Save CPU and RAM and Disable the Windows Indexing Service

If there is one utterly unnecessary service that you should disable on Windows, it’s definitely the Indexing Service built into Windows XP. The idea behind it is that you can search for files more quickly if it is enabled - there is an alternative for this which is Google Desktop but you don't need this indexing service if you know where everything is.

The indexing service seems to eat up a lot of CPU on every machine I’ve used, especially when you have the amount of files that I’ve got.

If you are sure you want to disable it then follow these three simple steps:

1. Navigate to the Services console via Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click on the Indexing Service and change the startup type to disabled.
3. Hit the stop button if it is started, which is likely, and then hit OK.

Simple.

How to automate FTP uploads from the Windows Command Prompt

Since the start of Windows, they have included the ability to write and execute batch files to assist with either common, advanced, confusing or any other type of task.

As old as they are is exactly as useful as they are. Batch files are a great way to do something over and over again without typing all that needed code in the command line again and even though requiring some knowledge of batch scripting, doesn't exactly require much...

One of the things a batch file can do is automate the FTP uploads to a server of yours.
Here's one way of doing this;

This is something what you would put in your batch file...

@echo off
echo user MyUserName> ftpcmd.dat
echo MyPassword>> ftpcmd.dat
echo bin>> ftpcmd.dat
echo put %1>> ftpcmd.dat
echo quit>> ftpcmd.dat
ftp -n -s:ftpcmd.dat SERVERNAME.COM
del ftpcmd.dat

What this batch file is doing is scripting the ftp utility using the -s option for the command line utility.

The batch file uses the “echo” command to send text to the ftp server as if you had typed it. In the middle of the file you can add extra commands, potentionally a change directory command:

echo cd /pathname/>>ftpcmd.dat

You will probably want to replace MyUserName, MyPassword and SERVERNAME.COM with your own variables unless of course, these are your own for your server.

In order to call this batch file, you will call the batchfile using the fileup.bat name that we gave it, and pass in the name of a file as the parameter. You don’t have to type the .bat part of the filename to make it work, either.

Like this:

> fileup FileToUpload.zip

Connected to ftp.myserver.com.
220 Microsoft FTP Service
ftp> user myusername
331 Password required for myusername.

230 User myusername logged in.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> put FileToUpload.zip
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for FileToUpload.zip
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 106 bytes sent in 0.01Seconds 7.07Kbytes/sec.
ftp> quit

How to use Telnet in Vista

Some of you may already know, and some may not already know but as Microsoft do their usual thing at annoying people they've decided to take Telnet out of Vista...But not completely.
You can get it back, it's still there. It's just not included in the automatic install anymore. Why?

The heck if I know! But I know how to get it back...

1. Go to Control Panel.

2. Turn Windows features on / off. Pick on.

3. Scroll down until you find Telnet and check it.

4. Click OK to install.

Voila! You can now connect to your whatever you're trying to connect to.

Make Grub Bootloader Never Auto-Choose OS To Boot

One thing I've found annoying from time to time is restarting my computer for whatever reason, going away and the Grub Bootloader has already started running the wrong OS. I hate this!

So, to make the bootloader always wait for your choice, follow this. But do it carefully please!

1. Open up the /boot/grub/menu.lst file in your favorite text editor (in sudo mode)

sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

( To do this open the Terminal and type:

sudo gedit vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

and gedit should run your Grub Menu. (This is assuming you want to run it in Gedit. If not type the name of the program you want to run it in.))

2. Find the section of the file that contains the timeout information.

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined)
# timeout 3

3. Put a # before the "timeout 3″ line in the file, then save and restart your computer.

Now the Grub Bootloader will wait forever until you make a choice. This is quite useful for me, and maybe it will be for you too.

"My Computer" folder loads slowly

There is a well known issue where the My Computer folder decides it wants to take a longer-than-usual time to load up.

Just so you know why it's doing this: Windows hangs while trying to search for network folders and printers before displaying anything to you.

It's probably one of the most simplest tutorials you'll ever see! Even more simpler than a step-by-step tutorial on installing programs or games. But I don't want to exaggerate. Maybe you need glasses but don't know yet so you'll find this hard. I don't know.

Good luck if you do though!

1. Open up Folder Options from the Tools menu in Windows Explorer:

2. Choose the View tab.

3. Uncheck the box for "Automatically search for network folders and printers", and close the dialog.

The changes should be immediate, and your problem should be gone.

Did you need glasses to do that? Comment and let me know! :-)