Usually when one wants to decrease hand and wrist pain from computer use, they buy ergonomically friendly input hardware, such as a Microsoft Natural Keyboard. This is good, but you can take it a step further by following the old adage of, "type less, click less". Here are five ways to do that: 1. Assign the mouse wheel button as a double-click. I...

Windows Live Writer is without question the best blogging tool there is. It’s so good that even Mac users like it. If there were ever a killer app for blogging, Windows Live Writer is it. WLW is free and part of the Windows Live suite of applications; it can be downloaded from http://download.live.com. It will run on versions of Windows from XP to the...

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...

It could be argued that the second biggest shopping day of the year after Black Friday is today, Christmas Eve. All the people that forgot to buy stuff when they had plenty of time to do it figured they could quickly get in some last-minute items at the local department store or mall. You may be one of them. If you decide to venture out today for shopping...

I very recently posted an auction for my old Dell Inspiron 6000 (take a look if you like). She’s obviously old and has seen better days, but hopefully somebody will find it useful as a parts laptop. The challenge here was to make an older laptop look half-way decent in an eBay listing photo. How to do it? Here’s how:Yes, I know the laptop is old...

Whether you author a freebie WordPress-hosted blog at WordPress.com or self-host it on your own site via a downloaded version from WordPress.org, both operate the same way. Here are 5 tips and tricks when using WP that make it more fun (and productive) to use. 1. Use IE when authoring WHAT?! Yes, the animations on the menus in WP 2.7 are smoother in IE than...

Remember all those "web accelerators" from the days of dial-up internet which basically acted like a filter and/or cached more to appear as if you were doing things faster on the web? Maybe you do. Google had their own version of it called the Google Web Accelerator and have officially killed it. Yes, I did try one several accelerator-style products...

When it comes to instructing people on how to do something, I operate on a three-strike rule. If I have to tell anyone how to do anything more than three times in a row, I write documentation for that person. Writing documentation for others is not as easy as it appears. I have my own formula of sorts when writing instructional documents. It took me a while to...

As an author of PCMech I download and try out a ton of software. Of course, this means not only installing but uninstalling as well which leaves behind a bunch of Windows registry crap in many instances. My preferred registry cleaner of choice is CCleaner because a) it works and b) the price is nice (free). In fact my use of it has been since it was formerly...

Laptops traditionally command a high price tag than desktops and their resale value is undisputed. You may have entertained the idea of buying a used laptop. Personally I recommend against doing this as new ones are easily under $500 these days. However, if you’re insistent on going used, here are a few tips. Go Dell I champion Dell products routinely and...