HWiNFO32 is a freeware hardware information and diagnostic tool. The information it provides goes far beyond the built-in Windows tools. To get an idea of how detailed the information is, please have a look at the screenshot, which displays data about the CPU. The Windows Device Manager basically only tells you the brand name, whereas HWiNFO32 has information about more than 100 different CPU parameters. Such detailed information can be useful if you have to fight with device driver problems, because you can use it to search on the Internet. These details are also helpful if you are planning to buy new computers and have to compare different PC models.

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Compatibility has been Vista’s weakest point since its release. Hardware compatibility was even more problematic than software compatibility, because Microsoft mostly depends on third-parties here. The fact that they have changed the driver model will pay off in the long run, but if you have to decide now whether to deploy Vista or not, this doesn’t help much if you can’t find device drivers. Kennedy boiled it down into two sentences:

When’s the last time you worried about driver support under Windows XP? With an installed base into the hundreds of millions, chances are you’ll still be finding XP drivers long after Vista’s grandchildren are being put out to pasture.

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Do you have users in your organizations who never logon to the corporate network with their laptops? In such cases, you have to make sure that they backup their laptops at home. I tried one solution with my own laptop and I am quite content with it. I connected the external hard drive Seagate Freeagent Pro via eSATA to my laptop. As backup software for my files, I used Autobackup which comes with Freegent Pro. To backup the whole computer, I used Windows Vista’s Backup and Restore Center.

Freeagent is available in three sizes: 320GB, 500GB and 750GB. I opted for the biggest drive because I like to keep old backups as long as possible. Amazon offers it for less than $200. You can connect the drive through USB or eSATA. For the latter you need an eSATA card adapter. I think, it is worth the extra 30 bucks because it is much faster. USB 2.0 supports up to 480 Mbps and eSATA 3 Gbps. You won’t always reach this speed, though, because there are bottlenecks like drive speed or the performance of your laptop.

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Josh from the InfiniteAdmin blog has an interesting post about solid state disk (SSD) encryption. He raised doubts that drive encryption tools such as TrueCrypt are secure enough if applied to SSDs. Like memory sticks SSDs are flash drives that usually work with NAND technology. Therefore, these concerns also apply to USB sticks.

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Even though USB memory sticks are quite reliable, there still is the risk of losing it, or even worse, that somebody might steal it from you. The data, you store on your memory stick is probably vital to you; otherwise you wouldn’t bring it with you always. Hence, it is important to backup your memory stick regularly and make sure that nobody is able to access the data on it, if it gets into the wrong hands. It is certainly no solution to just copy all files manually every now and then. It is the first law of any backup strategy: Never backup manually! The reason is obvious. It is easily forgotten, and the probability is high that if you ever need the backup its data is outdated.

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There has been much media buzz about the miracles that hybrid hard drives (HHDs) and Vista ReadyDrive performance with regard to power savings. It has been alleged that the power consumption would be cut by 70%-90%. However, a test in the German print magazine C’t (21/07, p.114-117) showed that the power savings are negligible. Only a laptop with a solid state drive (SDD) showed significant power savings.

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The German print magazine C’t (21/07/106-113) tested the performance of Vista’s ReadyBoost. The results are quite disappointing. In most cases, performance wasn’t improved, and under certain conditions it even slowed down the test computer.

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How long is the service life of a USB flash stick? Many store important data on USB sticks, but have no idea how reliable it is. And even fewer people know that there are variations between different types of NAND flash memory sticks according to their lifespan. There are two different kind of NAND flash memory: SLC Single Layer Cell (SLC) and Multi Layer Cell (MLC). They not only vary with respect to their useful life, but also support different read and write speeds.

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I think, the idea behind ioDrive is this: Use your computer like a TV. That is, forget about boot time, launch channels (applications) without any delay and don’t worry about data loss if someone pulls the power plug. Sounds like Science Fiction? If you believe in the announcement of the Utah-based start-up company, Fusion-io, this could already come true at the beginning of next year.

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I just read in the German print magazine IT Administrator (08/2007, p. 12-13) that Vista heats-up hard disks more than XP does. Hard disks in idle mode have a five to seven degree Celsius higher temperature and hard disks in operation are seven to nine degrees warmer than under XP. The hard disk’s temperature can get ten degrees higher than the vendors’ specifications allow. This could cause hard disk failures eight times more frequent than with XP.

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The Genius Slimstar 310 helps you to lock out malware of your keyboard: it comes with bacteria protection. It is also recommended, if you feel like pouring coffee over your keyboard every now and then since it is waterproof.

The major problem with any password-saving software is that passwords have to be loaded into the computer’s memory when you want to access them. This is a security risk. Passwordsaver (PWS) is a USB stick that solves this problem. It doesn’t show the passwords on the computer screen, but on its own tiny display.

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Did you ever forget your USB stick at work, and then realized at home that you badly needed some files on it? If so, then this free tool is for you. pcwUnstick is a Visual Basic script from PC WELT, a German computer magazine. The script opens a pop up window whenever you shut down your PC if a USB-stick is still plugged-in. It works with Firewire hard disks too.

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