Cool Tricks and Tools, Operating Systems, Virtualization

Optimize Windows 7 Guest Operating System Performance for VMware

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These recommendations include turning off the screen saver and not specifying a sleep timer. Your organization might require the use of screen savers. For example, you might have a GPO-managed security policy that locks a desktop a certain time after the screen saver starts. In this case, use a blank screen saver.

Prerequisites

Prepare a guest operating system for desktop deployment.

First Procedures:
■

Disable any unused ports, such as COM1, COM2, and LPT.
■

Adjust display properties.

a
 Choose a basic theme.
b

Set the background to a solid color.
c

Set the screen saver to None.
d
 Verify that hardware acceleration is enabled.
■

Select a high-performance power option and do not specify a sleep timer.
■

Disable the Indexing Service component.

Note

Indexing improves searches by cataloging files. Do not disable this feature for users that search often.
■
 Remove or minimize System Restore points.
■

Turn off system protection on C:\.
■

Disable any unnecessary services.
■
 Set the sound scheme to No Sounds.
■

Set visual effects to Adjust for best performance.
■
 Open Windows Media Player and use the default settings.
■

Turn off automatic computer maintenance.
■

Adjust performance settings for best performance.
■

Delete any hidden uninstall folders in C:\Windows, such $NtUninstallKB893756$.
■

Delete all event logs.
■
 Run Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove system files and other items that are no longer needed.
■

Run Disk Defragmenter to rearrange fragmented data.

 

Next Procedure

1

Uninstall Tablet PC Components, unless this feature is needed.
2

Disable IPv6, unless it is needed.
3

Use the File System Utility (fsutil) command to disable the setting that keeps track of the last time a file was accessed.

For example: fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1
4

Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and change the TimeOutValue REG_DWORD inHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Disk to 0x000000be(190).
5

Shut down the guest operating system and power off the virtual machine.
6

Change the virtual machine video card RAM setting to 128 MB.
7
 Power on the virtual machine.

 

Thank you to:  pubs.vmware.com for this information.

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Command Line Shortcuts, Cool Tricks and Tools, Reference Material

VI Cheat Sheet

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Modes

Vi has two modes insertion mode and command mode. The editor begins in command mode, where the cursor movement and text deletion and pasting occur. Insertion mode begins upon entering an insertion or change command. [ESC] returns the editor to command mode (where you can quit, for example by typing :q!). Most commands execute as soon as you type them except for “colon” commands which execute when you press the ruturn key.

Quitting

:wq Exit, saving changes
:q Exit as long as there have been no changes
ZZ Exit and save changes if any have been made
:q! Exit and ignore any changes

Inserting Text

i Insert before cursor
I Insert before line
a Append after cursor
A Append after line
o Open a new line after current line
O Open a new line before current line
r Replace one character
R Replace many characters

Motion

h Move left
j Move down
k Move up
l Move right
w Move to next word
W Move to next blank delimited word
b Move to the beginning of the word
B Move to the beginning of blank delimted word
e Move to the end of the word
E Move to the end of Blank delimited word
( Move a sentence back
) Move a sentence forward
{ Move a paragraph back
} Move a paragraph forward
0 Move to the begining of the line
$ Move to the end of the line
1G Move to the first line of the file
G Move to the last line of the file
nG Move to nth line of the file
:n Move to nth line of the file
fc Move forward to c
Fc Move back to c
H Move to top of screen
M Move to middle of screen
L Move to botton of screen
% Move to associated ( ), { }, [ ]

Deleting Text

Almost all deletion commands are performed by typing d followed by a motion. For example, dw deletes a word. A few other deletes are:
x Delete character to the right of cursor
X Delete character to the left of cursor
D Delete to the end of the line
dd Delete current line
:d Delete current line

Yanking Text

Like deletion, almost all yank commands are performed by typing y followed by a motion. For example, y$ yanks to the end of the line. Two other yank commands are:
yy Yank the current line
:y Yank the current line

Changing text

The change command is a deletion command that leaves the editor in insert mode. It is performed by typing c followed by a motion. For wxample cw changes a word. A few other change commands are:
C Change to the end of the line
cc Change the whole line

Putting text

p Put after the position or after the line
P Put before the poition or before the line

Buffers

Named buffers may be specified before any deletion, change, yank or put command. The general prefix has the form “c where c is any lowercase character. for example, “adw deletes a word into buffer a. It may thereafter be put back into text with an appropriate “ap.

Markers

Named markers may be set on any line in a file. Any lower case letter may be a marker name. Markers may also be used as limits for ranges.
mc Set marker c on this line
`c Go to beginning of marker c line.
‘c Go to first non-blank character of marker c line.

Search for strings

/string Search forward for string
?string Search back for string
n Search for next instance of string
N Search for previous instance of string

Replace

The search and replace function is accomplished with the :s command. It is commonly used in combination with ranges or the :g command (below).
:s/pattern/string/flags Replace pattern with string according to flags.
g Flag – Replace all occurences of pattern
c Flag – Confirm replaces.
& Repeat last :s command

Regular Expressions

. (dot) Any single character except newline
* zero or more occurances of any character
[…] Any single character specified in the set
[^…] Any single character not specified in the set
^ Anchor – beginning of the line
$ Anchor – end of line
\< Anchor – begining of word
\> Anchor – end of word
\(…\) Grouping – usually used to group conditions
\n Contents of nth grouping

 

[…] – Set Examples
[A-Z] The SET from Capital A to Capital Z
[a-z] The SET from lowercase a to lowercase z
[0-9] The SET from 0 to 9 (All numerals)
[./=+] The SET containing . (dot), / (slash), =, and +
[-A-F] The SET from Capital A to Capital F and the dash (dashes must be specified first)
[0-9 A-Z] The SET containing all capital letters and digits and a space
[A-Z][a-zA-Z] In the first position, the SET from Capital A to Capital Z
In the second character position, the SET containing all letters

 

Regular Expression Examples
/Hello/ Matches if the line contains the value Hello
/^TEST$/ Matches if the line contains TEST by itself
/^[a-zA-Z]/ Matches if the line starts with any letter
/^[a-z].*/ Matches if the first character of the line is a-z and there is at least one more of any character following it
/2134$/ Matches if line ends with 2134
/\(21|35\)/ Matches is the line contains 21 or 35
Note the use of ( ) with the pipe symbol to specify the ‘or’ condition
/[0-9]*/ Matches if there are zero or more numbers in the line
/^[^#]/ Matches if the first character is not a # in the line
Notes:
1. Regular expressions are case sensitive
2. Regular expressions are to be used where pattern is specified

Counts

Nearly every command may be preceded by a number that specifies how many times it is to be performed. For example, 5dw will delete 5 words and 3fe will move the cursor forward to the 3rd occurence of the letter e. Even insertions may be repeated conveniently with thismethod, say to insert the same line 100 times.

Ranges

Ranges may precede most “colon” commands and cause them to be executed on a line or lines. For example :3,7d would delete lines 3-7. Ranges are commonly combined with the :s command to perform a replacement on several lines, as with :.,$s/pattern/string/g to make a replacement from the current line to the end of the file.
:n,m Range – Lines n–m
:. Range – Current line
:$ Range – Last line
:’c Range – Marker c
:% Range – All lines in file
:g/pattern/ Range – All lines that contain pattern

Files

:w file Write to file
:r file Read file in after line
:n Go to next file
:p Go to previos file
:e file Edit file
!!program Replace line with output from program

Other

~ Toggle upp and lower case
J Join lines
. Repeat last text-changing command
u Undo last change
U Undo all changes to line

 

Special thanks to LAGMONSTER.ORG for this Cheat Sheet

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Cool Tricks and Tools, Operating Systems

Disable Search Indexing In Windows 7

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In order to speed up the search process, the search indexing service scans through the files and folders on the Windows system and records information about them in an index file. But it also consumes some resources of the system, so for the users with a slow computer it is beneficial to turn off search indexing. Go through the following simple steps to disable search indexing.

First of all click Start, type services.msc and press Enter.
1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will open Services dialogue box.
2

 

 

 

 

 

Now locate the Windows Search service in the list of services, right click it and choose  Properties.

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the startup type drop down box, choose the Disabled option.
4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the Apply button, reboot your computer and that’s it, Search Indexing has been disabled. Enjoy!

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Cool Tricks and Tools

How to Enable Auto Logon for Windows Joined as Domain Member

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Follow these procedure to force Windows to skip and bypass asking user for user to select or input user name and password:

  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. In Windows Vista or 7, simply type regedit in Start Search and hit Enter.
  2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
  3. Double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type the user name to log on with, and then click OK.
    1. If DefaultUserName registry value name is not found, create the new String Value (REG_SZ) with value name as DefaultUserName.
  4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type the password for the user account under the value data box, and then click OK.
    1. If there is no DefaultPassword value, create a new String Value subkey (REG_SZ) with DefaultPassword as the value name.
  5. In Windows, DefaultDomainName has to be specified as well, else Windows will prompt of invalid user name with user name displayed as .\username. To do so, double click on DefaultDomainName, and specify the domain name of the user account. If it’s local user, specify local host name.
    1. If the DefaultDomainName does not exist, create a new String Value (REG_SZ) registry key with value name as DefaultDomainName.
  6. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.
    1. If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create a new String Value entry (REG_SZ) with AutoAdminLogon as the value name.
  7. If exist, delete the AutoLogonCount key.
  8. Quit Registry Editor.
  9. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.
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