To remove a file/folder from share and type the following command in an elevated instance of command prompt:

net share <shareName> /delete

To add a file/folder to share and type the following command in an elevated instance of command prompt:

net share <shareName>=<pathToSharedFile>

An example of an add and delete command would be as follows

net share “Completed Downloads”=”D:\Completed Downloads”
net share “Completed Downloads” /delete

At times, I was not required to use an elevated command prompt instance but if you get message stating “Access Denied”, you should run the command after elevation. To do so, type out “Command Prompt” in your start menu and then use the right click > Run as administrator option or you could simply use Shift+Enter to do the same :)

Simple enough, right? ;)

A couple of weeks back, I saw screen shots of my friends’ browsers and noticed they were using Minefield. They confirmed that 3.7a1pre does indeed have full Aero support so I finally upgraded. I must say, it’s a great update.

As you can see from the screen shot, it doesn’t really like some pages in the Aero preview. I am pretty sure it’s an AJAX thing.

Of course, if you consider updating, quite a few of your plug-ins will not work simply because of the version compatibility checks. A simple way to by pass this is to install the Nightly Tester Tools to skip Firefox’s version compatibility checks. Most add-ons should work fine.

There are a few add-ons I’d like to recommend with this alpha. Try checking out Strata40, StrataBuddy and StrataGlass. StrataGlass is amazing (works on any machine running on Vista/7) but it did give me problems on some pages so I disabled it. However, it is a great idea and it looked really nice. If someone irons out the wrinkles, I’d love to wear it everyday with my Firefox :)

Another small change I’d definitely recommend to users is going to about:config, past the warning, searching for the browser.ctrlTab.previews setting and setting the value to true (simply double click on it to toggle). After this, try Ctrl+Tab to get tab previews. If you think this is cool, try Ctrl+Shift+Tab to get previews with the ability to search between them. Doesn’t that make life easier when you have loads of tabs? ;)

I’d like to thank my friend Nitro for showing me the Strata add-ons and telling me about the Ctrl+Tab setting ;) Ctrl+Shift+Tab was purely luck ;)

PS: Manan asked me over twitter about the memory usage of Minefield 3.7a1pre and I must say, it’s quite low. In fact, with 8 tabs (none of which are heavy on AJAX other than the WordPress panel), I’m using 125MB RAM. Though I’ve not confirmed it, I’d say that’s slightly lesser or the same as regular Firefox and Minefield even seems a tad bit faster and more responsive even with all my regular add-ons ;) Impressive :)

Good question. I’d like to ask you a couple of things. Do you have multiple machines in your house? Do you ever feel like you should have centralized storage in your house? Do you have old hardware simply lying around the house waiting to be tinkered with? Do you like playing with your machines?

If you said yes to (most) of the above questions, having a Home Server could help you :) It can handle not only centralized storage of media and documents but also backups. Have you ever needed a file from computer x in your house and found it was shut down after being used by a family member? Well, you wouldn’t have this issue if you had a central server. People could go around switching off their machines all they want as long as you have the file you want on your Storage Server.

Lets get into it then. From now, I’ll walk you through how to make your old machine into a Network Attached Server (NAS).

1) Hardware

Any hardware is fine for a Home Server. The main purpose (at least in this case) is central file storage for all devices and this doesn’t require much resources on the processing side. Lets start with the specifications of this machine:

Now that is a pretty good processor for this purpose, I agree. You should be fine using a Celeron or even a Pentium 3.

2) Operating System

The next important question is the choice of operating systems. To answer these, you need to look at your usage of the server.

I really wanted to run Windows Server 2008 R2 but since this processor is an x86 one, I couldn’t. Windows Server 2008 gave me sluggish performance so I gave it the axe by the end of the night. I didn’t want to try Windows Server 2003 since it was quite old. More importantly, I found Windows Home Server by that time, a product made specifically for Home Servers and it was made using Windows Server 2003 as base ;)

I must say, Windows Home Server (WHS) really has the most horrible OS installer I have seen on a Windows operating system. When it was all set and done, I ran updates and everything but whilst using it, I really wasn’t impressed :( Don’t get me wrong, it is pretty darn good but India is a place where Windows Media Center doesn’t give you everything that it does in countries like the United States. It surely has potential and may be some day, it will even make its way on to my server. But for now, I can’t do so especially since I don’t have a IDE drive greater than 80GB that can run the WHS. If you read my system specs correctly, you’d have noticed this old machine has only one IDE port, which I’m reserving for at least a 1TB drive.

I started considering Linux! (yes, I said Linux). I considered using Ubuntu/Xubuntu on the machine, as an obvious choice for any Linux newbie. For those who don’t know the difference between the two, Ubuntu uses Gnome for its UI and Xubuntu uses KDE. Other than that, they are identical. If you don’t have a choice towards either, I’d tell you to go for Xubuntu if you’ve got an older machine (or just like a machine with free resources). KDE requires lesser resources and should run almost anywhere. I saw this pretty detailed article about setting up a home server on Xubuntu that you should check out if Ubuntu/Xubuntu is your OS of choice.

Then comes the final choice, FreeNAS. If you want a NAS, you can’t go wrong with FreeNAS. Weighing in at around 70 megabytes for a live CD with installer, its a really good choice. It is built on FreeBSD and I must say, its pretty extensive. Just have a look at FreeNAS’ list of features; its insane!

I’d suggest you go with FreeNAS if you just want to use your server as a NAS. It uses Samba to give you CIFS (in non technical jargon, it allows you to share files in a network like Windows does) and provides support for protocols like FTP, SSH, BitTorrent and iTunes. It can be extended to support XMBC and SlimServer. It also allows you to host a web server using lighttpd and even supports UPS, SMART, ZFS, RAID and most NICs and IDE/SATA disk controllers. If there is anything that you need to do that you can’t see on this list and can’t manage to get FreeNAS to do (I believe it will run almost anything which runs on FreeBSD) then you can move to Ubuntu/Xubuntu. You could even run ASP .NET pages off Linux web servers (haven’t tried it yet) with the limited support that Mono provides :)

Part 2 of the tutorial will have the basic setup for FreeNAS and how to get CIFS working. Subsequent parts will talk about setting up FTP, SSH, BitTorrent and Web Server with MySQL and phpmyadmin. You never know, if I can get it to execute ASP .NET as well, you guys will be the first to know! ;)

I have already spoken about the Win+(1-9) to activate programs in Vista’s Quick Launch Toolbar and its transition to taskbar applications in Windows 7. Of course, everyone knows about Win+Tab activating Aero Flip 3D but there is more to this.

Here is one that really strikes me as super-useful. On Windows 7, you can now use Win+Up to maximize a window, Win+Down to restore a maximized window and minimize a restored one, Win+Left/Right to Aero Snap it to the left/right of the screen. Keyboard warriors such as myself are going to love this! :)

I’ve already fallen head over heals for Aero Snap on my 1080p laptop monitor. It kind of makes up for my need for dual monitors. Aero snapping with the laptop track pad was a tad bit inconvenient. Issue no more! :)

Here’s a list of Win shortcuts I can think of which work in Windows 7. I have found that a lot of keyboard warriors don’t know quite a few shortcuts. Sharing always helps ;)

• Win: Open/Close Start Menu
• Win+F: Windows Search
• Win+Tab: Aero Flip
• Win+Up: Maximize a restored window
• Win+Down: Restore a maximized window or minimize a restored window
• Win+Left: Aero Snap to the left of the screen
• Win+Right: Aero Snap to the right of the screen
• Win+D: Show desktop (Forced)
• Win+M: Minimize all windows
• Win+M+Shift: Restore windows after Minimizing all of them
• Win+(1-9): Activate Window from task bar
• Win+X: Open Windows Mobility Center (Non Desktops only)
• Win+L: Lock Desktop
• Win+Space: Show sidebar (in Vista); Possibly doing the same in Windows 7 (different Sidebar functionality in 7)
• Win+E: Open My Computer
• Win+B: Jump control to (select) Notification Area (System Tray)
• Win+Pause/Break: Open System Properties
• Win+P: Computer Projection modes
• Win+F1: Open Windows Help and Support
• Win+R: Open Run Dialog
• Win+Shift+Left/Right: Move to the monitor to the left/right of the screen (circular; for multi-monitor systems)

iPod 30GB (5.5 Generation; Black)

Every gadget I’ve owned to this day has been personalised. Its just something I have to do (if the hacks make the device better). I’ve done it so far with my i-Mate KJAM (custom ROMs for WM5 and WM6 and even cooking some up once in a while), my brother’s PSP and my computer (that counts too, doesn’t it? :P) among others.But when my brother came home last month, he exchanged the 2nd hand 30 GB iPod (5.5 Generation; Black) that he had.

I had always heard of the legend that is the iPod but never actually used it, believe it or not. I did like my Sony NW-A608 because of its size and battery life but after testing the iPod out for a few days, I decided to keep it because the 2GB Network walk man was no longer enough for me, it was when I got it 3 years ago but not any more.

Knowing that the iPod was so famous, searching for any softwares for it would be nearly impossible. Most content was replicated from one site to another. So I decided to go through most things out there and make a definitive list (for myself, if not anyone else :P). This post is not meant to only have info on iPod tools. This is a post to get the most out of your iPod and customise it in whatever way possible. So shall we get started?

First things first. You’d need a software to manage your connection with the iPod. There are quite a few out there that do the job quite well. This list would include foobar2000 and WinAmp. Despite using the latter as my daily mp3 player on my pc, I decided to go with (don’t frown..) iTunes :P I do know that iTunes has a reputation of being called “bloatware” but I use it for a different reason. I give you iArt. It took me a really long time to find an application which would go through the thousands of songs I have on my hard disk and add not only album art but also lyrics all with little or no human interaction if necessary. Yes, it can go through your entire iTunes library and add album art and lyrics in automatic mode :o Asking me to do those things manually is insane and anyone who knows me, knows full well that I organise my files perfectly and always have them ID3 tagged (even before last.fm came along :P). iArt will automatically go through your entire iTunes library (or selectively through playlists/song lists you want) and find album art/lyrics from various sources for you. You can select album arts and lyrics manually or set iArt to do them automatically for you. So get iTunes and iArt and you can be sure that the music on your iPod has album art and lyrics. In case you need a portable manager, you could use YamIpod.

Now that you’ve got music that’s well tagged with its art and lyrics, you can start thinking about how to make it look good because face it, you want your iPod to look hot. Never fear, iPod themes are here! All you need to do is download iPodWizard from its official website, then go to the iPodWizard forums and go over to the Themes subforum where you should select your iPod version. In my case, this was the 5th generation subforum. Now you can download the themes you want and apply them. Info on how to do so is available on the forum and their wiki as well but I’m going to write an article on that soon with my experiences in this field.

Till now, we’ve spoken about how handle your iPod with different managers and how to theme it. But what if you are tired of the way the in built firmware for the iPod works? You could always change it. RockBox, an Open Source Jukebox Firmware is an excellent alternative to the in built firmware for not only the iPod but a lot of other portable music players. If you’ve not checked it out already, I seriously suggest you do that now. It is pretty good and supports a wide range of file formats unlike the default firmware in iPod. It can even be themed among other things. Is your life dependent on the linux prompt? Well then Linux on iPod is for you! Why do it? Because you can ;) Now the question that everyone wants to ask, which one should I run? RockBox is pretty awesome but has a few issues and so does Linux on iPod (freezing while playing high bitrate songs and browsing through large file lists at the same time). Other than the pretty major issue of having videos to be in mp4s (though even RockBox doesn’t support xvid and there are a ton of videos out there, I just don’t wish to keep my TV shows, movies and Music Videos in formats that the iPod likes. I prefer them to be in xvid which is a standard for me) to work on the default iPod firmware, I find that it works the best. And with theme-ability (as talked about in the previous paragraph), things look well for it.
There is one thing I had hoped someone would have told me (which would have made me move to these alternate firmwares quicker for tests). Installing these firmwares (it seems) gives you a boot up option to select which firmware you want to load so you don’t lose your original iPod firmware.

If you’ve not thought of ever using your iPod as a hard disk, shame on you! You should slap yourself right now! I personally have a ton of portable applications that allow me to do almost everything I do on my home desktop on computers in college. I use portable versions of 7-Zip (for access to archives), Firefox (web browser), FireFTP (Firefox addon for FTP), Floola-win (portable iPod manager), Notepad++ (text editor with syntax highlighting), Portable OSK (just in case ;)), pdfProducer, Pidgin (multi platform chat client), PlainEdit.NET (another text editor with syntax highlighting), PuTTY (ssh access to server), Autoruns, Process Explorer and uTorrent. If you have any suggestions for good portable applications or need help with (getting) any of the ones I have then do let me know :)

This was some of the more general things that you could do. The next few posts will contain information specific to certain feilds and which will talk in detail about iPod 5.5G based hacks. Now you could do it with other iPods but then you’d have to figure out equivalents or get me one of those iPods :P

I installed a custom cooked WM6 ROM for my Wizard (I-Mate K-JAM) and then moved to a second custom ROM, which quite sadly, crashed. This time it got stuck in the IPL/SPL load screen so here is what you do when you’re in such a dilemma.

Remove your battery and then insert it again so now your device is off. Then press the power button + camera button and the phone will start off in boot loader mode. Then get an official ROM and install it. A custom one should too assuming it has the ability to talk to phones in the boot loader (which almost all of the ROMs should imo).

Have a good night ya’ll ;)

Now the manual simply states that one should press the communications and voice buttons simultaneously and then press the reset key with your stylus. Well I can say honestly, that didn’t work for me.

Here is how you can really hard reset your HTC Wizard. I personally was using my I-Mate K-JAM. Before reading the following, make sure you read the warnings given below and the disclaimer while you’re at it.
1) Take your stylus and press and hold the reset key that you use for soft resetting. Don’t press the key. Hold it, as in keep it pressed.
2) Then press the voice and comm buttons simultaneously and keep them pressed.
3) You can let go of the (soft) reset key now. Wait for the confirmation message on the screen which will instruct you to press the send key (left soft key) to reset.

That’s it! You just successfully hard resetted your Windows Mobile 5.0 device.

Now you ask, why? Why would I want to hard reset my device? Hmm.. Maybe you’re selling off your device and don’t want to give the person any of your data. A hard reset puts everything back to the factory settings. Alternately, maybe you just forgot your phone password and can’t find a way in. You never know :P

Warning: Hard resetting leads to deleting of all data on the main memory in devices running on windows mobile 5.0 and even the data on the memory card for windows mobile 6.0
I didn’t risk it. I removed my mini-SD card while doing so :P

Disclaimer: Though this method does only what I told you it does (hard resets your devideAs usual, I am not responsible for any kind of harm, damage or loss that might arise out of using this information. Use it at your own risk

Click Start > Type “local” and enter (to open Local Security Policy) > Local Policies > Security Options > Browse down to the set of UAC controls.

Now I disabled the “User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account” and set the “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode” to “Elevate without prompting”

So far, everything is going quite smoothly. Then to disable the irritating red icon in your task bar open Windows Security Center (again start > type it out and select. Don’t you just love Windows Vista’s new search? ;)) then on the left side, select “Change the way Security Center alerts me.”
Now select “Don’t notify me and not show me the icon (not recommended)” I would have honestly liked an option saying, “Notify me (once) but don’t show me the icon.” Too bad we can’t do that.

And that is it. No more UAC asking you to accept every action you make. Yay for power users ;)

Now that my work with it was done, I couldn’t delete it. UAC was constantly telling me I didn’t have the rights to do so. The sad part is that I am the administrator and those files aren’t of any use to me. I tried switching off UAC but that requires a reboot so I started searching for alternatives since Vista wouldn’t let me edit the rights directly either.

Thanks to Rotem for linking me to Tim Sneath’s MSDN blog which explains a method to reset rights over a folder.
The problem quite clearly is that Vista doesn’t remember which group holds rights to editing those folders/files.
The secret lies in two command-line utilities.

takeown is an old command which resets ownership of the mentioned file/folder while icacls is used to provide a group with the rights to that file/folder.

As Tim points out, you can create a batch file with the following two lines.

takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t

It is imperative to note that the batch file needs to be run as an administrator. This can be done by right clicking the file and clicking on run as administrator.

You could also do what I did. Open command prompt in administrator mode (start > type “cmd” without quotes > right click > run as administrator), browse till the folder/file in question and then use the same two commands by substituting “%1″ with the name of the target file/folder.

Hopefully you were smart enough to figure out that you do need administrator rights to pull this off. So if you’re a script kiddie planning to pull off something on vista, this is not what you’re looking for.

So the next time you cannot delete a file in Windows Vista even though you have administrator rights, try using takeown and icacls ;)