How to Make Your PC Restart Automatically After a Power Outage

It's a rare office indeed that doesn't suffer power outages from time to time -- w

eather-related or otherwise -- but such events don't have to be as disruptive as they once were. Enter the trusty uninterruptible power supply, which today can not only shut your computers down safely, they can also start them back up again once power has returned. Mother Nature: 0; Tech: 1.

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is quietly underway. Kit is available, however, that can help mitigate potential office disruption as weather ramps up.

Uninterruptible power supplies are sophisticated battery-containing devices that supply backup power to desktop PCs during grid electricity outages, like in storms. You can pick up a UPS at office supply retailers, among other places. They're great to have because the battery lets you keep working during short outages, and they let you shut down a desktop computer normally in the event of a longer outage without losing data.

Analysts: PC Makers Have Plenty of Plan Bs

It's not as if PC sales were already setting the world on fire, thanks to the red-hot growth of mobile devices. However, the latest IDC tracking report was anything but a barnburner: Sales hit record lows worldwide, and despite a full quarter of Windows 8 on the market, Microsoft's new operating system had weak appeal. Better tactics and marketing are available to OEMs and Microsoft, however, including focusing on consumer niches, regional targeting and doing a better job touting Windows 8's benefits.

Worldwide PC sales plunged during the first three months of the year, the worst quarterly decline since 1994, according to research firm IDC. PC shipments have been declining recently thanks largely to the rise of mobile devices, but the first quarter of 2013 was as bad as it's been since IDC started tracking the market. PC makers shipped 76.3 million units around the world during the past quarter, a 13.9 percent drop from the same time a year ago.
HP barely kept its top spot on the PC manufacturer leader board, but its worldwide shipments declined more than 23 percent from last year. Lenovo nearly closed the gap with HP, and was the only major vendor to see shipments rise. It now has a 15.3 percent share of the global market, compared to the 13.2 percent share it had a year ago.
"Lenovo is doing well because their business model fits well in the low margin and high volume market," Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, told the E-Commerce Times. "At the same time, they are able to maintain good quality brand recognition in the professional market."
The overall U.S. PC market was "dismal" during the past quarter, according to IDC, with quarterly shipments at their lowest point since the first quarter of 2006.
IDC did not respond to our request for further detail.

Patience on Windows 8

The most recent quarter was the first full one out of the gate for Windows 8, Microsoft's revamped operating system, but the makeover doesn't seem to have invigorated the market.