Payton Place

Format Your Hard Drive and Install Windows XP from Scratch

(Published 2006)
“Hey, Windows XP users: The blue screen of death got you down? Missing dll errors making you frown? Frequent software crashes leave you yearning for that fresh, new PC you unpacked with glee three years ago? If you’ve scrubbed for spyware and viruses, defragged, chkdsked and done the requisite rain dance but things are STILL wonky on your computer, it may be time for extreme action.”

Automatically Back Up Your Hard Drive

(Published 2006)
“Don’t expect yourself to remember to back up your data, or stack your closet full of burned CD’s or DVD’s. Today we’re going to set up automated nightly, weekly, monthly local and off-site backups for your PC using free software.”

Slipstream Service Pack 3 into Your Windows XP Installation CD

(Published 2008)
“Next time you wipe your PC’s hard drive clean and reinstall Windows with that old installation disc, you don’t want to connect your fresh, unpatched and vulnerable system to the internet only to download 176 new updates from Microsoft.”

Make the Most of Your PC’s Dual Monitors

(Published 2007)
“Now that you’ve added another monitor to your computer setup, you’ve got double the screen real estate to get things done?but are you putting all that space to good use?”

Crack a Windows Password with Ophcrack Live CD

(Published 2007)
“Whether you need to recover the lost password to a Windows account, you’re looking to ensure that your passwords are secure, or you’re a super l33t h4×0r, the Ophcrack Live CD is a pretty useful tool.”

Download the Most Popular Free Windows Apps of 2008

(Published 2008)
“In the past year we’ve highlighted hundreds of Windows apps aimed at making your life easier, boosting your computer productivity, and powering up your PC.”

Turn Your Windows PC into a Media Center Powerhouse On the Cheap

(Published 2007)
“If you’ve purchased a new Windows computer in the past few years that’s running Windows Media Center Edition or Vista Home Premium or Ultimate and you aren’t taking advantage of its baked-in DVR Media Center software, it’s time we change that.”

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster

(Published 2008)
“Commercial DVDs are far too expensive to let scratches turn your video into a glorified coaster, but most people still don’t back up their DVD collection.”

Replace Crappy Windows Software with Superior Alternatives

(Published 2008)
“It may be the year 2008, but a whole lot of sucktacular software still rears its ugly head on PC’s everywhere, even when better-behaved options are freely available.”

Chris over at the productivity blog The Art of Non-Comformity wants you to say no. Frequently. So frequently in fact that the quality of the things you say yes to rises exponentially.

Chris advocates radical exclusion as a solution for overwhelming demands and new inputs. Rather than stretch yourself thin saying yes to everything and ultimately failing to deliver you should focus on the commitments and projects you really want to make something of:

I may or may not have a good excuse for why I failed to honor the commitment, but one thing?s for sure: if I make a habit of it, I will soon lose the trust of the person who had relied on me.

To prevent this from happening, I sometimes practice the fine art of radical exclusion. This is where I deliberately ignore or decline any number of inputs, messages, or requests for my attention in order to focus on what I decide is more important.

By using his limited reserve to energy and attention to tend to the things most important, the quality of the time he spends on things in turn rises and creates a superior widget?whatever that widget may be: a product, a design, time spent with family. Having spent most of my caffeine fueled 20s taking on mountains of projects, I found I too have embraced his notion of radical exclusion. How do you deal with tactfully declining some commitments and negotiating others to be more manageable? Photo by Dave Parker.

With an influx of holiday gifts and trinkets, now is the perfect time of year to ask some tough questions about your things. Erin at the blog Unclutterer has a list to get you started.

In an effort to make more conscious choices about the objects she shared her home with, Erin began aggressively asking questions about them. The questions helped her overcome a dilemma:

Each object exists in my space for a reason, and a chunk of time, planning, and research was dedicated to its acquisition, and there are further evaluations to let it stay. I make an investment of myself in every object, and that is why it?s hard for me to say that I?m not attached to these objects.

Even dedicating more thought to her acquisitions than most do, she still found it hard to work around the attachments we all form to things in our physical space. Using a series of questions like: “Does this item make my life easier, save me time, save me money, fulfill an essential need?” helped Erin sort through things more effectively and objectively. The questions are divided into two camp, those for the things you already own and those for the things you are about to acquire. If you’re looking to live more consciously with your things this year and make better use of your physical space, Erin’s list is a great spring board to taking an engaged look at your possessions. For other decluttering techniques check out how to declutter your home with the suitcase test and how to form an attack plan for a cluttered messy home.Photo by Diego Cupolo.