If you have installed Windows 7, or are thinking about it, this cheetsheet should come in handy. Microsoft developer brandon has posted a list of the new hotkey shortcuts for Windows 7:

Windows 7 Beta hotkey cheat sheet

How to extend the signal of a wireless router is a frequently asked question. So here are a few helpful videos from Youtube that show you how to create a homemade WiFi extender, and also how to make a ‘Pringles Cantenna’.

More info and antenna templates can be found here.

Microsoft’s SyncToy is a great, free, way to backup folders on your PC. Synctoy enables you to perform various types of backups - copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

Once you have installed and launched SyncToy you’ll be presented with the main window (image below). The first thing you need to do is to create a new folder pair. A folder pair means the two folders between which you will move data that you wish to duplicate. You then need to choose the action that you wish to perform on the newly created folder pair. The actions are as follows:

Synchronize: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes on either side are repeated on the other.

Echo: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.

Subscribe: Updated files on the right are copied to the left if the file name already exists on the left.

Contribute: New and updated files are coped left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. No deletions.

Combine: New and updated files are copied both ways. Nothing happens to renamed and deleted files.

The ideal actions for backing up data are either Echo or Contribute. The only difference being that Echo will delete files from your backup, and contribute will only ever modify and add new files, but never delete them from your backup.

After you have set up you folder pair and chosen you backup action you can then run the backup by clicking ‘Run’.

For more information refer to Microsoft’s SyncToy page.

Welcome to the first of a series of quick tips covering the software you need to backup the data on your PC or Mac. As our computers are ever increasingly used for tasks such as taxes, business and storing other irreplaceable files such as photos and videos it also becomes important that we back that data up. In the event that your hard drive crashes or becomes corrupted you’ll have dupicates of all of your important data.

In this quick tip we look at iBackup, a free and easy to use tool to backup data on your Mac, available here.

After installing and launching iBackup you’ll see the main window (image below). The first step is to choose the location of your backup. If you have an external hard drive select it here, or if you wish to backup to your local drive and later burn the backup folder to a CD or DVD then choose a local folder. Then choose the files that you wish to backup by selecting them on the left side of the main window. Lastly, click the backup button the start the backup process. It’s as easy as that, although, iBackup has many features and plugins to explore. For a full guide read the full documentation available here.

Here are a few quick and easy things that you can do to keep your system running smoothy.

• Run Anti-Virus software and keep it up to date. New virus are being discovered every single day so it’s important to ensure your antivirus software is kept up to date. We have links to numerous free Anti-Virus programs in our Anti-Virus downloads section, AVG being the current favorite.
• There are three programs that should be used on a regular basis to combat Spyware and Malware infections. They are Adaware, Spybot and Microsoft’s Defender, which are available from our Anti-Spyware downloads section.
• Defrag your Hard Drives periodically to ensure files are laid out on the disk efficiently. Information on how to do this in Windows XP is available here.
• Remove any unwanted files and software from your system. CCleaner and Add/Remove Pro are great ways to achieve this and are both available for download here.

If you find that the icons on your Windows Vista Desktop or in Windows Explorer are too small, or you’d just like to show off to your friends, they can now be easily resized.

While in a folder or the Desktop, hold down the control key and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to enlarge or shrink the icons. You can now enjoy the colorful new Vista icons even more.