Computer Tips and Guides

Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

Use the Apple Magic Trackpad with Windows

f Apple’s Magic Trackpad appeals to you but you’re a Windows user, you can still take advantage of the multi-touch device on your Windows machine by using abstracted Boot Camp drivers.Apple made its Magic Trackpad compatible with Windows, but only if you’re running Windows under their dual-booting tool, Boot Camp. Tech blog Digital Inspiration provides step-by-step instructions for grabbing the Apple Magic Trackpad patch for Boot Camp, extracting the files you need, and installing ..read more

Cmd+Z/Ctrl+Z Re-Opens Closed Tabs in Safari 5

Closed down a tab you needed in Safari? In the latest version, the same keyboard shortcut you’d use to undo an oopsie in any other program will bring it back. That’s right—Command+Z (Control+Z on Windows) to the rescue.

It makes sense, of course, but it’s also different from the Command+Shift+T (Control+Shift+T) standard that’s emerged on Firefox and Chrome browsers on Mac and Windows. Still, knowing this shortcut should save you some time from looking for ..read more

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

Speed Up Windows 7 Taskbar Navigation with a Registry Hack

Windows 7’s taskbar is undoubtedly a great addition to Windows, but if you’ve got more than one application window open, you’ve got to either click twice or patiently hover to navigate to an open window. Reader Richard details how he fixed this:

I’ve been frustrated as of late with the Windows 7 taskbar (which led me to try hot-dogging it on the left-hand side as detailed here—by the way GREAT and useful ..read more

How to install a hard drive

In college, as the burgeoning P2P world opened up before me, I spent four years moving, burning, and ultimately sacrificing the free and ambiguously legal media I had been downloading on my 20GB laptop.

Since that time PVR functionality has replaced my P2P addiction (sort of), and my used hard drive space is still bumping up against its limits. Now that I’m out of college and enjoying the luxury of a desktop computer, I need worry ..read more

The Google Phone Edition

Rumors fly that Google will soon release their own phone build around Google Voice (not just another Android handset), the upcoming Chrome for Mac beta will be lacking several important features, and Gmail’s creator thinks Wave could someday integrate nicely with Gmail.

Features Chrome For Mac Beta Will Be Missing When Chrome for Mac hits sometime this month, it’ll be missing its bookmark manager, Fluid-like app mode, possibly the task manager, and definitely Gears, among other potentially missing features. ..read more

The Gaia Desktop

Reader Sweetshop Union’s Windows 7 desktop has been completely transformed with the Gaia09 skin for Rainmeter, complete with widgets, wallpaper, and a visual style to match.

The desktop is a combination of:

Rainmeter with the Gaia09 theme. Rocketdock Gaia09 Visual style for Windows 7 (includes wallpaper) Full instructions for installing Gaia09 Rainmeter skins can be found here.

This desktop not your style? Why waste time complaining? Instead, get started creating your own killer desktop with the easy-install Rainmeter 1.1 package and show the world ..read more

Google Tasks Goes Full-Screen in iGoogle

Google Tasks, the to-do manager that has everything but its own dedicated page, gets the next best thing with an iGoogle gadget that can go mostly full-screen. That makes doing everything beyond adding tasks easier from a desktop browser.

Tasks brags on its home page about its accessibility inside different Google apps, but from a standard browser, you have to settle for the condensed sidebar views inside Gmail or Google Calendar. Hitting the “maximize” button in ..read more

MahTweets is an Impressive, Customizable Facebook and Twitter Client

Windows only: Fans of TweetDeck with a preference for open source will love MahTweets, a plugin-based Twitter client that also integrates with Facebook, Flickr, Twitpic, and more, and offers all kinds of handy customizations.

The first thing you do upon opening MahTweets is choose what plugins you want to install. Right now it’s only got a few, but they give you the opportunity to choose what networks you want integrated (including Facebook, Twitter, ..read more