Tip of the week - Top free PC programs everyone should have.

There are millions of free and open source projects available, many of them better than any commercially available product. Below is a short listing of what we think is the best out there, broken down into categories.

1. Anti-virus and malware protection. Most PC users realize that they need protection on their computer or may have an installed anti-virus program from their computer manufacturer. What most don't realize is that there are free programs that are just as good and in some cases better than the commercial products. Below are our recommendations.

Anti-virus program: Avast! or AVG

2. Backup solutions. There are dozens of free and commercially available backup programs for computers. Unfortunately many of those backups are stored locally, meaning if your house were to catch fire, get robbed, or if you lost your backup discs all your data would be lost. This is why when dealing with important data we suggest users use online backup services.
Online backup solution: Mozy or Dropbox

3. Browsers. Although Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows computers. There are several excellent free alternatives that everyone should try. These free alternatives can often be faster, have more options, and in many cases be more secure than Internet Explorer.
Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome

4. Compression utility. When downloading files on the Internet you'll eventually encounter a .zip, .rar, or other compressed file. Dealing with these files can be easy with our below free file compression utility.
File compression utility: 7-Zip

5. Disc ripper and creation utility. Creating an audio or data CD/DVD, ripping the data from an audio CD, or creating a CD from a .ISO file can also be done freely using our below free recommendation.
CD burner / ripper utility: CDBurnerXP

6. Image editor, paint program, and picture organizer. There are many great free solutions for editing, creating, and organizing your images on your computer. Many of the programs capable of doing these tasks can be several hundred dollars, but all of the below programs are completely free.
Image editor: GIMP Paint program: Paint.net Picture organizer: Google Picasa 

7. Multimedia. There are dozens of different multimedia programs with different capabilities and limitations. Below are our top free multimedia programs for watching video files and recording audio.
Audio editing and creating tool: Audacity Video and DVD Player: VLC

Tip of the week - Computer Safety

Achieving good computer security can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, following the few simple steps outlined below can provide a good measure of security in very little time.

1. Use antivirus software and keep it up-to-date. You should check for new definition updates daily. Most antivirus software can be configured to do this automatically.
2. Install security patches. Vulnerabilities in software are constantly being discovered and they don't discriminate by vendor or platform. It's not simply a matter of updating Windows; at least monthly, check for and apply updates for all software you use.
3. Use a firewall. No Internet connection is safe without one. Firewalls are necessary even if you have a dial-up Internet connection -- it takes only minutes for a a non-firewalled computer to be infected.
4. Take control of your email. Avoid opening email attachments received unexpectedly -- no matter who appears to have sent it. Remember that most worms and trojan-laden spam try to spoof the sender's name. And make sure your email client isn't leaving you open to infection. Reading email in plain text offers important security benefits that more than offset the loss of pretty colored fonts.
5. Treat IM suspiciously. Instant Messaging is a frequent target of worms and trojans. Treat it just as you would email.
6. Avoid P2P and distributed filesharing. Torrent, Kazaa, Gnutella, Morpheus and at least a dozen other filesharing networks exist. Most are free. And all are rife with trojans, viruses, worms, adware, spyware, and every other form of malicious code imaginable. There's no such thing as safe anonymous filesharing. Avoid it like the plague.
7. Keep abreast of Internet scams. Criminals think of clever ways to separate you from your hard earned cash. Don't get fooled by emails telling sad stories, or making unsolicited job offers, or promising lotto winnings. Likewise, beware of email masquerading as a security concern from your bank or other eCommerce site.
8. Don't fall victim to virus hoaxes. Dire-sounding email spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about non-existent threats serve only to spread needless alarm and may even cause you to delete perfectly legitimate files in response.

Tip of the week - Tabbed Browsing Tips

With the introduction of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 all major browsers now support tabbed browsing. Below are various tips to improve your browsing using tabs.

1. Clicking on any link with your middle mouse button or wheel will open that link in a new tab. Alternatively you can hold down your CTRL key and click a link to open that link in a new tab.
2. Clicking on an open tab with your middle mouse button will close that tab.
3. Mozilla Firefox users can middle-click the back button to open a previous page in a new tab.
4. Pressing CTRL + T will open a new tab.
5. Pressing CTRL + Shift + T will undo the closed tab. Alternatively right clicking on a portion of the tab bar will also display this option.
6. Hold down CTRL and press 1 through 0 on the keyboard to open that respected tab.
7. Right-clicking the active tab will give you an option to close all other non-active tabs.

Tip of the week - Excel 2010 - Formatting comments

When most people create a comment (Review tab, New Comment, or Shift/F2), they accept the shape and colour and just enter the information they want. How about a change?

Here's how you can do it:
1. When you first create a comment, the cursor is right after whatever you typed. You need to select the comment itself, not the text inside. So, put in the border of the comment.
2. Then you need the Change Shape tool. This can be placed on the Quick Access toolbar. When the comment is selected by the border, click the new Change Shape tool.
3. From that, you can select basic shapes, block arrows, flowcharts, stars and banners, or callouts, each of which has yet another set of shapes to choose from. Shown here is the Cloud callout.
4. Once you have the new shape, right-click the border once again, and choose Format comment as shown.

Tip of the week - Change dates so Excel can understand them

Suppose you are looking at a worksheet which contains dates which can't be formatted as 'real' dates because of their structure.

1. Select the date(s), and use Data tab, Text-to-Columns

2. This brings up the Text-to-Columns wizard even though the dates are fixed width, in this case you can simply click Next twice

3. Select date (year, month, day)

4. Click Finish

Google’s search by Image

Google has announced the launch of a new image search feature, search using an image as the source, Google then searches for images similar to it and returnes both image and text results. This technology has been available on mobile for some time from Google Goggles, but now it’s coming to the desktop.

Google explains:

You might have an old vacation photo, but forgot the name of that beautiful beach. Typing [guy on a rocky path on a cliff with an island behind him] isn’t exactly specific enough to help find your answer. So when words aren’t as descriptive as the image, you can now search using the image itself.

To search using an image, go to images.google.com and just put your picture in the search box. There are many ways to do this:

Google says the feature returns the best results for images that have related content already on the web, it's most effective with things like landmarks, artworks as opposed to images of family.

Google also announced a bundle of other new search features, including bringing voice search to the desktop, Google Instant for Images, and something called Instant Pages, which in Google's Chrome browser pre-loads popular pages before you click on the search results, meaning you view them far quicker.

These new features will be comming out to users on Google.com over the coming weeks.

The Mobile Spring Tide

Tablets, netbooks and smart phones coupled with modern operating systems, fast browsers and the infamous cloud. All the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together for a spring tide in the mobile computing arena.

Asus got the ball rolling, Apple reminded us that we wanted it and Google’s been patiently waiting for everything to fall neatly into place. Technology has finally reached a point where we are comfortably able to continue working beyond the office. The Asus Eee PC released in 2008 woke everyone up to the fact that PC components are now small enough and cheap enough to package the basics into one inexpensive simple design.

Apple made the mobile sphere trendy and built up the excitement with the iPad but this excitement has in my opinion, clouded some of the practicality of mobility especially in business. This fog is starting to clear and tablets and netbooks are making their way into the hands of the corporate world. Sure it’s cool to surf the web and share your family album but the real gem with tablet PCs and netbooks is the ability to take your work with you wherever you go.

Cloud computing was simply a buzz word in tech circles up until recently but for the common person it simply means being able continue working using the simplest of devices from anywhere in the world. Compiling a spreadsheet in Google Docs, collaborating in an online project plan, attending a video conference on Skype, sharing files on Dropbox, working on a company portal, the list goes on.

These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be done in the cloud using nothing more than a tablet PC. One is given a strong sense of freedom when your work is able to move with you wherever you go.