When you delete a file in windows the file is moved to the recycle bin, but did you know that even after emptying the recycle bin the file still exists? Whether you’re giving your old computer to a family member, donating it to a charity or just tossing it out in the trash, you must securely erase the hard drive to protect your data!

When you delete a file you’re simply telling the operating system (i.e. Windows) the file is no longer needed and it’s OK to overwrite the storage space it once took up. If the the actual space on the hard drive has not yet been overwritten with new data the information still exists and is recoverable, even though you can’t see it. In some cases even overwritten the space still leaves some of the data recoverable.

The only way to be sure your personal data is completely safe is to use a tool that will securely erase your drive buy writing over it with multiple passes of random data. The good news is there are plenty of good free tools to handle this, below are two of the most popular.

A program like eraser can securely erase an entire hard drive or specific files and folders of drives your still using. Eraser can also be used to overwrite “white space” of active drives. This means you can use it to securely erase all free space on your hard drive and ensure data from previously deleted files is no longer recoverable.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is another excellent program when you need to securely erase an entire hard drive. You simply add the tool to a CD, USB stick, DVD or floppy drive and then boot your computer with the device connected. During the boot process your computer will find the tool and ask you to choose which drives you want to wipe. Select the drive or partition you want to erase and off it goes.

Technorati Tags: hard-drives, security, utilities, boot-cd, boot-disk, eraser, DBAN

As you probably know by now Microsoft has made some major changes to the interface in the their Microsoft Office 2007 suite up applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), specifically the “Ribbon”. The ribbon is essentially a completely new way of displaying buttons, tools, commands and menus items which is “intended” to enhance usability and decreases the time it takes to edit documents.

However, until you learn to use the ribbon it could have the exact opposite affect! Most people find themselves continually hunting for buttons and tools that they could easily find in the past.  Don’t worry they still exist! You just have to learn where to look, and here’s how:

One of the best tools to make this transition easier is the Microsoft Office Interactive Guides. The site contains Microsoft Office 2007 user interface guides for each application in the suite. The guides are simple visual tools that show you were where to look in Office 2007 to find the same exact tool you used in Office 2003. (If you’re used to a version older than 2003 don’t worry, it’s probably similar enough to 2003 that the tool will work just fine for you as well.)

You can launch web based versions or download them and take them with you. They run independent of other programs and don’t require any version of office to be installed on your computer.

After you launch one of the guides you are presented with the Office 2003 interface where you navigate to the button or menu you were searching for. By hovering over the item you are presented with a simple description of where to look in Office 2007 to find the same tool. If you click an item you get an animated display. It’s that simple!

Here’s the link where you can find the interactive guides: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx.
You may also want to check out the Microsoft Office training site for lots of other helpful information on the Office suites: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/FX100565001033.aspx

Now that you’re well on your way to learning how to use the ribbon you can take full advantage of one of its best features: hovering over an item on the ribbon will temporarily modify your document (until you hover off) so you can see exactly what the results of selecting the item will be, no more trial and error!

Good luck and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Office, Office-2007, Training

More and more programs these days are using tabs in one form or another, web browsers and Firefox and IE have had tabs for a long time. Most of these programs now also allow you to drag and drop the tabs to re-order them. The drag and drop feature lets you organize better and helps to increase your proficiency.

So if you’re anything like me, you’re wondering why hasn’t Microsoft added this feature to the taskbar of the Windows operating system. If you could re-order your open applications and windows you could group them together in order by the tasks your are working on.

There’s no reason to keep waiting for Microsoft, meet Taskbar Shuffle!

This little program is easy to install and works as advertised. Taskbar Shuffle runs in your system tray without slowing things down. Once installed you can begin dragging your taskbar items around and reordering them any way you like. Go ahead, give it a shot!

Technorati Tags: taskbar, shuffle, windows, drag-and-drop,

Have you ever fallen asleep on the subway or bus and missed your stop? Then you need iNAP!

iNAP is an application for the iPhone that will wake you up when you arrive at your destination, perfect for those who use public transportation or carpool. Just provide your final final destination and the distance from which you wish to be notified. When iNap registers that you have arrived within your specified distance it will alert you.

Best of all, it only cost $1 – think of how much better you’ll sleep when you don’t have to worry about going past your destination!

iNAP: What an excellent idea! Just make sure you try it out once before going to sleep, your destination may not get good reception and then iNAP will not know when you get close.

Technorati Tags: software, electronics, iNAP

Adobe has launched it’s online version of Photoshop called Photoshop Express. It’s currently a public beta and open for anyone to sign up.

The online Photoshop Express is a nice little photo editor for some of your more basic editing needs but if you’re used to the advanced features of the full blown Photoshop then it’s not for you.

Photoshop Express features 17 editing tools including red-eye removal, crop & rotate, saturation and sharpening (see left). It’s not the greatest selection of edition tools but the ones they do give you are quite nice. It looks like they took a page from Microsoft Office 2007, most of the tools display a row of thumbnail images across the top of your photo, just hover over a thumbnail and you’ll see the effect applied instantly to your image. This is great if you’re not quite sure what a specific tool can do.

The undo capabilities are also great! You have your typical undo and redo arrows but you also have a nice little ribbon like feature that displays a series of thumbnail images with all of the edits you just made. Click on a thumbnail and revert back a that particular point. Unlike most photo editing tools, it’s also easy to remove any particular edit without loosing any of the changes you made after words. All you have to do is remove the little check mark next to the tool and that particular edit is removed, leaving all others in place.

Photoshop Express isn’t just an editing tool though, you also get 2GB worth of storage for an online gallery you can share with friends and family. I have to admit, it’s nice to have 2GG for free, but I’m not all that fond of the gallery, it seems to be lacking in features a bit. You can organize your photos into albums and view the albums as a slide show but there really isn’t much more than that. The search feature is only helpful if you have commented or named each photo. The addition of tagging would make it much easier to keep organized.

Over all, Photoshop Express is a pretty nice little editing tool, especially since you can import directly from other services like flickr, photobucket and picasa. But if you’re and advanced user you’re probably better of with desktop software and if you’re looking for a place to store your images and show them off, I recommend using flickr.com, zooomr.com or picasa web albums, they have many more options when it comes to sharing.

Technorati Tags: Photoshop-Express, photography, adobe

Here’s a quick maintenance tip for you:

Use CCleaner once a week to keep your computer running fast and smooth.

CCleaner is an optimization and privacy tool that will free up temporary files, erase your Internet tracks and clean up excess registry keys. They tool is easy to run and most people can get by with the default settings after installation. The initial program scan can take a few minutes but the cleaning process is very quick!

You can find a link to CCleaner under “Utilities” of the “Favorite Free Software” section of my website. After installing I recommend taking a look at the short CCleaner Tour to learn about the features of the program so you have a good understanding of how it works and what’s available.

Technorati Tags: CCLeaner, PC+Maintenance, tip

Stop on over www.ComputersConfuseMe.com to see a new page created today called “Favorite Free Software“. This new section of ComputerConfuseMe.com lists some of my favorite free software applications of all kinds.

Firefox, Flock, Thunderbird, Gimp, Image Resizer, avast! antivirus and Tweak UI are just a few of my favorites listed on this page. This section will be updated regularly with the latest versions and new free software when I find great programs to share, so check back often.

Technorati Tags: free, software, ComputersConfuseMe

They guys at “The Common Craft Show” use pen and paper to explain things in “plain english” and they do a great job! You don’t have to be technical to understand their videos and keep up with what’s going on out there on the Web these days.

Their latest video (Google Docs in Plain English) explains how easy it can be to maintain a single document with multiple editors in different locations. Anyone who has had to do this knows how tough it can be to manage multiple copies of the same document and keep track the latest updates. Check out this video to see just how Google Docs can make your life easier, especially after the recently released presentation (Powerpoint) addition to the already present Docs (Word) and Spreadsheets (Excel).

Technorati Tags: google+docs, software, online+office

Fending off spyware is an extremely important part of maintaining your computers top performance and helping to protect your personal information. The term spyware refers to software that’s installed on your computer without your consent and is used to track your activities. The information gathered by spyware is typically used to display targeted advertisements (those annoying popup advertisements you constantly get) but could also lead to identity theft. To protect yourself against this type of threat you need to install and run antispyware software.

Antispyware software comes in two main forms, one which requires manual scanning and another which scans in real-time like antivirus software. I recommend installing two different programs, preferably one of each since no one program will catch all spyware programs and two simultaneously installed real-time scanners could interfere with each other. I recommend installing Microsoft’s Free real-time scanner “Windows Defender” and either/both of the free manual scanners: Spybot Search & Destroy or Ad-Aware SE.

My favorite free antispyware program is Spybot and they’ve recently updated:
Safer-networking.org has released their first Spybot Search & Destroy version update (1.4 to 1.5) in what seems to be about two years. The new update includes:

a lot of improved detection mechanisms (which in parts were already made available through the regular 1.4 updates in the past months), improved Operating System support (Windows Vista integration, restored support for Windows 95, more compatibility with Wine, support for bootable Windows CDs), improved browser support (e.g. for immunization) and much more

There doesn’t appear to be any major differences but I’d still recommend updating if you’re using 1.4. If you’re not using any form of antispyware then now is the time!

To learn more about Spyware and Viruses read the following two articles on www.ComputersConfuseMe.com:

• Basic Spyware Guide
• Basic Virus Guide

Technorati Tags: spybot, spyware, security