Everybody says it, but most people don’t really understand it until they need to restore some data they don’t have saved. Only then does it sink in for most people. Not that I’ve never lost anything, but when your job in college was rotating 9-track tapes to offsite locations for 20 hours a week for a bank, backup has been ingrained to my genes for longer than I can think. One of the reasons DEC was my favorite operating system is that every time you saved your work, a copy was made, so unless you purged your old files, you could see the state of your work as it progressed and recover to any point in time you wanted. Still to this day Windows hasn’t completely duplicated this built in functionality.
But this does lead to what I feel are the 3 types of backups that everyone should have.
First the total system failure scenario: If a virus came in and deleted everything on your hard drive, or the drive fails, can you recover without spending days or weeks rebuilding your PC with your installed software, preferences and files? This is preparing for the absolute worst. Everyone should have a backup of this type.
The next type of back is backups for applications. If something major ugly happen in say your accounting software, wouldn’t it be nice to restore just it to the end of the prior day and just redo the current day, instead of correcting the current mess, or say entering a month of data. That is why we designed our backups to let you backup every time you exit the program and then purge extra backups from prior days as well as today
Lastly a backup of all your files should be made often. A backup of what you keep in your My Documents folder. So if you accidentally delete a file that you need, it can easily be restored. This backup should also include your application backups described above.
It is quite important to have backups in more than one place. Fires or theft can clear out an office, so keeping a backup in a safe deposit box or an off-site server is very important.
And once you have you plan, it is best to run a quick test to see that you can restore a file should you really need to.
It seems like a lot of time and investment, but if something goes wrong it will be worth it and you won’t even need to panic.
A user account is a collection of information that tells Windows what files and folders you can access, what changes you can make to the computer, and your personal preferences, such as your desktop background or color theme. User accounts make it so that you can share a computer with several people, but still have your own files and settings. Each person accesses their own account with a user name and password.
There are three different kinds of accounts:
- Standard
- Administrator
- Guest
Each account type gives the user a different level of control over the computer. The standard account is the account to use for everyday computing. The administrator account provides the most control over the computer, and should only be used when necessary. The guest account is primarily for people who need temporary access to the computer.
What Is An Administrator Account?
An administrator account is a user account that lets you make changes that will affect other users. Administrators can change security settings, install software and hardware, and access all files on the computer. Administrators can also make changes to other accounts.
When you set up Windows, you’ll be required to create a user account. This account is an administrator account that allows you to set up your computer and install any programs that you would like to use. Once you have finished setting up your computer, we recommend that you use a standard user account for your day-to-day computing. It’s more secure to use a standard user account instead of an administrator account.
Why Use A Standard User Account Instead of an Administrator Account?
The standard account can help protect your computer by preventing users from making changes that affect everyone who uses the computer. We recommend creating a standard account for each user.
When you are logged on to Windows with a standard account, you can do anything that you can do with an administrator account, but if you want to do something that affects other users of the computer, such as installing software or changing security settings, Windows might ask you to provide a password for an administrator account.
How do I create a “Standard User” Account?
- Click your Start button
- Choose Control Panel
- Choose User Accounts
- Click the link that says “Manage Another Account”
- Click the link that says “Create a New Account”
- Type in a User Name
- Select the Standard User option
QuickBooks, 3rd party applications and User Accounts
QuickBooks and any 3rd party applications that you use, should be installed and run under the Standard User Account. They do NOT need to be run as Administrator.
Since Windows Vista was released, we have handled numerous support calls which resulted in an 80040408 – Could not start QuickBooks error. In all cases QuickBooks and our 3rd party applications had been installed under the Administrator account.
This is something that has plagued me for years – should I leave my computer running all the time or not.
It is also a topic that has caused much debate.
Leave your PC running 24/7
Some people say that it’s better to leave your PC running around the clock than to shut it off at night and then boot it up in the morning. The reasoning behind this side of the story, is that if you never shut down your computer you will save wear and tear on it components and, therefore, extend the life of your machine.
Shut if off and boot it up in the morning
Others say that if you care at all about energy consumption (electricity is expensive after all) and how big of a carbon footprint you are leaving – turn off your computer at night. It takes less energy to boot your computer in the morning than to leave it running overnight. Plus there is the fact that many operating systems, Windows included, perform various important housekeeping tasks during shutdown and startup — another very good reason for turning the system off at night.
Personally, I’ve always been the type to shut off my computer at night when I go home (obviously I pay the electric bill plus we have a total of 6 computers in our office) and then power it up in the morning. Sure it takes a few minutes for my computer to boot up and load everything, but what the heck – I check voice mail while I’m waiting. Not having instant access to email as soon as I sit down in my chair is not going to hurt me in any way – while the increased electric bill could certainly put a bigger dent into our checking account!
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Today I was going through a bunch of old PC World magazines and found an article written by Robert Strohmeyer about this very subject. Robert stated in his article that he had interviewed some of the top techies at HP, Seagate, and other major companies, and that nobody seemed to know how this rumor was born. But they all agreed on one thing “leaving your PC running 24/7 was NOT a good thing” and that “the claim of leaving your computer running overnight was good for it – was totally bogus.”
An HP Techie, Ken Bosley, who has spent years researching hard-drive reliability says that “you shouldn’t waste energy to extend the life of a computer by even a very small amount” and discounts the notion that “shutting down and starting up a computer puts undue stress on the components, noting that most systems are retired because of obsolescence, not because of hardware failure.”
Where do you stand on this issue? Do you shut your computer off at night or always leave it running…….and why?
