To work around this problem, use the Attrib command at a command prompt (Cmd.exe) to view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders.
Back to the top
To view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003 or in Windows XP

   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
   2. To view the syntax for the Attrib command, type attrib \? at the command prompt.

Warning If you remove the Read-only or System attribute from a folder, it may appear as a ordinary folder and some customizations may be lost. For example, Windows customizes the Fonts folder and provides a special folder view that permits you to hide variations, such as bold and italic. It also permits you to change the folder’s view settings in ways that are specific to fonts. If you remove the Read-only and System attributes of the Fonts folder, these customized view settings are not available. For folders that you have customized by using the Customize tab of the folder’s Properties dialog box, the folder icon and other other customizations may be lost when you remove the Read-only attribute.

If a program cannot save files to a folder with the Read-only attribute, such as My Documents, change the Read-only attribute to System by using the Attrib command at a command prompt.

To remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute, use the following command:
attrib -r +s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute for the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r +s c:\test
Be aware that some programs may not operate correctly with folders for which the System attribute and the Read-only attribute are set. Therefore, use the following command to remove these attributes:
attrib -r -s c:\test
Back to the top
To view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Vista

   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER..
   2. To view the syntax for the Attrib command, type attrib \? at the command prompt.

To remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute, use the following command:
attrib -r +s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute for the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r +s c:\test
Be aware that some programs may not operate correctly with folders for which the System attribute and the Read-only attribute are set. Therefore, use the following command to remove these attributes:
attrib -r -s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove both the Read-only and the System attributes from the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r -s c:\test
If the Run command is not listed on the Start menu, do the following:
Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Run.

*Note you will want to have a USB Drive larger than 3gigs.

1. First format your USB drive in NTFS file system. You can do it by attaching your USB drive to your system and then format it from My Computer window.

2. Now open Command Prompt window from Start menu. Right-click on Command Prompt entry in start menu and select "Run as administrator" option.

3. Now type diskpart in Command Prompt window and press Enter. It’ll launch DiskPart program:

4. Now provide following command:

list volume

It’ll show a list of all drives in your system. Look for your USB drive entry. As in the below screenshot, the USB drive is "G" which you can determine from its "Type" entry.

Now you have to select the USB drive volume by providing select volume no. command. Since in our case volume no. of USB drive is "Volume 4", the command would be:

select volume 4

Now we have to make this drive active. So provide active command:

active

Now exit from DiskPart using exit command.

5. Now we need to create Boot sector on USB drive. We’ll use "bootsect.exe" utility for this task. You can find this utility in Windows Vista setup disk. It’ll be present in "Boot" directory.

Now provide following command in Command Prompt:

bootsect /nt60 G:

Here G is drive letter of USB drive. Replace it with the correct drive letter if your system has some other letter for USB drive.

6. At last, copy all files/folders from Vista Setup DVD to your USB drive and you have done.

Now you can boot using your USB drive and can install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on any system.

Happy Installing.

Did you however think great I have a way to backup the data and its working however my hard drives are filling up quickly. What do I do now?

Well you have options:

1. Backup Less often (this can make things a bit interesting if you are constantly changing files and you may lose critical info.)
2. Delete older backup files. (if your paranoid like me how far do you go back and delete backups?)
3. Backup your data to a outside source.

So I am going to talk about option 3.  We want to publish all the backups to a outside source. Well what source or applications are available?

There are a ton of great backup applications/services on the web. I decided to just reference a few:

Microsoft Skydrive

Amazon S3 and Jungle Disk

Carbonite

Mozy

Sugar Sync

Yes I have tested these applications/services. Here is the break down.

Microsoft Skydrive: 25gigs of Storage. No automatic backup and have to be signed in to upload. Web interface to upload only. Non Encrypted. Free

Amazon S3: Pay per Gig use. Only a service. To be able to interface the service you have to use 3rd party applications (Jungle Disk) to do your backup. Encrypted transfers. Pay.

Carbonite: Unlimited storage. Installs to your local c drive and you can drag and drop files. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan. *Used this service for 12months. Did not like the inflexibility of the service. Also after multiple emails asking if the data uploads and storage was encrypted. I was told in summary: Not to worry about what we do with your data. I promptly Canceled the service.

Mozy: Limited storage as of writing. A lot like carbonite. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan

SugarSync : Another Clone to Carbonite and Mozy. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan.

So there is the run down on services. However some things you might consider because it is your data. Right?

-Auto Backup?

-Where is the Data really going?

-Who has permission to view your data?

-Availability?

-Encryption?

-Support?

-How to Restore?

In summary all these services are very good. It is hard to choose a service unless you really nitpick.

My personal choice after using all these services. Is amazon s3 and Jungle Disk. As a second backup I use SkyDrive and for stuff I want to just publish to the web I use Drop.io.

Why I use these services is partly out of habit. However I like the pricing schema of Amazon s3 and the ease of making the files stored there made public.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.

Well fortunately there is a way. Couple of options.

My favorite is:

I started out using a cool little used utility called Synctoy and windows task manager to do the scheduled backup. Keep in mind I was using Windows XP Home with a login that had no password. Got all of the software installed. Created a task in the windows task manager (C:\windows\tasks).

Launching the Task Scheduler, right-click and select “Scheduled Task” in the menu again. Give a name to your work and then go to the properties of the task.
Launch the Task Scheduler and right click and select “Scheduled Task” in the menu bar. Type a name for your work and select the property of the task.
In the “Run” to the path of SyncToy, in the “Run As” – put what you want (one is advised).
In the “Run”, choose the path for SyncToy in the “Run as”.
Enter the parameters in the tabs “Planning”, “Settings” and “Security”.
Go back to the task tab and in the Run path, type : -R”test“.
Below will appear:
“C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToycmd.exe” -R”test”
Be careful, there must be a space between the –R and the phrase as well as at end.

*Note: You need to have a password setup for this task or any task to run.

Tools that are included in your install of the Windows Operating System:

———————————————————————————————————————

Windows XP Home/XP:

Installing the Ntbackup.msi for Windows XP Home or Pro.

how to install Backup from the Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM. The Backup utility helps you protect your data if your hard disk stops working or your files are accidentally erased. With Backup, you can create a copy of all the data on your hard disk, and then archive it on another storage device, such as a removable hard disk or a tape. The Backup utility is not included in the default installation of Windows XP Home Edition. Therefore, to use Backup, you have to install it manually.

Manually install the Backup utility.

Download it if you don’t want to extract it.

• Drop.io
• Skydrive

To manually install Backup, follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows XP Home Edition CD in the CD Drive.
2. Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file in the following location to start a wizard that installs Backup:CD drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP
3. When the installation wizard is finished, click Finish.

If the wizard completed the installation, the program was successfully installed and you can now use the Backup utility.

XP Home has issues with doing any backups what so ever. The features are obviously very handicapped. I would then use the SyncToy method previously mentioned.

The Automated System Recovery feature of the Backup utility is not a supported feature in Windows XP Home Edition. However, Backup is provided on the CD-ROM as an additional value to help you back up important system data. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

302700 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302700/ ) An Error Message Is Displayed When You Attempt to Use the Automated System Recovery Wizard

of course this makes it difficult to use backed up files to recover files.

Windows Vista:

Scheduling a regular Complete PC Backup is one way to ensure you have recent images of your entire computer.

Complete PC Backup is not schedulable through the control panel, but you can work around this by creating a new task in the Task Scheduler.

If you choose to schedule Complete PC Backups, I advise periodic monitoring to verify that backups completed successfully. Why is this necessary? Because this method doesn’t notify you via a pop-up if the backups fail due to disk space issues or other transient problems. This should not be considered a replacement for using File Backup on a regular basis. That said, here’s how you can use Task Scheduler to schedule Complete PC Backup:

1. Go to Task Scheduler (which you’ll find in the Accessories\System Tools folder in the All Programs portion of your Start menu).
2. Click Create Task.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Type a descriptive name, such as Scheduled Complete PC Backup.
5. If you want the task to run regardless of whether you’re logged on, click Run whether user is logged on or not.
6. Click Run with highest privileges.
7. Go to the Triggers page.
8. Click New and then specify when and how often the scheduled backup will take place.
9. Go to the Actions page.
10. Click New.
11. Under Program/Script, type wbadmin.
12. In Add arguments (optional), type the following command, adjusting the target drive letter as necessary:
Copy Code

Start backup –allcritical –backupTarget:D: -quiet

If you want to include additional volumes that are not the system, boot, or Windows Recovery Environment volumes, use the following statement instead, substituting the appropriate drive letters (separated by commas) for E and F:
Copy Code

Start backup –allcritical –backupTarget:D: -include:E:,F: -quiet

Note that the command should always include the allcritical flag. Not having this flag risks excluding important system volumes from the backup, which would lead to failure during restore.
13. Configure any other task-related settings.
14. Click OK.

A list of the first 100 web site domains ever registered.

1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985
2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985
3. think.com: May 24, 1985
4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985
5. dec.com: Sept. 30, 1985
6. northrop.com: Nov. 7, 1985
7. xerox.com: Jan. 9, 1986
8. sri.com: Jan. 17, 1986
9. hp.com: March 3, 1986
10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986
11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986
12. sun.com: March 19, 1986
13. intel.com: March 25, 1986
14. ti.com: March 25, 1986
15. att.com: April 25, 1986
16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986
17. tek.com: May 8, 1986
18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986
19. ub.com: July 10, 1986
20. bell-atl.com: Aug. 5, 1986
21. ge.com: Aug. 5, 1986
22. grebyn.com: Aug. 5, 1986
23. isc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
24. nsc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
25. stargate.com: Aug. 5, 1986
26. boeing.com: Sept. 2, 1986
27. itcorp.com: Sept. 18, 1986
28. siemens.com: Sept. 29, 1986
29. pyramid.com: Oct. 18, 1986
30. alphacdc.com: Oct. 27, 1986
31. bdm.com: Oct. 27, 1986
32. fluke.com: Oct. 27, 1986
33. inmet.com: Oct. 27, 1986
34. kesmai.com: Oct. 27, 1986
35. mentor.com: Oct. 27, 1986
36. nec.com: Oct. 27, 1986
37. ray.com: Oct. 27, 1986
38. rosemount.com: Oct. 27, 1986
39. vortex.com: Oct. 27, 1986
40. alcoa.com: Nov. 5, 1986
41. gte.com: Nov. 5, 1986
42. adobe.com: Nov. 17, 1986
43. amd.com: Nov. 17, 1986
44. das.com: Nov. 17, 1986
45. data-io.com: Nov. 17, 1986
46. octopus.com: Nov. 17, 1986
47. portal.com: Nov. 17, 1986
48. teltone.com: Nov. 17, 1986
49. 3com.com: Dec. 11, 1986
50. amdahl.com: Dec. 11, 1986
51. ccur.com: Dec. 11, 1986
52. ci.com: Dec. 11, 1986
53. convergent.com: Dec. 11, 1986
54. dg.com: Dec. 11, 1986
55. peregrine.com: Dec. 11, 1986
56. quad.com: Dec. 11, 1986
57. sq.com: Dec. 11, 1986
58. tandy.com: Dec. 11, 1986
59. tti.com: Dec. 11, 1986
60. unisys.com: Dec. 11, 1986
61. cgi.com: Jan. 19, 1987
62. cts.com: Jan. 19, 1987
63. spdcc.com: Jan. 19, 1987
64. apple.com: Feb. 19, 1987
65. nma.com: March 4, 1987
66. prime.com: March 4, 1987
67. philips.com: April 4, 1987
68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987
69. kai.com: April 23, 1987
70. tic.com: April 23, 1987
71. vine.com: April 23, 1987
72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987
73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987
74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987
75. slb.com: May 20, 1987
76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987
77. utc.com: May 27, 1987
78. ide.com: June 26, 1987
79. trw.com: July 9, 1987
80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987
81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987
82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987
83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987
84. toad.com: Aug. 18, 1987
85. quick.com: Aug. 31, 1987
86. allied.com: Sept. 3, 1987
87. dsc.com: Sept. 3, 1987
88. sco.com: Sept. 3, 1987
89. gene.com: Sept. 22, 1987
90. kccs.com: Sept. 22, 1987
91. spectra.com: Sept. 22, 1987
92. wlk.com: Sept. 22, 1987
93. mentat.com: Sept. 30, 1987
94. wyse.com: Oct. 14, 1987
95. cfg.com: Nov. 2, 1987
96. marble.com: Nov. 9, 1987
97. cayman.com: Nov. 16, 1987
98. entity.com: Nov. 16, 1987
99. ksr.com: Nov. 24, 1987
100. nynexst.com: Nov. 30, 1987

Notice there is no microsoft.com or google.com.

Can you name how many of these domains still exist or are owned by the originating company?

Here is how my network is configured.

Yes I am running DSL to a T-Mobile @Home VIOP box. As well as a Belkin Wireless N Mimo Router.

So when Qwest and T-mobile ask what the config looks like. Here it is.

Then there was the soy sauce in the diet coke bottle. May I just say I wish I hadn’t of deleted that video (or did I?). Straight to YouTube <-[Not a link to the video] and a million hits later. Of course my conscious got the best of me on that one. Never posted it.

My prank I did last April was the ever popular vbscript that makes the user think he has a virus and reboots the crap out of the pc.  When you send that out over the corporate network and the WAN team freaks out it becomes more of an issue then. Of course I still to this day have no Idea who would do that. ::snicker::

If you haven’t seen the screensaver of the blue screen of death then be careful of your nearest geek with network privileges.

I must say it can be a little dangerous being my friend come April 1st time. If you are you should just call in sick or turn off your pc and related servers.

Speaking of server pranks don’t do a INIT 0 command on a enterprise Unix Server in the middle of the day especially when the server is off site like in another state. Like I said I do not know who would do that… Certainly not me. ::snicker:: ::shrug::

This post I should probably not let go public but what the crap maybe it will give your prank friend something to chew on.

Try this little cheesy vbscript to make your windows OS(XP-Windows7):

CODE-

The MikeDopp original Script:

or call it the template

Dim msg, sapi
msg=InputBox("Enter your text","Talk it")
Set sapi=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
sapi.Speak msg

The JoeLevi script:

Dim msg, sapi
msg="All our times have come Here but now they’re gone Seasons don’t fear the reaper Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain We can be  like they are Come on baby,  Don’t fear the Reaper Baby take my hand,  Don’t fear the Reaper We’ll be able to fly,  Don’t fear the Reaper Baby I’m your man,  Valentine is done Here but now they’re gone Romeo and Juliet Are together in eternity,  Romeo and Juliet 40,000 men and women everyday,  Like Romeo and Juliet 40,000 men and women everyday,  Redefine happiness Another 40,000 coming everyday, We can be like they are Come on baby,  Don’t fear the Reaper Baby take my hand,  Don’t fear the Reaper We’ll be able to fly,  Don’t fear the Reaper Baby I’m your man,  Love of two is one Here but now they’re gone Came the last night of sadness And it was clear we couldn’t go on The door was open and the wind appeared The candles blew and then disappeared The curtains flew then he appeared Saying don’t be afraid Come on baby,  And we had no fear And we ran to him,  Then we started to fly We looked backward and said goodbye We had become like they are We had taken his hand We had become like they are Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper"
Set sapi=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
sapi.

Speak msg

Save as tts.vbs and run of course for a test then, using Windows Task Scheduler setup this script to start on startup or every minute until the poor sap(prankee) gets sick of it.

Of course there are a ton of great things you can do to prank co-workers and friends and this is a just a sample of things that I know have been done. ::snicker::

Have fun make sure you leave me a comment on how well this worked for you!

-Mike

I was lucky to stumble upon this little treat.

if you have vista and use readyboost you need this. http://area-71.net/rbmon/ ready boost monitor.

What was great was I posted this link on twitter as well the quoted text above.

A good twitter friend (@jkneen) made me aware this app didn’t work at all on windows 7. However he went ahead and improved and updated it to work for windows 7 so much thanks @jkneen. Please visit his site: BouncingFish.com

The link has been added to DropIO from jkneen ReadyBoostMonitor for Win7 download.

Enjoy!

Hold down the alt key and use the number pad on the far right of your keyboard to type out the 4-character code.  When you release the alt key, the character will appear.

Example: Alt-0169 = ©   or   Alt-0174 = ®  or  Alt-0153 = ™

Alt-0128  €
Alt-0252  ü
Alt-0129  
Alt-0130  ‚
Alt-0131  ƒ

Alt-0132  „
Alt-0253  ý
Alt-0133  …
Alt-0134  †
Alt-0135  ‡

Alt-0136  ˆ
Alt-0254  þ
Alt-0137  ‰
Alt-0138  Š
Alt-0139  ‹

Alt-0140  Œ
Alt-0255  ÿ
Alt-0141  
Alt-0142  Ž
Alt-0143  

Alt-0144  
Alt-0248  ø
Alt-0145  ‘
Alt-0146  ’
Alt-0147  "

Alt-0148  "
Alt-0249  ù
Alt-0149  •
Alt-0150  –
Alt-0151  —

Alt-0152  ˜
Alt-0250  ú
Alt-0153  ™
Alt-0154  š
Alt-0155  ›

Alt-0156  œ
Alt-0251  û
Alt-0157  
Alt-0158  ž
Alt-0159  Ÿ

Alt-0160 
Alt-0244  ô
Alt-0161  ¡
Alt-0162  ¢
Alt-0163  £

Alt-0164  ¤
Alt-0245  õ
Alt-0165  ¥
Alt-0166  ¦
Alt-0167  §

Alt-0168  ¨
Alt-0246  ö
Alt-0169  ©
Alt-0170  ª
Alt-0171 «

Alt-0172  ¬
Alt-0247  ÷
Alt-0173  ­
Alt-0174  ®
Alt-0175  ¯

Alt-0176  °
Alt-0240  ð
Alt-0177  ±
Alt-0178  ²
Alt-0179  ³

Alt-0180  ´
Alt-0241  ñ
Alt-0181  µ
Alt-0182  ¶
Alt-0183  ·

Alt-0184  ¸
Alt-0242  ò
Alt-0185  ¹
Alt-0186  º
Alt-0187  »

Alt-0188  ¼
Alt-0243  ó
Alt-0189  ½
Alt-0190  ¾
Alt-0191  ¿

Alt-0192  À
Alt-0236  ì
Alt-0193  Á
Alt-0194  Â
Alt-0195  Ã

Alt-0196  Ä
Alt-0237  í
Alt-0197  Å
Alt-0198  Æ
Alt-0199  Ç

Alt-0200 È
Alt-0238  î
Alt-0201  É
Alt-0202  Ê
Alt-0203  Ë

Alt-0204  Ì
Alt-0239  ï
Alt-0205  Í
Alt-0206  Î
Alt-0207  Ï

Alt-0208  Ð
Alt-0232  è
Alt-0209  Ñ
Alt-0210  Ò
Alt-0211  Ó

Alt-0212  Ô
Alt-0233  é
Alt-0213  Õ
Alt-0214  Ö
Alt-0215  ×

Alt-0216  Ø
Alt-0234  ê
Alt-0217  Ù
Alt-0218  Ú
Alt-0219  Û

Alt-0220  Ü
Alt-0235  ë
Alt-0221  Ý
Alt-0222  Þ
Alt-0223  ß

Alt-0224  à
Alt-0231  ç
Alt-0225  á
Alt-0226  â
Alt-0227  ã

Alt-0228  ä
Alt-0230  æ
Alt-0229  å

Alt to your hearts desire.