10/9 Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog Microsoft Office 2010 Beta to Start Later This Year October 8, 2009 at 3:09 pm There’s some new information about Microsoft Office 2010, the next version of Microsoft Office that will also have a web component similar to Google Docs. 1. Microsoft will replace Microsoft Works with a trimmed down and ad-supported version of Microsoft Office called the Office 2010 starter edition. 2. The starter edition of Office 2010 will have Word and Excel programs and it will only be available with new PCs. 3. The public beta of Office 2010 will start later this year  though you can try Office Web Apps now itself. 4. Office 2010 will be available in three editions – Office Home and Student 2010, Office Home and Business 2010, or Office Professional 2010 (looks like they killed the Ultimate edition). 5. Click-to-Run is a new feature that will make it easier for you to try Microsoft Office 2010 on an existing PC. It will automatically install software patches when connected to the Internet and, since it uses virtualization, you’ll be able install multiple versions of Microsoft Office on the same computer side-by-side. Microsoft Office 2010 Beta to Start Later This Year Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.       Create a Virtual Machine of your Existing Computer With a Click October 8, 2009 at 1:52 pm Whether you are a tech newbie or a geek, you’ll probably enjoy using this. Virtualization, in simple English, is a interesting technology that helps you run multiple operating systems on the same machine. For instance, if you are running Windows Vista on a computer, you can create virtual machines for Windows XP or Ubuntu and run these operating systems on your existing Vista machine just like any other Windows application. How to Create a Virtual Machine Windows Virtual PC, Virtual Box and VMware Workstation are some popular applications that allow you to create new virtual machines on a Windows PC but the only problem with these programs is that they require you do everything from scratch. That is, if you want to create a new virtual machine, you will have to install the whole operating system first using the original installer DVD and then configure it with your favorite programs. This can be both time consuming and difficult. What if you could use your existing Windows computer, that already has all your favorite programs installed, and turn into a virtual machine? Convert your Computer into a Virtual Machine While it has always been possible to convert an existing hard drive into a virtual machine, the process was difficult and often required expensive programs. Well, not anymore. There’s a new utility from Microsoft that makes it both simple and free to convert an existing installation of Windows into a virtual machine ready to run on any other computer. Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a simple application called Disk2vhd, that lets you easily migrate an existing computer to a virtualized hard drive (VHD). It’s a tiny utility doesn’t even require instillation. Create Virtual Hard Disks with Disk2VHD When you run Disk2vhd, it will immediately show you all the drives and partitions on your computer that it can migrate to a VHD.  Simply select a drive that you wish to create a VHD file from and click "Create." Disk2vhd will convert the hard drive into a VHD file even if the computer /drive is currently in use. When the Virtual Machine VHD file is created, you can run it in any desktop virtualization program including the free Windows Virtual PC, Virtual Box, or VMware Player. You can also mount the virtual machine as a standard hard drive in Windows 7, and can even boot from it if your computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate. You may use Disk2vhd to create virtual machines of your Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and higher machines, including x64 systems. Usage Scenario Let’s say you have a computer that is already running all the software programs you frequently use, but you now want to move to a new computer or upgrade your operating system. You can then consider creating a virtual machine of your old machine using the Microsoft utility and this will help you use all your favorite programs (with the same settings) on the new machine. You can also use virtualization to create a ghost image of your hard drive in a single file and this will be handy in the event of a disk failure. Disk2vhd is an useful tool that will make it much easier for you to enjoy the benefits of virtualization without being too technical. Related guide: How to Reinstall Windows from Scratch Create a Virtual Machine of your Existing Computer With a Click Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.       Compare the Top Colleges in America with an Interactive AIR App October 8, 2009 at 11:16 am The U.S.News & World Report magazine publishes an annual report comparing the best colleges and universities of America. Using the latest college ranking data from the US New magazine, HP has created an interesting AIR App that will help students research colleges in the US visually. The yellow pins represent national universities while blue are for liberal arts schools. You can use the sliders in the sidebar to shortlist colleges based on the student to faculty ratio, cost of education, etc. For detailed information about a particular college like the overall student strength or to know about subjects that are popular in that college, just click the pin. Compare the Top Colleges in America with an Interactive AIR App Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.       Microsoft Offers Web Designers Free Tools to Build and Host New Websites October 8, 2009 at 8:44 am Microsoft has been working hard to get their software tools in the hands of people who are starting out new ventures, and these efforts have been widely well-received. For instance, the DreamSpark program has provided design and development tools to students worldwide free of charge, while the BizSpark program has provided licenses for the same set of tools to software startups for a mere token fee of $100. Now there’s a new Website Spark program from Microsoft that is aimed at web professionals and small web development companies who are involved in designing websites and other web-based applications. Eligibility Criteria for Website Spark If you build websites for your clients and have no more than 10 people working for you (including owners and employees), you are eligible to sign up for the Website Spark program. The only restriction is that you must launch a new website or service within 6 months of getting accepted into the program that is built using the tools that you received through WebsiteSpark. Software Tools included in the Program If you agree, you will be offered licenses for Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Expression Web, Windows Web Server, and SQL Server Web Edition for three years. You can purchase the licenses at the end of three years or simply exit the program. There are no up-front costs but you’ll have to pay a $100 program fee once you decide to exit the program. In addition to software licenses, participating web development companies will also get discounts on hosting services for their websites, as well as coverage on the upcoming WebsiteSpark portal. The WebsiteSpark program is available to web design companies around the world, so if you are planning on launching a company or currently run a small company that meets the requirements, WebsiteSpark might just help company save a ton of money in software licenses and you may also get some extra visibility through the various Microsoft portals. Microsoft Offers Web Designers Free Tools to Build and Host New Websites Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.       Backup Your Files to a Trusted Friend's Computer using Skype October 8, 2009 at 3:55 am As we amass more data daily on our computers, a quality backup plan becomes increasingly crucial. Backup programs have been in existence for years – some allow you to backup your computer files locally to an external hard disk or a portable drive, while others like Mozy and Carbonite are designed to help you save a backup of your important files and folders to an online web server. The drawbacks associated with these methods are obvious. Hard disks and portable drives will not last forever and they also can get misplaced easily. If you are using an online backup service, the files will be inaccessible when your internet connection is down and the data would be lost permanently if the backup company goes out of business. The other big problem is that not everyone feels very comfortable storing their private data online so they are vary of using any remote backup tool. Turn Your Family Computers into a Personal Datacenter Cucku is a new backup program cum web service that attempts to take the best parts of each form of backup. First, Cucku lets you easily backup your important files and folders to your own hard drive and to portable drives you own. Then, in a unique twist on traditional online backup services, Cucku lets you store an encrypted copy of your files on your friends’ and family member’s computers through the internet using Skype. This gives you the best of both worlds – the accessibility of a backup on a local drive with the additional security of a remote backup, all the while letting you keep your data on computers of people you trust instead of a datacenter. When you first run Cucku, you need to create a Cucku account and then select the file types (extensions) that you want to backup. You may also select specific folders, and then every file in the specified folders will be added to the backup queue. Cucku will then generate an initial backup of your computer, and will let you store this backup on to your hard drive or on a portable storage device such as a USB flash memory stick or you can burn a DVD with those files. Uses Skype to Backup Files on other Computers Finally, you can connect Cucku to Skype, and add a partner to store your backup. Every day, Cucku will back up your data to a local folder on then PC and then sends any new or changed files to your backup partner over Skype for offsite storage. Since it can often take a long time to transfer your entire backup over the internet, Cucku allows you to dump the backup onto your friend's computer through a portable drive if you wish. Later, only incremental updates will be transferred over the internet. You can also view individual files that have been backed up through Cucku, so if you accidently delete a file on your local PC, you can always restore it alone without having to restore the entire backup. But Skype is shutting down extras? Skype recently discontinued their Skype Extras program but Cucku service will continue to work as before since it only uses the Skype API to send files to a backup partner and the API will remain functional even after the Extras go out of service. In the free version you can store backup files for one user and store you backup on one other computer running Skype. If you would like to store your backup on multiple computers or allow multiple people to store their backups on your computer, you can go for the Pro version. Is it better than Dropbox or Windows Live Mesh? Dropbox and Windows Live Mesh too provide online backup but these are primarily synchronization services also let you copy files across multiple computers so they are all in sync with each other (like your home and office computer). Cucku is different. When you use Cucku to store your files on a friend’s computer over Skype, he or she won’t be able to read the contents of your files as they are in encrypted form. Another advantage with Cucku is that you can transfer unlimited amount to data to another computer while services like Dropbox have a certain limit for free accounts. With Cucku, your friends and family members can help each other out with offsite backups without having to rely on an external backup service. The only condition for anyone to become part of this inner circle is that that they should be running Windows. Backup Your Files to a Trusted Friend’s Computer using Skype Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.         This email was sent to blogpersonalcomputer@gmail.com.  Create Your Account Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.