Tip of the day/General Tips etc

[MilesAhead]

No, I just mean RocketDock program launcher. I already had most of my programs categorized into 5 folders. I put those on RocketDock along with a few others. It already has Computer, Documents, Control Panel, Network, and Recycle Bin, so I can take all those off the desktop. Nice to have a clean desktop. No icons to get scrambled. Plus it's freeware/donationware. By default it magnifies icons on mouse-over but you can turn that off. Nice little utility.

Doesn't have to be RocketDock. There are others out there. I just liked this one because it's easy to set up without reading a whole bunch of stuff. I've used it for a few weeks now on Vista 32 bit, then W7 32 bit and on Vista 64 bit and it hasn't given me any problems. Plus you can download skins for it. Has nice Aero type skins avail. if you have Vista or W7.

[MilesAhead]

I updated both FolderCache and ReOpen to use some Glass if running on Vista or W7. It's just a thicker frame. There's no transparency in the lists. No trouble seeing what you are working with. Just the overall impression is much nicer than default Button Face color.

[dr_ml422]

No, I just mean RocketDock program launcher. I already had most of my programs categorized into 5 folders. I put those on RocketDock along with a few others. It already has Computer, Documents, Control Panel, Network, and Recycle Bin, so I can take all those off the desktop. Nice to have a clean desktop. No icons to get scrambled. Plus it's freeware/donationware. By default it magnifies icons on mouse-over but you can turn that off. Nice little utility.

Doesn't have to be RocketDock. There are others out there. I just liked this one because it's easy to set up without reading a whole bunch of stuff. I've used it for a few weeks now on Vista 32 bit, then W7 32 bit and on Vista 64 bit and it hasn't given me any problems. Plus you can download skins for it. Has nice Aero type skins avail. if you have Vista or W7.

Oh ok. I got you now miles. Does sound like a great lil app. For a second there I thought you had a docking station which is also a great addition to have. All I do now is snap any sata hdd drive in and work from the docking station instead of having to get a whole new external hdd w/case etc... Cheaper this way and imo very efficient.

I thought you had your icons on a external in a docking station pointing to w/e you had your proggies installed. So many apps. So lil time.

[MilesAhead]

I was looking at some of those online. I ended up getting a screw together box with USB connection. It seems to work fine. I'm wondering if I put it together right because when you handle it you can feel the drive shift around inside. But I figured if I put any packing it would hurt the cooling(has a small fan in the box.)

[doctorhardware]

The last HD case that I got, the HD just floats in the case. The case can be used for IDE and SATA drives. The other cases that I have, the HD is secured by screwing the drive to the case. All the cases that I have do not have any cooling fans.

[dr_ml422]

Miles I have the Thermaltake Docking station and it's on the money. You just snap the hdd in and you don't need a fan because it's the upper 1/2 is outside. It is very well built and I have had no problems w/it at all. I mostly leave my sata 500 GB in or sometimes just take it out and place in anti-static bag and in proper storage, but where I could just go get it anytime easily. I see this as a must have. No fuss w/individual cases and you can get them to fit either size hdd's whether sata or ide. Ide's almost out so I have sata one.

This is the baby I have>http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...746&CatId=2785

Sometimes it's better to not cut corners on prices etc... regarding computer parts. I just plug this baby into any usb port on any of my 2 pc's and go to work.

[MilesAhead]

@dr_ml422 it looks like a cool thing to have on the desktop. As I get new PCs the old drives will be 500 GB or larger so it would be a shame not to make use of them.

[dr_ml422]

I had to get something where I could access all my storage files easily that were not in the PC case. Why have storage hdd's hooked up inside PC unless constantly going to it? I'm happy. Thermaltake did good on this accessory.

[soup]

I had to get something where I could access all my storage files easily that were not in the PC case. Why have storage hdd's hooked up inside PC unless constantly going to it? I'm happy. Thermaltake did good on this accessory.

I am using one, but I would have liked this one, 4 port.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Products.aspx?C=1346

[dr_ml422]

It's always like that w/everything. We get something we like and at a reasonable price and long and behold somewhere else there's a improved model/better price. I guess the 4 ports for having it connected to 4 different computers or to 4 different hdd's? I did not go into the details. Great innovation though let me tell you whether 1 port or 4.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmmmm speaking of which, I wonder how good the networked externals are? Supposedly USB 3.0 is coming out next year so I wouldn't want to buy a whole bunch of slow USB 2.0 stuff. Maybe I could just plug an external into my gigabit switch?

[MilesAhead]

CCleaner 2.20.920

You guys might know this already but I just found out latest version of CCleaner has an item in the Tools menu to let you zap individual restore points. Very handy. Esp. on Vista64 SP1 the Disk Cleanup no longer has the "delete all but latest restore point" feature. This is way better than disabling restore, then enabling again, just to delete them.

CCleaner 2.20.920

[dr_ml422]

That's a good thing to know. I must admit though I haven't used system restore ever since I became more careful surfing and what not. I even got rid of it w/nlite in my present version of XP Home on my present build.

I'm almost finished building my new build which I will throw 64 Bit 7 on. There I will leave it and even have to anyway as I don't think nlite is up tp 7 yet, and also I have a way to go to learn 7 and all it's new tweaks and features.

You guys do a lot of beta testing and software stuff so it's prolly very much a must to have restore available.

[MilesAhead]

I have image backups, but like you say, I install of lot of little gizmos and sometimes Restore is the quickest fix. It just bailed me out on W7. I was installing the Sandboxie betas before Sandboxie 3.38 was released. I got to one that kept giving me error msgs from the Sandboxie service. Weird thing is, even though I did a complete uninstall and reinstalled an older version that worked perfectly, I got the same stupid error msgs. I did a restore point and I was back in business.

Another thing is, if you have W7 Untimate beta or use the ShadowExplorer utility, sometimes you can get an older version of a file you might have forgotten to back up, from the shadow copies. Not exactly complete file versioning but better than nothing.

[dr_ml422]

I'm not there w/7 on anything yet. i'm just now thinking of getting a new hdd to put it on when I install it. My build's has everything except the hdd for the os and the drivers I'll need also. I have a 250 GB available but that's overkill for just a os and apps. I don't want to have partitions on any hdd unless I get into having 2 or more OS's on a pc like you guys do. Then I'd need the space.

This place of mine looks like a pc drop off spot already. Lol...