Look for IT over here

When I’m troubleshooting a Windows XP machine, I find myself almost always going into Device Manager to check the status of hardware devices.

But what if you want to find out information about devices that aren’t connected eg USB based devices?

Try this:

1. Go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. In the Environment Variables dialog box, locate the System Variables panel and click New.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES in the Variable Name text box and type 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK twice.
6. To view the nonpresent devices, go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Manage.
7. Click Device Manager, pull down the View menu, and select Show Hidden Devices.

WTF? Here’s a cool project I found that uses one of those slimline USB keys and a USB cable to make a cool and unique USB drive that you hopefully won’t lose.

There’s no real point to doing this other than to kill some time customizing your computer gear. It certainly look unique. Here’s the link with the full set of instructions.

Just about every kind of gadget that plugs into your USB port has been invented – well I thought it had until I saw this.

These looks like normal batteries until the head comes off and reveals a USB plug, which you then plug into your computer’s USB port to charge them up.

Check it out here. What a simple yet great idea!

With the advent of USB/pen drives, more and more people are using these devices for personal file and media storage – because it’s portable.

But there is more than you can use your USB drive for.

How many times have you used someone’s computer and found they don’t use the same applications as you do?

Here’s a solution – portable apps. A collection of cut down versions of popular programs that can be stored on your USB drive.

Check out this site: http://portableapps.com/

File sizes for the suite:

• Base: 0.7MB (download), 1MB (installed)
• Lite: 30.4MB (download), ~105MB (installed)
• Standard: 89.5MB (download), ~260MB (installed)