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If you work on an office computer, which is shared by other users, then there may be some files, which you just want to hide from other users. There are many programs available on the Internet today, some are free while some require you to pay some fees, which allow you to encrypt your files o that they cannot be accessed by anybody else except you. There are other methods also to protect your files, which include protecting them with passwords. All these methods of protecting your privacy have their merits and demerits.

Here we present you a very simple tip, which require no use of any external program or web tool, but instead uses the options provided within the Windows XP operating system. This method is not a foolproof method of protecting your files, because anybody with a thorough understanding of Windows XP can get the access. It is like hiding the money under your mattress, money is there, if anybody is hell bound to search for it, he can get the access. However, the tip is simple, and easy.

How to hide important files and folders

First you have to create a folder and place all your sensitive files in it. This method will just make it invisible to others, although it will be there be available in your PC.

Right click where ever you want the invisible folder to be and select create a new folder.

Right Click > Click Rename. Delete any name so that nothing is there in the name. Hold down ALT key and press 0160 on the number pad (make sure Num Lock is on).

You will have a blank name. But a folder icon is still there, which can tell anybody that something is there.

To hide this icon, Right click the icon and select Properties.

Open the Customize tab.

Click on the Change Icon button and select an icon, which has no image.

Hit OK and you are through.

The purpose of this post is not to encourage the software piracy, but just spreading the knowledge.

Today there are many applications and software available on the Internet, which have great utility and are distributed as demo software. The developers of these demo versions usually disable some of the important features of these software. If you want to use these features, then you have to pay for buying the complete version.

Another method used by the developers is to allow users to use the software only for a limited period after which these software get expired an you have to again pay for continuing using that. The purpose of both these methods is to get you addicted to using that software and then ask you the money.

However there are certain methods by which you can extend trial period of these demo software and continue using them even after the expiry of the validity period.

My Digital life has written a few tips to reset trial period. You may like to check that out.

In today’s corporate world, although there are many fast methods of communications like IM, emails etc. but still the importance of the age old Facsimile, or FAX in short is not dead. Facsimile is still the preferred mode of communication, when you want to keep the records of the communication made.

But the spread of Internet has also affected the way we used to send and receive fax. Now, you no longer need a phone connection to send the fax. You can instead use Internet to send or receive FAX.

How to send or receive FAX over web

There are many easy online web applications. Most of them charge you a price but some of them are free and allow you to communicate over FAX to a limited set of destinations.

One of them is the Phone Company www.tpc.in, which allow you to send text messages and RTF files to most destinations in the world for free.

For it, you have to register an email address like

remote-printer.Line_1/Line_2 @1234.iddd.tpc.int

where “1234” is the destination fax number with the international code. You can insert the subject matter of your FAX in place of Line_1 and Line_2. This free Facsimile service is fast, easy and free and most importantly for me, covers many cities in India including Mumbai, Chennai and the NCR (Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad).

For US and Canada users, FAX Zero.com is a nice service, which is an ad supported web-based fax service and delivers fax message upto three pages in length for free.

Pdf format is today used by many users for distribution and sharing of files across various platforms. The advantage of using pdf is that these files are not easily editable and the user may not be able to modify the contents.

However, if you want to convert them to editable files, there comes a few converters also. In case you don’t want to install them, but still be able to convert your files, you can use following online helpful websites. You just have to send the pdf files as an email attachment and these websites will convert them to different formats and send the converted file back to you.

For converting pdf to plain txt: Mail pdf file to pdf2txt@adobe.com

For converting pdf to HTML: Mail pdf file to: pdf2html@adobe.com

For converting jpg to pdf: Mail jpg file to pdf@koolwire.com

There are many webmasters, who disable the right click options on their pages. The purpose of this is to restrict the visitors to copy the material, and do not allow them to use it elsewhere. Nice thinking.

But there are methods to out smart this technique.

Although I don’t encourage copying and pasting on the Internet, but sometimes it is genuinely necessary to copy text or images from a webpage to use it elsewhere. Firefox, ….oh I love firefox, gives you this ability.

• Go to Tools > Options.
• Click on the Content tab.
• Click the Advanced button against the Enable JavaScript Check Box.

• Find the Disable or replace context menus check box in the next window Uncheck this box.

Now try the right click again.

VOILA…you have done it.

Remote desktop sharing is basically accessing a computer from a remote location as if you were present on the same PC. You can write, read or delete the files, run applications and even see the same screen as if you are on the host computer. Your host computer generally remains locked and nobody can see the work you are doing remotely. Such a facility is particularly useful if you, or say your salespersons, travel frequently and require data from a host computer from remote locations.

If you access Internet through a dedicated line using static IP address (i.e. your IP address remains same then you can use this tutorial), otherwise you can use any of the various remote desktop sharing programs available on Internet (I recommend CrossLoop).

You can easily do desktop sharing through your own Windows XP Professional via Internet or your local virtual private network. The remote computer must be running on Windows 95 or later Remote Desktop Connection client software installed. Windows XP has it built in.

How to do that:

On the host computer…

1. Sign in as Administrator in your host computer.
2. Go to Start > ControPanel
3. Open Windows Firewall. Click on the General tab.
4. Click on the On (Recommonded) Radio Button
5. Uncheck Don’t allow exceptions check box.
6. Click on the Exceptions tab and select the Remote Desktop check box.
7. Click OK, and close the window.
8. If your host computer and remote computer are on a Virtual Private Netwrok, follow step 8, 9 and 10, otherwise note down the actual IP used by the host on Internet and jump to step 12.
9. Now return to Control Panel as in step 1.
10. Open System > Click on the Computer Name tab.
11. Note down the full Computer Name on a piece of paper. This step is required if
12. Write down the full Computer.
13. Leave the host computer connected to Internet.

From the remote computer…

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Remote Desktop Connection.
2. In the Computer box, write the computer name (if you are on VPN) or the IP address of your host computer.
3. Enter the administrator usrname and passwords of the host computer and VOILA, you are through. The host computer is before your screen.

Recently my UPS, supplying power to my PC, gone faulty and I didn’t had a replacement, while it had gone for repair. Yesterday, while I was writing a report in MS Word, the electricity got interrupted and the file I was working on, got corrupted. When the power resumed and I started back, I was not able to access that file as it was corrupted due to sudden failure of power.

This was a new thing to me, because in my earlier PC, whenever such a thing happened, I was able to recover my corrupt file, thanks to the Autorecovery feature of MS Word. I was intrigued, why it has not happened this time.

On further exploration, I found that the autorecover feature, which is set to ON by default, was OFF in my machine. So, I decided to write a post on this so that the readers of this blog may not find themselves in a situation like me.

How to set the AutoRecover feature in Word:

• Go to Tools menu, click Options.
• Click on the Save tab.
• Check the “Save AutoRecover info every” check box.
• Set the time to 5 minutes (or any time period as per your liking)
• Click on OK, and you are through.
• 

But remember, Autorecovery function is not a replacement of Save function. For that you have to use the usual procedure, or Ctrl+S.