This column was brought about by a group of us geeks discussing the current Windows operating systems.  Of course, this included the Windows Registry and the way applications are now installed on a Windows based computer.  Basically there was a consensus that we would like to do away with the registry and the way applications are set up.

First, we need a very simple definition of the registry.  The registry is a component of Windows which sets up all hardware, software, and any attached devices in a large database with information about each of those items.  Basically, the registry contains settings for everything on and in your computer.  When you open an application the registry is pinged and all the data pertaining to that app is loaded into the program to help it run quicker and be more stable than in the past. 

Now let’s talk about installations of today’s applications.  Back in the day, a program installed all of its related elements into one folder.  For instance, if you installed a program named, "Double Click anagrams" it would be installed in a folder named something like, "DCAna."  Then when you wanted to delete the program from your computer all you had to do was delete that specific folder and you were done.

Today when you install a program, most often it will install many files for that application in one folder. (C:\Program Files\Program Name) makes some additions to the registry, then adds configuration files, DLL files and other library files all over your hard drive.  When you uninstall these applications using the Windows 7, "Programs and Features" module it attempts to uninstall all of them, but unfortunately sometimes misses some of them.  This creates a problem I had not heard of before but was informed about, "cruft." Crufts are the junk files left behind when an install is not totally successful.   

I think it could be nice to go back to the old days and take the easy way out to delete applications…completely and cleanly. 

In steps, "Portable Applications." I wrote about them over three years ago coming from a different angle.   

Sometimes today when you install a new program, usually one you download, you may have the option of installing it normally or in a portable version.  If you choose to install it as a portable version or get a program specifically designed to be a portable application, you can defeat the "cruft-monster."

Portable apps are entirely autonomous. When you install them, you pick one folder where you want it installed.  Once installed in that location you will find that program and all of its related files in that one, and ONLY ONE folder.  It puts absolutely no files anywhere else on your system and it runs as well as the original file which installed everywhere on your system.  They are completely self-contained which means that 1: you can move the folder to any other location on your computer or copy it to another computer and it works and 2: if you do not like the program, you can delete the folder it is in and it is gone…totally.

We will talk more about portable applications next week.

Tags: configuration, cruft, folder, geek, hard drive, hardware, library files, operating systems, OS, portable, Ron Doyle, software, windows, windows registry

I have mentioned the importance of backing up your important electronic files before.  It really is important if you intend to use those files in the future.  Whether it is your previous tax returns, (done on your computer or the scanned version of your paper copies) emails or documents of any type you need to keep an extra copy.  Today two of the most talked about file types are music and of course all those digital Christmas photos.

The reason to keep copies may be obvious to many of us, but not to others.  The biggest reason you may need a backup is to guarantee that one day, sooner or later, your hard drive will fail.  Hopefully it will survive long enough to grab your files but many times they are totally trashed; nada.  Occasionally you may be able to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars and send your hard drive to professionals to restore some or all of your files.  However, for individuals like you and me it will be very cost prohibitive. 

Recently I received an email from Alicia.  She asked, "I have a new 1 TB external drive.  Do I use the backup software that comes with the drive, or the Windows back up application?"  That is a great question and highlights one great alternative for backing up files.

What can a 1 TB drive hold?  Toshiba, one of my favorite companies, says approximately 17,000 hours of music which is just less than two years of music, non-stop 24 hours a day, 320,000 HD digital photos or about 457 holiday’s worth of photos, 1,000 hours/41 days of home videos (again without sleep) or 250 DVDs of about two hours each.

The price of external drives, like all other electronics is always coming down.  I found an external 1 TB drive for $80 and then a 2 TB drive for less than $120 so the cost is not horrible if you are serious about backups.

Now, let’s go back to Alicia’s question.  I would always use the software that comes with the drive.  It has been tested and proven with the drive you have.  It is most likely made to do just that one thing and do it well, so I say stick with it.  If you prefer the Windows application or any other you are used to, feel free to use that one.  However, it could invalidate your warranty on the drive so you need to check that out first. 

Keep in mind that there are also some great "cloud" storage applications out there.  I heartily recommend Dropbox (bit.ly/use-DropBox), Google Drive (drive.google.com), SkyDrive (skydrive.live.com), Carbonite (carbonite.com) and many others.  I feel that DropBox and Carbonite are the best to use for automatic backups; however, DropBox has a free version. 

Make sure you backup no matter where you choose to do it. Just do it!

Tags: back up, backup, backup software, CD, digital, digital photos, DVD, failure, files, hard drive, home videos, music, paper copies, photos, Ron Doyle, tax returns, toshiba

My wife and I have a friend, Brittany and one day she and my wife were talking.  Brittany said that she had a broken computer.  Well, then my wife proceeded to tell Brittany what I do for a living, hobby, etc.  Now at this point I have to say Brittany does not read the Daily News Record weekly, listen to WSVA monthly, check out DoubleClicks.info or she would know that I “mess” with computers…as my wife puts it.

Brittany asked if I would take a look at her notebook, Octavius.  I have heard of people naming their computers but this was my first, firsthand experience.  I do not do  repair work any longer since I am too busy with other things in life, but for friends I am always happy to see what I can do to help them out.

I asked a few questions and found the reason it stopped was that her cat walked across her keyboard.  Now, unless her cat understands computers very well I do not know how he/she could have done that.  Basically she got a black screen with text when she turned her computer on.  The largest worry about any computer doing that is that the hard drive is kaput. Not a biggie to replace, but it can be costly.

She also said her notebook was in bad shape.  Once I got it, I really got it.  She had dropped it…down the steps…several times.  The screen was hanging by a piece of plastic along with a few wires. Some of the casing was gone, duct tape functionally decorated it, and a key or two may have been missing; however, she liked it and wanted to see if I could make it work again.

Then Brittany uttered some magical words that made me jump for joy – “It was a Linux computer.”  Also, she kept all of her music, videos, documents, etc. on an external drive.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Ninety-nine percent of the time when a non-geek mentions Linux, they mean that in the past someone has removed Microsoft Windows from a computer and installed Ubuntu (ubuntu.com).  Since all of her data files were on her external drive she had no worries, as long as her hard drive would boot and run.

I wrote several columns last year about Ubuntu, so if you want to find out more visit my site and check them out.  But for now here is a much abbreviated description of Ubuntu.  It is a great operating system. You can perform 99% of everything you can with Windows.  Some of the best news is it is free, although they do ask for donations.

I checked her system and found that her previous Ubuntu operating system was destroyed but the hard drive was in great shape.  In less than two hours I had it up and running; the Internet, word processing, email and all the other operations working to perfection.  I returned it to her the next day. She and Octavius are now happy, I am sure the cat is ready to try again and life is good!

I would caution Brittany about two things.  The screen is going to go one day…be prepared.  Next, just in case it really was the cat, use the key combination of “Ctrl + Alt + L” and lock it down when you walk away, before your cat saunters across it again.

Tags: bad shape, broken computer, duct tape, friend, hard drive, keyboard, octavius, Ron Doyle, worry

I recently received an email from a reader asking about SSD compared to HDD.  What the heck are those initials…new government agencies?  Not quite.   They stand for "Solid State Disk" (or Solid State Drive or Solid State Disk drive) and "Hard Disc Drive" respectively.

The HDD is the hard drive you are most likely using on your computer.  It is generally made up of platters of metal disks stacked on top of each other.  Information is stored on both sides of the platters magnetically.  There is a slight space between each disk with room for a "head" or magnetic reader on an arm which moves back and forth on both sides of each platter to read and write the magnetic info.  If you are old enough, just picture an old record player and a spindle stacked with records with tone arms between each record.  The major differences are size and the fact that an HDD spins at 7,200 rpm instead of 72 rpm. 

But what about the SSDs?  They are more advanced yet much simpler to explain.  SSD is basically another form of device used to store and retrieve data. Instead of metal platters it uses a solid state memory to hold the information.  A big plus is that there are no moving parts, meaning less battery drain and absolutely no noise.

The reader asked if they should switch to SSD and trash their old HDD.  I say not yet, for several reasons. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of SSDs.

Advantages of SSD:  Applications run through SSD will run much faster.  SSD devices require less power and no heat is produced.  SSD runs silently because it only uses computer chips, not moving parts. Access speed for reading is faster because it doesn’t have a moving part to run around disks looking for places to read or write data.  Mechanical reliability inside the SSD will be higher – mechanical failure wouldn’t happen as often, if ever.  SSD is shock resistant with no moving parts to break when dropped.  It can operate up to a temperature of about 160°F. HDDs are good up to about 110°F.  SDDs are much lighter in weight and smaller in size than HDDs.

Disadvantages of SSD:  Storage space is tiny compared to HDDs.  There is has been research to design and make a 1 Terabyte SSD, but it is not available yet.  1TB HDDs are readily available.  The write/erase cycle for SSD will not last as long. SSDs can supposedly go for a maximum of 100,000 cycles; whereas a regular HD can go for maybe 1-5 million write cycles.  This means performance of the SSD will decrease over time.  The big issue for me is that the price of SSDs is much higher.  The 1TB drive mentioned above is about $150.  However, a 128GB (about 1/8 the storage size of 1TB) SSD costs a little over $200.

I believe in the future all computers will be using SSDs to replace conventional hard drives.  But first prices and storage sizes have to get closer to the current HDD stats in order to be viable.  If you want to see what the future of SSDs will look like, search online for "Ultrabook."

Tags: access speed, battery drain, computer chips, disc drive, failure, hard disc, hard drive, harddrive, local storage, magnetic reader, mechanical reliability, moving parts, platters, record player, solid state disk, solid state disk drive, solid state drive, spindle, ssd, ssds, tone arms, what the heck

Many people do not care for the almost-new Menu navigation system for Windows 7.  I personally see where Microsoft could have made some additional changes; however, I still like it very well.  My favorite feature (which was also available in Vista, though not nearly as robust or accurate as in W7) is being able to click the Start button and type what you want to open or find.

Suppose you want to open a blank Microsoft Excel workbook.  All you need to do is click the Start button and type, "Excel".  Excel will be highlighted at the top of the list. You press Enter; it opens and is ready to go.  You could also press the Windows Key on your keyboard and begin typing.    It is the one on the left side of the spacebar that resembles the Windows logo.  You know the key; it is the one you never use.

Let me take you one step farther.  Let’s pretend that you have document which you created years ago.  You know that it is on your computer; however, you have no idea what it was called or where you saved it.  You do remember that it had the words, "Emerald City" somewhere in the text.  You need to find that email to write some more about Dorothy. 

Use the Start button again and type, "Emerald City".  Then relax as your computer searches your entire hard drive for any document including email that has, "Emerald City" in the text.  In just a few seconds it will appear in the list along with all the others (if there is more than one.)  Just as before, clicking on the correct file will open the document and you can read away. 

Of course, there is the standard procedure where you click Start, "All Programs" and scroll to the program you wish to start.  Then just click and go.  Of course this doesn’t find a particular document very quickly.

There are fancier solutions if you do not like the Windows’ Menus.  One I have used for years is called, "Desktop Sidebar" (desktopsidebar.com).  It is very customizable but will also take you a while to learn how to use.  It is easy for the geekier of you out there, but complicated if you are not used to "adjusting" things on your computer.

Another more simple to use menu launcher is named, "Rocket Dock" (rocketdock.com).   RocketDock is an attractive and fun program launcher.  It is neatly animated and pops at you when you hover the icons.  It supplies a pleasant modern interface which easily arranges your most used applications for quick access.  The downside  with both of these is you need to download, install and then learn how to use them.  For both of these free programs there are instructions on their respective sites.  Check them out if you want something new for your computer. 

Next week we will look at where one of my old favorites went and how to bring it back to life in Windows 7 the "Quick Launch Toolbar".

Tags: desktop sidebar, Email, emerald city, excel, excel workbook, hard drive, keyboard, menu navigation, microsoft, navigation system, new menu, quick launch, Quick Launch Toolbar, rocketdock, spacebar, start button, toolbar, windows 7, windows logo, windows menus

So you have just gotten your brand new Windows computer and want to clean up your old one and give it away.  That is a nice thing to do for someone who may need a computer but isn’t able to afford a new one.  But you are concerned about your personal information on that old computer.

Not that the new owner would actually look for your bank account numbers, but…  Then you think about other information on your hard drive like social security numbers, usernames, passwords, etc.  You still want to be smart in protecting your private information.

There are a couple of options.  You could just give the computer away and tell the new owner to stay away from your personal "stuff."  Not smart.

Next, you could select all of your personal information and delete the files.  Hopefully you have placed all of your documents in your "My Documents" folder so you don’t miss any of them.  Oh wait, what about your usernames and passwords recorded in your browser?  Yes, you could also clear your browser’s cache to resolve that but have you missed anything?  Also, not smart.

Some of you more "techie" readers may think, "Well, I will just reformat the hard drive to wipe everything or maybe fdisk it."  Yes, fdisk is a real geek word; check it online if you wish.  Nope, both of those will leave most of your data in a recoverable condition so for someone a little "techier" than you it would not present a problem.

What are you to do?

I suggest people use a program like "Active @ Kill Disk".  KillDisk is free, powerful, easy to use software that allows you to completely destroy all data on your hard drive.  The free version is good and will take care of most of your worries.  That is unless you are going up against an IT person.  The free version thoroughly deletes all of the data on the drive.

That sounds good; however, if the information wasn’t destroyed and written over by other data it could be "undeleted" by professionals.  There is a pro version of KillDisk which offers many other options.  It will allow the data to be deleted multiple times, i.e. rearrange the ones and zeros many times and writing "junk" data over it.  If a deleted file has other files written over it numerous times it makes it much harder if not impossible to recover.  You can even tell it to rewrite over the old drive up to 99 times to secure the deletions.  The US government suggests seven overwrites is sufficient and the world authorities say that 35 times makes it impossible to retrieve, so 99 should be sufficient.

The program will run from a thumb drive or a CD.  Since you will be deleting everything on your hard drive it cannot run from your computer.  There is a "wipe" portion of the program which will totally destroy all of the deleted files on your computer and leave the rest of the data alone.  You can run that portion from your hard drive.

The pro version of KillDisk costs about $50.  If you don’t want any secret government organizations to retrieve your personal information it may well be worth the price.

This eliminates any possibility of future retrieval of deleted files by anyone else.

Tags: active killdisk, bank account numbers, clean, clear, defragment, delete, destroy, documents folder, fdisk, google, hard drive, nice thing, old computer, personal stuff, slick, social security numbers, totally, usernames and passwords, usernames passwords, windows computer, wipe, word check

I

did not think we would be talking about Ubuntu for yet another week but here we are. I suppose this will be the last one but you folks are the drivers, I am just the tour guide. Keep those emails coming!

Several readers have been reading about Ubuntu and doing some studying. Great job! They have read about being able to install Ubuntu on a USB Thumb Drive and run the system from that drive. Roger wanted to know how it worked and asked if it would be worth getting a thumb drive to try.

First off, I could not survive in the IT/Tech world without a good portable drive so yes, get one. I have seen them online for about $20 for a 16 GB drive. To give you an idea, the first one I bought years ago was $40 for 512 MB so you currently get much more storage for half the price.

Next, there is a program available for Pen Drives, (same thing- different wording) that says it will enable you to install any Linux operating system on a pen/thumb drive. You are supposed to be able to fully run the “portable” operating system off of the drive, even without a hard drive.

Not to be a party-pooper but I tried installing two different Linux systems on my thumb drive twice and they both failed to function as advertised. I also tried them on different computers and neither would work. Both had different errors. Could it have been my install, possibly? That could be the case, but twice in a row? Tom from Harrisonburg tried, too, and he was only successful when he installed the 64-bit version, which my computer can’t use. Hmm, this apparently needs more research and development.

Now how about booting Ubuntu from a CD? I have done this many times without any problems. So for a CD driven Operating System I say, “Success!” Keep in mind that you cannot write any data to the CD. This means that you will have to save any files you create to your hard drive or a thumb drive. Also, be forewarned, if you make any changes to the OS, like setting your homepage on the Ubuntu Firefox browser it will disappear the next time you start it up.

OK, I believe I am now finished with writing about Ubuntu for a while; however, I will continue using it on my notebook.

One final thought. I have had many readers over the years ask me to create some training videos. I have always put it off with, “Good idea, I will do that one day.” Well that day arrived. I have added a couple of simple, “How to” videos on YouTube. Go to “youtube.com/user/dblclx” and let me know what you think. These are just experimental at this point as I am still learning how it is done.

Tags: different computers, gb, hard drive, job, Linux, linux operating system, linux systems, party pooper, pen drive, portability, portable, portable operating system, storage, thumb drive, ubuntu, usb thumb drive

Items discussed on today’s show:

From LifeHacker

• Five Best Places to Buy Cheap Textbooks

What’s Wrong with this Children’s Book?

Disk Erasers for when you sell or donate your PC

• Heidi Eraser (free)
• Active Kill Disk (not free, but much faster)

Tags: erase, erasing, hard drive, textbooks

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