If you’re using Windows, there are a few things you should know to do. It’s not simply a matter of turning on your system and letting it run. Occasionally, you need to do more. Sometimes, you need to take an active role in your computer’s operations, whether it’s to change a setting, access a feature, or recover from a...

This might be a little late in coming, but… It’s occurred to me that, when faced with the prospect of purchasing a new computer, the concept of Intel’s different processors might end up confusing quite a few people. It’s pretty obvious how their new line of processors stack up against the old (they’re better), but at the same...

It’s becoming more common that both kids and adults are (re)building PCs to specifically run Windows 95 as fun side projects. Why Win95 and not Win98? Probably because there’s just more retro flavor to running a real Win95 environment, and the fact that it’s more of a challenge. Sure, you can put together a Win98 PC easily as it has USB 2.0...

It took a while (a long while, in fact) before OpenOffice/LibreOffice got the whole printing-an-envelope thing down. In the bad old days it was ridiculously difficult to do because you actually had to create your own envelope template from scratch. Thankfully, it’s easier now, but the way it’s done still may confuse a few out there, so here’s...

Microsoft Word might be one of the foremost word processing tools around, but that doesn’t mean it’s of peerless quality. Ask anyone who has to use the application on a regular basis and there’s a good chance they’ll regale you with horror stories of the various foibles, flaws, and bugs that they have to deal with – all of which...

The newest Flash Player 11.2 has introduced with it silent updates, meaning an updater periodically checks and updates itself silently, meaning you’re never notified when it happens. Some people appreciate this but there are many that don’t. Fortunately, the Flash Player installer asks you right up front if you want the silent updates to happen or...

Chances are pretty good you probably have some blank CD-R discs. Maybe you bought a 100-pack spindle, only used maybe 20 or 30 of them, and the rest sit in the spindle, unloved and unused. You bought them, you you might as well use them. Before I list what you can do with those discs, it’s a good idea to check them first to make sure they’re still...

Everybody knows that heat is bad for electronics. Keeping your computer in an area that’s too well-insulated or not properly ventilated is a sure recipe for disaster. In the most extreme circumstances, key components could end up simply melting. Circuitry can overheat and overload. I even had a friend whose graphics card actually lit on fire because of an...

A general rule of thumb is that it’s never a bad idea to stuff in as much RAM as your motherboard can support. After all, one can never have too much memory in a PC (or a laptop for that matter). Do I believe in this rule of thumb? Yes, but with this condition: Stuff as much RAM in your computer box that your motherboard will support, as long as it’s...

Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming. Chapel Hill, North Carolina puts their note in the tech history books as the first town in the US to completely ban the use of a phone while driving; this includes both hands and hands-free methods. If you’re caught doing it, the fine is $25. There are, of course, exceptions to the law. If...

I’ve got this friend. He’s a bit of a PC buff. Building computers (building anything he can, really) is a hobby he attacks with a sort of characteristic zeal. And his knowledge about computers rivals (if not surpasses) that of many so-called technology experts. However, there’s this weird thing he used to do. Every couple of months (I believe...

A question that many have had over the years is this: "Can I buy a laptop that’s cheap, and has no operating system on it for my laptop Linux build?" Yes, and it’s called the debranded laptop. Currently, all the debranded laptops on NewEgg are "formerly"-HP brand. On the high-price side of things, the most expensive unit is $510,...

After seeing the comment discussion from my Do You Print? I Don’t. article, I noticed some people left some really good comments listing reasons why owning a printer is worth it. I decided to bite the bullet and actually buy a printer – but with the condition that I wanted to see how cheap I could do it because I do print infrequently, so I...

Most of you by now have probably heard that Google’s implemented a new privacy policy that came into effect on March 1st. A lot of you, however, likely don’t know just what this entails. What does it mean for your searches? Your personal information? Your privacy?  Nothing good. The new policy, Google cheerfully claims, is designed to help deliver...

Certain free image editors like GIMP are fantastic, save for one problem – it loads a bit on the slow side. Once it’s running it runs nice and quick, but on startup it takes a while to get going. The reason is because GIMP is a rather large image editor packed full of features, much like Photoshop is. Sometimes what people want more than anything...

Watermarking when referring to digital images is the process of ‘stamping’ your image with text or an image to show either author authenticity and/or to protect others from stealing your images. There are many ways to watermark an image, but one of the easiest is the free version of WaterMarquee. How it works is like this: Go to WaterMarquee and add...

Since the Thailand flooding disaster that really put the hard drive suppliers in a pickle, hard drive prices have gone up. Way up. How far up? More than double. In this article I wrote back in July 2011 (8 months ago), the 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive mentioned was $55. The price of the same drive now is $120, so if you were ever wondering how high prices of HDDs...

It’s a bit of mystery as to why there was anything carried over from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 at all. Most of the utilities brought in from the Win 3.1 environment were altogether useless in Win95, yet they were there anyway. It is true that Microsoft is the grand champion when it comes to legacy support, but you have to remember that in 1995, MS...

Most people who use webmail (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.) only use it for one thing, that being email and nothing else. At the same time, these same people complain about having a lack of an online organization solution where everything is in one spot. Well, you already have it, it’s in your email. Here are 4 things most people don’t do with...

Browser plugins (a.k.a. extensions or add-ons) go all the way back to the Netscape Navigator 2.0 days from 1996, if you can believe it. I even found an ancient web page that lists some of the more popular plugins of the time for that browser, which just goes to prove that QuickTime and Acrobat Reader have been annoying us for well over a decade. What I’m...