These are the steps followed in Windows Operation systems to change the priority of network adapters.

1. Close all the applications (Browsers, Outlook etc..) and disconnect if there any VPN connections.

2. Go to Window Start -> Run and type the command “ncpa.cpl”

This will open the control panel network connections manager.

3. Determine which network adapter we need to configure as high priority. All the bandwidth and website resolution will be consulted to the higher priority adapter than the lower prior ones.

In my case, “Local Area Connection” is my default adapter through which internet is connected to the system and other network adapter is used for various purposes like Cisco adapter for VPN connection, Wireless for connecting with wireless hub in home/office etc.

4. On the Network Connection window, hit the keyboard “ALT+T” simultaneously. The will display the advance network adapter options.

Select the Advance settings from the network connection manager. There we can change the network adapter settings.

5. Change the priority of the network adapter, set the system default adapter to the prior one than the other network adapters.

Choosing the Local Area connection to high priority will allow the application, browser etc. to contact internet as the first point of contact.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

www.talk2melbin.com

www.techiesweb.com

I have faced several occasions to record the Windows default sound/audio, mostly I used to record sound from tutorials, radio, Adobe reader etc. The following steps help to enable the Windows 7 audio/sound recording,

The following steps will show how we can enable Window default Audio/Sound recording.

1. To open the Audio/Sound control panel properties menu, we can use any of the below methods. These options enable us to open Windows 7 Audio/Sound control panel properties menu from Windows 7 control panel.

a. Go to Widows 7 Control Panel and Select Sound

b. We can also use Windows RUN command “mmsys.cpl sounds” or “mmsys.cpl” to open the Windows7 Audio/Sound control panel properties.

Go to Windows RUN and type the command “mmsys.cpl” and press enter key. System sound control panel properties will be opened before us.

c. The next method is by right click the volume controller and opens the recording option directly from Windows task bar.

2. Next step that we need perform is to enable the Stereo Mixing from the recording tab.

a. Right and select both options to show disabled and enabled devices,

b. Right Click Stereo Mix and enable.

c. Set the Stereo Mix as Default Device.

3. Go to Playback, enable Digital and set it as default device

4. Download MP3 Recorder software and record the Window default Audio/Sound recording. I used “Mp3myMp3” to record the Window default Audio/Sound. We need to change the recording device from recording software to Windows Stereo Mix

Let me know your valuable feedback.

Cheers!!

Melbin Mathew

www.techiesweb.com &

www.talk2melbin.com

Microsoft Office 2007, included a new feature to view the available shortcuts of the application.

We can view the available shortcut option by pressing ALT keyboard key.

Apart from that I have included a list of shortcut which is commonly used by Windows users.

General keyboard shortcuts

To…	Use this shortcut
Select all content in a document, window, or text box	Press CTRL+A.
Search for a file or folder	Press F3. In Windows 7, you can also press the Windows logo key to open the Start menu and then start typing in the Search box.
Rename a file or folder	Select the file or folder, press F2, and then re-type the name.
Find out when the file or folder was created, by whom, and how big it is	Select the file, and then press ALT+ENTER.
Display the Start menu	Press CTRL+ESC. In Windows 7, you can also press the Windows logo key.
Scroll between open windows	Press ALT+TAB, and then hold down ALT while pressing TAB to reach the desired file or program.
Undo an action	Press CTRL+Z.
Redo an action	Press CTRL+Y.
Check the spelling of titles or words in any Office application with Spelling & Grammar checker	Press F7.
Create a shortcut on your desktop to your favorite file or folder	In Windows 7: Right-click the file or folder. On the shortcut menu, click Send to, and then click Desktop (Create shortcut). In Windows Vista: Right-click the file or folder. On the shortcut menu, click Create Shortcut. Drag the new shortcut to your desktop.

Working with Microsoft Word

To…	Use this shortcut
Select text	Press SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW, LEFT ARROW, UP ARROW, or DOWN ARROW to highlight text. To select one word at a time, press SHIFT+CTRL+ARROW. To select to the end of the line, press SHIFT+END.
Copy selected text	Press CTRL+C.
Cut selected text	Press CTRL+X.
Paste selected text	Press CTRL+V.
Bold text	Press CTRL+B.
Search for text in a document	Press CTRL+F.
Find and replace text in a document	Press CTRL+H.
Got to a page, line, or bookmark in a document	Press CTRL+G.
Italicize text	Press CTRL+I.
Underline	Press CTRL+U.
Decrease font size	Press CTRL+SHIFT+<.
Increase font size	Press CTRL+SHIFT+>.
Change font	Press CTRL+SHIFT+F, and then use the arrow keys to reach the new font.
Change font size	Press CTRL+SHIFT+P, and then use the arrow keys to reach the new font size.
Create page break	Press CTRL+ENTER.
Create new document	Press CTRL+N.
Open the My Documents window	Press CTRL+O.
Close a document	Press CTRL+W.
Save a document	Press CTRL+S.
Print a document	Press CTRL+P.
Preview what you’re about to print	Press ALT+CTRL+I. In Windows 7, this keyboard shortcut opens the integrated Print and Preview window, which you can also access by pressing CTRL+P.
Resize a shape (Office 2010)	Select the shape, and then press SHIFT+ARROW.
Rotate a shape (Office 2010)	Select the shape, and then hold the ALT key while you press the LEFT ARROW or the RIGHT ARROW key.

Accelerating Microsoft Excel

To…	Use this shortcut
Move left to right, cell by cell	Press TAB, or press the RIGHT ARROW key.
Move right to left, cell by cell	Press SHIFT+TAB, or press the LEFT ARROW key.
Move down, cell by cell	Press ENTER, or press the DOWN ARROW key.
Move up, cell by cell	Press SHIFT+ENTER, or press the UP ARROW key.
Erase data in current cell	Press BACKSPACE.
Return to the beginning of the row	Press HOME.
Enter the date	Press CTRL+SEMICOLON (;).
Enter the time	Press CTRL+SHIFT+COLON (:).
Start a formula	Press the equal sign (=). When you press the equal sign in Office Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, a list of formulas appears. Scroll through the list to select the one you need.
Find out about the style within the cell	Press ALT+APOSTROPHE (‘).
Display the Format Cells dialog box	Press CTRL+1.
Apply the general number format	Press CTRL+SHIFT+TILDE (~).
Apply the currency number format	Press CTRL+SHIFT+DOLLAR SIGN ($).
Apply the percentage number format	Press CTRL+SHIFT+PERCENT SIGN (%).
Apply a border	Press CTRL+SHIFT+AMPERSAND (&).

Expediting Internet Explorer

To…	Use this shortcut
Add sites to your Favorites	1. Go to the site. 2. Press CTRL+D to add to your Favorites. 3. Click Favorites and then click Add to Favorites to create a separate folder for the site or to add it to an already-formed list.
Select a home page	1. Go to the webpage that you would like to make your home page. 2. Open the Tools menu and select Internet Options. 3. Under Home page, click Use Current.
Use the History function if you visit a few select sites constantly	1. Press CTRL+H to open the History pane. 2. Select the site that you would like, right-click the site, and then select Add to Favorites.
Customize your toolbar to the tools you use most frequently	1. Right-click the command bar. 2. Point to Customize. 3. Click Add or Remove Commands.
Go to your home page	Press ALT+HOME.
Switch between tabs	Press CTRL+TAB, or press CTRL+SHIFT+TAB.
Move forward through the items on a webpage, the Address bar, or the Favorites bar	Press TAB.
Move back through the items on a webpage, the Address bar, or the Favorites bar	Press SHIFT+TAB.
Find on this page	Press CTRL+F.
Stop downloading a page	Press ESC.
Use zoom on a webpage	Increase zoom (+ 10%): Press CTRL+PLUS SIGN (+). Decrease zoom (- 10%): Press CTRL+MINUS SIGN (-). Increase to 100%: Press CTRL+0.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

There is a simple way for us to check the amount of memory installed in the Windows machine.

Go to -> Windows Start -> Control Panel -> Click on System Icon

The window displays the machine information including the details Operating system, Memory, Computer Name etc.

In some cases, Window 32 bit operating system shows difference in the memory value with actual installed physical memory of the system.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

To kick off the .co domain launch registry put single better domain name www.e.co for auction. The domain www.e.co was auctioned with a high price of $81,000 by B52 Media.

The new .co domain will be released by the following time line

April 1, 2010 – April 20, 2010: Sunrise A will allow registered Colombian trademarks to apply for exact match domains.

April 26, 2010 – June 10, 2010: Sunrise B will allow trademarks of national effect to apply for exact match domains.

June 21, 2010 – July 13, 2010: Landrush will allow anyone to apply for domain names of high commercial value.

July 20, 2010: .co domains will become generally available.

.CO Internet S.A.S. implemented a domain policy for .co domains.

• Any person or entity in the world can register .co domain names
• There are no domicile or burdensome documentation requirements
• Registration period is between 1 and 5 years, subject to renewal
• Registrants can easily transfer domain names to others

The new .co domain is right now available from top domain sellers and heavy auctions are going the favorite domains.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

We can boot Hiren’s “All IN One CD” from our USB Drive. The steps are follows,

• Insert the USB Flash drive into the system.
• Backup all the contents from the drive. We need to format the drive.
• Format the drive with FAT 32 files system.
• Download “Grub4dos.zip” from the link.
• Extract the Grub4dos download and double click on “grubinst_gui.exe”.

Select the Flash drive and Whole disk (MBR) option. Press Install button.

• We need to copy the file contents (menu.lst, grldr, docs) from Grub4dos extract folder location to removal flash drive.

• Download Hiren’s ISO file from the link and extract all the contents to removal disk. We need to use decompression software like WinRaR to extract all the contents of the ISO to the removal flash drive.
• Reboot and Enable USB booting in BIOS.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

Talk2Melbin

http://www.talk2melbin.com

It is a feasible way to use USB drives for the installation of Windows Operating system rather than using CD/DVD drives. USB installation will help us to save time and cost.

This method also helps user systems having CD/DVD hardware issue.

Steps To Create USB Bootable

1. Insert USB drive in the System and backup all the data from the disk. We need to format the disk to make the drive bootable.

2. Open command (CMD) prompt in administrator mode.

Go to -> Windows Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> right click on command prompt and select Run as Administrator.

3. If prompted security warning, Click Yes to continue.

4. Enter the following commands in CMD,

• DISKPART hit enter.
• LIST DISK hit enter.

The “LIST DISK’ command displays all the disk volumes connected to the system. Choose the correct disk number. Here my USB connection is listed as DISK 1 (4GB).

Be sure to select the correct disk volume number.

5. Enter the following commands and hit enter.

• SELECT DISK 1 (Replace the disk number according to the USB connection)
• CLEAN
• CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
• SELECT PARTITION 1
• ACTIVE
• FORMAT FS=NTFS
• ASSIGN
• EXIT

Don’t close the CMD prompt, we need to execute one more command.

6. Insert Windows DVD in DVD drive and note the drive letter. Copy all the contents to the removal disk.

If you are using Windows ISO file, extract the contents to the Removal disk using extractor application.

Extract the ISO file to the Removal disk. (Use WinRAR like decompression application)

7. Skip this step for Windows7 users.

Note the DVD and USB removal disk drive letters.

Go back to Command prompt and execute the following commands.

D: (Replace D: with DVD drive letter)

CD BOOT

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 G:

(Replace G: with USB Removal disk drive letter)

If the command window is not running as Administrator (Windows Start menu-> All Programs-> Accessories-> right click on command prompt and select Run as Administrator), you will get the “BOOTMGR compatible error”.

8. Reboot the system and enter into system BIOS setup and enable USB booting. Change the boot order and enable USB boot to first bootable option. Restart the system.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

Talk2Melbin

http://www.talk2melbin.com

Backup and Restore function from Windows Control Panel helps us to backup the entire operating system and applications. The backup is stored as System Image.

At any point of time we are able to revert our Operating System to a previous state. If our system faces any serious errors or hard disk failures, System Image restoration has a good role to restore our system with limited time.

**Note:

Restoring from the System Image will overwrite all the present Windows Files and Folders.

Backup Process

• Go to Control Panel and Select Backup and Restore.

• It is highly recommended to “Create a system repair disk” before proceeding with this task. Insert a blank CD/DVD disk and Select the proper CD/DVD drive from the drop down. Once we have selected the drive Click “Create Disk” button.

• Select “Create a System Image”

• Select the storage location where we need to backup this newly created System Image.

**Note: 

Choosing external backup media/location is far better to avoid any kind of data loss.

• Confirm your backup settings and Click “Start Backup” Button

**Note:

If we are selecting the same storage location/path, Any existing system images for this machine might overwrite.

• System Image creation successfully completed.

Restore Process

• Go to Control Panel -> Backup and Restore and “Select Recover System Settings or Your Computer”

• Select “Advance Recovery Methods”

• Select “Use a System Image”

• Select Backup Files and Folder

• Once finished with backup process, Click “Restart Button”.

**Note:

The system will starts rebooting and boots to Recovery Menu. We need to select the proper System Image from the console.

Keep the system recovery  disk in our hand, sometimes we need his help.          

 The Restoration process will take time, which depends on the backup size and system configuration.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

Talk2Melbin

http://www.talk2melbin.com

How To Install VMTool In Linux Virtual Machine Hosted In A ESX VMware Server

It is very important that you install VMware Tools in the guest operating system.

With the VMware Tools SVGA driver installed, Workstation supports significantly faster graphics performance.

The VMware Tools package provides support required for shared folders and for drag and drop operations.

Other tools in the package support synchronization of time in the guest operating system with time on the host, automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor, copying and pasting between guest and host, and improved mouse performance in some guest operating systems.

The installers for VMware Tools for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and NetWare guest operating systems are built into VMware Workstation as ISO image files. (An ISO image file looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system and even appears as a CD-ROM in Windows Explorer. You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file.)

When you choose VM > Install VMware Tools from the VMware Workstation menu, VMware Workstation temporarily connects the virtual machine’s first virtual CD-ROM drive to the ISO image file that contains the VMware Tools installer for your guest operating system and you are ready to begin the installation process.

Steps for Installing VMTool in Linux virtual machine.

1. Login Esxi server and select the virtual machine.
2. Open the Console windows and enter the root credential.
3. Shutdown the Linux virtual machine.
4. Backup of the virtual machine using snapshot manager.
5. Label the snapshot.
6. Select the virtual machines right clicks and choose Edit Settings.
7. Select CD/DVD drive.
8. Enable Host Device and select /dev/scd0 (Choose accordingly).
9. Go to Device status -> check Connected and Connect at power On.
10. Power On the virtual machine.
11. Go to inventory -> Guest -> Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
12. Click Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
13. Go to Esxi and Open Operating console.
14. Enter the root credentials.
15. Right click desktop and select Terminal console.
16. Create Mount Point directory using the command “mkdir /mnt/cdrom”
17. Mount CDRom using the command, “mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom”.
18. Type “cd /mnt/cdrom” to change directory and type list command “ls”.
19. We can see the VMwareTool RPM package with .rpm extension.
20. Choose  the command for the upgrade/fresh installation,

• rpm –qa | grep VM  — the command display whether there were any previously installed VMTool.

For up gradation of the Existing VMTool

• rpm –Uvh VMToo…..rpm  — this command helps to upgrade the VMTool installation.

For  fresh installation of VMTool

• rpm – ivh VMTool…rpm – this command execute a fresh installation of VMTool.

21. After the installation of VMTool we need to configure the VMTool with the following command,

“ /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl “

22. Choose the appropriate screen resolution.
23. Everything set; we can view the VMTOOL summary status as OK.
24. Unmount CDRom using the command, “umount /dev/cdrom”
25. Reboot the operating system.
26. Everything went normal, remove the backup snapshot.

Reference : Link

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

Talk2Melbin

http://www.talk2melbin.com

System Administrator day to day activities includes renewal of domains, buying of new domain and more over checking and validating of the existing purchased domains. If any one loss their favorite domain or the organization loss their domain .. What will happens!!

It is necessary for us to check the validity and renew the domains before its expiration date. There are so many tools available to search “Whois” and find out the domain status.

“Whois” domain search have major role in domain industry as well as support peoples. If a customer, reports an email problem etc. to support,  the support person first checks the validity and expire date of the customer domain. This is done with the help of “Whois” search.

“Whois” command is available with Linux terminals, but how can we search “whois” from Windows?

Step To Configure Whois Domain Name Search In Windows

1. Download WhoisCL software from the link.
2. Extract the downloaded file (Requires Uncompressing software).
3. Copy the whoiscl.exe and Paste it inside operating system32 directory “C:\WINDOWS\system32”.
4. Open Command Prompt, Go to Windows Start -> Run -> Type cmd
5. Run the command in the Command window.

WhoisCL [-r] Domain

Examples:
WhoisCL microsoft.com
WhoisCL -r google.com
WhoisCL w3c.org

This will give us the domain details.

Step To Configure Whois IP Search In Windows

1. Download WhosIP software from the link.
2. Extract the downloaded file (Requires Uncompressing software).
3. Copy the whosip.exe and Paste it inside operating system32 directory “C:\WINDOWS\system32”.
4. Open Command Prompt, Go to Windows Start -> Run -> Type cmd
5. Run the command in the Command window.

WhosIP [-r] host-name

Examples:
WhosIP -r www.yahoo.com
WhosIP www.google.com
WhosIP 216.239.59.147

This will give us the IP details.

Cheers!

Melbin Mathew

Talk2Melbin

http://www.talk2melbin.com