While downloading some pictures from a camera, I found them hard to manually rename its filename to a more meaningful title and not some random "DSC001323.JPG". After rename 10 or 15 files, i got bored, thinking this would take me forerver to rename them all for they are more than a thousand in total. If you can still recall that neat application called Irfan View, my life would have been alot easier.

Well anyway, lets change things we normally do and instead of using batch files we use vb script. A zipped version of the mass renaming script is also available for download.

To my surprise, its not listed with the Add/Remove Programs icons at the Control Panel. Microsoft has hidden the uninstall option for this application. Windows 98 has that option, i wonder why they removed it from Windows XP.

So, I searched the System folder for the configuration. Here's how we could remove Windows Messenger successfully.

Browse to your Windows INF folder. Usually its found at C:Windows\inf. its a hidden folder so you have to explicitly type it at the address bar or using Run like this

1. Start -> Run
2. Type in C:\windows\inf [Enter]
3. Look for the file named SYSOC.INF
4. Open it with an editor, notepad will do.
5. Look under Components for the line like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

6. Remove the word hide. Making it like it like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

7. Save and close notepad. The Windows Messenger application uninstall should now appear at the Add/Remove Programs Icon in the Control Panel. Remove it from there.

8. Start -> Control Panel
9. Double Click on Add/Remove Programs
10. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components
11. Uncheck Windows Messenger
12. Click Next
13. Click Finish

Using the Ampersand ( & ) operator, it allows us to merge cells in an excel worksheet. you can create a formula to merge cells in excel or just insert it right away on the cell formula bar.

Problem:
And you wish to merge the two cells at A1 and A2 to the cell at A3

Given:
Cell A1 has the text "Lastname"
Cell A2 has the text "Firstname"

Solution:
* First position your active cell on A3.
* On the formula bar input the following: =A1&A2 [ENTER]

It should display LastnameFirstname on cell A3

To add a space and a comma, use the following:
=A1&", "&A2
it will output: Lastname, Firstname

alternatively you can also use the concatenate function, like this:
=CONCATENATE(A1,", ",A2)

Keyboard shortcuts
Open links in a new tab in the background CTRL+click
Open links in a new tab in the foreground CTRL+SHIFT+click
Open a new tab in the foreground CTRL+T
Open a new tab from the Address bar ALT+ENTER
Open a new tab from the search box ALT+ENTER
Open Quick Tabs (thumbnail view) CTRL+Q
Switch between tabs CTRL+TAB/CTRL+SHIFT+TAB
Switch to a specific tab number CTRL+n (n can be 1-8)
Switch to the last tab CTRL+9
Close current tab CTRL+W
Close all tabs ALT+F4
Close other tabs CTRL+ALT+F4

Mouse shortcuts
Open a link in a background tab Click the middle mouse button on a link
Open a new tab Double-click the empty space to the right of the last tab
Close a tab Click the middle mouse button on the tab

Displaying user details
Syntax: id {username}
shell> id tildemark

Create a new user with username tildemark
Syntax: useradd {username}
shell> useradd tildemark

Create a new user with username tildemark under group admin
Syntax: useradd -g {group} {username}
shell> useradd -g admin tildemark

Creating a new user with username tildemark and assign a home folder
Syntax: useradd -d {location} {user}
shell> useradd -d /home/tildemark tildemark

Creating a new user tildemark and assigning a password pass
Syntax: useradd -p {password} {username}
shell> useradd -p pass tildemark

assigning password to user tildemark
Syntax: passwd {username}
shell> passwd tildemark

Creating a new group
Syntax: groupadd {group}
shell> groupadd developers

Creating a new user and assigning it multiple groups admin, developers
Syntax: useradd -G {group1}, {group2} {,...}
shell> useradd -G admin, developers

Assigning user tildemark to group admin, developers
Syntax: usermod -G admin, developers tildemark

Delete an existing user
Syntax: userdel {username}
shell> userdel tildemark

Back with the good old days, we could use doskey to assign shortcuts to DOS commands. So, we could just assign ls to its windows equivalent like this:

Now, whenever we type ls, dir command is executed. We could also do that in Windows XP Command prompt, but the problem is after you have closed the window the doskey is also removed as well and we have to type it again every time we would run cmd.

There is actually a work around with that, we could modify our cmd shortcut in the start menu to add the doskey instructions there so that everytime the cmd is loaded the extra line is also executed as well.

i have modified my shortcut target from

the /k makes the window stay after the doskey is executed. For more additional options about cmd you can issue the command

here are a few common options:
/C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates
/K Carries out the command specified by string but remains
/S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K
/Q Turns echo off
/D Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry

Alternatively, you could also change the value of your registry at

to

Value name: AutoRun
Value data: doskey ls=dir

Actually, its better to use the registry option because after adding the code to the shortcut properties; the code completion for the command prompt no longer works.

Making a tarball and adding all files in the current directory then naming it as example.tar:

Compressing the tarball by zipping it (.gz):

Restoring a tarball gzip file example.tar.gz

Now, what if we are going to add a dynamic URL? It would be best explained by example, so here it goes.

For example: We are asked to check multiple sites for the following internet standards; W3C HTML Validator and WDG HTML Validator.

We have a reference cell A1 have the text http://tildemark.com. We all know the URL for the respective standards as:

W3C - http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.tildemark.com
WDG - http://www.htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/validate.cgi?url=http://www.tildemark.com&warnings=yes

Now, all we need to create an entry such that each time we change the domain names the entry on each validator also changes.

Do the following on Excel:

Cell A1 - http://www.tildemark.com

More info at Office Website.

I have some simple techniques you can use in order to remove multiple hyperlinks on a page:

Removing just one hyperlink
1. Right-Click on the cell and select Remove Hyperlink on the context menu.

Removing the cell format
1. Select the cells having hyperlinks. You can use CTRL+LEFT CLICK to randomly select a cell.
2. On the menu click on Edit. Hover your mouse to the option Clear and select Fomats. Please note that the cell is still clickable to remove the hyperlink completely you have to select Clear->All.

Remove hyperlink on selected cells the better way
1. Type in any text or number in a blank cell
2. Right-click and select Copy on the context menu.
3. While pressing CTRL, select each hyperlink you wish to be removed
4. On the Edit menu, select Paste Special.
5. Under Operation, click Multiply and then click OK.

Removing using a macro
Assuming you know excel programming you could create a macro to automatically remove the hyperlinks.
1. Start Visual Basic Editor. Alternatively you can press ALT-F11 to start the editor.
2. Double click the workbook you are using on the Project Explorer.
3. Type the following text: