Barthos Computers Blog

Optimize your Apple Macbook battery settings in Energy Saver preferences to increase battery life.

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Energy Saver.

Click Show Details.

Choose Battery or Battery Power from the “Settings for” pop-up menu.

Choose Longest or Better Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings pop-up menu.

These settings will put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible and reduce the computer’s microprocessor performance in order to maximize its battery life.

If you are using intensive mac applications, you may wish to modify or change the settings so the microprocessor performance is no longer reduced.

Set your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level

Press the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still comfortable to look at.

Turn off unused features and technologies.

Just as you would turn off the lights in an unoccupied room, turning off unused features and technologies can help maximize your battery life, too. Here are a few suggestions:

Eject CDs and DVDs you’re no longer using. Every so often, the optical drive spins up to read CDs or DVDs. This consumes a small amount of power.

Disconnect peripherals when you’re not using them. Connected peripherals, such as printers and digital cameras, can draw power from your battery even when you’re not using them.

If you’re not in a location where you need to use AirPort or Bluetooth, you can turn them off to save power.

To turn off AirPort:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Network.

From the Show selection, choose Network Port Configuration.

Uncheck Airport from the list.

Click Apply Now.
To turn off Bluetooth in Mac OS X 10.2 or later:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Bluetooth.

Click the Settings tab.

Click Turn Bluetooth Off.

Author: Courtland_Santos

Microsoft Outlook is an email client (Mail User Agent to some) which I’m sure you know what it does. If not, let me try to explain it as simply as possible. Email clients are programs or application’s which retrieves emails from the web server and downloads it onto your desktop.

Now with that out of the way, did you know that you can lose your mails because of your email client? This is a big deal as email is now a large part of communication both in the corporate world and the private/home user.

How can you lose your emails?

When you use email clients, you risk losing your email just like any other data on your desktop. Here is a list:

- Virus attack
- Corrupted partitions/volumes
- Deletion/Format
- Hard Disk Crash
- Theft/natural disaster

In Microsoft Outlook versions 2003, 2002, 98 and 97, once Outlook’s PST file size goes above 2gb, your emails, or rather, the PST file, gets corrupted.

- PST corruption

Installation of anti-virus/anti-spyware

Prevention of viruses, spyware and basically all malware is important as they cause your system and programs to become sluggish, unstable and perform undesirable operations.

And since when you use Microsoft outlook, your emails will get affected as the mails on the server gets downloaded onto your computer.

- Install anti-virus/anti-spyware and update frequently

Anti-virus/anti-spyware is available widely and should often be updated for the latest updates and patches.

Use it to scan you computer, and to scan ALL emails if they contain attachments.

Never download anything directly to your computer unless you are certain of the reliability and credibility of its source.

For a detailed view of how to remove viruses, refer to this article on removing viruses

Backup

The most reliable way to prevent the loss of your Outlook emails is to backup your PST file. To do this, simply copy your PST to another storage media (such as your thumb drive) or another drive on the same computer.

The PST file can be found by simply opening the search function (go to start menu and you can find the search function there) and copy and paste this term into the search box ” .pst ” without the double quotes.

Wait for the search finish. The default .pst file name is outlook.pst. Then just copy and paste the .pst file onto your backup media. Backup frequently, as you may never know when the outlook files (or any other important files for that matter) gets accidentally deleted, formatted or corrupted.

Computer Maintenance

Although this should already part of your routine, it bears reminding again. You should maintain your system by defragmenting, running scandsk and so on. This is basic maintenance for your computer as it can help prevent file system problems. It also enables your system to run smoothly and prevent system slowdown.

Here is a slew of other maintenance tips for you to look into

Outlook housekeeping

Yes, even in outlook, you need to do some basic maintenance. This is done to prevent your .PST file from getting corrupted.

Before outlook 2003 (and in earlier versions of outlook 2003), the .PST file limit was set at 2GB. If the .PST file size exceeded this limit, it would be very difficult, if at all possible, to retrieve any data from the .PST file as it would get corrupted.

When you are doing housekeeping, you are trying to keep this limit down and at the same time, helps in organising you mails so that they are easier to retrieve when you need to read them again.

How do you do that? Simple.

Delete all the old mails that you do not need, and remember to empty the trash. Categorise all your mails accordingly. For example, all your work folders should be in a separate folder from you personal emails and so on.

Create a NEW pst file

Another way to keep control of your PST file size is to create another .PST file. Of course, don’t create a new .PST file for the sake of creating one.

Have separate .PST files for business and personal mails. To create this a new .PST file, simply open outlook and follow these steps:

1.Go to File menu, to New, and then click Outlook Data File

2. In the next window, you should see two options. Simply choose Office Outlook Personal Folders file. In Outlook 2003, there is an option to increase compatibility with older outlook versions, choose the Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File option. Click Ok

3. Then choose an appropriate location to save your new .PST in. Choose a location, and the type in the filename of your new .PST file.

And there you have it. A new .PST file, all ready for use.

In actual fact, prevention of lost Outlook mails is not hard. However, you need to be constantly maintaining your system and backing up your mails which take up precious time. It is a necessary step to take to prevent you from losing all your precious emails.

Suhaimi Baruddin is currently employed as a writer, designer,researcher and data recovery engineer at Adroit Data Recovery Centre’s laboratory, which is located in Singapore’s Science Hub.
With the necessary tools, parts and experience, ADRC strives to spread the word about data recovery, and help people recover data which means so much to them.

Adroit Data Recovery Centre Pte Ltd

Many of us know what it is like to have a computer problem and lose all our important files. In many cases, this does not necessarily mean absolute tragedy. Don’t despair. There are ways to retrieve lost files. One great option is to pick a good data recovery freeware. Often, this is a good idea but there are also some important considerations that you should have in mind when using recovery freeware.

Who Should Try It

Freeware may be the best option for you but only under certain conditions. It is important to remember that for some cases, freeware may work best. There are still however, some occasions when they may not exactly be everything you hoped for. In some situations, there is no absolute certainty that you will get back everything that you have lost.

Data recovery freeware is often best used when files have been lost or damaged because the system user has made a mistake. Freeware also works great when a virus is the cause of data loss or damage. It is very important that you take the time to assess your problem first before attempting to use any software to help recover lost data.

The best thing about data recovery freeware, should you decide to choose this option, is that you wouldn’t have to shell out thousands for it. You can try it for yourself and see if you can get good results. If you choose the right one, then there is a great chance that it can easily solve your data loss problems.

Even when paid services for data recovery are eventually required, you can always try freeware first. Some people do this and then only progress at a later time to employing experts for a fee when more complicated recovery work is required.

Who Shouldn’t Try It

It’s tempting to try data recovery freeware upon suffering data loss of any kind. This isn’t such a good idea though. You shouldn’t try it under certain circumstances. You may have to find another way to recover your files in cases when freeware is not advisable.

Freeware probably wouldn’t make a dent in your data loss problems if the cause of it is hardware damage. Try to check first if your problem stems from computer hardware problems. Data recovery freeware is only truly advisable when your concern is related to software issues.

Using freeware for data recovery is also inadvisable if you have to follow an installation procedure before it can run. This obviously means you have no chance at all of getting your data back. Freeware should be able to function by using only certain Internet services or a disc.

These days, you can get freeware from a lot of sources but you shouldn’t take the risk with an unknown program. The best way to find a good program that actually works is to ask people who have used them. Ask for recommendations from those who have actually used the freeware you have chosen.

Where You Can Get It

By simply entering ‘data recovery freeware’ into a search engine’s search box you are bound to get some items that you may be able to use. If you are unfamiliar with any of the programs listed, you can head off to technical forums, blogs and website to get some good user reviews, advice and tips about the particular software that you have found.

Data recovery freeware is obviously the cheapest (hey… it’s free), but not always necessarily the best option to use for your computer data recovery. So what is the best option? For more advice on data recovery services and procedures, visit www.datarecoveryfreeware.net right now.

Article Author: Elliot_Bryce