.::REALITYRECALL::.

Have you ever wished you had an extra Hard Disk to store files, share, or set aside as an encrypted vault? One of the new features in Windows 7 is the ability to create Virtual Hard Disks and we’ll show you how.

Create a Virtual Drive 

This process creates virtual disks in the .VHD format where the minimum size is 3MB. To begin, Right-click on My Computer and select to Manage. Alternately you can type diskmgmt.msc into the Start search box and enter.

The Computer Management screen opens click on Disk Management then Action and Create VHD.

Browse to the directory you want the disk to reside, choose the size you want it to be, and select dynamic or a fixed. If you want the disk to expand in size as you add files to it, then pick Dynamically expanding. Check Fixed size if you want a specific size and for it to stay that way.

 

In Disk Management you will see the virtual drive listed as unallocated space.

To begin using it you’ll need to Right-click and select Initialize Disk.

 

In the initialize disk box just keep MBR selected and hit OK.

Create a Volume

Now it is time to create a volume by Right-clicking the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.

The New Simple Volume Wizard starts up and it’s just a matter of completing it.

Choose the amount of space you want to use for the volume.

Assign it a dive letter that is not currently being used.

Format the new volume as NTFS, FAT32, or FAT. Check if you want a quick format and file compression.

The wizard is complete, click on Finish.

If you have AutoPlay enabled it should pop up for you to open up your new virtual hard disk.

It will be listed with the other disks in Disk Management.

Of course you will also see it listen under My Computer.

This is a cool new feature that will let you use the disk as you would any type of real disk. You can encrypt it, share it out to other systems, store files to it…however you would use an extra disk connected to your system.

This is a cool new feature in Windows 7 that will add extra functionality and options to your current system. There are several ways you can use your VHD including making it bootable. If you have used your geek imagination and have come up with unique ways to use a VHD, leave a comment to tell us about it.

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On the eve of the Windows 7 launch, we’ve been doing some reminiscing, but it hit us: There have been way more than six uniquely named prior versions of Windows. So how does Microsoft count?

1, 2, and 3: These were the original DOS-based Windows that started it all. Windows 3.1 is the first version I remember (and even that only vaguely).

4: Windows 4.0 includes Windows 95, 98, ME and NT 4.0.

5: Windows 2000 and all the flavors of Windows XP.

6: The oft-maligned Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008).

And that brings us to Windows 7. What a long, strange trip it’s been. [Wikipedia]

Big telecom companies such as Bell and Rogers can interfere with internet traffic only as a last resort, the CRTC says. Instead, they should use “economic measures” to combat congestion.

Well, hello there! Those Dell MID rumors we’ve been hearing have finally received vindication in the form of a nice, picture-heavy leak courtesy of some industrious folks in Vietnam. What we know as of now is that there’s an 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen display (with multitouch zooming), WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G WWAN connectivity, all riding atop an Android 2.0 (aka, Donut Eclair) install. A dual-LED flash 5 megapixel camera adorns the back, and there’s a 1,300mAh battery to power all that goodness. See pics below and a video awaits after the break, where an old friend of ours plays with the jumbo smartphone.

[Via SlashGear; Thanks, Nicky N.]

Continue reading Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opinion: There’s been a steady flood of news about the emergence of solid state drive (SSD) systems in mainstream products. Samsung has a 64GB miniSATA SSD about half the size of a business card; Dell offers its Adamo XPS notebook with a 256GB SSD; Teradata delivers a data warehouse appliance packed with SSD storage, and IBM has begun to use SSDs in its storage area network systems.

Plus-three with three points.

It appears that Flames captain Jarome Iginla is in the process of snapping out of his early-season doldrums.

His boss certainly thinks so.

"He’s an effective player when he’s skating and when he’s shooting," said coach Brent Sutter. "He’s getting into those areas and tonight he got into those areas to get quality shots."

Iginla’s goal — his 412th, if you’re keeping track — was vintage.

Buzzing down the right wing, scorching a shot past a helpless netminder.

"That goal, it’s a two-on-one, he goes hard down the wing and makes a great shot," said Sutter. "He did a lot of little things tonight that were very effective. You guys get caught up in goals, goals, goals, but to me, it’s playing a well-rounded game and it’s scoring chances. Tonight was probably the most scoring chances Jarome’s had in a game. He shot the puck and he got into those areas to want the puck and he was involved in the game.

"I look at shots and quality scoring chances he had, and it was definitely his best game."

While he was at it, Sutter chucked around a little more praise.

* To Craig Conroy, for helping kill off the five-on-three (late in the second, early in the third).

"Big draw right off the bat and then there was a battle just inside the zone," said Sutter. "Connie did a great job of getting pucks out of the zone. It was a big kill. A one-goal game at the time, 4-3. I certainly wasn’t happy with the penalties. But the P.K. did a good job at that point in time."

* To Dion Phaneuf, for scoring (and for helping wake up a team in danger of nodding off after 21-plus minutes of shotlessness).

"He got his feet moving," said Sutter. "At the time, when he was coming out of the zone, I thought he was going to head-man the puck because he had a couple guys ahead of him, but he kept going with a full head of speed. It backed their defencemen off. He was able to get a really good scoring opportunity, quality scoring chance between the top of the circle and the blue line. And when Dion has a full head of steam like that with his shot, it gives you an opportunity to score on something like that."

Microsoft added Netflix support to Vista’s Media Center back in May, and starting today they’re rolling out an upgraded Watch Instantly interface to Windows 7 Media Center for users looking to get their streaming TV and movie fix on their upgraded PCs.

Gadget weblog Engadget spotted the update this afternoon, and while the improvement hasn’t added support for Media Center extenders (like the Xbox 360) or HD streaming (bummer), it’s a great feature if you’ve turned your Windows PC into a media center powerhouse.

The Netflix update should become available to your Windows 7 Media Center automatically, but if it doesn't, Engadget says you go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options to manually start the update. In the meantime, you can check out more pics of it in action over at Engadget.

If you’ve been using Netflix on your Media Center PC since it became available earlier this year, let’s hear how it’s been working for you in the comments.

Hold onto your phasers: a new rocket, designed jointly by NASA, Ad Astra, and Canadian firm Nautel, could potentially slash trip times to Mars to as little as 39 days. And yep, it uses ion propulsion–just like Star Trek taught us.

Ion propulsion, via the new plasma-based VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) engine, is now close to the point where it could be tested on a flight to the moon, according to Canada.com. The rocket works by turning electrical power into thrust in order to harness solar energy.

The 39 day time compares to six months using current rocket technology. Actually, a round-trip ticket to Mars would take far longer than even six months. Since Mars and Earth only pass close to each other every two years, engineers assume a crew would go one way, wait a year, and then fly back the next time the planets passed each other by, according to the report.

The ion drive would enable astronauts to shoot there and back during a single close approach. (Image credit: Ad Astra) (Via Slashdot)

Facebook definitely allows you to easily communicate with others, but if you’re not careful, certain information you would like to remain private can be exposed. Here we take a look at locking down your profile, and how to avoid other annoyances.

Privatize Your Profile

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends, family and other contacts online. It’s also a great place to spread personal information, pictures, and other data to everyone if you don’t use the proper settings. The first thing you want to do is change default settings under the Privacy Settings.

Take the time to go through each of the privacy sections and make the appropriate choices for your profile.

Go through each section to adjust who can see your information. Of course showing it to everyone will be the least private.

Make sure to go through the settings for both Basic and Contact information.

If you choose a custom setting you can select who sees it and even block out specific users (like your crazy ex).

Control what information is on your wall, and what posts to your friend’s wall.

Control what other people can see about you in searches.

If there are certain users you don’t want to be able to contact you then you can put them in the block list.

Avoid Quizzes and Other Snooping Apps

You might be enticed to take the multitude of quizzes and games on Facebook because you’re bored or other friends have recommended them. They can however, be aggressive data miners. So when you’re taking a quiz to find out “Who is your Celebrity Twin” the developers of those quizzes are gathering your personal data.

  

It’s not a secret that your information is being shared through Facebook applications. If you go into the Applications overview under Privacy settings, it states how apps interact with your data. Here are a few of the items in the privacy statement.

“When you authorize an application, it will be able to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work.”

“When a friend of yours visits an application or authorizes it, the information that the application can access includes your friend’s friend list and information about the people on that list.”

“If you interact with an application that has been restricted to users of a certain age and/or country without explicitly authorizing the application, the application might be able to infer your approximate birth date or location because you were able to access the application.”

Under the Privacy section and Application Settings you can control what types of information can be seen through apps. If you don’t want anything shared select that option at the bottom.

With Facebook being a central hub of social activity, you might have co-workers, supervisors, or the head boss as a contact. If you are playing games on company time, make sure you don’t get busted on Facebook. Under the same apps privacy page we were at above, scroll down a bit further and check the box under Beacon Websites. A Beacon Site where you play a game needs to be an affiliate of Facebook, but if you aren’t sure, you might want to check this box to be safe.

Block Facebook Annoyingness

If you’re sick of seeing messages every time a friend takes a quiz or makes a move in Mafia Wars, make sure and check out The Geek’s article on how to Block Those irritating Facebook Quiz & Application Messages.

 

Conclusion

Facebook can be a lot of fun and is a great place to keep in touch with others, but by default it shares a lot of information that you might want to remain private. These steps should help you out in protecting your privacy, and avoiding potentially embarrassing or awkward situations.

Facebook Privacy Policy

More About Beacon Sites

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Windows 7 is going to be released this week, and it’s a huge upgrade from previous versions of Windows. The big question for us geeks, however, is “Will all of my favorite tweaks still work?”

This list is not comprehensive by any means—if you have a favorite tweak that you like to use, leave us a comment and we’ll see about adding it to the list.

Add Defrag to the Right-Click Menu

Want to be able to quickly defrag a drive whenever you want? You can use a little hack to add the Defragment option to the context menu for each drive. It’ll open up the command prompt, and start the defrag process.

Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive

Create Shortcuts to Lock the Screen, Shutdown, Restart

It doesn’t matter where Microsoft puts the shutdown buttons, people seem to still want to have another way to do it. The good news is that all the same shortcuts that worked in previous versions of Windows will still work in Windows 7.

Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows 7 or Vista

Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista

Create a Shortcut to Toggle the Desktop Icons

Sure, you can easily head into the desktop context menu to toggle the icons on or off, but it’s a lot simpler to use a hotkey, or stick an icon into the Quick Launch (which you can get back on Windows 7 with a little trick). This how-to teaches you how to use a little utility that toggles the icons for you.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off

Disable Aero (to Speed Up Some Video Games)

If all you do is use your computer for gaming, you might not even care about using Aero. Personally, I don’t know why you’d want to run Windows 7 or Vista without Aero—but if that’s what you want, it’s easy enough to do.

Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista

Mount an ISO

So this one isn’t so much a tweak as an additional piece of software—but if you do a lot of geeky stuff on your PC, you’re going to need to be able to mount an ISO image. My favorite tool, by far, is VirtualCloneDrive—it’s just the simplest possible utility that you can get. All you need to do is double-click on an ISO to mount it.

Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable those Stupid Gadgets

Windows 7 moves the gadgets onto the desktop, instead of having them on a sidebar like Vista did—but the net effect is the same: it’s all pointless! You can easily disable them in Windows 7, just like you could in Windows Vista.

Disable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7

Enable Mapping to Hidden Shares

If you did much networking on previous versions of Windows, you probably know about the C$ share that gives you access to the whole drive. Sadly, those shares don’t work since Vista, at least by default. There’s a simple tweak that you can do that will re-enable them for business, however.

Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista

Make Windows Log On Automatically

If you are the only one that is using your machine at your house, logging on can really be a drag. Thankfully every version of Windows since forever has let you do a simple tweak to make it automatically log on for you. Just make sure your door is locked.

Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically

Use Compatibility Mode

Does your favorite XP application have problems working in Windows 7? You can often make them work anyway by using Compatibility mode to trick the application into thinking it’s running on a previous version of Windows. Tip: This really helps when you’re trying to get a video game working.

Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode

Add Any Folder To Your Taskbar

Every version of Windows has allowed you to pin folders to the taskbar, and you can still use this same trick in Windows 7. You can make them use only icons, show text or not, or even use this trick to add the Quick Launch folder back to Windows 7. 

Add “My Computer” to Your Windows 7 / Vista Taskbar

Add “Take Ownership” to the Context Menu

This has to be one of the most useful tweaks for the serious geek tweaker—you can easily give yourself permissions to any file by using this registry hack, which adds a “Take Ownership” item to the menu. Once you’ve taken ownership of a file, you can then easily delete it, rename it, etc.

Add “Take Ownership” to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

Add Copy/Move to the Context Menu

This remains one of the most consistently popular tweaks for Windows, version after version. You can just do a simple registry hack to add the “Copy To folder” and “Move To folder” option to the context menu.

 

Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu

Disable Shortcut Icon Arrows

The Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover still works just fine in Windows 7, and gets rid of those unsightly shortcut arrows that you really don’t need most of the time. There’s lots of other hacks you can use, but this one works really well, and never leaves you with those “black boxes” on your icons.

  

Disable Shortcut Icon Arrow Overlay in Windows 7 or Vista 

Disable the Caps Lock Key

I’ve never used the Caps Lock key for anything, ever. If you are like me, you probably haven’t either, and it’s a lot easier to get rid of it. You can use a registry hack to get rid of it, or you can map any key to any key using an easy freeware utility.

Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista 

Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows 7 / XP / Vista

Stop Windows Update from Automatically Restarting Your PC

I really hate the automatic reboot “feature” built into Windows Update. In fact, while I was writing this article, it kicked in and rebooted me (I forgot to apply this tweak on my new laptop). You can always temporarily disable the automatic reboot, but there’s a registry hack that will prevent it from happening in the first place.

Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer

Stop Losing the Sleep/Shutdown Button to Windows Update

Have you ever quickly clicked the shutdown button, only to find out that Windows started installing updates and will take forever to shut down? You can tell Windows to stop hijacking your shutdown button with another registry hack.

 

Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep Button

Enable Remote Desktop

If you are using the Pro, Ultimate, or Business versions of Windows, you can use Remote Desktop. It’s by far the best way to connect to another Windows PC, especially since Windows Vista or Windows 7 allow you to do Aero through the session.

Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable Sticky / Filter Keys Dialogs

Have you ever been doing something, like playing a game, and had that obnoxious Sticky Keys dialog pop up? You answer No and it goes away… and then shows up again the next day. Here’s how to make it go away for good.

Disable the Irritating Sticky / Filter Keys Popup Dialogs

Disable Windows Explorer Click Sounds

The Windows Explorer click sounds are enough to drive you crazy after a while. You’d think that the configuration option to turn them off would be a checkbox saying “Stop Annoying Me”, but that’s just not the case.

Turn Off Windows Explorer Click Sounds in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable User Account Control’s Annoying Prompts

This is the one area where Windows 7 makes it so much easier to get rid of those annoying prompts—just drag the slider adjust your UAC settings. If you don’t want to disable UAC, you can always create shortcuts that bypass the UAC prompts with a simple task scheduler trick.

 

Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7 or Vista

So what are your favorite Windows tweaks? You can leave your comments here, or join in the discussion over at Lifehacker.

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The CRTC is issuing two key internet rulings this week – one on net neutrality and the other on metered internet usage.

Early rumors of a BlackBerry-branded watchphone/smartwatch/wrist messenger/Bluetooth bracelet seemed a little far-fetched—RIM is all about business, and watchphones are pure, distilled gadget novelty. Nonetheless, here we stand, gazing upon the the BlackBerry companion watch. Here’s what we know.

According to CrackBerry:

• It was designed “specifically for BlackBerry from the ground up,” by a “new BlackBerry-dedicated accessory company,” and could be branded as the “inPulse.” This sounds suspiciously like BlackBerry wanting a watchphone, and outsourcing the design and manufacturing expertise.

• It’s got a large (but hopefully not too large) OLED screen, with a high enough resolution to display text clearly

• Its primary purpose is to display messages from a paired BlackBerry, meaning it’s strictly an accessory device like Sony Ericsson’s pieces, not a standalone watchphone like the LG GD910.

This is an early glimpse in all senses—Crackberry describes the shots rather wonderfully as "actual renderings of the real deal"—meaning that there's no info on tech specs, nor indication as to how much this thing might cost, whether it'll carry BlackBerry branding, or when we could expect it to actually ship. The announcement, though, is expected "soon," whatever that means. [Crackberry]

We’ve highlighted gobs of tools for turning your computer into a security camera, but if you’re interested in building out a serious, multi-camera home surveillance system complete with wireless cameras, weblog MakeUseOf details how to do so.

The author uses an app called Active Webcam that’s packed with features, and while it’s not a free application, the trial version adds a small nag window to the corner of your webcam streams that the author thinks is completely tolerable for the price. Here’s what you’ll get when you’re done:

I'm going to describe how you can set up a system of security webcams that will alert you to even the slightest intrusion into the space the camera is monitoring. We're going to create a remote surveillance system that could monitor your home, your camp, your apartment — or all of the above, all at the same time. In essence you can create a giant personal surveillance network without limitations.

If you’ve gone down the DIY route for putting together a home surveillance system using your PC, let’s hear how you did it in the comments.

Windows 7: If you run into a boot-up error with Windows 7 and don’t have a recovery disc handy, you’re usually in for some manic fiddling, or you’re just out of luck. NeoSmart’s recovery discs, however, can set things right.

Download NeoSmart's recovery discs for 32- and 64-bit systems, burn them to CD, and pop them into any system that claims it's unable to find the files needed to boot or is otherwise corrupted. These discs contain the same system recovery tools as a full Windows 7 disc, which are also given out by nice PC makers—and sold as an expensive accessory by skimpy Windows pre-installers.

Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.

These Windows 7 System Recovery Discs are a free download via BitTorrent from NeoSmart; alternately, hit the CyberNet link to grab a copy directly from file-hosting site MediaFire.