How to access Orkut inspite of Bom Sabado and stop Scrap Flooding

If you have logged in Orkut today, You may have came across Bom Sabado! which means Good Saturday in Portuguese. It is a malicious code or Cookie stealing virus spreading on orkut which floods your Friend’s scrapbook with scraps saying Bom Sabado! This is a major XSS (cross-site scripting) attack which was observed back in February also.

Orkut Officials haven’t given any details but various sources on web confirmed that its a worm that injects a hidden iframe containing a malicious javascript .js [do not click this], which steals the user cookie which contains the password in an encoded form.We cannot confirm whether Bom Sabado is a virus or not but whomsoever is infected should clear cookies and change password immediately from here.

How to access Orkut and stop Bom Sabado?

The attacker do not get to know your plain text password but can login using your credentials by impersonating using the cookie to fool the identification system. So a trivial solution is to disable javascript, another solution is to disable iframes or u can take an advanced measure by blocking the domain by editing your hosts file and redirecting it to a safe address, say 127.0.0.1

Open your Host file with notepad
Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
and for Windows 7 – C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Add this code at the end -
127.0.0.1 tptools.org
127.0.0.1 www.tptools.org

Still, I would recommend not to use Orkut till the issue is fixed.

How to Move Installed Applications from Default C Drive to other Drives

Generally it is observed that once an application is installed on any drive and if later moved or copied to other drives the application becomes useless and does not work. By default Windows installs all applications in C:\ drive but with passage of time we require more and more space on this drive to fulfill our software requirements.

The only way left in this situation is to uninstall some applications. But what if you are using all the installed applications. In situations like this Stream Mover comes handy.

Stream Mover is a portable freeware application for windows that can move installed applications from default installed drive to other drive without any side effects. Working with Stream Mover is easy and you do not have go through any special and tiring configurations. Only thing that you have to do is point the folder where the application you want to use is installed. For instance, in default cases you can point the source folder to C:\Program files. The other thing is the destination, you can set any other drive as destination where the application will be moved. Once these are selected you can press the blue arrow icons in front of respective applications to move them.

My Verdict: This is an extremely useful application but it only works on NTFS formatted drives and is tested on Windows 7. It can move almost all applications but may fail in some cases.

How to Run a Scandisk in DOS Mode

Scandisk is a hard disk repair utility available with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME that can be run from the operating system, the Command Prompt or DOS. Scandisk is a useful tool that can be used when bad sectors are reported on your hard drive. Once the utility is run, it has the ability to automatically detect and repair the bad sectors.

Instructions

Boot the computer into DOS, or open the Command Prompt. To reboot the computer into DOS, open the "Start"  menu, click "Shut Down" and select the option to restart the computer in DOS. To open the Command Prompt, open the "Start" menu, and click "Run." Type "CMD" into the Run text box, and click "OK."

Type "scandisk /checkonly" into the Command or DOS prompt, and press "Enter" if you would like to scan your entire hard drive and only receive a report of its status without making any repairs.

Type "scandisk /autofix" to run the Scandisk utility and have the utility automatically repair all detected errors without prompting. If you would like the utility to prompt you before repairing errors, type "scandisk /all."

Add the suffix "/nosave" to "/autofix" if you would like the utility to delete the erroneous sectors, rather than saving them as files. For example: "scandisk /autofix /nosave."

Add "/nosummary" after the "/checkonly" and "/autofix" modifiers if you would like the utility to refrain from producing a report of its actions upon completion. For example: "scandisk /autofix /nosummary."

How to Find & Remove Duplicate Files on a XP Operating System

Removing duplicate files on your Windows XP operating system is easy. It's finding them first that can present a challenge. To manually find duplicate files you can create a batch file that, when executed, will construct a list of all the files stored on your computer. You can painstakingly go over this list for evidence of duplicate files. Or you could download and install the Windows XP Service Pack 2 support tools. The Service Pack 2 support tools contains a duplicate file finder application that can be used to automatically find duplicate files.

Instructions.
Manual Method

1 Create a batch file to construct a list of all the files stored on your computer. Go to the "All Programs (or Programs)/Accessories" folder in the Start menu and select "Notepad" to open Microsoft Notepad. Copy the following command and paste it in Notepad:

 @ECHO OFF

FOR %%A IN (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z) DO (DIR /B /S /A-D %%A:\>>FILELIST.TXT) 2>NUL

2 Save the file as a batch file by giving the file name a ".bat" extension. Open the Notepad "File" menu and select "Save As." In the "File name" field box, enter "FileNames.bat." Select "Desktop" from the "Save in" drop-down menu and click "Save."

3 Run your batch file. Go to your desktop, right-click the "FileNames" icon and select "Open." This opens the DOS command prompt as Windows constructs a list of all of the files saved on your computer. Wait a few seconds for the entire list to be generated. You won't see anything on the DOS command prompt, but you may be able to hear your computer working.

4 Close the DOS command prompt and open the "FILELIST" text file that's now on your desktop. This file contains a list of all of the files stored on your computer. You may wish to print the list.

5 Review the list. Look for any duplicate file names. If you find any, navigate to each file on your computer and compare the file properties to see if they're the same. To do this, right-click on the file and select "Properties."

6 Erase any duplicates you want to get rid of by right-clicking on the file and selecting "Delete."

Duplicate Finder Tool

1 Download and install Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools (see Resources).

2 Click "Start," select "Run," enter "dupfinder" in the "Open" field box, and click "OK."

3 Select the "C" drive, then click "Start Search."

4 Review the list of duplicate files and remove the ones you'd like to get rid of.

Tips & Warning

There are many third-party duplicate file finder applications on the market, and several of them are freeware. Installing any one of these applications supported for Windows XP may help you find and remove duplicate files from your system's hard drive. However, Microsoft does not guarantee any of these third-party applications. Use them at your own risk.

How to Play Youtube Videos on VLC Media Player

For most of us VLC is a first choice when it comes to Media player and I personally recommend it being opensource and offering support for universal Media formats. It is not completely new feature but now VLC media player supports playing Youtube video just by hitting URL as we do in web browser.

Here is a step by step procedure , that users who are not yet too familiar withVideoLAN can follow to obtain the desired result :

1. Start VLC;
2. Go menu Media > Open network stream;
3. Paste the URL YouTube videos ( eg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grTCDFbhKMU ) in Enter a URL network and click Play.

It also allows you to save streams from Youtube although there are many ways todownload Youtube videos So, download VLC Media player 1.1 or if you already have one installed, check for updates.

How to Configure a Proxy

The proxy server acts as a negotiator between a client machine and a main server. In some cases, the proxy server will help a non-compatible server and client machine talk to each other. Requests are first sent from a client machine and are then routed to a proxy server. Requests are validated based on a series of filters. These filters tell the proxy server what information is allowed to and from the client machine or outside source.

Instructions

Via Internet Explorer

Step 1

Open the Internet Explorer  browser window.

Step 2

Click the "Tools" down arrow and select "Internet Options."

Step 3

Click the "Connections" tab.

Step 4

Click the "LAN settings" button. The Local Area Network (LAN) Settings window will open.

Step 5

Select the "Use a proxy server for your LAN" checkbox.

Step 6

Click the "Advanced" button.

Step 7

Type in the proxy address and port number (typically, 8080) as defined by your proxy server.

Step 8

Add any exceptions that are required.

Step 9

Click the "OK" button.

Via the Registry

Step 1

Open Notepad. Click the "Start" button. Select "All Programs." Click the "Accessories" folder. Select "Notepad."

Step 2

Type the following into Notepad:

Regedit4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
"MigrateProxy"=dword:00000001
"ProxyEnable"=dword:00000001
"ProxyHttp1.1"=dword:00000000
"ProxyServer"="http://ServerName:80"
"ProxyOverride"=""

Replace "ServerName" with the name of the proxy server.

Step 3

Save the file. Name the file as you wish, but use a .reg extension. The .reg extension tells Windows to take the data within the file and copy it to the registry.

How to Access a Remote Linux PC from a Windows PC

This tutorial will show you how to emulate a remote Linux desktop from Microsoft Windows using two applications: PuTTY and RealVNC.

Instructions

Step 1

Download and install these two applications, which are available free of charge:
*PuTTY from the PuTTY Download Page.
*RealVNC, from the RealVNC website.
Open each of the downloaded program files and run the installation wizard to install them on your computer.

Step 2

Open and run the PuTTY application. Enter your IP address in the Host Name box. Ensure that the Port is set to 22.

Step 3

Find your IP address. To do this, click on the Start menu located at the bottom-left corner of the screen and click Run. Type cmd in the text field and click OK. This will open the command prompt. Type in ipconfig and hit the Enter key on your keyboard. Now, your IP address will be displayed in the command prompt.

Step 4

Under Protocol, select SSH. Next, you need to enter a name for your session. Click Save. Click Open. This should take you back to the black PuTTY window.

Step 5

Now you need to open a tunnel on your remote Linux machine by using the following command: vncserver :01. This will let you emulate your remote desktop.

Step 6

Restart the PuTTY application. Next, select your saved session and then click Load.
Look in the far left menu bar and scroll to the bottom. Select Tunnels. This takes you to the Tunnels screen. Enter 59## into the Source Port box. ("##" represents your tunnel number).

Step 7

Enter your IP address into the destination box. The options for Local and Auto should be selected.
Click Session to go back to your first screen. The Session button is located on the menu on the far left.

Step 8

You are now ready to emulate your Linux desktop. Click Open in the PuTTY window and start the RealVNC Server.
Enter localhost: followed by your tunnel number in the window that pops up.
When RealVNC Server prompts for the Linux password, simply enter it and click OK.

You have now successfully emulated your remote Linux desktop from your Windows computer.