By far, the most popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox. While these browsers are perfectly suitable for everyday use, if you want to see how they stack up against other browsers then check out Wikipedia’s browser comparison page. This page includes just about every browser you can think of and compares the native functionality of each. This...

Remember Geocities? That online community with free hosting that so many people (including myself) started our first website on. Did you know that PCMech.com got its start on Geocities? Back before I even owned the domain, the concept behind this site was run on GeoCities. At SiliconValley/Lakes/3553/, to be exact. Well, Yahoo bought Geocities. It went nowhere....

Bandwidth restriction by the ISP directly is something most U.S. users don’t have to deal with – yet. But other countries have had to deal with monthly bandwidth limitations more or less since broadband was first introduced in their part of the world. Here in the U.S., Comcast is gunning to impose monthly data restrictions widely, however...

If you do a lot of data import and exports, you are probably very familiar with using comma or tab delimited files. If you have to edit these files, however, using a text editor can be challenging because typically these types of files are difficult to work with in just plain text. While Excel is a good tool for working with delimited files, a powerful utility...

Some huge news has hit the world of GPS. Google is poised to fundamentally change the GPS market. They have released the beta version of Google Maps Navigation for the Android platform. This directly pits Google up against major GPS manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom. Here is what it’ll be able to do:Live traffic data Search by voice or text (in plain...

Knowing how to check the source, as in the raw "code," of an email is important because there will be times when you need to do it. Why? To check authenticity of an email. Spam and phishing emails are getting more tricky to identify all the time, and your best weapon against this is knowing how to check the source of an email. Unfortunately it is the...

First off, I don’t use a Mac so I don’t really know what the uninstall process is, however a utility I came across which looks like something our Mac readers might like is AppTrap. Moving an application to the trash is simple and easy. Shouldn’t true uninstallation on the Mac be the same way? With AppTrap, when you move an application to the...

I am beginning to look for additional contributors to the PCMech editorial team. My goals are to introduce additional viewpoints and interests into our content. So, would you be interested in joining the team? Obviously, you must be well-versed in computers and technology otherwise you’re going to have a hard time (pretty obvious). However, I am not limiting...

If there was any universal immutable truth to the internet, it’s that things vanish from it all the time. Those pages you bookmarked last year? They may be gone. Those forums posts that contained a wealth of useful information? They may be gone as well. There are several different ways to archive web pages. You could use ScreenGrab for Firefox. But the...

System security always seems to be hot topic. However, the way people approach it and the tools used can vary greatly. While most of our readers probably use a mainstream/popular tool for system security, if you looking for other programs and utilities out there, then check out “Probably the best free security list in the world“. This post covers...

There are times when one is so desperate to get the data off a CD or DVD that you’re willing to try anything no matter how stupid it may be. This is exactly what happened to me last Sunday night. For years I’ve heard that toothpaste will make a scratched optical disc readable again. I never believed it. I’ve had in my possession a CD I burned...

If you are a student looking for an economical way to upgrade to Windows 7, through this special offer you can purchase an upgrade for $30. The requirements for this offer are as follows:You qualify if you have a valid .EDU e-mail OR an e-mail address through one of the educational institutions listed here. You are enrolled in coursework, current proof or...

Not long ago, a book came in the mail for me to check out. It was Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed, by Paul McFedries. So, I checked it out. First of all, let me make one thing clear. If you are a typical end user of Windows 7, you don’t need this book. In other words, if you use Windows like most people use Windows, then this book will seem too technical for...

Hotmail allows for a full seamless backup by means of the Windows Live Mail client using the DeltaSync protocol. Gmail allows for a full backup by means of freely available IMAP access. Y! Mail doesn’t have either of those options. A full backup includes not only your inbox, but also the "Sent" folder and any other folders you have. Even if you...

Today’s tip is more of an open question. My thought is typically to go with the lesser freebie. For the most part, commercial packages do offer more, but I typically don’t really need it. For example, I swapped from Quicken to GNU Cash about 2 years ago and I haven’t looked back. Quicken has a fancy interface and a bunch of wizards, but I found...

If you utilize an Exchange environment in your office, a very seldom used feature is the ability to hyperlink to shared objects. What can end up happening is users just email documents back in forth or other chaotic methods which just lead to clutter more than anything. So to get started with hyperlinks the easy way, check out the free utility, Linker. Linker...

Now that Windows 7 is released, you early adopters may be interested in exactly how to migrate your existing install to Windows 7. If this is the case, check out this Microsoft article: Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration. The article walks you through all the scenarios:Windows XP to Windows 7 Windows Vista to Windows 7 Old XP/Vista computer to a new...

Windows 7 had its wide release yesterday, and there are a few of you out there who are still nervous about upgrading. In response to that, I decided to put together a list of things I don’t miss about XP. 1. XP’s taskbar   Windows XP Taskbar I have a few gripes about XP’s taskbar. First is the fact that in single-tier view (which is the...

Something alarming which seems to be more and more commonplace are software installers which attempt to install other software. For example, suppose you are installing “ABC”. During the installation wizard, there is an option (turned on by default) to install “XYZ browser toolbar”. Unless you notice this and uncheck, this option, you now...

Today, being October 22 2009, is the day Windows 7 is officially available as a wide release in the U.S. This means it should be available on the shelves at your nearest electronics retailer. As many have been saying right along, Win 7 is a good product. It runs on even the most minimal of hardware (even a netbook,) has huge support for tons of different...