Ed Buford - Just Another Geek

Robocopy

I thought I'd take a few minutes to post about an old friend of mine.... Robocopy. It's part of the Server Resource Kit, if you don't already have the resource kit, download it here.

I won't go into detail as to how to use it, you can email me if you're having trouble with it, but here are some bullet points about what it will do for you.

• Copy Permissions
• Mirror Folder / Files
• Copy in restartable mode
• Copy only updated files
• Monitor Folders and Automagically update

And of course since this is a command line, you can script all the functions in a batch file.

For those of you who want a GUI, you can get one here.

Every Port in a Storm

For this weeks Favorite I thought I'd give you a great little tool CurrPorts.

This sweet little tool will tell not only tell you what ports your listening on but also gives you the IP address and other spicy stuff of the machine  you're connected to.

Download CurrPorts from Nirsoft

Getting the best Price

I'm constantly hunting to get the best price on stuff. Whether it's trying to get the best deal on a hard drive or looking for a Banjo (which I am incidentally) my favorite place to start is PriceGrabber. It’s helped me more times than I can count… give it a try.

Whois That?

Whois is a program that will give you cool info about a domain name or public IP address. You can use Sam Spade or some other online version to pull this info up but if you’re like me, I’d rather have a command line. Mark Russinovich from Sysinternals has created a Whois command for Windows. Download it and put it in your system32 folder then kick the tires, it really is a good ride.

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Every have a computer you just can’t login to? Well as a computer geek I’m often faced with the challenge of logging onto computers I don’t have a password for or the administrators account has been disabled or locked out. Now the best solution I’ve seen is ERD Commander but this wonderful software comes with a hefty price tag. There is however a very slick Open Source solution and it works very well, it’s the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. You download it and create a bootable floppy disk that you use to boot up the machine you want to change the password on. You’ll want to read everything when you boot the machine up, but you can click enter for most of items have the correct default set for it. Make sure you change the password of the local administrator account to blank; I’ve tried changing other accounts and had poor results.

Although this tool isn’t for the faint of heart; it is easy enough to use and it’s guaranteed to make you smile.

Fridays Favorites

If you’re reading this blog at then chances are you’re a geek, and that means you like to learn stuff others don’t know :)  and it’s a big bonus when those things actually make your life easier!

Inspired by Jason’s Friday Funnies, I’ve decided to start a Friday Favorites post. It will be about my favorite tools, shortcuts, websites, geek stuff, non-geek stuff and just anything I really like in general.

To kick this thing off I’ll give you my most favorite of all keyboard shortcuts. This shortcut includes the Windows key (usually stuck between the CRTL and ALT keys on your keyboard) and the letter E.  This will open the Windows Explorer. I love this shortcut, but alas my IBM laptop doesn’t have a Windows Key :(