Windows XP

I don’t know how often you reboot your computer, but between trips from my home dock to my work dock and work back to home, I probably reboot mine about twelve times a week. Some Certified Legal Nurse Consultants leave their computers running all the time, while others put their computers to sleep at night. I’ve blogged about the difference between sleeping and hibernating (ask your husband) and the need to reboot to combat the occasional memory leak, but I’ve never discussed one of the pitfalls of rebooting – and that’s the time it takes.

Busy CLNC^® consultants understand the scientific connection between time and money and waiting for your computer to boot up is not billable time unless you’re doing something productive in the meantime. That means something other than watching the computer boot and counting the minutes until you can do the three-finger salute (Crtl-Alt-Del) and wait some more. And then, once your desktop comes up you still have to wait for all the programs and services to finish loading before you can actually work.

Here’s a Tech Tip I found for Windows^® XP that actually speeds that boot time and will help you get to work faster, but it only works for Windows XP. If you’re running Windows 7, you’re already built for speed so come back next week. I will warn you, like anything useful, this Tech Tip does involve a Windows Registry hack, I mean edit, so it’s not for the faint of heart. Therefore I must recommend that you read this and back-up your Registry before you try this tip (I didn’t, but then I like to live dangerously).

Once you’ve done that, click Run and start the Registry Editor by typing “Regedit” into the box and click OK. Next navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > ContentIndex. Then on the right side of your computer screen (known to my techie CLNC^® Amigos as the “right pane”), look for an entry (“value”) called StartupDelay. Double-left-click on StartupDelay and when it opens in a new box titled Edit DWORD Value (don’t ask), click the radio button next to Decimal and enter 40,000 (it’s probably set to 480,000).

Once you’ve done that, click OK then File and Exit to exit the Registry Editor. If you’ve done everything right, simply close your programs and restart your computer. Your machine should boot faster and you can thank me later!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Last week I explained to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants how to delete a file when Windows^® won’t let you. This week, I want to remind you that it’s a good idea to do an occasional spring cleaning (or even early summer) of your documents, photos, folders and files. Take some time and make sure you find all the legal nurse consulting flotsam and jetsam (not to mention detritus and other cosmic debris).

While you’re at it, be careful not to delete essential “system files.”  These are files on your computer that are, if not essential, very important to keeping your computer running in good health. If you attempt to delete a file and get the warning message shown below, it’s Windows telling you that you’re trying to delete one of these so-called system files.

I don’t care what you do now, as long as you DON’T DELETE IT! You could be deleting an essential program or part of your operating system and you could have major issues later. This is a good time to just say No. Use some common sense and good judgment and you should be safe. (Why do they call it common sense when it’s so rare anyway?)

Remember, too, after you delete your files, wait a day or so to confirm things keep running smoothly. Then empty your “Recycle Bin.”

After you’ve deleted all those files, if you’re running Windows XP^® you can click the Windows Start button, then Accessories, then System Tools and finally Disk Cleanup. This will run the Windows disk cleanup tool. Just follow the prompts and you’ll remove all the excess temporary files, installers and other stuff that has built up over the years. If you’re running Windows 7^®, Microsoft has made it much easier (not). Simply click Start, then Control Panel, then System, then Performance Information and Tools and finally Open disk cleanup and follow the prompts from there.

Finally complete the process by defragging your system. Win 7 users can skip this step since Win 7 automatically defrags.

Keep on techin’ (safely),

Tom

I once described a wine to Vickie as being “not entirely intolerable.” After about a month supporting Windows^® 7 on Vickie’s spiffy new laptop, I’d describe Windows 7 as “not the best, but not entirely intolerable” and I think that any Certified Legal Nurse Consultants running Windows 7 would agree.

Vickie always jokes that she’s the early adopter in our family. She went from paper Daytimer^® to Palm^® PDA, she had the first cell phone, the first Blackberry^® and now is the first to dip her toes into the wild world of Windows 7. In point of fact, her new laptop is so fast and glorious that I’m having a hard time not liking it. It runs circles around my XP machine and has caused me no small amount of hardware envy. That being said, I’m not in a hurry to leave my old, comfortable shoebox of an XP machine for Windows 7 and neither should you.

If you’re a CLNC^® consultant who’ll be buying a new computer for your legal nurse consulting business (or family), you’ll be saddled with Win7. Once you get done tweaking it, you’ll be happy with it. Win7 combines the best of Vista (if there was any) and the stability of XP to good effect. I’m having a little difficulty navigating the options for filing documents (but we work with networked storage so it’s not a real issue for us) and will muddle through it with the help of a Windows 7 for Dummies book. You’ll probably get Office 2010 at the same time so that book will help.

Vickie works in two worlds: with her XP desktop at the office and her Win7 laptop she uses at home and on the road. To her credit, she goes back and forth between the two without a problem and once you’re on Win7 you’ll like it too.

Back to the question of the day from one of my CLNC^® amigos: should you upgrade today, tomorrow or next week? I’d say only if you’re upgrading because you’re buying a new computer for your legal nurse consulting business. The average life of a computer, laptop or otherwise, is about three years. If you are a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with a fairly new computer running Windows XP, there’s no need to put yourself through the upgrade and data transfer process.

With Vickie, we built her Win7 machine from scratch and all I had to do was move her iTunes^® library, photos, documents and other settings, etc., from her old computer to her new one. Trying to upgrade to Win7 on a box running XP or Vista will be more problematic and much more laborious. In fact, I have a Win7 laptop that I’m going to do a “Tom” build on (in my spare time) and then one day just transfer over to it, sort of like we did with Vickie.

So, stay with XP until you’re forced to Win7. Once you’re there, you’ll enjoy it.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant running a variation of Windows^® probably has at least one program that, instead of opening up to a full-screen view, pops up in a smaller window, a portion of a window or is just a quarter of its normal size. You then click it to full size, do your work and when you’re done, close the program. Next time you open it that same day, it comes up full size, or not. The next time you open it after a restart of your computer, it opens full-size, or not. Therein lies the rub, it’s not consistent, at least not as consistent as your other Windows programs.

So what’s a savvy CLNC^® consultant to do? If you’re running Windows XP and you use a shortcut to open your program, the solution is easy. First, navigate to the shortcut you use to open the program. This could be in one of three places:

1. Your Windows “Desktop” (that’s those icons on your screen).
2. Your “Quick Launch” toolbar in your Task Bar (that’s in the blue bar at the bottom left of your screen).
3. The “Start Menu” that you use to select your programs (it pops open when you click the Start button).

Mouse over the icon/shortcut for the program that’s giving you size trouble and right click it. When the menu pops up, left click Properties at the bottom and you’ll see the “Properties” box with the “Shortcut” tab open.

In the Run category, left click the Normal window selection and select Maximized. Then click Apply and Okay. Next time you run that program from that particular shortcut, it should open in the maximized, full-screen mode you selected and you’re back where you want to be!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Windows^® 7 came out last week and the Windows world is buzzing about its cool new features. Some of these features are familiar to Windows Vista^® users and are slightly upgraded. Other features are new and will be useful to legal nurse consultants while some are just cool. The new Win7 delivers a lot of highly technical upgrades and security upgrades plus one really cool upgrade – the ability to create “Libraries” which are collections of files of the same type, no matter what directories they’re stored in on your hard drive (it shows all your photos – no matter where stored). Let’s take a quick look at the coolest upgrades I’m excited about and how the average Windows XP^® or Windows Vista user can get them without suffering through the upgrade to Win7.

First, give yourself some CLNC^® “Snap.” If you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with a wide-screen monitor, Win7 has a feature called “Snap” which allows you to anchor an open window against the right or left side of the screen either by dragging it or hitting a combination of Windows keys and right or left arrows. The selected window will fill half the screen and leave room to open another window.

Anchor window to left with “Snap”

OldWin (Vista and XP) users can get a beta (meaning use at your own risk, unsupported, third-party program) version of this from AeroSnap. I love this because it eliminates the tedious process of resizing a window by hand (plus it’s neat). It works on my dual screens just as well as wide screens and is really handy on my laptop while I’m traveling. You’ll like it too. Remember to right click on the AeroSnap icon and click in the box next to Start with Windows. That way it’ll always be there for you.

Next, since CLNC^® consultants like to shake things up, you can bring this concept to your screen. In Win7 you can grab an active window by the blue bar (with your left mouse button), double click it, then shake it back and forth to make all the other open windows minimize themselves to the taskbar. Repeating the motion will restore all the windows. We all know we can click the little “Show Desktop” button to minimize all our windows, but then we’ve got to fish around and restore the one we want. Aero Shake from lifehacker allows those of us using the OldWin to have Win7 convenience. Way cool.

You can clear up the system tray in the bottom right side of your taskbar by hiding inactive icons. Between my Quick Launch bar, the list of open windows and system tray icons, the taskbar at the bottom of my screen gets pretty cluttered. Win7 allows you to selectively hide your unused system tray icons – OldWin users can do this too. Right click on any clear part of your taskbar. In the first pop-up make sure Hide Inactive Icons is checked, then click Customize to get the Customize Notifications pop-up (in Vista you have to go to the Customize Notifications pop-up to see the “Hide” checkbox).

XP Start Menu Properties Screens

On the Customize Notifications pop-up you can select the behavior for different current icons (Hide when inactive, Always hide or Always show). Pick the behavior you want for each icon then hit OK on each pop-up to save your settings. Your taskbar will appear cleaner and you’ll have more room for active windows.

Finally legal nurse consultants can stop the fishing expeditions (between open window icons) by allowing preview thumbnails of your open windows in your taskbar. This one is for XP users only and emulates the Vista/Win7 rollover Thumbnails or pop-up Previews that allow you to see the contents of your open windows if you mouse over your taskbar icons.

Preview thumbnail

To get it, visit the “How-To Geek” site and look for the “Download Visual Tooltip 2.1” link. Follow that link, fish around a bit and you’ll find the link to download the zip file for Visual Tooltip. Download it, unzip it, double-click on the VisualToolTip.exe file to install it. You’ll find a little icon installed in your system tray that tells you it’s running. Go back to How-To Geek and follow the instructions to resize the previews (and make sure you check the “start with Windows” box).

Those were easy weren’t they? You’ve just previewed some of the cool new features in Win7 and found ways to add these to your current Windows version. Remember that you’re using these at your own risk. They are beta or unsupported products, but they sure are fun.

Win7 will be a darn good version of Windows once the second service pack comes out. Until then, or at least until you choose to upgrade from XP or Vista, any legal nurse consultant can add the cool new features of Win7 to her legal nurse consulting business by emulating some of its best tools and tricks.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Windows^® 7 will officially be released into the wild on October 22 and will be sold with new computers. If you’ll remember, Windows XP^® is no longer officially supported by Microsoft (although it will be available for limited purchases until 2010). People who are buying new computers with Windows Vista will be given the opportunity to make a free or low-cost upgrade. That’s the news.

Here’s the good news. Everything I’m reading, and everyone I’ve talked to who has run the final version of Windows 7 loves it. It has a few bugs but overall, it will be a vast upgrade improvement over Vista. (To be honest, Vista wasn’t really as bad as people like to think.) In fact, 7 is even better and more stable than XP. Some would say that it’s a worthy opponent to Mac’s Snow Leopard, but not being Mac-impaired, I can’t confirm that.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultants may wonder if it’s time to upgrade to a new computer with Windows 7 or instead, suffer through the upgrade process on your existing system. I’d say that depends. If you’re running XP, I think I’d wait until you upgrade to a new computer. There’s no direct upgrade process from XP to Win7. You’ll need to backup your personal data, wipe your hard drives, load the Win7 operating system, reapply your data and finally reload all your programs from their original media or downloads. Any patches or software upgrades would need to be reapplied also. It’s a complicated, but not impossible, process. For this reason alone I recommend holding off until you buy a new computer.

If you are a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who is running Vista, the upgrade process is easier and you can upgrade directly to the equivalent version of Win7 while keeping all your files and programs in place. If you’re not happy with Vista, this is your chance to upgrade to something faster and more stable.

If you’re seriously thinking about the upgrade process, you’ll want to be sure that your hardware is robust enough to run Win7. Some of the biggest dissatisfactions with Vista resulted from users trying to run it on underpowered machines. Savvy legal nurse consultants will check their hardware before making the same mistake. If you’ve got a machine running Vista comfortably, you’ll probably be safe. No matter what computer you’re running you’ll need to have a DVD-RW (or CD/DVD-R) drive. For the rest of your hardware, these are the minimum specs (and experts tell us to double these numbers) you’ll need to successfully run Win7:

1. Older 32-bit PCs should have a minimum of 1GB of RAM (I’d install as much as the system will hold and recognize), at least 16GB of free space on your hard drive and a processor faster than 1GHz. Your graphics system should be DX9 graphics compatible with at least 128MB of memory (to best utilize the Aero interface).
2. New 64-bit PCs should have a minimum of 2GB of RAM (again I’d install as much as the system will hold and recognize) with at least 20GB of free space on your hard drive and also be DX9 graphics compatible.

If you don’t know how to tell whether or not you have a 32- or 64-bit PC, follow this link. A faster, but less accurate way is to see how much random access memory (RAM) you have. If you’re running 3GB or less, you probably have a 32-bit system. If you have more than 4GB, you’re running a 64-bit system. To see the amount of RAM you have installed (and recognized), right click on the My Computer icon on your Windows Desktop, left click Properties and then look at the General tab. If you have a 64-bit system, it will tell you, but if you have a 32-bit it will not!

The fastest way to find out if your existing computer can run Win7 is to download and run the free “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor” from Microsoft. Make sure your computer is connected to all your peripheral devices (and they’re turned on) when you run it. It should let you know what you will need to be aware of in the upgrade process. With my cough-cough, ahem-year-old Dell Latitude D820 configured with a 2.00 GHz Intel Pentium T2500 CPU, 3GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive, it took about 5 minutes and only found a few issues that would need to be corrected prior to any upgrade. Microsoft also has a nifty help site to ease your way through the upgrade process.

If you decide to upgrade, Win7 comes in four consumer flavors, Starter (which will be found mostly on netbooks), Business (which handles remote connectivity), Home Premium (for average users) and Ultimate (for the geeks). You can explore them here, but Home Premium or Professional are the best choices for most Certified Legal Nurse Consultants.

Supposedly, Microsoft has expanded the security software and external hardware compatibility features of Win7 to avoid the issues they ran into with Vista. But I recommend you always search the Internet for information on particular programs before upgrading. For users with Win7 Professional and Ultimate, there’s also a cool XP mode that will allow those users to run applications that are XP but not Win7 compatible. I’ll get into features found in Win7 in a later blog. For today, I just want to let you know that Win 7 will be here before we know it.

As with any new operating system (or new car model for that matter), I wouldn’t rush out and buy it, or rush to upgrade to it, but once it’s here, we’ll be living with it for a long time. I’m going to wait and see how it shakes out before I make my decision.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Let’s face it, every CLNC^® consultant (or their significant other) has accidentally deleted files at one time or another. And, immediately following the injudicious use of the “delete” key, we’ve all wished we had at least one of those files back. In Windows^®, recovering a deleted file can sometimes be as simple as looking in the Recycle Bin to see if it’s still there and then clicking “Restore” to put it back into its original location. But when the file you’ve deleted was on a USB flash drive or on a camera’s media card, recovery is a little more difficult.

Fortunately there are a couple of options for legal nurse consultants who need to recover files that you may have deleted, purposefully or otherwise. Both apply to Windows XP and Vista^® and may be the difference between repeating hours of work in your legal nurse consulting business or moving along with a quickly recovered file.

My favorite data recovery tool is one called File Recover by PCTools. It’s not freeware but is relatively inexpensive at $29.95 for what it does. File Recover has an easy-to-use interface and will allow you to search by file type (.pdf, .jpg, .docx, etc.) or for all files on your available drives.

Once you start up File Recover it will show any available data drives so you simply tell it what type of files to search for and let it run. It’ll find any deleted files on that drive and tell you whether or not they’re recoverable. Once you select the files you want to attempt to recover, it also lets you select the location to recover them into.

Legal nurse consultants who don’t want to pony up the $29.95 have a freeware alternative, DiskDigger, which comes highly recommended by PCWorld magazine. You can download it from the PCWorld site or directly from its creator, Dmitry Brant. Another cool thing about DiskDigger is that it doesn’t make any registry changes to your computer, so it can be deleted simply by deleting the program itself. It operates much like File Recover and can also scan network drives. This is another intuitively simple-to-use program. I just used DiskDigger to restore a “lost” polar bear photo file and it is quick!

One issue I have with both File Recover and DiskDigger is that the flash device/media card must be plugged directly into the computer (via reader, adapter or USB port), otherwise the programs will not recognize the drive. This means if you’re trying to recover a photo from a camera card, the programs will not see the card while it’s still in the camera. You must dismount the card and use a reader/adapter. USB devices and cards must be plugged into the computer before you start either program. Both work well, but for photos on a card DiskDigger gets my vote. For lost files on a hard drive I’ll go with File Recover.

Either program is a great resource for the Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who occasionally has the need to recover files that have gone astray and one or the other should be in your business toolkit.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

P.S. If you want a great resource site for PCs, check out PCWorld.com – you’ll find all sorts of reviews, tips and great reading for everyone from the novice to experienced user.

Windows^® XP comes with a nifty indexing service that was designed to help speed up your searches for documents, folders and other files. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as well or as fast as it was designed. It actually slows your computer’s performance. Microsoft^® fixed the issue in Windows Vista^® but for those Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and people like me who are still using XP, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands to nix the index.

Here’s how you do it. First, open up your Control Panel and once it populates (geek-speak for the process of displaying all the icons) double-click Administrative Tools. Once that’s open double-click Services. It will open a new window called Services (Local). Expand that window to full screen so you can locate Indexing Services and double-click it. Change the drop-down next to Startup type from Automatic or Manual to Disabled. Click OK and then close all the windows. You might not notice it, but there will be an increase in your computer’s speed which means you’ll get more legal nurse consulting work product done faster – trust me on this one.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

Certified Legal Nurse Consultants using Windows XP have long envied that cool rotating menu the Mac OS X Dock has, that floats around the bottom or top of the Mac screen and fans out your icons. It’s a much better looking menu than that darn Windows menu that pops up when you click the Start Button. It also beats stashing short-cuts all over your Windows Desktop.

Now there’s a cure for Mac Envy – visit RocketDock.com and you can download a customizable version of the Dock made especially for Windows! This is not an official Windows or Mac product so you use it at your own risk. Remember to be careful, always back-up your computer as well as any files before you place them on the RocketDock. I’ve had mine for about two weeks and I love it! I’m sure you’ll love it too (it freaked out my Mac-user buddy).

Keep on Techin’,

Tom