TeamViewer Remote Control

Review: TeamViewer allows you to remote control any PC on the Internet with a super-easy-to-use program that works through all routers and firewalls. Free for personal use; inexpensive for business use.

Sometimes it is nice to remote-control someone else's PC. I was on a call with a friend and he wanted me to see what was on his screen. I downloaded and ran TeamViewer and 20 seconds later, I was looking at his computer.

Another good example might be tech-support for a family member, again, in 20 seconds, you can see what they are seeing (and if needed, control their mouse and keyboard). Finally, you can use it to reach your home computer from the office.

The Product:

All-in-one TeamViewer Full Version
www.TeamViewer.com
Free for personal use

• Team Viewer can remotely control any PC anywhere on the Internet
• No installation is required
  
• A novice can start a session in about 60 seconds
• It works through all Firewalls and Routers!
• It works with any screen resolution
• Transmissions are encrypted
• It is fast, easy and free for non-commercial users
  

The Design:

To use the software, both sides of the connection need to run the program (a single executable, about 2MB). For a quick, one-time session, double-click the downloaded program and click "RUN".

Then decide if you are going to host the session or if you want to connect to another person's session.

If you are hosting a session (you as the presenter), the system generates a session-ID and password. Via Email or over the phone, tell the other person(s) the codes, which they type into their program. When they click Connect, they immediately see your screen and can have control of the mouse and keyboard. With a click, the session can be flipped around, making you the presenter. All of this works easily and transparently.

Detailed Steps:

These instructions probably appear more involved than they really are. Be aware when you start the program, you can choose to install the software or you can simply "run" it. Use "Run" for those one-time connections; use Install if you frequently need to connect to the same machine.

1. Download the TeamViewer program.

a. Goto www.TeamViewer.com; click the download tab.

b. Download "All-in-one: TeamViewer Full Version".
(Both sides of the connection need to download this same software)

c. Save the file (TeamViewer_Setup.exe) to the desktop or other known location.

(If you are setting this up for a student or parent and they would never need to remote-control your computer, they can download the "TeamViewer QuickSupport", which runs immediately, again without installation, and does not require administrative rights to run.)

2. Double-click "TeamViewer_Setup.exe" and choose RUN if you want a quick, one-time connection with the other person.

Note: Although the program is called "_Setup.exe", it does not "have to be" installed, see below.

a. Windows 7 and Vista will prompt for permission; look on your task bar for permission.

b. When prompted to "Install or Run," most should click RUN.


If you plan on using the program often, consider installing and setting up more advanced options. You must 'install' if you need to connect to your machine unattended. However, for occasional remote-control sessions, the RUN option will work well.

3. The login screen appears next:

It is split into two halves:


Decision:

• If you are trying to remote-control someone else's computer, have them tell you their semi-permanent Session ID. You type their session ID in the ID box and click "Connect to Partner". You will be prompted for their password.
  
  
• If you want the other person to remote-control your computer, tell them your Session-ID and password, as displayed on the left of the screen.

4. You are connected and you should see their screen. You are done!

Do this: On the top tool-bar banner-menu, click "View, Show Remote Cursor" (so you can see their mouse move). I've noticed when you click any of the banner-menus, the session temporarily disconnects; click "Connect" to re-connect.

If you are the person being remote-controlled, your wallpaper will turn gray (as an indication your computer is being remotely controlled) and there is a pop-up window on the bottom-right of your screen, showing the status of the connection.

While Remote Controlling:

You can see and click anywhere on the other person's screen and you have full keyboard and mouse control. If the remote person moves the mouse at the same time as you, they win all conflicts.

One-time per session you will see a small nag screen offering to buy the product. The software is unabashedly free for personal use, but they want to remind you of this. The nag does not cause undue problems.

Other Features:

Without getting into details, you can upload and download files directly to their computer, choosing any directory. And it almost goes without saying, you can launch their copy of Windows Explorer and copy, move and delete files on the remote machine, as if you were there.


While on the Road - Connect to Home

If you install the full client (as opposed to Run-only), you can reach your computer while traveling. As long as your computer is on and you know the Session-ID and password, you can make an unattended connection to your own computer.

In summary:

This is a slick program and is better than previous software that I've used (including VNC and Ultra-VNC). It works over Port 80, passing through TeamViewer servers, and this is how it can tunnel through firewalls.

For personal use, it is free. For commercial use, see their website for costs. If you pay for a license, it is a one-time, perpetual license with all new versions and you can use it for presentations, demos, technical support, etc.

Disk Imaging Cleanup Steps

Run these disk-cleanup steps prior to backing up a hard disk; this will save you time and disk space. These steps work for Windows 7, Vista and XP. Update: Modified for Windows 7 on 2010.08.

Disk Image backups take considerable time to spin because an average Windows Vista hard disk has 80+Gig of data. This translates into a dozen compressed DVD disks. But for many machines, half of this space are temp files. If you could delete these, the resulting backup would take half the time and half the space.

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Other directly-related articles:

• USB Drive Backup Speed Slow
• Acronis 2010 Step-by-Step

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Check Current Disk-space use

Ideally, close all programs and reboot the computer; this helps clean up and date current temp files, making later steps slightly easier.

Open MyComputer (or Explorer). Other-mouse-click Drive C: and select "Properties" to see how much drive space is being used.

For example, my computer was using a total 37G of space (illustrated as the blue and yellow sections); when I finished with these steps, I reduced my total disk space, leaving only the blue-section. This is your goal:

(Click image for a larger view, Back to return)

Steps for Disk Cleanup

1. Using The Disk Cleanup Utility:

As you install new software and Microsoft Updates, Windows builds System Backup files. These take a lot of space and they can be deleted. This single step can recover most of the disk space for most people. Do this step each time you make a backup.

a. Using Windows Explorer, highlight Drive C:. Other-mouse-click and select "Properties" (illustration, above)

b. In the General tab, click the "Disk Cleanup" button just below the pie-chart. This will take a half-minute to load. Vista will prompt "Choose which files to cleanup"
Select "Files from all users...".

2. Click the top-tab "More Options"
If using Windows 7, click "Clean up System Files", then click the Tab.

a. Click the System Restore and Shadow Copy's "Clean-up" button.
b. Click OK to "Delete all but the most recent restore points."


c. Click OK and OK to begin the cleanup.

This will take several minutes and you may or may not see an hour glass, depending on your version of Windows. After a few moments you will be prompted: "Delete Files".

Of all the steps documented here, this will recover the most disk space. On my system, this usually frees up about 15Gig of space! This alone is worth a few DVDs. Check your free-space again to see if this helped.


3. One-time Step: Hibernation File

Decision: The Windows Hibernation file holds a backup of RAM when you want to quickly shut down and restart a laptop. This feature is most often used with laptop computers. If you use this feature, skip this step. But on desktops, this is seldom needed and doing a one-time delete can save 2 to 6 GB of disk space. I delete this file on all of my computers and this is a one-time step.

If Windows XP:

a. On the first tab of the Disk Properties screen (step 1, above), examine the 'Files To Delete' checkboxes. By checking the Hibernation box, deletes the file. After checking, continue with the same cleanup steps in steps 1 and 2. If you do not see this box, the feature has already been deleted.

b. In Control Panel, click 'Performance and Maintenance', Power Options, Hibernate tab. Uncheck Enable hibernation.


If Windows 7:

Disable the Hibernation feature with these somewhat tedious one-time steps:

a. Control Panel, Power Options. Click on the current "Change Plan Settings"
b. Click on the bottom "Change Advanced Power Settings"
c. Click "Change Settings that are currently unavailable"
d. Click "+" and open the Sleep section; confirm "Hibernate After" is set to Never.

e. Make this same change to the other plans

f. Next, click Start, locate a "Command Prompt" (DOS). Other mouse-click the Command-Prompt menu choice and "Run as Administrator".

g. At the DOS prompt, type "PowerCFG -h off" (no quotes). Close the DOS Box and save Control Panel changes. You will note a file "C:\Windows\hyberfil.sys" will have been deleted.


4. Empty and Compact your Email programs.Most people have never done this and over the years the Email databases get huge.

Within your email program, begin by opening the "SENT" folder and deleting older messages, keeping the most recent month or so (do this for Mozilla's Thunderbird's Email Client or with Outlook). Then, continue below with additional cleanup steps.

With Mozilla's Thunderbird

• Select File, "Empty Trash"
• followed by File, "Compact Folders", in this order.

With Outlook

• Select the Trash Folder;
• Highlight all messages (click the first message, Shift-click the last message), then press Delete.
• Select Edit, "Purge Deleted Messages".
• Next, select File, "Data File Management", select your "Personal Folder", click "Settings.
• On the General Tab, click Compact Now.
• Click OK (twice) then Close.

5. Clean your Browser Cache:

With Mozilla's FireFox

• Select Tools, Clear Private Data.
• Accept the defaults and generally do not erase the cookies.
• While you are in the program, consider these two changes: Select Tools, Options, Advanced and change the Cache to 8 or 10 MB, instead of the default 100MB.

With IE

• This is cleaned in a step below or you can launch IE, selecting Tools, Internet Options,
• In Browsing History, select "Delete..."
• Choose "Delete Temporary Internet Files".
• While you are in the program, select Tools, Internet Options, General.
• In the Browser History Section, select Settings and change the "Disk Space to Use" to 8MB.

6. Delete "Temp" folder contents:

There are several TEMP folders that can be cleaned up (leaving the folders, but deleting their contents). You may or may not have folders in these locations and there may not be files -- but on some systems, there might be thousands of files tucked away in these temp folders:

Microsoft hides these folders from most users and you will need to expose them before you can manipulate their contents. Do the following:

Expose Temp Folders (one-time step):

a. Open Windows Explorer. Select top-menu Tools, Folder Options, View.
b. Check "Show hidden files and folders"
c. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file-types..."
d. Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files..."
e. Click "Apply to all folders", then OK


Delete Files in Temp Folders
Here are likely places where temp-folders can be found:

• C:\Documents and Settings\(your userid)\Local Settings\Temp (XP)
• C:\Users\(your userid)\AppData\Local\Temp (Vista)
• C:\TEMP (you may not have this folder)
• C:\Windows\Temp

For each path, open use Windows Explorer to open and highlight each folder, starting with C:\Documents and Settings\(your user-id)\Local Settings\Temp (if XP).

a. While highlighting the folder, Select the top-menu, View, by "Details."

b. Click on the "Date" column header, to sort by Date.

c. Highlight all files older than today by clicking the first in the list, and shift-clicking the last file in the list (selecting all files older than your most recent reboot).

d. Press Delete to delete the highlighted files.

Don't worry if some of the files can't be deleted because they are in-use.


7. Delete old Uninstall Files:

With Windows XP and Vista: Use Explorer, open the main C:\Windows folder. You may find a large list of folders with names such as "$NtUninstallKB9x".... and usually the filenames are blue. From Windows Explorer's detail side, delete all of these types of folders; there may be dozens of them. These are rollback files and are safe to delete. Neither you nor your computer will miss them.

Steps: Click the first blue folder; then shift-click the last blue folder. Press Delete. You may be bugged about deleting an executable -- allow it to happen.


8. Add Remove unneeded programs:
Continue with this recommended steps: In Vista/Windows 7's Control Panel, click "Programs and Features" (for Windows XP, use the Control Panel's "Add-Remove Programs").

Un-install unneeded programs, such as old photo editors and old games.


9. Examine the "Prefetch" folder:
Using Windows Explorer, locate the folder C:\Windows\Prefetch. Examine this folder.

Many websites recommend deleting the contents of this folder, but this is an urban myth. However, I have seen a malfunction here, especially on Windows XP computers.

Normally, the folder should contain about 128 files, but if this folder contains many hundreds of files, it is not behaving properly. In this case delete all the files (including "layout.ini") but leave the directory in place. Otherwise, if 128 files or less, leave the folder alone. This is a one-time step and once cleaned this step can be ignored.


Compare your Free-space results:

Check your work by looking at your free disk space. On my disk, I now have about 20GB of used disk space, down from 37GB. This is a typical result and as you can tell, this saves a lot of time and DVD's. Total cleanup time: about 5 minutes. This is also a great time to defragment the disk.

Your comments on this article are welcome.

Related Articles:
USB Drive Backup Speed SlowAcronis 2010 Step-by-Step
Acronis vs Ghost -- Review of Disk Imaging Programs
Maxtor External USB Drive - Review
Optimizing the Windows Swap File

Demon Eyes

For fun: I stumbled upon this blog: Build a set of blinking "Demon Eyes" for Halloween.

http://datamanlv.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
(scroll down the blog a few pages for the article)

Hide these things in the bushes. This will be a fun project with the kids.

Failed Laptop Power Supply CQ50

Commentary: Failed HP Laptop Power supply is expensive to replace. This article offers no help on how to repair.

My daughter's HP/Compaq laptop's power supply failed last week.
The voltmeter showed electricity going in but none coming out and there was no obvious physical damage.

This is one of those "smart" power-supplies, with a center data-pin, and the pin was intact. A similarly-expensive Dell power supply worked, proving the problem was with the supply. (I found it interesting that the DELL supply, with its smart-pin, worked on the HP; I did not test, but I suspect both would behave the same -- they would power the laptop but would not charge the battery unless it recognized the power supply. As I've written before, this is a safety feature to keep the batteries from overcharging and exploding.)

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The Pain:

The original laptop cost $280.00.
The replacement power supply cost $80

That works out to be nearly 30% of the laptop's original cost - for a power supply!

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Interior Shots:

From HP's own site, reviews showed a remarkable 82% dissatisfaction rate with this product. Apparently it likes to fail.

Having no choice, I ordered a replacement and it is in transit. I thought you might like to see what was inside. As you look at the pictures, keep in mind there are no user-serviceable parts. A table-saw was skillfully applied during the dis-assembly and naturally I don't condone this behavior.


With the cover and metal shielding removed. Note the silicon globs (gobs):


Except to my wallet, no obvious problems were found. I'll probably examine the unit more carefully with a volt-meter, but the back-side circuit board contains several integrated circuits, which I am not skilled in diagnosing. However, none looked, smelled or tasted fried:



Details:
Compatibility: HP G50, G60, G61, G62, G70, G71, HDX16, HP Pavilion dv3, dv4, dv5, dv6, dv7, dv3000, dv3500, Compaq Presario CQ35, CQ40, CQ45, CQ50, CQ60, CQ61, CQ70, CQ71

New Product:
HP / Compaq 90w Laptop Power Supply NW199AA#ABA

Original Product:
Series PPP009h
Manufactured by Hipro Electronics (Suzhou)
HP labeled part number: 463552-02
Output: 18.5v / 3.5amps 65watts
Center data pin: Read this review on a similar Dell unit, which explains this pin.

The original power supply was 65watts, but HP is recommending a 90watt replacement, hence the discrepancies between what I had and what I ordered.

Naturally, the day after I ordered, HP dropped the price by $12. I'm writing.

Clearly, at these prices, this is a segment of the industry that is too proprietary. I understand that all cell phone manufacturers are standardizing their powersupplies so they can be used across brands. This will drive down prices and will be healthier for the environment. I hope the computer industry follows. The way it is now is too painful for customers and it tarnishes the brands.

Vaguely Related Articles:
Dell XPS M1530 Slim Power Supply
Battery Edge Replacement Review
Windows 7 and Vista Network Problems (Laptop Wireless)