Tech Tips [ Top Mobile Apps Revealed! - Get The Details Inside + Getting Picky With Your Internet History + Secret Windows Clock Trick You Gotta Try ] 04/19/2012

WorldStart Tech Tips 2012-04-19 Having trouble viewing parts or all of the newsletter? View the entire newsletter here! Kent from Maryland writes: I am using Windows 7. I would like the DAY to display with the date. For example, Thursday 12/14/11. Where is this option located? The clock in the windows taskbar can be changed to display the date in quite a few different ways. To add the current day of the week left click on the time in the bottom right-hand corner>left click "change date and time settings…">left click "change date and time…">left click "change calendar settings" then in the Short Date box change the text to: dddd M/d/yyyy then click ok. You can now close all of the other windows that were open. Note: You can also switch the dddd which will give you the long day name (IE: Monday) to ddd which will give you the short day name (IE: Mon) ~Tim Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version FACT: 100% Of All Hard Drives Fail! FACT: It's Not A Matter Of "IF" Your Drive Will Fail- It's a Matter Of "When"! FACT: In The US Alone, Over 20 MILLION People Will Have A Hard Drive Crash This Year! FACT: 110 MILLION Will Lose Data To Malware & Viruses! Don't Have A Back Up Plan? Well - Now YOU DO! FACT: When Your Drive Fails, You Only Have Three Choices: 1. Restore Your Backup 2. Lose Your Data 3. Pay Thousands For Data Recovery - And There's No Guarantee It'll Even Work! "There are two kinds of computer users in this world - Those who have lost data and those who will!" Let's face it - we REALLY rely on our computers. We keep our irreplaceable photos, videos, documents, and music right there on our PCs. However, a staggering 76% of us do NOT back up as often as we should! That's Texas Chain Saw Massacre scary if you ask me! Think that's bad? Get this - 43% of people polled admitted they've lost data from their hard drive - over the course of just ONE year! That's nearly HALF of all computer users!! "Sorry about our wedding photos hun..., Oh, and can I have $1000 to replace the iTunes library?" Think that's scary? Then you'll want to be sitting down for this: There will be an estimated 20 MILLION devastating hard drive crashes THIS year! There will be an estimated 110 million malware infections that destroy files PLUS millions of other system problems that will wipe out data. Take cover - we're talking the black Plague of the digital age! What's even MORE outrageous is that it's SOOOOO easy to keep your irreplaceable files, photos, and music safe and sound! A good backup program is ALL you need! I think the reason people don't worry about backups enough is we're all WAY too accustomed to things coming in a physical form. I mean, think about it - used to be we had things like CDs, photo negatives (and prints), and actual paper documents. Those days are fading fast! Just look at digital photos - over 80% of the households in the US now own a digital camera. Around 90% of us keep digital photos on our computers - either from our cameras or from images sent by friends and family. What happens when there's a problem? Will years of your family history simply be wiped out due to a crash or virus? Too bad about little Timmy's first 5 years huh? What about music? Over 70% of us keep music on our computers. If you purchased that music online, you know that if you lose it, it's gone forever! You'll have to repurchase everything- and THAT gets expensive quick! Hey, even if you only copied CDs - do you really want to go through that hassle again??? Then of course there are all the important documents, favorite web sites, spreadsheets, tax forms, financial files, etc that we've accumulated over the years. Just how many countless hours do you have invested in creating those files? Are you willing to lose it all - right now - and start from scratch? I didn't think so! So why isn't everyone a backup fanatic? When asked, most people will cite one of two reasons for NOT doing backups - either they are too much of a hassle, or they simply have no idea how to do it. Don't fall into the "I'll get around to it" trap! The backup you're planning to make tomorrow won't help you one little bit when your computer crashes today. Well, the program we're featuring solves BOTH the problems above with ease AND for $8.97 it's something everyone can afford. Finally! (Note - this is a one time software purchase, not a monthly fee like many online backup services) Of course, just any old backup software won't do - you need something that will actually work WITH you to take ALL the hassle out of doing your regular backups - and we have just the program! It's called, appropriately enough, Save My Files, and you are absolutely gonna love this easy to use file backup program! First off, let's take a peek at all the cool features: Full And Incremental Backups - This is so sweet I'm surprised Willy Wonka hasn't named a chocolate bar after it! A Full Backup does just what it sounds like - backs up EVERY file you tell it to. Now, that alone would usually be enough, but this program cranks it up to the next level by offering time saving Incremental Backups as well! Incremental Backups are backups you do AFTER you've completed a full backup. Check it out - This type of "smart backup" looks at your current archive and ONLY copies files that are either new or updated! It leaves the stuff that's not changed alone! Bottom line - You don't have to wait an hour (or hours) for a backup job to complete! Once the initial full backup job is done, the incremental backups are VERY fast (usually less than a minute)! If disaster strikes, you still have ALL your old files, so nothing to lose and mountains of time to gain. I LOVE incremental backups - and YOU will too! Automatically Finds Files For You! Oh, you'll LOVE this! A HUGE problem with doing backups is that, well, sometimes you just don't know where all your files are - especially music and photos. This ingenious software can help! For example, let's say you wanted to backup all your pictures. Just select the option for "Photos", and let it go to work. In a blink of an eye the program starts scouring your hard drive for photos. It checks all over - heck it may find photos you didn't know you had! Again - YOU don't need to know where all the files actually are - this finds and backs them up automatically! How cool is that? You can even specify file types, so if you have some proprietarily format, it can automatically find those files too! Now THAT'S a KILLER feature! Encrypt And Password Protect Your Backups - Do you have sensitive information in your backups? Hey, password protect and encrypt 'em! You'll never need to worry about someone getting at your sensitive information just because they found the CD you keep your backup on. Nice! Media Spanning - Have more to backup that will fit on a single CD, flash drive or hard drive? No worries! This can break the data apart and span it across multiple CDs, DVDs, flash drives, external hard drives, - whatever you use! WOW! Stores In ZIP Format - This is absolutely HUGE if you ask me. Here's the thing - what if you do a backup and then lose the backup software? How can you get your files OUT of the compressed backup file? Yikes! Ahh, no worries - this software stores your files in a standard ZIP file that can be opened via Windows (Note - it WILL prompt you for your password if you choose to encrypt and protect the file). Oh - and don't forget - with ZIP format, you're compressing everything! Awesome - Your backups won't take up gobs of space!! Select ANY Location You Want To Backup - Frankly, this does such a good job with the "pre determined" suggestions it offers, you probably won't even need this feature. However, if you have special folders floating around and want to make sure they are included with the backup, this software makes it easy! You can select ANY folder on your hard drive and it will back it up for you! Exclude Files - OK, maybe there are some files you DON'T want the software to backup. Just tell it the what files you don't want to include in your backup, and they won't be added - even if they reside in a folder that you specified for backup - super-cool huh? Whew - that's quite a list, and it doesn't even HINT at how incredibly easy this software is to use! Backing up is just a matter of running the program and telling it what you want to save! A few mouse clicks and you're good to go! Don't believe me? Check out out video demonstration and I'll prove it! Now, here's the really cool thing - after you do your initial backup, all you need to do for future backups is run the program and tell it to use your existing backup job! Talk about a time saver! Plus, this lets you create MULTIPLE backups too! You could have several backup files - one for pictures, one for business, one for music - or lump them all together - it's totally up to you! WOW - there's a LOT to this software, but I think you get the idea - it makes doing your regular backups SUPER easy! The program is basic enough for anyone to use but still has enough options for advanced users - what more could you want? Oh, yeah, the deal - we're talking just $8.97 and US shipping is FREE! That's got to be one of the best deals in the history of the PC - Heck most backup programs go for a MINIMUM of $50! RUN to the site and grab your before they're gone! This was a VERY limited time offer and we can't guarantee how long this software is going to last - especially for this crazy low price! http://store.worldstart.com/product/6456 PS - Right this very second, a hard drive is failing or a virus is destroying data - you could be next! Remember, there's a 43% chance that YOU will lose data this year! Don't take a risk - grab this amazing, easy to use backup software today and make sure you data is SAFE! Delete Select Websites From Google Chrome History Awhile back I wrote a post on deleting history on Google Chrome. However, a visitor to that post wanted to know if we could delete the history, but leave out stuff from a particular website. Now, Google Chrome is pretty blunt by itself – it was designed for speed and not for features. However, there are extensions in Google Chrome that can add to its capabilities. Today, we will see a Google Chrome history replacement that does a good job at replacing the built-in history function. It's called History 2. The default history on Google Chrome looks like this. With History 2, it becomes more usable and looks like this. Installing History 2 Step 1: Go to this URL for History 2 on the Google Chrome Webstore. Step 2: Click on the Add to Chrome button on the top right corner. Step 3: A pop-up window appears. Confirm by clicking on the Add button. Congratulations. You have installed History 2 in 3 easy steps. Using history 2 Now we will see how to use History 2 to delete select websites from your History. However, it will be useful if we familiarize ourselves with the features of History 2 first. Step 1: Go to history from the wrench on the top right corner, and click on history. Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl+Hshortcut. Step 2: Now, let us say we want to delete the history for Google Chrome Webstore from my history list. To do this, we will expand Google Chrome Webstore by clicking on the "+", and then, click on "Select All" as shown below. Step 3: Repeat step 1 and step 2 for all websites you want out of your history. Finally, click on "Delete all selected URLs". Step 4: When the operation completes, we will return to the History page. History can also be sorted according to time of visit (within a month, week, day etc.) and visiting frequency of websites. Take effective control of your history with this extension called History 2. ~Chinmoy Kanjilal Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a question for us? Ask it here! Cool Windows Mobile Apps - Part 2 In our continuation of this three-part series, here are another set of five cool apps for Windows-toting phones. Where the price isn't mentioned, take it to mean that the app is free. Happy app-ing! 6. Shopping Cart: It's your very own virtual shopping cart. With this intuitive list manager, you can list all the things you need into the cart. Simple and useful – particularly when you have a checklist to tick off. It's a finger friendly application that also includes language support for configuration utility and save/open/browse dialogs. There's also SMS and D-pad support. So what are you waiting for? Create and manage lists (both standard and master lists) from your PC and transfer them directly to your device. Get the rest here! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) Ed Jolly from Tulsa, OK asks: Just rebuilt from attack. Now on Windows 7. Could you please do step by step to back up entire system to external HD with win 7? I used NTbackup on XP, but not sure how to do on win 7. Hi Ed! You will be glad to hear that backing up your entire system is easier with Windows 7 than it was with NT. Here is a quick rundown of all that you will need to do: 1. First, you need to launch the Windows 7 Backup and Restore utility. You can do that by clicking the Startbutton and typing 'backup and restore' into the search bar, or by going to the Control Panel, selectingSystem and Security, and then Backup and Restore. 2. If you have never run a backup before, click the link on the top right that says Set up backup. 3. The next window that opens asks you to choose a location for your system backup, so select your external hard drive from the choices you are given. Just make sure that your external drive is big enough for a full backup. If it isn't, Windows will warn you before proceeding. Click Next to continue. Read it all over at Worldstart! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) 100% Free Chess 100% Free Chess is just what the name says. Utilizing a simple, intuitive interface, it includes several free chess games, along with helpful tutorials for those of us who need all the help we can get. Let me begin by saying that there will be no mention here of the outcome of the test games I played. I suspected that this wasn't my game, when one of my little guys on the front lines (pawns?) made it all the way to other end, and my opponent wouldn't king me. Get the download here! (Want these tips in their entirety? Sign up for Premium!) For stories, jokes, quotes and cartoons every day, sign up for our Just for Grins newsletter. PearlTrees Welcome to pearltrees – a site that gives you the tools to cultivate your interests online! I discovered this site while looking for ways to manage my bookmarked and favorited sites – as you can imagine, I have a ton of them. I thought it would be nice to be able to organize them into easily accessible categories like video games, knitting, crocheting, literature, history, music, etc. At the end of my search I was at Pearl Trees and more than ready to give it a whirl. To start your visit at pearltrees, I'm going to recommend that you watch the video on the main page, which will show you how it works and explain the basic premise of the site and its functionality. Then I'd suggest that you click the Prefer to See Some Nice Examples of Pearltrees? link, which will whisk you away to interactive examples you can click through to get a real feel for how the site works. Notice that you can not only explore the circles on the page and open the content linked to them, but you can also click on the arrows in each direction to open up more pearltrees to explore. After clicking through the examples and exploring the pearltrees you'll have a good idea if this is a site you'll use to manage and organize your favorite content on the web. IF you've decide to take the plunge and join pearltrees, registration is easy! Back on the main page there is a registration form that you'll fill out by creating a username and password, (and providing a working e-mail address). You can also use your Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts to login. If you use Facebook, Twitter, or Google – you'll sign in with that account and be presented with a form to fill in other details. I chose to edit my username at this point. Click the next buttons to navigate through the rest of the account setup steps. After you've created your account you'll have the opportunity to watch a few videos on how to use the site and if you're using Internet Explorer you can download Pearler – an extension that will let you add websites to your pearltrees as you browse the internet. You'll just click the pearltree button when you're on a page you want to add and then select where you want your new pearl to go! It is that simple! This site (and the pearler option) is going to make it so easy for me to get all of my bookmarked and favorited sites in order. Go check it out today! http://www.pearltrees.com/ ~Amanda Click here to rate this tip | Printer friendly version Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share? Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com Trying to Back Everything Up Without Spending a Fortune? Need to Cure a Virus Riddled Computer? How About Quickly Transferring HUGE Amounts of Data? THERE'S A CABLE THAT DOES ALL OF THIS AND MORE! One Cable. Endless Possibilities! It's a Miracle Cable Revolution... AND EVERYONE IN THE WORLD NEEDS ONE! See The Video Below! It's the Cable Used by SMART Consumers Worldwide! Pays For Itself in ONE Use! Now THAT'S Brilliant! When I first discovered this amazing cable, all I could think was, "WOW! Talk about a cable EVERY computer user needs!" What the heck is it? What's it do? Why would you want one? Glad you asked! Basically, this ingenious device allows you use an internal hard drive as an external hard drive! First - HOW it works: You take an internal hard drive - IDE or SATA (that's pretty much everything from the last 10+ years) and plug it into this device. Then plug the USB cable into your computer - that's it! The hard drive you hooked up will show up as a removable drive under My Computer! No pesky driver install required! How cool is that? Why would you want to do that? Here's just a FEW of the ways I use mine: This is the biggie! Let's say you have an old computer laying around and you REALLY want to get the info off the old hard drive and onto your new computer. With this, just pop out the old hard drive, hook it to this little gadget, and plug the USB cable into your new computer. You just got your data back! Oh, and if you're like me and have been computing for awhile, you probably have an old hard drive or two lying around. If so, just hook it up to this and have instant USB access to your files! Now THAT'S smart! My favorite use for this? Using it as a cheap backup device! OK, think about this - how much does an external hard drive cost? They're freakin' expensive! In a LOT of cases they can easily run over $100 - even $200 isn't unusual! Sad part is, if you're like most people, you're just using them as a backup device or extra storage. Know why you're paying so much? That pretty case! Why not just use an internal hard drive with one of these adapters? Think about it - hook up any internal IDE or SATA drive to this device and you instantly have a place for backups or extra storage! When you're done, just stick the drive in your desk drawer! Hey, that's my backup plan most of the time! Internal drives are easier to store, cheaper to buy (think WAY cheaper) and just as reliable! PLUS - Once you get the data off your old hard drive, you can turn THOSE into your backup drives! Now that's my kind of recycling! So, you have a large file - or group of files - that just won't fit on your flash drive but you need to get them to another computer. Hmm. what to do... I know - grab that old hard drive sitting in your drawer and use this handy cable put them on there! After all, this cable is basically turning your old hard drive into a giant flash drive, right? Why not use it like one? Once your data has been copied, just grab the drive and cable and transfer to the computer that needs the info - problem solved! OK, this may not be for everyone, but I've done this several times with these cables and it works GREAT! See, I get a lot of people that come to me with infected computers. Well, some of those infections take HOURS to get off their computer because every time you boot Windows, the virus turns on as well. Smarter viruses then disable all the software tools you install to get rid of them! ARRGH! So, instead of taking hours to try and manually remove a bad virus, I just pop out the hard drive and - using this cable - hook it to my personal computer. Now I have access to the everything but since windows didn't boot on the infected drive, the virus STAYS DORMANT - and is helpless to stop me from killing it! A quick scan and removal with from my AV software and the problem is fixed! All thanks to this handy little cable! And those are just a FEW of the uses for this remarkable cable! Frankly, this cable is so incredibly useful that once you get it, you'll wonder how you got along without it! In fact, you gotta wonder why these aren't standard equipment with every new PC! Your cost? 'Till tomorrow it's just $22.97 and FREE SHIPPING! It's an incredible deal - especially when you figure in all the money it's going to save you on those fancy external drives! Pays for itself almost instantly! Check it out: http://store.worldstart.com/product/3564 PS - Stop getting ripped off for hard drive storage! Grab one of these and use ANY IDE or SATA drive for extra space, backup, and storage before this sale ends! April Wallpaper! Hey, no foolin' - April's wallpaper is ready to go! All the desktop wallpaper below is 100% free. Devil's Bathtub Had to get a little wet for this one. Waded out into the (surprisingly cold) water and setup a tripod to capture the shot. This was the morning after a rainy day and there was... (more) Bison Calf And Flower I found this little guy roaming along the roadside with his mom (and about 300 other bison) in Custer State Park, SD. He was pretty playful and cooperative, so I stuck with him for a bit just to see what would happen. Glad I did! He discovered this thistle and flower and just couldn't stop messing with it. At first, he was... (more) Apple Tree Flower This one is pretty simple. I don't do a ton of macro shots, but in the spring, I just can't seem to resist dragging out the 200mm macro lens and hitting the blossoms a bit. The tree I found was just full of new flowers, but I wanted something special. I noticed as the sun rose, the light spilled... (more) It can all be found here: http://www.backcountrygallery.com/wallpaper/ Enjoy! ~Steve

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