Computer Tips and Guides

Posts Tagged ‘Mdash’

CanYouSeeMe.org Checks for Open Ports Behind Firewalls

If you’re traveling this holiday season and using the wireless networks of hotels or other unfamiliar service providers, CanYouSeeMe.org is a handy way to tell what ports are reachable when you’re behind a firewall.

CanYouSeeMe.org’s open port check tool is a simple but useful web-based utility for figuring out if your ISP or firewall is blocking certain ports you need to get things done on your computer. It’s a handy way to determine if connection ..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

Hands-On Look at What’s New in Office 2010

Now that we’ve had some time to play with the Office 2010 Professional Beta, we thought we’d share what’s new and useful inside Microsoft’s big suite. Take a gander at the pictorial evidence below.

Overall, Office 2010 is not the kind of leap forward that Windows 7 was from Vista (or, for most PC upgraders, from XP). It adds a lot of stuff that’s previously been available only through plug-ins, makes performing the basic ..read more

Device Doctor is a Free Driver Update Scanner with Promise

Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.

Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each ..read more

Top 10 Windows 7 Booster Apps

Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, and a pretty convenient OS in general—but it’s by no means perfect. These 10 downloads improve Windows 7’s looks, functions, and make it easier, safer, and more convenient to upgrade to.

10. Bring back the “classic” Start menu

Windows 7’s Start menu is a powerful thing, offering program and file launching as you type and allowing for smart pinning of whatever you frequently access. If you’re really attached to ..read more

AVG 9 Free Now Available for Download

Windows only: AVG 9 Free—one of the most popular free antivirus apps on the market—is now available for download.

A couple weeks back, the popular antivirus maker AVG released AVG 9 with performance improvements and other updates, but on launch only the commercial version of AVG 9 was available. The fact of the matter is that most AVG users are probably using AVG Free, the freeware version of the app, so if that’s the case ..read more

WOT Extension Integrates Web of Trust into Google Chrome

Chrome extension WOT adds the Web of Trust community web site rating service to the Google Chrome browser, so you can check the trustworthiness of a web site without leaving the page.

Once you’ve installed the extension—by simply clicking on the link and accepting the install—you will see a new icon in the Chrome status bar that shows the community rating for the site you are browsing. Clicking the icon will display a ..read more

Snow Leopard Bug Deleting Entire User Accounts

Tech news site ITWire reports that a reproducible bug related to guest accounts in Snow Leopard is deleting entire user account data. That’s a very bad thing. From ITWire, here’s what’s happening:

According to multiple topics on the Apple Support discussion boards, the problem can occur when a user logs into their Mac’s Guest account — whether by accident or on purpose — and then tries to log back into their regular account.

In some cases, ..read more

Google Adds Shared Folders to Docs

Good news for people using Google Docs to share or collaborate on documents: Google today has added folder sharing and multiple document uploading to its popular suite of web-based document and spreadsheet apps.

There’s not much to getting up and going with shared folders. Either right-click a folder and select Share or go to a folder and select the Share this folder drop-down to invite people. They’ve also improved their file upload tool to support uploading ..read more

Google Book Downloader Downloads Books to PDF

Windows: Thanks to Google’s drive to add more and more books to the Google Books project, including thousands of public domain volumes, you’ll find quite a nice selection to choose from. Google Book Downloader helps you download them to PDF.

Let’s get one thing out of the way from the start. Google Book Downloader will not let you pirate books. It will however let you download books that are flagged as full-access such as books ..read more