Just wanted to say happy thankgiving to all and I have to give thanks to all the people that read this blog. Also good luck to all thoughs going to any store tomorrow, try not to get trampled.
-Mike
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I'm sure like me you probably have a computer sitting around collecting dust as a door stop. Now that you have that router setup (as talked about in part one) now let's put that old computer into good use as a home server. There are so many benefits to having a home server such as file sharing if you have allot you need to save and always being able to get to thoughts files on any computer in your house. Printer sharing is another good one if you have family and only one printer its grate for that too.
So let's get started now I used my Vista PC to do this but you can still do this with XP as well. First thing you will want to do is wipe that computer out. Do a clean install of Vista or XP. Now that you have done that Get rid of any crap ware that may have come with that PC if it is a store bought PC. The less stuff you have on it the better. Now I would just start doing updates make sure you have the latest service pack for Vista or XP. You have the computer up to date now it is time to start installing things.
The first thing you will want to install is Log Me In it is a free remote desktop software that you can use to remote access your server form any ware. Now I know that Windows has remote access built in but it is hard to setup and this is just a lot easier to setup then the windows tool.
The second piece of software you will want to install is Hamachi from Log Me In it is a VPN client free for home use. This is very useful now that you have server a computer that is always on you can setup a VPN. VPN stands for Virtual Privet Network which means if you're out and about on your laptop and you are connected to WIFI you're not sure about just open Hamachi and log in to your home network from that not so trusted network, now everything you do is encrypted plus you have access to your network resources like shared files and folders.
Itunes 9.0 would be the third thing I would put one the server. My rezoning for this is because of the Home Share that is in Itunes 9 witch works if you all your music is on that computer now you can share it to all the computers in your house that is authorized to your account.
There is one more thing you may want to put on your server and that is a AV (antivirus) just because you're going to have files coming and going your server (especially if you are sharing with a family or roommate) and you just don't know what thoughts might be so better safe them sorry.
Ok you have all this software installed and it is all configured so now what... your done? No not yet almost though. You should have some kind of file structure like in my cause I have a folder on my server called home network then in there I have on called Users which has a folder with my name that I put things in to. One for everyone else in the house that they can use as well. You may or may not do this put partitioning the hard drive is a good idea if you want to limit everyone on how much they put on the server. I did not do this just because I don't put big things like video's on my server so I know my files stay around the 1 GB to 2 GB mark.
Once you have all this done now just right click the folder and tell it to share it and make sure that file and printer sharing is on. The way I have it show up on everyone's computer is I mount there folder as a network drive which is easy to do. Just go to My Computer or Computer.
Select Map Network Drive and it will bring up a screen.
hit the browse button and find the your server and browse until you found the folder you want and hit ok then hit Finnish and that folder will show up in Computer as a drive. This you will have to do with every computer that you are giving access to your server.
After all this you have everything on your server you maybe thinking what happens if something happens to the server? Well you better be backing up witch I talked about in a earlier blog post that is called “Back Up People”.
That about ends how to turn your old computer into a server. After reading all this you might be asking yourself "there must be an easier way to do all this" and there is, that is what I 'am going to be talking about in there third and final part in this series . Now if you have any questions leave a comment or e-mail over at the side there with thoughs questions and I will get back to you. Also try out the message boards if I can't help you maybe some else can.
Technorati Tags: Home Networking,XP,Vista,VPN,Logmein,Hamachi,Network Drive,File Sharing,Printer Sharing,Antiviruse,iTunes 9,partitioning
Now a days most people have more than one computer for one reason or another. Now wouldn't it be nice if there was a way you could save something and be able to get to it from your other computer in your house or when you are out and about? Well this 3 part series will help you set up a nice home network. I will talk about setting up your router, turning a old vista PC (or XP) into a home server also some security tips.
Now lets start with the router because is key to the network without that your computers could not talk to each other. Now most routers have a CD that will walk you through the setup of the router but yours did not then go to your web browser and type in 192.168.2.1 (it could also be a 10.10 check your routers manual) and that should take you to a page like this:
click login and hit submit unless you have a password then put in your password. Now once you are logged in go to your wireless settings and channel and SSID now you should change the SSID form the default to something other than Linkysis or belkin . Now go to security and switch it too WEP2 and make a good password if you can't think of something good you can download keypass and generate one or you can use Steve Gibson's Prefect Passwords.
Now go to your computers and make sure it connects and that you can get online. Now this was part one I hope this was helpful if you have any questions leave a comment or e-mail me from the widget on the side of the page or you can e-mail me at mikesworldoftech@gmail.com.
I hear this allot “I just don’t have time to back up my stuff’. Then one day they get a viruses or they go 4 years without reinstalling windows. Then I have to tell them I have to reinstall windows and they have never done that before and it just makes me crazy. Why would people not back up there info on there computer. I mean there is just so much on most peoples computers these days if you can put that stuff some place for safe keeping then why wouldn’t you? Now if your thinking its hard it is not.
The eases way you could back-up your info is using the back-up and restore in Windows. Now this really apply to Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. But the back up and restore tool is the most eases way to back up your info locally. You just need ether a second hard drive in your PC or a external drive. I would recommend putting a second drive it will back up much faster then a external USB drive. If you use a laptop or don’t feel comfortable with installing a new hard drive in your computer an external one works too. Setting up back up is easy go to start type in back up and back up and restore should show up. Hit enter, and it will start up and click back up now. It will walk you threw a Wizard to know what day and time to back up and how often to back up. Now I have gone and looked at Prices for internal and external drives so you know what your looking for as far as price.
External HHD
| Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Staples | New Egg |
| Western Digital My Passport | Western Digital My Book Essenital | Seagate Free agent | Toshiba |
| 320 GB | 640 GB | 500 GB | 320 GB |
| $79 | $71.99 | $99.99 | $69.99 |
| More info | More info | More info | More info |
Internal HDD
| Wal-Mart | Best Buy | Staples | New Egg |
| Western Digital | Seagate | Western Digital | Western Digital (Bare Drive) |
| 1 TB | 500 GB | 500 GB | 720 GB |
| $104.82 | $69.99 | $79.99 | $59.99 |
| More info | More info | More info | more info |
Now there are other ways that you can back up your info that is easy. You can use services like Carbonite that will install a little thing that will run in your tray and when your not doing anything it backs it up to the Carbonite servers. Also for Mac user’s there is time machine that backs up everything for you (just have a really big drive).
Now there are other ways to back up online that are free but there not as easy as the ways I have talked about. There is one more thing I would like to share a saying that Alex Lindsay “If it is not in two places it dose not exist.” witch means if you save a word document and is not saved someplace other then that drive there is a good chance you will lose it if it is on another drive or on server you have lowered your chances of losing that document. I will leave you with a plead, people please back up your data if not for you but for your future self.
Phones everyone at this point has at least 2. The normal is one cell phone and one house phone or land line what ever you want to call it. There use to be a thing called Grand Central and it was a service that you could pay for and they gave you one number that you could use for all your phones. Well Google bought them some time ago and made it better, it is now called Google Voice. Now you may have herd about it before the hole Apple not letting Google but a Google Voice app on the iPhone. But if you have not it is a grate service.
To start Google Voice gives you a local number that you can hook up to the phones you have like your cell phone and your house phone. When someone calls the Google Voice number all the phones that are hooked up to that Google Voice number will ring. Witch can be problem manic but for this sake we will say it is a good thing. Also when the person calls they have to say there name and when you pick up it will say who it is and will ask if you want to talk to them or send them to voice mail. Witch Leads me in to Voice mail with Google Voice. The voice mail works kind of like the visuals voice mail on some smart phones you have a inbox with the voice mails you can listen to. Well Google will also make put them into text so you can read your voice mails like an e-mail. Now the speech to text is not grate so I would say listen to them still but I’m sure the speech to text will get better. Now what would a phone number be without texting, well Google Voice has got you covered with free texting… kind of its free if you don’t have your Google Voice number hooked up to a cell phone because if you do Google voice forwards the text messages to your cell phone and then you have to pay what ever you normally pay for texting. There are many good uses for Google voice for me it is my public number the one I give on applications the one I give out to people because if some one calls that I don’t want calling me Google Voice lets you block callers.
Now this is all nice and is so grate if you have it, witch is the problem right now. Google Voice is still in Beta if you want to use Google Voice you can get invited one of two ways. One way is if you know someone that has Google Voice they may have an invite that they can send you. If you don’t the other way is to go to the Google Voice page and sign up to get one. My final thought is that Google Voice is grate way to mange all your voice mails and text messages. Also its just nice knowing if something happens to your phone you don’t have to tell everyone your new number cause the Google Voice number never changes.
Technorati Tags: Google,Voice,Cell Phone,House Phone,Google Voice,Voice mail,Text to Speech,Texting,Text Messaging,Block,Calls,Beta
A day or two ago I post my thoughts on my upgrading to windows 7 with a clean install. Well I thought today I would go threw and walk you threw it the best I can. Its easy to do and quick… well quicker then other OS installs that I have done. So lets start.
Put the Windows 7 install DVD in and restart your computer. Your computer should restart and will come up with a message and say press any key to boot form CD or DVD… just hit a key and the DVD will load and you should get a page like this:
Hit next then install
Agree to the ULA..
This is about a clean install so click on custom install
Click on advance then select the drive with your OS installed on it and click the format button
Once your drive is done being formatted hit next and let windows install this should take about 30 mins. The computer will restart a few times and follow the setup process.
Well that's about it. I hope this helps thoughts of you that want to go to windows 7. I didn’t go over a in place upgrade because its not really the best way to go if you need to do one just hit upgrade instead of custom install. Just note it will take a lot longer to upgrade in place. If there is any questions you can E-mail me at mikesworldoftech@gmail.com or leave a comment.
-Mike
Well windows 7 came out about a week ago and I got it. I went to staples the day it came out and to my shock there was not a copy on the shelf. I didn’t think it would sell out just like that. I asked a person that worked there if they had a family pack of windows 7 and they said they did got and went home. The first computer to upgrade was my laptop. Though I was really down grading cause I had windows 7 Enterprise witch is Ultimate. How I installed windows 7 was to downgrade to Windows Vista then did a clean install of windows 7. It worked and activated. I had another computer that I had to upgrade but I was not sure it was going to work because I installed the RC on that computer and there had been no other OS that came with it since I built that computer. Well I did the same thing on that computer I had a copy of Vista and installed it on that computer and then did another clean install of Windows 7 on it and once again it worked. SO when I finally get my case for the computer Iam building myself Iam going to do the same thing to get windows 7 on it. My overall esperantist with Windows 7 is as the AD’s say its simpler. Though there have been accounts of problems I just have never had anything bad happen when I upgraded luckily. There is a fix that Paul Thurrott found you can go to his site for that fix. Also Im hoping you like the new look and name for this blog. There is also a new e-mail too mikesworldoftech@gmail.com so e-mail me. I’ll do a better post next time.
-Mike
Computer problems. Everyone has them at some point, but most of them can be avoided or fixed with simple know-how. Most people don't want to be bothered to learn anything about their own computer, they just want to turn the thing on and make it work. This is how it should be, but that’s not how it works. If you are using Microsoft Windows you need to know the basics. This includes computer security. Now 90% of the basics you need to know are in the manuals that all computer OEM's put in the box with the computer. The other 10% computer security is something you have to research your self.
Now I will spare you the time and effort to research this topic because most sites you go to are going to make you buy their security suit. This is not necessary. Most of these security suits have a firewall, anti-virus software, junk mail filters, and bunch of other stuff that in some case do good but a lot of times they just slow your computer down and you still end up with malware viruses. There are alot of free anti-viruses out there you can download like AVG free, or Microsoft security essentials. Now you might be asking, “What about a firewall?” Well, if you are using Windows XP or Vista you already have a firewall and by default it should be on so that it is taken care of for you. Also, if you have a router, there is a firewall on that as well. Now your anti-virus is your second line of defense, while your first line is you. There are things you can do to stop spyware from getting in, like running as a limited user rather then a administrator, which means you don't have access to core files. Anytime your computer needs to make changes in the C drive, it needs to ask you for your admin password. The other thing you can do is not open e-mail attachments from people you don't know. This includes the chain e-mails that have the funny photo of Lol Catz because you may know it came from Joe and Joe got it from Jon, Jon got it from Mary, and so on and so forth. Wait, do you know Mary? You may not, so how do you know were she got it from or whoever she got the photo from. That photo may look cute but it could be installing spyware on you computer as we speak! Another tip for people who do online banking or shopping, make sure you are on the site you think you are when buying or logging in to your bank. This can be easily done if you are using Internet Explorer 8. Look closely at the URL field and if it has https:// and the field is green, then it is the page you wanted to be on for your purchases or sign on for your banking. In Firefox just look for that https:// and look for the locked paid lock at the bottom of the browser. There is one big thing you can do to make sure that your computer is safe. Every second Tuesday of every month Microsoft updates Windows, so just mark that on your calendar.
Those are some basic ways you can stay safe online. The tips above can keep your computer running quite well for a wile. It seems like a lot but think of a computer like a car. You can't just use your car indefendent, at some point you have to do some maintenance and do things to make sure a big problem dose not happen later on. Now if you do get a virus, (I don't care what anyone tells you) you can not remove a virus with software. It just does not work that way anymore, you have to reinstall Windows. This is because modern viruses just latch on to your computer and really dig deep in your computer. They are infecting files that Windows needs in order to work, witch anti-virus software will not touch. Reinstalling windows formats the hard drive and puts the clean files back. Reformatting the drive erases everything on the drive: your documents, Photos, Movies, and more. What you should do is have an external hard drive that connects to your computer through USB and you can just drag and drop what you wanted backed up on to it. You can also use a service like Carbonite that you pay for, and it just sits in the background and waits for you to not be using it and will just start backing it all up for you. When you need to restore, you just go to the Carbonite web site log in and start downloading everything back to your computer. I have not talked about Mac's because Mac's are a minority and most hackers do not want to hack a Mac. Most businesses run Windows and that is what the hacker wants. Though Mac's are getting popular and soon the Mac people will need to know all this as well, so if you are running a Mac you need to be careful as well.
There is one more tip I would like to pass along and that is the best way to keep your computer running smoothly and securely, just use your common sense. Most of computer problems can be avoided if people just use their heads and use logic. That is really all. If you have questions e-mail me at themegatechblog@live.com or go to megatechblog.blogspot.com.
-Mike
(Edited by Erick A)
With Windows coming in a few weeks its time to get your computer ready for the change. There things you should know before you upgrade. The first thing is you should know that if you are planning to go from Windows XP to Windows 7, you cant do a in place upgrade. You will have to format the drive and install Windows 7 as a fresh install. This is because there is just too much of a different between Windows 7 and Windows XP. So get your things backed up to a DVD or a external hard drive. If you have Windows Vista you can do a in place upgrade but it will take a few hours to upgrade. I would suggest format and install Windows 7 fresh. I this will give you the best Windows 7 expertness. This process will only take a few minutes (not including how long it will take to reinstall software you may use and to restore your back-up). Have fun installing Windows 7.
-Mike
Spyware is every ware and it can be nasty it can slow down your computer and do what its says spy on you. Witch is never good cause I'm sure like most people you probably use your computer to check your banking and pay your bills. Well wouldn’t it be nice if you had a program on your computer that you could just run and check for that stuff and even better get rid of it too? Well you do and you probably don’t even know it. Its called The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. You may have seen it talked about in your windows update. But Microsoft hides it. But there is away to use it your self when ever you want. Here is how you do it:
From your desktop go to the start menu type in the start menu search MRT and it enter (on XP hit the windows key and “R” and type MRT.EXE and it enter).
You should get a the UAC pop up just hit continue or yes and MRT should pop up just hit next.
You should see a screen giving you some options to do a quick scan, full scan, or a custom scan. If you don't have much time and just want to know quick if you got something or not then do a quick scan just know it will miss something's. If you want to make sure there is nothing on your computer do the full scan that will check every file and every folder on your computer. If you think a file you just downloaded is infected with spyware use the custom scan and check just that file.
Just hit next when you know what kind of scan you want to do and it will start the scan.
When its done it will tell you if you have something or not and will get rid of it.
Well I how you enjoyed the tip if you have any questions e-mail me at themegatechblog@live.com.
-Mike
With windows 7 only about a month way I thought I would share a tip that I think everyone will find use full. I Windows Vista UAC (User Account Control) was added to windows this is that annoying thing that asked you if you wanted to do something that most of the time you told it to do. In Windows 7 it is still there but they have made it less annoying but some people it might still be annoying or they might want it how it was in Vista. So here is how to change it:
Go to the start menu and type UAC in the start menu search.
Hit enter and UAC will pop up and ask if you want to do this just say yes and a screen with a slider will a peer. Just move the slider up to make it more annoying (more Secured) or move it down to make it less annoying (less secure).
I hope this was hopeful if you have any tips e-mail me at themegatechblog@live.com.
-Mike
You may have herd allot of people talking about the cloud or cloud computing. No there not talking about a computerized cloud there talking about the notion that everything we do now that we need software running on our local computers being a thing of the past. What will replace that well what elts the internet there are examples of this now even. about 5 or 6 years ago if you wanted to mange your money using your computer you would go to Wal-Mart or what ever store near you that sold computer software and buy Quicken then you would go home and install it. Well now if you want to mange your money with Quicken you go to the Quicken website and sign up for a free account with them and set it up with your bank. There is no downloading of any software on to your computer its all in your browser now. That is the idea of cloud computing. You no longer have to go to a store buy software and install it on your computer it is all on a server on the internet.
No this has caused some alarm there are people that are not that trust worthy of the internet. No matter how good your code is and no matter how secure you think you made your program there is always going to be a vulnerability in it. Lets face it when the internet was made there was no need for security it was just scientists sending data to each other and they knew each other so there was trust. But now there some many people on it that you don’t know who is who now. So back to example of Quicken if hacker wanted to they could hack your computer and see what you are doing or they could hack your bank and see it that way too. So it is not perfect yet it is as secure as they can make it cause of how it gets the information but there some variables that have to come into play. The security of your computer and the security of your banks network. But for most cloud computing applications its the security of your computer and the security of the site you are on. You can make sure you are secured but you never know about the site you are on. I guess I would say just use cloud applications from brands you know like Quicken and Adobe.
Cloud computing can save you money as well. Lets use Photo shop Express it is a simple photo editor that runs in the cloud. why should you go out buy Photo Shop CS4 or Photo Shop Elements when you will never use most of what they can do. Most people want to play with the color add some text maybe and crop some photos. Well you can sign up for photo shop express and you can do all that right from your browser now installing needed. Also Photo Shop is a RAM hog it uses lots of RAM and doesn't work right on older computers. Well as long as your computer can run Flash and your browser of choice then you can use photo shop now. You don’t have run out and buy more RAM for your computer and then open the case and put it in photo shop just works.
With cloud computing what operating system becomes less and less relevant. The question will be what browser are you using will become the new question. I do think the big players will be Google chrome and Mozilla Firefox. That will be the new Microsoft VS Apple but witch one will be witch. Out of the two Mozilla has a bigger market share but I do think that Google can catch up. Who knows what the future will have in store for us maybe cloud computing will not take off maybe it will be something different. For now companies are looking towards the cloud. Now you have to ask your self “Do I trust the cloud?
-Mike
A few days ago I saw the first Windows 7 ad. But I had to take a double take and watch it again. Its this little girl going threw her dads computer and seeing all the reviews for windows 7. I should also ad the computer is running windows 7. Then she puts them in a slide show and it shows blurbs form places like CNET and the New York Times about how good windows 7 is. Now the reason I had to take a double take is this ad is just like I’m A PC ads. I just feel like they could have done the first ad some how different its cute ad and will get people attention. But I feel it could be done different buy pointing out some thing people might find use full. They could pointed out things like start menu search (not new in 7 but I think that would get people to move from XP). The ad should do the job. If you have not seen the ad here it is enjoy.( I cant put it here cause I’m having a bad tech day).
-Mike
Yesterday Apple had there event and gave us a new iTunes, iPod nano’s, and a 64 GB iPod Touch. When they talked about the touch they showed a photo of someone trying to but a dell mini in there back pocket and and then said you can’t put your computer in your pocket. That made me think is the iPod Touch a netbook? I came to the conclusion that no its not… its better. Let me tell you why.
Mom for her birthday got a Dell Mini and well guess who had to set up for her and install all the updates and lock it down. As I did these thing’s I notice some things were going off the screen and there was nothing that could be done screen was set for 1024 X 768 and if I went to 800 X 600 there was even less room to do things. But the iPod Touch has a much smaller screen but nothing ever goes off screen when I’m looking at photo or writing a note. Why is this? Well it is because iPod Touch is running the iPhone OS or Mobile OS X what over you want to call it. This means that the operating system was made with such a small screen in mind when they made the OS. Most netbooks like the Dell Mini runs Windows XP witch never was intended for a 10.1 in screen so things just go off screen.
Now a netbook is a low performance laptop so your not going to be playing World of Warcraft on it or Halo. What they are met for is doing things online witch ware netbooks fail again. Lets say you want to go to Facebook you have to open up your browser and type in facebook.com and it takes you to the Facebook web site and it looks just horrible netbooks. Everything is vary scrunched together and content is over lapping on other content it just looks bad. Now if you want to go to Facebook on your iPod Touch there are two ways to do that you can type in facebook.com i Safari on the touch and it will take you the mobile page for Facebook witch looks allot cleaner then it looks on a netbook. The other way you can get to it is go to the app store on the touch and download the free Facebook app witch makes Facebook look even better and easier to get to on the touch and you can do everything you could do on the normal page.
Another thing that makes the iPod Touch a better netbook is the fact that it fits in your pocket. Now I do know of some people that have pockets big enough that they can put something like a dell mini in there pocket for most of us with normal pockets something like the dell min in your pocket is just not going to work. The iPod Touch just fits in your pocket and if I need to take notes or I need to add something to my calendar I just take it out of my pocket and do what I have to do save it and put it away. A netbook would take forever to start and take wile to load what you need to do. Not to mention the iPod touch can have your movies, music, podcast, and so much more on it and it works quickly. a netbook not as easily.
Netbooks should be renamed or something because they fail at there purpose of having a computer that you do things online with. Wile the iPod Touch it dose just that you got got somthing to do you do it and it is quick and easy and pain less. Wile with a netbook there's allot of pain to them. Now some of you might be thinking well wait you need a computer to use a iPod Touch something to sync it with and that is true but a netbook is a person’s second computer and shouldn’t be the only computer someone owns.
Now if you wish to e-mail me you may do so by e-mail me at themegatechblog@live.com or you can leave a comment on the blog.
-Mike
Today was apples event today and let me get the one question everyone has been wondering. No the Betals were not there and there not on the ITunes store as of today. But there was a person there that people were also wonder if he would be there and that was Steve Jobs. He looks a little thinner form the last time we have seen him but he seems healthy and ready to talk about new iPods. Witch we kind of got.
One of the first things they talked about was iTunes 9 witch adds things like family sharing, better syncing, iTunes LP, and extras for downloaded movies. The thing I've wanted that comes in iTunes 9 is you can organize all your apps on your iPhone and iPod touch so much better now. You can get iTunes 9 now.
The next thing they went into was the iPod touch. They then announced a 64 GB touch for $399 then went on about how its good for gaming and had some people up on stage form EA talking about some games coming out for the touch and iPhone. Then they showed an Ad for it. That was it no cam for the touch witch made me vary sad I have been putting off getting a new touch thinking they would add a camera or they would have something worth upgrading to the new touch but there is not.
They did have two surprise though the first one was they did not kill the iPod Classic. They came out with a 160 GB model one for $249. Now the other one was they gave the nano something new and that was a video camera and mic. Steve talked about the Flip for a bit and then said that apple wanted to try and do something simpler but offer it for free. Then went into talking about the nano and there it was the nano with a camera and mic right in it.
They also kept the iPod shuffle gum stick witch is now available in a few different colors now. But over all I don’t think that today's event really lived up to the hype that others were giving it. No cam in the touch, no tablet, and no Betals. If I had to pic something that was a big surprise I would have to say it is the new nano’s with the camera in it. I will have screen shots of the new iTunes when I can get it right now I'm sure apples servers are swamped right with people trying to get it.
-Mike
In first Part I talked about how the Windows Live for the desktop completes Windows 7. Now how dose the web complete the desktop programs. There are a few key services that work with the desktop programs. Windows Live Mail, Live Skydrive, and Spaces come together.
Lets start with Windows Live Mail if you have ever used Outlook then the Windows Live Mail will look almost like a simplified version of Outlook to you with your e-mail contacts and a calendar. All the things you need and nice thing is anything you do on the online Windows Live Mail will be changed in the desktop program as well. Add a event to your calendar online when you go to the desktop program and hit sync and it will be added to the desktop calendar or you can do it the other way as well and it will work.
Windows Live Skyedirve is another part of the online service. Skyedive is basically like having your own hard drive online for what ever you want and its 25 GB free. Now anything you do with windows live spaces is added to your skydrive so keep that in mind. A good way to use it is for a online back up of small files there is a upload limit of 50 MB. So word files and photos it is good for backing up.
Windows Live Spaces is Windows Live social network ware you can add your photos that you want to share with your friends and family. You can start a blog and keep everyone you care about up to date with your life and parties you maybe planning.
The online parts of Windows Live keeps your desktop up to date with you or the other way around. No matter ware you are you can always have your e-mail, photos, calendar, contacts, and your life ware ever you are. If you are if you want to try this stuff this go to home.live.com. Well now there is only one more part, part 3:mobile Windows Live witch I will already say it will not be that long.
-Mike
Technorati Tags: Windows Live,Online,web,Windows Live Mail,Windows Live Skydrive,Windows Live Spaces,e-mail
I was just syncing my Ipod touch and saw that the next day it will check for updates is 9/9/09 witch makes me think one of the things on announcements will be Iphone OS 3.1 what will it fix or add I have no idea.
-Mike
When I did the first part of this series I talked about the windows live suit but I forgot about one part of it that I cant be leave I forgot about. That is Windows Live Photo Gallery. Witch is something I use everyday. I really cant be leave I forgot about this. Photo Gallery is vary use for organizing your photos. It a louse you to import photos from your camera or SD card easily name the album and tag your photos before they are even imported. Once you have your photos imported you can tag each photo even more by tagging people. The program is smart enough to say hey there is a face here who is it? Form there you can click on it and it will bring your contacts list form your windows live mail account and you can use that to tag who it is. Photo Gallery also has simple editing tools to crop, color adjust, and straighten your photos. If you want to get your photos online you can upload them to your Spaces account (witch uses your sky drive) and you can upload to flickr. There is also addon’s so you can upload to Facebook and a few other social networks. I feel that Windows Live Photo Gallery plus Movie Maker will be something everyone will need and use once windows 7 comes out. But if you have Vista or XP you can get all this now at download.live.com. Just a note to XP users the new version of Movie Maker will not work.
-Mike
Technorati Tags: Windows 7,XP,Vista,Photo Gallery,Movie Maker,Flickr,Facebook,Skydrive,Spaces,Windows Live
Over the last few years Microsoft has been working on there Windows live brand of produces messenger, mail, Photo Gallery, Writer, Movie Maker, and others. When you install Windows 7 there is no mail client and no movie maker unlike in vista and XP ware you had outlook express and windows movie maker. Now most people most likely will not notice this cause Windows Live Essentials will be already on there computer because Microsoft made deals with most of there OEM’s to have it already on PC made by these OEM’s like Dell.
The Windows Live Essentials suit makes things a lot easier if you are using hotmail or what is now called Live mail now. The Windows live mail desktop client makes live mail so much more useful then the web client. With things like a built in calendar, RSS feed reader, and your mail you now have one stop place for all your news and your day ahead. The mail client just takes your mail form your hotmail or live account and pulls it to your desktop like Outlook Express use to do. One thing it never could do is pull your contacts out of hotmail and add it to your desktop Windows Live Mail dose this and any changes it makes it just pushes the changes back to the web so you always have a up to date contact list.
Now one of the other things that this mail client dose well is keep you more on top of things. I used the calendar when I was in school to make sure I remembered when to have projects done and other events happening at school it worked grate and having the desktop client made it even better. I ran it on my laptop I would go to my study hall and open up my laptop and take a look at what needed to be done. If I needed to change something I changed it and it would sync to the internet and when I got home the calendar on my desktop was up to date as well. There is one thing though you should know the calendar only works with the windows live calendar. This means if you use Google Calendar it will not sync with it.
Windows Live Messenger well what can I say about that other then its still around. Ok ok ok there are good uses for it and frankly it is my favorite messenger out there I just wish more of my friends used it. I love cause I like most people now are close with people that don't liv near me and its nice to see and hear them once and awhile witch Windows Live Messenger grate just hit one button I can now see and hear them (as long as they have a cam and mic) so there something to say about messenger it lets you keep everyone important to you close as long as they use Windows Live Messenger.
For years now the most popular editing program for youtubers has been windows movie maker witch never really all that grate it was fine for YouTube but your not going to edit a movie like you would on the make with IMovie. Well the Window Live team knew this and revamp movie maker to become Windows Live Movie Maker witch added the Ribbon UI to movie maker. They also simplified movie maker to this kind of drag and drop editing style since it is a Live product it has an web aspect witch is you can save right to YouTube right from movie maker. You have a slide show you need to make windows movie maker with all its transitions it makes that so easy I have done it my self even it took no time at all. (just wish I could find it)
Another program that come with this suit that I use allot is Windows Live Writer. If you have a blog this makes, making updates to you blog so much easier then the web interface most blogging platforms have. Writer makes adding video and photos to your blog so much easier and makes your blog looks much better. There are other add-ins too that makes adding a Digg button much easier. Also have you ever wondered what your post will look like once it is done on the web there is a view option that lets you do that. If you are a blogger and use blogger or live journal as your host service this is a must have.
There are other things part of this suit that I did not talk about like the Windows Live Tool Bar and the Windows Live Family Safety. This is cause these are things that I don’t find necessary to a good windows 7 experience and I feel just drag it down. I also feel most people will never use them so there is no point in talking about. If you do need these thing there, there though. Now there are also other parts to Windows Live such as the online parts and mobile parts. Witch I will be adding to this Tuesday for the web and Wednesday for Mobile. until then have a good Labor day.
-Mike