How to Control your Computer from Bed using your mobile.

Week end is the ideal time to spend some extra hours on the bed for most of us. If you keep your computer in front of the bed and like to watch a movie or Youtube videos without you have to jumping out of the bed, this post will help you.

You can simply turn your Smart phone (Android phone, Apple iPhone or iPad) in to a wireless mouse and keyboard using this simple Application. You will require a Smartphone (which most of us have) and WI-FI internet connection where you can connect your mobile and the computer.

1. First Download the Desktop Remote Free on your Android device.
2. Then you need to install the desktop software which you can find from here.
3. Start the Desktop Remote Free Application and it will auto detect your computer as the server.
4. Now you can control the desktop from your mouse.

Make sure you connect both mobile and the desktop to the same WI-FI connection. Also, free version would not show the desktop in your mobile.

For your iPhone and iPad you can use JumiMouse Desktop/Mouse/Remote for PC or JumiOne Desktop/Keyboard/Mouse, Remote Webcam and media remote for PC.

Enjoy the simple week end hack with Android and iPhone app hack.

Should I buy a new Computer or wait till Windows 8 released?

Windows 8 rumors, leaks and official demonstrations are circulating around the Internet.Touch friendly user interface, Windows 8 tablet computers, improved and modern operating system, application store and one OS for desktops, laptops and tablets are the main goals of Microsoft, which will be achieved from Windows 8. Early Windows 8 builds leaked to Internet already revealed these Windows 8 features. Before the end of this year you will be able to experience Windows 8 Beta and by early next year shelves will be filled with Windows 8 and Windows 8 compatible devices. Is it better to buy a new computer sooner or wait for Windows 8 computer to be released next year?

Widely used Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems are not touch friendly nor compatible with tablet computers. Also, they are not supporting ARM processors, which are specially designed for tablets. Even though there are couple of Windows base tablets, you cannot find a optimised Windows operating system for them. New Windows 8 touch friendly user interface, which is similar to Windows Mobile 7, is designed and developed to support tablet and touch screen computers. Not only it gives an elegant, modern and clean interface it adds multi tasking, switching between classic Windows interface and modern interface and also provide easy access to connect with networked computers, storage and cloud services. Therefore, I strongly recommend you to wait until Windows 8, if you are planning to buy a Windows based tablet.

Windows 8 is designed for desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, tablets. In another words, it is designed from computers with and without mouse and keyboards. On the other hand, it comes with lots of improvements and new features. Microsoft Application store, Hybrid boot, ISO mounting program, Modern PDF reader, Application Folder, optimised HTML 5 Internet Explorer, improved Task Manager, Webcam Application and improved Disk Cleanup are some of the added and improved features in Windows 8. I will not wait to buy a new computer only because of the above features. However, it will provide a better operating system for your next Windows computer.

Paying for a new computer and for the operating system separately or paying extra for upgrades is not a option for many of us. If I am getting it free with hardware it makes more reasonable for the price I pay. Therefore, I would rather manage with the current Windows XP and Windows 7 computers until Windows 8 is released to buy a new computer.

You may be noticed that every other Microsoft OS is a failure. Windows 95 was a massive improvement specially with the graphical user interface but then Windows 98 start getting blue screen of death. Then Windows 98/SE was a good operating system however Windows Millennium failed to continue that. Windows XP is one of the best operating systems Microsoft has produced and it is still the most popular OS on the planet. Once again you can see that Windows Vista was a big time failure and then Microsoft manage to recover it from Windows7. What is going to happened with Windows 8? Will Windows 8 break this pattern and continue the Windows 7 glory or will it be going to fail? This may let you satisfied with Windows XP or Windows 7.

If you decided to buy a computer before it releases, or already purchased one, you do not have to worry about it. Even though, it is not official, Windows 8 hardware requirements will be similar to Windows 7 or lower. You, can upgrade to Windows 8 soon after it releases. Considering all the facts and information available I recommend you to wait till Windows 8 is released to buy a new computer , specially if you want to buy a Windows base tablet PC.

How Long Will the Internet Remain on Computers?

The world is literally in your pocket today, what with your smartphones and tablets making it possible to stay connected wherever you are and whatever you’re doing and access information and data about just about anything in the world without having to move more than your fingers. With mobile Internet, push mail and a host of other applications and conveniences brought to your phone, do you still log on to the Internet using your computer? Social networks allow you to do pretty much everything through your smartphone and tiny tablet computers; email gets delivered to your mobile device like text messages, and you can type out a reply immediately if you wish to; browsers have been designed for mobile web applications and more and more websites are undergoing significant changes for optimal viewing on the mobile devices that have smaller screens and less navigational features; you can download attachments and read and even work on documents and spreadsheets, view photos, and do just about anything using your mobile device. So how long do you think the Internet is going to be used on computers?


There is no right or accurate answer to this question because the Internet and related technology are advancing at breakneck speeds – every innovation has many more breathing down its neck, and at some point, all the changes taking place seem to be in continuum rather than taking place at different points of time. This is the age of technology, a time when we’re hurtling ahead at a pace that’s both frightening and exhilarating at the same time. We have no idea where we’re going, we only know that we’re driven to do more.
We’re pushing for smaller gadgets that are more sophisticated, we’re gunning for more communication and more interaction online, we’re looking to connect all corners of the globe through one big network that’s always turned on, we want information at the click of a button, and we’re looking to do more in less time. So as technology gets smaller, the world shrinks figuratively and becomes a tighter circle.
So a mass migration to mobile Internet is pretty much on the cards, but there are certain impediments to this exodus:

• There are some tasks that are best done on a computer – the large screen and the ease of typing on a keyboard beat trying to do scrunch your fingers and squint your eyes to see and maneuver better. So people will always prefer to use their computers at home or when they’re stationary.
• If it comes to a tossup between owning a computer and a handheld device to use to browse the web, most people would prefer a computer, especially if they cannot afford to buy both gadgets.
• Internet charges on a mobile device are not yet as cost effective as those you incur when you use your computer to browse the web. Free WiFi spots are restricted to certain areas and not safe for all kinds of browsing.
• Connectivity becomes a problem when you’re on the move – signals could be weak and could drop suddenly, or you could move to an area with no coverage.
• Mobile Internet is very slow when compared to the blazing speeds that Broadband connectivity offers.
• Not all kinds of files can be viewed on mobile devices.
• And most important of all, it’s going to take a long time for all the sites on the Internet, even the most important ones, to be optimized for viewing on a handheld device with a smaller screen and more restrictions. So you need computers for a full-blown Internet experience, which means that they’re going to be around for some time to come.

This guest post is contributed by Cathy Thomas, she writes on the topic of online computer technician training . She welcomes your comments at her email id: cathy83.thomas<@>gmail<.>com.

Computer Troubleshooting Secrets Revealed

You might be trouble shooting the computers from time to time to over come the challenges and make things work as it is. I have been doing this for over 10 years and every day I find it quite challenging and fun. Solving a problem will make you happy and bit prouder and it all depend on how challenging it is. If you enjoy challenges and trouble shooting or even you hate it but have no choice, you will find this post useful.
It can be a error message, data loss, Internet connection loss or dose not connect, pragmatical error or it can be any sort of issue or problem you need to know only one generic method to solve it. Knowing this system will make your trouble shooting life easy.

First step is knowing there is a problem in your system. It is obvious that if there is a error message or things are not working as they suppose to be mean there is a problem in your system.

Secondly you need to identify the problem. This need good observation skills. If there is a problem you need to know more details about the it in order to figure out a solution. This is a straight forward process. Simply by looking at the error message or observe the way system react for a input or a change of state will give you a good idea about the issue. In cases, error message nor system behaviour may not reflect the real problem. Your experience and your trouble shooting skills will come handy.

You can argue that the first and second step are the same. In real trouble shooting scenarios you will not notice big difference between these two step as you switch between these steps really fast.

However, skipping the second step is a common mistake we do most of the time. Specially if you do not have any computer back ground you tend to think that fixing a computer problem is hard as making a space craft. 60% of the computer problems do not require special skills. Even if you call for professional help, identifying the problem will give you a good advantage explaining the issue to someone and get help.

How many times you were disappointed after calling a support line. I am not pointing the finger at you only but if you can explain the problem well to the persona who is in the other end it is always easy to get a better solution. For example, “My computer is not starting”, “My computer is slow”, “I cannot go to mywebsite.com” or similar statements dose not make much sense. If you have asked couple of questions from yourself, in most cases you might able to solve these problems by your self. Worst case you can explain it clearly. In case your computer is not starting in computer language “not booting”, here is the couple of general questions you can ask.

Dose the power is on to the computer? Dose the power light of the computer is on?
Is your monitor is on? Monitor power light is on?
What is the last screen you see on the monitor? Is it completely black?
Is there a blinking line appears on your screen?
Dose it come to the Windows logo screen and stop working?
Dose it come to the log in screen and stop from there?

You do not require any computer knowledge to get answers to any of these questions. Do you? It is just general knowledge, Now you will realise how much more you know about your computer and the current problem.

Find the possible solutions for your problem is the third step. Information you gathered from the second step will come handy here. It is really hard to find a solution with out knowing the problem. Now you know the problem and need to know techniques to find the solutions.

Before I come to the techniques I would like to let you know couple of secrets.

* You are not the first one to experience this problem
* Don’t panic, patience is the key to solve problems

Google is the best place to look for the solutions to your computer and Internet issues. There are so many resources out there giving you step by step tutorial to solve problems or get something done correctly.

Another great place to look for how to fix solution is YouTube. Not only images and instructions, you can see how someone is fixing a it. What else you required.

As you identify the problem in step two, now try describe it in couple of words.For example “Computer stop booting from windows logo screen”. You can try this in google and check out the results you get. Key here is to give couple of good words that describe the issue. If you are getting a error message best way to search is to type the exact error message. You will be surprised the number of solutions given for a single problem. That is because you are not the first or only person to experience it. In any case you find something that no one else has experienced make sure to put it as a blog post. Will go one step back word. Try search you first explanation of your problem, in my case “computer dose not start”. You end up with lot of possibilities which you don't want to go through. This is the best way to become a Google ninja. Be more specific and describe it with couple of keywords.

There are lot of possible solutions in front of you. However, I will not apply any of them still or try to fix things up randomly. Because, it can create more issues. For example if my computer is not booting up and if I factory set the computer or reinstall Windows in first place I will loose all my data. Even though I may have fixed one problem it created a worst problem. Now I have to spend time and money to recover my data.

Here we come to the final step where you apply the solution you found. You required to go through the solutions carefully and first check how comfortable are you applying it to computer. I suggest this is the best place you should decide whether to get some professional help or not. Even if you go for professional help you will able to fix the problem easily as you know the situation very well and also you know the possible solutions as well.

If you have a computer background or you like to learn more about computers you should not afraid to take a risk. Saying that you should always know your worst case scenario and the limitations. I would not experiment thing on my work computer or someone else computer where I cannot afford to loose anything.

However, if it is a simple solution that really dose not have a risk I will definitely try it out knowing what exactly I am doing.

In this way you can easily trouble shoot your computer. I am sure you can apply thins on your day to day life as well. Give it a try and I would like to hear your story as well. Share it with me.

Will Computer Age Really End on 2012?

Day by day planet earth and its species including humans getting closer to day 20th of December 2012. Mayan long calendar ends on the exact day. Mayans is not the only prehistoric civilisation that predict this day. Egyptian, Hopi, India, Aborigines civilisation and individual Nostradamus are trying to tell something about exact day. As we already lost most of these ancient languages and other documents are just drawings we always end up with questions not answers. Therefore, some predict world is going to end, another group predict that is just the end of present civilisation and others argue that nothing is going to happen in 2012.
What is really going to happen in year 2012? Are we already seeing the changes? This video, presentation at the 2012 Conference by Graham Hancock will answer most of your questions.




Many interesting facts were revealed in his video. Our world is keep on changing its shape time to time. It happened and it will happen in future. We cannot stop that or change it. Our technology hacks tricks will not be enough. Every culture has the same story but in different format. Is that mean something common happened all over the world during the same time period.

Another important thing he mentioned in his presentation [1:05:44] is the book Hamlet's Mill (first published by Gambit, Boston, 1969) by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend. It is amazing how all the sacred places on earth is linked with the same series of numbers coming up again and again. 72 is the hurt beat of the circle and you will be amazed how Mysterious Egyptian Pyramids, Temples around the world is base on number 72. Not only that all the myths and stories use the same numbers. Is it a coincident?

Graham Hancock point out another important fact about our present life style. We are after day to day problems and solving them and out lives are base on nothing but money. Without even knowing we live a life that is not connect with earth. I think it is time to change and think out of the box to have better life.


Related Readings 

Use your Sixth Sense with your Computer

Most of us are used to using a computer the normal way - fingers tapping away on a keyboard, and having to use a mouse to click at the screen. But soon, we wont have to use either a keyboard or a mouse!

'Sixsense' is a wearable gestural interface program that digitizes the physical world around us and lets us use natural hand motions to interact with that information.

Thats how Pravav Mistry describes his new gadget - a device that abandons the limits of computer mice and keyboards and which allows the user to interact with information. After viewing the video a user will probably feel that using any normal device (mobile phone, mp3 player, or laptop) is a waste of time in comparison.

With Sixsense you will be able to add certain information to objects that you use everyday, and it will also lock in and follow your finger movements. You can move text, graphs and pictures from paper to computer and computer to paper with this amazing tool.


Possibilities/Implications with SixthSense

You will be able to obtain information, including personal information, from strangers just by looking at them! If someone were to view you using Sixsense, and if you were a registered sex-offender, then you wouldnt be able to hide.



It can be used as an aid in speaking (for example, this would be perfect for thyroid cancer patients, like Roger Ebert).

It can interpret sign language motions to actual vocal words/phrases

It can be used as a real-time translator (you can go to a foreign country and have no problems with getting around, because youll be able to read street signs).

You wont have to pay attention to your environment very much, since Sixsence will be able to give you information about your environment in real time (e.g. not knowing what street youre on).

You wont have to necessary need to hold a book or manual in front of you (Sixsense can project informational material onto a nearby wall).

Of course, there are downsides to having such fantastic technology readily available:

You might accidently throw out or project your personal information if you dont know what youre doing with the Sixsense gadget.

Hackers may see this as a grand opportunity to gain quick access to a persons personal information

People might be inclined to turn their brains off, since they essentially have a device that can feed them answers by their own finger movements.

Yet this is one of the coolest innovatiions I have come across. and has a lot of potential to change lifestyles.

Troubleshoot Computer Problems in 2010

We are in 2010 dose not mean that computers will stop giving problems. Even in 2010 technology is not that advance to fix their own problems. So someone need to troubleshoot problems as they arrive. Lets have a couple of simple hacks and tricks that can be used to fix any computer problem.


Most of us think that computers are perfect or suppose to be perfect and get frustrated when something goes wrong. That is wrong and computers can only do what you program it to do and if somethings small goes wrong it start giving problems. So you need to fix it.

People think that if it is related to computers then it is too complicated and you need to learn about it to fix it. But what you learn in school or university will not help much when it come to troubleshoot.

One more thing that if you are scared of things will go worse with your action then you might have difficulties trying out new things and troubleshooting.

Whats is the problem?

Before you start doing anything you need to identify that there is a problem. It is easy. If things dose not work as it was before or giving out error messages or warnings or if it dose not do what it suppose to do then there is a problem. Identifying the problem is the most important part of troubleshooting. That is the one most of us dose not pay much attention.

What cause the problem?

After identifying the problem then try to look for the reason for it. If there is any error message it will give most of the information you need. Most of the modern operating systems and programs have detailed error or warnings that tell what cause the problem.

Even if you get a error code you can always refer to its documentation or use Google to get the explanation and more details about the problem.

In some cases you will not find any error or warning message. For example if keyboard is not responding or CD/DVD ROM is not been detected or computer is too slow kind of scenarios will not leave any error messages. So try to collect as much information as possible.

What are the related software hardware components?
Which actions cause the error?

Above are two good questions that you should answer to get a idea about the problem. On top of that before you move to the next step try to get more information about the environment as well.

What Operating System (OS) are you using?
What is the OS Service Pack or Software Version?
What are the other programs that run in the background?
What are the last couples of changes you have done? (Upgrade/Installed new Software)

More related questions you try to answer related to your problem with make it easy to solve it as you get better unresting.

What is the solution to the problem?

As you gather more information about the computer or internet related problem will make it easy to look for a solution.

1. If you have solved a similar or exactly the same problem then the solutions for your problem will be to apply similar. That is base on your experience and with time you will gather more and more experience you will be able to troubleshoot tech problems pretty easily.

2. Even without any prior knowledge you can find a way to solve your tech problem.

You are not the first person to go through PROBLEM A.

Most of the cases (99% of time) you will notice that you are not the only one to face that problem or the first one to be. So you can always get help from others who have solved the problem. If you gone through blogs or forums related to your problem then you will notice how many people were gone through the same problem.

I use Google to find these forums and blogs which gives out step by step guides to solve tech problems. Great but how do you know whether it is going to work out. Small trick you need to do is to scan through the comments below the post or the conversations going on in the forums to see what others been saying. Because all the time you will not find the working solutions.

Another important fact when it comes to Googling is to use the appropriate search term.

1. Use the exact error message or code.

In this way you will be able to find the most appropriate solutions from Google. I will always try to copy and paste the exact error message in Google or in the documentations.

2. Use the exact error message or code with the software/OS/website/ name and version.

If the error message is generic you have to use the name of the software, application, OS or website with its version details with the error message to see the related discussion and solutions with Google.

3. Description of your problem with software/OS/website/ name and version

If there is no error message or code then you have to use a little description of the problem and all the other details related to the issue. That can be the operating system, software name or version details.

Always it is better to mix up the keywords or add and remove keywords to optimize the search result for your problem.

After going through the solutions and related comments and replies if you feel like that you cannot fix it or there is a high probability to make thing worst then always better to get someone else help. Even though you are not going to fix it by yourself knowing the problem and the solution is a great help when you try to look for help.

How to fix it?

Here comes the fun part. Fixing the problem. Until now what we did is to understand the problem and solutions to it. So now we need to apply it and get our problem solved.

1. First thing first. It is always better to backup your content and system as some times things can go wrong. If something can go wrong it will (Murphy's law). Unless your operating system is crashed or files are corrupted you have a chance to back up all your content before you try troubleshooting. In most of the step by step guides they will instruct you to backup if what you are trying to do can cause any damage to the data.

When it comes to system back up System Restore comes in handy as you can roll back to previous state of you computer if your troubleshooting created further problems and if you feel like it is getting worst and worst.

2. Then take couple of deep breaths and follow the solution that you found out. It is really important to be patience even things are not going great. That helps to over come the problems.

3. After going through the instructions sometimes you might end up without solving the problem. In worst case it might brings up a new problem. Do not blame anyone as that is quite common with computers. In such situation you need to go back to first step and follow the steps to get it fix.

This is quite general way to solve problems but I have tried this to solve many problems as it comes. Always a positive mind set will help you to get through any difficult situation with your computer or related issues.

Speed up your Old Computer

Is your old computer runs too slow? And the best answer you got so far is to buy a new computer then I will show you couple ways to get your old computer run fast.


1. Start Loving Windows XP
Use Windows XP and do not try to upgrade to vista or Windows 7 as they require more resources ans your old computer might not able to handle it. With windows XP you can do pretty much every thing and most of the softwares are compatible.


2. Adjust Visual Effects for the best performance

Go to Control Panel > Click System icon > Go to Advanced tab > click Settings button (Performance) > Go to Visual Effect Tab> Check Adjust for best performance check box > Click Ok button and then click Apply button.

3. Increase the Virtual Memory

Go to Control Panel > Click System icon > Go to Advanced tab > click Settings button (Performance) > Go to Visual Effect Tab > Go to Advances Tab >
Click Change button (Virtual Memory) > Check Custom Size check box > Provide really higher value compare to Recommended size. Then it will pop up message with the maximum value you can use. > Click Ok Button > Click Ok Button > Click Apply Button

Need to restart to apply the changes.

4. Clean temporary files regularly.

I use CClearner to clean all the unwanted files that are created and slow down you computer. CCleaner is free and simple software that detect all the junk in your computer and delete them to free up the space as well and speed up the computer. It also fix registry errors as well. Follow this regularly (Once a month) to keep you computer smooth.

5. Disk Defragmenter can help you

It is another good practice to use disk defragmenter to organize the data in your hard drive.

Click Start button > Go to All Programs > Go to Accessories > Go to system Tools > Click Disk Defragmenter > Click the hard disk if you have multiple > Click Defragment button.

6. Keep you hard drive space

It is good to keep some space in your hard drive as it is been used for the virtual memory and helps you keep your computer running fast. If you have small hard drive then it is good to have a external hard drive to store all your big files ( movies, mp3, images).

If it is a small hard drive I will not recommend to partition it as the system partition will be really small and it will slow down the computer dramatically.

7. Disable Error Reporting

Go to Control Panel > Click System icon > Go to Advanced tab > Click Error Reporting button > Check Disable error reporting check box > Check But notify me when critical errors occur. > Click OK button > Click Ok Button.

8. Uninstall all the softwares not in use

It is always good to uninstall all the softwares that you do not use. It will free up the disk space as well as virtual memory. Also remember not to install all sort of programs you come cross as well.

9. Run limited number of programs

Running multiple programs at the same time will slow down the computer as it dose not have much resources to support. Specially if you run heavy application such as Windows Media Player or some thing then it will be bit hard to run couple of other programs simultaneously.

10.Be Generous

You know that your computer dose not have much power so do not expect it to do things fast. If it takes couple of extra seconds to open a window do not try to click again or open it again. It will make things worst. Give it some times or you can use CTR + Shift + Esc (CTR + ALT + Del ) to open the Windows Task bar to see what programs are taking more resources and close them if you are not using them.

Looking back at Oldest Computers

This is some thing really old but still interesting. Really old means actually it goes up to the early days of the computers. Now of course we have really cool computers in may forms Desktop to palmtops even mobile phone is a complex device. Can you think of having this on your lap or even in your room?


Thought it would be interesting to share these pictures with you.


This is how they design the programs. Before it goes to the implementation.
Will this fit your room?
Is this looks like your office desk?

Any way we should not forget that this is what brought you to the computers what we use today.

Buying a Laptop Computer or Netbook

It is not an easy task to buying a laptop computer. Not just because of the price of the price of the laptops but comparing the features with the prices will easily makes you feel lost. Do not forget that cheap new notebook have new member. Netbooks are cheaper and portable. So how you decide which laptop, desktop or netbook to buy.


How much you can or willing to spend on your new computer, laptop or netbook comes first. Without proper budget you will easily get lost because you can buy one for $500 as well as for more than $5000. I will leave it with you.

Before you go any further spend couple of minutes to go through the hardware requirements and operating system you would prefer. At this stage you will get Windows Vista
or XP with your laptop and soon Windows 7 would be available. In terms of hardware it is Screen Size, RAM, Hard disk space, Processor and video and sound card would be main components you need to think of.

Then it would be better to decide you want to buy a desktop, laptop or netbook. You might need to answer couple of usability question before you make the decision.

* Do I want it to be portable?
* Do I want 5-6 hours of battery life?
* Do I want to use it mainly for internet browsing and access documents and Excels?
* Will I not constantly use it for couple of hours?
* Do I have another computer?
* 1GB - 2GB RAM is quite enough?

If you answer yes to most of the above questions then I would recommend you to go for a netbook which is cheaper, extremely portable and quite handy to take it when you travel. Not recommended for constantly using for longer hours.

* I want to it to be portable?
* I do not really worried about the battery life?
* I want to run couple of general applications and some photo editing applications?
* I will use it for hours and hours?
* I want more RAM and disk space to be used?

Then it is ideal to buy a laptop base on your hardware requirements. You can upgrade/downgrade RAM and hard drive base on your requirement and budget. With netbooks it is bit hard to work for longer hours as the screen is smaller.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If you do not want portability at all and want to run really heavy and experiment with application, operating systems and what to run programing languages and databases you must choose a good desktop. Also if you have a limited budget desktop would be a good option as well.

Try to keep your requirements simple. Otherwise new models will add to the market and you will never end up buying a new computer but wasting your time going through specifications and requirements.

Do not forget to share your experience buying a new laptop, computer or netbook...

[3W&H] What Where When & How to Backup Your Computer

Majority of the computer users do not regularly backup their important files. Simply because, backup process is complicated, time consuming and scared of paying big bills at the end. However, you end up paying  the price when something happened to computer or the computer hard drive. Lets look at a way you can simply organize your file regular backup.

How to backup files? We will find millions of hardware, software and online solutions for it. Unfortunately these solutions do not meet our requirements. You need to identify your requirements before you start looking for ways to backup.  Here are the questions you can ask yourself.

1. What to Backup?
2. Where to Backup?
3. When to Backup?
4. How to Backup?

How to backup you files is the last questions you need to answer.

What to Backup?
Backing up all your files in the computer and external hard drives is time consuming as well as going to cost you lot. Trying to backup each and every thing is the first reason why it fails to do regular automated backups.

You need to select the files that you cannot live without them. It depends on person to person and no one can help you with it. So take time go through your files and folders and decide what is important and what files change update regularly. Managing folder structure base on the importance of files or base on the project can come in handy in this task. You can easily specify the what folder to backup and what not to.

For example you can easily skip video files, mp3s and thousands of picture you download from Internet. Even you lost them still you can manage to recover them with time or even without them it will not make much difference to your day to life.

Where to backup?
After you identifying what files to be backup now you can move to the next question. That is Where you going to back these files?
Now you have a idea about the total size of files and frequency of updating these files and importance of the files. You can decide what type of media you can/should select to backup.

If the data you going to back up is worth millions you can easily spend couple of thousands for backing up. If it is just regular files that you use then you should not spend a lot. Here are some options that you can use to backup files.

1. Different Partition - Good for quicker access but your backup is not secure at all
2. External Hard Drive - Better and good for regular backups faster.
3 Network Storage - Better if you need couple of machine to be backed up regularly.
4. Cd's/DVDs - Cheap and good for one time backups - not good for regular backups.
5. Online Storage / FTP accounts - Your back up is secure if something happened to the current location.

There can be many more options and these are only couple of them to have a idea. It is always to have one or more local backups and at least one backup in another location (FTP).

When to Backup?
This is another important question you should answer before starting or backing up your files. Answer to this question basically is the answer to backup scheduling.
Couple of good options are...

1. Daily
2. Weekly
3. Monthly
4. Yearly

Basically you might have to go with each of these options with your regularly updating files. Main reason for that it in any case you have accidentally delete or change any files you can always go one day backwards and retrieve it. Also you will have week old files and month old files as well.

However, if you are backing up data in frequently updating environment where couple of users involved you might have to keep daily backups for at least for seven days. That require space accordingly.

Another important fact is at what time you are planning to take the backups. Backing up process may take the computer resources will result your machine to run bit slower than usual. It totally depend on the software you use. If the files are in use it might not properly backed up as some programs lock some files.

How to Backup?
Final question. Here we will analyse our answers to all the above three question and come to a conclusion. This is the time you will make decision how much you going to spend base on couple of calculations you do.

1. Find enough Storage for the backups.
At least 5 times bigger than the total size of the files you have to backup.

2. Find proper storage devices base on your budget and requirements.

External Hard drive, NAS (Network Storage, Online Storage with FTP access or can you manage with CD's or DVDs.

3.Find the Best Software that suite your requirements (Freeware or Shareware)

Summery
1.Find out what files to be backup. Reduce what you backup regularly.
2.Find out how important your files are.
3.Find out how regularly your files get updated.
4.Figure out the storage media
5.Decide when to schedule backup and frequency.

Basically this process will simplified your backup process that will make your life much easier.

How to diagnose Harddrive problems

Do you have a harddrive that makes a clicking noise? Are you worried about the health of your harddisk? Is your computer overheating and possibily damaging the harddrive?

Well, there is one easy way to find out with the HDDhealth Utility.

Here's what the creator's have to say about the software. I personally use it and find is extremely useful.

You can download it from here.

http://www.panterasoft.com/

HDD Health is a full-featured failure-prediction agent for machines using Windows 95, 98, NT, Me, 2000 and XP. Sitting in the system tray, it monitors hard disks and alerts you to impending failure. The program uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) built into all new hard disks, and can predict failures on your hard drives. A host of alerting features include email, local pop-up messages, net messages, and event logging, while using no system resources.

Should I buy or wait till Windows 7?

I need to buy a new computer? Biggest question I have is to buy it now or wait until Windows 7 is out? If I buy a laptop or desktop now will I be able to upgrade  from Windows Vista or Windows XP to Windows7 for free? Will my computer compatible with windows 7? 

These are the questions running through my head as I am looking to buy a new computer. I am pretty sure if you are looking to buy a new computer you are running through the same set of questions.  

What are the minimum requirements for Windows 7? 

A PC with these system requirements:

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  
• 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
  
• DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
  

Please note these specifications could change. And, some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or navigation through the use of "touch," may require advanced or additional hardware.

1. When Windows 7  going to be release? 

Still there is no exact date you can find but most probably you will be able to get Windows 7 before end of 2009. 

If you are planning to buy a computer what you should consider?

2. Hardware configurations. 

• 3 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  
• 3 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  
• 500 GB available disk space 
  
• DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

So it is always good to buy latest configurations as latest become oldest within couple of months in computer world. Minimum Windows 7 requirements is only to run Windows 7. Always remember you need to run Office, Media Player or other software as well with it.

3. Compatibility 

Still I have not seen any compatibility issue with Windows 7. Windows Vista had lot of compatibility issues.  Windows 7 BETA run in my old computer without much problem. I do not think there will be much problems with the compatibility.

4. How much it is going to upgrade to Windows 7?

Still Windows 7 is not release. So if you buy a computer now it will come with Windows XP or Windows Vista.  Make sure to ask for the deal. May be they might able to give you a free upgrade package from Windows XP, Vista to 7.

Share your experience with buying a new computer and Windows 7 in the comments.