select disk 3
… where, obviously, you replace the number 3 with any number that corresponds to the disk in question. Finally, run:
to clean
Your system will clean the drive, with no hidden partitions or tables that confuse your PC. Then, you can click on the Start menu, search for Disk Management and right-click on the drive to initialize and format it. Note that this only clears the partition tables, does not securely erase all of your data – some of them can still be accessed with file recovery tools. To safely erase all tracks (for example, if you are going to recycle the drive or sell the PC), right click on the drive in Windows Explorer, choose Format and uncheck the Quick Format box. Or use a third-party tool like DBAN, which has several other secure erase options.
Get a list of all the programs installed on your PC
When you buy a new laptop or do a clean reinstall of Windows, you are likely to forget some of the tools you use every day that you think are right. Before cleaning your drive, you can get a list of all the programs installed on your PC with a command.
Unlike the others on this list, however, this command must be run from PowerShell, a newer and more powerful tool built into Windows. Open the Start menu, search for PowerShell and start 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 -AutoSize> 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 does not include Windows Store apps, which you can list by running:
Get-AppxPackage> C: Users Whitson Desktop StoreProgramsList.txt
Again, replacing Whitson with the name of the user’s folder. There will be a lot of junk in that list, but you can manually take the few programs you want to remember and paste them into your original list, if it is easier.
Watch Star Wars (Not serious)
OK, this is not exactly a “useful” trick, but it is certainly cool. If you enable Telnet in Windows (search for “enable or disable Windows features” in the Start menu and then check the Telnet box), you can run:
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
To watch an ASCII version of Star Wars in the command prompt window. This has been going on for years and still impresses me.
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