Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Cum formatam un usb driver si-l transformam in NTFS
Start/settings/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager/Disk drives/USB Device/Properties/Policies/bifati Optimize for performance... (ca sa se activeze formatarea in NTFS) si click pe OK. inchideti ferestrele ramase. click pe my computer / pe removable disk click dreapta/ Format ... si o sa vedeti FAT32 si NTFS.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Top Tips to Extend Your Laptop Battery Life
by Erik Rhey
source http://www.pcmag.com/
You seasoned techies are no doubt thinking, "Another article on how to get more life from your laptop battery. Big deal. I already know how to do that." Well, Mr. or Ms. Techie, I scoff at your hubris. There's still plenty to learn when it comes to getting more juice from a charge and extending your battery's overall life.
So, yes, there are tips that most of us know:
1. Dim your screen.
2. Minimize background processes.
3. Don't use the CD/DVD drive.
4. Disable your wireless antenna when not in use.
But there's still a lot you may not know about battery technology and the things that both help and hinder your laptop's juicebox.
Getting More Minutes per Charge
You can fiddle with background processes and other software settings all you want, but your hardware is the biggest factor in battery life, according to PC Mag's lead analyst for laptops, Cisco Cheng. In fact, software such as power-management utilities can help minimize the impact internal components have on battery longevity. Knowing this can affect your buying decision if you're looking for a new laptop (see the "Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life" section below) or help you get the most out of the trusty laptop you've got. Here are a few ways to optimize hardware for maximum battery output.
1. Turn off ports. Disabling unused ports and components, such as VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, USB, and yes, your wireless, too. You can do this through the Device Manager or by configuring a separate hardware profile (see next step).
2. Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles. Configure your laptop for the various scenarios in which you use it (on a plane, at the coffee shop, at the office, and so on). You can do this through the Hardware Profiles menu by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Preferences or by using a freeware utility such as SparkleXP (for Windows XP users).
3. Configure your display to turn off when not in use. This is different from just using a screensaver, because in many cases a screensaver still requires the display's backlight to be on. You can set the interval to turn the display off in Windows' Power Options—found in the Control Panel.
Extending the Overall Life
The easiest way to give your battery an early death is to damage it. And the two most common causes of damage are from overheating and overloading. Here's how you prevent overheating:
1. Use a cooling pad when using a notebook computer on your lap.
2. Avoid propping your laptop on a pillow, blanket, or other soft surface that can heat up.
3. Clean your desk. It sounds strange, but if you have a dusty, dirty desk, that dust will get into the vents and clog the cooling fan. Once the dust is inside your laptop, it is much harder to remove. You can try blasting it out with canned air, but you run the risk of damaging internal components. You can also remove the vent and clean out the grit, but remember that taking apart your laptop can void the warranty. So clean your desk at least once a week, if not daily.
4. Never store your laptop in a place where the air temperature exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit, such as a hot car or an outdoor patio.
5. Consider taking your battery out when using your laptop plugged into AC power. Just make sure to keep the contacts clean. If you need to clean them, use rubbing alcohol.
6. For lithium ion batteries, you do not need to discharge them fully and recharge constantly. Since they don't have the same "memory" as older nickel-metal hydride batteries, it is actually better to discharge a lithium ion only partially before recharging. You need to do a full discharge only about every 30 charges.
Overloading a battery occurs when you use an AC adapter that has a higher wattage than that specified on the laptop (and battery), or if the circuitry of the laptop consistently overcharges the battery. If you're using a replacement or spare adapter, make sure the wattage matches your laptop's within the specified voltage range. In the worst-case scenario, overloading can also damage your motherboard.
Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life
If you're in the market for a new laptop, there are features and components you should consider to get the most mileage from the system's battery.
1. An ultra-low-voltage processor, such as the Intel Penryn or one from VIA's line of ULV processors.
2. A solid-state storage drive, which requires less power and, since there are no spinning parts, will suffer less wear and tear than a traditional hard drive.
3. An LED display. Although pricey, LEDs use much less power than LCD.
4. A smaller screen. A smaller screen means a smaller backlight, which will also save on battery drain.
According to Andrew Bradner, product line manager for APC, all lithium ion batteries are not created equal. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case the chemistry. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to discern if the battery you're buying was manufactured in a top-notch facility using high-quality materials. And making that call is not as easy as assuming your laptop manufacturer's battery will be of better quality than a battery from a third-party vendor. But you can stick to a couple of key guidelines.
1. Don't skimp on your battery. If you choose the lowest-cost battery you'll probably get a battery that degrades quickly, and you'll end up buying a replacement too soon anyway. So spend the money now to save expense and frustration down the road.
2. Don't buy an expired battery. A good indicator of a battery's performance is how far into its product life it is, whether it's used or new. If possible, look at the bottom of the battery and find the manufacture date.
source http://www.pcmag.com/
You seasoned techies are no doubt thinking, "Another article on how to get more life from your laptop battery. Big deal. I already know how to do that." Well, Mr. or Ms. Techie, I scoff at your hubris. There's still plenty to learn when it comes to getting more juice from a charge and extending your battery's overall life.
So, yes, there are tips that most of us know:
1. Dim your screen.
2. Minimize background processes.
3. Don't use the CD/DVD drive.
4. Disable your wireless antenna when not in use.
But there's still a lot you may not know about battery technology and the things that both help and hinder your laptop's juicebox.
Getting More Minutes per Charge
You can fiddle with background processes and other software settings all you want, but your hardware is the biggest factor in battery life, according to PC Mag's lead analyst for laptops, Cisco Cheng. In fact, software such as power-management utilities can help minimize the impact internal components have on battery longevity. Knowing this can affect your buying decision if you're looking for a new laptop (see the "Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life" section below) or help you get the most out of the trusty laptop you've got. Here are a few ways to optimize hardware for maximum battery output.
1. Turn off ports. Disabling unused ports and components, such as VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, USB, and yes, your wireless, too. You can do this through the Device Manager or by configuring a separate hardware profile (see next step).
2. Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles. Configure your laptop for the various scenarios in which you use it (on a plane, at the coffee shop, at the office, and so on). You can do this through the Hardware Profiles menu by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Preferences or by using a freeware utility such as SparkleXP (for Windows XP users).
3. Configure your display to turn off when not in use. This is different from just using a screensaver, because in many cases a screensaver still requires the display's backlight to be on. You can set the interval to turn the display off in Windows' Power Options—found in the Control Panel.
Extending the Overall Life
The easiest way to give your battery an early death is to damage it. And the two most common causes of damage are from overheating and overloading. Here's how you prevent overheating:
1. Use a cooling pad when using a notebook computer on your lap.
2. Avoid propping your laptop on a pillow, blanket, or other soft surface that can heat up.
3. Clean your desk. It sounds strange, but if you have a dusty, dirty desk, that dust will get into the vents and clog the cooling fan. Once the dust is inside your laptop, it is much harder to remove. You can try blasting it out with canned air, but you run the risk of damaging internal components. You can also remove the vent and clean out the grit, but remember that taking apart your laptop can void the warranty. So clean your desk at least once a week, if not daily.
4. Never store your laptop in a place where the air temperature exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit, such as a hot car or an outdoor patio.
5. Consider taking your battery out when using your laptop plugged into AC power. Just make sure to keep the contacts clean. If you need to clean them, use rubbing alcohol.
6. For lithium ion batteries, you do not need to discharge them fully and recharge constantly. Since they don't have the same "memory" as older nickel-metal hydride batteries, it is actually better to discharge a lithium ion only partially before recharging. You need to do a full discharge only about every 30 charges.
Overloading a battery occurs when you use an AC adapter that has a higher wattage than that specified on the laptop (and battery), or if the circuitry of the laptop consistently overcharges the battery. If you're using a replacement or spare adapter, make sure the wattage matches your laptop's within the specified voltage range. In the worst-case scenario, overloading can also damage your motherboard.
Picking a Laptop for Maximum Battery Life
If you're in the market for a new laptop, there are features and components you should consider to get the most mileage from the system's battery.
1. An ultra-low-voltage processor, such as the Intel Penryn or one from VIA's line of ULV processors.
2. A solid-state storage drive, which requires less power and, since there are no spinning parts, will suffer less wear and tear than a traditional hard drive.
3. An LED display. Although pricey, LEDs use much less power than LCD.
4. A smaller screen. A smaller screen means a smaller backlight, which will also save on battery drain.
According to Andrew Bradner, product line manager for APC, all lithium ion batteries are not created equal. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case the chemistry. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to discern if the battery you're buying was manufactured in a top-notch facility using high-quality materials. And making that call is not as easy as assuming your laptop manufacturer's battery will be of better quality than a battery from a third-party vendor. But you can stick to a couple of key guidelines.
1. Don't skimp on your battery. If you choose the lowest-cost battery you'll probably get a battery that degrades quickly, and you'll end up buying a replacement too soon anyway. So spend the money now to save expense and frustration down the road.
2. Don't buy an expired battery. A good indicator of a battery's performance is how far into its product life it is, whether it's used or new. If possible, look at the bottom of the battery and find the manufacture date.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Restore Lost Favorites
If you're lucky, your Internet Explorer bookmarks are still in the Recycle Bin. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and select the Details view (the one that shows a row of information for each file). Click the Type column header to sort by file type. Look for files whose type is Internet Shortcut. When you find some that match your missing Favorites, right-click them and choose Restore. Some people organize their Favorites into submenus, which are stored as folders. If your Favorites included submenus you'll need to look through the items of type File Folder and restore any of those that came from your list of Favorites.
If the files aren't in the Recycle Bin you're pretty much out of luck. One thing you can do to recover the ones you use most is open the History panel in Internet Explorer, and revisit the sites you recognize as Favorites, then add them.
For the future you should create a user account for your grandson and log him in separately when you want to let him use the computer. Then unless he's a computer whiz he'll only be able to delete his own Favorites!
Source : http://www.pcmag.com/
If the files aren't in the Recycle Bin you're pretty much out of luck. One thing you can do to recover the ones you use most is open the History panel in Internet Explorer, and revisit the sites you recognize as Favorites, then add them.
For the future you should create a user account for your grandson and log him in separately when you want to let him use the computer. Then unless he's a computer whiz he'll only be able to delete his own Favorites!
Source : http://www.pcmag.com/
Thursday, July 03, 2008
10 Free and Fantastic IE Add-ons
Eat your heart out, Firefox ! Well, maybe not. Internet Explorer 7 , the current version of Microsoft's browser and the one that comes with Windows Vista, can do a lot of the stuff Firefox can do. One of those things is the ability to handle add-ons (formerly "extensions" in Firefox).
The problem with IE add-ons is that most of them cost money. Finding decent, free ones is hard enough; even searching for free IE add-ons turns up scores of IE toolbars and little else. Toolbars! It seems like virtually every company with a product of some sort has an IE toolbar, evidently trying to capture the success of the ubiquitous Google Toolbar. Do we really need toolbars for casual game publishers, or for jazz radio?
Buzz up!on Yahoo!
We spent hours digging through the toolbars and other freebies to find ten totally free IE add-ons that don't suck. We split them into two categories: Useful Stuff and Fun Stuff. Each entry links to the Windows Marketplace page where you can find more information and a download link for each add-on
The problem with IE add-ons is that most of them cost money. Finding decent, free ones is hard enough; even searching for free IE add-ons turns up scores of IE toolbars and little else. Toolbars! It seems like virtually every company with a product of some sort has an IE toolbar, evidently trying to capture the success of the ubiquitous Google Toolbar. Do we really need toolbars for casual game publishers, or for jazz radio?
Buzz up!on Yahoo!
We spent hours digging through the toolbars and other freebies to find ten totally free IE add-ons that don't suck. We split them into two categories: Useful Stuff and Fun Stuff. Each entry links to the Windows Marketplace page where you can find more information and a download link for each add-on
Friday, May 30, 2008
6 Vista features
Windows Vista has an incredible amount of features and tools, many of which are almost totally undocumented and buried in the system somewhere. Administrative and troubleshooting tools particularly are now much more powerful and easier to use then ever before.
Here are six little features and applications in Vista which I think are quite useful.
Here are six little features and applications in Vista which I think are quite useful.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Gmail on Windows Mobile 6.0
1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings.
2. Open the Start menu and select Programs > Messaging > New E-mail Account.
3. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') in the E-mail Address field.
4. Uncheck the box to get settings automatically from the Internet and select Next.
5. Select Internet e-mail as your email provider in the drop-down menu.
6. Enter your name as you want it to appear in sent emails.
7. Enter a descriptive name for the email account and select Next.
8. Enter 'imap.gmail.com' in the Incoming Mail Server field.
9. Select IMAP4 as the Account type from the drop-down menu and select Next.
10. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
11. Select Next.
12. Enter 'smtp.gmail.com' in the Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server field.
13. Make sure that the Outgoing server requires authentication box is checked.
14. Select the Advanced Server Settings link.
15. Make sure that the Require SSL box is checked for both incoming and outgoing emails.
16. Select The Internet as the network connection from the drop-down menu.
17. Select Done and then Next.
18. Select how often you want your phone to send/receive emails from the drop-down menu.
19. For more download options, select the Review all download settings link.
20. Select Finish.
21. Check our recommended client settings, and adjust your client's settings as needed.
2. Open the Start menu and select Programs > Messaging > New E-mail Account.
3. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') in the E-mail Address field.
4. Uncheck the box to get settings automatically from the Internet and select Next.
5. Select Internet e-mail as your email provider in the drop-down menu.
6. Enter your name as you want it to appear in sent emails.
7. Enter a descriptive name for the email account and select Next.
8. Enter 'imap.gmail.com' in the Incoming Mail Server field.
9. Select IMAP4 as the Account type from the drop-down menu and select Next.
10. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
11. Select Next.
12. Enter 'smtp.gmail.com' in the Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server field.
13. Make sure that the Outgoing server requires authentication box is checked.
14. Select the Advanced Server Settings link.
15. Make sure that the Require SSL box is checked for both incoming and outgoing emails.
16. Select The Internet as the network connection from the drop-down menu.
17. Select Done and then Next.
18. Select how often you want your phone to send/receive emails from the drop-down menu.
19. For more download options, select the Review all download settings link.
20. Select Finish.
21. Check our recommended client settings, and adjust your client's settings as needed.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
529 Computing Tips
There's a ton of information in your computer's user manual, but it's also hundreds of pages long. To become a real power user, you could read through the entire thing, memorizing the details on each page. Or you could turn to PC Magazine.
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our tips compendium starts with the fundamentals of computing: the operating system and basic productivity applications such as Word and Excel. Then we touch on multimedia, mobility, and business, with hundreds of tips in each section
Link is here!
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our tips compendium starts with the fundamentals of computing: the operating system and basic productivity applications such as Word and Excel. Then we touch on multimedia, mobility, and business, with hundreds of tips in each section
Link is here!
529 Computing Tips
There's a ton of information in your computer's user manual, but it's also hundreds of pages long. To become a real power user, you could read through the entire thing, memorizing the details on each page. Or you could turn to PC Magazine.
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our tips compendium starts with the fundamentals of computing: the operating system and basic productivity applications such as Word and Excel. Then we touch on multimedia, mobility, and business, with hundreds of tips in each section
Link is here!
For this very special feature, we'll boil down that manual's hundreds of pages into hundreds of tips—529, to be precise—carefully organized into nearly three dozen categories. This should take the hard work out of being an expert!
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in PC Labs, our tips compendium starts with the fundamentals of computing: the operating system and basic productivity applications such as Word and Excel. Then we touch on multimedia, mobility, and business, with hundreds of tips in each section
Link is here!
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