50 Computer Tips and Tricks

Computer Tips and Tricks

2025-12-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

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How to make a link

<a href="URL/LINK GOES HERE">  TEXT TO LINK GOES HERE </a>

How to make a link open in a new window

<a href="URL Goes here" target="_blank">  Text goes here </a>

How To Make Your Computer Run Faster

2013-10-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

These are my own personal "suggestions" on how to make your computer run faster. Never attempt doing things with your computer if you are not knowledgeable about your computer. Proceed at your own risk. These tips are based upon my emachine personal computer and how I get the best performance out of it. If you have a Macintosh or Dell or other type of computer these tips may not be as helpful or even applicable. Disk cleanup Disk cleanup can be performed manually or set automatically. Go to the bottom left of your screen and click Start- All Programs- Accessories- System Tools- Disk Cleanup. I usually right click on the Disk cleanup link or option and "pin it " to the start menu so I can find it easier. A box will appear usually to clean Disk C.Click "ok" and it will calculate how much can be cleaned. Check the appropriate boxes or all boxes and select ok. This will clean your disk.

Disk Defragmenter

Its located in the same place as your disk cleanup Start- All Programs- Accessories- System Tools-Disk Defragmenter. After clicking that I get a choice of Drive C and Drive D. Click on C and then click Defragment from the choices. It will defragment your files automatically. This may take some time if it hasn't been done in awhile and you can watch the progress. After that has done you can also click on Drive D and defrag it as well. I also pin this to my start menu.

Firefox

I run a webrowser called Firefox. Its like Internet Explorer but I find it to be much faster. For those already using Firefox I suggest checking into a Firefox addon called Fasterfox 3.8.2Lite. I have been getting some very good performance out of this particular addon.

Performance

What I normally do is click on Start - control panel - system - advanced - performance - settings - and check the box titled adjust for best performance and apply.

Display

I run only 16 bits of color on my computer by clicking start - control panel - display - settings - color quality - medium ( 16bit )

RAM

Many computers come with the ability to install more RAM. Its all about RAM. RAM is random access memory. My emachine originally came with 512 mb of RAM and for 55 $ I was able to purchase an extra Gig of RAM. This required me to have to install it myself however. If you don't know anything about computers, have a qualified computer guy install it for you. The main picture of this hub is a "stick of RAM". Usually inside your computer is an extra slot for more RAM. You will have to check around to see if your model of computer is capable to have more RAM and how much it can hold. If you don't know what you are doing DON'T DO IT.

Storage

Some other tricks I use are not storing anything on my computer. I learned early on that my needs for a computer are best served by navigation ability other than storage. I use websites to store things. I use my Yahoo notepad to keep information. I use Youtube to store videos that I make or have. I use many sites to keep links I need or for photos that I like. There are many places you can keep your stuff. If you load your computer down with music and photos your computer will eventually slow down. Instead of turning my computer into a music library, I use websites with playlists and video players. They have lots of songs and videos and I don't have to store anything on my computer! There are plenty of places you can store or keep these things. There are many places on the net where you can upload, backup or store photographs online. I think these places are better equipped to safely store and keep that kind of material, than on my computer, where they take up space.

Security

Instead of Norton or McAfee security systems I use AVG free anti-virus software. I find that my computer will run just a little bit faster without some of the more well known security software and programs. Remember that some secuity systems, programs and software are not compatible with each other. Make sure you know what you are doing before changing the security and anti-virus protection on your computer or just don't do it!

At your own risk

Remember these ideas are just my personal suggestions and thoughts and please proceed at your own risk when attempting any of these ideas. Some more aggressive things I have done to my lowly 80 G Emachine are: I have done complete destructive restores at times, setting it back to its original state ( if you don't know what you are doing do not do this). I then remove programs like msft money and big fix and a few other programs I don't use.. I also remove Norton and McAfee and install free AVG for my security instead.

Adobe Reader Freezes Computer Reading PDF Files

2012-09-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Does your computer freeze or stick when viewing PDF files or documents? Have you ever tried to read a file online and your computer sticks, hangs or freezes? Sometimes you have to do an emergency shut down of your personal computer just to get your computer operating again? The problem may be an outdated or older version of Adobe Reader installed on your personal computer. Depending on your type of personal computer, the solution may be pretty easy to fix.

For instance, on my 80GB eMachine, I have from time to time had to do restores that take my PC back in time and sometimes complete destructive restores that take my computer back to it's original factory state or capabilities. The original factory settings and abilities on this older PC leave something to be desired however and usually take a couple of hours of updates to get it back up to speed. Whether you have restored your older computer or have recently purchased a used or older computer, you might have to remove, then update or reinstall some of the newer versions of certain applications.

My computer was sticking and freezing utilizing Adobe Reader on PDF files. The solution was to uninstall the Adobe Reader 6 that was on my computer by going to Start - control panel- Add/remove programs and removing that older version of adobe reader. Then I simply went to the adobe reader website and uploaded the adobe reader 10.1.0 which works for my PC. If you have a mac you will need and use different versions and methods. After uploading the newer version of adobe reader, I found the file in my documents and clicked on that document to download it and install it. After that my computer never froze again while reading PDF files.

Places To Feed Your Blog RSS

2012-06-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

On every blog and also located in most address bars of browsers is a RSS feed of your latest blog, link or photograph that you have uploaded.

It looks like this:

If you click on that it will take you to a page that will give you an option to "subscribe now". After that it will show you a feed url or link. Or you can just right-mouse click on the orange button or link and copy link location.

What you are after is an url that ends with rss, like this:

http://privateetc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

More than likely everyone is already aware of RSS feeds, where they are and what they do. RSS feeds are a great way to automatically introduce your great photographs, links and blogs to the rest of the internet.

What's especially convenient about it is, that with very little effort, you can grab that RSS feed url and place it on other sites and it will give links back to your blogs, links and whatever else you have uploaded. Best of all, it will update your latest uploads automatically on those sites, all the time and you only had to set it up once.

Many Sites Allow RSS Feeds

Google Blogs allow you to add a RSS feed. Go to your Google blog dashboard-add a gadget-add Feed-configure feed by adding the RSS feed url in the box-continue and save. This will put a feed or links back to your blogs.

You can add your RSS feed to any lense on Squidoo you may have. Just edit your lense-add modules-RSS: Add your blog-Where it says-(What URL would you like to pull RSS from?) place your RSS- Title it-check box everything available-and other boxes you prefer.

If you have a blog with Wordpress or Blog.com you can add the RSS widgets there and add your RSS feed to those blogs. There are other similar blogs of those types out there, as well.

FriendFeed encourages and allows RSS feeds. Just go to FriendFeed-settings- (below your FriendFeed profile picture) -Services-add/edit- look for Miscellaneous-Custom RSS/Atom- add your RSS feed url in the box- I recommend checking the box (Include entry description as a comment) and leaving (Display entries as messages (no link)= unchecked.

If you have a Linkedin, Facebook, Facebook Page, Ping.fm, Wordpress, Myspace, Foursquare or Mixi account or combination of several of these accounts you can feed your RSS feed to all of these sites using a service called Hootsuite

How To Feed Your RSS To Multiple Sites With Hootsuite

To make it easy, just grab your RSS feed, located on your profile, copy it and go from site to site adding your RSS. Once you have done that, you can come back to your site and start uploading your excellent, original, work, knowing that those RSS feeds are updating on each site, automatically; bringing you much deserved traffic to your wonderful hard work and traffic back in general.

What Is A Good Free Antivirus Program?

2012-06-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

There are several good and free anti-virus programs or software for PC/Windows users. I personally don't like some of the "paid" security systems out there. Even before the free or trial periods that come with most computers is up or even started, I usually remove those security systems. I keep the Windows Security Center of course, but the others (usually two well known ones) I remove. They usually have a time period where they are free, but then later want to charge you. One in particular will bug you to death to buy its service, even after you have removed it. I normally run AVG anti-virus. It's free and works pretty good. There are other free anti-virus software out there and I have tried one or two, but I always come back to AVG. For me, it's pretty user friendly. I can run a whole computer scan or select just certain scans that only scan drive C, which saves a lot of time. AVG also has a link scanner, that scans links for security risks. Before, I would rarely used that part of the AVG free service and would disable it, but now I am using it again. For my money, or more correctly, for my money I choose not to part with, the best free anti-virus protection is AVG and I highly recommend it. I personally like it even more than the one's you have to pay for.

AVG Site Link

How To Make Text Link

2012-06-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Creating text links is a fun way to learn some basic html. HTML means HyperText Markup Language and it's the codes that make up a website, page or blog. Below are a whole set of text links to other helpful HTML tips. To make a text link you can create your own by using this example or by copying the example and substituting your own url or link (a sites address) that directs your own text.

<a href="LINK GOES HERE"> TEXT TO LINK GOES HERE </a>

How To Make Underlined And StrikeThrough Text In BBCode

2012-06-07T11:40:00.002-07:00

On some forums and message boards they allow what is called BBCode. It's the way that posters can include images and Gifs on the forum, yet it isn't HTML code. There are some links below that will show you how to accomplish various uses of BBCode for forums and message boards on the internet that uses that type of code. This tip is how you can make underlined text and strikethrough text using BBCode. Just use these examples or substitute the example text with your own text. Underlined Text:

[u]Your underlined text goes here[/u]

Strikethrough Text:

[s]Your text that you want a strikethrough[/s]

How To Make Text Bold In BBCode

2012-06-07T11:37:00.002-07:00

How To Make Text Bold In BBCode

BBCode is often found in message boards, forums or on internet bulletin boards. BBCode code is slightly different than HTML code. Here is how you can make your words or text bold on forums and message boards, that allow BBCode. Use this example and substitute your own text:


[b]Make Your Text Bold[/b]

How To Make Scrolling Banners Or Text

2012-06-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

You can make your text or even entire sentences scroll by using this marquee HTML code. I have included a few different background colors for your scrolling text. Just copy and paste from these examples and replace your own text.

Black Background

<marquee bgcolor="#000000">Your Text Goes Here</marquee>


White Background

<marquee bgcolor="#FFFFFF">Your Text Goes Here</marquee>


Red Background

<marquee bgcolor="#FF0000">Your Text Goes Here</marquee>


Blue Background

<marquee bgcolor="#0000FF">Your Text Goes Here</marquee>

How To Make Unordered Lists

2012-06-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Unordered lists have a beginning tag of <ul> and a closing tag of </ul>. Every list item or title, starts with a <li> tag and is closed with a </li> tag. With this list, usually , each item will have a black dot, often called a bullet, before each word or item, of your list.

<ul>
<li>Example</li>
<li>Example</li>
</ul>

This unordered list example is actually text links, that each open into a new window. You can use this example and substitute your own links and titles to the links.

<div>
<ul>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-1.html"target="_blank">Music Player 1</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-2.html"target="_blank">Music Player 2</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-3.html"target="_blank">Music Player 3</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-4.html"target="_blank">Music Player 4</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-5.html"target="_blank">Music Player 5</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-6.html"target="_blank">Music Player 6</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-7.html"target="_blank">Music Player 7</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-8.html"target="_blank">Music Player 8</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-9.html"target="_blank">Music Player 9</a></li>

<li><a href="http://playlistsblog.blogspot.com/p/player-10.html"target="_blank">Music Player 10</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

How To Make Fonts Or Text Larger

2012-06-07T11:25:00.002-07:00

 How To Make Fonts Or Text Larger

Using some basic HTML code you can make your font or text larger on your website, page or blogs. Some site's editors aren't always capable of changing the sizes of your fonts or text, so here are some examples of how it's done.

<h2>Large </h2>

<h3> Less </h3>

How To Make Text Link In BBCode

2012-06-07T11:24:00.003-07:00

 How To Make Text Link In BBCode

BBCode, otherwise known as bulletin board code, is code often found in message boards or in forums. To make text link in BBCode use this example and substitute your own link and text:

[url=Your Link Or Url Goes Here ]Your Text Goes Here[/url]

How You Can Make A Photo, Image Or Banner: Link To Another Site

2012-06-07T11:20:00.003-07:00

Sometimes you might want to have a banner, photo or image that links to another site, when you click it. Some sites offer HTML embed codes for photos and images, but they will usually link back to a site that they have already designated. 

If you have a direct link to an image that you can use and you have the link to a desired location, you can easily create a photo that links to wherever you choose.

Just copy and paste this HTML code example and substitute your own desired link/location and image url with your own links:

<a href="Link Of Site To Go To" target="_blank"></a>

How You Can Make A Link Open A New Tab Or Window

2012-06-07T11:18:00.001-07:00

 Have you ever wanted to create a text link and make it open the link or page you are linking to into a new tab or window? Well, here's the code that can do it. Just copy and paste this example and substitute your own link and text.


<a href=" Your link or URL Goes here " target="_blank"> Your text goes here </a>

How You Can Make Italic Text In BBCode

2012-06-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

 In forums, bulletin boards and message boards, online, sometimes what is called BBCode is used. BBCode is a little different than HTML code. Here is how you can make your words or text, italic, in forums online. Use this example and you can substitute your own text:

[i]Make Italic Text[/i]

How To Make Your Text Bold Using HTML

2012-06-07T11:13:00.002-07:00

 You can make text, words or even entire sentences bold using HTML code. In your HTML mode editor on your blog, page or site that accepts HTML code, use this example code: You can just copy and paste this code on your site and substitute with your own text.

<b> Your Text Goes Here </b>

How To Put Graphics, Photos or Gifs On Forums

2012-06-07T11:10:00.003-07:00

Have you ever seen cool graphics or photos or images on forums or message threads and boards and wonder how they are doing it? More than likely they are using BBCode. To use an image, in some forum threads or message boards just put the link to the image in between these codes in this example. Some sites like Photobucket already have the code made called IMG code.

[img]PUT THE LINK TO YOUR PHOTO HERE[/img]

How You Can Make Results Open New Window

2012-06-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

How You Can Make Results Open New Window

Have you ever had a widget or gadget embed, such as a dictionary, thesaurus or other similar type embed, that opens its results on the same page, but you would rather have it open results in a new tab or page instead? Often, the HTML solution is the same as the HTML code for making a text link open up a new page or tab.

If you have an object that you embed on your site or blog and the object is for finding specific results and you want the results to open in a new page or tab, just add some code to it. Be sure to keep the original code intact somewhere, in case it doesn't work or you make a mistake.

For Instance:

On your widget or gadget's embed code at the beginning you will possibly see the code:

form action

Just put

target="_blank">

between the words "form and action"

Like this:

form target="_blank"> action


or try putting target="_blank"> after method "post" >, but get rid of the extra arrow>

Like this:

method="post" target="_blank">

Make sure that it's okay with the gadget or widget producer to change the code. Also keep the original gadget or widget code in case you don't get your desired results or make a mistake!

Turn eReader Into A Surfing Machine

2012-06-07T11:00:00.003-07:00

How To Turn eReader Into A Surfing Machine

A few months ago I purchased a reasonably priced 9-inch Pandigital eReader It's capable of connecting to various wi-fi hotspots near me, for free. Free internet on an eReader doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but I made a few simple modifications. I don't read books on it, I use it to surf and listen to music. I use it to tweet and ping and what-have-you.

It has an accelerometer, which means the screen rights itself, no matter which way you hold it. I also added a SD card for about 20 dollars, for some extra memory. Other than that, it's pretty much a basic 9-inch Pandigital Novel eReader.

This particular model doesn't play flash objects that well, but I installed Dolphin and Skyfire browsers to supplement the browser that it came with. This enables me to watch YouTube Videos and listen to my music playlists on my sites or profiles. The "pop out" option, on my music playlists, is what I get to work on my eReader.

I found an app called TuneIn Radio that allows me to listen to radio stations. It's the best app out there, in my opinion. Some of the stations specialize, or play exclusively certain bands, which I really love. You can listen to, all Pearl Jam, or all Pink Floyd. Sometimes I work online, on my regular desktop and listen to music on my Pandigital eReader.

When I am out and about, the eReader will search for free wi-fi hotspots and remember them, all automatically. I don't pay any monthly internet fees. It has some limitations, but when compared to the prices of some of these other devices and considering some of the charges for internet connections, I am satisfied.

How You Can Make Your Computer Run Faster

2012-06-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Find Places To Store Items

Here are some quick tips on how to make your PC run faster and better. First, I think it's better and safer to store as much of the stuff on your personal computer, to other places, besides your computer. Items or saved material on your computer, that are not too important, but you still want to keep, can be kept on Yahoo Notepads or other online notepads or even group files.

Move Your Media

Photographs can be stored many places such as on Skydrive, Google or other places.

Instead of downloading music to your PC, consider just building playlists offered by online sites and keeping the players on your profiles or sites. Once you have moved some of the things off of your PC, you can delete them off your computer.

Fine Tune

After you have cleaned up your PC, you can then run a disk cleanup and a defragment manually, on most computers. Other things you might consider is running your display color settings to medium color. On some computer systems you can adjust the advanced settings, for best performance , all of which can be found under your control panel on most PC's.

Some people find that certain browsers run faster, on their PC's than others. Browsers such as Firefox or Google Chrome can make a PC run faster. These simple and basic changes will more than likely make your computer perform better and faster.

Video Won't Go Full Screen?

2012-06-07T10:54:00.002-07:00

Have you recently tried to watch a Youtube video full screen, but when you click on the full screen button on the bottom right of the Youtube video it just goes full screen but is all black? You can hear music but no video? It may not be a driver problem or an outdated version of flash.

The solution may be just as easy as right mouse clicking on the video- This should bring up your Adobe Flash Player Settings-On the "Display" setting -uncheck the box titled "enable hardware acceleration ". Now check and see if you can go full screen on the video.

How To Get The Most Out Of An Average Computer

2012-06-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

More RAM

You can possibly make your computer perform much better by upgrading a few features. My computer originally came with 512mb of RAM. But it was capable of having 2GB. Inside some computers they will often have an open slot for more RAM. I purchased a 1GB stick of RAM for about 50 dollars. I opened up my computer and found the slot for more RAM, opened the "catches" and snapped it in. My computer performed much better after that.

First you will need to find out through research on the internet or by calling your computer dealer where you got your computer or looking through your PC's manual, on whether you can upgrade your RAM and by how much. I bought my RAM from Wal Mart because that's where I bought my e Machine PC originally. If you are uncomfortable about working on your PC, it would be wise to have a PC repair place make the upgrade for you.

USB Flash Drive

I love flash drives. They are very inexpensive and they are so small you can put them on a keychain. But even though they are small in size, they can hold a lot of memory. I bought a Toshiba 8GB USB Micro Flash Drive. I have put bunches of photographs and videos on it. Sometimes I delete them, sometimes I keep them, but I have never run out of space.

Flash drives are a great way of storing items you want to keep, edit or just delete later on, if you choose. They say that flash drives tend to have certain lifetimes, where they start to deteriorate, but I haven't had any problems yet. I just plug the tiny flash drive into a USB port on the front of my PC and add media or photographs to it from my computer or move media from it: to my PC. It's very handy.

Whether it's by upgrading your RAM, utilizing flash drives or both, for a little investment you can make the average computer perform much better for your needs.

Computer Tips And Tricks

2012-06-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

Basic Computer Tips And Tricks

Did you know that if you press the Ctrl button and hold it down with your left hand pinky and then with another finger press the letter C you can copy just about anything you have highlighted on the screen? You can then press and hold down the Ctrl button and then press the letter V to paste whatever you just copied.

Most of us know how to copy and paste, but there are a few other tricks we once knew and forgot or have never learned. These are tips for a basic personal computers running Windows.

Ctrl - D allows you to bookmark whatever page you are on.

Ctrl - B opens up or closes your sidebar.

Tapping your space bar will scroll your page down.

Double mouse clicking on a word will highlight it.

Clicking the middle wheel button on your mouse get's an auto scroll option.

Clicking the middle wheel button on your mouse will also open a link in a new tab. This works great on sidebar bookmark links. (on certain browsers)

Try them out, some you may really prefer!

If you have any tips or shortcuts you use on your computer leave a comment and tell us how you do it!

Music Player

2012-06-07T10:49:00.001-07:00

How To Make Blinking Or Flashing Text

2012-06-07T10:31:00.001-07:00

 Learning how to make flashing or blinking text in HTML is fun and easy, just copy  this code into your HTML editor, on your site, blog or page that accepts code and replace "Your Text Here" with your own text that you want to flash or blink.

<marquee scrolldelay="480" scrollamount="375"><br /> Your Text Here</marquee>

If you want your text to flash or blink faster,  just lower the scrolldelay number, from 480 to 80 as shown in this example:

<marquee scrolldelay="80" scrollamount="375"><br />Your Text Here </marquee>