Favorite Computer Tips/Tricks/Etc

[Memorex]

I'm curious what others have done to make their life in front of a computer easier. I'm always looking for a trick or two to make things better overall. And there are so many new technologies that I cannot keep up. All of this shared resources/cloud stuff, etc is moving faster than I have time for.

Here are a few things that have made my life easier. As a way of background, I work on three different computers (work desktop, home desktop, and laptop). My kids have computers and live with me and in their own places. I do different projects that I keep separated (one of my roles is MS Access developer). I use Windows 7.

Microsoft Mesh - I know there are many tools like this, some with features I wish Mesh had. The thing I like about Mesh is that it is driven off of Windows Live login, which many people have and makes sharing easier. Also, I can apply Mesh to any folder, not just a main folder with it's sub-folders. Mesh allows me to keep a copy of folders in the cloud, as well as exact copies of folders on each of my machines and anyone I share a folder with. So if I am working on my laptop, I can close a file and soon it will be copied to my desktops. If the kids are working on homework and need my help or need to print, they throw the file in Mesh and I open it or they go to a computer with a printer. I send my parents and kids files with our shared folders. This is by far the biggest help in my life, computer-wise. I have maybe 12 Mesh folders for different purposes. Some save to the cloud, some are just computer to computer.

Solid State Drive - do it. Reboots are seconds, not minutes. Just remember to put all your data on a separate, standard drive.

Folder links in the Favorites area of Windows Explorer - I put my most-accessed folders here for quick access. I also have 2 additional toolbars in my start bar area (one for semi-often used programs and one for important documents or files). Put as much as you can in a spot with as few clicks as possible.

Online backup - I use BackBlaze, but there are a number of services (e.g. Carbonite). This has saved me a few times when my kids accidentally delete something. I think I pay $40 a year - most are around $40-$50 a year and back up all your files in the background.

Virus/MalWare - I use Malwarebytes to keep all the annoying shit (Malware) off my computer and it is very good. I use Avast as a free service for virus protection. I could probably spend more and lock this down. But with as many computers as we have, the licensing is too much.

Photos - So when you take a photo with today's cameras the size can range anywhere from 4MB to 12 MB per picture. And at the rate people take pictures, that adds up very fast. I use a tool called Advanced JPEG Compressor to shrink file size. In a batch run (all pictures at once) I tell it to reduce the quality of the picture 1 or 2%. To the eye, this is nothing. By going through the motion and re-writing the file it shrinks the file WAY down. Generally an 8 MB file gets written as 1/2 to 1 MB. Multiplied by hundreds or thousands of pictures, it makes a huge difference on space and emailing.

Music - For tagging and cleaning tags I use Tag & Rename. Great tool. For renaming large quantities of files I use Flash Renamer. Especially useful if you keep your music/pictures organized.

So those are my shortcuts in my computer life. Would be interested in yours.

[escapefan]

Thanks for all the great info!

[Memorex]

One last thing - I order a crap-load of micro/mini USB cords, iPod cords, HDMI Cords and home/car chargers from Amazon. Usually just pennies a piece. I'm never far from a cord. My kids are always grabbing them or losing them and it was driving me crazy. So for not too much money, i just flooded the house with them.

One more tip - Harmony universal remotes. So in love with those. One remote, many devices, one button push performs whatever actions you want. But that's TV, not computer.

[JRNYMAN]

One last thing - I order a crap-load of micro/mini USB cords, iPod cords, HDMI Cords and home/car chargers from Amazon. Usually just pennies a piece. I'm never far from a cord. My kids are always grabbing them or losing them and it was driving me crazy. So for not too much money, i just flooded the house with them.

One more tip - Harmony universal remotes. So in love with those. One remote, many devices, one button push performs whatever actions you want. But that's TV, not computer.

I hear ya on the hording of various USB cords and iPhone cords. Simply amazing how two kids can misplace so many damn cords in the course of a couple of days! Amazon is definitely the place to get 'em too! Just bought a 5 pk. of iPod/iPhone charging/connector cables for $0.01 and with S&H the entire cost was $2.96. Those cables are $5-10 apiece even at WalMart!!

As for tips, tricks, etc., oh God.... I'll have to think about it for a little bit. I've been in this business so long now and take so many of the little shortcut-like things for granted and I'm sure the way I use and actually get from point a to point b via my mouse, keyboard, OS and browser are riddled with various shortcuts which I don't even think about anymore but without them things would take a Helluva lot longer. I'll get back to ya...

[Clasicrockldy]

My favorite trick to use is when Comcast shuts me off of the internet, I whip out my wireless card and use my neighbors router to get online!

[scarab]

this is my favorite way of getting free wi fi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA

[brandonx76]

Music - For tagging and cleaning tags I use Tag & Rename. Great tool. For renaming large quantities of files I use Flash Renamer. Especially useful if you keep your music/pictures organized.

Re: Tag & Rename, great choice...It's the only way to fly, as much as I use iTunes, I organize name and tag everything within Tag & Rename first...recently had my Mac Mini crash on me, for reasons apple couldn't explain...fortunately my Mac Mini serves as an HTPC and everything was backed up externally. I have about 4 TBs of movies and about 400 gbs of music - all stored on an external redundant drive. Similar to a Raid - it's a hardware solultion called "Drobo". http://www.drobo.com/ Definitely recommend it.

Also because of the crash, I recently started running "Time Machine" for Mac...I hear good things about it, but will see as I expect I may have another crash given the way it happened before, possibly an SSD failure.

For PC...been using Win 7 and the free Microsoft Security Essentials recently - I think that covers Virus protection pretty well.

[brandonx76]

this is my favorite way of getting free wi fi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA

oh shit...that is fucking hilarious...I hope there's more from this guy

[scarab]

OT but
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvF_nxXJO5s

[The Sushi Hunter]

I'm curious what others have done to make their life in front of a computer easier.

I put the computer away and do something that requires no computer, internet, cell phone, etc. like going to the beach, taking a nice half day walk, work on my classic American made muscle car, and those sorts of things. Doing so makes my life a whole lot easier and relaxing.

[Rick]

My computer is a toy for me. I don't use it for any type of business, except to pay bills.

I've been a computer geek since the day I was first able to afford one. The first one I had was a Commodore 64. Then the Commodore 128. Both used the big 5.25" floppy disk drive.

My first PC was an 8088, which was an upgrade from the 8086 processor. Then came the 286 or (80286), the 80386, the 80486, and then the 80586, which is called the Pentium, which is in every pc today at one form factor or another.

[JRNYMAN]

then the 80586, which is called the Pentium, which is in every pc today at one form factor or another.

There's this little tiny processor company called AMD that would argue that statement with you.
Unfortunately, I do use my computer for business on a daily basis, although, I'm actually on other people's computers 80% of the time, diagnosing, upgrading, configuring, them.) Never touched a computer until buying my first one in Nov. '95.... well, that's not true, actually. When I was a freshman in H.S. my buddy had a TRS-80 that we would play with and write stupid little programs and then save them to its .... ahem... hard drive which was a cassete player/recorder.
Within a year or so of buying my computer, I found I was spending a ton of my free time helping my friends and relatives overcome issues with their PC's. That's when the light went on in my head and I, like a bazzilion other guys, decided... "Hey! I could be making money doing this!" But, since I had never worked in any computer-related field and had absolutely no experience, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get hired by any computer-related company. So, I said, "Fuck It!" I'll quit my job and start a computer repair business! My wife was somewhat less enthused and confident as I was. "Let's see.... I'll need some fodder to put on my business cards in order to convey confidence and ability.... I know...! I'll get a couple of certifications! " That's when I went nuts and decided a measly A+ cert or even an MCSE wasn't enough, I wanted several certs! Lots of certs! I want every cert I can earn!!!! 2 years and a couple thousand dollars of my own money later, I regained consciousness and re-joined reality-ville but not until I had 4 MS certs, 2 Novell certs, I had become an HP Authorized Service Provider, Iomega tech..... the list goes on.
Yeah, I was on a roll and was going to set the world on fire and have a chain of computer repair shops WORLD-WIDE!
I actually did fairly well considering.... but the market was saturated with people who were just as capable as I was and the prices of PC hardware and systems started dropping like crazy and everyone was doing their own upgrades, repairs etc.

[Rick]

then the 80586, which is called the Pentium, which is in every pc today at one form factor or another.

There's this little tiny processor company called AMD that would argue that statement with you.

Yeah, guess I forgot about them for a moment. That's quite a brain fart. There's another one too, Via, I think.

Unfortunately, I do use my computer for business on a daily basis, although, I'm actually on other people's computers 80% of the time, diagnosing, upgrading, configuring, them.) Never touched a computer until buying my first one in Nov. '95.... well, that's not true, actually. When I was a freshman in H.S. my buddy had a TRS-80 that we would play with and write stupid little programs and then save them to its .... ahem... hard drive which was a cassete player/recorder.
Within a year or so of buying my computer, I found I was spending a ton of my free time helping my friends and relatives overcome issues with their PC's. That's when the light went on in my head and I, like a bazzilion other guys, decided... "Hey! I could be making money doing this!" But, since I had never worked in any computer-related field and had absolutely no experience, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get hired by any computer-related company. So, I said, "Fuck It!" I'll quit my job and start a computer repair business! My wife was somewhat less enthused and confident as I was. "Let's see.... I'll need some fodder to put on my business cards in order to convey confidence and ability.... I know...! I'll get a couple of certifications! " That's when I went nuts and decided a measly A+ cert or even an MCSE wasn't enough, I wanted several certs! Lots of certs! I want every cert I can earn!!!! 2 years and a couple thousand dollars of my own money later, I regained consciousness and re-joined reality-ville but not until I had 4 MS certs, 2 Novell certs, I had become an HP Authorized Service Provider, Iomega tech..... the list goes on.
Yeah, I was on a roll and was going to set the world on fire and have a chain of computer repair shops WORLD-WIDE!
I actually did fairly well considering.... but the market was saturated with people who were just as capable as I was and the prices of PC hardware and systems started dropping like crazy and everyone was doing their own upgrades, repairs etc.

Are you still doing that for a living?

I used to fix them all the time for people at work until I got so burned out on it that I thought I was going to pull my hair out and run down the road, screaming like a crazy man. I couldn't turn a corner at work without someone stopping me. "Hey Rick, I got a question for ya. Why, when I open my innernets, does it go to a web page that I didn't want it to go to?" My answer... I'm pretty sure you have a virus. What I wanted to say... "If you're gonna surf porn, you have to have an updated antivirus program."

I just couldn't deal with it anymore. It's one thing to have a business, that would be cool, but it's another thing to do what I was doing and half the time not get paid for it.

[JRNYMAN]

Are you still doing that for a living?

{{sigh...}} Yeah, I still work on PC's but not exclusively anymore thank God! I've diversified my services over the years to include home theater design & config., prewire installation (running the cables while the house or business is still under construction) of multimedia, security and data lines, data & hardware migration for small businesses, home security and surveilance, home automation (that one never really took off the way industry experts and techs alike thought it would...) and several other services related to IT - but no single service I offer is the sole money maker, it's really spread out over all the areas I cover. And it goes in spurts or trends. I won't have a data migration gig for 6 months and all the sudden, I've got 6 of them in a 3 week period. It's weird how it flows. My favorite thing I do as you might guess is anything home-theater-related - especially setting up and configuring a multi-room system with really high-end equipment. Unfortunately, the economy has hit this particular area of my business the hardest. People just don't have the disposable income they did prior to the recession and it's always the toys and shiny, pretty gizmos that are the first to go.

I used to fix them all the time for people at work until I got so burned out on it that I thought I was going to pull my hair out and run down the road, screaming like a crazy man. I couldn't turn a corner at work without someone stopping me. "Hey Rick, I got a question for ya. Why, when I open my innernets, does it go to a web page that I didn't want it to go to?" My answer... I'm pretty sure you have a virus. What I wanted to say... "If you're gonna surf porn, you have to have an updated antivirus program."

I just couldn't deal with it anymore. It's one thing to have a business, that would be cool, but it's another thing to do what I was doing and half the time not get paid for it.

That was the biggest hurdle for me to overcome when I started doing it for a living. I love my friends and most of my family members dearly but there came a point when I had to gingerly and carefully tell everyone who asked for help that what I used to do for them for free at the drop of a hat I now have to charge for because it's how I pay my bills now. When I helped them before, it was a hobby and my day job paid the bills. I managed to get through it without really stepping on anyone's toes or losing any friends but I did catch a lot of sarcastic semi-joking during the transition. Hands down the hardest thing to overcome was my own sympathetic attitude toward anyone who was having PC issues that to them were monumental and perplexing but for me or anyone who is around them all day every day, it's a 5 min fix, a Registry replacement, a bootfix, etc. and they're good to go. But, I couldn't let myself give in when they would ask, "What do I owe ya, Steve?" and utter the phrase, "Oh, don't worry about it. It was a simple fix.... you can get me next time..."

[Memorex]

Microsoft Mesh - I know there are many tools like this, some with features I wish Mesh had. The thing I like about Mesh is that it is driven off of Windows Live login, which many people have and makes sharing easier. Also, I can apply Mesh to any folder, not just a main folder with it's sub-folders. Mesh allows me to keep a copy of folders in the cloud, as well as exact copies of folders on each of my machines and anyone I share a folder with. So if I am working on my laptop, I can close a file and soon it will be copied to my desktops. If the kids are working on homework and need my help or need to print, they throw the file in Mesh and I open it or they go to a computer with a printer. I send my parents and kids files with our shared folders. This is by far the biggest help in my life, computer-wise. I have maybe 12 Mesh folders for different purposes. Some save to the cloud, some are just computer to computer.

Well son of a bitch! Microsoft is doing away with Mesh. My daughter got a Windows 8 machine and Mesh is no longer a part of the essentials pack. And you can't have the new essentials and Mesh together. You can install the old essentials for now which could be ok for a bit.

Mesh is my favorite thing and now I have to find an alternative. Pisses me off. I was not consulted on this!

[Rick]

Are you still doing that for a living?

{{sigh...}} Yeah, I still work on PC's but not exclusively anymore thank God! I've diversified my services over the years to include home theater design & config., prewire installation (running the cables while the house or business is still under construction) of multimedia, security and data lines, data & hardware migration for small businesses, home security and surveilance, home automation (that one never really took off the way industry experts and techs alike thought it would...) and several other services related to IT - but no single service I offer is the sole money maker, it's really spread out over all the areas I cover. And it goes in spurts or trends. I won't have a data migration gig for 6 months and all the sudden, I've got 6 of them in a 3 week period. It's weird how it flows. My favorite thing I do as you might guess is anything home-theater-related - especially setting up and configuring a multi-room system with really high-end equipment. Unfortunately, the economy has hit this particular area of my business the hardest. People just don't have the disposable income they did prior to the recession and it's always the toys and shiny, pretty gizmos that are the first to go.

I used to fix them all the time for people at work until I got so burned out on it that I thought I was going to pull my hair out and run down the road, screaming like a crazy man. I couldn't turn a corner at work without someone stopping me. "Hey Rick, I got a question for ya. Why, when I open my innernets, does it go to a web page that I didn't want it to go to?" My answer... I'm pretty sure you have a virus. What I wanted to say... "If you're gonna surf porn, you have to have an updated antivirus program."

I just couldn't deal with it anymore. It's one thing to have a business, that would be cool, but it's another thing to do what I was doing and half the time not get paid for it.

That was the biggest hurdle for me to overcome when I started doing it for a living. I love my friends and most of my family members dearly but there came a point when I had to gingerly and carefully tell everyone who asked for help that what I used to do for them for free at the drop of a hat I now have to charge for because it's how I pay my bills now. When I helped them before, it was a hobby and my day job paid the bills. I managed to get through it without really stepping on anyone's toes or losing any friends but I did catch a lot of sarcastic semi-joking during the transition. Hands down the hardest thing to overcome was my own sympathetic attitude toward anyone who was having PC issues that to them were monumental and perplexing but for me or anyone who is around them all day every day, it's a 5 min fix, a Registry replacement, a bootfix, etc. and they're good to go. But, I couldn't let myself give in when they would ask, "What do I owe ya, Steve?" and utter the phrase, "Oh, don't worry about it. It was a simple fix.... you can get me next time..."

Very cool. I hope the economy gets better so your business will do well.

[JRNYMAN]

Very cool. I hope the economy gets better so your business will do well.

Thanks, Rick!

[Memorex]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my Solid State drive just crashed. Major work weekend and I don't have time. However - thank God for Mesh as I can grab my laptop and pick right back up, losing only an hour's worth of work or so. Also, glad all my important stuff was stored on other drives and not the solid state. And for what was there, glad I have BackBlaze that is keeping a constant backup of files.

BUT - Shame on me for not keeping images because now I have to remember all the programs I had, configurations, etc. What a pain in the ass!

[Rick]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my Solid State drive just crashed. Major work weekend and I don't have time. However - thank God for Mesh as I can grab my laptop and pick right back up, losing only an hour's worth of work or so. Also, glad all my important stuff was stored on other drives and not the solid state. And for what was there, glad I have BackBlaze that is keeping a constant backup of files.

BUT - Shame on me for not keeping images because now I have to remember all the programs I had, configurations, etc. What a pain in the ass!

I haven't bought one, but I figured with no moving parts, those things would never crash. What's the word on reliability with those types of drives?

[AR]

Windows 7 snipping tool.

Eliminates control/Print screen. Can immediately screen grab anything and e-mail or save it.

[Memorex]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my Solid State drive just crashed. Major work weekend and I don't have time. However - thank God for Mesh as I can grab my laptop and pick right back up, losing only an hour's worth of work or so. Also, glad all my important stuff was stored on other drives and not the solid state. And for what was there, glad I have BackBlaze that is keeping a constant backup of files.

BUT - Shame on me for not keeping images because now I have to remember all the programs I had, configurations, etc. What a pain in the ass!

I haven't bought one, but I figured with no moving parts, those things would never crash. What's the word on reliability with those types of drives?

So far, 0% for me.

[Rick]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my Solid State drive just crashed. Major work weekend and I don't have time. However - thank God for Mesh as I can grab my laptop and pick right back up, losing only an hour's worth of work or so. Also, glad all my important stuff was stored on other drives and not the solid state. And for what was there, glad I have BackBlaze that is keeping a constant backup of files.

BUT - Shame on me for not keeping images because now I have to remember all the programs I had, configurations, etc. What a pain in the ass!

I haven't bought one, but I figured with no moving parts, those things would never crash. What's the word on reliability with those types of drives?

So far, 0% for me.

Not laughing at your loss, especially the pictures, but that was a good response.

[Memorex]

They are so much faster, I did replace the crashed drive with another Solid State. I had a warranty on the old one and got one on this one as well.

The key is - only store the system files on there, the programs, etc. All the stuff you can re-download or re-install. All personal files should be stored on the other drives with a constant backup in place.

As far as pictures, I'm never worried there. I keep many copies (one of them in the cloud). I lost some physical pictures when I was young and that's all the lesson I needed.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Unplug the computer, take it out to the car, drive down the freeway at about 80 mph and throw the fucking thing out the window. Problems solved. That works for me.

[AR]

Unplug the computer, take it out to the car, drive down the freeway at about 80 mph and throw the fucking thing out the window. Problems solved. That works for me.

I was ready to do that earlier today.