How to Create a Facebook Group

Who should use Facebook groups:

Facebook groups are used as a way for people to interact with each other within a more narrow spectrum, vs. using the entire Facebook community. Groups also differ from pages and events in that groups are aimed at promoting a specific cause.  For example, if you wanted to create a campaign for AIDS awareness, groups would be your best option.

How To Create Facebook groups:

Start by logging in to your Facebook account. If you do not yet have one, you can sign up here.

Click “your name” on the top Facebook toolbar to go to your profile. From within your profile, click the Info tab to see your details. Look for the subsection that say’s groups and click the see all link, located on the far right of the heading.

Near the bottom of the see all page, you should see a button that say’s Create a Group, click it.

You should now be on the actual create a group page where you can fill out the details of your group. You will need to enter the following information: Group Name, Description, and Group type. You can also choose to enter optional information such as office, email, website, etc… if you so choose.

How to Create Events in Facebook

Who should use Facebook events:

Facebook events are best suited for people who want to let others know about one specific event. Events differ from groups and fan pages in that events are more temporary, and there is little interaction between members that “join an event”. Events offer members three main options: attending, maybe attending, and not attending. An example of an event topic would be: 5th Annual City Wide Barbecue.

How to Create Facebook Events:

Make sure that you are logged in to your Facebook account.

To create a new event, navigate to your events page by clicking the Info tab from your profile and selecting see all under events. If you want to jump straight to your events page, go ahead and click this link.

From the events page, click the +Create an Event button, located in the upper right corner of the screen.

The next couple of screens will automatically guide you through the process of  creating an event. For the most part, you will need to set up a start and end time for your event, select privacy settings, add details, and decide on who to invite.

How to Create Facebok Fan Pages

Who should use Facebook fan pages:

Fan pages are best suited for representation of some kind. Representation could be anything from a business expanding their brand to Facebook so that they can communicate with customers, to a celebrity creating a fan pages so that they can keep in touch with their fans. All in all, fan pages should be used to create a following of some sort…

How to Create Facebook fan pages:

Make sure that you are logged in to your Facebook account.

The easiest way to navigate to the create a new page, page, is to click this link. The actual URL that you need to go to is http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. This should bring you directly to the fan page creator.

From here, you need to select a name for your page, and categorize it. When you are done, type in the security words and hit the create page button.

That’s all there is to it. Have fun creating your new Facebook groups, events, and pages…Enjoy!

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How to Create a Group, Event, and Fan Page on Facebook

In previous versions of Windows, we had to open the control panel, find the font folder, then find the special link to add a font, then find the directory with the font we just downloaded, and then (finally) install it.  Windows 7 has shortened this process significantly.

To Install a Font  in Windows 7

First, open the folder where you just downloaded your new font.

Click your new font file.

In the window that opens, click Install.

That’s it.  Seriously.  Your font is now installed and ready to use!

To Delete a Font in Windows 7

Deleting a font is almost just as simple.  First, open Control Panel and click on the Fonts folder.

Click the font you want to delete, then click the delete button towards the top of the window.

That’s all there is to it.  You can download 100’s of fonts and install them in seconds, then change your mind and delete them just as quickly.  Now that you know how easy font controls are in Windows 7, check out my previous post on how to create your own fonts!

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For this tutorial, we will be using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Windows Edition. If you do not have PowerPoint 2007, you can download free 60-day trial here.

After you are all ready to go with PowerPoint, go ahead and launch it from the start menu or by double click the PowerPoint icon on your desktop. If you are starting a new project, type a title in for your presentation. If you want to add music to an existing presentation, open it by clicking the office button than open.

Next, you will need to make sure that you have an audio file ready to sync with your presentation.

Click the Insert tab located along the top PowerPoint toolbar. This should bring up several insert options for your presentation. Locate the Sound icon, located on the far right of the lower toolbar, and click the arrow near it to bring down the sub menu.

From here, you will notice the options: Sound from file, Sound from clip organizer, Play CD audio track, and Record sound. You can choose whichever option that you would like. For this presentation, we will be using the Sound from file option.

The next step will be somewhat different, depending on which option you choose. However, it’s very simple and only requires you to find or create your audio file. For this tutorial, we chose to use the Sound from file option. So, we will need to navigate to our audio file and click the OK button.

The next step will automatically bring up a prompt window asking you how you want the sound to start in the slide show. There are only two options: automatically, or when clicked. For this tutorial, we will use when clicked.

There should now be a small speaker icon located somewhere on your current slide. Double click on the speaker icon, and your music should start playing. If you selected the option to play the sound automatically, you can test to see if your music is working by previewing the slide show.

To do this, click the Slide Show tab located on the top PowerPoint toolbar and click the From Current Slide icon. After you are done testing your music, you can hit the esc key to exit the slide show.

That’s all there is to it. You should have now easily added sound to your PowerPoint presentation.

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The SD Association provides an SD card formatter for this purpose. Yes, they recognize Windows has a built in formatting program; however, they warn that by using the generic operating system formatters, “optimum performance may not be experienced.” Translation: SD card death and less picture-saving space.

The program downloads as a 1.28 MB executable file compatible only with Windows (the Read Me file cautions Mac users not to use the application). Both SD and SDHC cards are supported, and using a USB card reader is recommended for the formatting process.

The application initializes with just one small screen.

First, select the drive containing the card you wish to format. Likely, this will be E or F for most Windows users. Notice that when you select the drive, the size of the SD disk appears just below the selection. For the 4GB card used in this article, the size is recognized as 3.68 GB.

Next, click Option to select how you want the SD card formatted. A dialogue box appears with a dropdown menu listing three “format type” options. The first, Quick, is simply a standard wipe of the disk—all data currently on the disk will be erased.

The second, Full (erase off), will put the disk into a proper SD format, but beware: even though it says “erase off,” all data on the disk will be deleted, or rather, overwritten. However, the “flash” erase, which truly deletes all data beyond the realms of easy recovery, is not used in this second option.

Thus, the third option, Full (erase on),—is the option you will want to use most often, as it formats the card properly, while giving it a fresh start with no old data left on the disk at all. Not all cards support this, but if you choose this and the card does not support the option, the formatter automatically reverts to the second “erase off” option during the formatting process.

Under the Format Type dropdown menu is a second menu called “format size adjustment” that asks if you want to try to increase the amount of space on your SD card or not. Turning this option on will allow you to use the maximum space possible on your SD card. Once you have made your selection, click OK.

You will be brought back to the original formatter screen where it should display the options you just selected:

Finally, click Format. You will be asked one last time if you are sure you want to do this. If you are sure, click OK.

A new dialogue box then displays the status of your formatting efforts. For the options selected above, it first erases all files from the disk, then formats it. If you are using a larger disk, as in this example, this process will take a few minutes. Do not turn off your computer or remove the disk until the entire process is complete.

When complete, a dialogue box appears telling you the results of the formatting process.

In the example above, the card used is a Micro SD card, which does not support the full erase option. The dialogue box shows this by stating it performed a full format, but could not “flash erase”—which is perfectly fine. The SD card will still have a nice, fresh start and prolonged life for taking pictures and storing files.

SD Formatter is available from SDcard.org.

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So, why aren’t Windows PC’s capable of running OS X? Well, Windows PC’s are capable of running OS X. But, it is against Apple’s licensing agreement to do so. Thus, this article is intended for educational and demonstration purposes only. If you want to run OS X the best way possible, get a Mac.

*In order for this to work, your computer must have a processor that supports virtualization. If it does not, you may receive errors. For the most part, any newer processor lines: Core 2 Duo, Quad Core, and Core i7 should all work fine.

But, don’t expect to not get errors if you are using an older Pentium 4 machine. The processor must be Intel and not AMD*

Because we will be installing OS X on top of Windows through a virtual machine, the first step is to get some virtual machine software. For this demo, we will be using VMware’s Workstation 7.

If you do not feel like purchasing Workstation 7 at this time, you can get a limited trial here. The download may take a good half an hour to complete. Workstation is a 512MB file.

Upon download, go ahead and install Workstation 7 onto your computer. The installation process is very simple just launch the installer, and the VMware installer will guide you through the rest.

One thing to note, when it asks your if you want to do a custom install or a typical install, choose typical install. After the installer finishes, restart your computer.

Now that you have Workstation 7 installed, you need a pre-configured VMware virtual machine file to install Snow Leopard on top of. Download this file (alt download) and save it to your desktop.

After you have the pre-configured virtual machine file downloaded, you will need to extract the files using WinRAR or another archive utility. If you do not have an archive utility, you can get WinRAR here.

Note: This file is just a disk image framework, no viruses or anything like that. VMware Workstation uses the disk image format to save and contain virtual machines.

Time to start installing Snow Leopard. Launch VMware Workstation by using the path Start > All Programs > VMware > VMware Workstation. Open up the VMware disk image framework that you just downloaded and extracted.

Select File > Open. Navigate to your Snowy_VM folder, open it, open up the next folder that says “Mac OS X 10.6 Server (experimental).vmwarevm, and choose the 2KB file that is named Mac OS X Server 10.6 (experimental). Click the open button to load the virtual machine.

From the Mac OS X Server tab in the VMware Workstation window, click the edit virtual machine settings icon. You may adjust the hard drive size, memory, etc, to your liking.

Select CD/DVD (IDE) and under the Connection settings, select Use ISO Image File. Click the Browse button and navigate to the Darwin_Snow.iso which is located in your Snowy_VM folder. Click the Open button to select the virtual machine.

Now it’s time to power on the virtual machine. Click the Power on this virtual machine option. As soon as the process starts, hold down the F8 key on your keyboard. You should be prompted with a boot menu screen.

If you have not done so already, insert your OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD into your computer’s CD/DVD drive. So far, you have loaded a workable virtual machine and framework into VMware Workstation.

Now it’s time to actually install Snow Leopard onto that virtual machine disk image. You should see some settings icons located at the bottom right portion of the VMware window. Right-click the icon that looks like a CD and choose settings from the pop up menu.

Under the connections listing, change the options from use ISO image to use physical drive. After you have done that, click the Save and Exit button.

Go back into the boot screen and select the option C Boot from DVD. Press the F8 button on your keyboard for advanced options and type “-v” without the quotes and hit enter. Now, VMware Workstation should boot your Snow Leopard install disc. It may take a couple of minutes to load.

That’s all there is to it. You should now be at the normal Snow Leopard install screen. Click continue on the first screen that comes up. On the second screen, click the utilities option in the install window and select disk utility. Use disk utility to change the hard drive format type to OS X Extended (Journaled). Exit disk utility and let OS X install completely.

Upon install of Snow Leopard, your virtual machine will restart. After it restarts you will need to do a couple of things to get into Snow Leopard. Select CD/DVD options, like you did before, and use the Use ISO Image File option.

Browse to the Darwin_Snow.iso and select it. Now, upon powering on your virtual machine, it should boot directly into Snow Leopard. You may need to force a couple of restarts until Snow Leopard loads correctly for the first time. After it does, adjust your settings from within Snow Leopard, save, and you should be good to go.

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Not very unique! The first thing I did when I got my computer was to change the user name and change my user picture. That is what I’ll explain in this article.

Change User Name in Windows 7

First, click on Start and then Control Panel. Then click on User Accounts and Family Safety.

On the next screen, click on the User Accounts heading at the very top.

Finally, click on Change your account name to actually change the user name. If you want to change the user name for a different account, click on Manage another account.

Now type in the new user name that you desire and click the Change button.

That’s it! Once you click Change, you’ll be back to the previous screen with a preview of the new login screen.

Change User Picture in Windows 7

To change the user account picture, simply click on the Change your account picture link in the second step above.

You can either choose from the default pictures in Windows 7 or you can click the Browse for more pictures link. Once you have chosen the desired picture, click on the Change Picture button.

Change/Create User Password in Windows 7

If you want to create a password for your user account or change the current password, click on the Change your Windows password link.

If you don’t already have a password setup for your user account, you can click on the Create a password for your account link, otherwise you can click Change your password.

So those are the most common three tasks when managing user accounts in Windows 7. Enjoy!

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There are a ton of websites out there that will “make your computer faster” using basic software. You have probably seen the advertisements on TV telling you to go to a website and it will optimize your computer and increase speed up to 20x.

These types of sites use simple spyware/antivirus/optimization software to remove junk from your computer. They also promote free scans in their ads. The catch is, after you get the free scan, you need to pay if you want to fix all the errors found in the scan.

Definitely not worth it. There are many completely free programs out there that will do the exact same thing as these sites will.

Chances are, the people that are searching for ways to make their computers faster, probably have an older computer; or, they do not regularly maintain their computers… which will eventually lead to a significant slow down. You don’t ever hear about someone with a new computer with a top of the line quad core i7 asking why their computer is so slow.

Which brings us to the point, hardware upgrades are what will really give your computer a noticeable boost in speed and performance. A new computer is never a cheap thing to buy.

So, why not spend a little bit of money and upgrade your current system? Chances are, you can make your computer run much faster than it currently does, for a cheap price. In this article, our example computer will be a Base Dell Dimension 2400… 4 years old, standard configuration. We will double the speed (which is very noticeable) for under $100.

1. Upgrade the processor.

Base Dell Dimension 2400’s came with a 2.4GHz Intel Celeron processor. These days, that processor is terrible. Even back then, that processor was not so great. The maximum processor that a Dell Dimension 2400 can handle, according to Dell, is a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, which is a significant upgrade from the Celeron. Current price of a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 on Ebay, $11, shipping included.

*Installing a processor is not near as hard as it sounds. For the example computer, Dimension 2400, you don’t even need a screwdriver. Remove the side panel on the case, unhook two clips, remove the heat sink, remove the processor… then reverse to install a new processor.*

2. Upgrade the Memory.

Base Dell Dimension 2400’s came with 256MB of RAM stock. These days, computers can handle several gigabytes of RAM. The maximum amount of memory that a Dell Dimension 2400 can handle, according to Dell, is 1GB.

That is 4 times more memory than stock, which would bring a very noticeable difference in speed. Current price of 1GB of memory for the Dimension 2400, $15 on Ebay, shipping included.

*Installing new memory is one of the easiest computer upgrades. The process involves removing the side panel on the case, flipping some levers, pulling out the old RAM, and inserting the new RAM.*

Total so far: $26

3. Upgrade the Graphics Card

A graphics upgrade will bring speed to your computer’s video performance, something that no software optimization will do. Base Dell Dimension’s came with a standard Intel graphics card. Cost of a graphics card with triple the performance on Ebay, $8, shipping included.

*Installing a graphics card is similarly easy. You will need a screwdriver. The process involves removing the side panel of the case, unscrewing the old graphics card from the mount, pulling the card out of the port, and inserting the new card in it’s place.*

Total so far: $34

4. Upgrade the CD-Drive

CD’s burning a little slow on your old computer? Why not upgrade the old CD burner to a CD/DVD burner. Base Dell Dimension 2400’s came with a CD-ROM drive… which cannot even burn CD’s. Cost of a CD/DVD burner brand new from Newegg, $27, plus $7 shipping.

*Installing an optical drive is also easy. The process involves removing the side panel of the case, disconnecting a cable, pulling out the old drive, and replacing with the new. There are plenty of guides online that explain the process in detail*

Total so far: $68

Summary:

That’s really all there is to it. For $68, you can completely upgrade an old computer and increase it’s speed. With the extra $32, why not pick up a wireless network adapter… or go buy yourself a steak.

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You have probably seen those commercials advertising a website that will give a free scan and magically clean your computer as well as make it 20x faster. Well, those websites that they are advertising will scan your computer, that part is true.

However, the heavy majority of them will charge a fee to get rid of all of the errors found in the scan… And none of them will make your computer 20x faster.

Basically, those commercials use a simple antivirus scanner/remover. There is far better software out there that is available to you for free. By following this article, you will without a doubt, be able to remove any type of virus, spyware, or malware from your computer.

But, first things first, you need to understand that viruses and other computer threats come in several degrees. So, method 1 might not necessarily remove a virus from your computer. If not, one of the following methods will.

Method 1 – Perform A System Restore

System restores are a good way to get rid of light malware and spyware programs. They require no downloading of any software and can be performed directly by Windows.

System restores work best if you catch the intrusion right away. But, you do not want to do a system restore if you believe that you have had malware, spyware, or viruses on your computer for any significant amount of time.

This could cause you to lose files, applications, or data. To do a system restore in Windows, navigate to the control panel using the path Start > Control Panel. Click the Recovery icon located within the Control Panel and hit the Open System Restore button on the next screen.

The rest of the process is very straightforward as the Windows Wizard will guide your through it.

Method 2 – Scans

There are thousands of different programs out there in the spyware/virus removal category, many of which are free. The thing to remember is that different virus removal programs will bring different results; and none of them are 100% completely accurate.

For example, you can scan your computer with one virus removal program, remove the viruses… then turn around a scan your computer with a different program, which will catch even more viruses that the first program didn’t pick up.

However, you do not want to stack tons of virus removal programs on top of each other. Doing so can actually throw off effectiveness. One good antivirus scanner should be enough.

We recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. Aside from the virus scanner, it is also wise to use a spyware and malware scanner. Two great choices that you can check out are Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy.

Method 3 – Clean Install

A clean install is not the most fun thing to do. However, a clean install is the one guaranteed way to get rid of viruses, spyware, and malware. It’s simple… when you do a clean install, you are deleting everything on your hard drive. Thus, no more viruses.

Most of the time, viruses will not infect items like pictures, text documents, videos, or MP3 files. If step 2 (scan), is not working for you, more than likely the virus is in your computer’s registry. This is good because you can backup all of your pictures, documents, etc… before doing the clean install. That way you will not lose anything important.

The most common way to backup files is by using an external hard drive, flash drive, or burning DVDs. Doing a clean install is not at all as hard as it may seem, it’s just time consuming because you have to wait for Windows to copy itself to your hard drive. You can read our previous article on how to perform a clean install. Enjoy!

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Downloading also gives you the option to burn a video to DVD and watch it on your television, if you so choose.

To start downloading videos the easy way, you need to get the Firefox web browser. Chances are that you may already use Firefox, but if not, you can get it here. It is available for PC, Mac, and Linux so there should be no operating system issues. Just save it to your computer, run the installer, and launch Firefox after installation is complete.

With Firefox open and running, click tools from the top menu and select Add-ons from the drop down menu. This will open up a pop-up window displaying your Firefox Add-on preferences.

Select the tab titled Get Add-ons. You should see a search box located in the upper-left portion of this tab. Type the words “video downloadhelper” into the search box and hit enter.

The add-on that we are looking for should be the first one listed, but if not, the add-on can be identified as having the title “Video DownloadHelper” with a blue, yellow, and red ball icon.

After you have found the add-on, click the Add to Firefox button. On the next screen, click the install button. Click the restart Firefox button to complete the install and reopen Firefox.

That’s all you need to get the videos. Now, it’s time to find a video that you want to download. Navigate over to YouTube or another video site and find a video. Make sure that you are on the exact page of the video and that the video is playing. For convenience, here is a good video if you can’t find one that you want to save.

Upon visiting the video page, you may have noticed something different than usual. The Video DownloadHelper icon appears directly to the left of the YouTube video title.

Click the arrow located to the right of the button to bring up the download options menu. There are several convenient options to choose from. Consider using the Download and Convert option, which lets you download a YouTube video in a certain format.

By default, Video DownloadHelper saves videos as FLVs. However, if you use a certain video player such as Windows Media Player or Quicktime, you may want to save videos as WMVs or MPEGs.

If you are getting a video from a site other than YouTube, you may not see the Video DownloadHelper icon near the title of the video. If this happens, you can use the icon located directly to the left of the  Firefox URL bar.

The Video DownloadHelper add-on has one last very convenient feature that can give you some great ideas for video sites to check out. Click the DownloadHelper icon, located to the left of the Firefox URL bar.

Be sure to just click the icon, do not click the drop down arrow. This should open a pop-up window with a list of several video sites. Click on a video site that you are interested in and click the Check site button. This will open up a new tab in Firefox giving you a description of the site along with ratings and reviews.

That’s pretty much it! Now you can download videos from YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, or any other video site! Enjoy!

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ISO files are a common format that you run into when messing around with operating systems and virtual machines. For example, the popular operating system Linux is distributed via ISO file.

So, if you wanted to have a backup disk of the Linux operating system, you would need to burn the ISO to a DVD. The process of burning a CD or DVD in ISO format is different from just creating a data disc. An ISO must be burned as an ISO so that it has the capability to boot and auto-run.

To get started burning your ISO file with OS X, you need to launch the Disk Utility. The Disk Utility can be found at Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. You also need to make sure that you have your ISO file saved directly to your computer, preferably on the desktop.

Click the File button on the OS X top navigation bar and select Open Disk Image. This should open up the Select Image to Attach pop up box. Navigate to the ISO file that you want to burn, select it, and click the open button.

This will automatically mount the disk image into OS X. Now, you should see the ISO file listed in the left hand side drives list within Disk Utility. At this point, insert a blank CD or DVD into your computer if you have not already done so.

Select the ISO file from the left hand side drives list by clicking it once. Select the Burn option from the from the top toolbar within Disk Utility. A drop down menu should pop down, asking you to verify the burn. Click the burn button.

That’s all there is to it. Now all you have to do is wait for your disc to burn. ISO files tend to be somewhat large in size, so the disc burning process may take up to 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your burner.

This is a great way to create backup discs of software. You can even use this method to create a backup of your OS X install discs. However, you will need dual layer DVDs as burning most operating system ISOs requires quite a bit of space.

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Two of the most popular download types are photos and games. Photos are easy, just right click, save image as, done. But, flash games are not quite as simple to figure out. However, you can download them quick and easy by following just a few steps.

Start out by downloading the web browser Mozilla Firefox. Chances are that you may already have Firefox, but if not, you can download it here. Firefox is available for both PC and Mac. When you navigate to the download page, it will automatically detect whether you are using a PC or Mac and give you the latest version for download.

The Firefox web browser is all you need to download Flash games. Navigate on over to your favorite games website and choose a game that you want to save to your computer. For quick reference, here are some links: Addicting Games, Max Games, Kongregate.

Be sure that you are on the exact page of the game that you want to download and make sure that the game is started. You may have to click the play button to start the game, and you may have to wait through a quick advertisement until the game loads.

Right click in some white space on the page to bring up the secondary menu. Select the option view page info. This opens up the page info box in a separate window. Click the tab that says Media.

The list on this page shows you all of the media on the page that you are on. Scroll through the list and look for file types with the extension Embed. After you have the files narrowed down to embed, look under the address section for files that end in .swf. Swf stands for Shockwave format, meaning that the Swf files are the games.

More than likely, you will see the name of the game listed somewhere in the swf file name. After you have found the game, click once to select it from the list and click the save as button. Choose a location to save the game to on your computer and download it.

That’s how you save flash games to your computer. However, you may not be able to play that flash game quite yet. Double click on the game to see if it starts up.

If it does not work, more than likely you need to get Adobe Flash Player. You can download it here. Don’t worry, it’s completely free. After you have Flash Player downloaded and installed, you may have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

From there, navigate to the location where you saved your game and double click it. That’s how you download and play flash games on your computer. Simple and easy.

*Some websites have stricter protection and filters on them. This may not work on every flash game or every website… but it will work on the heavy majority of them.*

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Download Virtually Any Game To Your Computer For Free

The last thing that you want to happen is to lose all of your blog’s information due to a server crash or error. Luckily, if you are using the highly popular blogging platform WordPress, backing up your blog is simpler than ever.

Start out by logging-in to your WordPress site. Click the Tools listing located on the left hand side WordPress navigation bar. Select the option that says Export from underneath the Tools submenu.

From the Export page, choose a Restrict Author option from the drop down menu. Select the all authors option if you have multiple authors that write for your blog. Select the admin option if you are the only writer on your blog. Click the Download Export File button.

This will launch a download window that will ask you if you want to open the file or save the file. Be sure to choose save the file. Choose a location to save the file to and click the Save button. This file is a backup of your posts and pages. Be sure to store it in a secure file location on your computer.

Now that you have your posts and pages saved, it is a good idea to backup your theme as well. If something were to happen to your theme, you would lose all customizations and settings that you have made to it.

Start out by opening up the FTP program that you use for your site. If you do not use an FTP program, you will need to get one. Try out FileZilla. It’s a completely free, easy to use FTP.

Login to your site using your FTP. You will need to enter your hosting username and password to gain access to your site. Understand, this is not the same username and password that you use to login to your WordPress blog. This is the username and password that you chose when you setup your hosting account.

Once logged in, navigate to the public_html folder for your site. Within the the public html folder, you should see your WordPress files. If you do not see your WordPress files, chances are you do not have WordPress installed in the root directory of your site.

\If this is the case, look for the folder that you created when you chose where to install WordPress. It may be labeled “blog” or something similar. Once you have found your WordPress files, navigate the path wp-content > themes.

Find the theme that you want to backup and drag it to your desktop. This should copy the theme to your computer. You can also right click the theme and select the download option, if you are using FileZilla.

Now that you know how to backup your WordPress blog’s pages, posts, and modified theme, you should also know how to do a recovery. Login to your WordPress site. Click the Tools listing located on the left hand side WordPress navigation bar.

Select the option that says Import from underneath the Tools submenu. Select the option to import via WordPress file. It should be the last option in the list. Click the browse button and navigate to your WordPress backup file that you previously created and click the Upload file and import button.

That’s all there is to it. WordPress will automatically import and recover your pages, posts, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags.

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The time management options with TimeLeft are virtually endless.  To start, it can completely replace and personalize the Windows tray clock.

Ever wanted your clock to appear in military time?  No Problem!  How about having the numbers appear in a Comic Sans font?  It is just a simple click of a button.  You can change the color of the clock, define the color of the numbers, or make a custom skin unique to your computer.

Of course, TimeLeft also has a countdown timer, which is useful for knowing how much time is left on an Ebay auction, or how much time you have to surf the web before the kids must be picked up from school.

The time can also be used to remember important tasks, like how much time you have left to buy a wedding anniversary present. Of course, it can also countdown to joyous occasions, like the end of a school year or the beginning of a new decade.

A great added feature is the “stickers” option.  Stickers are like virtual Post-it notes.  They stick to your desktop, reminding you of whatever needs remembering.

Like everything else in TimeLeft, there are countless customization options for stickers.  You can change the font, the background, and even the border surrounding your sticker.

Browser add-ons for remembering auction end times are available in a separate download.  These add-ons only work in Internet Explorer or Firefox, leaving Chrome and Safari users neglected.

Overall, TimeLeft is a nifty way piece of freeware.  The program is less than 2.3 MB to download, and requires just 4.5 MB of hard disk space.  It can be found at TimeLeft.info.

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However, there are times when sleep mode is completely inconvenient, like when giving a presentation or watching a DVD.  Microsoft’s Insomnia is a free application designed to solve this issue without constantly reconfiguring your power settings.

Insomnia downloads as a zip file of just 139 KB. Once extracted, the program does not need to go through any kind of installation process to work. Simply double-click the green, pill-like icon and the program starts.

Once open, the application appears as simply a pop-up window stating that the computer cannot enter sleep mode so long as the window is open.

The temptation to then send your computer into sleep mode (just to see if it will work, of course) is overwhelming. In both Windows Vista and 7, manually sending the computer into sleep mode worked, despite Insomnia’s assurance it would not.

However, neither the Vista nor 7 PC would sleep based on the automatic power settings while the window was open—meaning the program does exactly what it is designed to do.

While it serves its intended purpose, the program lacks one necessary feature: the ability to minimize the window. So, if watching a DVD outside of full screen mode, this window will appear in front of the movie. It can be moved to a remote corner of the screen, but it simply cannot disappear.

For the tech-savvy, Microsoft has included the source code for Insomnia in the zip file.

In less than 40 lines of code, the program calls upon the “SetThreadExecutionState Win32” API used by many of the most popular DVD players to keep PCs from sleeping during a movie.

Ultimately, many will be disappointed with this application. It does precisely what it says it does—it keeps the computer from falling asleep during inconvenient times without having to re-configure your computer’s power options.

However, Insomnia would benefit from a couple added features, such as the ability to minimize the window.

Insomnia can be downloaded from: MSDN.com

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However, these companies turn around and bite you with a renewal subscription fee after a year. You can still use the virus scan that you purchased without paying the renewal fee. But, you will not be able to get the latest updates and virus definitions, which leaves your computer vulnerable to the latest threats.

The answer is yes. There are some great free antivirus programs out there. No need to pay for antivirus software at all, unless you prefer a certain virus protection software that costs money.

Among the best of the free options is a program named Security Essentials, which is freeware distributed by no other than Microsoft themselves. To get Microsoft Security Essentials up and running on your PC, start by heading over to this page.

The next step is quite obvious, go ahead and click on the blue Download Now button located in the center of the page. This should open up a pop up box. If you are using a pop up blocker, you may need to disable it or set it to allow pop ups for this page. From within the pop up screen, select your operating system and language that you would like to use.

Save the installer file to your computer. After the download finishes, double click on the installer icon to start installing Security Essentials. Proceed through the install wizard, agree to the terms, and follow the screen prompts.

One thing to note, there is a step during the install process where the installer will check to make sure that your version of Windows is genuine and registered. So, no using this software on the Windows 7 that you got with Limewire.

After the installation process completes, Microsoft Security Essentials should be ready to use on your PC. If Security Essentials does not automatically start up, double click the Microsoft Security Essentials icon on your desktop (it looks like a castle).

The first thing that you should do, with any new software, is adjust the settings. So, click the settings tab located along the top portion of the Security Essentials window. Go through the numerous options and adjust them to your security needs.

Next, you need to do a quick update to make sure that you have the latest virus definitions installed. Click the update tab located along the top portion of the Security Essentials window.

Click the large grey update button and wait for Windows to check for and/or install updates. Be sure to check for updates on a regular basis to keep your PC safe.

Last but not least, it’s time to scan the computer. Click the Home button to go back to the scan page. This page will present you with three scan options: quick, full, and custom.

Choose the one that best suits your needs. The quick scan can be significantly faster than the full scan, and the custom scan should only be setup if you want to exclude or include certain items from scans.

There you have it, an efficient, easy to use antivirus software; distributed straight from Microsoft and works with XP, Vista, and 7. Even though this software is free, it still does it’s job just as well as yearly fee antivirus software. The site AV-Comparatives, a security software review site, recently gave Microsoft Security Essentials it’s highest ranking.

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