One of the main things that I believe are of some benefit to your computer is to perform regular defrags on them.  Some geeks believe that a defrag of your hard drive is never needed.  If you are one of the people in my camp I have a couple of suggestions for you.

First an explanation in case you have absolutely no idea what defrag means.  Fragmentation, or fragging occurs each time you open a program or application. Your computer or system puts a picture on your monitor, calculates things, and runs the application, etc.  To make these programs work your system pulls files off of your Hard Drive, usually “C:\”, and puts them to work.  When you close the application(s) it places, or writes all of the files (even basic things like how to draw the window on your screen) back on the hard drive.  Each time you close down that application your computer writes the files to different locations on your drive.

Over time this causes your computer to slow down and not run as quickly or efficiently as it may have in the past.  This is because it has to look all over your hard drive for the files it needs to work.  Defragging moves the files around the drive in a more organized pattern.  When you defrag it places the files that are dependent on each other physically closer together.  When a program needs them it can find and use them faster, which in turn helps increase your system’s speed.

Before starting to defrag your drive you should shutdown all of your applications and plan on not using the computer until it is finished. 

To use the build in defrag component of windows, open “My Computer”, right click on the drive you wish to defrag, choose “Properties”, “Tools” and finally “Defragment Now”.  If you are a Windows 7 user click the “Start orb” and type “defrag.”  When it shows up click it or press your enter key. 

It will automatically select your C:\ Drive.  You may change to another drive; however C:\ is your main drive and almost certainly needs defragging the most.

Follow the simple instructions and you’ll be done in no time.  Well, Okay, if this is the first time you have run defrag in a while it could take a couple of hours.  The time depends on how badly your drive is fragmented and the size of the drive.  I usually run it once a month at night before I go to bed and in the morning it is done. 

Years ago before it was included with Windows you had to pay $90 to get the defrag  application.  Today there are some good ones for free. 

The one that comes with windows does a good job but it is rather clunky. I use Smart Defrag which looks good and is much more user friendly.  They both do the job. 

Happy defragging!

Tags: defrag, fragmentation, hard drive, help, maintenance, microsoft

Mentioned on today’s show:

1. Learning curve will be large if you’ve never used computers.
2. Courses at BRCC and MTC which are excellent
   • I have had students from 16-96
   • Retired person 96 who just wanted to learn more
   • One woman in 80s who had a hobby and wanted to sell her hobby online.
   • I taught her to build her own web site and did a great job and sold her items
3. Desktop or Portable?
   • Screen Size
   • Can change text and graphics in most all programs
   • Size of monitor may be hard to navigate if too small
4. Still need “room” to move around on the screen.
5. Weight
   • My backpack weighs 11 lbs. would that be feasible for all?
   • How much do you want to carry around for a Notebook (~5-8 lbs.)
   • Small Netbook computers (~2 lbs.)
   • Tablet – iPad all the rage as of yesterday (~1 lb.)

Tags: citizen, computer, computer help, Jeff Ishee, Jim Britt, newspaper column, Ron Doyle, senior, WVSA

From Monday’s call about how to remove Buzz from Gmail, I received another resolution from a listener.  (Sorry I deleted the email and can’t remember show sent it…but you know who you are.)

I told the caller to first log into Gmail:

1. Click Settings.  
2. Go to the Labels link.
3. Click the hide link, see below.

That’s it, now go back to your Gmail inbox and that’s all.

The listener who emailed me later in the day suggested that you could just remove Google Buzz, like this:

1. Log into Gmail
2. From the main screen look at the bottom and click the Turn off Buzz link.
3. That’s it…
4. However, I have read that Google may tie this in to other Gmail features so that when you cut Buzz of you could loose other functionality…which hasn’t happened at the time of this post. 
   (See the before and after pics below.)

Personally I prefer, at this moment in time, to hide the link as described in the first instructions above.  But you can pick and use your own.

Also, either one can be turned back on or unhidden so you can try them both…just make sure if you Turn it off first you Turn it back on before you try to hide it.  If Buzz is off it will not appear in the links to be able to be hidden.

Tags: Buzz, Gmail, google, Jim Britt, Q&A, talk radio, WSVA

Over five years ago I wrote to you about an application that you could use to keep track of your books and DVDs.  I had many of you write back to me and tell me how much you liked it. Over the past year or so I have had several of you write back saying that you could no longer find "Libra" or any updates for it.  I searched the net for it and emailed all of you back telling you what I found, which was that it was no longer in production and I could not even find a forwarding address.  I did find the last version made, but I personally do not like using applications that are no longer in production.

I also told the writers that I could not really find a free replacement anywhere as good and easy to use as Libra was.  Well, now that has all changed…enter Data Crow.

I found this site from a friend who has been using it for the past several months.  Data Crow’s site says, "Data Crow is the ultimate media cataloger and media organiser." (No, that isn’t a typo, the site is registered in the Netherlands and they spell properly.)  I agree with their statement.

Say you have some DVDs or Blue-Ray discs you wish to inventory.  Whether you want this cataloging for insurance, your own personal lists or you are just hyper-organized you should give this software a try.  Data Crow is also free which makes it even easier to try.  By-the-way, the friend who uses it told me that he has over 1,200 music CDs and over 800 DVD movies he has cataloged so it will handle a bunch of data.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well I can just type in my CDs on Word or a spreadsheet program to keep track of them."  That is correct; however, Data Crow can do it much better and supply more information.

For instance, when you start it up you can use the Item Wizard and choose what you want to put in the database.  For instance, I chose DVD then I typed in the movie title I wanted to add to the database.  I entered a movie and in about 5-10 seconds it listed out several that I could choose from.  The items are from different versions of the same movie.   If you type (like I did) the TV show "Alias" it finds each season of that title.  Next, you select the correct version and it enters it into Data Crow.

But not just the name is displayed.  It adds the DVD’s case picture, all of the actors, the date of release, playing time, director, a full description of the title, and a lot more.

I haven’t tried CDs yet since I don’t have that many so I will leave that up to you to test.  If you use this Libra replacement let me know what you think. If you have a bunch of movies to keep track of it may import them from other programs, but I wouldn’t depend on that.  You may just have a lot of typing in titles ahead of you.  But don’t worry, I’m sure it will snow again and you will need something to do after shoveling.

Tags: alias, books, CD, database, datacrow, DVD, media, movie, Ron Doyle

Over the past nine years I have talked about different items related to backing up your personal files or data files on your computer.  At that time I wrote about where to back up your files.  Three years ago I talked about what files you should regularly backup.  From both of those columns I only slightly brushed what to use to backup your files.  So today that is where we will look.

The major issue with backing up your data has not changed.  One day, sooner or later, you can count on it; your hard drive will fail.  If you are a computer user it will happen.  A newer computer is less likely to have this issue, but the age of the computer is no guarantee that you won’t have that big headache.

I am going to mention three different products I have found most useful for backing up my most essential files.  You know me.  One of my preferences is that the applications are free and all of these are.

The files I choose are my columns, tax returns, training manuals, a couple of books I have been working on for years (which may never be finished) and on…ad infinitum.  Basically I backup my “Documents” and “Music” folders.  The music is everything on my iPod which would be a long hard process to recreate.  I back them all up on my external hard drive in a TrueCrypt partition so that no one can read, edit or delete them if they find the drive.  (I told you about TrueCrypt last year.)

The first backup application has been built into Windows starting with XP and has now been updated in Windows 7.  I hate to say this, since I am a huge Microsoft supporter, but I don’t care for either one.  They will not allow me to backup my files on an encrypted drive, i.e., a TrueCrypt drive.  There may be a workaround or trick to do so that I am unaware of.   If you know one let me know.  I have never been able to make them work to my satisfaction.

Next, was a real favorite of mine also from Microsoft called SyncToy 2.1.  I have used several versions of this one before and it is slick.  This is a very good program and I highly recommend it.  I like SyncToy but I prefer the next application.  SyncToy writes additional files to your backed up files which are harmless, but why have them?

The final program, Karen’s Replicator is found at www.karenware.com.  I don’t know Karen personally although I have communicated with her via email in the past.  She writes some excellent free programs.  I use several of them on a fairly regular basis.  She also has a good (sometimes geeky) newsletter which I suggest you subscribe to.

All three of these apps work about the same; however, I’m sticking with Karen’s.  With the others, if you have a problem you cannot really talk to the creator.  With Karen’s you can.  Regardless, I have never had even one problem in the five plus years I have used her apps.

Tags: always, backup, careful, files, important, karen, karenware, microsoft, replicator, storage, synctoy, truecrypt

I got an email from a reader in Mt. Crawford over a month ago asking an excellent question.  They wanted to know if there was a way to keep all of their programs up to date, keeping the latest version always on their system.

In talking back and forth with them we came to the conclusion that there should be something on the market that was similar to “Windows Update”.  WU comes with all versions of Microsoft windows as all of my readers should know.  It allows you to check and see if there are any new versions of your MS products that need updating.  If there are, it allows you to update them so that you can stay ahead of the curve.

After a little Googling and searching I found a program called Secunia-PSI.  I have no idea what “Secunia” means but PSI is for “Personal Software Inspector”.  This program does almost everything the reader wanted.  I have been testing it for a little over a month and it seems to work very well.

You can go to secunia.com to read about and download the personal edition of the application.  There are actually three different versions of Secunia.  They are OSI (Online), PSI (Personal) and CSI (Corporate).  I tried the OSI and it was adequate but does not look for as many programs as the PSI and CSI versions.  The CSI version is really for the corporate environment and home users do not need it.  All three are here: bit.ly/bx3f5u.

All versions are free but I recommend downloading/installing the PSI version which seems to  be very thorough.  You will find it in the middle of the three on the page recommended above.

The default setting for Secunia runs in the background all the time checking your computer’s software for updates.  I leave it like that on my desktop since I have loads of memory. However, for my netbook I just run it once a week or so.

I pride myself in always keeping all of my software up to date, so let’s take a look at how my three computers faired after being scanned by Secunia.

My netbook scored 100% as all of my software was up-to-date, yeah!

My notebook didn’t do as well.  There were four applications that weren’t up to standards.  But I still did better than 15% of users in Virginia; Secunia gives you this info if you register the product.  (free)

Now my pride and joy, my desktop computer…oops, I had 11 applications that were not where they should be.  I spent about an hour uninstalling some old versions which Secunia advised me to do, before I updated them.  I also downloaded some of the new versions from the links provided by Secunia.  And I learned a valuable lesson, as the bible says, “Pride goes before destruction.”

Now, let’s look at  a couple of drawbacks.  It indicated that all three browsers on my system were insecure and needed updates.  They are MSIE, Firefox and Google Chrome.  Come on, give me a break!  They were all updated and as secure as possible.  I guess it wanted me to uninstall all three of them. Of course, then my surfing the net time would be cut down considerably.  I decided to ignore those threats.  You can always make rules to ignore certain warnings.

Tags: application, browsers, desktop, netbook, notebook, PSI, Ron Doyle, secunia, software, update