Mid-April
Tuesday is my usual day for posting what I call “Tuesday Tidbits”; tech headlines (or other tech articles) I find interesting.
But this week there are none. At least, not that I noticed. I found one.
There’s not even any I think you might find interesting (or that I think you ‘ought to know’).
* Now you can download your entire search history from Google
“Earlier this year, Google quietly rolled out a new feature that lets users download their search history.” Read more..
Today’s quote: “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” ~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Planet Earth Is Blue…
Folks, I am going to ask you to indulge me in one more video (I guess I am “on a roll”), but yes, there’s some tech, too (just scroll down). Today’s music video was sent in by a reader, who thought I might enjoy it. I did!
I have heard that song, oh, maybe.. 24,336 times in my life. But never quite like that!
Today’s Tech
* Build a complete Windows 7 safety net (by one of my fave tech How To writers, Fred Langa) Note: this is IMHO the definitive How To tutorial for disaster recovery — please read it!
“Every copy of Windows 7 includes a complete suite of backup tools. The suite contains everything you need to back up (and restore) your entire system.
What’s more, after you’ve set up your initial backup, future backups happen automatically.
In fact, Windows 7 makes it so easy to set up fully automated backups, it’s almost nutty not to do it.” Read more.. (please)(‘Cuz it is nutty not to do it.)
* Cyberstalking Victim Wants LinkedIn to Do More to Protect Users.
“After being sexually assaulted at work, Anna Rihtar quit the job she loved to avoid her attacker. And, like many unemployed people, she turned to LinkedIn to find work. But Rihtar’s attacker followed her online. In addition to phoning, emailing, and pursuing Rihtar on Facebook and Twitter, he began cyberstalking her on LinkedIn, leaving messages that were alternately flirtatious and hate-filled…” Read more..
… 24 signatures on her petition..? What the ____ is wrong with people?!?!
Sigh. Oh, well. Have a great day everybody! (And thank you, Dear Reader.)
Today’s question: If April showers bring May flowers.. what do May showers bring?
Today’s quote: “If you’re in a bad situation, don’t worry it’ll change. If you’re in a good situation, don’t worry it’ll change.” ~ John A. Simone, Sr.
Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
How To Get Windows Re-Install Discs
Lost your Windows discs? How to get replacement media, legally.
Recently, Ed Bott posted an excellence resource article those of you who have Microsoft Windows PC’s may want to read .. and act on.
“Did your most recent Windows PC come with reinstallation media? Many do, some don’t. But contrary to what you might have read, creating replacement Windows discs is easy, and every major PC maker will supply backup discs, sometimes for free. I have details.”
This thorough write up is a 4-part How To, but you don’t necessarily have to read all 4 parts. I am posting the ‘sections’ so you can go right to the 4-1-1 for your machine’s manufacturer. This will tell you how to create, or obtain (order) the all-important “Windows disc” that you hope you will never need.. but darn well better have.
I suggest reading part 1, and then skipping to your PC maker’s section.
1) Lost your Windows discs? How to get replacement media, legally
Page 2: Dell recovery and replacement policies
Page 3: HP recovery and replacement policies
Page 4: Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba
And if you recently got a new Windows 7 machine, or.. am wondering why I said “should darn well have“, you really should read my In Case Of Emergency: You Need This (Disc)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. So much reading! Actually, it’s not. Obtaining the knowledge contained here won’t take but a few minutes.. and it won’t hurt a bit.
Today’s quote: “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” ~ Clay P. Bedford
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
Review and Giveaway – Office Backup
User Friendly Backup Solution?
In talking with the folks at Novosoft prior to my most recent software license giveaway, which featured the top drawer Handy Backup Standard, (to read my review, click here) a lesser-known product of theirs came up, which – it was suggested – might be easier (aka more “user friendly”) for the Average Computer User, called “Office Backup”.
Publisher’s Description:
Novosoft Office Backup 4
Novosoft Office Backup is a usable and reliable backup software designed for backing up and restoring your documents and important files.
Novosoft Office Backup is designed to work with just about any type of storage media, including: CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray media; SFTP or remote FTP servers; local network drives; ZIP, JAZ, MO; USB-flash; HDD and floppy disks.
Automatic backup of most frequently used applications: Outlook, ICQ, AOL IM, registry, etc. Email Backup via POP3 directly from the mail server.
If you are looking for a simple yet powerful backup utility, you have just found it – Novosoft Office Backup.
Benefits
- With Novosoft Office Backup you can easily keep all important files synchronized between servers, desktops, laptops, LANs, ZIP disks, secondary hard disks, etc.
- It helps you to protect your business from risks associated with loss of valuable data.
- Guaranteed technical support.
Key Features
- Support for different types of backup storage (including “cloud storage”)
- Windows-based flexible interface
- Integrated ZIP compression
- 128 bit encryption
- Free backup plugins
- Email Backup via POP3 directly from the mail server
- Flexible and powerful scheduler
- Flexible file and folder selection criteria
- Multi-threaded transfer engine
- supported: Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000.
Unfortunately, I only had time to do the briefest of testing with Office Backup, but I can give you my ‘initial impression’. And say that the key to “user friendliness” is a good wizard.
It seemed to me that Office Backup is a “sister” (or.. close cousin) to Handy Backup, and most of what I said about HB in that review is applicable here. Installation was smooth (and it uninstalled cleanly). After the setup completed, the wizard opened automatically. Step One of any backup program is to create the backup rules. Immediately, I hit a ‘bump’ (see the second & third slides) – the boxes on the left, and on the right, are empty…
Most of us have learned to “expand” folder trees. And most of us know how to “select” by placing checks in check boxes. And.. I hope most of us know how to “add” those selection from one window to the other by using the ‘arrow’ in the center column.. (see 3rd slide). But some people are going to be stuck at Step 2 of the wizard, and I think they should have (at least) My Documents expanded and selected by default.. and so I think Office Backup’s powerful tools are more appropriate for Intermediate to Advanced Users.
Office Backup is intended to be run quietly in the background, keeping your source (your computer) files ‘synced’ with the “destination” (the backup copies). It seemed to me that it does so with negligible performance impact, and was light on system resources. But the initial, Full Backup, and the (full) “on demand” backup sets, took a long time to complete (but, I was testing on a rather old machine). It was easy (for me) to retrieve and restore files from the backup (but again, you have to understand folder trees..). My opinion boils down to – the keywords “flexible” and “powerful” are more apt for this product than the “easy” or “simple”. But, I think most people would be better served choosing their top drawer Handy Backup Standard version.
The potential uses for Office Backup are many — besides creating backup discs, you can ‘sync’ folders across your LAN, or simply ensure your .pst file is copied in an up-to-date way, and much more.
Novosoft has generously donated 3 licenses for Office Backup to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank them for that. So I am doing another random drawing giveaway, in my usual way.
How to enter? Residents of the US and Canada only 
may enter the contest drawing by simply by leaving a comment – click on “comment” (below), and enter a name and a valid e-mail (so I can send you a license key) in the form. Actually commenting is optional. And, I shouldn’t have to say this, but multiple entries will result in disqualification. (In this contest. Entry in prior contests doesn’t count against you.)
Entries must be received before midnight (Pacific), Thurs, Oct. 20th.
Again, I thank the folks at Novosoft for making this giveaway possible. A 30-day free trial can be downloaded here, Download Office Backup. Try it out yourself. (And then leave a comment. You may just win an activation key..)
¹ All entrants will be placed into Random.org’s “randomizer”, and the top 3 results will be the winners.
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
Protecting Your Electronics*
TOPIC: The most overlooked ways of protecting your electronic devices. (I am a ‘computer guy’, so my emphasis is on ‘puters, but the advice here is applicable to all your electronic gear.. that new LCD TV, for instance.)
First Line Of Defense – The Powerstrip
Yesterday, the hard drive on one of my testbed machines gave up the ghost and died: one machine down. Then last night we had a storm and some funny things happen to our electricity — all of my lights got really bright and then ‘poof’ darkness; then, quickly, about three times in a row, the power tried to come back on, but failed. A couple of minutes later, it was on and stayed on.. long enough to develop a false sense of relief. Then it was out for an hour. Basically, a “surge”, followed by “line recycling”…
Another of my machines was plugged into a cheap, old, powerstrip 
which did not react to the surge. So, that machine experienced the full roller-coaster ride of a surge in power, sudden outage, rebooting, outage, full reboot+full outage.. which, apparently, it didn’t like very much. Second machine down.
Due to these things, and the fact that I simply cannot live without a computer, a trip to my local electronics store was my first act of the day– and because there is a moral to this story (actually, a couple of them) I will share with you my purchases:
Moral #1: the devices I had plugged into modern, rated, and “not cheap” powerstrips suffered no ill effects. (I had used the old powerstrip because it had happened to be handy.) There is a difference in the quality of powerstrips, and their protective abilities. I made a conscientious inventory and have replaced all my old powerstrips with ones specifically designed 
and rated for sensitive electronics. (If you are in an area that has lightning [and who isn’t?] it is a good idea to protect your phone line and coaxial cable lines too.) Such as with this “media center” surge-protecting powerstrip from Belkin.
Moral #2: My machines attached to a UPS (aka “battery backup”) also were unaffected by the surge and recyclings. However, I never got around to attaching my DSL modem and router to a UPS, as they are somewhat distant from my work area. And so, while I was able to have a computer running, the network, and the Internet was unavailable. I remedied that as well.
[note: I wrote an article on Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), which you can read by clicking here.]
Moral #3: Hard drives do fail. Fortunately, replacing them is not a very difficult task. And restoring the first machine I mentioned was not all that difficult or time-consuming either.. in fact, I had a side-benefit as the new drive is quite a bit larger than the now-dead drive was.
But I must point out, I can make the statement I made (immediately above) because I had a full system backup stored on another drive. If I did not have that full backup, I would still be reinstalling programs and reconfiguring settings and updating my software and… well, anyone who’s done it can tell you, it’s a royal pain. So I remind you, again, that it is very important to make backups of your computer.. and to store those backups on two different storage media types.
If you do not have an automatic backup plan in place…
*** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! ***
The folks at Novosoft have generously donated 7 licenses for Handy Backup Standard to me, to award to my readers.
“Handy Backup is an easy-to-use backup software designed to perform automated backup of your computer. User-friendly interface and a rich set of backup features make it one of the best PC backup software for home and small office use.“
To enter the drawing, please see: Software Giveaway: Handy Backup
Enter my current giveaway and (possibly) win!
* condensed from an article posted a couple years ago. The upgrades to my powerstrips and UPS devices has proved a wise investment over time.
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
Software Giveaway: Handy Backup
Folks, I am pleased to announce my latest software license giveaway drawing.
The folks at Novosoft have asked me to run another giveaway of their highly regarded backup software, and this time have generously donated 7 licenses for Handy Backup Standard to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank them for that. (The first giveaway proved very popular!) So I am going to do a random drawing¹ contest from folks who “enter” by posting a comment (below). The drawing will close Thursday, October 6th, and the winners announced Friday. So act now!
Handy Backup ($39 retail) is a program for creating “backup copies” of the files on your computer – which regular readers know, is something I repeatedly urge people to do! With a backup program like Handy Backup, you can set-it-and-forget-it.
I personally do not use “online backup” as my ‘solution’, nor will I ever. I use external drives (and/or discs) and software like Handy Backup. I do not trust “the cloud” to either be secure or always available. And with my method, I’m not renting, I’m owning. Below, I will give you my impressions of HB and some screenshots, but first…
| CNet Editors say, “Handy Backup Standard offers users an easy, streamlined approach to backing up important files and folders. Novice users will especially appreciate the program’s easy navigation.” |
 |
Publisher’s description:
Handy Backup™ Standard is an easy-to-use backup software designed to perform automated backup of your computer. User-friendly interface and a rich set of backup features make it one of the best PC backup software for home and small office use.
- Outlook backup, Windows Mail
- My Documents backup
- Desktop backup
- Windows Registry backup
- Individual files and folders backup
- Backup your Program settings, playlists, skins, etc.
- a variety of free plug-ins that let you back up Outlook Express, Photoshop, Winamp and Windows Media Player, back up Skype and Yahoo Messenger, and much, much more.
- Free Email, Phone, Internet Support
Handy Backup will automatically backup your data with the options of file mask filtering, backup compression, backup encryption, “native”, and other options. The application supports backing up to DVD/CD, Blu-ray, HD DVD discs, LAN/FTP and Online.
I found it easy enough for beginners, as it uses a “wizard” to walk you through the process of creating a “task” (a backup, or a restore) the first time it runs (but after that first time, you need to click on “New task”, which is not made obvious). I particularly like Handy Backup’s ability to automatically “span” a backup set across multiple CD/DVD discs (you must place a check in a checkbox, though), prompting you to insert a fresh disc when it fills up the current one. (One other note.. you need to place a check in “Verify the backup after burning” to help ensure a successful write. This should be the default, IMHO.) Handy Backup successfully handled every backup and every restore operation I tested it with. It is a full-featured backup solution.
One critique: it does not support “selective file restoring”.
To see the full Handy Backup slideshow, click here. (the article will open in a new window.)
How to enter? Residents of the US and Canada only may enter the contest drawing by simply clicking on “comment” (below), and entering a name and a valid e-mail (so I can send you a license key) in the form. Actually commenting is optional. And, I shouldn’t have to say this, but multiple entries will result in disqualification. (In this contest. Entry in prior contests doesn’t count against you.)
Again, I thank the folks at Novosoft for making this giveaway possible. A 30-day free trial can be downloaded here, Download Handy Backup. Try it out yourself. (And then leave a comment. You may just win an activation key..)
¹ All entrants will be placed into Random.org’s “randomizer”, and the top 7 results will be the winners.
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
-
Say "thank you!" Buy Tech Paul a cup of coffee (and keep T4E ad free).
-
-
McAfee® Cybersafety Resource Portal, an online help center designed to assist victims of computer crime and provide information on how to avoid becoming a victim.
-
Subscribe to Tech--for Everyone by EmailRecent Comments
-
-
-
-
Also:
-
-
Tech - for Everyone 