Windows 7 instead of just the higher end versions. This will save you some money in not having to spend $50-80 on a third party utility. You should create an image when everything is fresh on your system so the image is not too large and the essentials of you machine can quickly be restored. For instance I created an image after a fresh install and putting Office 2007 and a few of my most commonly used programs. The entire image came in around 10 GB which is easily stored on an external drive or a few DVD’s.

Create a System Repair Disc in Windows 7

2011-10-17T16:14:00.003+05:30

The new version of Windows seems to be a lot for stable than previous releases, however

you never know when a malfunction might occur. Today we take a look at an option in

Windows 7 that lets you create a System Repair disc in case you need to boot from it to

recover your OS.

Create System Repair Disc

Type system repair disc into the search box in the Start menu.

The dialog box opens where you select the right drive and click Create disc. A CD will be

fine as it only takes up 142MB of space.

Using the Disc

If you are having problems with your machine just pop in the recovery disc and boot from

it and enter into Windows Setup [EMS Enabled].

After it boots up you can access recovery tools or restore the computer back to a system

image (see our article on creating a system image in Windows 7).

Now you can choose from different recovery options to help you get your machine back up

and running.

You never know when an Operating System disaster might occur, but having a System

Recovery Disc to boot from should be part of your backup and recovery toolbox in case it

does.

How to Regain Access to Your Administrator Account in Windows Vista using System Restore

2011-10-17T16:10:00.004+05:30

Probably one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you in Windows is not being able to logon to your user account because you changed the password and then forgot it or because you accidentally deleted the account. If you don’t know the password for any other Administrator account, you have a big problem!

Most people immediately begin searching for a way to crack the Administrator account password using some free tools or hacks off forums. However, it’s nearly impossible to crack a password on Windows Vista with the high level of encryption.

Yet there is a way to get back into an account without having to crack the password. It’s by using the System Restore feature built into Windows.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This only works in cases where you changed your password to something new and then forgot it or deleted a user account by accident. In order for this to work, there must be a System Restore point at which a logon was successful for the problem account. Also, this is not a problem if you are in a domain environment because the Domain Administrator can always reset your password.

First Step – Boot to the Windows Vista DVD

The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure you have your Windows Vista DVD or a repair disc. Insert the disc and then restart the computer. When asked to “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD”, go ahead and press any key.

Click Next until you get to the screen that has the option “Repair your computer”, select the operating system you want to repair and then click Next.

Note: Before reaching this screen, you may have to set preferences for the language to install, time and currency format, and the keyboard or input method.

In the System Recovery Options dialog, choose System Restore from the list and then click Next.

Now you need to choose the system restore from the list. You want to choose a restore point that will return the computer to a state where the logon was successful and that was using the old password.

Then click Next to confirm the disks, then Finish to confirm the restore point and finally Yes in the warning window to begin the restore.

Important Note: After you use the System Restore feature, you have to reinstall any programs or updates that were done on the system after that restore point. You will not lose any personal documents; however, you may have to reinstall programs. You might also have to reset some personal settings.

When the restore is complete, click on Restart to restart the computer. Click Close to confirm that the restore was successful.

You can now try to logon using the older password (in the case where you had reset a password on an user account and then forgot it) or using the normal password (in the case where the account was deleted by accident).

If you have simply forgotten your password, then this method will not work and there are some possible methods you could try to reset your Administrator password, but it’s tough and costly. All the best!

How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC

2011-10-17T16:02:00.002+05:30

When you’ve got a PC completely infected with viruses, sometimes it’s best to reboot into a

rescue disc and run a full virus scan from there. Here’s how to use the Avira Rescue CD to clean

an infected PC.

We’ve previously covered how to clean an infected PC using the BitDefender or Kaspersky

rescue disks, and loads of readers have written in saying thanks, and reporting that they were

able to clean their PC easily. Be sure and check out our previous articles on the subject:

Otherwise, keep reading for how it all works with Avira, a well-respected anti-virus solution.

Download and Burn the Image to a Disc

The first thing you’ll need to do is head over to the Avira site and download the latest version of

their rescue CD—there are .exe and .ISO versions of the rescue CD available.

If you download the .exe version of the Rescue CD, you can actually use it to directly burn the

image to a disk without any other software required. Just download, open it up, and then stick

a disc into the drive.

If you have any problems with the integrated burning application, you can download the ISO

instead and then use an application to burn that ISO image file to an optical disc—we prefer

using ImgBurn, but there’s plenty of ways to burn an ISO to a disc.

Using the Avira Rescue CD to Clean an Infected PC

Once you’ve rebooted and put the CD in the drive, you’ll see a menu that lets you boot from

the rescue system, or boot from the drive. If you don’t select anything, it’ll automatically boot

into the rescue CD.

The first thing you’ll want to do is switch to the Update tab, and then choose Yes to apply

the latest updates.

Now switch back over to the Virus scanner tab and click the Start Scanner button—it’ll take a

long time, but it should clean up your PC.

It’s as simple as that. Enjoy your virus-free PC.

Download the Avira Rescue System

How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally

2011-10-17T15:10:00.001+05:30

Have you ever accidentally deleted a photo on your camera, computer, USB drive, or anywhere else? What
you might not know is that you can usually restore those pictures—even from your camera’s memory stick.

Windows tries to prevent you from making a big mistake by providing the Recycle Bin, where deleted files hang around for a while—but unfortunately it doesn’t work for external USB
drives, USB flash drives, memory sticks, or mapped drives. Luckily there’s another way to
recover deleted files.

Note: we originally wrote this article a year ago, but we’ve received this question so many times from readers, friends, and families that we’ve polished it up and are republishing it for everybody. So far, everybody has reported success!

Restore that File or Photo using Recuva

The first piece of software that you’ll want to try is called Recuva, and it’s extremely easy to
use—just make sure when you are installing it, that you don’t accidentally install that stupid Yahoo! toolbar that nobody wants.

Now that you’ve installed the software, and avoided an awful toolbar installation, launch the Recuva wizard and let’s start through the process of recovering those pictures you shouldn’t
have deleted.

The first step on the wizard page will let you tell Recuva to only search for a specific type of file, which can save a lot of time while searching, and make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Next you’ll need to specify where the file was, which will obviously be up to wherever you deleted it from. Since I deleted mine from my camera’s SD card, that’s where I’m looking for it.

The next page will ask you whether you want to do a Deep Scan. My recommendation is to not select this for the first scan, because usually the quick scan can find it. You can always go back and run a deep scan a second time.

And now, you’ll see all of the pictures deleted from your drive, memory stick, SD card, or
wherever you searched. Looks like what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas after all…

If there are a really large number of results, and you know exactly when the file was created or modified, you can switch to the advanced view, where you can sort by the last modified time.
This can help speed up the process quite a bit, so you don’t have to look through quite as
many files.

At this point, you can right-click on any filename, and choose to Recover it, and then save the
files elsewhere on your drive. Awesome!

Download Recuva from piriform.com

Restore that File or Photo using DiskDigger

Update: it looks like since we first wrote about this, DiskDigger became shareware, which gives you a prompt for every file you save. It’s up to you whether you want to try it—best bet, try Recuva first. You could alternatively use the slightly older, but still totally free, portable version of the application from portablefreeware.com. Thanks, Mary!

If you don’t have any luck with Recuva, you can always try out DiskDigger, another excellent piece of software. I’ve tested both of these applications very thoroughly, and found that neither of them will always find the same files, so it’s best to have both of them in your toolkit.

Note that DiskDigger doesn’t require installation, making it a really great tool to throw on your PC repair Flash drive.

Start off by choosing the drive you want to recover from…

Now you can choose whether to do a deep scan, or a really deep scan. Just like with Recuva,
you’ll probably want to select the first one first. I’ve also had much better luck with the regular scan, rather than the “dig deeper” one.

If you do choose the “dig deeper” one, you’ll be able to select exactly which types of files you
are looking for, though again, you should use the regular scan first.

Once you’ve come up with the results, you can click on the items on the left-hand side, and see
a preview on the right.

You can select one or more files, and choose to restore them. It’s pretty simple!

Good luck recovering your deleted files!

How to Use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to Clean Your Infected PC

2011-10-17T15:06:00.004+05:30

When you’re dealing with a PC that is completely infected in viruses, sometimes the best
thing to do is reboot into a rescue disk and run a full virus scan from there. Here’s how to
use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to clean an infected PC.

There’s lots of ways to clean an infected PC, like booting into an Ubuntu Live CD and scanning for viruses, but this is an extremely simple—and free—solution from a trusted anti-virus vendor.

Download and Burn the Image to a Disc

The first thing you’ll need to do is head over to the Kaspersky site and download the
latest version of their rescue disk, and then use an application to burn that ISO image file
to an optical disc—we prefer using ImgBurn, but there’s plenty of ways to burn an ISO to
a disc.

Using the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to Clean an Infected PC

Once you’ve got the disc in hand, put it into the PC and reboot—you should see a new screen that says “Press any key to enter the menu”, at which point you should probably press any key.
To enter the menu, of course. If you don’t, it’ll boot normally into Windows.

At this point you’ll be able to choose whether to use the Graphic or Text mode, and we’d recommend using the Graphic mode unless there’s some problem, which there really
shouldn’t be.

You’ll be prompted to type the letter “a” to accept the agreement. What’s weird is that it didn’t work with a capital letter “A” for us, even though that’s what it shows in the screenshot.

Within a few short seconds you should see the full working environment, with the Kaspersky Rescue Disk screen front and center.

The first thing you want to do is switch tabs over to the My Update Center, and then click the Start update button to load the latest anti-virus definitions from their web site—this is a
critical step!

Once done, switch back over to the Objects Scan tab, select the drives you want to scan, and then click the Start Objects Scan button.

The scan will run, and clean up any viruses that it finds. You’ll be prompted when you do encounter a virus, and you’ll have to choose whether to clean or quarantine the files—the
typical anti-virus behavior.

If you need to do some more work or research on the PC, you can access some tools directly
from the menu below, which has a fully working web browser, command line, and a file
manager.

You’ll be able to access your Windows partition through the /discs/C: folder, and do any
other maintenance work you need to do.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. Enjoy cleaning viruses.

Download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk from support.kaspersky.com

How to Use the BitDefender Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC

2011-10-17T15:04:00.003+05:30

When you’ve got a PC completely infected with viruses, sometimes it’s best to reboot into a

rescue disc and run a full virus scan from there. Here’s how to use the BitDefender Rescue

CD to clean an infected PC.

We’ve already shown you how to use the Kaspersky rescue disk, and this method works

similarly, but has a couple of advantages, like automatic virus definition updates and an

integrated data recovery tool—though you can always use both to be doubly sure your PC is cleaned.

Download and Burn the Image to a Disc

The first thing you’ll need to do is head over to the BitDefender site and download the latest version of their rescue CD, and then use an application to burn that ISO image file to an optical disc—we prefer using ImgBurn, but there’s plenty of ways to burn an ISO to a disc.

Download and Create a Rescue USB

If you’d rather create a USB drive to boot from, you can download UNetbootin and use it to

create the bootable flash drive—just select Diskimage and then browse to the location of the

downloaded ISO file.

Select the drive that you want to write the image to, and follow the steps.

Using the BitDefender Rescue CD to Clean an Infected PC

Once you drop the disc in the drive and reboot, you’ll see a prompted menu that lets you

choose the language you’d like to start with, or you can boot from the hard drive normally.

We’ll obviously choose to start up the rescue CD.

Once you’ve started it up, if the resolution is too small, you can use the menu at the bottom

to head to Settings –> Display to adjust it.

From here you can change the resolution to something bigger—you can use 1024×768 to

make sure you’ve got enough room on the screen to see everything.

Once you’ve accepted the license agreement, the scan starts immediately.

If you need to do some work on your file system, you can easily use the File Manager to get

to your files—the nice thing is that it opens up directly into your Windows drive.

There’s also a copy of TestDisk installed automatically, which can be used to recover data.

It’s as simple as that. Enjoy your virus-free PC.

Download the BitDefender Rescue CD from bitdefender.com

SMS Backup Sends Android Text Messages to Your Gmail Account

2011-10-17T12:35:00.000+05:30

If you want to backup and integrate your SMS messages into your Gmail account, SMS Backup offers a simple Android-based backup solution.

Install the application, enable IMAP in your Gmail account, plug your login credentials into SMS Backup, and you’re set to go. All your SMS messages will automatically be dumped into your Gmail account without any further interaction on your behalf.

SMS Backup is free and requires Android 1.5+.

Android App Saves your Text Messages to Gmail as they Arrive!

2011-10-17T12:27:00.000+05:30

If your mobile phone has limited capacity for storing SMS text messages or if you are looking to delete all the old text conversations from the phone but still preserve them somewhere, here’s something for you to consider.

SMS Backup, as the name suggests, is a free app for Android mobile phones that can copy all SMS messages from the phone to your Gmail account with a click. It can save both your incoming and outgoing messages to Gmail.

To get started, first enable IMAP in your Gmail account available under Gmail Settings –> Forwarding and POP/IMAP –> Enable IMAP. Next launch the SMS backup app on your phone, enter your Google account credentials and the will immediately copy all existing text messages to a new folder /label in your Gmail account.

The best part is that as new text messages arrive, or you send one, the app will automatically save them to Gmail in the background without you having to do anything. This is much like a Dropbox style backup system for your SMS messages. As new ~~files~~ texts arrive in the ~~Dropbox~~ messaging folder, they are instantly sent to the cloud, which in this case is Gmail.

How to Mount a System Restore Point to Restore a Single File

2011-10-17T12:23:00.005+05:30

Ever wanted to restore a file from the past, but don’t have a good way to do it? With

System Restore Explore you can mount a System Restore snapshot, and browse a past

copy of your entire drive.

Going Back In Time With System Restore Explorer

Head over to the developer’s website and grab yourself a free copy of System Restore

Explorer. The program requires a simple next, next finish kind of install. Once the installation

has completed the program will launch, to display a list of available system restore points.

To mount a restore point select it from the list and hit the Mount botton, when it become

available.

Once you have mounted the restore point, it will open an explorer window for you to browse

through the drive as if it was you system drive.

To restore a file, simple navigate to its location and copy it to the location of your choice, which

can be anywhere out of the mounted directory.

When you are finished be sure to go back and un-mount the restore point.

This trick will work on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

How to create a Windows Restore Point

2011-10-13T13:37:00.000+05:30

A restore point can be created automatically or manually, depending on the actions of the user. Windows will create a restore point automatically when the user installs Windows for the first time on a computer and when Windows updates are installed. This is done in the event there are problems sometime after Windows or updates were installed and the user needs to rollback Windows to that previous installation/restore point. Below are the steps for how to create a restore point manually at any time.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users

To create a restore point in Windows Vista and Windows 7, follow the below steps.
1. On the Windows desktop, click START, find Computer (or My Computer) in the Start Menu, right-click with your mouse and select Properties.

2. A new window will open. On the left side, click on the System protection option. This will open the System Properties window, with the System Protection tab selected. (If the System Protection tab is not selected, click on that tab to select it.)
3. Near the bottom on the System Protection tab, click the Create button.

4. Another small window will open. Enter a description for the restore point in the text field and click the Create button.

The restore point will be created and available to rollback to if ever needed.
If you ever need to rollback Windows Vista or Windows 7 to an earlier time, on the System Protection tab, click the System Restore button and follow the prompts to select a restore point and initiate the rollback.

Windows XP users

To create a restore point in Windows XP, follow the below steps.
1. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then System Restore.
2. The System Restore window will open. Select the Create a restore point option and click the Next button.

3. Enter a description for the restore point in the Restore point description text field and click the Create button.
The restore point will be created and available to rollback to if ever needed.
If you ever need to rollback Windows XP to an earlier time, on the first screen of the System Restore window, select the Restore my computer to an earlier time option and follow the prompts to select a restore point and initiate the rollback.

Setup VLC Stream Network (How to create Secondary Streaming VLC Server and Client)

2011-10-13T12:58:00.002+05:30

In previous article I have told how to configure a Primary Server from where the actual Video will be streamed and published. In this article I will explain how we can configure the Secondary server which will stream the videos to their clients.

Setup Secondary Streaming Server

1) Login to the Secondary Server and open VLC Player on it.

2) Go to Media >> Streaming

3) On Open Media window go to Network Tab and Enter the URL of the server with Port 8080 (Default port) and press Stream.

4) Stream Output Source >> Press Next

5) Destination: Select HTTP >> Add (again this server will start stream on port 8080 by default). Also Select the Trans-coding and press Next.

6) Others: You will see miscellaneous options which you can select as per your requirement. Press Stream to start Streaming.

Configuring VLC Client (End User)

1) Open VLC Player on local System

2) Go to Media >> Open Network Stream

3) Select HTTP Protocol From the Drop Down and insert the IP address and Port of Secondary Server. Press Play.

That’s it, your Live VLC Streaming Network is ready.

Setup VLC Stream Network (How to create Streaming VLC Server [Primary])

2011-10-13T12:55:00.001+05:30

Recently I have worked on a project where I have to stream a video on Internet which will be then accessed by the Servers on different locations and those servers will then stream the same video to the sub-ordinate systems simultaneously. Using this we can reduce the Load on Main Streaming Server as well as we can save lot of bandwidth as if all the server/systems connect to the Main server directly bandwidth usage of both the server and the client will be very high.

Scenario:
1) Video will be streamed from a Server on Internet.
2) Many other Servers will connect to the Server.
3) These servers will then stream the same video on their network (e.g. on LAN).
4) Users of local system will access the video from secondary servers.

Following image can explain the Scenario in a better way

Step to Stream Video on Primary Server

Following are the steps to stream a video on Primary Server which can be located on remoter location.

1) Login to the Server and install VLC on it.
2) Open VLC Media Player

3) Go to Media >> Streaming

4) Now add the file which you want to stream and Press Stream

5) Source: On Stream Output screen it will show the Source file; press Next to continue

6) Destination: Add HTTP as new destination which will automatically run on port 8080 and you can activate trans-coding as well. Press Next to continue.

7) Others: You will see miscellaneous options which you can select as per your requirement. Press Stream to start Streaming.

8) VLC will start streaming the Video which you have mentioned.

In Next Article I will explain How to setup Secondary Server and clients to watch live streaming

Unattended/Silent installation of .NET Framework 2, 3 and 3.5

2011-10-13T12:50:00.000+05:30

Today in this post I will going to explain the steps to install .NET Framework without manual interaction or using a single command. The biggest advantage of silent installation is that the user don’t have to monitor and follow all the installation steps.

The .NET Framework is an integral windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML web services on Windows Systems. You can download the .NET framework from following URLS and save them in one directory lets say c:/dotnet

DOWNLOAD:

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.0 (Full Installation)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/F/0/3F0A922C-F239-4B9B-9CB0-DF53621C57D9/dotnetfx3.exe

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.5 (Full Installation)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 are usually installed via web installer i.e web installer downloads the executable from Microsoft website and then installs it automatically but the above download URL’s are full download of the components which don’t download anything from Internet once it get downloaded.

INSTALLATION:

1) Open Command Prompt (Start >> run >> cmd >> Enter).

2) Go to the folder where all the .NET Framework executable are downloaded. In our case we have downloaded the in C:\dotnet

C:/>cd c:/dotnet

Install .NET Framework 2
To install it execute following command

C:/dotnet>dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:”install.exe /qb”

Install .NET Framework 3.0
To install it execute following command

C:/dotnet>dotnetfx3.exe /q /norestart

Install .NET Framework 3.5
To install it execute following command

C:/dotnet>dotnetfx35.exe /q /norestart

Now you can check if the .NET Framework is installed or not from Add remove programs.

BATCH FILE For INSTALLATION

You can create a batch file for the installation. This batch file will install all the three versions of .NET Framework on double click. Open notepad and copy paste the following contents in it.

@ECHO OFF
ECHO Installation of DOTNET Framework 2.0
dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:”install.exe /qb”
ECHO Installation of DOTNET Framework 3.0
dotnetfx3.exe /q /norestart
ECHO Installation of DOTNET Framework3.5
dotnetfx35.exe /q /norestart
exit

Save the file in the directory where installers are downloaded (C:\dotnet) Or you can get the batch file here

How to Securely Delete Files in Windows

2011-10-13T12:42:00.000+05:30

When you delete a file in Windows, only the reference to the file is removed from the file
system table. The file still exists on disk until other data overwrites it, leaving it vulnerable to recovery.

There are many tools available out there that allow you to securely delete files so they
cannot be recovered. This article provides a summary of some of the free tools available out
there, many of which are portable, allowing you to securely delete files you may temporarily
save to public computers.

Eraser

Eraser makes it very easy to securely delete files, folders, or both. It overwrites the files
being deleted with random data. There are several options for the number of times the files
being deleted are overwritten with random data, including two versions of the US DoD 5220.22-M standard (3-pass and 7-pass) and the Gutmann method, which overwrites the file with random data 35 times.

You can immediately delete files and folders using the On-Demand interface or schedule files
and folders to be securely deleted at a specific time using the Scheduler.

Eraser comes in a version you can install, which also allows you to add an option to the
Windows Explorer context menu to securely erase files within Explorer. You can also download
a portable version of Eraser you can take with you on a USB flash drive to delete files you save
on other computers.

Download the installable version of Eraser from eraser.heidi.ie or the portable version fromPortableApps.com.

Freeraser

Freeraser is a free, portable tool that allows you to securely delete files using drag-and-drop.
You can select to delete your files using a Fast method of filling the space with random data
with one pass, using a Forced method that utilizes the DoD 5220.22M, 3-pass standard, or
using the Ultimate, or Gutmann, method, deleting files by overwriting them with random data
35 times. Right-clicking on the Freeraser trash can displays a menu allowing you to manually
select a file for deletion and to change the options for the program.

Download Freeraser from pendriveapps.com.

Blank And Secure

Blank And Secure is another portable drag-and-drop secure file deletion tool. Simply, drag-and-drop files or folders to be deleted onto the middle box on the Blank And Secure window. You can specify how many times the files are to be overwritten by zeros by clicking the Overwrite X times button and selecting an option. The deletion operation can be delayed up to 9 seconds using the Delete Delay X sec. button.

Download Blank And Secure from pendriveapps.com.

DP Shredder

DP Shredder is a portable, small program that allows you to securely delete files or directories
and to overwrite the free space on a hard drive so files that were deleted previously without
using secure methods cannot be recovered. You can easily select the method for deletion,
which includes two US DoD-approved methods and the Gutmann method, and how many
times (Rounds) the method will be applied.

Download DP Shredder from portablefreeware.com.

SDelete

SDelete is a command line tool allowing you to overwrite the free space on your hard disk so
any previously deleted data becomes unrecoverable. It is portable and can be run from a USB
flash drive in a command prompt window. To get help with how to use the command, type “sdelete” (without the quotes) at the command prompt and press Enter.

Download SDelete from technet.microsoft.com.

CCleaner

CCleaner is a program that removes unused, temporary files from your system, cleans up your internet history and cookies, contains a tool for cleaning the registry, and even allows you to
clean up files from applications installed on your computer. The latest version offers a tool for wiping the free space on your hard drive. You can wipe the free space on a hard drive or the
entire drive, securely deleting all data on the drive. There are four options for specifying how
many times the data will be overwritten.

Download the installable version or the portable version of CCleaner from piriform.com.

A program for secure deletion of files is a useful addition to your software toolbox, especially
if you use different computers, some of which may be public machines.

How To Install A New Hard Drive, Pt 1

2011-10-13T12:24:00.001+05:30

It’s recession economics 101—you can’t always afford to shell out for a whole new PC! HTG is here to help you repair and upgrade the parts that are in desperate need. Today’s topic: how to upgrade your hard drive.

In this first of a new series of “Hardware Upgrade” posts, we’ll cover the basics for buying new drives, backing up old system disks, and opening up your PC to swap out drives. It’s great geeky fun, and it can help you put off a new PC purchase for just a little bit longer. Check it out!

What You’ll Need

Installing a hard drive is a fairly simple—although intimidating—affair. Here’s the lowdown on what you’re going to need to upgrade your storage.

	Phillips Head Screwdriver: The most important tool in a PC geek’s toolkit—a regular Phillips head screwdriver. Almost all the screws you’re going to run into are going to be Phillips head. While your author has never had any trouble with magnetized screwdrivers, considering we’re going to be working with hard disks today, they probably aren’t the best of ideas. Find yourself an ordinary, non-magnetized screwdriver just to be on the safe side.
	A “Tower” Style PC: Unfortunately, we aren’t going to talk about how to install a hard drive in a laptop today. Some day! Hopefully your PC is in reasonable shape and isn’t incredibly ancient, and you know, runs. If your hard disk is dead, you can follow these directions to install a new one, but having a functional hard drive with a running OS can save you a lot of time and heartache.
	A Shiny New Hard Drive: Depending on how old your PC is, you might be installing a shiny old hard drive. There are two basic types of drives we’ll be concerning ourselves with today: SATA and IDE. More detail on those later, as well as some guidelines for buying a drive. You’re going to need a form factor of 3.5 inch. Any other size will most likely not fit inside your case.
	A USB HDD Enclosure: Optional, but very very helpful if you intend to back up your existing drive. More on this later. USB HDD Enclosure

How Does Your Drive Connect: IDE or SATA?

Most standard internal hard drives have a form factor of 3.5 inches, and come in one of two major connection styles. Neither are cutting edge new, so most PCs you upgrade should have the capability of one or the other. Pictured above, the left cable is a SATA cable, which is a newer standard, and easier to work with. The older connection is called IDE, and the drives are sometimes called PATA. While there’s nothing wrong with IDE hard drives, you’ll want to check if you have the capacity to use SATA before buying a IDE drive.

Not all PCs will have the connections to read a SATA drive. If your machine is older, you may wish to open up your case first, and see if your mother board has the connections for SATA. In most situations, you’re going to want to opt for SATA, because the setup is easier and the transfer rate is faster than IDE.

The red connectors like the ones on the left connect up to SATA cables—you can even see the beginning of “SATA” behind the right side of the connector. Most motherboards (that aren’t terribly old) should support it. If you don’t see these connectors, you’ll have to use the IDE connectors, like those pictured on the right.

There are, of course, loads of other ways to connect hard disks to a PC. For today, and for the sake simplicity, we’ll stick with what’s most likely to be inside most PC cases.

Buying A New Hard Disk

When you buy a drive, you buy based on several different factors. The first is usually “can my system handle it?”

Older systems have drive capacity limits and will struggle to recognize large disks. Systemsolder than 1998 will be limited to 8.4 GB, while systems older than 2002 may have a drive capacity limit of 137 GB imposed by the motherboard’s BIOS. You’ll require a PC that supports 48 Bit LBA (Logical Block Address), at the very least by the OS, if not the BIOS as well. If your machine is running XP with Service Pack 1, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, your machine likely supports these large drives over 137 GB, and you shouldn’t have to worry about this. If you’re running Windows 98, or something just as old, you’re likely to have some trouble with this upgrade—maybe more than it’s worth.

Once you’ve determined the size disk your PC can support, and found out what kind of of drives you can connect to your motherboard (IDE or SATA) you can start to answer the other big questions that go into buying a drive. Here’s a short list of the three main criteria you should go over before shelling out your hard earned cash for a drive.

Capacity (Size, measured in MB, GB, and TB)
Performance (Disk read speed, measured in RPM)
Price (What fits your budget?)

There are lots of other factors that go into buying a drive, although these are the major ones. If you can determine what kind of drive your PC can handle, you’ll be able to pick a drive based on these criteria. You might be able to get a high capacity drive (1TB +) for very cheap, but you’ll likely be sacrificing performance, and end up with a slow drive. High performance drives are often expensive, no matter the capacity, but can be worth it if you’re replacing your system disk.

Once you’re satisfied with your HDD purchase, you’re ready for the next steps.

Backup The Old Drive

Before you open up your PC and start ripping out hardware, it might behoove you to make a copy of the disk you’re planning to remove. This is where the aforementioned (see above, in tools) hard drive enclosure can come in handy. There are several ways to make a perfect, bootable copy of your system disk, like PING, DriveImage XML and FOG Project, as well asClonezilla, which we covered in an extensive hard drive-saving how-to.

If you’re simply adding a second drive for storage, you don’t need to back up your system disk. But many of you may want to replace it with a newer, larger, faster drive and keep your OS and files intact. If that’s the case, check out some of the many imaging programs listed above, or read our how-to on cloning your disk.

How To Backup And Resurrect A Dead Or Dying Disk With Clonezilla

Upgrading A System Disk: Removing the Old Drive

With your prep out of the way, you’re finally ready to start ripping out hardware. A couple of warnings—removing hardware from a PC is done at your own risk and at the risk of your own hardware, so only do it if you’re prepared to learn some potentially expensive lessons!

Step one is always removing these screws that hold on the case sides. Notice how the PC is also unplugged, and make sure that yours is, as well.

If the sides of your case don’t come off the way the red arrows are directing, you’ll likely find more screws holding them in place. Double-check and try them again. If this doesn’t work, your case may be built differently—look to see what catches or releases might be holding the sides in place.

If you’re unfamiliar with the innerworkings of a PC, here’s a rundown of the parts we will be working with today, and the parts we’ll need to avoid. Notice that the optical drive and the hard disk are in roughly the same place, and may even be connected with the same cables. Make sure you remove the right one!

Remove the cables from the old hard drive as shown. You’ll need to remove two cables from each disk—one for power, and one for data. The cables above are IDE data cables, the more difficult of the two to remove. SATA cables are fairly easy to remove from a drive, while IDE cables are wide and firmly seated on a large row of pins. You may struggle when removing them—be firm, but careful not to warp the pins, break any part of the cable, or yank to hard on any part that is connected to the motherboard.

There are typically four screws holding a HDD in place. Look for this cage in the front of your PC case and undo the screws as shown.

The opposite side of the PC case should also have screws holding the drives in place. You’ll have to remove them from the hole illustrated here to get the drive out.

Depending on how tight the inside of your case is, you may have to remove other hardware. In this case, the easiest part to remove would be the power supply, shown top left, rather than the processor fan and heatsink, shown bottom left. Pull the drive out as shown, and you’ll be ready to connect up your new drive. You can expect to install the new drive the same way you removed this one, but backwards—but for more detailed directions and solutions to common problems, check back next Monday for part 2.

Next: Connecting and Troubleshooting Your New Drive

Installing a new hard drive can get complicated if something goes wrong, and we’re already getting into tl;dr territory. Check back next week, when we’ll cover common problems with installing new hard drives, how to get your system to recognize your new disk, and some tips for fresh installs of an OS.

How To Backup and Resurrect a Dead or Dying System Disk With Clonezilla

2011-10-13T12:16:00.000+05:30

March 31st, 2011 is “World Backup Day”—celebrate it by using free software Clonezilla to clone an exact copy of your OS system disk, regardless if you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux!

In the event of tragic hardware failure, a backup image or completely cloned disk can save you from loads of worry, and get you back on your feet effortlessly. Get in the spirit of the day—keep reading to see how to resurrect that machine with bootable copy of your OS.

What You’ll Need to Clone Your Disk

	A copy of Clonezilla Live CD or a CD-R to burn it on. If you find CD-Rs old fashioned, you can also put the Live Environment on a USB flash drive. You can go directly and download Clonezillanow, or jump ahead to the directions for which version to download and burn. If you’ve ever heard of Norton Ghost, Clonezilla is an excellent, feature rich alternative available for free download. Clonezilla can copy data, partitions, bootloaders, and system information—creating a copy so accurate your computer won’t know the cloned disk from the original.
	A spare internal hard disk to clone your existing system disk on. One of Clonezilla’s listed “Limitations” is that the target disk must be equal size or larger than the source, so make sure that the drive (or partition) you’re cloning is smaller than the drive you’re cloning it to. Make sure your spare disk is one you can install in your computer before cloning, or you’ll find yourself cloning it again and again, which can be time consuming. Don’t bother formatting the drive, either, as Clonezilla will retain the formats and partitions of any drive you clone.
	An external USB hard drive enclosure to use to write your disk clone to. You can work from one internally installed drive to another, but this involves a lot opening up your machine and installing a second drive, when a USB enclosure does it in seconds. (Author’s note: USB HDD enclosures have saved me from more that one mishap, including one with a drive that only started up one time out of twenty. The enclosure made it much easier to restart, restart, restart and then clone the disk. I would recommend every geek own one!)

In addition to this, you’ll need a working PC capable of booting from your optical (DVD & CD) drive, and your system disk will have to be capable of running at least long enough to clone your data. It is possible to clone disks with bad sectors or problems starting up—but healthy disks are the best ones to work with and clone, so ensure you have a backup before it is too late.

Download Clonezilla Live

Clonezilla.org is the home to the Clonezilla project, where you can learn a bit about it, or simply download it. For most HTG readers, you can expect to use a x86 Live CD to clone, image, or restore your system disk. This will work with all Intel Macs, and likely any machine running Windows, and many distros of Linux.

As stated above, download the Clonezilla Live CD. If you navigate to Clonezilla.org, you’ll find there are a lot of options to sort through.

We’ll be using the ISO version of the Live CD…

As well as the latest stable release. Cut out the middleman, and download the x86 Live CD Stable Release ISO of Clonezilla by going here.

Once your ISO file is done downloading, the simplest thing to do is to burn it to a CD-R. One great program for burning ISO files is ImgBurn, although many other exist, including a solution built into Windows 7, if you happen to be running it.

Boot The Clonezilla Live CD

Many computers will automatically boot from a bootable CD like the Clonezilla Live Disc. However, if you have trouble booting from a CD, you’ll have to change your boot order in your BIOS, most of which can be reached by pressing Tab, Delete, or F8 immediately as you hear the machine beeps or chimes to let you know it is turning on.

Intel Mac users can boot from a CD by holding down the “C” key or the Alt/Option key on the keyboard immediately after you hear the trademark Mac startup noise.

Clonezilla should boot up on nearly any PC without a hitch. Default settings on most screens will work for most readers, like this one, which requests which environment to boot. Press enter at the default choice to load Clonezilla in an 800 x 600 pixel environment.

Assuming you’re reading this, you can select the default language of English.

Again, choosing the default of “Don’t Touch Keymap” will suffice. If you want to pick your keyboard, do so, but Clonezilla mostly uses the Enter and Arrow keys.

Start Clonezilla, and Start Cloning

Clonezilla gives you the opportunity to use the command prompt to clone or image your disks, although we’ll consider that an option for expert users. Press enter to begin using Clonezilla.

This is the major branch within the program. Do you want to create an image file to restore multiple copies of later, or simply clone a system disk to another hard drive to begin using immediately?

Here’s a breakdown of the two methods, and how to navigate through the prompts in Clonezilla to do them:

Create a Backup Image of Your System Disk	Create a Perfect Copy of Your System Disk
1. Device-image 2. Local-dev 3. Select “home/partimg” 4. Beginner Mode 5. Save Disk/Save Parts 6. Select Source 7. Check Image on completion? 8. Create Image!	1. Device-device 2. Beginner Mode 3. Disk to Local Disk 4. Select Source 5. Select Destination 6. Clone Device!
Notes: When you reach #2, you’re selecting to use a local device, like your internal disk or a USB drive. Clonezilla supports cloning drives over network, or LAN, as well. #3 is where you select the destination of your image file—both on what device, which partition, and what folder, assuming it is formatted and can be written to. #5 allows you to choose to use an entire disk or partitions within the disk. You call which one to do there. When you get to #6, you’ll choose which drive you want to create an image of, and #7 allows you to decide if you want to verify your image once it has been written.	Notes: Device to device copy is easier for beginners, and is covered with screenshots in this how-to. We’ll be working exclusively with local disks (#3) with the option to clone single partitions, then carefully going over picking our Source and destination drives.

Refer back to this chart to help demystify Clonezilla as you navigate through its options and menus, particularly if you choose to create image files over cloning your entire disk.

Local Device to Local Device Cloning

Select “Device-device” to clone one drive onto another and not work with images. This will allow you to create a perfect clone of your system disk on a USB disk—but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Beginner mode is fine for almost all purposes. There is no need to venture into “Expert Mode” territory unless you’re feeling brave (or already know what you’re doing).

Here you can elect to use local disks (drives hooked into your machine, either internally or via USB) or remote disks (LAN or SSH drives, for more advanced users). If you wish to only clone partitions, you can also do that here with the two “Part to Part” options. For our purposes, we’ll use “Disk to Local Disk.”

(Author’s Note: If you’re not familiar with Linux or OS X’s more elaborate partitions, you probably shouldn’t clone just one of them. You may end up missing a key partition or a swap your OS might be looking for. To be safe, clone your entire disk, unless you’re absolutely certain you know what you’re doing!)

If you have many drives installed, including your USB drive, you may have trouble locating your source drive. This is the drive you want to clone, so make sure you pick it out correctly. Keep in mind that Clonezilla is based on GNU/Linux, so its drive naming structures may be unfamiliar to those of us that aren’t Linux users. (In other words, don’t go looking for your C:/ drive!)

Likely you’ll have to rely on the size and brand name of your hard disk. In the example above, this PC’s system disk was a 300GB Samsung disk, which Clonezilla identifies as sda. Pick the disk that you want to clone, and press enter.

The second choice is your destination, or target disk. On this PC, the choice was obvious, because the drive was 10x larger, and connected by USB. Depending on how you’ve got your drives connected, it may be more or less obvious. Simply keep in mind you choose thesource first, then the destination.

With your Source and Destination drives sorted out, Clonezilla has enough information from you to clone your disk. Clonezilla will expect you to press Enter to continue and then print a lot of information to the screen.

You’ll be given two opportunities to stop it from writing to your destination disk if you think you’ve chosen the wrong one. You should see the information listed above the Y/N prompt for the drive you’re writing your clone to, so double check it and hit Y for yes.

Here, you’re given the opportunity to clone the boot loader, which boots your operating system. If you’re plan to ever replace your system drive with this new one, you won’t want to deal with setting up a bootloader, so clone your existing one by selecting y for yes.

You’re given one final opportunity to back out before your target disk is formatted and written to, erasing all data on it and replacing it with a clone of your system drive. Y for yes to continue!

And Clonezilla begins to work its magic.

And continues.

And still continues. Don’t expect it to happen quickly, as creating a perfect clone of your operating system and all your partitions can take quite a long time, particularly over USB speeds. Be prepared to walk away, and come back after an hour, or two or three, depending on the size of your drive.

Once your cloning is complete, you can expect more “Enter to Continue” prompts. From there, you can restart Clonezilla for more cloning action, or power down, or reboot.

Booting Up Your New (Old) Machine

Excited to test your clone? Install your new system disk, and set your BIOS to use it as your primary master drive. If everything has gone without a hitch, your computer (at least your operating system) won’t even realize it has a different disk inside it. You may find a big grin on your face—even the most minor details have been cloned, like this bootloader looking for the “Earlier Version of Windows.”

And your Operating System, be it Linux, OS X, or Windows, will load like normal, without any issues. Again, this is providing that everything has gone smoothly and Clonezilla has been allowed to do its job correctly. So congrats! You’ve created a perfect backup of your system disk to keep for a rainy day—or a day when your hard drive breaks. All of your programs, personalizations, and installs will be complete—it’s almost too good to be true!

So happy World Backup Day, everyone, and keep your data safe!

Remote Linux Desktop With VNC

2011-10-12T13:20:00.001+05:30

While I manage most of my Linux servers through command lines, sometimes I rather use a desktop manager like Gnome. When I need to access my desktop remotely, I mainly use VNC (or Virtual Network Computing). VNC provides remote control software which lets you see and interact with desktop applications across any network. You can install the server software on about any platform like MS Windows, Linux or Mac OS. To access the remote system, you can either use the VNC client or a web browser with java enabled.

VNC (or Virtual Network Computing) has been around for a long time now. I remember using it when I first got my first job as a programmer almost ten years ago and it already been out for sometime back then.

Installing VNC Server On Linux

For this tutorial, I will be using CentOS 5 but installing VNC Server on CentOS 4 or RHEL shouldn’t be no different. Of course we’ll take for granted that X is installed and working properly.

Installing the VNC server is pretty easy. You can do this using YUM:

# yum install vnc

Configuring VNC Server

You can configure multiple displays for different users, resolutions, etc. To do this, simply edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers using your prefered editor. The example above shows you how to create a display for the root user:

VNCSERVERS=”2:root”
VNCSERVERARGS[2]=”-geometry 800×600 -nolisten tcp”

The first line specifies the display number and the local user for who this display will be available. Note that VNC will add 5900 to this display number as the service port. So for example, if you specify display number 2, it will be accessible on port 5902 for the VNC client. As for the HTTP client, it will add 5800 to the display number (http://myserver:5802).

The second line specifies the parameters for display #2. To get more information on VNC server arguments, see the manpages (man vncserver).

Now that you’ve created a display, you now need to set the password for the user(s) you’ve specified. You can do this using the vncpasswd command when logged on as the desired user. Simply type vncpasswd at the command prompt and you will be required to enter and confirm a password. This will store the newly created password into ~/.vnc/passwd.

You can now test the VNC server by starting it manually:

# service vncserver start

For this example, I’ve installed the VNC client from http://www.realvnc.comon MS Windows to access my Linux desktop remotely. I won’t go into details about installing the VNC client on MS Windows, it’s pretty basic. You can also get a VNC viewer for Linux over at http://www.tightvnc.com/.

Now that your VNC server is running, launch the client and enter the IP address of the remote host followed by the port number (display number + 5900).

This is what your remote desktop should look like:

It sucks huh? Right. Because there’s no desktop manager loaded. To make sure that X is started upon connection to the VNC server, you must edit ~/.vnc/xstartup so that the xstartup script is invoked instead of twc. On the last line of ~/.vnc/xtartup, replace twc by xstartup:

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
vncconfig -iconic &
xterm -geometry 80×24+10+10 -ls -title “$VNCDESKTOP Desktop” &
xstartup &

Now simply restart the VNC server (service vncserver restart) and try to access it remotely once again.

Now that’s better!

All that’s left to do is to have the VNC server started at boot time. To do this, simply issue the command:

# chkconfig vncserver on

VNC server will always be listening on the ports you’ve configured through/etc/sysconfig/vncservers.

How To Configure Static IP Address On Linux

2011-10-12T13:17:00.001+05:30

Setting up a static IP address for your linux box is quite easy. I will show you how to do it through the GUI and command line.

For this tutorial, I have been using CentOS 5 running as a virtual machine on VMware Server 1.0.2.

Setting Up A Static IP Address Using The GUI

If you are using Gnome, click on “System => Administration => Network”.

From the Network Configuration window, select your NIC from de “Devices” tab and click on the “Edit” button.

Select “Statically set IP addresses” and enter the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway. Click OK when done.

Now back to the Network Configuration window, select the DNS tab. Enter your hostname and your DNS servers.

Click on “File => Save” when you’re done.

Setting Up A Static IP Address Using The Command Line

Log on as root, change directory to /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices and list all available devices.

# cd /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices
# ls

Find the configuration file corresponding to the NIC for which you want to set a static IP and edit it.

# vi ifcfg-eth0

I prefer using “joe” as a text editor rather than “vi”. You can install “joe” by issuing “yum install joe”. To invoke joe’s help menu, type “CTRL+K, H” from within the application.

Now set the parameters below according to your settings (those in bold characters only):

DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
HWADDR=00:0C:29:DE:94:8B
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.0.100
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

Save the configuration file and exit the text editor.

To set the nameservers, change directory to /etc and edit resolv.conf.

# cd /etc
# vi resolv.conf

The file format should be like this:

search your-dns-search-path
nameserver dns1-ip-address
nameserver dns2-ip-address
nameserver dns3-ip-address

Now save the configuration file and exit the text editor. To apply changes, we need to bring the network interface down and back up.

# ifdown eth0
# ifup eth0

If you intend to do that remotely, reboot the server instead as you would be disconnected from your server after issuing the “ifdown” command.