Microsoft Dynamics GP – renovated Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ERP

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is now renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP, as well as Microsoft Navision into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Axapta into Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Solomon into Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft CRM into Microsoft Dynamcis CRM. Of course Microsoft has the plan to select the most marketing attractive name for its ERP products, however the other side of the renaming may be in the plan to move Project Green forward. At the final phase of Project Green Microsoft might drop GP, NAV, AX, SL and CRM extensions and make final version name to be simply Microsoft Dynamics. Interesting fact that Great Plains Software, which was the first candidate for Microsoft ERP software acquisition had Great Plains Dynamics brand, so probably Microsoft is plying retrospection card, in any case Microsoft technically owns GPS Dynamics brand anyway. In this small article we will give our retro view on Great Plains Dynamics customization, development and reporting. 1. Great Plains Dexterity – this is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package – Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope – that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface. Nowadays, however – and this is a good thing – most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server – so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures. 2. Modifier with VBA. Unfortunately you have to purchase this tool and get new registration keys. If you are familiar with VBA customization for Access or Excel – you have all the skills needed – then you just attach your scripts to the buttons and fields on GP forms (you can modify these forms with Modifier – or just tough them with it). 3. Continuum for VB/Delphi – we don’t recommend this tool, because it is using Great Plains as OLE server – and you probably don’t want to be trapped by old technology. 4. Crystal Reports. Great Plains has its own ReportWriter, but its functionality is limited – you can’t do cross modules reports (you can’t link Sales and Purchasing tables in one report, for example). So – you use Crystal. The GP tables structure is in Tools->Resource Description->Tables … and you are in control. Feel free to create views and stored procs directly in the companies databases – it doesn’t hurt the Dexterity engine 5. Direct web publishing from Great Plains SQL databases, using Visual Studio.net and your language of choice (VB.Net, C#, J#, etc). Plus you probably want to have several SQL stored procs. 6. eConnect – this tool is type of SDK with VB.net samples. It allows you to feed data into Great Plains and was primarily created for eCommerce developers. 7. Integration Manager – it is end-user tool for importing to GP, however if end-user meets some challenges in the integration – you as a developer can help with VBA scripts. IM validates 100% of business logic and uses hidden GP forms – so it maybe slow for big on-going integrations, when you have thousands records per day – in this case you rescue to eConnect or directly to SQL store procedures. 8. SQL queries - as a developer you have unlimited potential in using SQL queries, because the database in MS SQL Server. Be careful, it is kind of surgery - you can easily delete all your customers, by executing: DELETE RM00101 Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Broadband Review

The Uses Of Broadband Broadband is a high-speed Internet connection that provides a large bandwidth. It is considered a very quick connection. It is an "always-on" type of connection and can transmit data at a much faster rate than your usual dialup connection. Broadband also has the added advantage of not tying up your phone line, which means you can use the both the Internet and telephone at the same time. Broadband can be provided from a variety of sources, including over the top of your phone line as in ADSL or on dedicated line such as Cable or ISDN. Typically, low-band Internet access is running up to 56kbps using a dial-up modem. Mid-band Internet is described as dialup access that operates at 64kbps or 128kbps. Standard broadband starts at 512kbps, which is about five times faster than dial-up service. Broadband is also available at 1mbps, 1.5mbps and 2.2mbps. There are companies that offer broadband at 4mbps and 8mbps. The maximum possible for cable is around 26mbps and 24mbps for ADSL. These speeds are not sold commercially because the cost to upgrade the telephone lines to be able to transmit data at these speeds is very high. Downloading and streaming music and video is very quick with broadband. There are a lot of websites now that are designed especially for broadband users. They have intense integrated graphics, flash and video. Broadband is also popular for online gaming. Game consoles like Xbox and PS2 have broadband support included. You can then subscribe to different types of gaming packages from your current ISP, which makes it possible to play Xbox and PS2 games live with other gamers over the Internet. Actually, online PC gaming has been going on since the Internet came into use, but in the past it was difficult to do. Slow and jerky response from your computer made it hard to play, and you always had to keep an eye on the time. Now, with the faster speeds of broadband, it has become much easier and is quickly gaining in popularity. Some games are now being released that require an Internet connection to play. The growing popularity of broadband has made it necessary for most providers to put a maximum limit on the amount of music, video and other data you can download. This limit can vary greatly, from as low as 1 GB up to 30 GB. Extreme users can get unlimited downloads if they wish. However, exceeding your ISP's download limit usually results in having a limited connection or no connection at all. One of the possible futures of broadband is Internet Television. The current bandwidth, which is the amount of data you can send and receive, is not wide enough to provide an image that is of comparable quality to that of your standard television. The ever- increasing broadband speeds will make Internet Television a reality. Since you can currently download clips from the shows, music videos and other content you like, it will soon be possible to do it legally in real time. Another use of broadband is online telephony. This is software that allows you to use your computer as a telephone and talk to people from anywhere without any extra cost. It is becoming commonplace, and has a higher quality or recording than a traditional telephone line. With the increase in the speeds of broadband, it may soon replace your television and telephone, and will find its way into every home. The success of broadband is making the Internet a great resource that's easy to use and fun to access for a variety of needs.

CD Duplication: Superb Quality At A Cheap Price... Don’t You Love It?

There has never been a more opportune moment to have your audio book, music project, training disc, or CD-R business card duplicated than this very moment. Why? Simply stated, because it’s cheap! The cost of blank CDs has dropped drastically over the past couple of years. Retail outlets such as Office Max and Staples run specials on blank CDs where you can purchase a 50 CD-R spindle for under $20. Froogle has similar deals on blank CDs with a 50 pack available for less than $12. For those interested in CD duplication at home, many of the popular Dell series of computers come packaged with a CD burner included for prices starting under $500. If you already own a computer and want to add an internal CD burner, several retailers have brands available for under $50. You can even purchase an external CD burner to satisfy your CD duplication needs for under $100. Making cheap CD duplication even more affordable are CD duplication powerhouses such as DiscMakers, Oasis, and CDman who specialize in duplicating large quantities of CDs at low prices. Not only do these CD duplication firms offer superior quality at an affordable price, they also give unbelievably low package deals on graphics, CD inserts, jewel cases, and other professional accompaniments to complete your CD project. The best part about these cheaper prices is that you are not sacrificing quality in the process. You are still getting exceptional digital quality with each CD purchased. However, because CDs are limited in the amount of data that can be stored on them in comparison to DVDs and other forms of recordable/writable media, the prices of CD duplication continues to fall. With all of this being said, what are you waiting on? Stop paying higher prices and start saving money today while growing your business with cheap CD duplication services. With prices this low, how can you resist?

Fast Web Design For The Skint Webmaster

About two years ago, I had a go at commercial web site design. I put a medium-sized ad in a London classified ad paper. Nothing fancy: "Web designer seeks work ..." etc. This was expensive, about £500 for a month's run. Got a few replies. Lesson number one: advertise where clients of the calibre you want will see it. The clients I got thought £300 was a lot for a web site. They didn't want to pay web hosting. They wanted a lot of bang for their buck. 'Mission creep' was a term I grew to know and loathe. This set me thinking: how could I give these people all they could ever want, but not spend a lot of time and money? Lately, I realised how. So how can you get a full featured site up in a day? Easy (ish!). 1. Mambo Content Management System http://www.mambo.com I wish I'd found this software a couple of years ago. It's freeware. The default set-up allows people without web design skills to update the site. It has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option. This adds HTMLArea code to text input form fields. Each HTML code input box becomes a mini HTML editor. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can add formatted HTML code to the site. To get it running you need to know how to install MySQL databases, or have PHPMyAdmin as part of your web-hosting package. You can add articles, edit them, send emails to members, and be contacted by users. The only criticisms I have of this software are: 1. The admin interface is confusing. It's all there, just finding and using it is the problem! 2. You need to search around template sites to find ones suited to your site purpose. I wanted simple, clean, business ones. Most of those available seem to have a fat graphic which covers half the screen. There are more restrained ones out there. These are minor gripes, compared to the relief of finding what is essentially a web site in a box. It can be installed in an hour, once you get familiar with it. To add ecommerce to your site: Oscommerce Shopping Cart http://www.oscommerce.com Again, this is a full-featured, freeware software. You can add lots of freeware 'plug-ins' to it, to get a professional shopping cart. Therein lies the danger. Some of these plug-ins require altering or overwriting the default cart files. When you try to upgrade the cart version later, you may 'break' it, by overwriting a plug-in, thus creating errors. The trick here is to only install plug-ins that add files (rather than overwrite them) or that require minor alterations to existing files. What I do is download all the versions of the plug-in type I need e.g. a WYSIWYG editor. I then choose the one which has the least files, or which creates a new directory for its files. If it requires that important files be overwritten, or is complex, I chuck it. Mambo and Oscommerce. Don't try to integrate them! Hyperlink from one to the other. I've tried integrations of other softwares, like PhpBB and PhpNuke. Fine, when it works, but when you upgrade one or the other, arrgh! *Keep databases separate*. If one goes skew-whiff, then at least the other will still work. Same goes for adding chat rooms and the like. If they're all running off the one database, and that database becomes corrupted ... It may offend your sense of tidiness for your visitors to have to sign up twice at your site, but you'll thank me for this sage advice later. Remember KISS is the basic rule of computing (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Correctional Institution Preventive Maintenance Software

There is a great need for preventive maintenance in correctional institutions. The public would be at risk if penal facilities waited to solve problems until after they manifested themselves. Correctional institution preventive maintenance software is necessary to ensure that life in the facility runs smoothly and none of the prisoners escape. As the governments and other organizations allot revenues for correctional facilities, there may be debate about the costs of such maintenance. Although the software is expensive, it is both effective and necessary. The best way to implement preventive maintenance software in correctional institutions is to integrate it in facilities statewide. This provides a uniform plan for all of the penal institutions and makes it easier for such facilities to work together if need be. This also assures that all of the institutions will be equally maintained and none will be in worse condition than the others. As with many other large institutions, standardization of correctional facilities is of paramount importance. There are many goals of correctional institution preventive maintenance software, including maintaining of the prison, reducing or eliminating emergency repairs, and systematically updating the information database. The need to maintain the physical facility is obvious – the safety of the public and the living conditions of the inmates depend on the prison being well-maintained. The need to avoid emergency repairs is parallel to the maintenance of the facility. The integrity of the facility would be disturbed if the building suddenly needed to be repaired, creating a breach in the orderly pattern of operations. Finally, the creation of a comprehensive database makes it easier to keep accurate records and to share information between facilities. Correctional institution preventative maintenance software streamlines the operations of the facilities and minimizes unpredictable events. In the long run, it saves the taxpayers’ money by making the institutions more efficient.

How To Upgrade Your PC

Before you upgrade your PC hardware it’s best to search all options and ask for advice. Only after this you can go and buy a new component. It’s also useful to check if you really need an upgrade. Do not upgrade your very old PC because it would cost a lot of money. It’s cheaper to buy a new computer in such cases because they are easier to upgrade later. Upgrading the hard drive: The majority of people do not really need to upgrade their hard disk, unless they use it for playing a lot of music, movies, and games. A 20 GB hard drive is sufficient to keep new office and internet applications, and all your files and data. A medium sized hard drive would be around 40 GB and the maximum would be around 60 – 80 GB. Before upgrading your hard disk it’s best to do a complete disk checkup including disk scan, defragmentation, etc. If you happen to be an average user and need more storage you can add an additional drive to the existing one. Before an upgrade, be sure to back up your files. Upgrading the RAM: RAM or Random Access Memory is the short-term memory of the PC. It keeps data that is being worked on now and may or may not be transferred to the hard drive that represents the long-term memory of the computer. Current processors can perform an enormous number of operations per second. The hard drive, on the other hand, is significantly slower to handle so much information. This is where a high-speed RAM memory comes in. RAM needs a power supply to keep data. Once the power is turned off the data is lost. Almost all PCs have 64 MB RAM and often 128 MB. If you want to run newer applications on your PC then you must upgrade to 128/256 MB RAM. A lot of people who upgrade from 98 to Win 2000 discover that their computers lock up very often. This is because they don't have enough RAM. CPU upgrade: If you choose this upgrade, you will have faster execution of instructions but it leaves the RAM and hard drive capacity unchanged. This sis the most cost effective upgrade and can increase the efficiency of your computer considerably. Seek a professional help before you take a decision. Motherboard: Upgrading motherboard is not such a good proposition unless you replace the CPU and the RAM as well to achieve greater performance levels. You upgrade the motherboard either because the current one doesn’t support a faster CPU or the CPU requires a different socket. It could be very expensive. Think about buying a new PC. Ports: Ports are sockets at the back of your computer where you plug in external devices. Older PCs work on “parallel” ports. If you need to work a lot on peripherals such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, CD burners, and scanners then you need to upgrade to USB and Firewire ports if you are not using them already. Both tend to be cheaper than the “parallel” and SCSI devices they replace. Always make sure that there are no compatibility problems with other devices in your PC when you plan to upgrade any hardware on your machine.

It’s Getting Harder To Watch Movies (CODEX)

After a long, exhausting day you came home, had your dinner and then sat in front of the TV looking for a nice relaxing movie. Nothing! Then suddenly you remembered that you bought the CD of the new, Oscar-winning movie “Million Dollar Baby”. You took out your laptop, inserted the first CD and hit “play”. To your surprise, the only thing you could see was a green screen. You took out the CD, cursing at the media market that gave you a “broken” CD for the fifth time. Tried the second CD; again the frustrating green screen. First thing in the morning, you took your “broken” movies and went to the shop. Having yelled at the owner of the shop for five minutes, you suddenly noticed the cynical smile on the guy’s face. Having the opportunity to talk, the shop keeper said “CODEX”. All you needed were the codecs for these movies. They were not broken; they were just coded in a “foreign” language to your media player. The codecs were the dictionary that your laptop had to use to translate the absurd computer language to the nice scenes of the movies. Every video, audio, picture or even word document files are coded in a different way. In the case of big data entries like movies, the computer has to use different algorithms to compress the data so that the size does not exceed the standard limits. We see this compression in PDF files (Acrobat Reader), in MP3 files (WinAMP), in MPEG files (movies), in each and every data storage file that you can imagine. While the compression is being done, the programs use some kind of a dictionary. Without these “dictionaries” (codecs in the case of video and audio files) the code would seem as meaningless to the player or the viewer as it is to you. So you have to install certain codecs to be able to use certain files. Some codecs replace the repetitive symbols over the file, ome codecs changes the aspect ratio of the movie; some of them decrease the quality of the picture and yet, all of them turn gigabytes of data into fair size that can fit into a CD or a DVD. As the user demands increases, codecs are multiplying in a logarithmic scale. There are several codecs that are musts for movie fans, however. You should install most of these if you don’t want to be disappointed. 1. MPEG4 - It is the default codec which is already included in WMP. 2. DIVX - A series of sound and display codex which come with shareware DIVX player. 3. XVID - Relatively new, one of the most used video codecs. 4. AC3 - Most common sound codec. 5. Intel Indeo - Rather useful series of codec which a new version pops out everyday. Overall the way movies are encoded is changing day by day. Everyday we see a new aspect ratio. Everyday we encounter a new codec. To many, it would seem that it is getting harder and hard to watch movies. The least you can do is to download a codec viewer program which would help you on your quest for a pleasant evening.

The Importance Of Email Backup

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files! Most home computer users don't need an expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders with important documents and pictures to a CD-RW from time to time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily get them back. Togeder with documents and pictures, it's a critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book and other important data from within the email client; otherwise in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely on their emails. Unfortunately many people actually start to do backup copies only after they lose data. This article will explain how one can create a Outlook Express Backup copy ( as Outlook Express lacks a backup function ) This email program is usually installed with the Windows operating system and is probably among the most commonly used email programs today. While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder. The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. . Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too. After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press Ctrl-C. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press Ctrl-V. To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps: a.. Select Tools Address Book... from the menu in Outlook Express. b.. Choose File Export Other Address Book...from the address book's menu. c.. Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format. d.. Click Export. e.. Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse... button. f.. Give your backup copy a meaningful name. g.. Click Next. h.. Select the fields you want to include in your backup. i.. Finally, select Finish. j.. Click OK. k.. Click Close to end the process (successfully, Ihope). Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blockedlist, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients. The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 20-30 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are ofcourse, free.The conclusion is that either manual or automatic,backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them. A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can befound at: http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/

Making the Most of Digital Camera Memory Cards

Digital cameras are revolutionizing the world of home and professional photography, but they are married to memory cards just as traditional cameras are married to film. Making the best use of memory cards can have a very big impact on your enjoyment of digital photography. Choosing the right memory card for the job can be as important as choosing the right film for a traditional camera. If you are new to digital cameras, the digital camera memory cards are the most important parts of any digital camera, without which they may not work at all. So if you are handling a digital camera or planning a purchase, you must know more about the memory cards used in these cameras. Something many new digital camera owners find counter-intuitive is that bigger is not always better with a digital memory card. The actual response speed of your digital camera can depend greatly on the memory card it is using. The speed that your camera writes new pictures to the digital memory card is partially dependant on the transfer speed of the digital camera but is also dependant on factors in the memory card itself. Memory cards that have “buffers” can take the data into a faster type of memory and then transfer the data from there to the slower “flash memory” which provides the main storage of almost all digital camera memory cards. Some digital camera provide their own buffer memory to allow you to take your next picture while the previous picture is being transferred to the memory card. When you delete an image from the memory card of your digital camera, the flash memory is “reconfigured” because of special issues having to do with how this memory stores data. Normally this is an issue that you don't have to worry about at all. However, if you have a very large memory card and delete an image, you may experience a several minute delay while “house cleaning” is performed on the memory card. Because of this, do not delete images while you are taking pictures. Instead wait until you are at home, your hotel or in the car before reviewing your pictures and deleting the ones you don't want. Smaller cards take less time for this “house cleaning” so many experienced digital camera owners will choose to have more than one medium sized memory card instead of one very large one. Now the question arises-how many memory cards are enough for your camera? On an average basis, you must have at least two memory cards for your digital camera. That is, if you are using it in a normal and average fashion. Most professional photographers choose to carry about four to six memory cards. This helps them shoot smoothly and constantly. If they run out of memory, they just take the loaded card out and insert the fresh one. Because memory cards can malfunction (just like traditional film canisters, but not as often), you should choose to have at least two memory cards at all times. By having at least two cards, you can work with one and keep the other in reserve for emergency. Having at least one extra memory card for your digital camera will also ensure that you have the backup protection needed if you run out of space on your first card or in the possible event of the first card malfunctioning. The next important issue is how to take proper care of these memory cards. The memory cards may seem like some small and fragile piece of technology, but they are actually fairly sturdy. The flash memory is encased in a stiff plastic shell which can withstand normal wear and handling. At one end of the memory card is either a set of little holes or copper strips. These are the sensitive part of the card. Any voltage source or a large jolt of static could corrupt the memory and probably cause permanent damage to the card. When the card is not in your camera, it is best to keep it stored in a protective case or in your camera case. Putting it in your pocket could cause a short (from your keys perhaps) or dirty the electrical contracts. There have been instances where the users have misbehaved greatly with them and the memory cards have yet survived and continued to function correctly. But, this does not mean that one should not care for them. When it is time to transfer your data from the memory card to your PC, it is best to have a memory card reader, or have a PC with a built-in reader. The data cables provided with most digital cameras are very slow compared to the speed of a “direct reader” and it is often easier to review, copy and delete images from a memory card when using a reader instead of through the data cable connection. When traveling, X-Rays have never been shown to corrupt the data on, or damage, a digital camera memory card. The memory card is also not magnetic in nature so the motors in the X-Ray machine's conveyor belt should not be able to cause any harm either. Armed with knowledge comes the power to benefit from that knowledge. If you have learned something new about digital memory cards, hopefully you will benefit by enjoying your digital camera more and finding more opportunities to take great pictures.

CGI Web Hosting - 3 Essential Scripts for your Business

If there's one thing that people love it is a web site that has plenty of automated features. Sites that are highly interactive tend to get the most traffic and generate the most business for the companies that run them. Automated features can also play a "behind the scenes" role, making your site easier to use, run smoothly and allow for things like online sales and password protection. There are many ways to get this type of automation into your site, but all involve either client side or server side scripting. Scripts are written in programming languages specially designed for the web, and there are several languages that are commonly used. Most client side scripts are written in Java which is still one of the best web programming languages around. Some functions of a web site must be completed via server side scripting, however, and the most commonly used languages for server side scripting are PHP, PERL, and CGI. PHP and PERL are newer languages and are gaining a lot of popularity, but there are still plenty of features that can be scripted in the granddaddy of web scripting languages, CGI. Shopping Carts No online sales site would be complete without a functioning shopping cart and most of the best ones have been written in CGI script. CGI web hosting is great for shopping cart scripts because it interfaces well with most databases, including the popular MYSQL and MS Access databases, it can be utilized on Windows, UNIX, LINUX, and MACOS servers with equal ease, and can be easily configured for sales tax and shipping cost calculations. Some newer shopping cart scripts are being written in PHP and PERL, but most of the functioning carts on the web are in good old CGI web hosting scripts. Password Protection Many web sites require some sort of registration and entry of a password for the user to access the site's features. This is done for a number of reasons from simply a desire to track visitors for marketing purposes to allowing postings on message boards and ensuring that users have paid any required fees associated with use of the site. The automated registration process and user name/password issuance can be written with CGI scripts and many of them have been. Form Managers Have you ever wondered how the forms you fill out online are handled? In most cases, they're handled by CGI web hosting. When a user fills in that form and hits the "submit" button, a CGI script takes over and sends the data in email or writes it to a database where it can be accessed later by the site's administrators. These are just a few of the uses for CGI scripts on today's web sites. There are literally hundreds of others and if there's something that can be done on a web site, it is something that can be done with CGI. PHP and PERL may be gaining a lot of popularity for various reasons, but CGI was with us first and it isn't going anywhere. As long as there are web sites, CGI web hosting will remain king.

Does it worth to backup emails from clients like Outlook Express?

How often do people loose their email data? Is this important to backup your email client before loosing important emails? Are you thinking it won’t happen to you? Well, for those who use an email client and loosing their emails is one of the worst nightmares. Unfortunately this situation is quite probable. There are several causes for this: - Hard disk failure - Viruses and Trojans - Windows crashes - Some time un-expected things Hard Disk can fail from several reasons: logical problems like bad partitions, hardware problems caused by dropping them or something on them, or, sometimes they just stop functioning. You can use several data recovery tools like GetDataBack or Acronis, which might save your day. But you might not be able to get back any byte. Viruses are increasing their numbers day by day. It’s hard to keep up even for the big players like Symantec or Kaspersky. They reduced the response time for a new virus, but if you are unlucky, the virus crashes your computer before you can apply the antivirus. Well, we all know how reliable Windows is. There is no person that can say he never saw a “blue screen”. Because most of the email clients store email, account and settings data in My documents, Program files or in Windows registry. When you reinstall the operating system you loose them all. Even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates acknowledged that they counted 5 percent of total Windows based computers to crash twice every day. Here’s a small report: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/technology/25SOFT.html - September 1, 2005. The best way to count those situations is to backup emails on a CD or another hard disk. People who know a little about Windows and computers can do it by hand. Outlook Express is still the most used email client. If you want to backup Outlook Express by hand, you have to save registry keys and DBX files. Saving messages, signatures and the address book can be done within the email client, but for settings you have to search through Windows registry. It can be pretty difficult to do it for a beginner. After a long search now I found a tool that can do this job automatically. Adolix Outlook Express Backup: http://www.adolix.com/outlook-express-backup/home.html You can use this software to backup Outlook Express, IncrediMail and some other email clients. It’s an email saver program that can backup and restore emails, addresses, folders, signatures and options. What it cannot do is backing up Outlook Express and restoring to Pegasus Mail for instance. Synchronization can take place between different instances of the same email client. It can be used to move emails from one computer to another. For instance if you own a laptop and a PC, you can transfer emails between them. Furthermore, you can backup Outlook Express from Windows98 and restore it to Windows XP. Adolix Outlook Express Backup has a wizard mode for beginners, but the most experienced users can use Standard mode for more speed. It costs only $24.95 and I think worth for too much. It’s pretty clear that anyone can loose emails. So backing up your email client is essential, but you have to decide whether to do it by hand or to purchase a tool like Adolix Outlook Express Backup.