How to boot Surface Pro from an external Recovery Partition
Where is the /etc/hosts file in Windows
It’s in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc You can edit it with Notepad with Administrator rights. Works in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
How to change your DNS Servers in Windows
DNS is a service that translates a domain name into a numeric IP so that one computer can talk to another. We deal with it all the time, but most mere mortals are not aware of their importance. In this article I’d like to show you how to change your computer’s DNS entries in Windows. … Read more
How to boot Windows into Desktop Mode, bypassing the Metro Start Screen
I’ve just installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview on my Samsung NC10. During the installation I was offered to transfer my settings from another PC, so I chose my Surface Pro running Windows 8.1. All settings were copied truthfully, including the fact that Windows boots up with the Metro Start Screen. It’s not what I … Read more
How to restart Windows via RDP
When you’re connected via RDP to a remote Windows machine, the Restart and Shutdown options are not there. Instead they’ve been replaced with only a lonely disconnect option to end your session. To restart or shutdown your remote machine we’ll have to use the command line’s shutdown command. Here’s how. At the Command Prompt … Read more
How to auto-start programmes in Windows
Remember the humble Autostart folder in Windows 3.1? You could simply add shortcuts to your favourite “apps” or documents to it which would automatically launch when Windows started. Except we didn’t call them “apps” in those days. It’s still possible to use this handy feature in Windows XP, Windows 7 and even Windows 8.1 – … Read more
What are the credentials to your AirPort Time Capsule
There is something I keep forgetting time and time again: the credentials to my AirPort Time Capsule. It serves as my router, Time Machine Backup disk and even as shared storage for internal use, thanks to an attached USB drive. All our Macs connect to both drives automatically and without fail – but every once … Read more
How to test if your server is running Windows from PHP
If we’re executing shell commands via PHP we need to know if the server is running Windows or Linux. Thanks to a magic constant in PHP we can find out like this: echo PHP_OS; This will give us a single value like Linux Darwin Windows WINNT With that info at hand, we can write a … Read more