Latest trends in computer technology and gadgets

Hibernation on Windows:
When Windows entrees in hibernation mode, it saves all its memory content in a file on the hard drive (hiberfil.sys) then powers the entire system off. Yes, it really does that, it is not a stand-by mode of some sort, it is fully powered off (however, modern computers still keep a small amount of power going on even in off mode, but that is by design). In this state you can unplug the computer from the main power supply and, if it is a laptop, you can also remove the battery with no danger in losing the data. There is no danger in losing any data since the memory is safely saved on the hard drive. However if something fails with the “wake up″ from hibernation, Windows may delete the hibernation file and start all over.
Powering up
When the computer is powered on again, Windows reads the memory content back from the hard drive and resumes from the point it was before hibernation. This means that all open programs are still open, open documents are still open, network connections are resumed and so on.

What to do before hibernating your computer
First of all save all your open documents. It is not necessary to close them, but saving them ensures that if there is a problem with waking up from hibernation the documents are intact. However if you keep them unsaved, when you resume you can still save them safely in most of the cases. Second, ensure that you don′t have downloads or file transfers in progress because all network connections are reset before hibernation and all transfers will fail on wake up.
Enabling hibernation
To enable or disable hibernation open Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) then go to Power Options. There open the “Hibernation” tab. If this tab is not visible then your computer does not support hibernation. In that tab make sure that the checkbox is checked to enable the hibernation or unchecked to disable it.
Hibernating the computer
Use the normal Start > Shut down… procedure and choose Hibernate from the list. If you are under XP and you have a shut down box with three buttons on it (Stand by, Turn off and Restart) press the Shift key and the Stand by button transforms into Hibernate and you can click it. You can also use the Power Options applet from Control Panel where in the Advanced tab you can choose what the computer should do when you press certain buttons or switches like “Power”, “Sleep” or when you close the LID on your laptop.
Advantages
The main advantage is that all your programs and documents stay open so you can continue your work later. Another advantage is that usually it takes less to wake up from hibernation than powering up from zero, especially if the computer is slow or you have many programs in the start up list.
Disadvantages
1. The RAM is not getting refreshed in the case of Hibernation. This may lead to the memory leakage.
In the normal shutdown- Boot up process the RAM will get refreshed every time the system boots

2) Biggest disadvantage is that this way you don’t shut down the computer for days, weeks or even months, so sometimes the system gets chocked and chocked and goes slower with no apparent reason. Some reboots now and then or normal shut downs are recommended. Also, a big file (hiberfil.sys) will be created on hard drive with the size equal to the ammount of memory you have (1 GB memory >> 1 GB file size).

Popularity: 22% [?]

Interesting article written by Derek Schauland and has been published at Tech Public:

Now that the Release Candidate of Windows 7 is available, and we are quickly approaching the RTM dates for both Windows 7 (October 2009) and Windows Server 2008 ̶, I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at the features that promise some of the biggest changes coming to workstations.

While attending Tech Ed recently, I heard a lot of talk about a concept that seems too good to be true — the separation of the various components of the user experience, allowing for faster provisioning of hardware and user readiness.

For example, suppose one of my users spills a huge cup of coffee on the keyboard of her laptop. Usually a new laptop would need to be acquired, the OS and applications reloaded, common data restored, and finally sent to the user — a process that could take 2-3 weeks if the new hardware has to be ordered from the manufacturer. Now suppose that you could solve that problem, instead, in about the time it takes to eat your lunch and play a couple of games of Solitaire.

Windows 7 runs great on new hardware, but it also runs quite well on some older hardware, which may allow for better repurposing of equipment within your organization if you happen to have some extra laptops lying around for various uses.

Getting things rolling again on one of these older laptops should be a cinch if you use folder redirection to ensure that the user’s My Documents (now, their Documents Library) is stored on a server; this removes the worry about data being unavailable when the machine arrives. Keeping the desktop and other user-specific items in a roaming profile — though somewhat less efficient depending on bandwidth — also ensures that the user would be able to access their desktop by logging on to the network.

You can take advantage of these methods already on Windows XP or Vista, but features like Direct Access, which tunnels to corporate resources using only the Internet (no VPN required), and application virtualization (APP-V) in upcoming versions of Windows can take this to the next level. Using APP-V, the Office client would not need to be loaded on the replacement laptop before it got sent to the user; it could be streamed to them and work just as expected.

These features – some new, some not – can improve the end-user experience overall. Something tells me that the possible delay in the logon process might cause some frustration at first, but the potential for making a laptop or other PC deployable to the end user with little to no configuration sounds like quite a big leap forward in technology to me. The concept of making the laptop or PC hardware merely a vehicle to carry the user experience to the employees is one of the coolest concepts yet, and I hope to look at it more when I can acquire some more capable testing gear.

Popularity: 17% [?]