A Great Resource for New Computers

April 21, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber
ninte

Getting a new computer is so much fun! And I do reformats regularly here. Unfortunately, I am the IT person in the family…. as we have a whopping total of EIGHT computers to manage. And that doesn’t count the ones in temporary storage. I do a lot of tech help stuff, and so I have a lot of computers, new and old, with various operating systems on them. The kids use them for their schoolwork and etc, so they serve a dual purpose. But WOW it’s tough to reformat them all, it takes up a lot of time- time I;d rather spend snapping pics with a shiny new Nikon or time out in the garden.

The biggest time sucker is Windows Updates. Zzzzzzz those take about 24 hours to complete. YUK. And after that, it’s locating, downloading, and installing all the various programs I use.

Oooo but I have found a gem, ladies and gentlemen, a real gem! It’s Ninite! Yay! It’s free to use. They have a listing of the most common software applications–such as Firefox, Skype, Opera, Digsby, Irfanview, Flash, Silverlight, Google Earth, 7-zip, Filezila, and more– to download quickly and easily. I love the site. Whew, it’s easy, and the list is pretty good. These are the basic, most popular software programs, mind you. There are no drivers, no special firmware or software to run your Nikon camera software application… it’s just the basic stuff. However, if you think something should be included that isn’t listed, you can suggest an app from the home page (just scroll down to submit an app).

By the way, Ninite will NOT nag you to download a toolbar (as so many software programs do), and the applications come in 32-bit and 64-bit.

Nice one, guys!!! Maybe now I can finally have enough time to peel myself away from all this IT work, and go outside, snap photos of hummingbirds on my Nikon, and have a life again!

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Posted in computers, desktop utilities, free programs. Tags: , , . Comments Off »

Keep Track of Your Internet Bandwidth Usage

March 10, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber
bandwoiewurp

I found out about this handy little program from Kim Komando. By the way, if you don’t listen to her radio show or get her emails, I suggest you do! When i was a new computer user, some ten years ago now, her show was immensely helpful. Today, she discusses less about computers and more about computer gadgets (such as iPhones, iPods, etc, which are useless to me), but I still glean a lot of good stuff from the broadcasts.

Anyway, this latest download is called AnalogX NetStat Live. It will monitor and measure your bandwidth– incoming and outgoing– as well as CPU usage. This is a great way to keep tabs on your bandwidth usage, especially if you have an ISP that charges by bandwidth or gives you a monthly cap, this is what you need to measure your usage. You’d have to install the NetStat Live on all computers on the network, and total up the Incoming Totals and Outgoing Totals across all computers. That will tell you the bandwidth you’ve used. The software is free.

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Posted in desktop utilities, free programs, Internet, surveillance. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

File Taxes Online for Free

February 15, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of eSmart Tax. All opinions are 100% mine.

Every year, more and more people take advantage of the convenience, speed, and ease of online filing for taxes. Fling the taxes is painful and stressful. Doing ALL that paperwork makes the task absolutely onerous. I know, I am self-employed and am slammed with tons of paperwork (not to mention, tons of taxes)! There’s a website that will make filing your taxes a little easier– it’s eSmartTax.com, and you can file for free at their website! Moreover, they have a very neat deluxe version geared specifically for people who have the surname Johnson: Johnsons file free! Actually, the new spokesman for eSmartTax.com, Daryl Johnson, may find it helpful! Did you know that there are over 2 million people in the United States named Johnson?! That Johnson is the second-most common name in this country?! (I assume the most common is Smith). eSmartTax.com wants to make filing taxes as painless and quick as possible, for people named Johnson and those with other names. :D eSmartTax.com also offers a more extensive deluxe version that you can purchase, as well. It’s very affordable– under $10! See the website for more information on filing taxes with eSmartTax.com.

Doing your income taxes is painful enough. Alleviate some of the discomfort with the convenient eSmartTax.com.

Visit my sponsor: eSmartTax.com

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Posted in desktop utilities, free stuff, Internet. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

Turn Web Pages into PDF Files

January 22, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is an amazing little application! It’s PDFmyURL. I heard about it from Kim Komando. It’s a little application that converts a web page into a PDF file. I love it! I frequently travel to areas with no Internet connection, yet I do still need to work from web pages for my jobs. PDFmyURL allows me to save the webpages into PDF files while I am at home; then, I can move these files onto my netbook, and away I go! It’s extremely convenient.

PDFmyURL also has a little bookmarklet that you can drag onto your Firefox bookmark toolbar. So, when you visit a web page, you can click the little bookmarklet and the page will be immediately converted into a PDF. This is a great app!

You can see my bookmarklet (circled in red) in the screenshot, below. I converted my blog, TheOlderGeek.com, into a PDF file. The quality of the conversion is excellent.

TOGscrsht

TOGscrsht2

Thumbs up on this app!

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Posted in browsers, conversion programs, desktop utilities. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

Neaten Your Desktop With Fences

November 12, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

I downloaded this freeware two weeks ago from Download.com, after reading their review. I absolutely love it! I am a neatnik, and I love having a neat, organized desktop. Fences is the answer! It’s created by Stardock, a reputable company; when I used Windows ME and XP, they created skins and other skinning programs that I liked and used.

It’s free to use. It seems to take up few computer resources, but I have a pretty powerful computer; so Fences works without a hitch. The nice thing about Fences is that you can create new ones, rename them, delete them, move them, etc. Best of all, if you double-click on the desktop, all the Fences will disappear! I love this. Double-click again, and they reappear. A great piece of freeware!

WifFencs

NoFencs

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Posted in desktop utilities, free programs. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

Know What’s Running on Your Computer

September 18, 2009 — Mrs. Mecomber

One of the best resources I have for my Windows computer is the “Task Manager.” (Right click on your sidebar, and in the menu that appears, choose “Task Manager.” A new window will appear with several tabs. The Task manager shows what is currently running on your computer at the moment. The “Processes” tab has a “Processes Library.” This shows the individual file running.

Some of those names can be a little confusing or misleading. BEFORE you decide to “End Process” (killing the application), be sure to find out if it is an important program. You can do this by searching online for the application name. For example, do a search for “explorer.exe” and you will discover that this is a critical file. You can also bookmark a few reliable process library sites for future reference. The few I have found to be most reliable with concise information are:

ProcessLibrary
TaskList.org
Bleeping Computer

Be sure you know what a file is doing and know of its importance before you end the process, or you could cause your computer to crash. Searching for various processes also helps to determine and discover any malicious files or extra files that may not be necessary to run in the background (such as the Quicktime updater).

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Posted in computers, desktop utilities, how to, security how-to. 2 Comments »
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