Have you ever deleted a file (or folder) from the desktop and emptied the recycle bin only to realize, seconds later, that you deleted the wrong one? Or have you ever edited a document or photograph, saved the file, and then wanted to undo those changes?

Luckily, both Windows Vista and Windows 7 include a build-in feature called Shadow Copy that can solve this exact problem without you having to do anything. As you work with the files, Shadow Copy will automatically save incremental backups of your files in the background so if you accidently delete or change a file, you can easily revert to the previous version with a simple right-click.

"Restore Previous Versions" for Vista Home

The Shadow Copy feature is available in all Windows 7 editions but only in the Business and Ultimate editions of Vista. However, if your computer is running Vista Home Basic or Home Premium editions, you can still enjoy the Shadow Copy feature without upgrading your OS.

In that case, all you need is Shadow Explorer – a free (and tiny) utility that makes it easy for users of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium edition to view the Shadow Copies of files that Windows is already saving on to their systems.

When you run the Shadow Explorer utility, you are presented with a Windows Explorer like dual-pane view as shown in the screenshot.

From the drop-down menu, you can select how far back in time you wish to restore files (or folders) from. The right pane has a list of all files and folders that were on your computer at that date and time.
You can browse through the folders just like you do on Windows Explorer and if you need to restore the previous version of any file or folder, simply right-click on the file or folder and click “Export.”  This will allow you to save the file in the location of your choice so you don’t have to replace the most-recent version.
The feature may also come handy if document get damaged (say due to improper shutdown) or you want to bring back the files that were deleted by some virus.

Shadow Explorer for Windows 7 and Vista

ShadowExplorer will run just fine on all editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7; however, only Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium users will need this tool as they don’t have any other mechanism to access shadow copies of files that have changed with time.

The Shadow Copy functionality was first added to Windows 2003 so the ShadowExplorer utility will work on that OS as well provided the shadow copy service is enabled.  However, ShadowExplorer will not work on any version of Windows XP, 2000, or any earlier version of Windows, as they do not have the shadow copy service that ShadowExplorer relies on.

Let’s assume you have two computers at home and you want to connect them together so that you can easily share an internet connection between the two machines or transfer photos, music and other files from one computer to another. How do you do this?

Connect Two Computers Directly

There are two options – you can either buy a router or, if you are looking for something more simple and don’t want to spend money on new networking hardware, you can connect the two computers using a commonly-available cable. The latter method doesn’t involve any complicated network settings and you will still be able to share files, internet connection, and even printers between computers.

Things you need:
To set up this basic wired home network, all you need is an inexpensive Ethernet crossover cable and the other requirement is that network cards* (also known as LAN or Ethernet cards) should be installed on each of you computers.

This should not be an issue because network cards are available on most newer machines by default but if you are working with a very old computer, you can either attach an internal LAN card to your computer’s motherboard or go for a USB Network adapter that will turn a USB port into an Ethernet (RJ45) port.



An Ethernet crossover cable looks like a standard Ethernet cable but the internal wiring is a little different. You can purchase crossover cables at Amazon.com or from your local computer store. If you have trouble finding them, you can purchase an inexpensive crossover adaptor and that will let you use any standard Ethernet cable as a crossover cable.

Connect Computers with an Ethernet Crossover Cable

Before connecting the two computers with a physical cable, make sure that both machine are using the same workgroup*. Here is step-by-step guide that explains how you can change the workgroup of your computers.
Changing workgroup in Windows XP – From the Start menu, right-click “My Computer.” Select Properties in the drop-down menu, and then select the second tab that says “Computer Name” from the System Properties window. Now click the “Change…” button, enter a unique Workgroup name and reboot your computer.

Changing workgroup in Windows 7 or Vista – Open the Control Panel, type “Workgroup” in the search box, and select the entry that says “Change Workgroup Name.” Click the “Change…” button, enter a Workgroup name and restart the computer. Windows 7 users can skip one step; simply type “Workgroup” in the search box in the start menu, and select the first entry, then proceed as above.

Now that the workgroups are same for both computers, connect the two computers together using the Ethernet crossover cable. Simply plug-in one end of the crossover cable into the network adapter of Computer A and connect the other end of the cable to the network adapter of Computer B.
Windows will automatically recognize the new network, and you can now easily view files and folder that the other computer has shared. Simply open Networks from the Start Menu (or the Control Panel), and you should see the other computer by its name. You can then browse any shared files on the other computer, and can even utilize shared printers.

Troubleshooting – If you do not see the other computer under Networks, you probably have a prompt at the top of your Network window saying that Network discovery is turned off (screenshots below). Select “Turn on Network Discovery and File Sharing.”  In the next prompt, select “No, make the network I am connected to a private network.”  Now you should see the other computer on the home network.

While it is possible to share files between two computers connected with a crossover cable without making them part of the same workgroup, the method will only work if both computers have this network set as a private network, and may still cause problems. It is therefore advisable to have both computers on the same workgroup before sharing files and printers.

Share an Internet Connection Between Two Computers

There are scenarios where you may want to share the same internet connection between two computers. For instance:

Situation A - You have setup a Wi-Fi network at home but your old desktop computer doesn’t have a wireless network card. In that case, you can use the laptop to connect to the internet wirelessly and then share that same connection with the desktop over a crossover Ethernet cable.

Situation B – You have a netbook with a built-in cellular data connection. You can share that connection with any another computer at home through the crossover Ethernet cable.

Situation C – You use a (slow) Wireless USB modem with your laptop computer while your desktop is connected to an ADSL Broadband line and there’s no router at home. For any bandwidth intensive tasks, like when you want to backup photos from your laptop to an online service, you can connect the laptop to the desktop and things will happen much faster.

OK, let’s look at the steps required for sharing an Internet connection.
First, if you only wish to share internet connection and not files, both computers need not belong to the same workgroup. All you need to do is to connect the two computers with the Ethernet crossover cable, and then turn on Internet connection sharing in the computer that already has an Internet connection. The instructions vary for different versions of Windows:

For Windows XP – Select “Network and Internet Connections” from the Control Panel and click “Network Connections.”

Right-click on the network connection you wish to share (the one connected to the internet), select Properties, click on the “Advanced” tab, and then check the box that says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.”  Click OK, and the second computer that you have connected to this computer with the Crossover Cable should have internet access now.

For Windows 7 and Vista – Open Control Panel, enter “network connections” in the search box on the top right and select “View Network Connections.”

Right-click on the network connection you wish to share (this must be the one connected to the internet) and select Properties. Select the "Sharing" tab and then check the option that says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.” Click OK, and the other computer you have connected to this Windows 7 or Vista computer should have internet access now.

You’ve seen all the new features of Office 2010 and now its time to try them on your own computer.
The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 is now available as a free download on microsoft.com/office. And other then Office, you can also download Visio 2010 beta and Project 2010 beta for your Windows computer.

This is the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 edition so you get to experience Publisher and Infopath 2010 as well in addition to the regular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook applications.
The Office installer weighs around 700 MB in size but you need around 3 GB of free space on your hard drive for the installation.

You can either upgrade your current version of Microsoft Office to Office 2010 Beta or select the Customize option during installation and set your current version of Microsoft Office to coexist with Office 2010 Beta.
All products require online activation after installation. In case of Office 2010, you can enter the serial number inside Word 2010 and it will automatically activate all other Office applications. Project and Visio will require separate activation since they use a different set of keys.

The beta version of Office 2010 will expire in October 2010. And other than English, Office 2010 is available for download in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

The Chrome OS team has a produced a new Common Craft style video that gives an overview of the new Chrome OS is 3 minutes.

Here’s a high-res screenshot of Chrome OS..

..and here are some Chrome OS screenshots captured from the press event:

1. Chrome OS Application Menu


2. Chrome OS Media Browser

Cloud Storage - Everything you save inside Chrome OS is put on the cloud like this notepad application which will sync with Google Docs.

4. Arrington from TechCrunch -- Live-Blogging the Chrome OS event

5. Switching between Chrome instances - It’s much like Alt+Tab of Windows 7 with live preview

Google Earth is probably the first and only desktop application to have AdSense Ads. These ads are is now showing in at least two different places inside the application:

Figure A: When you search for a location or business, the ads are displayed in the search results itself.

Figure B: When you click a placemark (any red pin on the map), the ads are displayed next to the review /address of that location.

Google makes an exception
I find this interesting because Google policies strictly don’t allow software developers to integrate AdSense ads in their desktop applications. If that policy changes, we could see more and more of Office 2010 Starter or FeedDemon like applications that are completely free to the end-user but supported by web advertising.

PicPick is an useful Windows utility that includes a decent screen capture program, a Paint like image editing software and a whiteboard tool to help you draw freehand on the desktop using your mouse (handy when you are giving presentations).

During screen capture, you can select the "Capture Window Control" mode and capture objects that extend multiple screens (like a long Word document or a lengthy web page). And like SnagIt, PicPick can send screenshot images directly to another programs after capture or it can automatically upload them to an FTP server.

Portable Image Editor

The image editor included with PicPick sports an Office 2007/2010 like ribbon interface and supports tabs so you can edit multiple screenshot images / photographs from the same window.

If you are a web designer, you can use the built-in crosshair tool to determine the coordinates of any point on the desktop screen or for capturing the exact dimensions of an object (in pixels).

And since the software doesn’t require installation, you can put it on a USB drive and use it on any computer.

Screenr, which is probably the best web-based screencasting application, can now be used for recording screencast videos in Linux as well in addition to Windows and Mac machines.

Video: Screenr running on 32-bit Ubuntu Linux


With Screenr, you can create HD-quality screencasts of up to 5 minutes in length using any web browser that has the Java plug-in installed. The published screencast is available as a Flash video (for embedding in web pages) and as a Quicktime (MP4) movie so anyone catch watch your screencasts on mobile devices like the iPhone.

The only downside is that everything you record with Screenr becomes available in public by default and there’s no option to create private or password-protected screencast videos.
If you enjoyed Screenr, you may also want to check this detailed comparison of all the other online screencasting tools.