BooksByJim - Jim White

Uh-Oh - Replacing a System Board with BitLocker Enabled

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:43:00 +0000

What happens when you have BitLocker enabled on your computer and your system board needs to be replaced?

Well nothing too exciting if you're not using the TPM chip on the system board. But, if you are using it, you get a little more fun.

I ran into this recently and was actually excited to see what would happen. The system board on my laptop died and needed to be replaced. I had enabled BitLocker Drive Encryption a few months earlier to help protect my laptop data and had configured it to use the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip on the board. If you haven't looked into setting up BitLocker on your notebook computer, I highly recommend that you do. Keep in mind that it is only available in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate (and the Windows Server 2008 line). It provides full drive encryption and when used on a more modern laptop that has a TPM chip, allows for a very good extra layer of protection of your data. If your laptop should ever be stolen, this can make it more difficult for the thief to get to your data. Take a look at the following pages for some more info on Microsoft's BitLocker - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitlocker

So because BitLocker is tied to the mother board, what would happen if the system board needs replaced? In theory, BitLocker should see this as being almost the same as your hard drive being put into another computer and shouldn't be very happy. It should prompt you to basically prove who you are before it will continue booting into Windows and allowing access to your data. Well, it did what it was supposed to - my system board was installed and when I booted up the system, here's what I got:

So Windows Vista saw the problem with the new board and halted everything. If you had saved the key on a thumb drive, you can save yourself some typing by inserting it and hitting the "Escape" key (ESC) to reboot and read from the key. I don't keep my key on a thumb drive, however, so after seeing this screen, I pressed "Enter" to enter the recovery process which brought me to this screen...

That now becomes the most important part of the process. When BitLocker first gets enabled, you are prompted to save out your BitLocker encryption keys to a location other than your local hard drive (for this very reason). You did do that, right?! If not you're in for a world of hurt because you won't be able to recover your data otherwise. The only exception to this is if your BitLocker configuration was setup by your administrator in your Active Directory domain to manage the keys that way.

I have my keys in a couple of secure locations (just in case) and opened up the text files on another computer to see what the 48-character string is and typed it in to the screen above. After that, Windows Vista booted right up. Pretty cool, huh?

So once I logged in, I needed to go through and reconfigure BitLocker to work with the new TPM chip (new system board = new TPM chip). To open the TPM Management screen, click on the "Start" button and type "tpm.msc" into the "Start Search" bar and press "Enter" when it shows up in the list. This will bring up the TPM Management utility...

Now, click on "Initialize TPM" in the top right...

This will bring up the screen to start the TPM hardware. Click on "Restart" - this will restart the computer automatically...

At this point, the BIOS of the computer prompted me to allow Windows to work with the TPM...

Pressing "F1" set the change and once logged back into Windows, I was prompted to set the TPM owner password...

I selected to let Windows automatically create the password. At this point you'll then be prompted to save out this password...

Save the password somewhere other than your computer (maybe a USB thumb drive, an online backup account, or a web-only email account). Once you save out this TPM file, you're done!

So, this worked out well to be able to learn that it's fairly straight-forward to work with BitLocker after a major hardware change. It also helped demonstrate the protection that Microsoft's BitLocker Drive Encryption presents when using a TPM chip. Remember, that this isn't all that needs to be done to protect your notebook, but rather is just one important step in the layer of security you want to add. More information can be found all over the Internet, but here's a good article to start with -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptop_theft

Good luck and have a great week!

-- Jim White
MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com/

Windows Reinstall - The "Go-To" Site for Windows Guides - Interviews Jim White

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:52:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

For those of you not familiar with WindowsReinstall.com, it's a site managed by Mark Walmsley that exists to provide help with repairs, installs, reinstalls, and other general help with the many flavors of Windows (Windows 95 through Windows Vista). It even provides some great documentation for MS-DOS (remember that one?!). This is an excellent site and one that I talk about in my book, Just the Computer Essentials as the "go-to" place when looking to restore your computer.

Mark recently invited me to talk with him in an interview about my book Just the Computer Essentials. Check out this link
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/Reviews/justthecomputeressentials/
where you can read the interview.

In addition, I gave Mark a few chapters from Just the Computer Essentials to post online. If you haven't purchased your copy yet, this is a great opportunity to take a look at the chapters he put up on the site to see what a great piece of work I'm offering! ;)

Remember, if you like it, you can get pick up the book from Amazon, BarnesAndNoble.com, or any other online retailer. You can also have any bricks and mortar bookstore get in in for you as well. And, of course, if you order it from my website, http://www.booksbyjim.com/, it will be autographed.

So, be sure to check out Mark's website. You'll quickly find out that it's a real wealth of knowledge and definitely one you'll find yourself coming back to.... http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

Have a great week everyone!

-- Jim
MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com/

How To Free Up Major Disk Space After Vista SP1 Install

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

I realized that I lost some disk space on my laptop after installing Vista SP1. I wanted to see where all the free space went, so I ran a freeware utility called TreeSize. It scans the drive or folder you want it to and sorts everything by size. After running a scan on the C drive, I found that one particular folder (C:\Windows\winsxs) was taking up over 9 GB of space - 9 GB!!! That's a lot of space lost. I won't go into the details of this directory, but in a nutshell, as applications are installed and uninstalled, the manifests are kept in this folder. If you're interested in more info on the WinSxS directory, here's a good place to start... http://blogs.msdn.com/jonwis/archive/2005/12/28/507863.aspx.

But, back to the point... 9 GB!!! I began to realize that part of this probably had to do with SP1, but from what I had read, I also knew not to delete from this folder. So I did some digging on cleaning up after SP1 and found out that not only is this possible, but SP1 includes a built-in utility to do exactly that. VSP1CLN.EXE is a utility that can reclaim some of this space. And being built into SP1, there's no downloading or installation necessary - if you have SP1 installed, you're ready to go!

To run it, hold down the Winkey (the one that looks like the Microsoft flag usually on the lower left of the keyboard) and then press the "R" key. This should open up the run menu. Type in "vsp1cln.exe" and click OK.

This will open up a command prompt with the option to make Vista SP1 permanent on your computer. Now, before you press the letter "Y," keep in mind that this utility will run and will do exactly what it says - it will remove all the files that were archived that allow you to uninstall SP1. So be sure that everything runs correctly after SP1 before doing this. Assuming your ready to go for it, press the letter "Y" and Vista will do its thing.

It took probably about 10 to 15 minutes to run on my laptop and when it was done, it simply exited.

So how much space did this free up? Well, I first read about this utility on the "My Digital Life" website where they talk about getting back up to 800 MB of space. On my laptop though, I reclaimed a whopping 3.49 GB of space on the C drive!! I'm sure this is not the norm, but regardless, I hope this helps you to clean up a substantial amount of disk space on your computer as well!

For more great advice and tips, don't forget to check out my book, Just the Computer Essentials from my website www.booksbyjim.com, Amazon.com, or your favorite book distributor.

Have a great week everyone!

-- Jim
MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com/

How-To Geek - A Great Windows Resource

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:03:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I realize that some of my subscribers are Windows novices and some are experts, but I have found that when it comes to learning the ins and outs of Windows, a great resource across the board is the How-To Geek website (http://www.howtogeek.com/)

Each post focuses on how to do a specific task with your computer or a good trick or shortcut. The topics cover everything from common error messages to weird process that run in the background to tricks of the trade in popular software (like Microsoft Office).

What's nice about this site is that you can subscribe to the site using your favorite RSS reader (or via email), just like many of you do to my blog. I currently use My Yahoo! as my RSS reader and have probably a good 70 to 80 modules in there. So, usually about once or twice a day, I skim through my page to see any worthwhile news. And I will tell you that the How-To Geek site usually makes me click on through to read the whole topic.

But don't take my word for it - I think the 44,000+ subscribers the "Geek" already has to his blog speaks volumes in itself.

So, if you haven't already, check out the http://www.howtogeek.com/ website and let me know what you think.

As a bonus, the "Geek" recently posted a review of my Just the Computer Essentials book (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/book-reviews/book-review-just-the-computer-essentials-vista/). Shameless plug - yes, but definitely not the only reason to check out the site! With the wealth of useful information, you're bound to be a loyal subscriber!

Have a great week, everyone!

-- Jim White
MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Office Open XML - A Quick Touch on the Office 2007 File Formats

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:55:00 +0000

By now, many of you may have started to become a little familiar with the new Microsoft Office formats that became a part of Office 2007. These are easily distinguished by their file extensions which are now four letter extensions ending in an "x" or "m" depending on whether they contain macros or not. For example, up through Office 2003, Word documents would end in .doc. However, if you create a new non-macro document in Word 2007, it will default to an extension of .docx. Additionally, a new Word 2007 document containing macros will default to an extension of .docm.

Here are some of the updated formats in Office 2007:

Microsoft Office Product	Older Office Format	New Office 2007 Non-Macro Format	New Office 2007 Macro-Enabled Format	Other New Office 2007 Formats
Excel	*.xls	*.xlsx	*.xlsm	.xlsb, .xltx, .xltm, .xlam
PowerPoint	*.ppt	*.pptx	*.pptm	.potx, .potm, .ppsx, .ppsm
Word	*.doc	*.docx	*.docm	.dotx, .dotm

That's great, Jim… but, why should I care anything about these new formats?!

Here's why…

The new formats are XML-based versions. Unlike prior formats, these are open formats and can be used by other companies and developers to help create a more universal standard. Microsoft's standard is called Office Open XML (or OOXML) and they are not the only player in the game trying to get their document format to become the universal standard. Sun Microsystems is pushing its OpenDocument Format (ODF) as well, and right now, it's anyone's game.

The new Microsoft XML formats allow for a number of benefits over the prior formats Office used. They can provide for files that are up to 75% smaller than if they had been saved in the older formats. They also are less prone to corruption than the older files. Additionally, a new file can easily be identified if it is has macros in it simply by the format extension it has (e.g. *.docm versus *.docx), which can help you see real quick if a file may unwanted or unknown code. More of the benefits can be found by looking at:

Microsoft MSDN: Introducing the Office (2007) Open XML File Formats (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338205.aspx)

A neat little trick is to know that the new formats are saved in a ZIP format. So it you rename a file like "My Document.docx" to "My Document.zip," you can actually browse and see how the new file format works from within your ZIP program. Although, pretty cool to look at and learn from, don't try this with critical files or modify any of the content within it or you can screw up the file.

So, it sounds pretty cool, Jim – but are there any issues?

Well, if someone with Office 2007 saves a Word document in the new .docx format, for example, and sends it to someone with Office 2003, that person won't be able to open the .docx file unless they have installed the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. So, if you are running an earlier version of Microsoft Office, you should download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, which will allow you to open files created in the new format. More information, as well as a link to download and install the compatibility pack, can be found by looking at:

Microsoft Article ID 924074: How to use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office programs (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074)

Hopefully, I've been able to help you understand the Office 2007 file formats as well as some of the benefits and "gotchas." The new open formats that are available can lead to some dramatic changes to the way office suite documents are handled by office suites all around and now, I hope that you understand the first giant step in that direction!

-- Jim White
MCSE, CCSP, CCEA, Server+, A+, and more!
www.booksbyjim.com

Windows Vista for Beginners

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:42:00 +0000

Hi everyone! It's been a while since my last post, but I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about a website called Windows Vista for Beginners. I came across this website a while back and have been keeping an eye on it ever since.

As the name suggests, Windows Vista for Beginners is a website dedicated to providing easy-to-understand tutorials and advice for Windows Vista. If this sounds familiar, that's because that is very much along the same lines as my book, Just the Computer Essentials.

Because of this, I thought that my book would be a good match for the Vista for Beginners team. So I got in touch with a really good guy named Ciprian and I asked if he would be interested in taking a look at my book and providing his readers with an honest, unpaid review. He agreed and starting today the review can be found here.

Aside from the fact that they reviewed Just the Computer Essentials, the Windows Vista for Beginners website is a very good site and one you will definitely want to add to your favorites. Or even better, if you have an RSS reader that you use, you may want to add the http://feeds.feedburner.com/WindowsVistaForBeginners feed URL to it (or iGoogle, My Yahoo!, etc.) to ensure you always keep up-to-date.

Anyway, that's all I have for now, but I'll be posting back here soon with some other tips to keep you rolling along!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

A Little Bit of Fun with "Just the Computer Essentials"

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:22:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I just wanted to point out that I've added something fun to the http://www.booksbyjim.com/ website. Head over to the website and then click on "Fun" along the top. You'll then be taken to every piece of Just the Computer Essentials fun merchandise you can possibly imagine - t-shirts, sweatshirts, boxers, baby clothes, coffee mugs, baseball caps, and more!

Everything is done through a very reputable company (CafePress). I ordered a few different kinds of shirts already and was really impressed with the quality. I just wore them out on the town this weekend and actually had some great conversations with a number of people.

So, take a look and I hope you find something you like! Here a direct link as well:
http://www.cafepress.com/booksbyjim

Guess what friends and family are getting for Christmas this year!!! ;)

-- Jim
Author of Just the Computer Essentials
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

A Couple Great Free Services (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:02:00 +0000

Hi everyone! In the last article A Couple Great Free Services (Part 1), I talked about what a great service Jott is. Today, I want to talk about another great service...

GrandCentral

Recently acquired by Google, GrandCentral is an amazing and innovative idea. And best of all, they come through on what they want to accomplish. Here's the gist of how it works...

You go to GrandCentral website (http://www.grandcentral.com/) to reserve a phone number you'd like to have and sign up with your name and email. Right now there's a waiting list, so you need to get on that. Once you get your invite, you can then log into your account and get started with the good stuff.

The phone number you selected initially will now be your number that you give out to friends and family. Within GrandCentral, you can add the phone numbers of other phones you want to include - maybe your cell phone, work number, and possibly your home number. You can also import your address book from other email programs (Yahoo!, Gmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.)

So, with the default settings, here's what now happens...

Someone calls your phone number (the main GrandCentral number).
All the phones you have under that umbrella ring (your Caller ID will still show the person calling like it normally does).
You pick up one of the phones ringing and you now have a few options:

Accept the call just like a normal call and start talking.
Send the caller directly to voicemail.
Send the caller to voicemail, but listen while they are leaving their message, in case you want to pick it up (how cool is that - like an answering machine at home!)
Accept the call and record the conversation (the caller does get alerted to this and even so, keep in mind that this is not legal in some states)

Well, Jim, it's pretty cool that this number is now a permanent number and no one needs to remember or even know any of your other numbers, but can't it do anything else?

I am glad you asked! How about this:

Joe calls you and you've answered your phone at the office, but you need to get on the road. Before GrandCentral, you could interrupt Joe's story and tell him you'll call him back from your cell phone. With GrandCentral, however, you just press the asterisk key (*) on your phone and all your phones will ring again. You pick up on your cell phone and Joe continues his story (blah, blah, blah...). That's one of my favorite features.
In the middle of a call, Kevin is about to give you directions to get to the party you're heading to in about an hour. Just press four (4) on your phone and the conversation starts to be recorded. When you're done with the directions, just press 4 again (or hang up) to stop recording. You can now access the recording just like a voicemail when you've made a wrong turn on Albuquerque and need to figure out where you went wrong.
Block callers as spam, just as easily if you can with email.
This one I think is really cool... you can create different voicemail messages for different people or different groups of people. Imagine everyone calling and getting one voicemail message but when Dawn and Lisa call, they get a different voicemail letting them know that your cell phone doesn't work well where you're at and to just meet you at the bar.

There's a bunch of other features as well, but I'll let you go check those out yourself.

The GrandCentral website is a straight-forward, simple, yet elegant dashboard to manage everything. You can quickly setup a "quick rule" to just send all calls to voicemail or just send all calls to a temporary forwarding number. You can play your voicemails and even something called Click2Call that lets you click on a phone number of someone to easily call them (GrandCentral calls you first and then connects to the number you clicked to call).

The potential for GrandCentral is amazing. And they've recently been acquired by Google which helps to ensure the stability of their network. GrandCentral is still in beta and they are currently looking at keeping the service free, while making some of the features available at an affordable cost. While in beta, all the features are free.

I am really impressed with GrandCentral and definitely would recommend this to anyone looking for some fun, cutting-edge technology that can actually make you more productive. GrandCentral can be found at http://www.grandcentral.com/.

If you get an opportunity, check out both services - GrandCentral and Jott (from Part 1). I hope I was able to provide some good info on both of these for you. Have a great week!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

A Couple Great Free Services (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:33:00 +0000

Hi everyone... sorry it's been so long since my last post! I thought I'd go a little off topic today to talk about a couple services that I've been messing around with lately that I think are going to turn out to be something great. And best of all - they're free! Keep in mind though that they are both in beta (released for testing purposes and not ready for full release because they may still be buggy). Once they are ready for full release, things may change - certain features may be charged for, etc.

Here's the first of these invaluable services...

Jott

Jott is already becoming one of my best friends. The concept is simple, but great. Once you sign up, you can register your phone/email address and configure any desired options. Now, the fun begins!

Have you ever been driving and you think of something you need to do or a song comes on the radio that you want to jot down? But you either don't have a pen or piece of paper handy or don't want to kill yourself trying to write while driving. Now all you need to do is call Jott's toll free number from the phone you registered. Jott recognizes that it's you without you needing to do anything and asks who you want to Jott. On it's simplest level, you say "myself," Jott says "OK, Jott yourself," and then lets you record a short message. Then you hang up.

You might be thinking - "Wonderful, they invented voicemail." Not so fast, grasshopper! There's a wonderful little extra in this that makes it great. Once you've left your message, Jott then transcribes your message into text and sends it to wherever you've told it to send it to. So those items you need to pick up at the grocery store gets sent to you as a text message. You get to the grocery store and check the text message to see what you probably would have otherwise forgotten. Simple, yet effective.

I have both my phone and email setup to receive the messages. Now if I Jott myself, I get both the transcribed message sent as a text message to my phone (text message charges with your carrier do apply) and I also get it in an email. In addition, the email message lets you play your actual message you left. So if it wasn't transcribed perfectly and you can't figure out what it says (sometimes the transcriptions aren't perfect!), you can just listen to the message yourself.

Now, even though that's the feature that I love about this whole service, Jotting yourself to get a text message or email is only part of what you can do. Jott lets you import your address book so you can Jott friends and family just as easily. Instead of saying "myself" when asked who you want to Jott, you can now say the name of someone in your Jott address book and send them a message just as easily.

I always seem to think of everything on my quiet drive to work early in the morning and sometimes try to remember everything by the time I get to work (I always seem to forget though!). Or, I never have anything ready to write on while driving (probably not the safest thing to do anyway). So for me, this has definitely been a lifesaver.

Hopefully when the service comes out of beta, it continues to be free, but if it isn't, it is still something that I've already found quite useful and would consider subscribing to (if the price is right!).

Jott's website is www.jott.com and I hope it will prove as useful for you as it does for me.

In the next post, I'll talk about another service that I've just started to get involved with and am already fascinated with the possibilities it has to offer!

See you soon!

-- Jim White
www.booksbyjim.com

Book mention in Newsday!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:47:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I just wanted to put up a quick post because I was excited to see that my book, Just the Computer Essentials, was mentioned in a story in Newsday on August 25, 2007.

The article was written by Judith Bernstein and is titled Making things compute for older technophobes. An online version of the article can be found at:
http://www.newsday.com/business/custom/retirement/ny-act2spd5343484aug25,0,5374147.story.

Newsday is a very well-respected newspaper sold throughout the New York City metro area. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, they are currently ranked in the top 10 newspapers for largest circulation in the United States. So, you can obviously see why I was excited to see this mention in the article!

Judith, thanks for the acknowledgement - I appreciate it!

-- Jim

http://www.booksbyjim.com/

File-Based Restores from "Complete PC Backups"

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:17:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

In Just the Computer Essentials, I talk about a couple different types of backups built into Windows Vista that I recommend you do on your computer. One is using the “Complete PC Backup” which will create an image of your computer that, in the event of a minor catastrophe, will allow you to get your computer 100% back to the way it was at the time the backup was performed within an extremely short amount of time. The “Complete PC Backup” is designed more with the disaster in mind and on restoring everything that was on your computer all at once.

The second type of backup is called “Back Up Files” and is designed to backup your important files (finances, photos, music, and any other critical data). This type of backup easily lets you pick and choose to restore individual files that you may need to recover (in Just the Computer Essentials, I also discuss the possible use of “Previous Versions” for this purpose).

So what happens if the only working backup you have is a “Complete PC Backup," but you only want back maybe a handful of files? If you restore the “Complete PC Backup” image, you’re now stuck writing over everything – including other files you didn’t want to restore. So what’s a computer user to do???!!!

I’ll tell you what! Again, the “Complete PC Backup” is designed for entire system restores, but Microsoft did something pretty smart. You may have heard the buzzword “virtualization” floating around. You’re welcome to read the technical definition of server virtualization from Webopedia or Wikopedia by, but in a nutshell it allows you to have a physical computer with multiple other computers on it running “virtually.” The virtual computers act just like regular computers. Picture your computer and then think about if you had two other Windows computers running on top of it. Here’s a screenshot to help you visualize it…

(click to see the image enlarged in a new window)

Now, why would anyone want to do this? Well, think of the cost savings – I now have only had to buy one (beefed up) physical server and then I can have multiple virtual machines running on it. Each one thinks it’s its own separate entity and anyone on the network connecting to it thinks it’s a separate computer as well, but they can share all the resources (memory, processor, etc.) of the physical computer. In the IT industry right now, this has become huge! By consolidating servers this way, companies are savings millions – less hardware they need to buy, which also means much less electricity being used (another savings). I could go on about this with tons of other advantages to this, but that’s not the point of this blog entry.

So why am I talking about virtualization at all then? Let’s get back to Microsoft doing something pretty smart – the key is that Microsoft creates and stores the "Complete PC Backup" of each drive in a file with a VHD extension. VHD is short for "Virtual Hard Disk" and that's exactly what is is - a virtual drive where all contents of the drive are stored in a single file. In other words, to come full circle, if you have a "Complete PC Backup," you open up that file and move what you need over to your actual physical computer.

Here's a couple of ways you can get the files you need from the "Complete PC Backup" VHD file (the virtual drive)...

1) Use vhdmount.exe to mount the VHD file as another drive on your computer. You can then browse that drive and then copy the files you need and paste them where you want on your physical computer. Although not horribly complicated, it will take some time to get this rolling. I'm not going to reinvent this process... I'll leave that to an excellent resource in the Microsoft arena - Petri IT. More information on this can be found on his site in the following article:

Mounting VHD files with VHDMount

...or Option 2 (a quicker method and the one we'll discuss)...

2) Use a software program that can open the VHD file. An excellent program that can do this is called WinImage from Gilles Vollant Software. If you've ever opened a ZIP file using the built in Windows Extraction program or software such as Winzip, then WinImage should be very easy for you to use. So here's how to do it:

Go to http://www.winimage.com/ and download and install the latest version of WinImage. It's a trial version and free for the first 30 days.

Run WinImage by going to Programs/All Programs and launching the program from the WinImage program group.

In WinImage, click File and then Open.

In the Open dialog, change the Files of Type dropdown box to be Virtual Hard Disks (*.vhd, *vud). Then browse to the location where the "Complete PC Backup" VHD file(s) are stored. If you have more than one partition or drive on your computer, you will have more than one VHD file (one for each drive letter). You will probably have to go through trial and error to see which one you need. Select one and then click Open.

It may take a little bit for the volume to mount, but once it does, you can browse the tree structure to find the file(s) you want. Once you find the file(s) or folder you want, right-click on it and select Extract.

In the "Extract" dialog box, click Browse and select the location to save the file(s)/folder to and then click OK.

Depending on the size of the file(s)/folder to be extracted, it may be instant or it may take a little bit, but that's it... you're done!

Congratulations!! You've hopefully been able to successfully rescue what you needed from your "Complete PC Backup." Keep in mind what a lifesaver the WinImage program was and how much time, effort, and possibly money it saved you and consider supporting the program by purchasing a license from them at http://www.winimage.com/order.htm.

Remember, there are much easier ways to get files back - Previous Versions, Back Up Files, etc. Check out Just the Computer Essentials for more information.

Good luck!!

-- Jim
Author of Just the Computer Essentials
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Why Backups Are ALWAYS Critical…

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:27:00 +0000

Well, it just about happened this morning… I was able to show that walking the walk is just as important as talking the talk. In my book Just the Computer Essentials, I talk about the importance of backups and testing your backups. I also discuss some of the online backup services that are now available and some of the pros and cons of each. And today I was well on my way to proving things…

I turned on my laptop this morning at work, logged in, and was waiting for all the fun services to load in the background. Then suddenly the screen went blank. I looked and the hard drive activity light was solid green (not even a flicker). I just thought Windows was being Windows and figured I'd give it a little bit to do what it needed to do. Well, after about 10 minutes with the screen still blank and the hard drive still a constant green, I thought "uh-oh."

As I powered off the laptop and then powered it on, I started to think about how if the hard drive was dead, the process of restoring data back onto my laptop after I got a replacement drive… but I wasn't worried about it. Here's why…

On my laptop, I am running Windows Vista and probably just about every application known to mankind. I am also running Mozy, an excellent online backup service (not the only game in town, but a definite, proven winner in my book). Once you've installed and configure it, Mozy sits there and keeps an eye on things for you. If I step away for a little bit (like to go to lunch), when I get back, Mozy usually says something like "Hey, I noticed you weren't using you computer for a little bit there, so I took that as an opportunity to back up the new and changed files out there for you." Alright, it doesn't actually say that, but you get the point. Once again, this is a great service.

However, like I discuss in Just the Computer Essentials, backups lie. I've seen it happen too many times to count. The log files for the backup programs show that your files have been backed up. Then disaster does strike and you find out that the backups are actually no good. The only way to know you have a good backup is to do a test restore – PERIOD. And that will only tell you if that particular backup is good and only those files that you test.

In my case, I had just done a test restore of several important random files and they all restored fine. So, getting back to my story, this possible hard drive dying meant I would have a little extra work to do, but all my data was protected. THAT is why I wasn't worried.

When I powered it on that second time, the laptop wouldn't even POST, much less get to Windows. It turned out to be a bad system board, which I'll have by Monday. Everything worked out OK. And if it had been a bad hard drive, I still would have been OK.

The question is, if your hard drive dies today on your computer, are YOU going to be worried?!

Just the Computer Essentials is probably one of the least expensive investments you can get that feeling of confidence that you're doing the right thing in protecting the data on your computer. Head on over to http://www.booksbyjim.com/ and get yourself a copy today. You can also go to Amazon.com where you can browse through some of the book to see what a great deal you're really getting!

Have a great weekend!

-- Jim

Book signing at the Blue Heron Bookstore!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:21:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that I will be doing a book signing this weekend on Saturday, 08/04/07 at The Blue Heron Bookstore. I'll be there from 1:00pm until 2:30pm and would love to see all of you there.

The Blue Heron Bookstore is located in Peninsula, next to the Winking Lizard. Here’s the address (click on the address for a map to open in a new window):

1593 Main Street
Peninsula, OH 44264
(330) 657-2575

I have a feeling we’ll probably end up next door at the Winking Lizard afterward for anyone interested.

It would be great to see you there!

-- Jim

Windows Vista - To upgrade or buy new??

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 01:31:00 +0000

It seems like I've been asked quite a bit by friends and family whether or not they can upgrade their computer to Windows Vista or if they need to buy a whole new computer.

Well, here's the scoop... unfortunately, if you have a computer that's more than a couple years old, an upgrade to Windows Vista is probably not going to perform as great as you'd like. Windows Vista is a hog - granted, it offers some excellent benefits, particularly for security - but it's still a hog. If you take a look at the System Requirements for Windows Vista, you'll quickly see that with the exception of the Home Basic edition (which I have a hard time recommending to anyone), Windows Vista recommends 1 Gigabyte (GB) of RAM (memory).

I'll be honest - it's taken everything I have to be able to convince friends and family to get their Windows XP computers up past 512 Megabyte (MB) of RAM to 1 GB. And when Microsoft makes a recommendation on requirements, such as memory or hard drive, you quickly learn while in the field to double it or you're going to run into problems. With that in mind, you basically want to plan on about 2 GB of RAM for your PC. If you right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties," you should see the amount of RAM installed in your computer. Chances are it's probably around 512 MB (or less) on an older computer - particularly on computers running a version of Windows prior to Windows XP.

RAM is one of the biggest performance makers or breakers. If you don't have at least 1 GB of RAM (and again, I recommend 2 GB), Windows Vista will most likely run like a dog. Mind you this is just one point, but a very important one. Kingston is reputable manufacturer of inexpensive RAM. Head on over to Kingston's website (http://www.kingston.com/) and do a search for memory (RAM) for your computer. Take a look at the price of RAM to get your computer up to 1 GB or 2 GB and see how much it would run you. It's likely going to cost you a pretty decent penny. Now keep in mind that you can get a basic computer from Best Buy or Circuit City for maybe $500 (with Windows Vista already included in the price!).

Then look at the cost of the operating system upgrade - Windows Vista Home Premium will run you about $150. A lot of numbers being thrown around here!!! But basically, if a RAM upgrade runs you $150, for example, and the Windows upgrade costs you another $150 - that's $300 right there... for an old(er) computer! And that's only looking at the computer memory. There's still plenty of other factors that can come into play - CPU speed, hard drive capacity, etc.

In my book, Just the Computer Essentials, I talk about some of the other things you also need to take into consideration. For instance, just going back to our RAM example - let's say you have 512 MB of RAM in your computer and you determine you want another 1 GB of RAM in your computer to be ready for Windows Vista (to have 1.5 GB of RAM). You order the RAM and then when you go to put it in, you find out that your computer actually has two 256 MB sticks of RAM (2 x 256 = 512 MB). That's a surprise - no empty RAM slots! Now what? You can take out the one stick and have put in the 1 GB stick (which now only brings you to 1.25 GB). Well, not great, but we'll deal with it. Now what about other possible problems? Maybe the memory has to be installed in pairs - two identical sticks of memory. Or maybe the computer only supports a total of 1 GB of RAM. These are some of the possible problems you have to think about if you're considering upgrading.

As you can probably guess, in most cases, I'm an advocate of either sticking with where you're at or buying a new computer. Windows XP is an excellent operating system - anything less and you're probably ready for a new computer anyway. Now, let's say you got a new computer a lot more recently and think it would really be worth your while to investigate upgrading. In that case, Microsoft has already thought of you! Take a look at the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. If you download and run this tool on your computer, it will take a look at what you have and then present a report showing you the things that need to be done (if any) to make sure your computer is ready to be upgraded. An invaluable tool if you want to see what needs to be done to make your computer Vista-ready.

So, just to recap - in almost all cases, if you're ready for Windows Vista, you'll probably want to look at a new computer. The exception would be if you have a computer that you just got probably in the past year. Hopefully, this helps you get ready for Windows Vista!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

The Big Decision: An iPod or "The Other Guy" MP3 Player

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:10:00 +0000

I discussed in my last blog entry some of the different decisions that need to be made when converting your music to digital such as MP3 files (see Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files). Now I want to talk about another topic you may want to be thinking about - what kind of portable music player to get.

MP3 files have been around for years, but portable music players had their real take off when Apple introduced the infamous iPod. Since the time the iPod showed up, they have ruled the market. Apple is known for making products that are in a word... cool. They not only look cool, but they seem to always be designed exceptionally well. The iPod is no exception - it's simple, yet effective. It works on both Macs and PCs and it integrates seamlessly with Apple's iTunes software. But, it's not the only game in town.

When I decided to get my first portable music player, I had a number of things that I wanted to keep in mind - value for the money spent, available features, and music management.

Now, before we get rolling, just know that I'm not here to tell you that you don't want an iPod. In fact, I've recommended them to many friends and family members for one big reason - simplicity. Of all the music players I've seen, the iPod along with iTunes has got to be the least complicated to set up and use. And if you're not the most "technically gifted" (how's that for politically correct?!), this may just be the player you want to get. The iPod usually lives up to its reputation and they have a strong following of satisfied customers.

Value for the Money Spent / Available Features

So, why not get an iPod? Well, the biggest reason is price. The iPod is generally going to be one of the most expensive portable music players out there when comparing storage and features.

One such feature not currently available on an iPod, but found on many other portable music players is an FM radio. If this is a big deal to you, then the iPod, might not be the right device for you.

Here are just some of the features available with different music players:

Capacity

Flash-based models currently offer up to 8 GB of storage (roughly 4000 songs depending on the quality of the music files) and use solid state memory. This type is usually more resilient to problems, but cannot offer as high a capacity as hard drive players
Hard drive players can offer much larger capacities, but are mechanical and are more prone to suffer from problems because of it. These players are usually larger in their physical size as well.

File formats supported - Almost all portable music players support MP3 files, but keep an eye out for some of the other formats in case your music files are in a different format such as WMA, AAC, WAV, etc.
Photo management
Wireless capabilities to share music files with other device users
Microsoft Outlook synchronization capabilities
Cell phone capabilities
FM radio
Satellite radio
Voice recorder

It's up to you to decide which of these features would be important to you - it's like car shopping - different models have different advantages and disadvantages. Of course, how can we forget about Apple's new iPhone - again it definitely has the "cool" factor to it, but you'll have to decide if the cost is worth it to you. And word has it they are looking to make a smaller, less expensive model to be released later this year (http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004855.html).

I should probably also mention that Microsoft's Zune player is worth a look as well (http://www.zune.net/). Price-wise it is usually around the same as the iPod and offers some interesting features such as wireless sharing of music with other Zune users.

Music Management

For me, music management was very important in my decision. In my last blog entry (Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files), I talked about converting around 735 CDs worth of my music to MP3 files. Music management becomes important because not all management software works with all devices. For instance, iTunes only works with the iPod music player. Additionally, very few software applications can be used to synchronize your music with iPod players. On the other side of things, certain management software will only support PlaysForSure devices.

I needed to have software that did what I wanted it to do and would still work with whatever portable music player I decided to get. I think iTunes is fantastic as music management software and helped me to rip all my music to digital files using Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding (again, see Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files), but you can only use it to sync to an iPod.

When Microsoft released Windows Vista, it came with a new completely-revamped version of Windows Media Player. Version 11, also available for download for Windows XP SP2 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx), was a much needed overhaul and was very well designed. I think this is actually one of the best music management software applications on the market right now. And it's compatible with all PlaysForSure devices - so if you go to the store and find the MP3 player you like, if it has the PlaysForSure logo on it, it should work with Windows Media Player 11 right out of the box.

Here's just a couple other music management programs out there:

Additionally, most portable music players offer their own music management software that you can (or may be required) to use.

Wrap Up

After contemplating some of the different options I've talked about, in the summer of 2006, I decided on an 8 GB Creative ZEN MicroPhoto Player (http://www.creative.com/). This was the largest non-mechanical capacity available. It doesn't hold all my music at once, but I can shuffle playlists of the music I like. It provides the ability to listen to music files and view pictures. It also has an FM radio and a voice recorder built in. In addition, it provided the ability to synchronize my Microsoft Outlook data - calendar, address book, and tasks (this one was a real bonus for me!). It also provides a standard replaceable lithium battery. If the battery dies, no problem. On an iPod, if the battery dies, the unit needs to be replaced - not very convenient.

I found a great deal on it at Circuit City for only around $169 and I've been extremely happy with it. Not only does it do everything it promises, but I was able to get a small set of TravelSound speakers for it from Creative and now I can bring it along for cookouts, camping, and other get togethers.

Eventually, I'll be looking for a replacement player and by then I have a feeling that most of the rules will have changed. But either way, it pays to do your research before jumping into something like this.

I've also been happily using Windows Media Player 11 as my music management software and everything is working harmoniously (pun intended!).

Thanks for sticking around - don't forget to take a look at my book Just the Computer Essentials for an easy to understand guide to buying and maintaining a new computer... with the Windows Vista operating system becoming the standard on new PCs, this is the book you need!!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 01:00:00 +0000

About a year or so ago, I decided that it was time to move my collection of music CDs to digital files. Over the years I gained quite a collection (735 CDs). Having that many CDs makes it difficult to rotate them out and listen to what you want to while driving as much as you'd want to. I've also moved a few times with them and that isn't very fun to do either.

Now, with the popularity of MP3 players, digital music files have provided a lot of new possibilities and opportunities. I spent a good amount of time investigating some of the different choices because having to convert over 700 CDs was not something I wanted to do more than once. So now I'll share with you some of what I learned, both from research and experience...

Storage

The first thing I wanted to do was decide where I was going to store the files. With the cost of external USB hard drives as inexpensive as as it is lately, I decided to go with that option. Now, how big does the hard drive have to be? I could have waited until I converted everything to find out, but I decided to go a different approach.

I decided that I would go with a simplistic method which may not work in all cases, but gave me a rough estimate, which is all I was looking for. I converted a few CDs to MP3 files at a higher quality bit rate (we'll talk about that later) just to see how big the files would be. Most of the song files were about 7 to 10 Megabytes (MB) each. Here's where the real rough estimate comes into play. I decided to ballpark high that each song would be about 10 MB and a generally high estimate of 15 songs on each CD. So let's do the math:

735 CDs x 15 songs x 10 MB = 110,250 MB

Now, we divide our answer by 1,024 (the number of Megabytes in 1 Gigabyte):

110, 250 MB / 1,024 = 107.67 GB

So my rough estimate was that I would need an external drive that with a capacity of at least 108 Gigabytes (GB) to hold all my music. Of course, keep in mind that you always want to allow room for growth as well, so shoot higher.

I did a little shopping and came across the Western Digital My Book™ Essential Edition 250GB External Hard Drive. I found it at Circuit City for about $120 (remember that was also over a year ago at the time from before this posting). I ordered two of them. Why two? Because my plan is to get rid of most of my CDs and I'd be a little nervous about having everything on one hard drive. Hard drives do go bad and I'd hate to lose all my hard work and music because of it. So, after all is said and done, I copied everything from the one hard drive to another. I keep the one hard drive at my house and the other at my parents' house. That way, if a fire would happen or some other disaster, I wouldn't lose both hard drives.

As a side note, as the price goes down, I will likely be getting external hard drives with the option to setup RAID-1 or RAID-5 as replacements for the ones I have. RAID is a whole topic in itself, but it provides some additional protection and I would feel even safer having that. You can read more about RAID if you're interested at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID.

Music Format

Alright, so now I have the drives and need to figure out what format to save the music into. You hear the phrase "MP3 player" all the time and may have just assumed that all digital music is in the MP3 format. You might be surprised to know that there are several formats out there. A few of the most common are MP3, AAC, and WMA. And with each format, there are different levels of quality you can choose from. This is usually known as the bit rate and the higher the bit rate, the higher the quality, but also the bigger the actual file is. So a slightly lower bit rate file might be a little less on the quality side (assuming you can hear the difference), but it will give you more room on your MP3 player to store more songs.

There's a number of sites out there that can help you compare the formats (go to Google and search for "mp3 aac wma" without the quotes for a few), but here's some info you will want to know:

MP3 is a universally accepted format and probably the most popular. However, many record companies tend to frown on it because MP3's don't support Digital Rights Management (DRM) which provides the ability to say how the songs are used (like that the song can be played only on X number of devices, X number of times, etc.).
AAC is used widely by Apple and is the default format in iTunes when buying and downloading songs or saving out songs from your CDs. It does support DRM.
WMA is the format Microsoft created. It provides a lot of enticing options for quality and offers DRM, but it is currently not supported on iPods.

Looking at the different options, I decided that I wanted to use the MP3 format. I'm not a fan of DRM - if I own music, I don't want someone telling me where I can use it. I also want something that is the norm, so I know it will be supported for years down the line.

Ripping Software and Quality

The process of taking a CD and pulling the songs off into a digital music format is called ripping. There are tons of different software programs out there that will help you to rip your CDs. I use a PC running the Windows operating system and need software for that. I looked around at plenty of programs and decided that iTunes offered me the most bang for my buck - the buck being nothing - iTunes is a free download from apple (http://www.itunes.com/).

I don't have an iPod, but you don't need one to use iTunes to manage your music. Although iTunes has a default format of AAC, you can change it to be MP3, which is what I needed. It also offers something important that I wanted... VBR (we'll come back to VBR shortly).

The idea behind MP3 files and other similar formats is that they are compressed - sounds that are out of the range of what humans can hear are eliminated which saves on space. Next, there is something called bit rate. The bit rate is the number of Kilobytes that may be used in each second of audio. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality - and the larger the file becomes. The bit rate can be from 24 kbps up to 320 kbps, but generally the most common seems to be 128 kbps.

I wasn't happy with the idea of giving up my CDs and having just average quality music files - it just didn't sit real well with me. But I also didn't want unnecessarily large MP3 files either. Now back to VBR... Variable Bit Rate (VBR) is very interesting and a smart technology. I decided to rip my CDs at a 192 kbps bit rate. Using VBR, instead of the encoder going through and ripping the whole song at 192 kbps, it will realize that some parts of the song don't need that high of a bit rate (like silence of a song or parts where there might only be a couple instruments playing).

So by setting iTunes to encode at 192 kbps VBR, it will then rip at the necessary bit rate with a maximum of the 192 kbps bit rate... this gives me the best of both worlds. I get the ripped songs at a higher bit rate and if they don't need to be that high, they get a lower bit rate to save space.

In my next blog I discuss the MP3 player decision and the software used to manage all the music. Check out The Big Decision: An iPod or "The Other Guy" MP3 Player.

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Speed up folder browsing in Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:34:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I thought I'd throw out a quick post to help some of you out that may be new to Windows Vista. Microsoft added a pretty cool feature to Vista called thumbnails. You may have noticed that unlike previous versions of Windows, when you open up a folder (such as in Windows Explorer), automatic thumbnails get created. The idea is that Vista takes a quick snapshot of what the document/image has in the file and then makes that its icon. Here's a few examples...

As you can see, the picture icon can be pretty handy - particularly if you're looking to quickly find a certain photo in a folder full of pictures. But what about the other ones - not necessarily that useful.

The problem is that when you open up a folder filled with files, Windows Vista goes to work on identifying each file type and if it's one that it can make a thumbnail for, it goes to work in the background silently opening each file, creating and saving a thumbnail for it, and marking it for that file. Now, if you have a lot of files, this can take some time to do (and processor, memory, etc.). Maybe you noticed that green bar slowly inching across the address bar from the left to the right when you open a folder... that's Vista at work trying to make your life easier.

If you like it, at least now you know what it's doing. If you don't like it and wish it would just open the folder quickly and be done with it, you've come to the right place! Here's how to quickly shut that off:

Click on the "Start" button, and in the search box, type in "Windows Explorer" (without the quotes) and then press enter.

When Windows Explorer opens, click on the "Organize" menu item/button and select "Folder and Search Options."

On the "Folder Options" window that comes up, click on the "View" tab.

Check the box that says "Always show icons, never thumbnails."

Click OK and close that instance of "Windows Explorer" - your done!

Not too difficult, was it?! Keep in mind that this will also save you some hard drive space. Remember that each file will have it's own mini picture created for it... that can add up on a computer with a smaller hard drive.

Unfortunately, this is an all or nothing deal - you can't decide which file types you want the thumbnails created for. And remember, if you decide you liked it better with the thumbnails, you can always go back in uncheck the box for "Always show icons, never thumbnails" and the next time you go into a folder, it will go back to the way it was.

Now, quit messing around on your computer and go have some fun!!!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Check out my book written for the everyday user...

Just the Computer Essentials - A Plain-English, No-Nonsense Guide to Buying and Maintaining a PC Running the Windows Vista™ Operating System for Your Home or Home Office

The Search is Over!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:46:00 +0000

Well, this was kind of funny… I had just started this blog entry and pushed it aside for a day, but it looks like the media has shoved it right back.

I’ve been using Windows Vista since it was first offered as a beta on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) in late 2005. My goal was not to immediately bog down the operating system with any software that I had gotten used to in Windows XP. I wanted to give all the new features of Windows Vista a chance.

Now, almost two years later, I’ve learned what I like and don’t like about Vista. But one thing I held out on for the longest time was the built-in Windows Vista desktop search. I tried my darndest and gave it every opportunity, but I just couldn’t work with it anymore!

It’s so convenient that it’s there when you open any folder of explorer. The search backend seems to work great… it doesn’t seem to interfere when indexing, the index is not very large at all, and the results when searching come up quick.

But, enough was enough. I’m just not happy with it. In my opinion, the user interface is clunky and I find it confusing… sometimes it doesn’t find a file that I’m looking for when I know it’s there. The filtering options are not designed well and I don’t like that I can’t see a preview before opening the file.

Now don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I want the impossible. Maybe I’m just spoiled because I tried out some of the different desktop search software available when I was using Windows XP (such as Google Desktop, Yahoo! Desktop Search, and Copernic Desktop Search). I came to find that Copernic Desktop Search is just what I need. It’s fast, I think the interface is extremely well-designed, and I can filter easily as well as preview the files.

A few days ago, I disabled the Windows Search service and installed Copernic Desktop Search (like I used in the good ol’ XP days!). There are a couple downsides to Copernic… the index is pretty large and it isn’t integrated into Windows Vista all over the place like the built-in search is. The first issue with the index being large is not that big of a deal with the capacities of hard drives you get nowadays – I don’t know too many people that call me because they’re running out of disk space on their PCs (servers are a whole other story!!). So, that leaves the problem about the lack of integration in Windows…

Recently, however, Google was nice enough to step up to bat and put some pressure on Microsoft about this. So, in the midst of my writing this, I got to make some changes because Microsoft announced yesterday that they are going to update the Windows Vista code to allow users to choose third-party software for their desktop searches. Here’s one of the many links out there giving the scoop: Microsoft Agrees To Open Windows Vista Search.

The change will be put into an update that Microsoft plans to release by the end of the year. It looks like I’ll gain the convenience of having search integration throughout Windows after all. As for Windows Search, I'm sorry we couldn't have parted on better terms, but you can’t say I didn’t give you a chance.

-- Jim

How to Survive the Worst PC Disasters

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:03:00 +0000

I just came across a pretty good article in PC World magazine that I thought could help out quite a number of you out there. So, I went out and found the link to the article on their website for those interested:

PC World - How to Survive the Worst PC Disasters

The writer, Christopher Null, goes through some of the common problem scenarios that home users face on their computers or with their network. Here are some of the scenarios discussed:

Your computer won't boot
You just told off the CEO in an e-mail and instantly regret it
No PCs show on the network
Your identity has been stolen!
Your Net connection is dead
You're being sued by the RIAA/MPAA
Your device just got doused with water--or worse
You're inundated with pop-ups when you boot your PC (adware/spyware infestation)
You deleted a critical file--and have no backup
Your hard drive has crashed
You forgot your Windows password
Your presentation just croaked

He goes on to help with some troubleshooting steps to take as well as how to avoid the problems in the future. It was an interesting article, and although it's not full-proof, nothing in the troubleshooting world is... but it's definitely worth checking out.

Keep in mind that if you're looking for some detailed preventative measures you can take to avoid problems like losing critical files or step-by-step instructions on recovering from situations where your hard drive crashes, Just the Computer Essentials is what you need.

The Just the Computer Essentials book was written specifically to help users that desire something other than technical jargon. The book has over 200 screenshots so you get to see step-by-step how to accomplish the task needed. And it's written more like a conversation to keep the technical stuff from flying over your head. Check it out at http://www.booksbyjim.com.

-- Jim

Purchase "Just the Computer Essentials" from BooksByJim.com

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:28:00 +0000

Hi everyone! It looks like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com are having some minor problems with my book right now. As a workaround, I have setup the ability to purchase Just the Computer Essentials right from www.booksbyjim.com. I've configured it through PayPal (well-known and secure), but you do not need a PayPal account in order to get it... credit cards are also accepted.

Thanks everyone for your support!

-- Jim

Why can I not select what I want to backup in Vista?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Tue, 29 May 2007 11:39:00 +0000

Hope everyone had a good holiday and maybe did some cooking out or got some yard work taken care of! OK... onto the fun stuff! I've had a few people come up to me and ask "How do I manually select the files to back up with the new Back Up Files backup program in Windows Vista?" After all, in the previous versions of Windows, it was up to you to select what you wanted to back up... and that's what Microsoft decided was the problem.

Well, with the exception of your tech-savvy users, most home users and even most corporate users don't know what to look for when backing up files. So, Microsoft decided that they were going to simplify the backup program. They would make it so you didn't have to know where the files were located on your computer.

Take a look at this screenshot...

You can see that Microsoft now wants you to select "file types" instead of the actual files like "Pictures" or "Documents." Great, so what the heck does that mean?!!!

It means that Microsoft knows what's best for you ;)

Alright, that's sort of what it means though! If you select "Pictures" for instance, the backup program will automatically back up all JPEG, PNG files, etc. It just assumes if it's a picture, it should be backed up.

Great for the average home user to be able to select that option and not have to worry about anything more. And hey, with disk storage as cheap as it is, the backup storage shouldn't be too big of a concern. So what if I want to select just a couple files to back up?

Unfortunately, you can't. In what can probably be considered a major oversight to this program, there is no "advanced" mode to switch to in order to be able to select specific files you want to back up. It's an all or nothing deal.

There are a couple of options though if you can't accept this answer and want some other alternative...

Get a third party backup

Write a batch file or script to copy the files you want - either to be run manually or by making it a scheduled task. This could be something using the XCOPY command built into Windows. That's all I'll say on this one... scripting would need to be its own post!!

However, an example of a third party backup solution that works well is Backup4all (http://www.backup4all.com/). It will run you from around $20 to $45 depending on the version that you want.

Second Copy (http://www.secondcopy.com/) is another program designed to synchronize a source (your computer) and a destination (possibly an external hard drive). It runs about $30 and does an excellent job. You can setup as many profiles as you want to sync just certain directories, exclude files, etc. Highly recommended, but not designed as an all-out backup solution.

Since I mentioned Second Copy, it's only right that I throw Allway Sync (http://www.allwaysync.com/) out there as a very good synchronization tool. There is both a free version for personal use and it does an great job as well.

However, I kind of got off the subject of file-based backup solutions other than the Back Up Files program in Vista. The synchronization utilities are great, but they're not necessarily the answer.

And Backup4all and other backup software can be great, but they solve only a portion of your problem... you're now backing up your files, which is fantastic, and you are able to select the specific files to be backed up (unlike Back Up Files in Vista). But what if a fire occurs and you lose both your computer and your backup drive???

You need a better solution that lets you take your backups and store them securely offsite. I talk about the who, what, where, when, and why in great depth in my book, Just the Computer Essentials (get more information at http://www.booksbyjim.com/), but I will tell you that one of the great solutions that I personally use is called Mozy.

Mozy is an offsite backup service that allows you to install a small piece of software on your computer. Mozy then takes a look every few hours to make sure that it has the latest copies of all your files through the use of incremental backups. After the initial backup, only file changes are backed up. It encrypts your files locally (using a key only you know, if desired), then it backs up the files to the Mozy storage area over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection where the files now sit securely on the server if you ever need them.

It requires little to no maintenance beyond the initial setup and then just does its thing. If you ever need a file or files restored, you can easily log into their website and download the files you need. You decrypt the files with your key from earlier and that's it. This solves the problem of getting backups done and of not keeping the backups in the same location as the source itself. There are plenty of these services out there (again check out Just the Computer Essentials at http://www.booksbyjim.com/ for more info), but Mozy has become my personal favorite. And the best part is that they charge less than $5 per month, regardless of the amount of data you have - an easy decision for me to know all my personal data is safe!!! If you're interested, Mozy can be found at http://mozy.com/.

Hope this helps you out! Have a great week!!

-- Jim

www.booksbyjim.com

"Just the Computer Essentials" is now available!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim White) — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:10:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Some of you have been anticipating it and some of you may not even be aware of it, but the book I wrote titled Just the Computer Essentials is now out! It is currently available on Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com (go to http://www.booksbyjim.com for a quick click-through to the book on those sites). The list price is $24.95, but it probably run you around $19.95 from these sites. I will also have copies available for purchase in person starting Thursday for $18.

I spent over a year writing this book with you in mind to help save you from pulling your hair out. Just the Computer Essentials was written around Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system and the version of Windows you'll most likely see on your next computer. The book is self-explained by its subtitle: A Plain English, No-Nonsense Guide to Buying and Maintaining a PC Running the Windows Vista™ Operating System for Your Home or Home Office.

Alright, I want to know what this book's really about, give me the details...

Just the Computer Essentials focuses on the important points of buying and maintaining your computer, such as:

Buying a new PC - The specifics of what to look for and what not to care about when getting a new computer.
Just the facts! - Only what you need to know about hard drives, memory, software, etc.
- What's the big difference between the hard drive and memory? A lot!!
- How do I set up a wireless network and make sure it's secure?
- How do I know the best type of client to use for email and what if I want to have my own email address like jameswhite@booksbyjim.com (not my real address by the way!)?
- What software is available for organizing my day-to-day activities and for managing my finances?
- I don't want to pay $500 for the new version of Microsoft Office!! Are you telling me there's a free alternative?! What's the difference between the different productivity suites available?
Backups are critical! - Just the Computer Essentials provides different options available to you and step-by-step instructions on how to perform backups using the new and improved Windows "Complete PC" and "Back Up Files" programs.
Security options - Security information you need to know to protect your Windows PC:
- Viruses, spyware, phishing
- Firewalls
- Password protection
- Windows and application updates
- Security management
Help my hard drive crashed - Just the Computer Essentials will give you step-by-step instructions on how to restore your data… you did already back it up, right?!!
Disaster recovery - If Windows starts acting up or you lose important files, Just the Computer Essentials is what you need by your side to try to get things working properly again… starting with the simplest solution all the way to a format and reinstall of Windows Vista and a data restore!
PC migration - You've made the plunge and bought a new computer running Windows Vista - now how do I get everything from my old computer to my new one? Just the Computer Essentials will guide you through the whole process to get you rolling with all your data and settings in no time!

Maybe you know someone "in the business" and don't want to bother them for the umpteenth time… or maybe you've realized it just doesn't make sense to pay someone the big bucks for something that you can easily handle yourself! Just the Computer Essentials is the book for you!

Over a year in research and testing was put into Just the Computer Essentials before the Windows Vista operating system was even available to the general public to ensure that this book is accurate and covers the necessities!

Just the Computer Essentials makes sure that topics are provided not for the geek, but in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand conversation with you. And over 200 screenshots are provided throughout because sometimes it's just a heckuva lot easier to see what you're trying to accomplish than to just read about it!

So, enough reading this! It's time to pick up a copy of Just the Computer Essentials. Head on over to http://www.booksbyjim.com for more information and to order your copy. And if you're currently in the business, be sure to recommend Just the Computer Essentials to your friends and family!

-- Jim White

Field certifications: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP), Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA), CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, and more!

Website: www.booksbyjim.com
News feed (RSS/Atom): http://feeds.feedburner.com/booksbyjim