Computer Tips and Guides

Archive for April, 2010

Top 10 Hard Drive Upgrades and Fixes

You should never feel like your hard drive is holding out on you. Anyone should be able to back up, recover files, boot multiple systems, upgrade, or otherwise improve their storage space. These tips explain the possibilities and procedures.

10. Quiet It Down

Over time, the moving parts and powered pieces that move your magnetic disks around at lightning speed will wear, age, and get noisy. In a desktop computer (a Windows PC, generally), you can ..read more

How to Upgrade Your Tiny Hard Drive to a Spacious New One and Keep Your Data Intact

You’re planning on upgrading your hard drive, but there’s one small problem: How do you get your data from the old hard drive to the new one, without reinstalling everything? Here’s a step-by-step guide to seamlessly transition to a new drive.

If you’ve bumped up against the limits of your small, old hard drive over and over, it may be time to upgrade. In some ..read more

How to Delete Individual Entries from the Internet Explorer Address Bar

Whenever you type an address directly into the Internet Explorer’s address bar, the URL will be saved in IE’s history. If you pull downdown this list later, those URLs will show up.  Because of privacy and security concerns, you may want to delete these entries periodically. Although you can remove the website URLs from the address bar dropdown list by clearing the history from Internet Explorer, its tougher ..read more

Windows Media Player 12 Streams Your Media Library over the Internet

Here’s a new one to us: Linking your Windows Live ID to Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 allows you to stream your entire music library to any computer. Even better: no need to install third-party software with this method.

There are many, many ways to stream your music collection over the internet—but there’s something appealing about using the built-in software that Microsoft bundled with Windows 7. If you’re already ..read more

How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords

Internet standards expert, CEO of web company iFusion Labs, and blogger John Pozadzides knows a thing or two about password security—and he knows exactly how he’d hack the weak passwords you use all over the internet.

Note: This isn’t intended as a guide to hacking *other people’s* weak passwords. Instead, the aim is to help you better understand the security of your own passwords and how to bolster that security.

If you invited me to ..read more

Stop Windows 7 from Deleting Your Desktop Shortcuts

f it seems like the desktop shortcuts on your Windows 7 keep disappearing, you’re not hallucinating. Windows 7 automatically deletes broken and network shortcuts if there are too many. Here’s how to stop Windows from throwing these (often still useful) shortcuts away.If you have four or more “broken” desktop shortcuts (which includes shortcuts to disconnected network locations and shell folders), System Maintenance in Windows 7 will delete the shortcuts in its weekly maintenance. ..read more

AquaSnap Brings Enhanced Aero Effects to Windows XP Through Windows 7

Windows: AquaSnap is a free multifunctional tweaking application that brings Aero-style effects to Windows XP and enhances Aero in Vista and Windows 7.

If all you’re interested in is taking advantage of Aero-style effects in Windows XP like snapping application windows to the edges of your monitor, AquaSnap has you covered. You can step beyond the basics in XP, Vista, and Windows 7 with additional AquaSnap tweaks.

You can set application windows ..read more

Alt+Tab Tuner Makes Windows 7’s Task Switcher Thumbnails Larger and Much More

Windows 7 only: System tweaking utility Alt+Tab Tuner customizes everything about the Windows 7 Alt-Tab dialog, from setting the transparency to increasing the size of the thumbnails.To customize the settings, all you have to do is unzip and launch the utility, drag the sliders to suit your preferences, and click the Apply button. You can even use the utility to switch back to the old XP-style Alt+Tab dialog if ..read more

StartupSelector Saves and Swaps Your Windows Startup Configuration

Windows: StartupSelector is a simple application for saving your Windows startup configuration and swapping it with previous backups for customizable startup configurations on the fly.

After installing StartupSelector you can do two things: save your current startup configuration or restore a previous backup. Whether you want to see if radical changes to your startup configuration actually make a difference in your boot time or you routinely switch between what applications you need to access ..read more

MapDroyd Downloads Free Maps for Offline Navigation

Android: When you’re traveling where a cellular connection is fairly certain, Google Maps’ own Navigation tool is a total GPS replacement. For those without data plans, or heading into the wilds, MapDroyd makes for a nice offline map backup.

When you start the app, you’ll want to hit the Menu button and head right to “Manage Maps,” where you can then drill down from continents to countries, to states and provinces and districts, and check ..read more