My favorite shortcut application, Launchy, just released version 2.0. It’s got a few nice updates, and a slick new default skin.
If you’ve never heard of Launchy or used it, give it a try. It will save you a buttload of time.
Well, after many years of talking about it, I finally have all of my data on a regular backup schedule. I have two internal and one external hard drives on my desktop, and an internal hard drive in my laptop - all of which have important data (i.e., I’d be sunk if I lost most of it).
To backup all of my data, I decided to use one 500 GB Western Digital MyBook to hold it all (I already use another MyBook for some of my data storage and really love it).
To schedule and perform the backups, I downloaded SyncBack Freeware. I was originally turned on to SyncBack by a Lifehacker post about it. They were right. It really is that simple, it’s fast, and it does a great job. And the best part is that it’s totally free!
I would walk you through the steps I took to do it, but honestly, the Lifehacker post really does a great job of explaining everything, so I’ll just let it speak for itself.
In the not-to-distant future, I also plan to set up a secure FTP backup of some of the more important files.
My question for you is: Are you backing up your data? If so, how?
Geek to Live: Automatically back up your hard drive via Lifehacker
From CNET News Blog:
Dell.com customers buying an XPS system, Inspiron notebook or Dimension desktop can select a “no software preinstalled” option. This will eliminate productivity, ISP, photo and music software, but not everything.
I’ve been waiting to hear this for quite some time. Glad to see they’re finally allowing you to opt out of them putting so much crapware on your machine so that you can save some of the hours it takes to uninstall this junk when you get a new Dell.
(Thanks: Lifehacker)
One of my favorite little start apps, Launchy, just released a new version. There are some new features and other great stuff.
Since I mentioned a handy little tool that I’ve grown to love last time, I figured I’d give you one more.
RocketDock is a slick little [free] app that gives you some added organization and productivity. Here’s what their website has to say about it:
RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock.
You can also set it up to minimize windows to the dock instead of your taskbar.
It’s very smooth, just like they said. It’s also very customizable, and it’s just plain fun to play with. There’s really not much else to say other than I love it. Everything is so neat and tidy, and you have so many options.
Swing over to their website and watch their quick video demonstration of RocketDock in action, and then give it a try.
Just a quick post to mention a tool that I have come to love.
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.
Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!
The other day, I accidentally closed this little gem, and then I realized how truly addicted to it I was. I had to go to the Start Menu to open it, and it was like a foreign concept to me. I have Launchy set up to index my entire Start Menu, so anything I open, I open through Launchy.
I set my “hotkey” as Alt+Space. When I press that combination, the Launchy window comes up, and I begin typing the name of the program I want to open. Once the autocomplete feature has correctly identified what I want to open, I hit Enter, and there it is. Simple as that. It’s a definite time saver, especially if you have a large amount of programs installed.
There are other tools like this out there, but Launchy’s simple elegance has me hooked.
I meant to post on this a while back, and I just forgot.
Several weeks ago, a friend of mine was having some computer problems, and I really didn’t have time to drive down and take a look at it for him, so I remembered a handy little app that I had run across a couple of weeks earlier called CrossLoop. It is a very simple and secure screen sharing program.
So I told him to download the small CrossLoop client, and I did the same. Once we had both installed it (in just a couple of minutes tops), we each opened the program. He chose “Host” and read the ID number to me (which changes each time), and I chose “Join” and entered the same ID. Then, presto, we were connected, and I could control his PC. I did my thing, and we were done. Problem solved.
Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the most robust remote program available by far. You can’t do file transfers, capture/record your sessions, etc. But for sheer ease of use and price (free), it’s hard to beat. There are occasions where more options might be needed, but for a quick hop onto someone else’s machine to help them out or demonstrate something, it works great. Give it a try.
