How to block Facebook using the Hosts file

The location of the hosts file depends on your operation system.

Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Note! Make a backup of the hosts file and put it somewhere safe, in case you mess up.

1. Open the hosts file using Notepad or other plain text editor.

2. Copy the following:

   # block facebook
   127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 blog.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 apps.facebook.com

3. Paste it into the Hosts file after 127.0.0.1 localhost

4. Save and close the Hosts file.

5. Reboot your computer to apply the changes.

6. Try to open Facebook in a browser.

How to Cancel or Delete a Stuck Print Job in the Windows Print Queue

If you tried to print, but the job just got stuck in the queue without being able to cancel it, you’re experiencing a stuck print job. There’s a simple way to clear out the print queue, but it’s not always the most obvious thing. Here’s how to do it.
Note: we encountered this problem earlier today but forgot to take a screenshot of the print queue with a stuck job, so we substituted with a picture of a regular job sitting in the queue.

Clearing a Stuck Print Job in Windows

The first thing you’re going to want to do is open up Services through the start menu search, find Print Spooler in the list, and click the Stop button.



Now open up Windows Explorer and put this into the location bar:

%windir%\System32\spool\PRINTERS

You might be prompted for UAC to allow access to the folder, which you’ll want to accept. Now you’ll see a bunch of files in the folder, and you’re going to want to delete all of them. Don’t delete the PRINTERS folder itself, just the files.



Now go back to Services and click the Start button to start up the service again.



At this point your stuck print job should be gone.

Fixing "The Event Log is Full" Error on Windows XP

I was working on a project for work when I suddenly got the strangest error: “The Event Log is Full”. Seriously? What I didn’t remember is that Windows XP doesn’t automatically overwrite events less than 7 days old from the event log, so when it’s full, most applications that try and write to the event log are going to break.
You can easily fix this problem by changing the event logs to overwrite old events regardless of the date, or just increase the size that the log is allowed to grow to.
Note: If your event log is so huge within 7 days that you are getting this error, there’s probably something seriously wrong. You should inspect your event log to understand what is causing all of the errors… more on that in a future article.

Increasing Event Log Size

Open up Event Viewer by typing in eventvwr into the Start \ Run box, or you can find it under Administrative tools section of Control Panel.
You’ll notice over on the right-hand side of the window that the current size of my Application and System Event Logs are 512 KB…



Now you can right-click on one of the Event Logs in the list, and choose Properties from the menu.





In this dialog you can do a number of things… you could clear the log, increase the size, or just set the system to overwrite events as needed.



I chose to increase the maximum size of the event log, and then also to overwrite events as needed.



For those of you using Windows Vista, you’ll notice that the default settings in Vista are to overwrite as needed, and the maximum size is way bigger. Guess my setting choices make sense then…



Again, if your Application or System event logs are growing so gigantic that you are getting this error, you should really look into the root cause by carefully examining the entries in the logs.

Short cut for shutdown and Restart on desktop

On the desktop right click ----> New----> shortcut .

In the location area type (without quotes) "shutdown -r" to reboot, "shutdown -l" to logout,

"shutdown -s" to shutdown.

In the name for the shortcut type in any name you are comfortable with e.g SHUTDOWN or

RESTART etc.

Click Finish and its done.

Now double-click the icon created to perform the actions

FOLDER OPTION missing

Many of us sometimes find the folder options missing in windows explorer.

Here's the solution

Open Run and then type "gpedit.msc".

Now goto

User Configuration > Administrative templates > Windows Component > Windows Explorer.

Click on Windows Explorer you will find the 3rd option on the right side of screen

"Removes the Folder Option menu item from the Tools menu"

Just check it,

if it is not configured then change it to enable by double clicking on it and after applying again set it to not configured.


I hopes that you will find the option after restarting windows.

Repair a network connection

1.See if the cable is pluged in or if is not broken someware.

2. ping your domain controller,your dns server and your gateway(if you have them if not skip this step). ex: cmd -->ping 192.168.1.1(dns ip adress)

3. Attempts to renew the connections DHCP lease:

ipconfig /renew command at the command prompt.

4. Flushes the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache,

arp -d command at the command prompt.

5. Reloads the NetBIOS name cache:

nbstat -R command at the command prompt.

A NetBIOS name update is also needed, which is using the nbtstat –RR command.

6. Flushes the Domain Name System (DNS) cache:

ipconfig /flushdns command at the command prompt.

7. Registers the computer’s DNS name:

ipconfig /registerdns command at the command prompt.

8.If non of this works you shoud see if the network card drivers are ok or the network adapter is ok.

How to find open ports on a computer on windows machines

To find open ports on a computer, you can use netstat command line.

1. To display all open ports, open DOS command, type netstat and press Enter.

2. To list all listening ports, use netstat -an |find /i "listening" command.

3. To see what ports your computer actually communicates with, use netstat -an |find /i "established"

4. To find specified open port, use find switch. For example, to find if the port 445 is open or not, do netstat -an |find /i "445".

5. You can use PULIST from the Windows Resource Kit to find which process is using a specified port. For example, pulist |find /i "4125" may display

Mounting a windows share in ubuntu

Tired of navigating the network for a Windows shared folder all the time under Ubuntu?

Well then I'll show you the equivalent of Windows xp's map network drive in Ubuntu 8.04.It is called mount with smbfs.

Step 1

Enter in a Terminal window

Create a directory where the share will be mounted. lets say sudo mkdir  /share1(share1 is my mount point)

Step 2
Type this instruction:

mount   -t smbfs   -o username=administrator   //windows-box-name/share_name   /share1

Step 3

you will find your share in /share1 mounted and presto.Done.Enjoy. :)

Clearing Arp Cache

If you can't repair your network connection and you need to clear your ARP cache here is the tip:
run-->cmd
there you enter :

C:\>netsh interface ip delete arpcache
Ok.

To verify if it worked type:
arp -a

If it didn't work repeat the procedure.

If stil no change try to remove the cable for 1 minute
and then try again with the procedure described above.

cant delete access denied in Windows XP

Have you got this message ? Saying "Cannot delete file: Access is denied" in a small window.

OK. Restart your computer and press F8 to start computer in Safe Mode. then delete your file or files. And restart again your PC.

Thats all.

Secure Connection Failed Firefox

This kind of problem occurs when a Firefox user tries to open or browse a secure connection (example: https// or in simple, yahoo mail website ), Firefox browser shows an error message "Secure Connection Failed". see this picture bellow :

Picture : Secure Connection Failed

Do not worry. you can fix this problem by some easy steps.
Follow these steps :

• Go to "Application Data" folder in Windows XP.
  
  • Start menu >> Run >> type %APPDATA% >> click OK
• You are now in "Application Data" Folder.
• Next click and open Mozilla >> Firefox >> Profiles >> .... >> Now find "cert8.db" file.
• Delete the file and Restart your Mozilla Firefox.

                                         
                                            Pic : "cert8.db" file on my computer.

Problem 2 : Secure Connection Failed on Facebook


Problem 3 : secure connection failed ipod touch  
Secure connection failed message on iPhone, iPod touch or iPad . There are two types of error you can find on iPhone, iPod or iPad devices. 
1. Secure connection failed.
2.  Lost secure connection.

Create nameless files and folders in windows

This trick will allow you to create files and folders without any name.

Just follow the following steps:

1.Select any file or folder.
2.Right click on it, press rename or simply press F2.
3.Press and hold the alt key. While holding the Alt key, type numbers 0160 from the numpad.

Note: Type the numbers 0160 from the numpad, that is, the numbers present on the right side of the keyboard. Don't type the numbers which are present on top of the character keys.

4.Press Enter and the nameless file or folder will be created.

Reason: The file or folder that seems nameless is actually named with a single space.

But what if you want to create another nameless file or folder in the same directory ?

For this you will have to rename the file with 2 spaces. Just follow these steps below:

1.Select file, press F2.
2.Hold alt key and type 0160 from the numpad.
3.Release the alt key. Now without doing anything else, again hold alt key and press 0160.
4.Press enter and you will have second nameless file in the same directory.
5.Repeat step 3 to create as many nameless files or folders in the same directory.

"Error on Page" when attempting to add an attachment in Web

When trying to add an attachment to an assignment or discussion message in WebCT Vista or CE 6, some users have reported seeing an "Error on Page" message in their browser.

There are a number of possible causes for this error; most can be resolved by following WebCT's Browser Tune-Up instructions.

* Ensure that the document you are trying to upload is not open in another program on your computer. For example, if you want to upload a Microsoft Word document, save and close the document first.

* If using the Internet Explorer browser, ensure that the "Display a notification about every script error" option is not checked:
1. In Internet Explorer, from the Tools menu, select Internet Options
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Scroll down and uncheck Display a notification about every script error
4. Click OK to save your changes

Extend activation time

There are a lot of reasons when you just don't want to activate after 30 days. Maybe you didn't set your clock, and now after you changed it, Vista is whining. Maybe all your new hardware didn't arrive yet, and you do not want to have to mess around with getting it reactivated. Whatever the reason, Microsoft allows you to extend activation time up to 180 days!

* Open an Admin Command Prompt (right click on cmd, and select run as Administrator)
* type 'slmgr -rearm'
* now you have another 30 days, repeat until 180 days

Note: This has been noted that it may have been disabled after certain patches were applied to Vista. Please try at your own risk.

Black screen after Windows 7 Install

Some users especially Asus have had troubles installing Windows 7,as there seems to be a bug when using 2 monitors.So if you experience this unplug one of them,and then install Windows 7 again..

If you already have the bug try pushing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and see if it removes the black screen.If not you can try starting in safe mode by hitting F8 just before Windows 7 loads..

Once you get to the desktop open notepad and copy the following in.

displayswitch /extend
displayswitch /internal

Now save the file as a .bat file..You could call is display.bat

Put the file in the windows startup folder..
C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Startup, where C is the letter of the drive Windows 7 is installed on..

Reboot and Windows 7 should load correctly now

Another tip is to remove all USB units except Mouse/keyboard and reboot.