One of the questions I’m frequently asked and one of the issues I have to contend with is recycling old computer and electronic devices. What do we do with all of our antiquated and broken electronics? Generational changes in technology create reasons why products shouldn’t be repaired. One example is my netbook computer.
I purchased my computer used and had it for a couple months before the motherboard stopped working. New, these little devils are around $300.00, so I figured repairing it would be inexpensive. No way! My cost for the replacement part was $100.00. For obvious reasons I decided not to repair the machine. Unfortunately, this is the case for cell phones, MP3 players, DVD players, VCR’s, cameras, TV’s, and many more electronic items.
So, the question I started with this week is, “What do we do with all this stuff?” As it turns out I recently received a tour of Electronicycle in Gardner. Electronicycle is the resting spot for dead electronics. Tractor trailer loads of goods are delivered to them daily. Equipment is broken down into commodities such as steel, plastic, aluminum and various circuit boards then sold for recycling.
In my business I contend with recycling all the time. Every day I generate electronic waste that needs to be disposed of. Although I think it’s wasteful that manufacturers create equipment that’s non-repairable, I believe it’s great that companies like Electronicycle ethically recycle equipment.
Cathy asks this question: “Is it possible to move Microsoft Office from one computer to another?” Yes, it is possible with the purchase of additional software; however, it may be a violation of your license agreement. In the case of Microsoft Office, your license covers one installation. Even if the license were free or allowed for multiple installations, it would be nearly impossible to manually copy the software exactly from one machine to another.
When a piece of software is installed – in your case MS Office – the installer package that comes with your title places little bits and pieces of the software in different locations on your hard drive. If you’ve ever explored your C drive you’ve probably noticed a lot of different files. Some of them are .exe, .dll and .ini files. Each of these is spread around your hard drive during the installation of software. At the same time, registry entries are made into .cab files (or cabinets).
Since I sent you the short e-mail response I did a little digging and found several software utilities which are designed for moving applications from one machine to another. I do not know how reliable the process is; however, I do know that licensing issues with the software manufacturers is still an issue. MoveMe seems to be the dominant manufacturer of this type of software. You would need to have both computers connected with a USB cable and the MoveMe software installed on both machines. I found many tutorials online by searching for “MoveMe how to.”
Tip of the week: If you have users in the house who like to mess up your computer, you can erase their tracks and bring the computer back to day one using a free product called Windows SteadyState. It works by taking a snapshot of your hard drive when it is installed. Upon restarting the computer all data and changes from the prior session are erased and the machine is brought back to day one. It’s a great program, just make sure your data is backed up prior to logging off.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at Jeromy@LocalComputerWiz.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)