Windows Command Prompt

With Windows 2000 and then Windows XP, the use of the Windows Command prompt has been on the decline. Almost everything today is dependent on the user interface of Windows. There are still many tasks that can be done just from a Windows Command prompt and it can be handy for things like removing viruses or stubborn files that Windows Explorer can’t do anything about. The command prompt can be started by going to Start > Run, entering cmd and hitting [Enter].

Command Prompt History
In the DOS days when everything ran on command prompt, there was something called Doskey, which would keep a history of all the commands entered, which could be recalled as and when required. Windows has a better and easier way to display previously entered commands.

All previous commands can be access by a simple shortcut

Simply press [F7] and use the up and down arrow keys to select the command from the list you want to run again. You can also use the up and down arrows without the list, to cycle through the commands. To enter the previous command, type [F3]. If you want to enter a command line number from the list, press [F9] and enter it.

Command Prompt After Running Application
Many a times, a DOS or command line based program is run through the usual Start > Run method—say something like chkdsk or a network tracert command. The program executes and then shuts the command line window with it. Ideally, we want to see what happens during the execution of an application. To do this, type the name of the application or the command after cmd /k. For example, cmd /k chkdsk d: will scan the disk, display the results and leave the command prompt window open.

Copy And Paste
Most of us have, at some point or the other, tried to copy something from and into the command prompt window but the shortcuts [Ctrl] + [C] and [Ctrl] + [V] just wouldn’t work. To copy text from the command prompt, you need to first right-click on the title bar of the window and click on Mark. Now drag a box around the text you want to copy. Right-click again and the text will be copied into the clipboard. To paste any text into the command prompt window, right click in the window itself and click Paste.

the PROMPT command allows changes to be made to the command prompt

If you want to copy and paste stuff quickly, you can enable it by right clicking on the title bar for the window and then on Properties. Check the box for QuickEdit Mode. Click OK. You can choose to enable this for a single window or for all command prompt windows. Now simply drag and select the text to be copied. A single right-click will paste the contents of the clipboard to the window.

Using AutoComplete
Like the Linux console, Windows’s command prompt too has an auto complete feature, which allows you to complete file names without typing the entire name. Type the first few characters of the filename or folder and press [Tab]. If there is more than one result, you can use [Tab] to cycle through all the possibilities.

Full Screen Mode
If you try and run a console or DOS application that looks right when run on full screen, you can do it by pressing [Alt] + [Enter]. Use the same shortcut again to get back to the window mode.

Customising The Command Prompt
The typical grey-on-black theme can get boring. There are a few changes that can be made to the command prompt to look a little friendlier. The prompt itself can be customised, which by default displays C:\ or the path you’re currently on.

the PROMPT command allows changes to be made to the command prompt

The prompt can be changed by typing PROMPT followed by the parameters. PROMPT $P$G will restore the prompt to the default one. Some of the parameters that can be used are as follows—
$D—Current date
$T—Current time
$P—Path
$G—>
$V—Windows Version
$M—Network path for mapped drives

You can also have the text on the title bar changed. Enter the command TITLE in the command prompt, followed by the text you want to display on the title bar. For example, title %username% %date% %time% will display the currently logged in user name followed by the current date and time.

If all this seems unnecessary, and you want a change of colour, the simplest way out is to right-click on the command prompt title bar and click on Properties. The fonts, colours and layout can be changed from here.

Open Command Prompt In A Specified Directory
The command prompt, when initialised, starts in the logged in users default directory—C:\Documents and Settings\Username. From there, you have to navigate using DOS commands to the respective directory, if you have to run an application or work on some files. If you want to launch the command line at a different location, first create a shortcut on your Desktop or your Quicklaunch folder by right clicking on it and clicking New > Shortcut. Enter the location of the item as C:\windows\system32 \cmd.exe. Give a name to the shortcut and click Finish create it. Right-click on the created shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and enter the path where you want the command prompt to start. For example, C:\. Click OK. Double click the shortcut to run it.

Malicious Programs

Virus - Attaches itself to a program and propagates copies of itself to other programs.

Worm - Program that propagates copies of itself to other computers.

Trojan Horse - Program that contains unexpected additional functionality.

Backdoor (trapdoor) - Program modification that allows unauthorized access to functionality.

Exploits - Code specific to a single vulnerability or set of vulnerabilities.

Down loaders - Program that installs other items on a machine that is under attack. Usually, a downloader is sent in an e-mail.

Auto-rooter -Malicious hacker tools used to break into new machines remotely.

Kit (virus generator) - Set of tools for generating new viruses automatically.

Spammer programs - Used to send large volumes of unwanted e-mail.

Flooders - Used to attack networked computer systems with a large volume of traffic to carry out a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Keyloggers - Captures keystrokes on a compromised system.

Rootkit - Set of hacker tools used after attacker has broken into a computer system and gained root-level access.

Zombie - Program activated on an infected machine that is activated to launch attacks on other machines.

Computer Acronyms

---A---
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
ALI - Acer Labs, Incorporated
ALU - Arithmetic Logic Unit
AMD - Advanced Micro Devices
APC - American Power Conversion
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ASPI - Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
AT - Advanced Technology
ATI - ATI Technologies Inc.
ATX - Advanced Technology Extended

--- B ---
BFG - BFG Technologies
BIOS - Basic Input Output System
BNC - Barrel Nut Connector

--- C ---
CAS - Column Address Signal
CD - Compact Disk
CDR - Compact Disk Recorder
CDRW - Compact Disk Re-Writer
CD-ROM - Compact Disk - Read Only Memory
CFM - Cubic Feet per Minute (ft�/min)
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CTX - CTX Technology Corporation (Commited to Excellence)

--- D ---
DDR - Double Data Rate
DDR-SDRAM - Double Data Rate - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DFI - DFI Inc. (Design for Innovation)
DIMM - Dual Inline Memory Module
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory
DPI - Dots Per Inch
DSL - See ASDL
DVD - Digital Versatile Disc
DVD-RAM - Digital Versatile Disk - Random Access Memory

--- E ---
ECC - Error Correction Code
ECS - Elitegroup Computer Systems
EDO - Extended Data Out
EEPROM - Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EVGA - EVGA Corporation

--- F ---
FC-PGA - Flip Chip Pin Grid Array
FDC - Floppy Disk Controller
FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
FPS - Frame Per Second
FPU - Floating Point Unit
FSAA - Full Screen Anti-Aliasing
FS - For Sale
FSB - Front Side Bus

--- G ---
GB - Gigabytes
GBps - Gigabytes per second or Gigabits per second
GDI - Graphical Device Interface
GHz - GigaHertz

--- H ---
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
HIS - Hightech Information System Limited
HP - Hewlett-Packard Development Company
HSF - Heatsink-Fan

--- I ---
IBM - International Business Machines Corporation
IC - Integrated Circuit
IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics
IFS- Item for Sale
IRQ - Interrupt Request
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISO - International Standards Organization

--- J ---
JBL - JBL (Jame B. Lansing) Speakers
JVC - JVC Company of America

- K ---
Kbps - Kilobits Per Second
KBps - KiloBytes per second

--- L ---
LG - LG Electronics
LAN - Local Are Network
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
LDT - Lightning Data Transport
LED - Light Emitting Diode

--- M ---
MAC - Media Access Control
MB � MotherBoard or Megabyte
MBps - Megabytes Per Second
Mbps - Megabits Per Second or Megabits Per Second
MHz - MegaHertz
MIPS - Million Instructions Per Second
MMX - Multi-Media Extensions
MSI - Micro Star International

--- N ---
NAS - Network Attached Storage
NAT - Network Address Translation
NEC - NEC Corporation
NIC - Network Interface Card

--- O ---
OC - Overclock (Over Clock)
OCZ - OCZ Technology
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer

--- P ---
PC - Personal Computer
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PDA - Personal Digital Assistant
PCMCIA - Peripheral Component Microchannel Interconnect Architecture
PGA - Professional Graphics Array
PLD - Programmable Logic Device
PM - Private Message / Private Messaging
PnP - Plug 'n Play
PNY - PNY Technology
POST - Power On Self Test
PPPoA - Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM
PPPoE - Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
PQI - PQI Corporation
PSU - Power Supply Unit

--- R ---
RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAM - Random Access Memory
RAMDAC - Random Access Memory Digital Analog Convertor
RDRAM - Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory
ROM - Read Only Memory
RPM - Revolutions Per Minute

--- S ---
SASID - Self-scanned Amorphous Silicon Integrated Display
SCA - SCSI Configured Automatically
SCSI - Small Computer System Interface
SDRAM - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
SECC - Single Edge Contact Connector
SODIMM - Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module
SPARC - Scalable Processor ArChitecture
SOHO - Small Office Home Office
SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
SSE - Streaming SIMD Extensions
SVGA - Super Video Graphics Array
S/PDIF - Sony/Philips Digital Interface

--- T ---
TB - Terabytes
TBps - Terabytes per second
Tbps - Terabits per second
TDK - TDK Electronics
TEC - Thermoelectric Cooler
TPC - TipidPC
TWAIN - Technology Without An Important Name

--- U ---
UART - Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
USB - Universal Serial Bus
UTP - Unshieled Twisted Pair

--- V ---
VCD - Video CD
VPN - Virtual Private Network

--- W ---
WAN - Wide Area Network
WTB - Want to Buy
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get

--- X ---
XGA - Extended Graphics Array
XFX - XFX Graphics, a Division of Pine
XMS - Extended Memory Specification
XT - Extended Technology

Amazon Softwares

Yahoo's new Ymail and Rocketmail Domains

After a successful pact with Google over ads, Yahoo! is keen to stop users moving to other email providers. With about 260 million users, the yahoo.com email system didn't have many easy names left for people to choose from.

To improve, Yahoo! set up new domains, Ymail and Rocketmail domains.Yahoo plans to auction off a number of desirable email addresses related to charitable groups.

Currently both the domains are pointing to yahoomail and users can create mail accounts with the new domains.So get ur desired email username soon on ymail and rocketmail domains.

Firefox 3 Dowload Count hits 8Million Plus

The Download day set by Mozilla worked well with download count hitting more than 8million users worldwide.The exact number is being scrutinized and to be believed would be more than 10Million.

The nation with the most downloads was the United States, with 3,288,217 downloads, UK came in second at 393,211 downloads, followed by China with 228,370 downloads.While India alone had 139,097 downloads(I'm being a part of it).

At their busiest the servers were handling more than 9,000 downloads per minute. Within five hours the number of downloads for Version 3.0 exceeded the 1.6 million set by Firefox 2.0 in October 2006.

However DV Labs/Tipping Point reported a flaw that potentially lets an attacker take over a PC if a user clicks on a booby-trapped link.

Download Firefox3: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?p=downloadday

Description of New Features: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/

Be a part in setting a Guinness World Record

Join in mission to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours.Take a pledge to download Firefox 3 on Download day and be a part in World record.

Firefox 3 , the new improved browser with many new features is slated for release in late June.
Download Firefox 3 on the release day which will be informed later by Firefox team.

Take pledge here: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/pledge

ChaCha Search Engine

ChaCha...though sounds weird, is a website which offers a free 24x7 mobile answer services for people on the go.(i don't think this works in INDIA)

ChaCha launched its beta version on April 1 2008 and works with virtually every provider and allows people with any mobile phone device with normal SMS and voice capability to ask any question in conversational English and receive an accurate answer as a text message in just a few minutes.
Users can call 1-800-2-CHACHA and ask a question after the prompt. The question will then be transcribed into an SMS query. The answer then will be received by the caller in a text message.

Have a look at www.chacha.com