Securing your USB with BitLocker To Go

A lot of PC users are still using Windows XP and Windows Vista, this article might change your mind and upgrade to Windows 7. 

BitLocker was already introduced during the reign Windows Vista for encrypting your hard drive.  When Windows 7 came, BitLocker To Go was added which allows us to encrypt USB flash drives.  A nice innovation since flash drives are essentials to us PC users.  This application will make your data more secure, protecting your precious and confidential documents in the wrong hands.

To encrypt your USB flash drive, open My Computer and right-click on the flash drive that you want to be encrypted and select Turn on BitLocker

You will be asked to key in your password for you to unlock the drive.

You will then be asked to to store a recovery key just in case you will lose or forgot your password.  Be advised that if you select to save it as a file don’t store it in the save flash drive that you are encrypting.  You will be seeing a confirmation that your key has been saved or a printed should you prefer to print your recovery key.

Click on the Start Encrypting button to encrypt your flash drive.

You will see a progress bar to see the status of your drive encryption.  After encryption you will be prompted that the encryption is complete.  You will also notice that the icon of your flash drive will change showing that it is encrypted with BitLocker.

And you’re done!  Your drive is now encrypted and secured!  Now every time you’ll access your flash drive you’ll be prompted to key in your password.  Notice also that the color of your drive’s icon will change depending on the status of your drive.  Gold color indicates that your drive is locked and gray indicates that your drive is unlocked.

Your Encrypted dive can also be used and opened in Windows Vista and XP but unfortunately you can only copy and read files on those platform,  You will need a Windows 7 platform should you need to add or modify a file.

Before I forgot, this feature is only available to Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

New Windows Live Essentials on it’s way to our PC!

Since it’s announcement, I’ve been waiting for the new Essentials from Windows Live.  Now I’m just a few hours away to test the Beta release of this cool innovative product from Microsoft which greatly help me to improve my day-to-day task.  You can view the blog from windowsteamblog.com announcing the arrival of the Essentials Beta release on June 24, 2010 (US Time of course) and it’s a few hours away! For the mean time enjoy this video clip preview of the new Windows Live Essentials Beta!

The Beta release of the new Live Essential will be available and can be downloaded here.

Office 2010… which is which?

Now that Microsoft Office 2010 is out in the market, lets see which version is right for you and will fit your everyday productivity needs.  Office 2010 has a total of six (6) versions, 3 in retail channels, 2 in volume licensing and 1 for the academic purposes.  Whoever you are, whatever you do there’s an Office 2010 that is right for you. Let’s compare editions.

For retail channels, which means that these versions will be available in you favorite computer stores. We have Office 2010 Home and Student, Home add Business, and Professional. 

Note: The retail license terms for Office Home and Student 2010 allow for installation on up to three home computers. Not intended for use in any commercial, nonprofit, or revenue generating business activities, or by any government organization.

If you are in the enterprise or have a business of you own and you need to purchase five or more licenses of Office 2010 perhaps it’s good to consider the Standard Edition or the Professional Plus Editions.  Compare below.

Note: These editions is available through volume licensing only and cannot be found in retail markets.

At the University, Office Professional Academic 2010 is available for low price to fit student budgets.

There are 2 more editions that I haven’t discussed, the Office 2010 Mobile and the Office 2010 Starter, but  that’s another story. There you have it, the six new editions of Microsoft’s superb productivity suite available for your daily productivity needs!

Have you chosen your edition yet? :)

Office Web Apps is Already in SkyDrive!

I’ve been checking my SkyDrive for the Office Web Apps ever since the RTM of Office2010 has been launched on May 12, 2010.  I’ve been using the Office 2010 RTM since the launch and anticipating the deployment of of the Web Apps to complete my Office 2010 experience! Initially only MS Excel has the edit in browser feature. For the MS Worid and Powerpoint you can only view the file but not edit it in browser.  Now the waiting is over! Just yesterday, during the business launch of Office 2010 held at Shangri-La Makati, I opened my SkyDrive and noticed something in it! The Interface has been changed, files are now listed by date and as I hovered my mouse pointer to a Word doc file an option that says “Edit in Browser” will appear.  Same thing happened when I hover my mouse pointer in a PowerPoint file!  this just means that Office Web Apps is now fully deployed and now ready to be used anytime and anywhere I want (provided that I have a connection in the cloud haha)

With the Office Web Apps in full deployment, sharing files is easier than ever! No more repetitive editing of a document or file to update it and upload it again to SkyDrive.  I can just edit a file and update it online without the hassle of downloading, editing, and uploading it again!  This new feature of Live.com will benefit students on their group projects, teachers who give always give a soft copy of their lecture, a small business that needs file sharing, and a lot more!

The Web Apps release includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, which has language support for English, Spanish (USA) and French (Canada), more language to come in the coming months!

Now I can say that my Office 2010 experience is complete! :)

 

Catch Microsoft Office 2010 and find out what's happening as we launch Office 2010 in the Philippines! Click here and join office2010tayo, the official Office 2010 community here in the Philippines!