B Nikunj

A Latest Windows Trick

2011-02-11T02:08:00.001+05:30

Yesterday, on 10th Feb, 2011, I accidently found a new Windows trick. I haven't seen it anywhere mentioned and in my friend of highly intelligent persons, no body was aware of it. So, I thought many many people around the world would not aware of it too.

So, here is the trick:

Open Run dialog box (press Windows Key+R OR Start Menu -> Run...)

Enter any text, for ex., abcdefg
and press enter

You will see a dialog box saying :
Windows cannot find 'abcdefg'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

Now without closing the dialog box, press keys to copy (no selection required) : Control+C

Open Notepad

Press Control+V to paste
What R U Seeing?

Magic, huh!!!

You can use this trick to copy the message when u get an error and paste it to search online for the solution to the problem or save it for any future reference. This trick works for almost every type of windows dialog boxes as well as JavaScript error dialog box of Internet Explorer; and it works on Windows XP and later version of Windows (don't know about earlier versions).

This is specially helpful to the clients of software/web developers and computer troubleshooters.

Remove viruses from your pen drive

2010-08-10T18:30:00.000+05:30

My friends are facing problems with virus activities with their removable drives, particularly with pen drives. Whenever they attach pen drive to their/their friends' computers, the virus inside their computers hides the folders of the pen drive and also make them system folder. By default, in Widows, system folders' attribute can not be changed. So we can not unset the system attribute using the file/folder's property dialog box. And the viruses do not allow to open the Command Prompt to let my friends issue the Attrib command nor the viruses allow to enable display of hidden & system folders from Folder Options dialog box. If the viruses allow to open the Command Prompt, still its a tedious work of issuing Attrib command on each folders.

To overcome their problems on this issue, I chosen DOS Batch script. I don't know much batch scripting, so I searched on internet and found a lot of good stuffs. I merged & mixed them and created a script which can unset the Hidden and System attributes of the folders and also it will delete the executable files which were created having the same name as the hidden folders.

Here is the script:
echo Created by Nikunj Bhatt on 9th August, 2010
echo Version 1.0
echo This script will remove the Hidden and System attribute (unhide) from the folders on your pen (removable) drive.
echo Put this file in your pen drive and execute (open) it.

@echo off
FOR /f "tokens=*" %%i IN ('dir /b /ahd') DO call :doForDir "%%i"
pause
goto :eof

:doForDir
set "a=%~1"
IF EXIST %~s1\NUL (
attrib -h -s "%a%"
echo Attrib Changed : "%a%"
if exist "%a%".exe (
attrib -h -s -r "%a%".exe
del "%a%".exe
echo File Deleted : "%a%.exe" ) )

Copy the above code, open notepad, paste it and save the file in your pen drive(s) with the name: N.BAT.

For backup, also copy this file in any folder/drive except Windows' installation drive.

To remove the exes of folders and unhide the actual folders, after attaching and then opening the drive from My Computer/Windows Explorer, double click on N.BAT to execute it. Do not open any folder before executing this file.

And first of all, you should consider reading the article on Panda USB Vaccine. Panda USB Vaccine can prevent auto-running of viruses from your pen drives by creating it's own autorun.inf file. Now this file can not be accessed (can not be opened/removed/renamed/moved/executed) thus creating a protected file and which viruses can not replace it with their own autorun.inf file. So, install Panda USB Vaccine, set it to run at start up; and from it's options, also set to automatically vaccinate the inserted usb drives and also vaccinate your computer using this program.

If you have any suggestion, doubts or any other problem/question with this script or with viruses, please feel free to post comment here.

Protect your computer from autorun viruses of pen drive and other removable medias

2009-08-15T13:43:00.000+05:30

Securing your computer and other removable devices from viruses is very necessary
with some other software besides the regular antivirus softwares.

Internet, Email were the most used medium to spread the viruses in the past years.
But now, the removable medias such as pen drive, memory card, portable music players (iPod, ...) etc are become notorious devices to infect computers with viruses.
No antivirus software can provides guarantee to remove any virus. Therefore,
instead of waiting to update became available, to remove a virus, from the antivirus
software, we can use a different solution which can block the viruses from auto-running
whenever the removable media is attached to a computer.

This solution is not perfect but it can provide a certain level of security.
Visit this page: http://research.pandasecurity.com/archive/Panda-USB-Vaccine-with-NTFS-Support.aspx

'Panda USB Vaccine' can create an AUTORUN.INF file in each removable medias.
Generally, the AUTORUN.INF file is used by viruses to let the virus run
automatically whenever the removable media is attached. But this program will create
its own AUTORUN.INF file which can not be removed, renamed or edited by any
software. So, the virus also can not modify the file and also can not create this
file and ultimately it can not be used by viruses to autorun themselves.

Blub vs CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp)

2009-05-13T21:15:00.001+05:30

Bulb vs CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp)

After a very long time I am posting this article. This article is about my experience with CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) and Bulb. According to my experience, I decided to use only Bulbs instead of CFLs.

Before some years, reading much about CFL, I was very impressed of its features. Science and technology magazines and other such medias were very praising of CFLs. Therefore I had also brought some CFLs for my home. Manufacturing companies and medias were all saying that ‘CFLs can spread more light than bulbs. CFLs initial cost is high but they can last longer, use lesser electric power and thus they are money saver’. But after loosing many CFLs in comparatively lesser period of time than bulbs, I came to conclusion that CFLs are not yet became comparable to the bulbs.

These are the benefits of bulbs over CFLs:

Bulbs are not expensive. Approximately ten bulbs can be brought in the cost of one CFL.
Bulbs last longer period of time. However, the CFL manufacturing companies are saying that CFLs’ life is longer than bulbs, but in my opinion (according to my experience), this is not found really true. Bulbs are from ages and there is a high possibility that bulbs have improved so much more than CFLs because too much research is done on bulbs and CFLs are not yet much researched.

The drawbacks of the bulb are the color and the luminosity of light. There is no natural color that bulbs can produce. The luminosity is also slightly poorer than CFLs. But we can use two or more bulbs to produce the same luminosity that a CFL/Tubelight can produce and still lowering the cost. We can use two bulbs of 40 or 25 watts to produce enough light. However, the electric cost may be high but the life is longer and the cost of a bulb is also very low and thus it will save money.

So, the conclusion is that, bulbs are more robust, powerful and inexpensive than CFLs. Give some more years of research time to the CFLs to get them ready for comparison with bulbs.

Avoiding Spam mails

2008-09-23T15:32:00.000+05:30

If u found any suspicious mail in ur mailbox, dont try to open it.

If u r using Yahoo, GMail, Hotmail etc. which have spam filtering then first of

all move the message to the spam folder (report the mail as spam).

And then u can open the mail.

Why u must not open that mail?

The mail may have images having unique addresses generated

for each mail addresses.

So, when u open the mail from ur inbox, the browser

checks for the image's URL on the server on which the image is hosted

(it is also possible that the image may not b there)

and when the URL is sent they got that u have opened the mail and

ur email address get confirmed.

Now they can send more mails to ur email address.

Why u can open that mail now, if it is in spam folder?

If u have spam filter on and the mail is in the spam folder

then when the mail is opened, the

image's url is not checked/sent to the image hosting site

(until u personally command the browser to load the image)

and ur mail address will not b known by them.

So, always move suspicious mails to the spam folder and then

open them. If u think that it could be fraud then DO NOT reply

to the mail.

In some cases, after some months, u will not receive this type of

mails (if u have not replied the mails or not opened the mails).

While in most cases, after some months, the subject of the mail

will change and it changes to mostly some nudity related.

Ian Fieggen's Site

2008-07-10T19:34:00.002+05:30

Ian Fieggen's Site

(You can skip the next paragraph and continue reading with the 2nd next paragraph)

I came to know about this site when I read a mail came from MHO (MumbaiHangOut) group's user in Yahoo! Mail. The mail was about different methods of Tieing Shoelace. When I look at the images carefully I found the site address of the Ian Fieggen.

The Site includes many good stuffs. The most interesting I found there is information of Graphic formats. The formats are described with examples and in very simple English. Every person related with Graphic should know all these stuff.

However the site is designed in old fashion way but the information on the site hits the design. Must visit.

Bug Me Not

2008-07-07T00:12:00.004+05:30

BugMeNot.com

This site provides login information (like username/email address and password) for many well-known sites. This is particularly useful when you need to download something or just see something (video, audio, or anything that kind of media) on the site but for that site asks for login. Now if you don't have account in the site and if you create an account at that time, much time will be consumed in this process. So, instead of creating new account,
go the BugMeNot.com and enter the site address / just the site name, in which you want to login, in the text box and click Get Logins button to search for logins for the site. Now if you get logins then you can copy and paste the logins to the desired and relevant site's login text boxes to use the site feature you want to access.

Google Logos on Special Occasions

2008-07-04T21:02:00.001+05:30

You know the above logos but you may have seen some different logos, specially on occasions, on Google home page. They are on the following pages:

Google Logos created by fans
Google Custom Logos

Google Holiday Logos for year . . .
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
1999

Urban Dictionary

2008-07-04T20:14:00.003+05:30

Urban Dictionary

A very nice site which is going to be very popular and listed in the list of Time's top 50 sites.
People around the world describe the words in urban way means how we normally explain in day to day life ( not in the complex grammatical way).

So many would find it very useful. You can also describe the words in the way how you understand it. You can rate description of the words if you find it more meaningful to the word or far meaningful.

The site currently do not have much big database of words but you can make it big and let the other people help too.

Windows Tips and Tricks

2008-06-27T19:35:00.003+05:30

Visit the following blog page for a lot of helpful Windows' Tips and Tricks

http://windowsstart.blogspot.com/

Removing safeway.blogspot.com from Internet Explorer

2008-06-27T11:59:00.001+05:30

safeway.blogspot.com
--------------------------
If you can see "safeway.blogspot.com" in your Internet Explorer's title bar and this is also set as your home page and you can not change it then you can solve this problem by following the following steps:

However this is not a spyware it secures your browser's homepage from being changed by any spyware/adware or something similar malware; but if you have problem with this than you can remove.

I have found a website which offers a program to remove some malwares :
http://www.adwareaway.net/safeway_blogspot.htm
(it can also remove this too (as described on the site)).
Go to the site, click on the download link to download the software . See the instruction on above site page and run the program.

I haven't used this program so use it at your risk or do as under if you know registry editing.

I had faced the same problem before some months and had removed it successfully but now not remember so good but you can follow the same procedure as mentioned below.

First backup your registry and create a restore point.
It is better to do all the below mentioned in safemode.
So start windows in safemode and login to administrator user account.

(Now about the program that changes the homepage)
You will NOT find its entries in msconfig.
This program is a vbscript and I think it resides somewhere in your windows or system32 folder.

Search registry for VirusRemoval.vbs
You will find it somewhere under user logon (or some similar) key in registry.
It is set to run when user logs on.
If you find it and it has also wscript.exe written in the key value then delete that entry. Search for more same entries and delete them if found.

Now search windows folder for *.vbs files. You may have to check the options of the
@ Search for hidden files and folder
@ Search in system folders
@ Search sub folders

Delete the file VirusRemoval.vbs if found (most probably it will be hidden).

Also it has an autorun.inf file in root directory on all drives.
So to delete that, enter the following commands in run or at command prompt :

attrib -h -s -r c:\autorun.inf

delete c:\autorun.inf

(The attrib command can remove/set the attributes : read only, hidden, system, archive)
Run the above commands for all hard drives and pen drives (replace the c: in the above commands with the drive letters you have like :

delete d:\autorun.inf

And I think, its done.

My Dream Phone Features

2008-05-23T15:15:00.005+05:30

Linux like OS (secure & based on C, but not so much complicated as installing software in Linux is a tough task)

TV and Radio channel receiver

GPS receiver

GSM and CDMA dual support

At least two sim card simultaneously support

Multiple OS support

Upgradable firmware

Multitype and Hot-swappable memory card slots

At least 2 mega pixel camera with flash

30 frame per second video recording

3.5 mm audio out jack

Nice voice recording

At least 65 k color display

Computer connection through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB 2

2 keypads: QWERTY and normal phone keypad