Recovering a file on a Windows system from a shadow copy
After editing a
spreadsheet in
Microsoft Excel on a
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 system, I intended to save the modified
version under a new file name, but inadvertently chose "Save" rather than
"Save As." Fortunately, Windows systems running the Volume Snapshot Service,
aka
Shadow
Copy, provide an easy mechanism to recover lost data by reverting to a prior
"shadow copy" version of a file. To revert to the prior version, you can
take the following steps:
-
In the
Windows File Explorer, click on the file to select it, then choose
"Properties" from the ribbon of options at the top of the File Explorer
window or right-click on the file and choose "Properties." Or, you can click
on the file to select it and then hit the Alt and Enter
keys simultaneously to bring up the Properties window for that file.
-
Then click on the Previous Versions tab.
-
Click on the prior version of the file to select it and then click on the
Restore button at the bottom of the window.
-
You will see a window asking "Are you sure you want to restore the previous
version of" followed by the file name and the
timestamp
on the prior version of the file. The window also warns you that "This will
replace the current version of this file on your computer and cannot be
undone." Click on the Restore button on that window.
-
You should then see a window stating "The file has been successfully restored
to the previous version." Click on the OK button to close that window.
If you click on the General tab at this point, the Modified date
will still reflect the timestamp before you restored the file, but if you
close the Properties window and reopen it, you should then see
the Modified date and time reflect the timestamp of the prior version that
was restored to the system.
[ More Info ]
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Viewing and Editing Defined Names in Excel 2013
To view or edit the
defined names in the
Microsoft Excel 2013 spreadsheet program, you can take the following steps:
-
Click on the Forumulas tab at the top of the
Excel
window.
-
From the Formulas menu, select Name Manager.
In the Name Manager window, you can see the defined names.
[ More Info ]
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Determining if the system is connected to a VPN from the command line under OS X
I connect to a work
Virtual Private Network (VPN) from home using a
MacBook Pro
laptop running
OS X El
Capitan (10.11.6) and was curious if there was a way that I could determine
whether the system was connected to the VPN or disconnected from a VPN using a
command-line
interface (CLI), i.e., a
Terminal window, other than by checking the IP address that
external systems see for the system, e.g., by visiting
WhatIsMyIP.com. At
How can I tell if OS X is connected to a VPN network from the command line?,
I found someone suggesting using the
scutil command
scutil --nc list and
piping
the output to the grep command looking for the word "Connected", i.e.,
scutil --nc list | grep Connected. However, that didn't work
when I attempted to discern whether the laptop was connected to the VPN via
that method, since the scutil command always produced the following output
whether or not the system was connected to the VPN:
$ scutil --nc list
Available network connection services in the current set (*=enabled):
$
However, I was able to determine if the system was connected to the VPN by
using the method listed in the post by the person who posed the question. I.e.,
I could use the
ifconfig command and count the number of occurences of "utun0," since
the count was zero if the system was not connected to the VPN and one if it
was connected to the VPN. E.g., if the system was not connected to the VPN,
I would see the following output.
$ ifconfig | grep utun0
$ ifconfig | grep -c utun0
0
$
When the system was connected to the VPN, I would see the following output:
$ ifconfig | grep utun0
utun0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1400
$ ifconfig | grep -c utun0
1
$
[ More Info ]
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