A virtual private network (VPN) allows a secure connection via unsecured public networks. A common business scenario is an employee using a VPN to access the company network from the road or at home. A core advantage to a VPN is the low resource demands. The server only has to maintain its end of the connection and serve the requested data. Any resource-intensive processing occurs on the machine that established the connection.


A virtual desktop, on the other hand, is an individual user interface stored on a remote server. This desktop virtualization separates the software from the physical machine. In this scenario, the local machine is only responsible for maintaining its end of the connection, sending input and displaying the results on screen. Everything else, including the resource-intensive processing, occurs on the remote server.

Compared to virtual private networking, there are a number of key benefits to a modern virtual desktop architecture, such as the one provided via a Dell virtual desktop system. This strategy is more consistent and reliable. It is more cost-effective and resource-efficient. It is faster and safer. It provides centralized administration, fewer compatibility issues and improved data integrity. It is also less demanding on clients and thus less complex.

In many business scenarios, consistency is a crucial factor because it translates to savings. Yet consistency is near impossible to achieve using traditional VPNs because each client connects to the system with a different configuration. With virtual desktops, the user’s configuration is irrelevant to performance, and this equates to savings because the system is more compatible and does not have to account for so many variables.

Customer service, in particular, greatly benefits from the use of virtual desktops, both in terms of performance and cost. Using the Dell virtual desktop, for instance, companies do not even require a centralized customer service representative (CSR) solution. Instead, the server can distribute the virtual desktops, which has video communication and the appropriate software client automatically, to CSRs, who can even be working from home.

The other most important issues are security and data integrity. With a VPN, there is diminished data integrity because the system relies on the client to send the updated data. With a virtual desktop, the updated data is automatically on the server. In terms of security, the virtual desktop is more secure because it is far more difficult to compromise the system when the most sensitive elements exist only on the server.

One funny thing happened to me yesterday. I had one of those (rare) blue screen of death crashes on my Windows 7 machine. Happened randomly but I guess it was thanks to a faulty USB modem driver. Anyway, after I restarted and launched my Google Chrome browser, I noticed that all my settings and extensions vanished. Uh-oh. Good thing there’s this solution, I’m sharing with you.

1. Launch Windows Explorer

2. Navigate to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\

3. Right-click on the User Data folder

4. Select Properties

5. Go to the Previous Versions tab

6. Select a version that’s before the crash happened

7. Click the Restore button

8. Wait for Windows to restore the folder

9. Launch Chrome again. You might have lost some activity but at least the Bookmarks and Extensions will be back.

We haven’t really recommended applications for the past year since most of the one we recommended in the past are still the best apps out there and all they got were newer versions that made them better.

However, some new innovative apps have emerged. Like Dropbox. I seriously can’t imagine computing without Dropbox. I do move around a lot and having it synchronize critical files in all my devices has proven to be the best thing since thumb drives.

One of the quirks with Dropbox is the (sort of) tedious process you have to go through if you want to share a link to someone. You have to copy the file to your Public folder, then right-click on it, select Dropbox then Copy Public Link. Not really a bothersome thing to do if it’s a once-in-a-while thing. But if you constantly do it, it can be bothersome.

Here’s a really nifty application that enhances Dropbox – Dropbox Linker. It runs in the background automatically copying the public link to a file that you just dropped into the Public folder to your clipboard. So once you drop the file for sharing, you only have to paste the link to whatever you need to publicize the link be it a blog post or email or IM.

Download Dropbox Linker here.

File management in Windows has gone a long way. Now you can drag and drop and shift or control drag and drop, use keyboard shortcuts or do a combination of right and left-clicks to manipulate files. However, there are times when the Windows GUI would leave you stumped on how to manage certain things. Bulk or mass changing file extensions for example.

Say you have a folder of files and you’d like to change their file extensions for whatever reason. Windows doesn’t let you do that right out of the box. But if you’re familiar with the old command line, this should be easy.

Shift+Right Click on the folder that contains the files the extensions of which you’d like to change. This will add options to the context menu such as the “Open command window here” option. Select that.

This will bring up the command line with the prompt exactly pointed to the folder containing files. To change the extensions, use the following command: ren *.jpg *.gif then hit Enter.

This should change all the .jpg files to .gif files in the folder. If you’re handling other file types just change the extensions. The first is to identify which extensions are to be changed and the second is the new extension to change them to.

Even if your external hard drive can hold more than 1 TB of data, it can still be used up. Here are some tips on saving computer space.

Execute your computer’s Disk Clean Up tool. This will delete files from the temporary files accessed by your Internet browser, recycle bin and system errog logs. You’ll be surprised by the additional storage you can claim.

Compress your old documents. If you need only to store your documents and not view them for a significant period of time, do consider file compression. There are a lot of archiving software available and they can reduce the size of your documents by up to 50%. You can always have list of your archived documents as reference for future use.

Delete unnecessary data. Sometimes we forget to remove files that are not necessarily storage worthy that they keep piling up. Before we know it, these files will take up a big space which could have been for a family video. Make it a habit to delete unnecessary files as soon as possible. Same thing applies to duplicate files.

Saving PDF files to your computer’s hard drive is so much more convenient than having to access it from a particular website.

To do this, you must simply right-click on the PDF file.

Choose “Save As” from the menu that will appear. Choose which location in your computer you want to save your PDF. Click “Save.”

If you want to copy a PDF from a USB stick or external hard drive, you can do so.

Simply open “My Computer.” Go in the USB or external hard drive where the PDF is located (i.e. G:\). Right click on the pDF file icon and choose “Copy.” Go back to where you want to save the PDF into your hard drive.

Go to the menu at the top of the window and choose “Edit,” then select “Paste.”A copy should now appear in your hard drive.

If you’re a Windows user, here is one way to delete unused files so as to free your hard drive of space. This is also important to do after an update of your operating system. Each update creates “shadow copies” or backup snapshots which can take up a lot of space.

What you will do is to click the Windows Start button at the bottom left corner. Choose “All Programs.” From the menu, selext “Accessories” and then “System Tools.” In the “System Tools” menu, click “Disk Cleanup.”

Choose the drive where you have your Windows installed. The default drive however is the “C” for most people. Choose “C” and click the button labeled “OK.” This might take a while as Windows is collecting data.

Click the tab labeled, “More Options.” Click the “Clean up” button of the “System Restore” section. A confirmation window will be displayed. Click “Yes.” This might take a few minutes so be patient.

Web sites install cookies on your computer when you visit them. These cookies are electronic text that helps sites to keep track of individual settings and preference. For example, cookies can help online stores remember what you have put in your “shopping cart.” Although cookies are necessary in cases like this, some people would rather not have their information stored externally. Here are some tips on how to get delete them from your browsers, if you’re on PC:

If you have a PC and use Windows, go ahead and close your Internet Explorer browser.

Click “Start,” which is usually on the lower left corner of your screen.

Next, click “Control Panel.” This will bring a new window open.

Choose “Internet Options” and double click it. When this window loads, click the “General” tab.

Look for “Browsing History” Click on “Delete.” Another window will load. You can use the default options or you can tick or untick boxes depending on what you want. In this case, you’d like to tick the box beside “Cookies.”

Click “Delete.” It will now delete the cookies from your browser.

Most of the time, PCs (especially those that run on Windows) slow down over time. And it’s basically due to the junk and clutter Windows dumps onto your system for all sorts of reasons. To improve your computer’s performance, don’t neglect the simplest maintenance such as:

Clear your cache so that your browser will feed you updated web pages. Erase cookies and delete history and temporary internet files. For Firefox, that’s simply pressing Ctrl + Shift + Del and clearing those that apply.

Visit the programs folder and remove applications you haven’t been using for the past months. Think twice before downloading and installing programs. Don’t use up too much space for files which you’re not even sure you need.

Use cleaners like CCleaner. They get rid of most of the junk (temporary files and folders) accumulated in files and folders in your computer. It can even clear Firefox’s and IE cache from its interface.

Windows keeps shadow and system restore files so clear them once in a while. They do take up a lot of space since they’re basically backups of key system files and your registry.

Defrag. Defragmentation just keeps the data in your hard drive neat and orderly. Windows XP’s defragmenter does the job quite fine but Windows Vista’s default defragmenter is stupid. It might be best to get a 3rd-party paid defragmenter

Yesterday was crazy with the launch of Google Chrome. Almost every acquaintance I knew had jumped into the “let’s try it out” bandwagon and were soon raving about Google’s new browser. As for me, I promised that I would be using Chrome at least for a couple of days but I find myself ditching it after a few hours.

Well, not that Chrome is a bad browser. The browser’s pretty straightforward and streamlined. The interface isn’t distracting at all. It displays web standard pages quite well. In fact, in terms of speed and reliability, Chrome does seem to trump Firefox and IE. I tried to open around 10+ tabs and most of them streaming videos and the damn thing just kept on. Do that with Firefox and you’re sure to crawl, crash even. Since Google claims that this is because Chrome treats each tab as a separate process, then we might just attribute that to my machine.

It’s got the famous “incognito window” or “p0rn mode” (supposedly to kick IE in the nuts) where you can surf without having to store cookies and history breadcrumbs locally. Though the paranoid in me refuses to believe that Google did this to uphold server-side privacy.

However, with it being in Beta, you can’t quite expect a fully-functional browser. As a web browsing tool for daily routine, sure it’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s great. A few quirks that I noticed were no ability to Shift + Enter in the address bar to create a .net suffix (and not even an option for .org too). There’s no RSS feed button for in-browser feed reading. While it imports pretty much all your browsing information from Firefox/IE, it doesn’t have a refined options list yet. I can’t even sort out the imported bookmarks! The address bar behaves like the not-so Awesome bar of Firefox 3 and worst of all, no add-ons (yet).

As a web power user, Chrome can’t still replace the functionalities that I get using Mozilla Firefox and my 20+ add-ons. Chrome looks really promising and probably if Google starts its own plug-in library to match Firefox’s I might make the jump. But for now, I am a creature of habit and am writing this within Firefox. Like all the entries that you read on this blog.