select disc 3
… where you obviously replace the number 3 with the number that corresponds to the disk in question. Finally, run:
net
Your system will clean the drive, with no partitions or hidden tables to confuse your PC. You can then click the Start menu, find Disk Management, and right-click the drive to initialize and format it. Note that this only erases partition tables, it does not erase all your data securely; some of them may be accessible with file recovery tools. To safely delete all traces (such as if you want to recycle your drive or sell your computer), you’ll want to right-click the drive in Windows Explorer, select Format, and uncheck the Quick Format box, or use a third-party tool like DBAN, which has several secure delete options.
Get a list of all the programs installed on your PC
When you get a new laptop or do a clean reinstall of Windows, you’re likely to forget some of the tools you use every day that you take for granted. Before clearing the drive, you can get a list of all the programs installed on your PC with a single command.
Unlike the rest of this list, however, this command must be run from PowerShell, a newer, more powerful tool built into Windows. Open the Start menu, search for PowerShell, and open a new window. Then run the following command: It’s long, but it’s just a copy and paste command, which will take the contents of three different registry keys and send them to a text file on your desktop:
Get-ItemProperty HKLM: Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall *, HKLM: Software Wow6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall *, HKCU: Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Uninstall * | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, Size, InstallDate | Format-Table -Automatic Size> C: Users Whitson Desktop ProgramsList.txt
Replace Whitson with the name of your user folder at the end of this command to get the file to your desktop. Note that this will not include Windows Store apps, but you can list them by running:
Get-AppxPackage> C: Users Whitson Desktop StoreProgramsList.txt
Again, replace Whitson with the name of your user folder. There will be a lot of junk on this list, but you can manually grab the few programs you want to remember and paste them into the original list, if it’s easier.
I will see Star Wars (No, seriously)
Okay, it’s not exactly a “useful” trick, but it’s certainly correct. If you enable Telnet on Windows (look for “enable or disable Windows features” in the Start menu, check the Telnet box), you can run:
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
To view an ASCII version of Star Wars in the command prompt window. This has been around for years and still impresses me.
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