The /etc/hosts file on a Linux system is a critical configuration file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. This file allows a user to manually associate specific IP addresses with domain names, effectively bypassing the DNS (Domain Name System) lookup process for these entries. The file typically contains lines of text where each line represents ... Read more
Windows 7 and newer versions come with a new version of the robocopy command that is able to copy files much faster then the normal copy command or copy function of the file explorer by using several simultanious threads. So if you plan to copy a large number of files, e.g. to make a backup, ... Read more
Taking ownership of files in Windows is necessary to edit or delete system or program files that you have no access to by default. There are multiple ways to achieve that goal, like doing everything manually through the Properties menu, applying a registry tweak or, as described here, executing a command in the Command Prompt. ... Read more
Importing and exporting whole sound schemes becomes handy if you want to apply your schemes to different computers or setup your system anew and don't want to copy the whole Windows theme. Doing so proves trickier as one might think though, since sound schemes are not saved as some kind of file or package as ... Read more
The context menu you gain by right-clicking the desktop is a powerful tool to open any kind of data and program. If you have a folder that you need to access regularly it might be a clever idea to simply pin it to that right-click menu to shorten the access time. To achieve that you ... Read more
When copying files, a commenter on my robocopy post wondered if a multithreaded copy tool like robocopy is actually quicker than a single-threaded copy tool like xcopy because the hard disk is usually the bottleneck, not the CPU. I decided to create my own benchmark because I couldn't find any. The following are the outcomes: ... Read more
User Account Control also known as UAC is an important component of the "Windows security system". This helps the applications running in the windows to prevent your system from making any undesired changes. Whenever software is running in a system and it tries to make changes in the system, a window dialog box appears that ... Read more
After establishing a bluetooth connection with another device from your computer the other device will propably stay in the Devices section of My Computer even after the connection is cancelled. To remove that device follow these steps: Open the control panel and head to View devices and printers under Hardware and Sound: You will be ... Read more
I've experienced that Thunderbird has gotten slower and slower on my Laptop, at last it was nearly unusable. Sometimes I could see the chars appearing slowly on the screen while I typed the email or it was impossible to drag & drop a email to a different folder because Thunderbird was stalled for 10-15 seconds. ... Read more
The screen-keyboard is a useful Windows feature on some occasions, e.g if you want to find out if it's the new keyboard's drivers that suddenly make your machine crash, or when you just need to unplug your keyboard for other reasons. However it can happen that, if you turn on the screen-keyboard a few times ... Read more