5 Everyday Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Healthy

Hygiene is important! Most of us have it under control for ourselves, but for a lot of our technology, it's a bit messier under the hood. Just like keeping your house clean or brushing your teeth addresses problems before they can start, a little prevention of common computer problems can save you hours and dollars down the road. And, as with any intimidating situation, even a little foreknowledge and preparation can be vastly empowering.<br> <br>For complicated machines like our cars, computers and gadgets, it's easy to be overwhelmed. It's not that we're being walled off from that knowledge at all -- they're our machines, we should know how to work with them, and the information is readily available -- but it can sometimes feel like an episode of "House" in there: Change one thing over here, and suddenly it's going haywire in a completely different area. So we tend to just shrug and keep going, even though our tech could work better than it does.<br> <br>If you think about how much of your daily life is spent working with, or deriving benefit from, your desktop or laptop computer, that can be scary all on its own. It's a catch-22, in a way: We don't want to mess with our computers because we don't want to cause problems, so we treat the back end like a room we never go into ... which causes problems! Not everybody can be a DIY mastermind -- I'm certainly not one -- but with a few simple routines and tips, you can keep your computer's works as clean as a whistle without ever feeling like you've crossed the line or permanently ruined everything.<br> <br>In this article, we'll look at the best ways to keep your machine working smoothly and quickly without breaking your budget -- or causing more problems as you learn.<br><br>Keeping It Cool<br>Most of us understand that computers need to stay cool, theoretically. But the convenience of a laptop and the reliability of a desktop make it easy to forget to keep this idea in play. The desktop lives in its own special place, wherever that may be, and we go to it when we need to do something. It's easy to forget all the environmental issues that could be going on in there.<br> <br>First, you want to ensure that there's plenty of airflow around all sides of the computer, especially the back on a desktop and often the bottom and sides for a laptop. While it's easy to declutter your desk or work area, it's also important to remember this tip if your tower lives under your desk, or in a special cubby, because the hot air in those situations can build up and recycle itself, getting hotter and hotter inside the space. Keep the cabinet doors open, for example, or take off the cubby's back panel to ensure<br> <br>You might have heard, or intuited, that taking the case off your computer is a good idea in cases of overheating. That's actually incorrect, because the case around your computer's guts is there to protect it from dirt and fuzz, which is one of the most common causes of overheating. Dust, pet hair, and all the rest of the daily grime are the biggest cause of PC temperature issues, because they interfere with the fans meant to cool your equipment down. If you've ever cracked a case open and looked at the fans inside, you won't have forgotten that grungy sight. Case closed, please.<br> <br>Which leads us to the most helpful way to be proactive here: by cleaning and/or replacing the fans that keep everything working. While expensive solutions like water-cooling kits and phase-change units (imagine a high-end deep freeze for your machine) aren't necessary for the average computer, you can easily install extra fans for components inside the machine that are getting too excited for their own good. Chances are, whatever fans came pre-installed are not top of the line anyway, so if you're running into repeat issues on this front you might look into extra, or better, fans.<br> <br>They're easy to spot: There's going to be one on the CPU, one inside the power supply, and probably another one on the front or side of the case itself. Just turn the computer off, take it outside, and clear those fans out with some canned air before deciding whether to upgrade. It's going to be nasty, but it's also pretty satisfying once you've  gotten things clean again.<br> <br>Powering UPS<br>Electrical outlets seem like a pretty simple proposition: You plug your stuff into them, and they work. (Even when you travel to other countries, with a little help.) But what we're not seeing our computers deal with is the little blips and interruptions coming out over the grid, all the time. Your average computer sold in the U.S. is meant to work off 120-volt AC power, oscillating at 60 Hz, but often that's not exactly what it's getting. Even if you never see the effect of those slip-ups and surges, the spikes and sags and tiny little brown-outs, the millisecond bumps in oscillation, your computer is feeling them.<br> <br>The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers tells us the typical AC outlet in North America gets a surge more than 600v (that's five times what your computer wants, and twice as much as what's dangerous to the equipment) about 13 times daily, and one more than 3000v (10 times the recommended maximum) about three times a week.<br> <br>In fact, it's estimated that 47 percent of computer problems can be traced back, eventually, to this so-called "dirty power" [source: Superuser] An Uninterruptible Power Source, or UPS, is designed to keep the power coming steadily and constantly, even in the face of a total power outage, by using a battery and modulation system to filter the electric power. Essentially, it means your computer is always running off the UPS's battery, which the UPS is always recharging. That means there's no switchover time, like you'd imagine with a generator or other backup.<br> <br>If you're convinced, just remember to keep your UPS grounded, replace the battery every three years -- you can get the replacements when you buy the unit, for convenience's sake -- and don't plug your printer or any other external devices into it. And, as is often recommended, it's probably a good idea to let the battery completely die at least a few times a year and recharge it from baseline.<br> <br>Routine Software Checks<br>There are three utilities you should get to know, even if that's as far as you want to go with the man behind the curtain: defragmentation, disk checks and an antivirus program. Most of the free antivirus software we'll be looking at comes bundled with analogues of the other two -- as well as a version of the very helpful task scheduler we'll talk about later -- so we'll focus there, but here are some definitions for the layman. What these terms refer to is the wilderness of digital energy inside your computer's memory drives, which are naturally a lot less tidy than you might expect.<br> <br>Defrag. Whenever you change, move, copy or delete a file, your computer usually does the minimum work necessary to give you the desired result. That means bits and pieces of files are left around in the empty spaces, not useful but also not gone, meaning your "free" space isn't technically free. A defrag utility will go hunting through the wilds of your free space, collecting those random shadows and getting rid of them for good. This frees up space your computer didn't even know it had, as well as speeding up the machine by pushing all the data that still matters into a more compact area of the disk so that your CPU doesn't have to hunt around for the various pieces of stuff you still<br> <br>Immensely satisfying, whether you -- like me -- simply prefer things clean and elegant, are paranoid about leftover data, or just want to make everyday tasks easier and faster for your machine. (You will have to clear out at least 15 percent of the space on the drive before it can work, so if your problem is an over-full memory, you'll need to delete some stuff before it can give you the extra space.)<br> <br>Chkdsk. Hand-in-hand with the defrag utility is this holdover from the early DOS days. It's a brute-force way of checking disks for errors, and it's the kind of thing you don't think about until about five minutes too late. If you don't use a sector of the disk -- or it's been left to the shadows, as above -- you might never know it's troubled until the computer tries to save something there. That's why Defrag usually includes or requires Chkdsk before it starts sorting through your leftovers. Just remember that a disk check requires exclusive access to the volume (For example, "C:" drive) before it starts, so you might have to go play on your phone or tablet for a while.<br> <br>Antivirus. Of course, we all get into trouble. Even if we're not doing anything particularly shady or questionable, viruses get in: That's what they're made for. You need a solid watchdog program, but you'll also want something you can use for analysis when you're feeling suspicious or nervous about the way something's acting. We judge antivirus software by three things: how much malware and viruses a program can detect, how good it is at getting them out of there without a trace or secondary issues, and how much memory and power they take up.<br> <br>There are some great free programs on the market that excel in all three areas. The most popular ones are self-updating, meaning they're always learning new red-flags and ways of locating and immunizing against threats, they include utilities like those listed above so you can clean house all from one location (very satisfying), and they include task schedulers that can make all of these things happen while you're asleep!<br> <br>Back It Up!<br>One easy way to remember your backup system -- which is to say, remember to actually use it -- is to remember that World Backup Day comes just before April Fool's Day, and that's no mistake. A lot of us are moving into the cloud these days, keeping our information and media online and accessing or streaming it at-will.<br> <br>But if your needs are different -- if you have lots of data or media you want to keep to yourself, protect, or otherwise maintain access to regardless of equipment failure -- you really should listen to your IT guy and back that stuff up. (You also should have a backup system for all your important files you keep in the cloud.) While external hard drives have become easy to come by, there are plenty of services that provide storage, free or for a price, that can sync your data easily and seamlessly, so that you never have to worry about another crash or disaster.<br> <br>Questions you should use to guide this search for the perfect match for your needs: How does the syncing work, and how often does it happen? Can you share the data with other people or computers? Can you access your data over the Web? Does it cover more than one computer? How about more than one type? Can you get a plan for both Macs and PCs at once? And how much is price a factor? You're going to be using gadgets other than your desktop or laptop more and more, if you don't already: You may need phone access or tablet access in the future that you don't need now, and the hassle of moving large storehouses of information can quickly be a real drag.<br> <br>While many of the larger companies cater to a certain kind of paranoia -- as a sales tactic, of course -- these questions still matter, because you need to find the perfect backup service for you. The information that is most important to you will be just as important, at the end of the day, regardless of what you decide here. But in terms of your computer's health, and your own peace of mind, this is a comparison-shopping situation that could end up meaning a great deal down the road. Think about it this way: The more time you spend making the best choice now, the more likely you are to actually use the service, which is the end goal.<br> <br>

5 Everyday Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Healthy

Hygiene is important! Most of us have it under control for ourselves, but for a lot of our technology, it's a bit messier under the hood...

Read more »

5 Everyday Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Healthy

Hygiene is important! Most of us have it under control for ourselves, but for a lot of our technology, it's a bit messier under the hood. Just like keeping your house clean or brushing your teeth addresses problems before they can start, a little prevention of common computer problems can save you hours and dollars down the road. And, as with any intimidating situation, even a little foreknowledge and preparation can be vastly empowering.<br> <br>For complicated machines like our cars, computers and gadgets, it's easy to be overwhelmed. It's not that we're being walled off from that knowledge at all -- they're our machines, we should know how to work with them, and the information is readily available -- but it can sometimes feel like an episode of "House" in there: Change one thing over here, and suddenly it's going haywire in a completely different area. So we tend to just shrug and keep going, even though our tech could work better than it does.<br> <br>If you think about how much of your daily life is spent working with, or deriving benefit from, your desktop or laptop computer, that can be scary all on its own. It's a catch-22, in a way: We don't want to mess with our computers because we don't want to cause problems, so we treat the back end like a room we never go into ... which causes problems! Not everybody can be a DIY mastermind -- I'm certainly not one -- but with a few simple routines and tips, you can keep your computer's works as clean as a whistle without ever feeling like you've crossed the line or permanently ruined everything.<br> <br>In this article, we'll look at the best ways to keep your machine working smoothly and quickly without breaking your budget -- or causing more problems as you learn.<br><br>Keeping It Cool<br>Most of us understand that computers need to stay cool, theoretically. But the convenience of a laptop and the reliability of a desktop make it easy to forget to keep this idea in play. The desktop lives in its own special place, wherever that may be, and we go to it when we need to do something. It's easy to forget all the environmental issues that could be going on in there.<br> <br>First, you want to ensure that there's plenty of airflow around all sides of the computer, especially the back on a desktop and often the bottom and sides for a laptop. While it's easy to declutter your desk or work area, it's also important to remember this tip if your tower lives under your desk, or in a special cubby, because the hot air in those situations can build up and recycle itself, getting hotter and hotter inside the space. Keep the cabinet doors open, for example, or take off the cubby's back panel to ensure<br> <br>You might have heard, or intuited, that taking the case off your computer is a good idea in cases of overheating. That's actually incorrect, because the case around your computer's guts is there to protect it from dirt and fuzz, which is one of the most common causes of overheating. Dust, pet hair, and all the rest of the daily grime are the biggest cause of PC temperature issues, because they interfere with the fans meant to cool your equipment down. If you've ever cracked a case open and looked at the fans inside, you won't have forgotten that grungy sight. Case closed, please.<br> <br>Which leads us to the most helpful way to be proactive here: by cleaning and/or replacing the fans that keep everything working. While expensive solutions like water-cooling kits and phase-change units (imagine a high-end deep freeze for your machine) aren't necessary for the average computer, you can easily install extra fans for components inside the machine that are getting too excited for their own good. Chances are, whatever fans came pre-installed are not top of the line anyway, so if you're running into repeat issues on this front you might look into extra, or better, fans.<br> <br>They're easy to spot: There's going to be one on the CPU, one inside the power supply, and probably another one on the front or side of the case itself. Just turn the computer off, take it outside, and clear those fans out with some canned air before deciding whether to upgrade. It's going to be nasty, but it's also pretty satisfying once you've  gotten things clean again.<br> <br>Powering UPS<br>Electrical outlets seem like a pretty simple proposition: You plug your stuff into them, and they work. (Even when you travel to other countries, with a little help.) But what we're not seeing our computers deal with is the little blips and interruptions coming out over the grid, all the time. Your average computer sold in the U.S. is meant to work off 120-volt AC power, oscillating at 60 Hz, but often that's not exactly what it's getting. Even if you never see the effect of those slip-ups and surges, the spikes and sags and tiny little brown-outs, the millisecond bumps in oscillation, your computer is feeling them.<br> <br>The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers tells us the typical AC outlet in North America gets a surge more than 600v (that's five times what your computer wants, and twice as much as what's dangerous to the equipment) about 13 times daily, and one more than 3000v (10 times the recommended maximum) about three times a week.<br> <br>In fact, it's estimated that 47 percent of computer problems can be traced back, eventually, to this so-called "dirty power" [source: Superuser] An Uninterruptible Power Source, or UPS, is designed to keep the power coming steadily and constantly, even in the face of a total power outage, by using a battery and modulation system to filter the electric power. Essentially, it means your computer is always running off the UPS's battery, which the UPS is always recharging. That means there's no switchover time, like you'd imagine with a generator or other backup.<br> <br>If you're convinced, just remember to keep your UPS grounded, replace the battery every three years -- you can get the replacements when you buy the unit, for convenience's sake -- and don't plug your printer or any other external devices into it. And, as is often recommended, it's probably a good idea to let the battery completely die at least a few times a year and recharge it from baseline.<br> <br>Routine Software Checks<br>There are three utilities you should get to know, even if that's as far as you want to go with the man behind the curtain: defragmentation, disk checks and an antivirus program. Most of the free antivirus software we'll be looking at comes bundled with analogues of the other two -- as well as a version of the very helpful task scheduler we'll talk about later -- so we'll focus there, but here are some definitions for the layman. What these terms refer to is the wilderness of digital energy inside your computer's memory drives, which are naturally a lot less tidy than you might expect.<br> <br>Defrag. Whenever you change, move, copy or delete a file, your computer usually does the minimum work necessary to give you the desired result. That means bits and pieces of files are left around in the empty spaces, not useful but also not gone, meaning your "free" space isn't technically free. A defrag utility will go hunting through the wilds of your free space, collecting those random shadows and getting rid of them for good. This frees up space your computer didn't even know it had, as well as speeding up the machine by pushing all the data that still matters into a more compact area of the disk so that your CPU doesn't have to hunt around for the various pieces of stuff you still<br> <br>Immensely satisfying, whether you -- like me -- simply prefer things clean and elegant, are paranoid about leftover data, or just want to make everyday tasks easier and faster for your machine. (You will have to clear out at least 15 percent of the space on the drive before it can work, so if your problem is an over-full memory, you'll need to delete some stuff before it can give you the extra space.)<br> <br>Chkdsk. Hand-in-hand with the defrag utility is this holdover from the early DOS days. It's a brute-force way of checking disks for errors, and it's the kind of thing you don't think about until about five minutes too late. If you don't use a sector of the disk -- or it's been left to the shadows, as above -- you might never know it's troubled until the computer tries to save something there. That's why Defrag usually includes or requires Chkdsk before it starts sorting through your leftovers. Just remember that a disk check requires exclusive access to the volume (For example, "C:" drive) before it starts, so you might have to go play on your phone or tablet for a while.<br> <br>Antivirus. Of course, we all get into trouble. Even if we're not doing anything particularly shady or questionable, viruses get in: That's what they're made for. You need a solid watchdog program, but you'll also want something you can use for analysis when you're feeling suspicious or nervous about the way something's acting. We judge antivirus software by three things: how much malware and viruses a program can detect, how good it is at getting them out of there without a trace or secondary issues, and how much memory and power they take up.<br> <br>There are some great free programs on the market that excel in all three areas. The most popular ones are self-updating, meaning they're always learning new red-flags and ways of locating and immunizing against threats, they include utilities like those listed above so you can clean house all from one location (very satisfying), and they include task schedulers that can make all of these things happen while you're asleep!<br> <br>Back It Up!<br>One easy way to remember your backup system -- which is to say, remember to actually use it -- is to remember that World Backup Day comes just before April Fool's Day, and that's no mistake. A lot of us are moving into the cloud these days, keeping our information and media online and accessing or streaming it at-will.<br> <br>But if your needs are different -- if you have lots of data or media you want to keep to yourself, protect, or otherwise maintain access to regardless of equipment failure -- you really should listen to your IT guy and back that stuff up. (You also should have a backup system for all your important files you keep in the cloud.) While external hard drives have become easy to come by, there are plenty of services that provide storage, free or for a price, that can sync your data easily and seamlessly, so that you never have to worry about another crash or disaster.<br> <br>Questions you should use to guide this search for the perfect match for your needs: How does the syncing work, and how often does it happen? Can you share the data with other people or computers? Can you access your data over the Web? Does it cover more than one computer? How about more than one type? Can you get a plan for both Macs and PCs at once? And how much is price a factor? You're going to be using gadgets other than your desktop or laptop more and more, if you don't already: You may need phone access or tablet access in the future that you don't need now, and the hassle of moving large storehouses of information can quickly be a real drag.<br> <br>While many of the larger companies cater to a certain kind of paranoia -- as a sales tactic, of course -- these questions still matter, because you need to find the perfect backup service for you. The information that is most important to you will be just as important, at the end of the day, regardless of what you decide here. But in terms of your computer's health, and your own peace of mind, this is a comparison-shopping situation that could end up meaning a great deal down the road. Think about it this way: The more time you spend making the best choice now, the more likely you are to actually use the service, which is the end goal.<br> <br>

5 Everyday Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Healthy

Hygiene is important! Most of us have it under control for ourselves, but for a lot of our technology, it's a bit messier under the hood...

Read more »

First look: HTC Desire 700

HTC has introduced three new dual-sim, mid-range smartphones, the Desire 501, Desire 601 and Desire 700, with the last being positioned as the premium handset among the three. We spent some time with the Desire 700 dual-sim and here are our first impressions:<br> <br>The Desire 700 dual sim (CDMA) looks more like its other Desire siblings and not like the HTC One, unlike the global variant of Desire 700. Once you hold the phone in your hands, you'll realize that unlike the HTC One, the Desire 700 dual sim is predominantly made of plastic.<br> <br>Desire 700 dual sim features what HTC calls BoomSound, which is essentially the dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifier, just like the HTC One. The phone also featured green coloured accents integrated with the front speaker grills, and the camera lens at the back.<br> <br>At 149 gram, the Desire 700 dual sim is not very bulky to carry. However, it is taller, broader and thicker than the HTC One.<br><br>The front of the Desire 700 is dominated by its 5-inch qHD display that offers a resolution of 540x960 pixels. Unfortunately, the screen leaves a lot to be desired (no pun intended), especially when the phone has been priced rather steeply, upwards of Rs. 30,000. The bigger size of the display reduces the pixel density to just about 220ppi (pixels per inch), resulting in images and text appearing less sharp, and at times pixilated, compared to 720p and full-HD displays.<br> <br>The Home and the Back capacitive keys are placed just below the display for navigation, while the 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and the sensor array sit above the display.<br><br>The edges of the phone are soft and resemble the HTC mini's soft plastic ones than the One's chamfered metal edges. The right edge features a metallic volume rocker key, while there's nothing on the left edge. The Power/Screen lock key, made of soft plastic, sits at the top with the 3.5mm headset jack. We fail to understand the logic behind HTC's placement of the Power key. For a device this large, this positioning just makes the phone cumbersome to use. We'd have preferred the key to be placed at the right or left edge. The bottom edge houses the micro-USB port.<br> <br>Desire 700 dual sim comes with a removable back, also made of soft plastic sporting a matte finish. The 8-megapixel rear shooter and the LED flash accompanying it, are located towards the left hand side in a circular ring, surrounded by a green accent. There's HTC branding at the middle. The back cover hides two micro-SIM card slots, the microSD card slot and the 2100mAh battery, which is removable.<br> <br>HTC Desire 700 dual sim supports GSM as well as CDMA networks and offers dual-sim functionality with both the lines active at the same time.<br><br>HTC Desire 700 dual sim is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB RAM. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5, the company's custom UI layer running on top. Just like the HTC One, it supports Blink Feed offering a feed of news and social network updates on the user's home screen. In our brief use, we did not experience any lags while navigating through the interface or launching apps.

First look: HTC Desire 700

HTC has introduced three new dual-sim, mid-range smartphones, the Desire 501, Desire 601 and Desire 700, with the last being positioned as t...

Read more »

First look: HTC Desire 700

HTC has introduced three new dual-sim, mid-range smartphones, the Desire 501, Desire 601 and Desire 700, with the last being positioned as the premium handset among the three. We spent some time with the Desire 700 dual-sim and here are our first impressions:<br> <br>The Desire 700 dual sim (CDMA) looks more like its other Desire siblings and not like the HTC One, unlike the global variant of Desire 700. Once you hold the phone in your hands, you'll realize that unlike the HTC One, the Desire 700 dual sim is predominantly made of plastic.<br> <br>Desire 700 dual sim features what HTC calls BoomSound, which is essentially the dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifier, just like the HTC One. The phone also featured green coloured accents integrated with the front speaker grills, and the camera lens at the back.<br> <br>At 149 gram, the Desire 700 dual sim is not very bulky to carry. However, it is taller, broader and thicker than the HTC One.<br><br>The front of the Desire 700 is dominated by its 5-inch qHD display that offers a resolution of 540x960 pixels. Unfortunately, the screen leaves a lot to be desired (no pun intended), especially when the phone has been priced rather steeply, upwards of Rs. 30,000. The bigger size of the display reduces the pixel density to just about 220ppi (pixels per inch), resulting in images and text appearing less sharp, and at times pixilated, compared to 720p and full-HD displays.<br> <br>The Home and the Back capacitive keys are placed just below the display for navigation, while the 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera and the sensor array sit above the display.<br><br>The edges of the phone are soft and resemble the HTC mini's soft plastic ones than the One's chamfered metal edges. The right edge features a metallic volume rocker key, while there's nothing on the left edge. The Power/Screen lock key, made of soft plastic, sits at the top with the 3.5mm headset jack. We fail to understand the logic behind HTC's placement of the Power key. For a device this large, this positioning just makes the phone cumbersome to use. We'd have preferred the key to be placed at the right or left edge. The bottom edge houses the micro-USB port.<br> <br>Desire 700 dual sim comes with a removable back, also made of soft plastic sporting a matte finish. The 8-megapixel rear shooter and the LED flash accompanying it, are located towards the left hand side in a circular ring, surrounded by a green accent. There's HTC branding at the middle. The back cover hides two micro-SIM card slots, the microSD card slot and the 2100mAh battery, which is removable.<br> <br>HTC Desire 700 dual sim supports GSM as well as CDMA networks and offers dual-sim functionality with both the lines active at the same time.<br><br>HTC Desire 700 dual sim is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB RAM. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5, the company's custom UI layer running on top. Just like the HTC One, it supports Blink Feed offering a feed of news and social network updates on the user's home screen. In our brief use, we did not experience any lags while navigating through the interface or launching apps.

First look: HTC Desire 700

HTC has introduced three new dual-sim, mid-range smartphones, the Desire 501, Desire 601 and Desire 700, with the last being positioned as t...

Read more »

10 Useful Google Tools

Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to find what we need. Other days it seems like the company plans to take over the entire world. And with a code of conduct that includes the direction of "don't be evil," maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing<br> <br> There's no denying it -- Google is an Internet powerhouse. It's such an influential presence on the Web that when Yahoo! partnered with Google to put Google Ads on Yahoo! search results pages, people began to worry that Google would monopolize the search engine advertising business. Even the U.S. Congress began to question the allegiance [source: Hart]. Google has certainly come a long way -- the company grew from a haphazard collection of computers networked together in a garage to a global<br> <br> The backbone to Google's business is its search engine, but that's not the only service Google offers. Do a little digging on Google's site and you'll come across everything from productivity applications to an instant messaging client. Google developed some of these products and features itself. But in some cases, Google products started out as independent projects designed by other companies. If Google executives see an interesting application that helps the company achieve its goals, there's a chance<br> <br> It seems that Google is reluctant to promote many of its projects from beta versions --early releases that may still have problems with functionality -- to completed products. Even Gmail, Google's e-mail client that launched in 2004, is still in beta. But some of the company's initiatives are less finished than others. Google allows users to try experimental services at the Google Labs Web site, but admits that the services "aren't<br> <br> Let's dive right into the diverse world of Google products. We'll start by taking a closer  look at Gmail.<br> <br> Google E-mail<br> In 2004, a Google press release revealed that the company wasn't satisfied with dominating Internet searches -- the second-most popular online activity. Google wanted to tackle the biggest online service on the Internet: e-mail. To that end, Google announced it would allow a select number of people to test a Web-hosted e-mail service called Gmail [source: Google].<br> <br> Gmail started out as Google's internal e-mail service. When Google decided to make Gmail available to people outside of the company, it chose to take a gradual approach. At first, the only way to get a Gmail account was to receive an invitation from someone else. Nearly three years after announcing Gmail, Google opened up access to the public at large. Now anyone can<br> <br> Gmail organizes messages into "conversations." If someone sends you a message and you respond, Gmail will present the two messages together in a stack. The original e-mail will be on top and your reply will appear beneath it. Future messages will appear under the originals, which Gmail collapses so that they don't take up too much space on your screen. By grouping messages and responses together, Gmail makes it easier for<br> <br> Some people think that communication by e-mail is dying (or is already dead). Google appears to have an answer to that as well: Google Talk.<br> <br> GTalk<br> Just when you thought the Internet had its fill of instant messaging clients, along came Google Talk. Introduced in 2005, Google Talk is an application that lets users send messages to each other. Unlike Gmail, the Google Talk client isn't entirely Web-based. Users must first download an application to their own computers in order to access its full set of features.<br> <br> Those features go beyond simple messages. You can send unlimited files -- of unlimited size -- to other users. Just remember that if you choose to send someone a big file, it's going to take a while to transfer to the other user, especially over slower connections. Also, if you have a cap on how much data you can transfer over your network, you might face some hefty fees from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).<br> <br> Google Talk is also a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) client. That means you can make PC-to-PC calls to other Google Talk users. You and your contact will both need microphones and speakers, but Google Talk handles the rest. Real-time voice transmission can take up a lot of bandwidth. Just like file transfers, you might risk going over your data cap with your ISP if you use this feature a lot.<br> <br> Users can also download the Google Talk Gadget, a Web-based application that allows users to access many (but not all) Google Talk functions from a personal Web site like a blog or an iGoogle page. That means you can use any computer connected to the Internet to navigate to the right site and use Google Talk. Right now, using a Google Talk Gadget is the easiest way Mac owners can access any of Google Talk's features.<br> <br> That pretty much covers communication. What else can Google organize? How about Internet shopping? Read all about the Google Checkout service in the next section.<br> <br> Google Checkout<br> Many people use the Internet to shop. One of the drawbacks of online shopping involves transmitting your personal information over the Internet. If you want to purchase items at different Web sites, you have to enter all your information multiple times. Google saw the opportunity to create a tool that would allow merchants and users<br> <br> Here's how it works: first you create a Google account. If you already have a Google account, you'll need to enhance it by providing a credit card number, billing address, shipping address and a phone number. Once you complete this step, you can go<br> <br> All you have to do is log in to your Google account and look for Web sites that subscribe to Google Checkout. When you see the checkout symbol listed next to an entry on a search results page, you know that you can purchase items from that site using your Google account. You'll be prompted to provide your Google Checkout password, but you won't have to enter your credit card number or personal information again. You make your selections and Google handles the rest of the transaction. The merchant never<br> <br> Google Checkout is free for consumers. Merchants must pay 2 percent plus 20 cents per sales transaction. But Google gives a discount to merchants who use Google AdWords. For every dollar a merchant spends in AdWords advertising per month, Google will process $10 of sales without charge [source: Google Checkout].<br> <br> Google also offers products designed to help you organize your life. Find out more<br> <br> Some people may feel nervous about giving Google their credit card information. Google stresses that it takes security and privacy very seriously. Since the merchant never sees the credit card number, there's less of a chance for someone to abuse the user's information. But it also means that Google's databases become an attractive target for hackers who want access to lots of credit card numbers.<br> <br> Google Calendar<br> In April 2006, Google released a free online calendar application called Google Calendar. If you have a Google account, you can create a Google Calendar. If you don't have one, you can register for a free account.<br> <br> You can use Google Calendar to schedule events and invite people to participate. By sharing folders, you can compare your schedule with other users. If everyone keeps his or her calendar up to date, it's easy to avoid conflicts. A single user can open multiple calendars and view all the scheduled events in a single window. Since this can get confusing, Google displays<br> <br> Google includes its search feature within the Google Calendar system. You can search for specific calendars. Calendar owners can choose to keep a calendar private or share it openly with everyone. It's also possible to create multiple calendars with one account. That can come in handy for organizations that have multiple customer bases. For example, a theatre might have one calendar for the general public that shows the times of performances and a second calendar for actors to let them know about auditions and<br> <br> Another Google product that's gaining popularity is a suite of applications that you'd usually find in office desktop software. It's the Google Docs suite of programs. Find out<br> <br> Google is big on giving users an integrated experience. That's why Google is one of the companies leading the OpenSocial initiative. The concept is simple: build a system in which a user can create login information and profiles in a central location, then use that information whenever he or she wants to join a social network. It also benefits application developers -- instead of building the same application for each social network, developers can create one version using the OpenSocial standards and port it across every network. Google walks the walk by using a similar approach with its products -- you can access most of them by creating a single Google account.<br> <br> Google Docs<br> The Google Docs suite marks Google's attempt at getting into the online productivity software game. The free suite includes a word processor, a spreadsheet editor and a presentation application. In short, it has the basic software applications many<br> <br> Google Docs uses a simple folder and file organizational system.<br> <br>  businesses need. Instead of saving all your data to your computer's hard drive, you save your Google Docs files to a remote Google file system. Because the files are hosted on the Web, you can access them from any computer connected to the Internet. Your documents aren't tied to a specific device.<br> <br> Another feature of Google Docs is the ability to share documents and editing capabilities with other Google users. Multiple people can make edits to the same document at the same time. With traditional desktop applications, a project manager might have to handle multiple copies of the same file as various collaborators make edits and additions to the document. With Google Docs, everyone can make his or her changes directly to the file saved on Google's servers. Google Docs also keeps track of earlier versions of the document -- project managers don't have to worry about someone accidentally deleting an entire section.<br> <br> One drawback to Google Docs is that none of the applications are as robust as popular desktop productivity software suites like Microsoft Office. If you only need basic functionality, Google Docs can be useful. If you're accustomed to creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations with all the bells and whistles, you'll probably want to stick to traditional software.<br> <br> Google Maps<br> Google launched its online map feature in 2005, nearly 10 years after MapQuest's online debut. Like its competitor, Google Maps lets users view maps of specific regions and get directions from one location to another. Google Maps allows users to view street maps, topographical terrain maps or even satellite views. For some areas, Google also has a traffic map feature that can<br> <br> The Google Maps feature relies on digital map images from NAVTEQ. NAVTEQ provides map data to many different clients, including in-vehicle navigation systems. A company called deCarta -- formerly Telcontar -- provides the applications that power the mapping features. Google employees create the applications that combine the images from NAVTEQ and the mapping capabilities provided by deCarta to create the features<br> <br> In 2008, Google added a new feature to Google Maps. Now you can get walking directions from one location to another. Previously, Google Maps only plotted out driving directions, which have to take things like one-way streets into account. Now users can find the shortest walking route between two points.<br> <br> Sometimes Google's decisions don't go over as well as they had planned. Google's Street View feature for Google Maps is a good example. Google mounted special cameras to cars, then sent them through cities across the United States and France. The cameras pointed in different directions and took pictures every few seconds, giving users a street-level view of certain cities. But some people say that Google's actions violate privacy. Google responded by blurring people's faces in the photos to protect<br> <br> Google Maps is closely related to the Google products suite called Google Earth. We'll look at it more closely in the next section.<br> <br> Google Earth Maps<br> Google is always looking at new ways to organize and present information. One of those ways is to geotag data. Geotagging is a way of linking information to a real-world location. You view geotagged information on a map. While Google Maps could serve as a way to provide geotagged information to users, Google decided to go with an alternative. Google chose a digital globe and called it Google Earth.<br> <br> Google acquired a company called Keyhole in 2005. Keyhole built the foundation for Google Earth, a digital globe that gave users the ability to zoom in and out of views ranging from a few dozen feet from the surface of the Earth to the equivalent of orbiting the planet. Google Earth gives the user dozens of choices, from viewing satellite images of the planet to overlaying maps, three dimensional terrain features and even fully-rendered cityscapes.<br> <br> Google Earth also allows developers to create applications to link information to specific locations on the globe. Users can elect to view geotagged information ranging from general news reports to customized data. Google Earth makes it possible to illustrate news stories in a new way. For example, a news agency could illustrate a story about<br> <br> Originally, the only way users could access Google Earth was to download an application and install it on their own computers. The application accesses the Internet to get the latest information and updates, but the user's computer hosts most of the application's features. In 2008, Google launched a new Google Earth application that's entirely Web-based. But since the full version of Google Earth needs a lot of computing resources to run smoothly, the Web-based version is a streamlined variation with fewer<br> <br> When Google executives say they want to organize the world's information, they're not kidding. And they aren't stopping with just the Web -- they want to organize your information too. That's where the Google Desktop application comes in. Read more<br> <br> One important application related to Google Earth is SketchUp, a program that allows computer artists to create 3-D buildings. Artists can export their creations to Google Earth. They can add textures to their buildings, making them even more realistic. Visit cities like Tokyo or New York City in Google Earth and you'll see many buildings laid out exactly the way they are in the real world<br> <br> Google Desktop<br> Have you ever had to search for a particular file on your computer? How about an e-mail that's somewhere in the middle of a folder that has thousands of messages in it? The experience can be frustrating, and those of us who are organizationally challenged can endure a lot of stress while trying to dig up a particular piece of information.<br> <br> That's where Google Desktop can come in handy. It's a downloadable application Google offers free of charge. Once a user downloads and installs the application on a computer, Google Desktop goes to work. It searches and indexes the files on the user's computer. It does all this during the idle time when the computer isn't working on other<br> <br> It doesn't just index the name of a file -- it searches the contents as well. Maybe you don't remember the subject of a particular e-mail, but you remember it mentioned something about a new sushi restaurant in town. You can search for the term "sushi" using Google Desktop and it will return results relevant to that term. The results look a lot like the search engine results pages Google generates for Web searches. One of<br> <br> Google Desktop also gives users the option to install personalized Google Gadgets. Gadgets retrieve information on the Web and present it in a window that stays on the user's desktop. Information might include traffic and weather updates, news feeds or to-<br> <br> If the Google Desktop doesn't gather enough information for your liking, you can always create a specialized Google homepage that can pull information and applications from hundreds of sources. That's the idea behind iGoogle, which we'll look at in the next section.<br> <br> iGoogle<br> You probably have a small number of Web sites or applications that you use more than others. What if you had a way to collect those Web sites so that you could go to a single location on the Web to access all of them at once? That's the concept behind iGoogle, a free aggregator or portal Web service.<br> <br> The iGoogle service allows users to select multiple applications and news feeds from across the Internet. Each user can customize his or her own iGoogle page. For example, sports fans can add applications that grab the latest scores and statistics of their favorite teams from the Internet and display them in a dedicated window on the iGoogle page.<br> <br> Google lets users organize their own iGoogle pages using a set of simple tools. One of those tools is a series of tabs at the top of the iGoogle page. Account holders can create tabs for specific categories of applications or news feeds. This makes it easier for users to find the information they want when they want it. Once the user sets up his or her<br> <br> While you can choose to include Google apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs in your iGoogle page, you aren't limited to Google applications. Third party developers have created iGoogle applications that let you access lots of different Web-based programs. With the right application installed in iGoogle, you can access things<br> <br> The final Google product we'll look at is possibly the most controversial one. That's because it's an attempt to organize medical documents.<br> <br> Google Health<br> Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to find what we need. Other days it seems like the company plans to take over the entire world. And with a code of conduct that includes the direction of "don't be evil," maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing<br> <br> There's no denying it -- Google is an Internet powerhouse. It's such an influential presence on the Web that when Yahoo! partnered with Google to put Google Ads on Yahoo! search results pages, people began to worry that Google would monopolize the search engine advertising business. Even the U.S. Congress began to question the allegiance [source: Hart]. Google has certainly come a long way -- the company grew from a haphazard collection of computers networked together in a garage to a global<br> <br> The backbone to Google's business is its search engine, but that's not the only service Google offers. Do a little digging on Google's site and you'll come across everything from productivity applications to an instant messaging client. Google developed some of these products and features itself. But in some cases, Google products started out as independent projects designed by other companies. If Google executives see an interesting application that helps the company achieve its goals, there's a chance<br> <br> It seems that Google is reluctant to promote many of its projects from beta versions --early releases that may still have problems with functionality -- to completed products. Even Gmail, Google's e-mail client that launched in 2004, is still in beta. But some of the company's initiatives are less finished than others. Google allows users to try experimental services at the Google Labs Web site, but admits that the services "aren't<br> <br> Let's dive right into the diverse world of Google products. We'll start by taking a closer  look at Gmail.<br>

10 Useful Google Tools

Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to f...

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10 Useful Google Tools

Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to find what we need. Other days it seems like the company plans to take over the entire world. And with a code of conduct that includes the direction of "don't be evil," maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing<br> <br> There's no denying it -- Google is an Internet powerhouse. It's such an influential presence on the Web that when Yahoo! partnered with Google to put Google Ads on Yahoo! search results pages, people began to worry that Google would monopolize the search engine advertising business. Even the U.S. Congress began to question the allegiance [source: Hart]. Google has certainly come a long way -- the company grew from a haphazard collection of computers networked together in a garage to a global<br> <br> The backbone to Google's business is its search engine, but that's not the only service Google offers. Do a little digging on Google's site and you'll come across everything from productivity applications to an instant messaging client. Google developed some of these products and features itself. But in some cases, Google products started out as independent projects designed by other companies. If Google executives see an interesting application that helps the company achieve its goals, there's a chance<br> <br> It seems that Google is reluctant to promote many of its projects from beta versions --early releases that may still have problems with functionality -- to completed products. Even Gmail, Google's e-mail client that launched in 2004, is still in beta. But some of the company's initiatives are less finished than others. Google allows users to try experimental services at the Google Labs Web site, but admits that the services "aren't<br> <br> Let's dive right into the diverse world of Google products. We'll start by taking a closer  look at Gmail.<br> <br> Google E-mail<br> In 2004, a Google press release revealed that the company wasn't satisfied with dominating Internet searches -- the second-most popular online activity. Google wanted to tackle the biggest online service on the Internet: e-mail. To that end, Google announced it would allow a select number of people to test a Web-hosted e-mail service called Gmail [source: Google].<br> <br> Gmail started out as Google's internal e-mail service. When Google decided to make Gmail available to people outside of the company, it chose to take a gradual approach. At first, the only way to get a Gmail account was to receive an invitation from someone else. Nearly three years after announcing Gmail, Google opened up access to the public at large. Now anyone can<br> <br> Gmail organizes messages into "conversations." If someone sends you a message and you respond, Gmail will present the two messages together in a stack. The original e-mail will be on top and your reply will appear beneath it. Future messages will appear under the originals, which Gmail collapses so that they don't take up too much space on your screen. By grouping messages and responses together, Gmail makes it easier for<br> <br> Some people think that communication by e-mail is dying (or is already dead). Google appears to have an answer to that as well: Google Talk.<br> <br> GTalk<br> Just when you thought the Internet had its fill of instant messaging clients, along came Google Talk. Introduced in 2005, Google Talk is an application that lets users send messages to each other. Unlike Gmail, the Google Talk client isn't entirely Web-based. Users must first download an application to their own computers in order to access its full set of features.<br> <br> Those features go beyond simple messages. You can send unlimited files -- of unlimited size -- to other users. Just remember that if you choose to send someone a big file, it's going to take a while to transfer to the other user, especially over slower connections. Also, if you have a cap on how much data you can transfer over your network, you might face some hefty fees from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).<br> <br> Google Talk is also a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) client. That means you can make PC-to-PC calls to other Google Talk users. You and your contact will both need microphones and speakers, but Google Talk handles the rest. Real-time voice transmission can take up a lot of bandwidth. Just like file transfers, you might risk going over your data cap with your ISP if you use this feature a lot.<br> <br> Users can also download the Google Talk Gadget, a Web-based application that allows users to access many (but not all) Google Talk functions from a personal Web site like a blog or an iGoogle page. That means you can use any computer connected to the Internet to navigate to the right site and use Google Talk. Right now, using a Google Talk Gadget is the easiest way Mac owners can access any of Google Talk's features.<br> <br> That pretty much covers communication. What else can Google organize? How about Internet shopping? Read all about the Google Checkout service in the next section.<br> <br> Google Checkout<br> Many people use the Internet to shop. One of the drawbacks of online shopping involves transmitting your personal information over the Internet. If you want to purchase items at different Web sites, you have to enter all your information multiple times. Google saw the opportunity to create a tool that would allow merchants and users<br> <br> Here's how it works: first you create a Google account. If you already have a Google account, you'll need to enhance it by providing a credit card number, billing address, shipping address and a phone number. Once you complete this step, you can go<br> <br> All you have to do is log in to your Google account and look for Web sites that subscribe to Google Checkout. When you see the checkout symbol listed next to an entry on a search results page, you know that you can purchase items from that site using your Google account. You'll be prompted to provide your Google Checkout password, but you won't have to enter your credit card number or personal information again. You make your selections and Google handles the rest of the transaction. The merchant never<br> <br> Google Checkout is free for consumers. Merchants must pay 2 percent plus 20 cents per sales transaction. But Google gives a discount to merchants who use Google AdWords. For every dollar a merchant spends in AdWords advertising per month, Google will process $10 of sales without charge [source: Google Checkout].<br> <br> Google also offers products designed to help you organize your life. Find out more<br> <br> Some people may feel nervous about giving Google their credit card information. Google stresses that it takes security and privacy very seriously. Since the merchant never sees the credit card number, there's less of a chance for someone to abuse the user's information. But it also means that Google's databases become an attractive target for hackers who want access to lots of credit card numbers.<br> <br> Google Calendar<br> In April 2006, Google released a free online calendar application called Google Calendar. If you have a Google account, you can create a Google Calendar. If you don't have one, you can register for a free account.<br> <br> You can use Google Calendar to schedule events and invite people to participate. By sharing folders, you can compare your schedule with other users. If everyone keeps his or her calendar up to date, it's easy to avoid conflicts. A single user can open multiple calendars and view all the scheduled events in a single window. Since this can get confusing, Google displays<br> <br> Google includes its search feature within the Google Calendar system. You can search for specific calendars. Calendar owners can choose to keep a calendar private or share it openly with everyone. It's also possible to create multiple calendars with one account. That can come in handy for organizations that have multiple customer bases. For example, a theatre might have one calendar for the general public that shows the times of performances and a second calendar for actors to let them know about auditions and<br> <br> Another Google product that's gaining popularity is a suite of applications that you'd usually find in office desktop software. It's the Google Docs suite of programs. Find out<br> <br> Google is big on giving users an integrated experience. That's why Google is one of the companies leading the OpenSocial initiative. The concept is simple: build a system in which a user can create login information and profiles in a central location, then use that information whenever he or she wants to join a social network. It also benefits application developers -- instead of building the same application for each social network, developers can create one version using the OpenSocial standards and port it across every network. Google walks the walk by using a similar approach with its products -- you can access most of them by creating a single Google account.<br> <br> Google Docs<br> The Google Docs suite marks Google's attempt at getting into the online productivity software game. The free suite includes a word processor, a spreadsheet editor and a presentation application. In short, it has the basic software applications many<br> <br> Google Docs uses a simple folder and file organizational system.<br> <br>  businesses need. Instead of saving all your data to your computer's hard drive, you save your Google Docs files to a remote Google file system. Because the files are hosted on the Web, you can access them from any computer connected to the Internet. Your documents aren't tied to a specific device.<br> <br> Another feature of Google Docs is the ability to share documents and editing capabilities with other Google users. Multiple people can make edits to the same document at the same time. With traditional desktop applications, a project manager might have to handle multiple copies of the same file as various collaborators make edits and additions to the document. With Google Docs, everyone can make his or her changes directly to the file saved on Google's servers. Google Docs also keeps track of earlier versions of the document -- project managers don't have to worry about someone accidentally deleting an entire section.<br> <br> One drawback to Google Docs is that none of the applications are as robust as popular desktop productivity software suites like Microsoft Office. If you only need basic functionality, Google Docs can be useful. If you're accustomed to creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations with all the bells and whistles, you'll probably want to stick to traditional software.<br> <br> Google Maps<br> Google launched its online map feature in 2005, nearly 10 years after MapQuest's online debut. Like its competitor, Google Maps lets users view maps of specific regions and get directions from one location to another. Google Maps allows users to view street maps, topographical terrain maps or even satellite views. For some areas, Google also has a traffic map feature that can<br> <br> The Google Maps feature relies on digital map images from NAVTEQ. NAVTEQ provides map data to many different clients, including in-vehicle navigation systems. A company called deCarta -- formerly Telcontar -- provides the applications that power the mapping features. Google employees create the applications that combine the images from NAVTEQ and the mapping capabilities provided by deCarta to create the features<br> <br> In 2008, Google added a new feature to Google Maps. Now you can get walking directions from one location to another. Previously, Google Maps only plotted out driving directions, which have to take things like one-way streets into account. Now users can find the shortest walking route between two points.<br> <br> Sometimes Google's decisions don't go over as well as they had planned. Google's Street View feature for Google Maps is a good example. Google mounted special cameras to cars, then sent them through cities across the United States and France. The cameras pointed in different directions and took pictures every few seconds, giving users a street-level view of certain cities. But some people say that Google's actions violate privacy. Google responded by blurring people's faces in the photos to protect<br> <br> Google Maps is closely related to the Google products suite called Google Earth. We'll look at it more closely in the next section.<br> <br> Google Earth Maps<br> Google is always looking at new ways to organize and present information. One of those ways is to geotag data. Geotagging is a way of linking information to a real-world location. You view geotagged information on a map. While Google Maps could serve as a way to provide geotagged information to users, Google decided to go with an alternative. Google chose a digital globe and called it Google Earth.<br> <br> Google acquired a company called Keyhole in 2005. Keyhole built the foundation for Google Earth, a digital globe that gave users the ability to zoom in and out of views ranging from a few dozen feet from the surface of the Earth to the equivalent of orbiting the planet. Google Earth gives the user dozens of choices, from viewing satellite images of the planet to overlaying maps, three dimensional terrain features and even fully-rendered cityscapes.<br> <br> Google Earth also allows developers to create applications to link information to specific locations on the globe. Users can elect to view geotagged information ranging from general news reports to customized data. Google Earth makes it possible to illustrate news stories in a new way. For example, a news agency could illustrate a story about<br> <br> Originally, the only way users could access Google Earth was to download an application and install it on their own computers. The application accesses the Internet to get the latest information and updates, but the user's computer hosts most of the application's features. In 2008, Google launched a new Google Earth application that's entirely Web-based. But since the full version of Google Earth needs a lot of computing resources to run smoothly, the Web-based version is a streamlined variation with fewer<br> <br> When Google executives say they want to organize the world's information, they're not kidding. And they aren't stopping with just the Web -- they want to organize your information too. That's where the Google Desktop application comes in. Read more<br> <br> One important application related to Google Earth is SketchUp, a program that allows computer artists to create 3-D buildings. Artists can export their creations to Google Earth. They can add textures to their buildings, making them even more realistic. Visit cities like Tokyo or New York City in Google Earth and you'll see many buildings laid out exactly the way they are in the real world<br> <br> Google Desktop<br> Have you ever had to search for a particular file on your computer? How about an e-mail that's somewhere in the middle of a folder that has thousands of messages in it? The experience can be frustrating, and those of us who are organizationally challenged can endure a lot of stress while trying to dig up a particular piece of information.<br> <br> That's where Google Desktop can come in handy. It's a downloadable application Google offers free of charge. Once a user downloads and installs the application on a computer, Google Desktop goes to work. It searches and indexes the files on the user's computer. It does all this during the idle time when the computer isn't working on other<br> <br> It doesn't just index the name of a file -- it searches the contents as well. Maybe you don't remember the subject of a particular e-mail, but you remember it mentioned something about a new sushi restaurant in town. You can search for the term "sushi" using Google Desktop and it will return results relevant to that term. The results look a lot like the search engine results pages Google generates for Web searches. One of<br> <br> Google Desktop also gives users the option to install personalized Google Gadgets. Gadgets retrieve information on the Web and present it in a window that stays on the user's desktop. Information might include traffic and weather updates, news feeds or to-<br> <br> If the Google Desktop doesn't gather enough information for your liking, you can always create a specialized Google homepage that can pull information and applications from hundreds of sources. That's the idea behind iGoogle, which we'll look at in the next section.<br> <br> iGoogle<br> You probably have a small number of Web sites or applications that you use more than others. What if you had a way to collect those Web sites so that you could go to a single location on the Web to access all of them at once? That's the concept behind iGoogle, a free aggregator or portal Web service.<br> <br> The iGoogle service allows users to select multiple applications and news feeds from across the Internet. Each user can customize his or her own iGoogle page. For example, sports fans can add applications that grab the latest scores and statistics of their favorite teams from the Internet and display them in a dedicated window on the iGoogle page.<br> <br> Google lets users organize their own iGoogle pages using a set of simple tools. One of those tools is a series of tabs at the top of the iGoogle page. Account holders can create tabs for specific categories of applications or news feeds. This makes it easier for users to find the information they want when they want it. Once the user sets up his or her<br> <br> While you can choose to include Google apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs in your iGoogle page, you aren't limited to Google applications. Third party developers have created iGoogle applications that let you access lots of different Web-based programs. With the right application installed in iGoogle, you can access things<br> <br> The final Google product we'll look at is possibly the most controversial one. That's because it's an attempt to organize medical documents.<br> <br> Google Health<br> Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to find what we need. Other days it seems like the company plans to take over the entire world. And with a code of conduct that includes the direction of "don't be evil," maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing<br> <br> There's no denying it -- Google is an Internet powerhouse. It's such an influential presence on the Web that when Yahoo! partnered with Google to put Google Ads on Yahoo! search results pages, people began to worry that Google would monopolize the search engine advertising business. Even the U.S. Congress began to question the allegiance [source: Hart]. Google has certainly come a long way -- the company grew from a haphazard collection of computers networked together in a garage to a global<br> <br> The backbone to Google's business is its search engine, but that's not the only service Google offers. Do a little digging on Google's site and you'll come across everything from productivity applications to an instant messaging client. Google developed some of these products and features itself. But in some cases, Google products started out as independent projects designed by other companies. If Google executives see an interesting application that helps the company achieve its goals, there's a chance<br> <br> It seems that Google is reluctant to promote many of its projects from beta versions --early releases that may still have problems with functionality -- to completed products. Even Gmail, Google's e-mail client that launched in 2004, is still in beta. But some of the company's initiatives are less finished than others. Google allows users to try experimental services at the Google Labs Web site, but admits that the services "aren't<br> <br> Let's dive right into the diverse world of Google products. We'll start by taking a closer  look at Gmail.<br>

10 Useful Google Tools

Some days it seems like Google is working hard at achieving its goal of organizing the world's information, making it easier for us to f...

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How to Work From Home: 10 Real-world Tips

I am writing this sentence on my couch. As an improvised "desk," I've grabbed one of my kids' piano books to shield me from the increasing warmth of my laptop. It's 9:47 a.m. on a Thursday, the oldest two kids are at school, my wife and youngest son just left to pick apples, and I have a window of four hours to work on this article before I take over toddler duty for the afternoon. If you want to know what working from home really looks like, this is it.<br> <br> According to a 2012 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24 percent of American workers worked at least some hours from home each week [source: Noonan]. As more work can be done online, those work-from-home numbers are expected to explode.<br> <br> On the surface, working from home sounds like a dream come true. No boss breathing down your neck (literally, with coffee breath). No depressing vending machine lunch at your desk. No impromptu conference room meetings to talk about "innovation" and "teamwork."<br> <br> But the reality is far more complicated. Do you have kids? Can they sit quietly doing puzzles for hours on end? Does the giant flat-screen TV a few feet to your left pose an irresistible threat to your productivity? Does that awesome snack selection pose an irresistible threat to your body mass index?<br> <br> If you can strike the right work-life balance, working can home can indeed be a dream come true. To help you plan for the real life challenges, we've assembled a list of 10 real-world tips for avoiding distractions, reassuring the boss and maximizing productivity.<br> <br> Get Dressed<br> Every job has a uniform. Doctors have their white coats; business executives have their power suits; and freelance writers have their sweatpants (only sort of kidding). Uniforms serve two purposes: (1) they communicate to the outside world a person's position, stature and function, and (2) they reinforce those same messages to the person wearing the uniform. When a doctor puts on her whites, she puts on the mantle of the knowledgeable and capable healer. Without it, she's just some lady gagging you with a Popsicle stick.<br> <br> When you work from home, resist the urge to remain in your pajamas. True, no one but the UPS guy is likely to see you in your polar bear-themed sleepwear, but it's hard to take yourself seriously as a worker when you look unemployed. Dressing in your normal work uniform — even if that uniform is a T-shirt and jeans — reinforces the idea that you are actually working. If wearing a tie or pencil skirt really gets your juices flowing, go for it. Just don't expect the cat to be impressed.<br> <br> Keep a Schedule<br> Many of us are more productive when we are working within a prescribed framework. That's why it's so important to set and keep a schedule when working from home. If your job requires a lot of interaction with the folks back at the office, you should try your best to align your schedule with the normal nine-to-five. If your work is largely independent, you have the freedom to work earlier or later than the regular work day, or split your day into several shifts.<br> <br> If you have a spouse and kids, it's even more important to set a firm work schedule. Every week, sit down with your spouse to chart upcoming doctor's appointments and soccer practices, and to assess each other's workload. Devise a schedule that shares parental duties while giving each person enough time to realistically get their work done.<br> <br> Print out the weekly schedule and tape it to your office door. By Tuesday, your toddler will have ripped it down and drawn a 20-legged elephant on it, but a schedule's a schedule. Stick to it.<br> <br> Post a Sign<br> This is a critical tip for parents trying to work from home. Whether you are working in an official-looking home office or a milk crate desk in the corner of your bedroom, make sure that there is a door between you and your treasured distractions (er, children). If your kids are older, this door is a great place to post your daily work schedule along with a number they can dial to reach customer service, i.e., your spouse's cell phone.<br> <br> If you have younger children, you need to post a sign that can be easily interpreted by a toddler to mean, "I love you, but please go bother daddy." Try a large "X" or a color-coded system like a construction-paper stoplight — green means "go on in," yellow means "enter only if you are bleeding/vomiting," and red means "there is a monster behind this door."<br> <br> Check in With the Team<br> One of the greatest risks of working from home is the false assumption by everyone at the office that you're actually "shirking" from home [source: Bloom]. To make this arrangement work, you need to come up with effective ways to assure your boss and teammates that you are hard at work even when you're not at work.<br> <br> If you use a corporate e-mail and IM account, use it to broadcast your work status. Send a quick "good morning" IM to teammates when you are at your desk, and let folks know if you're going to be away from e-mail and for how long [source: Wilcox]. If your company uses Gmail or another Web-based e-mail app, you can update your status (available, busy, away from desk) without having to send instant messages or e-mails.<br> <br> Another risk of working from home is "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome. If your boss and teammates only see your face once a month, they might forget how much you contribute to the success of the company. One solution is to become a videoconferencing whiz. With free video calling services like Skype, Google Hangout and Apple's FaceTime, you can check in with the team "in person." All they have to do is place a laptop, smartphone or tablet on the conference table during the weekly meeting, and you are present and accounted for.<br> <br> Change of Venue<br> No joke, I have moved from the couch and am now writing from a folding chair in the garage while my toddler peddles his plastic car around the driveway. While this particular change of venue was imposed rather than chosen freely, you'll find that moving your work space is an effective way to kick-start creativity and refresh your energy levels when working from home.<br> <br> Even if you have a dedicated home office, you might try working from the kitchen table or outside on the back porch to restart the workday. Some people find it helpful to leave the house entirely for part of the day and set up "office" in a coffee shop, library or other venue with reliable WiFi access. If you crave the productivity-lifting background noise of a buzzing cafe, but don't want to spend $5 on a cup of tea, try the free audio stream from <a href="http://cofficity.com" target="_blank">cofficity.com</a>.<br> <br> Use Household Chores as Mini Breaks<br> Let's be honest, when you are stuck on a frustrating work problem, bored with an assignment or procrastinating a deadline, just about anything qualifies as a distraction. This is where working from home can get downright dangerous. With a project deadline looming, you might feel it's the perfect time to reorganize your vacation photos from the past 10 years. Instead of finishing a financial report, you might decide to iron all of your daughter's doll clothes.<br> <br> The smarter tactic is to recognize the human need for a quick break and pair it with a household chore that can be finished in 10 minutes or less. Before you sit down to work for the day, make a list of a few quick chores that need to get done: two loads of laundry, washing and chopping vegetables for dinner, dusting and vacuuming the basement, etc. When you need to stand up and get your blood moving, check off a chore from the list then get back to work.<br> <br> Devise a Snack Resistance Plan<br> Snacking in the office is its own minefield — unhealthy vending machine options, a microwave that smells like tuna-flavored popcorn — but snacking at home is even worse. Your kitchen, with all of its delectable choices, is just a few steps away. Working from home, there is a constant temptation to wander there every time you're bored, anxious or frustrated with an assignment, which is pretty much all the time. To avoid putting on 20 pounds (9 kilograms) in two weeks, you need a snack resistance plan.<br> <br> If you have excellent self-control, confine your eating to scheduled meals. For example, lunch is every day at 12:30 and dinner is at 7. Aside from caffeine breaks, vow to avoid the kitchen outside of those prescribed meal times.<br> <br> But if you're like the rest of us, working without snacking is like working without breathing. In that case, the best game plan is to stock your shelves with lots of healthy snacks. Fresh fruit, carrots, celery, unsalted nuts and dried fruit are all great options. Personally, I go through a lot of sugar-free gum; some would say too much gum (my dentist, mostly), but it's better than the bag of Nestle Toll House dark chocolate chips that's calling to me from the freezer.<br> <br> Go European<br> This is a good tip for folks trying to work from home with school-age kids. Instead of working a straight daytime schedule of 9 to 5, divide the workday into two sections, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., then from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. We call this the "Spanish method." In Spain, the traditional work schedule includes a midday siesta in which families return home at 2 p.m. for a long lunch and even a short nap before returning to work at 5 p.m. and continuing late into the evening.<br> <br> Although siesta culture is fading in southern Europe, it's a useful schedule for parents trying to juggle working from home with taking care of school-age kids. With this schedule, you can be with the kids for a few hours when they get home from school, make dinner, eat together, then go back to the office for a few more hours in the evening. If both parents work from home, you'll want to swap duties every night so that one parent can help get the kids to bed while the other works.<br> <br> Get Social<br> Working from home poses different challenges to different personality types. As a card-carrying introvert, I could go months without communicating with coworkers beyond e-mail and IM. But if you are a social butterfly, you might find that you miss the face-to-face feedback and water cooler conversation of office life. To avoid feeling isolated and stifled, you need to devise strategies to get your social fix away from the office.<br> <br> The technological reality is that you can continue to communicate with the standard office tools — e-mail, IM, phone and videoconferencing — from home. But if you really miss the personal interaction, try to schedule a lunch or two a week with a work colleague or another work-from-home friend.<br> <br> There are also organizations in most major cities that offer shared office space for rent. It's called co-working and you buy a membership on a monthly or weekly basis. Co-working "spaces" (they're always called "spaces") market themselves as collaborative cafes for independent workers who don't like the isolation of working from home. At the very least, co-working is a good option if you need access to fax machines, copiers and other equipment you may not have at home. Even a coffee machine.<br> <br> Have a Backup Plan<br> In my decade of working from home, I've learned the hard way that technology has feelings, too. My cable Internet modem, for example, is very sensitive to heightened anxiety levels in my home. When I have a particularly tight deadline for an article, or am about to conduct a very important interview on my Internet-powered phone, the modem senses my panic and responds the only way it knows how: It crashes.<br> <br> Just a few months ago, I found myself knocking on my neighbors' door at 10:30 p.m. to hijack their Internet connection so I could upload and e-mail an important file. They seemed less than thrilled to see me.<br> <br> If you are going to work from home, you need a "plan B." There are any number of mini-crises that can erupt at home and threaten to derail the workday: loss of power/Internet service, unscheduled playdates, or a neighbor chopping down a tree a few feet from your office window.<br> <br> So, you need an alternative workspace. It should be someplace close to your home with a reliable Internet connection where you can work in peace. It can be a friend's apartment, a library or even the backseat of your car parked within WiFi range of a coffee shop (useful for after-hours emergencies).<br>

How to Work From Home: 10 Real-world Tips

I am writing this sentence on my couch. As an improvised "desk," I've grabbed one of my kids' piano books to shield me fro...

Read more »

How to Work From Home: 10 Real-world Tips

I am writing this sentence on my couch. As an improvised "desk," I've grabbed one of my kids' piano books to shield me from the increasing warmth of my laptop. It's 9:47 a.m. on a Thursday, the oldest two kids are at school, my wife and youngest son just left to pick apples, and I have a window of four hours to work on this article before I take over toddler duty for the afternoon. If you want to know what working from home really looks like, this is it.<br> <br> According to a 2012 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24 percent of American workers worked at least some hours from home each week [source: Noonan]. As more work can be done online, those work-from-home numbers are expected to explode.<br> <br> On the surface, working from home sounds like a dream come true. No boss breathing down your neck (literally, with coffee breath). No depressing vending machine lunch at your desk. No impromptu conference room meetings to talk about "innovation" and "teamwork."<br> <br> But the reality is far more complicated. Do you have kids? Can they sit quietly doing puzzles for hours on end? Does the giant flat-screen TV a few feet to your left pose an irresistible threat to your productivity? Does that awesome snack selection pose an irresistible threat to your body mass index?<br> <br> If you can strike the right work-life balance, working can home can indeed be a dream come true. To help you plan for the real life challenges, we've assembled a list of 10 real-world tips for avoiding distractions, reassuring the boss and maximizing productivity.<br> <br> Get Dressed<br> Every job has a uniform. Doctors have their white coats; business executives have their power suits; and freelance writers have their sweatpants (only sort of kidding). Uniforms serve two purposes: (1) they communicate to the outside world a person's position, stature and function, and (2) they reinforce those same messages to the person wearing the uniform. When a doctor puts on her whites, she puts on the mantle of the knowledgeable and capable healer. Without it, she's just some lady gagging you with a Popsicle stick.<br> <br> When you work from home, resist the urge to remain in your pajamas. True, no one but the UPS guy is likely to see you in your polar bear-themed sleepwear, but it's hard to take yourself seriously as a worker when you look unemployed. Dressing in your normal work uniform — even if that uniform is a T-shirt and jeans — reinforces the idea that you are actually working. If wearing a tie or pencil skirt really gets your juices flowing, go for it. Just don't expect the cat to be impressed.<br> <br> Keep a Schedule<br> Many of us are more productive when we are working within a prescribed framework. That's why it's so important to set and keep a schedule when working from home. If your job requires a lot of interaction with the folks back at the office, you should try your best to align your schedule with the normal nine-to-five. If your work is largely independent, you have the freedom to work earlier or later than the regular work day, or split your day into several shifts.<br> <br> If you have a spouse and kids, it's even more important to set a firm work schedule. Every week, sit down with your spouse to chart upcoming doctor's appointments and soccer practices, and to assess each other's workload. Devise a schedule that shares parental duties while giving each person enough time to realistically get their work done.<br> <br> Print out the weekly schedule and tape it to your office door. By Tuesday, your toddler will have ripped it down and drawn a 20-legged elephant on it, but a schedule's a schedule. Stick to it.<br> <br> Post a Sign<br> This is a critical tip for parents trying to work from home. Whether you are working in an official-looking home office or a milk crate desk in the corner of your bedroom, make sure that there is a door between you and your treasured distractions (er, children). If your kids are older, this door is a great place to post your daily work schedule along with a number they can dial to reach customer service, i.e., your spouse's cell phone.<br> <br> If you have younger children, you need to post a sign that can be easily interpreted by a toddler to mean, "I love you, but please go bother daddy." Try a large "X" or a color-coded system like a construction-paper stoplight — green means "go on in," yellow means "enter only if you are bleeding/vomiting," and red means "there is a monster behind this door."<br> <br> Check in With the Team<br> One of the greatest risks of working from home is the false assumption by everyone at the office that you're actually "shirking" from home [source: Bloom]. To make this arrangement work, you need to come up with effective ways to assure your boss and teammates that you are hard at work even when you're not at work.<br> <br> If you use a corporate e-mail and IM account, use it to broadcast your work status. Send a quick "good morning" IM to teammates when you are at your desk, and let folks know if you're going to be away from e-mail and for how long [source: Wilcox]. If your company uses Gmail or another Web-based e-mail app, you can update your status (available, busy, away from desk) without having to send instant messages or e-mails.<br> <br> Another risk of working from home is "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome. If your boss and teammates only see your face once a month, they might forget how much you contribute to the success of the company. One solution is to become a videoconferencing whiz. With free video calling services like Skype, Google Hangout and Apple's FaceTime, you can check in with the team "in person." All they have to do is place a laptop, smartphone or tablet on the conference table during the weekly meeting, and you are present and accounted for.<br> <br> Change of Venue<br> No joke, I have moved from the couch and am now writing from a folding chair in the garage while my toddler peddles his plastic car around the driveway. While this particular change of venue was imposed rather than chosen freely, you'll find that moving your work space is an effective way to kick-start creativity and refresh your energy levels when working from home.<br> <br> Even if you have a dedicated home office, you might try working from the kitchen table or outside on the back porch to restart the workday. Some people find it helpful to leave the house entirely for part of the day and set up "office" in a coffee shop, library or other venue with reliable WiFi access. If you crave the productivity-lifting background noise of a buzzing cafe, but don't want to spend $5 on a cup of tea, try the free audio stream from <a href="http://cofficity.com" target="_blank">cofficity.com</a>.<br> <br> Use Household Chores as Mini Breaks<br> Let's be honest, when you are stuck on a frustrating work problem, bored with an assignment or procrastinating a deadline, just about anything qualifies as a distraction. This is where working from home can get downright dangerous. With a project deadline looming, you might feel it's the perfect time to reorganize your vacation photos from the past 10 years. Instead of finishing a financial report, you might decide to iron all of your daughter's doll clothes.<br> <br> The smarter tactic is to recognize the human need for a quick break and pair it with a household chore that can be finished in 10 minutes or less. Before you sit down to work for the day, make a list of a few quick chores that need to get done: two loads of laundry, washing and chopping vegetables for dinner, dusting and vacuuming the basement, etc. When you need to stand up and get your blood moving, check off a chore from the list then get back to work.<br> <br> Devise a Snack Resistance Plan<br> Snacking in the office is its own minefield — unhealthy vending machine options, a microwave that smells like tuna-flavored popcorn — but snacking at home is even worse. Your kitchen, with all of its delectable choices, is just a few steps away. Working from home, there is a constant temptation to wander there every time you're bored, anxious or frustrated with an assignment, which is pretty much all the time. To avoid putting on 20 pounds (9 kilograms) in two weeks, you need a snack resistance plan.<br> <br> If you have excellent self-control, confine your eating to scheduled meals. For example, lunch is every day at 12:30 and dinner is at 7. Aside from caffeine breaks, vow to avoid the kitchen outside of those prescribed meal times.<br> <br> But if you're like the rest of us, working without snacking is like working without breathing. In that case, the best game plan is to stock your shelves with lots of healthy snacks. Fresh fruit, carrots, celery, unsalted nuts and dried fruit are all great options. Personally, I go through a lot of sugar-free gum; some would say too much gum (my dentist, mostly), but it's better than the bag of Nestle Toll House dark chocolate chips that's calling to me from the freezer.<br> <br> Go European<br> This is a good tip for folks trying to work from home with school-age kids. Instead of working a straight daytime schedule of 9 to 5, divide the workday into two sections, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., then from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. We call this the "Spanish method." In Spain, the traditional work schedule includes a midday siesta in which families return home at 2 p.m. for a long lunch and even a short nap before returning to work at 5 p.m. and continuing late into the evening.<br> <br> Although siesta culture is fading in southern Europe, it's a useful schedule for parents trying to juggle working from home with taking care of school-age kids. With this schedule, you can be with the kids for a few hours when they get home from school, make dinner, eat together, then go back to the office for a few more hours in the evening. If both parents work from home, you'll want to swap duties every night so that one parent can help get the kids to bed while the other works.<br> <br> Get Social<br> Working from home poses different challenges to different personality types. As a card-carrying introvert, I could go months without communicating with coworkers beyond e-mail and IM. But if you are a social butterfly, you might find that you miss the face-to-face feedback and water cooler conversation of office life. To avoid feeling isolated and stifled, you need to devise strategies to get your social fix away from the office.<br> <br> The technological reality is that you can continue to communicate with the standard office tools — e-mail, IM, phone and videoconferencing — from home. But if you really miss the personal interaction, try to schedule a lunch or two a week with a work colleague or another work-from-home friend.<br> <br> There are also organizations in most major cities that offer shared office space for rent. It's called co-working and you buy a membership on a monthly or weekly basis. Co-working "spaces" (they're always called "spaces") market themselves as collaborative cafes for independent workers who don't like the isolation of working from home. At the very least, co-working is a good option if you need access to fax machines, copiers and other equipment you may not have at home. Even a coffee machine.<br> <br> Have a Backup Plan<br> In my decade of working from home, I've learned the hard way that technology has feelings, too. My cable Internet modem, for example, is very sensitive to heightened anxiety levels in my home. When I have a particularly tight deadline for an article, or am about to conduct a very important interview on my Internet-powered phone, the modem senses my panic and responds the only way it knows how: It crashes.<br> <br> Just a few months ago, I found myself knocking on my neighbors' door at 10:30 p.m. to hijack their Internet connection so I could upload and e-mail an important file. They seemed less than thrilled to see me.<br> <br> If you are going to work from home, you need a "plan B." There are any number of mini-crises that can erupt at home and threaten to derail the workday: loss of power/Internet service, unscheduled playdates, or a neighbor chopping down a tree a few feet from your office window.<br> <br> So, you need an alternative workspace. It should be someplace close to your home with a reliable Internet connection where you can work in peace. It can be a friend's apartment, a library or even the backseat of your car parked within WiFi range of a coffee shop (useful for after-hours emergencies).<br>

How to Work From Home: 10 Real-world Tips

I am writing this sentence on my couch. As an improvised "desk," I've grabbed one of my kids' piano books to shield me fro...

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In Windows, what is Safe Mode used for and why?

While Windows is a versatile and powerful operating system, there are<br /><br>times that it can be frustrating. This frustration is particularly<br /><br>evident when you install a new software application or add drivers for<br /><br>some new hardware. Suddenly, the computer crashes or locks up. You<br /><br>reboot the computer and it loads a strange looking Windows desktop<br /><br>with the words Safe Mode in the four corners. What is this?<br /><br><br /><br>Safe Mode is a special way for Windows to load when there is a<br /><br>system-critical problem that interferes with the normal operation of<br /><br>Windows. The purpose of Safe Mode is to allow you to troubleshoot<br /><br>Windows and try to determine what is causing it to not function<br /><br>correctly. Once you have corrected the problem, then you can reboot<br /><br>and Windows will load normally.<br /><br><br /><br>There are several things that happen when Windows boots in Safe Mode that differ<br /><br><br /><br>Safe Mode does not run the autoexec.bat or config.sys files.<br /><br><br /><br>Most device drivers are not loaded. A device driver is the software<br /><br>that Windows uses to interact with a piece of hardware, such as a<br /><br>printer or scanner.<br /><br><br /><br>Instead of the normal graphics device driver, Safe Mode uses standard<br /><br>VGA graphics mode. This mode is supported by all Windows-compatible<br /><br>video cards.<br /><br><br /><br>Himem.sys, which is normally loaded as part of the config.sys script,<br /><br>is loaded with the /testmem:on switch. This switch tells the computer<br /><br>to test the extended memory<br /><br><br /><br>Safe Mode checks the msdos.sys file for information on where to find<br /><br>the rest of the Windows files. If it finds the files, it proceeds to<br /><br>load Windows in Safe Mode with the command win /d:m. If it does not<br /><br>find the Windows files, it will run <a href="http://command.com">command.com</a> to<br /><br><br /><br>Windows boots using a batch file called system.cb instead of the<br /><br>standard system.ini file. This file loads the Virtual Device Drivers<br /><br>(VxDs) that Windows uses to communicate with the standard parts of the<br /><br>computer.<br /><br><br /><br>Windows now loads the regular system.ini file plus win.ini and<br /><br>Registry settings. It skips the [Boot] (except for the shell and<br /><br>device lines) and [386Enh] sections of system.ini and does not load or<br /><br>run any programs listed in win.ini.<br /><br><br /><br>The Windows desktop loads up in 16 colors and at a resolution of 640 x<br /><br>480 with the<br /><br><br /><br>Safe Mode starts up automatically if Windows does not boot on the<br /><br>previous attempt. You can also invoke Safe Mode by pressing F5 or by<br /><br>pressing F8 and selecting it from<br /><br><br /><br>So what should you do if your computer boots to Safe Mode? First, try<br /><br>to determine what has changed on your system that could have caused<br /><br>Windows to fail to boot properly. If you have added any kind of<br /><br>hardware, go to the Control Panel and remove it and uninstall the<br /><br>software driver for that device. Then attempt a reboot. If Windows<br /><br>boots properly, you can be reasonably certain that there was some type<br /><br>of conflict with<br /><br><br /><br>Use this same method if you have loaded a new game or application<br /><br>sometime recently. Go to the Control Panel, click on Add/Remove<br /><br>Programs and remove the software. Try a reboot and hopefully you will<br /><br>get a normal Windows boot.<br /><br><br /><br>If the problem is definitely not new hardware or software, then you<br /><br>most likely have a corrupted Registry. In this case, you will quite<br /><br>likely have to perform a new installation<br /><br><br /><br>See the next page to learn more about safe mode and operating systems.

In Windows, what is Safe Mode used for and why?

While Windows is a versatile and powerful operating system, there are times that it can be frustrating. This frustration is particularly evi...

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