Windows Tools, Help & Guides

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PROS: Search function to find your favorite app. Works on most thumb drives. Effortless, though slow, installation. Convenience on the go. CONS: While necessary, installation can take over an hour. Difficult to customize which programs you want to see on the list. VERDICT: LiberKey is a great program that can be used as a toolkit on the go. If you help friends with their computer’s, this will take you a long way. Just like any Thumb drive program bundle, you get a lot of what you don’t need and are sometimes left without your favorite programs, which you’ll have to install separately. PRICE: Free DOWNLOAD: LiberKey Ultimate

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If you’re like most PC users, you probably got Windows 7 with a new PC or laptop. And if you’re like 99% of the population, you get your new machines from one of the major manufacturers. Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo; who all have one thing in common: they don’t give you a real Windows 7 installation disc with your purchase. Instead, they bundle what they call a “recovery disc” (that’s if you’re lucky – otherwise you’ll have a recovery partition instead) with your machine and leave it at that.

It doesn’t matter that you just paid a thousand dollars for a machine that comes with a valid Windows 7 license – your computer manufacturer just don’t want to spend the money (or perhaps take on the responsibility) of giving you a Windows 7 installation DVD to accompany your expensive purchase.
 

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This guest post is written by Patrick Jobin who gives eight tips for picking an online backup for your Windows Laptop. Find 0ut more about Patrick at the end of this article.

1. Make sure it’s properly encrypted

When traveling or working remotely, you can never be too sure about the integrity of your network or the other people who might be using it. When picking an online backup system for your Windows laptop, make sure you pick one that offers the right encryption options for your needs.

If you’re worried about securing the confidential data stored on your laptop, you want to make sure that your data is properly encrypted during transmission using a strong protocol such as SSL, and that the data stays encrypted when stored on the providers remote server using a password that’s only known by you. (And not the online backup provider)

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RadarSync is a program designed to keep your drivers and software up to date. In this guide, you’ll learn what RadarSync does and then you can try it for yourself.

Update: As RadarSync is no longer completely free, a representative from RadarSync got in contact. Their comments are at the bottom of this review along with a 30% off coupon code.

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Some time ago, I wrote about Titan Backup, which is an all-in-one solution for backing up your files to another location, drive, or across a network.

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This is an excerpt from the Windows Guides PC Security Handbook. To learn more or find out other security-related tips, download the PC Security Handbook now.

Data backup is essential. If you’d like to explore local backup options, download my Windows pocket guides. I strongly recommend using online (off-site) backups. Backing up your data online prevents data loss if your computer is damaged or stolen—or if your data is wiped by malware.

Online Data Backup

By far my favorite solution for online backup is Mozy. Mozy offers free online storage (up to 2GB with paid options too.) I’ve had Mozy installed on my laptop for over two years and it has saved me on more than a handful of occasions.

Setup is simple and after downloading Mozy, you can specify what you want to back up and when. Mozy will automate your backups and let you decide when it backs up (specific times), what causes it to back up (low CPU usage), and how often (one, two, three etc. times a day.)

I just let Mozy run and it alerts me after a successful backup:

You can specify what types of files to backup or specify folders— it’s up to you:

Mozy even integrates into My Computer so you can browse and restore your backed up files (even ones you’ve deleted from your computer):

MozyHome Features

• Open/locked file support: Mozy will back up your documents whether they’re open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption: The same technology used by banks secures your data during the backup process.
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption: Secures your files while in storage, providing peace of mind that your private data is safe from hackers.
• Automatic: Schedule the times to back up and MozyHome does the rest.
• New and changed file detection: MozyHome finds and saves the smallest changes.
• Backs up Outlook files: Disaster-proof email protection.
• Block-level incremental backup: After the initial backup, MozyHome only backs up files that have been added or changed, making subsequent backups lightning fast.

Download Mozy for Free

Download MozyHome Free

In the past, I’ve recommended splitting your drive into partitions so the if you need to reinstall your operating system, you will not lose personal data. Other reasons to create partitions include the following: ensuring minimal fragmentation on your system drive and not filling your system partition up to the point where your operating system cannot function properly anymore. There are many disk management solutions out there and Windows even comes with one built in. If you are looking for a good, free program to manage your hard disk drives, EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is a great option.

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Battery bar is a free application for Windows, which shows the life and health of your battery. Not only does battery bar show you the current health of your laptop battery, but it also shows you other information such as the following:

• Total Capacity of your battery
• Discharge rate
• Battery wear

I tried this program on both my laptop and my wife’s laptop and the results seemed pretty accurate. The screenshot above is taken from my wife’s laptop and shows the ware on the battery is 39.6%; this seems fairly accurate as the battery does not last as long as it used to.

Download Battery Bar

Process Manager adds an entry to your right-click context menu that adjusts a selected application’s priority or kills it. This seems simple and it is, but this can be very useful and save you a few clicks.

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Revo Uninstaller is primarily designed to ensure programs are properly removed from your computer. Revo is freeware and is available to all those who want to ensure their computer is clean and working at its best.

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