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I am a huge fan of having my own domain. Admittedly the web site associated with the domain is pretty minimal, but the real service is on the email side to control spam.

I also separate the domain’s Registar, host and my ISP. If any one of these gives me grief, I can fairly quickly swap my services to another provider with little or no impact to my web site or email arrangements.

By having my own domain, I have a primary mailbox reserved for my most trusted connections. This mailbox is auto-forwarded to my primary mailbox with my ISP.

All other mail addresses, with an exception described below, flow into one catch-all mailbox at my domain, and are in turn auto-forwarded to a second mailbox at my ISP. No mail gets left on my domain host’s servers – which is why I can quickly switch to another domain hosting service.

The exception to the catch-all account are specific mailboxes that are being abused. If I made up a new address on the fly for mail order company XYZ, like XYZ@mydomain.com, and I subsequently find that XYZ was actually a dozen affiliated mail order purveyors of stuff and the XYZ address was shared against my wishes, I can simply direct my hosting service’s email handler to re-direct all mail to that address to trash rather than forward with the rest of the catch-all mail.

Finally, I use Outlook (the real deal, not web-based). I build rules to interpret the mail I get from those two ISP mailboxes to separate and process messages to my liking. For example, I don’t dump everything into the inbox. There was a reason my primary mail goes to a separate mailbox, and I keep those streams separate in Outlook too so I can read the ‘important’ messages first.

Alternate option for Wi-Fi over cellular for occasional use-

As Michael Lasky points out, the AT&T Velocity is an expensive option for only occasional use. I have created an account with Skyroam and purchased their 3G Mate cellular to Wi-Fi adapter. Skyroam charges US $10/day for unlimited 3G data – by unlimited, Skyroam warns in some locations the rate will throttle to 2G after 2GB. Other than using the account approximately every six months, you pay only for the days you use – – and Skyroam works across a large portion of the world for the same $10/day.

The 3G Mate has a virtual SIM that allows Skyroam to connect through multiple cellular providers – transparent to the user. In the U.S. both AT&T and Verizon networks are available. The 3G Mate chooses whichever is strongest in your current location.

The 3G Mate costs roughly US $100 and comes with five days of use. You will use one of those days right away setting up your account. You can purchase use one day at a time through the 3G Mate and a browser equipped device with a credit card, or purchase multiple days and use them when you want.

While the 3G Mate will support up to 5 devices simultaneously, you do have to have a phone with Wi-Fi, browser and SMS (text) capabilities to activate the account. The Skyroam literature doesn’t make that very clear. I also suggest you activate the account and establish connections with each of your devices before you travel.

In summary, if you are a regular cellular to Wi-Fi user within the same carrier, an account with that carrier might be less expensive. But if you are an occasional cellular to Wi-Fi user, especially one who travels to various international locations, a Skyroam account is the least expensive option I have found.

I ran into an interesting problem with File History and a virtual hard drive – maybe somebody can make a suggestion?
I purchased a Windows 8.1 tablet with only 16GB of memory – which in reality turned out to be about 10GB because removing the recovery partition turned the tablet into a paperweight. After doing some research, the solution was a 64GB micro-SD card with an auto-mounting virtual hard drive filling the card. (more on that)

The problem I am having with File History is it will not accept a VHD as a place to store files. My current work around is a network attached drive. Go figure. Is there perhaps a Registry hack to permit the use of the VHD? The VHD travels with the tablet, the network drive is only accessible on my LAN.

Why a VHD? Because I needed to move as much of the storage as possible from the paltry internal RAM chips to the SD card. An SD card is seen as removable storage and there are a lot of things Windows 8.1 won’t put on a removable storage device. On the other hand, Windows will happily put such things on a VHD. I was able to change the default location for installing programs, set up the Recycle Bin on the VHD and move most of my User folder to the VHD – the one exception was AppDataLocal (no problem with Local Low and Roaming). The Local folder has files that cannot be moved while Windows is running and are hard to access when Windows isn’t running, plus there are files with names longer than 256 characters.

I didn’t expect to do high-end stuff on an 8 inch Win8.1 tablet, but I can do most of the stuff I might want to do on the go, including reading eBooks, working with Office files, Outlook and Lync (the hub of my employers’ live communications). If the hotel or client site has a HDMI input display, I can switch from touch to a compact Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and have a low-end PC.

It is far from perfect (back to that File History issue), but it is a cheap, highly portable alternative to hauling around a full PC.

Or how about good old fashioned syncing between your phone and desktop? That’s still my most wanted inclusion.

To Tony Bradley-
A close correlation is I wish Outlook (2010 & earlier, didn’t like 2013 and decided to forego) would treat IMAP accounts like POP accounts and allow you to put everything in ONE .pst file. I can also easily put the POP file wherever I want on my system to better manage drive space and backups, but IMAP accounts are not easily moved.

Having said that- I don’t use a folder view. Rather I create shortcuts which I can name whatever I like (that is, something other than “Inbox”), and I use Rules to move messages upon receipt where I want them – within the .pst file where they are received (again, IMAP, Grrrr…).

To Cliveo-
I don’t like to store my messages in the cloud. I see way too many instances where “friends'” free accounts are hacked and MY email address mined by spammers. I like to keep my messages stored locally (yet another reason I don’t like IMAP). The last really good option in my opinion for synchronizing my non-message Outlook items between devices was Palm’s USB based Hotsync (R.I.P.) It was FAST and it was reliable and accurate. These days I use DejaOffice on my Android phone with CompanionLink Sync on my Windows PC. It is in my opinion a clunky alternative to Hotsyn, but I haven’t found anything better that doesn’t involve going through a cloud based service.

About those really cheap 8 inch Windows 8.1 tablets….
They not only come with precious little internal storage (16gb or 32gb is typical), but about 4gb of that space is used for a Recovery partition. On a 16gb tablet you only have about 2-3gb for your programs and data. In the ‘real computer’ world, we create an external recovery media, wipe that internal Recovery partition and expand the C: partition for a bit more breathing space. On these minuscule tablets, you will typically create your recovery media on a USB flash drive connected through an OTG/USB adapter.
At least on the E-Fun tablet sold by Walmart during the 2014 holiday season (and I suspect most or all these tablets) DON’T DELETE THE RECOVERY PARTITION!
The tablet either checks or uses this partition during boot, and if missing Windows stops dead and demands your recovery media – only no drivers have been loaded to detect your USB attached media. And there is no conceivable way to get past this screen. It tells you you can enter safe mode by pressing the Windows key – only there is no keyboard and neither the USB nor Bluetooth device drivers have loaded. In other words, you are now holding a useless hunk of electrontics.

My issue with Outlook.com is how often I can access the mail server. I decided against using Outlook.com as my primary email source due to a poorly publicized policy of blocking access to the server more than once every 10-20 minutes. If this has changed, I would happily reconsider.

I am and intend to continue being a desktop client user – currently Outlook 2010. I have one of those grandfathered hotmail accounts that I can freely access via a POP connection. However, my practice has been to have email come to my personal domain and immediately forward it to accounts (carefully guarded personal plus a catch-all) at my ISP where I would access them via POP. Personally I despise IMAP and would rather clear my messages off the remote server as soon as possible.

When Yahoo (AT&T) started having issues with the reliability of their servers and POP access, I tried using Outlook.com. The timing restrictions quickly drove me to another direction. And as I have left AT&T as an over priced, under performing ISP, I wasn’t going back to Yahoo. I am using my domain’s POP services at this point – and I’d like to give Outlook.com another crack, but not with the timing restrictions for POP access.

Hi Fred-
I mostly agree with your statements about wasting time troubleshooting browsers. I too run dual browsers. But keep in mind, that some sites still use controls requiring a specific browser – and more often than not, this is IE. In the case of IE 11 issues, there is one simple thing I will often do – open Developer Mode (either via or the Tools menu). I will shift the browser and the document mode to emulate an earlier version of IE …. if I am in a rush, I drop to version 8 (XP), and if I am in less of a rush, I will try versions 10 and 9.

It never ceases to amaze me how often IE problems disappear. It typically means the site owner has not updated the site’s code and the site assumes when it sees a Microsoft browser, that obsolete structures are still fully supported. For safety’s sake, I will emulate an older version of IE only if I am confident the site is legit.

I have found that Companion Link is very efficient. … It is as good as palm sync used to be.

I use Companion Link and of course DejaOffice …. I wouldn’t go so far as to claim it is as good as PalmOS’s Hotsync, but it is the best currently available where you are not required to put your locally stored Outlook information in the cloud where folks like Google can mine it as they please. In my opinion, Palm’s core application also did a better job of efficiently making my Outlook information available to me on the go. PalmOS R.I.P.

IMAP accounts don’t use the general purpose inbox account (.pst file) in Outlook 2010; each IMAP account has its own separate .pst file. Go to your folder list and scroll down until you find the IMAP account. Open this account and look for the sent folder. If you use Gmail for your IMAP account, you will find the sent folder in /[Gmail]/Sent Mail. Other IMAP mail servers may use a different folder structure.

I set up Shortcuts in my Outlook 2010 and include the folders most important to me from each of my several active .pst files. You can also rename shortcuts without disturbing the underlying folder name – so, for example, you don’t have 3 shortcuts all named ‘inbox’.

Hi Fred,
One other communication option not mentioned is eSATA. Many notebooks support this option vai a combined USB/eSATA port, and it only costs about $10 to add it to most desktop systems – it is just a connection to a spare SATA port on the motherboard to a back plate. eSATA (external SATA) requires no additional electronics, just a different cable. As such, transfer speeds should be equivalent to your second internal drive option.

Odds are good that an eSATA backup option will cost a lot less than a USB 3.0 option for backup.

A different kind of file/folder copy problem: creating zip files using Win7’s native tools.
I have an administrator account, UAC is on but set to not dim the screen.
If I right-click on the desktop I can create a zip file. I can open the empty file at this point.
If I then drag several files from the desktop into this new zip file, either by dragging to the Explorer window, or dragging to the zip file icon, I am greeted with the error, “Unable to complete the operation. Access is denied.”
Once I have attempted to add files to the zip file, if I try to open the zip file, I am greeted with the error, “Windows cannot open the folder. Access to the Compressed (zipped) Folder is denied.”
If I try to delete the folder at this point, I get, “You need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder [Continue/Skip/Cancel]”. ‘Continue’ just results in [Try Again/Cancel].
Now I do know about file ownership. In fact I even set up a right-click option to just run the necessary commands. If I do this, I can either open the container, or delete it. If I open the container, I will find only the first file of the several I attempted to copy. If I try to copy the remaining rejected files, I will repeat the entire cycle – locked out, grab ownership, find only the next single file in the folder.

Without problem, I can OPEN any zip file that I did not create using the native Win7 tool. That includes zip files created outside my PC, or zip files I created using a different utility (7-Zip in my case) on my PC. It is a minor issue in that I have work-arounds, but I am the type that is driven nuts when something isn’t working properly.

I suspect a bad Registry entry either in my account or THE Administrator account (only accounts on this PC, other than Public, Default User). However, both CCleaner and my eyeballs have failed to recognize any applicable entry. System File Checker didn’t spot an issue either. Do you have any further ideas?

Hey Fred, Here is a tip on an alternate use for the Task Scheduler in Vista, 7 and 8…

There are a number of applications that will run fine on Windows XP or newer, however on Vista or newer, they will not autorun at boot time due to UAC issues. Task Scheduler can usually solve this issue.

1- Find the path to the executable (if you have added something to the Startup menu folder that isn’t working, just check the shortcut’s properties before removing it).
2- Hit your Windows key and type ‘Schedule Task’ to launch the Task Scheduler. Respond to UAC prompts as needed to gain access.
3- Create a new Basic Task.
4- Add a task name and description. Next.
5- The Task Trigger will be ‘When I log on’. Next.
6- Action will be ‘Start a program’. Next.
7- Paste, Browse or key in the command line to start the program. Next.
8- Check ‘Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish’. Finish.
9- On the General Tab, check ‘Run with highest privileges’. Okay.

The program is typically failing because the OS isn’t displaying the UAC prompt for autorun programs. This trick will be equivalent to clicking on the the UAC prompt to allow the application to run with administrator privileges.

Second tip- if you want to autorun a program, but don’t need it to start immediately, you can speed your boot process by using Task Scheduler to delay the startup for a couple minutes after the user has logged in.

Are any power supplies within three feet of an adapter? If so, you should know that the specification for radio interference for such supplies is such that they not interfere with other devices that are more than three feet away.

I recently moved an IP camera. I prefer to use homeplug rather than Wi-Fi simply because all my neighbors now have Wi-Fi and there is at least some interference on every available channel. The camera refused to communicate with the rest of the network. ALL I did was use a short extension cord to move the camera’s AC adapter further away from the the homeplug adapter. BINGO! Communication was restored and the camera has been working 24X7 for several months.

I am a big fan of Windows 7, however I am a luddite in one regard – I still prefer a well organized Windows 2000 Start Menu. If you are like me, you can still put “Recent Places” in your Start Menu. Open Explorer, right-click “Recent Places” in the left-hand folder tree and select “Copy”; find a clear spot on your Desktop, right-click and select “Paste Shortcut”.
Now while Explorer is still open, go to C:%UserProfile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart Menu … this will open the folder holding the Start Menu shortcuts that only show up in your user account.
Move the recently created “Recent Places” shortcut from your Desktop to any place in the folder structure you want this shortcut to appear.

Microsoft provided XP and Vista users the ability to switch to the Windows 2000 menu, but dropped this feature in Windows 7. To get at the older tree style Start Menu, you either have to use “All Programs” … or I have installed the utility “Classic Start Menu”. I prefer the older free version 1.0.3. If you configure it correctly, if you use your mouse to click on the Task Bar Icon you get the Windows 2000 menu – great for mouse centric actions; and if you click on the Windows key on your keyboard you get the MS provided Windows 7 menu – great for keyboard centric actions. The cursor is already blinking in the Search box.

A few years ago, I would have fully agreed with Mr. Spector about partitioning a PC’s hard drive to segregate the OS & data … in fact, I have an older XP based PC where this was done. I no longer believe this is the best practice for most non-enterprise users.

First, it takes more work than many users will bother with; not only the initial setup, but on-going. I have a philosophy about backup techniques … the best one is one that the user will actually perform on a regular basis.

Second, for many of today’s systems, the definition of ‘data’ versus ‘application’ gets a bit more fuzzy. Mr. Spector thankfully mentions the AppData folder, but he has not considered that this isn’t always the only place where critical settings are stored by applications that will allow you to sucessfully open a file with your information. Some settings are stored in the Registry, others might keep settings within the program installation folder, and yet other applications might require device drivers stored within the Windows System32 or other system folders.

I would argue that many of today’s image backup applications will also allow file restores. Further, I am guessing many of those who bother to do regular backups, prefer external hard drives over optical media (do any non-enterprise PC owners still use tape?). Using an external hard drive (especially eSATA, Firewire or USB 3.0) typically doesn’t take much longer to do a full (or incremental) system backup than it does to copy a data partition, or do a file/folder restore.

Some apps will simply ignore your partition structure and put things where it assumes they should go on a single partition system – some of those apps flat out won’t work if you move the pieces (although I consider these poorly coded apps), but more importantly, how often is the typical user going to track down all the pieces of a newly installed app and move the misplaced pieces into the user’s prefered partitioning structure?

Finally, you can often achieve the same end goal as Mr. Spector’s partitioning scheme using current backup software. I manually do full image backups of everything once or twice a month. The same backup software automatically does a daily incremental backup of just my data to an external drive (I checked the desired folders once when I created the schedule). I wipe out the daily files following each full image backup and start over.

We are getting hints that the future desktop operating systems will do something that big systems have done for years – – It won’t matter how many physical or logical drives we have, the OS will manage it all as one storage pool.