Disable Raspberry Pi from Changing TV Input on boot up

To disable the Raspberry pi from changing the current Input of the TV go to terminal and type:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Scroll all the way down and and at the end add:

hdmi_ignore_cec_init=1

ctrl+x to close -> hit enter to save.

On reboot the raspberry pi will not takeover the screen.

Angry IP Scanner “Failed to Load Native Code”

If Angry IP Scanner gives you a prompt of “Failed to load native code. Probably you are using a binary built for the wrong OS or CPU – try downloading both 32 and 64 bit binaries” And you are running Windows 64bit, its probably because Java has replaced its 64bit version of its software with a 32bit version.

Solution:Download the 32bit version of Angry IP Scanner even if your running a 64bit Windows OS.

This worked for me.

Creating a list of File Names in a Directory in Command Prompt

To create a list of all the files in a certain directory is to open up cmd and type:

 cd /d "[the location the directory is]"
dir /b > "[location you want to save the .txt file].txt"

So For example I wanted to create a list of all the song names in my Metallica album “Master of Puppets” I would do:

 cd /d "D:\Music\Metallica\Master of Puppets"
dir /b > "D:\Master of Puppets.txt"

Which outputs:

 01 Battery.mp3
 02 Master of Puppets.mp3
 03 The Thing That Should Not Be.mp3
 04 Welcome Home (Sanitarium).mp3
 05 Disposable Heroes.mp3
 06 Leper Messiah.mp3
 07 Orion [Instrumental].mp3
 08 Damage, Inc.mp3 

If you want more information over the files like when they were created or size or a summary of the folder then do not use the “/b” when doing the dir command.
If you want to do more than one directory say, you wanted to create a list of all songs in the the entire metallica directory which contains all the albums then you could cd to the parent directory in this case it would be D:\Music\Metallica, and do dir /b /s > Metallica.txt.
The downside to doing this is that it will show the path of the files as well (that way you know which album the song belongs too. Which might not be what you want if your trying to keep a nice and clean log you could easily copy and paste from. In that case you would just be better off creating a .txt for each album individually.

-flyingpengwin

Changing Login Screen on Windows 7

To change the background image go to Start> search for “regedit” (with out “”)> and click on “regedit.exe”

Inside Regedit follow the path bellow:

HKEY_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

then right click on “OEMBackground” and select modify and make sure that “Value Data:” is 1. If not change it to that and hit Ok.
(if OEMBackground is not there then right click in the open space below “Default” and go to New>DWORD (32bit) Value”. Name it OEMBackground and give it a value of 1 and hit ok.)

 

Now go to:

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\Backgrounds

(or C: can be replaced with whatever drive letter has Windows on it but generally that will be C:)

 

Copy and paste the .jpeg image you want into that folder and rename it “BackgroundDefault.jpg”

Now your done, next time you log out/log in you will have a new background image.

 

Note: Depending on who installed your Windows7 copy, so of these steps might not need to be done, but it is best to just do them all just incase. (Like for my Lenovo laptop, they had already changed the default background to a custom Lenovo background so all I had to do was switch out the image.)
Reference and thanks to:  Varun Kashyap for his post at  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-change-windows-7-logon-screen/

Restarting A Windows 7 Key

Any unlawful use of this tip is against the intentions of its poster, who can not or will not be held liable for any illegal use of this tip.

To restart a Windows 7 key:

Got to start -> type “command prompt” (without “”) -> right click on “Command Prompt” -> select “Run as Administrator” -> In Command prompt type

slmgr -rearm

and hit enter.

And that’s it. The key has been refereshed for 30 more days.

You can use this tip to up to 3 times before it will no longer work.

Blocking Ads in Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger uses the add site rad.msn.com to show their ads. By changing the the ip address to a non existent site for this website, it will prevent the ads from showing in Windows Live Messenger.

To do this go to:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Right Click on “Hosts” > Open > choose “Notepad”

Scroll to the bottom of Host and add

0.0.0.0      rad.msn.com

right below the last line so it looks like

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
#    127.0.0.1       localhost
#    ::1             localhost
0.0.0.0      rad.msn.com

Then save, close out of notepad, and restart msn.

And there you go no more ads! (Note, the box doesn’t go away just instead it show a generic windows live picture thats unclickable.)

Reference and Thanks to Austin Krause: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/how-to-remove-ads-from-windows-live-messenger-2011/

Save Desktop Icon Locations

I remote desktop into my desktop all the time from my laptop, unfortunately, my laptop having a different screen resolution causes the icons to change their position. So when I get back to my desktop, several Icons are in the wrong place. Desktop Restore is a program that adds shell extension to windows so that when you right click on the desktop you have the option to save how the current icons are set up, or restore them to a previous saved state.
Note: unfortunately this program is only for windows Icons, it does not include other Desktop preferences like Windows Gadget’s locations.

 

Reference:

http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm