Although I’m primarily going to concentrate on the Windows environment, the guidelines below apply to any operating system. After all, clutter is clutter no matter which OS the clutter is in. Most modern web browsers will dump all your downloads, as in the files you click to download (meaning not the cache) to a specific folder titled Downloads. Windows...

The 64-bit Windows desktop environment is still going through a maturation process because most of the apps we use are 32-bit only. However, some of you like the idea of running a 64-bit browser (namely Internet Explorer 9), and for that to work properly with most content on the internet, you need 64-bit Flash and 64-bit Java. Yes, there are two separate IE...

The way operating systems work is that an app’s program data (the "executables") goes into the application installation folder, and any settings for said app in the user folder. Why? There’s several reasons, but the most important is that if there are multiple user accounts in an OS, each user that uses that app can have their own custom...

Not everyone has a fast computer. In fact, it’s probably a good bet there’s a whole swath of users out there with CPUs in their computers that are at least 5 years old or older. Making a computer faster these days has less to do with hardware and more with software. It’s an unfortunate truth that many of the popular desktop apps used today are...

For those of you running computers that are older and/or slower, your hard drive may be acting as a bottleneck of sorts when loading certain web sites. If you switch over your cache or profile folder to use your RAM instead, this may speed up your browser noticeably. The use of a RAMDisk is nothing new to desktop computing and has been around for decades. The...

On most Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs, the current-user-logged-in user folder is usually automatically shared over the local network. Some people don’t like this and don’t want the user folder shared out at all. This is an easy fix once you know how to do it. See video below for...

I’ve covered AutoHotKey before, but didn’t cover how to automate mouse movements until now. In the video below I show how that’s done using an older release of the software (which is still available); I use the older release because it comes bundled with AutoScriptWriter II. That software, while a bit on the ugly side, does make for creating...

Some utility programs out there are must-have, like Sizer. For the mouse, there aren’t many really great utilities other than from-OEM software like IntelliPoint for Microsoft mice. There is, however, a mouse utility program that many of you would consider a godsend, WizMouse. What WizMouse does is very simple in that it allows you to use your scroll...

In this, the first edition of reader mail, I cover a question asked by Steve, and it’s a doozy because it’s very "involved", as they say. Hey Rich, you got some great stuff. My question is this. I use to have outlook express for my email. I just got a new cpu w/windows 7 and now they want me to use Windows Live for my email. I have not (as...

Pirating software simply means to use software you’re supposed to pay for, but don’t pay for it; it usually involves a "crack" and/or the entering of a serial number, etc. I have no problem admitting that I used to pirate software, but don’t anymore. Why? It’s mainly because the free options I have available to me are pretty...

Pressured to keep "innovating", there are many software-makers that release versions which, to be honest, just plain suck. They sucked so bad in fact that this is why sites like OldVersion and OldApps exist. Here are 3 software titles where the newer version is worse than the older, and why: Skype The makers of Skype ticked off not only Windows users...

The first not-really-delete I ever encountered was in the MS-DOS operating system, appropriately titled UNDELETE.EXE. I considered it dumb and never used it, because when I instruct my computer to delete a file, I want it gone. My personal preference is to ‘compute dangerous’ when it comes to file management, meaning DELETE should, obviously, DELETE...

CCleaner isn’t bad, and in fact is one of the best registry cleaners for Windows there is. However people do like to have other choices just to see what else is out there; here are 3 alternatives you can try: Glary Utilities Site: www.glaryutilities.com This set of utilities packs quite a punch as far as fix/speed-up/maintenance options are...

AutoHotKey is a freeware macro utility for Windows that allows you to create keystrokes that can be used anywhere in the Windows environment. One way to use AHK is to set up a macro to output the current date and time, similar to pressing F5 in Windows Notepad. This is something many find useful because there are times when you’d really like to have a...

The supposed be-all/end-all for testing a browser’s worth is whether it scores a 100 on the Acid3 test. I don’t pay attention to these tests because compatibility doesn’t really count for much; this is especially true since the vast majority of web sites fail (and fail hard) the W3C Validation Service (Google.com even fails that test badly)....

IE9 is definitely a huge (and I mean huge) improvement over IE8, however there are certain things about the browser I don’t like. Some of my complaints are new while others very old that stem all the way back to the IE6 days. If you’re running Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7, yes I do recommend the upgrade to IE9, but as with any product it has its...

It’s here! Windows Internet Explorer 9 is officially out of RC and into official RTM release! Below is a video of my initial impressions about the browser. The good: IE9 is great as far as IE goes. Definitely better than IE8, has great features where it counts. The bad: New tracking options a bit too complicated, Private Browsing still complicated to get...

When I changed over from Firefox 3.6.13 to Firefox 4 Beta 11, the standard utility I use for ‘complete page’ screenshots, ScreenGrab, was not supported in Fx 4. However the alternative Screenshot Pimp is fully supported and works great. If you need a utility to grab quick screenshots and save videos, Screenshot Pimp is highly recommended; it works...

Windows 7 SP1 is now available from Windows Update. First question answered: Is there a difference between x86 and x64 SP1? Yes, the installer will be specific per your architecture:What this means is that if you intend on doing offline installations of SP1 for varying x86 and x64 systems, you will need to download the appropriate release. What’s the...

A standard statement millions of people have made over the decades concerning new-to-market consumer electronics is this: I’ll wait 6 months before I buy it.If you ever wondered why 6 months is the magic number, there’s really nothing magic about it. In the business world, that’s two fiscal quarters. Generally speaking, any consumer...