If the warning above annoys you as much as it does me whenever you open an attachment in Office 2007, here’s how to get rid of it.

The Problem

Microsoft has understandably made security a cornerstone of its recent software releases. Each time you attempt to open a possibly malicious attachment in Outlook 2007, a warning dialogue box like the one above appears. It presents an always-checked, always-grayed-out box that reads: ‘Always ask before opening this type of file’.

Because Word, Excel, PDF and other document types can contain malicious code, you should, as the box warns, only open attachments from trustworthy sources. But, if you have a modern Anti-Virus program such as AVG or Microsoft’s Security Essentials (both of which are free), attachments in your emails should already be checked for malicious code. When this is the case, this warning dialogue box is an unnecessary interruption that becomes increasingly annoying if, like me, you receive emails with attachments many times a day.

The Solution in  Windows 7

Warning: You should only do this if you have anti-virus software installed on your computer that checks for, and quarantines, all emails that contain attachments with malicious code. And, as the warning says, you should never open attachments from anyone that you don’t know and trust! 

OK, you’ve been duly warned. Here’s how to do it:

• Close Outlook 2007 before you start
• Click the Windows ‘Start’ Button
• Click ‘All Programs’
• Right Click on ‘Microsoft Office Outlook 2007’ in the “Microsoft Office’ folder (as shown below)
• Click on the Properties option

• Click the ‘Compatibility’ Tab (shown below)
• Check the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box
• Click the ‘Apply’ button

• Restart Outlook 2007
• You will get the following ‘User Account Control Warning’

• Click ‘Yes’  -  Don’t worry, you won’t have to do this every time you start Outlook
• Open an email with the attachment type (eg: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pdf) you want to open in the future without this warning
• Click on the attachment
• You’ll get the same warning message as before, but, as you can see below, this time the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ checkbox will not be grayed out
• Uncheck the box and open the attachment

• Open other emails with each of the attachment types that you do not wish to receive this message for in the future (eg: xls, xlsx, doc, docx, pdf, ppt)
• Similarly uncheck the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ check box for each document type and open them.

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

But, we are not quite finished. If you stopped here, you’d get the User Account Control Warning above every time you started Outlook 2007. To stop this from happening :

• Close Office 2007 once again
• Redo the first six steps above, but this time
• Uncheck the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box under the Compatibility Tab in the Office 2007 Properties box.
• Click ‘Apply’

From then on Office will remember your attachment-type warning preferences without giving you the UAC warning every time you start Office 2007.

Enjoy!

The Solution in Vista

I found the answer below in this MSOutlook.info post. I have not tested this answer personally, but this post twigged me onto finding the solution in Windows 7 (above) so I’m pretty certain it will work:

1. Close Outlook
2. Right click on the shortcut you use to launch Outlook 2007
3. Choose Run as Administrator
4. Press Continue or provide the logon credentials for an Administrator
5. Restart Outlook
6. Open an email with the attachment of the type you want to be able to access without the annoying warning message
7. Deselect the option “Always ask before opening this type of file”
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 with emails containing each of the various attachment types you wish to be able to access without the warning message
9. Close Outlook
10. Restart Outlook as normal (not in administrator mode)

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

Bell offered me a one year promotional deal for their Internet Max 16 service where I would receive (in theory*) download speeds of up to 16 Mbps and 1 Mbps upload for $41.90 a month. At the time, my theoretical 10 Mbps down service from Rogers (with a 95 GB cap) was costing me $59.95 a month.

As with Rogers, all of Bell’s plans have data caps – much smaller than comparable U.S. ISPs I might add. The data cap for the service under the Internet Max 16 promotional offer is 100 GB. 

Periodically during each month, I check my Bell Internet usage meter** (shown below, after the jump) to make sure I’m staying within the 100 GB cap. This becomes particularly important towards the end of the month where I am always running up against the cap.

As you can see in the picture below (circled in red after the jump), Bell’s ‘My Internet usage’ meter contains fine print which reads:

Note: Current total Internet usage activity shown may be delayed by up to 60 hours.

Despite assiduously checking the meter each month, making sure I stayed within the cap, I have twice received invoices from Bell saying I went over the 100 GB cap. How is this possible when I personally verify that I stay under the cap each month?

Until today, I hadn’t noticed this fine print warning – I’m not even sure it was there before.

Now, of course, I know why. Turns out it’s the fault of Bell’s Internet usage reporting tool. The tool shows data that is up to 60 hours (two and a half days) old!

Clicking on the record for Apr-May*** of 2009 the tool now shows an overage for the that period:

As you can see, it shows I used 102.74 GB. 

However, I know I looked at the tool during the last couple days of that period and I purposely lowered my usage during those days to stay under the limit. On the last day it showed me at somewhere around the 98 or 99 GB usage. The 4 GB difference between what it showed me then, and what it shows now, and what I was billed extra for, can only be accounted for by the meter’s delay.

This isn’t right. What good is an Internet usage meter, when the meter isn’t accurately reporting usage on the very days I need it to be accurate the most?

* 16 Mbps Theoretical Download Speeds

I say that the 16 Mbps download is theoretical because I have tested it using SpeedTest.net (among others) several times since March and only once**** did it show I was getting more than 10 Mbps.

**My Internet Usage Page Buried

<Mini Rant Start>

On a related note, I’d like to point out that, just like Rogers, Bell makes it very difficult to use their ‘My Internet Usage’ meter. It is buried a half dozen pages deep on their site. You cannot link directly to it and save it in your browser’s favorites/bookmarks. If you do, the link just pulls you back to a main sign on page that forces you to navigate your way back through their maze to get to it. It also signs you off just minutes after you login. During the course of writing this post, Bell signed me out of the meter three times. I had to log back in, and navigate back through their maze three times to complete this post. Grrrr!

</Mini Rant Stop>

*** Note, for whatever reason my period runs from the 4th day of one month to the 3rd day of the next.

**** It showed 11.94 Mbps once – at about 2 O’clock in the afternoon.

Evernote is the latest of several cloud-based service that I have been experimenting with. See my prior posts on  Google Apps Gmail with iMap, xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) and Dropbox.

The new cloud-based Evernote blows both the old Evernote and OneNote out of the water.

Evernote Benefits

• It’s free. Free accounts permit up to 40 Megabytes of new notes to be added / synced per month. I haven’t come close to using my monthly capacity in the two months I’ve used it (I have used, perhaps 1/4 of that).
• More than Text Notes: With the free version you can keep text, photo, audio clip and handwritten notes (in my case, written with a stylus on my tablet laptop). You can also import PDF files into notes in the free version.
• Multiplatform Syncing: These notes are continuously synced, accessible and editable across my three primary PCs (Thinkpad tablet, Dell XPS desktop and my iMac) and my iPhone.
• Accessible from the Cloud: I can access and edit these notes through my Evernote account in the cloud.
• Notes Backed Up: By virtue of its syncing across multiple platforms and a copy of all notes residing in the cloud, my notes are continuously backed-up across my systems and off-site.
• Tagging & Search: You can tag notes, structure the tags in a hierarchy (if you like – see the picture of part of my tag hierarchy on the right) and sort them how you chose. Or don’t. Instead, you can rely on its formidable search engine to find your notes. Either way, notes I wrote years ago (imported from OneNote) are as easy to find as notes I wrote yesterday.
• Indexes Text in Images: Surprisingly, Evernote can index text in images. If I take a picture of a bottle of wine, a business card, a plane ticket, or even hand written notes on my tablet, it will scan and index that text. That text then becomes searchable when looking for the note containing the image at a later date.
• Clip From Anywhere: Evernote adds toolbar icons in Firefox and IE that allow you to clip webpage contents, text, columns or images into a note. You can clip entire pages or just a few paragraphs. Additionally, pressing Print-Screen on a PC (Control-Command-C on the iMac ) fires up a screen ‘Clipper’ app that can grab a screen shot of any running app or the entire desktop (or portion thereof). You can cut and paste from any app on an iPhone into the Evernote app.

See this ‘What is Evernote’ page for more details on what it does.

Evernote Overview Demo

You can see a slew of other Evernote video demos here.

How I use Evernote

I keep notes on almost everything in Evernote – from gift ideas to car rental reservation numbers. You name it. Evernote keeps notes synched between all devices all the time. As a result, these notes can be created/edited on any device (PC, mobile, web), anywhere I am and can be searched and retrieved from any device, iPhone, Blackberry or Internet-connected computer, wherever I am.

Here are a few notable things I do with Evernote:

• Client Notes: Evernote is always running on at least one of my devices. When a client calls, I can click on ‘New Note’ and type (or on my tablet, hand write) notes during the call. I tag the note by client name and project name. Later, I can access all client notes by client name or a particular project by clicking on the appropriate tag.  [Update: I am assessing whether I will use Evernote for client notes in light of the security concerns. To my mind, all notes should be encrypted on the Evernote website too – so that Evernote employees cannot access them.] 
• Blog Post Notes: I have hundreds of ideas for blog posts. As and when I think of them I fire up Evernote on the most convenient device (iPhone, PC, IMac or tablet) and jot them down. I continue to add to notes from any other device as ideas hit me. When I’m ready, I pull up the notes and write the post. (I used Evernote to plan this post)
• Family PC Support Notes: I support family and friends with their PC problems. I keep critical notes (hardware specs, passwords, tech notes) for each family member and friend tagged by the name of the person. The next time I support them, I click on the associated tag and pull up my notes from previous support calls. If I’m at their home, I can pull the notes off the cloud from my Evernote.com account or access them on my i Phone.
• System Notes: Every time I purchase a new PC, I copy and paste the full hardware specs into a note. I refer back to these constantly as the years pass, particularly when I want to upgrade RAM, hard-drives etc.
• Personal Tech Notes: I keep a long list of personal tech notes for things I frequently forget. For example, how to program the TiVo remote when using two  TiVo’s side by side. How to setup my Harmony remote, the IP addresses I assign to various devices on my network, and on and on.
• Passwords & Software Keys: I keep all software keys and important passwords in a password protected note.
• Finances: I keep all my bank account, insurance, credit card etc. information in a password protected note.
• Wine Tasting Notes:  As you can see by clicking on my wine category, I sometimes write wine reviews on The Daleisphere (usually only for wines I recommend).  I keep track of a greater number of wines by using the Evernote App on my iPhone. I click a picture of the bottle, tag the note, write a note and the note is accessible from all my systems for future reference. Pictures taken with the iPhone are even geocoded so that I can search for bottles of wine that I drank at a specific location (ie: a friends house or a restaurant). Slick!
• Software Development: I am a hobbyist web and iPhone App developer. I keep notes on development projects from code snippets, to Objective-C programming notes, to future development ideas. All tagged for quick access.
• To-Do Lists: What’s a note program without a to do list? I keep a constantly updated to-do list (several actually) – again, accessible from any device wherever I am.

Easy to Install

• Sign up for an Evernote account.
• Download the Evernote App to the devices you want to use it on.
• When installing, associate the app with your Evernote account (userid and password).
• Start taking notes.

It’s that easy.  The Evernote iPhone app is available here.

Obeys my Cloud Computing Rules (Mostly)

As with Dropbox, Evernote obeys my cloud-computing rules. Namely (i) the service uses the cloud but my notes are never left only on the cloud – I am never left at Evernote’s mercy; (ii) I don’t have to pay someone to access my data; and (iii) I am not locked into their service. In the worst case scenario, if Evernote folds, my notes won’t be synced across my devices but my notes will still be accessible and reside on my PCs.

I do have security concerns, however, that limit my ability to use Evernote over unsecured networks – see below.

Free vs. Premium Versions of Evernote

Here is a table (clipped from the Evernote website using Evernote’s screen clipper tool) comparing the free and premium versions of Evernote (as of August 31, 2009):

As you can see, the biggest differences between the two are (i) the monthly upload allowance (I haven’t used more than 10 Megs in a month); (ii) lower security on the free version; and (iii) the ability to sync any file type with the premium version. The inability to sync any type of file (eg: Word documents) as part of a note isn’t critical to me. I use Dropbox for that.

This table sets out approximately how many notes of various types the monthly upload limits permit:

Evernote Oddities and Limitations:

• Timed Sync: Unlike Dropbox, Evernote does not attempt to sync between devices in real time. Rather, it syncs every so often. I have not found this to be a problem. You can, of course, force a sync at any time if you need one.
• Only Plain Text Editable on iPhone: If you want to edit notes on the iPhone, you’ll need to keep them in plain text only. Notes with bolding, bullets, underlying etc. are not editable on the iPhone. While this was initially a bummer, once I got used to the issue, I just make sure that notes I want to edit/update on the iPhone use plane text only.
• Can’t Import from Outlook 2003: Evernote can import your OneNote 2007 notes but can’t import from OneNote 2003 (the version I own). Workaround: Microsoft provides a free 60 day trial of OneNote 2007 that you can use to import notes from OneNote 2003. From there you can then import your OneNote notes into Evernote.
• No Tag AutoComplete on PC: When I tag a note on the iPhone, it will give me auto-complete options (ie: suggest tags from previously used tags) as I start typing the tag. This is handy and ensures tag spelling consistency. Oddly, this feature is not currently part of the PC version of the software.
• Can’t Tag a Fully Open Note: If you click on a note in the Evernote app, that note will open in a separate screen for full-screen editing. Strangely, you can’t add a tag when you open it this way. You can only add a tag when the note is within the never-ending note-pad view.
• Security Concerns: I am concerned about the lack of end-to-end SSL security when using the free version of Evernote (the premium version provides SSL encryption during transmission but neither service keeps the notes encrypted on the Evernote server):

- Evernote login credentials are encrypted when traversing the Internet.

- You can also selectively secure any particular note with a password – but this becomes a pain for routine notes.

- However, all other notes are transmitted ‘in the clear’ over the Internet – like email – when using the free version of Evernote. As a result, I do not personally use Evernote when using a public hotspot such as a wifi connection at a coffee shop.

- And, like Gmail or any third party email hoster, notes are not encrypted while on Evernote’s servers. Theoretically Evernote employees could access them.

- You can create a local notebook of notes that are not sync’d and, thereby kept private.

- I note that the iPhone data network is, theoretically, secure so using Evernote on an iPhone should not create security issues on the transmission side.

- When accessing your Evernote account online be sure to include the ‘s’ after ‘http’ in the https//www.evernote.com URL to ensure an SSL connection when viewing/editing your notes online.

- For more Evernote security details, read this ‘How Secure is Evernote’ post in their knowledgebase.

See also:

• Using Free to Turn a Profit (New York Times article on Evernote)
• How I use Evernote (The Cranking Widgets Blog)
• How Evernote is Pulling My Life Together (Michael Schechter)
• Evernote for Mac, iPhone to make managing information overload easy (AppleInsider)

I have recently been experimenting with various cloud-based services. Among the best are EverNote, Google Apps Gmail with iMap, xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) and, now, Dropbox.

As described in more detail below, among other things Dropbox: (i) allows me to securely sync office documents between my PCs and Mac at any location; (ii) unchains me from my office PC; (iii) liberates me from coding on a single PC; and (iv) allows me to draft and maintain my Windows Live Writer blog posts from any of my PCs situated anywhere.

Dropbox Benefits

• Sync: Dropbox synchronizes your key files between any number of Internet-connected PCs, laptops or Macs, effortlessly and instantaneously.
• Access Your Key Files Anywhere: Synced files are also maintained on the Dropbox servers. You can login to your account from any web-enabled computer to securely access your files (download or upload).
• Security: All file transmissions occur over an encrypted SSL channel. All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted using AES-256 encryption accessible only by you with your account password.
• Backup: Because your files are synced across at least two PCs, your files are effectively backed-up.
• Real-Time Offsite Backup: Because your files are also copied to the Dropbox servers, they are effectively backed-up, off site, in real-time.
• Undo/File Recovery: Remarkably, Dropbox maintains a 30 day history of every change made to your files so you can undo changes or undelete accidently deleted files.
• Shared Files & Folders: You can share files and folders with other drop-box users. For example, you could set up a shared folder of photos accessible only by friends and family through their Dropbox accounts.
• iPhone App Coming Soon: You can view all your Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, etc. files  using the free Dropbox iPhone App coming soon (see iPhone, Blackberry and other Dropbox mobile details here).

Click here for a detailed list of Dropbox features.

Dropbox Demo

How I use Dropbox

• Office Document Use: As a lawyer I access, edit and annotate Word documents and pdfs all day, every day. When I move from my PC to my laptop, I save the file I’m working on and by the time I shift to my laptop, the changes made to that file are synced to my laptop. Similarly any edits made on the laptop are instantaneously synced back to the desktop. No longer do I have to email the document to myself, save it to a USB key, copy to/from network drives. I simply open and save files on whatever PC, laptop, or Mac I’m using, and the latest version is instantly available on the other synced devices.

• Remote Office (Starbucks) Use: As a sole practitioner I often want to get away from my desk. Since all Dropbox transmissions are encrypted, I have secure file access/syncing to/from my laptop from any hotspot such as at Starbucks (affectionately referred to as my remote office) or through a Wifi connections at my client’s offices.
• Coding Use: Previously, if I wanted to do coding, I was stuck on one PC. Now I can freely move amongst PCs. Code edits made on one PC are automatically synced to the others.
• Moving Files Between Mac and PC: In the past it was a pain to shuffle files between my Mac and my PCs – even on the same network. No longer. So long as I keep the files in my Dropbox directory hierarchy, all my key files and folders are synced in real-time across the Mac-PC divide.
• Blogging: I use Windows Live Writer to write blog posts. My PC and laptop are set up to save draft WLW posts to my Dropbox folder hierarchy. As a result, all draft posts written on one PC are instantly accessible from any other. I can take up where I left off on any PC knowing that the last draft was automatically synced across all the devices.
• My Current Dropbox Usage Stats: As I write this there are 34,250 files in 2,946 folders taking up 3.44 GB of space, that are continuously synced between my primary PC, my laptop and my iMac.  These are almost all Word documents, pdfs and jpeg images. At the moment I have a 3.5 5.0 Gigabyte Dropbox limit [Aug 21, 2009 Update: Thanks to 6 Daleisphere reader, using the referral link (see below) I now have 5 Megs of capacity].

I’m certain I’ll discover more uses over time. But Dropbox has already changed the way I use my computers and access my files.

Easy to Install and Use

After signing up, you download and install the Dropbox applet onto the computers you wish to sync. You tell it where you want the drop-box folder on each PC. From then on, anything you put into any of those folders, and any edit you make to any of those files, is instantaneously synced to the other systems (see the Dropbox tour here).

Dropbox constantly monitors your synced directories. If any file changes, only the changed part of the file is synced. This makes for lightning fast syncs. Frankly, I still marvel at how fast the syncs occur.

Obeys My Cloud Computing Rules

Dropbox works within my cloud-computing rules. Namely: (i) the service uses the cloud but my key files are never left only on the cloud – I am never left at Dropbox’s mercy; (ii) files are securely encrypted as they are synced between computers and as they reside on the Dropbox services; and  (iii)I am not locked into their service. I can leave it at any time.

Dropbox is not a Resource Hog

For Dropbox to function, it runs constantly in the system tray whenever your PCs/laptops are turned on. I was initially concerned that the constantly running app would be a system resource hog. I’ve used Dropbox for over a month and have not found this to be the case.

Dropbox Limitations

• 2 to 5 Gigs Free Limit: The free version limits you to 2 Gigs of capacity on signup. You can instantly increase this to 2.25 Gigs by using my, or anyone else’s,  referral link (see below). If you refer others to Dropbox, you, and the referred person, get an additional free 250 megs of capacity – up to a limit of 5 Gigs. Note: the 2 Gig limit is not an upload-download limit, rather its the cumulative file-size limit. So, as mentioned above, as I write this post my Dropbox limit is was 3.5 Gigs. Accordingly, the cumulative file sizes of all the files and folders contained in my Dropbox folder had to be less than 3.5 Gigs. There are no monthly upload/download bandwidth limits like there is with Evernote, for example.

  By way of comparison Windows Live Mesh gives you 5 Gigs of sync capacity for free right out-of-the-gate. There is no WLM referral program that I am aware of.

• Odd Freemium Pricing: Dropbox’s fermium business model relies on tiered pricing above the free 2-5 Meg capacity level (see Dropbox pricing details here). For $9.99 per month you can increase your allotted capacity to 50 Gigs. For $19.99 per month you can increase it to 100 Gigs. Those are awfully large jumps from the free level. 5 Gigs is about all I really need today, to keep my crown-jewel files synced between my devices. I would personally pay, say $10 a year, maybe $20 a year to increase that to, say, 10 Gigs. But I don’t need anywhere near 50 Gigs of synced capacity and certainly wouldn’t want to pay $120 a year for this. I think Dropbox is missing a big revenue opportunity here by not offering a smaller capacity tier between the free tier and the 50 Gig tier at a lesser monthly price.
• ‘Forced’ Dropbox Directory: By default, you must use a directory named ‘My Dropbox’ on your PC or Mac. This initially gave me heart-burn. To facilitate my nightly backup, I have some 35,000 core files stored in some 3,000 folders in my c:\files hierarchy on my primary PC – the document directory that I have set all my apps to default too. It is that directory that I want synced. When you read this Dropbox support forum post, you learn that in an earlier version, Dropbox permitted users to specify the name of their synced’ directory. Apparently this directory naming freedom caused too much user confusion so Dropbox changed the policy and force new users to use ‘My Dropbox’ for the name of their base directory.

  Happily there is a very easy work around to this limitation. After installing Dropbox, and before adding any files to the newly minted ‘My Dropbox’ folder, download and run the DropboxPath.exe applet referenced here on the Dropbox Support forums. This applet is run from the Windows Command Line as described in that link. You can use that applet to name the Dropbox directory anything you wish. Once the applet creates the directory,  you are good to go. Whoot! It takes 30 seconds to run.

  If, like me, you have a pre-existing directory you want to use, before running the applet:
  -  rename that directory to a temporary name (in my case I renamed c:\files to c:\files.org);
  -  run the applet;
  - set the Dropbox directory to the directory name you want to use (in my case c:\files);
  - then move the files and folders from the temporary renamed folder (in my case c:\files.org) back to the newly created folder with the old name you want to use (in my case c:\files). 

• One Root Sync Directory Limit:  Dropbox allows you to sync only one folder hierarchy – ie: the ‘My Dropbox’ folder, or the folder name you choose with the DropboxPath.exe applet, (including any folders inside of that folder). By way of comparison Windows Live Mesh allows you to sync files from any folder anywhere on your PC or Mac.

Dropbox Referral Program

[August 21, 2009 Update: As of 2:00 pm on August 21, 2009  I have reached my 5.0 Gig Dropbox limit. I do not know if the referral link will now give you 250 gigs if you use it. Please leave a comment below if using my referral link still yields 250 Megs of extra space. I’ll update this post to let others know. Thanks to Janine Haugh, Travis Moser, Charles Phillips, Dave Toerber and Troy Fulkerson for using my referral link.]

If you sign up for Dropbox using my Dropbox referral link you will get 250 Megs more capacity to start– and so do I. Instead of 2 Gigs, you’ll start with 2.25 Gigs. If you are interested in checking out Dropbox, please do us both a favor by using my referral link. (Note: You don’t have to do anything more than click through on my referral link just before you sign-up to get the additional 250 Megs of capacity.)

A Note on Windows Live Mesh

As alluded-to above, Windows Live Mesh is a very similar service. I tried it for several months before using Dropbox. While it has advantages over Dropbox (higher free capacity out of the box – multiple directory/folder sync support), I could not get it to work. Part of the problem was that the instructions for how to use it are sketchy at best.

Since de-installing it and using Dropbox, I have read a few blog-posts on it which shed light on its proper use. I think I know what I did wrong.

Given Dropbox’s 5 Gig free limit (once I max-out the free capacity through referrals that is) I’ll probably setup and use WLM concurrently with Dropbox to increase my syncing capacity.  If/when I get Windows Live Mesh working, I’ll write a follow-up post about it too.

Since I connect my iPhone to iTunes every day (to update my podcasts, backup data, install new apps etc.), I had to cancel out of the IPVW every time I connected. This was a daily frustration!

Along the line I had collected up some 30ish pictures in my iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ for the following reasons:

1. Originally, I had not set the ‘delete from iPhone when importing’ option in the IPVW, so those pictures remained on the camera roll even after syncing; and
2. For some good pictures, I just wanted to keep a copy on my iPhone for viewing.

Strangely, there is no way to move  pictures from the iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ to an album in the iPhone’s native Photos app.

Most of the time I want pictures to be copied off my iPhone when I sync. As a result I had set the IPVW’s Import settings (see link in picture above) accordingly. To my mind, the iPhone should only automatically pop-up the IPVW when there are new pictures that a user might want copied over to the PC. That is not how it works.

The Solution (sort of) – Emptying out the ‘Camera Roll’

As it turns out, if you have Windows AutoPlay set to import pictures from the iPhone, the IPVW will pop-up and bug you, needing you to cancel out of it before your iPhone will otherwise connect to iTunes, day after day, for so long as their are any pictures in the Camera Roll.

I finally figured that out today. So I copied all the pictures off my iPhone’s ‘camera roll’ onto my PC, leaving the camera roll empty (as you can see from the picture on the left).

That solved it (sort of)! Thereafter, when I connected my iPhone with an empty camera roll to iTunes, it went about its business of syncing podcasts, updating, backing-up, etc. business without the IPVW popping up, annoying me and needing me to exit-out-of-it. Whoot!

The Ultimate Solution

However, this ‘solution’ resulted in their being no photos left on my iPhone. After a little further Googling and Binging I discovered that I can put pictures back onto the iPhone’s native Photos app – outside of the camera roll – with the result being that I can view them on my iPhone at any time, without IPVW popping up each time I connect my iPhone to iTunes.

Here’s how:

• Create a separate folder on your PC where you can copy the pictures that you want left on the iPhone. I created a folder called ‘iPhone Pics’
• Copy the pictures you want on your iPhone into that folder
• Connect your iPhone to iTunes
• Select your iPhone from the ‘Devices’ list on the left side of iTunes (see picture below)
• Click on the ‘Photos’ tab

• Check the ‘Sync photos from:’ checkbox
• Click on the button to its right and select ‘Choose Folder…’
• Select the folder you created (in my case ‘iPhone Pics’)
• Click ‘Apply’

ITunes will then copy the pictures in the selected folder back into the iPhone’s native Photos app (see icon to the left), and not back into the ‘camera roll’.  From then on you can view your pictures as desired through the Photos app. Any pictures you add into that directory in the future will automatically be copied onto the iPhone and if you remove pictures from that directory they will be removed from the iPhone.

Suggested Changes

I would really prefer that Apple make one of the following two changes:

1. Provide a way on the iPhone itself to directly move pictures from the camera roll to an album in the iPhone’s Photos app (and sync those pictures back to your PC behind the scenes); or
2. Allow users to keep pictures on the camera roll but pop-up the Import Pictures and Videos wizard only if there are new pictures on the iPhone since the last sync.

Either of these solutions would make managing photos on the iPhone simpler without the tedium of having to close out the IPVW every time the iPhone is connected to iTunes.

Notes

Copy and Paste Doesn’t Work: Strangely, with the iPhone OS v. 3.0, you can copy a photo out of the camera roll to, say, paste a photo into an email, but you cannot paste that photo into an album in the Photos app. My guess here is that Apple wants the Photos app to be one-way-only. Meaning, Apple wants you to manage your photos on the PC only. Perhaps they fear that if someone edits/deletes photos on the iPhone they wouldn’t realize that doing so would modify/delete them from their PC after a sync.

Pictures Above from v. 8.2.1.6, the pictures and instructions above are for iTunes version 8.2.1.6 as of July 28, 2009. The approach may be slightly different for different versions of iTunes.

All went well. The total download/install time was about 4 minutes on my iMac – 2 minutes on Windows 7 RC.

This isn’t a particularly important release for me. I was happy with Firefox 3.0.1. But they promised more speed so I gave it a whirl.

• Snappier: With its new JavaScript engine – TraceMonkey, it does appear to be snappier, but not a whole lot more snappier as some had suggested.
• New Tab Icon: I like the new tab ‘+’ icon. They are imitated  an IE feature here.  This is useful, especially for news.
• Moving Tabs Between Windows: Now you can drag a tab out of the browser and a new window will open with that page. Or drag a tab from one window to another. For multi-monitor users like myself, this is a terrific new feature.
• Addons – Extensions: All my extensions except 1 migrated nicely. I needed to do a manual update to my Tab Extensions 1 extension (discussed here and available here) but that was to be expected.
• Open in Tabs’ Overwrite Bug: This ‘bug’ still persists in Firefox 3.5 (discussed here ). Alas, as long as the Tab Extensions add-on is available, this is not a problem for me.

See also:

• Firefox 3.5: The Technologizer Review (Harry McCracken)
• Top 5 Killer Features in Firefox 3.5 (Mashable) Me: a bit of hyperbole in the title!
• First Look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to “upgrade” the Web (ars technica)

Below are tables showing the preorder and retail pricing available to Canadian and American consumers with links to Amazon.com and Amazon.ca where Windows 7 can be pre-ordered at the discounted price until July 11, 2009.

Note: See Paul Thurrott’s ‘Windows 7 Product Editions – A Comparison’ to see a detailed chart comparing the features of each. While I purchased the Vista ‘Ultimate’ edition in 2007, this time I will be purchasing the Home Premium edition for my PCs and laptops. I’ve been loving the Windows 7 beta and release candidate and heartily recommend it.

U.S. Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing (with links to Amazon.com)

Canadian Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing (with links to Amazon.ca)

There is no pre-order discount available for the Ultimate Edition.

Understand that these are ‘upgrade’ versions only. They can be used to upgrade Vista or an XP machines only. There are no pre-order discounts available for the full, non-upgrade, versions.

By way of full disclosure, if you pre-order through the links above, as an Amazon affiliate I get a small percentage referral fee. Alternatively, Microsoft provides a list of other online retailers that you can pre-order from: American’s click here – Canadian click here.

If you know of any better deals, particularly if there is any multi-unit licensing for the home deals, please let me know in the comments section.

See also:

• Microsoft Holds the Line on Windows 7 Pricing, Launches Limited-Time Promotions (Paul Thurrott)
• Microsoft’s Windows 7 Editions Comparison Chart

[Note: Rogers is somehow still blocking Pandora and Skype even when I removed the SIM  card. Grrr! Here’s a Skype iPhone App workaround for Canadians – I haven’t tried it yet.]

Setup is a breeze. It took me about two minutes. You essentially set up a VPN connection to the U.S. through the HotSpot Shield servers. This, of course, would also be useful for safe surfing at coffee shops and other wifi locations.

Once you have set up your account, configured and activated the VPN (see instructions below), navigate to the App Store on your iPhone. Search for the app you want and (if its there) download it. It’s that simple.

Survives Desktop Sync

I was concerned that if I downloaded apps this way, they would be wiped out after I synced my iPhone with iTunes to my desktop. Not so. The sync went fine and the apps remained on the iPhone.

No Need to Keep VPN Turned On

You only need to activate the VPN to download the app. Once downloaded, you can use the app with the VPN shut off.

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS

These instructions were cribbed from the Hotspot Shield site here. See that site for pictures and any updated instructions. You’ll need to go there anyway to get an account (with only one mouse click) as described below.

Configure iPhone

Make sure that Wi-Fi is marked "OFF" in: 
Settings -> Wi-Fi

Then find the VPN settings in:
Settings -> General -> Network -> VPN -> Add VPN Configuration:

• Select the L2TP tab/pane
• Description: HotspotShield
• Server: 64.55.144.10
• Account: [insert account number – see below]
• RSA SecurID: OFF
• Password: [insert password – see below]
• Secret: password
• Send all traffic: ON

Get Account & Password

Getting an account is easy. Click on the GetAccountID button on this page. With one click you’ll have your account and password. You’ll need to fill them into the appropriate place as indicated above.

Save Settings

You are now done. Save the settings and hit the "HOME" button to quit. Make sure to turn Wi-Fi back "ON".

Activate

To activate Hotspot Shield on your iPhone, the VPN setting needs to be turned on. From "HOME" menu, go to Settings and click the "On" tab for VPN. Your Status will change to "CONNECTED" and the VPN icon will appear on top in the iPhone Tray when complete. If you cannot connect to the VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn the VPN to "ON".

If you cannot connect to VPN immediately, power down your iPhone, turn it back on, and turn VPN to "ON" in "Settings".

Windows has not provided .iso file burning functionality before. Rather than use a specialized tool, I have, until now, used my iMac to burn iso files. This morning I discovered that with a couple clicks of the mouse, Windows 7 users can now burn .iso files. 

Here’s how:

• In Windows Explorer double click the .iso file you wish to burn
• Windows 7 opens the following dialogue

• Choose the DVD burner you wish to use (in my case Drive F:)
• Select whether or not you wish to verify the disk after burning
• Click the ‘Burn’ button and you are off:

That’s it. I’m surprised it took Redmond this long to finally include this functionality.

• $199 for 16 GB in U.S. – $299 for 32GB version (on contract of course)
  • pricing only available to new AT&T customers
  • $700 Upgrade fee for current AT&T iPhone users
  • [June 10 Update: Rogers has announced that Canadian pricing will be the same as U.S. pricing – in Cdn $. So, $199 and $299 Cdn for the 16 and 32 GB units respectively. Only available on 3 year contracts again. No pricing for un-subbed units announced – un-subbed 3G iPhones still cannot be purchased in Canada. 8-GB, 3G Units will be decreased to $99. No word on 16GB units]
• Available June 19 (U.S. & Canada)
• $99 for prior 16 GB iPhone
• “up to” two times Faster
• Voice Control:
  • voice dialing
  • ask iPhone what song is playing and it will tell you
  • tell iPhone to play a song, or songs by an artist or a playlist and it will play it
  • developers can integrate into any app

• Does Video & Video Editing: at 30 fps at VGA resolution

• 3.0 Megapixel Camera
  

  

• Built in Digital Compass
• Battery Life improving – 9 hours wifi, 12 hours 2G talk-time, 5 hour 3G talk-time – 10 hours movie – 30 hours for video

• Seamless PC Tethering supported (including in Canada)
• Tom Tom turn by turn navigation app available (price & date not yet announced)

• Supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA to support next gen wireless

See also:

• Apple’s WWDC 2009 Keynote Address video
• iPhone 3Gs Guided Tour
• Official Apple iPhone 3Gs page

More Info:

• Apple Insider
• ars technica
• CrunchGear
• Engadget
• Gdgt
• Gizmodo

In summary, he defines, Web 3.0 as:

• Applications that are pieced together.
• They are relatively small.
• The data is in the cloud.
• The application can run on any device, PC or mobile phone.
• Applications are fast and customizable
• Applications are distributed virally via social networks and email.

I gather that more than 10 was confusing for some. For me large jump lists are very useful– especially for programs that do not  make it easy to find and open recent files.

One such program is Windows Live Writer – the program I use to write blog posts. It remembers only the three most recent posts. However, I frequently tweak and retweak recent posts until I get it just right. The more prior posts showing up in the Jump List the easier it is to access and edit those posts.

To change the default number of items in the jump List that Windows 7 makes available:

• right click anywhere on the task bar
• choose ‘Properties’
• click the ‘Start Menu’ tab
• click the ‘Customize…’ button
• set the desired ‘Number of recent items to display in Jump Lists:’ at the bottom of the ‘Customize Start Menu’ dialogue box – see picture below:

• click ‘OK’
• click ‘Apply’
• click ‘OK’

Tip: Jump List ‘Swoosh’ Shortcut: Rather than right clicking on a taskbar icon to access the Jump List you can left-click swoosh up your mouse (like how you swoosh lists on an iPhone to move them) over a taskbar icon to bring up the jump list. Swoosh the mouse pointer from the bottom up.

See also:

• Take a closer look at Windows 7’s Jump List feature (ZDNet)
• Nifty new Windows 7 features will improve productivity

To me, and I suspect to many Windows users, it would be intuitive for Windows to bring whatever window the mouse is currently hovering over into focus without the need to click on that window.

It turns out that Windows 7 now makes this possible. I stumbled upon this tip when writing my ‘How to Shut Off Windows 7 Aero Snap – Stop it from Auto Arranging Windows’ post.

There are two additional reasons why I want Windows 7 to activate (bring focus to an ‘out of focus’ window) by hovering the mouse over it:

1. Symbiotic With Single-Click Item Activation

For the better part of a year I have been using the ‘single-click to open’ option in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (The option has been around since Windows 95). The idea behind this one-click option is to make the Windows use experience similar to the web-browsing experience. Instead of double clicking icons and options to open/access/activate them in Windows, you need only click icons, items etc. once.

To set windows 7 up to open/activate items with just one click, do the following in Windows Explorer

• click on Tools
• click Folder Options
• on the General Tab, click the ‘single-click to open option shown in the picture below:

Up till now, a downside to using this single-click approach, is that I often accidently clicked/activated items within a window that I had no desire to activate simply because I clicked that item when I clicked on its window to bring it into focus.

Using the tip below to activate a window by merely hovering over it solves this accidental click problem.

[Side Note: For this 25 year DOS/Windows veteran, moving from the two-click model to the one-click model, was quite hard to do. It took some time but I’ve now adjusted to it and am happier for the effort.']

2. Solves a Kat-Mouse Focus Problem

For several months I have been enjoying the free utility KatMouse (recommended by Steve Gibson). With KatMouse, spinning a mouse’s scroll wheel scrolls the window beneath the mouse cursor – whether or not that window is in focus. This is useful but doesn’t bring the scrolled window into focus.

My preference would be to move from window to window, scrolling away, without having to click the scrolled window to bring it into focus. KatMouse gets me half way to my desired end-game. The tip below gets me all the way there.

I’ll need to report back on this, but it may be that I no longer need KatMouse at all. This tip seems to get me where I wanted to go with KatMouse.

How to Activate a Window by Hovering a Mouse Over It

To set this up:

• Go to Control Panel
• Select ‘Ease of Access Center’
• Select ‘Make the mouse easier to use’
• Check ‘Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse’ as shown in the picture below
   
• Click ‘Apply’

One Downside – Accidental Jumps

I noticed one downside to using this tip. Typically I’ll click a window (say, Microsoft Word) to activate it and then I’ll push the mouse out of the way when I start using the application (in the Word example, I push the mouse pointer away before I type text) so that the mouse pointer doesn’t get in the way. However, if I push my mouse away too far, so that it points to another window, I’m accidently jumped over to window where the mouse pointer randomly landed. This takes a bit of getting used to.

Window’s 7 new Aero Snap feature is, no doubt, a useful feature for those with just one monitor. In my case, where I use multiple monitors, it is a major pain. Windows 7 frequently auto-adjusts windows across multiple monitors when I have no desire for this to happen.

In the picture above, my Firefox window was originally open in just the lower, central, window. I was dragging the lower right corner with my mouse (see yellow arrow) to adjust the window when, suddenly, it popped up across three monitors (see four red arrows above). Yikes!

Windows 7 does this because it thinks that if you drag an edge of a window to the edge of a screen (any screen) you want the widow stretched across the full screen (or in my case, multiple screens). Nobody would want the result produced above.

Before disabling Aero Snap this happened to me several times a day. It doesn’t any longer. To disable Aero Snap, follow these steps:

• Go to Control Panel
• Select ‘Ease of Access Center’
• Select ‘Make the mouse easier to use’
• Check ‘Prevent Windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen’

• Click ‘Apply’

See also: Disable Aero Snap (the Mouse Drag Window Arranging Feature in Windows 7)

Not so with video podcasts. Clicking the ‘Sleep/Wake’ button, or clicking the iPhone’s start button shuts video podcasts off. The inability to just listen to video podcasts has been one of my primary complaints with the iPhone’s iPod functionality. See my other major complaints here and here.

Why Would Anyone Want to Just Listen to a Video Podcast?

All video podcasts are not created equal. Some video podcasts such as CO-OP, demand that the user ‘watch’ them to get the most out of them. Other podcasts , such as the ‘Cranky Geeks’, Geek Brief TV and Diggnation can usually be enjoyed without ever looking at the screen.

There are several reasons why one might wish to consume a video podcast with the visual element shut off:

• While Using other IPhone Apps: Since I can, and often do, use other iPhone/iTouch apps while listening to audio podcasts, I sometimes just want/need to just listen to video podcasts while using other apps. Why not?
• Increased battery life: Video playback consumes an enormous amount of battery charge. If you don’t need to watch the video to enjoy it, why waste the battery?
• Putting iPhone in Pocket: I often put my iPhone in my pocket while listening to podcasts. When the iPhone screen cannot be shut off, this becomes a bit clumsy. The act of putting it in my pocket (or taking it out) often results in unwanted screen clicks that can shut the podcast off, fast forward it, pause it etc.
• While Driving: Who needs the video on while driving?

Bottom Line: Hardly a day has gone by since I purchased my iPhone last August, when I didn’t wish I could turn off the screen and still listen to my video podcasts.

Turns out that there has been a way to do this all along. It took me 8 months before I stumbled upon this trick.

How Then, to Listen to Video Podcasts Without Watching

From day 1 I realized I could click the ‘Sleep/Wake’ button (depicted below) to shut off the screen while listening to an audio podcast.

While in this state, the user can still press the earbud pause button (depicted below) to start/stop the audio podcast.

I later discovered that one can press the button on the earbuds at any time and the most recently listened to song/podcast etc. would start playing where I last left off – this without actually waking up the iPhone or needing to press the iPod icon.

Quite by accident, I discovered this week, that video podcasts will also wakeup, with the screen still turned off when you press the earbud button after putting the iPhone to sleep (with the Sleep/Wake button) during a video podcast.

More astonishingly, if you jump away from the video podcast by pressing the iPhone’s ‘Start’ button, you can press the earbud button to restart just the audio portion of the video podcast that just shut off – all while using your other iPhone apps.

It’s as simple as that!

Note: This only works while listening with the earbuds. You cannot, for example, listen to video podcasts with just the built-in iPhone speaker or when the earbuds are removed and you have the iPhone plugged into something else like an in-car auxiliary jack. So there is still room for improvement here.

[Update: Turns out this can, indeed be done without the earbuds. See Cassidy Napoli’s welcome comment below to learn how this is done.]

Note Re: Audio Version Alternatives

You might ask, if I don’t want to watch the video version of a podcast, why not subscribe to the audio-only version. The answer is three-fold:

1. AppleTV Interoperability: I consume podcasts on both my iPhone and on AppleTV. I don’t want to have to subscribe to, and then have to manage, two subscriptions to a podcast.
2. Sometimes I Watch: If I’m on a subway or eating at a restaurant, sometimes I want to watch the video podcast.
3. No Audio-only Version: Sometimes there is no audio-only version of a video podcast.

Other Earbud Button Uses:

FYI, there are a number of other earbud button uses that many iPhone users are not aware of:

• Answering a phone call (press once to answer)
• Hang-up a phone call (press once again to hang-up)
• Forward call to voicemail (press and hold the button for a few seconds while the iPhone is ringing)
• Starting up an audio book where you left off without waking the iPhone (one click)
• Pause a song, movie, podcast, movie (click once)
• Jump from chapter to chapter in an audio book (double click)
• Jumping to the next song when listening to a playlist (double click)
• Jump to the prior song (triple click)

I did an in-place Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) upgrade on April 26, 2009.  For changes made from the beta version of Windows 7 to Release Candidate 1 see:

• Some Changes Since Beta for the RC (MSDN blogs)
• A few more changes from Beta to RC (MSDN blogs)
• User Interface Changes in the Release Candidate (Paul Thurrott)

Below are my first impressions and initial observations:

The Good

• The System Seems Snappier: Moving from Vista to Windows 7 Beta provided a substantial performance boost to my system. After 1 hour or so, the system seems somewhat snappier still.
• Faster Access to Remote Drives: Navigating to and around my Drobo Drive (shared from another XP system on my network) seems dramatically faster than it was under either XP, Vista or Windows 7 Beta). This was a major annoyance under the Windows 7 Beta which was worse than under XP or Vista.
• System Search Indexing Problem Fixed:  During my first couple months of using Windows 7, the Start menu search function (eg: searching for, say, ‘device manager’) had indexing problems where it took 30 seconds to a minute to search for and find system files/apps. It stemmed from customizations I made to the indexing options. I was never able to recover from whatever I did. After this upgrade the system search is wicked fast again!

The Not So Good

• Start & Taskbar Icons/Apps Changed: The applications that I had pinned to the customized start menu were removed and the defaults put back. Default apps that I had removed from the taskbar (eg: Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer) were put back. But apps I had added to the taskbar were still there.
• Jump Lists Gone: All my Windows 7 jump-lists (eg: for Windows Explorer) were knocked out. It didn’t take long to put them back however.
• Notifications Default Changes: The default notifications settings I had for apps in the system tray (a.k.a. notification area) were changed (probably back to defaults).
• Snap to Grid Turned Back On: I had ‘snap to grid’ turned off for desktop and gadget icons. That was turned back on.
• Realtek Audio Driver Issue: The upgrade knocked out my Realtek AC’97 Audio driver. I downloaded the driver from Realtek’s download site here and re-installed without a problem.

Hibernation/Sleep Problem Persists on my Dell XPS 600

My biggest disappointment with Windows  7 Beta was that it didn’t satisfactorily solve my on-going sleep/hibernation problems. Sleep and hibernation never worked properly on my Dell XPS 600 system (not in XP, Vista or Win7 Beta build 7000). Alas, the problem persists under the release candidate.

Since hibernation and sleep now work flawlessly in Windows 7 (both beta and RC1) on my Lenovo ThinkPad, there must be something unique to my XPS that consistently makes this function not work properly. In my case, when I put the machine into hibernation, it sets out to go into hibernation mode but within a minute wakes itself back up automatically.

Happily, Windows 7 shuts down and starts up so much faster than it did under XP or Vista that it is not such a pain to shut down any more.

See also:

[May 5, 2009 Update: Download the Windows 7 release Candidate here. It will be available here until July. They are not limiting the number of downloads this time. The release candidate will function until March 1, 2010 after which it will nag you several times a day to purchase the RTM version. It will cease functioning on June 1, 2010. Until then, party!]

The instructions for how to do an in-place upgrade are set out below. I edited them  to make them easier to follow from the instructions provided by Paul Thurrott on his SuperSite for Windows blog  here. See similar instructions here (scroll down to the ‘How-To’ section).

Despite Thurrott’s ivory-tower purity of not recommending users do in-place upgrades, I went ahead anyway. At worst, I could have rolled back to my prior Windows 7 beta image. Doing a fresh install is obviously the best practice. But anyone that takes even a cursory look at my ‘The Windows Apps I Use and How I Configure Them’ post can understand why I was loathe to do yet another clean install for just a release candidate. That said, I probably will do a clean install when the RTM version comes out this summer.

In the mean time, here are the instructions for how to do an in-place upgrade:

Before You Begin

• Local HD Space: You’ll need about 13 Gigs of free space on your C:\ drive (though Microsoft recommends 16 GB).
• External HD Space: You’ll need between 2.5 and 3.2 GB free space on your D:\ drive (or bootable external drive or network drive) for the extracted ISO to be saved.
• Drivers: You may have to remove/reinstall certain drivers. I upgraded my primary PC and my ThinkPad tablet laptop. In both cases it warned me in advance that I should remove certain drivers (my audio  card driver on my PC and my Thinkvantage system update service on my tablet prior to completing the upgrade). I didn’t do this for my PC. Consequently the upgrade knocked out my audio card driver. I reinstalled it after the upgrade and all was fine. Having learned my lesson, I did remove the Thinkvantage update service from my laptop prior to the upgrade and reinstalled it fine on the other side.
• Backup: Or course, you should ALWAYS backup your data before attempting any system upgrade. Ideally you’ll also create a system image of your current setup that you can restore if something goes awry.

Doing the Upgrade

1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image (ie: copy the directory structure as-is on the DVD) to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from – eg:  a directory on another partition/drive (eg: a D:\ drive) on the machine running the pre-release build or a bootable external disk or flash drive).
3. Click on the ‘sources’ directory.
4. Edit the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. In this case, change 7100.0 to 7000.0. Note: See this article where they discuss how the 7100 build floating around the Internet still has the MinClient build number set to 7077 – in that case change 7077 to 7000). See Ed Bott’s picture of this.
6. Save the file in place with the same name (ie: overwrite the prior version).
7. Click on ‘setup.exe’ in the root directory where you copied the DVD contents and away you go.
8. You will be prompted for the serial number/key you used when you originally installed the beta. You can bypass this step but you will have to type it in within 30 days of the upgrade.

Related: Windows 7 setup secrets (by Ed Bott)

The Daleisphere Command Center

In mid-February 2009, I made the unfortunate mistake or using a registry cleaner in hopes of tweaking even more performance out of my Windows 7 Beta (“Win7B”) setup. The net result – my ship was sunk!

All my data was backed up, of course, but it took me two months to gradually re-install and tweak ‘most’ of the dozens of apps I use to run my law practice, develop my websites, blog and otherwise run my world.

On the advice of my nephew Michael Kalistchuk, an IT consultant, I painstakingly documented the details of the applications I use and how I configure them. This post grew out of those notes.

It’s unlikely I’ll need these notes for recovery purposes because I have since used Windows 7’s built in image backup system to create a recovery image.

More likely, when the final version of Windows 7 is released, I’ll do a clean install (rather than install over my current install) requiring me to do all of this over again. These notes should dramatically decrease the time it will take to get my command center up and operational again.

General Notes:

• Order: The items below are generally listed in the order that I installed and tweaked them – though the network and general system setup steps were more intermixed.  I group them together below for ease of reference.
• Redactions: I have removed the various software keys, userids and passwords for obvious reasons.
• Google Docs: I compiled this list using Google Docs. I am often called upon by friends and family members to assist with their systems. By keeping this info in Google Docs I can access the information from any computer in the world.
• Bullet Points: Please excuse the ‘bullet point’ presentation. I have not attempted to write this up like a typical post.
• 64 Bit Version of Win7B: Some of the outstanding issues listed below stem from my use of the 64 bit version of Win7B.
• Your Comments: I’d appreciate any comments you might have to solve my outstanding problems or to offer alternative setup suggestions.

Outstanding Issues:

While I have resolved a great many problems, there are still several outstanding issues I have using Windows 7 Beta. They are outlined below:

• Foxit PDF Previewer doesn’t work in Outlook when using Win7B
• Outlook Personal Folders Backup doesn’t work in Win7B
• Second Copy won’t autostart in Win7B
• Woopra won’t autostart in Win7B  Update: version 1.3 RC autostarts in Win 7B just fine

Reference:

• Windows 7 Forums: http://windows7forums.com/
• My First Win7B First Impressions Blog Post:
  http://www.daleisphere.com/windows-7-beta-first-impressions-problems-bugs-likes-and-dislikes/

Basic Windows 7 Setup:

Windows 7 x64 product key: [snipped]

Download Drivers from Dell: XPS Tag:   [snipped tag]

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?

Do a ‘Windows Update’

Get rid of ‘Send Feedback’ text in every Window:

http://www.daleisphere.com/how-to-disable-send-feedback-link-in-windows-7-beta/

Screen Saver
- Start -> ‘Screen Saver’ -> Aurora; 60 minutes

Power Options

Firewall - Turn off

Add Take Ownership Utility:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/112795-context-menu-take-ownership.html

Recover Desktop Files from Backup:

[backup directory]Users\Dale\Desktop

Change System-wide ‘My Documents’ Default Location to be Included in Second Copy Backup Directory:

- How to do this is described here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/11/25/change-my-documents-folder-default-location-path-in-xp-and-vista/

- Change Default from
     c:\users\Dale\My Documents
  to
      c:\files\My Documents

1. Right click on c:\users\Dale\My Documents
2. Select Properties in the context menu.
3. Click Location tab.
4. In the Target box type the path to the folder location that you want My Documents to be, c:\files\Documents
5. click OK button.

Restore Quick Launch Bar:

• Right-click the taskbar,
  • Uncheck the “lock  the taskbar”
  • Choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
• In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
  %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
• The Quick Launch Bar will be added to the right side of the task bar beside the system tray
• Right-click on the ‘Quick Launch Bar" divider.
  • Uncheck the “Show text” and “Show title” buttons
  • Select view and choose “small icons" or large icons as per your preference
• Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

Audio

Download and install Realtek AC97 Audio Drivers:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

- run setup.exe from the resulting zip file.

Recover Gadgets:  Gadgets are stored in this directory:

- C:\Users\Dale\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets

WB7 MP3 Update:

- See MP3 Corruption Issue: in this post
- may already be installed in W7B updates – need to be sure in order to safe-guard MP3s.
- Direct Links to x64 update: -

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0c56bf3c-9370-4fda-b4c8-5dc63d55626d&displaylang=en

Mouse & Windows Defaults:

Start –> mouse -> Pointer Options tab
    – Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog box
    – Display pointer trails  

Control Panel –> Ease of Access Center –> Make the Mouse Easier to Use
  – change default mouse pointer to ‘Extra Large White
  – Check both boxes under ‘Make it easier to Manage windows’ See blog posts:  

• How to Make Windows 7 Activate a Window by Hovering a Mouse Over It.
• How to Shut Off Windows 7 Aero Snap – Stop it from Auto Arranging Windows

Printer Setup:

- Copy ML-1710 driver executable from N: network drive to desktop (W7B will suggest an updated driver after it is installed)
- Run in Vista compatibility mode (won’t otherwise run)
- delete from desktop after install
- test from laptop and iMac

Networking:

Major XP Networking Connection Issue Discussed here:

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-networking/3262-could-not-reconnect-all-network-drives-problem.html#post16010

- On XP Systems, change Windows Firewall settings
  – got Advanced tab
  – make sure ‘Local Area Network Connection’ NOT checked

Connect Drobo:
- Start – right click Computer – map drobo network drive to N:\   —>> \\webserver\drobo
- Windows Explorer – Right click favorites to add directories to favorites (wp, files, media, c, d etc.)

- Dot: Rename drive letters in Windows Explorer to DOT (ie: ‘.’) to get rid of long names
- Firefox Downloads: change Firefox Downloads Default to drobo

Workgroup:

WorkGroup: Start –> workgroup –> [snipped]
HomeGroup: Start –> homegroup –> password: [snipped]

Advanced Sharing Settings:

Start –> network and sharing center –> change advanced sharing settings

Public Folder Sharing:

turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open files

Password Protected Sharing: - turn off password protected sharing

Windows HomeGroup Connections: - Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers

Share c:\Files: with ‘Dale’ and ‘HomeGroup’ UAC – Turn Down – type UAC in Start Menu to access

Firewall – Turn off

Windows Explorer:

Turn on Menu Bar: Organize -> Layout -> Menu Bar

Turn on Status Bar: View -> Status bar

Options: — > Tools -> Folder Options

General Tab:
- single click to open
- Navigation Pane: check each of the boxes in

View Tab:
- Display full path
- show hidden files
- don’t hide ANYTHING
- use check boxes to select items

Search Tab:
- always search file names and contents

Drag Most Commonly used Folders into Favorites (also ‘pin’ to IE icon in task bar):
- C, D, I, N, W
- backups
- Clients
- Downloads
- files
- iTunes
- law
- media
- My Pictures
- ph
- precedents
- uploads
- WP
- 106CANNON

Windows Defender: – set scan time

Start Menu Properties – Go Nuts with usual settings

Windows Indexing:

Start -> Indexing Options
Add directories – no network directory indexing in Windows x64 – Grrr!
  (NOTE: Doesn’t work in x 64 systems)
  Windows Desktop Search: Add-in for Files on Networks does work with x32 systems:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f7e981d9-5a3b-4872-a07e-220761e27283&displayLang=en

Applications Install and Setup:

One Note: Where I keep all my system notes (hopefully change to Evernote one day)

- Key: [snipped]
- Pin to Start menu
- remove OneNote icon from sys tray (right click option)
- Change Default dir to: C:\files\OneNote 
- Tools -> Options -> Open & Save -> My Notebook 
- change backup to c:\AutoRecover 
- restart

Internet Explorer:

- Add Back Menu Bar:

    Tools -> Toolbars –> Menu

- Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) for IE

http://beta.foxmarks.com/program/ie_alpha

FireFox:

Download and install:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.6&os=win&lang=en-US

Configure:

http://www.daleisphere.com/how-i-configure-firefox/

Foxmarks: Username: Dajad – Password – Usual 

Toolbars: Right click toolbar –> Customize – New Tab – New Window – Print

Start Page: mail, calendar, finance

Downloads -> Tools -> Options… -> Main  Tab -> Check ‘Always ask me where to save files’

iTunes:

Blog Post on Topic:

http://www.daleisphere.com/how-to-move-the-itunes-library-to-a-home-server-while-keeping-its-underlying-media-structure-intact/

- Download 64 bit version of iTunes
- install but do not run
- copy backed up iTunes structure to/from : C:\Users\Dale\Music\iTunes  to recover apps, playlists, album art, music, videos etc.
- It should JUST WORK if the C:\Users\Dale\Music\iTunes directory was properly backed up.
- when syncing iPhone, got ‘Info’ tab, sync contacts and calendars from Outlook – I CHOSE ‘REPLACE’ & NOT ‘MERGE’

Foxit Reader:

- 2.3 version better than 3 (want web .pdf’s to open in reader NOT web page)
- http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm
- Edit -> Preferences –> Internet –> Uncheck ‘Display PDF in Browser’

Microsoft Office 2007:

Key [snipped]

Outlook 2007:

[Note: As an alternative to recovering Imap folders as described below, try restoring Folders.pst first, then add imap account, then add in imap.pst]

Imap Files

- FIRST set up an iMap/Gmail ‘account’ as instructed here:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77689
- You don’t have to complete it, just start and save.
- EXIT Outlook
- Rename the recovered iMap .pst file in this directory
    Users\Dale\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
- delete the .pst file that was created when the ‘account’ was set up

General PST File

  – Add in the following folder from c:\outlook (or as backed up on Drobo)
  – Folders.pst for Calendar and contacts:

Configure IMAP:

See following blog posts:

 http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/solutions-for-slow-gmail-imap-with-microsoft-outlook/1761/

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/microsoft-office/use-gmail-imap-in-microsoft-outlook-2007/

Install Outlook Personal Folders Backup App:

http://www.daleisphere.com/automatic-outlook-2007-email-backups-sort-of/

- Outlook Personal Folders Backup:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en

- Tweaks needed to get it to work:

http://turtleflock-ol2007.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C1013F1F9A99E3D8!114.entry

Customize Quick Access Bar: Create New Email –> Outlook Button –> Customize
Add in:

- Format Painter
- HTML
- Insert Hyperlink
- Quick Print

Columns/Fields in Inbox: Set as follows

- Right Click on column headings
- Select "Customize Current View"
- Select / remove desired ‘Fields"

PDF Previewer

- Install Foxit PDF Previewer <– Note: As of March 3, 2009 – still some problems with Windows 7 beta

Change Email Default Font: (both original and replies)

- Tools –> Options –> Mail Format tab –>  Stationary and Fonts… button
- click ‘Font’ button under each of ‘New mail messages’ and ‘Replying or forwarding messages’ button
- Font:
  – Verdana
  – 11 Pt
  – Color: ‘Dark Blue, Text 2, Lighter 40%
- Plain text response: Arial – 11 pt

Outlook Email Signature File:

- Recover from backup here: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
- Compose new email
- On ‘Insert’ tab, click ‘Signature’ then ‘Signatures…"
- click on Desired signature
- Click on ‘New Message’ pull down on right and pick the desired default signature – will be default thereafter
- Do not include signature on replies/forwards
- See also:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/EmailSignatureEtiquetteWithOutlook2007AppropriateFlair.aspx

Bcc in Outlook:

- Start to compose new email
- click ‘Options’ tab
- Click ‘Show Bcc’
- Thereafter Bcc stays on by default

- How to Get Rid of Annoying Warning message when Opening Attachments

Word 2007:

Change Default File Type to .doc: (most clients still using Word 2003 or earlier)

Word Button –> Word Options –> Save –> Choose ‘Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) in pulldown menu

Change Default Language to English (Canada): (for all other things I prefer English U.S., but for Word documents with Canadian clients I use English Canada)

- Word Button –> Word Options –> Popular –> Language Settings box
- Chose English (Canada) as the ‘Primary Editing Language)’ <– must do this before you can do next step
- Remove ‘English (US)’ from the ‘Enabled editing languages list.
- Must restart Word for change to take affect.

Restore normal.dotm:

- no need to recover so long as I point my templates directory to c:\files\templates (see below)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179177.aspx

Restore Custom.dic:  (restore my customized dictionary built up over many years)
- Recover from backup in this hierarchy: C:\Users\Dale\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\UProof\Custom.dic
- Note: Also accessible/viewable through: Word Button –> Word Options –> Proofing –>  ‘Custom Dictionaries…’ button

View Ruler:

Either:
- click on little ‘view ruler’ icon on top of vertical scroll bar (top right); or
- on ‘View’ tab, check the ‘Ruler’ checkbox

Enable Macros:
- Word Button –> Word Options –> Trust Center –> click ‘Trust Center Settings…" button –> Macro settings:
- select ‘Enable all macros (not recommended… yada yada)

Add Save as PDF Add-on for all Microsoft Office Apps:

- Download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4d951911-3e7e-4ae6-b059-a2e79ed87041&displaylang=en

- Install

Customize Quick Access Bar: Word Button –> Word Options –> Customize
  Add in:
- Open
- Save As
- Format Painter
- Print
- Quick Print
- Track Changes
  Remove:
- Save, Undo, Redo (I use keyboard shortcuts, Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y for these)

Adjust Track Changes Options:

On Review Tab –> Click down arrow under ‘Track Changes Icon’ –> select ‘Change Tracking Options’
- Insertions: Double Underline
- Insertion Color: Blue
- Deletions Colour: Red
- Changed Lines: none
- uncheck ‘Track moves’ box
- uncheck ‘ Track formatting’ box
- select ‘Never’ in ‘Use Balloons (Print and Web Layout)
- click OK

Miscellaneous:

Word Button –> Word Options –>
- Display –> check ‘Update fields before printing box‘ (ie: for auto cross references and page references)
- Proofing –> uncheck ‘Mark Grammar errors as you type’ & ‘Check Grammar with Spelling” (annoying in legal docs)
- Advanced –> Check ‘Match Destination Formatting‘ in all ‘cut, copy and paste’ boxes
- Advanced –> Select ‘Square’ for ‘Insert/paste pictures as‘ option
- Advanced –> Show document content –> select ‘Always’ in Field shading option (to highlight auto-generated cross-references/page numbers)
- Advanced –> Display –> choose maximum (50) on ’show this number of recent documents‘
- Advanced –> Display –> choose inches – on ’show measurements in units of: option
- Advanced –> Display –> choose 1 inch – on ‘style area pain …’
- Advanced –> General –> Click ‘File Locations…’ button and modify: 

‘User Templates’ to c:\files\l\templates
   ‘Startup’ in lieu of deleting this – make sure NOTHING is contained in the indicated directory:
       C:\Users\Dale\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
- Advanced –> click + sign beside Layout options and select:
   – Add space for underlines
   – Draw underline on trailing spaces (needed for signature lines)
- Word Button –> Word Options –> Trust Center –> click ‘Trust Center Settings…" button
  – check ‘Search Microsoft Office Online for Help…’ box
Bullet point:
- Word Button –> Word Options –> Proofing –>  Auto Correct Options button
- Replace ‘bl‘ with preferred round placement holder bullet from any document that it contains (preview – eg: Precedents\@Clauses\Indemnity Exclusion.doc
- Note: This must be done AFTER changing the default templates directory to :c:\files\l\templates because this info is stored there.

LifeCam Codec: (webcam)

- Install BEFORE Skype, Google Talk Voice & Video and Windows Live Messenger
- Install: LifeCam2.9.exe (older pre-Vista version works with W7B)

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/windows7/support.mspx

- See also Windows 7 Forums:

http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/1560-lifecam-vx3000.html

Windows Live Writer:

- Windows Live Essentials: http://download.live.com/
- Carefully parse out Microsoft’s attempts to install crap and change browser defaults as you install
- Options –> Preferences – uncheck useless ‘view post after publishing’

Windows Live Messenger:

- set to run in Vista compatibility mode in order to minimize to system tray
  – right click on the app in the ‘All Programs’ menu;
  – select ‘Properties’;
  – select the ‘Compatibility’ tab (see picture below);
  – put a check in the ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:’ box;
  – select the “Windows Vista’ option in the pull-down menu (see picture); and
  – click ‘Apply’.

.net Framework (needed for Paint.net and other things)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&displaylang=en

Paint.net:

http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

Changing Paint.net Defaults:

- Under the Tool: item on the left side of the second tool bar there is a ‘choose defaults…" option
Default Tool: Rectangle select
Brush Width: 4
Text: Verdana, 9pt, right justified

Codecs

- Run/Install Win7codecs_v101.exe –> From Shark007’s Win 7 Codecs Page

LifeChat Codec: (headset)

- Install: LifeChat 1_3.exe 

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/windows7/support.mspx

Skype – http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/

- Tools/Preferences – Advanced Settings
- Uncheck ‘Use Skype to callto: links on web’ (otherwise covers up phone numbers on Firefox)

Google Talk Voice an Video Chat

Adobe Flash 10 - Needed for pixlr.com online image editing (can edit images from desktop without uploading first)

Adobe Air – Needed for Twhirl and other cloud-based apps

Twitter Desktop Apps:

blu: blu.application (from www.thirteen.23.com)

Twhirl: http://www.twhirl.org/

Twitteron: http://www.techlogica.us/software/twitteron/

Java (must install before installing Woopra)

http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

- Watch Out for Yahoo! toolbar add-on option – must uncheck

Woopra:

Download & Install:  http://www.woopra.com/download/#versions

Google Calendar Sync: (backup Outlook before running – just in case)

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=15305

- Note: Didn’t work at first but worked later (possibly needs system restart to take effect)

Team Viewer:

Download & Install:  http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

Dreamweaver 8 Install:

- Map webserver websites root (htdocs) folder to W:
- Install Dreamweaver8-en.exe
- Before running restore backup Directory: C\Users\Dale\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration

- Serial Number: DWD800-03111-57237-16637

- Install 8.02 Update: dw8_802_update_en.exe
  (check to see if any subsequent updates here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/dreamweaver/downloads_updaters.html

- Manage Sites (top right)
  – edit locally, then upload to remote testing server
     – C:\files\Webs\Daleisphere.com\
  – How do you connect to testing server: Local/Network:
     – W:\daleisphere.com
  – http://localhost/

Preferences:

BASIC TAB:
General:
- uncheck ’show start page’
File Types / Editors
- .htaccess -> Dreamweaver
- . .gif -> Paint.net
- . .jpg. jpg. jpg -> Paint.net
- . .png -> Paint.net
Preview in Browser – Firefox 3.0
Site –> Check (Prompt on put/check) to uncheck box)
- Do a ‘put’
- Say ‘no’ See —>  http://dreamweaverforum.info/dreamweaver-general/154260-how-stop-dw-putting-dependant-files.html
ADVANCED TAB (re: on Site Manage):
Remote Info – check ‘automatically upload files to server on save’ box
To show hidden files:

http://websitedesign.websitesinaflash.com/2007/11/dreamweaver-tip-hidden-files.html

(log onto remote view –> click top right pull-down menu –> View –> Hidden Files)

Filezilla Client: (ftp client to work with media temple web server)

Download: http://filezilla-project.org/  (Note: Do NOT download or install SERVER – doh!)
- Enable hidden Files View:
    Server > Force showing hidden files

TiVo Desktop:

NOTE: Make sure you run BOTH the installer and the executable in Vista Compatibility mode in order for TiVo Plus License Key to take

Download & Install:  http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/whatsnew/tivodesktop/

Media Access Key S2 & S3: [snipped]

TiVo Desktop Plus License Key: [snipped]

Second Copy 7 (backup tool)

- get download here: http://www.centered.com/download.html
- Second Copy  Serial Number: [snipped]
- recover profiles.dat file from: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Centered Systems\Second Copy\Profiles.dat
- check the box "Start at log in" from the Edit | Options | Startup tab.
- [Doesn't run on boot in Windows 7 as of April 15, 2009]

Sharing Directories to iMac & Vice Versa:

- Share C:\files with ‘Everyone’ on my network
- Changing Security Settings
   – Windows Button
   – search for ’security configuration management’
        – Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> Network security: Lan Manager authentication level
            – set to ‘Send LM & NTLM Responses’
        – Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> Network security: Minimum Session (there are two of these – client & server)
            – set each to ‘no minimum’

KatMouse (Steve Gibson’s recommended terrific auto scroll-wheel utility)

Download & Install:  http://ehiti.de/katmouse/

Sticky Notes:

Recover from backup: C:\Users\Dale\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes\StikeyNotes.snt

Windows Live Mesh: (reinstall)

Download: https://www.mesh.com/Web/Devices.aspx

Safari 4 Beta:

Bookmark Import: http://www.daleisphere.com/how-to-import-firefox-bookmarks-into-safari-4-beta-in-windows/

====  POST SYSTEM IMAGE BACKUP (April 20, 2009) =======

Utilities Folder

Return the ‘Utilities’ Folder from the Desktop backup to return the following small utilities:

• WinDirStat <—Hard drive exploration utility

http://windirstat.info

• Space Monger <—hard drive exploration utility 
• SIW.exe <—system exploration utility
• gspot <—codec exploration utility

Install Woopra 1.3 RC

Install Presto’s Clock Gadget

Install Hotspot Shield  (download from: http://hotspotshield.com/)
  Vista 64 Instruction Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-ZvIsnA6s
  Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsnkM8Hac8

TO DO:

• EverNote
• WinMySQL
• Figure out where Windows Live Writer dictionary is for recovery purposes

In mid February 2009, shortly after installing Windows 7 Beta on my primary PC, I made the huge mistake of running an automated ‘Registry Cleaner’ program. Suffice it to say, it destroyed my system.

Because, my data is backed up on a nightly basis, I lost no data. But I did lose years (stretching back to my first Vista x64 install in January of 2007) of application installations and tweaks. Two months later I have finally (mostly) completed the long and laborious chore of re-installing and tweaking the many dozens of applications I use every day.

To ensure that I NEVER experience this special kind of hell again I decided to create an image of my primary system C:\ drive. I looked at various commercial system image/ghosting programs but decided that the system image feature built into Windows 7 was sufficient for my needs.

Highlights:

• The process took about 30 minutes for a 100 Gig C:\ drive.
• I was able to use Windows 7 and all my apps as normal during the entire time the image was being created.
• Compression was terrific. It compressed my 100 GB system to a 45 GB image backup.

Below is a simple step-by-step description of how to use it. The process is simple:

• Click on the Start button.
• Type ‘Backup’ into the search box.
• Choose the ‘Backup and Restore’ Center option.
• This will take you to the ‘Control Panel –> System and Security –> Backup and Restore’ page (see image above).
• Select the ‘Create an image backup’ option (circled in red above).

• Choose where you want to save the image. You can choose between another drive on the same machine, a network drive or you can burn it to a bunch of DVDs. In my case I chose a largely empty local D:\ drive.

Glitch Re: Network Drive Credentials: There is a glaring glitch if you want to backup the image to network location. For example, when upgrading my laptop to Windows 7 RC 1, I wanted to save a laptop image to my Drobo which is hung off of a networked XP machine. However, I do not require password credentials to access my shared network drives. Windows 7 would not allow me to proceed with the image backup when the network credential fields are left blank. Grrr!

• Click ‘Next’ and away it goes:

• It took about 30 minutes to create the image of the 100 GB system C:\ drive on the locally attached D:\ drive.
• The ultimate image is substantially compressed. The image on the D:/ drive was 47.5 GB – 47.5% of the original 100 GB size!
• When done, you are given the option to create a bootable repair disk:

• As the message above implies, if you have the original Windows 7 install disk, you won’t need a separate recovery disk because the install disk provides an option to recover from such system images. That said, for the cost of a blank DVD, I chose ‘Yes’ here.
• You next choose what DVD RW Drive to burn the recovery disk to – in my case the F:\ drive.

• It took about 1 minute to burn the recovery disk.
• On the local or network drive, the saved image is stored in a directory entitled ‘WindowsImageBackup’ (highlighted in the image below):

That’s it.

Now, I haven’t tested the image backup to confirm that recovery works as advertised. I trust that it will. I hope I never have to find out.

—

For a look at Windows 7’s built-in data backup system, see: ‘First Look at Windows 7’s Backup and Restore Center’.

Note: I don’t use the built-in data backup system. I much prefer Centered System’s Second Copy,

Next to my ongoing desire for a podcast delete function, the next-most glaring problem I have had with the iPhone and iPod Touch’s iPod playback functionality is its janky fast-forwarding and rewinding (also known as ‘scrubbing’).

The two most common scrubbing issues I have with my iPhone are when I want: (i) to skip back , say 10 seconds, to re-listen to something i missed – like I can with TiVo’s instant replay button; and (ii) to jump forward past podcast commercials – I can only listen to so many Audible ads on the Twit Network.

Scrubbing with the scroll wheel on iPods is a breeze. (See this ‘How to Scrub on Your iPod’ video, depicted in the picture on the right, for example.) You can easily jump back and forth to the exact desired spot within the song, podcast or video you are consuming by moving your thumb clockwise or counterclockwise on the scroll wheel as shown in the picture.

There is no scroll wheel on the iPhone or the iPod Touch. Instead, there is tiny round selector (see image above) on a small 1.25” horizontal scroll bar that you slide left and right to move around your media. This provides decent accuracy for short items such as a 3 minute song. For longer-form content, such as multi-hour podcasts and movies, the 1.25” scroll bar is too small to accurately select any given point of play. I personally consume long-form content the most. Such clumsy scrubbing has often left me 5 to 10 minutes away from the place I want to be.

The solution, variable speed scrubbing.

I’ll point out, for the record, that the iPhone also provides << and >> buttons that can be pressed and held down to move forward and back. However, I find the << (rewind) button almost useless. It takes too long to start rewinding and it is near impossible to land back where I want. The >> (fast forward) button is similarly janky, takes too long to start moving, jumps at max 30 seconds at a time once it gets going and is just too difficult to use. Since these buttons do double time as track/chapter jump buttons, I’ve too often found myself jumped to the prior/next podcast when all I wanted to do was rewind or fast forward within the podcast I was listening to.

Variable Scrubber Speeds Coming to the Rescue in iPhone 3.0

As reported in this Apple Insider report, and shown in the image above, the pending iPhone 3.0 OS release will have a variable scrubbing speed feature. 

To use variable scrubbing speeds, after touching the selector, the user moves his/her finger down, vertically, from the scroll bar, before sliding left and right. The further the finger is away from the slider, the more precise/finer the user’s back/forward movement within the media is.

Note: Since the iPhone 2.0 release, you could grab the selector and similarly move your finger down before moving left and right (as shown in the picture to the left and in this video). While this yielded a visual improvement (it was easier to see the selector as your finger was no longer on top of it), it didn’t solve the underlying movement/placement accuracy problem.

Bloggers have made variable speed scrubber, and related, scrubbing suggestions since the iPhone first came out (see, for example, here and the terrific suggestions made in the comments to that post.). I’m happy to see Apple about to implement it.

I recently installed the Safari 4 beta. In earlier versions of Safari, there was always an option to import bookmarks from IE or Firefox during the installation process. Not-so with the Safari 4 beta install.

Note: I purposely uninstalled Safari 3 before installing Safari 4. My hope was to get a fresh import of my most current Firefox bookmarks in the process. That didn’t work.

I use xmarks (formerly foxmarks)  to synchronize my bookmarks between computers. While there is an xmarks beta client for use on the Mac, so far there is none for the PC.

Here’s the easiest way I could find to import Firefox bookmarks into the Safari 4 beta:

In Firefox:

• Click on Bookmarks
• Click on ‘Organize Bookmarks’ (Ctrl-Shift-B)
• Click on ‘Export HTML…’ under the ‘Import and Backup’ pull-down menu

• Firefox will generate a ‘bookmarks.html’ file and ask you where to save it
• Save it to the Desktop

In Safari 4 Beta:

• If your menu bar is hidden, click on the ‘preferences cog’  on the top right and select ‘Show Menu Bar’
• Click File
• Click ‘Import Bookmarks…’
• Select the ‘bookmarks.html’ file from your Desktop
• The Firefox bookmarks will then import into Safari
• Click on the ‘Bookmarks’ icon on the top left of Safari to see the imported bookmarks. They will listed under the heading called ‘imported [date]’ where date is the date you imported them on. You can rename this as you see fit.

Bookmarks Toolbar Issue:

If, as I do, you access bookmarks and bookmark folders from your Firefox bookmark toolbar, the Safari 4 Beta’s bookmarks toolbar will not, unfortunately, be populated with the contents of your Firefox bookmark toolbar from this import process.

The Firefox bookmark toolbar is still imported, however. You’ll find it at the bottom of your imported bookmarks list under the heading ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’.

You can drag and drop each item in the ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ heading to Safari’s bookmark toolbar. This works for individual links as well as bookmark folders. Within minutes you’ll be able to reconstruct a working bookmark toolbar just as it appears in Firefox.

Bookmarks Will be Static:

Until xmarks comes out with a Safari 4 plugin for Windows, the imported bookmarks will, of course, be static. But, the process is simple. I’ll likely use this manual import process every few months to keep my bookmarks manually synced.

Desktop Client – Twhirl

I use Twhirl as my desktop twitter application. I looked at TweetDeck but it was overkill and it takes up too much screen real-estate. I tried the gorgeous blu (works only on Vista and Windows 7), but it does not have an adjustable font. The default font is too small for my aging eyes. Twhirl is surprisingly feature rich but it takes awhile to figure out all the intricacies. I’ve tried others, but keep coming back to Thwirl.

iPhone App – Tweetie

Tweetie is terrific. I had previously used Twitterific and Twinkle on the iPhone but Tweetie ($2.99) satisfies me the most. Tweets are presented in bubbles similar to the iPhone’s SMS bubbles. Thankfully, the font is adjustable. Functions and information are an easy swish away. Twitterific does have the advantage of supporting both Twitter and friendfeed.

See also: 29 Twitter Apps for the iPhone Compared (Mashable)

Blog Integration Widget – Twitter Widget

I use Twitter Widget to feed my tweets into the right sidebar of my blogs. Prior to April 2, 2009, I had used Twitter Widget Pro on The Daleisphere and Twitter for WordPress on DaleDietrich.com, my iMedia Law Blog and my Video Game Law Blog (I used two different tools because for some reason Twitter Widget Pro didn’t work on my other blogs after my move to media temple. Thanks to Dave Zatz for his suggestions and inspiration here.

URL Compression Tools

URL compression tools are used to compress URL’s before embedding them in Tweets. There are many to choose from. I rotate between several:

• The TinyURL.com bookmarklet (available here) generates compressed links to the page I’m viewing directly from my Firefox toolbar. One click on the bookmarklet and a TinyURL to that page is added to my PC’s clip board for easy pasting into Twhirl.  I probably use this the most.
• Bit.ly has a similar bookmarklet tool accessible from the Firefox toolbar, but using it requires an extra click. It has the advantages of: (i) generating a smaller link (every letter counts on Twitter); and (ii) you can use Bit.ly to track how many people click through the link if you are so inclined – I’ve never been so inclined.
• DiggBar: As of April 2, 2009, simply typing ‘Digg.com/’ in front of any URL in any browser and then press Enter generates a compressed URL that you can copy and paste into your Tweet (See: DiggBar Launches Today! or watch the video below).

Note:  Regrettably, this DiggBar approach won’t work on the Daleisphere or any of my sites because long ago I added some special sauce in my headers to prevent my sites from being embedded in an iframe. I did this because some jack@ss was embedding all my posts into an iframe on his site and passing my site off as his own. Because of that my sites are locked out of this cool new tech. Grrrrr! I may revisit my approach to iframe in the future.

• Twhirl has a built in URL compression tool that I find too clumsy to use often. I much prefer how blu compressed URLs on the fly.

Reference:

• Twitter Toolbox: 70+ Awesome Twitter Apps, Mash-Ups, Plugins and Services
• 29 Twitter Apps for the iPhone Compared

Note

The contents of this post had originally been contained in my ‘Twitter Tips for Beginners’ post. However, I change the Twitter apps, tools and widgets I use  so frequently that I decided that a regularly updated post dedicated to the topic would be more useful. As such, I intend to update this post from time to time as my Twitter tools change – and they will change!

I have been using Google Apps to host my personal and professional ‘@daledietrich.com’ email (pictured above) for about a year now. In this post I provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

While Google Apps’ Gmail is completely free, to use it you must register your own domain. If you haven’t yet, you can register a domain with a Domain Host (‘DH’). I use GoDaddy. As of the date I write this, GoDaddy charges $9.99 U.S. ($9.99 on sale) for a one year registration of  a DOT COM domain ($6.99 to transfer in an existing .com domain) and $10.69 for annual renewals.

Screenshots below were taken when I set up my ‘daleipshere.com’ domain to use Google Apps Gmail using GoDaddy.com as my DH.

Why Google Apps for Email?

A. Email Hosting for Any Domain – for Free: I used to pay $65 a year to have my @daledietrich.com email hosted by Elehost (a terrific ISP by the way). Now my @daledietrich.com, @daleisphere.com and @wishhh.com email is hosted on Google Apps for free!

B. Freedom from ISP Domains: Most personal email accounts use the ISPs domain – eg: yourname@comcast.com, yourname@rogers.com. This artificially locks users into a given ISP. If you wish to change your ISP you may be reluctant to do so because you’ll have to change your email address. If a move results in a change of ISP, you’ll have the additional hassle of changing your email address. But, when you set up a Google Apps Gmail account with your own custom domain, email accounts you set up for your family or business can be used forever – regardless of your ISP.

C. Best in Class Spam Filter – for Free: In the last year, only a half dozen or so spam emails have got past Google’s best-in-class free spam filter – with no false positives.

D. Up to 50 Users – for Free: The Standard Edition of Google Apps permits up to 50 users. Let’s say you used the domain ‘SmithFamily.com’. You could set up fifty email accounts such as Sam@SmithFamily.com & Sally@SmithFamily.com etc. for that domain. A small business could host customized emails for everyone – eg: Tom@PlumbingShop.com, Fred@PlumbingShop.com etc.  

E. 7 Gigs of Space per User – for Free: Each of your users is given 7 Gigs of space (same as Gmail). As has happened in the past, I expect the free per-user capacity to increase over time in-lock-step with regular Gmail accounts.

F. Mobile Sync – for Free: Google now uses Microsoft Exchange to sync Google Apps Gmail,  Contacts and Google Calendar to popular mobile devices such as a blackberry or an iPhone. (See: Google Turns on Exchange for iPhone and Windows Mobile Users.) [April 7, 2009 Update: Google App Gmail also works with the latest ‘faster, better Gmail for iPhone’ web-app.]

G. iMap Integration – for Free: Google’s IMAP for Gmail service allows you to sync email across any iMap compliant device. In my case, all the email I send and receive from any of my Outlook 2007 (desktop and laptop) accounts, my iPhone and the web – are all automatically synchronized, all the time. For example, if I send an email from my iPhone, that email appears in my ‘Sent Mail’ folders in Outlook (on both my PC and laptop) and on the web version of Google Apps – all accessible from any web browser, or any other iMap compliant device anywhere in the world. Free iMap support is what made me switch to Google Apps in the first place. I expect to write a separate post about this feature in the future. Here’s a demo on how to configure Outlook 2003 to interoperate with Google Apps Gmail via iMap.

H. Works Just Like a Gmail Account: If you use Gmail, you already know how to use email within Google Apps. As you  can see from the picture at the top of this post (click on it for a larger view), the environment is almost identical. There are subtle differences that the average users would never notice nor care about.

I. Works with any Pop3 or iMAP Email Client: In Step 9 below, I show you how to configure Google Apps Gmail for use with Outlook 2007. However, you can access Google Apps Gmail using any Pop3 or iMap compatible email client. Better yet, use the web-only Gmail client. The web-based Google App Gmail app is terrific. While I use Outlook 2007 as my primary way to access my Google App Gmail, I find myself using the web-interface more and more. And why not? Everything I do on the web is synced back with Outlook.

J. No Need for Corresponding Website: Let’s say you registered YourName.com. You can use Google Apps Gmail to host email accounts, such as me@YourName.com without ever having to set up a corresponding www.YourName.com website. If you so choose, you can also use Google Sites (which is part of the Google Apps suite) to host free websites on your domain. Google Sites is outside the scope of this post.

K. Beyond Email: Google Apps permits you, your family or your organization to do much more than just email – again, all for free. Google Apps features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Google Calendar (personal and shared calendars), Google Talk (instant messaging), Google Docs (documents and spreadsheets) and Google Sites (websites).  These are outside the scope of this post. Suffice it to say, once you’ve started with Google Apps Gmail, you’ll likely find some of the other apps compelling – I personally use its calendar, talk and docs apps frequently.

L. De-facto Email Backup: If you use Google Apps Gmail via the web or with iMap, instead of via POP3 as described below, your email is automatically backed up by by Google.

Before You Begin – Integration With Your Domain Host

This post assumes you already have secured a domain using a Domain Host (‘DH’). Below I describe the changes you’ll need to make to your DH’s configuration settings (including MX & CNAME Records) for Google Apps Gmail to work.  Virtually every DH allows users to modify these settings. Google maintains specific instructions on how to change MX records for about 50 different Domain Hosts (click on Section 3 in the link to find the instructions that apply to your DH). If you don’t know what these records are – don’t worry. They are just fields that need to be filled-in or edited on an online form. I give examples of how to do this on GoDaddy.com below. The process is similar with all other DH’s. It’s pretty easy.

If you have not yet secured a domain, I suggest using one of the 50 or so Domain Hosts listed in Section 3 of the link mentioned above  to make integration with Google Apps easier. 

I use GoDaddy in the examples below. Click on any image below for a larger view. Once you have secured your domain, you are ready.

[Note: The processes for adding/amending GoDaddy CNAME and MX records below assume Godaddy is your registrar and that you have not hosted a website on your domain elsewhere than with GoDaddy. If GoDaddy is your domain registrar, but you host your site elsewhere, you’ll need to edit your CNAME and MX records through your web-hosting ISP’s account settings dashboard.]

Let’s begin…
 

Step 1: Sign Up

To signup, click here. on the blue ‘Get Started’ button under the ‘Standard Edition’ heading on this Welcome to Google Apps page:

[July 7 2009 Update: The ‘Get Started” button depicted above is now gone from the main Google Apps page. A similar Get Started button appears on the Standard Edition description page. Or just Start here on the sign up page pictured below. For details on this change see: What the Hell Happened to the Free Version of Google Apps.]
 
Check of the ‘Administrator’ radio button, fill in your domain and click on the ‘Get Started’ button:

Fill in the account administrator and organization information fields as necessary and click the ‘Continue’ button (click image for larger view):

Fill in the administrator account info, click on the ‘I accept. Continue with set up’ button (if you accept):

Note: The administrator Username and Password you input here will be the default email username and password that you will use in Step7 below – once you get everything set up. Write it down somewhere.

You’ll next be taken to the Google Apps dashboard (pictured below). An email will also be sent to you explaining the next steps. The email will contain a link you can click on to get back to the Google Apps dashboard in the future  (click image for larger view):

IMPORTANT NOTE: The dashboard URL you’ll be taken too (and in the email) is a temporary Google Apps URL for your dashboard. If you close your browser during this process, you can get back to your dashboard through the email or by using the following temporary URL:

www.google.com/a/cpanel/<your domain>/Dashboard

where <your domain> is your particular domain – including the top-level-domain part (eg: .com) . For example, my temporary Daleisphere dashboard URL was:

www.google.com/a/cpanel/daleisphere.com/Dashboard

I strongly suggest you save the temporary URL as a bookmark until you are finished this tutorial. You’ll be going back to the dashboard several times in this tutorial.

Once you finish setting up and activating the email on your domain (as described below) you’ll be able to access your Google Apps’ Gmail and dashboard through an URL specific to your domain. For example, I access my Daleisphere email through this subdomain/alias: email.daleisphere.com.

I show you how to set up a permanent URL in Step 7 below. Until then you’ll use the temporary URL.

Step 2: Domain Ownership Verification Process

Next you’ll need to verify that you own your domain. Note the verification notice that appeared on the dashboard (pictured above):

Click on the ‘verify domain ownership’ link circled in green above. You’ll be taken to the verification page pictured below (click image for larger view):

There are two methods of verifying domain ownership. The first, ‘Upload an HTML file’ is the easiest but assumes you have a website setup on your domain. For the purpose of this post I’m assuming you do not have a website set up on your domain.

The second method requires you to ‘Change a CNAME record’ with your Domain Host. Select that option from the pull-down menu (circled in red above). Instructions for how to do this appear below the pull-down menu as shown in the image above. The 2nd bullet point in the instructions include a ‘Unique Key’ (see above). You’ll need to copy and paste that unique key into a temporary CNAME record on your domain. I explain how to do this in Step 3.

Note: Do not click the ‘Verify’ button yet (we’ll do that in Step 4). Keep this page open while completing Step 3. We’ll be coming back to it. Either open up a new browser instance or open a new tab in your browser to complete Step 3.

Step 3: Adding a Temporary Verification CNAME Record in your Domain:

The process of adding/editing CNAME records is slightly different from one Domain Host to another. Google has general ‘Creating CNAME records’ instructions here. Click on the ‘Specific Instructions for popular domain hosts’ section in that link to get instructions for more than a dozen domain hosts. For example: Here are the instructions for adding a CNAME record in GoDaddy.com.  If your domain host isn’t on the list, review the instructions for another domain host and do the best you can – there’s really not much to it.

Ultimately what you are doing here is:

• creating a new CNAME record (just a new entry in a database(;
• giving it the ‘Unique Key’ name identified ab0ve; and
• fling in the blank to ‘point it to’ google.com

Here’s how to do this in GoDaddy.com. Note: I’m following these instructions with a few more pictures:

1. Log in to your account at www.godaddy.com.
2. Click on the Domain Manager link (circled in yellow below):

    

3. Click the domain (eg: circled in red below) that you intend to use with Google Apps Gmail. If you just registered your first domain, there will be only one to choose from:
    
4. Click the Total DNS Control And MX Records link (circled in red below – click image for larger view):

    

5. Click the ‘Add New CNAME Record’ button: 

   

6. Paste the ‘Unique Key’ that Google Apps provided in Step 2 above  into the ‘Enter an Alias Name’ box below. Type ‘google.com’ in the ‘Point to Host Name:’ box below. Leave the default TTL field as it is. Click on the orange ‘OK’ button:

   
   You should see your temporary CNAME entry (circled in red) in the CNAME table that looks something like this: 

   
   Note the X circled in red on the right. When you finish the verification process we’ll come back here (at the end of Step 4) to click on that X to delete the temporary CNAME verification entry.

7. Wait until ‘Pending Setup’ Message Clears: It may take a few minutes for the CNAME to be processed. If this is the case you’ll see a ‘Pending Setup’ message under the ‘Actions’ column on the right (instead of the icons you see in the image above) while GoDaddy processes the temporary CNAME verification entry. Refresh this page every few minutes until the ‘Pending Setup’ message disappears and the checkboxes show up as depicted in the table above. Do not proceed until this is cleared. This typically took about 2 minutes to clear for me.

Step 4: Back to Google Apps for Verification

Click ‘Verify’ Button: Once you have added the temporary CNAME alias using the ‘Unique Key’ that Google Apps provided in Step 2, you can click the ‘Verify’ button on the Google Apps verification screen that we left open at the end of step 2 above.

You’ll be returned to the Google Apps dashboard and you’ll see the following notice (highlighted in school bus yellow below):

“We are checking domain ownership. This may take 48 hours to complete”.

I’ve done this 6 times now and it never took anywhere near 48 hours.In my experience this process takes from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Refresh the page every half hour or so until the notice goes away. Once the notice is gone, your domain has been verified and you can continue to Step 5.

Delete Temporary CNAME Alias: Once your domain has been verified you can go back to your GoDaddy CNAME table and delete the temporary verification CNAME entry by clicking on the x (circled in red in point 6 of Step 3 above) beside the temporary alias. Note: You don’t have to delete the temporary CNAME alias. It’s just a good practice to keep you records tidy.

Step 5: Activating Email – Configuring Your MX Records

Once verified, you’ll need to complete one more step to activate your email.   Notice the ‘Not Active’ notice circled in red beside the blue ‘Email’ link on your dashboard (pictured below). Click on the ‘Activate email’ link (circled in green below) to activate.

On the page that follows, you’ll find instructions on how to set up your Mail Exchange (‘MX’) records on your domain host. As you can see below, I selected the instructions for GoDaddy (click image for larger view):

You’ll need to follow the instructions that appear on that page – the GoDaddy instructions are shown in the image above and stepped through below. Adding/Editing MX Records is as easy as creating/editing a CNAME Alias – what you just did.

Note: Do not click on the ‘I have completed these steps’ button circled in red above until you have completed the applicable steps for your Domain Host.

By way of example, below is how to setup MX Records on GoDaddy.com. If you are not using GoDaddy, follow the instructions that apply to you and skip to Step 6 below.

Note: I’m following these instructions with a few more pictures:

1. Follow points 1 through 4 in Step 3 above.
2. If there are any entries in the MX records column delete them all first (by clicking on the ‘x’ box beside each existing entry (see picture below)).
3. You’ll be clicking on the ‘Add New MX Record’ tab (circled in red below) five times, filling in the rows so they look EXACTY like this when finished – it doesn’t matter whether you use upper or lower case (click image for larger view):
    

   NOTE: The exact number and content of MX records you’ll need to enter varies depending on your domain host. Be sure to find the exact records you’ll need to add from Section 3 on Google App’s Configuring MX Records page available here.

4. In GoDaddy, each time you click on the ‘Add New MX Record’ button you’ll fill in the contents of each row with this dialogue box:

   

5. You’ll get the ‘Pending Setup’ message again (just like after you created the temporary CNAME record) after you add each. These should clear up in a few minutes.

Step 6: Checking MX Records

After adding/editing your MX Records, click on the ‘I have completed these steps’ button circled in red on the Google Apps ‘set up email delivery’ page (shown in the image above). After clicking, you’ll be returned to the Google Apps dashboard where you’ll see this ‘Email’ – Updating’ message:

Once again, it won’t take 48 hours. If you followed the instructions in Step 5, this shouldn’t take more than a couple hours (and possibly only a few minutes). Refresh periodically (every 10 minutes or so) until you see the following ‘Email – Active’ indication on the Google Apps dashboard:

When you see the ‘Email – Active’ message your Google Apps’ Gmail account is set up and good to go. Congrats!

Step 7: Add Shortcut (subdomain) to Your Email on the Web

Your domain is set up, your email is activated, but how do you access the Google Apps Gmail screen on the web? As with the lengthy and easily forgettable temporary Google Apps dashboard URL discussed in Step 1 above, Google supplies an equally forgettable URL you and your users can use to get to your Google Apps Gmail inbox:

mail.google.com/a/<yourdomain> (depicted in green in step 7.1 below)

where ‘yourdomain’ is to be substituted with your domain name.

You can use that, and bypass this Step 7, if you wish. But I suggest setting up an URL that is easier to remember. That is the objective of this Step 7 . I suggest this form:

email.<yourdomain>

For example, I use email.daleisphere.com to access my info@daleisphere.com email through Google Apps.

To do this, you need to:

1. tell Google what alias you’ll be using;
2. create a permanent CNAME alias with your Domain Host, just like we did to create the temporary validation CNAME alias in Step 3 above; and
3. tell Google Apps that you completed the CNAME creation steps.

7.1. Telling Google Apps The Web Address You’ll be Using to Access Gmail:

From your Google Apps dashboard click on the blue Email link.  Before you do, notice the temporary email access link in green below the Email link .  We’re going to change that now.

After clicking on the blue Email link you’ll see this screen:

Click the red ‘Change URL’ link to bring up the following screen:

Click the second radio button option, type in the alias/subdomain you want to use and click the ’Continue’ button. Notice that I use the ‘email’ alias. You can choose any alias. If you do, modify the instructions below accordingly. I think ‘email’ makes logical sense.

The screen that appears next may provide instructions for your particular Domain Host. It knows your Domain Host at this stage (notice godaddy circled in green below) because you told it what your Domain Host was when up set up your MX Records above.

STOP!  DO NOT CLICK the ‘I’ve completed these steps’ button until you set up the CNAME described in section 7.2 below.

7.2 Creating Another CNAME Alias with Your Domain Host:

Once again, the process of adding/editing CNAME records is slightly different from one Domain Host to another. As before, click on the ‘Specific Instructions for popular domain hosts’ section here  to get instructions if Google Apps doesn’t give you instructions for your particular Domain Host on the ‘Changing CNAME record’ page above. In any event, the process is identical to the process you used to set up the temporary verification CNAME alias in Step 3 above.

I’ll be using the GoDaddy example once again:

• Follow items 1 through 5 in Step 3 above – which will result in your opening a new CNAME (Alias) dialogue box.
• This time the CNAME alias (ie: a subdomain) named ‘email’ will be added and we’ll be point it to: ghs.google.com by filling in the blanks as shown below (again leave the TTL field at its default):

• Click OK and wait for the ‘Pending Setup’ notice to disappear.

7.3 Tell Google Apps that you completed the CNAME creation steps

Now go back to Google Apps and click on the ‘I’ve completed these steps’ button shown in step 7.1 above.

7.4 Testing / Using your New Alias (Web Address) to Access Google Apps Gmail

Type:

‘http://email.<your domain>’ 

into any web browse and press ‘Enter’. ‘<your domain>’ is replaced, of course, with your particular domain (in my case I type in http://email.daliesphere.com). You’ll see a login screen like this:

Save that URL in your bookmarks. This URL is your (and your users) permanent entryway into your Google Apps Gmail and dashboard.

Type in the administrative username and password you entered in Step 1. and you’ll be presented with your Google Apps Gmail screen:

Take a look around. Enjoy.

7.5 Manage Your Domain

A ‘Manage this Domain’ link is circle in red above. Clicking on that link takes you to your Google Apps dashboard. If you wish you can setup another CNAME to take you directly to the dashboard. However, I haven’t bothered to do this personally (and don’t describe that process here) because the dashboard is always just one click away when I’m using Google Apps Gmail. You can also continue to use the ‘temporary’ URL discussed in Step 1 above to get to the Dashboard. But I never do. The ‘Manage this Domain’ link is all I need.

7.6 You’re Done?

If: (i) you are the sole user of your domain; (ii) you intend to use just the web-based Gmail front-end (shown above) to access your Google Apps Gmail account; and (iii) you do not want to have email from your old email account forwarded to your new account; this can be the end of the tutorial for you.

Keep reading, however, if you want to add additional email accounts/users to your domain, if you want to use Google Apps Gmail with Outlook 2007 via a POP3 account and/or to see you how to set Google Apps Gmail up to access email from your old email account as you transition away from it.

Step 8: Adding Users

If you are the only person using your domain, you can use the administrator email/user account you created in Step 1 above. Or, if you choose, you can add up to 50 users with 50 unique email addresses with the free Standard Edition of Google Apps.

Here’s how:

• click the ‘User and groups’ tab on the dashboard
• click the ‘Create a new user’ link
• enter the user’s first and last name along with a unique username
• record (copy and paste) the Google Apps generated temporary password somewhere – you’ll be providing this to the user in order for them to login later (they can change their password at any time)
• click the ‘Create new user‘ button
• notify the new user of their userid, password and how to access the email (ie: via the custom ‘http://email.<your domain>’  alias you tested in step 7.4 above)
• Repeat as needed

Step 9: Configuring Outlook 2007 for POP3 Access to Google Apps Gmail

In this section I describe how to configure Outlook 2007 to work with Google Apps Gmail.

If you use another email client Google provides this Supported POP client list page that provides instructions on how to configure other popular email clients.

Below I follow Google’s instructions for how to configure Outlook 2007 for use with Google Apps Gmail.

[Note: While I describe how to set up a POP3 connection here, if you intend to use/access your email from multiple devices, setting up an iMAP connection is a preferable connection method – See benefit ‘G’ at the top of this post.  In the future, I hope to write a follow-on post to this one describing how to do this.]

9.1 Configuring POP3 Settings on the Google Apps Gmail Page:

1. Click Settings at the top of any Google Apps Gmail page (circled in green below).
2. Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
3. In the ‘Pop ‘Download’ row:
   
   1. select Enable POP for all mail or Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on; and
   2. choose the action you’d like your Gmail to take after new emails are downloaded to your POP3 client (in my example Outlook 2007).  Unlike when I use iMAP, when I use POP3 accounts l do not want a copy left on the server so I chose the ‘delete The Daleisphere Blog Mail’s copy…’ option circled in red below

      (click image for larger view)

      

4. Click the ‘Save Changes’ button

9.2 Configuring the Outlook 2007 Client:

Remember: If not using Outlook 2007, you can get instructions for your email client through this Supported POP client list page.

Self-hosting using DynDNS.com was working out well until recently. However, there are several reasons why I moved to Media Temple’s Grid-Service:

Cost: Not including the original home-server cost (I had been using a $600 Dell desktop), it was cheaper to use DynDNS.com for my initial 3 or 4 domains. As I add new domains, the cost of DynDNS was about to become more expensive than Media Temple which allows me to host up to 100 domains for $200 a year.

Future Sites Planned: I have several websites planned for the future. I’m hoping one of those will take-off or get Dugg – where I’ll need the surge capacity that media temple can support.

Bandwidth Caps: As of August 2008 Rogers imposed a 95 Gig per month bandwidth cap. Unlike in the U.S. where a typical user accounts have 200+ Gig caps, the 95 Gig Rogers cap was attached to their highest price consumer account. I have bumped up against and surpassed that cap over the last few months (Rogers charges $2.95 per Gig above the cap). Note: Bell’s highest end consumer account cap is 100 Gigs.

Email Support Issues: I couldn’t use/add any email related functions to my sites. For example, I couldn’t set up wishhh.com to send email activation notices to newly registered users. Nor could I set up WordPress to automatically email database backups to me. Rogers blocks all automated email functionality originating from home-office servers. No self-respecting website can work with this limitation.

Management Hassles: I recently upgraded my Apache server. I was considering upgrading to MySQL 5. I had previously upgraded my PHP installation. Each of these take a lot of time. I’m now ready to pay someone else to manage those hassles.

Backups: While I had a comprehensive backup system for my sites, manual intervention was required from time to time. Rather than manage my own backups (and storage), once again, I decided to let the professionals manage the backups for me.

Possible Move: I have been contemplating a move – possibly back to the U.S.. I didn’t want my websites to be down during the period of the move. A move to the U.S. could have resulted in my sites being down for weeks.

My three years of self-hosting was a wonderful learning experience. But it was time to move on.

Downside

There is one downside to the change. It was really nice having the server so close. It was easy to update file on my home network. Now I must use FTP (I’m using Filezilla) every time I wish to manage my files. It’s slower and a bit of a pain.

[Update: As of April 18, 2009, the Facebook Connect glitch under Disqus discussed in this post appears to be remedied. As you can see, I have re-activated the Facebook Connect option on The Daleisphere.

I also note that commenters using Facebook connect have the option (when leaving a comment) to allow that comment to be posted back to their Facebook feed.

Finally, I have updated my ‘Why and How to Integrate Facebook Connect with Disqus’ post to reflect recent Disqus/Facebook implementation changes.]

————–

Disqus is in the process of enhancing their Facebook Connect feature. However, for the last day or so, with the feature enabled, only logged-in Disqus users were able to leave comments on The Daleisphere and on my iMedia Law blog. Neither Facebook users, nor regular commenters could leave comments here.

I recently updated sections 4.6 and 4.8 of my ‘Why and How to Integrate Facebook Connect with Disqus’ post describing the changes that Disqus recently instructed me to make on the applicable Facebook developer pages to facilitate the latest enhancements.  Clearly, they are not working.

For more information on the problem, I wrote a detailed description of Facebook Connect / Disqus problem here in the Disqus forums.

So, as of March 18, 2009, I have shut off Disqus’ Facebook Connect functionality on my Daleisphere and iMedia Law blogs. 

I will update this post when this problem is resolved.