In this second of four videos this week about the PCMech Premium membership program, I wanted to clarify something. Some people find themselves confused on whether this program is about internet business or about computers. In this video, I explain my philosophy behind this membership program. You’ll also get a little view into my office and my house...

It was only a matter of time, but Intel has brought out the big guns and now has quad-core available for laptops. Five of them, to be exact. Surprisingly, it won’t be that expensive. According to the article linked above, you can score an Acer Aspire laptop with an 18.4-inch screen (that’s frappin’ huge for a laptop) for $1,799. Not bad...

Periodically there will be times you’ll want to capture a screenshot of something on your computer screen. Your options of doing this the Windows way is a bit limited. The Windows way is by using ALT+PrintScreen (capture focused window) or CTRL+PrintScreen (capture entire screen including taskbar). Both are inadequate because you can’t be specific...

In the days of old people would keep computers as long as 5 years or longer. However these days a new computer barely gets past 3 years before needing replacement – or so it seems. You can easily get 5 years out of a computer if you buy it correctly the first time. In fact, you most likely already own a computer that you can get a few more years out...

Making your computer more energy smart not only makes environmental sense, but monetary sense as well. The less power your computer uses, the lower your energy bill. If tweaking the multitude of power settings you can configure throughout your computer is not your thing, then give Edison a look. Edison is a free application which allows you simply use a slider...

Excel is, without a doubt, the most versatile productivity tool available. It can do everything from number crunching to graphs and charts as well as intricate form layouts. One of the most practical everyday uses for this functionality is keeping track of your personal finances. If you have found a program dedicated to this functionality, such as Quicken or...

Last night, I posted a quick testimonial from a member of our PCMech University program. Today, I created a video where I’ll take you behind the scenes and into our survey system. I wanted to share with you the feedback that I have gotten from University members, direct from them. That video is below. Now, this is the first of 4 videos I will be posting...

Dumprep.exe is a non-essential (according to Microsoft) process that may be in your system startup. It is OK to remove this but obviously it’s not done by deleting dumprep.exe (that would be bad). Instead we follow these steps: 1. Go to the Control Panel. 2. Double-click the System icon. 3. Click the Advanced tab. 4. Next to Startup and Recovery, click the...

In the days of old people would keep computers as long as 5 years or longer. However these days a new computer barely gets past 3 years before needing replacement – or so it seems. You can easily get 5 years out of a computer if you buy it correctly the first time. In fact, you most likely already own a computer that you can get a few more years out...

Written recently on CNET is an author claiming that the reason most people use Google for internet searching is habitual and nothing more. I was forced to agree with this after trying it out for myself – but only after that. Originally my thought was that Google’s search is unmatched and there’s no way Yahoo search or Live search can...

Over the weekend, I ran a survey of all subscribers to PCMech as well as to existing members of PCMech University. I got a lot of great feedback, but one testimonial came in from Miguel in Orlando, FL (last name withheld for his privacy). I thought it was rather inspirational so I thought I would share it: I first got a PCMech e-mail about 4 months ago. 2 months...

Firefox users who are looking to either disguise or change the title of their tabs will want to take a look at the add-on, Page Title Eraser. From the description: The Page Title Eraser adds menu item to the page context menu and “Tools” menu items. “Right-click” menu includes a “Hide title” menu item now. Using this item you...

Periodically during the PCMech Live broadcast I will refer people to the PCMech Forums when a) I don’t know the answer to a particular tech question and/or b) the tech question asked requires a threaded conversation (which can’t be done with real-time chat). For those who have never been to the PCMech Forums, they are quite large. There are tens of...

One of the big perks of using a Linux distribution is having a choice of what window manager you want to use. You can check out what’s available for Linux window managers and desktops here. The one I’ll be concentrating on is fluxbox, a window manager. Fluxbox is one of the lightest window managers you can use for a graphical Linux environment. To...

If you are very concerned about malware on your system and already have a couple of programs to scan for such programs, another anti-spyware package you might want to try is Malwarebytes. From their description: Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware can detect and remove malware that even the most well known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to detect....

One thing you probably knew Firefox did, but might have never explored is applying a custom theme/skin. The latest release of the popular browser fully supports this functionality and even offers a theme repository on their own site. There are tons of themes available and you can probably find one for just about anything you can imagine, so take a look. Vista...

When you inevitably get a new cell phone and after you have transferred all the data from your old device to your new one, have you ever thought about what to do with the old one? While the obvious answer may be to recycle it, why not donate it to a cause such as Cell Phones For Soldiers (who will recycle it anyway). You can read about how the program works, but...

We all know that when you buy some software, a gadget, a piece of hardware or anything else, it is nice to know you can return it should there be a problem and (hopefully) get your money back. However, being a smart consumer means understanding the issue from the retailer’s perspective, too. Here are some tips to help you avoid the potential headaches of...

You may remember me stating in the past that I have an aversion to e-mail signatures. Well, I found something that is the sure-fire cure to those overly long e-mail sigs. And that’s Krunchd (pronounced as it looks, "crunched"). I created a Krunchd page http://krunchd.com/menga. I included the all the social networks I participate in, my web site...

As you may or may not know, Google has its own web browser and it’s called Chrome. When first released it was done so in beta form, but now it’s been at version 1 (out of beta) for a little while now, so I figured I’d give it another shot. This version of Chrome is 1.0.154.36 (see screen shot below). I am running it on Windows XP Professional...