Windows Tip of the Day

Video: Get To Know Windows 8

2013-05-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

Video description: "New to Windows 8? This video has all you need to get up to speed."

Video: Windows 8 Leap Motion in Action

2013-05-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

I have been following Leap Motion for what feels like forever. I wonder if it has the potential to help Windows 8 really take off. Using Windows 8 is okay when using it with a mouse, but its even better with a touchscreen. With a Leap Motion type of device you have the possibility of having a user interface like 'Minority Report'. Although, I am prepared to be underwhelmed, but I would

Windows 8: Charm Keyboard Shortcuts

2013-05-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Native Windows 8 applications don't have the traditional drop-down menus (such as File, Edit, etc.) like older desktop applications. Windows 8 apps use the "charms" side menu and the application bar (swipe up from the bottom on a touch screen or press the WinKey+Z) for these features.The charm menus can be accessed sliding your finger to the left from the right-side of the touchscreen display,

Article: Which browser is safest? The answer may surprise you

2013-05-15T08:59:00.001-07:00

Below is an article that I found this morning: "Web browsers are one of the main ways that malware finds its way onto your machine. Tests carried out by NSS Labs looked at the five major players, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer to see which offers the best protection against more than 700 examples of real-world malware. And the safest is... (Drum roll and a long, reality

Windows 8: Built-In Applications

2013-05-13T20:07:00.001-07:00

Windows 8 comes with several new built-in applications that provide access to a variety of different types of content (news, sports, and weather) and services (email, storage, and more). The following is an excerpt from the article: "Windows 8 comes with the following built-in touch-optimized applications out-of-the box (meaning that they're installed by default). These apps can perform several

Windows 8: New Features of the OS

2013-05-06T01:00:00.001-07:00

As I stated in a previous post, I am working on a series of articles about Windows 8. This is my second article in the series that briefly explains most of the major new features of the operating system. Below is an excerpt from the article: "Secure Boot: This is one of the more controversial features of the new operating system especially for Linux users who dual boot their system. This

Windows 8: Introduction to the New OS

2013-04-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

I am going to be doing a series of articles on Windows 8, and this is my first article that explains how to use the new Windows operating system. This article focuses on providing a brief background of the product and an explanation of the two different platforms and versions of Windows that are available. Below is an excerpt from the article: "If you're a new user to Windows 8, one of the

Deal: Get a Free Month of Hulu Plus

2013-04-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hulu Plus gives you more access to popular movies and TV shows on Hulu. For a limited-time, the site is offering a one month free trial of the Hulu Plus service to new customers. Normally the free trial is only for one week. It's important to note a credit card is required to complete the sign up, and according to the site the offer is only available for a few more days.

Article: Integrate a custom Shutdown menu into the Windows 8 Desktop context menu

2013-04-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

I found this tip on another site, and I thought it was too cool not to share. This article discusses how to create a custom context menu for shutting down (restarting, hibernating, etc.) your computer. Its also a pretty good introduction to creating your own customized context menus for other tasks. Note: This requires modifying the registry, so this tip is not for those who don't know what

Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 (Free Beta Download)

2013-04-17T20:39:00.002-07:00

Are you a photographer that uses Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? If you work with RAW image files (uncompressed image files that contain all the color data from the camera's CCD sensor) this tool is a must have. Its also one of the best photo management suites available. It provides great tools for managing your images, and making corrections or other adjustments to your photographs. Adobe is

Windows 8: Microsoft Movie Maker

2013-04-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

Do you have some videos from your smartphone or from another device that you would like to edit into one continuous video? Maybe you want to add titles, video effects or a sound track to a movie that you created. Microsoft Movie Maker (download) is an easy to use application that allows you to import create or edit picture slide shows and videos. You can move things around, speed it up or slow

Windows 8: Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

2013-04-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

If you manage Windows servers in a small lab or a large data center, then you need the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 (download). This tool enables system administrators to manage roles and features that are installed on remote computers that are running Windows Server 2012, 2008 R2, and 2008 (all versions). NOTE: In this release of Remote Server Administration Tools all the

Article: Choose the right password manager to protect your accounts

2013-04-03T07:09:00.001-07:00

One of the first rules to securing your accounts today is having a unique password for all of them. With so many unique credentials it's next to impossible for the average person to remember them. This is why a good password manager is so important, it allows you to safely store and retrieve these electronic credentials. I have been meaning to write an article about password managers. I

Browsers: Identify Resource-Hogging Add-ons

2013-03-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Extensions and add-ons, can both enhance and cripple your browser. The right ones can extend the functionality of the browser, but too many bog it down. To help identify resource-hogging extensions Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome include built-in utilities for troubleshooting these add-ons. Depending on the browser you're using, type the following command into the address bar: Mozilla

Windows 8: File History

2013-03-21T21:33:00.001-07:00

Have you ever accidentally deleted or over-written a file that contained important information? Windows 8 has a feature called "File History" that automatically saves older versions of your files so that they can be restore later. Unfortunately, this feature is not enabled by default. To turn it on you have to open the System and Security control panel. This feature does require a second

Internet: How fast is your ISP (Netflix ISP Speed Index)

2013-03-14T17:22:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered how fast your ISP really is compared to others? Check out Netflix's ISP Speed Index to find out. There probably are other sites that offer this information (to be honest I didn't really care to check), but Netflix is one of the few sources I think can give impartial and accurate information. So if you want to see how well your current ISP rates compared to others. Or,

Windows 8: Downloading the Windows 8 ISO File

2013-03-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

Windows 8 was the first version of Windows that I upgraded and I didn't preform a clean install. I utilized Microsoft's online upgrade offer that allowed you to install the upgraded version of the OS over the Internet. The only problem with this option was I didn't get a copy of the media. I at least wanted a copy of the ISO file (a file that contains a image of the CD or DVD that can be

Article: Leap Motion Controller starts shipping May 13th, hits Best Buy on the 19th

2013-02-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from article: "If you were still thinking that the Leap Motion Controller was going to turn into vaporware, it looks like you were wrong. Just less than a year after the company first made waves with its tiny gesture recognizing box, a finished product is getting ready to ship." (read the rest of the article)

Removing Viruses (and other types of malware)

2013-02-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

To put it simply getting hit by malware (e.g. viruses, Trojan horses, worms, etc.) sucks. Sometimes it can be caused by doing something simple or not very obvious or other times it can be caused by doing something dumb. As the old cliche goes, "There is no use crying over spilt milk because it only makes it sour for the cat". All you can do is try to clean up what you can. Modern malware

Getting an "Access is denied." error when connecting to a share

2013-02-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Are you encountering a situation where you're getting an "Access is denied" error when connecting to a share on a machines in a workgroup. For example, if you used following command: net use * \\computername\d$ /user:computername\username password Then you get the following error: System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied. Try running the following command (requires the

Troubleshooting Network Share Problems

2013-02-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Are you having a problem connecting to a Windows network share (e.g. \\computer_name\share_name) or the default administrator shares (e.g. \\computer_name\c$)? This happens to computers on networks that are connected to a domain controller or local workgroup. In my own personal experience has been that local workgroups are more unreliable then domain controller connected shares. Below are

Article: LibreOffice 4.0 arrives -- get it NOW!

2013-02-10T11:19:00.001-08:00

LibraOffice is an offshoot of the OpenOffice open source project that split-off from the original project because of issues that they had with it (more information). If you're looking for a free open source multi-platform office suite, this is one of the better ones. I never found it as powerful as Microsoft Office, but if you're looking for a free office suite of tools this is the one I like

Adobe issues emergency Flash update for attacks on Windows, Mac users |

2013-02-07T20:26:00.001-08:00

Ars Technica reports: "Adobe Systems has released a patch for two Flash player vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited online to surreptitiously install malware, one in attacks that target users of Apple's Macintosh platform. While Flash versions for OS X and Windows are the only ones reported to be under attack, Thursday's unscheduled release is available for Linux and Android devices

Trick: Turning a browser into a notepad

2013-02-02T19:00:00.001-08:00

I am not sure how often you can use this, but its still is a cool trick. By placing the following line (data:text/html, <html contenteditable>) of code into the address bar it will turn your browser window into a notepad. I have tested this in the latest releases of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and it worked fine. It does not work in Internet Explorer, I have tested both versions 9 and 10

Article: Firefox to block content based on Java, Reader, and Silverlight

2013-01-30T20:47:00.001-08:00

Ars Technica reports: "Mozilla engineers plan to disable Java, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft Silverlight capabilities in their flagship Firefox browser in a move aimed at improving security and performance. By default, Firefox will load content based on all three plugins only after users click an icon that explicitly permits it. The feature, known as click to play, was introduced late last year.