To utilize and economize an office workstation you can use NComputing Products.  NComputing provides good quality office stations.  All you need is buy 1 computer and the rest can connect to the PC as if they are using one.  If you are tired of using pirated Microsoft Operating System because you want to save money then this is your chance to save money by buying only one Licensed Microsoft Operating System.  Below is how Ncomputing products work.

So how does things work out?  First you need a good Computer which will serve as the server.  If you are planning to have a lot of users then that means you need one powerful computer.  Choose any Ncomputing products and and download the NComputing vSpace Desktop Virtualization Software.  Connect the needed peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse, monitor and the network cable which is connected to your network.  Create users on the server, by then users can connect to the server and use all software installed in the server.

In my own experience using Ncomputing will really costs you lesser compared to having multiple computers yet  the same usage.    You only spend less with the hardware and electricity bill is also lesser compared to having a CPU of its own.  This is also a good use at home especially when you have kids who love surfing the net because the NComputing vSpace Desktop Virtualization Software allows you to view and control every station and without any network problem because like having a CPU of its own you can also assing an  IP Address to both dynamic and static.  You can also securely set the policies on the software giving limitations to the users.

There are also several drawbacks for this product.  One is it has a video card of its own wherein the server’s Video enhancement is not carried to the ncomputing office station.  One problem for this also is the adapter to power the ncomputing office station has a smaller lifespan (a good power supply can extend its lifespan).  Besides the drawbacks having this product is still worth buying.

You just bought a shiny laptop for office and home you use or on business trips and vacation or go to down town and drop by on a wifi zone.  Then that would be a very big productivity you have there.  But how would you take good care of the only thing that is so handy and so useful for you.  Do you think cleaning it is good enough to make safe? If you are thinking this way then you better learn some tips on how to take good care of your lappie, it’s not that easy to have one Optimizing your laptop would be the main thing here.

First thing to learn is how to extend the battery Life of your Laptop. If you are out in the road and have no outlet on sight, how would you extend the life of your battery?

1.        Dim the display.  The screen mostly draws the most power of the laptop battery.  So set the lowest setting to preserve the battery’s life.

2.       Exit or Close unnecessary process.  If you have a lot of process going on your laptop without any use, I suggest you should close it.  If you have DVD’s or CD’s on you DVD ROM you should eject the CD so that it will not keep on spinning and keep on consuming you laptops battery.  If the Anti-virus is kept on scanning your laptop, you should stop it.  There are other times to scan you laptop when you have the cable plugged in.

3.       Enable Power-saver profile.  For windows XP users, on your control panel you have the power options where you can set your computer’s resources sparingly as possible to save more power to your laptop’s battery.

4.       Re-calibrate battery’s gauge.  You should re-calibrate the battery gauge of your laptop in such a way that you should set a battery life for your laptop to shutdown or set it in a time that the battery is near discharge, in this way your laptop will not cut off the operation permanently because it thinks that the battery is depleted and needs to be recharged.

Second thing to learn is save your keyboard and screen. If you are out in the wifi zone and other places or even at home, there is a high possibility that you eat in front of your laptop (even I am doing it) and kids keep on playing that might damage the screen or keyboard.  Well we can solve the problem by putting some keyboard and screen protection.  In this way it will prevent foods and other debris from entering under the keyboard and scratches on the screen.  You can grab some of these at www.iskin.com, it’s a dual purpose a design and at the same time it’s a protection on your laptop.

So far we have we done quite enough on optimizing your laptop but there still are more ways to keep it from damages.  The third thing is keeping it cool; this is one thing that you should be concerned of because this is a problem that you should not have.  After using your laptop for hours it should be getting hotter, if you feel it then you should not put the laptop somewhere in your body such as your lap.  This can cause you a burn on the skin, the longer we use our laptops the more it gets hot.  There are preventive measures though and some of this is by using a lap desk or a laptop sleeve.  This will prevent the heat transfer when you have contact with the laptop.

Heat is also one of the most common causes of hardware failure.  The chips inside has certain working temperature if heat is too much it will malfunction.  But if your processor has the sensor and will automatically shut down when it reaches such temperature then it’s a big advantage for you.  But for me I keep my laptop cool because it’s usually on for more than 16 hours.  How do I keep it cool? Well I just bought a laptop cooler and a fan that would help the laptop from cooling down and it worked a lot for me.  Be careful and be aware of how your laptop gets so hot in time.

The fourth thing to learn is to be ready always to work offline, wifi zones are not always there to server us at times the wireless network can be down. So you should always be prepared on working offline like downloading your emails locally and by then you can read your mails offline.  How do you do this?  By using Mail User Agent (MUA), this allows you to download your mails on your computer and by then you can read your mails offline.  One good example of a mail user agent is the free software Thunderbird.  It does not only allow you to manage one SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) Server but it allows you to switch from one server to the other and send mails easily.  If you need to use secure SMTP? It’s no problem at all.  You can setup multiple SMTP servers and associate them with different email accounts.

The fifth thing to be concerned of is the security of your data.  If you are always on free wifi zones you always secure your data.  Make sure you have a firewall turned on and turn off folder sharing to keep others from peeking in your data.  Make sure also that the passwords on your laptop is strong and change it regularly.  This one great thing in optimizing your laptop, you can never be sure of the people connected on the network.

Sixth thing to be aware of is carry your laptop with care. Investing a bag made for laptops is the greatest thing to do.  In this way it will be kept safe form bumping on hard objects especially on walls or from people you meet along the subway.  Wrapping it with a shirt is not enough to keep it from getting shaken and bumped from hard objects.  This is one problem I had before when I was using an ordinary bag to bring my laptop anywhere.  I always have this white screen every now and then and it keeps bothering me every time I watch a movie.  I found out that the LCD was damaged and by that time I bought a new bag and get my LCD repaired (it’s very expensive).

Backing up is also one of the important things to do because portable computers deal mostly with wear and tear than desktops, which can cause a failure on the hard drive.  Make sure to backup your date regularly.  Laptops also are more prone to viruses especially when you are using Windows as your Operating System.  So that are some of the tips I can share you with regarding handling and optimizing your laptops.

On the image you can set whatever programs you want to start when you turn on your computers.  On my Laptop whats running after turning on is the SynTPStart this is for my touch Pad Driver, I also have Rainlendar runnig on my computer and this is the best calendar for XP so far I have used.  cftmon is a windows application that is on startup, GoogleToolbarNotifier this is a notifier that whenever the default toolbar is not google it gives me a prompt if whether I still want google to be my main toolbar.  and the lasting is I have btdna running on my system this is a bittorent application used when I download movies, music and other big files downloaded in one time.

And also virus are also ran after logging in so that is why most virus disables the MSCONFIG command on the computer.  If not disabled and you can see applications ran on startup you can always uncheck the button and if you think the applications ran are not important you can uncheck them all.  If you want a twaek to improve the booting of your computer, Go to Start Menu and Click Run, Type in “Regedit” then click ok.  Find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction” and on the right Select “Enable”.  right click on the item and select modify, Change the value to “Y”.  Then restart your computer and this should do the trick.

File types are like embedded signatures, telling the operating system that this type of file can be opened by this  software or program and also to  associate with it properly.  A  file extension is one or several letters at the end of a filename. Usually three or four letters,  Filename extensions usually follow a period (dot) and indicate the type of information stored in the file.  One good example is “Warcraft III.exe” the .exe file extension this means that Warcraft III is an executable program file.  “.exe” file extensions are sometimes dangerous to open especially when you don’t know the file.  If you have files such as “.exe”, better not open it because some of this types are viruses and this can surely ruin your entire operating system especially for Microsoft Windows.

To show hide your file extension for windows is just go and open My Computer then click Tools menu and click Folder Options and click the View tab.  You should have the same as the image below:

If you want to show file extensions then you can always check the box and click apply.  Conversely, you can uncheck it if you dont want to see the file extension.

One disadvantage of this for most users is that when you rename the file and the extension is remoced the file will no longer work.  One example is that when you have a “example.doc” which is a MS Word File  and rename it to “myproject” the file will not work unless you write the file extension.  Renaming it back to “myproject.doc” will rename the file and will work on .doc editing software.

File Extension WPS or files that has a “.wps” is not a virus(except if there is something embedded with it) but rather it is a text document created with Microsoft Works Word Processor, like other Microsoft’s word processor like that of Microsoft Word with “.doc” file extension. The difference is that .doc files does not include advanced formatting options and macros that a Word document may contain but it can be opened by the Microsoft Publisher Software. The .wps file extension is an all-in-one program combining several office applications. Spreadsheet/Database documents and Word Processors  ran in the same window by some combined interface, making it very effective especially on older versions of computers it uses less disk space and a smaller amount of memory.

Office programs of all kinds have a multitude of complicated functions.  And because of these complications macros are embedded within the program to execute these functions by just one click of the mouse.  Macros are embedded set of instructions within the program, but one big disadvantage is that these are being used to produce and spread viruses on the web(One good example of these harmful viruses is the infamous “Melissa” virus).  Since these viruses are embedded into the documents and templates themselves, there’s no outward way to detect them in a .wps or other office-type file.  Before receiving any File Extension WPS you must always make sure the the source of the file can be trusted.

In order to view the kind of file type you need Microsoft Works Suite or a converter to open or edit this file format. Microsoft Office Word can also open some versions of these Work document text files.