In order for an operating system to be truly geeky, it has to fulfill certain requirements.Must not be Windows. Must not be Mac. Must have a huge learning curve and take months to master. Must be ugly. A truly geeky OS isn’t pretty. The GUI should only be the absolute bare minimum in order to get the job done. Must have the vast majority of command...

The web browser is the most used software on your computer, so it helps to know as much about it as possible. Here are a few things you may not have been aware of. Triple-click to select paragraph To select an entire paragraph, such as this one, left click on it three times. This works in IE and Firefox (but not in Opera, however it might work in others like...

Whenever a new version of Firefox is released, there is always the possibility that some of your add-ons will not be compatible. When this happens you can either wait for the add-on to be upgraded, not upgrade Firefox or go without the extension. Alternately, you can easily ‘hack’ the add-on to force compatibility. The process is pretty simple: you...

Towards the end of last year, I began to realize it was time for a new PC. My several year old Dell E1705, while still competent, had begun to show signs of trouble. I’ve long wanted to build my own PC, and the state of the PC industry made me decide it was the time to do so. PC manufacturers by and large are using cheaper and cheaper parts resulting in...

Windows users are aware of Windows Update which delivers updates to the Windows Operating System, but did you know there is an add-on called Microsoft Update which delivers updates to Microsoft Office, Live Essentials and other MS products through Windows Update? The Windows Update Web site provides security updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The...

Whether you are a college basketball fan or not, there is something about the March Madness Tournament which gets us all filling out a bracket. One thing I noticed while browsing the scoreboard yesterday is that you can watch all the games online for free. Whether you are watching the 5-12 seed game for an inevitable upset (maybe) or want to flip over to a close...

Facebook apps for the most part are junk. However there are a few diamonds in the rough that are actually useful. Here are 8 of them.  MyCalendar Events like people’s birthdays, meetings and other social stuff is part of what Facebook is all about. The MyCalendar app gives you a far superior way centralize all that information in Facebook instead of...

Windows Update is a really nice function of Windows that applies both service packs and hotfixes to your OS installation, but for other programs you are left with no notification of updates or potential security holes in the versions you have installed unless the particular program checks itself for new releases. A tool which can help you manage this is Secunia...

Let’s face it, XP is old. Really old. However in the business world, Win2000 and WinXP still have a strong foothold on the desktop. But thankfully XP is finally losing its grip. By the end of 2010 it’s speculated that 50% of business will be using Windows 7. This is largely due to the fact that more IT admins have given Win 7 the thumbs up as a...

A couple months ago, I ran a “clearance sale” here on PCMech.com to clear out all of our old physical inventory of product. Simply put, PCMech is no longer going to deal with physical products, instead focusing primarily on PCMech Premium and electronic info products to help our members and subscribers. However, we still have some stuff left to get rid of...

Before starting this one, yes you can download the IE9 platform preview now at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/ but it is very limited as to what it can do as it’s for demonstration purposes only. This is not a completed browser by any means. It’s meant for developers, but if you want to try it out for yourself, go right ahead. Quick installation...

We have posted a couple of times with regards to downloading and saving online videos from sites like Youtube, but the site Bender Converter takes this process to the next level. Here you can download and convert videos from the following sites: youtube.com, dailymotion.com, vimeo.com, twitvid.com, wat.tv, veoh.com, vids.myspace.com, video.google.com, blip.tv,...

I have been pretty clear in past tips that I take comparisons based on benchmarks with a grain of salt. That said, I do understand and appreciate how they can be useful as an objective tool in stress tests. I am curious, however, what our readers think. Do you give benchmark results consideration when making a decision to purchase a CPU, graphics card, memory,...

You may have heard that Apple’s iPad battery replacement policy is actually a unit replacement. Being that the iPad has a sealed battery you cannot replace yourself, what this means is that if you buy an iPad and the battery no longer holds a charge within the warranty period, you bring the unit to an Apple store, they transfer all your data/apps/etc. from...

I have written in the past about how it is a huge time saver to copy/clone virtual machines instead of rebuilding them, however the information I supplied in that tip was with regards to Microsoft Virtual PC. The same can be done with Sun’s Virtual Box, but the process is apparently a bit more involved. Cloning and copying VirtualBox VMs is not as straight...

Everybody knows that I love (sarcasm..) Flash. The current Flash player version is 10, however there is a 10.1 Beta 3 release out at the time of this writing, so I decided to give it a go to see how it performs. The first thing to note is how it’s installed. This is on the download page:In Windows, this is a five step process.Close all web browsers...

Whenever you make certain tweaks to Windows (change to file type icons, change of system fonts, etc.), they may not take effect until the system is ‘refreshed’ which is typically done via a reboot. Instead you can force a refresh of the Windows state using the multi-tool NirCmd. Two commands it supports are: shellrefresh Initiate a general refersh...

At some point or another, you will probably need to use directory assistance to get a phone number or address. Calling 411 is ideal for situations like this, however there is a fee associated with calling this service. As an alternate, you can try using Free411 by calling 1-800-FREE411. The service works exactly like 411, however the catch is you have to listen...

If there’s one thing that forces people into using newer operating systems, it’s when only the latest OS offerings support current hardware. In first and second quarter 2011, hard drives are going to start shipping that use 4K sectors instead of the now-ancient 512 byte. For Windows XP users this presents an issue because that OS was released before...

Whenever I listen to any sports talk radio this time of year, there is always talk of the upcoming NFL draft. One of the tools used to evaluate players is the Wonderlic Test which is used to measure intelligence. The Wonderlic Personnel Test is a twelve-minute, fifty-question test used to assess the aptitude of prospective employees for learning and...