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Productivity
and Safety
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Your user account in Windows comes preconfigured with special Shell
Folders
which are the initial default locations for your data. 'Documents',
'Music', 'Pictures', and 'Videos' are some of these folder's names on
Windows Vista. Previous versions of Windows prefixed these names with
'My', such as 'My Documents" on Windows XP. Each username on the
computer has its own set of Shell Folders.
You may find data files in these shell folders that have been created
by your programs for their
own internal use, or to use as sample data, intermingled with the
files you have created. If this organization scheme works for you, read
no further.
For ease of locating and backing up your data, you might create a
folder in the root of drive C: which will contain all your data. In
Vista, start the Computer Explorer (Start>Computer), right click
on the C: drive, select New>Folder, and type the folder name,
for example 'alldata' (without the quotes). On an older version of
Windows, Launch 'My Computer', double click the C: drive, select
File>New>Folder from the menu, and type the folder name,
for example 'alldata' (without the quotes). Then proceeed to create
subfolders for further ease of organization. You might create
subfolders for projects you are working on, or subfolders which contain
files of the same type.
Suppose you are working on three projects with frequent changes to the
data: handling
your finances, developing a new business plan, and researching a new
car. You might
create subfolders within your 'alldata' folder such as 'finances',
'busplan' and 'newcar', and store data and documents relating to each
project in its corresponding folder.
 Tip: When downloading files from the
internet, such as a bank statement, business logo, or car brochure,
make sure you download the
file into the subfolder for that project.
Now it becomes a simple task to backup your frequently changing data by
dragging and dropping your 'alldata' folder to you backup medium.
Typically your music, picture, and video files do not change as
frequently as your project data. For example, once you copy pictures
from your camera, they remain resident on your computer for your
enjoyment. You can create folders in the root for these, or use the
Shell Folders. But remember to make a copy just in case.
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Backup Your Files
Count
on this: Your Hard Drive Will Fail!
If
it doesn't, you are ahead of the game. If it does, you will be
prepared.
 A
USB Key, also referred to as a flash drive, is a really simple,
inexpensive, and reliable backup medium for your frequently changing
folders and files. You can 'drag and drop' your files from your hard
drive to the USB Key. If your computer is organized by project or file
type, you can simply drag and drop your 'alldata' folder or its
equivalent to the USB Key.
 A CD is also a reliable backup medium, and
is an excellent choice for
backing up your music, pictures, and video. Any software that you
purchased via download should be backed up to CD as well.
 An
external hard drive is another excellent choice for backup. Its huge
capacity will enable you to back lots of data, pictures, video, and
music. These drives come with software that enables you to create an
image backup of your hard drive. An image backup will allow you to
restore all programs and data at once in the event your primary drive
crashes. But use this feature cautiously, because if your hard drive
contains any malicious content, that content will be included in an
image backup and subsequently restored.
Tip:
Make an inventory of your software, including registration or
activation
keys. The software and the keys will be required if your hard drive
needs to be rebuilt.
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 Microsoft
Office is the most popular office suite on the market. The 2007 version
has been completely overhauled, featuring a new, intuitive 'ribbon'
interface. Users of previous versions should have no trouble adjusting
to the latest version.
Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 is a wild bargain at
about $150 retail, or about $125 from various software discounters.
This version gives you Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and the new One Note
application, a personal data manager. You are licensed to install the
software on up to three computers in your home. The down side, if any,
is that this version is not upgradable to future version, but at this
low price, do you really care?
Tip: Office 2007 uses a new file
format. If you will be
sharing
your data with users of previous versions of Office, you can
save your
files in Office 97-2003 format. You can also
set the program default
to Office 97-2003 format so you do
not have to remember to do this each time you save a file. Detailed instructions.
 Alternatively, Open Office is a
multiplatfrom, multilingual office suite
compatible with all other major office suites. This product is
absolutely free to download, use, and distribute. Open Office can read
documents created in Excel, Powerpoint, and Word. However documents
created in Open Office and then saved in the corresponding Microsoft
Office program's file format may not be 100% identical when
opened with Microsoft Office. Get
Open Office.
 Google
Documents is an on line office suite including spreadsheet, word
processing, and presentation components. The capabilities ot this
software are not as extensive as other office suites, but do include
all the basics. Best of all, it is free with your Google account.
Documents are stored on the Google server, and may be downloaded to
your computer in many different formats. You can upload existing
documents, but you should plan on doing some reformatting. Try Google Documents.
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An Email server is a very
powerful computer configuration operated by your Email provider, such
as Comcast, AOL, Hotmail, etc., which stores incoming email bound for
all of its clients.
An individual Email client is software that enables you to communicate
with your Email provider to read, write, store, and forward your Email.
An Email client may be installed on your own computer, such as Outlook
Express. Alternatively, a 'Webmail' Email client is a web browser
application which you access over the interent, which connects to your
Email provider's server to access your Email.
A locally installed Email
client downloads all new messages from the Email server to your
computer. This may included unwanted Email, or Email with huge
attachments.
A 'Webmail' Email client offers huge advantages to a locally installed
Email client:
- You can screen your mail from the
Inbox
view and
delete unwanted messages without having them download to your computer.
This method offers valuable Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware protection
since the malware embedded in junk Email will never reach your
computer.
- You can decide whether or not to
download
attachments.
- You do not have to concern yourself with
backing up your Email; this is done for you by the provider.
- You can access your Email from any
computer that has internet connectivity.
Webmail clients are very sophisticated and offer all the
flexibility of locally installed Email clients. Both Comcast and
AT&T offer a Webmail client accessable from their home page.
Other examples of webmail clients are Gmail, Yahoo Mail, MSN Mail and
AOL Mail.
Tip:
Email that you have read with a local Email client will
be deleted from the server by default. To override, locate and set a
'Do not delete from server' flag usually found in the
preferences section of your local Email client.
If you prefer a local Email client other than Outlook Express, an
excellent and totallly free alternative is Thunderbird.
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 Your
wireless router is a gateway for outsiders to peek into all the
computers on your network. Securing your router is very simple and very
effective. Detailed
instructions.
 If
you do not use programs that protect against viruses and spyware, you
should consider installing them. There are many really good programs
available to protect your computer, and some are totally free. Make
sure you scan your computer frequently. Get Anti-Virus.
Password protect your computer's accounts that have administrator
privilege.
When you delete a file, the operating system does not really remove the
file from the disk; it only removes the reference of the file from the
file system table. The file remains on the disk until another file is
created over it. Before the file is overwritten, anyone can easily
retrieve it with a disk maintenance or an undelete utility. A 'File
Shredder' program will delete files by making multiple write passes on
top of the file's data. We recommend a free 'File Shredder' program
called Eraser. Get
Eraser.
If your hard disk contains sensitive
data,
you might wish to
secure the data with some type of data encryption. Windows Vista
Business and Ultimate editions offer an all or nothing disk encryption
solution termed 'Bitlocker'.
We recommend a really great, totally free, encryption tool called
'Truecrypt'. This tool enables you to create a file on your hard disk,
which when mounted within the Truecrypt software, becomes a virtual
volume, but looks like a separate disk drive to all programs. Once the
volume is dismounted, you can copy its underlying file to your backup
medium. Truecrypt also has a traveller mode, so you can copy the
underlying file and a small truecrypt driver to a USB key, plug the key
into any computer anywhere, run the small driver as an application
without installing it, and mount your underlying data file directly
from your USB Key. If your computer or USB Key is stolen, your data
will not be compromised. Get
Truecrypt.
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Microsoft's
Windows Vista operating system is easily customized to suit your style:
User Account Control is a method of protecting your computer from
unauthorized changes that might be initiated by some type of malware.
While the popups might be annoying, they are a small price to pay for
added protection. However, you can disable User Account Control from
Control Panel>User Accounts.
You will probably be unhappy with the look and feel of the desktop. To
customize the desktop, right click on an empty area of the desktop,
then click Personalize. You can adjust the size of the fonts and
desktop icons, along with other personalization features.
You
can use this shortcut to adjust size of the fonts and icons on the
desktop: click on an empty area of the desktop, then hold down the
control key and move the mouse scroll wheel.
You can customize the Sidebar with the Gadgets of your choice. If you
have a wide screen monitor, you might try keeping the Sidebar visible
on top of other windows. To do this, right click on the Sidebar, then
click on Properties and click the corresponding checkbox.
The Taskbar and Start Menu are also highly customizable. To do this,
right click on the Start icon (bottom left of your screen), then click
on Properties. You can do things like restore the familiar Windows XP
Run command; change the Control Panel and Shell Folder views between
menus and links; and adjust many other settings to your liking.
For fast access to frequently used programs you can add the program's
icon
to the Quick Launch area of the taskbar just like Windows XP.
Alternatively, you can pin the program's icon to the start menu. Right
click on the program's desktop shortcut (or on the program's entry in
the Start menu), then click on "Pin to Start Menu".
Vista's intergrated search is extremely powerful. As a simple example,
try launching a familiar program such as Notepad this way: Click the
Start button, then start typing 'n', then 'o', then 't' in the
search bar. Watch the program list change as you type.
Vista's full search capability is enabled by clicking
Start>Search,
which will display Vista's search engine. You can search your storage
devices for files based on criteria such as name, date, size, author,
etc. You can save the results as a dyanmic virtual folder,
which will be kept up to date as you modify files on your storage
devices.
If you are familiar with Windows Explorer from previous versions of
Windows, you might miss the menu bar. You can restore it by clicking
Organize>Layout>Menu Bar.
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Gadgets
and widgets are small
applets that reside on your
desktop. They are single purpose mini-applications designed to enhance
your
computing experience without being obtrusive. Examples of gadget and
widget
functionality are: clock, calendar, calculator, resource meter,
application
launcher, picture viewer, contact list; and those that require internet
connections such as stock ticker, feed reader and weather forecast.
Vista
Sidebar with calendar, resource meter, weather and shutdown gadgets:
The Windows Vista
Sidebar is an area of the desktop, usually
on the right side of the screen, upon which you can place gadgets. To
start the
Sidebar if it is not already started, click Start>All
Programs>Acccessories>Windows Sidebar. Then
right click on the Sidebar, click properties, and make sure that the
box “Start
Sidebar when Windows starts” is checked. To add gadgets, right click on
the
sidebar and select “add gadgets” Each gadget can be customized by
clicking on
the little wrench icon that appears when you mouse over the
gadget.
If you are using Windows 7, gadgets can reside anywhere on the desktop.
To add gadets, right click an open area of the desktop, then click on
Gadgets.
The Yahoo Widgets Engine
enables the similar functionality on Windows XP and Windows 2000. The
Yahoo Widget
Engine will download and install automatically as you attempt to
download your
first widget from widgets.yahoo.com.
During the installation, you will
probably
want to uncheck the box that changes your home page to Yahoo, as well
as
defaults to Yahoo search engine and other Yahoo applicatons. A widget
dock
(which you can hide) and tray icon are used to manage the widgets. To
add more
widgets, simply click on the “get more widgets” choice of the tray icon.
Gadgets
and widgets will use a very small amount of computer
resources. Computers on the market today can handle them without any
performance degradation. Give them a try, you might enjoy the
customized
desktop. Should you choose to remove them: to remove the Vista Sidebar,
uncheck
the box in the Sidebar properties window that enables Sidebar to start
when
Windows starts, then close the Vista Sidebar (select “exit” from the
tray icon);
to remove Yahoo Widgets select “Exit Yahoo Widgets” from the Yahoo
Widgets tray
icon, then uninstall the Yahoo Widgets application. To remove gadets using Windows 7, simply close the gadget.
Top of page
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Office 2007 file compatibility
To
save your Microsoft
Office 2007 data in a format compatible with previous versions, click
on the Office button (the office logo on the top left of the screen),
then drag your mouse over "Save as", then drag your mouse over the
program's "97-2003" choice and click on it. This is an example from
PowerPoint:
Alternatively,
you can set up your Office 2007 programs to save files in "97-2003"
format by default. To do this, click on the office button, then click
on the program's Options button (such as "Powerpoint Options" in the
example above), then select the "Save" choice on the left side of the
window, then select the "97-2003" choice from the "Save files in this
format" drop down list. This is an example from
PowerPoint
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Secure your Wireless Router
Your
wireless router is a gateway for outsiders to peek into all the
computers on your network. Securing your router is very simple and very
effective. The first step is to establish a connection to the router
from a computer that is wired to the router. Once connected, determine
your router's network address, which is four
numbers
separated by decimal points, such as '192.168.1.1'. If you
don't know what it is, open the command prompt and type 'ipconfig',
your router address is the 'defualt gateway'. Launch your browser and
enter the network address in the address bar. You will be prompted for
username/password.
If you don't know the
router's username/password, try the defaults with which it was
shipped, which you can find in the router documentation. If the
username/password have been changed from the default and you don't know
what they are, you will have to reset the router. To do this, unplug
the computer, and depress and hold the router's reset switch for a few
seconds. This will restore the factory default settings.
Once connected to the router:
- Change the router's username and/or
password.
- Change the network name (SSID) from
the default. Make a note of your SSID.
- Enable encryption, select an
encryption method and key. Make a note of your selections.
Now, for each wireless device, make sure there
is a network connection that matches the SSID, encryption method, and
key that you
set up in the router.
Once all the wireless devices are properly
configured, log back on the router from any computer (wired or
wireless) and disable SSID broadcast. Your network is now secure.
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Windows
7 contains some features which might enhance your productivity if you
take to them. Some of these features take advantage of pinning a
program to the taskbar. To do this, drag the program's icon from the
desktop or the start menu to the taskbar. When a program that is pinned
to the taskbar is running, its icon on the taskbar is overlaid with a
transparent rectangle. If you hover the mouse over the rectangle, a
small reproduction of the program's window will appear. This feature is
called "Aero Peek".
The recent documents list that we are
familiar with from previous versions of Windows has been revised and is
now called "Jump Lists". Each program that is pinned to the taskbar has
its own Jump List of recently opened documents which pops up when you
right click on the program's icon on the taskbar. Click on a document
to open the document in the program.
"Aero Snap" is a feature
which enables you to display 2 windows side by side maximizing desktop
real estate. Drag an open window to the left edge of the screen and it
will resize to occupy half the screen docked to the left edge. Do the
same thing with another window to the right side of the screen. This is
a great feature when using wide a screen monitor. Drag an open window
to the top edge of the screen and it will maximize.
If you have
many windows open on your desktop but would like to focus on just one,
shake the window and the others will minimize. Shake it again and the
others will come back. This feature is known as "Aero Shake".
The "Sticky Notes" feature on the start menu is the elctronic equivalent of post-it notes on your desktop.
The snipping tool on the start menu enables you to capture a rectangular portion if your desktop as a .jpg file.
The
right side of the taskbar, known as the notification area, can get
cluttered with icons of programs that run at startup. While it is good
to know what runs at startup, it can be quite annoying to see these
icons and popup messages for things like volume control, network, power
etc. Windows 7 enables you to select which of these icons and their
notifications you would like to display in the tasbar.
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