| July, 2002 Diablo Blue Page 3 |
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| XP’s System Restore does just about everything GoBack does, just not as well. Nonetheless, it’s an improvement over the way it worked in Windows ME, and a handy tool. I create a Restore point just before installing a new application. If the installation goes kaflooey, I use System Restore to jump five minutes into the past and get my system going again. I use it so often, I pinned it onto my Start Menu for easy access. Try it: Find System Restore in All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and right mouse click on the icon and choose Pin on Start menu. Easy, no? System Restore’s Problems The problem? System Restore isn’t perfect. While I haven’t had a problem in the 25 times I’ve used it, some reports on the Internet talk about DLLs that should be gone after a System Restore, are still on the system. One thing Microsoft doesn’t tell you is that each Restore Point (and system checkpoints, those restore points XP does automatically) takes up disk space. You can dump all but the last system point by using XP’s Disk Cleanup tool. Open Disk Cleanup, by clicking Start, choose All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, select Disk Cleanup, and choose the More Options tab. (Shortcut: From Start, Run, type cleanmgr.) In the next series of columns, I’ll show you other features built into XP that can keep you focused on productivity rather than rebooting two or three times a day or recovering from crashes.
Steve Bass is a Contributing Editor with PC World and runs the Pasadena IBM Users Group. He's also a founding member of APCUG. Check PCW's current edition at www.pcworld.com/resource/toc/index.asp and sign up for the Steve Bass online newsletter at www.pcworld.com/bass_letter. |
| Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software has been around for many years. Anyone who has had a need to capture an existing document for revision knows the value in having this kind of product to remove much of the burden. A little background of my own experience with OCR software might be in order before beginning the review. I have been a user of this kind of software product for over five years. Starting with the light versions of OCR products with my first scanner followed by two releases of TextBridge. This my second experience with OmniPage Pro. The first OmniPage product I used was release 10. My general opinion of OCR software is that while it removes most of the effort in capturing printed documents, the OCR process is in itself a very burdensome activity. The software is only capable of doing so much of the effort and any ambiguities in the OCR process requires interpretation that only a human being is capable of providing. As a result I haven’t approached an OCR session with delight or as being an activity that would be personally rewarding. Additionally, my OCR sessions are generally infrequent and usually come in bursts that can range from several hours |