The External Hard Drive Care Guide

best-external-hard-drive

So, you want a bit more storage space for your files, do you? Got too much music? Too many movies? Too much material of an illicit nature? Whatever the reason, you’re going to want an external hard drive. And in much the same way as a computer, you’re going to want to care for it [...]

Tweet, Tweet Away: Why You Should Use Twitter

twitter.png

If you hang out on the ‘net at all, you’ve probably heard of this weird little website (well, maybe not so little- it’s got over one hundred seventy-five million users at the time of writing this) called Twitter, represented by a tiny bluebird. You’re not quite sure what to make of it. What’s it about? [...]

Raspberry Pi Makes Building Computers Fun Again

raspberry-pi

A while back you probably heard of the itty-bitty Raspberry Pi computer; a computer which is essentially nothing more than a board with the proper ports for things like a keyboard, mouse, video and network. (Note: No-network version is $25 and the one with Ethernet is $35.) Some of you may be asking, "Why would [...]

Retro Friday: “AOL Sucks”

aollogo.png

For many thousands of people, America Online (AOL) was first ISP they ever used to access the internet. In fact, it was my first way of getting on the internet but that didn’t last long because the local access number was a long-distance call. (My local phone company eventually offered local ISP access and that’s [...]

5 Ways Your Computer Can Help You Study

online_training1

It’s that time of the year again. First year University students are stumbling into post-secondary institutions, wide-eyed and scared, with no idea of what they’re doing, where they’re going or how they’re going to get there. Those who’ve been in the institution for a while are shaking off the after-effects of a summer of binge [...]

How To Resize Windows To Popular Resolutions In Two Clicks

sizer

Sizer is a freeware app that allows you to quickly resize application windows to predefined sizes in just two clicks (once configured). For those of you with larger displays, you will find this to be a very useful tool for the resizing of browser, image editor, word processor, spreadsheet windows and a whole lot more. [...]

Are You One Of the 62 Million Google+ Users?

google_plus_logo.jpg

The Google+ service has – unofficially – recently passed the 62 million user mark; that’s impressive given how new it still is. Granted, that figure is nowhere near Facebook’s 800 million strong user base, but then again Facebook has been around significantly longer. It’s been said (even by Google themselves) that G+ is not a [...]

How To Set Up A Minecraft Server

1561162-1310770_screenshot_20100327165405_super

Minecraft. At the mention of that word, I’ll guarantee half of you felt at least a minor jolt of excitement, while the other half either shrugged apathetically or scratched their heads in confusion. For those of you who don’t know, Minecraft is quite possibly one of the most popular indie games around. While still in [...]

Computer Monitor Screen Ratios You Should Avoid

1920monitor.jpg

We’re all watching more video on the internet than ever before, be it via YouTube, Netflix or any number of other video delivery/sharing sites. You’ll notice however that some monitors provide true widescreen (meaning the entire screen is filled on press of the "fullscreen" button) easily while others don’t. The reason for this is ratio. [...]

The 5 Worst Anti-Spam Tactics People Use

email

I’ll say up front that none of what you’ll read below pertains to major-provider webmail users such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, Hotmail, GMX and so on. What I’m talking about here are those that still use personal-domain-based, company-based or ISP-based addresses that have overzealous anti-spam crapola in effect. 1. Forcing proof of who [...]

How to Watch mkv files on your Game Console

MKV-file

So, you’re probably aware that you can either stream or directly load media files onto your Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. It’s a pretty handy feature. Say you’ve got yourself a movie, or a television series that you’ve purchased in digital format. Rather than having to watch it on the small screen of your computer [...]

How To Use Windows 7 Jump Lists

jump-list

A Jump List in Windows 7 is one of the best and most underrated features of the Windows 7 desktop experience. They’re ridiculously easy to use and all you have to do is make use of your right mouse button for app buttons in the taskbar area. Check out the video below to see how [...]

Is There A Shortage Of USB 3.0 Motherboards?

image.png

Philip writes: Are there any good reference books/Guides to motherboards? I mean really, how come nobody seem interested in making many with USB 3.0 ports? Maybe 1/10th of the motherboards made in 2011 seem to have this simple thing. And it makes your connections ten times faster at no real extra cost? Per the first [...]

5 Signs You Should Probably Replace (Or Upgrade) Your Old System

old computer

If you’re the sentimental sort, you probably have a computer you’ve owned for years and years. It’s a reliable old rig, chugging along through whatever tasks you assign it like an old, puttering station wagon. Sure, it might not be the most glorious system out there, but it works, right? It does what you want [...]

The 6-Step Email Safety Guide

email_large

I always find it fairly shocking how many people don’t seem to particularly care about keeping their email accounts safe and secure. Whether or not they’re trying to keep their computer safe in other ways, email seems to be neglected more often than not. Given how much personal information – passwords, website data, even financial [...]

PCMech Insider Cover Images - Subscribe To Get Your Copies!
Learn More
Tech Information you can use, sent to your inbox each and every week. Check out PCMech's digital e-zine...