Microsoft

Introduction

I downloaded Windows 8 when it was released to Developers back last year and installed it on a virtual workstation with a 2 gigs of ram running from my Windows Home Server. I thought it was shaky and slow. So I decided to abandon it. Until recently when the Consumer Preview release came out and I decided to give it another try. Getting windows 8 up running was actually quite simple. Downloaded the Consumer release preview and burned the ISO to a DVD was all that was required. Besides an operating system key of course. I decided to install windows 8 my primary laptop Toshiba T205 Satellite laptop so that I can get a full experience by using it day in and day out. Just a few specs on my laptop has 160gb hard drive 2gb of ram and is running a Intel Dual Core Pentium 1.6ghz processor so nothing fancy and no touch screen. But this being a five year old computer I expected for the operating system to sluggish.

I thought it was time to put together a little list of my favorite computer things i use to make my life easier. No big deal just the things i use everyday no matter if I’m at work or at home. I find myself using these products all the time.

Hope you enjoy my list and post comments and share your thoughts

1) Evernote – I first found the app for my the iPad before i knew about the website. But it’s be came one of my favorites and there’s a desktop version and one for my blackberry too.

The other day I was talking with a friend about my Windows Home Server configuration and thought I would post a little something about what addins I’m running or as the the title said my Fav 5. I like to keep my WHS running light and simple so the addins I like to use take advantage of features already built into windows 2003 and don’t put any extra strain on the server. But I still like to play around from time to time with some extra stuff.

First let me start by saying Microsoft allows you to download any of there new operating systems for trial period usually 120 days but some are 90. My 120 day trial period for windows home server ended on September 15th. I waited all the way to 121^st day to upgrade even though I knew by the 90^th day I was planning on buying it. So when I finally got around to getting a licensed copy, which I actually ended up getting it for my birthday. Now if your unfamiliar with Windows Home Server it’s basically the stay at home server and monitors all your houses computers for issues and backs them up just in case something happens and it feeds media to our TV’s and PC. You don’t need to have advanced skills to use it. Just set it up and forget about it will take care of you. So after sending the last 120 days getting to know the Home Server product. So here ******what I learned first 512MB of Ram is good start but if your going to use addin’s your going to need a little more I didn’t go all crazy, I doubled the memory and now I’m getting great results. Second configuring remote access on Comcast is easier then think. you just need to configure the right ports and your done. Third there’s a addin out called WHIIST it’s the greatest thing basically what it does is builds on the the built-in IIS and remote access feature and allows for you host other site as well as customize your own remote access site. The fourth thing I learned and this wasn’t until the end was be very care how you reinstall your plug ins once you decide to buy the full version. I ran into problems when I reinstalled all my plug ins at once. I turned to We Got Served for help cause I could any information about my issue on the Microsoft forum. Which leads me to my fifth thing I learned The support community outside Microsoft is far better then the one provided them. This product is truly led by it’s enthusiast of course the tops one work for Microsoft or are recognized by them as MVP’s. The community is so supported that even Microsoft points users to theses community sites for news about recently developed addin’s and other product information. Now my biggest beef with product isn’t even the product its the fact that Dell doesn’t have a product out there currently that is built around Windows Home Server I freaking A your getting killed by HP, Acer, and mine others. By the ways what the point of having your own blog with followers if you can’t poke fun at others stupid Dell get with the times.

I’m one of those weird people who use multiple computers each day to get work things done. When I’m in the office I use my desktop PC and then at home I use my work laptop, prior to last year accessing my work files on my Desktop from work was nearly impossible. An then everyone got their own personal network share about year. Since then I’ve been saving all my files to my share and accessing them their over our corp. vpn to get to them. Well each time when I start a new file I had to change my saving location from my documents to my network folder and well, that gets kind of old so I figure why not take it one step further. Why don’t I just change my default my documents location. Well after downing a little search on the Internet I came a article in the MSDN Here’s a link to it if you want to change your default my documents location too http://tinyurl.com/9ngo7y