Compare two folders without any external Tools

Scenario : You have a certain folder whose backup is on a separate drive. You want to know whether they are in sync or not i.e. both contain the same no.of files or not

Solution : Here’s the right way to do it, without the external downloads.  It looks like a lot at first, but once you’ve done it, it’s very easy.  It works in all Windows versions from 7 back to 95.  For our example assume that you’re comparing two directories named ‘A’ and ‘B’.

1. Open run and type cmd to get a command prompt. Then do it again, so that you have two of them open next to each other.

2. In each window go to the directories that you want to compare.  (Using ‘cd’ commands.  If you’re not comfortable with this, then you should probably go with the external utilities, unless you want to learn command prompt.)

3. Now type ‘dir /b > A.txt‘ into the first window and ‘dir /b > B.txt‘ into the other(Note : Make sure that the two text files names are different).  You’ll now have two text files that list the contents of each directory.  The /b flag means bare, which strips the directory listing down to file names only.

4. Move B.txt into the same folder as A.txt and then type ‘fc A.txt B.txt‘.  The command ‘fc’ means file compare.  This will spit out a list of the differences between the two files, with an extra line of text above and below each difference, so you know where they are.  For more options on how the output is formatted, type ‘fc /?’ at the prompt.  You can also pipe the differences into another file by using something like ‘fc A.txt B.txt > changes.txt‘.

Note : I recommend this method only when you have two single folders to compare with no subdirectories. You can do a compare of subdirectories using the /s switch but it is likely to give you the below error.

 

Read and extract data from .NBU Nokia Backup Files

Note : This article is specific to Nokia Mobile Phones only.

Scenario : You own a Nokia Phone. You have created a Backup for it. Now you want to restore some part of the data. But doing so deletes your existing data and you want to restore just a part of it.

Solution: If you have a Nokia mobile phone and have ever backed up data from your phone on to your PC using PC Suite, you’d have faced this problem some time or the other. Cos the problem is that if you try to restore it will overwrite your data and you cant restore just parts of that data. Also there is no way inside PC Suite to see what data is contained inside the backup file( in case you have multiple backup files created).

What I am trying to say is : You can create a backup and restore it completely to your phone afterward. But you just can’t read an individual SMS message, contacts list data, graphic or theme from that backup. That means it’s pretty useless from one point of view. You could even face problems if you try to restore the backup to a phone of a different model.

Is there any way out of this, you ask? Well, there is. Thanks to a third party software calledNoki, it’s possible to view individual graphics, messages, drafts, contacts and other data from your backed up file. What’s more, you could even extract this data into a simple format. For instance, you could convert your contacts into a simple .csv/text/html file. Cool, ain’t it?

Now How ?? Well,If you are not technologically challenged then you might have noticed that Nokia PC Suite creates the back up file with the extension .NBU. These .NBU files can be restored to your phone later using the PC Suite itself. We need the same .nbu(Nokia Back Up) file to explore what it contains and to extract individual files from.

Step 1 : First Download Noki from : http://www.nokisoft.com/noki/ . Install it. Run it. It will open a window that looks like this :

Step 2 : Browse to the Location where the .nbu file is and open it. The Noki Explorer will analyse the file to find all the data binded in the .nbu file.

Step 3 : It will then open up a tree view Hierarchy Structure of the data binded in the .nbu file which you can view and extract partially (More info on this here : http://www.nokisoft.com/how-to.htm) . Additionally, the Noki-exported backup file can be easily imported into other applications (which include Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, Firefox, IE and Nokia PC Suite

Noki supprots various nokia file formats including  .nbu, .nfb, .nfc, .cdb and .arc.

Also, You can smothly upgrade your PC Suite to new versions without worrying about the compatibility issue as  Noki takes care of the compatiblity of the different versions.

Note : Noki Explorer is not Freeware and i do not intend to urge you to buy it (USD 49.50 WTF????) . Its trial version is supposed to have limitations on the amount of files you can extract like 30 media files, 50 text messages, 50 phone book entries and so on but if you are looking to extract only a part of the data then i guess this limitation should be enough for you.

Rating : 8/10 ( Seriously USD 49.50 WTF?????)

TP Links : Send a Time Capsule to Your Future Self

Scenario Contd. : You are sitting at your desk and have no work to do.

Solution Contd. : Here’s my second addition to the list of TP links : Sending a Time Capsule to your Future Self.

A time capsule is a letter you write to yourself to be opened in the future. The time capsule is a great tool to journal the direction your life is taking, as well as capture your current wisdom and memories. Did I mention that  it’s also a lot of fun?

To create a time capsule, write a letter just as you would to your best friend. All you need is to write it and set a target date to open it — say, five, ten or twenty years later.

Confused as to what to write  ??

Be conversational and friendly; have fun with it. Write about whatever you want to or would like your future self to implement in the future or reminding yourself of some resolution you took. Although the thing is that no matter how mundane/crazy/serious/funny your letter is i.e. no matter what you write in your letter, you’ll be amazed at its contents when you open it. It will be a pleasant surprise.

Here are a few specific suggestions to consider including:

• Important questions and feelings.
• Goals and aspirations.
• Highlights of the year as fond memories.
• Lessons learned and advice for yourself.

Here is an Example Letter :

Subject : did you follow your dreams? 30 years on?….

Dear FutureMe,

I hope you have followed all your dreams. I hope you have done all or at least some of it. You will have turned 35 years old on the very day you get this email. This email was sent on August 04, 2006, you were 20 years old when you wrote this.

– I hope you took that trip to Canada you always wanted to take, and maybe ended up living there for awhile like you said.

– I hope you visited the other countries you wanted to as well, especially the US and Mexico

– I hope you went overseas with your best friend and are still the best of friends with her, which I know you will be.

– I hope you got that job overseas you always wanted.

– I hope you got a great job, financial sercurity and a great house.

– I hope you married a nice guy and kept your promise that if you were to marry that it would be for good, and I hope you still dont believe in divorce

– I hope you got those 5 children you said you wanted to have. Don’t laugh, that was what you said you wanted at 20yrs old.

– Most of all I hope you learnt from your mistakes and continue to remember how precious time and life is. I hope you treated people well, stayed away from drugs and crime. Cherished and looked after your family, kept to your morals, been a good person, believed in yourself and the people closest to you.

While the idea of intentionally sending information to the future is not new, it’s a great fun way to provide yourself with valuable material for self-reflection. Get cracking and create one time capsule now. Your future self will thank you — guaranteed.

[Visit Futureme.org]

Freebie Alert : Easy Watermark Studio Pro

Easy Watermark Studio is another image editor application that allow users to quickly edit and add watermark to images for Windows that is designed to help photographers in adding digital watermark such as text, image, logo, effects, output settings, and etc to the photo. With watermark, you can be sure that your photos will be protected from unauthorized use.

Features :

• Create a Photoshop like watermark
• Create rounded image corner with really smooth edges
• Create image reflections
• Sinus transformation
• Pixel filters (jitter, circle, grid, pixelize, noise …)
• Batch watermark: protect a photo group of any size at a time
• Protect photo independent of their format
• Edit watermarks in easy to use graphical interface
• Create watermarks from image and text
• Save watermark template for future use
• Apply filters to watermarks : drop shadow, outher glow, alpha transparency
• Rotate watermarks for photos
• Make watermarks more detailed for better protection
• Adjust the size of photos
• Animated Gif support
• Full Unicode support
• Creating reflection for a better look
• Windows 7 compatible

Normally Easy Watermark Studio Pro costs $24.99 for purchase of 1-4 licenses. As part of promotional offer, the developers are now giving away full version of Easy Watermark Studio Pro for a limited time. To grab it, just follow the below steps:

1. Visit the promotional page: http://www.easy-watermark-studio.com/en/get-promo
2. Enter your name, email address, and other information, and then click “get license key” button as shown in below image.
3. An email will be sent to you containing the registration key.Note:The generated license key is single use only.
4. Download Easy Watermark Studio Pro v2.0 setup installer: EWS
5. Install Easy Watermark Studio Pro v2.0, and enter the registration key to unlock the program.

Easy Watermark Studio is compatible with Windows 7.

TP : Some cool Goo.gl Easter Eggs

Some time ago, Google released Goo.gl, their URL-shortener. They called it the “stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.”  But it also may be the coolest thanks to an easter egg.

The trick is that if you simply add “.qr” to the end of any goo.gl shortened URL, it will create a QR code. Scanning this with any QR code reader will take you to the URL.

So, for example, this URL: http://goo.gl/jP37N is the shortened link for my homepage. If I make it: http://goo.gl/jP37N.qr , I’ll get the image shown below.

Do Note that Google’s QR code generator is limited to encoding URLs only. If you have other marketing needs such as encoding contact information, or using the QR Code as a dialer, you will have to go elsewhere. There are other limitations: you can not specify levels of error correction, or use other options commonly found in QR code generators, such as the ability to specify display size. This is what you see. For a simple URL, this is just fine.

But these QR codes are great for mobile use, and Google in particular has been using them a lot for things such as easy installation of Android apps.

Next trick is that if you append “.info” to the shortened URL, it will provide you information with respect to the shortened URL like the Long URL, the Traffic data to the URL because of the Shortened URL, the referrers,  Visitor Info(including Countries , Browsers and Platforms). Also you can have the same info by appending a “+” at the end.

e.g. http://goo.gl/jP37N.info or   http://goo.gl/jP37N+

Windows Explorer Probs : Fix Sudden Crashes

Scenario : You are Sitting on your PC, doing some TP, when all of a sudden your Explorer Process crashes through no fault of yours. And you cant identify the problem as it happens when opening “Certain” *coughcough pron coughcough* Folders and not when opening other folders.

Solution : This happened recently to a client of mine. I was troubleshooting his XP. It was the queerest of things as the explorer process seemed to crash on its Whim and Fancy. Whenever i would open a certain folder, it would crash immediately and for others nothing…nada…Zilch .

I knew it wasn’t a virus as the computer wasn’t connected to the internet and pendrive ports were disabled. But then a Pattern Emerged, It could be seen that Explorer crashed when trying to open a folder with video files in it i.e. it was having problem rendering the thumbnail of the Video files. This is a known issue with Windows Explorer’s Zombie-brained video Thumbnail thing. Due to certain corrupt dll’s it will crash & and as you know when one program crashes and Explorer decides to give it company to show goodwill!!!!! 😀 (It was so in XP but Win 7 has been good so far).

The Simplest way to solve this is to stop this irritating thing from going on is to disable the thumbnail shell. To do this,  go to Control Panel > folder options > view

For XP : check ” Do not cache thumbnails” – [Apply to All Folders]    For Win 7 :  check “Always Show icons Never Thumbnails”

This solves the problem of Explorer crashing when opening the folder but everytime you click on the video file windows explorer will crash. Just Simple Highlighting with windows explorer will do that. What will solve this problem is unregistering media preview.

To do so : Open the ‘Run’ dialog box from the start menu (Start->Run or press the Windows and r keys together):

To remove media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll

What is happening is that by unregistering media preview capability you prevent it from even trying to create a preview and therefore prevent it from crashing. But as is normal in windows, Solving  one problem gives rise to other and so unregistering media preview limits the amount of information explorer can give you about a media file – ie length, dimension, bit rate etc ( the advanced properties tab of .mp3 files). This has no effect on windows media player capabilities (or lack of them) and explorer can still display overall file size.

To restore them, register shmedia.dll again

To readd media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shmedia.dll  (For Some reason this disables movie Thumbnails/Previews, not picture thumbnails.)

then go to registry and delete the foll key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}]. This solves both problems.

So in compact form, the steps are :

1. Open Run, type >>    regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll

2. Open Run, type >> regsvr32 shmedia.dll

3. go to registry and delete the foll key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}].

But if you do not want to go through this or if it is still not solved, try to install K-lite mega codecs pack. If already installed, reinstall it.

Note : It can also happen if applications install a faulty shell extension.If so, Use ShellExView, run it & look at the items in pink. Disable them all & see if the problem is resolved .If it is, re-enable them one at a time & retest.

Tech News : Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results

Interesting News!!!  Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this.

I am not covering this in depth, but you can read more about it here :

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html

http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914

Microsoft’s Reply :

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-we-do-not-copy-googles-results/8557