7 Apr, 2008
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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.
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4 Apr, 2008
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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.
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28 Mar, 2008
April fools day is is just around the corner. It is time to start planning what tricks you will be planting, and who you will be playing them on.
In my last job, I knew when I walked into work on the 1st of April, I would be greeted by a computer that had been tampered with. It was always fun to figure out how the trick had been planted.
This article will cover some of the tricks that have been played on me, and tricks I have played on others. They are all taken from the Friday Fun articles already shown at Inspect My Gadget.
Tricks covers in this article are
- Trick Wallpaper Desktop
- The Start Virus
- My mouse is doing crazy stuff
- The infamous Blue Screen of Death(BSOD)
All the tricks are completely harmless and the computer can easily be restored to its original state once the joke is over.
Which one will you pull?
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20 Mar, 2008
I wish I could give everyone who reads this an easter egg, but it’s just not going to happen. Well not with the kind of easter egg you want anyway.
There are more types of Easter Eggs than just the chocolate variety. They come in many forms. Easter eggs are also the name of hidden features or novelty items found in movies, DVD menus, software, websites and sometimes even hardware.
I have put together a list of some of my favourite software Easter Eggs for your enjoyment. I have tried to select examples from programs that are found on the majority of computers. This way you will be able to try many of them out yourself.
We are going to look at eggs in the following programs:
- Pinball
- Solitaire
- Nullsoft Winamp
- Google.com
- Notepad
Read on for your eggs…
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14 Mar, 2008
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While most how-to articles you will find on this site will help you to be more productive, it’s sometimes fun to plant a practical joke on your work mates computer. You’ll have them pulling their hair out and screaming at their computer while you work quietly nearby.
None of these articles will damage your computer or expose you to viruses, and they will all be easy to revert the computer back to it’s previous state, at least, after a few laughs.
I saw funny video this week on YouTube of a guy logging onto a computer in a lab situation. Someone had planted some weird sheep sex startup sound on his computer that played at startup. This caused him a whole lot of stress and embarrassment. I thought it would be worth looking at a few options of how this can be done.
The result:
- The desktop will appear untouched.
- A video or sound sample will play at startup without any user input.
- Both methods will take around 30 seconds to return their computer back to it’s fully working state.
- Using method 2, the victim will be able to close it down quickly once they realise what is going on.
Maybe a sex video or audio sample isn’t the way to go. It might be more suitable to play some Barbara Streisand or Michael Bolton.
Read on to find out how to make this happen, and how to restore the system quickly before you get decked.
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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. 