Here’s how to make Windows Home Server 2011 work for you.
Initial setup
First, boot your server PC from the instaLl disc. The Windows Home Server routine resembles Windows Setup, but we hit a snag at the end of the automated process: The system tacked a built-in driver for the gigabit ethernet controller, which prompted an error message/reboot loop. If this happens to you. press <Ctrl>+<Att>+<Delete> during the configuring Windows’ screen with a progress bar, open the Task Manager, and kill the setup process. Windows will unceremoniously dump you to the desktop, at which point you can install the chipset and network drivers.
Configuring a client
You don’t have to use a CD or a thumb drive to configure a client. Instead, open a browser and type the URL http://<homeservername>/connect. replacing <homeservername> with the name that you assigned to the server during setup. Next, download and run the Windows Home Server connector installer. If you have automatic logon configured, you’ll have to revert to login-required mode; the WHS connector app will launch it for you. At that point, you must reboot and then run the connector setup app again.
Once you’ve installed the Windows Home Server connector, run the Launchpad app. The first time you perform this step, you’ll need to run the Windows Home Server Dashboard. After you’ve set up WHS, Launchpad and Dashboard become two different animals. You should set up a user account that isn’t the same as the system administrator account; give it a different password so that you can work exclusively with your file shares.
GLOBAL SERVER SETTINGS
Now that your first client and server are up and running, you’ll want to tweak some server settings in particular.
Media
Streaming quality depends on the performance of your CPU; unfortunately, figuring out which setting to use is difficult. Generally speaking, if you’re using a Core 3 or better processor, you can probably safely adjust the setting to ‘Best’.
HomeGroup
Add your server to your Windows 7 HomeGroup (if your network already uses a HomeGroup), so that the other computers on the network can access it more easily.
Remote Web access
If you have your own domain, you can make the Windows Home Server system part of it for remote access. Your choice of domain-name providers is limited to GoDaddy.com and eNomCentral.com, however.
That’s it for a simple Windows Home Server installation and configuration, though your installation may require additional steps such as pointing DLNA clients to the new server, configuring backups, or finding add-ins. At this point, though, you have all, of the basics set up and ready to go.
Chrome OS is a free operating system that Google has developed, based entirely around its Chrome browser. The main concept behind Chrome OS is that you can do most of the things you currently do on your computer, but online. The result is that you don’t need as much hard-disk space because you can use web apps like Gmail and Google Docs to store your programs and data in the cloud on Google’s servers.
This in turn means that you don’t have to back up your data because it’s already stored securely elsewhere, and since very little data is stored on your computer, security problems such as viruses pose less of a threat.
You can buy a new computer with Chrome OS already installed. However, if you don’t want a new computer, you can try Chrome OS out on your current PC, without making any permanent changes to it. All you need is a 2GB or bigger USB memory drive to run it from.
About Chrome OS
Launched by Google in 2009, Chrome OS has only recently made its way onto PCs that are available to the public. However, because the operating system is open source. anyone can download and try to run it on their own PC.
An internet philanthropist known as Hexxeh makes a working version of the OS available on his website at http://chromeos.hexxeh.net.
Step-by-Step Guide
Get the latest version from the top of the list at http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/index.php. To run the software from a USB memory drive, choose the USB option. There’s also a VirtualBox option if you want to run it within Windows. For this you will also need to download VirtualBox.
The software is compressed in the GZIP format, which isn’t recognised by Windows. If your computer fails to recognise it, download 7-Zip. It’s a small, free program that will decompress the file for you. You have to extract it twice to get to the image file.
Windows 7 can burn disk images (1MG files) to CD and DVD. but not to USB. To transfer the file to your USB drive, download Image Writer for Windows. Point the software to the IMG files and the USB device.
Restart your PC, leaving the USB memory drive plugged in. If your computer launches Windows, you’ll need to restart again and enter your BIOS settings (usually F2 or Del) as soon as you’ve booted your PC) and and then choose the inserted media(i.e. USB).
Select your preferred language. English (United Kingdom) is available from the More option. Choose the UK keyboard. You need to connect to a network to sign in. A direct Ethernet connection will be easiest, though it may also detect your Wi-Fi.
You can sign in with your Google Account. choose Guest if you’d prefer not to, or create a Google account if you don’t already have one. Choose an account picture and click OK.
The software launches straight into a browser. If you already sync your Chrome settings (from the spanner icon choose Options and Personal Stuff), your bookmarks and extensions will be shown. The default ‘Master your touch pad’ page may not work with your computer.
Click the spanner icon and choose Settings. You’ll find there are more options than in the browser version of Chrome. Click the System link to control elements such as the time and date settings, and pointer speed, Networks can be managed from the Internet link.
To shut down Chrome and return to Windows, click the spanner icon and select ‘Sign out’. You’ll be returned to the login screen and can choose to shut down from there. If you want to restart Windows, just unplug the USB memory drive and restart.
To run Chrome OS in Windows, download and extract the VirtualBox version. Click New, use the extracted file as the ‘hard disk’ and assign it between 1 and 2GB memory. If it doesn’t work, click Settings, then System, then Processor tab and tick Enable PAE/NX.
The latest version of AVG’s popular free anti-virus software has had a minor makeover and introduces some welcome new features.
AVG Advisor is a new monitoring component that pops up a warning when it detects anything that might impact on the performance of your system. For example, if you spend a while browsing the web and opening multiple tabs in Firefox, a warning will eventually appear telling you that the browser is consuming too much memory and you should restart it.
If you run other AVG products such as Live Kive (cloud back-up), Family Safety (parental controls) and PC TuneUp (system optimiser), you can now access them directly through the software.
These tools are also available to purchase via an integrated store. Family Protection cover three PCs, and you can try LiveKive free for 30 days before deciding whether or not to buy.
The biggest change to the suite concerns performance. The software is now smaller and lighter and scans are significantly faster, although, crucially, no less thorough.
The LinkScanner component, which protects you from malicious websites as you browse, has been improved to make it more accurate, and AVG can now identify and remove rogue anti-virus programs and ransomware (malware that hijacks your system and data and demands a fee to release it).
File size: 3.7MB
Awesome Facts has already proved popular as a paid-for iPhone app, so this free Android version should be just as successfuL It provides tons of trivia about topics including Animals and Creatures, Food and Drink, and Science and Technology.
There are more than 15,000 facts in all, with options to save your favourites and share them on Facebook and Twitter.
Min requirements: Android 1.6+ Get It...
File size: 842KB
APPLE’s iMessage lets you send text, picture, and video messages to other iPhones without using up the data allotment in your messaging plan. And it works with any device running iOS 5 - iPads and iPod touches included. iMessage is pretty useful from the get-go, but there arc a few ways you can get even more out of its messaging capabilities.
Read Receipts iMessage has the ability to indicate to you when your recipient has read your message. This option, called Read Receipts, is turned off by default. Out of the box, when you send iMessages, you can see the moment they’ve been delivered. But if your recipients turn on Read Receipts, you can see when delivered messages have been read.
It sounds a smidgen creepy, but it’s really not. So, do the iMessaging community a favor and turn on Read Receipts. Then get all your friends to do so, too. Here’s how: Launch the Settings app, and then scroll down and tap on Messages. From there, slide Send Read Receipts into the On position.
Direct Address While you’re mucking around in Messages’ Settings, select the Receive at option. That’s where you can set all the email addresses you own at which you’d like to receive iMessages. (Even though iMessages are sent using your email address, they don’t go to your mail inbox: they’re delivered straight to the Messages app.) If you have more than one email address (say, a work address and a personal one, or just multiple personal accounts), you can configure things so that iMessages sent to any of those addresses all point to you. That means when people who have different email addresses for you reach out to you via iMessage, all their messages go to the Messages app.
You’ll be asked to confirm any email addresses you add: Apple sends you an email, arid you select the link inside that message to prove you own the address.
Message Received When you enable Read Receipts, your contacts can see when you’ve read their iMessages.
Caller ID Just below those email addresses you added in the Receive At settings is another option called Caller ID. You use it to indicate where your iMessages are coming from - a phone number on your iPhone, say, or any of the email addresses you’ve linked to your iMessage account.
I suggest choosing your main email address instead of your phone number. That’s the ideal approach for anyone using an iPhone in tandem with another iOS device - like an iPad, as the tablet can’t receive iMessages sent to your iPhone’s phone number. It can, however, show messages sent to (and from) an iMessage-linked email address. So, by using an email address for your iMessage Caller ID, you can ensure that your messages are completely synced on all your iOS devices.
KumoSync automatically syncs the files on your PC with Google Docs. This means you can access and edit your files anywhere, either on your PC or online, and the changes will be saved in both places. You’ll never again have to keep track of which version of a file is the most up-to-date.
Right-click the KumoSync icon in your Taskbar and click Settings. Under Sync Mappings choose New. Enter the username and password fl that you use to access Google Docs, then click Verify Account.
Pick the Google collections you want to sync from the drop-down menu , or select ‘(All items)’. Click Select and choose a folder on your PC to sync with. Ticking ‘Map to Drive’ will give the folder its own virtual drive letter.
Under Sync Options. set the location (either Google Docs or your PC) that will be the primary source. You can choose to make the sync one way only by deselecting either of the top two options, or edit the other choices using the tick boxes.
Under the Repair tab, click Reset Sync History. This will disconnect all the linked files and re-sync again based on changes you’ve made to the mapped drive or local folders. If you ever need to disable syncing, untick Enabled.
In Preferences, set how regularly the sync will take place by changing the interval time (in minutes). Edit the delay (in seconds) between when you make changes and when the sync happons. Untick ‘Enable automatic synchronisation’ to sync manually from the System Tray icon.
To back up your preferences, click Export Settings and Save, If the system fails, click Import Settings to restore them. To use KumoSync on another PC with the same Googlo account, save the exported settings onto a USB drive. Open KumoSync on the new computer and import.
FROM TIME TO TIME, a little maintenance is needed to keep your Mac uncluttered. Here are a few tips for putting your Mac in order.
Tidy Up
As with any maintenance or cleaning operation, the first thing you should do is simply tidy the place up a bit. Unless you’re quite fastidious, you likely have a smattering of rarely used flies and folders cluttering your desktop.
Find a folder to stash all those files in. By default, Apple gives you folders including Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and more. Most (if not all) of your files can go in one of those folders, or at least a sub-folder.
Which leads us to those stray folders on your desktop: You should put them in one of the folders in your Finder. It’s easy to do—just drag and drop them to the appropriate spot.
If you need to make a new folder or sub-folder, just navigate to the appropriate location in Finder, click the gear icon at the top of the window, select New Folder, and enter a title for it.
If your Dock is full of applications and you want to remove a few for simplicity’s sake, just click an icon (with the application closed) and drag it off the dock. It’ll vanish in a puff of virtual smoke. This doesn’t delete the application-it simply removes the icon from your Dock.
Delete What You Don’t Need
While you’re moving files and folders hither and yon, be sure you dump items you no longer need into the Trash. This goes for files, folders, and even applications. There are likely a few applications that you no longer need or want, and there’s no reason to let them linger.
Creating new folders and sub-folders is an easy way to help organize your files that are otherwise floating around your desktop.
You can click and drag most items to the Trash to delete them, but some applications require a few additional steps- simply dragging the application’s icon to the trash isn’t always enough.
Completely Remove Applications
On a Windows Desktop, deleting an application’s icon deletes only that tiny thumbnail image-not the actual application associated folders, which are stored elsewhere and can take up a lot of space on your hard drive. (That’s why the Add/Remove Programs tool is necessary) But Mac applications are “bundled:’ which means that the application icon is actually a dressed-up folder that contains most of the data associated with the application. (Pretty slick, huh?) Thus, if you drag the icon to the Trash, you’re actually removing the application and most of the associated folders and files.
However, there are still some little files left behind. To get rid of all traces of an application, look in the Application Support and Preferences folders. To get there, click the user-name in the Places area of the Finder, click Library, and then click the Application Support or Preferences folders.
To completely get rid of an application and its associated files and folders, you may need to follow a lengthy file path.
Under each of those folders in turn, scroll down until you see a folder with the name of the application you wish to completely delete. Click and drag the folders to the trash.
And remember, just as you have to drag a sack full of junk to the garbage can outside, when you’re done deleting all those files, you need to empty the Trash. Click the Trash icon on the Dock, and when it opens, click the Empty button in the upper- right corner of the window. When prompted, click Empty Trash.
Then sit back, relax, and enjoy your freshly uncluttered Mac.
Google has a great range of tools available, but it’s not the only company to provide free online services. In fact, spend a little time searching the web and you’ll find a whole collection of free tools.
Jaycut is a free online video-editing application that lets you upload video clips, compile them using a timeline and add a range of effects and transitions. Once you’ve created your movie, you can either share it online with friends or download it in a vanety of formats, including one optimised for iPhones.
Zamzar is another popular online service and lets you convert flies between a wide range of formats quickly. If you’ve got a PDF file that you want to convert to a Word document, head to the Zamzar site, upload your PDF. choose to convert the file to .doc and enter your email address. A link to the converted file will then be emailed to you.
Zamzar is another popular online service and lets you convert flies between a wide range of formats quickly. If you’ve got a PDF file that you want to convert to a Word document, head to the Zamzar site, upload your PDF. choose to convert the file to .doc and enter your email address. A link to the converted file will then be emailed to you.
Other free online tools include the office suite Zoho and Adrive, which offers up to 50GB of free online storage space. Some sites also offer free apps based on existing Google tools. Distance Calculator for example uses Google Maps to plot off- road route distances; perfect for cyclists and hikers wanting to see how far they have travelled.
Download Youtube video with Zamzar Tools
- Go to youtube.com, search for the video, movie, music album, you’re looking for.
- Once you find it, copy its url (i.e. right click on its link : copy Link location OR copy the address from url bar).
- now go to Zamzar.
- Click on Following screenshot and follow instructions
- After you click on that convert button, it’ll send you the video in your required format (iPod, mp3, .wmv, .avi anything that you chose) to your email address.[it takes times from 1 minute to 1 hour depending on the video size so be patient.]
- open that email – download the attached file and its done! you can put that media file on your iPod, cd, dvd anything .
YOU CAN'T BEAT Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition for speed and features, but you don’t need to own a copy to create or edit Office-compatible documents, notes, spreadsheets and presentations. Microsoft Office Web Apps offers web versions of Word, Excel. PowerPoint and OneNote that can be accessed from any computer - all you need is an internet connection. Bear in mind, though, that the apps are designed to work with Internet Explorer and may not work as well with other browsers, so this is one occasion where we would advise loading up IE, not Firefox, Chrome or Opera.
You need a Windows Live ID - essentially a Hotmail address - to access the apps. Sign up at http://home.live.com or www.hotmail.com. To access the web apps in Hotmail. click the Office link at the top of the page. Alternatively, go direct to http://office.live.com or via Microsoft’s online storage service SkyDrive . You can even access Web Apps through Facebook .
Watch out for pop-ups
If you are having problems getting started, it may be because your web browser is blocking pop-up windows, Watch for a message at the top of the browser about a pop-up being blocked and click to enable it. You may then need to refresh the page or go back a page to continue.
Create a document
If you go to http://office.live.com, you’ll see a list of files on SkyDrive, your online storage space. Click the New link and choose Word, Excel. PowerPoint or OneNote, or just click one of the icons on the right. Next, you’ll be prompted to enter the filename and, If you look carefully, there’s a ‘Share with’ setting. It’s ‘Just me’ by default, but if you click Change you’ll see five settings, some of which may have a Facebook icon.
This means that a link will be posted on your Facebook wall if you’re a member, so consider the document’s content before choosing the Share settings.
Get more space
When editing a document, the browser window can become cluttered with items such as the large ribbon toolbar. Just above the ribbon on the right is a small arrow pointing up - click it to hide the ribbon and get more screen space. Just above this is another tiny icon that looks like a square with an arrow in it. Click it to open the document in a new browser window that’s stripped of all the extra clutter. The best way to get more space is to press the F11 key and edit the document full screen without the browser furniture.
Set the language
When typing documents using the Word app, right-click in the document and select Set Proofing Language. Choose English so that it checks your spelling correctly.
Use Excel functions
If you want to insert a formula into a cell in an Excel spreadsheet, just enter an equals sign and then press a letter. All the functions starting with that letter appear in a drop-down list and double-clicking one inserts it. For example, press S and double-click Sum. Now click and drag over the cells in the spreadsheet that you want to add up.
Facebook Docs
To access Web Apps on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/docs and click the button underneath the Docs image in the top-left corner. Sign in and agree to let the application access Facebook, then click the ‘Add a Doc’ menu at the top. Just for fun, select Chart Your Friends and choose who can view it and edit it. You’ll get an Excel workbook that contains a pie chart showing the proportion of male to female friends, bar charts showing the distribution of ages and locations, and so on. Use the tabs at the bottom to view other sheets.
Create this Excel workbook that analyses your friends on Facebook.
Use Docs.com
Facebook Docs is really just a window on the Docs website and you can go straight to it without having to access it via Facebook. In the top-right corner are icons for creating Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents - just click one to start. Below the three icons are three more for Facebook - the one for creating a photo show is interesting, It lets you create a great PowerPoint slideshow from your Facebook profile pictures.
Create a PowerPoint slideshow from the profile photos you’ve put on Facebook.
Here, tips to How to Use less power by adopting practical energy-conserving habits.
In Windows 7 or Vista, go to the Control Panel and search for Power Options to reduce the length of time your computer idles before it turns off the display or enters sleep mode.
If you will be away from your home or office for a long time, make sure that your devices are unplugged. Even a cell phone charger, when it’s not in use, draws enough power to make a difference on your energy bill. Alternatively, spend a few bucks and pick up a “smart” power strip, which can eliminate ‘vampire” draw by cutting electricity to devices that aren’t being used.
Look for Energy Star devices, which are guaranteed to use less energy, when you buy new equipment. I have recently tested an Energy Starcertified Dell Optiplex 990 desktop that drew an average of 21.6 watts on idle. A similar, noncertified desktop idled at 37.6 watts - a substantial difference. You can search for Energy Star-certified products at energystar.gov.
Use natural light, rather than artificial overhead lighting, whenever possible. And don’t forget the golden rule of energy conservation: Turn off all lights when leaving a room.
