How to install Virtual Box Additions on Ubuntu

If you install ubuntu as a guest on virtual box, you need to do a couple of things to install the virtualbox additions:

1. Mount your ubuntu cd/iso from the virtualbox GUI.
2. Install GNU Compiler and header files (use the command uname -r and substitute it with KERNELVERSION in the command below)

   sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-KERNELVERSION

3. Now mount the VirtualBoxAdditions cd/iso from the virtualbox GUI.
4. Run the VirtuaBox installer:

   sudo sh /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run all

5. Restart the virtual machine and you are all done!

Edit hosts file in Windows 7 & Windows Vista

This may sound silly suggestion to even post on Windows Reference but will help avoid some annoyance with Windows Vista and Windows 7. The host file is the one where one enters hostname and IP Address pair manually as against being served by a Name server (ex: DNS). As always the “host” file is under C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ or %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\ and hence cannot be edited by normal users.

To edit the host file,

Click Start – search for “Notepad“, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“. This should launch notepad with elevated privileges. Now, open the host file from the File menu, edit and save.

Export PuTTY settings

Everytime I reinstall the Windows, all my PuTTY session records are gone. That would be a nightmare, if I have to add back my servers records one by one.

Open the registry:
Start Menu -> Run -> regedit

Go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham"
Right-click SimonTatham and choose Export

Copy the file to a new machine and then right-click and "Merge"