Shutdown Your Computer or a Remote PC via Command Prompt

Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Shutdown Your Computer or a Remote PC via Command Prompt

Most of us shutdown our computers using the power button given in the Start menu. Some of us use the physical power button on our machines. Very few people actually use other means of shutting down a computer and even less is the number of people who use the command prompt to shutdown a computer.

A reason for this is that most of us don't know that the command prompt can be used to not only shutdown, restart or log off our computer instantly but also to shutdown a remote computer provided you have administrative access. It can also be used to hibernate a computer and give a comment containing the reason for shutdown. This post will show you how to do all this.

Required
A computer running Windows (XP, Vista, 7 or 8) with the command prompt working perfectly, i.e. not disabled by a virus.

Initial Steps 
1) Press Windows Key + R.
2) Enter CMD and press Enter.

This will start the command prompt. Follow the instructions below depending on what you want to do.

Shutdown Local Machine (Your Computer)
Type "shutdown -s" without the quotes in the command prompt and press Enter. Shutdown is the command being executed and the switch -s tells the computer to shutdown.

Restart your Local Computer 
Type "shutdown -r" in the command prompt and press Enter. In this case, the command switch -r is telling the computer to restart after shutdown.

Log Off the Current User
Type "shutdown -l" in the command prompt and press Enter. The -l command switch tells the computer to log off.

Shutdown a Remote Computer
Type "shutdown -s -m \\name of the computer" in the command prompt and press Enter. Replace \\name of the computer with the actual name of the remote computer you are trying to shutdown. As mentioned earlier, you must have administrative access to the computer you are trying to shutdown. To know if you have administrative access, press Windows key + R and then type the name of the computer and press Enter.

Note: If you don't remember the name of the remote computer, you can look for it by opening a list of all the computers you are connected to by executing "net view" in command prompt.

If you can connect to the computer, you will be asked to login with your username and password. Upon entering them, a window will display the list of all the directories available to you. This should help you know whether you can or cannot shutdown the remote computer.

Hibernate a Local Computer
Type in "Rundll32.exe Powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState" without the quotes and press Enter. Your computer should hibernate, if it does not, then you must enable hibernation to do this.

Shutdown your or a remote computer after a specific time
Type "shutdown -s -t 60" to shutdown your computer after 60 seconds. Upon executing this, a countdown timer displaying a warning message will be shown. This command uses the -t command switch followed by a variable (which is 60 in this case) which represents the number of seconds after which the computer will shutdown.

Display a Message containing the reason for shutdown
Type shutdown -s  -t 500 -c "I am tired. I don't want to work anymore." (with the quotes) in the Command Prompt and press Enter. The -c switch is used in the code to give the reason for shutting down and what is followed in quotes will be displayed in the dialog box as the reason. This can be used to display all sorts of funny messages. One example :-

Skynet has become self aware. John Connor did not stop me. You can not use your PC anymore.

Stop a System Shutdown
Type "shutdown -a" and press Enter. This will stop the system from shutting down if the countdown to shut down has not reached 0.

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Connect a Laptop or Desktop Computer to a TV

Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Connect a Laptop or Desktop Computer to a TV Easily

Suppose you wish to watch a movie or share a slide-show of pictures with your family on your PC but have a screen that leaves much to be desired. In such a situation, you can connect your computer to a television screen to allow your entire family to enjoy comfortably.

There are many ways in which you can connect your laptop/ computer to a television. However, the overall video quality will be different for different methods. You can choose which one to use based on the quality or the availability of hardware. The first step is to know what type of ports and connections your TV and computer have. If you already know the type of ports and connections available on your hardware, you can directly jump to Step 2. If not, then the different types of ports are explained in detail below:-

Different types of PC to TV connection ports

1) RCA/Composite: The oldest and the lowest quality connection available. They are the Yellow, Red and White connections most of us are familiar with. Yellow is used for composite video, white for left analog audio and red for right analog audio.

2) S-Video: S-Video or Super Video offers slightly better quality than Composite connections. As it is one of the oldest type of connections available, most televisions and computers have it. There are two types of S-Video ports, one containing 4 pins and the other containing 7 pins. This type of connection is used only for video. So you will need to connect an audio cable from your computer's headphone jack to the red and white audio inputs on your TV if you want audio to work.

3) VGA(Video Graphics Array): Most computers and televisions have a VGA port. It offers much better quality than S-Video and should be preferred if you have a HDTV. Older CRT TVs however, will not have a VGA port and will require a PC to Television converter. Just like S-Video, VGA also does not support audio and will require an additional audio cable.

Different types of connecting cables to connect computers to TVs

4) DVI: Digital Video Interface offers much better quality than VGA connections. Most laptop computers and HD TVs will have these connections. Just as the name suggest, this type of connection can be used only with digital TVs. Also like the previous two, DVI connections also require the use of an audio cable for audio to work.

5) HDMI: The highest quality connections available. Most HD TVs will have this connection, however, chances are that your computer would not. If your computer happens to have a HDMI connection port, this should be preferably used. If your computer doesn't, you can use an HDMI to DVI adapter to convert HDMI to DVI.

Step 2: Once a common type of port between the two devices is recognized, you will need the right connector cable to physically connect them. The different types of connector cables are pictured above. If you do not find two matching types of connection ports, you will need an adapter to make the connections type match.

Step 3: After connecting the two devices, on your TV, select the external input with which your TV is connected to the computer. It may be HDMI1 or AV1 depending on how you have made the connection. This is much similar to how you select input from your DVD player.

If you have followed the steps correctly, your TV should now be displaying your computer's screen.

Important: If your computer is not recognizing the external display, you must connect the TV before starting your computer. If the picture appears distorted, you will need to change the screen resolution of your TV by altering the display settings from your computer. Most older TVs will support only one display resolution while newer TVs will support plenty of them.

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Install Windows 8, 8.1 or 7 from a USB Flash drive

Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Install Windows 8, 8.1 or 7 from a USB Flash drive
Windows is sold in the form of DVDs and downloadable ISOs. The Windows DVD can be put into an optical drive for easy installation. However, with the advent of ultra portable devices and tablets that do not have optical drives, installing Windows from the setup DVD becomes a problem. The only solution for these devices is to install Windows from a USB device such as a flash drive.

There are many other reasons why despite having an optical drive, you might want a bootable USB device for installing Windows. One is that installing Windows from a flash drive is a lot faster than that from a DVD. Creating a flash drive for installing Windows is not as simple as copying the setup files to it as it will not be bootable. To make it bootable, you need to use special software.

There are many third party software to create bootable USB devices but given the fact that most people aren't comfortable with third party software, Microsoft has released an application called Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. Although the program's name makes it feel that it only supports Windows 7, that isn't really the case. It works well for preparing a bootable USB device for installing Windows 8 andWindows 8.1.

Before you begin, you must make sure that your flash drive has a storage capacity of at least 4GB. Also, you need to make sure that you have an ISO file of the Windows setup DVD with you. If you do not have the ISO file, then you need to create an ISO file from your setup DVD using a free program likeISOCreator.

Steps to Install Windows from USB flash drive

1. Install Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. To install this program, you need .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher. The program runs perfectly on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Also, you need to be in an administrator account.

2. Open the program. Enter the location of your Windows ISO file in the source file box. Alternatively, you can browse to it and click Next.

3. On the choose media type screen, select USB device to create a bootable Windows installation flash drive.

4. On the insert USB device screen, select your USB flash drive or the external hard drive to which you want to copy the setup files and click Begin copying. If your USB device does not have enough space, you will be shown a dialog box saying so. Click Erase USB device. This will format your USB device and delete all data on it.

Tip: If you accidentally delete the data in your USB device in the previous step, you could still recover it with free tools.

5. If everything goes right, you will see a Bootable USB device created successfully message on the next screen.

6. Now, you need to boot from the USB device you just created to start the Windows installation process. If your computer doesn't boot from it, you might need to change the boot order. Also, you must note that older computers won't boot from a USB drive that is formatted as NTFS which is what theWindows 7 USB/DVD download tool formats it into while you select Erase USB device option. To overcome this, you should make sure that your device is formatted as FAT32 and has enough disk space.


If it complains that it is not a valid ISO file, you need to make sure that your Windows ISO is original and has not been modified in any way. If you are still unable to install Windows from a USB drive, just add a comment.

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Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Lock a Folder With Password Using Free Folder Protector

All of us have some files and folders that we consider private. They can be anything from our business documents to pictures of friends and family. These are files that we don't want other people using our computer to know about. As Windows offers no way to protect our private information, most of us get in awkward situations when these files are discovered by unwanted people.

Surely, you can store this information in a hidden folder. The only problem is that anyone can easily search the contents of a hidden folder using Windows Search itself.

The only viable solution is storing this content in a password protected folder so that only those people knowing the password of the folder can access it. There are many folder locking programs available online but the problem is that most of the good ones are paid. Even if you do manage to get a good free one, you will be looked at suspiciously when people see a folder locker in the list of your installed programs.

If you too find yourself in a similar situation, you can try Folder Protector, a password protector for Windows folders that is not only free but is also portable meaning that it does not need to be installed. Just click on the exe file and the program will start running. I have created this program based on suggestions and feature requests that I have received by email over the last two years.

Folder Protector

Folder Protector offers each user a protected folder that can only be opened by entering the password in FolderProtector. Unlike most security programs, Folder Protector is small in size (nearly 58KB) and does not show the folder that it is protecting. This gives an additional advantage that people who don't know the password do not have a target to try and hack their way into. As the software is portable, you can hide it or even delete it after protecting your folder and no one will have a clue that it was used. Then whenever you need to access protected files, you can re-download the program from this page, enter the password and access your protected files.

Download Folder Protector

Download for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Download for Windows XP


How to use Folder Protector?
When you run Folder Protector for the first time, the program will ask you for a password that you want to use. Enter a password that you can remember as this will be the password to your protected folder.

After entering the password, the program will open a folder named SecuredFILES. This is your protected folder. You can add all your private files in this folder. This folder is located at the Desktop. After adding all your files, you may close this folder.

Then, you can use the menu in the program to lock your folder. To lock the folder, type lock as your action. After successfully locking the folder, FolderProtector will display that the folder is locked.

Unlocking the protected folder is easy. Just type unlock as your action. Then the program will ask you to enter your password. Upon successfully entering the password, the program will display the contents of your protected folder.

Changing the Password: Just type change as your action. The program will ask you for your current password. Upon successful entry of the current password, the program will ask for your new password and change it instantly.

Acknowledgment: This software has been made possible only through the suggestions of readers of this blog, especially Ernell Albert Galido for his idea of using a menu based interface.

Windows Compatibility: This program has been successfully tested on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Support and Development
I will continue to develop this software further. So, your suggestions are invited. If you face any problem while using this software, you can use our support page and expect a quick reply.

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How to Edit PDF Files: Free Online & Offline Tools

Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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How to Edit PDF Files: Free Online & Offline Tools

PDF, or the Portable Document Format is one of the most popular format for document sharing. Its popularity is mainly because PDF files are multi-platform (can be run on most devices without any change in formatting), smaller in size, can be opened on most devices with free software and are difficult to edit as they are "read only".

Despite PDF files being "read only" by default, there are certain tools and software you can use to change the contents of a PDF file for free without resorting to paid software like Adobe Acrobat.

Free Tools To Edit PDF files

Edit PDF Files Online
If you are looking for basic PDF editing (changing bits of text to hide your personal information or simply filling a form), you can try PDFEscape to edit PDF files right in your browser. It allows you to modify text, images and add annotations with the help of custom shapes and arrows. One of PDF Escape's great feature is its ability to password protect PDF files. It also allows you to hide text with its white out tool (this is different from deleting it). It even lets you edit password protected PDF files and add hyperlinks to web addresses. To use PDF Escape, all you need is a JavaScript enabled web browser.

2 step PDF Editing
This basically involves converting PDF files into another format and then editing the converted PDF file. After editing, you can use a PDF writer to reconvert the edited file back to PDF.

If your PDF file can be suitably edited as a Word document, you can use a PDF to Word converter for instant conversion. Edit the converted file and then, you can use any free PDF writer to recreate a PDF file. If you have Open Office, you can use its export as PDF feature to create a PDF file from almost any printable document.

Multivalent Browser: Multivalent browser offers minimal PDF editing in the form of allowing to add annotations. It also contains several command line tools which allow for merging and compressing PDF files.

Edit Meta data of PDF files
Meta Data is the information that is associated with a PDF file. If you wish to change this information, you can use the free PDFMetaEdit to edit information like title, author name, bookmarks and other creation data of a PDF document. PDFMetaEdit can also be used to remove and add passwords (encrypt) to PDF files.

Advanced PDF Editors (editing text, images etc.)

The freeware tools mentioned above will be useful for most users with basic PDF editing requirements. However, if you have advanced PDF editing needs, the above tools will not be that useful. There are some advanced PDF editing tools available that are as good as most paid products. 

Open Office Draw

The open source alternative to Microsoft Office can also be used as an alternative to Adobe Acrobat. All you need is the PDF Import extension (older version here). Then you can use Open Office Draw to easily and quickly edit PDF files. With Open Office Draw's inline editing features, you can edit any PDF document as easily as you can edit a Word document. It also supports adding and replacing images, changing font size and color, replacing default font-family, adding annotations, charts, shapes, tables all through an easy to use interface. 

To load the PDF Import extension in Open Office, just open Extension Manager from the Tools Menu, click on Add and then select the location of the downloaded extension. For those of you who want a PDF Editor without any initial setup, LibreOffice, an Office suite descended from Open Office, has this extension included by default. If you don't mind the download size, Open Office Draw is simply the best free PDF editor available.

Inkscape: Inkscape is a vector graphics editor that allows you import and export PDF files. You can use Inkscape to select text, image or any other object on a PDF file and then change its position or even delete it. It also lets you do free hand drawing on PDF files and add annotations. While Inkscape offers some really good features, its complex interface makes it difficult for users to use it. Moreover, it only allows you to edit only a single page at a time. You can, however, convert these to a single PDF file using a PDF combiner.

PDFTools: PDFTools is a PDF management application that supports encrypting, decrypting (remove password), joining and splitting PDF files. Its Stamp feature can be used to add text and images over a PDF file. You can stamp to the location of your choice using the X and Y co-ordinates. It includes a PDF creator which can be used to create a PDF file from any XML document. It also supports re-arranging pages in a PDF file.

GIMP: GIMP or the GNU Image Manipulation Program can also be used as a PDF editor. Just import any PDF file as an image or a layer, then edit it, and then use its export function to get a PDF file. The only downside is that like Inkscape, GIMP also allows you to edit only a single page at a time. You can, however, easily combine these to get a single PDF file using free software like the above mentionedPDFTools.

PDF-XChange Viewer: The free version of PDF-XChange viewer can be used to directly type text on PDF files. This makes this software a good PDF form filler. Its image stamp feature can be used to insert images directly on any PDF document.

PDFEdit: PDFEdit is a full fledged PDF editor for Unix-Like operating systems. Its downside is that it does not support editing protected or encrypted PDF files. PDFEdit has a beta version for Windows, but it didn't work for me.

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Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Recover Deleted files, Undelete Files in Windows with Free Tools

Have you ever deleted a file that you did not wish to and wanted to recover it but did not find it in the recycle bin? You probably deleted it permanently with Shift+Delete or emptied the Recycle Bin. Now what? Don't worry, you may still have a chance to get it back. This article lists some free software that can recover deleted files from your hard drive or any other storage device instantly.

But how do the software mentioned below undelete deleted files?

When files are deleted, Windows does not delete them from your hard disk. It marks the storage space as empty for new data to be written and deletes the index entry that tells the location of those files. Unless, new files are written on that space, the deleted files are still recoverable. That's what allows these software to recover deleted files. They just modify the data attached by Windows to deleted files to say these are 'regular' files.

There are many free software that allow users to do this. Some of them are given below:-

1) Pandora Recovery

Pandora Recovery is a free software that offers a wizard based interface for recovering files. It allows you to browse a drive's individual folders to look for deleted files. It also allows you search for a deleted file based on its name, file size, creation date and last access time. Its deep scan allows you to recover files that other software might have missed. Although deep scan does not return a file's original name and location, it still is effective to recover data from drives with corrupted file tables and drives that were recently formatted. It can even recover data from CD's and DVD's.

2) TOKIWA DataRecovery

At just over 200KB, TOKIWA DataRecovery is the smallest file recovery program in the market. It supports undeletion from FAT 12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. It also supports recovering NTFS compressed and EFS encrypted files. This software supports Windows and is portable as well. It also has a file shredder that allows you to wipe out files in a manner that they cannot be recovered again.

3) Recuva

Another great freeware, Recuva offers a wizard based interface to unerase files. Recuva offers scanning deleted files based on their type (music, pictures, videos etc.). It also allows deep scanning in case a file you deleted is unrecoverable via normal search. Like TOKIWA DataRecovery, Recuva also offers securely deleting files. Recuva also has a portable versionthat you can keep in your flash drive.

All of these recovery software support recovery from memory sticks, digital camera cards and MP3 players. They support undeleting all types of pictures, software, movies and documents from both FAT and NTFS formatted drives . They work on Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Some important tips to increase the chances of getting your deleted files back:-

1) When a file is deleted accidentally on a storage device, make sure that you don't do anything on it as doing that would increase the chances of new data being written over your deleted files; which would make file recovery impossible.

2) If you have deleted files on your main computer (the one you are using right now), do not browse the internet, download new software or shut it down. Keep it running and go to another computer, download one of the software mentioned above that is portable and save it on a flash drive. Then plugin the flash drive in your current system and perform file recovery. Regardless of whether you accidentally delete files a lot or not, make sure to always have that software in your flash drive in case you accidentally delete important files.

3) If one software fails to recover your deleted file, it does not mean that another one wouldn't recover it too.

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Post By: Hanan Mannan
Contact Number: Pak (+92)-321-59-95-634
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Recover Windows Password With Free Password Recovery Tools

There are times when you forget your Windows password or someone changes it without your knowledge. In such situations, you will be locked out of Windows. To regain access, you can use some password recovery software to recover your Windows password. This article contains a list of some such password recovery software.

Note:  Most of these software are available as Live CD's. (For non technical readers, a Live CD is a compact disk that contains a bootable operating system that you can use from the CD itself, without having the need to install it.)

Ophcrack
Ophcrack offers one of the best free password recovery solutions in the market. Ophcrack comes in two versions: a stand alone installer and a Live CD. The stand alone installer requires you to additionally download separate rainbow tables whereas the Live CD already has them. As the stand alone installer uses about 1.5GB of rainbow tables, it offers much better recovery. However, the download size is certainly an issue. Also, the Live CD version is a bit easier to use for cracking passwords.

So, I will discuss only the Live CD version. You must choose the right version of Ophcrack Live CD for your operating system. If you use Windows XP, the download (Ophcrack XP Live CD) is nearly 415MB whereas for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows 2008, it (Ophcrack Vista Live CD) is about 495MB. Ophcrack may be identified as a virus by your anti-virus software. That is a false alert and should be reported to the antivirus company.

To crack passwords with Ophcrack, download the iso file for the appropriate Live CD and burn it on a compact disk using an image burning software. If you use Windows 7, you can use your OS's inbuilt image burning software.

Then boot the computer whose password you wish to recover using that disk. Ophcrack is fully automatic and you don't need to do anything from your side. It will automatically detect users and start the password recovery process. Then, it will display their passwords on the screen. You can note them for logging in to the locked account.

Ophcrack recovers passwords nearly 99 times out of 100. Ophcrack is limited to recovering passwords upto 14 characters.

PC Login Now
If you mind downloading large amounts of data Ophcrack needs, then PC Login Now is an excellent alternative. In addition to its smaller size, its password recovery is one of the fastest and the easiest I have seen. However, PC Login Now does not actually recovers your password. It resets it.

To get started, you will need to download a nearly 60MB exe file from the PC Login Now website. Open the downloaded file to extract the ISO image of the Live CD. Burn the ISO file to a compact disk and then, boot your computer using the burned disk. PC Login Now will automatically load. Follow the on-screen instructions to choose your operating system and then the username whose password you wish to reset.

Then, choose the Password is empty checkbox to remove your password. Then, PC Login Now will ask you to reset another user's password. Choose No and then OK to restart your PC. Use a blank password while logging in and you are good to go. PC Login Now works on Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Offline NT Password Recovery & Registry Editor
Another open source recovery software that resets forgotten Windows passwords. Offline NT Password Recovery is also needed to be installed on a CD before working. However, there is also a version that can be installed on USB drives to create a bootable usb drive (if your motherboard supports it). Its small size (nearly 3MB) makes it an excellent alternative to other bulky recovery options.

It just has one con. Its interface being completely text based is not for the lovers of GUI based systems. To reset your password, just boot into your computer using the Live CD or the USB drive and follow the on-screen instructions. Your password will be changed to a blank one. This software works on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows NT and Windows Vista. It also supports 64 bit versions of these Operating systems.

Cain & Abel
Cain & Abel is another free password recovery software. Unlike the software mentioned above, Cain & Abel needs to be installed on another administrator account on the computer containing the locked account. It also requires separate downloading of rainbow tables. Since, you can use inbuilt Windows functions to reset a password if you have access to a working admin account on the computer, I see no use for this software unless you are desperate about recovering your password. Cain & Abel works only on Windows XP.

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