If you have a PC that dual-boots with Windows and Linux, this tutorial will show you how to easily access the files on your Linux partition/drive while Windows is running.

Preface: this program contains an experimental feature that allows you to write files back to your Linux partition. I would strongly advise against using it. This software works great at allowing you to access and copy files from your Linux Partition to your Windows partition. Do not attempt to copy/move files back to Linux.

1. Head over to the Ext2Fsd download page and then download and install Ext2Fsd. At the end of the installation you can leave the Start Ext2 Volume Manager right now to assign drive letters for your ext2/ext3 partitions? checked, but the program may crash when it tries to auto-launch.



2. If it does crash, just locate and launch from your Applications list.



3. Locate and select your EXT3 (or other supported file system) Linux partition from the top column.


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4. Click Tools from the menu, and select Service Management from the drop-down list.



5. Make sure that both Mount all volumes in read-only mode and Assign drive letter automatically are checked, then click the Start button.



6. Now click the Apply button.



7. If you’re prompted with a message about current settings being overwritten, click Yes.



8. Now navigate to your My Computer listing. From there, you’ll see that your Linux partition is now mounted as its own drive, and assigned a drive letter (in the example below, it’s the E: drive). Double-click your ‘new’ drive.


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9. Now you can access all of your Linux files without having to reboot into Linux.


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10. It is possible to have Ext2Fsd launch and run automatically each time your PC boots into Windows. I would advise against that and simply repeat the above steps each time you need to access your Linux files. When it’s set to start each time Windows starts, it’s more prone to crashing.

This guide will take you every step of the way through creating a “firewall rule” in Windows 8 that will block any program of your choice from connecting to the Internet.

There are a whole slew of reasons you may want to block a program from accessing the Internet. Here are the instructions to do it if you’re using Windows 8 on your PC.

Please Note: the screenshots used in this tutorial are ‘clickable’ – if you have trouble viewing them, simply click the image and the ‘full size’ version will be displayed.

1. Return to the main Windows 8 interface (the one w/ all the ‘Tiles’ and is often referred to as “Metro”).



2. Simply start to type out the words control panel. This will immediately bring up the “App Search” window, and from here, click on the Control Panel entry from the left column.


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3. From the Control Panel, click the System and Security link.


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4. Click Windows Firewall.


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5. Click the Advanced settings link in the left column.


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6. From here, you can monitor all of your Windows Firewall activity, and of course, create new rules for the firewall.


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7. Click the Outbound Rules link from the column of the left side of the window. Now, click the New Rule… button from the column on the right side of the window.


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8. Select Program, and then click the Next button.


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9. Select This program path: and then click the Browse button.


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10. Navigate to the program you wish to ensure has no access to the Internet, select it, and click the Open button.

    If you have any difficulty finding the program you want to block, check the sub-folders in C:\Program Files (x86)\ and C:\Program Files\ – those two folders store most of the programs on your PC.


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11. Double-check to ensure you have the correct program selected in the This program path: box, and then click the Next button.


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12. Make sure the Block the connection entry is selected, and then click the Next button.


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13. Make sure there are ‘check-marks’ in all of the entries listed in the When does this rule apply? section, and then – you guessed it, click Next (last time!).


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14. Give your new rule a name (descriptive helps) and then optionally, give it a more in depth description. Finally – click the Finish button.


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15. In the Name column, your newly blocked program will be listed. In the Action column, you’ll see that your newly created rule is set to Block.


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16. That’s it! Repeat the same steps to block any additional programs from accessing the Internet on your PC.

This brief tutorial will guide you through the steps to delete TV shows you’ve purchased via the iTunes Store from your iPhone or iPad.

Generally Apple is pretty good at making things like deleting a file pretty intuitive. Deleting the Pictures and Movies you take with the built in iPhone camera (via the Camera Roll) is quite straight forward. Deleting T.V. Shows and Movies that you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store is a little more involved. Here are the steps to do it –

1. Tap the Settings button from your Home screen and then tap the General button.



2. Tap the Usage button.



3. Give your iPhone/iPad a moment to calculate all of the Apps and Files on your iDevice…



4. Now locate the Videos entry in the Storage list – and tap it.



5. You’ll be presented with a list of the Movies and T.V. shows that you’ve purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store. Tap the TV Show that you want to delete one or more episodes of.



6. Tap the Edit button located in the upper-right corner of the screen.



7. The “red minus circle” will appear next to each of the episodes for that TV Show.



8. Tap an episode you want to delete, and then tap the corresponding red Delete button.

   As you can see in the screenshot below, I had 7.6GB of available space on my iPhone before I deleted the TV episode.



9. After that episode was deleted, you can see that I now have 8.2GB of available space. When you’re done deleting episodes, tap the Done button in the upper-right corner of your screen.



10. That’s it! You can repeat the steps to delete episodes from different TV shows. If it’s a movie you wanted to delete, all you need to do is tap the Edit button in step #5 above, and delete the movie directly from that list.

This tutorial will show you how to save files of any kind, securely (password protected) on your iPhone or iPad.

This guide will take you step by step through the process of setting up and using the iPhone/iPad App File Manager Pro App so that you can store and access any kind of file you want on your iDevice, and keep those files private. File Manager Pro App lets you password protect the files of your choice, so that no one but you can view them.

Important note: The software used in this tutorial costs $4.99. I have tried a number of free and other paid File Manager Apps for the iPhone and iPad, none were as good as this one (by quite a long shot).

1. To get started – download and install File Manager Pro App from the iTunes store. Once it’s installed, tap on its icon on your Home screen. Note: the screenshots used in this tutorial are from the iPhone ‘version’ of the App. The iPad version is nearly identical and you’ll have no trouble following along if you’re using an iPad.



2. You’ll be presented with the main ‘home screen’ for File Manager Pro App. Tap the Local Files button.



3. As you can see, there will be a folder already there, named Tutorial. Inside, it contains a PDF tutorial on how to use the App (which isn’t bad, but isn’t as detailed as this one).

   From the upper-left corner of the App, tap the Home button. You’ll be using that button frequently to jump back and forth between all the features.



4. Now tap the Image Gallery button.



5. A list of all the ‘photo albums’ on your iDevice will be displayed, including your Camera Roll. Tap one of them.



6. This time you’ll be presented with a list of all the images/movies in that particular photo album. Note that while the list is alphabetical, it sorts file types differently. As illustrated in the image below, .JPG files are listed before .MOV files, even when the video file has a name that’s alphabetically ‘ahead’ of an images name.

   Now tap the Select button from the upper-right corner of the App. It’s the small button with a ‘down arrow’ as an icon.



7. The list will change so that the files are now ‘selectable’ – tap a few of them to select them. The red check-mark next to the file indicates it has been selected. Tap the Download button that will appear on the bottom of the App once you select a file.



8. This will “download” (copy) the files from your image gallery directly into the File Manager App itself.



9. Return to the Home screen and once again tap the Local Files button.



10. The files you selected in step #7 are now (also) stored inside of File Manager. If you delete them from your image gallery/Camera Roll, they will remain inside of the File Manager App.

    File Manager Pro also includes its own “file viewer” so that you can open files from directly within the App. Tap one of your pictures.



11. The picture will now open in File Manager Pro’s built in viewer. This viewer is able to display the following kinds of files (among others): Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel, PDFs, images, music and video files – even zip files.

    Tap the Share button in the upper-right corner when you have a file open in the viewer…



12. … and you’ll be able to share or open it in another App (depending on the file type and which other Apps you have installed).



13. There are number of other things you can do with your files – return to your Local Files folder and tap the Select button (#1 in image below). Now tap the file(s) you want to work with (#2 in image below). Once you’ve selected one or more files, a new options bar will appear at the bottom of the App (#3 in image below). It’s from here that you can “Favorite” the file so that you can quickly access it later, create a new folder for the file(s) selected, copy or move the files to a new folder etc.



14. “Swipe” the options bar and additional options will be displayed – including Delete and Rename.



15. Another feature of File Manager Pro App is that you can tie it to a number of “cloud services” such as Dropbox, Box.net, Google Drive, iCloud etc. Tap the Home button and then the Cloud Services button.



16. This makes it very simple to copy any kind of file from your ‘cloud’ directly to your iPhone. Scroll down to step #22 if this is a feature you don’t think you’ll ever use. Otherwise, for the sake of this tutorial I’ll replicate the experience with Dropbox.



17. After being prompted to Allow File Manager Pro App to access your Dropbox folder…



18. … you’ll be presented with an alphabetically sorted list of all the files and folders on your Dropbox account.



19. To download a file from Dropbox directly to your Local Files folder, tap the Select button.



20. Tap the file(s) you wish to download, and then click the Download button.



21. Once the download has completed, the file will open in File Manager Pro App’s ‘file viewer’ – if possible.



22. Yet another feature of File Manager Pro App is the ability to download a file directly from the web. Return to the Home screen and tap the Web Browser button. Using it, you can enter in the web address (URL) of a file, and File Manager Pro App will download that file to its Local Files folder.



23. Now that we’ve covered how to download and copy files to the File Manager Pro App itself, lets secure everything. Tap the General button from the Home screen.



24. In the Settings section, tap the Password protection button.



25. From here you can either opt to secure your files by using a 4 digit numerical PIN, or a password containing numbers, letters etc. I’ve opted to use the PIN feature to secure my files. Use the “slider” to switch from OFF to ON for whichever method you prefer.



26. If you opt to enter a PIN, you’ll need to do so twice. The same is true with a password.



27. Once the PIN or password has been set, you will need to enter it EVERY time you want to access your files. So do not forget that password!



28. That’s it – you now have a way to not only store any kind of file on your iPhone/iPad, but you can do so knowing that it will be password protected.

With one small Extension, you can make the “new tab page” in Google Chrome much more useful.

There are a number of Chrome Extensions that change the default behavior of the ‘new tab’ feature. This one is my favorite because it adds helpful features and doesn’t slow Chrome down or use up much of your system resources at all. See the bottom of this howto for links to a few other Extensions you may want to try if this one doesn’t suit you.

1. Head over to the New Tab Page installation page.
2. Click the ADD TO CHROME button.



3. Click the Add button when prompted.



4. Once the Extension has successfully installed, click the small ‘X’ in the corner of the notification window to close it.



5. Now open a new Tab. You’ll be presented with a very simple page that’s easy on the eyes and includes a number of helpful features and shortcuts. As illustrated in the image below, the features are: 1. A Google Search Bar. 2. A list of the 6 sites you most frequently visit. You can change these ‘shortcuts’ by clicking the ‘X’ that appears when you hover your cursor over the link. 3. A simple news stream. The generated news articles are from the ‘Top Stories’ section of Google News. 4. A small, customizable “Weather Widget”.

   
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6. To customize the weather to your current location, click the Use current location. ‘button’.



7. After a few seconds, it should refresh with the weather for your current location.



8. And of course, quick-links to any Google Apps you may use.

As promised, here are a few other ‘new tab’ Extensions for Google Chrome –

This guide will take you step by step through the process of creating a secure (encrypted and password protected) “folder” on your Mac.

NOTE: I put the word folder in quotes above because technically, you’re not creating a folder. Rather, you’ll be creating a DMG file that will act almost exactly like a folder.

1. One of the best parts of this process is that all the software you need is already included with OS X. So to get started, launch the Disk Utility app, which can be found in your Applications -> Utilities folder.


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2. When the Disk Utility launches, click the New Image button from the Toolbar.


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3. Starting from the top – give your image file a name in the Save As: field. It doesn’t matter at all what you name the file. Now select a location you want to save/store the file. I opted to keep mine in the Documents folder, which is as good a place as any. Again, doesn’t matter where you opt to save the file. Next, enter a name in the Name: field. Yet again, doesn’t matter what you call it.



4. Now you’ll need to decide how much space you want to allocate to storing your secured files. Click the Size: menu, and select Custom… entry.



5. Enter the number of megabytes you wish to allocate to this secure location for your files. If you’re only going to be saving documents, photos and smaller files – you don’t need to allocate much space. I opted for 300MB, which will more than suffice for me. Note: You can always create a new secured file and transfer data from one to the other if you ever need more space to securely store your files. It’s probably best erring on the side of ‘too small’ rather than ‘too big’. Click OK when you’re done.

   

6. Now click the Encryption: menu.



7. Select 128-bit AES encryption (recommended)



8. Click the Create button.



9. Next you’ll be prompted to enter a password. It is very important – I can’t overemphasize this – to remember your password. If you forget it, you’ll never be able to access the contents of your ‘folder’ again. The other thing I can’t overemphasize is to remove the check-mark from the box labeled Remember password in my keychain. If you don’t remove that check-mark, your password will be saved and anyone who has access to your Mac will be able to access your “secure” files. Click OK when you’re done.



10. It doesn’t take long to create the file.



11. Once it is created, it will be automatically opened. As illustrated in the screenshot below, the file behaves exactly like a ‘removable device’ (USB thumb drive, CD/DVD etc). It is a .DMG file.


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12. Now you can start moving files to your ‘folder’. You can create new folders, create new files from directly within it etc. Anything you don’t want others to access, put it in here. Remember – you can only store as many files as the size you selected back in step #5. If you created a 300MB secure file, you can only store 300MB of files within it.

    When you’re done, click the Eject button as you would any other device or DMG file.


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13. When you want to access your secure files again – or add more – simply navigate to the folder you selected to save the file in (back in step #2) and double-click the secure file (named whatever you called it back in step #2).


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14. You’ll be prompted to enter your password.



15. Once you’ve entered your password, your secure DMG will open.

This brief tutorial will show you how to extract just the audio from a .mov video file, using free software.

1. Using Microsoft Windows app Movie Maker it’s quite easy to extract the audio from an .mov file. It’s quite possible you already have Movie Maker installed – if you do, skip down to step #3 below. If you don’t, you’ll need to start by download Movie Maker.

   Once the download has completed, run the setup file. This package also includes other software, which you may or may not want to install. Click the Choose the programs want to install button.


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2. Make sure that at least Photo Gallery and Movie Maker is selected (the others you can install if you wish, but aren’t related to this tutorial), and then click the Install button. Once the installation has finished, launch Windows Movie Maker.


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3. Click the Add videos and photos button.


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4. Navigate to the .mov file you want to grab the audio from, select it, and click the Open button.


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5. Depending on the size and duration of your movie, it may take a while for the video to ‘import’ into Movie Maker. Wait until it’s done.


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6. Now select File from the top menu and then Save movie from the ‘drop-down’ menu. Scroll down and select Audio only from the sub-menu.


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7. Select the folder you want to save the new file in, and give the file a name. Click the Save button to begin the process. Note: the resulting audio file will be saved in the .m4a format – which is playable on almost every modern device (Mac/PC/iOS/Android/BlackBerry etc).


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8. Again, depending on the size and length of the .mov file, this process can take a few minutes.



9. Once it’s completed, click the Open Folder button.



10. Ta-da! There’s your new audio file.


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11. Finally – if you need to edit the resulting .m4a file, a program like Audacity (which is not only free but Open Source) is ideal.

This walkthrough will take you each step of the way through creating a new partition in Windows 8.

Rather than list all of the reasons you may want to create a partition in Windows 8 (if you’re here, you have your own reason) – let’s jump right into it –

1. Hold down the Windows Key + the r key to bring up the Run dialogue box. Enter the phrase diskmgmt.msc and click the OK button.

   

2. The Disk Management utility will launch. The screenshot below illustrates what it looks like, although it’s highly unlikely it will be identical to yours (unless you have the exact same Toshiba laptop as I do).


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3. Right-click on the C: drive entry, and select Shrink Volume… from the menu.



4. A Querying Shrink Space window may flash by quickly or appear for a minute or two.



5. Now you’ll need to decide how large you want your new partition to be. To make a 1GB (gigabyte) partition, enter 1024 in the Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB: – as 1024MB = 1GB. If you want to make a 20GB partition, you would enter 20 x 1024 = 20480.

   Click the Shrink button.



6. Back at the Disk Management window you’ll see a new entry, the same size as you specified in the previous step.


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7. Right-click on the new entry (will be titled Unallocated) and select New Simple Volume…



8. Click Next on the first of the New Simple Volume Wizard



9. Click Next (without making any changes) again.



10. Here’s where you’ll need to make a decision on what to do based on why you’re creating a new partition. If you’re creating a new partition to use as a backup or different drive, select Assign the following drive letter: and select a letter you want to be associated with your new partition. If you’re creating a partition so you can install a new operating system*, select Do not assign a drive letter or drive path. For the sake of this tutorial, we’re going to assume you want to create a new drive and assign a drive letter to it. Click Next.



11. Select NTFS from the Format this volume with the following settings: entry. Give the drive a ‘name’ by entering whatever you want to call it in the Volume label: field. Click Next when you’re done.



12. Click Finish.



13. Back in the Disk Management utility, you’ll see the new partition all finished and ready to use. You can exit the Disk Management utility now.


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14. If you created a new partition to use as a new ‘drive’ – it will be displayed in Windows Explorer etc.



15. That’s it – you’re done.
16. * = it doesn’t really matter what you select here. If you want to install a new Operating System it doesn’t matter if you create a new drive with a new drive letter and/or format it with a certain file system. When you install the new OS you’ll just overwrite settings when needed.

This very brief tutorial will show you how to stream from the Spotify App on your iPhone or iPad to your AppleTV or Boxee Box/PC.

The ability to stream audio from Spotify on your iPhone or iPad to your AppleTV or Boxee device is actually built into the Spotify App – it’s just very buried. Here’s how to find it –

1. Launch Spotify and start playing a song. Tap the ‘box’ with the Artist/Song information located at the bottom of the Spotify App.



2. Now tap anywhere on the Album cover/art.



3. Here you’ll finally find the Apple “Send To” button (as illustrated in the screenshot below). Tap it…



4. … and select Apple TV …



5. … or the name of your Boxee device.



6. Now you can listen to Spotify on your home media center.

This very brief tutorial will show you how to ‘split’ the keyboard on your iPad so that you can type more comfortably using just your thumbs.

Follow the simple steps below to enable this lesser known feature (hat tip to Eric Hogg).

1. Open any App that uses the keyboard. Put your thumbs on the middle of the keyboard and ‘swipe’ outwards.


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2. Now your keyboard is split into two halves – making it much easier to type using only your thumbs – which also makes it easier to hold your iPad while typing.


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3. To revert to the normal/default keyboard, simply swipe the keyboards back together.


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This tutorial will guide you through the steps to create “keyboard shortcuts” – shortcuts that allow you to type just a few characters instead of an entire word or phrase – on your iPhone or iPad.

Your iPhone and/or iPad includes a feature that allows you to type a “shortcode” that will auto-complete to a full word or phrase. So instead of typing out something like your email address, you can create a shortcut that will automatically “type out” your email address for you.

1. Tap the Settings button on your iPhone/iPad, and select General from the list.



2. Scroll down and select Keyboard.



3. Scroll down to the Shortcuts section. Lets jump right in and create one – tap the Add New Shortcut… button.



4. In the Phrase section, type out the phrase that you want your shortcut to turn into. In this example, we’re going to create a shortcut for your email address. So, in the Phrase section, enter your email address.



5. In the Shortcut section, enter the short ‘code’ you want to use that will automatically enter your email address when typed. In this example I used the ‘code’ rgm (which in my mind stands for “Ross GMail”). It also works as a good code because “rgm” isn’t a word, or the start of one. Tap the Save button (upper-right corner) when you’re done.



6. Your new shortcut should be listed in the Shortcuts section.



7. Now try it out. Open up a new Text Message or Email or any App that you type in, and enter the phrase you set as your shortcut. As you can see in the image below, as soon as I entered my shortcut (#1) it auto-completed to my email address (#2).



8. That’s it! You can create as many shortcuts as you’d like, and the more you use them the more helpful you’ll find them.

If you’re a little bit embarrassed that you couldn’t figure out how to do this – don’t be. It’s not as intuitive as most things on the iPhone/iPad. Here goes:

1. Launch the Camera App on your iPhone/iPad. While you’re holding the iPhone/iPad with one hand, place two fingers from your other hand on the screen, and ‘slide’ them outwards (as illustrated in the screenshot below). Note: works best/is most comfortable when using your thumb and index finger.



2. As you move your fingers outwards, the screen (and camera) will start to zoom. At this point, the “zoom slider” will also appear on the screen. You can use it to fine tune/adjust your zooming.



3. Yeah, that easy…

Decided that picture probably shouldn’t have gone up on Instagram? Here are the quick steps to delete it –

1. At this time, you can’t delete a photo you’ve shared on Instagram via the web (ie. http://instagram.com). You need to use the App itself. So launch Instagram from your Smartphone and go to your “home” screen. Locate the photo you want to delete and tap it.



2. Tap the “more” button (the one with 3 dots on it, as illustrated in the screenshot below).



3. Select Delete.



4. If prompted to confirm the deletion, tap Delete



5. That’s it – gone! Now keep in mind – for the time this photo was “up” – anyone could have downloaded it (if it was set to public). If it was set to private, any of your “Instagram” friends could have viewed and/or downloaded it. Now, it’s gone.

Recently Facebook decided that in addition to visual notifications, it would start making a “beeping sound” when you receive a new notification. This brief tutorial will show you how to disable that annoying beep.

Note: this “feature” hasn’t been rolled out across all of Facebook yet, so your account may not be affected (yet).

1. Click the ‘Settings’ button in the upper-right corner of your Facebook page and then select Account Settings from the menu.



2. Select Notifications from the left column.



3. Click the link titled view from the On Facebook row.



4. Remove the check-mark from the Play a sound when each new notification is received box and then click the Save Changes button.



5. That’s it, no more beeping from Facebook!

This tutorial will explain how to get your iPhone (or iPad) to “forget” a network that it has previously connected to, so that it stops connecting to it automatically in the future.

1. Tap the Settings button on your iPhone/iPad.



2. Select the Wi-Fi setting.



3. Make sure your Wi-Fi is turned ON. Scroll down to the Network that you want to stop your iPhone/iPad from automatically connecting to, and tap the small ‘blue arrow’ next to it.



4. Tap the large Forget this Network button.



5. Tap the Forget button to confirm.



6. Going forward, your iPhone or iPad will not automatically connect to the network. You’ll need to manually reconnect to it if you wish to use it again.