Removing a Partition from a Disk

You can remove simple partitions by using the Computer Management tool found in Windows. Search for it on the Start menu to launch it.

But if it is a protected partition you will need to use the tool DiskPart. In the Start menu type Cmd or Command Prompt to open a command prompt. Then type DiskPart, it is a powerful utility which can even work on protected volumes.

To delete one partition, follow the steps.

1. List all disks by using the command List Disk.

2. Select the disk by using Select Disk x command.

3. You can confirm the disk by listing all the partitions on it by using the command List Partition.

4. Select the partition by using the command, Select Partition x command.

5. Delete the partition by command Delete Partition Override.

Override parameter needs to be passed if the partition is not a simple data partition.

You can confirm the deletion by re-listing the partitions on the disk by List Partition command.

Open Live Writer – Plugin Not Working

While trying to setup and use the Code Plugin by Rich Hewlett I had trouble getting the plugin loaded into Live Writer. I did add the registry entry required as mentioned in the site, but still the plugin did not load.

Registry

Location - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\OpenLiveWriter\PluginAssemblies

Key - SyntaxHighlight_WordPressCom_OLWPlugIn

Value - C:\Users\Arjuna\AppData\Local\OpenLiveWriter\Plugins\SyntaxHighlight_WordPressCom_OLWPlugIn.dll

After a while I figured out that, when loading the plugin Live Writer encounters the following error.

"System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Users\Arjuna\AppData\Local\OpenLiveWriter\Plugins\SyntaxHighlight_WordPressCom_OLWPlugIn.dll' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515)
File name: 'file:///C:\Users\Arjuna\AppData\Local\OpenLiveWriter\Plugins\SyntaxHighlight_WordPressCom_OLWPlugIn.dll' ---> System.NotSupportedException: An attempt was made to load an assembly from a network location which would have caused the assembly to be sandboxed in previous versions of the .NET Framework. This release of the .NET Framework does not enable CAS policy by default, so this load may be dangerous. If this load is not intended to sandbox the assembly, please enable the loadFromRemoteSources switch. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=155569 for more information.

This is due to a security feature of .Net Framework 4 or later. Before framework 4, if a DLL is downloaded (which is created in another computer), they used to run in full trust in the zone the assembly is running, but with frameworks 4 and later, downloaded DLLs will not run by default. To make them run, simply grant the DLL full access by going to file properties and selecting the Unblock checkbox in the security section as seen in the below image. This will apply to any plugin you download from internet. Also keep in mind to do this to DLLs you trust safe. Otherwise your computer will be unsafe.

To troubleshoot plugin and other errors you can refer to Open Live Writer log file located in C:\Users\Arjuna\AppData\Local\OpenLiveWriter\Open Live Writer.log.

Lock Windows

If you wanted to lock your Windows using a batch file it can be achieved using the following command.

rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

This will be handy if you need to lock your computer after a certain scheduled action. Simply place this in a bat file, and schedule the bat file to be run to get the computer locked.

I tried this on Windows 7.

Enabling Hibernate in Windows 8

If you have start using Microsoft’s latest Personal Computer (PC) Operating System (OS) Windows 8, by now you may have found it is different in some ways to it’s predecessors. One feature I am heavily using in Windows was again missing after installing this version of Windows, which is the hibernation feature.

So if you like hibernation shown on your power menu try doing the following.

1. Move your mouse cursor to the right side of your screen to activate the quick access menu and click on Settings and then on Control Panel.

2. Then select “System and Security”.

3. Now select Power Options.

4. From the left hand navigation menu select “Choose what the power button does” or “Choose what closing the lid does”.

5. Now on system settings screen you need to click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” to modify the disabled options.

6. Scroll down to Shutdown settings and check the box named Hibernate and click Save Changes button.

Now if you look at the options available in your power menu Hibernate will also be part of it.

If this does not bring hibernation back, please try the following as well.

1. From the power options screen select “Change plan settings” of the active plan.

2. Then select “Change advanced power settings”.

3. Now click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”. This will list down all the features available in the system. Scroll down and expand Sleep –> Allow hybrid sleep and turn on hibernation as you want.

 

With these changes the “Hibernate” option should start appearing in your Power options menu.

Enabling Windows Aero

Recently suddenly my computer lost Windows Aero effects. After trying out many things I found that it is due to the Log Me In mirror driver.

It seems Log Me In mirror driver is not compatible with Windows Aero effects so if you also lost Windows Aero and you have Log Me In installed on your machine to activate Aero back first try disabling “LogMeIn Mirror Driver” and restart your machine.

This can be done by going to Device Manager by clicking,

Start –> Control Panel –> Administrative Tools.

Then double click on Computer Management. Now in the Computer Management window click on the Device Manager.

Another way to reach the Device Manager is by pressing the Windows key and the Pause key in your keyboard simultaneously.

Now expand the Display Adapters and right click on LogMeIn Mirror Driver and click on Disable.

This will disable the Log Me In mirror driver enabling Windows Aero after you restart your machine.

If you cannot see Aero effects after the restart search for the word Aero in your start menu and click on the Aero troubleshooter and follow the wizard to get Aero effects back.

Word Field Code Samples

As I mentioned in my last post, I will list down some uses of Word field codes here. If you would like to know what they are I invite you to read my previous post on field codes.

Notes -

• Always remember to user Ctrl + F9 to put curly braces, sorry no copy pasting, you have to type all.
• If the codes are misbehaving, right click and click on Update Field.

1. Using Word how to greet the user according to the time of the day.

 

{ If "{ Time \@ "HH:mm" }" > "12:00" { If "{ Time \@ "HH:mm" }" > "15:00" { If "{ Time \@ "HH:mm" }" > "18:00" "Good Night" "Good Evening" } "Good Afternoon" } "Good Morning" }

2. Concatenating text and displaying in Word.

Welcome { UserName } you are reading { FileName \* MergeFormat }.

3. Displaying page number in odd pages and text on others in Word.

{ If { =Mod({ Page }, 2) } =1 { Page } "PTO" }

4. Using Word skipping page number on first two pages and then showing page numbers starting from number 2.

{ If { Page } < 3 "" { ={ Page } - 1 } }

5. Displaying last saved user name on the last page in Word.

{ If { Page } = { NumPages } "This { FileName } was last saved by { LastSavedBy } on {DocProperty LastSavedTime }. Document was edited for { EditTime } minutes." "" }

6. Displaying number of characters, words, paragraphs, pages in a Word document.

This document has { NumWords } words in { NumPages } pages.

This document has { NumChars } characters in { DocProperty Paragraphs } paragraphs.

Field Codes in Word

When playing with Microsoft Word I found a nice feature from which we can do few more things with Word other than typing documents.

It is known as field codes. Below are some of them with their descriptions.

Field Code	Description
DocProperty	Retrieves current document properties.
NumChars	Retrieves the number of characters in the current document.
NumWords	Retrieves the number of words in the current document.
NumPages	Retrieves the number of pages in the current document.
Page	Retrieves the current page number of the document.
LastSavedBy	Retrieves the name of the user who saved the document last.
SectionPages	Retrieves the total number of pages in the current section.
Template	Retrieve the name of the title the document is based on.
Time	Retrieves the current system time and you can format the time using date formats.
UserInitials	Retrieves the current user’s initials.
UserName	Retrieves the current user’s name.

 

I did mention only few field codes above to just make you start thinking the things which can be achieved by using them in your documents.

To demonstrate I will create a Word document which greets the user with his name. To do this there are 2 ways, one is easy and the other is little hard.

Method 1

1. First the easy way, just open Word, place your cursor where you need your greeting to appear and click on Insert tab to show the insert ribbon. Then click on Quick Parts and then on Field…

2. From the field window select UserName field and choose an appropriate format from the format list and press ok.

This will add the following to your Word document which is responsible in showing the current user’s name.

{ USERNAME  \* Caps \* MERGEFORMAT }

3. To hide the code and display the user name right click on the code and click on Toggle Field Codes.

Since I did put the word Welcome in front of this the code the output appears as below.

If you need to change the code you can right click on the user name displayed and click on Edit Field.

Method 2

Bit difficult way of doing the same is to just type in the code without the help of Word. Since we know what to type in, the trick is to press Control key and F9 (Ctrl + F9) keys before doing anything.

To get this done just go to the place where you need the user name to appear and then press Ctrl + F9 keys. This will add two curly braces (“{  }”) onto Word (Always press Ctrl + F9, never type the braces manually since then it will not work). Then just type in the code we used earlier and it will work the same way.

Knowing the below keyboard shortcuts will ease your life.

Ctrl + F9 – Will add code insertion points to Word.

Shift + F9 – Will toggle the currently selected field code.

Alt + F9 – Will toggle all the filed codes found in the Word document.

If you find that the codes are not working as they should be, simply try right clicking on it and clicking on Update Field.

Hope this is helpful to you and later I will be putting another post with some field codes in action.

How Networks Work

I found a really good video which explains how data is travelled in the network. This explains in simple words with animation about the tasks done by the following main components and more.

• Packet
• Router
• Switch
• Firewall

If anyone is interested in networking I highly recommend you to watch this.

Intel Core 2 Quad Processors





Intel has released Intel Core 2 Quad Processors, these are capable of handling 4 threads simultaneously.
Read and experience more at Intel.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2quad/index.htm
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2quad/demo/demo.html

All recent processors.
http://www.intel.com/performance/desktop/dighome/index.htm