Remotely Fetch Files from Your PC with SkyDrive (When It Isn’t on Your SkyDrive)

Windows: Like other online storage and syncing tools, SkyDrive is great for convenient access to the files you have in its sync folder(s). But it also has a killer feature: The ability to grab a file from a remote computer even if it hasn't been synced or is stored outside of the sync folder.
SkyDrive's Fetch feature is responsible for this awesome capability that can save you in a pinch when you've forgotten a file. 7Tutorials has a step-by-step guide to using SkyDrive's Fetch feature, but basically, you only need a few things: Enable Fetch in the SkyDrive desktop app (if you didn't do so already during the initial set up, it's under the app's settings menu) and make sure the computer you want to connect to is on and connected to the internet. Note that you can only fetch files that are on a Windows machine, but you can use a Mac to upload them to SkyDrive.
Then, log in to SkyDrive on the web from any computer and click on the name of the remote computer. You'll have to enter a security code Microsoft will email or text you for extra security, then you can browse the computer's files, right click the one you want, and upload it to SkyDrive.
For more screenshots and details, you can check out 7Tutorial's instructions or Microsoft's Fetch page.

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Free the Photos Imports Your Instagram Photos Into Flickr

The service couldn't be simpler. Free the Photos Just give it access to both your Instagram and Flickr accounts and click the "Free Your Photos" button. You can even have it notify you when its finished, after which you'll find all your photos in a set called "Instagram." You're then free to reorganize them and set whatever terms you want on them (like Creative Commons). Hit the link to check it out.

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urn Your FreeNAS Box Into the Ultimate Anonymous Downloading Machine

A low-powered home server is one of the best ways to download files with BitTorrent and Usenet, but if you really want to stay safe on file sharing services, you need to anonymize your traffic. Here's how to turn your FreeNAS box into the ultimate downloading machine so you can download safely and monitor its activity from anywhere.
We've shown you how to turn an old computer into a networked backup, streaming, and torrenting machine with FreeNAS, and even gone a little further and installed some Usenet and media management programs on it. But even with all that power, our downloading machine is missing a few things. Namely:

1. A VPN service that can anonymize all our traffic, to keep it safe from prying eyes
2. A method of monitoring our downloads and media management tools from the internet, so you can keep up with them from anywhere—even your phone

In this guide, we'll show you how to add both of these features, turning your home server into the ultimate anonymous downloading machine.
Note: If you're just starting out, we recommend checking out our other FreeNAS guides first. Our original guide will show you how to set up FreeNAS 7, while our second guide will show you how to install programs manually, using Usenet as an example. Keep in mind that, while we're still referring to it as FreeNAS to keep some consistency with earlier guides, these guides use the FreeNAS 7 project, now known as NAS4Free, instead of the more current FreeNAS 8 (which we won't be using). This guide should work whether you have an old FreeNAS 7 box or a new NAS4Free box—they're essentially the same piece of software.

Set Up a VPN for Anonymous Downloading

We've said it once, and we'll say it again: the only way to stay anonymous is by using a proxy or VPN service. Yes, it costs money—usually around $10 a month or so—but these days, you shouldn't download without one. Unfortunately, FreeNAS doesn't come with a VPN, so you'll need to do it from scratch. Luckily, that isn't too hard—you just need to find a VPN service that works for you.

What You Should Look For in a VPN

There are a lot of great VPN services out there, and everyone has different needs, so you'll want to find one that works for you. Here are the features you may need to look for:

• OpenVPN Support without plain-text authentication. Most VPNs support OpenVPN—which is what we'll be using on our NAS—but many of them require you to store your username and password in a plain text file. Not only is this insecure, but it requires additional features that require a complex installation, so we don't want that. If you're considering a VPN service, look up their guides on how they work OpenVPN. There won't usually be any guides for FreeBSD, but their Linux guide should be a good example. If it requires having some sort of password.txt file rather than a .key file, you'll want to look elsewhere.
• Port Forwarding, if you want to use the VPN in conjunction with the first tip in this guide regarding monitoring your NAS from afar. Otherwise, you won't be able to specify which ports on the VPN go to your NAS. Check your VPN's FAQ to see if it supports port forwarding if you want to use Dynamic DNS (and note that this is different from the port forwarding on your router—it's a feature of the VPN service itself).
• BitTorrent Support. Some privacy servers have clauses against using their services for BitTorrent, so if you're using BitTorrent on your NAS, you obviously want to make sure your VPN allows it.
• Other Privacy Features depending on your wants and needs. If you're going for anonymity, you should obviously look for a VPN client that doesn't log activity, but you might even want one that accepts Bitcoin or goes through a specific country. This is up to you, and is often advertised heavily on the VPN's home page.

For this guide, we'll be using a VPN service called Mullvad as an example, but I highly recommend you research other VPN services that fit your specific needs. Everyone is different, and what VPN you choose will be based on how you're using your NAS and what kind or privacy features or services you want. Photo by Pavel Ignatov (Shutterstock).

Step One: Set Up a Jail for Installing New Programs

We'll need to install OpenVPN from the FreeBSD command line, just like we did with SABnzbd and Sick Beard in our previous guide. Before you do so, you'll need to set up a "jail" on your system, which allows you to install programs on one of your NAS' drives (since our FreeNAS installation resides on a flash drive).
If you followed our guide to setting up SABnzbd and Sick Beard, you can skip this step and move on to step two of this guide, since you've already done all of this.
First, SSH into your NAS. Windows users should download PuTTY, and type in the IP address of your NAS on the main page. You'll want to log in as root and type in the password you created for yourself when you set up the NAS. If you're on OS X, type this command into the Terminal and press Enter.

ssh -l root 192.168.0.10

Where 192.168.0.10 is the IP address of your NAS.
Once you've logged in as root, you'll need to create a few folders and mount them, using the following commands. Replace SEAGATE with the drive on your NAS where you'll store the programs.

cd /mnt/SEAGATE
mkdir extensions
cd extensions
mkdir var
mkdir usr
mkdir tmp
mount_unionfs -o w /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/usr/ /usr/
umount -f /var
mount_unionfs -o w /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/var/ /var/

This puts your usr, var and tmp folders on an actual hard drive where you'll be allowed to install programs that don't come with your NAS. You'll want to run a few of these every time you start up your NAS from now on, so head to your NAS' web interface and go to System > Advanced > Command Scripts and add the following command to the list as a PostInit script:

mount_unionfs -o w /mnt/Media/extensions/usr/ /usr/

When you're done, head to step two.

Step Two: Install OpenVPN

We're going to use OpenVPN to connect to our VPN service. Assuming you're running the newest version of NAS4Free, which is based on FreeBSD 9, run the following commands:

setenv PKG_TMPDIR /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/tmp/
setenv PACKAGESITE "ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-current/Latest/"
pkg_add -rv openvpn

If you're using an older version of FreeNAS, check what version of FreeBSD it's based on from the home page of the Web interface. Chances are, it's FreeBSD 7.3, in which case you'll want to install OpenVPN with the following commands instead:

setenv PKG_TMPDIR /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/tmp/
setenv PACKAGESITE "http://ftp6.us.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ports/i386/packages-7.3-release/Latest/"
pkg_add -rv openvpn

Everyone's NAS may be a little bit different, so make sure you're installing the correct package for your NAS' software. You'll also want to replace i386 with amd64 if your NAS is 64-bit.

Step Three: Set Up OpenVPN with Your VPN Service

This is the trickiest part. Now, you need to head to your VPN provider's web site and look up their OpenVPN guide. Chances are, it'll have a ZIP file you can download with a config file and some certificates inside. With Mullvad, for example, you get a ZIP with a config file for Windows and Linux, as well as a .key file and a few .crt files. First, we're going to edit our config file. Open it up in your favorite text editor (the Linux one is best, if it exists) and take a peek inside. It should look something like this:

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote openvpn.mullvad.net 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca master.mullvad.net.crt
cert mullvad.crt
key mullvad.key
remote-cert-tls server
comp-lzo
verb 3
ping-restart 120
ping 10

Usually it'll have some instructions inside, too, so you know what each setting does. Most of the defaults should be fine, but if you have any trouble, try some of the above settings and see if they work (obviously using your VPN's server under remote and the correct file names under ca, cert, and or key.
When you're done, SSH back into your NAS and run the following command:

mkdir /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/usr/local/etc/openvpn

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Rename your configuration file to openvpn.conf and drag it into your newly-created folder, along with any .crt and .key files that came with it. You may need to drag them to /mnt/SEAGATE first, then use the FreeNAS File Manager (Advanced > File Manager from the Web interface) to copy them to /mnt/SEAGATE/extensions/usr/local/etc/openvpn. Lastly, open up your NAS' web interface and head to System > Advanced > rc.conf and add the following variables:
openvpn_enable with a value of YES
openvon_if with a value of tun
Once you've saved those variables, continue to the next step to try running OpenVPN for the first time.

Step Four: Start OpenVPN

Once all your config files are in place and your ports are forwarded, it's time to try running OpenVPN for the first time. Open up your NAS' web interface and go to Advanced > Command. Type the following command into the "Command" box and press Execute:

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/openvpn start /usr/local/etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf

Then, head to Diagnostics > Log to see if your VPN works properly. You should see a pretty big wall of text, ending with something like openvpn[1234]: Initialization Sequence Completed. (You may need to refresh your log a few times before it shows up, as it'll take a few seconds for the VPN to start). If everything looks okay, SSH back into your NAS and try to ping www.google.com again. If it works, you've successfully set up a VPN on your NAS!
If it didn't work, you may need to change some settings in your config file. Look for any errors you see in your log and try it again. If OpenVPN is running but you can't connect, you'll need to go to Advanced > Command and run kill 1234 before trying again, where 1234 is the process ID of OpenVPN. You'll see this in the log, and it'll change every time you restart OpenVPN.
This is the hardest part of the process, and troubleshooting the problem is different for everyone depending on your VPN service and the other things you have running on your NAS. Don't give up, and make sure to follow all the instructions to the letter to get everything working. If you're using BitTorrent, now would be a good time to check your torrent client's IP using CheckMyTorrentIP.com, as described in step three of our BitTorrent anonymization guide. If you get your VPN's IP, then you've successfully set up an anonymous downloading NAS!

Step Five: Set Up Your Firewall

The last thing you should do, once your VPN is up and running, is set up a firewall on your NAS that blocks all traffic except your VPN connection. That way, if your VPN goes down, your NAS won't fall back on your regular connection, which can expose your actual IP and destroy any anonymity you may have had.
In your NAS' web interface, go to Network > Firewall. Everyone's firewall may be a bit different, but here's a template you can use to create your rules:

Click on the image for a closer look. Going number by number in the image, here's what each set of rules does:

1. This rule allows all local traffic on your network. That way, no matter what happens, you can still access your NAS and its web interface from your other computers.
2. These two rules allow your DNS connection, which usually travels along port 53.
3. These two rules allow your VPN to establish a connection. The rule in the screenshot assumes your VPN uses port 1194 to do so. If you use a different port in your OpenVPN config file, use that here instead.
4. These rules allow any traffic that travels over the VPN, like your downloading. These may be different depending on your VPN service you use. Look in the log when you connect and see what IP addresses it uses in its routes. For example, mine uses addresses like 10.8.0.169, so I added 10.8.0.0/24 to my firewall to allow any connections from that range of IP addresses.
5. These rules allow multicast connections, which your NAS will need if it uses services like Bonjour to connect to other computers on your home network. Not everyone needs these open, but you may—if you don't add these rules, you'll just see a few errors in your log from time to time that don't matter.
6. These two rules allow DHCP, if your NAS uses it. If you have a static IP, you don't need this rule.
7. Lastly, this rule denies all other traffic that doesn't match the above rules. For our purposes, this basically means all traffic that doesn't go through the VPN. If your VPN goes down, your NAS won't be able to access the internet, and everyone trying to peep on your downloading will not be able to see who you are.

Again, your firewall may differ a bit, but this is a good place to start. Click the Plus sign to add each individual rule, and when you're done, check the Enable box and click "Save and Restart" in the bottom left corner. Head back to your SSH window and try to ping www.google.com again, first with OpenVPN running, and then after you've killed OpenVPN as described in step four. The ping should work correctly when OpenVPN is running, and return errors when OpenVPN isn't running. Again, if it doesn't work correctly, you may have to fiddle with some settings until you get it right.
Once everything's working properly, give yourself a pat on the back, because you've now anonymized all the traffic coming in and out of your NAS! It's not an easy process, especially because it's a little different for everyone, but it can be done—it just takes a little patience and a little knowledge about how all everything works.

Monitor Your Downloads From Afar with Dynamic DNS

So you've got yourself a kickass downloading machine, but what happens when you're out and about and come across a file you'd like to download? Or maybe you want to check in on your server and see what TV shows you've downloaded or ripped to your home theater PC? By default, you can't access your NAS from outside your home network, but all it takes is a few tweaks to make this possible. Then you can monitor downloads, start new ones, and check in with your NAS from your laptop, phone, or even someone else's computer while on-the-go.

Step One: Sign Up for a Dynamic DNS Service

We've talked about how to do this before, and the process is pretty similar with your NAS. To start, you'll want to sign up for a service like DynDNS or No IP, which will give your home network an easy-to-remember domain name like myawesomenas.dynalias.org. This makes your NAS easier to connect to from the outside world, and ensure you don't need to memorize a bunch of different IP addresses. Most of these services are free, though you can pay a fee for more advanced features.
Before you sign up, check your router's admin page to see which services your router supports. Mine only supports DynDNS, for example, so that was the one I had to use. Other routers may support different services, so check the Dynamic DNS settings of your router for more info.

Step Two: Set Up Dynamic DNS on Your Router and NAS

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Once you've signed up for your service of choice, head back to your router's admin page and type in your credentials and domain name into the provided boxes. This will be different for every router, but yous hould find it in your router's settings under "Dynamic DNS," "DDNS," or something similar. Next, do the same thing on your NAS. Open up your NAS' web interface and go to Services > Dynamic DNS. Pick your provider, type in your domain name and credentials, then check the Enable box in the upper-right corner. Click the Save and Restart button to start the service.

Step Three: Forward Any Necessary Ports

Lastly, you'll probably need to forward a few ports on your router so your NAS is accessible from the outside world. Once again, we've talked about this before, so check our guide to port forwarding if this is the first time you've done it.
If you're using a VPN, all you need to do is forward the port that your VPN uses to connect. In our case, that's port 1194, as shown in our VPN config file. So, head to your router's configuration page and find the section for port forwarding, then forward port 1194 over the UDP protocol.
You'll also need to set up port forwarding from your VPN service's web site. Otherwise, your VPN won't know who you are when you try to connect from the outside world (since a number of other users are using the same VPN as you). Head to your VPN's home page, log in, and look for the section on port forwarding. (If you're using Mullvad, it's on the main page after you log in). Click the New button to add a new port. Your VPN service decides how many you're allowed to have; many limit you to just a few so you don't hoard them from other users.

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Now, you don't get to choose which ports your VPN gives you, so after it's assigned a few ports to your account, you'll need to assign them to the services on your NAS. For example, if your VPN assigns you port 12345 after clicking "New," and you want to access your BitTorrent downloads from afar, you'll need to go into your BitTorrent settings on your NAS (Services > BitTorrent) and change the web UI's port number to 12345. If you're running other web-based services, like Sabnzbd or Sick Beard, you'll need to assign them each their own port as well, as provided to you by your VPN service. Note that you won't be able to access your NAS' web interface from afar, since you can't customize what port it uses, but you can access everything else, which is really what's important. Be sure to update your bookmarks with the new port numbers, too!

Step Four: Try Accessing Your NAS From Elsewhere

Lastly, just try to access one of your web interfaces using your new hostname. For example, if your hostname is myawesomenas.dynalias.org and your newly-assigned BitTorrent port is 12345, you would type the following into your address bar to access it:

http://myawesomenas.dynalias.org:12345/transmission/web/

Again, repeat this process for any other services you have running, like SABnzbd or Sick Beard. If everything works, then congratulations! Now you can monitor your downloads, add new downloads, and otherwise keep track of your NAS from anywhere on any device.

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It isn't a simple process, and it can be a little different for everyone, but all the setup is well worth it. When you're done, you'll have a quiet, low-power machine that stays on 24/7 and downloads all your files for you, completely anonymously, with easy access from wherever you are. If you run into any problems during setup, be sure to check out the NAS4Free forums, the OpenVPN forums, the FreeBSD forums, or right here in the comments of this post. Good luck!



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Save to Drive Instantly Sends Images, Audio, and Video to Google Drive

Chrome: Save to Drive is a Chrome extension that allows you to save any image, HTML5 video, or audio directly to your Google Drive account with a simple right-click.
The process is pretty straightforward. When you come across a file you want to save to your Google Drive, right-click it, select "Save image to Google Drive," and it gets sent over right away. Unfortunately you can't pick a folder in your Drive to send it to, and images occasionally have preview problems, but as a quick way to save a file without sending it to your hard drive it works great.


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Smart WiFi Toggler for Android Learns Where Your Networks Are, Toggles Wi-Fi and Data Automatically

Android: Smart WiFi Toggler is a free utility that automatically learns where your preferred wireless networks are located, and when you approach their location, will turn on wi-fi and join those networks. When you leave the network's range, the app will turn off your phone's wi-fi radio so you don't waste battery searching for networks while you move around.
If you frequently switch between wi-fi at home or the office and 3G/4G on the go, you know it sucks to look down at your phone only to see you left wi-fi on while you're driving and your battery has suffered as a result. XDA forum member sebouh00 designed Smart WiFi Toggler to handle this problem, and once installed, the app does most of the work for you.
The app uses your phone's network location so you don't trade one battery drain (scanning for wi-fi networks) for another (scanning for GPS location), and automatically turns on and joins your preferred wi-fi networks without your intervention. The app even automatically learns where those networks are located so you don't have to program it manually.
Granted, Smart WiFi Toggler doesn't do anything that JuiceDefender or Tasker can't already do, but Smart WiFi Toggler is completely free, less complicated, and does one thing very well.



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Hack a Dead PC Power Supply Into a Rechargeable Lantern

If you have access to a dead computer power supply you can use the case, power switch, wiring, and power port along with a 5v lead acid battery and a landscaping lamp bulb to create a rechargeable lantern.
Computer power supplies can burn out after several years and unless you're an advanced electronics hobbyist they're not worth trying to rebuild. Instructables user 300mpg notes that You can reuse many of the components as long as you're careful to follow proper capacitor safety procedures. To make the lantern you'll open up the power supply and remove all internals except for the power switch, power plug, and wiring. Cut out the fan grating and fit a 12v landscape lamp, but don't permanently attach it until you test the wiring. Wire the switches, lamps, and battery together and test the function of the lamp. Once that's done cut two openings in the top of the power supply case for a handle made from the the wiring bundle that connects the power supply unit to a motherboard—zip tie the ends together from inside the power supply unit and you'll have a comfortable handle for your lantern. Now you'll just need to cleanup the case and glue the battery and lamp to the casing; adding foam spacers between the case and the battery would be a good idea and used mouse pads work well for this..
From the original design you would connect a 12v sealed lead acid battery charger to the positive and negative connections on the power supply plug. As commenters on the Instructable pointed out, mounting a battery charger inside the case might be a superior design as then you already have the plug and can reuse a standard 3-prong computer power cord.
This seems like a fun project that makes dead components useful again and is worth doing as long as you follow all electrical safety procedures.



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Apollo Brings CyanogenMod’s Official Music Player to All Android Devices

Android: Cyanogen's built-in music player is much better than the stock Android player, and now it's available for all devices at Google Play, rooted or no. It's debut comes packed with added features, like voice search, automatic artist and album art image fetching, gapless playback, homescreen and lockscreen widgets, and the ability to pin your favorite tunes to your homescreen.

Apollo comes in two flavors, an ad-supported free version, and Apollo+, a $0.99 version that pulls out the ads and entitles you to faster updates from the developer. Both versions offer the same features otherwise though. The app features gestures to move between screens, a persistent player on the bottom, super-fast search, notification playback controls, headset control support, and more. Everyone gets homescreen widgets, while Ice Cream Sandwich devices get lockscreen widgets and Jelly Bean devices get Lockscreen player controls.

Before you shell out for the paid version, give the free version a spin. If you've ever run CyanogenMod on an Android device, you may be familiar with the player, and if you currently are, you already have it. The app doesn't support third party services yet and only plays local music right now (so no Google Music for you,) but the dev says upcoming releases will bring tablet support, Last.fm scrobbling, the ability to specify your own media directories, customizable widgets and controls, and more

Apollo (Free) | Google Play

Apollo+ ($1) | Google Play via Android Police

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How to Get Rid of a Virus (Even When Your Computer Won’t Boot)

So you've contracted a virus that's taken over your computer, and you can't even boot up to try and troubleshoot the problem. The solution: Create a rescue CD, boot into a safe environment, and rid your PC of any nefarious software while it sleeps. Here's how to do it with minimal effort.

Here, we'll show you how to put one together and use it to eradicate any viruses on your system.
Note: This is meant to be a beginner's guide to system rescue. If you're an experienced user, you may prefer to use something like Hiren's BootCD, which contains a ton of other diagnostic tools you can use to figure out what's wrong with your computer and retrieve important data. For the purposes of this guide, though, we're trying to make it as simple as possible, so anyone can get the job done with minimal effort. If you're already familiar with the process, be sure to send it to your friends and family so they can be too!

How to Create Your Rescue Disc

If you can't boot into your computer, you'll need to borrow one from a friend to burn your rescue disc, but other than that, all you really need is a blank CD. Here's what you need to do:

Download the Avira Rescue System and save it on your spare computer. Avira is one of our favorite antivirus programs, and it makes creating a rescue disc very easy—though if you prefer, you can download similar discs from Kaspersky, AVG, and other antivirus makers 

Insert a blank CD or DVD into your computer, and double-click on the Rescue System installer that you downloaded. Pick your disc drive from the list, and it will install the rescue disc for you. Note: If you don't have a CD drive, you can download this Avira Rescue ISO from this page instead, and use Unetbootin to create a bootable flash drive instead. It takes a bit more work, but it'll work on computers that don't have a disc drive.
 Once your disc has finished burning, insert it into the affected computer and press the power button. If it boots into the Avira Rescue System interface, skip to the next section.

If your computer doesn't boot into the Avira Rescue System interface, you'll need to tweak a setting in your system's BIOS. To do so, reboot your computer. When it first boots up, you should see a screen that says something like "Press DEL to enter setup." Press and hold the key it requires to enter setup. Everyone's computer is different, but somewhere in those menus you should find an option that says something like "Boot Order." Change that setting so that your CD drive is number one on the list, save your settings, and exit. When you reboot, you should find yourself in the Avira Rescue System.

How to Scan Your Computer with Your Rescue Disc

Now that you've successfully created your rescue disc, it's time to clean out that infection. Once you've booted into the Rescue System, here's what you need to do:

When you first boot up, Avira will ask you if you want to boot into the AntiVir Rescue System. To do so, type 1 and press Enter. It will then go through the process of booting.

 When it's done, you should be greeted with the screen at the right. You can browse around the Configuration if you want, but you should be fine with the default settings. Just go to the "Virus Scanner" tab and click "Start Scanner" in the bottom left-hand corner.

As the scanner runs, it should repair any infected files it finds. When it's done, reboot your system and see if you can boot back into Windows. With any luck, Avira should have done its job and you'll at least be able to get back into your system.

If you're still having problems after running your rescue CD, you may need to take more drastic measures. However, if your rescue CD worked and you can boot your computer up correctly, you're almost home free. You should probably run your regular antivirus program to see if there's anything else left on your system, and clean up any malicious files it finds.

Once you get everything running properly, it's time to think about long term protection. After all, you don't want to have to do this again. Make sure you have a good antivirus program running at all times. You don't have to pay money for one, either—Microsoft Security Essentials is more than good enough. While you're at it, you should set up a simple backup system so you never lose your important files to a virus or other disaster again.

 Or you can also use Windows Defender Offline From Microsoft.


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Power a Laptop with AA Batteries

Like most electrical devices laptops have specially-designed batteries and battery charges designed to use an exact voltage and amperage and deviating from those values can be bad for the long-term life of the device, but if you're in a bind or just want to study electricity you can wire together a series of AA (or even AAA) batteries to power your laptop.
Electronics weblog FunnyHacks demonstrates in the video above how you can wire AA batteries to an adapter plug that will plug into your laptop's power plug and provide anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours of power depending on your laptop's power load, how many batteries you're using, what kind of power output those batteries have, and how you have them wired. You'll need to a bit of calculation to make sure you have enough batteries to meet both your minimum required voltage to power your laptop and enough amperage to last long enough to get your work done using a mix of series and parallel wiring setups.
Of course we're not actually recommending you use this hack on your current laptop as it's possible to short out your power supply or do even greater damage, but if you have a still-functioning laptop that's over a decade old with nothing better to do it may be an interesting project to try as it'll help reinforce basic electrical knowledge and fits into the MacGuyver book of "things I'd like to know how to do but not necessarily ever do them" that many of our readers enjoy learning.


 more info and video here

If really NEED to!

With Windows 8's radical user interface many familiar windows elements are not present or must be accessed differently. If you're missing the shutdown button and don't want to use the new charms bar you can add back your shutdown button the start menu manually.
Educational weblog WonderHowTo shares that, to make a shutdown button for your start screen, you must first create a desktop shortcut (right-click, new shortcut) and enter this line of code in the location field:

Shutdown.exe —s —a 00

Name the desktop shortcut Shutdown and click Finish. Finally, right-click on that shortcut and choose Properties then Change Icon and from the menu that pops up you will pin the shortcut to your start menu. The video above shows you how to complete each step.


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FREE eBook: Windows 8 for IT Pros (Updated - Final Copy)

In this 147-page eBook, you'll find 11 chapters of detailed technical content covering the following key improvements for supporting PCs with Windows 8: Get it Here

Uninstall Your Windows Product Key So You Can Use The License on Another PC

Do you have an old PC you want to sell, but also want to use your Windows license on your new PC ?

There is a hidden command in Windows that allows you to do just that. Read on to find out more.

Note: Between Microsoft and your OEM there are a number of different laws that determine whether you are allowed to use your license on another PC, so follow this tutorial at your own risk. 

Additionally before you go through the tutorial you will want to check that your product key is still attached to your PC/Installation CD, if it is not , do a quick Google search on how to recover it.

Uninstalling Your Product Key

The first thing we need to do is get our activation ID, to do this fire up an administrative command prompt and run:

slmgr /dlv

Windows will open a message box and tell you a bunch of information about the license status of your PC, take note of your activation ID.

To uninstall your product key you need to use the /upk switch, along with your activation ID:

slmrg /upk 507660dd-3fc4-4df2-81f5b559467ad56b

If you do it correctly you will be told that your product key has been uninstalled.

Installing Your Product Key

Installing your product key on your new PC is just as easy, all you need to do is fire up an administrative command prompt and use the /ipk switch.

If your key is valid you will be told that your key was installed.

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change you default search engine in IE

To change you default search engine in IE just go to http://iegallery.com

How to Remove Amazon Ads from Ubuntu 12.10

Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" is out, and while it has a few cool features, it also has one very annoying addition: the Dash now includes useless Amazon results in your searches. Here's how to disable them.
We mentioned one way to turn the ads off in Ubuntu's settings, but unfortunately that requires turning off web search entirely—meaning you can't search Google Docs, Flickr, and other services from the Dash. Instead of doing that, reader KatsumeBlisk says you can remove just the Amazon portion with a simple command.

Open a Terminal and run:

 sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

Type in your password when prompted, and when it's finished, log out. When you log back in, you should find that the Amazon ads no longer show up, but you can still search other web services right from the Dash.


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Turn Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch into a Webcam for Your Computer

iOS, OS X, and Windows: Whether your webcam is broken or you just don't have one, you can still video chat with the aid of your iDevice. A clever app called iWebcam repurposes your mobile's camera for the job.
Getting iWebcam set up is pretty straightforward. Just follow these steps:

1. Download the app from the iTunes App Store. (It'll cost you $5.)
2. Visit the iWebcam site and download/install the drivers for your operating system (Windows or OS X).
3. Launch the iWebcam app on your iDevice and open up a webcam-enabled program on your computer (e.g. Skype).
4. Select your iDevice as the webcam source and you're good to go!

Pretty clever. In my tests, everything worked beautifully. I installed the drivers and iWebcam popped up in Skype no problem. Some people have noted that a restart was required. Others have had trouble getting the faux-webcam to show up in other apps. I couldn't get it to display in Photo Booth, but that may be Apple-related. Other apps worked just fine. The quality was surprisingly good, too. Video was far smoother than my regular web cam and the quality as superior as well. Dropouts occurred for brief seconds in a bad Wi-Fi area, but other than that it worked great.
Want to do this on Android? Check out IP Webcam.


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Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Migrate to Essentials

Having transitioned from Windows Home Server 2011 to Windows Server 2012 Essentials RC, and then from that to the final version of Essentials 2012, I thought I’d provide a few notes about my experience doing so.
Note that this is not a complete guide to migrating to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. These are instead some notes and observations, based on my own experiences, about the process of moving from previous home office/small business server—in my case, Windows Home Server 2011, to Essentials.
Up front, however, a few warnings.
These products, WHS 2011 and Essentials 2012, and also related releases like WHS v1, and Small Business Server Essentials 2011, were designed primarily as first server/single server solutions. They’re basically plug and play appliances that exist outside of the normal Windows Server/Windows client way of doing things, and while that brings with it many ramifications, the big one for purposes of this article regards upgrading: There isn’t any traditional upgrade path from previous servers (WHS/SBSE 2011) to Essentials 2012.
Second, remember that there may be no huge reason to move to Essentials from whatever home/small business server you’re currently using. If the server is sitting there working, doing PC backups, and serving up your stuff, why mess with something good?
Finally, this you’re data we’re talking about here. If you’re really using one of these products as the center of your own environment, and storing your important personal and/or professional data on it, you very specifically want to be careful about backing up that data first. Just because something worked for me, as noted below, doesn’t mean you should do it without backing up first. Be careful.
OK, here’s what I’ve done.

Migration 1: WHS 2011 to Essentials 2012 Beta/RC

For about 18 months or so, I based my own environment around Windows Home Server 2011. I wrote about that transition in I'm Betting on Windows Home Server 2011, and about that product, generally, in Windows Home Server 2011.
WHS 2011 worked just fine and the only reason I’m moving forward to Essentials 2012 now is that I need to keep up on the latest technologies. The key word in that sentence, however, is “now”, in that I could have simply kept using WHS 2011. But Essentials 2012 is absolutely a no compromises Windows Server versions, as noted in my recent review of the product, with lots of very interesting functionality that’s not present in WHS. (That said, I did briefly flirt with using Windows 8 as a replacement for Windows Home Server: See Replace Windows Home Server ... With Windows 8? for the rundown on that choice.)
If you’ve been following along with my evolving use of various servers, you may recall that my WHS 2011 was a repurposed PC tower that had several terabytes of internal storage attached to it. I was using a single 3 TB USB 3.0-based external hard drive with Server Backup for onsite data replication (everything but videos) and Crashplan for offsite backup of everything.
Because I wanted to maintain the WHS 2011 install alongside a test Essentials 2012 server running first the Beta and then the Release Candidate (RC) version of that latter system, I installed Essentials on an excellent and highly recommended HP MicroServer that I had upgraded over time with 8 GB of RAM (up from 2 GB). Like the original HP home servers, this neat little box features four SATA drive bays (non-hot-swappable, not that such a thing matters in a home office/SMB scenario) and even a couple of expansion ports.
I don’t recall the exact process, but over a period of time I experimented with Windows Server 2012 Beta/RC and Storage Spaces on this box, using two 3 TB hard disks, and trying to figure out whether there was any point in using ReFS over NTFS. After not seeing a real world difference on this box, I decided on the known—NTFS—and when Essentials Beta hit, that became the test box. By the time the RC arrived, I had decked out the server with a third 3 TB drive, in addition to the other two and the 250 GB boot disk.
For the Beta version of Essentials 2012, I simply wanted to test the server and make sure it worked as expected, copying over some subset of the data on my WHS 2011 server. This was a simple and manual network copy, something that ran once overnight, and it let me test client and external connectivity.
By the time the RC version of Essentials 2012 arrived, I figured I’d be able to do a simple migration to the RTM version later, so I started the process of moving completely to Essentials. This involved a wipe and reload of the OS (using the RC version this time), and configuring the storage exactly how I wanted it. And that’s a story in its own right.
Like its predecessors, Essentials 2012 requires a boot disk that’s at least 160 GB in size. By default, the server creates a set series of server folders, which are essentially (ahem) shares that clients can access on the local network. By default, there are five—Client Computer Backups, Company, File History Backups, Folder Redirection and Users—and if you enable media sharing, you’ll see four others: Music, Pictures, Recorded TV and Videos. So this boot disk will include the whole shebang: The hidden system reserved partition plus the C: drive with Windows and all those server folders.

Essentials doesn’t like a single disk configuration and the Best Practices Analyzer will quickly start bothering you via Alert Viewer that “one or more server folders are located on the system hard drive.”

Of course, I didn’t need BPA to tell me that a single disk configuration is not just bad but unacceptable. And my plan all along was to use that 9 TB of space, spread out over three 3 TB disks, as efficiently as possible. That way, my data would be separated from the OS, physically. And my most important data would be replicated on two different physical hard drives. Both of these changes, combined with offsite cloud backup, give me the peace of mind I need.
And while there are different ways to handle this, I created a storage pool and storage space using two of those disks in a mirrored configuration. That is, while the two disks combined provide about 6 TB of space, the storage space actually looks like 3 TB of space to the system. It’s just that everything in there is duplicated across both drives. This space, which I inventively call “Storage Space” and assigned to drive letter S:, contains all of the server folders except for Videos. The third 3 TB drive, which is not replicated, was assigned drive letter V: (go figure) and is used solely for videos.
Once these configuration changes were made, I added a single 3 TB external hard drive, as with the WHS box, for use with Server Backup. The new disk layout resembles the following:

From here, it was a simple matter of copying over the data from the WHS 2011-based server—which took quite a while, as I used a combination of network file copy and a portable hard disk to make it happen—and setting up Server Backup to use the external drive.
Once the file copy was done and I checked the file counts and sizes to ensure I’d copied everything successfully, I switched over to the new server, MICRO, while leaving the old one, VAIL, online for the time being. My use of WHS and now Essentials 2012 may differ a bit from yours, but for me it’s mostly a data store, and then for data that I’m not accessing regularly anymore. This includes both work-based data and personal photos, home videos, and other files dating back over 15 years. For my daily workflow, I use SkyDrive to replicate files between PCs and as articles or article series are completed or retired, they get moved up to the server. So it was a simple matter to start using MICRO rather than VAIL.
Between Essentials 2012 RC and RTM, two things changed. First, I started backing up MICRO to Crashplan as I had been doing with VAIL. And after ensuring that MICRO worked as expected and could be accessed when I was away (via LogMeIn Hamachi in my case, though others can of course use the product’s built-in remote access functionality) from home, I eventually just switched off VAIL, but left it set up just in case. Worse case, if MICRO failed, I’d be able to restart VAIL and have lost very little if any data.
And then Microsoft RTM’d Essentials 2012.

Migration 2: Essentials 2012 RC to Essentials 2012 RTM Eval/GA

As noted previously, I’d migrated to the RC version of Windows Server 2012 Essentials. Crashplan was partway through backing up my non-video data (i.e. the important stuff). VAIL was offline. And then Essentials 2012 was finalized, and Microsoft provided me with an evaluation version of the software so I could write a review.
(Actually, it was the final version of the software with an evaluation product key. So I figured I could eventually use the Windows Activation software to apply a full RTM product key and remove the evaluation timeout. This assumption proved correct.)
How do you make such a migration?
Pretty easily, as it turns out. Not as easily as I had bet, but easily enough.
Since I had offloaded all my important data to S: (a storage space) and my videos to V: (a single hard disk), I knew I’d be able to simply wipe out the primary disk, install the RTM version of Essentials 2012, and then re-configure the server folders to the appropriate locations.
I knew too, from previous experience, that storage spaces are incredibly malleable. You can remove one disk or all of the disks from a space, plug it (or them) into another Windows 8 PC or Windows Server 2012 server, and the contents will be immediately and seamlessly available. Even better, the storage space survives the move intact. This meant that the S: drive I created, with all its data, would simply be there after installing the RTM version of Essentials 2012. I’d just have to connect everything up again through the Dashboard.
This worked almost exactly as expected. There was just one wrinkle.
The install went fine, and as with previous installs, Essentials 2012 had all of the server folders configured on the C: drive. So the first order of business was getting S: and V: online and moving the appropriate server folders to the appropriate drives. The next stop was Disk Management (WINKEY + X, Disk Management), where I changed the drive letters on the storage space and videos drive to be S: and V:, respectively. The next step was to use the Dashboard’s Storage/Server Folders interface to manually move each server folder to the right location.
I figured this would be as simple as selecting the folder (say, Users), choosing the right location in the wizard (S:) and then clicking OK. And it was, except for that one wrinkle. Detecting that a folder of the same name already existed on the destination drive, the Move a Folder wizard inexplicably wouldn’t allow me to merge the contents of the two folders (the source, which was empty, and the destination, which had all my data). So I had to go through a dumb but simple enough process where I renamed the folders on the storage space and videos folders (to Users2, Videos2, and so on), moved each server folder location from the Dashboard, moved the contents between the old locations (Users2, etc.) to the new locations (Users, etc.) and then deleted the old locations. Yes, really.
At least it was simple. And sure enough, once it was done, everything was up and running as before. Even Crashplan had a nice surprise for me: Reinstalling the software, it noted a feature by which you can associate a new backup with a previous one. So it examined the current backup set (basically C: and S:), compared it to what was previously backed up, and just started backing up the new stuff. Nice!

A few more notes

Now, if you’re using Windows Home Server today, you may have noticed that this migration of mine involved only data, the files and folders I’m storing on the server and sharing via server folders. That is, I didn’t migrate PC backups, which is a concern for many of you, based on my email. While I don’t personally use the centralized PC backup feature in Essentials (or, previously, in WHS), my advice on this count: Start over when it comes to PC backups.
Ideally, you’ll be using a different server, and while I understand that’s not always possible you will want, at the very least, to have everything on that server—including the PC backups—backed up to external drives per my original warnings. The data on PCs is important, sure. But backups are only sort of important, and can and should be redone if you’ve re-made your infrastructure with Essentials 2012.
Aside from the actual migration of data, I of course have configured other aspects of the server, including media sharing, domain connectivity, centralized File History backups for my Windows 8 clients, and so on. I’ve written about these features in other articles in my ongoing series about Windows Server 2012 Essentials, and of course there’s a lot more to discuss. But moving from a previous home office/small business server like WHS 2011 to Essentials 2012 probably has to be time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be hard. But in my own experience, what I’ve arrived at is a superset of what I started with: A home office infrastructure based on Essentials 2012 instead of WHS 2011. Much of what I do is identical to before—file sharing, media sharing and remote access—but there are new, very interesting features that come along courtesy of the Windows Server 2012 base in Essentials, including Storage Spaces and File History integration, and of course the domain stuff which was absent in WHS.
Depending on your needs, this article may have raised more questions than answers. But again, this is an ongoing conversation. Let me know what I didn’t cover, or what you still have questions about, and I’ll see if I can’t answer any questions in future articles in this series.

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Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Connecting Windows 7 and 8 Home Versions

Oct. 7, 2012 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

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A few weeks back, I wrote about how you can connect any PCs running any version of Windows 7 or 8 to Windows Server 2012 Essentials without joining the domain. But if you’re running a home version of either client, there’s an even easier way.
I suppose you’ve heard what happens when you assume. When I wrote Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Connect Client PCs without Using a Domain, I was working under the assumption that Essentials 2012, as a domain-based Windows Server set up, would require a business-oriented version of Windows 7 (Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate) or Windows 8 (Pro or Enterprise). Put another way, I assumed that Essentials 2012 was not compatible with home versions of either OS (Windows 7 Starter or Home Premium, or Windows 8 Core).
This assumption was incorrect.
If you do have a business-oriented version of Windows 7 or Windows 8, the Essentials 2012 Connection wizard will connect that machine to the domain and you’ll be signing in as a domain user going forward. If that’s not what you want, the instructions in Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Connect Client PCs without Using a Domain still apply, and you can use them to connect using your normal, local PC account.
If, however, you are running a home version of Windows 7 or Windows 8, there’s no way for the Connection wizard to add a domain account to the machine. So it will instead let you continue using your local PC account instead. There’s just one catch, and I’m guessing this will not be an issue for many of those of you who are looking to use Essentials 2012 as a Windows Home Server replacement: You must sign in with a domain admin account once in order to get the Connector software installed on the PC.
If this is not a problem, here’s how it works. It’s really simple.
As with any other Windows 7- or 8-based PC, simply navigate to the Essentials 2012 server through your web browser by navigating to http://server-name/connect (where of course “server-name” is replaced by the simple name of your server; mine is named micro).
Then, run the Connection wizard as you would normally. You’ll be asked to provide the user name and password for an administrator account on the server in order to continue.

From there, the steps are just like with a domain connection: You provide a computer description, the Connector software (Launchpad, plus the Dashboard RemoteApp) are downloaded and installed, and you’re connected to the server. You’re just not connected to the domain.

From there, the PC works normally. You can run the Dashboard and Launchpad software as needed. Centralized PC backups occur in the background, as expected. The server shared folders and media sharing all work normally. (What you can’t do is implement group policy—that requires a domain—which means you can’t redirect common users folders to the server or automatically ensure that certain security policies are adhered to.)

In short, this is pretty much the Windows Home Server replacement many were expecting. It’s a bit easier to set up with home-based versions of Windows 7 and 8, as I’ve belatedly realized. But using the instructions I provided earlier, you should be able to safely ignore the domain features—if that’s what you want—on business-class versions of Windows 7 and 8 as well. Hey, at least you have the option.
I’m just sorry I didn’t realize this earlier. My mistake.




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Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Access the Server Remotely

While Windows Server 2012 Essentials provides excellent connectivity to your content and other server resources from within the local network, many users will be disconnected from that network much of the time too. How can you access your home office or small business network from the road?
The key to this functionality is a set of Essentials 2012 features that are collectively named Anywhere Access. This compromises a web front end to the PCs and server, your shared folders, and media collection, as well as VPN functionality which lets you remotely access your office network as if you were physically there.

Enabling Anywhere Access

Like many Essentials 2012 features, Anywhere Access needs to be enabled before it is available. You can do this from the Setup area of the Home tab in Dashboard. Or, also from Dashboard, just navigate to Settings, Anywhere Access.
Either way, you’re presented with a wizard that walks you through the steps required to configure the Anywhere Access features. Depending on your needs, this may be more complex than expected.
That’s because you need to connect your server to a publicly-available Internet domain name (like microsoft.com, though of course that one’s taken) for Anywhere Access to work. You can choose a domain name that you already own, or you can set up a new domain name: If you choose the latter, you can choose a xxxx.remotewebaccess.com address that will work fine for home office users but be unacceptable for anyone with an actual Internet presence.

Once the (Internet) domain name is set up, you configure Anywhere Access. This involves choosing which of the two Anywhere Access features you wish to enable, VPN (virtual private network) and/or Remote Web Access.

I’ll discuss those two features in a moment. After you’ve chosen, you determine whether permissions for Anywhere Access are applicable to all current and future users, though as the wizard notes you can always toggle these permissions at any time through the Users tab in Dashboard. (At least for standard users: Administrators always have Anywhere Access privileges.) Just right-click the user in question and choose View the account properties; then, navigate to the Anywhere Access tab in the resulting window.

After that, the wizard will set up the Anywhere Access features you enabled, including the VPN and the web site. It will then configure your router to forward external requests for these services to the Essentials 2012. That way, when you attempt to access your office network remotely (via VPN) or the Remote Web Access web site (from a web browser), everything will work as expected. This last part of the wizard requires you to have a fairly modern router, which is to say one that can be programmatically controlled via UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). If your router is not compatible, you’ll see the following error message and will need to manually configure port forwarding for this usage through the router’s administration web site. How you do that of course varies wildly from router to router, but Microsoft supplies some decent web-based instructions. (They’re from Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011, but still work for our purposes here.)

I had to go through this with the lousy Actiontec router that FIOS supplied, if you’re curious. If you can’t get this working with your own router, you can use LogMeIn Hamachi, which is a free VPN, and LogMeIn Free or LogMeIn Pro for other remote access features.

Accessing Anywhere Access features

As noted earlier, Anywhere Access includes two components, VPN and Remote Web Access.
VPN allows you to access network resources when you’re away from the office. The theory here is that your office’s local network is what’s called a “private” network, whereas the Internet is a public network. With VPN, you can tunnel into your private network from the Internet. That way you can do things like access Essentials 2012’s server folders (or shared folders on connected PCs) through Network Explorer, or access the server through Remote Desktop Connection or the Dashboard, just a bit more slowly than if you were really there on the same network. VPN is the next best thing to being there.
VPN is available in all Windows Server 2012 versions, but it’s set up and configuration is automated for you in Essentials 2012, making it a heck of a lot easier to use.
Remote Web Access is unique to Essentials 2012, and a friendlier, web-based way of presenting network resources to users who are away from the network.

Available services from this interface include: Remote desktop access to the server and any correctly configured PCs. You can click the Connect button next to the server or any connected (and awake) PC to access it via Remote Desktop Connection.
Shared folders. You can access any server folder shares using an FTP-like web interface that lets you upload and download files from the road.

Media Library. If your media library is being shared as I documented in Windows Server 2012 Essentials Tip: Enable and Configure Media Sharing, you can access your shared pictures, music, and videos from outside your network, and do such things as play photo slideshows, music, or videos, all from within a web browser.

Windows Server 2012’s remote access features are pretty complete, assuming you can get through that Set up Anywhere Access wizard successfully. That shouldn’t be an issue for most people, but I’ve struggled for years with similar wizards in predecessor products, and have never successful configured the FIOS router for this purpose. Clearly it’s time for an upgrade.

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Windows Server 2012 Essentials: Coping with Alerts

One of the downsides to use Windows Server 2012 Essentials is that its built-in alerts, while useful for keeping your environment up to date, can be more than a bit too chatty. These alerts seem to pop-up for the most inane of infractions, and you will waste a lot of time dealing with them at first.
I wish I had better news on this one. If you’re familiar with how alerts worked in Windows Home Server 2011 or Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011, then you understand the basics. But this is one area where Essentials 2012 actually does a worse job than its predecessors: In fact, the alerts are a bit out of control.
So what I can offer you for now—Microsoft tells me it will look at fixing the volume of alerts at some point—is more along the line of coping strategies than easily reproducible advice. The thing is, your approach to these alerts will vary according to the needs of your environment, where a home office might elect for more relaxed approach while a managed small business might want to take them a bit more seriously.
Also problematic is that some of these alerts force you down a rabbit hole of more complex management Windows Server administrative interfaces. These interfaces can be unfamiliar and inscrutable to those who stuck with Windows PCs or Windows Home Server in the past.
Anyway. Let’s see how this works.
If you sign in to the Essentials 2012 Dashboard, you’ll see an alert notification in the upper right corner of the window. This notification uses a series of colors to indicate the health of your environment, which includes not just the server itself but also all of the connected PCs. So you could theoretically see a blue informational icon with a “0” next to it, indicating that all is well and that you have no alerts. But since you will never actually see this, here’s what it looks like, next to the other notification types.

Far more common, unfortunately, is the yellow “bang” color, indicating you have some (real or imagined) issues, or, worse, the red “warning” color, indicating one or more serious issues. Signing into my own real-world Essentials 2012 server this morning, I see that I have 5 alerts to deal with. On a second testing server, I have two.
So let’s see what these alerts are, before moving on to dealing with them. Just click that notification icon to see the Alert Viewer.

On my actual Essentials 2012 server, I see the following (in which I slightly edited out non-essential information):
BPA scan results contain Warnings. BPA scan found 1 warnings in your network. From the server dashboard, click Devices tab, select your server, and then click Best Practices Analyzer to view additional details.
Important updates should be installed. ZENBOOK [one of my laptops]. One or more important updates are available to be installed. In the Alert Viewer, click Open Windows Update. Follow the instructions for initiating update installation.
Important updates should be installed. VM-ENT [another PC, in a VM]. One or more important updates are available to be installed. In the Alert Viewer, click Open Windows Update. Follow the instructions for initiating update installation
Low storage capacity on hard drives. MICRO [the server]. The following hard drives are low of capacity: Storage space (S:). To increase the capacity of the storage pool, add a new available hard drive to the storage pool. If you have already plugged the hard drive in, open the related alert, or go to Hard Drives tab on the Dashboard, select the hard drive that is low in capacity, and click Increase storage pool capacity task.
One or more server folders are located on the system hard drive. MICRO. The following server folders are located on the system hard drive: Folder Redirection, File History Backups, Client Computer Backups.  It is recommended that you move the server folders that are located on the system drive to a different hard drive to help protect your data against disaster. To move a server folder from the system drive to a different hard drive, select the server folder, and then click Move the folder task.
So what’s really wrong here?
The first issue, regarding the BPA scan, is related to a new feature of Essentials 2012, in which Microsoft has integrated a Best Practices Analyzer tool into the OS to monitor the system and ensure that it conforms to Microsoft’s known best practices. Here, my server has run afoul of a configuration change I always make on my servers, where I disable Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Configuration feature for administrator accounts; I do this so I can browse the web from the server when needed, but Microsoft does not approve of this behavior. The solution? You can fix it, I guess, or ignore the rule in the BPA tool. Which is what I did. That doesn’t prevent it from appearing in the BPA report, but it does prevent it from triggering an alert.
The next two issues involve two of my client PCs, which I don’t use regularly. Apparently they both need to be updated. On the VM, the required Windows Update isn’t important at all, not by any reasonable measure: It wanted me to install Silverlight. (I’ve also seen this alert triggered for Defender definition updates, which are very common and regular.) On the physical PC, there was a pending update for “Update for Internet Explorer Flash Player for Windows 8.” Now that one is arguably important. But here’s the thing: These PCs are both configured to automatically install updates, so I should never be warned about these issues. Installing the updates “fixed” the problems (removing the alerts), but they’re just going to come back when the inevitable future updates arrive.
The low capacity thing has been bothering me for a few days, and I admit to being stumped on this one. My storage space, the S: drive, is made of 2 3TB hard drives, and because I’m using a two-way mirror, the space “sees” a total of 3TB; the data should be equally spanned between the two disks. I’m only using 1TB of space, so I should have about 2 TB of free space overall. So I’m unclear why I get this error. I will investigate this one further. (In the meantime I simply added two more external hard drives to shut the thing up. Problem “solved.”)
The last issue is easily fixed, and yes, you should move all of the server folders off of the system drive. I’ve moved the other ones to S: (Company, Music, Pictures, Recorded TV, and Users, plus one I make called Software) and V: (Videos) already, and I’m not sure why I didn’t move the others. But doing so via the simple Move a Folder wizard in the Dashboard for each removed the alert.
What I’m left with is one alert that I can’t really fix, not yet. And from experience I know that I’m going to be dealing with some of the same alerts again and again. Like anyone administering a server, what I really want is for it to be working properly and not throwing alerts. Is there any other way to deal with these things?
Yes. As it turns out, you can ignore or delete alerts too. The difference between these choices may seem subtle, but it’s important.
Ignore. If you look at the Alert Viewer, you’ll see an “Ignore this alert” link in the description of each alert. Ignoring an alert will remove it from the health assessment for your environment, which is desirable in some cases, though it will continue to appear in the Alert Viewer. So if you choose to ignore alerts about pending updates on PCs (because you know they will be installed automatically), those alerts will no longer trigger a notification.
Delete. This option is hidden, and you have to right-click the alert name to see it. Deleting the alert removes it from the Alert Viewer (and thus from the network health assessment), which is certainly useful. But if the condition that triggered the alert continues, another alert will be generated.
Of course, most people aren’t going to be signing into the server interactively anyway, at least not regularly, and certainly not after the server is up and running and configured properly. So most of these alerts will be surfaced through the Launchpad application on your client PCs instead. As it turns out, the experience is similar: Tapping the alert notification icon in the Launchpad window will display Alert Viewer, this time on your client PC.

That said, you can always turn off these notification in Launchpad, or change the scope so that you’re only alerted to issues that are local to your own PC. To do that, access Launchpad settings from the strange little icon next to the window minimize icon at the top of the window.
This will hide problems, not solve them. But sometimes, after you’ve struggled with these alerts for too long, all you’re looking for is a little respite. And when it comes to these incredibly annoying alerts, selectively ignoring and deleting the alerts for issues you can’t or won’t fix isn’t enough.
That said, you may wish for even more alerts. Essentials 2012 can accommodate that need, too: You can enable an email alert notification through the Dashboard to get these notifications automatically. And you can even install a Health Report for Windows Server 2012 Essentials add-on that will let you run reports, automatically or manually, about the health of your environment.
OK, I’m not going to go there. :)


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