Here is the breakdown of what it does.

1. Show a pleasant, matter of fact message: Windows will now format your hard drive
2. Wait for three seconds
3. Enlarge the DOS window
4. Display the contents of the entire drive.

It simply lists the name of every file on the entire hard drive, but it happens so fast and moves so quickly that it is sure to get a couple of knee jerks here and there.

If you want to be really devious, place this on someone’s hard drive, then create a shortcut to the batch file and change the default icon to something that isn’t as obvious as the batch icon. To be reeeeally devious, rename the shortcut to something like “Internet Explorer”.

Here is the batch file in plain text. To use this, copy the text below and save it to your computer as “format.bat”.

@echo off
REM Fake Format - A perfect April Fool's Day gift
REM Rename to your liking (something like "Free.bat" is suitably devious)
REM Then make sure you are there to watch their response
REM http://brockangelo.com/2010/02/03/april-fools-batch-file/

@echo off
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo            Windows will now format your hard drive
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
ping -n 3 127.0.0.1 > nul
cd c:\
mode con: cols=140 lines=60
dir /w /s

If you are on Windows, create a batch file with the following content:


@echo off
cls
"C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm vm-name
@exit


You should replace “vm-name” with the name of the Virtual Machine you want to start. If you are on XP, make sure you are using TweakUI to auto-login to XP.

Enjoy!

Its very simple. Instead of telling the batch file to run, you tell a Visual Basic script to launch the batch file; and Visual Basic has the ability to launch things invisibly.

Follow this demo and you’ll be up and running in just a few seconds

You’ll create two files: the vbs script and a sample batch file

 

Open Notepad, and paste this content, then save the file as invisible.vbs to the Desktop

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop\1.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing

Open Notepad again, and paste this content, then save the file as 1.bat to the Desktop:

echo hello > "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop\1.txt"

Now double click on invisible.vbs. You should see a 1.txt file get magically (invisibly) created on the Desktop.

That’s it! Modify to your liking!

I set this up because my photography workflow had turned into something horrid: I have two digital cameras that we use. One of the two has video, but I don’t use Flickr for my videos, I use Motionbox. So to get photos or videos off the cameras involved the following:

1. Plug in each card
2. Copy the pics from the card to the PC, name the folders, etc
3. Copy the videos to the My Videos folder
4. Delete the photos & videos from the card
5. Use the Flickr Uploadr and hope it successfully uploads all the pics
6. Upload videos to Motionbox.
7. Come back later and delete the photos & videos off the PC after they got uploaded

I decided to put a little thought into it and get a better setup. I now do the following:

1. Insert flash card into card reader right after taking pictures – pictures & videos download automatically in less than 10 seconds – card automatically formats (optional, but recommended)
2. (photos are now uploading to Flickr in the background – so I leave )

I’ve completely eliminated my involvement with the computer. I simply plug in the card reader (or camera) and the computer takes care of the entire process of copying the photos over to the computer, then deleting them from the card. It then automatically uploads the photos to Flickr as private. All in the background without any of my involvement.

You can modify the batch file to upload all photos and videos to Flickr.

There are several steps you’ll need to take in order for the process to be completely automatic. Here is an outline of what all is involved. Start to finish the process takes about 15 minutes.

1. Give Digital Cameras persistent drive letters (E:, F:, G:)
2. Download Python
3. Download the “Uploadr” python scripts
4. Download the batch file for your camera
5. Install TweakUI and add Batch file to the AutoPlay menus
6. Configure AutoPlay for your digital camera
7. Test it out

First Step

Give Memory Cards and Digital Cameras persistent drive letters (E:, F:, G:)

In order for you to be able to reliably copy images from a particular card or device, you should set it up so that every time you plug in the device it uses the same drive letter. With your memory card or device plugged in, right click My Computer and select Manage:

Select Storage ⇒ Disk Management (see picture)

In the right panel, your devices will be listed, probably with letters like E, F or G. Do not change the drive letter of the C: drive, and you probably shouldn’t change a D: drive if you have one either. Right click on the flash drive that you need to change and select Change Drive Letter and Paths: (see picture)

The next box shows you the letter that is already assigned. Just click Change:

This box will ask you what letter you want to assign to it. I start from the bottom, in this case, Z: (see picture)

It will ask you to confirm this. Click Yes. (see picture)

Repeat this for each card or camera that you would like to setup for this.

Now if you go to My Computer, your drive letters should be updated to the new letters.

Next Step

Download Python