How to find the “real IP address" of a web site?

You can use the PING utility included with Windows to determine the “real” IP address of a web site. Before using this utility, make sure you are not mapping a host name to some IP address with HostName Commander, because if you do, the PING utility will show the address you’ve set up with HostName Commander, instead of the “real” IP address.

To run the PING utility, click on the Windows Start button, and choose Run from the Start Menu. If you use Windows 95,98, or Me, enter “command” (without the quotes) as the command line to run. If you use Windows XP,2000, or NT, enter “cmd” (again, without the quotes). Click OK and the command prompt window should appear on the screen.

Now enter the word “ping” (without the quotes) followed by a space, followed by the host name you want to determine the IP address of, and press Enter:

In this example, the IP address of the host name www.rkgit.edu.in is 74.52.201.2 & IP Address of the host name www.kiet.edu is 220.225.19.55 . (Keep in mind that the IP address may change in the future!). If the PING utility reports an error, make sure your computer is connected to the Internet when you are running it.

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Now Windows 7 will be officially called “Windows 7″

Microsoft has recently confirmed that the upcoming version of Windows will now officially be called Windows 7.

This was revealed by Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management in a blog post at the Windows Vista Blog. For as far as we know, this is final deal and perhaps its the first time ever a Windows release has been officially named after its codename.

This is what Mike had to say.

“Since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating
system we have been referring to it by a codename, “Windows 7.” But now is a
good time to announce that we’ve decided to officially call the next version of
Windows, “Windows 7″

According to Mike, Microsoft selected "Windows 7" as its official name because of of its simplicity and the fact that it is the seventh version of Windows.

Windows 7 will basically be a more evolved version of Windows Vista with new applications, improvements and technology.

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Make Your Windows Vista Computer Faster with this free PDF Book from Microsoft

Windows Vista users should download this free PDF ebook - Vista Performance and Tuning Guide - as it discusses several tweaks that help a computer feel more responsive.

I was reading through the book and found this particular recommendation very handy where they say that you should put a computer to Sleep as this state doesn’t consume much power and machine will always start faster. Excerpt:

—

Sleep should be considered the new default “Off” state in Windows Vista. When a computer enters Sleep state, Windows Vista saves the current session to memory and enters a low power state where only memory is powered.

In Sleep state, the computer uses very little power - extending battery life for mobile computers and conserving energy even for desktop computers while ensuring that the computer is still ready for action quickly. In fact, on a modern laptop computer, power consumption in sleep state is typically less than one watt.

Windows Vista also includes a new Hybrid Sleep function. Hybrid Sleep will function as a failsafe in case of power loss by saving the session to memory normally, but also writing it all to the hard drive (similarly to how hibernate works). This ensures that even when power is lost, data remains intact.

When you want to resume working, just press the power button, tap a key on the keyboard, or, on laptop computers, open the cover. Windows Vista takes only a few seconds to resume from sleep, though it can take a little longer to resume from Hybrid Sleep after you restore a power source to the computer.

Identify Software Programs & Hardware Devices That Work (or Don’t Work) with Windows Vista

Microsoft has long offered desktop tools to help you check compatibility of existing software programs and hardware devices with Windows Vista.

For instance, you could run the Upgrade Advisor on an XP computer to know if that old machine can afford to run Vista. The problem is that you can check Vista compatibility of only installed software or hardware that’s already attached to the computer.

How do you know if that printer & scanner lying in the basement would work with Vista. Or will that old copy of Photoshop install successfully on your new Windows Vista computer?

Rather than hunting for this information on web forums and manufacturer websites, check the all-new Compatibility Center - a central database of hardware devices & software programs along with their current Vista compatibility status.

You could check compatibility of mobile phones and digital cameras with Windows Vista. Some screenshots.

In case a product is not compatible with Windows Vista (like Photoshop 7), there’s a link to the developer’s website (in this case, Adobe) for getting further information. Overall, a pretty useful tool.

Microsoft Offers Free Tech Support to All Windows Vista Customers

Got a problem finding the correct printer driver for your Windows Vista computer? Or did some of your software programs and hardware devices stop working after you installed SP1? Or are you facing trouble while installing Vista SP1?

Well, you may stop hunting blogs and web forums for solutions and contact Microsoft directly over phone, email or web chat as they now offer free and unlimited tech support to all Windows Vista customers worldwide who are using Vista Service Pack 1.

The offer is valid worldwide until March 18, 2009.

To get started, go here and pick your country. Here are direct links to Microsoft toll-free phone numbers in India, United States, UK, Australia, Singapore and France.

The offer may not be used with pirated copies of Windows Vista as you would require the 20 digit Product ID for filing a support. Right click My Computer and choose Properties. The Product ID is mentioned under "Windows Activation"

Adding the Word ‘Obama’ In Windows Vista Dictionary Requires 56MB

Microsoft recently released a patch for Windows Vista (kb 955020) that updates the English and German language dictionary of Windows Vista to include these five words:

Obama, Nazr, Friendster, Klum and Racicot.

That’s all it does - add five new words to the English and German dictionaries in Vista - but you’ll be very surprised to know that this patch still weighs a whooping 56 MB as pointed by Register.

Perhaps the patch completely replaces the existing Vista dictionaries with new files but its still an interesting observation.

If you like to save yourself from the trouble of downloading a 56 MB file for the sake of adding five words that you’ll rarely use, just write these words in a document, right click and and add them to the Custom.dic dictionary.

Do Not Disable Windows Vista Search Indexer, Get This Fix

“Windows Vista Search Indexer has stopped working” – do you see this error message too often on your Windows Vista computer ?

Earlier, Microsoft suggested deleting all search index related files and rebuilding the Vista search index from scratch but that option didn’t work for many Windows Vista users. The error would pop every 10 minutes and the search application would then close itself.

It was very frustrating. A possible workaround was to completely disable the Windows Search indexing service but again, this is not a practical solution because with desktop search turned off, how would you find Outlook emails or files on the Vista computer.

Now the good news is that Microsoft has finally released a small patch that updates Windows Search Indexer (SearchIndexer.exe) and should cure the problem permanently. Here’s a direct link incase you like to skip the mandatory Windows validation check.

I am yet to reboot the Vista PC after installing this kb952093 hotfix so am not too sure how well this fix for Windows Vista Search works.

Get a Reminder to Unplug Your USB Flash Drive from the Computer

Flash Drive Reminder is a handy utility for people (especially college students) who work across different computers and carry their data on a USB memory stick.

This will display a desktop reminder saying that the USB drive is still in the computer if you try to log off without unplugging the stick.

Brad Greco writes – “I have an annoying tendency to leave my flash drive plugged in to the computer when I leave. I began to get tired of returning to the library and asking the front desk if anyone had found a flash drive, so I decided to write a little program that would ensure that I’d never leave it plugged into a computer again.”

Flash Drive Reminder adds an option to the autorun box that appears when you insert a flash drive into the computer. When you log off from Windows, this will pop up a dialog box reminding you to remove the flash drive.

Works on Windows XP and Vista systems provided Auto Play Option is enabled on the computer where you insert the drive.

VISTA LOOK FOR XP

If you are still a Windows XP user like me, you should definitely check out this cool free software called Vistamizer, which can make your XP look like Vista. While there has been quite some negative comments about Windows Vista since its release last year, one thing for sure is the new graphical interface of Vista is really cool.. a lot cooler than Windows XP. So in order to make XP look like Vista, I use this cool stuff called Vistamizer. This cool software will modifies your system files, and totally convert your system into the cool Vista GUI. You will not remember how your old desktop looks like after installing Vistamizer. The good thing about this software is that it will backup all the changes that have been made to your system, so you can easily revert it back to the original system setting.

I installed Vistamizer on my Windows XP few days back, and have no complaint on it so far. It's stable, and does not affect the system performance. My friend actually thought that I have upgraded to Vista when I show them my new desktop . A great software to make XP look like Vista.

How to Safely Restart Windows Explorer in Vista

Lets face it, everyone has seen the explorer closing after putting the computer under cryogenics and leaving the user in a state of panic to save the current work. And the only remedy was to close the explorer process using Task Manager, which was not exactly an efficient way to do it because it left one with nothing but the desktop staring at the users face.



Thankfully, Microsoft have admitted (in a shy kind of way) to this and
have provided a “legal” and safe way to close the explorer.





The trick tucked-away in the Start menu of Windows Vista lets you restart Windows Explorer without hastily killing its process and potentially breaking your session.

The Trick

• Open the Start menu.


• Hold down the Control and Shift keys, and right-click on a blank space in the Start menu.


• Choose “Exit Explorer.”


• Open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), navigate to File->Run, enter “explorer” and hit OK.

Why would you ever want to restart Explorer, you might ask? To try out new system modifications, for one, or try and rescue your desktop from crashing. In any case, the Geek’s method gives Explorer a chance to properly close down and protect against any strange occurrences down the road.