Something about Email you might not know of !

What is the difference between CC and BCC?

Cc stands for carbon copy which means that whose address appears after the Cc: header would receive a copy of the message. Also, the Cc header would also appear inside the header of the received message.

Bcc stands for blind carbon copy which is similar to that of Cc except that the Email address of the recipients specified in this field do not appear in the received message header and the recipients in the To or Cc fields will not know that a copy sent to these address.

So next time you want to hide certain contact(s) when sending out an email to more than one person simply use the Blind Carbon Copy feature instead of plain CC.

Great huh !

Best FREE Laptop Battery Monitoring Utilities out there !

Ever wanted to know how long your laptop battery has left until it runs out?

There are some pretty nifty applications out there that can do this for you which just sit in your bottom right hand corner of your taskbar.

I've only really come accross two major free applications; both open source as we all love having free stuff on the internet!

I have listed these in order of what I prefer but feel free to try both of these and see for yourself which one you prefer:

First Up - BatteryCare

http://batterycare.bkspot.com/


Alternate - BattStat

http://users.rcn.com/tmtalpey/BattStat/


Feel free to comment about which you prefer and why :)

What is the best Codec Pack to use?

A question many friends have asked me! I personally tend to use K Lite Codec Pack (the Mega Version).

Though really it doesn't really matter. Majority of them do tend to have most codecs that you ever need.

Along side K Lite Mega Codec Pack I know that some people tend to use the VideoLAN Player which has some extra features allowing you to play just about anything.

Download Links:

K Lite Codec Packs

VideoLAN (web site so you can learn more for yourself)

The easy way to avoid Windows OS Update after a complete re-install :)

Warning: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR OS UP-TO-DATE !

In a situation whereby you need to reinstall your OS, but afterwards you don't want to bother waiting ages for the Windows Update to download and install all those updates?

Well here is a post which will aid you for the next time, of which will save you considerable time!

When I reinstall my OS (currently XP), before I do so, I make sure I have all the major Service Packs downloaded, the most Recent Internet Explorer (even though I use FireFox), the most recent MS Office Service Pack and of course the latest Windows Media Player etc.

Once finished reinstalling I get the media (I tend to keep them on DVD or Internal / External Hard Disk Drive), install the service packs and drivers etc which saves hours of downloading them from the web! Then once connected to the web I allow the OS to download the smaller updates which takes not so long on a Broadband connection. Only after Windows is completely up-to-date do I install any other software or applications, games etc.

So, where do you get these "Stand alone" service packs and other installations?

Simple, the Microsoft web site of course :D

They tend to name the Windows Service Packs '[Windows OS Version] Service Pack # Five Language Standalone' or '[Windows OS Version] Service Pack # Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers'; or similar.

Listed below are a few direct links to save you time searching their Download Centre section. All links on my blog posts always open in a new window or tab depending on your browsers setup.

However in time you may want to use this page: http://support.microsoft.com/sp. When using that link though, once you have selected the product make sure to look for the heading 'Download ...' so you can download the latest Service Pack rather than having to do it via Windows Update.

If you need to search for some other product or application update to download the installer, use the Download Center Home Page Search Feature.

Windows XP Service Packs (32 bit and 64 bit)

SP2 (Includes SP1) / SP3 (These are for 32 bit ONLY)


SP2 (Includes SP1) /  SP3 NOT AVAILABLE FOR XP 64 bit (These are for 64 bit ONLY)

Windows Vista Service Packs (32 bit and 64 bit)

SP1 / SP2 (These are for 32 bit ONLY)

SP1 / SP2 (These are for 64 bit ONLY)

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Service Pack 1 (both 32 bit and 64 bit ---> x86 is 32 bit and x64 is 64 bit)
 

Stand Alone Installations (All Window Versions)

Windows Media Player (latest version) / Internet Explorer (latest version)

MS Office Service Pack

MS Office 2003 SP3 (includes SP1 and SP2 also) / MS Office 2007 SP1 Suite

MS Office 2010 SP1 (32 bit) / (64 bit) 

How can I keep my child Safe online?

This is one area I feel very strongly about, even though I am currently not a father, nor an uncle; I feel it is important for other parents to know how they can keep their child(ren) safe when they're online.

Recommended Reading (FREE Programs which can aid you as a parent):

https://families.google/familylink/


Please note that I haven't used these so cannot be sure which is best so please visit each site and learn more for yourself.

http://www.safefamilies.org/

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/getk9/download-software.php

http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=bgone


Forum Post - See What Other Parents Preferred:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=9948


Why not ask the professionals? Make a post on the following forum (you may want to search it first):

http://www.techsupportforum.com/