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I automatically run a scheduled backup script on each and every computer, with the schedules set so that only one computer at-a-time is performing a backup, all starting after my customary quitting time for the day (I’ve got five Windows systems). I create a unique, local partition on each computer for a “cascade” of backups. The cascade is simply a pattern of subfolders: The script merely deletes the last folder (and contents) down the list, and then creates a new, empty folder for today’s backup at the top. The number of subfolders is up to you. (Do ya feel lucky?)
One of those computers also has an additional external drive, to which all backups are copied, automatically, every night, from the local backup drive, to that central drive…I change that drive every few weeks, and have a few (six) in rotation.
After each backup is added to the top of the cascade, then copied to the central cascade, the script then shuts down the computer. So, I could, theoretically, go back as far as 42 days to recover any system, if needs be.
I believe in the value of redundancy…and the cost of 1TB drives is significantly lower than the angst of having to rebuild a computer from scratch! (Admittedly, I started with one backup on one computer…but, like Topsy, it “…just growed…”)
It’s all automated, so I never forget to do it; it’s after hours, so I can relax with my family, and it has “saved my bacon” many times over the past decade.
I’m not sure this is the place for this…I invite the Leadership of these fora to move it where you think it would be most appropriate. –CAO
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https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2019/06/26/customize-ribbon-excel/
Build from bare template, and save as a different name from the regular template, so you can perform both.
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I’d be willing to tag along, too…but Microsoft–FIRST–has to show me they’re on top of fixing and remediating all the inevitable bugs a new “class of features” this is going to demand in the first 3-5 years.
Speech is a hot topic. Frankly, I’m NOT enamored. Not only would speaking to my computer awaken my spouse, but what happens if a neighbor kid with a voice seriously close to mine comes in and says something destructive?
We’re in an era where we’ve lost sight of one basic rule: ALWAYS COMMENCE DESIGN WITH THE OBJECTIVE IN MIND. How to you do that with “AI?” We can release those features into the wild…but you’ll be able to identify the pioneers by the arrows in their backs!
And, there’s a second rule: ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR (aka bugs!). How will earliest customers–eager to deploy the new stuff–fare, when we KNOW that there will be dozens of unexpected behaviors that must be researched, understood and fixed? There is–to date–NO way to identify ALL the inherent bugs in software before release to a broad population of adopters. Microsoft, and many other “high-tech” firms, have an endearing trust in their ability to cover all the bases before starting the income stream, and it’s always the CUSTOMER who pays the price. Just look at how Lo-o-o-ong Windows 10 has taken to stabilize!
And, there’s a third rule: Introduce changes incrementally, not all at once. That’s not likely by for-profit firms, because they’re betting their investment on the premise that they will attract lots of customers and investors. In other words, the cash flow takes precedence over the quality of the product. Rip a page out of the automobile industry: Did we jump from the Model T Ford to the Tesla? No, we saw the industry make improvements each year, moving with the customer satisfaction (as expressed by the automakers’ income from sales). Somehow, we’re in an era when people who HAVEN’T lived through long, step-by-step evolution think they can just bypass all that nonsense. There are reasons that DeLorean and DeSoto and Duesenberg aren’t still on the road (and it isn’t because their names start with “D”). They were typically rushed to market, to turn engineering investment into sales revenues, and were typically inhabitants of repair facilities.
There are precious few firms who make a radical shift in the competitive mainstream who are successful over the long term. Let that be a warning to those hell-bent on CHANGE in customer expectations.
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There’s always a contrarian!
I have taken Microsoft’s Media Center stuff off all my Windows 7 systems. We’ve got TiVo in the “Entertainment room” off the Master Bedroom, and that is so convenient I just never used the Microsoft stuff. So, my computers are for household management (banking, research, a bit of geek-news, etc). I like the separation…it’s avoids a lot of the inadvertent interference of deep-tech with entertainment devices, and vice versa. When I’m here at my desk, I don’t want to be distracted. When I’m relaxing, I don’t want to have pop-ups on my screen.In another life, I could see integrating all of it together, but this just works…for me.
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I’m not sure why I WOULDN’T want to update Chrome (or, my preference, Firefox). But, I’m not in YOUR network environment or facing your unique issues.
AussieBoy: Here’s some info on the topic: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18483087/how-to-disable-google-chrome-auto-update
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Response to epaff: I was aware of the “patch” for XP, but it wasn’t widely publicized (and, certainly, not on M$’s site :-). I hope we’ll see some other clever developer publish such a patch to Win7; if so, I hope they post it (or a link to it) here!
If we all band together, I’m convinced we all can extend our comfy Windows 7 systems for many productive years. Let’s ALL be on the lookout for that kind of “window opening” (pun intended!) so we can all test it and give it a collective thumbs UP or DOWN, so others can make an informed decision.
A MAJOR CAVEAT: I propose that anyone who plans to adopt various solutions, workarounds, etc. for their own “Windows 7” life extension needs to adopt and follow two rules.
Rule 1: NEVER KEEP ANY USER DATA ON C$ Drive: If you have to restore your precious Windows 7 installation by rolling back to a previous time, do you (and your other users) want to lose all of today’s work? To prevent that I always keep ONLY “Code” (Windows, apps, their configurations and workspace) on the C$ drive. <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>All</span> end-user data (Office, eMail, downloads, etc.), including for Administrator) is kept on the D$ drive (or out on another local or remote drive space if you prefer). That means, in event of catastrophe, you can “rollback” your changes to Windows to a prior, known, working state, without losing any valuable user data.
Rule 2: MAKE AUTOMATIC BACKUPS OF both C$ and D$ on a schedule (I do it everyday). That way, if anything goes wrong, you can always roll back to a known time when all the software was working, or if data was corrupted, it can be restored to the time of the eldest available backup.
I have a very fast backup strategy (based on a product at http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm), and a home-brew CMD script to manage it. I keep a weeks’ worth of backups on about 60% of a 1T 3.5″ drive (the extra 40% is for future growth). and I have three such drives: One that’s active (#1); the one most recently swapped out (#2); and the one I keep in the trunk of my car(#3). Backups are scheduled to run automatically for every computer, every night. I “rotate” the three physical disks out every Sunday (A=>B=>C=>A). So, I always have three weeks of 100% backups at all times, in case I have messed something up and I have to “roll back.”
I developed my own script around an inexpensive robust backup solution called “Drive Snapshot” (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm). My script does this automatically for every computer, with start times “staggered” so only one computer is being backed up at a time (so the LAN is still useful for other users). Then, on the same day every week, the three external drives are rotated so I have one active (for new backups), the next eldest at hand, if it need to roll back, and the eldest is in the trunk of the car (where would YOU go first if YOUR house was on fire???).
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