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A roll up keyboard and a USB laptop (small) mouse. The Cat 5 cable ( and a modem cable) should be of the retractable type to save space and reduce clutter. You didn't mention software but you should have a Bart PE disk and a copy of System Rescue CD (free download).

I would add a CD-Rom or DVD drive, a bootable cd with a bunch of spyware removers, antivirus software like AVG Free, Windows service packs etc.

How about a spare NIC and a small 8 port switch.

I'd also recommend a spare NIC, a cheatsheet of BIOS Beep Codes, a boot floppy and boot CD. Either use an OS CD, or go to ultimatebootcd.com or ubcdforwin.com. The Winternals tools are also very valuable.

I also carry with me a mini portable hard drive 512 meg. This is just incase I have to remove some files before I reimage a computer and I don't want to loose these files. I also carry a small vacuume for cleaning, but that's just me.

1. Fans one 80mm and one 120 mm.
2. CMOS batteries.

1. Power Supply load tester.
2. Fluke NetTool network tester (Or a like item.)
3. Crossover cable (Used for testing high speed modems/routers.)
4. Make up a bootable USB flash drive that has hardware, OS testing software, recovery, image (Like Ghost) software and bookmarks etc. on it.  Put some good reference documents on it too.
5. Make a bootable utility CD like the Bart's ultimate boot CD for Windows XP, and for Windows.
6. USB cables.
7. Floppy drive with cable.

Insert comment text here

Don't forget a variety (different sizes) of plastic cable ties.  You must also have a small box of spare hardware such as screws, nuts, etc. commonly found in PCs and peripheral hardware.

A few multi pin (PC mobo) jumpers always come in handy after you've droped a few and can not find them you'll appreciate this.  I also carry a long (24 inch) "grabber" to pick up those parts that drop into tight places.  And always carry a number of sticky labels for network outlet jacks and cables in the wire rooms that need to be identified.

Good Luck in your new venture.  It's fun and rewarding.

Spare IDE ribbon cables for both hard and floppy drives, spare power
cord, boot disks.  Ribbon cables can get pinched and can become
brittle over time.  Power cords can break due to age, being
jammed, or being melted against a heating element.  And end-users
don't always have a boot disk or start-up disk specific for their
systems.

I'd also take

A spare floppy drive with boot and diagnostic disks

Spare memory, fans, etc.

A POST test card

A Cat 5 crossover cable to link to your laptop? and it's diagnostics

Some system of containers for keeping parts organized and jobs separate

Good luck in your new ad?venture.

I like to carry an extra USB optical mouse because location mice can be  grungy. Also I bring "Keyfinder" and various OS's in case a re-install is necessary.

I've been hooked on Flickr ever since Shawn Morton introduced me to the innovative photo sharing site. From leveraging an open source API to empowering a strong folksonomy, the site's one of a select few I make a point of visiting daily.

So, when O'Reilly announced it was releasing Flickr Hacks it should come as no surprise that I quickly tracked a copy down. Although I thought my skills were well developed - as I long ago discovered fd's Flickr Toys and regularly use uploading and editing apps for Flickr on both the Mac and Windows platforms - I found there's still much to learn.

Authors Paul Bausch and Jim Bumgardner, who both boast highly technical backgrounds, walk readers through a wide range of Flickr features. Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned veteran, everything's covered. As such, the book's a great accompaniment to a gift Flickr subscription, especially for less-technical parents, other family members, friends and colleagues with whom you wish to keep in touch.

Separate sections are dedicated to photo sharing basics, the use of tags, photo viewing options, Flickr's community features, image maintenance (including backups) and more. More technical users will enjoy the book's sections on leveraging Flickr's API (including with Perl and PHP) and custom applications.

My favorite hack? While it's hard to point to just one, #22 ranked high on my list. With a little help from a provided Perl script, you can create a custom screensaver that displays Flickr photos using Windows XP or a Mac. While photo-based screensavers are no big deal, what is different about this hack is it lets you leverage Flickr's tag folksonomy to display random images using keywords you select.

How cool is that? What will they think of next?

I would add a bootable floppy disk, a bootable CD, and at least a 1GB (bigger is even better) USB flash drive. The first two can help you diagnose/repair OS boot issues such as when the boot files have been corrupted, and the third item can be handy for saving critical files to before you do any chancy upgrades/repairs. Files can then be quickly restored if needed after the repairs. Good luck on the new business.

Jodi Minshall, Intel Corporation

The Job

Remember traveling desktop to desktop with nothing but a few handheld tools and a DOS boot disk? Those days are long gone. IT professionals must now support a wide range of operating systems. And, chances are, the next machine you must resurrect may not even have a floppy drive!

A number of excellent troubleshooting tools are available when a system (PC or server) suffers a virus infestation, won?t boot or otherwise fails. After talking to a number of technology consultants, however, I was struck by one recurring recommendation when I asked what tools and utilities I shouldn?t be without in the field.

Several IT professionals recommended I carry a BartPE disc in my toolbox. Every time I visit a client I?m sure to carry a basic set of critical tools, and I heard that BartPE needed to be one of them.

The Tool

What is BartPE? Promoted as ?Admin?s best friend,? Bart?s Preinstalled Environment is a troubleshooting CD you create yourself to help recover from system errors and failures. To build a BartPE CD you need an original Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 installation CD and the BartPE software (authored by Bart Lagerweij).

The preinstalled environment software can be found on the BartPE Website, which lives at www.nu2.nu.

Once created, a BartPE CD can be used to troubleshoot failed systems or even test systems that have no OS installed. You can also use BartPE to copy files from a failed system to a network hard drive, reset, perform virus scans, run executables from the command line and otherwise troubleshoot Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 problems.

Working With BartPE

Here?s how to create a BartPE CD:

1. Obtain your original Windows setup CD and have it ready to go.

2. Go to www.nu2.nu to download the PE Builder (current version is 3.1.10a) self-installing package.

3. Click on the PE Builder v3 link.

4. Click the Download link.

5. Right-click the PE Builder v3.1.10a ? self-installing package link and save it to your hard drive (you?ll need to create the BartPE CD on a system with at least 500MB of free disk space).

6. Then, double-click the pebuilder3110a executable file.

7. Complete the PE Builder Setup Wizard, which will specify the Setup language (English is the default, the location where PE Builder should be installed, etc.).

8. Click on the new PE Builder icon (which the Setup Wizard creates).

9. Accept the PE Builder License, then specify the drive containing the original Windows CD.

10. Specify the location where PE Builder should place the ISO image file being created.

11.Click Build and confirm you wish to create the new directory.

12. Accept the Windows License, and the Build begins.

13. When PE Builder complete the build (my system took only a few minutes), the ISO image is ready to be burned to a CD. You can instruct PE Builder to burn the CD for you. On my system, however, PE Builder generated error messages when I tried. I was able to use my own CD creation software to create a bootable CD-ROM, though, without a problem.

Right Tool For The Job

When you?ve created your BartPE CD, you?re ready to place it in a system (I recommend you work with a test machine first) for testing. Upon booting, instruct the system to boot from the CD.  BartPE will begin installing.

The first prompt you?ll see is for network support. You can use BartPE?s PE Network Configurator to specify network settings. You can even instruct BartPE to use DHCP.

Once BartPE is running, you can open a command prompt, among other troubleshooting features. In addition to reading NTFS files, BartPE can work with compressed volumes (although it cannot read encrypted NTFS files). Because BartPE requires support for the /minint switch, BartPE will not work with Windows 2000 or earlier operating systems.

You can check out a sampling of some of the menus by viewing the BartPE photo gallery.

By working with BartPE in a test environment, you can prepare the CD, and its myriad number of supporting tools and plug-ins, for use in the field. It?s a potent troubleshooting tool that I?ve found has already replaced my old DOS boot disk.

Licensing

Licensing questions are bound to arise when using BartPE. I?ve seen several discussions in Internet forums debating the legality of using BartPE disks, as there are some gray areas regarding its creation of a Windows preboot environment. Here?s what you need to know.

When using BartPE, you must possess a properly licensed copy of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. The BartPE Web site reminds users that, ?according to the Microsoft EULA for Windows XP/2003, a user may not simultaneously use more installations of these operating systems than the user has license(s) for.?

Write your own review

If you've found the perfect tool for the job, we want to hear about it. Send us an e-mail describing the product and the job you're using it for. If we feature the product in The Right Tool for the Job? blog, you'll earn a little cash and be featured across the TechRepublic Web site and in our newsletters.

Hey.. thanks for the tips! will take them onboard for my business..

check out my website:

Computer Repairs Perth and tell me what you think.

The Job
Systems that refuse to boot prompt some of the most stressful events in all of IT. Organizations, regardless of the vertical market within which they operate, all need their computers to work. Lose a single system and a business? operations can grind to a halt. Patients can?t be seen. Orders can?t be filled. Work stops.

As an IT consultant, I know the stress technology professionals experience when a system?s failed and an entire office stares over your shoulder as you navigate myriad cryptic Windows error messages. I was there this morning with a dead Dell that was reporting its Windows\System32\Config\System was missing or corrupt. We?ve all seen this error before, likely. In some cases, it?s easy to repair; other times it?s an absolute bear.

Sometimes Windows Recovery Console proves adequate repairing boot configuration and master boot record issues. But what about all those times it doesn?t?

Informing a client you need to explode a sizable backup in order to pick through files to manually restore a system hive or reinstall Windows and all their applications (when more often than not the organization hasn?t backed up the system?s registry) isn?t always an option. Customers, patients, employees, suppliers, vendors, government agencies and others can literally be lined up awaiting system recovery.

You need to be fast. You need to be efficient. That?s why it?s so important to carry powerful tools. Whether you?re combating virus damage, corrupted registry files or other boot issues, Winternals? ERD Commander 2005 is often the right tool for the job. It saved me this morning, and it?s saved me before. It?s so good Microsoft just bought the company.

The Tool
ERD Commander 2005 is one of several utilities included in Winternals? Administrator?s Pak. From Active Directory and file management tools to recovery software and even a password nullifier, the pak packs wallop. But, at over $1,400 per administrator license (a license enables a single administrator to use the software on an unlimited number of systems), so, too, does the price.

I wish licensing just ERD Commander 2005 was an option. Maybe following Microsoft?s acquisition of the company it will be. Who knows? I suspect Microsoft acquired Winternals not for the products, but for the mind power behind them.

Regardless, ERD Commander 2005 provides me with a single CD I carry to restore corrupted Windows system files, undo Hotfixes, access the command line on non-booting PCs, restore network connections just long enough to rescue critical data from failing disks or access badly needed antivirus or repair software, change a password to gain entrance to systems I?ve been accidentally locked out of and run disk utilities (such as CHKDSK) to confirm hard drive integrity, among other tasks. You?re average day, in other words.

Right Tool For The Job
All of ERD?s functions are easily accessed by clicking the Start button that appears on Winternals? XP-like interface. In addition, ERD Commander re-enables access to the traditional My Computer and Network Neighborhood tools on systems that won?t boot.

That doesn?t sound like a big deal, but when you?ve got four anxious staff shoulder surfing you, and customers are lined up behind them, it?s much easier navigating to the directories you need using the friendly and graphical My Computer interface than it is trying to remember whether you need C:\Windows\System or C:\WINNT\System32 at the command line. The same is true when you need to edit problematic registry entries. ERD?s Registry Editor is an almost perfect mirror of Windows Registry Editor.

I?ve come to depend upon ERD Commander for other tasks, too. When clients request I dispose of their systems, I can assure them the hard disk data won?t end up in the wrong hands. ERD Commander 2005?s Disk Wipe utility supports four-pass deletion meeting Department of Defense 5220.22-M data destruction guidelines. Truth be told, a good three-eights inch drill bit still comes in handy, sometimes, though.

I?ve tried the Hirens CD; I?ve even touted the BartPE disk. If you properly register and license all the software such underground and/or open source tools provide, they can prove helpful. But sitting in a professional workplace, with worried office workers awaiting my pronouncement as to whether a system?s recoverable, isn?t the time or place to experiment with or take a crack using hackers? tools. I feel much more comfortable knowing I?m working with a proven tool tested by the likes of Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich.

Write your own review
If you've found the perfect tool for the job, we want to hear about it. Send us an e-mail describing the product and the job you're using it for. If we feature the product in The Right Tool for the Job? blog, you'll earn a little cash and be featured across the TechRepublic Web site and in our newsletters.

Really, "navtec", the reveal codes feature was a nice part of WordPerfect's DOS days. When we changed to MS Word, we really missed that feature for at least two weeks. However, using styles in a WYSYWIG environment, we no longer miss it. If the reveal codes feature is very important to you, stick to Wordperfect (as many legal firms still do). If the extra slickness and VBA is important and the extra cost is not an issue, stick to MS Word. Otherwise, Open Office is probably fine. "Horses for courses". As for "How to dump Microsoft" - give us a break. That is easy and obvious if it is a real issue for anyone. Personally I use MS Word daily, am impressed with Word 2007, but have Open Office on hand if I need to recover a damaged MS file.

My smartphone is an Orange SPV C550, which I use with T-Mo in the US. I
use Microsoft Activesync to sync all my contacts with Outlook, and it
works very well. Having a smarphone opens up the opportunity for using
your choice of hundreds of different apps in many areas of computing.

--Leafgreen

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Hello?! WordPerfect has had WSYWIG for seven years AND reveal codes. I'm compiling a huge book project that must be done on Word and it is SO much easier on WordPerfect. 

 Oh, yeah, Word just added "Live Preview" in 2007 Word -- great idea six years ago when Corel added it to WordPerfect! :-)