Jan 06
Coming out of CES 2014, Panasonic has introduced their latest model Toughpad. This one is arriving as the FZ-M1, and similar to other models in the lineup, this one is … Continue reading
Jan 06
HP may have just announced a new Android all-in-one PC designed to cater to business, big and small alike, but it hasn’t forgotten the still larger portion of the desktop … Continue reading
Jan 05
Tablets are a dime a dozen, something that makes room for tablets that take their time, in a manner of speaking. Such is the case with Lenovo’s ThinkPad 8, and … Continue reading
Jan 04
This article was written on January 31, 2008 by CyberNet.
Tutorial Thursday
A couple of weeks we wrote up a tutorial on how to create a single batch file that would simultaneously launch several different applications. It’s a handy little trick that many people found useful because they are frequently running the same programs on their computer. For example, when you start your computer you might open a browser, media player, and document editor. Instead of clicking on each of those shortcuts individually you can create a single batch file that will do the dirty work.
In the comments of that article “ExitRitual” asked a great question. He was wondering if it would be possible to do the same thing, but for closing programs. This would come in handy if, for example, you were getting ready to play a computer game. Most people shutdown a majority of the running applications to ensure that the game runs smoothly, and it can all be done in a single batch file.
We’ve shown how to do something similar in the past, but we were using a free third-party program because it was a little more powerful for the task at hand. This time around we’re going to use a command line option that is built-in to Windows.
–Instructions–
- Open Notepad (Start Menu -> Accessories -> Notepad):
- Now you need to find the filename of the programs you want to close. I believe the best way to do this is to open up the Task Manager. Do this by right-clicking on the Taskbar and choosing the Task Manager option. Then look for the filename of the program you want to close.
- Now you’ll need to use the taskkill command in Notepad, along with the filename(s) that you just grabbed in the previous step. Each command will look like this:
taskkill /im firefox.exe
Where firefox.exe is the filename of the program you want to close. Put each of these commands on a separate line like this:
- Save it as a .BAT file by manually entering in the extension at the end of the file name.
- Double-click on the new file that you just created to test out the results. Each program listed will be closed in a friendly fashion instead of being shutdown forcefully.
The batch file will be smart enough to skip over any applications that are currently not running. So throw all of those extra programs in the batch file, and don’t forget to include things that might be running the the System Tray.
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
Jan 04
Some apps do one thing, and they do it well. Others have a host of clever, hidden uses that you might have never thought of on your own. Here are our favorite clever uses for popular apps.
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Jan 02
Microsoft has quietly upgraded the Surface Pro 2, with new hardware including faster processors being sent out to those who returned their Windows 8 tablets after the December firmware update … Continue reading
Jan 02
This article was written on April 15, 2008 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
A few weeks ago we demonstrated an extremely simple backup solution called IdleBackup. It was nothing too fancy, and this time around we wanted to go to the other extreme with a freeware Windows backup application that will really knock your socks off. The program is called Cobian Backup, and I wouldn’t have found it without Leland’s help.
Cobian Backup is one of the most full-featured backup utilities that I’ve seen, and the best thing about it is that it’s completely free. I’ve been a proud owner of SyncBackSE for quite some time now, but Cobian Backup includes almost all of the same features in it’s latest version 9 Beta release. The interface is well designed, creating and scheduling backups is simple, and it is busting at the seams with customization!
(Click to Enlarge)
–Features–
Now I could have just listed off the features that the developer had put together, but I actually think the developer is rather modest of what the program is truly capable of. So I put together my own set of features highlighting all of the things that I find to be the most useful in Cobian:
- Can be installed as a service, which means it is able to run even when a user isn’t logged into the computer
- 3 different types of backups are available:
- Full backups: Every single file in the source will be copied or compressed. If you are overwriting, every file will be replaced. If Overwrite is unchecked, you will have several copies of the same source.
- Incremental: The program will check if the source has been changed from the last backup. If there is no need to copy the file, it will be skipped, saving backup time. The incremental procedure checks the Archive bit attribute of the file. You may want to manually reset the attribute to force a full backup: use the “Set the archive attributes” on the Task menu.
- Differential: The program will check if the source has been changed from the last FULL backup. If there is no need to copy the file, it will be skipped, saving backup time. The differential procedure checks the Archive bit attribute of the file. You may want to manually reset the attribute to force a full backup: use the “Set the archive attributes” on the Task menu.
- Dummy task: This backup doesn’t need a source or a destination. It is useful to use the task just as an scheduler to execute applications, close services, reboot the computer, etc.
- Remotely connect to and manage your backups (Cobian will need to be installed on both the host and client machine to do this). Go to Tools -> Remote Client in Cobian to access this feature.
- Backup to or from a network or FTP location
- Compress your backups using 7-Zip or regular ZIP
- Split the compressed files up into multiple files according to a maximum size that you specify
- You can have multiple source and/or destinations
- You can have a timestamp added to backup filenames so that existing backups are not overwritten
- Perform a variety of actions before and/or after a backup starts:
- Pause for a specified duration
- Start or close a program
- Start or stop a service
- Restart or shutdown the computer
- If you choose to perform an incremental or differential backup you can set Cobian to automatically do a full backup every X backups, where “X” is any number you want.
- It will retrieve files from the Volume Shadow Copy (on XP and Vista) if a file is locked by another application
- You can provide a list of files and/or folders to exclude
- UNICODE support
–Creating a Backup–
When making a decision on which backup application to use it is pretty critical to see first-hand whether it is going to do what you want it to. And that’s what this screenshot gallery is for!
In Cobian there are seven different areas that you can configure for each backup task that you create. Below you’ll find a screenshot of each different area so that you can appropriately decide whether Cobian will be able to perform the backups in the way that you want it to.
(Click to Enlarge)
–Overview–
Cobian Backup is a tremendous application that will likely have much, if not all of what you’re looking for. It might take some time to get the backups setup just the way you want, but once you’re done the end result could save you days of frustration. Believe me, in the last two years I’ve had two different hard drives fail on me. If it wasn’t for the regular backups that I performed there could have been a lot of unrecoverable settings, pictures, and documents. Software like Cobian Backup can really come through in a pinch!
Cobian Backup Homepage
Note: In this review I was using Cobian Backup 9 Beta.
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
Jan 02
The latest numbers were recently published by Net Applications looking at the overall computer operating system market around the world. The report shows that the newest versions of Windows, Windows … Continue reading
Jan 02
Last month rumors started to circulate that Asus was working on a new Windows tablet. The rumors claim the device is called the VivoTab Note 8. Along with the name … Continue reading
Jan 01
This article was written on July 22, 2008 by CyberNet.
Time Saving Tuesday
Flickr is a photo sharing service that has around for over four years, and in that time it has grown at an astounding pace. Thousands of images are uploaded to Flickr every minute, and it was just last year that they had over two billion photos uploaded to their site. The good news is that with the increase in popularity also comes an increase in the number of free tools available.
Personally I’ve been a Flickr Pro subscriber for a little over a year now, and the amount of features you get for the $2 per month is well worth the money. I currently have over 6,000 images uploaded on my account that I share with friends and family, and I’m always looking for tools that make the job even easier. So what I’ve got for you today are my favorite free applications that help me upload photos to my Flickr account.
–iPhoto Plugin (Homepage)–
Flickr makes an application for Mac OS X that is easy to use, but the problem is that it doesn’t integrate into Apple’s flagship photo management application called iPhoto. This is a big deal because many Mac users will probably be using iPhoto, and using the standard Flickr uploader means that you’ll need to add tags, descriptions, and titles to all of your photos twice: once in iPhoto and again on Flickr. Yuck!
No problem. The Free Flickr eXporter iPhoto plugin works inside of iPhoto, and preserves all of your descriptions, tags/keywords, and titles while uploading your images. You can also adjust privacy settings, resize images before uploading them, and choose which set(s) you’d like the images placed in.
–Windows Live Photo Gallery (Homepage)–
Windows Live Photo Gallery is one of the best ways to not only manage your photos, but also to upload images to the Yahoo-owned Flickr. What’s interesting is that Microsoft ships Windows Live Photo Gallery with Flickr support, and that means there’s even less you have to do to get it running.
To upload images to Flickr all you have to do is go to Publish -> More Services -> Publish on Flickr to have the wizard walk you through the steps needed. After authorizing the application you’ll be able to choose which set your photos should be uploaded to, select a maximum image size, and also change the permissions. The application will automatically grab any tags and descriptions you’ve added to the photos and include those with what gets uploaded.
One of the things that is rather unique with Windows Live Photo Gallery’s implementation is that you can queue multiple uploads. After you get one set of photos uploading just switch back to Photo Gallery to start uploading more. The program prevents multiple uploads from going on simultaneously, and will add any other batches to a queue. Most Flickr uploading apps will just block you from trying to upload more than one batch at a time, which can be a pain if you just want to walk away from your computer while the uploading is going on.
Here is a step-by-step walkthrough of the Flickr support in Windows LIve Photo Gallery.
–Picasa Plugin (Homepage)–
Google’s Picasa application is an excellent way to manage your photos, and all hope isn’t lost if you don’t want to use it with Google’s online photo services. There’s a handy plugin called Picasa2Flickr that adds a “Send To Flickr” button to the Picasa toolbar near the bottom of the window. When you click on the button it will add the selected photos to Flickr Uploadr 3.0 where you can then finish the upload process.
It’s a bummer that in order for this to work you need to have both Picasa and the Flickr Uploadr installed, but it is more convenient this way. The button keeps you from having to find your photos on your computer, and then drag them into the Flickr Uploadr.
–Send To Flickr (Homepage)–
I’m thinking this has to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to get your photos on Flickr. After you get it installed you’ll be able to select any photos from Windows Explorer, right-click on them, and in the “Send To” menu you’ll see a Flickr option (pictured to the right). The images will immediately start uploading themselves to your account, and you’ll see a preview window that includes the status of your upload.
There aren’t any of the advanced options that you might be used to, but if you’re not concerned with how your photos are organized this is probably one of the best Flickr solutions.
–Overview–
I’ve only begun to scratch the surface with the tools that you can use to upload photos to Flickr, but I only wanted to cover the ones that I’ve used. Let us know in the comments how you get your photos on Flickr!
Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com
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