Backup for SOHOS - Need Redundancy Not Raid

While not as elegant as a full RAID solution, using a second NAS to back up the first provides two key advantages for small networks.

The most important advantage is that it provides complete redundancy. Since each NAS is self-contained with its own drive, power supply and processor, it stays up when anything—not just a drive—fails on the other.

 Using a separate, networked NAS also allows physical separation between the primary and backup NAS. You can use this advantage to place the backup NAS in a different, perhaps hidden, location to provide additional physical security. You can even use a wireless (in a pinch) or powerline (preferred) bridge if you don't have an Ethernet drop where you want it. Since the backup is a background activity, you don't need the best in throughput.

In order to make this approach work, one of the two NASes must support scheduled backup to or from a networked drive. Most all NASes support backup to a USB-attached drive and many can do this trick with a networked share. But some drives support only attached-drive backup. So you may need to download the user guide of a product you're thinking of purchasing in order to know for sure.

The separate backup NAS approach can also be less expensive than RAID

A possible disadvantage is that the backup may not be an exact duplicate of the primary due to the file changes that occurred between backups. But depending on how you use the primary NAS, the effect can range from the loss of a few hours work to no data loss at all.

How to access the system tray using the keyboard

Should you ever be without the use of a mouse you can use this technique to access the system tray.

You can move the keyboard focus directly to the systray area (system notification icons) with Win+B.

After selecting an icon with the arrow keys, you can simulate a left-click with Space or Enter, and a right-click with AppMenu or Shift+F10.

Backup and restore Outlook 2010 Profile settings

Click Start button, type regedit.exe and hit ENTER key (when the typed program appears atop is highlighted) to open Registry Editor.

Next, using left pane of editor window, navigate to this path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles

Right click on “Profiles” and select “Export” option to backup it to Registration file (*.reg) type.

To restore to a Windows 7 computer where Outlook 2010 is already installed (but yet configured with a profile or any email accounts) - double click the reg file to restore Outlook 2010 Profiles settings.

Disposable E-mail

Disposable e-mail addresses are a great way to avoid spam and protect your e-mail address on websites, blogs, forums and social media.

You give a disposable e-mail address when an e-mail address is requested, you can then go and check and respond to any e-mails sent to the Disposable E-mail address from their website. 

No registration or sign-up required!

My two favourite are Mailinator and 10 minute mail

Outlook - Making the same change to multiple contacts

Its possible to make the same change to multiple contacts in Outlook without having to open, modify, and save each one. The trick is to use Outlook to group items in the Contacts folder view to organize the contacts, and then drag-and-drop selected contacts to make the change.

You first need to display the items in a table view with the items grouped by the field you need to change. For example, if you need to change the company's address, customize the table view to group the view by the Business Address field.

You don't have to change an entire group, but can instead change individual contacts by using the same method. Rather than drag an entire group, select one or more individual contact items and then drag them to the target group.