OWA requires stable internet connection for the users to work with emails, unlike the Outlook which can be used when there is no internet connection available. With new improvements and features in the OWA, you can make the best use of it.

Inline Compose

This feature allows users to quickly compose and reply to mails without opening new windows.

To send to emails simultaneously

• Step 1: Click on the overlaid windows icon at the top right side to open mail in a new window.

To add buttons to the interface,

• Step 1: Click on the drop down arrow in the composing window, usually next to font color

  

• Step 2: Select buttons from the drop down menu to add them

Moving emails to another folder

• Step 1: Select and mark the emails you want to move by clicking on them. A few options will appear at the right hand side of the Window, namely ‘Delete’, ‘Flag’, ‘Move’.
• Step 2: Click on the Move option
• Step 3: Give the location to which the emails should be moved

Deleting emails

• Step 1: Hover the mouse cursor over the email to be deleted. Options will now appear on the right side.

  

• Step 2: Mark emails that need to be deleted
• Step 3: Click on Delete

Mark a mail as unread

• Step 1: Right click on the email
  
• Step 2: From the properties that appear in the context menu, click Mark as unread

To view multiple calendars

• Step 1: Open Calendar by clicking on the ‘Calendar’ label in the page
  
• Step 2: In the new window that appears, click on Merge button on the right side of the window

To view item details in Calendar

• Step 1: Click on an item in the calendar
• Step 2: In the pop-up box that appears, click on the option of your choice. You can choose to accept or decline meetings and edit or delete appointments from the options.

Using Contacts options

• Step 1: Click on ‘People’ at the top right side of the Window. A new window with the contacts will appear.
• Step 2: Select a contact
• Step 3: Now on the contact details which appear on the right, click on Manage. You can choose to link or unlike contacts by clicking the Manage button.

To add LinkedIn contacts to OWA Contacts

• Step 1: Google search the LinkedIn App for OWA
• Step 2: Click on a secure page which allows download
• Step 3: Download the application
• Step 4: Install and run the application
• Step 5: Login with the LinkedIn ID and Password

OWA will now automatically add the LinkedIn contacts to the Contacts in OWA, and also displays more information when you select any of the imported contacts in OWA.

Conclusion

This tutorial covers the basic features added to the Outlook web access interface. Microsoft will keep improving OWA adding more features. In latest browsers and mobile devices, the 2013 version of OWA also allows offline access.

The new OWA version is easy to use and interact, simplifying operations like composing and deleting emails, attaching files, viewing calendars and contacts and linking them. Mails getting composed will also be automatically added to the drafts folder and you will be able to see it whenever you compose mails.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Creating a new tile

In order to add the older control panel, you may have to use the new Control panel or switch to Explorer. For that, you have to create a new tile.

• Step 1: Right click on the Windows 8 desktop
• Step 2: Select New and click on Shortcut. A Create Shortcut window will now appear asking for the item’s location.
  
• Step 3: Type the following for the location – %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}
• Step 4: Click ‘Next’ to continue. The next window will ask you to name the shortcut.
• Step 5: Type ‘Control Panel’ as the name for the shortcut you are creating
  
• Step 6: Now click ‘Finish’ button to create the Control Panel shortcut. The shortcut named Control Panel with a folder icon will now appear in the desktop.
• Step 7: Make a right click on the Control Panel shortcut
• Step 8: From the Context menu that appears, select Properties. The properties dialog box will now appear.
• Step 9: Click on the ‘Change Icon’ button right next to the Open File Location button in the dialog box
  
  You will see various icons and field saying ‘Look for icons in this file’
• Step 10: Copy and paste the following in the field, after deleting what’s already in the field
  %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
  After copying this, explore the icons to find the Control Panel icon.
• Step 11: Select the Control Panel icon when you find it and click OK. Now you will notice that the Folder icon of your Control Panel shortcut is changed. It will now have the Control Panel icon.
  The code you pasted for the shortcut in Step 3 is actually the shortcut for the older version of Control Panel. Doing this makes the shortcut a shortcut for the older version of the Control Panel itself. However, this is still just a shortcut. But for ease of use, you may add it to the Start menu.
• Step 12: Make a right click on the shortcut you created in the desktop
• Step 13: In the context menu that appears, select Pin to Start. Now it will appear in the Start menu itself.
  Note: If the location address in Step 3 is not copied as it is given, you won’t be able to use the shortcut. It will not point to the Control panel.

Conclusion

The present Control Panel in Windows 8 is actually more user friendly. The interface, however, needs some getting used to. Considering the number of users who use Windows 7, it’s quite tiresome to get used to a new interface. They might find the older control panel easier. With this technique, you will be able to use the old control panel again in Windows 8.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

The OS is basically an incremental upgrade to Windows Vista. The built-in drivers also include Bluetooth drivers. Users can connect Bluetooth devices with the PC, provided there is a Bluetooth module or a Bluetooth dongle in the PC to detect Bluetooth enabled devices. You can change the settings of any connected Bluetooth device in Windows 7.

This tutorial includes the steps for changing settings of Bluetooth enabled devices connected to the computer.

Control Bluetooth pairing

• Step 1: Click the Start button and select Control Panel
• Step 2: Type Bluetooth in the Control panel search box and press Enter
• Step 3: Click Change Bluetooth Settings
• Step 4: Click the Options tab in the dialog box that appears
  
• Step 5: Make your computer discoverable by checking the checkbox saying Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer. (Tip: Make the computer discoverable only when you want the device to detect the computer)
• Step 6: Check the checkbox ‘Alert me when a new Bluetooth device wants to connect’ to enable alert notifications.

Connecting a device

• Step 1: Make sure the integrated Bluetooth module is enabled
• Step 2: Turn on the Bluetooth connection in the device you wish to connect to the computer. Windows will detect the device and alert you with a notification that a device is trying to connect via Bluetooth.
• Step 3: Click on the notifications to allow access to the device
• Step 4: Pair the device to the PC, providing pairing codes if prompted

Enabling/Disabling devices connected via Bluetooth

The connected device may support various services like file transfer, dial up networking and stereo audio. Windows allows you to enable or disable these services and even change the name of the Bluetooth device connected.

• Step 1: Click on the Start button
• Step 2: Now click on Devices and Printers, which should appear in the Start menu on the right pane.
  
  The Devices and Printers window will now appear in the screen. You will be able to see the device connected via Bluetooth. The name of the device will be the name given by the device manufacturer, by default. If you changed the device’s Bluetooth name in the device itself, that name will be displayed instead.

Changing the name of the device

• Step 1: Right click on the Bluetooth enabled device which appears in Devices and Printers window
  
• Step 2: Now select Properties from the context menu which appears on right clicking
  This will open the Properties dialog box of the device. You will be able to see a Bluetooth tab in the box.
• Step 3: Click on the Bluetooth tab in Properties.
• Step 4: Type a new name of your preference for the device and click OK. The new name will be displayed for the device from now on, until you change it again.

Enabling a service

• Step 1: Click on the Services tab in the Properties box
• Step 2: Check the checkbox beside the service you want to enable and click OK

Disabling a service

• Step 1: Click on the Services tab
• Step 2: Clear the checkbox beside the service you want to disable and click OK

Conclusion

You have now configured the Bluetooth settings of Windows 7 and the settings of a Bluetooth connected device. The device only appears if the system can detect it. You will lose connection if the device is out of range.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

It is possible to customize the appearance of Ubuntu Linux to resemble Windows 7. It can be done by using Linux’s Unity desktop. There are also other slightly complicated ways to change Ubuntu desktop appearance. This tutorial provides you with instructions to make Ubuntu Linux desktop resemble Windows 7 desktop, by tweaking Linux Unity desktop.

Tweaking Unity to look like Windows 7

Although there are only a few configurable options in Unity, it is still quite flexible enough to perform some tweaks so that it resembles Windows 7.

• Step 1: Make sure you have the current version of Ubuntu Linux
  
• Step 2: Hit the Windows key and type ‘Terminal’ without quotes and then hit Enter
  
  Now you need to copy and run a few commands to get the Windows theme installed. There are no installation wizards. You just have to copy the commands below, without the quotes, paste them in the terminal one by one, running each command after pasting it.
• Step 3: Copy and Paste this command (without quotes) in the terminal first, and then run it by hitting Enter ‘sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk3’. This installs a personal package archive in your system.
• Step 4: Now copy the following command, paste it (without quotes) and hit Enter
  ‘sudo apt-get update’. This command allows system to retrieve information about newly available packages.
• Step 5: ‘sudo apt-get install win2-7’. Paste and run this command without quotes. This will install Win2-7 theme.

Customizing the installed theme

• Step 1: Copy, paste and run the following command to enable the icon gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme ‘Win2-7-theme’
• Step 2: Copy and Paste this command to enable Window border
  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme ‘Win2-7-theme’
• Step 3: Now do the same for the command below, to enable widget theme
  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme ‘Win2-7-icons’ You will be able to see a launcher resembling a taskbar. It may be of different color but it’s nothing to be concerned about. This launcher uses the same color in the desktop wallpaper. To complete the Windows 7 desktop appearance, Windows 7 wallpaper must be set as the background. For this,
• Step 4: Launch the web browser
• Step 5: Use Google Search to find Windows 7 original wallpapers
• Step 6: Download wallpaper and set it as background. The launcher will now appear in the color of the desktop background.
• Step 7: Use this command to set close, minimize and maximize buttons, Windows style
  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ‘menu:minimize,maximize,close’
  This rearranges the buttons to resemble the windows in Windows 7.
• Step 8: To change the Mac style menu bar and replace it with Windows menu bar, copy, paste and run this command
  sudo apt-get autoremove appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt indicator-appmenu
  This affects each application window that you open in Ubuntu Linux.
• Step 9: Log out and log back for the changes to take effect
  Click the button at the far right side of the screen at the top to log out.
  

You have successfully personalized the Unity desktop in Ubuntu Linux which should now closely resemble Windows 7 desktop.

Conclusion

This is a simple way of transforming Linux desktop into a Windows 7 look-alike. However, further adjustments cannot be made. So it doesn’t completely look like Windows 7. There are other methods, using desktop environments that can closely resemble Windows 7 desktop. You will also be able to undo the changes that you have made in the desktop. This method doesn’t cause any harm to the Linux system. It’s recommended to use the latest version of Ubuntu Linux for tweaking the desktop.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Getting started

You need to have the latest updates from Apple installed on your Mac before beginning.

• Step 1: Launch your web browser and visit www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
• Step 2: Now check for updates and then download and install all the necessary updates
• Step 3: Click the ‘Apple’ menu and select ‘Software update’ to install updates on your Mac

  

• Step 4: Now reboot the system and check for updates once more

As Boot Camp reallocates your hard disk space, it’s recommended to back up your data and store the backup somewhere safe in case if the data gets corrupted in the process.

Running Boot Camp Assistant (OS X 10.6 or later)

• Step 1: Quit all running applications and open a Finder window
• Step 2: Click ‘Applications’ and then select ‘Utilities’
• Step 3: Double click Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder
• Step 4: Click ‘Continue’ in the window that appears
• Step 5: Choose to download Windows support software for Mac if prompted
• Step 6: Then click Continue
• Step 7: Provide your administrator password and hit Enter to start downloading the software

  

• Step 8: Now burn the downloaded files to a disc or store them in a flash drive

Partitioning

You will now have to create a partition for Windows on your hard drive and you will be prompted for it by the assistant.

• Step 1: When a partition slider appears, adjust it to give space to the Windows in your hard drive
  

  You can give any space but the available free space for OS X will be decremented. Windows 7 requires at least 16 GB. So it’s recommended to devote about 20 GB for Windows.

• Step 2: Click ‘Partition’ and wait till the process is complete

Install Windows

• Step 1: Insert the Windows disc into the optical drive
• Step 2: Click ‘Start Installation’, which will then restart your system and launch the Windows setup
• Step 3: Follow the installation instructions and choose ‘Custom Installation’ when prompted
  The ‘Where do you want to Install Windows’ screen should now appear.
• Step 4: Select the ‘BOOTCAMP’ partition
• Step 5: Now select Drive options and choose ‘Format’ in the advanced options
• Step 6: Make sure you don’t make any other selections as there is chance that the OS X will be removed

Install Windows drivers

The Mac hardware will have to work with Windows properly. To ensure this, you need to install the drivers you downloaded.

• Step 1: Eject the Windows installation disc
• Step 2: Insert the flash drive or disc where you stored the downloaded drivers
• Step 3: Open the flash drive or the disc and open Boot Camp folder
• Step 4: Double click ‘setup.exe’ to install the drivers and follow instructions
• Step 5: If you get warnings, select ‘Continue Anyway’ to go on with the installation

Conclusion

You now have Windows and Mac OS X running in your Mac. You can choose any of the two operating systems during the start up. You just have to press and hold the Option key while boot or reboot to see the OS selection screen.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Partitioning

Before you format and use a hard drive (internal and/or external) for backup, it needs to be partitioned. You can either divide your drive into sections of specific sizes or just use it with a single encompassing the full size of the drive.

• Step 1: Click Start button
• Step 2: Right click on ‘Computer’ and select ‘Manage’
  
• Step 3: Under ‘Storage’, click Disk Management which can be found in the left pane. Tip: If your drive has a size of more than 2 TB, select GPT. If it doesn’t, select MBR. Drives that are not partitioned come with black bars and the ‘Unallocated’ label. Partitioned drives come with blue bars and drive letters.
  
• Step 4: Right click the black bar
• Step 5: Select New Simple Volume (where Volume means Partition)
• Step 6: Click Next in the Window that appears
• Step 7: Specify the size of your preference in MB. To use the drive as one whole section, without dividing into multiple sections, specify the same size as the maximum disk size in MB.
• Step 8: Click Next
• Step 9: Now give it a drive letter of your choice and click ‘Next’
• Step 10: Select ‘Format this volume’. If you plan to use the computer with other Windows machines, select ‘NTFS’. If you plan to use the computer with Macs, then choose exFAT. Make sure that the allocation unit size is at default.
• Step 11: Now you have to provide a name for the partition under Volume label
• Step 12: Make sure that you haven’t selected ‘Perform a quick format’ or ‘Enable file and folder compression’
• Step 13: Click ‘Next’
• Step 14: Double check and confirm the selections you have made before clicking ‘Finish’

Formatting for a Windows installation

• Step 1: Insert the Windows Installation disc or ‘Restore’ disc in the disc drive
• Step 2: Now click Start button and select ‘Restart’
• Step 3: Boot the PC from the disc that you inserted
• Step 4: Follow the prompts to start the restoration procedure
• Step 5: If you are using an installation disc, select the language
• Step 6: Accept the Windows terms and conditions for license
• Step 7: Select Custom from Advanced options, if and when prompted
• Step 8: Delete partitions that you don’t want with the Delete option in Drive options, after selecting the partition
  
• Step 9: Click the un-allocated space to select and then go to ‘Drive options’
• Step 10: Now select ‘New’. This is to create a new partition
• Step 11: Select ‘Format’ once you are done specifying the size of the new partition
• Step 12: Click ‘Next’ to start the Windows installation, once formatting is complete. The system is now fully formatted erasing all the data in the hard drive.

Conclusion

Once the formatting is complete and Windows has been installed, you can restore the backup that you have created and stored in an external drive. Although the format erases data in the hard drive, they can still be recovered to a certain extent by using simple recovery tools.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Getting Started

• Step 1: After logging into the OS, create a New Folder in a drive to store the backup

  

• Step 2: Now launch your web browser
• Step 3: In the web address bar, type http://www.gmail-backup.com/download and hit Enter. This opens the Gmail backup software webpage.
• Step 4: Scroll down the page until you see ‘Download gmail-backup-0.107.exe’ hyperlink
• Step 5: Click on the hyperlink to start downloading Gmail backup. A pop-up window will now appear.
• Step 6: Click on the Save File button in the Window to allow download
• Step 7: Click on the downloaded .exe file to start the installation of Gmail backup
• Step 8: Follow the instruction and Install Gmail backup in a directory of your preference
  Tip: Click on ‘Download gmail-backup-0.107-linux.zip’ if you are a Linux user. You require the wxPython packages to be installed in your computer and also the ctypes module. You can find wxPython packages at www.wxpython.org. The ctypes module is available in the wxPython v2.5 package.

Using Google Backup

• Step 1: After the installation, open your web browser again
• Step 2: Type www.gmail.com in the web address bar
• Step 3: Provide your Gmail ID and password and click Sign In. You will be signed in to Gmail
• Step 4: Scroll to right and click on the downward facing arrow beside an icon resembling a gear.
• Step 5: Click Settings
  
  The Gmail Settings page will now appear.
• Step 7: In the multiple tabs above, click on ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’
• Step 8: In the IMAP Access options, click on Enable IMAP
  
  This enables IMAP access to your Gmail mailbox. The message storage format in Gmail is ‘YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-nn.eml’. YYYY stands for the year (example: 2005) and MM stands for the month, as in 03 for March. DD stands for the number indicating the day. The hh is for hours, mm for minutes, and ss for seconds. This format indicates the exact time the mail was sent to you.
  If you have more emails with the same time label, you will notice a number nn, which starts with 1 as the value. The plain text file labels.txt is where label assignments are stored. This file pairs the emails in the mailbox.
• Step 9: Open Google Backup
• Step 10: Type the command that follows without quotes – ‘gmail-backup.exe backup dir user@gmail.com password’. Your full username and password should be provided in the command.
• Step 11: Now save the files in the New Folder you created earlier. You have successfully backed up your Gmail account.

Conclusion

You may also specify a time interval in the command, which backs up the emails from that time onwards. Just after providing the password in the command, leave a space and type the time in the format YYYYMMDD. You can back up the emails in your Gmail account if your internet service provider allows IMAP ports access. You don’t need to use command if you have the latest Gmail backup version.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Users commonly face the problem of accidental deletion of files. They might have used the permanent delete (Shift+delete) option, meaning that the files cannot be restored from the Recycle Bin. For an ordinary computer, the users can use file recovery software to recover the deleted data. UndeleteMyFiles Pro is one such software that can be downloaded for free. Using this software, users can recover deleted files from not just local disk drives but also from external USB devices.

Follow the steps in this tutorial to recover lost data using UndeleteMyFiles Pro.

Installing UndeleteMyFiles Pro

• Step 1: Launch your web browser
• Step 2: Copy and paste the following website link to the address bar of the browser www.undeletemyfiles.en.softonic.com/
• Step 3: Click Download to safely download the file to your PC
• Step 4: After the download is completed, double click on the downloaded .exe file
• Step 5: Click ‘Run’ if the Open File-Security Warning dialog box appears
  
• Step 6: Click ‘Yes’ if a User Account Control dialog box appears. This will begin the installation of UndeleteMyFiles Pro.
• Step 7: Follow the instructions to successfully install the software in your PC

Using UndeleteMyFiles Pro

Once the installation is completed, you will be able to use UndeleteMyFiles Pro to recover deleted data. Make sure you close all other running programs first.

• Step 1: Double click on the UndeleteMyFiles Pro exe file to launch the software. The main screen will now appear.
• Step 2: Click on the icon named ‘File Rescue’ in the main screen. The File Rescue screen will now open, which will display your local drives.
• Step 3: Check the corresponding checkbox of the drive letter to select the drive where the deleted file was stored before deleting.
• Step 4: Now click ‘Scan’. Once the scan is completed, UndeleteMyFiles Pro will display all the deleted files in the drive you selected.
  
• Step 5: Go through the list of deleted files, and check the corresponding checkbox of the deleted file that you want to recover.
• Step 6: After making the selection, click the ‘Recover’ button at the top. A dialog box named ‘Browse for Folder’ will appear asking for the location to save the files after recovery.
• Step 7: Select a folder or make a new folder, and then click the OK button

It’s recommended that you save the file to a different folder rather than saving it in the drive in the same folder where it was originally located before deleting. Step 8: In the dialog box that appears now, click ‘Yes’ to recover only the file and click ‘No’ if you want to recover the file with its original structure. The files will be recovered and the statistics will be displayed.

Searching for deleted file

• Step 1: Click the ‘Deleted File Search’ icon in the main menu to search for a specific deleted file
• Step 2: Click ‘Search’ on the Search screen
• Step 3: Click Locations to choose search options and add locations to search
• Step 4: Click the Files tab to choose specific file types for the search
• Step 5: Click Search when you are done
• Step 6: Recover files from the search results as mentioned earlier

Conclusion

UndeleteMyFiles Pro is a very useful file recovery tool with lots of simple features allowing you to search for a deleted file of specific file types and sizes. This free software is also safe to use in the PC as the recovery will not corrupt other files and folders.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

It’s comparatively easier to configure wireless network in Windows 7 than in Windows XP. A local wired network is easier to connect and configure in Windows XP. But once you connect and configure wireless networks in Windows XP, you will be able to easily do this anytime.

Getting started

Wireless networks are automatically scanned and detected by Windows XP. The OS will attempt to connect to the discovered network automatically. However, if it doesn’t, you will have to configure the network yourself manually.

• Step 1: Click Start button and then click Run

  

• Step 2: Type ‘ncpa.cpl’ without quotes in the Run dialog box’s empty field and hit Enter
  This will open the Network Connections window.
  
• Step 3: When the window appears, make a right click on the Wireless Network Connection icon
• Step 4: Now click Properties in the context menu that appears. You will now see the Properties dialog box in the screen.
• Step 5: Click the Wireless Networks tab
  

  Note: If there is no such tab in the Properties, then it means your network adapter doesn’t support Wireless Zero Configuration service. Make sure you have enabled this service and set it to ‘Automatic’.

• Step 6: Now click the Add button in the ‘Preferred networks’ section

Configuring the network

The Add button in the Wireless Network tab in the Properties box will let you add wireless networks to the system. Here you will have to configure the network by naming the access point and setting up wireless mode in the system.

A Network name box will appear when you click the Add button.

• Step 1: In the SSID box (Network name), provide a name for the access point
• Step 2: Now select the appropriate network settings based on your network requirements. The computer will match the settings you selected with the router or access point configuration. If you don’t own a wireless router or any wireless access points, you can set the wireless mode to ‘Ad-hoc’. You may also have the same network name matching other computers.
• Step 3: Once you are finished with selecting all the settings, click the OK button
• Step 4: Now go back to the Properties dialog box and click ‘View Wireless Networks’ button which would be in the ‘Available networks’ section, just above ‘Preferred networks’. You will now see the Wireless Network Connection dialog box.
• Step 5: Choose the network of your preference by clicking on the network’s name
• Step 6: Now click the Connect button. This will establish a connection with the network that you have selected.

Note: The system automatically determines whether a network is secured or unsecured. So they may appear either unsecured or secured in the list of networks. If there is a network security enabled, then you will be able to see a gold padlock. In such cases, in order to connect to the network, you will need to provide the network password or number to connect.

Conclusion

You have successfully established a wireless connection in Windows XP. Windows XP Service Pack 2 versions validate all wireless networks before establishing the connection. After authentication, Windows will then attempt to acquire the network address. An IP address will be obtained as a result.

If this fails, the system will be assigned a private IP address automatically and you will receive either a Limited connectivity or No connectivity message. Make sure that Windows Firewall isn’t blocking the network, otherwise you will be unable to access it.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.

Storage spaces is a technology which users can use to combine the data storing capacity of multiple disk drives into a pool and craft many virtual disks. Users can also mirror data across many multiple disk drives with this technology.
This tutorial includes the procedure to use this technology to mirror and combine drives.

Creating a storage space in Windows 8

• Step 1: Connect two or more additional storage drives to your computer. You may add internal or external drives of your preference
• Step 2: Log in to Windows
• Step 3: Hit the Windows key and bring up the Start menu
• Step 4: Select Control Panel
• You may also access the Storage space settings by searching ‘Storage spaces’ in the Start menu search field. Now click on the Settings category and select the ‘Storage Spaces’ shortcut from the left pane.
• If you haven’t created Storage spaces before, a link will appear in the Storage spaces settings in Control Panel, to create a new storage space.
  
• Step 5: Click on the link to create new storage space. Now a new window appears asking you to select drives to create the Storage pool.
• Step 6: Select the drives you want to use to create the Storage pool.
  NOTE: Make sure you copy and backup all important files in the drives you select for the storage pool. Files already in the drives will be erased during the process. It’s recommended to format the drives before using them to create the storage space.
• Step 7: After selecting the drives, click on ‘Create pool’ button. You will be able to add additional drives in a storage pool after creating it.

Configuring the storage pool

• Step 1: Give a name for the storage pool and select a drive letter. Windows will display the name and drive letter you provide, for the storage space.
• Step 2: Select a Resiliency type. The Resiliency type you specify will be used by Windows to handle data in the pool. The resiliency types and their descriptions are as follows:
  None: Data will be stored as a single copy. If one of the drives fails, you will lose the data. However, no backup space will be used.
  Two-way mirror: Requires at least two drives. Two copies of the data will be saved and won’t be lost if one of the drives fails.
  Three-way mirror: If one or two of the drives fail, you will not lose data as Windows will save three copies.
  Parity: Parity information is stored with the data protecting it from failure of a single drive. Efficient for storing video files, but time for accessing files will be slower.
• Step 3: Specify a logical size of your preference regardless of the size of the drives
  For instance, you can combine two 30 GB drives and specify logical size of 300 GB rather than 60 GB. Windows will notify you upon reaching the 60 GB limit, to add additional drives.
• Step 4: Click the ‘Create Storage Space’ button
  

Conclusion

Your storage space will appear as an ordinary drive in Windows Explorer, with the name and drive letter you specified. You can encrypt this space and use it as any other normal drive. You can manage and configure storage spaces from the Storage spaces control panel.

Author information

imira

A research and content development firm based in India providing solutions for various corporate firms, academic institutions and online portals.