A few points to note up front:I’m referring to standalone dedicated applications that are used in desktop OSes and not smartphones. Whether you call it a gadget or a widget, it’s the same thing. This is not OS-specific. Microsoft Windows has ‘em, Apple Mac OS X has ‘em and Linux (specifically KDE) has ‘em. For the Windows that...

Everyone knows it is unsightly to have tons of icons and documents on your desktop, yet somehow it always seems to happen to everyone (with the exception of the extremely disciplined). If this is a problem you have, a tool which can help get this under control is Fences. Fences is a nifty free tool which allows you to create a small “fenced in” area...

This is a follow-up to this article. The "god mode" shortcut linked there does work in 32-bit Windows 7 environments but for 64-bit it may be slightly problematic depending on system configuration. The video below shows how to create Windows 7 Control Panel shortcuts by using more of a manual method, but it is 100% guaranteed to...

It’s rare these days when I come across any app that makes me say, "Wow, now this is useful!" Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop is one of them. When it comes to email, there are many who prefer the convenience of web-based mail but wish there was a local application that looked and acted like a mail client. Zimbra Desktop is it. This software...

The obvious answer to this question is yes, you can. Before explaining the modern way to use a laptop as a desktop, let’s take an amusing stroll down memory lane on how this was done years ago. In the beginning… (Note before continuing: I’m concentrating on late 1990s-to-present tech. Obviously what’s listed below doesn’t cover...

At the behest of the PCMech LIVE audience (particularly Kyle), I downloaded the latest version of PC-BSD. This is not a Linux distribution. As the title of the OS says in plain view, it’s a BSD based UNIX. In this instance, FreeBSD based. Obviously UNIX can work on the desktop. Ask any Mac OS X user. But I digress. PC-BSD is a rather large operating...

I made a decision a while back that the most icons I would have on my desktop is one column worth, meaning if the icons on the left side of the first monitor "skip" to another, there’s too many and it must be cleaned up. The only icon I have on the right is the Recycle Bin. I have entertained the idea of removing that from the desktop, but I find...

The netbook style of laptop is hot right now. Really hot. A big reason for this is because the price for them is really cheap (even as low as $250 brand new or $299 for the Dell Inspiron Mini 9), so yes, they’re flying off the shelves as fast as manufacturers can make them. However as a far as it would suit as a primary computer replacement, the answer for...

This is the first time I’ve found something Linux can do that Windows (or OS X for that matter) cannot, that being to backup a large Flickr account. I’ll explain. My paid Flickr account has 1000+ photos in it. I use it routinely, realized it was frickin’ huge and felt the need to back it up. The only semi-decent tool available is flickredit....

Over the years I have noticed people love to just drop everything onto their desktop. Be it shortcuts, pictures or files they are actively working on, the desktop is the common gathering place. While this may work for helping you get your work done it also increases the amount of time your computer takes to boot up. More specifically, when you log into Windows...

If you have a large monitor and/or use a very high resolution and have determined that virtual desktops are not for you, a tool you might want to look at instead in order take advantage of all your screen space is Acer Gridvista. This free utility is pretty clever as it allows you create dockable sections on your desktop. From the description: Acer Gridvista...

Using the freely available Terminal Server Client in Ubuntu Linux it’s easy to connect to your Windows XP computer(s) on your local network. See video below for...

My Ubuntu desktop looks like this (click any image for full size):When I have an app open it looks like this:The way to get Ubuntu to look like this is fairly simple. 1. Download Microsoft core fonts to get Arial Like it or not, the Arial font looks good on Windows just as Helvetica looks good on a Mac (unless you’re some typography nerd that insists...

Cray is a supercomputer company that makes computer boxes that, simply put, have absolutely staggering computational power. Interesting trivia: It was boxes made by Cray that rendered movies like Tron (yes, that long ago). Back then a Cray looked like this. If you’ve got 25 grand you don’t mind parting with that would put 768 gigaflops in your house,...

A feature in Linux which has been around for quite some time is virtual desktops. That is desktop “views” you can switch between which have different applications open and running. If you want to add this functionality to Windows, take a look at the Sysinternals tool, Desktops. Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual...

Something I have seen serious power users do is run a server OS as their primary OS on their desktop. Doing this offers many benefits, including the most appealing: ultimate system stability. If you think about it, a server OS has to be rock solid as crashes are really not an option. If you have an extra license of Windows Server 2008 around and want to give it...

Remember the days when the the Internet was new and when we were all spellbound at the idea of having our own desktop computer? Learning the workings of the computer was of prime importance. You had this piece of powerful equipment on your desk and you wanted to explore all the possibilities it presented. Fast forward to today. Things have most certainly...

Microsoft recently released version 4 of Windows Desktop Search so I decided to check it out. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, launch Internet Explorer, head over to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, do a "Custom" (instead of "Express") install and you’ll see the option to download it there. It’s free. WDS...

Before reading this article, check out the video below (or at least watch the first 1 minute of it). All major operating systems have a way of making multiple virtual screens (even Windows XP with Virtual Desktop Manager from the PowerToys set). The idea of one continuous scrolling desktop seems like a good idea. And in fact it is. This is most likely what...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/BYON/13_remote_desktop_connectivity.flv 610 538] [/hidepost] [hidepost=2] Download video (MOV) [/hidepost]