Every one of us has watched Star Wars
on television, computer or in a theater. It is the same movie with aliens
fighting each other for galaxies and such stuff. There is nothing new in it.
But wait, have you watched an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) version of Star Wars and that too in Windows usingtelnet? A
network protocol known only to computer wizards. Well if you have not, then you
must do it now!
There is a complete copy of Star Wars done entirely in ASCII characters that
you can watch in the Windowsoperating
system (or any OS that supports telnet). The only thing
required to watch it is an internet connection; speed does not matter.
To watch it on Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux
1.
Go to Start, Run. (Only for Windows
users)
2.
Now type "telnet
towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter. Users of Mac
OS X and Linux can directly execute this code in the terminal window.
On Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Telnet is turned off by default in the latest versions of Windows. So, in order
to watch star wars, you must first enable telnet by going to Control Panel › Programs
› Turn Windows Feature On or Off and ticking both the telnet check boxes. After
doing that, follow the steps given below:-
1.
Go to Start, Search in Windows Vista
and Windows 7 and Windows 10. On Windows 8 and Windows 8.1,
open the main Start page.
2.
Type telnet and press Enter.
3.
In the following command prompt
window, type "o" without quotes and press Enter.
4.
Now type
"towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter.
If you do not need telnet anymore,
you can turn it off.
A command
prompt window like the one in the image will
open with the movie being played in it. See the movie yourself. Did you enjoy
watching this new version of Star Wars? Well, I did and know it for sure that
you would have too.
Make Undeletable, Unrenamable Folders
Have you ever wondered how you can
make a folder which neither can be deleted nor be renamed. Well, if you have,
then you have come to the right place. With this trick, you will be able to
create folders in Windows which cannot be renamed or deleted.
Basic Concept
The basic concept behind this trick is the use of Keywords.
Keywords are reserved words in any programming language that cannot be used as
names of variables. Windows also uses certain keywords in its programming. Some
of them are con, aux, lpt1, lpt2, lpt3, lpt4, lpt5, lpt6, lpt7, lpt8 and lpt9.
A Test
To test this concept, make a new folder in Windows and try to give it a name
same as any keyword mentioned above.
Result
Windows will not rename your folder to any of the keyword given above.
Trick
So the question arises, how can we make a folder with a keyword as its name?
The solution to this problem is included in Windows itself. As we know that
Windows has evolved from D.O.S.(Disk Operating System), its commands can be
used in Windows. You can use D.O.S. Programming in Windows to create a folder
with a keyword as its name using the steps given below:-
1.
Click on Start.
2.
Click on Run. Type in
"cmd" without quotes.
3.
In the Command
Prompt Window that opens, type the
name of the drive you wish to create your folder in the format
<drive-name>: and press Enter. e.g. If you wish to create the
undeletable folder in D drive, type "D:" without the quotes. Note
that the folder cannot be created in the root of C: drive (if
C: is your system drive).
4.
Type this command- "md
con\" or "md lpt1\" without the quotes and press Enter.
You can choose any of the keywords given above as the name of your folder.
Now Windows will create an undeletable, unrenamable folder in the drive you
entered in Step 3. However, the folder can be renamed to another
keyword using Windows Explorer.
Deleting the Folder
Although, it is not possible to manually delete the folder, you can delete the
folder by typing "rd con\" or "rd lpt1\" in Step 4 instead
of "md con\" or "md lpt1\".
Windows Compatibility: This works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows
7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
Try it yourself to create one such folder which can neither be deleted nor be
renamed.
Shutdown Your Computer or a Remote PC
via Command Prompt
Most of us shutdown our computers using the power button given
in the Start menu. Some of us use the physical power button on our machines.
Very few people actually use other means of shutting down a computer and even
less is the number of people who use the command prompt to shutdown a computer.
A reason for this is that most of us don't know that the command prompt can be
used to not only shutdown, restart or log off our computer
instantly but also to shutdown a remote computer provided you have administrative
access. It can also be used to hibernate a computer and give a comment
containing the reason for shutdown. This post will show you how to do all this.
Required
A computer running Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1) with the command prompt
working perfectly, i.e. not disabled by a virus.
Initial Steps
1) Press Windows Key + R.
2) Enter CMD and press Enter.
This will start the command prompt. Follow the instructions below depending on
what you want to do.
Shutdown Local Machine (Your Computer)
Type "shutdown -s" without the quotes in the command prompt and press Enter. Shutdown is the command
being executed and the switch -s tells the computer to shutdown.
Restart your Local Computer
Type "shutdown -r" in the command prompt and press Enter. In this
case, the command switch -r is telling the computer to restart after shutdown.
Log Off the Current User
Type "shutdown -l" in the command prompt and press Enter. The -l
command switch tells the computer to log off.
Shutdown a Remote Computer
Type "shutdown -s -m \\name of the computer" in the command prompt
and press Enter. Replace \\name of the computer with the actual name of the
remote computer you are trying to shutdown. As mentioned earlier, you must
have administrative access to the computer you are trying to shutdown. To know
if you have administrative access, press Windows key + R and then type the name
of the computer and press Enter.
Note: If you don't remember the name of the remote computer, you can look for
it by opening a list of all the computers you are connected to by executing
"net view" in command prompt.
If you can connect to the computer, you will be asked to login with your
username and password. Upon entering them, a window will display the list of
all the directories available to you. This should help you know whether you can
or cannot shutdown the remote computer.
Hibernate a Local Computer
Type in "Rundll32.exe Powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState" without the
quotes and press Enter. Your computer should hibernate, if it does not, then
you must enable hibernation to do this.
Shutdown your or a remote computer after a specific time
Type "shutdown -s -t 60" to shutdown your computer after 60 seconds.
Upon executing this, a countdown timer displaying a warning message will be
shown. This command uses the -t command switch followed by a variable (which is
60 in this case) which represents the number of seconds after which the
computer will shutdown.
Display a Message containing the reason for shutdown
Type shutdown -s -t 500
-c "I am tired. I don't want to work anymore." (with the quotes) in the Command
Prompt and press Enter. The -c switch is used in the code to give the reason
for shutting down and what is followed in quotes will be displayed in the
dialog box as the reason. This can be used to display all sorts of funny
messages. One example :-
Skynet has become self aware. John Connor did not stop me. You can not use your
PC anymore.
Stop a System Shutdown
Type "shutdown -a" and press Enter. This will stop the system from
shutting down if the countdown to shut down has not reached 0.
5- Know your
IP address, DNS Server's address and a lot more about your Internet Connection
Command Prompt can even let you know your IP
address. Just type ipconfig/ all in the command prompt and
press Enter. Along with your IP address and DNS servers, command prompt will
also return a ton of information like your host name, primary DNS suffix, node
type, whether IP Routing ,Wins Proxy, and DHCP are enabled, your network
adapter's description, your physical (MAC) address etc .
6- Know if your neighbours are stealing
your WiFi connection
Command Prompt can
let you know if someone is connected to your Local Area Connection and using
it. Just follow the steps:-
1) Open your browser and visit
http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 depending on your router.
2) Find the tab that mentions “Attached Devices”
or something similar.
3) Find the computer name, IP address and MAC
Address (sometimes called Physical Address or Hardware Address) of your
computer using the previous trick.
4 )Compare it with those displayed by your
router in Step 2. If you notice some strange devices, then your neighbour has
been sneaking in on your internet connection and it is best to add a password.
Create a Shortcut to lock your Computer
Have you ever left your PC in a
hurry? Have you ever felt that it is a pain to lock your system in the simple
way by doing CTRL+ALT+DEL? I would imagine that you have and then, this trick
is for you. This trick enables you to create a shortcut to lock your computer
instead of doing the regular CTRL+ALT+DEL, thus providing you a way to quickly
and easily get away from your PC whenever you are in a hurry.
To use this trick, follow the instructions given below:-
Steps
1.
Right Click on an empty space on the Desktop, point
to New and click on Shortcut.
2.
In the dialog box that
pops up, type the following code without quotes in the Type the
location of the item.
rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation
3.
Click on Next and type a name for the shortcut in the Type
a name for this
Shortcut textbox.
4. Click on Finish.
Now you will be able to lock your computer by double clicking on the created shortcut.
You can also add this shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar to lock your system
with only a single click.
