My favorite hosting

FAST setup. Tons of features. – A2Hosting – for hosted WordPress and lots more!

My favorite domain hosting – I trust Google for many other things, so why not Google domains?

Google App for Business / G Suite – THE place to host email… $5 per user, per month; great integration with Chrome and Android!

MUST HAVE installs…

	Dropbox 2Gb free online “cloud” storage. What I love, is that if you install the Dropbox app on your phone, it will auto-sync photos as soon as you take them. So if you lose your phone on a trip, your photos are already on your computer!
	Image Resizer Powertoy for Windows If you do much digital photography, YOU WANT THIS. Resize your images quickly and easily to any size by just right-clicking and choosing “Resize”.
	Java Runtime Environment At some point, some website will require the Java Runtime Environment
	KeePass Password Safe A password safe that I’ve used for many years. Enter one password, have access to a personal database of all my other passwords and info.
	LastPass Desktop and mobile, web-based, highly secure password vault. WITH fingerprint scanning for unlock on mobile devices.
	Revo Uninstaller Uninstalls programs as much as possible by cleaning this registry and all those left-over items that the normal uninstaller DOESN’T remove.
	Windows Live Essentials ‘Photo Gallery’ and ‘Live Writer’ are GREAT tools!

Good to have installs…

	Audacity Audio Editor A great audio editor for recording, mixing and editing new or existing audio files.
	Google Music Manager This app will upload up to 20,000 songs to your Google cloud so you can play YOUR music from your work computer (or any computer) OR stream to your phone! (Install Google Play Music)
	ISO Recorder Create an .ISO file from any group of files. Also, burn .ISO files to CD/DVD.
	TeamViewer GREAT desktop remote control support tool for helping friends out on their computer. Free for personal use. And seriously – pay for it if you use it a lot. They deserve every penny.
	TeamViewer QuickSupport This little app lets someone using TeamViewer remote control your phone (with approval). GREAT for geek who are trying to help friends with their mobile devices!
	Virtual Clone Drive In my opinion, THE BEST DVD mounting software.

	Android App Referrer Great tool for sharing apps installed on your Android with other Android users. Just open ‘App Referrer’, select the app to share, and it generates a QR that the other user can scan with their phone.
	Barcode Scanner by ZXing Team The best 2D, 3D / QR barcode scanner out there. Just installed it – you’ll use it one day.
	Droidlight LED Flashlight A flashlight app on a mobile device should NOT require permissions to see your contact list OR have “full internet access” – that’s why THIS is THE app to use for turning on your light – only hardware access!
	Dropbox A must-have! This app will auto-sync files from your desktop to your phone. I use it to keep my KeePass password database sync’d everyone.
	Glympse GREAT tool for sharing your location with people that you’re meeting up with. Available for Android and other devices.
	KeePass – Password Safe for mobile A password safe that I’ve used for many years. Enter one password, have access to a personal database of all my other passwords and info.

	Chrome extensions “by Google”
	Chrome Remote Desktop Because Chrome runs in the background, you can remote-control your computer from any other Chrome browser.
	Personal Blocklist (by Google) Blocks domains/hosts from appearing in your Google search results.

Favorite technology products…

	Blank DVD media is Taiyo Yuden -R DVD media -R is more compatible with set-top DVD players than +R. Taiyo Yuden is the brand that a lot of duplicators use because of its high quality.

	Intuit QuickBooks Cash Register Plus An amazing and FREE cash register / POS / Point Of Sale application from Intuit for managing sales.

Other links and stuff…

Yahoo Domains / MelbourneIT (melbourneit.com.au) has one of THE worst domain and webhosting control panels on the planet. PLUS, it’s nearly impossible to find when you login to your account. So – here’s the link: www.smallbusiness.yahoo.com
Dell doesn’t send Windows install media with their computers anymore… so you need to order it. BE SURE to order it within the warranty period of the computer, even if you don’t need it/them. Keep them on hand. It’s better to do a format of the drive and clean-install Windows than to ‘restore from the image’ from Dell (full of bloat). Here’s the link – Dell Backup and Recovery Media Request Form (For US and CA Only)