MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 23rd]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [April 23rd]
- The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers]
- A Guide To Setting Up Your iPad [Part Two]
- Bring Interactive Linking To Your Wordpress Blog With Apture
- How To Chat Live With Your Website Visitors Using Zopim
- Hot Tech Deals [April 23rd]
- MakeUseOf Comments Now Powered By Disqus
- The Screensaver Returns: 10 Creative Ways To Use A Screensaver
- Battle Dex – Turn-Based Online War Strategy Game
- Supercharge Your Blog Commenting With G-Lock Blog Finder
- How To Perform A Remote Install Of Windows Software
| Cool Websites and Tools [April 23rd] Posted: 23 Apr 2010 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| The 5 Best Questions From You [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 23 Apr 2010 07:31 PM PDT
The first Best Answer of the Week contest was won by antonio_rm. The winning answer was given to the question “What is LightScribe DVD writer?“. Thank you everyone for your answers and congratulations Antonio! The second round of the Best Answer of the Week contest is already underway. This week we’re rewarding another US$50 via PayPal credit or Amazon voucher. Please remember to use a valid email address to qualify for the contest.
You can browse questions by Latest Questions, Unanswered Questions or Most Popular Questions. For regular updates, subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask us at MakeUseOf Answers! All for free and no registration required. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Guide To Setting Up Your iPad [Part Two] Posted: 23 Apr 2010 06:31 PM PDT
Over time, when using your iPad, your preferences might change. Typically the default preferences in the iPad are sufficient for new users, but I'm recommending changes you might want to make.
Mail, Contacts & Calendars SettingsIn part one I covered general settings for the iPad. Now we move on to Mail, Contacts, and Calendar settings, which are found by tapping the Settings button on the Home page of your iPad.
Most of the default settings in this area should remain, but here are a few of my recommendations. 1. Apple has made setting your mail account pretty easy. Simply click on Add Account and you’re presented with five popular and most used email services. Each selection will walk you through the information you need, including your email address and password. Other information is typically filled in for you.
2. Turn on Fetch New Data if you want the iPad to automatically fetch new mail from your account server. Your account must support push service, and most popular ones do. If you have MobileMe, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, or Google Mail “push” account, that means that your mail will be synched between your iPad and server account. So when you read and/or delete mail from your iPad those messages will be read and deleted on the server side, and visa versa. A MobileMe account also pushes to sync your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks if you select those items in the account settings. A MobileMe account cost $99 per year.
3. The settings in area 3 of the screenshot are okay as it is, but if you have a tendency to accidentally delete emails, you might turn on the Ask Before Deleting setting. If you constantly get people sending you large images in their emails, or if you don't want to receive unsolicited images, turn off the Load Remote Images setting. 4. Items in area 4 are self-explanatory, but one change you might want to make is the setting for “Sent from my iPad“. This is the mail signature automatically put in emails you send out. It's a very cool way of showing people you are a proud and cool iPad owner. However, to save a little time, consider clicking this setting and adding your name to the signature so that you don't have to type your name each time you send out an email. Or if you don't want people to know you have an iPad, then simply clear out this default signature and replace it with something else. 5. In this area, you will want to leave the New Invitation Alerts on, especially if you use a Microsoft Exchange or MobileMe account in which you receive event invitations and you want to be alerted when they arrive.
Typically the Time Zone setting is automatically set when you turn on the iPad, but if not this is where you make that change. And finally in this area, the default Calendar is set to Birthdays. You’ll want to change that to another calendar – that is,unless you input birthdays into your calendar on a regular basis – so you don’t have to manually do it when you’re creating new calendar events. For Safari settings, see this article for changes you might consider. iPod SettingsIf you have certain music you typically listen to on your iPad, you might consider changing the EQ (equalizer) settings to the type of music you mostly listen to. The changes you make in the EQ can affect how your music sounds. Try out one or more of them and see if they improve the sound of the music you listen to.
The other settings in this area should be okay, unless you need to turn on the Volume Limit to keep music and sounds from playing too loud. Video SettingsFor general use, these settings are okay as it is. If you would like videos you play on the iPad to always begin at the beginning, you should switch off the Start Playing setting. If you need closed captioning, turn the setting on. And if you will be playing media content from your iPad on your TV using the separate adaptor, then change the settings in this area. NTSC is the broadcast standard settings for the Americas. For other regions, you select PAL.
PhotosChange these settings for your slide shows. The defaults are okay, but you may want to change the timing and repeat settings if you’re using your iPad for showcasing images on a regular basis, and you want your slide shows to, for example, automatically repeat.
StoreThis is where you simply view your App/iTunes account. No doubt after you purchased your iPad, you set up an iTunes store account to sync data to your iPad. I believe you can run your iPad without an iTunes account, using iTunes gift cards to download apps, music, and other items.
AppsWhen you purchase third-party apps from the Apps Store, some applications will have preference settings unique to their program. For example, in Apple's iBook application, I changed the Tap Left Margin to "Next Page" because I usually hold the iPad in my left hand and this preference allows me to tap the left as well the right margin to precede to the next page. The few times I need to navigate back to the previous page can easily be done with the swipe of my right hand.
It's a good idea to check the preferences of applications you use on a frequent basis to see if there are any changes you can make to improve the use of the program. If you have an iPad, what settings do you think should be changed? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bring Interactive Linking To Your Wordpress Blog With Apture Posted: 23 Apr 2010 04:31 PM PDT
A lot of blogs lack all of the information you’re looking for. It’s not their fault, it’s just that sites like Wikipedia and YouTube are much more informative. Well, that’s all about to change with an interactive blog linking tool called Apture.
In this article, I’m going to go over the installation and some of the many things you can do with this interactive plugin. Getting Apture Blog Linking InstalledTo get Apture on your blog, download the plugin here. Once you have the plugin, simply install it the way you would any other plugin, by going to your Wordpress Dashboard, and Plugins>Add New>Upload.
After installation, go to Apture Configuration under the Plugins tab and click Install Apture Script. This adds the necessary code to your blog that enables you to use Apture. How To Use Apture for Blog Linking | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Chat Live With Your Website Visitors Using Zopim Posted: 23 Apr 2010 02:31 PM PDT
Now, with help from companies like Zopim, chatting live online with customers is easy for anyone. I even gave this live chat software a test on my own blog and it was simple. In this article I will share how you too can easily chat online with your website visitors using the Zopim live chat software.
Overall, getting started with Zopim is as easy as signing up, inserting code, and setting up. That’s about it. Signing Up With ZopimTo sign up with Zopim, head on over to Zopim and click the orange “Sign Up Free” button. The only information they ask for here is your first and last name, display name, and your email address. Once you fill in the fields you will be emailed a verification email. Simply note the password given in the email and click the link. Inserting the code for ZopimOnce you sign in, you will be introduced to the set up process. The first thing you want to do is grab the widget code to insert into your site. Begin by clicking the “Embed widget on my site” button off to the left. You’ll then be given the code.
I use Wordpress so the process of inserting it into my footer file was quite easy. It should really be easy for any site, as long as you can modify the HTML code and insert the code somewhere in it.
Once you insert the code and refresh the site, you should see the widget at the bottom right corner of your page.
Setting Up & Using ZopimTo tell the truth, at this point everything is set up far enough to use. You can go further through the buttons below the “Embed widget…” button and make some changes. For instance, I chose to quickly modify the greeting message by inserting my name where it says “Leave a question or comment and someone will try to…” (this is done under Customize widget –> Message settings).
Using the dashboard may be a bit overwhelming at first. It shows if you have any visitors and some analytics data.
If someone is trying to chat with you, you’ll get an auditory notification letting you know. When this happens, click on the visitor on the right.
You’ll notice when you hover over the visitor that you’ll see some information like where they are from, their OS and browser. When you click the visitor, you’ll be brought to the chat tab.
As far as simply chatting with your website visitors, the Zopim live chat software handles it well. There are more features to mess around with. Explore a bit and see what you can do. Notice that there are packages that are not free. The reason I introduced Zopim is because even the free Lite package does what I needed: it gave me a simple chat widget. Similar services include: Olark and Plupper. What do you use to interact with your visitors? Do you have a chat widget that you employ on your website or blog? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 23 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set We NEED Your Comments!!! Please do share your thoughts in article comments. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MakeUseOf Comments Now Powered By Disqus Posted: 23 Apr 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Many thanks to Daniel Ha and the rest of the good folks at Disqus for their help and support. So what exactly does that mean for our loyal MakeUseOf readers?
In addition to allowing comments without logging in, Disqus allows a few different options for logging in when posting a comment.
If you don’t have a Disqus Profile, you can still log in with Facebook Connect or Twitter. Doing so will post your comment to MakeUseOf as well as Facebook or Twitter. However, if you post your comment with a Disqus Profile you can do much more! You can create a Disqus Profile if you don’t already have one. Doing so will allow you to manage all comments you post onto Disqus-powered sites in one place. It also allows you to post comments to multiple social networks, once you’ve set up your connections. By logging in with your Disqus Profile, you can post your comment to Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Tumblr, WordPress, Moveable Type, and TypePad all at the same time! Another great feature Disqus offers when you log in with a Disqus Profile is the ability to reply by email. When you receive the email notification that a new comment has been posted, you can just reply directly to that email to reply to the comment. See screenshot below.
It is no longer necessary to click a link (although you can if you wish) to visit the blog post so you can post your comment. All comments you post on all Disqus blogs will be aggregated and available for others to view on your profile page. Your profile will be located at http://disqus.com/YourUserName. For example, my profile is located at http://disqus.com/GeekLad. There you can see comments I post on my own blog (GeekLad, as it is also powered by Disqus), and any other comments I’ve posted to other Disqus-powered blogs. If you have a blog and are interested in using Disqus as the comment system, we highly recommend it. Disqus supports many different blogging platforms:
They even have “universal code” that allows you to use Disqus on any website! Disqus also offers many cool features for blog owners as well, such as replying by email and lots of customization options for the comment display and integration with other services. We hope you enjoy our new commenting system. If you have any questions about Disqus, please feel free to post them in the comments below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| The Screensaver Returns: 10 Creative Ways To Use A Screensaver Posted: 23 Apr 2010 11:31 AM PDT
Screensavers today may be as useful as a brick from the Berlin Wall. But just like that plain old brick’s value as a memorabilia; screensavers also have managed to retain their charm. The protective use of screensavers has given way to their use as fun tools. Then there is its Hyde-like face, when a Trojan hiding inside a screensaver file wrecks havoc on an unsuspecting computer.
Screensavers make a fleeting appearance, as long as a computer stands idle. Even for those blink and its gone seconds, a screensaver can be put to a lot of creative uses. Let's see how far the creative side of screensavers is being stretched. A Temporary Shield To Secure Your FilesWalking away from your desk for some water-cooler chat? Secure your computer with a password protected screensaver. The password protection applies only if you use a log-on password. Read the Microsoft Help post to know the simple 3 steps to protect your files by using a screensaver password. Make Your Own Desktop Art GalleryLast year's post on 5 Ways to Make Your Own Screensavers took a look at some easy and quick ways to create your own screensavers. Once you know the How-to on screensavers, creating personalized screensavers is easy. There is no lack of ideas. How about a family photo album? Or a chronological series of your child's growing up photographs? One of the best uses I have seen is a screensaver being used to display a child's artwork. In short, if you think of ways to use a photo, you can put it on a screensaver. You can set up photo feeds using Photo Feeds for Google Photos Screensaver. Photo feeds are streams of images from sites that support photo feeds and viewable in Google Photos Screensaver. Loopy is a Flickr based screensaver that displays the newest photos that gets uploaded on Flickr. You can click on the photos and directly go to their Flickr photostream. Jog Your Memory With A ReminderWhile putting together this article, I came across a mention of how an elderly person used a screensaver as a pill reminder tool. Neat!
When we can have to-do pop ups from task management apps, why not use a screensaver for the same? If you know how to put together some text in MS Paint or even PowerPoint, you can use the simple graphic files as a reminder screensaver. Five Seconds Of MotivationThe same technique applies to piling up a bunch of motivational posters and using them as screensavers. The previous link on how to make a screensaver shows the Picasa way to set it up with Google Photos Screensaver.
Alternatively, you can set up a word cloud with a bunch of motivation triggering life goals and put it as a screensaver. Get Digg-ingWhy not put a screensaver to do the Digg-ing for you? Digg Labs has five real time Digg tools which can be downloaded as screensavers for both Windows and Mac. The five tools are –Arcs, BigSpy, Pics, Stack, and Swarm. All of them let you visualize real time Digg information on the screensaver. You need to have an internet connection and Adobe Flash 9 installed to enjoy them.
Your Own Blogosphere TelescopeJust like the Digg real time visualization tools, the blogosphere also has some of its own screensaver help. Twingly is a blog search engine, but it's the cool Twingly screensaver that takes the eyeballs. Here's a review which talks about the 24X7 blog feed streaming feature of the screensaver. You get to see what's getting updated in blogs around the world with the visual help of an interactive 3D globe. You can rotate the globe and see blog postings in different corners of the world.
The 2.09MB download is Windows only. The Same For RSS Feeds & TwitterScreensavers are also available for free download which can enhance your desktop by giving you real time updates of RSS feeds and Tweets. Screensavers & RSS feedsRSSMore is a free screensaver that works like a feed reader by letting you subscribe to RSS/XML feeds. You can keep the background blank or set it up to display photos from picture albums. RSSMore cycles through the feeds and displays the feeds in boxes framed against the background. You can also click on any link and go to the source, directly from the screensaver.
MappedUp displays a world map of green dots. RSS news is tracked and displayed as interchanging red and yellow location dots on the map. Red dots are for updated feeds while yellow is a bit more passive feed. By rolling your mouse over the dots, you can read the titles of all new articles. By clicking a title, you jump to the author’s website to read the entire article.
RSS Saver is another screensaver with RSS preview and visualization features. It displays RSS feeds one at a time. Screensavers & TweetsGeocodearth (now in public beta) combines Twitter, Flickr and FFFFound to bring you location wise Tweets and images.
Twitsaver is another cool photo screensaver you can try out that takes in photos from Twitter's public timeline. Some Random Wikipedia BrowsingThe Wikipedia screensaver loads random pages from the online encyclopedia. The time delay between each page load can be set by the user. The Wikipedia screensaver can also be configured to disable any process running in the background, like IE and Firefox.
It is a small 123KB download, but it requires .NET 1.1 or later to run. It is tested on Windows XP and Vista (only for admin account). As Your Desktop WeathermanWhen you read about the really cool weather app called YoWindow, you can miss the mention of its use as a screensaver. YoWindow gives you a virtual glimpse of the weather outside by taking in the data from the METAR stations network. It displays an image of a landscape with the kind of weather you may be having. I came across a screensaver download from Inrumor.com which also is a very good example of how to package your website's branding into the utility of a screensaver. Inrumor is a site that talks about lifestyle, celebrities, auto industry, Hollywood, artists, politicians, and technology.
The screensaver in jet black gave me the local weather and a 2 day forecast. Following the theme of the website, it presented a scrollable stream of news feed on what it calls – rumors. A calendar and an analog clock rounded off the features. Screensaver & LearningEven the brief spell of a screensaver can be used to drill some bytes of learning. Check out a few examples at the links below. SOHO Screensaver from the European Space Agency lets you watch spectacular, almost real-time images of our Sun. The images come from ESA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The screensaver comes in Windows and Mac OS X versions. Screen-o-mania has some great screensavers. The Cities of the Earth 3D Screensaver finds popular mention. The screensaver shows highlighted cities with information about its population and country names. And you can add your own city. Check out this simple screensaver which tries to promote hand hygiene using a screensaver.
And let me end with a brief mention of National Geographic Custom Screensavers which inspire care for the ecosystem. It's available for both Windows and Mac. Have you put screensavers to out of the ordinary uses lately? Let us pick up some more ideas. Image Credit: mr.gibbs and newtype2011 Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Battle Dex – Turn-Based Online War Strategy Game Posted: 23 Apr 2010 10:31 AM PDT
Turn-based online war strategy games cover a set those genres. You either love it, or hate it. Instead of moving around continually, your orders are executed in turns. The game thus progresses on the beat of a proverbial drum. The strategic aspect of war is as turn-based as it gets. Orders take a while to descent the chain of command, and even the best plans are riddled with should’s and could’s. Some say turn-based strategy isn’t very realistic. I say it’s abstract, but still about as real as it gets.
Battle DexBattle Dex is one of those turn-based online war strategy games, featuring war, a hex-based playboard and collectible cards. It’s currently in open beta, and can be downloaded and played for free. Although the game is very basic, all things considered, things aren’t always as easy as they seem. To excel in Battle Dex, you’ll need experience, a strategic mind and a Windows computer with internet connection.
Although you can practice in single-player mode, the game is really meant to be played against other Battle Dex players. You can join public ‘wars’, or host a private one to play with friends. With a 21.53 MB download, you’ll be up and running in no time. GameplayAt the start of each turn, players can redirect their infantry or vehicles. When the clock runs out, or all players have submitted their orders, the battlefield comes in motion. Because a fog of war hides most of the playing field from your eyes, you have no sure way to know what’s going to expire.
To move one of your units, select it with the mouse, and right-click on the destination hex. Different troops will move at different speeds and be better in different types of scenarios. Troops will always shoot at the enemy with the least hit points within range, but you can also prioritize bad guys or go all-out in the pursue of an enemy.
Players can purchase new troops at their respective base stations. To gain the necessary resources, you’ll have to man a resource hex with infantry troops. Capturing a control point for two consecutive turns will gain you victory points. Gain enough victory points or destroy the enemy base to win the online war strategy game. Collectible CardsCard-collecting (and usage) is also central in Battle Hex gameplay. These cards cover a wide array of actions, from healing damaged units and bombing enemies to instantly retreat back to base. They make up a valuable asset, and can heavily impact your strategy. Players can even build custom decks to use in battle.
A selection of starter cards will be available to you from your first play. Additional cards can be obtained by purchasing premium packs via micro-transactions, but also by kicking ass in one of the Battle Dex tournaments. What genre of games do you normally enjoy? Strategic thinking or instant action? Let us know in the comments section below! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Supercharge Your Blog Commenting With G-Lock Blog Finder Posted: 23 Apr 2010 09:31 AM PDT
I mentioned the importance of blog commenting for site traffic earlier, and MUO covered a comment management app that’s similar to the one that I’m going to cover today which is called BackType. With BackType, you can monitor comments left by a variety of people, but with the app that I’d like to discuss in this article, you can focus and monitor your own blog commenting activities throughout the blogosphere.
Blog Commenting as a Regular Promotional ActivityAs I mentioned in my earlier article, blog commenting is an important part of promoting your blog. When people see that you’re interested in their blog, they will likely check out and become interested in yours. This is what has made the blogging community grow so rapidly over the last decade or so. However, these days it isn’t quite so beneficial to just go out and start randomly commenting on blogs. Spammers will do that, but blogger and search engine developers got annoyed with those unscrupulous characters, and so the dreaded “nofollow” attribute was developed, most commonly for blog comments. What this means is that when the site is crawled by search engines, the nofollow attribute essentially tells the crawler not to follow the link, and not to count the link toward that external site’s popularity score or keyword relevancy. While this is a great approach to mostly shut down annoying spammers – what about legitimate commentators who would like the benefit of a linkback for putting in the time and effort of submitting a thoughtful comment? And even if there is a nofollow attribute on a blog, that doesn’t mean that you won’t benefit from traffic by having your link present on that site – especially if the site has a high readership. A useful application called the G-Lock Blog Finder can help you both find other blogs that apply to yours, but it can also keep track of and manage all of your commenting activities.
To register the free version of this app, you’ll need to provide your email address in order to get the activation code. Once you do, and you set up the software, you’ll see the main screen above. It’s organized into three major panels – the left search panel, which saves all of your keyword phrase searches, the upper right panel which displays the blog listings, and the lower right panel which serves as an embedded web browser to display the blog and so you can comment from right inside the application itself.
As long as you don’t keep the “Look up Domain PR and Page PR” for all links automatically, the search doesn’t take too long. Also, the free version lists a maximum of 50 blogs that apply to that keyword phrase – you have to pay for the full version for more. The listings show up in the upper right pane, showing you the total outbound links and whether the comment area is configured with NoFollow or DoFollow. If you’re looking for link juice, then you can sift through the listings and only work on commenting for the DoFollow blogs. If you’re simply looking to build community for other blogs that focus on your niche keyword phrases – then just start commenting away, regardless of the NoFollow. Blog Finder does an excellent job keeping track of your commenting activities.
For example, I’ve found a blog about “search engine optimization” here that looks like it’s not set up with NoFollow. In the preview pane, you can scroll down and start commenting immediately. Keep track of your comment status by noting the date that you made the comments, and the date that the comment was approved.
If you are interested in searching for the “high value” blogs that don’t use NoFollow and have high PR – then you’ll want to enable PageRank detection (while PageRank still matters) on the menu options at the top of the screen. Or you can right click on the selection and select to detect the PageRank of that one listing only.
The other menu options you’ll find at the top of the main window include enabling blog type “NoFollow, DoFollow, etc…”, reviewing your existing commentary on the blogs, and different options to export the results of your keyword searches. With these results, you can save blog lists to get to later when you have more time to write thoughtful comments.
The settings area of the application (click Tools -> Settings), lets you customize how much data each keyword search returns. The more data you want, the longer the search will take, so make sure to balance the importance of the data versus the value of your time. The only item I felt was necessary to change in here was whether to skip blogs where you have to log in to comment. My interest is more taking part in the blogging community, and part of that is signing up with blogs that you want to be involved with.
In my opinion, one of the most useful features of the G-Lock Blog Finder application is the ability to automatically fill in the fields in blog comment forms other than the comment area.
When you’re ready to start commenting, just click the “AutoFill” button and then type your comment. This feature saves a mountain of time. Even better, you can create various profiles so that you can use different URL links depending which of your own blogs you’re looking to promote with your commenting efforts. The G-Lock Blog Finder is an app that almost completely automates the process of promoting your own sites through blog commenting. However, if you want to do it right, commenting should never be completely automated into a cheap form of spam. Instead, customize your blog comments and make them sincere and thoughtful – and in doing so you’ll not only improve your own blog’s traffic but you’ll also help to improve the blogging community as a whole. Do you have your own approach to find related blogs to comment on? Do you use any tools to help with blog commenting? Share your own resources and insight in the comments section below. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Perform A Remote Install Of Windows Software Posted: 23 Apr 2010 08:31 AM PDT
In the past I have had to install applications directly on each user’s computer. This was time consuming to say the least. Then I started using Dameware for Windows 2000 that helped me remotely install applications. It was far from free and was difficult to use. Then Remote Desktop came around with Windows XP Professional and I was able to remotely log into each machine and install the Windows applications. This was still time consuming. Now I am able to assign applications to computers automatically. I can also assign applications to users so no matter where they are on my domain they will have the software they need.
When you are dealing with thousands of computers with hundreds of different requirements this is a necessity. Now we can use our OUs or organizational units to deploy applications. Let's open up our Active Directory Users and Accounts.
Pick who you want to deploy the applications to. Right click on that OU and choose properties.
Then click on the group policy tab at the top right of the window and then we need to click open to get to the management interface.
Whatever is in the OU you choose, computers or users, they will all be affected. In this situation it means they will have the software deployed to it. We will next be taken to this screen:
This is called the group policy management screen. The OU you selected two steps back will be highlighted on the left hand side and any policies assigned to it will appear in the right pane. You can see I have a GPO called OfcStd, which is my shorthand for Office Standard. This group policy deploys Office 2003 standard to the machines in this OU. Now let's see how to do it from scratch. Right click on the OU and choose create and link a GPO here.
That will take you to a screen that will ask you to name your GPO. It looks like this:
Name your GPO something that is helpful in understanding what it does. I named mine test software installation. That will take us to the same screen with the new blank GPO added. You will want to right click on it and choose edit like so:
After clicking edit we will be in the group policy object editor. Depending on if you want the software assigned to the computer or the user (computer will always install to the same machine and user will follow the user to whatever machine they are using). Expand either computer configuration –> software settings or user configuration software settings like you see below:
After clicking on the software installation item below the software settings folder you will see this:
Right click on the right pane and choose new –> package as shown above.
I chose Office 2003 standard's installer called STD11.msi. and I am done. That is really it! You have deployed your first software package. Imagine how much time this can save if used properly! Now you can test it by logging in as a user, in that OU, if you choose the user configuration above. If you choose the computer configuration you would use a computer in that OU. Sometimes it takes a reboot and in extreme cases two to see the installation. When you are successful you will see a screen directly after logging in telling you that it is installing your applications. How cool is that? How do you remote install Windows software? Do you have any tips or tricks for us? Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This is part two of a guide to the general preference settings that you should consider making if you want to know how to set up an apple iPad. For those experienced with the iPhone and iPod touch, this guide might not be of much use to you. 
Have you ever read a blog and thought, “What does this mean? Let me Wikipedia it”, or “I wonder if there’s a YouTube video on this subject”? When this happens, you might leave the page for a few minutes, look up the content, and then maybe return.
The bar also has an interactive search feature. This allows a user to highlight any word on the page and click Search.
These days a business can have a website that is rich in social features allowing comments and feedback and multiple ways for their customers to spread the word about their products and services. The real tech savvy companies can even chat online with its customers allowing for real-time support and communication.
If you’re in the market for a new computer, laptop, mobile phone, games and other accessories; don’t waste your time searching online. We’ve taken the liberty of locating the best deals tech deals and unifying them into a single post for your convenience.
If you’re a regular on MakeUseOf, you’ve probably noticed that post comments don’t look quite the same as they previously did. It gives me great pleasure to announce that MakeUseOf comments are now powered by 
Screensavers were meant to be protective shields that kicked in when a computer stood idle. It's not true anymore because screen technology has hopped ahead. We don't actually need them to shield our screens from phosphor burn-ins.
Although more hectic games like shooters sure can be fun, there are also times to sit back and use that grey matter of yours. It’s why puzzle, MMORPG and RTS games are so much fun.
One of the things that I’ve mentioned often here at MakeUseOf is that when you’re trying to build up your blog traffic, it’s critically important to actually take part in the blog community that you are a part of.
I have recently covered 
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