Tech With Ric » How-to

How to Fix : Virus Converting Pen Drive Icon to Folder Icon

Richie Sajan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:35:57 +0000

A pen drive (or more officially USB Flash drive) is one of the most commonly used data storage devices. The versatility and ease of use provided by it is unmatched. And as it is being widely used, it’s also become a rather favorite target for viruses. One of the most annoying viruses is the one which converts the pen drive icon into a folder icon and on double-clicking it, it shows the ‘Open With’ window. So here’s how to remove this problem.

Of course the best way to solve this problem is to format the pen-drive. However this will lead to loss of data in it. The following method shows you how to solve this problem without formatting:

Firstly, goto Start => Run (or Start+R)
Now type the drive of your pen drive followed by semi-colon (eg. my pen drive’s drive is ‘J’. Then enter ‘J:’ – without the quotes)
Now type

attrib autorun.inf

and press Enter. This is to verify whether the file is present.
Now type the following command:

attrib -h -r -s autorun.inf

and press enter. This removes the hidden attribute of autorun.inf file.
Now type the last command

del autorun.inf

this deletes the above-mentioned file.
One last step is to goto your My Computer Window and rename the pen drive. eg:
Rename pen drive (you can use F2 key)

That’s it your done. Your pen drive has now been cleaned and you can use your pen drive normally, as you could do before. Piece of cake, wasn’t it?

How to Set PATH Variable for JDK in Windows

Richie Sajan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:30:12 +0000

If you’re a Java programmer you’d know what a pain it is to compile the program and run it. Especially if your working directory is in some other place, than where you have installed JDK. There is a simple workaround for this problem, setting a PATH variable. So instead of compiling a program with something like C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin\javac MyProgram.java you’d only need to use the command javac MyProgram.java.

Just follow these steps:

First right-click on your My Computer icon on your Desktop and click on Properties. Alternatively you could just press the Windows Key+Pause Break Key.
Now in the new window that opened, click on the Advanced tab.
Now click on Environment Variables.
In the new Window that opened, click on New.
In the Variable Name field enter PATH and in the Variable Value enter the path of your JDK bin folder. (For eg. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin)
Now press OK in the window that remains open, you’ll have to do it thrice.

That’s it. Now if you try to compile your program from anywhere else than your JDK\bin directory, you can do so successfully.

How to Install Statcounter in Drupal

Richie Sajan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:49:03 +0000

StatCounter is a tool use for analytic purposes like tracking visitors, knowing which articles are popular and what keyword are people searching for among other things. Installing StatCounter is easy in most of the CMS like WordPress or blogger, however installation of it in Drupal requires a little extra effort than normal. Here are the steps.

Well, there are two ways to install StatCounter in Drupal. You may follow either method, but if you ask me, I’d recommend the first method.

Using StatCounter module:

Just install the StatCounter Module (http://drupal.org/project/statcounter) and activate it. Then under ‘Site configuration‘ find StatCounter. Configure it according to your wish and insert your StatCounter code there.

Now from the ‘Site building‘ => ‘Blocks‘, just drag the StatCounter block to somewhere (preferably the footer) of your choice.
By Create a custom block:

Drupal provides a powerful block architecture that allows modules to create their own blocks or users to define a custom block. You can create a custom block for StatCounter tracking code by following the steps below:
1. Goto admin => build => block via the administration area.
2. Click “Add block” at the top center of the page.
3. Enter something like “StatCounter” for the description and paste the StatCounter tracking code in the body section.
4. Now press “Save block.“
5. Locate the block in the list and set the “Region” combo to where you would like to display the code, most likely “footer.”
Optionally you can set the scope in which the block will be displayed, but it can be more easily set using the StatCounter Module.

That’s it, so simple isn’t it? Have any difficulties still? Please comment and let us know.

How To Clean Virus From Pendrives

sjnet — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:21:04 +0000

In this post I am going to explain to you, how to remove the residing autorun.inf file after you cleared all the viruses in your pendrive or local drives . This file does not allow us to access the drives, when we try to do it or when we try to rename the drive it won’t allow it either. This file is used by most of the virus authors to lodge in there and work all evening after the poor mortal has taken away all the viruses from the drive! This file give lots of annoyances. Basically it usally used to call or run the viruses frequently.

To remove this type of files from your computer do the following steps:-

Click start and then run.
Type cmd to open up the command prompt.
Change your directory to any on off your directory by using syntax driveletter: For example d:
Then type the command attrib in the prompt it display the list of executable files in the current directory.
Check whether autorun.inf file is present or not.
If not then you are lucky.
If present then you have to follow all the following steps to remove that file.
First you have to remove the power it is having for ex read only conception etc…
The attribute depends on viruses.
One common step to remove all its properties is type the following command in the command prompt:- attrib -s -h -r autorun.inf
-s to remove its system attribute, -h to remove its hidden attribute and -r to remove the read only attribute.
You can use this steps to remove any of the files which has this properties.
Remember before doing the above steps you have to remove all the viruses form your computer. I recommend avast home edition which is free and 100% perfect. If you haven’t clean the viruses first clean it because after you delete this file it will automatically creates it without your knowledge.
Then type the following command:- del autorun.inf.
Now you have successfully deleted the file after you deleted the file restart your computer or remove your pendrive and plug it again.

This is how we can remove the viruses that you might have accidentally downloaded through internet or pen drives.

How to Install JDK on your Computer?

Richie Sajan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:36:03 +0000

Whats JDK? Well if your familiar with the programming language called Java, you’ll know whats JDK. JDK stands for Java Development Kit, which is basically a tool to develop Java programs in. So one of my friends asked, ‘How do you install JDK?’ Here’s the tutorial.

So to install JDK, you’d first need to download the installer to your PC. To do that:

Go to the Oracle SDN’s Java downloads page.
Click on the appropriate package you want to download. If you’re a beginner, you’d want to download the basic package (see image below).

Just click on the JDK link.

In the new page that loads, select your appropriate Operating System and click on the red download button. You will be prompted to sign-in or register. You could do so if interested. If not just click on the close sign (on the top-right of the box).
You will now be redirected to a page, and your download should start automatically.
After the file has downloaded (its an executable), double-click on the file to begin installation. Continue on like a normal installation. There will be a download taking place at the 4th window, and may take some time on computers with slower internet connection.
When the “Complete” screen appears, click on the “Finish” button.

Thats it, you’re good to go!

You could also refer to this video tutorial for help:

How to Upgrade Your WordPress Installation

Richie Sajan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:09:47 +0000

Well its official – WordPress 3.0, codenamed “Thelonious”, has just been released. Time to upgrade now. So how do you do it, without breaking up your site? Its quite easy in fact. There are mainly two ways to get about it, just read on.

Well the first way is to download the files and upload it via a FTP software and the other one is the automatic, easier and recommended method.

So first of all, before doing either of the methods, back-up (by downloading) your database(s) and your .htaccess file. Now select either one (ONLY one) method from below. I do recommend the second method.

Upgrading Via FTP

After performing the back-up mentioned in the previous paragraph, go and download the latest version of WordPress. You can do so from here.
Login to your wordpress dashboard and deactivate all your plugins. IMPORTANT.
Delete all files except the ones mentioned below:
- wp-config.php file;
- wp-content folder; Special Exception: the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets folders should be deleted.
- wp-images folder;
- wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file do not delete that folder;
- .htaccess file–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
- robots.txt file–if your blog lives in the root of your site (ie. the blog is the site) and you have created such a file, do not delete it.
Now upload the previously downloaded wordpress package to the directory (or root, wherever) you had your wordpress blog.
Now go to the upgrade page of your blog. You can access it by pointing it to wp-admin/upgrade.php page of your blog, and follow the on-screen guide. Eg.: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/upgrade.php
Now install any plugins or reactivate the older ones you want.
Thats it your done!

Also Read: WordPress 3.0, Beta 1 Released + Screenshots

Upgrading Automatically

This is way easier than the previous method and also recommended one.

Login to your WordPress dasboard.
In the Tools menu, select Upgrade option.
Alternatively, you can just click on the ‘WordPress x.x is available! Please Update Now‘ link in the yellow shade above on the dashboard to access the upgrade page.
In the new page that opened, click on the Upgrade Automatically button.
After you click on the button, some messages will follow,with the last one being WordPress upgraded successfully.
Thats it, enjoy the new edition of WordPress!

Now that wordpress has been released you might also want to read on how to enable the Multi-User capability or Network mode, as it is called now. You can do so by viewing this article : How to Enable Network Mode in WordPress 3.0 beta 1

Tried it out yet?

3 Ways to Install A WordPress Plugin

Richie Sajan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 14:27:31 +0000

Its no secret that WordPress is one of the, if not THE best, blogging platforms around. And one of the best things about it is the large number of plugins that it provides from the large community which supports it. So how do you install a wordpress plugin? Well there are 3 ways of which I know. As always, read on.

Well you must be knowing 2 if not 3 of the below methods already. The third option is a method commonly used by many bloggers, however there are still seasoned bloggers who don’t know about it.

Here are the three methods we will be taking a look at:

Upload Via FTP
Search and install via your blog’s plugins page
Install using One Click Plugin Updater plugin

Upload Via FTP

The most common and recommended method is to download your plugin and then upload it to your server via a FTP client like FileZilla.

In this process you find the plugin you want to install to your blog, download it to your computer and then upload it via the FTP software to your plugins directory/folder of your web-host (which is situated in the wp-content folder). Alternatively you could use an online File Manager provided from your web-hosting provider.

Plugins folder (as seen in FileZilla)

Search and install via your blog’s plugins page

This method works only for installation of plugins that are hosted on WordPress’s Plugin Directory. There are thousands of plugins hosted here so there may not be a need for you to go searching elsewhere.

So the first step here is to search for a suitable plugin in the directory. Alternatively you can search for the plugin via the Add New page in the Plugins section of your WordPress dashboard (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/plugin-install.php).

Search for the plugin

Once you press the Search Plugin button, the WordPress software searches for matches and presents a list to you.

Search results for the plugin

In this case the first result is the one we were targeting. So just click Install to the right of the result. Now a lightbox-type pop-up should open up. Click on install once again.

Now the plugin will be automatically downloaded and installed for you. When the page refreshes just search for the Activate Plugin link and click on it. Now your plugin is activated and you are ready to go!

Install using One Click Plugin Updater plugin

Well using the previous method, you could install plugins without using a FTP client. But the one condition was that you could only install plugins that were hosted on WordPress’s Plugin Directory.

To overcome this drawback, here is a plugin called One Click Plugin Updater. Firstly, use any of the above two methods to install this plugin. Now when you activate it you’ll get an option called Install a Plugin in your Plugins menu.

Search for the plugin you want to install. Now get the download link (by right-clicking and selecting ‘Copy Link Location’ or something similar), go to the Install a Plugin page and insert it into the top-most text-box, titled URL. Select the type as Plugin and click on Install.

Installing the plugin using One Click Plugin Updater

Thats it now, when the page refreshes just click on the Activate Plugin and I guess you can take over from there. You can also upload a plugin, which you might have earlier downloaded and stored away on your PC.

Interestingly the One Click Plugin Updater also allows you to install themes, without using a FTP software. Its similar to installing a Plugin, only change the type option to Theme.

So how did you find this article. Know about more ways to install a plugin? Please do share it with us.

Easy to Install Related Posts Widget for Blogger

Richie Sajan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:12:27 +0000

Well I had earlier posted about 8 ways to install related posts in blogger. Nothing wrong in those methods and nothing much great in this one. The only difference is that I’ll post a step by step solution along with a video tutorial. Hope you enjoy it.

You can view the video tutorial here. For an image only tutorial follow on below. You can get the code’s shown in the video from below:

OK. So the installation goes as this:

First login to your blogger account and under the blog in which you want to implement the related posts, click onLayout. Next click on Edit HTML.
Now check the Expand Widget Templates check-box (as shown below). This check-box is found on the top-right of the box containing your template’s code.

Now press Ctrl+F to bring about your ‘Find Box’ in your browser, and search for the following code.

Now replace it with the following code (Code Listing 1.1):

You can change the number of related posts to be displayed by editing the number in pink.

To show related posts on all pages, just delete the text in red from both of the code listings.

Thats it, your done! Have any troubles? Comment, I’m right here to help!

Most Efficient Way of Including jQuery in your WordPress Theme

Richie Sajan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:09:46 +0000

WordPress by default comes bundled with the jQuery framework. You can find it in the wp-includes\js\jquery directory. Many themes use this framework extensively for various effects and widgets alike. Unless you are on a dedicated server or are using a CDN, chances are that jQuery takes a whole lot of time to load. The best way is to speed up this process is to include the jQuery library fomr the Google’s Ajax Libraries API. Read on to learn how to include it in your theme.

Actually the method is quite simple. If your theme includes a direct jQuery call from the header.php (usually will be written like

or something similar) just delete the line.

If your theme designer had adopted efficient programming practices, he would have used the wp_enqueue_script() function. It can be identified by going to your Theme Functions (functions.php) file of your theme.

Now to include the script from Google`s Ajax Libraries API servers, just insert the following code into the Theme Functions (functions.php) file of your theme:

// smart jquery inclusion
if (!is_admin()) {
wp_deregister_script(‘jquery’);
wp_register_script(‘jquery’, (“http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js”), false);
wp_enqueue_script(‘jquery’);
}

Once done, save the file and your done. To check if the change has occurred, load your blog’s home page (or any other page for that matter). Now press Ctrl+Shift+R to force refresh the page.

Now take a look at the page source (Ctrl+U or View => Source). If the following line appears, you have successfully included this hack into your wordpress blog:

The advantage of this hack is that your page loading times will get faster and in lieu better!

Easiest Way to Schedule a Computer Shutdown

Richie Sajan — Mon, 31 May 2010 11:56:33 +0000

I listen to music all the while. Be it traveling, studying or even while trying to sleep. Talking about sleep, its not always convenient nor economical to leave you computer switched on all night. So an easy way out could be to tell someone in your family to switch off the computer after you’ve dozed off or still better, don’t trouble anyone and schedule a computer shutdown by yourself!

Well there are two ways here. One is the software way and the other is the command prompt way. Yeah cmd does look a little intimidating but just here me out. Once you complete the following steps, you’ll see how easy it really is.

So first you’ll have to go to Start => Run or Start+R.
Now just type the following

shutdown.exe -s -t 20

Thats it! But don’t press OK or Enter yet. There’s some explanation to be done with.

So the command that you’ve entered here is shutdown.exe -s -t 20. Lets break it down now.

shutdown.exe : Quite self explanatory. The program which shut’s down your computer.
-s : Called as an argument, it says to shutdown the computer. Similarly if you would replace it with -r, the computer would have restarted -l would have logged of the computer.
-t : Again an argument. It functions as a timer. The number succeeding it is the number of seconds the computer must wait before shutting down. So 20 here says the computer to shut-down after 20 seconds.

You could change the time. Suppose you want the computer to shutdown after 15 minutes, just enter the period in seconds. 15×60 = 900.

Animation showing the computer shutdown process.

Trick: Although this is not needed, this step can add a cool message to your shutdown window. Just add a -c “comment” to the earlier command. You can replace comment with anything you like. eg:

shutdown.exe -s -t 900 -c “This shutdown has been inititaed bby Richie – the greatest hacker!”

You’ll get a cool message like this:

Shutdown with Comment

You could use the following table for your reference as to which arguments to use:

Argument	Used for
-i	Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l	Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s	Shutdown the computer
-r	Shutdown and restart the computer
-a	Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername	Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx	Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c “comment”	Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f	Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy	The reason code for the shutdown: u is the user code p is a planned shutdown code xx is the major reason code (positive integer less than 256) yy is the minor reason code (positive integer less than 65536)

Find Out the Last Time a Computer Was Used

Richie Sajan — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:23:41 +0000

Your office computer could be an open book for others to abuse while you aren’t at your desk. Or maybe your child could be using (or misusing) the computer while you were away. What proof do you have of them using your computer? Of course surveillance may be there at your office, but surely not at home. So how can you find out when your computer was switched on the last time?

Your computer is a sophisticated system that keeps track of each and every happening on it (how much ever you curse it for not even doing the most trivial tasks easily!). So how do you do it?

Well, here it is:

First go to the RUN box (Start => Run or Start+R)
Now type the following in the text-box:

eventvwr.msc
Alternatively you could go to the Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Event Viewer.
Once the Event Viewer window is open click on the System link in the left pane.

Now scroll through the times given in the right pane. Consider the following example to get a clearer idea:

Here I had switched off my computer around 6 PM which has entries with time upto 5:42:05 PM as well as 5:56:59 PM. However notice that there is also a event recorded at 7:05:58 PM and another at 9:24:40 PM.

Well those were the times that my computer were last switched on. Interesting, who could it be? (don’t worry it was my sis )

Got any other ways to find it out? Please do share.

How to open “Internet Explorer” with “RUN”

Richie Sajan — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:44:14 +0000

Windows RUN command is the place to be if you want to cut down on clicking with your mouse and wasting your time. You just enter short-cuts like cmd (for command prompt) or %temp% (for opening the folder containing temporary files) and voila the app/window is open. But how to open Internet Explorer from RUN? Read on.

Note: The following tutorial assumes that your Windows installation directory as well as Internet Explorer has been installed on the C drive. If not, just change the drive letter.

Well its pretty simple, just enter the following in the RUN text-box:

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

Huh, don’t you think it’s pretty long? Well there’s a simple work-around. You need to do the following steps (just once).

Just go to the the RUN box again. (Keyboard Shortcut : Win + R)
In the text-box type:

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\
Copy the file named ‘iexplore’ or ‘iexplore.exe’
Again open the RUN box (Win + R)
Now in the text-box type:

%systemroot%\system32\
Now just paste the the iexplore file (which we had earlier copied) in this folder.

That’s it your done! Now to open Internet Explorer from the RUN box, just open it up and then type ‘iexplore’ (without quotes). How’s that!

You could do the similar for Firefox (firefox.exe) or any other related software.

How to Play .bik files

Richie Sajan — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:09:54 +0000

You’ve probably played games like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones or F.E.A.R. The thing that I look out the most in the game is the in-game cut scenes. The highly entertaining and wonderfully animated videos just light me up. But how to view them when not playing the game? Well search for the files in the directory (or folder) where you have installed your game. Some of the games have such videos with the ‘.bik’ extension. So how to play them?

Well for a little bit of general knowledge, .bik files are used as intro or cutscene videos in games. Their used specially as they help reduce overall size of the video (as compared to other common formats like .avi etc.) while leaving a maximum resolution of 800×600.

So how to play them? Well just head-over to the radgametools.com website and download ‘The RAD Video Tools’, which is just a 1.2MB free download. Once downloaded and installed, just head-over to the game directory and double-click on the .bik file. You can also access this tool via the Start menu => BINK and Smacker => RAD Video Tools

RAD video tools & BINK player

The player also allows the files to be converted to other popular formats like .avi and .wmv. However while playing .bik files, you cannot view them in full-screen mode.

The RAD Video Tools:
Download: Link
Website: http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Implement Gmail-Like ‘Loading..’ Functionality on Blogger

Richie Sajan — Sat, 15 May 2010 07:30:07 +0000

Users familiar with Gmail, may have seen the yellowish ‘Loading’ text that appears on top of the page when your Gmail interface is loading. Ever wondered how it would look if you could implement that very same in your own blogger blog? Well look no further, read on. Well to get right down to work:

Login to your Blogger Dashboard.
Now search for the following tag:
Now replace this with the following code:

Loading Page…

This would give the following effect:

For further customization you could replace the line in the red with the url of an image (eg. Inserting the link ‘http://media.techwithric.com/img/ajax-loader.gif’ would replace the yellowish loading text with the following image)

Have further queries? Please do comment!

Use Microsoft 2010 For 6 Months [Without Activation]

Richie Sajan — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:56:17 +0000

Microsoft 2010 is just around the corner and is readying its final steps before it’s full-fledged release. Critics and fans all alike are raving about how great the newer version of the Office lineage will be better and path-changing. The download links for the fully-functional, trial version of Office 2010 have already gone live but comes with a 30 day-trial. How do you use it any longer? Read on.

Just follow the simple process mentioned below to use your Office 2010 version for an ‘extended’ 6 month period:

Locate this folder in your C:%Program Files% Common Filesmicrosoft shared OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform
Open OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform and click the tool named OSPPREARM
Alternatively, you can use the command prompt. Click Start, in the Search field, type cmd and do not press Enter. Amongst the results, you will see cmd.exe
Right click on the icon and click the Run as Administrator option. You should see the DOS black window.
Now type: C:Program FilesCommon Filesmicrosoft sharedOfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatformOSPPREARM.EXE

This will activate your Office 2010 for another other 30 days. You can repeat this technique 5 more times to extend your trial period to almost 6 months.