2 Features in Windows 8 That Will Help You Manage Disk Space Easily

Posted on by admin

Managing your disk space is now easier with Windows 8.1. In the past, people had to use My Computer or My PC and File Explorer to get basic information about the space on your drive.

But all that’s changed now since two features in the PC Settings makes the task of managing your disk much easier, and they are:

#1: Disk Space

For this, open the Charm bar and select Settings and after which, select Change PC Settings. Once the PC Settings app is open, then move to PC Settings and Devices as well as Disk Space.

Since you are checking for disk space, the results will take a while to pop up especially if you have a number of files on your disk.

Just keep in mind that these summaries are grouped by folders that are named specifically and NOT the Windows libraries.

So, in using this tool, you’ll be able to find out which folder is taking up too much space and take the necessary action by moving files to cloud storage or an external hard drive. Another feature of this app is that one can empty the Recycle Bin.

#2: App Sizes

Another aspect of managing disk space includes monitoring the size of applications which can be seen as soon as you click the link See my application’s sizes. This will take you Search and app and then to App sizes.

What you will find is a list of all your UI apps and the amount of space they take up. All you have to do from there on is to uninstall the ones that you don’t need – one by one. If you want to remove several at a time, you can use the Windows 8 App Remover instead.

3 Ways to Protect Sensitive Data on Storage Devices

Posted on by admin

With the growing possibility that deleted files can be recovered from your PC especially if it is passed on to someone else, there’s a growing threat that someone can gain access to sensitive information and blackmail you with it.

That said, here are 3 ways by which you can protect sensitive data from just about any storage device:

#1: About Drives

If you use mechanical drives, then it is possible to recover data from these older forms of storage. In order for you to prevent this from happening, you will have to overwrite the drive with something else. This applies to external solid state drives such as USBs and SD cards and so on and so forth too. External drives have a feature called TRIM which ensures that all memory cells are deleted permanently.

#2: Use Windows 8

Prior to Windows 8, people had to use third party software to delete files permanently from one’s hard drive. However, now a feature has been added makes this task easier while also installing your operating system as well.

The feature is “Reset your PC feature in Windows 8 or 8.1” where you can “fully clean the drive” and have your operating system as a result.

#3: Use encryption for your files

No matter whether deleted or current, encrypting them means protecting all types of files. Software such as TrueCrypt or the BitLocker feature where the former can encrypt entire drives or even create encrypted containers too. Of course, in order to access these files, you will have to enter an encryption passphrase without which, the data still on your PC will appear as gibberish.

Why You Don’t Need to Encrypt All Your Backup Files

Posted on by admin

The golden rule pertaining to your data involves carrying out steps to backup and encrypt all your files.

If it wasn’t for backup, all your files be it audio, video, documents and spreadsheets and so on and so forth would be gone in no time from your hard drive.

Also, if your hard drive fell into the wrong hands, they’d have access to all your sensitive (and personal) information which could result in identity theft among other disasters.

Simply put, the best case scenario is to not only backup your files but encrypt the sensitive files in the same hard drive.

While some commercial backup programs come with an option to encrypt files, it doesn’t seem to make sense to some experts to encrypt their backup files.

For the simple reason that if you are worried about people reading sensitive information off your external drive then you should also worry about them being able to access this information from your PC if it’s stole.

So, it should be obvious that you should encrypt your files on your internal drive and which will be encrypted when backed up.

Also, there’s no point in encrypting everything. Well, a thief won’t be able to do much with your vacation pictures either. Of course, legal documents, bank statement or even tax forms are important.

It is for this reason that one should consider trying an open source program such as TrueCrypt but only as a volume in a place that is a part of your regular backup routine (like My Documents) instead of a separate partition itself.

IT and cooling units

Posted on by admin

At first blush, one would think that “what’s the relation between IT and air conditioners? Does this mean that IT guys feel uncomfortable and sweat just like the rest of us when it gets warm?” Well of course, they’re every bit as human as we all are. But if you take a second and think, you’ll realize that computers, terminals, and all the equipment these guys run consume a whole lot of power – and when we talk about large power consumption, that means an equally large amount of heat generation too. Computers love the cold, and that’s because these machines function a whole lot better if it’s temperatures are maintained at a certain level. Computers that get too hot can malfunction or totally break down. Circuits and chips inside these things can warp, or even burn up if it isn’t cooled properly. That’s why IT equipment need spot cooling as well as dehumidification to ensure that these machines operate at constant temperatures so they don’t get damaged and worn out too quickly. What this means is that properly cooled IT equipment would require less maintenance due to unexpected failures, malfunctions, or breakdowns. That translates to less dollars spent on repairs and overhead, and more dollars focused on your core business. Perhaps, the most important thing you should take from this is the fact that poorly-cooled IT equipment such as servers and mainframes can malfunction and break down much sooner than its supposed to. So don’t scrimp on cooling units for your IT department!

How to Improve Placements

Posted on by admin

This article was written by Ted Dhanik

Most display advertising networks won’t disclose the placements that you are bidding on, but they do offer a host of other resources that can help you trim the fat. If you know what to look for, and how to reduce those unnecessary clicks, you can strategically shave hundreds off of your monthly budgets.

Exclusions

The targeting you exclude is as important as the things you include in your campaign. By excluding, you can narrow down the target audience until you get to the specific group of people you want to advertise to. Think about exclusions like broad match keywords, or keywords that include relevant variations.. You need some data to tell you what is or is not working, then you review your analytics and profit analysis to determine which banner advertising placements are good to exclude.

Targeting

Targeting encompasses more than just the age group you want to market to. Retargeting functions, for instance, can help you target only people who have already seen your add. Geographic targeting can help you find individuals in regions where your products sell for a higher price. Always think about the benefits of targeting one region over another, and remember that going local also saves you some of your budget.

Timing

The time of day that your ads show also plays a role in your sales. What if no one buys anything from you between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm? If you could stop your ads from running during those times, you could focus your budget on times when people are more likely to buy.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is the co-founder and president of business development for engage:BDR. For over fifteen years, Ted Dhanik has worked to establish brands like LowerMyBills.com and MySpace.com. Find out how to improve your ROI on display advertising with tips from Ted Dhanik.

Three Secrets to Running a Successful Internet Café Business

Posted on by admin

Written by SweepsCoach

If you own an internet café business, chances are you’re constantly thinking about ways to attract new customers and grow your business. This is especially true today, when nearly every single person has a computer in the palm of their hands. What makes an internet café attractive to people who might have everything they need in their smart phones? How do you set your business apart from the rest? How do you attract new clients and keep existing customers coming back for more? These are all important questions for any business owners of an internet café.

Although running an internet café business might be challenging, it’s not impossible. In fact, there are many successful internet cafes that are growing and expanding their services. Want to know their secrets? Here are three secrets to running a successful internet café business.

They Get Expert Advice

Running any type of business is hard work, which is why business owners who make it in the internet café industry get help when they need it. The most successful business owners have hired consulting companies for expert advice. A business consulting company is a team of professionals that know your business and the industry inside and out. They can provide you with advice on everything from how to launch a new business to how to market your company online. Regardless of what area you need help with, it’s always nice to have someone you can trust on your side.

They Offer Sweepstakes Games

To set your company apart from a typical internet café, you will need to offer unique services and/or products. In an effort to do just that, many business owners have started offering sweepstakes games along with sweepstakes terminals. Sweepstakes games are fun and exciting games that attract all types of customers. They can be played and enjoyed with friends or solo. To play the games, customers will need to purchase time from a kiosk, and then use the time to play the games on the computer. It’s a great way to surprise your current clients and attract new people into your store.

They Provide Web-Based Games

Many internet cafes have games. But not all of them have web-based games. There are many benefits to offering web-based games to your clients. Customers will love the fact that web-based games are faster, better, and more fun than traditional games. Web-based games are also free of problems, unlike traditional games that can have many bugs and issues. Finally, web-based games can be played at home. Customers will love the freedom and opportunity to play the games in your store or online in the comfort of their own home. They will still need to purchase time from your store, which means they might even purchase more time so that they can play without interruptions.
——————————————————————————————————————–
SweepsCoach is a consulting firm for internet cafés and sweepstakes cafes, offering business advice on everything from starting a business to choosing the right sweepstakes software.

How you Protect Yourself When Browsing the Web

Posted on by admin

With the Heartbleed vulnerability that went viral recently, it’s clear that one will never achieve 100-percent security or privacy.

However, the most plausible solution to this will be locking down your internet access completely so as to prevent any breach possible.

Which brings us to the topic of improving the privacy of your browsing. Most browsers offer privacy in the form of a mode that prevents your browsing to be tracked. In Chrome it is the incognito mode, Internet Explorer has InPrivate Browsing and Firefox has Private Windows.

But not only will your ISP know what you are surfing but so will the sites themselves as they can track your router’s IP address.

You can add an additional layer of security by installing add-ins such as MaskMe and Ghostery that will keep you protected from spies of all kinds. The former add-ins can provide you with both disposable email addresses as well as temporary credit cards too.

There are a couple of caveats with the latter, and which involves the display of pop-ups as well as the company taking money from advertisers for their business, which is a conflict of interest.

That said, these solutions will still allow website to view your IP address while your ISP will continue to track what websites you’ve visited too.

If you want to hide your IP address, then a VPN is advisable but most of all, the Tor Browser will help you stay safe since it routes its signal through a number of servers so people do not know where you are coming from.

It’s probably the safest option available now.

One Important Factor to Every Business

Posted on by admin

By Allied Time

Like every business manager, you probably make it a priority to hire the absolute best in your field, right? Once you have the right employees, a company’s success almost becomes academic. However, this kind of thinking can also leave you in a lot of trouble. It actually takes more than just good employees to reach the heights of success. As many companies have found out the hard way, you also need to ensure they’re working when they’re supposed to.

Even the most dedicated and honest people can slip up and sometimes leave you with time left on the clock, despite still paying them. These same employees can sometimes work too late, forcing you to pay them overtime. So tracking their time can make a big difference in a number of ways.

Employee time clock software is now more user-friendly than ever and affordable too. So you don’t have to invest a lot in order to get a substantial return. Plus, with options like Icon time systems, you get a number of other benefits at your fingertips as well.

For example, you can make reports with just a few clicks to get an idea of when exactly your employees are actually at work, when they leave, etc. This can go a long way toward addressing any problems.

______________________________________________________________________

Allied Time offers some of the best Acroprint time recorder options on the market to meet all your business’ timekeeping needs. Whether you need the physical thing or the digital version, this company has it all.

Using Windows 8 App Remover to Get Rid of Unnecessary Apps

Posted on by admin

Getting rid of bloatware has become a common task to perform especially for those using Windows. Thanks to the presence of bloatware, people have had no choice but to turn to third-party programs in order to get rid of it automatically.

All this has gotten worse in Windows 8 with a number of Metro apps being installed and difficult to remove. Of course, the only option is to go through each of these apps and uninstall them one by one.

But that would take a lot of time, now wouldn’t it?

This brings us to the Windows 8 App Remover which will, with a single click, removes a number of applications at the same time and much like the PC Decrapifier.

Think about it: even if pre-installed apps are less problematic as opposed to the others, it’s still better to get rid of both for more than one reason.

Not only does this reduce clutter in the All Apps view but it also saves on space as well as unnecessary updates from the Windows Store. Most of all, it helps you to organize the Start screen.

For this, you have to download Windows App Remover from Sourceforge and install it just as you would for any other desktop program. It isn’t available for Windows RT tablets yet.

After you install the app, make sure you pick the right version of Windows that you are using. After this, click ‘List Apps’ as well as ‘Remove Apps’. Finally, select ‘Yes’ to the Warning message.

And we’re done removing all the unnecessary apps….

Hosting Companies Provide Too Many Benefits to Ignore

Posted on by admin

By Rack Alley

Running a company in the digital age is certainly no easy task. There are so many options to juggle in terms of optimizing your business. Of course, the majority of them just aren’t worth your time. However, working with the right LA web hosting company always is. So long as you do your homework to pick the best one possible, a hosting company provides far too many benefits to ignore.

One of the main benefits server hosting in Los Angeles gives you is that you don’t have to worry about the overhead that comes with handling this matter in-house. This means paying for the space you need to have all the necessary hardware as well as paying for the utilities necessary to keep them running. Of course, it’s also going to take some sizable paychecks to employ the experts you’ll need to oversee those machines.

Another benefit is that scalability becomes a constant option. Being able to increase or shrink your operation at a moment’s notice is a huge advantage in today’s market. If the economy is working against you, scale down to save money. A hosting company can help you do that at will. On the other hand, if you’re going after a large client, you might need to scale up your operation overnight. Again, an LA hosting company is your best friend.

______________________________________________________________________

Rack Alley provides Los Angeles data center to companies all over the Southern California area. They also handle colocation services and basically anything to do with data centers.