Quick Bytes IT Stuff

Get the folder capacity using PowerShell via the old-school method. Old-school since we will utilize the native “dir” command, just like the good old days of DOS. PowerShell dir command output is not the same with the native windows system32 dir command line just like in DOS system. The output will be in bytes since it is from the command line but of course, if you are command line junkie it will be easy to read even if the capacity is written in bytes. First, fire up notepad write the dir command plus the full folder path of the specified folder in which you like to monitor or want to know the capacity.  dir “c:\users\dmusic\music folder 001” The path is enclosed in quotes since the folder has spaces and save the notepad as a batch file with “.bat” extension. Open PowerShell command line window or PowerShell ISE and type the following command: #change the path to where the batch file was saved $folder_base_cap = d:\read_folder_cap.bat  ...

To sort numbers, digits, or figures in Excel 2016 is quite straight forward. There are two ways to do it via the Home tab or Data tab. What is found on the Home tab is sorting of alphabets or A-Z option which can easily be seen beside the auto-sum function which is on the right most tab of the ribbon by default. Screen shot below shows the sorting functionality found in Home tab. The other way to sort by numbers, digits or figures in Excel 2016 is to click on “Data” click on “Sort” then an option will appear to sort by smallest to largest or largest to smallest. A screen shot below shows where to find the function. That’s it hopes it helps to make thing easier. ================================ Free Android Apps: Click on links below to find out more: Excel Keyboard shortcuts guide https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chrisjoms.myexcelapplicationguide Linux Android App cheat sheet: ...

    Disabling USB ports using PowerShell by modifying registry values. How to user PowerShell to modify an existing value in Windows Registry? PowerShell code below modifies the registry value and disable USB ports in Windows. The code must be run in an elevated mode to modify the registry. Here's the code: Modify the registry key value using PowerShell: Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR\" -Name "start" -Value 4 To enable the USB ports, change the value to 3: Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR\" -Name "start" -Value 3 Disabling USB ports is quite annoying of course, but if security is a concern then I guess it is justifiable especially computers that can easily be accessed by unwanted guests or individuals. It will also protect the network or computers from getting malware's or viruses that is transferred or copied via USB s...

IOT –  an acronym for Internet of things. What is IOT? What is it about? What does it do? IOT composes of two components, Internet and things. So, what are the things? Things are smart phone, Arduino, Beagle bone, Raspberry Pi, Smart TV’s, Refrigerators, air-condition system or basically any devices or appliances that are capable to be connected to the network or to the Internet. If those thing, devices or appliances is not connected to the network or internet they are just on their own. They are just things of the people who owned them. But once they are connected to the Internet and are controlled remotely, then it becomes an IOT the Internet of Things, since they are already part of a larger network. In which, some software or individuals can access to the things remotely. IOT is a good thing but there will always be individuals who will abuse or do evil things. IOT devices or appliances should be safe and secure. But things are hackable  and I gu...

Simple bash script for beginners trying to get their hands wet on bash scripting. The code below will ask for input and the input should be a string or a folder name. The script will just do a basic ls and if the folder name is found it will show “The folder is found” or else the next echo statement is displayed. Instead of simply displaying an echo command a function or another script can be called to execute a process further. #!/bin/bash # This script will ask for a string or folder name and check whether it is present or not echo "Enter folder name, followed by [ENTER]:" read folder_name ls | grep ^$folder_name && echo "The folder is found" || echo "The folder cannot be found" #Script ends It’s a one liner evaluation, some sort an if then else in other programming languages, the && statement is executed if the evaluation is true, and if the evaluation is false the || is executed. The read fold...

Set excel worksheet visibility by changing its property. Simple and a one liner code to hide and unhide worksheet in Excel. Sub Visible_Sheet() Worksheets(1).Visible = 1  'Make the worksheet visible End Sub Sub Hide_RightClick_Unhide() Worksheets(1).Visible = 0    'Hide Worksheet to Unhide Right click on Sheet name and unhide the worksheet End Sub Sub Super_Hide() Worksheets("calcx").Visible = 2  'Hide Worksheet but right click on Sheet name will not show whether the sheet is hidden or not End Sub Cheers! Till next time. ================================ Free Android Apps: Click on links below to find out more: Excel Keyboard shortcuts guide https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chrisjoms.myexcelapplicationguide Linux Android App cheat sheet: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LinuxMobileKit Multiplication Ta...

Validate list of email addresses in a text file and check which email is a valid email and which one has the incorrect format. PowerShell code below can easily check or validate incorrect email, output will show true if valid email and false if the email is not valid. To check list of valid emails PowerShell utilizes regex. This is useful to check typo errors when sending out mass email or a list of emails which has not yet been verified. But of course, the code will not be able to check whether the emails are active or not. #=============================== $reader = [System.IO.File]::OpenText("c:\all_emails.txt") #get-content can also be used #read the file line by line and validate the data while($null -ne ($line = $reader.ReadLine())) {     #$line     $regx="[a-z0-9!#\$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#\$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?"     [...

Searching files with regex will come in handy provided you know the pattern you want to look for. Searching for files that you don't have any clue or idea which one to find is such a dreadful situation. Regex will help to filter files base on the pattern set from a fragmented memory due to multi-tasking world. For example, you are quite sure that the file you're looking for starts with s and followed by letter k. So files like skype_password.txt, skew animation.mp4, skbanner.logo, skin.css, skilled-listing.docx or any files that begins with "sk" will be filtered. Here's the PowerShell code to do it: #=================== $regx_filters = get-childitem "c:\all_files_n_rumble\" -recurse | where-object {$_.name -match '^s[k]' } Write-Output $regx_filters   #=================== To get folder or directory names with regex: #=================== $regexPattern ="^l[i]" Get-ChildItem -Path "...

In bash script the backslash is use as escape sequence and even in Java programming. But what's the equivalent of bash escape sequence in PowerShell? Grave accent or back tick, which is found at the top left corner of the keybord below the "esc" key on some keyboard, This character "`" is the escape in PowerShell. For example: Write-host "This line is above `r`n and  `r`n this line is below" Output is: This line is above  and  this line is below r is equal to carriage return character putting a backtick before r, `r tells PowerShell that r is not a character but a carriage return n is a new line character putting a backtick before n, `n tells PowerShell that n is a new line character. Another example: $ sign in PowerShell is to indicate a variable But what if you need to display a dollar sign as a character and not as a special character to declare a variable. Then we need to escape the dollar sign by prefixing a backtick before...

Get all text files in a specified path to a  userform listbox using VBA. The code below will read the directory for all text files and its filename will be loaded to listbox. ===================== Dim fs, f, fc, f1         Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")     Set f = fs.GetFolder("C:\text_folder")     Set fc = f.Files     For Each f1 In fc         If InStr(1, f1.Name, ".txt") Then                'add all filenames to listbox            UserForm1.ListBox1.AddItem f1.Name                End If     Next ===================== Happy coding! Cheers..till next time. ================================ Free Android Apps: Click on links below to find out more: Multiplication Table for early learners https://p...

PowerShell code below will search recursively all text file on the path specified. If the pattern matches on the text file, the contents will be copied and all matching patterns will be consolidated on a single file. #============================= Get-ChildItem -Path "d:\all_text_files \" -recurse | ForEach-Object {   @' = = =>>>The file name - {0} {1} - - - - - - - `r`n '@ -f $_.Name, (Get-Content $_.FullName ) }  | Select-String -pattern "router" | Out-File 'd:\d_output\output.txt' #============================= Code explanation: Get-ChildItem -Path "d:\txt notes\" -recurse | ForEach-Object  >>> Get all the items recursively on the path specified and for each object process each object   @'  '@ >>> PowerShell string format that any text or string between the @ symbol will be process exactly as it is displayed, it’s like what you see is what you get. ...

Knowing the devices in your computer is quite important in order to check what devices are installed or running in the computer Getting to use Linux or starting to use it may seem daunting for others. But Linux is awesome aside that its free and open source, in order to get used to it then you have to use it. How to check installed USB drives or external USB devices in Linux? How to check what graphic chipset or video chipset your computer is using in Linux? How to check the audio chipset in your Linux system? All these questions will pop-up once you start using Linux. Or how would to check whether the inserted USB thumbdrive or an external USB drive is detected or not. Well, some Linux distro provides a GUI interface to do it. But the very basic way to check is to open via the Terminal window. Or basically the command line in Linux. ls - or list directory contents is the most basic way to learn on command line ls will list the files a...