Nearly 300 Free Ebooks From Microsoft

Normally I would just tweet about this sort of thing, but this list big list of ebooks is something I want to reference for myself in the future.  So I'm posting it on the techblog!

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There are several Windows 8 and 8.1 related books which I'm interested in.  Several Office related books and Shortcuts cheatsheets.  Powershell cheatsheets and books - will have to save these for future reference.

There's really too much there to mention it all.  So Here's the link.

What books and cheatsheets do you find helpful?  Leave a comment and let us know what you are interested in.


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Save Money - Print To PDF

Mac OSX and Ubuntu Linux (other Linux distributions do as well) already come preset with PDF printing capabilities. Once you have this “printer” setup, you can save your company and yourself a lot of money. Not to mention saving trees and the environment in the process.

Once you print to a PDF file, you can always print a paper version, should you need one in the future. Another plus, you know the files are in your computer, which saves you from digging through a filing cabinet – another costly investment, when you go looking for the file.

If your windows PC does not already have a PDF printer already setup, I highly recommend CutePDF.

If you need help installing software or need any computer related help, contact Pixel Perfect Group.

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter (once this attack is resolved). If you would like to contribute toFrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

Free Site Map Generator

Have a website? Do you have a site map? If you don't, you can generate one quickly and for free using XML-sitemaps.com. Tried it out with a small website and it worked in seconds! If you own a website and want a sitemap, but don't want to spend time creating it, try this free service.

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter (once this attack is resolved). If you would like to contribute toFrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

Encrypt Your Data For Free

If you have any sensitive data, financial or any other personal data, how do you keep it safe from prying eyes? I've heard a lot about TrueCrypt and I recently read an article called How To Encrypt Your Business Data For Free. If you think your data on your computer is safe with a username and password, think again. Anyone can take your hard drive and pretty much grab any file off your computer just by hooking it up to another machine, unless you use file encryption.

Most people do not have the need for file encryption, afterall, most of your personal is readily available via Google already! For those of you a little more sensitive to data theft, you can use any of the following software available for your computer system.

• TrueCrypt
• Windows Vista's Bitlocker
• SecureStar's DriveCrypt

There are other free software packages out there already and I will update this list as I come across them. What about you? Do you encrypt your data? What software do you use?

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

AVG Anti-virus 7.5 No Longer Supported

I'm still running version 7.5 of AVG anti-virus, and I've been getting alerts to upgrade to version 8 of AVG anti-virus. If you don't know already, AVG is a, free for personal use, anti-virus program. I've been using it for years and have written a post on it before. I've used version 7 for years now and it has done a good enough job for me.

Version 8 has some improvements and comes with some extras that may make your web browsing habits a bit safer as well. Part of the reason I use AVG is because it utilizes very minimal system resources, not to mention free.

If you are still using version 7.5 you should upgrade to version 8 soon. I'm sure you've been getting the pop-up asking you to upgrade, if you have kept up with virus signature updates. The deadline for the upgrade is April 12, 2009, meaning your AVG 7.5 software will stop getting updates.

Do you use AVG Antivirus? Have you upgraded? What other free Anti-virus software do you recommend?

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

Free Copy Of TaxCut 2008

It's almost that time of the year again, when we have to file our Federal and State income taxes. To help you deal with your taxes and to save you a pocketful of change, I'm holding a giveaway for H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + e-file. I've used TaxCut software for several years now and it has done a great job for me.

There will be a total of two copies of H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + e-file to be given away (shipped to you free of charge).

Rules for the contest

Rules are simple, just leave a comment on this post stating you want a copy. Would appreciate if you can let me know what you like best about my blogs. Good Luck! Winners will be chosen randomly using Random.org's number generator.

Giveaway will end Friday March 27, 2009.

You must provide me a way to contact you, just email me or send me a Twitter DM so I can let you know you have won. If you do not provide contact information, the prize will go the the runner-up.

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

My Favorite Remote Support Tools

One of the things that most if not all Technical Support types will come across is doing remote support. I've used a good number of remote support tools, ranging from the built-in windows netmeeting (yes you can use this to do remote support) to services like GoToMyPC.

Those of you at home who end up helping family or friends have probably used remote support tools at one point or another. What do you use? Is it better than the alternatives? Have you tried the alternatives? Here are some remote support software that I have tried and used.

• Windows NetMeeting - It's free and works well when you have someone on the other side who knows a little bit of what they are doing on a pc. Most likely you already have it on your windows pc.
  
• Windows Remote Desktop
• LogMeIn - I've used and really recommend this. There is a free service, which I use and it works very well. The paid versions give you more control and features.
  
• Teamviewer - I wrote about Teamviewer in a previous post. It is very simple and works very well.
  
• Timbuktu - I first came across this software years ago through a colleague supporting Macs. This is cross platform compatible and has many enterprise features as well.
  
• PCAnywhere - at $200 its one of the more expensive ones out there. It has some good features. Personally, I don't use it since there are free alternatives.
  
• GoToMyPC - You probably know this one, since they advertised a good deal in the past and still do in technical magazines. They have other features for meetings etc, that they try to push on you. It works and works well.
  

Here are some more, that I have not tried. They do seem pretty good though, at least according to what I read on the websites and reviews from others.

• CrossLoop - an online service, site looks simple enough to navigate.
• mRemote - for the more advanced, this tool supports many protocols.
• UltraVNC - Very popular with some sys admins and server folks. It's free, though they accept donations.
• TightVNC - Like UltraVNC, this is also free. Available for windows and linux
• Mikogo - Andrew Donnelly from Mikogo pointed out his company's solution. This looks like an alternative for GotoMeeting and allows you to do remote support and meetings.
  

You can find some reviews from Lifehacker about some of these solutions above. Here is a list of 40 from Mashable's Remote Access list from September 2007. What software do you use for remote support? What is your favorite and what do you recommend to others?

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

Photo by foskarulla

9 Great Things About FreeNAS

I've been using FreeNAS version 0.69 for several weeks now. I've also briefly used an older version and my experience with it so far has been GREAT! The initial setup of the disk drives did take a little longer than I thought it would. The OS itself booted up fine and everything since then has been pretty much a breeze! If you need a few pointers or need a bit of help with your setup, leave me a comment on this post.

So what are some of the best things about FreeNAS?

1. Share files with more than one computer, a USB drive lets only one pc access the files at a time, with FreeNAS you can have many machines access your files at the same time!
   
2. Stream multimedia content to your PS3, Xbox, Media Center PC.
   
3. Share your iTunes playlists
4. Share your files without having to login using SMB/CIFS and FTP services - anonymous access
   
5. Serve HTTP content via the simple webserver, I serve a copy of my TiddlyWiki
   
6. Practice your basic unix command line.
7. Easy to add additional storage.
   
8. Put your old clunker to use. Yes, your old Pentium II or Pentium II can be brought back to productive life with this software! I'm currently using a 500Mhz pc and have tested with a dual-core PC. Both of them work great!
   
9. Built-in BitTorrent Client - you can free up your pc from BitTorrent downloads. The first bittorrent file I downloaded was DSL, which I knew to be a small download.

If you are security conscious, I really recommend you run FreeNAS behind a firewall. This is a great tool to have and you don't want your new toy to be the hole in your network security procedures.

FreeNAS Resources I found that are helpful:

• FreeNAS.org - the source of the actual software is a great resource of course.
  
• LearnFreeNAS.com - A helpful site all about FreeNAS.
• Linux Backups with NAS - Found an article about backup to NAS using Linux, not exactly FreeNAS based, but found it somewhat helpful.
  

Alternatives:

• OpenFiler
  
• NASLite - Floppy Disk based NAS
  

You can buy the Learning FreeNAS: Configure and manage a network attached storage solution book if you are looking for a good reference book.

Do you use FreeNAS? What features do you like best? Share your thoughts and comments. You can get the current iso of FreeNAS here. Do you have other useful resources for FreeNAS?

For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way (guest posts, articles, ideas, interesting links, advice, financial assistance, or anything else), feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.

8 Tools To Make MS Shops Run Smoother

The following is an excerpt from the original post by Network World. I found this list to be very helpful since I'm in the Windows Admin world. This list is for my reference and for anyone who finds this useful.

PolicyPak

This is a tool you can use to create Group Policy "Paks" that can manage apps like Acrobat Reader, Firefox, Skype. It handles many apps that currently are a nightmare for a network admin -- or require a ton of work

ClipTraining

A task-oriented video training tool that users can easily alter in order to meet precise software training needs. ClipTraining offers a hosted training portal, internal portal hosted on your server or on the ClipTraining appliance CheeTAh.

Password Reminder Pro

A tool for monitoring and auditing passwords in an Active Directory environment. It provides alerts for expiring passwords both for internal and external users. The software offers a full reporting and alert system to help keep your organization secure and in compliance.

HiveWare

A document collaboration tool for Microsoft Word that allows two or more users to edit an active document at the same time without interfering with each other. This is an add-on that uses p2p technology to share documents that change in real time.

Open VPN

A full featured SSL VPN solutio. It is easy to configure and manage. It is open source, it is also priced right.

Excito Bubba Server

A full featured Web-based server (running a Debian Linux distribution) that provides all the power of a full sized server in a small form factor. Bubba II adds Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and eSATA connectors.

Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator

This is for those who want the security of Server 2008 core, but have not quite gotten used to the command line feel yet. Here is a GUI tool to help you configure your core server easily.

Open IT Online

A plug-in for Firefox that allows you to open and edit your documents wherever you are. The extension allows you to also open and edit spreadsheets, presentations and image files.

Check my Twitter account for more tips and tricks or subscribe to my blog for regular updates (it's FREE). As always, if you need additional help contact me via email.

Speed Up Your PC

Photo courtesy of WTL Photos

A friend of mine recently contacted me about his Windows XP machine being very slow. We had the following conversation over an IM session (the names have been changed).

[12:23] BOB: I am having a bunch of problems with my pc - I click on things and nothing happens - I have to click multiple times and even then there is a delay. is there anything I can do?
[12:33] me: hey
[12:33] me: Did you try uninstalling apps?
[12:33] me: defrag may help as well
[12:39] BOB: I don't know what all that means
.....

I used TeamViewer to remote into the machine and take a look. At first, I thought maybe it had something to do with a virus problem that was recently addressed. Upon looking at the issue, I noticed the machine has not been restarted in several days and the machine was very low on disk space. My first recommendation was to restart the machine, which helped. On top of that, the drive was very fragmented, so I asked him to first uninstall anything he didn't need and move files to another drive to free up disk space.

In troubleshooting computer issues, before you begin anything, always remember to ask yourself "What do you want your computer to do faster?". Defining and writing down the problem and coming up with possible solutions should be the first step. This being a Frugal blog, I always like to mention free or very low cost solutions. Below are some basic things that you can do, for free, to speed up your computer.

• Make sure you have restarted (reboot) your computer before anything. See my post on how to fix 90% of pc problems for why you should do this first.
• Make sure you have 10% or more disk space free. You can check this by right clicking on your C Drive and choosing properties. So if you have a 100GB disk, you should have at least 10GB free. Defrag will not run well, or run at all if you are running low on disk space.
• Free Up Disk space using tools such as WinDirStat to help you figure out where the biggest chunks are.
  
• Run Chkdsk - to fix basic disk drive issues
  
• Run Defrag - to get rid of fragmentation, or at least to reduce it.
  
• Check to See if Anti-virus is scanning your system, often times this will slow down your computer. Its probably a good idea to reschedule the time to when you are away from your pc, but it is still on, such as lunch time.
• Uninstall Applications - having too many applications installed and especially having them start up when you boot or login to your computer can slow down even the fastest machines.
• Reinstall your OS - this should be your last resort, since it will require hours if not days of work doing backup and reinstall of your OS and applications.

These are the general things that you could do to speed up your computer. What steps do you take to speed up your computer? Let us know your ideas in the comments. If you like this post, check my Twitter account for more tips and tricks or subscribe to my blog for regular updates (it's FREE). As always, if you need additional help contact me via email.

MS Paint - Free Tips and Tricks

MS Paint may be under powered, but it does have its uses. I've done hundreds if not thousands of screen shots using MS Paint. Most of the screen shots I use for my blog have been done using MS Paint, including the one for this post. So why do I use MS Paint when there are so many other better editors out there?

When it comes to a program that is available on any machine, you can't beat MS Paint. Since most computer users are on a Microsoft OS, its built-in. Since I've learned the basic MS Paint Editing functions - copy, paste, cut, resize, crop, etc... I can make quick simple changes anywhere. Plus, if you are on a machine with no internet access or the ability to download anything with more features that's all you have.

Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks:

• Use Alt+Print Screen or just Print Screen key to get a screen shot.
• Ctrl + V to paste clipboard contents to MS Paint
• Ctrl + Page Down - Zoom In
• Ctrl + Page Up - Zoom Out
• Ctrl + Z - Undo (very handy, this key combo works in most windows apps)
• Use the erasor tool to replace primary color with secondary color, check out this YouTube video for a demo
• (Rubber) Stamp tool: Select what you want to be a "stamp",using the selection tool, hold the Ctrl key and move your mouse to where you want the stamp, then left click to make a "stamp".
  

Many more tips and tricks can be found via a google search for MS Paint Tips or MS Paint Tricks . I've learned a good number of MS Paint tips and tricks from these sites: Tricklife, DeviantART, AlbinoBlackSheep, and YouTube.

Most average user editing can be done using MS Paint once you learn the very basics of MS Paint. I'll recommend something a little more heavier duty and still free, in a future post. Do you use MS Paint? If so, what do you use it for? Would you like to see more ms paint posts?

FreeDOS

This post is more for nastalgia than anything else. When I first started with computers and tech support, I worked in DOS (Disk Operating System). That was the Microsoft standard then. Recently I was writing an update to my post about What Do You Use Your PC For?, and went from the best buy link to a dell link, which led me to another link about FreeDOS still been sold with Dell machines.

I could not believe DOS was still being sold on new machines. I know DOS is still out there in some "ancient" applications, but to see it actually still being sold got me curious. So i did a search on Google and found FreeDOS. See a video of it being installed below.



While you're at it, get yourself some Free DOS games from DOS games or Download Full Games for some frugal entertainment. If that's not enough, search Google for free DOS Games. FreeDOS provides some resources for DOS applications and other links as well.

Do you still run DOS applications? If so, what do you use it for?

Paint.NET

I've been recommending Paint.NET to many people looking for PhotoShop for two to three years now. Whenever someone at work asks me if they can get PhotoShop, I ask if they know how to use it. Most people do not, they end up using a $700 product to do what a free or $50 product can do. Paint.NET is just that, a free photo editing application, with a great number of tutorials and plugins on their site to help you figure things out. Their blog site is here.

When I need to make quick changes to a photo or screenshot, I use MS Paint, but when it is a bit more heavy duty, I usually use Paint.NET. This application has layers, levels and many other features that basic photo management software such as Picasa lack. It's not a full PhotoShop replacement, I don't think there is such a thing, but it definitely does a great job for beginners who don't have the time to learn PhotoShop. It is a lot easier to pick-up and go with Paint.Net.

So if you are in need of a photo editing software, give Paint.NET a try. You might save yourself $700 in the process. Now that is frugal. Download version 3.36 here.

What do you use for your digital photo editing? Have you tried Paint.NET? Do you like it?

Getting To Know Your Computer

I often find the need to figure out if my computer system or a friend's system can run a new software program. Most software has minimum requirements and you can check your computer specifications in various ways. If you are running windows and need to know quickly there are two ways to do this for free, without additional software. The first option is to use the Windows Help and Support menus, which provides a great deal of information on its own. I highly recommend anyone who wants to learn more about their computer to use this resource. The other tool is the System Information application MSinfo32.exe.

To get to the Help and Support system (pictured above) following the below steps:


Click Start -> Help and Support -> Computer Information (left pane of the screen)

From this, you will get the very basic information you are looking for such as:

• Model of your computer
• MFG Service Tag numbers
• Processor Model and speed
• Physical memory Installed (RAM)
• Operating System (XP in this case)
• OS version number

To get additional information you can run through similar steps in Help and Support using
Start -> Help and Support -> Performance and Maintenance -> Maintaining your computer -> Get Information about your computer -> View general system information about this computer.

However, I prefer to use MSinfo32.exe, which can be used to view information on remote computers as well. To start it do the following:
Click Start -> Run -> Type in msinfo32.exe and you will see the following window.

This application will give you nearly all the information you want from your computer, including the summary from the above tool, hardware resources, software installed, internet settings, office application settings and possibly other information depending on your setup. Under the Tools menu, you will find 5 other useful tools: Net Diagnostics, System Restore, File Signature Verification Utility, DirectX Diagnostic Tool and Doctor Watson (My Favorites in Bold)

While writing this post, I came across another website called Network Clue, which had a good list of tools to use for the command line in Windows 2000 and XP. I hope you have found this post helpful, and you have learned a little more about your computer. What tools do you use to gather information about your computer?

Free Anti-Virus Software

If you are looking for a free personal anti-virus, I recommend AVG anti-virus. There are other free anti-virus out there, but I have personally used this on my own and my friends and family's machines for years.

The download page currently has version 8 available to download. You can download it directly from here. You get daily updates, which is very important, and its frugal choice.

This software does not get in the way of your pc or work like some other anti-virus software that slows down your computer. I usually schedule my full scans for when I know I am away from my computer. You can turn off the scheduled scans and manually do so, but I recommend keeping the scheduled scans if you are prone to forget.

What free anti-virus software do you use? Why did you choose this? Have you tried AVG?

My Purpose For FrugalTech

I'm starting this blog as a free resource for tech support for those who want personalized support, but don't want to pay a fortune. This page will be updated regularly, below are the things I'm focusing on doing with this blog. Posts will focus on the below topics, all posts and data within are free for you to use.

• Free online technical support resources
• Technical training
• Internet use tips
  
• Email tips
  
• Help with personal blogs
• Technical support
• Software recommendations
• Interesting websites
• Multimedia applications
  
• Tech related ramblings
  
• and more...

Let me know if you find the topics helpful and what other tech related topics you would like covered. Feel free to browse through my posts here and at my FrugalNYC blog. You can email me directly at frugaltech@gmail.com for additional help or pricing on any services I offer.