First Things First: Dump Internet Explorer

The first thing we need to take care of is getting you a different internet browser.  Although there are a wealth of different browsers, for downloading YouTube videos your best bet is Firefox.  You can download and install Firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com You can also use a browser called Opera, which I have recently fallen in love with.   To download Opera visit http://www.opera.com.  

Instructions for how to download YouTube videos in Firefox is found below.

Download YouTube Videos in Firefox

Once you have downloaded and installed Firefox you need to install the add-on.  This add-on is called Download Helper.

1.) Open Firefox

2.) Go to the following web site and click on the “Add to Firefox +” button (figure 1)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

Figure 1:  Once loading the web site above in Firefox, click on the Add To Firefox button.

3.) You will receive a dialog box (figure 2) talking about how you should only install software from a  source that you trust.  This is important.  However, we can trust Download Helper.  Click Install Now.

Figure 2: Only install software from a source that you trust. Click Install Now.

4.) Next, you will see a message that Download Helper will be installed the next time you start Firefox.  Click on the Restart Now button.

5.) Go ahead and load up YouTube.com and find a video that you want to download.

6.) Once you find the YouTube video you want to download, let the page start loading and the video begin to play.   If you look closely, you will notice a new icon in your toolbar next to the Back and Forward buttons.   Once the video loads, it will begin to twist with some animation.    Click the down arrow next to the button, and you will receive the menu shown below (figure 3):

Figure 3: Click the down arrow next to the new Download Helper icon on your toolbar, shown here by the red circle.

File Formats

File formats are an important discussion to take place here due to the fact that they affect how your videos will playback.    You can see in figure 3 that we have many different choices, from 240p up to 720p.  You will also see some videos that go as far as 1080p.    The higher the number, the higher the quality of video.   However, the higher the number the larger the size of the file.  In my opinion, anything below 480p is not worth downloading, but the 1080p videos (full High Definition) are too large.   I would stick to downloading the 480p or 720p.  

Remember, every video you download to your hard drive is going to take up space on your computer!  It won’t take too many 1080p videos to begin filling it up.

7.) Once we decide which video quality we want to download, if we hover out mouse over that quality for a second we will receive the other menu shown in Figure 3.   This menu wants us to choose between many different choices.  For the purpose of this post, we will just choose download.

8.) After we click download, we will be asked where we want to save the YouTube video.  Choose a location on your hard drive and the video will begin to download using the normal process of downloading found in Firefox.  Wait for the download to finish and your favorite YouTube video is now on your hard drive.

Conclusion

Once you actually get the videos downloaded you are going to have to find a way to play them.  Some of the video players you have on your system will already be able to play Flash Videos.  You can also convert the videos.  For playing and converting, you can check out Real Player free edition – http://www.real.com.

I would also encourage you to download other things using this add-on!  You can download any video or music that is play through a flash video player on any web site.  When the Download Helper discovers a file it can download on the web page you are currently at the icon will begin to rotate, signifying that you can download something on the page.   It works good!

The YouTube Download Helper is a great add-on to Firefox.  With its ability you can download videos when you are on a higher-speed connection and then watch them while you offline.  You are ever in a location where you cannot access the Internet you can still have your video available for entertainment.

If you use and love Download Helper, you can always donate to the company who makes it.  Their donation page is located at http://www.downloadhelper.net/donate.php.

The temporary internet files folder, or cache, is where a lot of pictures get stored when we surf around the Internet.   These are supposed to be temporary as the name implies, but they are often not. 

When you visit a web site that has a photo, for example, a copy of that picture (a “temporary internet file” of course) may be stored in the temporary internet files folder.   When you close that web site the photo will stay on your computer.   If you go back to that web site a few days later, your computer compares the photo currently on the web site to the photo that was stored on your computer just a few days before.  If the photo on that web site has not changed, it will load the photo from your computer which is faster than reloading the same photo over the Internet again, thus making the page load faster.  If the photo has changed, the computer loads the new photo over the Internet, leaving the old photo it put on your computer a few days ago in its place.   Therefore, its possible you might have a lot of temporary internet files that are on your computer that are useless.

Here are instructions on how to clear the temporary internet files folder.  NOTE:  For Google Chrome or Opera, watch the video below the instructions.

1.)   Open Internet Explorer by going to Start, All Programs, Internet Explorer.

2.)  Wait for the web page to load.

3.)  Once the page is loaded, point your arrow to Tools and then Internet Options.

4.) Under Browsing History you should see a button that says “Delete…”   Click this button.

5.)  Select what you want to clear.  For most of us, the screen shot below shows what we want checked and unchecked:

6.   Click the Delete button and you are good to go!

If you wish to clear out your browsing history, form data and passwords, simply check those boxes.

Quick Video Instructions are found in the video below for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Opera Web Browsers:

How to Clear Temporary Internet Files

Windows Live Mesh is a new program from Microsoft.  When I found out what it did I downloaded it to try it out, liked it, and now I have it running on both my computers.

Windows Live Mesh is a program that will allow you to sync different folders on separate computers.  For example, every time I order parts from distribution, I save a copy of the receipt in a folder called “Orders.”   Sometimes I place the orders on my laptop, and sometimes I place the orders on my desktop.  Sometimes I am on my laptop and want to review an order, and sometimes I am on my desktop and want to review the order.   The only problem is keeping the “Orders” folder synced across both my desktop and laptop.  Windows Live Mesh takes care of this task for me.

Without Windows Live Mesh, I would have to remember to periodically transfer and sync the Orders folder manually.   This is a inefficient and time consuming task, which I would never remember to do.   I would inevitably have some orders on my laptop, some on my desktop, and probably some that would get deleted because I would think I had them on both computers when I really didn’t.  Its not an efficient way to do accomplish syncing the folders!

Enter Windows Live Mesh.  Once you have a Windows Live ID, all you have to do is open the program and sign in.   Choose which folders you want to sync, and the program will automatically keep them synced.

You can see in the screen shot above that the I have two folders that I keep synced, the Company Files and the Orders folders.

You can also keep Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office synced.  You can see that I have Internet Explorer syncing turned on – this will keep my favorites synced so if I bookmark a web site on my laptop, it will be automatically bookmarked on my desktop.  This is a fantastic thing to have happen!

For more advanced users, you may experience problems in your day to day work and travels because most syncing programs, including Windows Live Mesh, can sync your folders but only if both computers are connected to the same network.   This works 99% of the time, but when you need to sync two folders and you are not at the office – what do you do?

This is where the SkyDrive comes in.  Windows Live Mesh comes with 2 Gigabytes of online storage (which is a generous amount) for free.   The Company Files folder I do not need to have synced, that folder can sync when I get back from doing my appointments once I am connected to my network again.  However, I need the orders folder to be synced constantly.  

You can setup Windows Live Mesh to use the SkyDrive as the sync place.  This syncs the Orders folder on the Internet in your cloud SkyDrive storage space, and uses that cloud as the centralized storage space.   Basically, your computers are not syncing the Orders folder with each other, they are syncing with the Orders folder on SkyDrive in the cloud.   Therefore it is synced through the Internet, and thus you could be in another country and as long as you have access to the Internet your folder on SkyDrive will be synced.

Import your pictures from your camera on your desktop and sometimes on your laptop?  You end up with some pictures on your laptop and some on your desktop.  If you want to keep them together, you can just set your Pictures folder up to sync and you have all pictures on both computers at all times.   This is also safer, because if one of your computers crashes you know you have the photos on the other computer.

Remote Connection

You can also use Windows Live Mesh to connect to your office computer when you are on the road.    Just like pay services such as Gotomypc.com, you can now use Windows Live Mesh in place of these pay services.  Good or bad, you can do it for free thanks to Microsoft.

Two things have to be done:

1.)  The remote computer, your office desktop in this case, must be turned on.

2.)  The remote computer and the computer you are working on must be connected to the Internet.

3.)  Windows Live Mesh must be running on both computers (easily accomplished because Windows Live Mesh starts automatically when you turn on your computer).

I don’t know if any of you have seen the Microsoft commercials, but there is one that comes to mind here.   There are two people, a man an a wife you presume, stuck in the airport.   Their flight is delayed – so they go “to the cloud” and watch some of their recorded TV shows on their home computer from their laptop in the airport, apparently using Windows Live Mesh.   This is a fine and great idea, the only problem is you would require a very good Internet connection to stream video from your home computer to your laptop over Windows Live Mesh.  It could be done, but don’t get too excited until you actually try it the first time!

I am still looking for a program to sync my Outlook between my laptop and desktop.    You can’t sync .pst files, which is where all the Outlook e-mails are stored, using Windows Live Mesh.   Try it, and you’ll get an error.    I am going to be using a pay service to accomplish this task for now.

So in closing, just like families used to have one car and now have three, we are all going to be getting more and more devices to accomplish our daily tasks.   We will require ways to sync all information across all our devices, and Windows Live Mesh helps us do this.

When I leave the office, I don’t want to spend 15 minutes syncing everything before I leave.    All I want to do is grab my laptop and go.   Windows Live Mesh helps me and might help you get a little closer to doing this.  If you do forget something and it is on your office computer, Windows Live Mesh will allow you to connect to your computer remotely and retrieve or view what you need.

Download Windows Live Mesh

Click Here to visit FMDStore.com to see the current list of ThinkPad Edge Notebooks.

For example, my company offers backup services to our customers.  That is an example of cloud computing.  We install a small software application on your computer.  That application uploads the data, or backs up the data, to a server located at an undisclosed location.  Your data is stored on a secure server.  The servers are connected to backup generators if the power fails.

The “cloud” in this scenario is the server computer where your data is stored.  You don’t have the need, desire, or the means to create your own server environment.  You certainly don’t want to have backup generators and armed-guards at the location to safeguard your data.  You would have tens of thousands of dollars into the project, just to store your data.  Enter the cloud.  The cloud takes care of everything for you and thousands of other people, and charges you a small monthly fee.  It makes it possible for you to have a safe backup location, free from fire, lightning, flood or hard drive crashes – for much less then if you tried to do it yourself.

Have you seen the new Microsoft Windows Live commercials where they always say “too the cloud?”  That is also a good example, posting a document using Windows Live and then other people can view it or edit it.  The document is stored on the cloud, a virtual server computer.

The cloud has a ways to go however. If any of you have used the Microsoft Office tools at live.com, you may have experienced what it is like to use a application over the Internet.  It lags, freezes, and is generally slow.   It depends on your connection speed, but many of us out in the boonies are still coming onto the high speed internet grid – some are still on dialup!   These connection issues need to be fixed before cloud computing truly goes mainstream for everyone.

When you install a application onto your computer, the maker of that software application is granting you access to that program for commercial or personal use, depending on the license agreement.  With cloud computing, you won’t have to install any programs on your computer – you will just go to a place on the internet, login (if you paid your subscription due) and use the application.  The cloud takes care of running the application, all security and maintenance issues.  You just have to use the application and not worry about anything else.

One day you won’t be going down to wal-mart to buy a application to install and use on your computer – you will just go to a place on the internet, pay a yearly or monthly fee, and get access to the program you need that way.

For better or for worse, that is the way the tech world is going.  Microsoft and other software makers couldn’t be happier – they can charge you monthly or yearly fees using that sales model,  instead of a one time fee for their software.

Beware of the cloud.  Its going to be great, but it will change the way we do – and pay for – things we use everyday.

Of course, don’t forget the previous blog post with other browsers you can switch too.   If you don’t feel like figuring Internet Explorer out, just switch!

What To Do When Internet Explorer Crashes

1.)  Firefox – Firefox is a open-source browser brought you by the Mozilla foundation.  You can download Firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com

2.)  Chrome – Chrome is released by a company called Google, a company some of you may have heard of .   Chrome can be downloaded at http://www.google.com by clicking “more” and then clicking “even more.”

3.)  Safari – Safari is a Apple product, which runs on Windows and Macs.   It is the default browser for Macintosh computers, and most Apple users rely on this browser heavily.   You can download Safari for Windows or Macintosh by going to http://www.apple.com

4.)  Opera – Opera is a good browser that has been around for years.   If you have a Nintendo Wii, the main interface as you may have noticed is opera powered.  You can download Opera at http://www.opera.com

Most browsers upon install will have a option for importing your favorites, cookies, and browsing history from Internet Explorer:

According to w3counter.com, Internet Explorer still leads the pack, followed by Firefox:

If you are having trouble with Internet Explorer, or just want to try something different, give these browsers a try.