My desktop machine runs a Linux/Windows dual boot. It runs Linux 90% of the time, with Windows only used for playing games.
Rather than have to remember which operating system is running at the time, I decided to forcibly make Windows use a different MAC address. This means that I can now assign each machine a different hostname in DNS. Checking which operating system is running is now as simple as pinging the hostname corresponding to the operating system.
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I lock my screen when I know I’m popping away from the computer for a few minutes. It therefore makes sense to place the screen(s) in sleep mode while I’m away.
On Linux, I use this handy script from a fellow called Marco. I’ve packaged it up for Debian and Ubuntu users to make it easier to install, and can be downloaded from here.
On Windows, I use this little program from a fellow called Kevin.
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When I moved my boot drive over to a 64GB SSD, I knew I was going to have to keep most of the larger files on my mechanical drive, but I didn’t really want to have some applications running from C:\Program Files and others running from E:\Program Files. I wanted to keep my new SSD setup as close to my previous mechanical primary drive setup.
My initial reaction was to try to mount the mechanical drive as a folder within the SSD drive, but this was rather limited.
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If you use Cygwin, you may notice that when you try to use the ping command, you get an error.
This is because typing ping in a Cygwin terminal window executes the *nix version of ping rather than the Windows ping. The *nix ping requires low level socket access that is only available when running as an Administrator. Because there is no sudo command in Cygwin, the only way to acquire administrator privileges is to quit your current terminal window and restart it with the privileges.
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