Some people do not like using Windows Update, the default way patches and security updates are delivered to your Windows Machine, due to, among other reasons, privacy concerns with Windows Genuine Advantage. Regardless, if you choose not to use Windows Update you should still keep your Windows installation current with security releases. A site which can help...

In a rather bold statement, the CEO of Verizon Communications basically said that the company simply doesn’t care about landline anymore. The statement may be bold but I think we all knew in the back of our minds this was coming. Generally speaking, the only reason anybody has a landline phone today is either because a) it’s required in order to use...

If you find yourself performing a certain task over and over (and over) again, setting up a macro to do this for you is the way to go. It may take a little bit of time up front, but it easily pays for itself. A tool which can make the process of setting up a macro easy is the open source utility AutoHotKey. With it, you can:Automate almost anything by sending...

Everybody at one point or another has experienced painful boredom when playing a video game, to where you ask yourself, "Okay, so why am I doing this?" This can happen even with the best of game titles and it can be tough sometimes to even enjoy yourself. The term "button mashing" is when you’re playing a game that you’re...

I have posted several tips pointing to programs which can help power management on Windows machines, but today’s utility is specifically for Mac users. The program is called Power Manager 3 for Mac OS X. Reduce the energy costs of Mac computers with Power Manager 3. Use Power Manager to control when your Macs are available and when they are switched...

If you use a Windows Live email address, that being any address that ends in @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com, you can access the account right now in the Windows Live Mail client. The immediate advantages of using WL Mail:No ads anywhere in the client No ads sent on outgoing mail Allows for local caching of mail for faster access and being able to read...

Today’s tip is specifically for developers, system administrators, tech support people, etc. who utilize Microsoft’s SQL Server. While SQL Server is incredibly powerful and the provided Management Studio (Express for the free edition) is an excellent tool, a function which is missing is the ability to search all tables in a database for a text...

The obvious answer to this question is yes, you can. Before explaining the modern way to use a laptop as a desktop, let’s take an amusing stroll down memory lane on how this was done years ago. In the beginning… (Note before continuing: I’m concentrating on late 1990s-to-present tech. Obviously what’s listed below doesn’t cover...

One of the improvements you can expect to see in the latest OS release by both Microsoft and Apple is a noticeable increase in battery life. By some estimates, Windows 7 will boost battery life by 11% and Apple’s Snow Leopard by 10%. These are accomplished through, among other things, more efficient handling of idle CPU time and better management of...

As I say in the video below, it does amaze me how many people are not aware of the simple shortcuts one can use to navigate though text quickly – and in many cases faster than you would with a mouse. For some of you, what’s listed here will make you say to yourself, "Okay, who doesn’t know these keyboard shortcuts?" Quite a few,...

For those of you who carry USB drives with utilities to help diagnose and clean other people’s machines, a utility you might want to take a look at is Dr. Web CureIt. This is a FREE anti-virus and anti-spyware utility based on Dr.Web Anti-virus scanner, which will help you quickly scan and cure, if necessary, a computer operated by MS Windows 95OSR2/...

I have posted about several tools to create PDF files, so today here is a tool to help you manipulate them. PDF Split and Merge is an open source program which does exactly as its name says:split your pdf documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.). merge many pdf documents or subsections of them. extract sections of your document into a single pdf...

Full disclosure, I would probably be considered by many to be a border line tree hugger. Among other things, I hate throwing items away which can be reused or recycled by either myself or someone else, especially hazardous things such as computers. That said, I always try to “max out” what I have before considering getting something new. Recently I...

Is it too much to ask to expect a company to know how to operate their own computer systems? I am a user of the Iphone 3G, and of course that means I must use AT&T. Others have talked about the various service disruptions, undependable voice mail, and generally being a bottleneck to an otherwise awesome phone. Here in the Tampa Bay area, I haven’t had many...

Some people may be under the impression that if a web site loads slowly and/or causes your browser to crash that it might be your computer’s fault it happened. Not necessarily. There are several things that people interpret as a fault with their computer when in fact it isn’t. Things that are not your fault when problems happen loading web sites Web...

For those of you who send emails as text messages to cell phones, you’re well aware that you have to a) send in plain text only and b) count your characters to make sure you don’t trip the 140-character limit. Setting email to send in plain text in easy. In popular email providers such as Yahoo! Mail there is an option right at the top to change from...

One of the frustrating settings in Windows Vista that doesn’t work correctly as it did in XP is the ability to apply folder view settings of the current folder to all folders. You can still set this option the same way you would in XP, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Well, there is a fix available here. Just follow the instructions:Copy the reg...

Windows Vista users, if Service Pack 2 hasn’t hit your Windows Update yet it probably will very soon. So if you are curious about what is in this upgrade, here are the full details from Microsoft. Overall, there is nothing really to get excited about for home users (in my opinion at least). A few notable changes:SP2 improves performance for Wi-Fi...

Opera 10 is out of beta and in official release, so if you want to try it out, go for it. Note before continuing: PCMech Premium members can see me review this browser in a 20-minute video. 1. "Windows Native" skin Accessible by: Tools/Appearance or Shift+F12 The default look of Opera is "Opera Standard". It definitely looks better than...

I use Skype quite a bit. I use it as my work at home phone to call and receive calls using a standard phone number and I use it to let my parents see their grandbaby. So I recently upgraded to the latest release of version 4 and was almost immediately bombarded with “add me to your contact list” spam. This is especially annoying because the contacts...