» How To</h1> <article> <h1>Your new PC and all that bundled software</h1> <p>Steve — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:36:21 +0000</p> <p>Many new PCs typically come with dozens of pre-installed applications, most of which you would never use.</p> <p>Needing to keep the retail price as competitive as possible, PC manufacturers pre-install these applications, and the fee they receive from the software developers is used to subsidize the final price.</p> <p>Some of the programs are common shareware items that you will eventually have to purchase for continued use, and others may be stripped down versions of a major off-the-shelf retail package. Either way, they are taking up resources.</p> <p>A friend of mine recently brought home a new PC that had 24 applications he didn’t want. He proceeded to uninstall them one by one, but it took him a little over an hour.</p> <p>Fortunately, there is an application that will eliminate most of these applications and allow you to start off with a fresh, clean PC. Download and install <strong><a href="http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/">PC Decrapifier</a></strong> which allows you to pick and choose which applications to remove.</p> <ul> <li> <div><a href="http://www.technologyjuice.com/pc-decrapifier-clean-computer/">Additional information regarding using PC Decrapifier can be found here</a></div> </li> </ul> <p>/doc</p> <p>No related posts.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Back It Up</h1> <p>Steve — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:40:44 +0000</p> <p>Do you store anything on your PC’s hard drive that’s important to you and would be hard to replace? The answer to this can be very subjective and is certainly a matter of personal opinion. But if a disaster should strike, what would your loss be if you couldn’t restore these files or documents?</p> <p>People are storing more and more vital information on their PCs without the thought of what could happen if this information was lost. If you store any of the following, you need to think of how you can safely retrieve this information in case of an emergency:</p> <ul> <li>Bank records or other financial information</li> <li>Digital photographs</li> <li>Music you’ve purchased and downloaded</li> <li>Software purchased online</li> <li>Email history, address books and calendar data</li> <li>Browser bookmarks</li> </ul> <p>You probably don’t need to perform daily backups with offsite storage of the backup medium, but there are alternatives that are easy to implement and can give you some peace of mind.</p> <p><strong><u>System vs personal data</u></strong></p> <p>A different strategy is used for backing up your Operating System files than for backing up your personal data. If you suffer a system crash, you can reload the OS from the install disks or restore from what is called a disk image and I’ll cover that in another article.</p> <p>If you’ve followed Microsoft’s suggestions, all of your personal data should be contained within special folders that are designed for your documents. It is a simple matter to determine how much storage the files in these locations use and this will help you decide how you want to back them up.</p> <p>For the home PC user, there are 3 good choices for performing backups of your personal data:</p> <p><strong><u>USB Flash Drives</u></strong><br /> The low cost of USB flash drives (thumb drives) makes them an ideal choice for backup media. I’ve seen 16GB flash drives for $30 (USD) and there are free utilities that make the backup process easy and reliable. Check <a href="http://allwaysync,com">allwaysync.com</a> for a solution that performs backup and sync functions</p> <p><strong><u>External Hard Drives</u></strong><br /> External hard drives have also reached a price point that make them a good choice if you want to have something even more transparent.</p> <p><strong><u>Online Backups</u></strong><br /> This method that is quickly growing in popularity. Several companies are offering this strategy without charge for the first couple of Gigabytes. Online backups may be good for true archival copies of important documents that you won’t need to modify, since even with a relatively high speed internet connection, it could take you several days to upload just 10 GB of data.</p> <ul> <li> <div><a href="http://www.lostintechnology.com/internet-tools/should-i-back-up-locally-or-off-site">More information and a discussion of 4 online backup providers can be found here</a></div> </li> </ul> <p>Don’t get caught without a backup if disaster strikes. Reliable backups can be performed cheaply and easily and I’ve only presented three possible methods here. Be Safe!</p> <p> </p> <p>/doc</p> <p>No related posts.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Home Networking How-to Series</h1> <p>Steve — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:34:38 +0000</p> <p>The Doc is writing a series of articles on Home networking.</p> <ul> <li><a href="tutorial/home-network-tutorial/">You can see it here</a></li> </ul> <p>No related posts.</p> </article> <article> <h1>How to display the Quick Launch Toolbar in your Taskbar</h1> <p>Steve — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:34:01 +0000</p> (2000/XP/VISTA Only) - Right click on taskbar, hilight toolbar and click on Quick Launch to make sure that there is a check mark next to it. WIN7 Only Windows 7 uses a hybrid taskbar/quick launch arangement so it is not necessary to enable the Quick Launch toolbar. Related posts:How to place shortcuts on your Quick [...] Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/how-to-place-shortcuts-on-your-quick-launch-toolbar/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to place shortcuts on your Quick Launch Toolbar'>How to place shortcuts on your Quick Launch Toolbar</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/operating-systems/will-you-upgrade-to-windows-7/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Will You Upgrade to Windows 7?'>Will You Upgrade to Windows 7?</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/how-to-force-windows-explorer-to-open-up-and-display-in-a-pre-selected-folder/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to force Windows Explorer to open up and display in a pre-selected folder'>How to force Windows Explorer to open up and display in a pre-selected folder</a></li> </ol> </article> <article> <h1>How to place shortcuts on your Quick Launch Toolbar</h1> <p>Steve — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:32:09 +0000</p> <p>2000/XP/VISTA Only<br /> The easiest way to do this in 2000/XP/VISTA is a 2-step process. </p> <p>- First, right click on the Windows Explorer icon found in Start>All Programs>Accessories and select ‘Send to’ and choose Desktop. The shortcut will show up on the desktop. </p> <p>- Now just drag and drop onto your quicklaunch section of the taskbar.</p> <p> </p> <p>WIN7 Only<br /> Windows 7 uses a hybrid taskbar/quick launch arangement, and it is much easier to get shortcuts on the taskbar. </p> <p>- Simply right click on any application in Start>All Programs and select “Pin to Taskpar”</p> <p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/how-to-display-the-quick-launch-toolbar-in-your-taskbar/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to display the Quick Launch Toolbar in your Taskbar'>How to display the Quick Launch Toolbar in your Taskbar</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/keyboard-shortcuts/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Keyboard Shortcuts'>Keyboard Shortcuts</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/operating-systems/will-you-upgrade-to-windows-7/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Will You Upgrade to Windows 7?'>Will You Upgrade to Windows 7?</a></li> </ol></p> </article> <article> <h1>How to force Windows Explorer to open up and display in a pre-selected folder</h1> <p>Steve — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:10:15 +0000</p> <p>In the latest versions of Windows, The folder that is initially displayed when Windows Explorer starts is “My Documents”. To change this:</p> <p>- Click on Start, find the explorer icon and right click on it.</p> <p>- Select properties, and make sure that the Shortcut tab is selected.</p> <p>- In the Target box, type the following: </p> <p> c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, c:\myfolder<br /> (where c:\myfolder is the directory in which you want Explorer to start.)</p> <p>- If you want to start with My Computer, change the Target string to:</p> <p> c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, /select, c:\</p> <p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/how-to-place-shortcuts-on-your-quick-launch-toolbar/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to place shortcuts on your Quick Launch Toolbar'>How to place shortcuts on your Quick Launch Toolbar</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/keyboard-shortcuts/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Keyboard Shortcuts'>Keyboard Shortcuts</a></li> <li><a href='http://pcuserclinic.com/how-to/how-to-display-the-quick-launch-toolbar-in-your-taskbar/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How to display the Quick Launch Toolbar in your Taskbar'>How to display the Quick Launch Toolbar in your Taskbar</a></li> </ol></p> </article> </main></body></html>