If you use 7-Zip you are probably well aware that it can open just about any compression format out there. As such, just about any file extension you can think of that has to do with compression is just a double click from being opened. However, did you know that you can open many “non-zip” files? For example, if you try to open an MSI installer file...

Many of you will be buying a digital camera for yourself or for someone else as a holiday gift. There are many choices. Possibly too many. This mini-guide will help you sort through the muck and get the digital camera you want. We’ll start with a few things that have nothing to do with the camera itself but rather where it’s bought. 1. The industry...

Recently we decided to take some of our seldom watched DVD’s and put them into storage (i.e. in a box in the closet). So before doing this, I looked into ripping these to my computer so we could potentially watch them without having to dig them out the closet. While searching the internet for easy options to accomplish this, I came across this article...

If you are looking for a gift for someone who likes “classic” games, then a cool gift (in my opinion at least), would be the retro Pac Man game kit. This device requires no hardware other than a TV, just plug it into the A/V connectors and you are good to go. Games include:Pac Man Galaxian Dig Dug Pole Position Several moreSince I really...

Today is what’s known in the United States as Black Friday. It is not a holiday but rather the mark of the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and is widely believed to be the biggest shopping day of the year. The term Black Friday as it pertains to retail mania was coined in the mid-1960s; it is a reference to the absolutely choked/gridlock traffic...

As USB flash drives continue their trend of both getting larger capacity and cheaper, you might find yourself with several smaller devices just laying around. So what do you do with these extra 128/256/512/etc. MB devices? Rather than throwing them away, here are a few uses I can think of:Give them away/donate them. Load it up with a Linux live distribution....

Today marks the day that the United States celebrates the holiday known as Thanksgiving, where we (are supposed to) give thanks for what we have. But you don’t have to celebrate Thanksgiving to give thanks for certain things we have in tech.The dream of a desktop computer everybody can afford has been realized. A new and shockingly decent computer costs...

If you like to have granular control over all aspects of your system graphics, a tool you need to look at is PowerStrip. This tool works with just about any graphics card out there and can typically provide many more options than the manufacturer’s control panel. [PowerStrip is] a simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides...

(Note: If you spot deals today or tomorrow before Friday hits, post a comment) These are direct links. No coupon codes or any of that b.s. to deal with. Hanns-G 23.6-inch monitor, $149 with free shipping If you were looking to upgrade your monitor to something big that looks good, functions well and is as cheap as they come, this is it. Specific Apple authorized...

If you currently use Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, WordPress or TypePad as a place where you post blog articles, all of them have the ability to post via a WYSIWYG editor within the service. Some of you may have discovered Windows Live Writer (which works with nearly every blog service that exists) and found it to be a very useful writing...

For those of you who like to try new security and maintenance utilities, a suite you might want to take a look at is Glary Utilities. Glary Utilities is a freeware with registry and disk cleaning, privacy protection, performance accelerator and amazing multifunctional tools. It can fix dogged registry errors, wipe off clutters, optimize internet speed, safeguard...

There are many "elite" bloggers that state that the future of everything concerning internet communications is in the browser. I’ve heard "in the browser" so much in the course of 2009 that it now annoys me to even hear it. Why? Because as far as usability is concerned, doing everything in the browser is a step backwards. All-in-browser...

First off, I am not a gamer. When I do play a game, I prefer classic arcade style games or turn based strategy games. That said, if the games you like to play are not hardware intensive then using a netbook as a gaming machine might be an option. By design, the netbook is lightweight and small (albeit not as small as a dedicated portable gaming machine) with a...

Out of the box, the Firefox add bookmark interface is very simple/limited (version 3.5 at least). As such, if you have a detailed folder breakdown you have to go through the drop list menu to get the interface where you can organize the new addition. If you do a lot of bookmarking this can be annoying, so to help with this check out the OpenBook add-on. This...

As time goes on, there are more and more people that have absolutely no clue how to use the Command Prompt in Windows. It is true you can get the vast majority of what you need to get done Windows without ever having to go to the Command Prompt, however for certain things such as IPCONFIG (seen in video below), you must go to the prompt in order to actually use...

If you have several machines you want to upgrade to Windows 7, such as your desktop, laptop, family computer, etc., rather than purchasing individual Windows 7 licenses for each, take a look at the Windows 7 Family Pack. This package includes 3 upgrade licenses of Windows 7 for the current MSRP of $150. If you do a bit of shopping, you can find it cheaper. Even...

For a long while, I would never use a magnetic screwdriver when working on a computer. I had an experience where a motherboard was working prior to the ‘repair’ and not working after. I had taken the usual precautions so I did not believe it was due to static, rather the magnetic screwdriver I was using. Since then I haven’t used one. After...

To note up front: This is for Windows Live Movie Maker and not the older Windows Movie Maker. WLMM is something which is a separate download in the Windows Live suite of applications. It does not come bundled with Windows 7 but can be added in easily. The last time I tried this software it was in beta form. Admittedly, I hated it. But now the software is...

You are probably very familiar with the hard drive activity LED that seems to constantly be blinking on either your desktop or laptop case. As a better alternative to this simple indicator, FloatLED puts this information directly on your desktop. Something FloatLED does that your case light cannot is it can tell you want drive is actually working. If you have...

ICQ, that instant messaging service that everybody used to use in the U.S. back in late late 1990s will be put up for sale for 300 million US. If you hadn’t heard, AOL will be splitting from Time Warner and will once again become an independent company. This will be occurring on December 10, 2009. ICQ happens to be an AOL property currently. Know that ICQ...