If you are using WSL in Windows and forgot your username's password, it's quite easy to change it. Follow the steps below:

1. Open Windows Powershell and type `wsl -u root`
2. Enter `passwd USERNAME` - here replace USERNAME with the ubuntu username for which you want to change password.
3. Type the New password.

Now your ubuntu user's password is successfully changed.

How to change Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) user password

I wrote about [how to check which application is using which port](https://veerasundar.com/blog/how-to-check-which-application-is-using-which-port/) a long time ago. I was using command line tools then to find out the ports.

Now after a decade, I am using a much simpler way tp find the ports of my servers running locally.

## Using Resource Monitor to find out port

1. Go to Windows `Start` menu, type in `Resource Monitor` and then open the application.
2. Once opened, go to  `Network` tab.
3. You will see the below window.

![Windows Resource Monitor](/img/resource-monitor-port.png)

The `Resource Monitor / Network` shows all the running process and their corresponding listening ports, along with the number of bytes sent and received by this process.

## Killing a process that's running on specific port

Say if you want to kill an application server that is listening to specific port, but you don't know which application server was it. You can use `Resource Monitor / Network` for this.

For example, I want to kill the node process that's listening on port 3000. In the above screenshot, I can see that the node process with PID 8672 is running on port 3000. Now, I can find this process with PID 8672 in the `Processes with Network Activity` panel at the top and then right click on process name. Now, I will have the option to  either `End process` or `End process tree` which both will kill the current process.

Hope this article helped you to find the application that was running on a port and then kill it if necessary.




How to see which application is using which port in Windows


At work, I use [PowerShell] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell) a lot, mostly for Git commands. By default, the powershell prompt message shows you the full path of the current working directory. i.e. something like this;

    PS C:\vraa\workspace

Which is fine, but I'd like this prompt to be short and informative. In short, I'd want the prompt to:

- Show only the folder name, instead of full path.
- Show the current branch name if inside a Git repo.

Powershell provides an option to customize its behavior. You can write your customization, in terms of functions, and keep them in your $PROFILE file. So, in order to achive my requirement, I used following function.

1.  In Powershell, type `notepad.exe $PROFILE`.
2.  Add following function there.

```shell
function prompt{
  $p = Split-Path (
     Get-Location
     ) -Leaf
  
  git branch | foreach{
    if($_ -match "^\*(.*)"){
     $p += " [" + $matches[1] + " ] "
    }
  }
  
  $p = $p + ">"
  Write-Host $p -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Green
  return " "
}
```

Be sure to keep the function name as `prompt`. Save and restart Powershell.

After the above customization, when you are in a normal folder, Powershell prompt will look like this:

    foldername>

And, when inside a Git repo, the prompt message will look like:

    gitrepo [ master ] >

Thanks to [this] (http://techblogging.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/displaying-git-branch-on-your-powershell-prompt/) for the script to detect current Git branch name.

So, what is your [Powershell customization] (https://veerasundar.com/blog/using-multiple-versions-of-jdk-and-eclipse-in-single-machine/)?


This post explain how you can customize Powershell prompt to show the current Git branch name.

Customize Powershell Prompt Message


Recently I happened to use Windows to do some cross browser testing (no prizes for guessing the browser). It's  been a long time since I used Windows and Ubuntu has become my primary OS then. And, when I was a windows user, I never cared about its command prompt. Mainly because I never had anything to do in the command line.

But things have changed, thanks to Git. Now, the command line has become an inseparable tool in my dev life. Ubuntu has console which is quite effective to work with. But, Windows command prompt is never programmer-friendly.

For an example - have you ever tried to copy & paste text in command prompt? If you'd, you know its PITA. So, I was eagerly searching for an command prompt alternative just because of this one reason.

Thanks to [Console2][1], I found one.

[1]: http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/ "Console2 - command prompt alternative"

[![][3]][3]

[]: http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/

Here's why I like this little tool:

1.  Copying is now really simple: **Shift Left click **and **drag **to select text and copy. You can even enable the option to auto copy when you select the text.
2.  Pasting is *dead *simple - just **middle click**.
3.  Support for tabs - you can have multiple console tabs inside single window.
4.  Ability to set 'startup directory' and configure shortcut keys.

Now this Console2 has completely replaced the Windows command prompt & Power shell. If you are in Windows, try this - you won't regret.


Console2 - an alternative to Windows command prompt


So, you have installed XAMPP on windows, [changed its server port][1] to a different number other than 80 and [changed the MySQL *root* password][2] to a more secure one. Now its the time to create some HTML files that will be served by XAMPP server.

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/how-to-change-xampp-server-port "How to change XAMPP server port?"
[2]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/how-to-change-the-root-password-for-mysql-in-xampp "How to change the 'Ëœroot' password for MySQL in XAMPP?"

By default, XAMPP serves any file that is located under the directory *[xampp\_installation\_folder]/htdocs, * which means that you have to copy all your HTML/PHP files inside this directory. But what if you maintain a different folder for all your projects files and you want XAMPP to serve them too along with _htdocs_?

Lets make XAMPP to do this.

1.  Open the file *[xamp\_installation\_folder]/apache/conf/httpd.conf* in any text editor.
2.  Copy below lines after the _htdocs _ element after changing the directory to your own folder.

            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all

3.  Then search for this string: . Inside that element, add a new alias as followed:
    Alias /yoursite/ "C:/path/to/your/folder/yoursite/"

4.  Save the file and restart the XAMPP server.

After this, if you have a website named 'Ëœyoursite' inside the folder *'Ëœc:/path/to/your/folder'* you can access it directly by using the URL: _http://localhost:8080/yoursite/ _(assuming you have [changed XAMPP port][3] to 8080).

[3]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/how-to-change-xampp-server-port "Change XAMPP server port"


Making XAMPP to serve any directory outside htdocs


Notepad is the lightest yet powerful text editor I've ever came across. It's fast, slick and has been my [default text editor][1] for years.

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/notepad-a-cool-source-code-editor

In the past, I've learned/discovered few tips that helped me a lot while using Notepad . In this post, I'm sharing those tips in the hope that it might help someone else too. If you know any other tips about Notepad , please feel free to share.

## 1. Transform your Notepad to a post-it

Re-size the Notepad editor window to the size you want and then **press F12** which will make the text editor to stick on top of all other windows and will hide toolbars/menu bars.

To get back original window, just click on the **Restore** button.

## 2. How to delete a Macro in Notepad

To delete a macro in Notepad , go to **Settings -> Shortcut Mapper -> Macros** and then right-click on the macro name which you want to delete and click **delete**.

## 3. Edit two files side by side in Notepad

Open the two files which you want to edit simultaneously. Right click on any one file's tab and then select **Move to other view** which will split the screen into two for each of the file.

Of course, you can have more than 2 files open at the same time, and you can move any file into any view. Just follow the above said tip.

## 4. Switching between vertical and horizontal split in side by side editing mode

When you edit two files side by side, the files can be split either vertically or horizontally. To switch between vertical Horizontal, right click on the bar which splits the views and then select **Rotate to Left** or **Rotate to Right**.

## 5. Auto close HTML/XML tag

Go to **TextFX -> TextFX Settings -> Autoclose XHTML/XML**. After checking that option, when ever you edit a html or xml file, the tags will be auto-closed as you type.


5 tips that you might not know about Notepad++


<Notification>
  There's an updated article on{" "}
  <a href={"/blog/how-to-see-which-application-using-which-port-windows-gui/"}>How to see which application is using which port in Windows</a> that talks about the GUI for checking ports.
</Notification>

Today I found an easy way to check which application is using which port in my system. Here I'm sharing the steps. These steps are applicable for the **Windows Operating System**.

## Checking which application is using a port:

1.  Open the command prompt - **start → run → cmd** or **start → All Programs → Accessories → Command Prompt.**
2.  Type `netstat -aon | findstr '[port_number]'`. Replace the _[port_number]_ with the actual port number that you want to check and hit enter.
3.  If the port is being used by any application, then that application's detail will be shown. The number, which is shown at the last column of the list, is the PID  (process ID) of that application. Make note of this.
4.  Type `tasklist | findstr '[PID]'`. Replace the _[PID]_ with the number from the above step and hit enter.
5.  You'll be shown the application name that is using your port number.

## Checking which port is being used by a application:

This is exactly the reverse of the above steps.

1.  Open the command prompt - **start → run → cmd** or **start → All Programs → Accessories → Command Prompt.**
2.  Type `tasklist | findstr '[application_name]'`. Replace the _[application_name]_ with the application that you want to check (for example, apache) and hit enter.
3.  Make note of the PID (second column) from the details shown.
4.  Type `netstat -aon | findstr '[PID]'`. Replace the _[PID]_ from the above step and hit enter.
5.  You'll be shown the application detail and the corresponding port to which it is listening.


#windows (7)