find is one of the most useful commands when you also have to search within unknown files and make further operations on the result set. It does a recursive search, looking in all subdirectories.

The first set of arguments is always the paths where the search should initiate. $ find /home /tmp <remaining arguments> would search based on the remaining arguments in /home, /tmp and all their subdirectories. If unspecified, the default path is taken as ‘.’, the current working directory.

To search for a specific filename pattern, –name <regexp> is used as the next argument. $ find /home /tmp –name *.sh returns all .SH files present in /home, /tmp and their subdirectories.

Instead of piping, to perform any operation on each of the results returned, –exec is used. $ find /home /tmp –name *.sh –exec grep todo ‘{}’ \; –print searches for the string todo in the above returned files. grep does the search and ‘{}’ implies that all results need to be processed. The –print prints the final output, the actual lines containing the specified string in the files.

Instead of grep, it could be chmod or chown or any operation that can be done of files. These above options are the most common use cases of find.

There are a number of other options to refine the search like complex expressions with boolean operators, the maximum and minimum depth of subdirectories that need to be traversed, the modification times and permissions on files, the file types, etc. You can read about all these in the manual page.

Post from: EveryJoe

Google Your PC Using Find

Mark Russinovich, now a Fellow in Microsoft, originally developed them along with Bryce Cogswell when they were in the company Winternals Software. The company subsequently was acquired by Microsoft in mid 2006. Initially, many of the tools were not just freeware but were also accompanied with the source code. No longer, of course.

The utilities are categorized under File and Disk utilities, Networking utilities, Process utilities, Security utilities, System information, etc. The Windows Sysinternals website is one of the rare treasure troves of the Microsoft Website that is rich with learning resources and regular updates.

The suite at 9.6 MB includes close to 70 tools and every PC user should own them. Download the Sysinternal Suite now. Why not, when they are freely available?

I will try to give you a detailed overview of various of these tools regularly from now on, so keep watching this space.

Post from: EveryJoe

Sysinternals Suite For Troubleshooting PCs

On Jan 9, 2009, Microsoft Windows 7 Beta became available to all beta testers of the world with a catch that only 2.5 million complete downloads will be allowed (or something of that kind).

But now, unlimited number of people can download Windows 7 Beta from their website until 24th Jan, 2009 according to the Windows 7 Team blog.

If you want to try the beta software, be warned about the risks. Your computer could crash and you could lose important files. The Windows 7 Beta FAQ says that other risks are:

Software that doesn’t install or work correctly, including anti-virus or security programs
Printers, video cards, or other hardware that doesn’t work
Problems accessing corporate or home networks
Files may become corrupted

Beta testing is not recommended to everyone, especially not to beginners. Read the FAQ and the Release Notes if you are interested.

I am downloading a copy right now.

Post from: EveryJoe

Download Microsoft Windows 7 Beta

The truth is Cygwin emulates Linux on Windows. If you replace the Windows background with any of the open-source wallpapers, hide the Windows task bar, and only run the cygwin terminal, you can almost cheat yourself that you’re running a Unix-based OS. This is thanks to a DLL named cygwin1.dll which is the actual Linux API emulation layer.

Cygwin is different from other utility packages providing Unix-like functionality like, say, UnxUtils because of the emulation layer. Cygwin is not using the native Windows libraries directly for Unix-like utilities. That could mean a difference in the speeds of their execution, but we are not benchmarking anything here. This works better to learn Unix-based OSs.

There are also a number of Linux packages that can be installed on Cygwin after rebuilding them from source. These are the Windows-alternatives to the corresponding Linux tools and are not always available on utility packages that are similar to UnxUtils.

You can download the Cygwin setup file from their home page. We’ll run through the installation next time; it should work on most Windows OSs except Windows CE (handheld). I’ve heard about Cygwin-Vista compatibility issues but that could mean errors here and there and not complete incompatibility.

Post from: EveryJoe

Introducing Cygwin

Windows is primarily popular for its apparent user-friendliness. Unix-based OSs are chosen for their open and active communities. Windows is sufficient for ‘general purposes’ like listening to songs, playing games, making documents, sending mail, browsing the Internet. Unix-based OSs may seem more convenient for ‘geeky purposes’ like tweaking with the computer, writing programs, and pushing boundaries.

One feature that strongly separates Windows and Unix-based OSs is the shell. Windows has a command prompt from where various programs can be run using commands. It is more powerful than what most realize but is rarely used. On the contrary, users of Unix-based OSs greatly depend on their very powerful shell (which is run through a computer terminal or console) and run most programs through it.

Users forced to switch to Windows are commonly peeved by the limitations of the command prompt. Nevertheless there is an alternative to make them feel more at home: Cygwin. In fact, there are a few other alternatives, but Cygwin is what I’m very comfortable with and is also, IMHO, more exhaustive than others. Learning Cygwin is very useful even for Windows users to feel more comfortable when they ever encounter Unix-based OSs, or work in a multi-platform environment where you might have to mix Unix with Windows.

From here on, we shall regularly try to learn Cygwin, a nibble at a time. Share this news to your friends who are interested in learning UNIX or Cygwin. We’ll decide on the bite-size based on the community response.

Post from: EveryJoe

Windows, Other Operating Systems, Cygwin

Source

Post from: EveryJoe

What is the difference between SATA and IDE drives?

Unfortunately, great HD systems still cost a fortune. However, if you’ve got the skills to assemble your own machine, you can save a bundle by building an HD-capable Media Center PC that can bring you pristine video plus amazing gaming.

Whether you’re recording free, over-the-air HDTV, playing Blu-ray Disc movies, or making light edits to your HD home videos, a well-built high-def system does it all. For this demonstration, I’m building a PC that will complement my living room entertainment system. Feel free to mix and match choices for your own needs. Heavy gamers, especially, should aim higher on the video card and processor.

Read the full article via PC World

Post from: EveryJoe

Build Your Own High Definition PC

What you’re experiencing might be a computer allergy. At least, that’s what we used to call it in the shop I worked in. Computers, it seems, are allergic to dust.

Dust buildup, or even constant use, can lead to heat-related, or thermal, failures. You should take a good look at the computer, inside and out, and eliminate any and all dust you find.

If your computer’s case has dust covers over its fans, unplug the PC and use a Shop-Vac to clean them. You can also use the Vac, assisted by a can of compressed air, to suck all the dust out of the inside of the case. Use the air to blast the dust free, and hold the nozzle of the Vac close to the tip of the air can’s blaster. Be careful not to get the Vac nozzle too close to the PC’s internals, as you might accidentally suck up a jumper or, if the Vac isn’t grounded, cause a discharge of static and blow a chip.

With your can of air, pay special attention to fans on the graphics card, the CPU cooler, and the chipset (if any). If air alone can’t clean the parts, you might have to remove them and flush them clean with an aerosol can of electronics cleaner (available at most self-respecting electronics stores).

If you do remove the CPU cooler, take care to clean all of the thermal compound from the top of the CPU and the contact plate of the cooler. Apply a new glob of thermal compound to the top of the CPU and spread it around evenly before replacing the cooler.

If that solves your lockups, you’re all set.

Source

Post from: EveryJoe

PC Heat Management

Below is a list of the 5 most common DLL errors that computer users are seeing right now with links to easy to follow, step-by-step solutions that anyone can handle!

Hal.dll – “Missing Or Corrupt Hal.dll”
The error “Missing or corrupt hal.dll” and other hal.dll errors like it are often caused by boot.ini or hal.dll file issues. This error message usually appears as “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt – Windows root\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file.”

Ntdll.dll – “Unknown Hard Error Ntdll.dll”
In almost all cases, ntdll.dll errors are caused by software programs, not the operating system. Common error messages include “STOP: C0000221 unknown hard error \SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll”, “NTDLL.DLL Error!” and others.

Read the fill article here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Fix those DLL Errors

You may never have experienced a drive failure or become so corrupted that your data was beyond retrieval, but that doesn’t mean you never will. And think of this: If your system ever fails in a hardware or software disaster, will you really have time to reinstall Windows and all your applications and tweak all your OS and application settings? I’m guessing the answer is no. I certainly don’t. This is why you need a drive-imaging program that backs up your complete system—including all your data and applications—and can restore it all in minutes.

Traditional backup programs (we’ll be looking at those in the near future) back up your documents, photos, music, and spreadsheets. Drive-imaging programs do much more. They do back up your data, of course, but they also back up your applications, your whole Windows system, and all the low-level drivers and software that you normally never notice but without which Windows can’t manage. An ordinary backup program copies your files. A drive-imaging program makes a byte-by-byte duplicate of your full hard drive (or of one or more partitions if you’ve divided your physical drive into multiple logical drives), maintaining the identical data structure.

Hence, if your drive fails, you can pop in a new drive and restore your system to exactly the state it was in when you made the drive image. For that matter, if your system becomes unstable because you installed software that won’t uninstall cleanly, you simply write over the drive (or partition) with the stable system you were using a few days ago. You’ve probably noticed that Windows’ System Restore often doesn’t restore your system because it doesn’t image your drive. Instead, it performs fancy tricks with the Windows Registry and other Windows files—tricks that work on a clean, simple system but are too complicated to perform reliably on a heavily used real-world system. Drive-imaging software, by contrast, always restores your system.

Read the full article here

Post from: EveryJoe

Drive Imaging