Disable thumb drive on PC

Recently I was asked to configure a laptop to be very closed, i.e, disable most of communications with internet, external spaces, etc, and from the work i found the trick to disable the use of USB mass storage device without disabling all the USB ports, see below:

When a external USB storage device is plugged into the computer, a new tree node "USB mass storage device" in "Device Manager>Universal Serial Bus Controller" will show, so go straight to disable it will disable use of USB storage devices including thumbdrives, if you have tried it, you will notice after it has been disabled, plugging in the thumbdrive will not be detected any more : )

Another way is to edit the registry value, under 'HKEY Local Machine > System > CurrentControlSet > Services > USBStor', change the start value to 4, which results in similar consequences, that the plugged in device will not be detected.

Uninstall IE 8

Last week I decided to install IE 8 to my work laptop, but after install completed and rebooted, when I tried to start the browser, it poped out error msg saying Urlmon.dll got problem; I tried re-register all relevant dlls but still pops out same error msg, no other choice but to remove IE 8, and the problem is how?

I remembered we can uninstall IE 8 thru control panel>add/remove function, but I didnt see IE 8 listed as usual, reason is that I didnt have XP SP3 installed before IE 8..yet god bless me there is another way, by executing 'spuninst.exe' cant remember where it located : (

Using diskpart to delete & merge ubuntu partition in Winsows 7

I have ubuntu 9.0 installed but seldom use it, so I decided to delete this 10 Gb partition to free space.
Initially, I want to make use of some software tools like Norton Partition Magic, but am too lazy to download one, so I make use of the built-in disk part utility, and finish the work successfully just following several simple steps:

Microsoft DiskPart 版本 6.1.7600
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
在计算机上: #########

DISKPART> list disk

磁盘 ### 状态 大小 可用 Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
磁盘 0 联机 74 GB 1024 KB

DISKPART> select disk 0

磁盘 0 现在是所选磁盘。

DISKPART> list partition

分区 ### 类型 大小 偏移量
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
分区 1 主要 24 GB 31 KB
分区 0 扩展的 50 GB 24 GB
分区 2 逻辑 39 GB 24 GB
分区 3 逻辑 10 GB 64 GB <--- This is the ubuntu partition

DISKPART> select partition 3

分区 3 现在是所选分区。

DISKPART> delete partition

DiskPart 成功地删除了所选分区。

DISKPART> list disk

磁盘 ### 状态 大小 可用 Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* 磁盘 0 联机 74 GB 10 GB


DISKPART> list volume

卷 ### LTR 标签 FS 类型 大小 状态 信息
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
卷 0 E GRMCPRFRER_ UDF DVD-ROM 2483 MB 正常

卷 1 C NTFS 磁盘分区 24 GB 正常 系
统
卷 2 D NTFS 磁盘分区 39 GB 正常


DISKPART> select volume d

卷 2 是所选卷。

DISKPART> extend

DiskPart 成功地扩展了卷。

DISKPART> list volume

卷 ### LTR 标签 FS 类型 大小 状态 信息
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
卷 0 E GRMCPRFRER_ UDF DVD-ROM 2483 MB 正常
卷 1 C NTFS 磁盘分区 24 GB 正常 系统
* 卷 2 D NTFS 磁盘分区 50 GB 正常

DISKPART>

7 months after work

As I didnt notice, it is already 6 months since I joined work; at the time, I decided I would study the typical Java enterprise web application I am working on and master related technologies, but seems the progress is a bit out of expectation, as I became lazier and lazier day by day, also without a systematic study, I learnt nearly nothing so far.

Whenever system encounters problems, I throw them to our developer and help only when problems are resolved, I helped with patching, migrating updates, etc, not development, and didnt read function specs or technical specs; didnt utilise my time to do self study, or learn from my colleagues..

When I was having lunch with my one colleague today, he encouraged me to take the time & chance to learn, to grow, he is 30 already yet he works much harder than i do, he works overtime for 3 or more hours, but I will escape home much earlier; he reads technical notes everyday but I dont, what a shame to be 22 but have no passion at all..