Computer Tips and Guides

Archive for August, 2009

I worked on a Windows 2000 Professional computer over the weekend where the Add and Remove Control Panel was essentially blank. The Appwiz.cpl file would open but at the top of the screen were the options all jumbled together and the rest of the window was blank.

My first thought was some corrupted Windows 2000 files, so I ran sfc /scannow from a command prompt and let the system check every file. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem. A few ..read more

Ok, I bought Windows Vista Business Upgrade the other day so I could start playing with it. Since I didnt want to mess up the configuration of my current computer, I thought I would install Vista on a blank hard drive.

Sounds easy enough, after all the previous versions of Windows required you to have a legitimate copy of an older Windows operating system and simply asked for that copy during the install so they could verify upgrade compliance.

Before installing Windows Vista, I ..read more

Remains of the Day: Facebook Acquires FriendFeed Edition

Social networking site Facebook snags up social media aggregator FriendFeed, we patiently await more Windows 7 deals, and AT&T’s Terms of Service are looking shady.

FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request FriendFeed is the coolest social aggregator we’ve seen, but it never really caught on with users at large. With this new Facebook partnership, the popular social networking tool hopes to compete with the likes of Twitter for your real-time online activity and search. [FriendFeed Blog] Facebook ..read more

uTorrent 2.0 Beta Brings Fixes and Improvements, Adds UDP Support

Windows only: uTorrent, the most popular BitTorrent client on the planet, has released a new 2.0 beta complete with bug fixes and new features, including UDP tracker support.

UD-wha? As all-things-BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak explains, UDP trackers are much less resource intensive than HTTP trackers, and most torrent sites out there support UDP—meaning that if uTorrent, the most popular torrent client, were to support it, that’s great news for all the torrent trackers ..read more

Google Now Translates Uploaded Documents

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Google Translate could previously take pasted text or web URLs for translation, and the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer was offering on-the-fly translation. Now Google’s made it easy to put desktop documents through its multi-language processing.

Hit “Upload a document” on the Translate main page, and you’ll be prompted to upload Word documents, PowerPoint presentation files, PDFs, HTML files, or straight-up text files. All of them ..read more

Determine If Your Printer Is Stealing Your Time and Money

We already knew that many printers waste a lot of ink (and money), but if you’re suspicious that your printer is a repeat offender, PC World rounds up five steps to help you determine whether your printer’s stealing your time and money.

The article addresses some of the more obvious cost issues—e.g., cheap printers that charge exorbitant prices for ink refills—but they’ve to make things a little more scientific. For example, the ..read more