How to Edit the Hosts File on Windows

In many cases, we will need to edit the hosts file on our machine. It is used to resolve hosts names before DNS. We can control access to websites and network traffic with this, in case of attack or any other reasons. Follow these simple steps to edit hosts file on your Windows machine_

_Open up the run command with the Win+R key combo.

_Press the Windows key and type Notepad in the search field.

_In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.

_From Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts

How to Switch Terminal as Administrator on Mac

In many cases, we need to run Terminal as an administrator. To switch the user to root to be able to execute with high privileges as an admin, we can use following command instead of using sudo each time before each commands, and then provide the password on prompting. Once we do that, we will remain as an administrator.

$ sudo -i

The user will get admin privilege and remain root until the terminal is closed. If we don't want to close the terminal, we can execute exit command to change back to the normal user state.

Take a Screenshot With Mac OSX

It always easy to take a screenshot on a Mac. We can take a screenshot of an entire desktop or an active window. In this post, we will talk about the built-in screenshot taking options right into the Mac OS without requiring any additional software.

We can use COMMAND+CONTROL+SHIFT+4 to capture a part/portion of the desktop. A cross-hair cursor will appear for selection. We will be able to click and drag to select the area that we wish to capture. A screenshot of PNG file will be saved on the desktop once we release the mouse. The esc key can be used to turn off the cursor.

Find 'bin' Folder on Mac

Before talking about finding bin folder on Mac, we should know something simple. There is a unique behavior of UNIX system. System directories (/usr, /var, /etc) are always hidden on Mac by default, and this is the reason why we can not navigate to these directories through Finder. If you are an advanced user, you need to get into these folders sometime since these hold many license and configuration files inside. Below are some ways to get into these directories quickly_ 

_Open Finder and press COMMAND+SHIFT+G. Following dialog box opens_

Mac Functions for Need of Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool is very popular little utility for Windows users. You can take screenshot with required dimension with it. Is there any option on Mac that can replace this tool?
Well, absolutely. Mac has Grab, which does the same. We will talk about Grab in detail on other post. Right now, we will list couple of options below that are pretty handy_

Full Screen:  By pressing COMMAND+SHIFT+3, we can save a screenshot for entire screen to the Desktop.
Part of Screen: We can snip a specific area of the screen to the Desktop by pressing COMMAND+SHIFT+4 simultaneously. Once the cursor icon changes to " + ", we need to create a box around the desired section of the screen and release.
Grab: The third option is GRAB that we mentioned earlier. Its a very light but very useful tool that is the best alternative for Windows Snipping Tool.

Tweet with 280 Characters

Twitter declared 280 characters limit for tweeting (current 140) but all users will not be able to use the offer yet. Its only for test on selected accounts. However, there is a workaround. @Prof9 created a little client side script that does the trick_

_Download Tampermonkey and install it on your browser. 
_Head to this Gist, click the “raw” button, and install script to Tampermonkey.
_Create tweet with more than 140 characters, make sure the script in running in Tampermonkey. 
_You have to refresh the page every time you jump on different pages. 
_This is pretty harmless script, only bypasses the tweet button limit.
_Happy Tweeting!!!

Once You Get Hacked

Turn off the Wi-Fi connection and pull the network cable.

Shutdown. Take off the hard drive quickly.

Connect the drive to another machine as a non-bootable drive and scan for infection.

Make a backup.

Put the drive back to the old machine and completely wipe the hard drive, consider repartition and format.

Reinstall OS from trusted source. Must install updates.

Install all the security softwares prior to any other programs.

Scan you backed up files to other machine and copy over.

Don’t forget a Complete Backup.

Make Windows 10 PC Faster

Many of us believe that Windows 7 and XP are best in terms of UI and hardware management. Updating was under control that we knew what is going on. On the other hand, Windows 10 is somewhat of a “bulky” OS. So many of us are having performance issues which are pretty annoying especially for the former Windows 7 users. However, by taking couple of simple steps can increase our PC's performance significantly. Here are some..

Enable Finder to Show or Hide Invisible Files and Folders on Mac

Some people have no clue that there are a huge range of hidden files and folders on their Mac OS X. Apple likes to keep things easy for users by hiding them. This is good for newcomers but keeping files hidden is very tedious for experienced users who is looking to tweak and fine-tune the Mac. So, how do you reveal hidden files on your Mac? Well, we can use our Terminal or third party software. I personally prefer Terminal. Ok then Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt, enter or paste the following command lines one by one then press RETURN.

     defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

     killall Finder