Source Fource?

Let me start by saying that Microsoft Office is one of the Microsoft tools I use the most. This might sound strange seeing as how I am a C++ developer. However it turns out that I spend a lot of time on my project doing mundane activities like sending e-mail, reading and writing documents, and generating presentations.

This brings me to a weird marketing attempt my Microsoft Corporation: The Source Fource. To tell the truth, I am not exactly sure what Fource means. That is how they spell it. Could be a knockoff on the Force. Maybe they are combining that with the Source?

The Source Fource is a bunch of action heroes based on the Microsoft product line. Perhaps some interns and good graphic arts employees cooked this up. I do not know. I can say that the "Office Master" who represents Microsoft Office has the best action figure. LOL.

What will Microsoft come up with next? I am hoping for more free downloaded like Visual Studio Express Edition. But that is a story for another post.

Interesting Commands

While it is fresh in my mind, I thought I would list out the Windows commands that I plan to cover in future posts. They are listed here with one-liners describing their function.

ASSOC - Displays or modifies file extension associations.

AT - Schedules commands and programs to run on a computer.

CACLS - Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files.

FIND - Searches for a text string in a file or files.

SUBST - Associates a path with a drive letter.

If you can't wait until I write my next few posts, you know you can always type HELP at the Windows command prompt. This will give you a lot more information on the command usage.

Windows Command Prompt

I thought I would start at the very beginning. In my library are a couple books on scripting for Microsoft Windows. And at least one of these books emphasizes that you should not overlook the Windows command prompt. There are a number of commands available that have their origins in the Microsoft MS-DOS world. Typing "help" at the Windows command prompt provides you with basic information on the following commands. Note that all this stuff is most likely copyright Microsoft.

• ASSOC AT ATTRIB BREAK CACLS CALL CD CHCP
• CHDIR CHKDSK CHKNTFS CLS CMD COLOR COMP
• COMPACT CONVERT COPY DATE DEL DIR DISKCOMP
• DISKCOPY DOSKEY ECHO ENDLOCAL ERASE EXIT
• FC FIND FINDSTR FOR FORMAT FTYPE GOTO
• GRAFTABL HELP IF LABEL MD MKDIR MODE MORE
• MOVE PATH PAUSE POPD PRINT PROMPT PUSHD
• RD RECOVER REM REN RENAME REPLACE RMDIR
• SET SETLOCAL SHIFT SORT START SUBST TIME
• TITLE TREE TYPE VER VERIFY VOL XCOPY

If you have ever done any DOS batch programming, these will look very familiar. I intend to review a couple of these command to remind how useful some of them can be.