Did you know that one of the best way to safeguard data is to partition the hard drive. If you are using just one drive without partition (c drive), guess what is going to happen when your drive gets corrupted or infected. You’ll probably have to reformat the whole drive, losing all your data. The solution it to make two partition, c and d drive. Load your operating system and programs on c drive and data on your other partition drive, so if your c drive gets corrupted or infected, all you need to do is re-format c drive and your data will be safe. Best thing to do is make an image of your c drive, check out my blog on Macrium Reflect – Disk Imager. The big question is does it cost money, nope. EASEUS Partition Master Home edition is free for home use and does everything you need, except incremental imaging and does not support 64 bits OS. If you need incremental imaging capability and running 64 bit OS than buy the professional edition or ask us for advice.
By the way, this software support Windows 7.
Excerpt http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
Overview:
-FREE FOR HOME USERS ONLY!
-Extend system partition to maximize computer performance.
-Main features for better managing hard disk and maximizing computer performance.
-Copy wizard to backup all data or copy entire hard disk to another without Windows reinstallation.
-Usability features allow you to operate directly on the disk map with the drag-and-drop and preview the changes.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Secunia PSI - Software Updater
Have you heard of government and commercial company using those expensive vulnerability scanner and patching systems to ensure all their programs are kept up with current patch (system and security), if you have how about getting something like that for free for your home computer. There is a company called Secunia that offer a free home use and does a good job. Or if you prefer you can do it online by going to http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/ and click start scanner. I would prefer the software because it'll be faster and convenient. Remember, hackers look for vulnerability in program to attack you, so check it out.
Excerpt from http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/
The Secunia Online Software Inspector, or short OSI, is a fast way to scan your PC for the most common programs and vulnerabilities, thus checking if your PC has a minimum security baseline against known patched vulnerabilities.
Use the Secunia OSI to get a feel for the Secunia Software Inspector technology, then upgrade to the Secunia PSI or CSI, which covers practically all programs on your PC, whereas the OSI checks less than 100 programs.
Feature Overview:
-Detects insecure versions of common/popular programs installed on your PC
-Verifies that all Microsoft patches are applied
-Assists you in updating, patching, and protecting your PC
-Activates additional security features in Sun Java
Excerpt from http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/
The Secunia Online Software Inspector, or short OSI, is a fast way to scan your PC for the most common programs and vulnerabilities, thus checking if your PC has a minimum security baseline against known patched vulnerabilities.
Use the Secunia OSI to get a feel for the Secunia Software Inspector technology, then upgrade to the Secunia PSI or CSI, which covers practically all programs on your PC, whereas the OSI checks less than 100 programs.
Feature Overview:
-Detects insecure versions of common/popular programs installed on your PC
-Verifies that all Microsoft patches are applied
-Assists you in updating, patching, and protecting your PC
-Activates additional security features in Sun Java
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Lotus Symphony - Another Office Suite
You can't afford to buy Microsoft Office suite and don't trust open source Open Office than how about IBM Lotus Symphony. Made by well known company, IBM, and it is free. If you are old as I am, you probably heard of Lotus office suite, it was actually out before Microsoft Office. Lotus is not as attractive as Microsoft Office but it does its job very well and it is compatible with Microsoft Office. So, another free choice for office product for your kids and home use, don't you just love these free stuff.
Excerpt from http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/help.nsf/ReleaseNotes#latest
What's New in Symphony 1.3?
Functional enhancements:
Enabled Microsoft® Office 2007 files import support.
Significant enhancements in DataPilot in spreadsheets, including show/hide field items panel, drill down to details, DataPilot cache support, and default styles.
Numbering enhancement in documents to improve interoperability with Microsoft Word.
Enabled Microsoft Office and IBM Lotus SmartSuite® password protection support for spreadsheets.
Enabled network URI access and hyperlink support that allows you to create network connection hyperlinks for URI protocols including FTP, MailTo, and SMB.
Enabled envelope support which allows you to create an envelope, set envelope properties, and set printing options.
Enabled Widgets Catalog server support.
Improved print performance.
Enabled Sumproduct's ForceArray formula support in spreadsheets.
Significant start-up performance improvement on Mac OS X.
Excerpt from http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/help.nsf/ReleaseNotes#latest
What's New in Symphony 1.3?
Functional enhancements:
Enabled Microsoft® Office 2007 files import support.
Significant enhancements in DataPilot in spreadsheets, including show/hide field items panel, drill down to details, DataPilot cache support, and default styles.
Numbering enhancement in documents to improve interoperability with Microsoft Word.
Enabled Microsoft Office and IBM Lotus SmartSuite® password protection support for spreadsheets.
Enabled network URI access and hyperlink support that allows you to create network connection hyperlinks for URI protocols including FTP, MailTo, and SMB.
Enabled envelope support which allows you to create an envelope, set envelope properties, and set printing options.
Enabled Widgets Catalog server support.
Improved print performance.
Enabled Sumproduct's ForceArray formula support in spreadsheets.
Significant start-up performance improvement on Mac OS X.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
CCleaner - Privacy Cleaning Tool
Have you ever wonder what files are left on your computer after going through some web sites and doing some work on your computer? I was curious too, so I ran a security scan on my system and what a surprise. The scan picked up login ID and password to some of my web sites I visited and password to some of my locked files. I had an open safe for anybody to use, kind of scary, so I decided to use CCleaner, to make myself clean.
This program works wonder but make sure you setup the configuration file according to what you want to clean. The developer website is full of support and help, so check it out.
Excerpt from http://www.ccleaner.com/
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)
This program works wonder but make sure you setup the configuration file according to what you want to clean. The developer website is full of support and help, so check it out.
Excerpt from http://www.ccleaner.com/
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Macrium Reflect - Disk Imager
Who makes image of their hard drive as a back up? I do and it has saved me many hours of labor in reinstalling software. Whenever my computer acts weird because of some type of malicious activity, all I do is re-format and re-image my hard drive all within 30 minutes. Of course, I do have to re-load some of the latest FREE software not on the image on the computer when I make an updated clean image.
This method has saved me hours of labor and saved many important files and data when my computer crashed. Some people say, constant imaging of hard drive will shorten the life of a hard drive and my answer is, “really”. I agree it will shorten the life but nowadays hard drive is pretty cheap and so far one of my hard drive is still going strong after 5 yrs of use. The real questions we need to ask ourselves are how much is the files and data worth to us and labor time. You may agree or disagree with me but for your own sake just download the FREE software and make one back up image and save it on your external drive or on a different partition on your current drive. One image won’t kill your hard drive and down the road you’ll thank me.
Anyway, enough preaching and back to disk image FREE software. I found pretty neat software called Macrium Reflect that does disk imaging pretty well. This software, I was told, use to be not free a year ago but the company decided to make it free. They do have a paid version that does lot more, such as incremental imaging but from my experience the FREE version is all you need.
Excerpt from http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp
Absolutely free! No strings! The only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.
-Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS). -Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD. -Built in scheduler. -32 bit and native 64 bit versions. -Industry leading compression levels and speed. -Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size! -Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. -Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista. -HTML log files.
Try it and let us know how you like it.
This method has saved me hours of labor and saved many important files and data when my computer crashed. Some people say, constant imaging of hard drive will shorten the life of a hard drive and my answer is, “really”. I agree it will shorten the life but nowadays hard drive is pretty cheap and so far one of my hard drive is still going strong after 5 yrs of use. The real questions we need to ask ourselves are how much is the files and data worth to us and labor time. You may agree or disagree with me but for your own sake just download the FREE software and make one back up image and save it on your external drive or on a different partition on your current drive. One image won’t kill your hard drive and down the road you’ll thank me.
Anyway, enough preaching and back to disk image FREE software. I found pretty neat software called Macrium Reflect that does disk imaging pretty well. This software, I was told, use to be not free a year ago but the company decided to make it free. They do have a paid version that does lot more, such as incremental imaging but from my experience the FREE version is all you need.
Excerpt from http://www.macrium.com/ReflectFree.asp
Absolutely free! No strings! The only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.
-Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS). -Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD. -Built in scheduler. -32 bit and native 64 bit versions. -Industry leading compression levels and speed. -Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size! -Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. -Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista. -HTML log files.
Try it and let us know how you like it.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Returnil – Virtual System
Virtual systems, sounds pretty high tech, but have no fear it is almost same as loading another operating system on your computer. Here is a link to a definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine#Definitions. Please don’t ask me to explain it, because I’m confused too.
Why do I need it? Virtual system is for people who want to have multiple operating systems on one computer. Also, virtual system is good to test software and scripts without worrying about infecting your computer. So, does a normal person need it? Depend, for example, let say you want to learn UNIX but don’t want to buy another computer for it, so what do you do? Load it on your virtual system and save your money.
Another example; are you worry about getting your computer infected by virus, worm, and etc by your spouse or kid? Setup a virtual system for their use, that way all the bad stuff they download will be contained in the virtual environment, which comes to today NO COST software highlight – Returnnil Virtual System 2010.
I have not used it yet, but I’m planning too sometime this weekend. This software is good for people who worry about their computer getting compromised by bad people in the Internet. The only draw back about this software is that once you start using it, you’ll probably end up paying for the paid version because of the capability such as moving files. For the free version, you cannot move anything out of the virtual environment, which is good for your dangerous spouse and kids but can get very cumbersome. As we know, when company offer free version there is always a catch and I think in this gimmick, they give you a really good software to use for free and once you become a daily user, you’ll encounter frustration that only the paid version has the answer.
Excerpt from http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/rvs-home-free
RVS 2010 Home Free is a completely new product that uses a combination of antivirus, antimalware and a virtual system to protect your computer from all types of viruses and other malicious threats.
RVS 2010 uses an advanced anti-malware and virtualization technology. It clones (copies) your operating system and creates a virtual environment for your PC. Instead of loading the native operating system, a clone is loaded that allows you to run your applications and perform your online activities in an entirely isolated environment. In this manner, your actual operating system is never affected by viruses, Trojans, malware and other malicious threats. To return to the actual operating system environment, you just need to restart your PC. While working in the virtual environment, you have the option of saving documents and files so that your data will not be lost when the system is restarted.
Why do I need it? Virtual system is for people who want to have multiple operating systems on one computer. Also, virtual system is good to test software and scripts without worrying about infecting your computer. So, does a normal person need it? Depend, for example, let say you want to learn UNIX but don’t want to buy another computer for it, so what do you do? Load it on your virtual system and save your money.
Another example; are you worry about getting your computer infected by virus, worm, and etc by your spouse or kid? Setup a virtual system for their use, that way all the bad stuff they download will be contained in the virtual environment, which comes to today NO COST software highlight – Returnnil Virtual System 2010.
I have not used it yet, but I’m planning too sometime this weekend. This software is good for people who worry about their computer getting compromised by bad people in the Internet. The only draw back about this software is that once you start using it, you’ll probably end up paying for the paid version because of the capability such as moving files. For the free version, you cannot move anything out of the virtual environment, which is good for your dangerous spouse and kids but can get very cumbersome. As we know, when company offer free version there is always a catch and I think in this gimmick, they give you a really good software to use for free and once you become a daily user, you’ll encounter frustration that only the paid version has the answer.
Excerpt from http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/rvs-home-free
RVS 2010 Home Free is a completely new product that uses a combination of antivirus, antimalware and a virtual system to protect your computer from all types of viruses and other malicious threats.
RVS 2010 uses an advanced anti-malware and virtualization technology. It clones (copies) your operating system and creates a virtual environment for your PC. Instead of loading the native operating system, a clone is loaded that allows you to run your applications and perform your online activities in an entirely isolated environment. In this manner, your actual operating system is never affected by viruses, Trojans, malware and other malicious threats. To return to the actual operating system environment, you just need to restart your PC. While working in the virtual environment, you have the option of saving documents and files so that your data will not be lost when the system is restarted.
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