If you’re using an older computer or a computer that came without a dedicated graphics card (GPU – Graphics processing unit), you may have considered getting a more powerful GPU. An upgraded GPU will let you:

• Play games at higher resolution, detail, and frame rate
• Play HD video without stutter
• Use two or more monitors (helpful if you can only use one with your current setup)
• Speed up photo and video editing

In this guide, I’ll show you the basics of finding out what your upgrade options are and how to install a new graphics card.

Research Your Upgrade Options

Before you purchase an upgraded GPU, you should first gather some information:

1. Find your hardware capabilities:
• Motherboard graphics interface type
• Current GPU model (if any)
• Power supply
2. Physical space in your PC
3. Find the best value upgrade within your price range

Find Your Hardware Capabilities

Before you look for a graphics card, you’ll need to know which interface(s) your PC’s mother board supports. You should also know the model number of your current GPU (if you have one) so you can research the differences in capabilities between your current GPU and the one you intend to buy.

The easiest way to find the graphics interface type and current graphics card on your PC is to use a utility called CPU-Z:

1. Download CPU-Z here (the download links are in the right-hand column)

2. Install and launch CPU-Z
Note: CPU-Z comes bundled with the Ask Toolbar, which is optional during installation.

3. Click on the Mainboard tab and make note of the Graphic Interface:

4. On the Graphics tab, make note of the installed graphics card (if any):

I’ve noted that I have a PCI-Express x16 interface and my current graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460.

If the Graphic Interface is greyed out (see screenshot below), it’s unlikely your PC supports a dedicated graphics card (some low profile desktops fall into this category as well as most laptops.) Your best option from here is to search the web for the make and model of your PC and add the words “graphics upgrade” i.e. “HP Pavillion a1310n graphics upgrade”. There is still hope you can upgrade and that someone has listed the available options online.

Power Supply

If you haven’t opened your PC’s case before and you don’t know the peak power output of your power supply unit (PSU) (not something usually listed on a spec sheet for an off-the-shelf PC), now is a good time to open your PC and take a look around.

Note: Before you open your PCs case: power down your PC, disconnect the power cable, and hold the power button for a few seconds to remove any residual power from your PC’s components

Locate your PSU (where the PC power cable connects) and check the labels for the maximum (peak) power output. If you don’t find the power output of your PSU, check the manual that came with your PC or search online.

Most good retailers and products list the minimum PSU wattage required to operate their card on a standard PC setup (motherboard, hard drives, optical drives etc.)  so knowing your current limitation will help you determine whether you want a more powerful card (and have to upgrade your PSU) or a less powerful card that will happily run on your current PSU.

As an example, a 450W minimum power supply is recommended for the GTX460. I’m using a 550W power supply so an upgrade to this card is within the limitations of my power supply:

Physical Space in Your PC

While you have your PC open from the previous step, you should check how much room you have for a graphics card. I recommend this because some graphics cards are big! Most desktops, built in or after 2004 have at least one PCI-express slot and I suspect that’s what your data gathering led you to find out you have in your PC. This diagram should help if you have more than one spare slot when you open up your PC:

Over the slot you plan to use, measure the distance between the case edge and the first obstacle. In the Gateway PC I am using for this example, I have 255mm (~10 inches) of space. That might seem like a lot of room; however, knowing the maximum length of a card may save you a trip back to the store/return shipping when you find the card is too big for your PC. When you start to narrow down your options, look for size specifications to ensure the card will fit in the allotted space.

Find the Best Value Upgrade within Your Price Range

As technology changes quicker that I can even write this guide, I may make a suggestion now that’s outdated by the time I publish this guide. However, here’s a list of a few things you should always look for when purchasing a graphics card:

• Narrow your search by interface type
• Will it fit in my PC? (see above)
• Does my current PSU have enough headroom to support this card? Am I willing to spend more money on an upgraded PSU? (see above)
• What kind of warranty comes with the card?
• Does the retailer/vendor provide good customer support? i.e. returns policy and warranty coverage
• If I’m upgrading my card, what gains will I see from the upgrade?
• Will this card work for the games I want to play/software I want to use?

If you’re in the US, sites like NewEgg.com do an excellent job of helping you narrow down your search results. They also provide a 30-day exchange policy for most items sold on their site. Outside the US, I recommend using a local store. Often stores will run sales that outperform online retailers and it’s a lot easier to return the card should you run into issues.

To see expected performance gains from your graphics card, search the web for benchmarking tests. i.e. if you’re upgrading from a GTS 250 to a GTX 460, search the web for “GTS 250 vs GTX 460 crysis”. That search result came up with a helpful chart showing I can expect to go from 15 FPS average with the GTS 250 to 31 FPS average with the GTX 460 (at 1680×1050 “Enthusiast” settings.) In other words: from unplayable to pretty smooth playing. Running a few searches like this should give you the confidence your upgrade is worth the expense.

If you’re upgrading from integrated graphics, any card will likely make a big difference!

If you still don’t know what graphics card to purchase, stop by Windows Forums and ask the community. We can help you find an option that suits your needs and budget.

Note: Systems are only as strong as their weakest link (known as a “bottleneck”.) If your budget for a graphics card is $300 but you’re running older hardware that might not benefit from such a gain, consider splitting your purchase and buying a lower priced graphics card and an SSD—for example. To get an idea of what other upgrades are useful, check out Mike’s article on the best bang for your buck upgrades.

Install Your Graphics Card

Now you’ve chosen the graphics card that’s right for you, it’s time to install it. First, I recommend you run a benchmark of your current setup. You can either use the Windows Experience Index (instructions) or a tool like FurMark.

To install your graphics card:

1. Power down your PC, disconnect the power cable, and hold the power button for a few seconds to remove any residual power from your PC’s components

2. Open your PC’s case

3a. If adding a new card (if upgrading skip to step 3b.) locate the open slot in which the graphics card will reside (mine’s a PCI-E x16, which is the green slot):

3b. If you’re upgrading your card, disconnect the power supply from your current card:

4. Remove the slot’s retaining screw on the outside of the case:

5. Place the card carefully in the slot

6. Connect the power cable(s) to the card. If you’re not upgrading, look for a spare connector coming from the PSU or if you’re using a modular supply, check the box for additional cables

Note: Refer to the installation instructions of your new graphics card at this point. Some graphics cards use a separate, smaller power supply for the fan that usually connects to the motherboard

7. Secure the new card in place by tightening the retaining screw

8. Ensure no cables are obstructing the fans and power on your PC to test it under the new configuration

Here’s my before and after score when upgrading from a GTS 250 to a GTX 460:

Before: 

After:

Having trouble upgrading? We’re ready to help over at Windows Forums.

[I'd like] an explanation on i3, i5, i7 Operating Systems, and how they compare with Core 2 and Quad Core CPUs.

Update: Manuel commented asking the following:

It seems core2 duo CPUs have not been included and where they belong.  Are core 2 duo CPUs comparable with i3s or even i5s?  thanks.

Scroll down or click here for the answer.

If you’re in the market to buy a PC and you’re looking for the best value for money, you’ve likely asked yourself: “what’s the difference between Dual and Quad Core and what about i3, i5, and i7?”

This guide offers a basic explanation of these five types of processors and will help you determine the best for your needs.

This guide will answer the following questions:

• What is a processor?
• What is a core?
• What is a multi-core processor?
• Why do I need multiple cores?
• How many cores do i3, i5, and i7′s have?
• How Do Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Compare with Core i3, i5, and i7?
• What Does the “i” Stand for in i3, i5, and i7?
• Do I need a Dual/Quad core or an i3/i5/i7?

What is a Processor?

The Processor or Central Processing Unit (CPU) component of your PC that carries out instructions given to it by your Operating System (Windows.) Think of the processor as a brain that receives instructions and messages (i.e. “HOT HOT HOT Burning!!!”) and sends out instructions to other hardware (i.e. “Arm: lift hand” or “mouth: open; vocal chords: scream”.)

What is a Core?

A standard processor has one core (single-core.) Single core processors only process one instruction at a time (although they do use pipelines internally, which allow several instructions to be processed together; however, they are still run one at a time.)

What is a Multi-Core Processor?

A multi-core processor is composed of two or more independent cores, each capable of processing individual instructions. A dual-core processor contains two cores, a quad-core processor contains four cores, and a hexa-core processor contains six cores.

Why do I Need Multiple Cores?

Multiple cores can be used to run two programs side by side and when an intensive program is running (AV Scan, Video conversion, CD ripping etc.) you can utilize another core to run your browser to check your email etc.

Multiple cores really shine when you’re using a program that can utilize more than one core (called Parallelization) to improve the program’s efficiency. Programs such as graphic software, games etc. can run multiple instructions at the same time and deliver faster, smoother results.

So if you use CPU-intensive software, multiple cores will likely provide a better experience when using your PC. If you use your PC to check emails and watch the occasional video, you really don’t need a multi-core processor.

How many cores do i3, i5, and i7′s have?

• A Dual-core processor has two cores.
• A Quad-core processor has four cores.
• An i3 processor has 2 cores.
• An i5 processor has 2 or 4 cores (depending on the model you have.)
• An i7 processor has 2, 4 or 6 cores (depending on the model you have.)

How Do Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Compare with Core i3, i5, and i7?

Added 2012/01/21:

If you’re looking for a good value PC and have decided on a Core 2 Duo, Core i3, or Core i5 (all best in value for casual computer use), please read on:

Core 2 Duo processors run two threads; i3′s and i5′s run four threads. Core 2 Duo processors are socket 775 (45/65nm); Core i3 and i5 processors are socket 1156 (nm) but only work with DDR3 RAM (Some Core 2 Duo’s work with both DDR2 and DDR3.)

For desktops, I’d stay clear of core 2 duos; for laptops, it all depends on your usage. As laptops aren’t as easy to upgrade, buying dated technology might burn you in the future when you find your Core 2 Duo PC’s motherboard only supports 4GB RAM–for example.

i5′s come with “turbo boost”; however, i3′s overclock very well if that’s your thing. That’s where I’d put my money if you’re considering Core 2 Duo, i3, and i5: the i3 provides the best value for most casual PC users.

While I focused on i3, i5, and Core 2 Duo to answer a reader’s question, the principles apply when comparing i5, i7, and Core 2 Quad. I’d go for the i5 unless you are willing to pay a premium for a little more performance.

What Does the “i” Stand for in i3, i5, and i7?

Added 2012/03/03:

I searched around the web and found speculation that the “i” stands for “Intel”; however, there’s no substantiation to that claim. After coming up with no explanation, I sent an email to Intel tech support. Here’s what they had to say (emphasis added):

Hello Rich,

Thank you for contact Intel(R) Technical Support.

We have received your request. Please be informed that the letter ‘i’ on the model number of the Processor does not stand for any particular detail, technology or feature presented on the product.

This is just a marketing brand name decision. For any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us back.

Thank you for your understading (sic).

Sincerely,

Alvaro A.
Intel Customer Support

The i# processors are just branded that way with no special meaning.

Do I need a Dual/Quad core or an i3/i5/i7?

The reason you’re reading this guide is to find out which type of processor you need. I want to give a simple answer and, if you have more to add, please let us know in the comments. As with all computer hardware, the type of processor you need depends on your needs, for how long you want your computer to stay current, and your budget.

Here’s a very simple breakdown of what you should look to buy depending on your computing needs. All suggestions assume you are buying a pre-built PC (so you don’t have to worry about motherboard and RAM specs and so you don’t have to worry about upgrade compatibility.)

If you:

• Browse the internet, check email, and play the occasional flash game (like Farmville): Get a single core netbook or desktop (and don’t spend more than $300 USD — Updated 12/01/21.)
• Do your word processing, spreadsheets etc. on your PC, listen to music often, and watch movies, get a dual core or i3.
• Play the occasional game and are happy with lower resolution and lower quality graphics (my suggestion assumes the graphics processor on the pre-built PC will be well-matched for the processor suggestions), watch HD movies etc., get a dual core or i5.
• If you do graphic publishing, music creation, programming (and compilation), watch HD movies, and like to play visually appealing games, get a Quad core, i5, or i7.
• If you like to have the very best hardware and play the most graphically intense games, get an i7 Extreme.

I realise my suggestions are somewhat generic but should point you in the right direction. If you have a specific question, ask in the forums or leave a comment below.

So… What Computer Should I Purchase?

Added 2012/03/02:

Recently, a number of you have commented asking what computer to buy. As I’m not familiar with all brands, models, and current pricing, I ask that you post your question in Windows Forums where our group of helpful PC geeks will assist in making the choice that’s best for you. Not sure how to use a forum? Start here: How to get great help from Windows Forums.

Featuring: WIM-images and Diskpart

When I first bought my netbook from Acer it came with the  Windows 7 Starter Edition. Luckily for me I had an extra Home Premium license I could use. Problem was that the graphics driver needed was not available for download, and was not available through Windows. A fact I only discovered once I had re-installed windows. Another irritating thing I discovered was that the bundled software that was pre-installed with my windows starter edition, did not run anymore.

The solution? The hidden recovery partition.

Most new computers today comes with pre-installed Windows and bundled software. These licenses or programs does not come with an installation disk, package or user-manuals. Instead the setup files (or recovery disk) is stored in a hidden partition on your hard-drive, together with various extra drivers and tweak files. At the end of this article I will show you where to look for the files and how to retrieve them, but first lets unhide the partition. To unlock or get access to this hidden partition we need to unhide it. This can be achieved using the built-in DiskPart Tool. You can choose to get access to the disk on a one-time basis or permanently assigning a drive letter for it. In most cases you are able to assign a drive letter using the Windows Disk management tool. The Recovery Partition is normally set to have no drive letter by default. We can override this feature by using Diskpart.

Diskpart

Diskpart is a Command Line Utility which allows us to control every disk and partition on our system. We have shown you different uses for this tool on occasion, and this time we will use it to get access to the hidden partition. To make a hidden partition available we need to assign a drive letter, and this is how:

1. Click Start-button and type DISKPART and press Enter.
2. Click OK when the UAC prompt you
3. In the Diskpart Dialogue Window, type: list disk This will show you a list of the disks  installed on your computer.
4. Type Select Disk 0 (where zero is the disk we want to use, if you have more that one disk you might want to try accessing one by one until you find the right one)
5. Type List Partition. You will see a list of all partitions on the drive, in my case there are two. One large and one small. The small one is the one we want to change. You can also identify the hidden partition by the fact that there are no drive letter assigned to it.
6. Type Select Partition 1 (Where 1 represent your partition)
7. Type Assign If successful you should get an Auto-run dialogue.
8. Type Exit to close the Diskpart Tool.

Hidden on reboot…

On some computers the partition will be hidden again on the next boot. This is due to a setting called “nodefaultdriveletter”, which tells windows that the partition is to be hidden by default. If you would like to keep the partition visible,  you will have to change the setting.

1. Open the Diskpart tool
2. Type Select Disk 0
3. Type List Partition
4. Type Select Partition 1 (Replace 1 with the corresponding letter)
5. Type Detail Partition This will display the settings for your partition. If the Type is set to 27 the partition is set as hidden.
6. Try one of the following commands: Set ID=07 OVERRIDE attributes volume clear hidden
7. Type Assign to assign a drive letter.
8. Type Exit to close the Diskpart Tool.

The next time you boot your computer the partition will still be visible.

Looking through the Recovery Partition Folder

Now it’s time to do a bit of digging inside the Folders. The location of drivers and software will vary depending on your brand or computer type. In my case, everything I need is  hidden inside the ACER-HQ1 folder. You will see many different folders containing everything from Windows Recovery or setup-files, drivers and the licensed software that came bundled with your computer. The content of these folders will most likely be WIM-files or images. The Windows Imaging Format (WIM) is a file-based disk image format (like ISO, RAR and ZIP). It was developed by Microsoft to deploy its latest Windows operating system releases, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, which use it as part of their standard installation procedure. It works equally well with older versions of Windows.

Windows Setup Files Found in the Recovery Partition

Accessing WIM-Images

To access the contents the WIM-files you need a WIM capable reader. I suggest you use WinMount which works similar to WinRAR, but allow you to mount WIM-images temporarily.

Inside a WIM-image you will usually find 2 folders and a xml-file (it may vary). Usually the content you seek is within the folder named 1 (one). After mounting you might need to copy the contents to a new folder before installing the program or driver. Once you have done that, you can install the software as you please.

Bundled software licenses

In order to make sure you don’t install the bundled software onto other computers most setup files have a CMD-file attached to it. This is a scriptfile that will check the identity of your computer before allowing the setup to start. Delete this file to avoid it from running.

The serial is usually found inside an INI-file or a XML-file. And that should be all you need to know. Good Luck

Download WinMount

Download WinMount

Here’s where to find it

If you don’t have access to a XP installation, fear not – just keep reading.

How to Retrieve the Clipboard Manager

1. In XP, open the folder named C:\windows\system32 and look for this file: clipbrd.exe
2. Download it from here: clipbrd

Soon as you’ve got the file, copy it to a desired location, preferably the System32 folder of your windows installation. You may get an error from Windows telling you that the Clipboard Service isn’t running. You can easily ignore this error and use the program anyway.

The Freeware Solution

Of course, considering your fear of using “old” files on your new system there is also many freeware applications out there; doing the same thing as the one from Microsoft. Here is one called “Free Clipboard Viewer“.

Though HDMI is the new all-round standard of connecting Computers and TV (and soon every gadget and appliance ) you will still come across DVI. Especially when connecting your computer to your flat screen monitor, TV or Projector.

DVI comes in several flavours, DVI-A, DVI-D, DVI-I and M1-DA. But which is what ?

The short story is that DVI is the predecessor of HDMI, and the main difference is that the HDMI signal carries Audio as well as Video, where as the DVI signal is mute.

The Letters A, D and I denotes different technologies. DVI-I is a connector that is compatible with both DVI-A and DVI-D (which are not compatible). DVI-A is largely a computer format. DVI-D is commonly used on all other home electronics.

• DVI-A = Analog
• DVI-D = Digital
• DVI-I = Integrated (Both A and D)
• M1-DA = Integrated (A, D, I and USB)

Another term that comes into play is Dual Link, which is what makes DVI support high-resolution displays. This is sometimes called DVI-DL.  To give you an idea of the differences, here is the short story:

A Single Link DVI signal is somewhat equal to the analog video signal. The signal quality is only limited by the transmission rate in the copper (transfer rate of maximum 165 MHz). Single Link Signal gives you a maximum resolution of 2098 × 1311 pixels (16:10)  and 1915 × 1436 pixels (4:3). Which for most products are more than enough. For components requiring larger bandwidth (exceeding 165 MHz) a second set of cables are provided to send twice the information. Much like Progressive vs Interlaced singals (Read About that here)

Differences in the connectors

As mentioned earlier the different DVI technologies are not directly compatible. To avoid user errors, the connectors are slightly different, making the incompatible devices impossible to connect. Some connectors can only be connected one way (DVI-D Male to DVI-I Female, not DVI-I Male to a DVI-D Female). Idiot-Proof as we say over here.

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)

In the old days there were analog copy protection capabilities in VHS recorders, making it (almost) impossible to copy a commercial VHS to a private one. Same thing today. Some Equipment have extra HDCP connectors; that send an encrypted signal using the HDCP protocol for copy protection.

Computers with DVI video connectors can use many DVI-equipped HDTV sets as a display, but only computers whose graphics systems support High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection are able to play content that requires digital rights management unless of course the DRM scheme is broken and the DRM break is implemented.

Short story over

I realize that there are much more to this topic than the above, and I welcome your input in the Comment section below.

Since I prefer to use small icons, I found the standard grid size to be too big, making my desktop look untidy and hard to look at. Being a graphics designer I care about these things maybe just a tad too much, but I did find a solution, other than using a non-grid layout.

Reducing the grid-size in Windows

If you take a look at the “before” picture you see all my neat, small icons lined up using the standard grid-size. The waste of space between them annoyed me. Manually re-positioning the icons (without locking them to the grid) is tiresome and need constant monitoring to keep it neat. In order to lock the icons to a smaller we need to use the “OLD” windows appearance settings. If you use Windows XP, disregard the “old” comment.

From Windows 7 (or Vista)

1. Right click the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Open Windows Color and Appearance (Click the Color-Icon underneath the Theme window)
3. Click “Advanced Appearance Settings”.
4. Look for the horizontal and/or vertical icon-spacing in the drop-down menu (I chose to edit the vertical spacing only).
5. 
   Reducing the number will squeeze the icons closer together (I ended up with a setting of 28 that suited my screen-resolution and icon-size).

From Windows XP

1. Right-click the desktop, and click Properties.
2. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Look for the horizontal and/or vertical icon-spacing in the drop-down menu (I chose to edit the vertical spacing only).
5. 
   Reducing the number will squeeze the icons closer together (I ended up with a setting of 28 that suited my screen-resolution and icon-size).

The result

Looking at the before and after picture clearly shows a neater and prettier layout. And there you have it.

But, what are we really talking about?

For many years computers, have been shipped with  a component that can improve your graphic experience. Traditionally, browsers haven’t been designed for using graphics acceleration. Currently, you cannot find a stable version of one of these programs that use your graphics card.

So, is it good news that browsers are going to use your graphics card?

Yes and no. Browsers are going to be faster rendering some sites and be capable of dealing with complex graphics. But this have some drawbacks:

• The browsers are going to be more complex, which means it’s going to be harder to maintain and find bugs.
• Many sites will be based on using this technology, so maybe in the next years we will need a dedicated graphics card to browse the net fully.

Is this really the key to the new internet?

Don’t get me wrong I think speed it’s a key part of browsing the internet and every aspect related with a computer. But one thing is being capable of improving user experience and showing sites faster, and other is being capable of displaying some sort of graphics.

This is just my opinion, what do you think?

PDFTiger is a desktop application that quickly and accurately create PDF documents from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, txt or Images. PDFTiger can also convert PDF files into editable MS Word Documents, Rich Text Documents, Plain Text Files, Images, HTML Files, and Shockwave Flash SWF Files.

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Windows Guides’ Rating	User Rating	Compatible with	System
4 out of 5	Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Simple interface = High Performance

Instead of using lots of resources on graphics and fancy animations, the developer have downgraded the user interface to a minimum. Freeing up resources for the more important tasks.

Features

• Word To PDF Converter – Convert Word, Excel, TXT, PowerPoint and All Printable Files into PDF Documents.
• PDF To Word Doc  - Convert PDF Documents into Word, TXT, JPG, HTML and Flash Files.
• Image To PDF Maker – Convert Scanned Images(BMP, JPG, TIFF, GIF etc) into PDF Document.
• Batch Mode – Batch Convert More Than 10,000,000 Files at One Time.

This PDFTiger Giveaway Promotion will be CLOSED on Oct 21, 2010.

Go here for more information: http://www.pdftiger.com/giveaway.html

The sad truth is that having a great collection of things – be it software programs or even garden tools – is useless if you can’t lay your hands on an item in a timely fashion.

Take the item above – is it a picture? a graphic? some clip art? Is the subject police? traffic? female police? buses?

I used to collect a lot of stuff like this and I used to lose a lot of it and it really grated my coconuts. I tried all manner of organising systems, a raft of disc cataloguing systems, dozens of file finder systems, hard copy systems; databases; on line and off line systems; floppy discs and mag tapes; commercial and home-grown. In the end, years later, with the advent of high capacity hard disc drives I finally came up with a system that is simple, effective, and has stood the test of time since Windows 98.

Eyes on the Prize:

The goal of a perfect filing system is to provide a way of storing files that gives the user a better chance of finding them later without resorting to excessive data duplication. Secondary goals would include finding a system that is free, and one that does not depend on the staying power of third-party players.

My solution has been to find a manageable group of categories into which most of my work fits, then apply that group to all of my computers and data storage devices. The second part of the solution is a bit harder as it requires me to stick to the system as much as possible, making changes where absolutely required, but always with the goal of keep the whole system consistent.

My top level list looks like this – annotated to help me decided what goes where. Yours will probably look a bit different:

My Backups – Primarily user data from “C:\” like favourites, but also data from third party programs that allow nominated backup locations
My Documents – Mostly free-standing .txt, .doc, and .pdf documents, but can also include other file types where appropriate
My Downloads – First port of call for everything coming into my system – from there into the appropriate storage folder
My Graphics – Mostly web art – third party images for web development work (this may go away shortly as most stuff is now available on line)
My Music – A great collection of Trance, Techno and Electronic music
My Pictures – Photographs and scans taken by me, my family and friends – some day to be organised by subject
My Progs – See below – my collection of applications
My Projects – Can include any sort of file type connected to one of the “non-website” projects I’m working on at the time (see “My Webs” below)
My Sounds – Sound effects for web projects, but also “books on tape” and audio pod-casts
My Video – I’ve moved my movies over to a MediaServer computer. Any remaining free-standing videos are here
My Webs – Working space for my current web projects

The notion of “free-standing” is important here to separate items that rightly fit into a project folder from those that should not.

In the Microsoft tradition, the prefix “My” refers to files that I’ve added to the system, rather than files supplied by Microsoft or any other third party. The only fixed second level list is under the progs and looks like this:

My Progs:

Comms – Network tools, Ftp, Skype, etc
Disc Tools – Magic ISO, ImgBurn, etc
File Mgmt – WinZip, WinRar, Duplicate finders, etc
Graphics – Photoshop-like tools, Icon tools, etc
Hardware – Drivers mostly
Office – Word processors, spreadsheet programs, Adobe reader, etc
Print & Scan – CD label printers and other print utilities
Programming – Dreamweaver, PHP tools, etc
Security – anti-virus programs and, in the past, firewalls, etc
Sound & Music – players, makers, and enhancers
SysAdmin – unix-like tools, macro recorders, dotNet stuff, etc
Toys – Screen-savers, etc
Video & DVD – players, DVD makers, converters, etc
Web – browsers and add-ons

This structure has also served me well under my pre-Windows 7  ”Start” menu.  The Search facility for finding executable programs does a good job and this reduces the need for a tight structure.

Separate and Not Equal

The other second level folders are variable and tend to come and go as my work and interests change, grow, evolve, and occasionally die. Some of these have turned out to be very long lived – “My Documents” has a “Finances” folder that will most likely remain throughout my lifetime, along with a “Resume” folder.

The key is to find descriptive names that provide

All of this data resides on “D:\” (typically) and is thus protected to some extent from system crashes, and “Big Flush” manoeuvres (when I re-format “C:\” and reload the OS). This protection is further enhanced when “D:\” is a Raid 5 array – but that’s another story (see my article for details)

For years now I’ve followed the practice of partitioning off a slice of my first drive to be the “C:\” drive – home to my operating system. And because Windows relentlessly loads essential files that make life easier (cookies, for example) the “My Backups” folder will most likely always contain sub-folders for Bookmarks, Cookies, Registry and other stuff that I discover each time I reformat “C:\” and reload the O/S.

Step by step:

In addition to a set of folders, having a good system also requires a bit of discipline in the execution. The first rule is to ensure a single point of entry. In my case, it’s “D:\My Downloads” — all software, all videos, all email attachments, all screen captures, in short – everything desirous of a place in our file system must begin its journey through the “D:\My Downloads” doorway and care must be taken to ensure there is only one door. Sadly, a quick look at my current disc reveals some 20 “download” folders for me to deal with – just one of the problems Windows 7 brings to the party – but more on that later.

Once a file hits the “D:\My Downloads” folder a diligent user will make whatever use it was intended for then carefully file away any source files remaining in “My Downloads” into their proper place in our carefully designed file structure on “D:\”. The rest of us slackers will eventually notice that our “My Downloads” folder is so full of stuff it’s becoming hard to find our newly downloaded files and, with a groan, we will take the time required to file away all those items we thought were so important at that moment but now don’t even hold enough importance for us to know why we wanted them in the first place.

Hopefully, lots of junk will hit the recycling bin at this point. But, in the end, we should once again have a small number of files in “My Downloads” and perhaps a new folder or two within “My Downloads” as temporary holding for files that belong together – all of the Podcasts in a series, for example. Eventually, these, too, must be filed or deleted, but it’s better to leave files with no clear destination in the Download folder than file them wrongly where they can be lost.

Challenges:

A major challenge these days is the number of redundant folders Windows 7 throws into the system. Here is just a smattering of the “Download” folders available on a system I’ve tried to keep fairly clean:

Directory of C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Network\Downloader
Directory of C:\Users\Deck\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Device Metadata\dmrccache\downloads
Directory of C:\Users\Deck\AppData\Local\Temp\Free Download Manager
Directory of C:\Users\Deck\Documents\Downloaded Installations
Directory of C:\Users\Public\Downloads
Directory of C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files
Directory of C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\Downloads
Directory of C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\Downloads
Directory of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\AuthCabs\Downloaded
Directory of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
Directory of D:\My Graphics\Web Images\Web Elements\Backgrounds\WallPaper\wallpapers-download
Directory of D:\My Music\Deck\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Downloads
Directory of D:\My Progs Library\Web\phpBB3\download

These folders may help some users, but they just frustrate me.

Another “Challenge” stems from the wonderful flexibility of computers. We can create data in hundreds of different forms – documents, audio, video and images are just some of the major categories, all of which can be mixed, merged and combined to form a single presentation. It’s this flexibility that makes organising by “form” a tricky matter. You may have a folder for “video”, but what if that video is embedded in a web page, which also includes text, images and sound bites? Bottom line: I tried sorting my data by type, but as the data grew it became harder and harder to find the content I was looking for.

Take this post, for example – I’ve decided to start it in a Project folder in a “Minty White” sub-folder and each post has its own sub-folder (this one is “Last File System”) and a further sub-folder which contains any image files I might include. But “The Last File System” could also be filed under “My Documents” and may wind up in “My Webs” (as I’ll probably post this on my website eventually).

I wish I could predict that ”the next big thing” in computing will be a universally accepted classification methodology

Recommendations:

* Find a simple system – whether it’s a built-in system, like the Windows Library, or some other,
* Start with a logical subdivision that reflects your data and the way you use your computer(s)
* Implement the system across all the computers you use
* Make small changes to “fine-tune” the system
* Stick with it

If you find a better system – drop me a note.

In this part, I will be covering some software that are specifically written to assist computer users in reducing paper wastage, as well as help in saving printing inks (they are expensive!) The software covered are mixed with free and commercial versions, and I list out the pros and cons for each software, and give some recommendations for those who are looking at a free solution. There is one common characteristic for all these software: all of them will be installed as a virtual printer in your operating system to streamline the printing process. So let’s begin with the first printing software:

GreenPrint (Free and Commercial)

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, GreenPrint offers three versions of their printing software which aimed to save paper, ink and trees. GreenPrint World, which is a free version specifically for home users only, and includes all the basic GreenPrint features (save as PDF, remove images, texts, and pages etc.), with a price of unobtrusive advertisements in the user interface. No luck for MAC OSX users, the free World Edition only supported Windows XP/Vista/7, both 32-bit and 64-bit. There is another version, namely GreenPrint Home Premium priced at $19, is a better featured GreenPrint (faster preview, no advertisements etc.), which supports Mac OSX. However, I personally think that the free version is quite adequate for most of the users, except that you can’t really bear with the advertisements embedded in the user interface.

The interface of GreenPrint is quite self-explanatory, where all the functions available to the user are well-defined with the icons. There are also some counters tracking all the costs and savings that the user has made using the software. Click on the counters at the bottom bar will lead you to the GreenPrint Report, which is an interface showing a detailed statistics on your printing behavior. Below shown the interface of Green Print:

Pros/Cons

• Free with advertisements, only supported Microsoft Windows (World Edition)
• Better version available at $19 with advertisements (Home Premium)
• Options to remove images, texts, and pages
• Save as PDF option
• No multi-pages per sheet option
• Have an option to plant a tree for $1

iPrint (Free)

A completely free solution provided by Inzone Software Limited, iPrint is an eco-friendly printing utility that can help computer users to save cost in printing, which can be used either at home or for business purposes. Besides being a free forever software, it has some nice features equipped with it as well – it has multiple pages per sheet options (2-in-1 and 4-in-1), plus it can collect all the printing jobs in one interface, which is useful for batch printing. Though natively iPrint doesn’t come with a PDF creation feature, but it can be easily solved by installing a PDF printer such as PrimoPDF.

Similar to GreenPrint, iPrint has a simple interface with self-explanatory icons. In the software interface, the user is able to remove unwanted pages by just double click on them, however there is no option to remove images or texts from the document, unlike in GreenPrint. Nevertheless, iPrint does have a simple counter for the savings made by the user.

Pros/Cons

• Free forever
• Option to remove pages
• Multiple pages per sheet option (2-in-1 and 4-in-1)
• Collect print jobs within one interface
• No save as PDF option
• No options to remove images and texts

PriPrinter (Commercial)

I must say that PriPrinter is one of the eco-friendly printing software that have the most complete features, not to mention the nice GUI (Ribbon UI), however, they do not have a free version. Standard edition cost you about $34.95, which does not contain PDF creation and text editing features. The complete Professional Edition PriPrinter is at $87.95, which might be worthy for those who related in the printing industry, but it is definitely an undesired price tag for a normal computer users. Nevertheless, they do provide a free trial of both versions without time limit, with small banner printed on each page as a trade-off, which I personally feel that it is quite acceptable for personal usage (check the screenshot below, notice the red color small banner).

Feature wise, Pelikan Software KFT’s PriPrinter is quite unbeatable. Besides using the Ribbon UI, it has a high quality rendering engine which allows the user to perform print preview in many ways, including in 3D mode (which give you an idea how does the printing look like in the real life). It also has numerous options for the page layout and printing mode for the user to choose during a printing job, which allows a high flexibility printing pattern. With the Professional Edition, you can even edit the content on the fly (highlight, black out, correction), which is definitely a good feature.

Pros/Cons

• Highly customizable printing job
• Fully featured
• Ribbon UI
• 3D preview mode
• Storable printing history
• Unlimited free trial with small printed banner
• No free version

FinePrint (Commercial)

Besides PriPrinter, FinePrint is another alternative but cheaper version which contains numerous of features for printing jobs.  At a price of $49.95 for a single license, you get pretty much all the necessary functions for smart printing, including multiple pages per sheet, remove graphics (which can be remove individually), remove pages, double-sided, content editing (delete, highlight, redact). I have been using FinePrint for quite some time, and one of the feature I liked the most is the printer setting wizard. This wizard will run a series of printing tests for your printer to determine the settings, especially on duplex printing settings, which helps a lot if you always deal with double-sided printing using a non-auto duplex printer. FinePrint can also archive the printing jobs, so if you need a identical copies of the printed materials in the future, you can just open the archived printing job and you are ready to print it again.

Unlike PriPrinter, FinePrint has a much simpler interface, and most of the functions are accessible from the user interface, but definitely not as customizable as in PriPrinter. However,it is not surprising that some computer users would prefer a simpler interface rather than a complicated one, so FinePrint is a good choice for them. Although it is a commercial software, but it does offer a free trial without time limit, and similarly, the print out will have small banner of FinePrint.

Pros/Cons

• All necessary features are included
• Simpler user interface
• Printer setting wizard
• Storable printing job
• No Save as PDF option
• Unlimited free trial with small printed banner
• No free version

Which is the best at the cost of zero?

All software introduced above have their own pros and cons, and at the cost of nil, it really depends whether the user is able to bear the small banner in the trial version. If you can, get yourself PriPrinter if you looking for highly customizable printing job, or go for FinePrint if you prefer a simpler and easy-to-access interface. Of course, if you do mind about the small banner and would like to have a clean printing from the software, go for both GreenPrint World Edition and iPrint. The only setback is that you can’t have both content editing (offered by GreenPrint) and multiple pages per sheet (offered by iPrint) work together. I have tried to go for a bypass trick, which I first edit the content of the document in GreenPrint, and then transfer the printing job to the iPrint (and vice versa), but the printing doesn’t seems usable (texts rendering goes haywire).

Besides the four software above, there are another two software that I would like to introduce as a companion for them.

Best companion

PrimoPDF

Being the world 1st free PDF creator (as claimed by them), PrimoPDF is a PDF creator which can be installed as a complement to those software that not having PDF creation feature, such as iPrint and FinePrint. I have been using it to generate PDF for quite some time, and it rarely fails me, so I strongly recommended PrimoPDF for PDF creation task in Microsoft Windows.

To download PrimoPDF, head to their official page and get it installed in your Windows XP/Vista/7.

iReader (Firefox and Google Chrome only)

Besides the printing software, it will be the best if the content of the printing can be filtered before sending them for the printing job, especially web content. While some of the websites do have a printer-friendly option, but somehow it doesn’t available for most of the websites containing great articles. With iReader, those unnecessary elements in the webpage (banners, website header, background etc.) are all removed and a clean article is able to be generated from a full-featured website. Using our own website and my article as an example, you can see the difference before and after using the iReader for content filtering. After the filtering (or clutter-free processing), you can print it right away using the software that I have introduced above, either on the paper or into digital format. There is one minor problem with this option though: the separation between pages might cut a line of texts or image into half since the article is rendered in a clutter-free and continuous manner, but I believe it doesn’t cause much problem in most cases.

^{Before using iReader}

^{After using iReader}

If you are using Mozilla Firefox, proceed to their official add-ons site for iReader. Else, if you are using Google Chrome, it is available in Google Chrome Extensions gallery.

Conclusion

With some assistance from the software and a little bit of effort from the computer users, I believe that paper wastage can be reduced to a very low level. Hopefully all the software covered in this article are able to help all the readers in reducing paper wastage due to unnecessary/mistaken printing. Don’t hesitate to share this article to your friends/relatives or anyone that involved with tons of printing everyday; it does not only save the printing cost, but it does reduce paper wastage and save the tree, and indirectly save the environment from further devastation. If you have any comments/suggestions to this article, don’t hesitate to let us know.

This article is a continuity of the Print Smart to Reduce Wasted Paper – Part 1 [How To].