Are you looking for a program that can create, edit, and burn Compact Disk (CD), Digital Video Disc (DVD), and Blu-ray (BD) disks? One that has a simple-to-use interface but a ton of features? If so, then look no further than AnyBurn by Power Software.

I have worked with different disk formats for over twenty (20) years and have never found a more straightforward program than AnyBurn. Its simple user interface is so easy to navigate that it is hard to go back to some of the disk programs I have used in the past.

With AnyBurn, you can create, edit, and burn various disk formats, including data and audio. It can even erase rewritable disks, too. If it has to do with CDs, DVDs, or BDs, AnyBurn can handle it. AnyBurn can work with over 25 image file formats. Some of the formats include DMG, ISO, IMG, and VCD formats.

There are a couple of cool features that make AnyBurn stand out. The first one is to create a bootable USB drive from image files. With more computers not having optical drives, making a bootable USB drive from an image file, like an ISO, is essential.

The second outstanding feature is being able to rip music from audio CDs and burn audio CDs from your existing music library. This can be a fantastic feature if your car stereo has a CD drive.

AnyBurn runs on several different Windows versions, from Windows 2000 to Windows 11, and is available in 32 and 64-bit versions. There is even a portable version that requires no installation. Just extract the files to a folder, and you are ready to go. It is great for having on a flash drive.

Now, the best thing about AnyBurn is that it is free to use for personal or business use. For more information on AnyBurn, follow the link below.

AnyBurn

Are you looking for an easy way to synchronize your files to another computer on your network? Or maybe you want to sync to an external drive or the cloud. If so, then take a look at Allway Sync by Botkind.

For years now, I have been using synchronization programs to make an exact copy of my files on network drives and external devices. Over ten years ago, Microsoft released a straightforward file synchronization program called SyncToy.

But Microsoft dropped support for SyncToy a few years ago, and eventually, it stopped working correctly. That is when I started looking for another synchronization application and found Allway Sync.

Windows 10 does have a built-in file sync program called File History, but it is pretty basic. With File History, you can sync to a network folder or external drive, but not to the cloud.

On the other hand, Allway Sync can sync to a local or network folder, FTP / SFTP server, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and several different cloud storage types. You can even sync to a single archive file.

The user interface inside of Allway Sync

The user interface is simple to use and easy to understand. The sync options are quite extensive and include data compression and encryption. You can set up multiple sync jobs and customize each job to meet your needs.

The sync job options menu inside of Allway Sync

The options for sync jobs include synchronization rules, automatic synchronization, inclusion and exclusion filters, file versioning, error handling, and custom actions.

I have several clients that use synchronization software for backing up files. The primary reason is that files can be recovered quickly, as they do not have to be decrypted. Just copy the file you want to be recovered back to the original folder.

Allway Sync is free for personal use, with a limit of 40,000 files per 30 day period. But for unlimited file synchronization, purchasing a Pro license is recommended. FYI - A pro license is not that expensive (under $30).

There are a couple of different editions of Allway Sync, a desktop edition for installing on desktops, laptops, and servers. There is also an edition, Allway Sync 'n' Go, a portable version for installing on external drives.

Allway Sync comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions compatible with Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019. They even have versions that will run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

For more information on Allway Sync by Botkind, click on the link below.

Allway Sync by Botkind

When it comes to editing text-based files, everyone has used Windows built-in text editor Notepad. But it is pretty basic and has very few features. If you are looking for a program that can do more than edit text files, take a look at Notepad++.

Notepad++ (Notepad Plus Plus) is a text/code editor based on the open-source editing component Scintilla and can be customized to a user's needs. It has impressive built-in features like syntax highlighting, code folding, and extensive find and replace functions.

It includes support for over seventy (70) programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, and Visual Basic. Notepad++ can also record macros so that it can speed up those repetitive commands.

Now, one of the great features of Notepad++ is its customizability. You can completely change the way it looks and feels, from the font to the background color; you can make it just how you like it.

Notepad++ with the black board theme

With the shortcut mapper, you can edit the shortcuts for the pull-down menus, macros, run commands, plugin commands, and Scintilla commands. You can even edit the right-click context menu.

Notepad++ shortcut mapper

However, the best feature is the extension capacity using third-party plugins. Over 90 (ninety) plugins are available for Notepad++, including all sorts of coding tools and a spell checker.

Notepad++ comes in 32 and 64-bit versions, and there are two ways to install it: the automatic installer or the portable stand-alone version. You can even modify the registry and use Notepad++ instead of Notepad, but you will have to go through the user manual to find the code.

The best thing about Notepad++ is that it is free, but you can donate to the author to help support future releases. For more information on Notepad++, follow the link below.

Notepad++

Do you need more free space on the drive in your computer? Or are you thinking about getting a faster drive for it? If so, cloning the drive in your computer might be just the answer, and here is how to do it.

Note: Drive cloning is a procedure that computer technicians perform regularly. If you feel uncomfortable doing any of the following procedures, please contact a local computer service company like Geeks in Phoenix.

When installing a new drive in your computer, you have two (2) options: perform a fresh installation of the operating system and all the programs. Or you can clone the current drive to the new one and preserve the installed operating system and programs.

Since many people do not remember how they installed their programs or where the installation media/software keys may be, cloning their existing drive is the best option. The complexity of cloning a drive depends on the type of drive, the form factor, and the current and new drive interface.

There are several types of drives; the most popular are SSD (Solid State Drive), HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). There are also several different drive interfaces; the most popular are SATA (7-pin connection cable) and M.2 (keyed socket). HDDs and SSHDs use a SATA interface; SSDs can use either SATA or M.2.

There are several different form factors (physical size) of drives; HDDs and SSHDs come in 3.5" and 2.5" (width), SSDs come in 2.5" (width) when using a SATA interface, and 30 to 110 MM (length) when using an M.2 interface. Drives that come in 2.5" form factor can also have different heights (thicker); 9.5 MM is standard, and 7 MM is used in ultra-thin laptops.

If you are upgrading a laptop drive (2.5"), check with the manufacturer about the recommended size. If you are upgrading an M.2 drive, check with the manufacturer (system/motherboard) on what interface (SATA 3, AHCI, or NVMe), key notch (B, M, or B & M), and length are supported.

Now, the first thing you need to do is find out the model number of your current drive. Once you have the model number, you can search on Google to get all of its specifications. You can find the model number in Computer Management.

How to open Computer Management

1. In the search box on the right-hand side of the Start button, type Computer Management.
2. From the search results, left-click on Computer Management / System.

or

1. Right-click on the Start menu to bring up the Power Users menu
2. Left-click on Computer Management

Once you have the Computer Management console open, left-click on Disk Management and locate the disk with the partition with the drive letter C:. Right-click the disk number (usually Disk 0) and select Properties from the context menu. On the General tab, you will find the drive model number.

Once you have your existing drive specifications, it is time to decide on a replacement drive. Are you going to replace it with one that has the same form factor and interface? Your decision will determine how you clone your drive, and there are two (2) ways to do it.

Now it is just a matter of getting another drive with the same data capacity as your existing drive. You can get one with a smaller capacity, but you would have to shrink the partition(s) on the drive before cloning it. You can get one with a larger capacity (recommended), but you may or may not have to manually expand the partition(s) after you are done. Some drive manufacturers (WD, Seagate, and Samsung) cloning software will automatically do that.

There are two (2) different scenarios, upgrading your existing drive to the same form factor and interface or upgrading your existing drive from SATA to M.2. Doing an upgrade that involves just SATA drives is relatively simple; M.2 drives are a bit more complicated.

If you decide to upgrade to an M.2 drive, you will need to find out what type of M.2 drive your motherboard can support before purchasing it. You need to find out the local interface (SATA3, AHCI, or NVMe), width/length, and keying. You will also need the hardware (standoff and screw) to mount it to the motherboard.

SATA drives can be connected to your computer using internal SATA and power cables (desktop) or external USB docking stations / external drive enclosures (desktop or laptop). Since M.2 drives use sockets with PCI-e buses for power and transferring data, they have to be directly connected to the motherboard.

There are M.2 to USB adapters, but they can be expensive and only support specific key notches. I recommend using the drive-to-image method for cloning SATA to M.2 or M.2 to M.2 (see below).

• Drive-to-drive. This is the method you would want to use if you are cloning your existing drive to another drive with the same interface (SATA to SATA).
• Drive-to-image. This is the method you would want to use if you are cloning your existing drive to a different interface (SATA to M.2)

Drive cloning software

A few drive manufacturers have the software you can download to clone your drive, but at least one of the drives (source or destination) has to be one of theirs. And a few of the programs you can use to create bootable media. Here are a few of the drive cloning programs available.

Western Digital - Acronis True Image

Seagate - DiskWizard

Samsung - Data Migration

Ultimate Boot CD (bootable media)

R-Drive Image

Hardware required for drive cloning

• Docking station
• External hard drive
• Flash drive for creating bootable media

Drive-to-drive cloning

This is probably the easiest way to clone a drive. The first thing you have to do is install the cloning software on the computer with the source drive you want to clone. If you decide to use the UBCD, you will need to create the bootable media.

Then, connect the destination drive by either attaching it using a docking station / external case (laptop or desktop) or shutting down the computer and installing it (desktop).

Once you have both drives attached to the computer, you can boot the system normally or use bootable media and start the drive cloning program. Follow the software instructions and be ready to shut down your computer as soon as the software completes cloning the drive.

You will need to remove or detach the source drive from the computer, as both of the drives will have the same boot signature. If you cloned a SATA drive to another SATA drive, connect the destination drive to the source drive's connection. You should be ready to boot your computer on the new drive..

Drive-to-image cloning

This procedure requires a few more steps to complete, but it also has more options. One of the advantages of this type of drive cloning is changing your computer's primary drive interface. The disadvantage is you may have to expand/recreate partitions manually.

The first thing you need to do is install the cloning software on your computer and then create bootable media using it. You will need the bootable media to restore the disk image or disk backup to the new drive.

Next, you will need to use that same cloning program to create a drive image / drive backup of your primary (boot) drive to an external hard drive. Once that is complete, safely remove the external hard drive from your computer and shut it down.

Now that your computer is turned off, uninstall the existing drive and install the new drive. Once the new drive is in place, boot your computer using the bootable media you created and proceed to restore the disk image/disk backup to the new drive.

If the new drive is larger than the old one, the cloning software may prompt you to expand the primary partition. If it does, let the software do it. If not, you may have to expand it manually using Disk Management inside Windows.

Windows creates a hidden recovery partition right behind the primary partition. If the cloning software does not put that hidden partition at the end of the new drive and expand the primary partition, you will have to do it manually.

I use R-Drive Image for drive cloning, and it allows me to restore a complete drive image or individual partitions. When I run into the hidden recovery partition, I usually restore all of the partitions except for the last one, the hidden recovery partition.

Since the system does not require the hidden recovery partition to operate, I boot it up on the new drive and expand the primary partition using Disk Management to fill almost all the remaining free space.

I leave more than enough free space to restore the hidden recovery partition. I then boot the computer back up on the R-Drive bootable media and restore the hidden recovery partition into the remaining free space.

For more information on upgrading computer drives, click on the following links.

How to upgrade the hard drive in your computer

How to upgrade your computers hard disk drive to a solid state drive

Keeping your web browser clean and free of adware and junk can be daunting. With malicious extensions and corrupt website ads, maintaining your browser's safety can be tough. So here is how to clean up and reset Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft recently decided to revamp its Edge browser and start all over completely. Well, kind of. The original Edge browser was poorly received and did not get much support from third-party developers. It had problems all the way around.

Everyone has heard the phrase "If you can't beat them, join them". Microsoft did just that with Edge. Since Google uses the open-source browser project Chromium as a base for Chrome, Microsoft decided to do the same thing with Edge.

Cleaning up and resetting Edge

Some of the settings inside Edge are the same as those in Chrome. You can even use extensions from the Chrome Web Store (more about this later in this article). However, there are some differences between the two browsers.

All settings for cleaning up and resetting Edge are in the Settings and more pull-down menu in the upper-right hand corner (three horizontal dots).

The first place we want to go to is Settings. You will find seventeen (17) categories: Profiles - Privacy, search, and services - Appearance - Copilot and sidebar - Start, home, and new tab page - Share, copy, and paste - Cookies and site permissions - Default browser - Languages - Downloads - Accessibility - System and performance - Family safety - Printers - Phone and other devices - Reset settings - About Microsoft Edge.

Profiles

The first category is Profiles, which is where you set up synchronizing your data across devices. As with other browsers, you can sync your data like passwords, payment information, address, etc. You can also import data from another browser here.

Privacy, search, and services

The second category is Privacy, search, and services, and it has several essential sections. These include Tracking prevention, Delete browsing data, Privacy, Required diagnostic data, Optional diagnostic data, Personalization & advertising, Security, and Search and connected experiences. Let's take a look at each separately.

Tracking prevention. This is how Edge handles cookies, and the default settings are recommended. You can turn off tracking prevention or completely block all cookies; it is your choice. You can also view the sites you block/allow tracking and turn tracking prevention on or off when using InPrivate mode.

Delete browsing data. As the name implies, this is where you clear the data from Edge. Like other browsers, you can choose what to delete when you close Edge.

On the right-hand side of Clear browsing data now is a button labeled Choose what to clear. When you click on it, a dialog box with several choices will appear.

I go here when a customer calls and tells me that they are having issues with a website not displaying correctly.

On top is the Time range, and below it are all of the different options. I usually set the time range to All time and leave the default selections checked. That often gets a website to work correctly again. Remember that if you clear any passwords or autofill data, it is gone for good, so be careful.

When you click on Choose what to clear every time you close the browser, you bring up a page with several selections. These are personal preferences, but I like clearing the cookies and cache when I close a browser. It is your choice.

Privacy. There are two (2) selections here: Send "Do Not Track" requests and Allow sites to check if you have payment methods saved. Again, these are personal preferences, but I would turn on the Do Not Track requests and disable the saved payment feature.

The following three (3) sections, Required diagnostic data, Optional diagnostic data, and Personalization & advertising are personal preferences, so the choice is yours.

The next section is Security. The default settings are completely acceptable. There is a button that you can use to Clear all previously allowed sites and you can provide an alternate DNS service provider if you would like.

Next is Search and connected experiences. The default settings for all of these sections should be perfectly fine. The only one I would look at is the Address bar. Malicious websites and extensions will try to change the default search engine used by a browser. If you do not recognize the search engine being used or want to change it, go into the Manage search engines section and make the changes.

Appearance

The third category is Appearance and is mainly for personal preference. The only area I would look at is the URL under the Home button in the Customize toolbar section. If there is a web page you do not recognize, Edge may have been hijacked. Go ahead and remove any unwanted URL's.

Copilot and sidebar

The next section is Copilot and sidebar. Again, personal preferences are applied here.

Start, home, and new tab page

The next category is Start, home, and new tab page. Here we have some more personal preferences. The one place I would look at for browser hijacking is the When Edge starts and the Home button categories. Again, if you do not recognize or remember adding a page listed here, delete it.

Share, copy, and paste

The next section is Share, copy, and paste. Again, personal preferences are applied here.

Cookies and site permissions

The next category is Cookies and site permissions. This where you set the default actions for different media (JavaScript, images, pop-ups, etc.), hardware (camera, microphone, etc.), and other miscellaneous settings. The default settings are recommended.

Default browser

The next category is Default browser. As the name implies, you can set Edge as your default browser here. Two settings might be of interest if you still use Internet Explorer (IE); Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer (IE mode) and Internet Explorer mode pages. A lot of people still use IE because a website they go to requires ActiveX and since Edge has an IE mode built-in, you just have to enable it.

Languages

The next section is Languages. Again, personal preferences are applied here.

Downloads

The next section is Downloads. Again, personal preferences are applied here.

Accessibility

The following section is Accessibility. Again, personal preferences are applied here.

System and performance

The next category is System and performance, and there is one significant setting here. As with Google Chrome, Edge can continue to run in the background even after you close it. It can also run background apps when Windows starts up. I have seen adware/malware use this setting to run the browser when Windows starts.

I recommend you turn off the Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed feature until you get prompted by an app to enable it.

Family safety

The next category is Family safety. This is part of the Microsoft Family Safety program. You can learn more about it in my blog: How to setup Family Safety for Windows using Microsoft accounts.

Printers

The next category is Printers. The link inside opens the Printers & scanners section inside of the Settings app.

Phone and other devices

The next category is Phone and other devices. This just elaborates on the synchronizing feature discussed in the Profiles category.

Reset settings

The second to the last category is Reset settings. With a couple of clicks, you can reset Edge back to its original default settings. Everything but your favorites, history, and saved passwords will be deleted. Remember, if you reset the settings, you will have to go back and do all of the customization again.

About Microsoft Edge

The last category is About Microsoft Edge. When you open this category, Edge will check for updates. Other than what version of Edge you are running, that is all in this category.

Extensions

The last place we want to check for browser corruption is the Extensions. Go back to the Settings and more pull-down menu, select Extensions, then select Manage extensions. This will open a new tab. Extensions extend the functionality of Edge and usually are perfectly safe. You can install extensions from either the Microsoft Store or the Chrome Web Store.

But there are malicious extensions that want to use your browser for other things, like crypto-mining, for example, behind your back. If there are any extensions listed in the Installed extensions that you do not recognize or do not remember installing, go ahead and disable them. If you do not need or want them, click the Remove link under the extension name.

Repair Edge

When it comes to Edge, the only option you have is repairing it. Since it is built into Windows, you do not have the option of uninstalling it, only repairing it. To repair Edge go to System > Apps > Installed apps (Windows 11) or Apps & features (Windows 10) and scroll down until you find Microsoft Edge. Then click on the three (3) horizontal dots to the right and select Modify.