Two most useful collection of free software utilities CD's everyone must have

Most of the windows users encounter some or the other problems related to their computer. It may be hardware or software related problems. Always it is better if you could manage to troubleshoot the basic problems on their own. Here are two free software tools collection CD's recommended to have which helps you to troubleshoot problems related to hardware and software.

Hiren's BootCD : This CD has good collection of very useful tools and utilities related to backup, filesystem, antivirus, hard disk, network, tweakers, memory testing, system information, security and encryption, registry, remote accessing, data recovery, password, partition and many others. Click here to read more.

Ultimate Boot CD: This CD consists of tools related to hardware such as BIOS, hard disk, data recovery, partitioning , boot management and other hardware peripherals and other hardware related. Click here to read more.

DOS network commands

Hold the "WINDOW" key and press "R" to open RUN window. Type "cmd" and press ENTER key to open DOS command window.

ipconfig = Displays the present active network connections settings assigned by the network such as IP address, Subnet mask and Default gateway. If nothing is assigned or is not connected to network you get the message media disconnected.
Type ipconfig /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "ipconfig" command.

net = Used to start, stop, session, statistics and view the network services.
Type net /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "net" command.

netstat = Displays all the active connections and its listening ports and the state of the network connections whether the connection is established or not.
Type netstat /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "netstat" command.

nbtstat = Displays all current network connections and its protocol statistics using network session layer to perform mapping of computer name to IP address.
Type nbtstat /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "nbtstat" command.

ping = Displays the statistics of packet movement between your computer and the remote host computer. The statistics contains details of time taken by a packet of data to reach host computer from your computer and vice-versa. If the connection to the remote host computer is not accessible then you get a message  "Request Timed Out".
Type ping /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "ping" command.

tracert = Displays the path for the packet of data that has taken to reach the remote host computer or destination. By default statistics is displayed for maximum of 30 hops meaning the number of routers that a packet has passed through to reach the destination.
Type tracert /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "tracert" command.

route = Manually a route can be added , deleted or changed in the existing route table for your active connections. You can view all the network interface list and active routing table when you use the route command as "route print".
Type route /? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "route" command.

arp = Used to add, delete, modify and display the IP address to physical address of the network adapter in the address translation table.
Type arp/? and press ENTER key at the DOS prompt to find all the parameters that can be assigned with "arp" command.

Easy way to search the web using Mozilla Firefox web browser

Generally we search the web by opening web browser and clicking on address bar and typing the web search engine URL and pressing ENTER key. Instead, there is a easy way to search the web only with keyboard using Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox web browser comes with integrated web search box for Google, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon.com, eBay and Wikipedia search engines where you can search the web using any of these favorite search engine. By default the web search is done using Google search engine.

Hold the "CTRL" key and press "K" to move the cursor to the web search box and type the content to search and press ENTER key to search using Google search engine.

To search the web using other search engines, hold the "CTRL" key and press "UP" or "DOWN" arrow key to toggle between Google, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon.com, eBay and Wikipedia search engines.

Example : If you want to search a word using Google search engine, hold "CTRL" and press "K" and type the word to search and press ENTER key. Again if you want to search the same or different word using Yahoo search engine, hold "CTRL" and press "K" and use the "UP" or "DOWN" arrow key holding "CTRL" key till you see Yahoo icon on the left corner of the search box and press ENTER key.

Windows built-in keyboard shortcuts

• Windows key or Ctrl + Esc =  To open windows start menu.
• F1 = To open help.
• F3 = To open search window when the cursor in on desktop.
• Windows key + F = To open search window.
• Ctrl + Shift + Esc = To open Windows Task Manager.
• Windows key + D = To minimize or maximize all opened windows to or from taskbar.
• Alt + Tab = Toggle between opened windows.
• Alt + F4 or Alt + Space Bar + C = To close the opened window.
• Alt + Space Bar + N = To minimize opened window.
• Alt + Space Bar + X = To maximize the application window.
• Alt + Space Bar + R = To restore the opened window.
• Alt + Space Bar + M = To move the opened window on the desktop.
• Shift + F10 = To open right-click menu options.
• Windows key + R and type "explore" and press Enter key = To open Windows Explorer.
• Windows key + R and type "Notepad" and press Enter key = To open Notepad.
• Windows key + R and type "Write" and press Enter key = To open Wordpad.
• Windows key + R and type "explore" and press Enter key = To open Windows Explorer.
• Windows key + R and type "iexplore" and press Enter key = To open Internet Explorer.
• Windows key + R and type "Winword" and press Enter key = To open Microsoft Word.
• Windows key + R and type "Excel" and press Enter key = To open Microsoft Excel.
• Windows key + R and type "Powerpnt" and press Enter key = To open Microsoft Powerpoint.
• Windows key + R and type "mspaint" and press Enter key = To open Microsoft Paint.
• Windows key + R and type "dfrg.msc" and press Enter key = To open Disk Defrag Tool.
• Windows key + R and type "calc" and press Enter key = To open Calculator.
• Windows key + R and type "cmd" and press Enter key = To open command prompt.
• Windows key + R and type "mplayer2" and press Enter key = To open Windows Media Player.
• Windows Key + Break = To open System properties.
• Windows Key + L = To lock the desktop.
• Windows Key + U = To open Utility Manager.

How to remove bad sectors from hard disk

Most people might have faced problems like CRC (Cyclic Redundany Check) or cannot open the files or programs properly. This is because the hard disk might have filled with bad sectors which makes your data unreadable or corrupt. Any data stored in bad sector is likely to be lost. Usually data spreads across the sectors of the hard disk. You get error message if you try opening a file when the data related to that particular file is stored in bad sectors. Bad sectors occur due to physical damage or magnetic head problem in the hard disk. This is an indication that the hard disk would crash soon.

The bad sectors can be recovered by Low Level formatting using DOS command utility "FDISK". You have to use Windows 98 bootable CD or DOS bootable floppy to boot the computer from DOS and type FDISK and press "ENTER" key. FDISK is a utility to create hard disk partitions and format the created partitions. It is always better to remove the bad sector filled partition and create partition again then format the partition using FDISK utility to remove bad sectors. You can use another DOS command SCANDISK to scan for bad sectors, but this command will mark the bad sector to be skipped so that no data is stored in bad sectors but the hard disk will continue having bad sectors.

Windows has built in tool to recover bad sectors. To access this tool, open "MY COMPUTER" and right-click on the drive and click on "PROPERTIES"or go to start and click on "RUN"or hold "WINDOWS" key and press "E" to open WINDOWS EXPLORER and right-click on the drive and click "PROPERTIES". Go to "TOOLS" tab and click on "CHECK NOW" under ERROR-CHECKING title to open CHECK DISK window select "SCAN FOR AND ATTEMPT RECOVERY OF BAD SECTORS".

There are many other tools available to fix or recover bad sectors. But I strongly recommend "HDD REGENERATOR" for recovering bad sectors. This tool will not skip or mark the bad sector, instead it will restore the bad sectors without changing or affecting the existing data thus making your data readable.