Summary: Why can't I install Photo Gallery and Movie Maker?
This is what an installation error should not look like:
Two hours of frustration, searching the web and support sites for possible hints, following any remotely close suggestions, and the only thing I get is:
An unknown error occurred.
Error: 0x80096005
Source: D3DX9
Thank your Microsoft, kids!
UPDATE: Okay, after getting a number of hints from troubleshooting posts, I was able to fix the problem. It looks like my system missed the original DirectX 9 DLL (D3DX9.DLL). I don't know why it's missing. Maybe some program removed it when it was not supposed to (I did not see any errors related to DirectX 9, though). So, I just made copies of the latest version of the DirectX 9 DLL (D3DX9_XX.DLL) in the System32 and SysWow64 folders and renamed the copies to D3DX9.DLL. Problem solved. Hope it helps someone.
After a long search for a decent 802.11n router (and not finding one that would satisfy my real and perceived needs), I decided to wait until the makers produce something that is feature-full and reliable. In the meantime, I needed something basic:
no dropped connections
decent signal
USB port
built-in print server
ASUS RT-N13U seemed to meet these requirements. Since Tim Higgins (the SmallNetBuilder guy) gave it pretty good marks, I thought I would give it a try.
After using the router for a couple of months, I can say that I'm rather happy with it: the signal is stable (no dropped connections) and reasonably strong. However, the setup process took me much longer than it should've had. Here are several issues that I encountered.
Can't connect
ASUS RT-N13U can act as a router, access point, or repeater. Which is a good thing. The bad thing is that it comes from the factory with the repeater mode turned on. It took me about an hour of frustration until I realized why my system could not see the router during initial setup. Once I switch it to the router mode, the setup process went fine.
Still slow
Although, I set the router to work in mixed 802.11g/n mode, I noticed that the speed did not exceed 54 Mbps on my laptop and nettop, both of which have wireless-N cards. I played with various settings in the admin panel: all to no avail. Finally, I found an FAQ that explained the reason: the authentication method of my router had to be set to WPA2-AES (it wasn't); at other authentication settings, the speed will not get over 54 Mbps. It would be helpful if the router's admin panel somehow conveyed this limitation when detecting a wrong authentication method (it does not). Anyway, I changed authentication to WPA2-AES, and...
Can't connect (again)
Once I changed authentication to WPA2-AES, my systems could not connect. I submitted the issue to tech support but the person handling my ticket was even more clueless than me (he suggested that my laptop's network card might have not supported 802.11n, even though I had mentioned that I could connect to 802.11n network at work just fine). After spending a few hours contemplating this problem, I finally figured out that I used the wrong variation of WPA2-AES: instead of Enterprise (which is how I connect to WiFi at work), I should've used WPA2-AES Personal. After changing authentication mode to Personal (and setting up the password), I was able to connect.
Software
ASUS RT-N13U comes with a CD containing software and documentation. Although I successfully used the setup wizard (software) for initial configuration, the software stopped working (it cannot detect the router). This is not a big deal for now because I can access the admin panel via a browser.
Additional tips for new ASUS RT-N13U users:
Make sure you download and install the most recent firmware updates (see the Downloads page).
IP address of the admin panel: 192.168.1.1
Default admin credentials: admin/admin (it's recommended to change them).
So far, I've been using the router only for wireless networking (not for printing or file sharing, yet). I'm planning to update this post once I get to test its wireless print server and drive sharing capabilities. Stay tuned.
UPDATE (4/28/2010): Since the original post, newer routers have been released to marked. Among them, ASUS RT-N56U (featuring dual-band processor, hardware NAT, 5 internal antennas, fast gigabit ethernet and 128MB DDR2) seems to be getting pretty good reviews from professionals and users. Although, it's a bit more expensive, ASUS RT-N56U is much more capable, and it's still cheaper than comparable Cisco or Netgear routers (and seems to be less buggy).
Summary: Recommendations for protecting sensitive data on a USB drive.
I recently lost my primary USB flash drive (the key chain broke), so I had to go over the exercise of setting up a new one using my favorite drive encryption software: TrueCrypt. I don't do this very often, and every time it takes me some time to recall the correct procedure and reconstruct my basic USB flash drive setup, so I thought I'd outline these step here. Hope it will help someone else.
Download and run TrueCrypt on your computer TrueCrypt can run in (semi-)portable mode, so you have an option of either installing it on your computer or simply downloading and executing the program.
Create encrypted container on the USB drive
This container is just a file with space allocated for the encrypted volume. TrueCrypt will use this file as a virtual drive (volume) that you can map as a regular drive letter. Follow these steps:
In the main TrueCrypt application window, click the Create Volume button:
In the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard, select the Create an encrypted file container option, and click Next:
In the Volume Type dialog box, select the Standard TrueCrypt volume option:
In the Volume Location dialog box, use the Select File button and navigate to the drive mapped to your USB drive; then enter the name of the file you want to create (you can give any name and extension to this file):
In the Encryption Options dialog box, select AES for encryption algorithm and SHA-512 for hash algorithm (if you wish, you can use another combination of options):
In the Volume Size dialog box, specify the size of file that you will allocate for the encrypted volume. Make sure that you leave some space for regular (unencrypted) storage. You will need this space to store the TrueCrypt binaries and possibly other files (more on these later). If you are not sure how much space you need to allocate, just use ~75% for encrypted storage, i.e. for a 4 GB USB drive, use 3 GB for encrypted storage (75% of 4 GB = 3 GB):
In the Volume Password dialog box, enter the password that you will use to access the encrypted volume (make sure you can remember this password):
In the Volume Format dialog box, select the file system type (I prefer NTFS, but you can use another), and click Format:
Confirm the operation and wait until TrueCrypt creates and formats the encrypted container (file). When done, click the Exit button to close TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard.
Install TrueCrypt software on the USB drive
If you expect to use your encrypted drive on a system where TrueCrypt is not installed, you need to keep the necessary TrueCrypt files along with your encrypted container. Do the following:
Switch back to the main TrueCrypt application window and select the Tools-Traveler Disk Setup... menu option.
In the Traveler Disk Setup dialog box, specify the root location of the USB drive and uncheck the Include TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard option (since you have already created one). Select the Auto-mount TrueCrypt volume option and specify the encrypted container file you created in the previous step. You can adjust these and other options to your liking:
Click the Create button and once the operation completes, close the Traveler Disk Setup dialog box.
You can close the main TrueCrypt program window.
At this point your USB drive will have an encrypted container that you can mount as a drive, as well as all necessary TrueCrypt components (for use on systems where TrueCrypt is not installed).
Here are additional changes that improve my experience with TrueCrypt and your USB drive:
Autorun.inf file
The default autorun.inf file created by TrueCrypt is fine, but I normally make a couple of changes. E.g. I like all TrueCrypt's Windows shell context menu items to be grouped together, so I rename them. Here is the contents of my autorun.inf file (if you decide to use it, make sure that you reference the correct location of the TrueCrypt.exe file, as well as the container file):
autorun.inf
[autorun]
label=Cruser2GB
icon=TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe
action=TrueCrypt: Auto-mount volume
open=TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /q background /e /m rm /v "volume.tc"
shell\start=TrueCrypt: Run from USB
shell\start\command=TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe
shell\dismount=TrueCrypt: Dismount all volumes
shell\dismount\command=TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /q /d
shell\mount=TrueCrypt: Mount volume
shell\mount\command=TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /q background /e /m rm /v "volume.tc"
Helper batch scripts
The autorun.inf file works great on older versions of Windows, but unfortunately Windows 7 (and I expect later versions) only recognizes the label and icon settings. So, if you plug the USB drive into a USB port on a system running Windows 7, it will neither auto-mount the drive, nor will it show the TrueCrypt's shell context menu options. To make it easier to mount and unmount the volumes, I use the following batch scripts (I put them in the root folder of the USB drive):
Notes: The start command hides the command-line window (without it, you will need to close the window manually). When using this script, make sure that it references the correct location of the TrueCrypt.exe file and your volume container.
unmount.bat
@echo off
%~dp0\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe /q /d
Auto-runner
As an alternative to the batch scripts I mentioned above, you may want to try the AutoRunner.exe program attached to the Windows 7 - Autorun on USB drives post on SevenForums. When you launch this program, it will auto-mount the TrueCrypt volume and create the shell context menus defined in the autorun.inf file on Windows 7. The main problem with this program is that once launched, it will continue running until you kill it in the TaskManager (there seems to be no other interactive way to close the program). And you will need to kill it when you need to remove the USB drive. If you want to use this program, copy the executable to the root folder of the USB drive.
Safely remove drive helper
The built-in Windows' Safely Remove Hardware feature has been and still is (even in Windows 7) one of the most user-unfriendly interfaces. As an alternative, you can try Uwe Sieber's Remove Drive program. When you run this program from a USB drive, it will keep trying to safely remove the drive until it succeeds or you cancel it. The program will give you a chance to close all open files and perform other cleanup that you may need to do before unplugging the drive. Note: Even though you launch the program from the USB drive, it will actually clone itself in a temporary folder and run from there (sweet! I wish AutoRunner.exe were as smart). Assuming that you extract the Remove Drive files in RemoveDrive folder under the root of your USB drive, you can use the following batch script to launch it with appropriate command-line parameters (place this batch file in the root folder of the USB drive):
saferemove.bat
@echo off
if defined ProgramFiles(x86) (
%~dp0\RemoveDrive\x64\RemoveDrive.exe %~d0 -L -i -b
) else (
%~dp0\RemoveDrive\Win32\RemoveDrive.exe %~d0 -L -i -b
)
As the very last thing, I add a readme.txt file to the root folder with my phone number in case I lose it next time. I don't actually count that a person who finds it will return the drive to me, but you never know: there are some good people out there.
After a long search for a home theater PC (HTPC) and entertaining various options from building my own system (what was I thinking!) to buying something similar to Sony VAIO - VGX-TP1, I finally settled on Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9022 Desktop PC:
I chose Revo 3610 for a number of reasons, including:
Technology
Revo 3610 is powered by the dual-core, hyper-threaded Intel® Atom™ 330 processor and NVIDIA® ION™ graphics, the combination that is probably insufficient for CPU-intensive tasks (such as editing videos), but well suited for the intended purposes (watching videos, including HD, online browsing, etc).
Energy efficiency
Revo 3610 is Energy Star® 5.0-compliant. It's also very quiet (an important factor for HTPC).
Price
Among the systems I considered (e.g. Dell Inspiron Zino HD) Revo offered the most attractive price. I was planning to spend around $700, but got it directly from Amazon for $329.99 (no tax and free shipping). I don't think I would've built a system for that much money.
Size
The unit is really small.
Now, Revo 3610 has a few limitations, but none of them are critical to me:
Lack of optical drive
While it is a major limitation, this is one reason why the system is so cheap, but here is my take on it. I will mostly use Revo 3610 for watching streamed media or media stored on a hard drive. I do not care about Blue-ray at this point, but when I do, I'll buy a Blue-ray player anyway (these things are getting cheaper each month). And for watching regular DVDs/CDs, I already have a DVD player. I will need an external DVD writer, though (to burn system backup disks, etc).
Small hard drive
By current standards, the 160GB hard drive is small, but I have a bunch of external hard drives, which I can plug in, so no biggie here.
Form factor
I'm not a big fan of the design. Wish the system looked more like a DVD player and were entirely black and/or silver (the "dark blue" color is not offensive, though; it's very close to black). In the vertical position (on the stand), it looks weird.
Once I decided to buy Revo 3610, I could not find it on sale anywhere in the USA. I wasn't sure if it was discontinued, but after a couple of weeks of searching and waiting, I finally managed to snap one from Amazon (when it became available for a few days). I got the system delivered in about 10 days after placing the order. Here are my first impressions.
Where is the optical cable? Duh!
The system supports optical connection via the HDMI or the VGA port, but comes without cables. So how do you connect it to a TV? It would be nice if it came with an HDMI cable (seriously, a stock 6" HDMI cable costs what: $5?). If you decide to get Revo 3610, make sure that you have either a VGA or an HDMI cable ready (the cheap HDMI cable I bought at Meritline works very well; see HDMI cable deals).
Documentation? What documentation?
Once I connected Revo 3610 to my 32" Toshiba HGTV, I could not figure out how to make the supplied wireless keyboard and mouse work. I was expecting to find instructions in the documentation, but there were none. The provided pamphlet includes IKEA-like diagrams and some information explaining how to proceed with OS setup, but there is not a single sentence to explain how to enable the keyboard and mouse. The Revo 3610 documentation is a joke. I'm not kidding. Here is a quote from the User Guide I found on the hard drive after I completed the setup:
"Insert the startup disk you created during Windows setup into the floppy drive and press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart your computer."
Floppy drive? Anyway, to complete the setup I just plugged in my old USB keyboard and mouse, but I needed to figure out how to actually make the wireless mouse and keyboard work, so I decided to try customer support.
Customer support! What customer support? Ah, that customer support!
I first submitted a question via the web form. It has been over a month, and I haven't received a response, yet. I then tried the online chat, but was told that it only covers Aspire One (whatever it is). I got the support number though (1-800-571-2237). The official version was that the phone support is available Mon-Fri 7 am-9 pm CST and Sat-Sun 8 am-5 pm CST (excluding holidays), but the person I talked to first said that it's available 24 hours. The support technician explained to me that the USB receiver is hidden inside of the battery compartment of the wireless mouse (the receiver is really small, so I did not notice it when I inserted the battery). Once I plugged the receiver into one of the Revo's USB ports and turned the power switch (it's nice that it has one), the mouse started to work, but I still struggled with the keyboard. The support technician told me to push the Connect switch on the bottom of the keyboard (apparently, the keyboard uses the same receiver as the mouse), but I tried and tried and it did not seem to work. After struggling for a few minutes, I finally managed to connect the keyboard, but I'm still not sure what I did differently. So finally I got the devices working.
VESA mount... no mount...
I was planning to mount Revo on the back side of my TV, but the holes in the supplied VESA mount did not match the holes in the TV. I suspect that the VESA mount is intended for smaller monitors. Even if the holes matched I would still be confused by the "instruction" explaining how to use the VESA mount.
Software, badware, goodware.
Revo 3610 comes with 64-bit edition of Windows 7, which is not the optimal choice. Not only the 64-bit OS requires more resources (such as RAM), but since HTPC is intended primarily for media viewing and most of the popular media software (Flash, media players, browsers) only come as 32-bit applications, this seems like a waste of resources. They do work, though, but what's the point! Anyway, as any other system, Revo comes with some bloatware, which took me about two hours to uninstall. I then tried to get the latest updates (OS, NVIDIA drivers, etc), and I screwed up by not following instructions (I did not uninstall Flash before installing Flash 10.1 Beta, forgot to install the latest NVIDIA chipset driver, and made a couple of other goofs, causing a few apps -- mostly web browsers showing videos -- to crash). I finally followed Paul J Roberts' instructions to the letter, and voila: it now works, and seems pretty stable.
One thing that disappointed me was that Revo did not recognize DVD+R in my external DVD writer. It worked fine for burning backup CDs, though. I suspect this is an issue with the DVD writer (I had problems with it before), so I'm currently shopping for another drive (I kinda like Samsung SE-S084C/RSBN, but keep my options open [got the Samsung SE-S084C/RSBN from Amazon for $49.99]).
I do not like the Revo's power switch. Every time I press it, I'm afraid it'll break. I'd rather have a conventional power button.
I connected a 1.5 TB Western Digital Elements USB drive for additional storage, but I did not figure out how to access this drive from my other laptops (running Windows XP and Vista).
Although my display is set to show larger fonts (150%), I wish I could make the fonts even bigger. I'm quite satisfied with HD video quality. Streaming video works fine, but at this point, I'm constrained with the speed limitations of my wireless 802.11b/g router (have been waiting for the price of Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 to drop), so the quality of streaming video varies. Programs like The Daily Show and Frontline show fine, but HD content is choppy (most likely, the router issue). Local HD videos look great. [Update: I have since bought ASUS RT-N13U Wireless-N Router, Access Point, and Repeater; see my review here.]
I have been using Revo 3610 for just a couple of weeks, so I'm still learning the software (Windows 7 quirks, Windows Media Center, Boxee, etc), but so far, I like it. I'm planning to post an update once I get a better grip on it and get more devices (in addition to wireless-N router, I'm also considering a TV tuner, and maybe a remote).
UPDATE (Feb 22, 2009): Just discovered an issue with x.264-encoded MKV files: it plays them, but the video is really slow and gets out-of-sync with the audio. I suspect that this is an issue with the codec, so looking for a solution. Will post an update once I get it fixed. Also noticed a couple of crashes when watching Flash in full-screen mode (this started to happen after a recent Windows update). Will keep an eye on this one as well. [See update below.]
UPDATE (Feb 23, 2009): The x.264 encoding/MKV issue seems to be solved, thanks to recommendations I found at RevoUser board. Now, I'm too cheap to buy the CoreAV Professional Codec, so I somewhat altered the recommendations. First, I installed the latest release of the ffdshow codec pack. Because ffdshow is available in 32-bit version, I also installed the 32-bit version of Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Other than checking a couple of audio settings in the ffdshow options, I did not make any other changes. I opened a couple of x.264-encoded MKV files (1080p) in Media Player Classic, and they ran flawlessly. And the quality was just breathtaking even on my cheap 32" 720p Toshiba LCD. I'm very pleased with the results.
UPDATE (Nov 22, 2010): I have been using Revo 3610 for over 9 months now, and I'm quite happy with it. The only complaint I have is the performance of the wireless-N adapter for streaming HD video, but I'm not sure if this is and issue with my wireless setup (distance to the router, walls), or with the adapter. I don't stream HD video that often, so not a big deal for now. On another note, I have recently been helping some friends buy HTPCs and noticed a few models that appear to be newer and better alternatives to Revo 3610. These were not available at the time I bought it, but if I were shopping for an HTPC now, I would seriously consider the following models (Amazon prices seem reasonable at the time of this post):
UPDATE (Jan 15, 2011): A few weeks ago, the mouse started to act (the left button kept getting stuck), so I called Acer and received a free replacement withing a few days. No hassle, whatsoever.
UPDATE (Jan 25, 2011): This week I decided to jump on the Windows Media Center wagon (so to speak), and had all kinds of issues. The major problem was that Windows 7 WMC could not play DVDs (from virtual drives mapped ISO images, as well as VIDEO_TS folders; kept getting error: "Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly."). After 3 nights of investigation and a futile effort to reinstall the OS, I finally found the solution at Windows Client TechCenter (see post by CGTracy). It involves 4 step:
In Windows Media Center, navigate to Settings > DVD > Audio.
Check the Auto volume box.
Click Save.
Reboot computer.
I'll write a post on WMC migration, in which I'll explain how to make it work and play all kinds of media formats.
Summary: A couple of things that can help improve your HP Compaq performance.
My company-issued laptop (HP Compaq 6910p) has been sluggish lately. The major problem was the login delay: it took 3-5 minutes for the system to become responsive on every login. I recently cleaned up and defragmented the laptop's hard drive and voila: performance has improved. The login response time now takes a fraction of what it used to be.
If you are suffering from a poor computer performance (and it does not have to be HP/Compaq laptop, but can be any brand of laptop or desktop), try defragmenting the system drive. Before you start defragmentation, uninstall the programs that you do not need, and use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete unnecessary files. To launch Disk Cleanup, in Windows Explorer, right-click the system drive (normally, C:), and select Properties from the context menu.
In the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button to launch disk diagnostics. Once diagnostics is complete (which may take a few minutes), use the options to delete all temporary and unneeded files.
After cleaning up the disk, switch back to the disk Properties dialog box (or re-open it if needed), click the Tools tab, and press the Defragment Now button.
Depending on how badly your hard drive is defragmented, you may need to run the defragmenter 2-5 times to get the best results. It may take a few hours to complete the first pass, but each consecutive run will take less and less time.
Along with defragmenting the system drive, I also uninstalled the HP ProtectTools software (Credential Manager, Embedded Security, etc), which caused me nothing but irritation (since I use other security solutions, I have no need for HP ProtectTools).
If you are using an HP Compaq laptop and want to get rid of HP ProtectTools, you need to uninstall the applications in the following order (you may not have all of these utilities installed, so just remove the ones that you have):
Credential Manager for HP ProtectTools
Java Card Security for ProtectTools
Drive Encryption for HP ProtectTools
Smartcard security for HP ProtectTools
Embedded Security for HP ProtectTools
BIOS Security for HP ProtectTools
HP ProtectTools Security Manager
I’m not sure if removing HP ProtectTools helped improve my system performance, but at least I do not see the "Embedded security was not initialized" pop-up on every login and my system tray is now a bit cleaner.
Summary: How to manage documents, photos, music, passwords, e-mails, contacts, personal information, and other files and data.
Can you relate to the following scenarios?
Scenario #1: You bought a new computer and now you need to migrate your bookmarks, e-mail messages, music, and other important files from your old PC to the new system.
Scenario #2: You are using several computer (like work PC and home PC) and would like to keep some files in sync between them.
Scenario #4: You backed up your photos to CDs, but you have so many of then that you cannot find your favorite photo of your cat.
Scenario #5: You're losing track of your Internet passwords, usernames, etc.
I can go on, but the point I'm trying to make is: managing personal information (files and data) on multiple computers and avoiding data loss from a hardware crash is not trivial. In this article, I'll explain how (with minimum effort) you can keep your data safe, up-to-date, and accessible. My recommendations are intended for PC users, but some of them can be applicable to Mac and Linux fans, too.
Before I get to the recommendations, let me emphasize the following: your personal computer -- whether it's running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux -- is not reliable: its hard drive can fail, the operating system can get corrupted (e.g. via a virus), it can get stolen. To avoid data loss with the loss of your computer (or its parts), you must keep copies of your data somewhere else.
A traditional approach is to back up files to an external drive. Although, it's a praiseworthy strategy, it has several limitations. First, it requires additional hardware. Second, it does not address the issue of accessibility (not a big deal, if you have only one computer, but can be a problem if you want to keep some data in sync between several machines). Third, have you actually tried to recover data from your backup? If you haven't, you may be up to an unpleasant surprise. Finally, most people don't perform regular backups because they consider them a hassle.
Whether you regularly back up your hard drive(s) or not, consider an alternative (or complementing) approach: keep important data online using what techies call cloud computing. Here is how you can use cloud computing services from reputable providers and software to keep your data safe, manageable, and accessible.
Internet bookmarks/favorites
First a suggestion: do not add every interesting page you find on the Internet to your browser's bookmarks/favorites; only bookmark the sites which you visit regularly (daily, weekly); for everything else use a social bookmarking service such as Delicious (or any of the alternatives). If you're not familiar with social bookmarking, watch this short (3:25 min) video:
For regular bookmarks/favorites, use the Xmarks browser add-on(s), which will keep your bookmarks (and optionally passwords and cookies) in sync between different machines and browsers.
E-mail/calendar/contacts
For e-mail needs, I have two words: use Gmail. Why? First, Gmail is the only service that lets you forward your e-mail to any other address for free. You can forward your messages to your work e-mail, your ISP's account, or anywhere else. This way, you will not lose any messages if you switch jobs or ISPs. Second, Gmail's generous storage capacity (currently, over 7 GB) lets you archive important messages without the risk of running out of space. Third, if you do not like the web-based interface, you can use Gmail with most mail clients (also see these), such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Mozilla Thunderbird.
Tip: If you are using a desktop e-mail client and keep the incoming e-mail in local/personal folders (.PST files in Outlook), you need to back these up.
Google offers tools to automatically sync your Google calendar with Microsoft Outlook and mobile devices (BlackBerry, iPhone), but to sync Google contacts (with Outlook), either transfer them manually or get a commercial tool, such as kiGoo (Google released the Contacts Data API about a year ago, but I still cannot find a good and free contact syncing tool).
Passwords
For storing passwords (and other sensitive information, such as user IDs, bank accounts, etc), I can recommend any one of these two options. Option 1: Use the free web-based password manager LastPass (other alternatives include Clipperz and Passpack, but LastPass seems to be the most capable). LastPass can protect your browser passwords better than the browser. It can also auto-populate login forms. When using LastPass along with Foxmarks, you may need to disable the Foxmarks' password synchronization feature. Option 2: Use the free KeePass application and synchronize the KeePass' data file across multiple computers with the help of DropBox or Sincplicity mentioned below.
Photos
You can use online photo storage to back up your photos and to share them with friends and family. Many sites, including MySpace and Facebook support photo sharing, but most of them are too restrictive: they resize photos, limit the number of photos you can upload, and so on. Among the sites I tried, Flickr (now owned by Yahoo!) seems to be the most feature rich: it supports multiple sizes of photos (including original size), photo downloads, slide shows, videos, and more. A free Flickr account imposes a few limitations, but it's still better than most alternatives. After trying a Pro account, I decided to keep it for $24.95/year ($2/month is not that much for unlimited photo uploads and storage). Google's own Picasa Web Albums is another online photo storage alternative similar to Flickr (as Flickr, it also offers a free as well as a fee-based plan).
Music
Most sites that let you upload and listen to music, such as Deezer and Imeem, do not allow downloading MP3 files (including the ones you uploaded). There are two exceptions: mp3Tunes and tunesBag (currently in beta). Mp3Tunes gives you 2 GB of online storage for music and video files; tunesBag offers at least 5 GB. I have been using tunesBag for a few months and so far I have few reasons to complain: it lets me back up my music and listen to it from anywhere. I was a bit disappointed with the mp3Tunes' and tunesBag's upload tools intended to automatically keep the local and online audio libraries in sync: neither of them worked for me (well, they worked, but both had bugs that made them useless). Nevertheless, these two sites are worth considering if you are looking for an online storage option for your music files that also allow playback and other listening and sharing features.
UPDATE: I take back my comment about tunesBag's uploader. It works fine, BUT it does not sync files automatically; you need to run the tool manually to upload the files.
UPDATE: For storing and playing music online, you can try Amazon Cloud Dive (5 GB free; allows you to store any files including audio; you can listen to your music from any web-connected computer with Amazon Cloud Player; works with portable devices) or Google Music (20,000 songs max; can listen online or portable devices). Also see other options (and more).
Software keys
Use Keyfiler to store your software license and registration info (serial keys, activation keys, etc).
Documents
For Microsoft Office users, Office Live Workspace allows storing and sharing documents (Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, etc) online. If you do not use Microsoft Office, you can try switching completely to a web-based office suite, such as Google Docs, Zoho, or ThinkFree. If you prefer a free desktop alternative to Microsoft Office, such as SoftMaker Office or OpenOffice.org, you can back up your documents and synchronize them across multiple computers with the help of file synchronization and backup tools.
Sync tools
File synchronization tools allow you to duplicate files across multiple computers. Manual file synchronization tools, such as Microsoft SyncToy that must be launched by the user, are okay for occasional use, but they are not well suited for continuous synchronization. Out of automatic file synchronization services I tried, I liked DropBox and Syncplicity most. Both services offer 2 GB of free online storage and they just work: they work on my home laptop as well as my work PC, they work over firewalls and corporate proxy servers, they work on Windows and Mac OS. The only limitations I can think of include relatively high memory footprint (the running process takes about 50 MB of RAM for DropBox and 70 MB for Symplicity). Also DropBox can synchronize only one root folder (which can contain multiple subfolders), while Syncplicity can synchronizes Desktop, Documents, Favorites, Music, and Pictures. I highly recommend DropBox and Symplicity to anyone who wants to synchronize files across multiple machines. There are other file synchronization services, such as Microsoft Live Mesh (currently in beta), Windows Live FolderShare (currently transforming into Windows Live Sync), but I did not have much luck with these (for one, Mesh and Live Sync do not seem to work across corporate firewalls (also here), and I could not use FolderShare, because our corporate proxy server settings block access to the site); however, they work for some some users, so depending on your settings, they may work for you. [Update: See list of cloud hosting services at Cloud Drive Price Comparison: Amazon, Apple, Google, Box, Dropbox, Skydrive and SugarSync or Compare SkyDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox.]
Backup tools
You can (and should) use scheduled backup to save important files online with the help of such services as:
Online storage
Finally, for occasions when you just want to save a files or two online once in a while, you can use the following online file storage services:
Initially, it may take you a bit of effort to follow these recommendations, but once you adopt them, you will make your digital life easier and data safer.
Summary: A few recommendations that can help you get the best out of a new PC.
You just brought home a new laptop (or desktop) and feel an urge to run your favorite programs or download stuff from the Internet. Before you put your hands on the keyboard, take a few minutes to learn how to configure your system for better performance, prepare it for a disaster, and avoid common problems. Here are some recommendations which can help you get the best out of your new PC.
Before connecting to the Internet, do the following:
Complete Windows installation.
When you first turn the computer on, it will prompt you to complete the Windows setup process, during which you will create a Windows login account, select the region, time zone, language, and define other configuration settings. When creating the login account, keep the blank password for now (the following steps will require you to reboot the system and log on to Windows several times, which will be easier to do with a blank password); you will define the password later. Do not activate Windows, yet, or register the computer (since you are not connected to the Internet, the activation/registration attempts will fail). Follow the setup wizard until you log on to Windows. [Note: You may have heard or read recommendations to replace Vista/Windows 7 with XP. Unless your PC has less than 1.5 GB of RAM, which, for some reason, you cannot upgrade (you can easily upgrade RAM to 2 GB for about $20-$30), downgrading the operating system to XP makes little, if any, sense. Most people who make these recommendations, either do not have much experience with Vista/Windows 7, or base their recommendations on earlier problems, such as software and driver incompatibilities, and many of these reported issues have been resolved. See The Mojave Experiment for some insight on this topic.]
Create the repair disks.
If your computer came without the operating system and/or repair (restoration) disks (which is most likely), you must create them yourself. Without the repair disks you will not be able to restore the system if your hard drive fails (hard drives are notoriously prone to failures). You may want to rebuild the system for other reasons, e.g. if your kids install a virus which you cannot remove, or the system becomes slow and nothing else you do improves its performance. Check your computer manual or the quick start guide for instructions on creating the repair disks (normally, there is a program that lets you create the disks). Keep the repair disks in a safe place.
Enable Windows firewall. Windows Firewall blocks unwanted access to your computer. It is not the best firewall, but it's good enough, so unless you are using something else, make sure that Windows Firewall is turned on.
At this point, you are ready to connect your computer to the Internet. If you use a wireless router, configure the wireless settings to let your PC connect to the wireless network (make sure that your wireless network is secure); otherwise, connect the network cable to the network port on your PC. After connecting your computer to the Internet, perform these tasks:
Get Windows updates.
Although your PC is new, it's probably missing the latest Windows Updates and therefore more susceptible to virus infections and other exploits. Before you start browsing the Internet, install the latest Windows updates.
Uninstall crapware.
New computers, especially the cheaper ones, come filled with crapware that a typical user does not need. These include trial versions of software that you will not purchase, toolbars that you will not use, applications that have better free alternatives, and programs that slow down your system (see the list of common crapware). The free PC Decrapifier tool can help you remove most crapware from your PC.
Install anti-virus software.
Most new PCs come with a preinstalled anti-virus application (normally, Norton or McAfee). Keep in mind that, unless you purchase a license, these trial versions will stop working after 1-3 months. If you do not intend to purchase a license for the pre-installed anti-virus, uninstall it and get a free alternative, such as Avast Home Edition, AVG Free Edition, or Avira AntiVir Personal Edition. I'm not sure about AVG and AntiVir, but I have been using Avast on my home PCs for a few years and have no complaints (if you use Avast, make sure that you register it with a valid registration code, which you should get via e-mail; otherwise, it'll stop working after one month). UPDATE: For a free anti-virus software, I now wholeheartedly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials (read why).
Change your Windows login password.
If your Windows login password is blank, change it to a strong password (use Password checker to test password strength). If you leave your login account with a blank password and someone steals your computer (or gets access to it), s/he may be able to read your sensitive documents, access your online bank accounts, steal your secrets, and do other damage. If your computer supports hard drive passwords, it may be a good idea to set up one, too (hard drive password can be defined via the BIOS settings).
Install your favorite programs.
Reboot your system and install your favorite programs. Keep in mind that some older programs fail to install on Windows Vista/Windows 7. You may be able to find a workaround, get/buy a newer version of the program, or switch to an alternative. For example, if you have trouble installing Microsoft Office 2003 on Vista/Windows 7, try these workarounds (see post by Dominic), but if it does not help, check free alternatives, such as Open Office (another option is to get Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 for around $100). You may be surprised how many excellent programs are available for free (see my free software recommendations).
Register your computer.
There is no rush to do this, but when you get a chance, register your computer with the manufacturer, so you can get support. You should be able to register the system directly on the manufacturer's web site, or using a built-in registration program (if it is installed by the manufacturer). If you haven't done so, registered your other hardware devices: printer, router, etc.
Activate Windows.
Follow the Windows activation procedure (Windows activation must be completed within 30 days after installation).
Once you get your new PC running, perform the following steps every few months or so:
Check Windows updates.
Make sure your system is patched with the latest Windows updates.
Check anti-virus software updates.
Keep an eye on your anti-virus software to make sure that updates the virus database.
Remove unnecessary programs from the startup list.
Check if the Windows startup program list contains any applications that don't need to start up automatically, and if so, block them (do you really need Skype to run all the time?). Some programs allow you to remove themselves from the startup sequence; for others, use the System Configuration utility.
Defragment the hard drive
A fragmented hard drive can significantly slow down your system. Use the built-in Windows Defragmenter (if your disk is badly defragmented, you may need to run Windows Defragmenter a couple of times) or a better alternative, such as Smart Defrag, UlimateDefrag, Defraggler, Ultra Defragmenter, or some other defragmenting tool to defragment the disk. Before defragmenting the drive, it is a good idea to delete unnecessary files using Disk Cleanup.
Install the latest firmware updates.
If your PC runs smoothly, you do not need to worry about this, but if it crashes or causes problems, which cannot be solved by regular software updates, check if updates to the system BIOS and drivers (video/audio/network/wireless/etc) are available from the PC manufacturer. You can get updates directly from the manufacturer's web site, or via a built-in program (if your computer comes with one).
Finally, a couple of tips, which can extend the life of your PC (these mostly apply to laptops):
Use laptop cooler.
Overheating (which is more common in laptops that one may wish) can cause anything from performance degradation to hardware failure (motherboards are especially prone to failures caused by overheating). To prevent your laptop from overheating, invest $10-$20 in a notebook cooler.
Do not carry a running notebook.
If you carry a running laptop from one place to another, you are increasing the chances of the hard drive failure. Unless you wish to spend $100 or so on a new hard drive, before moving the notebook, switch it to a sleep mode (it takes just a couple of seconds to turn the system to and from the sleep mode).
Okay, don't go, yet: here is one more piece of advice. While you're enjoying your new PC, keep in mind that sooner or later, you may need to replace it with something else. To make your next PC replacement easier, address the data migration strategy now (by data migration I mean the process of moving your data -- such as documents, photos, music files, Internet bookmarks, e-mail messages, and so on -- from one system to another). A common recommendation is to perform frequent backups using an external hard drive or an online backup service such as Mozy. In addition to backups, you can use other strategies. One option is to keep your important files online. For example, you can store your photos at photo sharing sites, such as Flickr and Picasa. Your office documents can go to Microsoft Office Live Workspace or one of the file hosting services, such as Adrive, SkyDrive, or Box.net (file hosting sites can be used for storing not only office documents, but other files, too). You may also consider moving from the desktop-based office suite, such as Microsoft Office or Open Office, to a web-based office suite, such as Zoho, Google Docs, or ThinkFree. There are many file synchronization services that can make your files available for easy migration, such as Dropbox, Microsoft's Live Mesh and FolderShare, Syncplicity, or SugarSync. You can use one of these file synchronization programs to back up (or synchronize between multiple computers) your Internet Explorer favorites. Firefox users can greatly benefit from the Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. Or you can use a social bookmarking service, such as Delicious (or one of these), which has certain advantages over traditional bookmarks. For e-mail, I always recommend GMail because it is free, offers lots of space, can be used with most e-mail client programs (such as Microsoft Outlook), and it is the only service which allows you to redirect your e-mail to any other e-mail account for free (Hotmail only supports redirection to Microsoft-hosted e-mail services, while Yahoo!'s e-mail forwarding feature is not free). I haven't figured out where to keep my music (MP3) files, yet; most services, such as Imeem and Deezer, allow you to upload and listen audio files, but I cannot find an option to download my own files from these services (if you have any recommendations, please leave a comment).
Summary: Streaming videоs from your laptop to a TV set is easier than you may think.
Why would you want to hook up a laptop to a TV? No, watching YouTube videos on a big screen is not the best idea (the resolution of YouTube videos is too low for TV), but there are better reasons.
First, many TV shows are now available online in reasonable resolutions. You can stream such programs as Frontline and 60 Minutes (two of my favorites), along with many offerings from PBS, CBS, and other broadcasters. I bet you will enjoy watching your favorite show on the TV in the living room more than on the laptop in the office.
TIP:
If you are looking for great videos online, check the following resources (sites in bold are the most often recommended):
Say you are a proud TiVo owner, so catching up a missed episode of your favorite TV show is not your problem. But what about other video content, such as Netflix or Amazon Unbox video downloads? Wouldn't you prefer watching these on a laptop or a TV?
Or, maybe you borrow a movie on a DVD from a friend for a day, but do not have a chance to watch it. Instead of making a personal copy of the DVD (which is obviously illegal), you can rip it to an ISO file on your laptop's hard drive (you can use free DVD Decrypter, DVDFab HD Decrypter, or DVD Shrink for ripping DVDs). When you have time to watch the DVD, mount the ISO file to a virtual DVD drive and watch it as a regular DVD (for mounting ISO images, use free Daemon Tools or MagicDisc). When you finish the movie, unmount the virtual drive, and delete the ISO file. [While making unauthorized copies of copyrighted media is prohibited by law, I'm not sure if an ISO image, which has not been burnt to a DVD, can be considered a "copy", but law professionals may disagree. I'm rather sure that RIAA's lawyers would consider this a crime, but I doubt that they would pursue prosecution of such "offenses". Don't take my words, though, and use your own judgment to consider the risks.]
In case you wonder what the quality of the streamed video you should expect, it will largely depend on the quality of the video source. Regular YouTube videos will look awful on TV, but video content intended for viewing in the full-screen mode, such as PBS programs and ripped DVDs, should be pretty decent, although HDTV purists will probably be disappointed.
To connect your laptop to a TV, you need to get a proper cable (or cables). Regardless of the type of cable, it must be long enough. If you intend to place your laptop on the coffee table in the living room, make sure that the cable reaches from the laptop to the TV (Hint: a standard 6 feet A/V cables from a 99¢ Only store will probably be too short).
HDMI cables combine both video and audio signals, so you'll need only one cable. They support both high-definition and regular video. Normally, HDMI cables are expensive, but at the time of writing I found a 15 feet HDMI cable for $6 (plus shipping and handling) offered by MonoPrice*; a better quality cable - which you may or may not appreciate - can cost significantly more ($20-$40). If you decide to buy an HDMI cable, make sure you pick the right type (extra length may affect the signal strength in an HDMI cable, but again you may or may not notice this).
If you cannot use an HDMI cable, check if your laptop has an S-Video (also known as Y/C) port. Most laptops and TV sets support S-Video, so this is your most likely option.
S-Video connectors can have different number of pins, but 4-pin connectors are the most common; nevertheless, check your laptop's and TV set's S-Video sockets to make sure that you get the right connector (you will not be able to plug a 7-pin S-Video connector into a 4-pin S-Video port).
S-Video cables only transfer video signals; to pass audio from the laptop to the TV set, you will need to use a standard 3.5mm stereo to two RCA audio cable, such as this one.
You plug the 3.5mm jack on one side of the cable into the laptop's headset port and the two (red and white) RCA connectors on the other side of the cable into the TV set's RCA audio input sockets (make sure you do not get the cable with two RCA plugs on both ends by mistake). If you can, get both the S-Video and RCA audio cables of the same length.
If you do not want to mess with two different cables, check out an S-Video|3.5mm to composite|stereo combo cable, which connects laptop's S-Video and 3.5mm audio ports to the three RCA A/V sockets; this cable has the S-Video and 3.5mm stereo jacks on one side and three RCA plugs on another side (see example at MonoPrice).
If neither of the above-mentioned options work for your laptop and TV set, you should be able to connect them using an adapter (there are lots of audio and video adapters out there). A new service, WireWize (currently in beta), may help you figure out how to connect your devices. [I could not test WireWize, because it did not find the model of my TV, so your mileage may vary.]
Once you connect your laptop to the TV, you can switch video output from laptop's LCD to the TV. Most newer laptops will detect connection to an external display (such as a TV set) and show you a prompt to switch automatically (you can project output to TV only, or keep it displayed both on the laptop and TV). You can also change the display output settings via the system display properties or function key (such as Fn+F4, Fn+F5, or some other keys, depending on the laptop make and model).
In addition to changing laptop's video output display settings, you must also adjust the source of TV input (using TV's remote). Depending on the type of connection, it can be Video 2, HDMI 1, or something else (just flip through the options until you see the laptop's display).
TIP:
You may find it handy to turn your laptop's screen saver off temporarily, while you are streaming video to the TV; otherwise, you will have to move mouse or press a key every time the screen saver kicks in. You can do it manually, but it will be easier if you use a free program Caffeine. After you stop video streaming, just stop Caffeine from the system tray.
If you're still not clear how to connect your laptop to TV, check the references below or watch the following short video:
Be careful: when streaming video, InTV displays SMS messages at the bottom of the screen which often contain obscenities (I could not find any way to block them).
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This and other links to hardware vendors in this article are not paid advertisements. I reference them because I purchased or intended to purchase the same or similar products from these vendors and found the prices, charges, and services provided by these vendors reasonable.
