How to Remove Windows Messenger from Windows XP

Windows XP comes with Windows Messenger, the integrated version of what’s known as MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger. If you’ve ever tried to uninstall it, or delete it’s folder, you’ve noticed that it magically reappears and will not stay gone.

There is a way to remove it for good. Here’s the instructions to do this very simply in under 30 seconds.

Go to your Start Menu, Start, and then Run and then type in:
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Activating Windows Seven God Mode, Uber Elite Control Panel

Windows Seven contains a few “Easter eggs” or features for-the-finding. One of these, has been nicknamed “God Mode”, an uber-elite combination of the control panel, system manager, and other assorted control panels, combined to form an AIO (all-in-one) master control panel.

The benefits and applications of such an uber-elite control panel, to any IT savvy computer user, systems administrator, or technician are limitless; Easier and more direct access to troubleshooting and diagnosing system issues, system maintenance, LDAP and domain client-side configuration, etc.

To activate the “God Mode” control panel, we need to create a folder with the specific system registry trigger, included in the folder name. This quick visual guide will cover how to do this in under two minutes. Continue Reading

Selectively Extracting Files or Directories from a Tarball File

If you use Tarball or Gzip file archives for storing your data, occasionally you may need to extract only a few select files or directories, rather than the entire archive file’s contents. Many people waste time, CPU, and drive space extracting the entire archive only to get access to a few of the contents, then to discard the rest of the data.

Why should one wait on files to extract that will just be deleted immediately after, without being used? Thanks to the great minds behind the tar application for Unix and Linux; we have been privileged with a solution. A little-known time saving tip is that extracting only specified directories or files from a tar gzip file is possible. Continue Reading

Restarting Apache without killing active connections

Changes to Apache web server’s configuration typically warrant a necessary immediate restart of the Apache. This is necessary in order for the new configuration changes to take effect due to the way Apace loads configuration settings at start-up.

Examples of changes which would warrant a restart in order to take immediate effect would be changing (adding or removing) an IP address, modifying the maximum connections limit, installing or uninstalling module files, changing virtual host configurations, and the list goes on, etc.

What is a Graceful Restart, and Why Bother Restarting Apache Gracefully?

Chances are you are already aware that the above situations would require a restart of Apache. The question that needs to be answered is “Why restart with the graceful command rather than the standard restart command. Continue Reading

Viewing the contents of tar gzip files without extracing them

What’s a Ball of Tar and a Zipper Have to do with My Linux Box?

Tarball files ( .tar ) are file archives commonly used in Linux and Unix file systems to store data backups and to assist in transferring of multiple files and directories quickly. Usually, tarbal ( .tar ) files are compressed with the GZIP library in order to save space, and make transferring quicker. Gzip’d tarball files are often have a .gz or .gzip file extension succeeding the .tar, and in equal are commonly used to backup and store data, as well as for transferring multiple files and directories around on the internet quickly and easily.

Why View the Contents of an Archive Without Extracting It?

There may be occasions when you simply want to see what is inside of a tar gzip file without having to actually extract the contents. This is Continue Reading