Backing up your computer is important, but it can be a hassle. If we have to do it manually, chances are that we will forget one time or another. On the other hand, if we set it up to run automatically to a schedule, we may find it interferes with our normal computer usage.

Vista task scheduler is a very powerful tool. We can set it up to run programs only if the computer is idle. This serves two purposes. The backups will be made automatically and the backups will not interfere with your normal usage.

A huge added bonus is that we can use any backup program we like. We are not limited to backup programs that have scheduling built in. All we need is a backup program that can start backing up as soon as it is launched, which just about all of them can do.

This article is specifically for Windows Vista. XP’s scheduled tasks does not have the idle features built in, though it may be able to be achieved with a third party program.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you leave your computer on overnight, you may want to consider setting up a scheduled task to mute your speakers after a predefined time. This will protect you from hearing new email notifications, instant message requests and updates from awaking you from your slumber.

I can also see it of being useful in the workplace. If you have a regular meeting you go to each week, it may be worth having your computer mute the sound of your laptop while you are in the board room.

The process is fairly simple. We need to use a free third party utility to allow the mute to take place. There are many utilities you could use for this such as NirCmd or Wizmo, but today to keep things simple I am going to use a program called Mute.

The next step is to set up a scheduled task to enable and disable these utilities. All of these utilities unload themselves from memory once they have run. This means that unmuting can still be controlled through your normal muting methods.

The setup for Vista and XP are slightly different, but you will find all the instructions after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever left your computer logged in when you have had to race off to a meeting or lunch? I used to leave it logged in. One day my boss questioned me about an email sent from my computer, asking her if I could have babies with her. A colleague had played a joke on me. I soon learned to lock my computer whenever I was not in front of it.

Locking a computer is a fairly simple task. The Windows+L key combination will lock your computer instantly. It is still easy to forget though, so why not automate it with a little help from Bluetooth!

Bluelock is a small program that runs in your task tray. It detects if you (your phone) has moved away from your computer. If Bluelock can no longer find your phone because it is out of range, it will automatically lock your computer. When you return, you can type in your password, knowing that your computer was safe during your trip.

There is no installation required on either your phone or your computer. In fact, no software is needed on your phone at all. All that is required is Bluetooth on both your computer and your phone. I found it to be very reliable in my testing in both XP and Vista.

Many devices still have an older version of Bluetooth in them which has a range of 10 metres. Unfortunately, newer Bluetooth signals can reach up to 100 metres on a good day, so for this program to work, you will need to be more than 100m away from your computer.

Bluelock is available for free from Wuuls Website.

A few weeks ago, we looked at Ultra HAL Text to Speech reader. It had the ability to read out dialog boxes and to convert text documents to spoken word in the form of a wav file. It did the job reasonably well, but it had a few bugs and the reading of dialog boxes became annoying.

Since I wrote about it, I have come across another program that can convert your text files to MP3 files, and a whole lot more. DSpeech is a text to speech converter which can convert a wide variety of files to MP3, WAV or Ogg formats.

What makes DSpeech really special is that it supports PDF files, Microsoft doc files and web pages. This is much better than other programs as most I have come across that only support txt files and many of them cost money.

Another stand out point of this program is the ability to change the sound output quality. This allows the voices already on your computer to sound better, as most programs default them to a low setting. I like it that you can see the character talking up the top right of the screen. This can be turned on and off, but it is nice to look at, as each voice has its own individual face.

DSpeech is also capable of converting the audio from your microphone into text. There may be other programs that are better suited for this task, but it is nice to have all these features in the one package.

There are links on the site to some nice voices I had not come across before. They sound almost human and are quite understandable.

There is no installation required so you can try DSpeech out and delete it without any risk of damaging your system.

Get your copy for free from Dimio’s Tools. (Donations are welcome)

Linux has a lot to offer. There are a huge range of programs for the KDE desktop that are nicer than their Windows counterparts. There are also a tonne of tiny utilities that perform specialist tasks.

The Windows KDE project will let you run programs written for KDE on your Windows Desktop. Once all of the libraries and files are installed, you can run the programs as if they were designed for Windows. There is no virtual computer or emulator you need to load up.

The installer is very simple to use. You can select what you want the installer to download and install. The Windows KDE project comes with a wide range of games and utilities that will get you started. The Amarok music player was a highlight for me. Additional programs can be added, but you will need to compile them, or wait for updates.

The project is still fairly young and is still in alpha phase, so there may be some stability problems. I did not come across any in my playing around with it. It worked really well. This is a project that I predict will become hugely popular in the coming years.

The Windows KDE project currently works on XP, 2000, 2003, with Vista support on its way shortly.

Get your copy from the KDE on Windows website.