Vistronic » Computers

AUTO BOOT Shut Down, Restart, Log Off XP Using A Batch File – Undocumented feature for XP

admin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:51:38 +0000

How to shutdown a XP Pro computer when you are connected using RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) using a batch file or RPC (Remote Procedure Command) This is useful if you can’t get to the computer but have remote access to the computer via a network or the internet.

First To show you what you will see at a command prompt (command.com) when you type: “shutdown /?” Without the ” ” on each end.

c:\>shutdown /?
Usage: SHUTDOWN [-i | -l | -s | -r | -a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "c
omment"] [-d up:xx:yy]

No args Display this message (same as -?)
-i Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s Shutdown the computer
-r Shutdown and restart the computer
-a Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c “comment” Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy The reason code for the shutdown
u is the user code
p is a planned shutdown code
xx is the major reason code (positive integer less than 256)
yy is the minor reason code (positive integer less than 65536)

This is an undocumented feature in XP so I have not found any writeup about it on M$ and everything used here is from other sources. Do not use “cmd” to start the command interpreter (cmd.exe), but type “command” for (command.com. Now you can shutdown the computer by typing “shutdown -s” or to restart the computer type “shutdown -r”

To create a batch file for this you can use notepad, and save the file as .bat in c:\ (root directory) Here are the 3 most used batch files for shutdown:
1 save as down.bat
shutdown -s
2 save as restart.bat
shutdown -r
3 save as forcedown.bat
shutdown -f
4 save as logoff.bat
shutdown -l
5 save as rpcdown.bat (replace computername with the name of your computer )shutdown -s -m \\computernameand this last one is fun in an enviroment using RPC

So that’s a piece of cake, the other options are self explanatory and if you need any help creating the batch file, ask and someone will help

Nils

Its All About the Pentiums !

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:41:35 +0000

“You say you’ve had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it’s an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that’s great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight”

Yea it never ends..upgrade today and like forever..It’s all about the Pentiums, baby ……………. Yea -Vis. (:

It’s all about the Pentiums, baby
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
It’s all about the Pentiums, baby
It’s all about the Pentiums, baby
It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
Yeah

What y’all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin’ time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin’ at Hewlett Packard?
Workin’ at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin’ the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin’ my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don’t read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin’ on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I’m strictly plug-and-play, I ain’t afraid of Y2K
I’m down with Bill Gates, I call him “Money” for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It’s all about the Pentiums, what?
You’ve gotta be the dumbest newbie I’ve ever seen
You’ve got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You’re usin’ a 286? Don’t make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You’re the biggest joke on the Internet
Your database is a disaster
You’re waxin’ your modem, tryin’ to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you’re still livin’ in your parents’ cellar
Downloadin’ pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin’ “Me too!” like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You’re just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller

Now, what y’all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin’ time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin’ at Hewlett Packard?

Uh, uh, loggin’ in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got ‘em printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer’s got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you’ve had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it’s an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that’s great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operation system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed ‘em
While your computer’s crashin’, mine’s multitaskin’
It does all my work without me even askin’
Got a flat-screen monitor forty inches wide wide
I believe that your says “Etch-A-Sketch” on the side
In a 32-bit world, you’re a 2-bit user
You’ve got your own newsgroup, “alt.total-loser”
Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax
Where’d you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I’ll beat you
If I ever meet you I’ll control-alt-delete you
What? What? What? What? What?

It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
It’s all about the Pentiums! (It’s all about the Pentiums, baby)
Now, what y’all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin’ time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin’ at Hewlett Packard?
What??

“Weird Al” Yankovic – It’s All About The Pentiums

Lean and trim Windows computer

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:45:43 +0000

For computers such as, web streaming, video on demand, video server, audio workstation, alarm system, and other dedicated windows boxes used in Broadcast Engineering and elsewhere it pays to have the operating system trimmed down to an always on never interrupt condition.The specific computers have been built to do one function well, like web streaming and it does not need any interruptions by the OS or software.

1. Start with a clean (formated or reformatted) Windows install on a new hard drive. After you get windows up and working update all device drivers and run windows update 10 times if needed including updating windows media player and IE web browser. Just make sure you uncheck any and all statements that say to find data on web.

Turn off windows auto update. Now turn off windows desk top clean up. Turn off Windows messenger. Turn off all screen savers. If the hard drive is always in use or needs to be ready turn all power saving features to always on. Do not allow standby or put hard drives to sleep for example. (Turn off firewall if not needed).
Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive.

Use plain default desktop not a picture. Turn off all transition effects.

Now install only the software and hardware you need and nothing else.
For example for a Web stream computer.
No Anti virus. No Anti spy. Just windows media encoder (9) only. (and VNC I use Tight VNC to control computer remotely)
Remember this box is being used for only one purpose.
After you have the software you need working. Trim the start up of all unnecessary items using the MSCONFIG utility or tools in CCleaner (CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool)

Now Install or program auto log on. (test)
Now schedule and program Auto reboot. (schedule for once a week)
Defrag and CClean.
“Still, defragmenting remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer’s operating system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the disk may be required. But a more important consideration is disk failure. Should a hard drive fail, the likelihood of successfully recovering data from the dead or damaged drive improves significantly if the data is contiguous rather than randomly scattered about the drive platters.”
(source of quote)

Make sure you have a good UPS hooked up to the computer.

Now you are good to go with a computer that should stay up and running as much as possible.

In the hardware department go middle of the road with the CPU to keep the heat down, Install RAM as required by your application, have a case fan(s), Size the power supply for your load no need for over kill as this computer is always on.. Go with a good supply with high reviews for long life.

After all that, get a second hard drive, clone the first to the second, Boot from the second drive to make sure it works. Now disconnect second drive both power and cable leave in case. You now have a System Drive stand by.

Tweak as necessary.
JW

More Information and tips:

Read 23 Tips Here
Read 99 Tips Here

Video Stream Computer

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:11:27 +0000

The purpose of this project is to Video Stream on the web for as cheap as possible.
First off you need a Windows XP or better PC dedicated to this purpose.
Striped and trimmed of all un-necessary software and hardware make it a lean mean fighting machine.
Items required:
Video capture card- VIEWCAST OSPREY-100 (or better model, 210, 230,..) $130.
This is the card that works well and I recomend.
Win xp computer – built from parts $300 (Newegg or Tiger direct) .
LCD Monitor $150 (I went with a KVM switch instead)
UPS power supply CyberPower Home/Office CP685AVR 685VA 390W UPS – Retail $61.99.
Audio video wiring to Webstream computer $50 (Program out from source).
Video Hum eliminator: (if needed, I did at source it works better on that end) Jensen VB-1BB Composite Video Isolator $80.
Audio Hum eliminator: (if needed, I did) Behringer HD400 2-Channel Hum Destroyer $30.

And Finally you need audio and video source material. In my case I connected to program output of the master control room at a television station. You could use any audio or video source even another computer set up as a video server or a satellite receiver , DTV converter box and so on.

The stream leaves your building and travels to a server company so they can serve the Internet. They have the bandwidth for multiple users to watch at the same time.
Webstream Server: Monthly Webstream charge at http://windows.media.serverroom.us/ (or another server)
Service Levels: Windows Media 50:$12.99/Month (I use this and it works and is cheap 10x cheaper then most)

You will also need a DSL or better Internet connection: I upgraded service upload speed, (done no charge) now 812KB upload speed, we will use 300KB for webstream (vis-a-vis we are using our DSL with higher upload requested). The upload speed is not always the same as the download speed and in this case upload speed is needed.

This project is done and now up and running. Notes to follow.

Setup:
Streaming with the Windows Media Encoder 9 series:
(At serverrrom.us your setup may be a little different if on a WAN or company network )

In order to broadcast you should have the following components and/or software:
A. Windows Media 9 Series Encoder (Download software for local computer its free!)

B. Video encoding card must be software based with windows drivers!
Not mpeg 2 hardware based!. Surprisingly some of the cheaper cards word better in this regard.

C. Access to a Windows media streaming server. (remote server).

D. DSL or above.

STEP 1 – After starting up the Windows Media Encoder and starting a new session, choose “Broadcast a live event”.

STEP 2 – Next, select, the devices you wish to use to broadcast with.

STEP 3 – Select your broadcast method. (Push method).

STEP 4 – Enter your server address and publishing point. . You will also be prompted for a user name and password.

STEP 5 – Select your desired encoding rates.

STEP 6 – Select whether or not you would like to record your broadcast to a file on your local machine. (Optional.)

STEP 7 – Choose if you would like to use additional files along with your broadcast devices.

STEP 8 – Enter your broadcast information. (Title, author, etc.).

STEP 9 – Click “Start Encoder” button.

CONGRATULATIONS! You are now broadcasting !

That is till server locks up and you need to reconnect! (click encoder stop/start button) This happen once every 48 hours at random so read below.

Solution setup a macro to start stop encoder 2 to 4 times a day! Also disconnects users so all bandwidth is not used by someone leaving there computer on all night. But most important keeps stream up.

(it automates the mouse and mouse clicks!)
nMacro Recorder 1.1
Name: nMacro Recorder
Version: 1.1
Price: FREE (only for non-commercial use)
Size: 375 KB
Release date: 23 SEP 2006
Category: Automation Tool

Create macro to stop and start encoding.
After that use windows scheduler to run the macro at the times you choose like midnight and 6:00am. Note you must be logged in for windows scheduler to work. So make sure your automatic windows re-start includes a login.

REBOOT:
In addition set computer to auto reboot one time per week.
You must have auto windows login set up (a reg hack), and auto encoder start see below, and a macro to get encoder full screen again ( a encoder .bat file that starts and stops encoder would eliminate all macros I have not found that .bat file that stops encoding.)

Encoder restart:
http://www.serverroom.us/mediapulltutorial
How To Automate Live Streaming With Windows Media Encoder This article will explain how to have Windows Media Encoder automatically reconnect (always stay encoding), and also explain how to have Windows Media Encoder automatically start encoding at boot up, for example in case of a power outage.

Remote control: Install tightVNC to control computer from outside the building.

________________________________________________________

You must have Broadband to watch stream:
The quality of the stream is 273 KPS Video, 320 x 240, with quality audio, Windows Media Audio 32 kbps, 22 kHz, stereo (A/V) 1-pass CBR.

I decided not to embed player but to spawn Wm player as that is the way I prefer, to click to watch… if you automatically launch at homepage it kills all dial-ups! Let the viewer choose.

the link: mms://169.130.151.126/wtjr

Note the mms://

The Stream is UP and on the air!

Computer based Alarm system

admin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:21:00 +0000

For several years now I have been contemplating an alarm system that at its core is a computer.
Most alarm systems have a dedicated hardware control box.. that frankly is limited.
By basing the central control unit on a PC it opens the window to a lot of possibilities.
Such as, LAN Internet control and notification, Phone line control and notification via Modem, web cameras, sound sensors, contact sensors through the com ports, UPS battery back up, voice or siren announcements.

For comparison “Broadcast Tools” makes a transmitter remote control that would make a excellent building alarm system as long as you can handle the archaic programing after paying $1000. The unit is the WVRC-8.
I think this unit would work fine for many applications if a premade “Brain” is desired. This unit allows contacts in and out but requires a computer connected to run “auto pilot” functions so the programing of contacts out is very limited as in most transmitter remote controls.

The closest software I have found to making a PC a building alarm system is the following,

“IRCAS Alarm is a PC based alarm system and surveillance system for Microsoft Windows.
http://www.ircas.com/
It can use almost every resource of camera, (Web cam (USB) and video capture card detected by the windows system and MJPEG IP cameras and other IRCAS Alarm applications) with its build in motion detection.
It can use detection loops for doors, windows, emergency buttons and key on/off switches
Alert you by email or SMS (SMS functionality not available in the evaluation version).
You can check a given alarm from anywhere by phone and the internet. So the advantage is: “public authorities are not involved until you or your trusted decide an alarm is real”. This solves the problem of false alarms alerting the authorities. IRCAS Alarm can be checked by you from anywhere on the Internet by a PC, PDA or mobile phone. Your mobile phone can be used to check and control the alarm system. IRCAS Alarm supports mobile modes WAP1.0 (wml) WAP2.0 (xhtml) and i-mode (chtml). Check your house while you are on holiday! ”

It appears to do about %70 of what I want to do with an alarm system. The help files contain diagrams of how to hook sensors to a computers com port.

A interesting interface for a PC based alarm is this unit sould by BSI.
BSI Trigger Kit USB 1024LS:
“The BSI USB Trigger Kit is an easy way to add 24 incoming triggers to Simian*, SkimmerPlus or WaveCart v 4.0. Formerly known as the PMD 1024LS, the USB 1024LS is identical in specification and has has replaced the original ISA and PCI cards from Measurement Computing and Computerboards which were more prone to static / lightning damage. ”

The problem is the software to run this unit as a alarm input device.

Video on Demand Computer

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:21:15 +0000

Video on Demand Computer.
A computer to record TV shows, rename with date, reformat to .wmv windows media files for the web, auto FTP to FTP server or VOD media server and move local files to a storage folder. Tasks must be automatic as possible.Windows xp box trimmed of all fat such as auto update, desktop clean up, screen saver, power savers, and all none essential start ups must be striped out. Set up the computer to log on with a password so windows scheduler will work later.

Install:
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 PCI (video recording card)
Windows media encoder 9 software
Windows media batch convert files
Dimension 4 time sync program software
Auto FTP program AVPSOFT Save2FTP software
TightVNC for remote control

Create the following .bat file listed at end of this article.

Summary of tasks: Program all recording events , set up your recording quality, renaming batch file, recoding batch file, removing batch file and Auto-FTP. After all that shows should start appearing in your media server. (You need a FTP media server account or a regular website account). Set up VOD page on website and list the files to be served, allow for downloads and you are up and running.

Discussion: I am using audio and composite video as the program source. The video/audio is the main program out of our master control room. I had to use Video/Audio Hum eliminators as the computer is around 100′ away and I had hum bars. The eliminators worked best on the source side of the wiring. I really don’t need a TV tuner card but the PVR150 is a good card for scheduling recordings and has hardware MPEG 2 encoding. I have settled on around 500 meg per half hour recording quality , You can record at a higher quality but I found this level to look nice and save recoding time, this file will have to be recoded to windows media 9 for the web and will be deleted later anyway.

After setting up the PVR card and testing quality levels, go into WinTV scheduler and setup the record schedule of programs. The time sync D4 program is to sync your computer time so recorded shows are on time. If a time offset is needed to compensate for delay, the program Analog X Atomic Time Sync allows offsets by seconds to your VOD computer. WinTV does not admend a date to the recorded file name.
This is a problem as when the show is listed on the VOD server, is is very helpful to have the date the show aired (or was recorded) in the file name. To solve this install a rename .bat file to rename recording with date amended. Set up the batch file to execute automatically using windows scheduler at a time after your recordings.

The shows are now being recorded in high quality MPEG file format around 500meg per 1/2 hour. That is to large for the Internet. So windows media encoder 9 is installed to covert the file to .wmv at 60meg per 1/2 hour. A batch file does this and moves to a folder called converted, and deletes source files. This batch file is a separate download and must be set up on your computer. The one I use has a folder called “raw” and “converted” . Anything in the raw folder is recoded with the batch file and stored in the converted folder. This batch file is executed at times scheduled with windows scheduler. The encoding levels are set by editing the encoding profile. The converted folder is auto FTPed to the media server. Another batch file moves the files locally to a storage folder.

Scheduled tasks Batch Files

renamebydate.bat
Times: 9:34pm
Days: All

High_quality_Convert.bat
Times: 9:52pm, 3:00am
Days: All

movefiles.bat
Times: 8:00am
Days: All

Auto FTP

AVPSOFT Save2FTP
Times: 6:00am
Days: All

WinTV record shows
Times: 430am to 9:00pm
Days: All

Links to related files:

http://infonetmatrix.com/archives/105 RENAME

http://infonetmatrix.com/archives/69 BATCH CONVERSION