MS-DOS (Most Wanted) Commands

Ping

Ping tests a network connection.If successful, ping returns the ip address. Its a very useful and popular command which we need to check whether our internet connection is working properly or not.
Syntax
PING [options] destination_host
Example:
ping 192.168.0.1 -t

Ping Options

-w timeout (Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply)
-i TTL (Time To Live)
-v TOS (Type Of Service)
-a (Resolve addresses to hostnames)
-n count (Number of echo requests to send)
-t (Ping the destination host until interrupted)
-l size (Send buffer size)
-f (Set Don’t Fragment flag in packet)
-r count (Record route for count hops)
-s count (Timestamp for count hops)
-j host_list (Loose source route along host_list)
-k host_list (Strict source route along host_list)
destination_host (The name of the remote host)

DIR

Display a list of files and subfolders.
Syntax
DIR [pathname(s)] [display_format] [file_attributes] [sorted] [time] [options]

[display_format]
/P Pause after each screen of data.
/W Wide List format, sorted horizontally.
/D Wide List format, sorted by vertical column.

[options]
/S include all subfolders.
/R Display alternate data streams. (Vista only)
/B Bare format (no heading, file sizes or summary).
/L use Lowercase.
/Q Display the owner of the file.

CLS

Simply typing cls and pressing enter will clear the dos screen.

EDIT

Syntax
EDIT [d:][path]filename [/B][/G][/H][/NOHI]

Starts the MS-DOS editor, a text editor used to create and edit ASCII text files.

HELP

Syntax
HELP [command] [/B][/G][/H][/NOHI]

Displays information about a DOS command.

MEM

Syntax
MEM [/program|/debug|/classify|/free|/module(name)] [/page]

Displays amount of installed and available memory, including extended, expanded, and upper memory.

chkdsk

Syntax
CHKDSK [drive:][[path]filename] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/L[:size]]

Example:
CHKDSK C: /F

[drive:] The drive to check.
filename File(s) to check for fragmentation (FAT only).

/F Automatically Fix file system errors on the disk.
/X Fix file system errors on the disk
/R Scan for and attempt Recovery of bad sectors.
/V Display the full path and name of every file on the disk.
/C Skip directory corruption checks.

Some General

Windows XP Tricks

Windows XP is a much better experience it you customize it according to your personal usage needs. There are many Tips and Tricks involving registry edits or tweaking some options a bit to get Windows work smarter and faster in an efficient manner. Here are very essential tips every Windows user should know to get the best from Windows and spending time in other creative stuff.

Delete Files Without Sending to Recycle Bin:

You can delete files immediately, without moving these to the Recycle Bin.
Go to the Start menu
select Run
Type ‘gpedit.msc’
Select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer
Find the “Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin” setting.
Select enabled option

You can also right click at the Recycle Bin to have this option to use.

Lock Windows XP with Two Clicks

You can lock your Windows XP with two clicks of the mouse.

Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click
Enter ‘rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation’ in the location field
Give the shortcut a name you like
That’s it
just double click on it and your computer will be locked.
Windows key + L does the same

Enable Windows XP ClearType Fonts

Windows XP has ClearType (Microsoft’s anti-aliasing font display technology) but doesn’t have it enabled by default.
To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection.
Expect best results on laptop displays.
If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

User Task Management

You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again.
Right click the program icon
Select Run As
Enter the user name and password you want to use.

Disable Default Notifications

Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on.
After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might go insane before that point, run Regedit,
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

Network Activity Light

Windows XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can’t see the LEDs twinkle on your network card.
Right click on My Network Places on the desktop
Select Properties
Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection
Select Properties
Check the Show icon in notification area when connected box
You’ll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

Speed-Up Your Start Menu

The Start Menu can be slow when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

Batch Rename Files

You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By — Show In Groups.

Remove Useless System Software

Windows XP hides some system software you might want to remove from Add or Remove Programs, e.g. Default Windows Messenger.

Using Notepad, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word ‘hide’ and remove it.
Go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the hidden software which you can now uninstall it.

Interesting DOS Commands

For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, Windows XP has a number of interesting new commands.

‘eventcreate’ and ‘eventtriggers’ for creating and watching system events
‘typeperf’ for monitoring performance of various subsystems
‘schtasks’ for handling scheduled tasks.

Typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options.

IP Version 6 Support

Windows XP has IP version 6 support. the next generation of IP.

Type ‘ipv6 install’ into Run. (It won’t ruin your existing network setup)
Type ‘ipv6 /?’ at the command line to find out more.

Task Termination at Command Line

You can get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using ‘taskkill /pid’ and the task number, or just ‘tskill’ and the process number. Find that out by typing ‘tasklist’, which will also tell you a lot about what’s going on in your system.

Make ZIP Files like Regular Folders

Windows XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you’ve got a fast machine.
On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files alone by typing ‘regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll’ at the command line.
If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing ‘regsvr32 zipfldr.dll’

WMP Album Cover Arts

Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks, if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD.
If it didn’t, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks.
Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

Handy Shortcut Keys

Windows key + Break: brings up the System Properties dialogue box
Windows key + D: brings up the desktop
Windows key + Tab: moves through the taskbar buttons.

Windows XP Faster Startup

You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password.
Select Run from the start menu and type ‘control userpasswords2′, which will open the user accounts application.
On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer and click on OK.
An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

Delete Temp Internet Files Automatically

Internet Explorer will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to.
Start the browser, select Tools > Internet Options > Advanced
Go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

Change Windows Tones !

Customize Windows Event Tones And Sounds:

Are you bored with the same Windows start-up tone, system shutdown tone and other Windows tones (sounds). You can change these tones (sounds) easily to your favorite sounds.

I will give you an example by changing Windows startup sound.

Change Windows Start-up tone

Using any audio cutter software or Windows Movie maker you take a little part of your favorite music. Make the clip of 3 to 4 sec duration.

Convert the clip to WAV audio format using any audio converter.
Rename the file name like startwin or something like this.
Now copy the converted audio clip to C:WINDOWSMedia
Open Control Panel > Sound and Audio Devices.
Go to Sound Tab.
Go to Program events box.
Under Windows categories, single click on Start Windows.
Under the Program events box You will find a box as Sounds.
Click on it’s dropdown box and select startwin.wav .
Now click on Apply > Ok.
You are done.
Restart your computer to hear the new Start-up tone.
You can go with similar process for other event sounds.

Play Online Videos Without Buffering

Ever wished that your internet connection might work faster while watching streaming videos over internet? And there would be no pause when video is being played? It can really ruin the taste of the video. Here is a software which helps to get faster and smoother videos from YouTube and other all major streaming websites. No need to wait and pause.

Download SpeedBit Video Accelerator and get the bandwidth you’re paying for, and enjoy smooth videos from YouTube and over 150 video sites around the web. SpeedBit Video Accelerator makes videos from YouTube and over 150 sites stream faster and play smoother by reducing buffering problems and video interruptions or “hiccups”. SpeedBit Video Accelerator is another groundbreaking product from the creators of Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) – pioneers of acceleration technology!

Unique Video Acceleration Features

• Reduces “movie freezes” and “buffering” problems!
• Accelerates streaming videos from YouTube and over 150 sites!
• Bookmarks videos you’ve recently accelerated, for easy replays!
• Includes cool search tab feature for finding videos to watch around the web, right from your desktop!
• Video Accelerator for iTunes (Premium) accelerates the download of iTunes movies, music videos and TV shows up to 10 times faster!
• LSP acceleration mode
• Improved logging mechanism allows for PAC file probing prior to communication test execution
• New automatic recovery implementation prevents SpeedBit Video Accelerator from being disabled

It even Works great with dial-up and broadband and helps ensure your videos don’t freeze or get stuck during playback. It makes videos play smoothly even when you run P2P applications (bittorrent, emule etc…) Allows fast and smooth streaming of long and high quality videos. Keeps track of the last videos you watched, for easy access and replays.

Download Link:

Video Accelerator

How To Install XP on Windows 7

Now, you can install a lower version on to a higher version of windows like XP on win7 or XP on vista,
Follow these steps:

When PC starts press F2 to go into ‘Setup’ Options.
Go to ‘System Configuration’
Select ‘SATA Opreation’ which configures the operating mode of the integrated SATA hard drive controllers.

There will be three options.

• Disabled (SATA controllers are hidden)
• ATA (SATA is configured for ATA mode)
• AHCI (SATA is configured for AHCI mode)

I had Windows VISTA at this Laptop but I wanted Windows XP for a while. Whenever I was trying to install Windows XP; it gave me ‘Blue Screen of Death’ and the system had to be rebooted.

What I had to do from Setup Options; I changed the configuration of above setting from AHCI to ATA.
I was able to install Windows XP, alright. Changing this setting will disable your old installed OS to run and you have to reinstall the OS again anyways.
Okay that’s it.

NOTE: If you need to downgrade Windows OS for a while, go do it. But I would prefer using Windows Vista (Windows 7 – even better) than using Windows XP.

*(Try at your own risk)