Command Prompt Tricks, Hacks & Codes

Command Prompt is one of the most powerful tools in Windows; but sadly, it is also the most ignored one. Things were not always like this; but with the advent of GUI based operating systems, people started feeling that computing through command based tools was boring. This ultimately lead the command prompt into obscurity.

However, the command prompt is not useless. In fact, it can be pretty useful. This article provides some excellent tricks, secrets and hacks that will make you realize that the Windows Command Prompt is not only useful but also a tool that you should definitely give more respect to.

1-Watch ASCII version of the Star Wars Episode IV movie
Surprised yet? You can watch an ASCII version of the full Star Wars Episode IV Movie right in your command prompt window. Just open command prompt, type a small code and the movie will start playing immediately. Read the complete instructions here.

2- Create Matrix falling code effect
Have you watched “The Matrix”? Of course, you have. Then, you already know what I am talking about. In case you still don't know what I mean, take a look at this image! You can create the same effect in command prompt using just a few lines of code. Head over to this post for instructions.

3- Make Folders that you cannot delete
Are you tired of accidentally deleting important folders? Well, if you are, you can learn how to makeundeletable folders here.

4- Shutdown your computer giving a funny reason
What if your computer shuts down saying that it is tired and doesn't want to work anymore? It would be fun, wouldn't it? You can do so by reading the instructions here.

5- Know your IP address, DNS Server's address and a lot more about your Internet Connection
Command Prompt can even let you know your IP address. Just type ipconfig/ all in the command prompt and press Enter. Along with your IP address and DNS servers, command prompt will also return a ton of information like your host name, primary DNS suffix, node type, whether IP Routing ,Wins Proxy, and DHCP are enabled, your network adapter's description, your physical (MAC) address etc .

6- Know if your neighbours are stealing your WiFi connection

Command Prompt can let you know if someone is connected to your Local Area Connection and using it. Just follow the steps:-
1) Open your browser and visit http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 depending on your router.
2) Find the tab that mentions “Attached Devices” or something similar.
3) Find the computer name, IP address and MAC Address (sometimes called Physical Address or Hardware Address) of your computer using the previous trick.
4 )Compare it with those displayed by your router in Step 2. If you notice some strange devices, then your neighbour has been sneaking in on your internet connection and it is best to add a password.

7- Know if someone is hacking your computer/ Trace a Hacker

Want to know if someone is hacking your computer? Command Prompt can help you find if someone you don't know is connected to your computer stealing private data. Just execute netstat -a and the command prompt will return a list of computers that your computer is connected to. In the results returned, Proto column gives the type of data transmission taking place (TCP or UDP) , Local address column gives the port with which your computer is connected to an external computer and the Foreign Address column gives the external computer you are connected to along with the port being used for the connection. State gives the state of the connection (whether a connection is actually established, or waiting for transmission or is “Timed Out”).

These tricks work on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and all previous versions of Windows.

Now you know just how useful command prompt can be. Find more awesome tips and tricks in the Tricks section.

Facebook Tricks, Tips & Hacks

Almost half of all the sharing that happens online is done on Facebook. This in itself is testament enough that Facebook does the job of connecting people fairly well. However, there are some tips and tricks that can allow you to get more out of Facebook and this article contains a list of some of the best such Facebook tips.

Stop Hackers on Facebook
Are you worried about hackers hacking your Facebook account and posting stuff you don't want them to? Just read the linked post to protect yourself from most basic hacks.

Change Facebook's Theme
Are you bored with the default blue colored Facebook theme and want to get rid of it? Go change it to something super cool.

Facebook Galaxy Theme

Post an Empty/ Blank Status
Are you tired of constantly thinking new and interesting status updates for your Facebook friends? Then, post an empty status and show your friends that you denounce the thinking that if your status isn't cool, you aren't either. Just go to Facebook, hold Alt and press 0, 1, 7 and 3 respectively and click Post. This will post the null character as your status which basically is an empty space. Laptop users can do this after activating the Number Lock.

This is how the empty status looks like.

Get Text Messages and Subscribe to the RSS feed of your Notifications
Go to Facebook's notifications page and click on the RSS link to find the RSS feed containing all your recent notifications. You can then subscribe to this feed in any desktop based RSS reader to instantly know about new notifications. To get text messages, click on get Text messages link on the Notifications page.

Change Facebook's Posted via text
Have you noticed that when you update your Facebook status from a mobile, Facebook adds a "Posted via Mobile" link at the bottom of it? You can change that to say hilarious things like "via Carrier Pigeon" or "via My Bedroom." To do this, just go to PostedVia, choose a delivery option and update your status or post to a friend's wall.

 I posted this status from the unreleased iPhone 5 ;) 

Know when friends Unfriend you
Facebook notifies you when someone adds you as a friend but Facebook does not notify you when someone unfriends you. If you wish to access this data, you can use Social Fixer Facebook extension, which will not only allow you to do this but a lot more too.

Use Dynamic Facebook Profile Links to Fool your Friends
This is a funny use of technology to have fun with your friends. Just say some mean things in your status and then include this link -> www.facebook.com/profile.php?=1233445566. This may look like a link to a specific person's Facebook profile but in reality, it redirects users to their own profile. This happens because of the missing 'id' parameter. You can change the numbers to anything you like.

Find Exactly What you are looking for on Facebook
If you ever had trouble finding a friend or a specific post by one of your friend, you should definitely take a look at the Facebook page on searching. It will help you to get acquainted not only with how Facebook search works but also enable you to get the most out of it.

Access Facebook Chat on Your Desktop
Have you ever wanted to chat with your Facebook friends without opening a web browser? Desktop based applications like Digsby can allow you to stay connected with all your friends even when you close your web browser. This is much similar to chatting with Yahoo! Messenger or Google Talk chat client.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Computers

While most of us are already aware of obvious keyboard shortcuts like “Alt+F4” and “Ctrl+C”, there are some obscure shortcuts which most of us tend to overlook. These keyboard shortcuts are not only useful for the average PC user but for advanced users as well. This article contains many such amazing keyboard shortcuts which if used properly could save a lot of time and effort. So let's get started.

Windows key+D: This shortcut is the keyboard equivalent of “Show the Desktop”. It is useful for quickly minimizing every open window when someone walks in and you are doing some private work.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc: This shortcut directly starts the task manager. While Alt+Ctrl+Del was used to bring out the Task Manager in Windows XP and earlier versions, in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7, it just brings up the lock this computer screen.

Ctrl+Click: This shortcut is useful for opening a link in a background tab. This is useful when you have to load a page without leaving the current one.

Alt+Print Screen: takes the screenshot of the current active window as opposed to just Print Screen which takes the screenshot of the entire screen.

Shift+Click for Yes to All and No to All: If you have a lot of dialog boxes asking yes and no question, just shift+click Yes or No on one to yes all or no all.

Ctrl+C on an error dialog box to copy its contents: Suppose your computer is giving an error message and you want to copy its contents to send to the support guy, what do you do? Just press Ctrl+C while the dialog box is highlighted and its contents will be copied to your clipboard.

Ctrl+T: This keyboard shortcut opens a new tab in internet browsers.

Ctrl+Shift+T: Reopens the last closed tab.

Ctrl+Shift+N: This shortcut opens a new incognito window in Google Chrome.

Ctrl+Shift+P: Opens a new private window in Mozilla Firefox.

Alt+Enter after writing the domain name in the address bar of your browser to insert .com automatically.

Shift+Enter inserts .net domain name extension.

Ctrl+W: This shortcut closes the current tab in your browser quickly.

Ctrl+Backspace: This shortcut deletes the last word you have typed. It is useful in case you typed in a wrong word and want to delete it quickly.

Ctrl+Left or Right Arrow key: This shortcut allows you to move the cursor one word at a time instead of the default one character at a time.

Ctrl++: This shortcut allows you to zoom in web pages in web browsers. Useful when text on a web page is too small to read properly. Ctrl+Scroll wheel can also zoom in documents, file thumbnails and icons in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Ctrl+-: This shortcut does the reverse of the previous shortcut.

Ctrl+0: Reset the webpage's zoom.

Windows key+M: Minimizes all the open windows.

Ctrl+L: This shortcut allows you to quickly jump to the address bar of your web browser.

Windows key+Pause/Break: Quickly open the system properties dialog box.

Ctrl+Shift+Delete: This shortcut opens the option to delete your browser's history, cookies, cache and other details that it stores while you browse the internet. This shortcut is extremely useful for the privacy conscious.

Windows Key+L: This shortcut locks your computer.

Ctrl+H: makes the history appear.

CTRL+B: Bold CTRL+U: Underline CTRL+I: Italic.

Alt+Select: This shortcut allows you to select rectangular blocks of text in Word processors, something that is not possible with simple select.

F2: Allows you to rename the selected file.

Holding Shift while inserting a device with removable storage prevents automatic run.

Ctrl+F: This keyboard shortcut opens the Find option in any program.

Ctrl+S: If you are working on a software and want to quickly save your progress, this shortcut will come in handy.

Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End: Useful for quickly going to the top and bottom of a page.

Ctrl+P: Useful for printing the current page.

Space Bar: While viewing a web page in a browser, pressing space bar moves the page down.

Alt+Tab: Useful for quickly cycling between running applications. Press along with Shift to cycle backwards.

Ctrl+Tab: Cycle between tabs in your browser.

Ctrl+F5: Clears the cache and refreshes the current tab.

Shift+Right click: Open alternate right click options.

Alt+Double click: Open the file's properties. Alt+Enter can also be used for this.


These are some keyboard shortcuts that I found extremely useful. If you know some more useful keyboard shortcuts, do mention them in the comments.

Create Bootable USB Drives to Install (Almost) Any OS

With the advent of ultra portable laptops, optical drives are becoming a thing of the past. Although not having optical drives allows manufacturers to make lighter devices, it causes problems to users when they want to fresh install operating systems, as most of them are still available in the form of CDs, DVDs and downloadable ISOs. For users of these devices, the only option then remains is to use a flash drive to install the operating system of their choice.

Not surprisingly, there are also a few of us who prefer installing operating systems from flash drives for its faster speeds. There are also a few of us who prefer to keep live operating systems on our flash drives to access computers without having an OS by simply plugging in our devices.

With such a lot of users needing to create bootable USB flash drives, it appears imperative that OS manufacturers provide an inbuilt way to create them with each DVD and CD they provide. However, that is not the case with all operating system manufacturers.

In fact, most of the users are left hunting for third party applications that can create a bootable USB drive for their specific operating system. To add to a user's misery, the OS manufacturers that do provide an application for this make them OS specific (like the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool) and do not support ISOs and DVDs of other OSs. Some of them fail to work even if the original ISO/DVD is slightly modified (slipstreamed etc.).

Use Rufus to create bootable USB media

If you too are one such user looking for a solution, you can stop looking and try Rufus, an open source tool to create a bootable USB drive from any bootable ISO.

Rufus is small in size (nearly 615 KB) and claims to be faster at creating bootable USB drives than most applications of its type. Rufus is also portable which means that you need not install this software to use it. Just double click on the executable file and the application will start working. Rufus also allows you to add fixes to use your bootable flash drives on older computers having BIOSs which do not support booting from them.

Strangely however, Rufus can only create bootable flash drives from ISOs meaning you need to have an ISO image of the CD or DVD of the OS of your choice.

I do not think this should be too much of a problem considering how easy it is to create ISOs from DVDs and CDs.

How to use Rufus?

1) When you start Rufus, the first option that you will see is Device:. It contains all your connected USB drives. If you plug in a USB drive after starting Rufus, the drive you have connected will shortly be available here.

2) You will not need to modify the Partition Scheme and target system type, as the default choice is suitable for making the USB drive work on both UEFI and legacy BIOS computers.

Rufus in Windows 8

3) Change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS from the dropdown menu. This is the file system with which your USB drive will be formatted with. Do note that older computers will not boot from a flash drive formatted as NTFS. Do not modify the cluster size. Enter the name you want for your USB device in theVolume label box.

4) Check the Create a bootable disk using checkbox if it is not already checked. In the dropdown menu next to it, select ISO image. Click on the button right to it to locate your ISO image.

Do note that Rufus will format your USB drive deleting everything on it before making it bootable. So, make sure that it does not contain any important data.

5) Click on Start to format your USB drive and extract all files of the ISO to it.

To install the OS, restart your computer and select your USB device as the primary boot option in the BIOS boot menu.

Compatibility
Rufus works on all the latest versions of Windows and can be used to extract the following ISOs to a bootable USB drive:-

Arch Linux, Archbang, BartPE/pebuilder, CentOS, Damn Small Linux, Fedora, FreeDOS, Gentoo, GParted, gNewSense, Hiren's Boot CD, noppix, KolibriOS, Kubuntu , Linux Mint, OpenSUSE , ReactOS, rEFInd, Slackware, Tails, Trinity Rescue Kit, Ubuntu, Ultimate Boot CD, Windows XP (SP2, SP3), Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and many more.

If you face any problem, you can write about it in the comments.